We take light for granted and often forget just how weird and powerful the sometimes-wave, sometimes-particle is. Never mind that our entire existence is dependent on light, there’s a whole host of other wacky applications that science is only beginning to get get a grasp on. For example, new research from the California Institute of Technology has apparently found a way to levitate macro-scale objects using noting but light. Scientists at Caltech say that, once implemented, this technology would allow a spacecraft to surf its way on a beam of light to the nearest planet outside our solar system in as little as 20 years.

The new research is only theoretical at this point, but it builds off decades of previous work using light to manipulate very small objects. The first so-called “optical tweezers,” which use the radiative pressure of focused light beams to manipulate nano-scale objects, led to the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics. The principle is more or less the same, but but there’s a big difference between moving microscopic objects microscopic distances, and launching interstellar spacecraft. Ognjen Ilic, postdoctoral scholar at Caltech and author of the new paper, says:

“One can levitate a ping pong ball using a steady stream of air from a hair dryer. But it wouldn’t work if the ping pong ball were too big, or if it were too far away from the hair dryer, and so on.”

The key to the new research is in creating nano-scale reflection patterns on the surface of the objects to be levitated. By giving the surface of the object the right pattern it will interact with the light beam in such a way that it will continually spin itself back into the beam of light, creating a feedback loop of sorts with the radiative pressure of light all the way to another star system. While previous theoretical concepts for light sails relied on incredibly powerful lasers to do the heavy lifting, this method would encode the objects surface with what it needs to stay stable, and would work with a light source even millions of miles away.

Of course, this is still theoretical. They haven’t started building light sails yet, and actual real world demonstrations will be needed. Still, it’s pretty exciting. Harry Atwater, Howard Hughes Professor of Applied Physics and Materials Science at Caltech says:

“We have come up with a method that could levitate macroscopic objects. There is an audaciously interesting application to use this technique as a means for propulsion of a new generation of spacecraft. We’re a long way from actually doing that, but we are in the process of testing out the principles.”

It probably won’t look like this.

If it works, this technology would allow starships to travel at close to the speed of light and would open up a whole new realm of possibilities for the future of sustained interstellar travel. Just think, we’ve spent so much time lighting stuff on fire, trying to squeeze out the little bit of propulsion we could from it, when all we really needed was a big flashlight.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

What do magnetic and glassy impact-related spherules, nanodiamonds, carbon spherules, biomass burning, and anomalous levels of platinum and chromium in ancient sediment layers all have in common?

Here’s a hint: it involves a controversial theory about an ancient cataclysmic event… and one that is gaining new support, after an international team of scientists found compelling new evidence for its cause in South America. 

The Younger Dryas impact hypothesis contends that around 12,800 years ago, a disintegrating comet or asteroid led to an impact event—or maybe several—along with possible airbursts which resulted in widespread fires and climate changes identified in relation to the Younger Dryas Climate Event.

Proponents of the theory also believe climate changes occurring at this time may have been a contributing factor in megafaunal extinctions, along with existing evidence of human predation, which began to occur several thousands of years ago. However, archaeological evidence also seems to indicate that human populations were affected at the same time; presumably a result of the same environmental changes.

Evidence for large scale climate changes related to these proposed impacts or air bursts had been found already on several continents. However, a new study titled “Sedimentary record from Patagonia, southern Chile supports cosmic-impact triggering of biomass burning, climate change, and megafaunal extinctions at 12.8 ka,” argues that features remarkably similar to existing North American sites associated with the Younger Dryas Boundary (YDB) were found at the South American archaeological and paleontological site of Pilauco Bajo.

According to the new paper’s extract:

“In the most extensive investigation south of the equator, we report on a ~12,800-year-old sequence at Pilauco, Chile (~40°S), that exhibits peak YD boundary concentrations of platinum, gold, high-temperature iron- and chromium-rich spherules, and native iron particles rarely found in nature.”

As I noted elsewhere in relation to the new Chilean discoveries, “The significance of the platinum concentrations and other metallic signatures at the Chilean site presents another unique identifier, with relevance to previous studies that located an anomalous abundance of the rare earth metal at several YDB sites, as well as within ice core samples from the Greenland Ice Sheet. Christopher R. Moore, Ph.D. of the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of South Carolina, Columbia, who contributed to the recent Chilean study, was the lead author of a paper published in Scientific Reports in 2017 which first identified this platinum anomaly.”

UC Santa Barbara geology professor emeritus James Kennett, also a co-author on the new paper, says at least one of the discoveries made at Pilauco, Chile, was unique to the site. Kennett was particularly interested in an abundance of chromium found in the YD boundary at the new location, since it is an element that is not commonly found at similar sites located in the Northern Hemisphere.

However, Kennett told UC Santa Barbara’s The Current that “volcanic rocks in the southern Andes can be rich in chromium,” which he and other scientists conducting research on the site felt could explain the prevalence of the material.

“Thus, the cometary objects must have hit South America as well,” Kennett concludes. The paper appeared on March 13 in Scientific Reports and can be viewed online here.

The Younger Dryas impact hypothesis remains controversial, largely due to the fact that its deterrents feel that the Younger Dryas can be explained more simply as a climate event unto itself. Critics primarily argue that meltwater from the glaciers at the end of the Pleistocene spilled into the Atlantic as global temperatures began to naturally warm, causing a cooling effect that disrupted ocean currents that led to further cooling prevalent throughout the Northern Hemispheres. Further, it has been noted that periods of cold reversal similar to the Dryas appear in the geological record toward the end of past ice ages as well; it seems unlikely that a cosmic impact event would occur at the end of every ice age.

Nonetheless, the accumulation of new evidence over the last few years makes the once unlikely theory of a cosmic impact 12,800 years ago now something worthy of a second look. Hence, the question is perhaps not so much one of “where is the evidence,” but instead who is willing to look at it?

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

Residents in the city of Al Ain, United Arab Emirates, were left shocked and confused when they witnessed what they thought was a UFO in the sky. Near the border of Oman, people noticed a “whirlpool hole” in an otherwise heavily clouded sky, as if someone had punched a large hole above their heads.

Ebrahim Al Jarwan, who is an astronomer and meteorologist, was able to capture the strange phenomena on video and posted it to Twitter. This natural phenomena is known as a “hole punch cloud” or “fallstreak hole”. One user commented that it looked as though “God has thrown a stone into a lake”, while others wondered if it was made by a UFO. When a large circular patch of clear sky suddenly appears, surrounded by lots of clouds, it’s not surprising that some people believed that an unidentified flying object may have peaked through the clouds, therefore creating the hole.

Hole punch cloud

Meteorologists, however, were quick to point out that it was a hole punch cloud that is normally created in mid-to-high level clouds and made from super-cooled water droplets (water that’s below 0 degrees Celsius but is not yet frozen) and they are actually caused by aircrafts, including commercial jet airliners, private jets, military jets, and turbo props.

As planes fly through the layer of clouds, the air expands and cools off as it passes over the propeller or wings of the aircraft. This sudden change in temperature causes the super-cooled water droplets to freeze, creating ice crystals which are then heavy enough to drop from the layer of clouds. That’s what causes the large hole to form. Andrew Heymsfield, who is from the National Center for Atmospheric Research, confirmed this by telling EarthSky, “The whole idea of jet aircraft making these features has to do with cooling of air over the wings that generates ice.”

Heymsfield’s team also found that when aircrafts create the large holes in the clouds, and after the droplets of water freeze to ice, they then turn into snow as they fall to the ground. Occasionally, within an hour of a hole punch cloud appearing, it can reach up to 30 miles wide because other water droplets beside the original ones begin to freeze. In fact, hole punch clouds can keep expanding for several hours after initially forming.

Hole punch cloud

And while scientists know what hole punch clouds are and what causes them to appear, not everyone knows about them because they’re a rare occurrence. This is why so many people who haven’t seen them before often mistake them for UFOs.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

Video of dramatic close encounter with the Black F-117 Nighthawk

The Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk is an American single-seat, twin-engine stealth attack aircraft that was developed by Lockheed's secretive Skunk Works division and operated by the United States Air Force (USAF).

The Nighthawk was the first operational aircraft to be designed around stealth technology. Its maiden flight took place in 1981 at Groom Lake, Nevada, and the aircraft achieved initial operating capability status in 1983.

The Nighthawk was shrouded in secrecy until it was revealed to the public in 1988.

The black F-117 Nighthawk was officially retired in 2008 but this incredible video recorded in February 2019 proves that some of these aircraft still remain in service today.

  

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

Cloaked UFO Hovering Over United Arab Emirates On March 17, 2019, Video, UFO Sighting News.

Date of sighting: March 17, 2019
Location of sighting: United Arab Emerates

This week in the UAE an eyewitness Tweeted about seeing a hole in the clouds above him and asked what it might be? Thats easy to answer, its a clocked alien craft. They are over the UAE to observe one of the richest countries in the world for their oil and wealth. 

If you look closely at the hole, you will see and inner and outer ring. This means the UFO is still there right now as this photo was taken. Thats right, it hasn't flown away, its still there. Did you also notice that the center of the circle has a pushed down lower area of clouds? Because the ships lower part shoved the clouds out of the way to make room for the UFO. UFOs can create clouds and even make holes through them, but one thing they can't do...fill in the inside of the ship with clouds. LOL, I don't think they would like that too much. 

I consider UFO observations like this to be an intrusion on the publics privacy. Much how apps on your phone can track you and record the information you look at on the net? Or how Mark Zuckerbergs' company Facebook would track your likes, comments, and personal info and sell it off to some freak company we never heard of, without our permission.  Well, the aliens are doing the same. They are watching, recording and gathering more data on you than you knew existed. All without your permission to do so. That is a crime that has continued for thousands of years on Earth and still does. I call that a crime against humanity.  
Scott C. Waring

إبراهيم الجروان@ibrahimaljarwan

شوهدت هذه الظاهرة النادرة والجميلة صباح اليوم في مدينة العين

تُسمى hole punch cloud
أو ظاهرة fallstreak hole

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Malik Shahzad@Shayaanputri

What was that mysterious hole in the UAE sky?

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8:44 AM - Mar 18, 2019

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{ https://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

If the Space Force Won’t Fight Aliens, Who the Hell Will?

by Kyle Mizokami 

Late last week, military news site Task & Purpose confirmed a disturbing fact: the newly created U.S. Space Force has no intention of fighting aliens. Despite the recent uptick of military UFO sightings, the Pentagon appears uninterested (at least officially) in the possibility of hostile aliens. But if an alien invasion does take place, which arm of the Pentagon would respond? The answer: probably all of them.

During a recent Pentagon roundtable, Task & Purpose’s Pentagon reporter Jeff Schogol asked if the Space Force “is concerned about threats posed by extraterrestrial intelligence.” The official answer he got back? “No.” 

Schogol’s question was asked with tongue firmly planted in cheek, but the revelation last year that U.S. Navy fighter jets encountered alleged UFO craft in 2004 and again in 2015—in both instances appearing on radar and leaving behind video evidence—makes one wonder.

If the unidentified flying objects described by Navy pilots, as well as military and civilian personnel for the past seventy years, are really of extraterrestrial origin and unfriendly, how would the Pentagon deal with them?

If UFOs suddenly descended from the skies, toasting the Statue of Liberty, the Great Mall of America, and the Golden Gate Bridge with death rays, the Pentagon would need to convene some sort of study group to quickly determine what kind of threat it was dealing with. If that happens, forget the Air Force.

Ironically, the service that would most likely take the lead is the U.S. Navy.

Why the Navy? Aliens would likely come from vast distances, traveling light years in long distance voyages, to smash puny humans. The U.S. Navy is unique among the services in planning similar, though much, much shorter voyages. Both submarines and UFOs deal with pressure—in the case of submarines the pressure is on the outside, while in space the pressure is on the inside of the vehicle. From an operational and technical standpoint, aliens and sailors have a few things in common.

Would all of this firepower matter in a fight with aliens?

Image: U.S. Navy (Getty)

There are other reasons the Navy might take the lead. Seventy-one percent of the Earth’s surface is covered by water, and if aliens operated from the water (remember, the 2004 sighting included reports of a 737-sized object on the surface of the ocean) the Navy is unique in having manned aircraft, surface ships, and submarines prowling above, on, and below the surface of the ocean. The Navy could also sail to the most remote locations in the world’s oceans, establishing a military presence for weeks or months, to investigate and monitor for enemy activity.

The Air Force could operate against aliens, but the service’s fighters and bombers could only remain on station for mere minutes or hours before returning to base. Against a terrestrial threat this isn’t really a big deal, but against an alien threat we know nothing about—and according to the 2004 incident, theoretically capable of traveling extraordinary distances in a blink of an eye—such a force will be less useful.

If humans could lure aliens into a set-piece battle the Air Force could bring a lot of firepower, but how one lures aliens into battle is anyone’s guess. In the meantime the Space Force, nestled under control of the Air Force, would contribute to the alien war by maintaining the U.S. military’s network of position, navigation, and timing/GPS satellites, communication satellites, and other space-based assets.

US Army Abrams tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles exercising in Estonia, 2017.

Photo: Sean Gallup (Getty)

The Army would be the service responsible if aliens attempted a landing in the United States, or presumably one of our allies. The Army’s 10 combat divisions would spring into action, attempting to destroy the aliens with fire and maneuver. It would be in many ways similar to countering an airborne landing, with the Army attempting to destroy the alien’s landing zone and prevent the flow of alien reinforcements. The Marines could also get in on the alien fighting, particularly overseas in Asia, Europe, or even the Middle East—though one would like to think aliens would be smart enough to avoid that region and the prospect of their own 18-year war altogether.

Of course, all of this is contingent on the U.S. military being on par with alien technology... which, frankly, is extremely unlikely. The universe is billions of years old, and other races could easily have a head start of a million years or more on us. And certainly, any species capable of interstellar flight is far more technologically advanced.

Consider that a handful of 21st century tanks could crush an army from the 11th century, or even the 19th century for that matter. Even a difference of a thousand years would be ample enough to ensure humanity’s defeat from even a minor alien expedition/hunting trip/bachelor party.

The entire U.S. military could have the same effectiveness against aliens as cavemen—or in this case cosplayers pretending to be cavemen at Comicon—would have against the U.S. military

Image: Daniel Zuchnick (Getty)

If aliens do exist, ultimately it may not matter if they are hostile or not. Our destruction at their hands would be about as inevitable as destruction from an extinction-level meteor impact. They could even be friendly, the combination of advanced, destructive technology and violent tendencies leading to intelligent life self-screening itself from interstellar travel. (That would be bad news for humanity.) The “UFOs” people are seeing could even be top secret U.S. government craft. The aliens could be us. In the end, maybe it doesn’t matter if the Pentagon has a plan to fight aliens after all.

{  https://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/ }

Carbon monoxide detectors in our homes warn of a dangerous buildup of that colorless, odorless gas we normally associate with death. Astronomers, too, have generally assumed that a build-up of carbon monoxide in a planet’s atmosphere would be a sure sign of lifelessness. Now, a UC Riverside-led research team is arguing the opposite: celestial carbon monoxide detectors may actually alert us to a distant world teeming with simple life forms. 

“With the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope two years from now, astronomers will be able to analyze the atmospheres of some rocky exoplanets,” said Edward Schwieterman, the study’s lead author and a NASA Postdoctoral Program fellow in UCR’s Department of Earth Sciences. “It would be a shame to overlook an inhabited world because we did not consider all the possibilities.”

In a study published today in The Astrophysical Journal, Schwieterman’s team used computer models of chemistry in the biosphere and atmosphere to identify two intriguing scenarios in which carbon monoxide readily accumulates in the atmospheres of living planets.

In the first scenario, the team found answers in our own planet’s deep past. On the modern, oxygen-rich Earth, carbon monoxide cannot accumulate because the gas is quickly destroyed by chemical reactions in the atmosphere. But three billion years ago, the world was a very different place. The oceans were already teeming with microbial life, but the atmosphere was nearly devoid of oxygen and the sun was much dimmer.

The team’s models reveal that this ancient version of inhabited Earth could maintain carbon monoxide levels of roughly 100 parts per million (ppm)—several orders of magnitude greater the parts-per-billion traces of the gas in the atmosphere today.

“That means we could expect high carbon monoxide abundances in the atmospheres of inhabited but oxygen-poor exoplanets orbiting stars like our own sun,” said Timothy Lyons, one of the study’s co-authors, a professor of biogeochemistry in UCR’s Department of Earth Science, and director of the UCR Alternative Earths Astrobiology Center. “This is a perfect example of our team’s mission to use the Earth’s past as a guide in the search for life elsewhere in the universe.”

A second scenario is even more favorable for the buildup of carbon monoxide: the photochemistry around red dwarf stars like Proxima Centauri, the star nearest our sun at 4.2 light years away. The team’s models predict that if a planet around such a star were inhabited and rich in oxygen, then we should expect the abundance of carbon monoxide to be extremely high—anywhere from hundreds of ppm to several percent.

“Given the different astrophysical context for these planets, we should not be surprised to find microbial biospheres promoting high levels of carbon monoxide,” Schwieterman said. “However, these would certainly not be good places for human or animal life as we know it on Earth.” 

Earth-sized, rocky planets have been discovered orbiting in the habitable zone of Proxima Centauri and other similar stars, meaning they could harbor liquid water, an essential ingredient for life. Such planets are likely targets for further characterization by the James Webb Space Telescope, scheduled for launch in March 2021.

The current study is one component of a broad effort to prepare for these future missions by cataloguing different combinations of atmospheric gases that might be evidence of an inhabited world—so-called biosignature gases. Some gases, such as carbon monoxide, had been proposed previously as ‘antibiosignatures’— evidence that a planet is not inhabited —if remotely detectable at sufficient abundance. But those assumptions only apply in specific cases.

“Although other studies have done exoplanet photochemical modeling that includes carbon monoxide, no one had focused on carbon monoxide on Earth-like exoplanets in such a systematic way,” Schwieterman said. “Now we have a guidebook for determining what levels of carbon monoxide are compatible with a photosynthetic biosphere.”

In addition to Schwieterman and Lyons, the paper’s authors are Christopher Reinhard from the Georgia Institute of Technology; Stephanie Olson, a former UCR graduate student now a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Chicago; Kazumi Ozaki, a former NASA Postdoctoral Program fellow at Georgia Tech now from Toho University in Japan; Chester E. Harman from Columbia University, and Peng K. Hong from Chiba Institute of Technology. This project was funded by the NASA Astrobiology Institute.

(Header photo: Hubble telescope photograph of Proxima Centauri. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA)

{  https://news.ucr.edu/ }

Koolmonoxide in de atmosfeer van exoplaneten kan wijzen op buitenaards leven

Vivian Lammerse

{ https://www.scientias.nl/ }

Welcome to Europe, Kazachok

Exomars landing platform arrives in Europe with name

The platform destined to land on the Red Planet as part of the next ExoMars mission has arrived in Europe for final assembly and testing – and been given a name.

An announcement was made by the Russian State Space Corporation Roscosmos of its new name: ‘Kazachok’.

The ExoMars programme is a joint endeavour between ESA and Roscosmos and comprises two missions. The Trace Gas Orbiter is already circling Mars examining the planet’s atmosphere, while the second mission – comprising a surface science platform and a rover – is foreseen for launch in 2020.

ExoMars rover

Last month, the rover was named ‘Rosalind Franklin’ after the prominent scientist behind the discovery of the structure of DNA. Now the surface platform also has a name. Kazachock literally means little Cossack, and it is a lively folk dance.

Once on the martian surface, Rosalind the rover will drive off the Kazachok platform to perform scientific investigations. Kazachok will remain stationary to investigate the climate, atmosphere, radiation and possible presence of subsurface water in the landing site.

Kazachok left Russia after being carefully packed to meet planetary protection requirements, making sure to not bring terrestrial biological contamination to Mars. It was shipped to Turin, Italy, on an Antonov plane along with ground support equipment and other structural elements.

Packed for Europe

The Italian division of Thales Alenia Space will perform final assembly and testing of the mission in close cooperation with ESA and the Russian Lavochkin Association, the developer and manufacturer of the descent module including the landing platform.

There will be more components arriving to Italy throughout the year, including avionics equipment, the carrier and rover modules and thermal protection systems for the landing platform.

Several test campaigns with ExoMars models are running in parallel in preparation for launch and landing.

Recent shock tests in Russia have successfully proved the mechanical compatibility between the spacecraft and the adapter for the Proton-M rocket that will set ExoMars on its way to Mars.

ExoMars landing platform in Italy

The ExoMars teams have also just completed the egress and locomotion tests with a full-sized model of the rover in Zurich, Switzerland.

There the rover drove off ramps and through all the terrain conditions that it might encounter on Mars: different types of soil, various obstacle shapes and sizes and all kind of slopes.

“We have now a very challenging schedule of deliveries and tests both in Italy and France. The coordination between the Russian and European teams is key to timely reach the Baikonur cosmodrome in 2020,” says François Spoto, ESA’s ExoMars team leader.

{ http://www.esa.int/ESA }

Nieuwe naam voor de ExoMars-lander bekend: Kazachok

Vivian Lammerse

Samen met Rosalind de Marsrover reist hij volgend jaar af naar de rode planeet.

Volgend jaar gaat het dan echt beginnen: dan zal de ExoMars-missie van start gaan. De missie bestaat uit zowel een Marslander (gebouwd door de Russen) en een Marsrover (gebouwd door ESA). Een maand geleden maakte ESA al de naam bekend van de marsrover: zo is deze tot Rosalind Franklin gedoopt, vernoemd naar de wetenschapper die de structuur van DNA onthulde. En nu laten ook de Russen weten met welke naam hun lander voortaan door het leven zal gaan.

Naam
De lander heeft de naam Kazachok gekregen, wat letterlijk ‘kleine kozak’ betekent. Daarnaast is Kazachok een vrolijke volksdans. De lander is ondertussen naar Italië verscheept voor de eindmontage en de laatste testen, voordat deze volgend jaar het luchtruim kiest.

De lander is heelhuids aangekomen in Italië voor de laatste puntjes op de i.

Afbeelding: Roscosmos

Missies
Het ExoMars-programma is een gezamenlijke onderneming van de Europese en Russische ruimtevaartorganisaties (ESA en Roscosmos) en bestaat uit twee missies. De Trace Gas Orbiter cirkelt op dit moment al rond Mars en onderzoekt de atmosfeer van de planeet. De tweede missie – bestaande uit Rosalind Franklin en Kazachok – zullen zich meer op het oppervlak van de rode planeet concentreren. Rosalind de rover zal tot twee meter onder het oppervlak op zoek gaan naar sporen van levensvormen die lang geleden op Mars leefden, of mogelijk tot op de dag van vandaag stand hebben weten te houden. Kozachok zal op één plek blijven om het klimaat, de atmosfeer en de mogelijke aanwezigheid van ondergrond water op de landingsplaats te onderzoeken.

Zoals gezegd wordt de missie in 2020 gelanceerd. Vervolgens komen Rosalind en Kazachok in 2021 op de rode planeet aan. De precieze landingsplek is zorgvuldig door de twee ruimtevaartorganisaties uitgezocht. Zo zullen de rover en de lander voet aan de grond zetten in een gebied dat Oxia Planum wordt genoemd. Oxia Planum bevindt zich nabij de evenaar van Mars en is een wat lager gelegen gebied. Observaties vanuit de ruimte onthullen dat Oxia Planum rijk is aan klei-achtige mineralen die ongeveer vier miljard jaar geleden zijn gevormd. Aangezien deze mineralen alleen in combinatie met water kunnen zijn ontstaan, gaan onderzoekers ervan uit dat Oxia Planum ooit behoorlijk wat water bevatte. Maar of dat ook echt zo blijkt te zijn? Rosalind en Kazachok zullen ons dat over twee jaar laten weten.

Bronmateriaal:

"Exomars landing platform arrives in Europe with name" - 
Afbeelding bovenaan dit artikel: ESA/ATG medialab

{ https://www.scientias.nl/ }

Evidence of Ancient Stone Cutting Technology? Where is this coming from?

It is not surprising that the occasional eyebrow was raised in the past concerning the extent of the Egyptian masonry skills. Not only were the structures superior in a visionary capacity, but also in precision, design and execution.

The impressive cutting-in-stone technique reveals our ancestors were familiar with an extremely advanced technology we have long been unable to use. Large-sized holes found in ancient stone demanded engineering skills and proper cutting equipment. All kind of stones (even the hardest ones) were drilled for architectural, ritualistic or symbolic functions.

The methods employed by the Egyptians in cutting the hard stones which they so frequently worked, have long remained undetermined.

Various suggestions have been made, some very impractical; but no actual proofs of the tools employed, or the manner of using them, have been obtained.

Looking at these impressive cutting-in-stones technique one wonders if not plenty of our technologies which are thought to be modern have ancient roots or in some cases may have been lost and then reinvented.

{ https://www.disclose.tv/ }

Ryugu is probably a chip off one of these two other asteroids

Japan’s Hayabusa2 team has narrowed down the asteroid’s origins based on its color

BY LISA GROSSMAN 

CASTING A LONG SHADOW  The Japanese Hayabusa2 spacecraft (whose shadow is visible at the top of the image) took this picture of the asteroid Ryugu on February 22 about one minute after touching down on its surface and then lifting off again. 

JAXA, UNIV. OF TOKYO, KOCHI UNIV., RIKKYO UNIV., NAGOYA UNIV., CHIBA INST. OF TECHNOLOGY, MEIJI UNIV., UNIV. OF AIZU, AIST

{ https://www.sciencenews.org/ }

New photos from asteroid Bennu reveal stunning surprises

BY MIHAI ANDREI

NASA scientists have recently released a trove of data and images from the Bennu asteroid, a carbonaceous asteroid currently orbited by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. OSIRIS-REx is currently orbiting and mapping the asteroid, and will then attempt to land on the asteroid, gather samples, and return the samples to Earth.

Yes, this is an image from an actual asteroid’s surface.

Image credits: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona/Lockheed Martin.

Although Bennu is only slightly larger than the Empire State Building, it’s already turning out to be even more intriguing than we thought it would be. For starters, it appears to contain minerals dating from the earliest days of the solar system, which could offer astronomers valuable insights into how the system formed and evolved through the eons.

It also appears to be rife with water-containing (hydrated) minerals. This will allow researchers to study the hypothesis that Earth and other planets in our solar system were “fertilized” by water-rich asteroids. Bennu also appears “craggier” than expected — the rocky structures on its surface came as a surprise to NASA.

Based on Earth observations, astronomers were expecting a relatively smooth surface, but images from OSIRIS-REx show that the asteroid is riddled with rough boulders. The boulders also appear to be denser than expected, raising concerns about the spacecraft’s ability to drill and extract samples. NASA engineers, however, are confident.

“Throughout OSIRIS-REx’s operations near Bennu, our spacecraft and operations team have demonstrated that we can achieve system performance that beats design requirements,” said Rich Burns, the project manager of OSIRIS-REx at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “Bennu has issued us a challenge to deal with its rugged terrain, and we are confident that OSIRIS-REx is up to the task.”

But perhaps the most stunning discovery is that Bennu is still active, spewing giant plumes of matter.

This view of asteroid Bennu ejecting particles surprised astronomers. The photo was created by combining two images taken onboard NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. The features have been accentuated through processing techniques such as cropping and brightness and contrast adjustment.

Credits: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona/Lockheed Martin.

“The discovery of plumes is one of the biggest surprises of my scientific career,” said Dante Lauretta, OSIRIS-REx principal investigator at the University of Arizona, Tucson. “And the rugged terrain went against all of our predictions. Bennu is already surprising us, and our exciting journey there is just getting started.”

The plumes consist of dirt and rock, but their source is not yet known. OSIRIS-REx is hard at work to help answer that question.

Image of Bennu’s northern hemisphere.

Image credits: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona/Lockheed Martin

The OSIRIS-REx mission of NASA’s New Frontiers program was launched towards on September 8, 2016. It is currently orbiting the asteroid at a distance of 3 miles (5 km), approximately 190,000 miles (300,000 km) away from Earth. OSIRIS-REx is expected to return samples to Earth in 2023. There is a cumulative 1 in 2,700 chance that Bennu will impact Earth between 2175–2199.

{ https://www.zmescience.com/ }

TRIDENT SPACECRAFT

{ https://futurism.com/ }

Meteor no one saw coming exploded over Earth with force of 10 atomic bombs

NASA says the blast was the second-largest meteor impact on record.

By Brandon Specktor, Live Science

On Dec. 18, 2018, a school bus-size meteor exploded over Earth with an impact energy of roughly 10 atomic bombs. According to NASA, the blast was the second-largest meteor impact since the organization began tracking them 30 years ago, bested only by the infamous fireball that exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia, in Feb. 2013.

Despite this, hardly anyone noticed it was happening — and nobody saw it coming.

This image sequence from the MISR instrument, aboard the Terra satellite, was taken a few minutes after a meteor exploded over the Bering Sea on Dec. 18. 2018. It shows the shadow of the meteor's trail, and the orange-tinted cloud it left behind.

Credit: NASA/GSFC/LaRC/JPL-Caltech, MISR Team    › Full image and caption

As to why one of the largest meteor impacts in recent history may have totally passed you by, that's likely because the space rock in question shattered over the Bering Sea, a cold stretch of the Pacific Ocean between Russia and Alaska, miles from inhabited land.

NASA learned about the December impact thanks to the U.S. Air Force, whose missile-monitoring satellites were among the first to detect the blast. The rumble of the impact also registered on infrasound detectors — stations that measure low-frequency sound waves inaudible to human ears — around the world, giving scientists enough data to draw some basic conclusions about the sneaky meteor.

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According to NASA, that meteor weighed about 1,500 tons, had a diameter of about 32 feet, and was traveling through the atmosphere at about 71,582 mph when it exploded. The blast occurred about 15.5 miles over the ocean and erupted with an energy equivalent to 173 kilotons of TNT — roughly 10 times the energy of the atomic bomb that the United States detonated over Hiroshima during World War II.

The world's asteroid-monitoring groups failed to see the rock headed our way likely due to its smallish size. Alan Fitzsimmons, an astronomer at Queen’s University Belfast in Northern Ireland, told New Scientist that most modern telescopes are best able to detect objects measuring several hundred meters or more in diameter, making smaller objects like this one easy to miss. NASA asteroid hunters are most concerned about identifying near-Earth objects measuring 460 feet across, which have the potential to obliterate entire US states if allowed to pass through the atmosphere, Live Science previously reported.

The December 2018 impact only came to attention this week thanks, in part, to a presentation at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Texas that was delivered by Kelly Fast, NASA's near-Earth objects observations program manager. Fast told BBC Newsthat the December event exploded with "40 percent the energy release of Chelyabinsk," but didn't show up in the news because of the impact's relatively remote location.

The Chelyabinsk meteor, which measured 62 feet wide, passed over mainland Russia and was recorded by many motorists. The resulting shockwaves injured more than 1,200 people.

• Fallen Stars: A Gallery of Famous Meteorites
• Space-y Tales: The 5 Strangest Meteorites in History
• Danger! Falling Rocks: Asteroids and Meteorites Explained

Originally published on Live Science.

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JAPAN’S YONAGUNI RUINS MAY HOLD THE KEY TO A SUNKEN CIVILIZATION

The mystery of the lost continent of Atlantis has puzzled researchers for centuries, as growing evidence supports the theory that an advanced civilization may have been destroyed and gone unnoticed by mainstream archeology. This antediluvian civilization is assumed to have been located somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean and is thought to have been the progenitor of ancient civilizations like those in Egypt and India. But could there have been another sunken continent from that era that predates Atlantis? The Yonaguni ruins might provide an answer.

THE YONAGUNI MONUMENT

In 1985, a Japanese diver named Kihachiro Aratake was exploring the seafloor off the southern shore of Yonaguni-Jima island, the western-most island in the Ryukyu archipelago of Japan. Aratake came across what appeared to be the sunken ruins of an ancient, megalithic, stepped pyramid, similar to the ziggurats built in ancient Sumer. Since his discovery, the provenance of the ruins has been debated as to whether they are man-made or naturally occurring, due to the possibility of natural geological terracing.

Dr. Masaaki Kimura from the University of Ryukyu is the biggest proponent for the theory supporting the artificiality of the ruins. Surprisingly, Dr. Robert Schoch is one archeologist who has contended Kimura’s theory, despite his support for the Sphinx water erosion hypothesis.Although, Schoch has conceded that he doesn’t perceive Yonaguni to be a closed case and that he hasn’t spent as much time diving there, compared to Kimura’s 15 years.

According to Kimura, the Yonaguni monument appears to depict carvings of animals and people as well as the remnants of a carved face, which he compares to the Moai heads on Easter Island.At the end of the last ice age, Yonaguni would have been connected to what is now mainland China. It is likely that the fate of the civilization that built the Yonaguni pyramid, was sealed by a massive tectonic event that triggered a tsunami and subsequent sea level rise.

Since the end of the last Ice Age, sea levels have risen some 40 meters, causing drastic changes in topography and lending credibility to the theory that there may have been cities or even continents that disappeared into the sea. Based on stalactite found in caves near the ruins, Kimura has calculated the Yonaguni pyramid to be at least 6,000 years old when it sank, with the potential to be up to 10,000 years old including the time prior to flooding. The oldest recorded flooding event at Yonaguni occurred in the late 1700s, during which a tsunami ravaged the island with 130 foot waves. This combination of sea level rise and catastrophic climatic events were likely the cause of this ancient city’s demise.

 An interesting discovery has been made when looking at the orientation of the angles in the Yonaguni ruins. One researcher believes that the radial lines, when extended out from the ruins, might potentially outline a territory in the Pacific. This theory employs geoglyphology, or the study of coded maps and messaging in ancient geoglyphs, and has drawn out the radial lines of the Yonaguni ruins. The Faram Research Foundation’s work shows lines that depict a map very similar to the territory sought after by Japan during WWII.

The area extends from Yonaguni and the South China Sea, up to the tip of Alaska’s archipelago, down to Hawaii and back over encompassing Indonesia and Burma (Myanmar). This territory, some believe, could be that which was occupied by the lost continent of Mu, a lost civilization larger and older than Atlantis.

THE LOST CONTINENT OF MU

The lost civilization of Mu, is thought to have spanned a large swath of the Pacific Ocean. Reaching from the Philippines Sea all the way to Easter Island, Mu would have encompassed most of the small islands in the mid-Pacific, including Guam, Fiji, Christmas Island, Midway and Hawaii. The conception of Mu was first proposed by Augustus LePlongeon in the 19^th century who was the first explorer to photographically document the ancient Mayan city of Chichen Itza. It was there that he supposedly learned of the lost continent of Mu through his translation of the ancient Mayan Troano Codex.

LePlongeon’s translation showed that the Mayan civilization was aware of and predated the ancient Egyptian and Greek civilizations, while also mentioning another civilization that was lost in a cataclysmic event. But LePlongeon’s account is thought to be spurious due his use of a false translation of the ancient Mayan language.

But a later account of the ancient continent from a book published in 1926, by James Churchward, is thought to possibly carry more veracity. Churchward was an English occultist who spent several decades living and studying with a group of mystic priests in India. There he was shown esoteric tablets that detailed the erstwhile civilization and its supposed 64 million inhabitants called the Nacaal, who lived roughly 50,000 years ago. The tablets contained a multitude of vignettes, or a series of pictographs that supposedly told the story of Mu. In order to properly transcribe the vignettes, Churchward had to study an ancient language called Naga-Maya, known to only a handful of people in the world.

Although it is difficult to conceive of a continent this size to have just disappeared underwater, some believe that the Yonaguni monument may be a key to the explanation. Though Churchward’s translation didn’t garner as much notoriety as the search for Atlantis, some believe his interpretation of Mu to be one in the same with the lost city of Lemuria, popularized by Russian theosophist, Helena Blavatsky. Blavatsky’s depiction of the Lemurian people shares many similarities with Churchward’s account, that she also claims to have learned from an esoteric text given to her by Indian mahatmas.

Were Lemuria and Mu one in the same, or two disparate, ancient civilizations that fostered the mysteriously advanced ancient cultures we’re aware of today. While we have been obsessed with the search for Atlantis, it appears that there could be evidence of an older society that may hold clues to the knowledge of our ancient ancestors. Could the Yonaguni ruins be the key to uncovering these antediluvian people?

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This Car Is Powered By Salt Water: 920HP, Top Speed 217.5 MPH, 373 Miles/Tank

By Arjun Walia

It works just like a hydrogen fuel cell except that the liquid used for storing energy is saltwater. This isn’t far from the water powered car, an idea labelled as a conspiracy by many despite the massive amount of evidence behind it. You can read more about that here.

In this case (saltwater) the liquid passes through a membrane in between the two tanks, creating an electric charge. This electricity is then stored and distributed by super capacitors. The four electric motors in the car are fed electricity which makes it run. The car carries the water in two 200-litre tanks, which in one sitting will allow drivers to travel up to 373 miles (600km). Overall, the four-seater is 5.25 metres (0.4ft) long, 2.2 metres wide (7.2ft), the 1.35 metre (4.4ft).

“After making its debut at the 2014 Geneva Motor Show (pictured) in March, the saltwater technology has now been certified for use on European roads.”

(source)

Nanoflowcell AG is the company behind the design, and they are currently preparing the technology for mass production.

‘We’ve got major plans, and not just within the automobile industry. The potential of the NanoFlowcell is much greater, especially in terms of domestic energy supplies as well as in maritime, rail and aviation technology”  

– NanoFlowcell AG Chairman of the Board Professor Jens-Peter Ellermann.

This is huge news, and is another example out of so many that clearly show how we have so many ways to do better here. Although money remains an issue, it doesn’t have to be.

All cars should be required to be made from this type, or other similar types of clean green energy. A few years ago, if you told somebody it’s possible to fuel a car by pouring saltwater into it, they would have called you a conspiracy theorist.

Last Year The U.S Navy Developed a Technology To Create Fuel From Seawater

Scientists at the U.S Naval Research Laboratory have developed a technology to recover carbon dioxide and hydrogen from seawater and convert it into a liquid hydrocarbon fuel. This could be a tremendous breakthrough and eliminate the need for old ways of generating fuel.

It’s just another example of the many ways of generating energy that are now available that could end our dependence on fossil fuels. These new, clean green ways of generating energy have been around for decades, so why are we always talking about them without ever implementing them?

“Refueling U.S. Navy Vessels, at sea, is a costly endeavor in terms of logistics, time, fiscal constraints and threats to national security sailors at sea. In Fiscal year 2011, the U.S. Navy Military Sea Lift Command, the primary supplier of fuel and oil to the U.S. Navy fleet, delivered nearly 600 million gallons of fuel to Navy vessels underway, operating 15 fleet replenishment oilers around the globe.”

(source)

The Navy successfully used the new fuel-from seawater process to power a radio-controlled scale-model replica of a World War II aircraft with an internal combustion engine. Below is the footage from the test flight.

“In close collaboration with the Office of Navel Research p38 Naval Reserve program, NRL has developed a game changing technology for extracting, simultaneously, CO2 and H2 from seawater. This is the first time technology of this nature has been demonstrated with the potential for transition, from the laboratory, to full-scale commercial implementation.”

– Dr. Heather Willauer (source)

Researchers say that this approach could be commercially viable within the next seven to ten years. They state interest in pursuing land-based options that could provide a solution to our current problems.

Again, another option, and example showing the power of human potential, so what’s stopping us from the implementation of cleaner and greener technologies?

Not long ago, Department of Defence adviser Dr. Harold Puthoff made some noteworthy comments while discussing the reality of free energy. This is what he said:

“I’ve been taken out on aircraft carriers by the Navy and shown what it is we have to replace if we have new energy sources to provide new fuel methods.”

You can watch that full interview HERE.

Whether it be Solar, Free Energy (zero-point), or converting seawater, it’s clear we can do better than we are doing now. It’s remarkable how Barack Obama has constantly pointed out that we will be using oil, gas and coal for the next twenty years, and that we don’t have the technology to lift our dependence off of these resources. Those who are looking into it can clearly see that this simply isn’t true. We have the means to live in ways that are more harmonious with the planet and all beings on it.

http://www.gizmag.com/quant-e-sportlimousine-approved-europe-roads/33020/

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Ancient Egypt: Did aliens build the pyramids? Archeologist addresses SHOCK UFO claims

ANCIENT Egypt’s imposing Great Pyramids of Giza of have been at the heart of conspiracy debate and wild UFO claims for decades – but were the pyramids built by ancient aliens?