Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa will be the first Moon tourist — and he’s bringing artists along

 BY ALEXANDRU MICU

Elon Musk and SpaceX have announced that Japanese entrepreneur and billionaire Yusaku Maezawa will be the company’s first Moon tourist.

Yusaku Maezawa.
Image credits SpaceX.

Last week, SpaceX unveiled its plans to send two passengers aboard a rocket on a trip around the Moon. The company didn’t disclose any names at the time, but a tweet by owner Elon Musk hinted that one of the passengers may be Japanese. That hint was spot-on: Yusaku Maezawa, a Japanese entrepreneur and billionaire, has purchased all the seats on the Big Falcon Rocket’s (BFR) first crewed flight.

A mission of culture

“Finally I can tell you that I choose to go to the Moon!” Maezawa said during an announcement Monday evening.

Maezawa, a known and enthusiastic art collector, plans to embark with six to eight artists, which will accompany him around the Earth’s natural satellite. The artists have not yet been chosen, but the billionaire hopes they will include a musician, sculptor, painter, film director, dancer, photographer, architect, novelist, and fashion designer. Part of the project — which Maezawa christened #dearMoon — will involve them creating work inspired by their journey after they return to Earth.

“One day when I was staring at his painting, I thought, ‘What if Basquiat had gone to space and had seen the Moon – what wonderful masterpiece would he have created?” Maezawa said, referring to a 1982 painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat he bought last year.

“If you should hear from me, please say yes and accept my invitation. Please don’t say no,” he added for all the artists out there.

Musk described Maezawa as ‘incredibly brave’ for embarking on this mission, adding that his desire to participate in and pay for this trip restored Musk’s faith in humanity.

The mission is slated to launch as soon as 2023, though Musk said he can’t be sure about that timeline yet as “things do not go right in reality” and that “usually there are setbacks and issues”.

“It’s not 100 percent certain that we succeed in getting this to flight,” he addded, “but we’re going to do everything humanly possible to bring it to flight as fast as we can and as safely as we can.”

Rocket v2.0

The BFR is also getting some changes to its design, Musk revealed alongside Maezawa’s participation on the mission. The rocket will be 387 feet (118 meters) tall, a full 40 feet (12 meters) taller than previous versions. It’s also going to receive front actuator (steering) fins, as well as three back wings to function as landing pads. The system’s spaceship is expected to carry up to 100 people and 150 tons (136 metric tonnes) of supplies.

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The first portion of the system has already been built, Musk added. Total development costs for the rocket fall somewhere between US$2 billion and US$10 billion.

“It’s hard to say what the development cost is,” he said. “I think it’s roughly US$5 billion”

SpaceX did not reveal any exact figures on how much Maezawa paid for the lunar flight, only that it as a significant sum and that a down payment has already been made.

“He’s paying a lot of money that would help with the ship and its booster,” Musk said on Monday. “He’s ultimately paying for the average citizen to travel to other planets.”

{ https://www.zmescience.com/ }

Volcanoes on dwarf planet ooze ice instead of molten lava

BY TIBI PUIU

The dwarf planet Ceres is the largest object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. It’s also one of the most interesting cosmic bodies in the area, with studies showing it may have water-vapor plumes and even a subsurface ocean. Now, new research shows that the dwarf planet’s geology is even more fascinating than meets the eye. Apparently, volcanoes have been erupting on the surface of Ceres for the past billion years. But these aren’t your typical volcanoes — instead of explosively spewing lava, they gently ooze ice!

The ice volcanoes

Ceres, which stretches only 965 km (600 miles) across, was first spotted on Jan. 1, 1801 by Sicilian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi.  At first, Ceres was called a planet, but as more asteroid belt members were discovered, the cosmic object was demoted to an asteroid status. Its status changed again in 2006 when it was promoted to a dwarf planet — a classification it shares with Pluto.

In 2015, NASA’s Dawn mission discovered a huge volcano on the surface of Ceres. Called Ahuna Mons, the volcano measures 19 km (12 miles) at its base and stands 4.8 km (3 miles) tall. All its features suggested that Ahuna Mons was a young volcano, no older than 200 million years. This was downright perplexing to scientists, seeing how Ceres is geologically dead. Volcanic activity in the inner solar system generally wanes over time as the interior of a body cools, as is the case on Venus, Mars, and Earth’s moon. Why would a 4.5-billion-year-old Ceres suddenly become volcanically active?

Ahuna Mons, of course, is not your typical volcano. It’s what scientists call a cryovolcano — a volcano that erupts icy material instead of molten lava. Cryovolcanism can be spotted elsewhere on the moons Enceladus, Europa, and Triton, and perhaps on many other worlds in the outer solar system. These eruptions are likely powered by the bodies’ internal heat and make for some of the best places to search for life beyond Earth because they expel material buried from potentially life-friendly reservoirs below the surface.

Now, a team of researchers led by Michael Sori of the University of Arizona found that Ahuna Mons is not alone. By studying topographic maps captured by Dawn, the researchers found 32 large domes measuring more than 6.2 miles in diameter, which they suspected may be volcanoes. They eventually settled on 22 domes that suggest cryovolcanic activity, all of them estimated to be less than a billion years old.

Ceres.

Credit: NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

According to the researchers, it’s likely that Ceres has grown a new cryovolcano every 50 million years, on average. These findings help to explain some of the dwarf planet’s puzzling features, showing, for instance, that Ahuna Mons is not the only cryovolcanic construct on Ceres but rather one of many. The results also suggest that although Ceres has been continually cryovolcanic for the past billion years, the amount of eruptive activity is actually but a fraction of what geologists typically see on Earth (100,000 times less volume), much less even than has occurred on Mars and Venus.

In addition to being less productive, the volcanic eruptions on Ceres are also much tamer than those on Earth. Instead of violent eruptions of ash, plume, and lava, cryovolcanoes simply ooze out cryomagma — a salty mix of rocks, ice, and other volatiles such as ammonia — which freezes on the surface.

The causes themselves of cryovolcanic eruptions on Ceres are still a mystery but future research could come up with an explanation as more probes visit other bodies in the solar system.

Scientific reference: Cryovolcanic rates on Ceres revealed by topography, Nature Astronomy (2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41550-018-0574-1. 

{ https://www.zmescience.com/ }

HUGE Cigar Shaped Craft Captured On Camera Above US Lake - They Are HERE

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

Italian Parachutist Comes In Contact With Huge Bright UFO Orb – Incredible Footage!

Japanse zakenman eerste SpaceX-passagier ooit met een retourtje naar de maan - HLN.be

Bron: AD, Belga

De 42-jarige miljardair was in Los Angeles aanwezig toen in het hoofdkwartier van SpaceX werd bekendgemaakt wie de eerste maantoerist wordt. Maezawa zegt dat het zijn levenslange droom is om de ruimte in te gaan. Alleen al de gedachte aan de reis doet zijn hart sneller kloppen, zei hij. “Hij is de moedigste mens, hij wil het liefste van iedereen en is de grootste avonturier”, vindt SpaceX-oprichter Elon Musk.

Lees ook

Eerste aanmelding voor ruimtevlucht SpaceX is binnen

Niet alleen

“Eindelijk kan ik u vertellen dat ik uitgekozen ben om naar de maan te vliegen”, aldus Maezawa, die rijk werd met de verkoop van kledij op internet. “Het is mijn levensdroom. Sinds ik kind ben, hou ik van de maan.”

Maezawa zal niet alleen vliegen, maar zes tot acht kunstenaars uit de hele wereld meenemen - die niets moeten betalen. Ze moeten inspiratie opdoen voor een kunstproject. Aan welke kunstenaars hij denkt, wil Maezawa nog niet zeggen.

Weekje weg

De vlucht wordt gemaakt met de Big Falcon Rocket, of Falcon 9. Dat is een nieuwe raket van het ruimtevaartbedrijf van de Tesla-topman, die nog in ontwikkeling is. De ontwikkeling van het ongeveer 118 meter hoge ruimteschip zal volgens Musk ongeveer 5 miljard dollar kosten. 

De Falcon 9 zal om de maan vliegen en ze daarbij naderen tot op zo’n 200 kilometer. De vlucht zal ongeveer een week duren en zal, “als alles goed gaat”, plaatsvinden in 2023, zei Musk. 

Kostenplaatje?

Hoeveel betaald moet worden voor de ruimtevlucht van SpaceX, is niet bekend. De Japanner betaalt “zeer veel geld” voor de reis, zo klonk het. Een precies bedrag wilden noch Musk noch Maezawa kwijt.

SpaceX maakte vorig jaar al bekend dat het mensen naar de maan wil brengen. Toen was er sprake van twee kandidaten, die een “aanzienlijk voorschot” hadden betaald. De tot dusver laatste bemande vlucht naar de maan, of zijn omgeving, gebeurde in 1972. 

 AP

AFP

{ https://www.hln.be/ }

GEHEIMZINNIG GROTTENSTELSEL OP MALTA VERBERGT BANDEN MET BUITENAARDSEN

Het eiland Malta, gelegen in de Middellandse Zee net ten zuiden van Sicilië, heeft een lange rijke geschiedenis. 

Die geschiedenis gaat nog veel verder terug dan duizenden jaren en het is niet voor niets dat daar langwerpige schedels zijn “verdwenen”. 

{ http://niburu.co/ }

UFO activity over Sierra Nevada Mountains

Check out this footage of a multiple unidentified flying objects flying in the sky above Sherman Peak in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

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

Investigating Historical UFO Cases

David is a UFO researcher and author. He’s had a lifelong interest in the subject of UFOs and joined the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) as a field investigator trainee in 1990. Since then he held several positions within MUFON before becoming an independent researcher. Since then he has written a highly regarded book on triangle shaped UFOs, Triangular UFOs: An Estimate of the Situation, and has been featured on several television programs. David has one of the most extensive personal libraries of UFO books, journals, magazines, newspapers, and case files from around the world that covers the last 65 years.

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

This Week's Top Space Stories!

Photo Credit: Robert Simmon (Terre), NASA/JPL (Neptune)/NASA Goddard

Photo Credit: NOAA

Photo Credit: Alexander Vasenin/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 4.0

2. Spot Comet 21P this month!

This September, set your gaze skyward and look for a bright comet whose orbit Jupiter captured. Comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner will be visible by binoculars, but it will be easier to enjoy with a small telescope.

[Full Story: A Bright Green Comet Will Grace September's Skies]

Photo Credit: NASA

Photo Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Photo Credit: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona

Photo Credit: NASA/SDO

Photo Credit: CSIS/YouTube

Photo Credit: Pallava Bagla/Corbis/Getty

Photo Credit: Robert Simmon (Terre), NASA/JPL (Neptune)/NASA Goddard

Photo Credit: SpaceX

Photo Credit: collectSPACE.com

13. Last Delta II Rocket Soars

We ended the week on a bittersweet note: After nearly 30 years and 155 launches, the final Delta II rocket - a workhorse of satellite space exploration mission launches - lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base on Saturday (Sept. 15). The Delta II carried NASA's ICESat-2 satellite into orbit to measure Earth's changing ice levels. Here's a look at the rockets that make up the Delta family operated by United Launch Alliance. And here's a handy primer on why the Delta II was blue. (Primer, get it? A space paint joke.)

Come on, universe, what’s a guy gotta do to get just one little shred of evidence of extraterrestrial life? It doesn’t need to be anything too extraordinary. No antennaed green humanoids, no crawling masses of purple ooze, no silicon-based crystal creatures. At this point I’d be content with a single dead microbe clinging to the side of a meteor. I’m not picky – I just need to know: are we alone?

Of course, I’m not alone in my need to know. The search for alien life currently involves some of the most sophisticated astronomical equipment and laboratories on Earth, but has still yet to find conclusive proof of anything else out there in space crawling around eating and farting and dying like us. NASA has identified loads of planets which might support life, but the problem is they’re all so far away that we’ll likely never be able to reach and analyze them – in our lifetimes, anyway. Unless we hurry up and get that immortality thing together.

In more promising news, a team of NASA scientists has just published a study claiming that the closest known exoplanet, Proxima Centauri b, just might possibly be able to support life. The planet, also called Proxima b or Alpha Centauri Cb, lies just 4.2 light-years away from Earth in the constellation of Centaurus. That’s only 40 trillion kilometers, or 25 trillion miles, the cosmic equivalent of a stone’s throw.

Alpha Centauri, left, Beta Centauri, right, and Proxima Centauri, circled in red.

Proxima b orbits the star Proxima Centauri and is roughly the size of Earth. For some time, astronomers have thought the planet to be uninhabitable due to the fact that it experiences extreme solar flares and radiation from its nearby star. However, the scientists behind this most recent study believe there could be scenarios in which Proxima b could still support life.

For example, if the planet happens to be tidally locked, meaning the same side faces its host star as it orbits, then surface water could allow for enough heat exchange between the hot and cold sides to support life throughout the whole planet. “An ocean-covered Proxima b could have a much broader area of surface liquid water but at much colder temperatures than previously suggested,” the authors write, adding that “Proxima b could be an inhabited, mostly open ocean planet with halophilic life.”

Another scenario could be that the planet formed much farther away from Proxima Centauri and has been slowly getting closer throughout its history, meaning some of the planet may still be habitable. UniverseToday has a good breakdown of all of these hypothetical scenarios and an interview with Anthony D. Del Genio of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies concerning this new research. 

It’s important to note, though, that all of these scenarios are hypothetical and were produced through a new type of planetary simulation software used by NASA in their hunt for exoplanets. Could our nearest neighbor support life? How convenient would that be? Let’s hope we get that EM Driveworked out soon. I need to know.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

The Sunspot Solar Observatory in Mexico reopened on Monday, Sep 17, 2018 but people are dissatisfied with the official explanation as it offers a few new but vague details about the circumstances surrounding the evacuation.

Even the local Sheriff, who was kept in the dark about the investigation throughout, was skeptical. ”But for the FBI to get involved that quick and be so secretive about it, there was a lot of stuff going on up there,” Otero County Sheriff Benny House said, as quoted by Alamogordo News. “There was a Blackhawk helicopter, a bunch of people around antennas, and work crews on towers but nobody would tell us anything.”

Press release:

1972 photo of a Viking space probe at White Sands Missile Range, near the Sunspot Observatory.

USAF/Reuters

To make it even more mysterious on Sep 12, 2018 the New Mexico State Police found a mystery manwho died not too far away from the solar observatory.

According to the NPS release, while closing WSNM, park rangers discovered an unattended vehicle in the Alkali Flat Trail parking lot.

After searching the immediate area, park rangers expanded their search to the Alkali Flat Trail where they discovered an unresponsive man about a half mile from the trailhead between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m., the release states.

“Any car park in an area needs to have a reason for being there,” Sauter said. “For example, our back-country campers, they need to have a permit on their dash and back in our back-country camping trails which they have their water and camping gear.”

NPS will be coordinating with NMSP to investigate the incident and.. of course no further information is being released due to the ongoing investigation they stated.

See also our articles:

• What’s going on? National Solar Observatory in New Mexico evacuated for 'safety reasons'!
• 6 More Solar Observatories closed and This could be the reason!
• Man infiltrates Solar Observatory and finds X-files Unrestricted Access DVD in a building!

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

Multiple UFOs Fly Across Moon – Shot by Amateur Astronomer – Rome, Italy – July 29, 2018

Case File Information

• TBV Investigations Case Number: 257854
• Date of Event / Case File: 07/29/2018
• Name of Witness: Alessio

Case File Status: Unidentified

• Background

The following case was submitted to The Black Vault / TBV Investigations on August 1, 2018. It was shot by an amateur astronomer / photographer taking a video of the moon. The video was submitted for analysis, and due to the nature of the video, it was assigned to multiple investigators for multiple perspectives.

• Lead Case Investigator: Monica Salazar
  
• Additional Analysis done by: Jim Kerr, Michael Glenn and Paul Wright

Witness Testimony

The following was the original testimony, as submitted by the witness. It was sent to John Greenewald, Jr. of The Black Vault through a mutual friend, and the identifying name has been removed.  The witness is not a “UFO enthusiast” nor a “UFO Hunter” but captured the video by chance. It has been edited slightly for clarity.

“Hello I am a friend of ___________ and I want to report a sighting. 

It was the day after the Red Moon (or Blood Moon) and the weather was clear. To record the passage of the Moon I used the follow equipment:

-Sky-Watcher Maksutov SkyMax 127/1500 OTA
-T2 ring
-Pentax HD DA AF 1.4x rear converter
-Pentax K-70

Thank you for your attention, best regards.

Alessio”

The Evidence

The following high resolution video was submitted for analysis.

Original / Uncut Video

Cropped to Highlight “Anomalies”

The Analysis

by Monica Salazar, TBV Investigations

The video was recorded on July 29th, 2018, at 1.08 AM. 

In the beginning of the video you can see a zoomed in image of the moon. The clear details of the moon show that it was obviously a high powered camera with an adequate zoom lens. As mentioned by the witness, the specs of the camera are as follows:

-Sky-Watcher Maksutov SkyMax 127/1500 OTA
-T2 ring
-Pentax HD DA AF 1.4x rear converter
-Pentax K-70

(ALL meta data is listed below, for reference)

You can clearly see all the craters and detailed lining of the moon showing a good camera focus. At about 2:52 (of the “original” video) you can see a dark object cross in front of the moon. Taking the zoom into consideration, it appears that the anomaly is flying at a high altitude. If these were bugs, birds or bats flying much lower to the ground, most likely they would be out of focus and not appear in the video, or if they do, be largely out of focus given the focal length of the lens in conjunction with the clarity of the moon.  Objects nearer to the lens would largely be invisible or drastically out of focus.

The height is very hard to determine, since there are no reference objects in the frame, other than the moon. We know the moon is 252,088 miles away from Earth, but to properly give some kind of calculation, another “reference object” needs to be in the frame to compare. Since there is none, it is highly speculative to try and pinpoint an exact altitude.

Later in the video at about 3:10 a greater wave of objects pass through the same view. I was able to count at least 38 objects in total. The objects seem to travel at a relatively fast speed. Judging by the speed the earth is rotating (1600km/hr) and the way the moon moves across the screen I would have to say the anomalies are traveling faster than any commercial jet plane (about 740-930 kph or 500 knots) in my best estimation.

This case was reviewed by other investigators and their opinions vary on what the objects might be.  However, everyone, including myself, is in agreement that there is no evidence in the raw video that it has been tampered with, manipulated or is a CGI hoax. 

Additional analyses are as follows:

Jim Kerr, TBV Investigations

“I am not only an amateur astronomer but a ufologist as well. Since approx 2011, I have followed and researched videos and photos of unidentified objects traversing the moon. There are many good examples on the internet, but there are also those that are migrating flocks of birds. In all the footage I have analyzed, I have never seen the large number of objects as depicted in TBV case # 257854.

On 08-08-2018 I downloaded the video from case # 257854 to Sony Vegas video editing software. In this edited version, I shortened the length of the video. There is no sound in this edited version as I didn’t want to voice my opinions in the video. There are repeating clips with several different video effects along with cropped footage in an attempt to identify these objects. I sent the video to John Greenewald for distribution to the assigned investigators.

Keep in mind; this footage is not in sharp focus which is no fault of the camera or operator. Due to the earth atmosphere, video footage and objects will appear to slightly shift, morphing, pulsate and slightly go in and out of focus. With that said, the objects also appear slightly out of focus appearing to change shape slightly and morph in size. Is this because these objects were close to the lunar surface or outside earth’s atmosphere at an unknown distance from the moon? That, of course, is a possibility but let’s talk about the flight characteristics of these objects. Some of the objects are traveling faster and slower than others. Also, some change course slightly coming closer to one another.

In my opinion, these objects are a flock of migratory birds, but of course, I could be wrong. From what I have observed even with these objects being slightly out of focus, they behave like migratory birds. My recommendation to investigators is, research the geographical location of this sighting for migratory bird activity along with their flight characteristics.”

The bird theory is addressed in detail below.

Michael Glenn, TBV Investigations

“I used Adobe Premier to check out the video as well. The objects definitely exist in the image based on simple analysis using inverted imaging, and the way they warp the edges of the moon image when they leave the lighted areas. Slow moving compared to bugs, bats, or satellites. A plane would have definition, wings etc. in their silhouette. Birds would be moving about as fast as the bats, perhaps a bit slower. I think this is upper atmosphere based on the slowness of some of them, and the lack of formation that birds might have. They also sway in an odd way, negotiating for space with each other in intelligent ways.”

Possible Explanations

I followed Mr. Kerr’s advice and I was able to find flocks of one kind of bird that does migrate in the area of Rome which are the Starlings, however their pattern of flight does not seem to mirror that of the video. If you look at starlings’ migration pattern they actually form a giant cloud in the sky and they travel in the hundreds, not in just a few like depicted in the video.

This photograph shows what starlings look like, as they migrate over the moon. Starlings fly in a much more dense concentration of birds, andtherefore, look nothing like the anomalies above.

Official Caption: Starlings migrating from northern Europe fly in the sky of Rome with the moon in the background on Nov. 3, 2014. About one-million starlings migrate in Rome during autumn and winter time and draw beautiful patterns in the sky before spending the nights in the trees by the Tiber river, creating chaos in the neighborhood with their droppings. (AFP Photo/Gabriel Bouys)

Example of a full moon, with birds on how they appear. This example shows much less of a zoom/focal length of the lens, but offers a reference point to compare what birds would look like. Zoom in to get the details on the lunar surface like the video above, these birds would most likely be out of focus and not appear as sharp as the anomalies do above. Official caption: The moon provides the perfect backdrop for watching birds migrate at night. Observers with spotting scopes and small telescopes can watch the show anytime the moon is at or near full. Photo illustration: Bob King

Another migratory bird of the region is the Honey Buzzard. Here is a video of a migration of the Honey Buzzard, also not even close to resembling the anomaly movements, density, number of “birds” etc.

The movement of the objects seem to not mimic the flight of birds when comparing to other videos of bird migrations, not only those above, but other videos found online.  There are also very few birds that can get tens of thousand of feet into the air.  Given the detail on the moon and the size within the frame, if these were birds, they would have to be at a very high altitude to move that slow within the video. If they were fairly low to the ground, even for migratory birds, they would likely be seen going very fast through the video, and caught on very few frames of video.  These appear to be very high, but the exact altitude can not be determined.  In addition, birds migrate in much larger numbers, and even if only a small “group” of the larger migratory group was capture in front of the moon, the density of the birds do not match migratory patterns by most birds referenced for the region. 

I would assume that the anomalies shown on the video are most likely not birds of any kind, at least, any birds that I could find. Any additional feedback from Italian/European bird experts is welcomed.

Based on the evidence, a flock of birds seems unlikely at this time.

Bats Flying In Front of Moon

You can see with this video, when objects (in this case bats) are much lower to the camera, they go through the frame very quickly. One example above is at 0:46 of the video, and it is very quick as the bat flies by. Another occurs at approximately 1:32. 

Based on the evidence, bats flying across the frame seems unlikely.

Satellites Flying By

This is probably the closest match to the anomalies caught above. However, there are key differences.  First, the anomalies above seemingly do not move in a straight line, and seem to even interact with each other.  Satellites will traverse across a camera’s field of view in a straight or slightly curved line, but do not change speed or adjust course.  In addition, investigator Jim Kerr assisted me in checking Stellarium to see if there were any satellites in the area that were possibly captured by the witness’ camera, and there were not.  When I asked him to verify what was in the sky, he said:

“A search of Stellarium (equatorial view) showed nothing unusual with the moon from a view point in Rome, Italy on July 29, 2018 @ 1:08am. No satellites or asteroids were noted crossing the moon at that time.” 

Below, you will find Stellarium screen shots for Rome Italy, July 29, 2018 @ 1:08am.

Balloons Caught on Video

There is a possibility that the objects could be balloons, but it is fairly unlikely. Given the assumed high altitude, for so many “toy” balloons (standard helium filled party balloons) to be released from the surface of Earth from a party or major event, and for them to reach such heights and maintain a relative “formation” by sticking together, is too coincidental. In addition, there is a case where a larger “Google Balloon” was captured by an amateur astronomer while photographing the moon. Although it is hard to discern the movement from the photograph, you can see that it does not appear to be a similar type object. In addition, weather balloon or “Google Balloons” never are launched together in such a quantity, so I think a type of weather balloon (or Google Balloon) is safely ruled out.

Amateur astronomer Luis Verdiales, from Puerto Rico, spotted the ‘small black disc’ flying across the face of the moon during a rare celestial event when the planets aligned together – and aviation experts managed to work out it was one of Google’s balloons.

Based on the evidence, balloons seem unlikely.

Digital Manipulation

Many of us all considered a hoax, but there is no sign or evidence of any digital manipulation. TBV Investigations’ Paul Wright also looked at the video, and sees exact characteristics when he views the moon through his high powered lens, including the “hazing” effect around it. He extracted the “meta data” of the video, and everything matches what the witness reported, in regards to the technical specs of the camera. It also appears to be the raw file, and not edited.

Meta Data

Conclusion

I do not believe this is some kind of bird migration, and although there are similarities to satellites crossing the sky, Stellarium does rule out such an explanation.  Balloons are also highly unlikely and we find no evidence of a hoax or digital manipulation. Therefore, I rule out all plausible explanations at this time, with no other reasonable explanation to explore.  

For now, I would close this case and I will classify it as Unidentified, however, I am always open to feedback or other angles to explore.  

Other Videos

{ http://www.theblackvault.com/casefiles/ }

Astronomer Have Spotted A Mysterious Object, Which Is 570 Billion Times Brighter than the Sun

So bright that it pushes the energy limit of physics. Billions of light years away, there is a giant ball of hot gas that is brighter than hundreds of billions of suns.  It is hard to imagine something so bright.  So what is it?  Astronomers are not really sure, but they have a couple theories.

They think it may be a very rare type of supernova — called a magnetar — but one so powerful that it pushes the energy limits of physics, or in other words, the most powerful supernova ever seen as of today.

This object is so luminous that astronomers are having a really difficult time finding a way to describe it.  “If it really is a magnetar, it's as if nature took everything we know about magnetars and turned it up to 11,” said Krzysztof Stanek, professor of astronomy at Ohio State University and the team's co-principal investigator, comedically implying it is off the charts on a scale of 1 to 10.

The object was first spotted by the All Sky Automated Survey of Supernovae (ASAS-SN or “assassin”), which is a small network of telescopes used to detect bright objects in the universe.  
Although this object is ridiculously bright, it still can’t be seen by the naked eye because it is 3.8 billion light years away. ASAS-SN, since it began in 2014, has discovered nearly 250 supernovae, however this discovery, ASASSN-15lh, stands out because of its sheer magnitude.  It is 200 times more powerful than the average supernova, 570 billion times brighter than the sun, and 20 times brighter than all the stars in the Milky Way Galaxy combined.

“We have to ask, how is that even possible?” said Stanek.  “It takes a lot of energy to shine that bright, and that energy has to come from somewhere.”
Todd Thompson, professor of astronomy at Ohio State, has one possible explanation.  The supernova could have generated an extremely rare type of star called a millisecond magnetar — a rapidly spinning and very dense star with a crazy strong magnetic field.

This is how crazy magnetars are: to shine as bright as it does, this magnetar would have to spin at least 1,000 times a second, and convert all of that rotational energy to light with pretty much 100 percent efficiency — making it the most extreme example of a magnetar that is physically possible.

“Given those constraints,” Thompson said, “will we ever see anything more luminous than this? If it truly is a magnetar, then the answer is basically no.”

Over the coming months, the Hubble Space Telescope will try to solve this mystery by giving astronomers time to see the host galaxy surrounding this object.  The team may find that this bright object lies in the very center of a large galaxy — meaning the object is not a magnetar at all — and the gas around it is actually evidence of a supermassive black hole.

If that is the case, then the bright light could be explained by a new kind of event, said study co-author Christopher Kochanek, professor of astronomy at Ohio State.  It would be something that has never, ever been seen before at the center of a galaxy.

Whether it is a magnetar, a supermassive black hole, or something else entirely, the results are probably going to lead to new thinking about how objects form in the universe.

{ http://www.physics-astronomy.org/ }

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Video of UFO – Orb While Filming Moon With Nikon P900 – 18 Aug 2018

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