There Are Bacteria and Fungi All Over the Space Station, and Now We Know What They Are

Archeologen leggen 4.300 jaar oud graf bloot in Egypte - HLN.be

Bron: ANP

Het graf is van een hoge functionaris genaamd Khuwy, van wie wordt aangenomen dat hij een edelman was tijdens de vijfde dynastie. “Het L-vormige graf begint met een kleine gang die naar beneden leidt naar een kamer en van daaruit naar een grotere kamer met geschilderde reliëfs die de grafeigenaar voorstellen”, zegt Mohamed Megahed, hoofd van het opgravingsteam.

Lees ook

Gemummificeerde muizen ontdekt in meer dan 2.000 jaar oude Egyptische graftombe

Het team archeologen heeft in de omgeving van Saqqara verschillende graven opgegraven die gerelateerd zijn aan de vijfde dynastie. Eind vorig jaar werd nog een graf ontdekt van een koninklijke priester, die diende onder farao Neferirkare.

AFP 

Journalisten filmen de pas ontdekte graftombe van de vroegere Egyptische edelman Khuwy.

 AFP

 Een detail.

 AFP 

Een detail.

 EPA 

De muurschilderingen in het graf van Kuwhy in Saqqara leggen mogelijk geheimen bloot over de status van klasse van de edelmannen waartoe Kuwhy behoorde.

{ https://www.hln.be/ }

New Investigation on Bosnian Pyramid showed Interesting Results

Underneath the layers of vegetation covering the hills in Visoko, there are layers of concrete making up what is known as the Bosnian Valley of the Pyramids.

One of the Bosnian Pyramids, the Pyramid of the Sun, is approximately one third taller than the ancient Egyptian Great Pyramid. The Pyramid of the Sun is constructed of five thick layers of concrete (sandstone slabs, almost one meter thick for each layer), with each layer containing a fifteen centimeter layer of clay in between. Underneath the concrete and clay, the inner pyramid consists of sandstone blocks.

The concrete blocks covering the hills are being excavated and samples of the concrete have been sent to prestigious labs all over the world to be tested. The tests resulted in several interesting findings about the concrete’s properties.

Under the concrete of the Pyramid of the Sun, the series of large sandstone blocks show various types of rocks (differing pebbles and cobbles), including sandy quartz limestone, when more closely analyzed. It is thought that the concrete is made from material found at a locally deposited post glacial conglomerate. Experts who examined these crystals determined that during the manufacturing process, the materials were heated to above 500 degrees. Studies done at the University of Paris discovered that the concrete material found on the Bosnian Pyramid of the Sun was five times stronger than modern day concrete. The concrete was shown to be resistant to 94 Megapascals of pressure, which means it is highly compressed and extremely rigid – concrete of this strength is only available in a few very developed countries at special request. The founder of the French Institute of Polymers, Joseph Davidovits, Ph.D. performed an electronic microscopic analysis on a sample of concrete; he concluded that the chemical composition of the old concrete’s basis is a calcium/potassium geopolymer cement. He found the cement to be five times stronger and five times more water resistant than any concrete able to be made today. Davidovits is an author of over fifty patents in the field of the science of materials, and is considered an expert in the field. He holds a French Medal of Merit and has published ten books about the construction of the Egyptian Pyramids.

The construction material comprising the Pyramid of the Sun is not a normal, natural process. Dr. Aly Barakat, a geologist from Cairo, spent weeks researching all of the environment surrounding the Pyramid of the Sun. He did not find materials similar to the blocks of the Pyramid of the Sun and therefore he concluded his research noting that the pyramid is a natural hill shaped by man and covered with stone blocks. Other scientists, however are continuing to research differing hypotheses.

The genius of the builder of Bosnian pyramids, tunnels and blocks in the Ravne tunnels is reflected in the multiple purpose of these structures.

Ceramic blocks in Ravne tunnels reflections are of the advanced technological knowledge of their creators. Also, their strategic lay out contributes to the complete protection of tunnels from geopathogenic radiation. Their shapes are anatomical. Energy measurements have demonstrated the presence of beneficial radiation in their vicinity. And, finally, their surfaces are purposely done to show the relief of the terrain.

Block K-2, the most popular among them, has an intriguing surface. When exposed to various illumination, it shows clear indications of the relief of the Bosnian Valley of the Pyramids. The locations of the pyramids, valleys, elevations, rivers and estuaries of Fojnica in Bosnia in the Visoko’s valley are noted.

The ‘Bosnian pyramid complex’ is a pseudoarchaeological notion to explain the formation of a cluster of natural hills in central Bosnia and Herzegovina. Since 2005, Semir Osmanagić, also known as Sam Osmanagich, a Bosnian businessman now based in Houston, Texas, has claimed that these hills are the largest human-made ancient pyramids on Earth.

{ http://www.sarajevotimes.com/ }

© Copyright (c) NineForNews.nl

VOLGENS NASA IS SUPERVULKAAN GROTERE BEDREIGING DAN EEN ASTEROÏDE

NASA is een meester in het dingen verborgen houden voor de bevolking, maar soms is de waarheid te achterhalen door dingen te combineren. 

Zoals, waarom komt NASA nu ineens met een waarschuwing dat de grootste bedreiging voor de mensheid de uitbarsting van een supervulkaan is?

Wanneer een asteroïde de aarde zou raken, dan kunnen we, een beetje afhankelijk van de grootte en waar deze inslaat, echt wel spreken van een ramp voor de mensheid. En die gebeurtenis is helemaal niet zo onaannemelijk als men ons wil doen voorkomen, want veel van die asteroïden komen uit het niets en worden soms niet of veel te laat opgemerkt. 

Zoals we schreven in een eerder artikel: 

In het programma praat hij met een aantal experts van NASA die toegeven dat ze geen flauw idee hebben over wat er allemaal op ons af komt. De eerste keer dat zij gewaar werden dat er een asteroïde in de vorm van een meteoriet boven Rusland was ontploft, was toen ze dit vernamen via Twitter. 

En toch weet NASA ons nu te vertellen dat er nog een grotere dreiging bestaat voor de mensheid en dat is de supervulkaan. De gevolgen van een dergelijke uitbarsting zou er volgens hen voor kunnen zorgen dat de mensheid compleet zou verdwijnen van deze aarde. 

De kans dat een dergelijke uitbarsting zal voorvallen is groter dan die van een asteroïde die de aarde zal raken, stellen zijn. 

Aangezien de kans van een asteroïde die de aarde raakt behoorlijk groot is, is daarom ook te stellen dat een uitbarsting van een supervulkaan bijna om de hoek staat. 

Ze komen tot die conclusie omdat blijkt uit de historie van onze planeet dat supervulkaanuitbarstingen een keer zo vaak voorkomen als een asteroïde die de aarde raakt. Ze hebben hiervoor als maatstaf genomen een asteroïde met een diameter van minstens twee kilometer. 

Onder een supervulkaan wordt verstaan een vulkaan die groot genoeg is om bij een uitbarsting meer dan 1000 km3 materiaal de atmosfeer in te spuwen. Dit soort hoeveelheden in de atmosfeer zouden een ramp op aarde veroorzaken die de mensheid tot de rand van uitsterven zou drijven, volgens de onderzoekers bij NASA. 

De meest bekende supervulkaan op aarde en ook tevens degene waar men zich de meeste zorgen om maakt is de Yellowstone supervulkaan in Amerika. Als deze zou uitbarsten dan zou die zeker aan het criterium voldoen van een supervulkaanuitbarsting en zou er derhalve ook voor kunnen zorgen dat de mensheid wordt uitgeroeid. 

Uit de historie van uitbarstingen is te concluderen dat deze supervulkaan eigenlijk nu op het punt komt waarbij het zou moeten uitbarsten. In de praktijk weet niemand of en wanneer dit zal gebeuren, want historische aanwijzingen zijn nooit een garantie voor de toekomst. 

Wanneer je bovenstaande waarschuwing van NASA combineert met een bericht dat wij schreven eind vorig jaar over NASA en Yellowstone, dan ontstaat toch een bepaald beeld.

NASA houdt zich al heel lang bezig met de problematiek rondom Yellowstone en werkt nu aan een plan dat de wereld moet redden van een uitbarsting door deze gigant. 

Die plannen bestaan volgens Brian Wilcox van het NASA Jet Propulsion Lab uit het boren van een tien kilometer diep gat in de vulkaan waardoor water naar binnen kan worden gepompt. Op deze manier kan dan de hitte in de vulkaan langzaam afnemen. Tegelijkertijd zou dan de vrijgekomen hitte kunnen worden gebruikt als een soort enorme energiecentrale. 

Er zouden dan ook investeerders gezocht moeten worden die hier brood in zien, want de kosten van het boren van een dergelijk gat met bijbehorende acties zou ongeveer 3,5 miljard dollar moeten kosten. 

Maar, zegt Wilcox erbij: “Dit alles moet heel voorzichtig gebeuren, want het kleinste foutje kan ervoor zorgen dat deze supervulkaan juist zal uitbarsten”. 

Klaarblijkelijk overweegt NASA om een groot risico te nemen om deze supervulkaan te beteugelen. Waarom zouden ze iets dergelijks doen als ze er niet vrijwel zeker van zijn dat deze anders toch zal uitbarsten? 

En dan komt er nu een sinistere waarschuwing die zegt dat de kans op een dergelijke uitbarsting groter is dan die van een asteroïde die de aarde raakt. 

Het lijkt er zoals gewoonlijk op dat zij veel meer weten dan ons wordt verteld en als dat zo is, dan is de vraag: wat dan? 

Weten zij dat de onbekende planeet Nibiru nu dichterbij komt en maken ze zich zorgen dat de enorme krachten die iets dergelijks met zich mee zal brengen, zal zorgen voor een toch al wankele supervulkaan zoals Yellowstone? 

Of hebben zij andere concrete aanwijzingen waardoor zij kunnen bepalen dat het niet lang meer zal duren voordat Yellowstone meer dan 1000 kubieke kilometer as en ander puin de lucht in zal spuwen? 

In dat kader is het interessant om te kijken naar een deel van een artikel dat wij schreven in januari van dit jaar: 

Over de hele wereld is de seismische activiteit enorm toegenomen de afgelopen tien jaar en er schijnt in de eerste dagen van 2019 alweer een verdere escalatie plaats te vinden. 

Vulkanen die lang slapend zijn geweest, komen opeens weer tot leven en het lijkt erop dat de Yellowstone vulkaan ook tot die categorie behoord. 

Enkele maanden geleden verschenen ook bij de ons het volgende soort berichten: 

De reusachtige, slapende vulkaan onder het Yellowstone National Park in de Amerikaanse staat Wyoming zal waarschijnlijk veel eerder uitbarsten dan tot dusver werd aangenomen. Uit een nieuwe studie blijkt dat de grote klap niet over honderden, maar al over tientallen jaren zal plaatsvinden. Als dat gebeurt zullen de gevolgen niet te overzien zijn.

Gemiddeld barst de supervulkaan onder Yellowstone om de 600.000 jaar uit. De laatste grote uitbarsting was 631.000 jaar geleden. Wetenschappers maakten zich tot voor kort geen zorgen, omdat ze dachten dat de eerste tekenen van een eventuele uitbarsting duizenden jaren van te voren zichtbaar zullen zijn. Maar het blijkt volgens de laatste metingen te gaan om enkele decennia.

De recentste uitbarsting van de vulkaan (die van 631.000 jaar geleden) begon toen een nieuwe lading magma naar één van de vulkaankamers werd geduwd. Dat proces duurde slechts enkele tientallen jaren en geen eeuwen zoals eerder werd verondersteld.

Bovenstaande bericht was enkele maanden geleden en nu verschijnen er berichten dat een enorme groot stuk van gesmolten rots (magma) met een lengte van ongeveer 750 kilometer lengte zich langzaam naar boven werkt. 

Het ziet er ongeveer zo uit:

We hebben eerder al geschreven over de ongewone activiteit van de beroemde Steamboat Geyser en deze is maar liefst 30 keer tot een uitbarsting gekomen vorig jaar. 

Het is min of meer een gegeven dat deze supervulkaan op een bepaald moment tot uitbarsting komt. En nu kunnen wetenschappers wel vol zelfvertrouwen verklaren dat het minstens enkele decennia zal duren voordat er een uitbarsting komt, nadat de eerste tekenen zijn waargenomen, maar eerst dachten ze dat het duizenden jaren zouden zijn en daar zaten ze ook finaal naast. 

Kortom, niemand weet wanneer dit soort monsters echt zullen uitbarsten, maar waar wel iedereen het over eens is, is dat wanneer dit gebeurt, het een ramp voor de wereld zal zijn. 

Een uitbarsting zou onmiddellijk een einde maken aan alle klimaatakkoorden die ooit door idioten zijn bedacht, want de wereld zou terechtkomen in wat men noemt een vulkanische winter. Het zonlicht zou worden geblokkeerd door de miljoenen kubieke meter puin en as dat de atmosfeer in wordt geslingerd. De temperaturen op aarde zouden aanzienlijk dalen, oogsten zouden mislukken en miljarden mensen zouden omkomen van de honger. 

Feit is dat de afgelopen maanden de activiteit van en rond de Yellowstone supervulkaan zijn toegenomen. Dat wil uiteraard niet zeggen dat deze morgen zal uitbarsten, maar het is wel degelijk iets om nauwlettend te blijven volgen.

{ http://niburu.co/ }

In a new book, published through my August Night imprint, MJ Banias presents a nuanced exploration of the UFO phenomenon and the community that seeks to understand it. MJ’s book, The UFO People, is distinct from the bulk of UFO literature in that he approaches his subject through the lenses of cultural studies and philosophy. But MJ is no armchair researcher. A former MUFON investigator in his native Canada, he has interviewed many witnesses to UFO phenomena and has not shied away from throwing tough questions at some of the most enigmatic and controversial figures in and around the field of UFOlogy. MJ has been interviewed on numerous podcasts and radio shows, and his work has been featured in Fortean Times and FATE magazines. He maintains a popular blog, Terra Obscura, which critically examines the culture, people, and ideas that shape how society responds to the inexplicable.

Here, MJ talks to me about UFOs, the people who see and believe in them, and the community of outsiders whose identities are bound up in a relentless search for a “truth” that seems tantalisingly and forever beyond our reach and understanding…

RG: Is it possible to separate the UFO phenomenon from UFO culture, or is the culture intrinsic to our understanding of the phenomenon?

MJB: It is impossible to separate social and cultural ideologies from “objective” phenomena. All knowledge, understanding, ideas, and objects are subject to the meaning imparted upon them by our collective cultural milieu. The UFO phenomenon is no different. Our systems of language, values, beliefs, political and economic structures all lend to what we understand the UFO phenomenon to be. Moreover, when we look at the UFO narrative, it is clear that the cultural and social zeitgeist of a given time seems to shape the UFO phenomenon itself. UFOs are a part of us, and we are a part of them.

RG: What excites you most about the UFO subculture, and what frustrates you about it?

MJB: That is a funny question, because the answer is the same for both. The UFO subculture is exciting because it is a perfect anarchy. It has no locus of control, no established hierarchy or structure of power. There is no ivory tower which governs what is and is not UFO discourse. Rather, the UFO subculture is totally democratized. Ideas and meanings, and, perhaps most importantly, power, floats around between different players and groups. It is completely counter-cultural. By its very nature, it challenges established mainstream systems (such as academia or capitalism, for example). There is a beauty in chaos. However, this chaos is also problematic. Since there is no set structure, since it is total anarchy, very little can ever be accomplished. Our current understanding of “progress” does not fit into the UFO discourse or community. Nothing has really been solved. If anything, the mystery is only greater now.

UFO/alien memorabilia for sale at a UFO conference in America.

RG: Do you see any similarities between the UFO subculture and other anomalistic communities, such as cryptozoology and the paranormal? To what extent do these communities overlap?

MJB: There is significant connection between these communities. John Keel presented this notion fairly early on in his books Operation: Trojan Horse and The Mothman Prophecies. When one takes a step back to look at the entire UFO narrative, there are many connections between cryptozoology, paranormal research and general Forteana and anomalistics. While there may be some within these communities who do not like to be lumped together, there is significant lore across all those narratives that threads them together.

Where I think UFOs are uniquely interesting is how they affect political and economic power systems. No one worries about Bigfoot invading the planet or ghosts presenting technology which will undo the foundations of modern Capital. UFOs create a sort of political disruption which leads to often ridiculous conspiracy theories. Moreover, there are significant links between modern conspiracies political movements and right wing Neo-Nazism, among other similar ideological groups. I touch on this in my book, but I think it warrants much more study.

RG: In your book, you interview some of the most interesting and controversial figures in the UFO scene, albeit they are several steps removed from the scene, observing from the sidelines as they pursue their own research and agendas. Who are these individuals, and what did your learn from them?

MJB: We often hear about this shadowy group dubbed “the invisible college” or “the insiders” or “the invisibles.” They have become as mythologized as UFOs themselves. This “college” is a loose collection of individuals, some of whom know each other, but most do not. They all pursue the “paranormal” in some way, but they do so in secret, primarily because their professional careers would be affected. I spoke to several such individuals for my book, but only three allowed me to publish their names. They are Dr. Christopher “Kit” Green, Dr. Hal Puthoff and Dr. Garry Nolan.

The work that they do pushes science to the outer fringes, but they do it because they, like the rest of us, want answers. My book provides a deep look into their projects and their thoughts on the UFO enigma, as well as the UFO community itself. The book explores the military and intelligence interests in their work, how human health has been affected by the phenomenon, and how their work may reshape our understanding of what it means to be human. While their work is impressive, and is gaining significant attention within UFO circles, they are just people. Most of them want to be left alone to their work, and live in the ghostly realm in between their professional careers and their personal interests.

“Members” of the so-called “Invisible College.” Clockwise: Dr Hal Puhoff, Dr Gary Nolan, and Dr Christopher “Kit” Green.

RG: Why should UFO researchers read your book? What does it contribute to the knowledge and debate?

MJB: Many UFO researchers will undoubtedly be offended by my book because it calls into question the very ideology which drives them. The book is not so much about UFOs as it is about people. It challenges what we believe UFOs to be and highlights one key truth: no one has any clue what is going on.

The book explores how we make meaning, and that UFOs seem to shape themselves to our interpretation of them. When it comes to UFO research and “knowledge,” the book uses contemporary philosophy to challenge our ufological assumptions. UFOs, in simple terms, are ghosts in our society. They are a symbiotic mix of reality and mythology—they exist and do not exist. Moreover, UFO researchers fall victim to this spectrality. In chasing ghosts, we become ghosts.

A vendor an American UFO conference.

RG: Your book features original essays by a number of respected researchers. Who are they and what have they contributed?

MJB: My book features three contributions from four writers. The first is a chapter by A. J. McCormick, who is an experiencer. She is featured prominently in the first part of my book. I’ve also included a groundbreaking essay by Allison Jornlin, which presents her current research into the historical roots of paranormal studies in the context of gender politics. Finally, a joint essay by Paul Dean and Barry Greenwood — two of the best UFO historians alive today — provides a concise and essential history of the UFO phenomenon, and specifically the Extraterrestrial Hypothesis (ETH).

RG: Do you consider yourself part of the UFO community, or are you a removed observer?

MJB: Perhaps this is really what the book is about. Is the UFO community real? Does it exist? Or, are we simply phantoms wandering in between our daily official reality and some counter-cultural netherworld?

I am a member of the community. I’m not sure how or where I fit though. I am not a ufologist. I am not a UFO researcher, per se. While I do study UFOs and the paranormal, I focus more on the people, and how they interact on a cultural and philosophical level with strange phenomena.

MJ Banias.

RG: What do you hope to achieve through your work?

MJB: I want the community to think critically. Moreover, to have the community reflect on the philosophical nature of the UFO phenomenon and discourse. I want to begin chipping away at the idea that UFOs and other associated phenomena are ghosts within the human machine, and vice versa, this paranormality is inherently a part of us.

RG: Have you drawn any conclusions about the underlying nature of the UFO phenomenon? Is there an ontological reality behind UFOs, or is it purely a sociocultural phenomenon?

MJB: The only sane answer here is “I don’t know.” Do I believe that people experience anomalies and bizarre events that are objective, that is, outside of their own minds? Yes. Something strange is going on. Beyond that, the data is far too chaotic to ascertain any knowable facts. UFO discourse is a spectrum of prosaic lights in the sky to episodes of incredible high strangeness.

As I mentioned earlier, UFOs and other paranormal phenomena are inherently tied to humanity. We give UFOs meaning, we provide for them a place and space to manifest and “be.” However, that is not the whole story. Those phenomena come from somewhere, from some unknown source. Something is made real so it can be seen or gives of a radar signature. Something must leave landing trace marks. Clearly, something tangible is popping in and out of our awareness.

We need to be cautious not to oversimplify the phenomenon. I am often asked what I believe when it comes to UFOs. This is difficult because my beliefs, or even “what I think I know,” is not factual or true. It is merely speculation. All claims regarding the UFO phenomenon are pure speculation. If anyone claims to KNOW what UFOs are, then they are most likely delusional or trying to sell you something. The best we can do is to keep searching for answers, and not trust anyone who says they have them.

• The UFO People is available now from all good online bookstores. For more of MJ’s work, visit his blog, Terra Obscura.

{https://mysteriousuniverse.org/}

Secret Space Program Whistleblowers Claim We Have Technology 1000 Years Ahead of Anything Seen

If you are interested in learning more about is really going on out in space then you need to watch this video. Special access programs can be massive in scope and can remain hidden behind a veil of secrecy for decades.In recent years, several credible whistleblowers have stepped forward to disclose the highly advanced technologies and the highly compartmentalized systems. Faster-than-light interstellar travel allowing humankind to reach the stars is no longer the stuff of science fiction. Interviews with insiders including Emery Smith, Clifford Stone, William Tompkins, Niara Isley and Corey Goode confirm that specific factions of humans here on Earth do have autonomous possession of interstellar travel technology, and the existence of a superluminal space naval fleet comprising various sizes and classes of vessels employing tachyon drive has been concealed from the public for many years.

• https://youtu.be/WqGz8ui9xeg

Michael T Vara

• https://www.latenightinthemidlands.com/

{ https://beforeitsnews.com/v3/ }

Secret Space Program Whistleblowers Claim We Have Technology 1000 Years Ahead of Anything Seen

If you are interested in learning more about is really going on out in space then you need to watch this video. Special access programs can be massive in scope and can remain hidden behind a veil of secrecy for decades.In recent years, several credible whistleblowers have stepped forward to disclose the highly advanced technologies and the highly compartmentalized systems. Faster-than-light interstellar travel allowing humankind to reach the stars is no longer the stuff of science fiction. Interviews with insiders including Emery Smith, Clifford Stone, William Tompkins, Niara Isley and Corey Goode confirm that specific factions of humans here on Earth do have autonomous possession of interstellar travel technology, and the existence of a superluminal space naval fleet comprising various sizes and classes of vessels employing tachyon drive has been concealed from the public for many years.

• https://youtu.be/WqGz8ui9xeg

Michael T Vara

• https://www.latenightinthemidlands.com/

{ https://beforeitsnews.com/v3/ }

A Legend That Turns Out To Be Real? Hibernating Alien Discovered Inside Secret Chamber In The Great Pyramid

{ https://beforeitsnews.com/v3/ }

UFO Exits Door In Moon, Gets Deleted From NASA Image Archive After Reporting it! April 2019, UFO Sighting News

 

Date of discovery: 2013

Location of discovery: Earths moon, Apollo 

Deleted source: 

1. https://www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/apollo/frame/?AS14-80-10468
2. https://www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/apollo/frame/?AS14-80-10511

Still exist non nasa source: 

1. http://keithlaney.net/ApolloOrbitalimages/AS14/AS14-80-10468.jpg
2. http://keithlaney.net/ApolloOrbitalimages/AS14/AS14-80-10511.jpg

I reported finding these two photos in the NASA Image Atlas back in 2013, but between then and now, they got deleted. It looks as if NASA is using the research I do at this site to help edit out the existence of aliens. 

 

These photos are much more important than you may think. The evidence that NASA deleted is not just a UFO, but is also 100% evidence that the moon is not real, but actually an alien space station. Thats right. The moons surface appears real, but as you see, the surface can open up huge doors that allow ships to exit and enter at any given time. How do you think the public would react if they knew the moon was not real, but an alien space station with its surface covered with debris to make it look like a moon? The public would panic, chaos would ensue and world governments would be in turmoil. All from two little photos, but they stopped all that from ever happening with a single stroke of a delete key. Thats why NASA exists. To control what the public knows. 

Scott C. Waring

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

Finally dragged out of the shadows.

Image via Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration.

By Kevin Pimbblet, University of Hull

Black holes are long-time superstars of science fiction. But their Hollywood fame is a little strange given that no-one has ever actually seen one – at least, until now. If you needed to see to believe, then thank the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), which has just produced the first ever direct image of a black hole. This amazing feat required global collaboration to turn the Earth into one giant telescope and image an object thousands of trillions of kilometers away.

As stunning and ground-breaking as it is, the EHT project is not just about taking on a challenge. It’s an unprecedented test of whether Einstein’s ideas about the very nature of space and time hold up in extreme circumstances, and looks closer than ever before at the role of black holes in the universe.

To cut a long story short: Einstein was right.

Capturing the uncapturable

A black hole is a region of space whose mass is so large and dense that not even light can escape its gravitational attraction. Against the black backdrop of the inky beyond, capturing one is a near impossible task. But thanks to Stephen Hawking’s groundbreaking work, we know that the colossal masses are not just black abysses. Not only are they able to emit huge jets of plasma, but their immense gravity pulls in streams of matter into its core.

View image on Twitter

 

Unearthed

✔@UE

Katie Bouman helped develop the algorithm that allowed the world to see what a black hole actually looks like.

Here she is just moments after that first image was processed.

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When matter approaches a black hole’s event horizon – the point at which not even light can escape – it forms an orbiting disk. Matter in this disk will convert some of its energy to friction as it rubs against other particles of matter. This warms up the disk, just as we warm our hands on a cold day by rubbing them together. The closer the matter, the greater the friction. Matter closer to the event horizon glows brilliantly bright with the heat of hundreds of suns. It is this light that the EHT detected, along with the “silhouette” of the black hole.

Producing the image and analyzing such data is an amazingly hard task. As an astronomer who studies black holes in faraway galaxies, I cannot usually even image a single star in those galaxies clearly, let alone see the black hole at their centers.

The EHT team decided to target two of the closest supermassive black holes to us – both in the large elliptical shaped galaxy, M87, and in Sagittarius A*, at the center of our Milky Way.

To give a sense of how hard this task is, while the Milky Way’s black hole has a mass of 4.1 million suns and a diameter of 60 million kilometers [37 million miles], it is 250,614,750,218,665,392 kilometers [155,724,785,574,924,740 mi] away from Earth – that’s the equivalent of traveling from London to New York 45 trillion times. As noted by the EHT team, it is like being in New York and trying to count the dimples on a golf ball in Los Angeles, or imaging an orange on the moon.

To photograph something so impossibly far away, the team needed a telescope as big as the Earth itself. In the absence of such a gargantuan machine, the EHT team connected together telescopes from around the planet, and combined their data. To capture an accurate image at such a distance, the telescopes needed to be stable, and their readings completely synchronized.

How the researchers captured the first image of a black hole.

To accomplish this challenging feat, the team used atomic clocks so accurate that they lose just one second per hundred million years. The 5,000 terabytes of data collected was so large that it had to be stored on hundreds of hard drives and physically delivered to a supercomputer, which corrected the time differences in the data and produced the image above.

General Relativity vindicated

With a sense of excitement, I watched the live stream showing the image of the black hole from the center of M87 for the first time.

The most important initial take-home is that Einstein was right. Again. His general theory of relativity has passed two serious tests from the universe’s most extreme conditions in the last few years. Here, Einstein’s theory predicted the observations from M87 with unerring accuracy, and is seemingly the correct description of the nature of space, time, and gravity.

The measurements of the speeds of matter around the center of the black hole are consistent with being near the speed of light. From the image, the EHT scientists determined that the M87 black hole is 6.5 billion times the mass of the sun and 40 billion km [25 billion mi] across – that’s larger than Neptune’s 200-year orbit of the sun.

The Milky Way’s black hole was too challenging to image accurately this time around due to rapid variability in light output. Hopefully, more telescopes will be added to the EHT’s array soon, to get ever clearer images of these fascinating objects. I have no doubt that in the near future we will be able to gaze upon the dark heart of our very own galaxy.

Kevin Pimbblet, Senior Lecturer in Physics, University of Hull

Bottom line: A physicist explains how the black hole image helps support Einstein’s theory of relativity.

• This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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The 17,500°F plasma rain that falls on the surface of the sun as part of heating and cooling cycle is caught on camera for the first time

• Expert studied years' worth of pictures of the sun taken by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory spacecraft
• Coronal rain is made of once-superheated, electrically-charged gases cooling and falling back onto the star 
• The phenomenon was found in a small, previously overlooked type of magnetic loop on the sun's surface
• Discovery reveals that heated region of sun's outer atmosphere is narrower than had been previously thought 
• Findings suggest a new way for plasma to escape the sun's magnetic field lines and form part of the solar wind

By IAN RANDALL FOR MAILONLINE

They say not to stare at the sun - but for a whole five months, physicist Emily Mason spent every day doing nothing but that, by examining images taken of our star's surface.

Ms Mason and her colleagues have found parts of the sun where superheated gases cool to fall back down onto the star's surface as a form of rain.

The findings create a link between two of the sun's biggest mysteries - the nature of the heating which causes the sun's outer atmosphere to be around 300 times hotter than its underlying surface, and the source of the slower and denser parts of the solar wind.

Researchers studied previously-overlooked small magnetic structures (pictured, here, in two wavelengths of extreme ultraviolet light) that loop out from the sun's surface. The discovery of rain in the smaller magnetic loops has helped to narrow down the region in which coronal heating must be taking place

The sun is an enormous ball of plasma - super hot, electrically-charged gases - from which arc magnetic field lines that form giant fiery loops into space.

The notion of rain on the sun may seem absurd - but the familiar weather phenomenon is a great analogue for some of the processes that take place on the surface of our neighbourhood star.

On the Earth, rain is a key part of the water cycle. Liquid water on the Earth's surface - whether found pooled in rivers, lake or oceans - evaporates when heated by energy from the Sun. After rising into the atmosphere, water cools, condensing into clouds.  

When the water droplets in clouds become too heavy to remain suspended in the air, they fall back to the Earth as rain. And thus, the cycle repeats. 

On the sun, coronal rain works in a similar fashion, explains Ms Mason. 'But instead of 60-degree water you’re dealing with a million-degree plasma,' she said.

However, rather than pooling on the ground, the plasma runs along magnetic loops that extend out in arcs from the sun's surface.

At the end of each loop, where the lines emerge from the star's surface, plasma is super-heated up from a few thousand to more one million degrees Celsius (1.8m°F)

The heated plasma expands up its loop until it gathers at the apex - furthest from the source of the heat - where is can cool, condense and fall back down the loop as coronal rain. 

Coronal rain had been previously observed in the wake of solar eruptions, where the heating associated with a solar flare cuts off abruptly, leaving erupted plasma to cool and fall back onto the sun’s surface. 

Based on computer simulations and past observations of the solar wind, Ms Mason had been expecting to also find coronal rain in so-called 'helmet streamers' - magnetic loops millions of miles tall that stick out from the sun during solar eclipses.

Helmet streamers are so named because of their semblance to a knight's point helmet. 

Scientists have known since the mid-nineties that helmet streamers are one source of the slow solar wind - the relatively sedate and dense stream of gas that escapes the sun independently of its faster-moving counterpart.

Measurements of the gas in the slow solar wind had show that it had once been heated to an extreme degree before it cooled and escaped out from the sun.

As coronal rain would undergo similar heating and cooling, it had seemed likely that such rain would play a part in the activity along helmet streamers and the resulting formation of the slow wind.

At the same time, as simulations predict that coronal rain can only form when heat is applied to the very bottom of the host magnetic loop - the lower 10 per cent, or less - identifying the size of a loop containing rain would provide a form of measuring rod to determine the limited region above the sun's surface in which the corona gets heated.

The search for coronal rain in helmet streamers, therefore, was on.

Ms Mason studied images taken by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory - a spacecraft which has been photographing the sun every twelve seconds since it was launched back in 2010.

However, she spent almost half a year searching for coronal rain in helmet streamers without avail.

'I probably looked through three or five years' worth of data,' Ms Mason said. 'It was a lot of looking for something that never ultimately happened.'

Coronal rain (pictured in this image taken by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory in 2012) had previously been observed in the wake of solar eruptions, when the heating associated with a solar flare cuts off abruptly, causing the plasma to cool and fall back on the sun’s surface. In the new study, Ms Mason and colleagues were not looking at coronal rain from such eruptions, but instead those caused by the cyclical process of heating and cooling of plasma along magnetic field lines

Instead, Ms Mason kept finding coronal rain in other magnetic structures - tiny loops only 30,000 miles (48,000 km) high, a mere per cent of the size of the helmet streamers she had been intending to concentrate on.

'They were really bright and they kept drawing my eye,' said Ms Mason. “When I finally took a look at them, sure enough they had tens of hours of rain at a time.'

However, being focused on her objective of locating rain in helmet streamers, she initially dismissed these findings - until colleagues realised that her observations were quite novel. 

'She came to group meeting and said, "I never found it — I see it all the time in these other structures, but they’re not helmet streamers," ' said solar scientist and paper co-author Nicholeen Viall.

'And I said, "Wait…hold on. Where do you see it? I don’t think anybody’s ever seen that before!" ' 

The discovery of rain in the smaller magnetic loops has helped to narrow down the region in which coronal heating must be taking place.

'We still don’t know exactly what’s heating the corona, but we know it has to happen in this layer,' said Ms Mason.

Some of the findings forced the researchers to reconsider previous theories, too.

It had been thought that coronal rain can only form on closed magnetic loops - where the superheated plasma can gather at the far end of a loop and cool without any means of escape.

However, as Ms Mason studied the data on the small loops, she also found cases where rain appeared to be forming on open magnetic field lines.

Such open lines are only anchored to the sun at one end - with the other extremity reaching out into space, feeding the solar wind. 

Plasma, the researchers now suggest, always begins it journey on a closed magnetic loop - but can switch to an open loop through a process known as magnetic reconnection. 

Reconnection occurs frequently on the Sun, happening when closed loops bump into open field lines, changing the ways the field is lain out.

Like train switching tracks, superheated plasma can thus find itself on on open loop - meaning that on cooling some of it will inevitably fall back on to the sun as coronal rain, but the rest is free to escape.

This, the scientists suggest, is how part of the slow solar wind is released.

Mason hunted for coronal rain in helmet streamers like the one pictured on the left of the sun, as seen during a 1994 eclipse photographed from South America. Helmet streamers extend far into the sun’s faint corona. A smaller, 'pseudostreamer' can be seen on the right hand side of the image

Ms Mason is working on creating a computer simulation to support this new explanation.

Further evidence may come from the Parker Solar Probe, launched in 2018, which will be able to fly though burst of the slow solar wind and trace its origin point on the sun - such as, perhaps, one of Ms Mason's coronal rain events.

'Potentially we can make that connection with Parker Solar Probe and say - that was it,' said Dr Viall.

Despite these fortuitous findings, the search for coronal rain in helmet streamers carries forth - with simulations still predicting that the two phenomena should be found together.

“Maybe it’s so small you can’t see it?” muses paper author and solar physicist Spiro Antiochos, of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. He admits: “We really don’t know.” 

The full findings of the study were published in the journal Astrophysical Journal Letters.   

HOW IS THE SOLAR WIND FORMED?

The sun and its atmosphere are made of plasma – a mix of positively and negatively charged particles which have separated at extremely high temperatures, that both carries and travels along magnetic field lines.

Material from the corona streams out into space, filling the solar system with the solar wind. 

But scientists found that as the plasma travels further away from the sun, things change. 

Views of the solar wind from NASA's STEREO spacecraft (left) and after computer processing (right). Scientists used an algorithm to dim the appearance of bright stars and dust in images of the faint solar wind

The sun begins to lose magnetic control, forming the boundary that defines the outer corona – the very edge of the sun. 

The breakup of the rays is similar to the way water shoots out from a squirt gun.

First, the water is a smooth and unified stream, but it eventually breaks up into droplets, then smaller drops and eventually a fine, misty spray. 

A recent Nasa study captured the plasma at the same stage where a stream of water gradually disintegrates into droplets.

If charged particles from solar winds hit Earth's magnectic field, this can cause problems for satellite and communication equipment.

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Scientists Are Legit Building a Steam-Powered Spaceship, And It Sounds Awesome

Mike Wehner @MikeWehner

Mankind has been gazing into space for some time now, but scientists still haven’t found any evidence that intelligent life exists in our neck of the cosmic woods. The universe is, of course, huge, so we normally just assume that our inability to detect alien civilizations is due to the fact that they’re just too far away. A new report by researchers at the University of Cadiz in Spain suggests that maybe that’s not actually the case, pointing to a very different possibility: we’re simply blind to their existence.

Human scientist have an unfortunate tendency to look for alien civilizations that are, well, human-like. This preconceived notion that life as we know exists elsewhere could be hampering our ability to detect alien life hiding in plain sight, the study explains.

The work, which was published in the journal Acta Astronautica, discusses the possibility of alien life existing in a way that humans quite literally cannot fathom. It’s both scary and fascinating to imagine, but it does make a good bit of sense when you suspend your disbelief for a moment.

“What we are trying to do with this differentiation is to contemplate other possibilities,” Gabriel de la Torre, a neuropsychologist who co-led the study, explains. “For example, beings of dimensions that our minds cannot grasp; or intelligences based on dark matter or energy, which make up almost 95 percent of the universe and which we are only beginning to glimpse. There is even the possibility that other universes exist, as the texts of Stephen Hawking and other scientists indicate.”

To prove that humans are often misguided by their own expectations, the researchers conducted an experiment where they asked 137 people to determine whether structures and features in a number of aerial photographs were either manmade or natural. In one of the photographs, the researchers hid a tiny image of a gorilla to see whether or not the subjects would spot it. The participants did as they were told, but many of them completely missed the gorilla simply because they weren’t specifically looking for it.

The team calls this unintentional bias is called inattentional blindness, and they suggest that a similar phenomenon may be happening with astronomers and the scientific community on a larger scale. Put simply, if we don’t know what we should be looking for, we likely won’t find anything at all, which is exactly what has happened up to this point in the search for alien life.

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The likeliest reasons why we haven’t contacted aliens are deeply unsettling

Kelly Dickerson, 

Tech Insider

Flickr/Dave Dugdale

Even on the clearest, darkest night far from city lights, you can see only about 1% of the Milky Way galaxy's 100 billion to 400 billion stars.

Here's the real trip though: For every star in the Milky Way, there's a unique galaxy drifting through the universe, each with it's own billions of stars, and approximately one planet orbiting each of those stars. That's billions and billions and billions of worlds.

And yet decades' worth of missions by Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), an organization which listens for signs of life in space, have come up completely empty handed. Every. Single. One.

Physicist Enrico Fermi is famous for posing the natural question that follows: Where is everybody?The scale of the universe and basic math tell us alien life must be common, yet there's no evidence for it.

Welcome to the Fermi paradox.

Philosophers, physicists, and astronomers have tried to answer the Fermi paradox since its unofficial inception in 1950. Even Edward Snowden, a digital surveillance expert and former NSA contractor,recently shared his best explanation on StarTalk, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson's podcast.

These and other answers proposed by experts are deeply unsettling — especially if you spend too much time researching them, like I did.

Keep scrolling down to get a little background on why it's so inconceivable we are utterly alone in the universe, and why it's so spooky we have yet to hear from anyone.

Aliens 101: The Kardashev Scale & Fermi Paradox

Universal Pictures

Think about how far humanity has progressed in its short 200,000 years of existence. Now consider that our galaxy is roughly 10 billionyears old.

If we can go from cave-dwelling hominids to an internet-using and robot-building society in 200,000 years, what could an alien race achieve in 10 billion years?

That's more than enough time for a civilization to develop sophisticated rockets — possibly faster-than-light travel, wormhole technology, or some other kind of cosmic shortcut that would allow them to rapidly colonize the galaxy and beyond.

The Kardashev Scale, created by astrophysicist Nikolai Kardashev, is helpful when considering such technological advancement by a developing civilization. It has three types:

1. A Type-I civilization has figured out how to harness all the energy on its planet. Humans are getting close to achieving this, but that's just the first tier.
2. Type-II civilizations are so intelligent they've figured out how to harness all the energy of their own star — an incomprehensibly larger amount of energy than what's available on one puny planet.
3. That's nothing compared to the Type-III civilizations, though. Those have harnessed all the energy available in their galaxy.

Any type of civilization on the Kardashev Scale would be more than capable of colonizing the universe. But we haven't detected any of these civilizations — and that's the heart of the Fermi Paradox.

You can group the best explanations for the paradox into two distinct categories: one in which aliens don't exist, and we're completely alone in the universe, and one in which aliens do exist, but for some reason we haven't made contact.

Let's start with leading ideas in the former category.

Aliens don't exist #1: The Rare Earth Hypothesis

NASA

Life on Earth might simply be a freak accident of nature, and it may not exist anywhere else in the entire universe.

This idea is called the rare Earth hypothesis. It suggests a perfect storm of things like Earth's protective magnetosphere, temperature, size, axis tilt, etc., all came together to create a very precise cradle for life to arise. These are the only conditions that life can exist in, and they don't exist anywhere else.

While it's certainly possible, the odds aren't in this idea's favor — the universe is far too vast.

For example, the European Space Agency estimates there's about 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (or 10 ²⁴) stars in the observable universe.

There's no scientific consensus as to how many of those stars might be like our own Sun, and how many may have Earth-like planets orbiting around them. But if you take even the most conservative estimate out there, then about 5% of those 10 ²⁴ stars are like the Sun. That means there are 500 billion billion other Sun-like stars.

Next, if you take the lowest estimate of how many of those Sun-like stars have an Earth-like planet orbiting it (22%), that means about 100 billion billion other Earth-like planets are out there.

Put another way, roughly 100 Earth-like planets exist for every grain of sand on Earth. Surely one of those would have life on it?

Aliens don't exist #2: The Great Filter

Paramount screencap

If Earth isn't the only planet capable of supporting life, and there are definitely no aliens out there, then something grim is going on.

That something is called the great filter, and it's kind of terrifying.

The idea is that before a civilization can make it very far along the Kardashev scale of intelligence, it hits a wall — a filter — and it dies. That's why we haven't heard from anyone: Life regularly evolves to where we're at here on Earth, then some powerful, inevitable force snuffs it out. (Nuclear weapons? Overpopulation? Asteroids? Disease?)

The problem is that there's no way to know where on the timeline of life that the great filter sits. Did we already make it past the filter, or are we are on our way to inevitable doom?

There are three possible scenarios to explain why we're still here.

a) We made it past the great filter.

20th Century Fox

This is the most optimistic interpretation. Maybe we're so clever and rare that we somehow found our way past the Great Filter while all other lifeforms have failed.

There's no way to tell what critical moment in our history may have gotten us past the filter though. It may have happened at very beginning of life. Maybe the great filter is the likelihood that life arises at all in the first place.

Or it could be the jump from simple cells to complex ones. Or the jump from semi-intelligent animals (apes) to intelligent hominids.

b) The great filter is still ahead of us, but we're the first form of life that has a shot of making it past.

AP

If you don't buy into the idea that we're so rare and special that we're the only ones to make it past the great filter, there's another pretty optimistic view point to which you can subscribe.

Maybe it's pretty easy to make it past the great filter, but the conditions in the universe have only just become ripe to support intelligent life that makes it to the other side.

That would make us the first form of life that has a chance to survive beyond the great filter. We're simply in the right place at the right time to have a shot.

c) The great filter is still ahead of us and we're all screwed.

NASA/Don Davis

Being in the right place at the right time would take a lot of luck. So if you don't think we're past the great filter, and you don't think we're the first life forms with a shot at making it past the great filter, there's only one remaining conclusion: Humans are toast.

A cataclysmic natural disaster, such as a huge asteroid impact or gamma ray burst, could obliterate the planet. Or we could invent some kind of super-advanced tech that will destroy us all.

That's why some scientists and philosophers are praying that we don't discover even simple microbial life somewhere like Mars or Europa. If we find life elsewhere, that will mean that it's much more likely that the great filter is still ahead of us and we're headed for disaster.

"So this is why I conclude that the silence in the night sky is golden, and why, in the search for extraterrestrial life, no news is good news," Oxford philosophy professor Nick Bostrom writes on his website. "It promises a potentially great future for humanity."

...Or maybe we just haven't heard from anyone yet.

Warner Bros.

Let's now move past that depressing "great filter" idea of inevitable doom.

Instead, we can consider the possibility that extraterrestrial life is abundant — but for a number of reasons, we haven't been able to get in touch with any of it.

Aliens do exist #1: They just visited Earth before intelligent life existed here

Or perhaps aliens seeded life on Earth?Twentieth Century Fox

Humans have only existed for about 200,000 years out of the Earth's 4.5-billion-year existence. That's just a tiny sliver of our planet's timeline.

Aliens might have visited the Earth when is was still a molten ball of lava or a stew of primordial soup.

Or, for all we know, the dinosaurs might have seen some crazy aliens that left long before humans arrived on the scene.

Aliens do exist #2: The galaxy is colonized but we live out in the boonies

Whatever happened to "Firefly"? "Firefly"

When Europeans landed in the Americas, it took a long time before they reached some distant Native Americans living far out on the West Coast.

It might be possible that alien civilizations just haven't traveled far enough to stumble upon us yet. Sort of like the remote ice planet Hoth in "Star Wars," or the wild west of space travel, as is portrayed in the TV show "Firefly."

Aliens do exist #3: Other civilizations live in a utopia and can't be bothered by us

http://www.koryogroup.com/

Intelligent alien life may have discovered a way to upload their minds into a completelyself-sustaining virtual reality world where they don't need access to outside resources or energy.

They're perfectly content in the world they created, and not only completely unconcerned about getting in touch with us but reticent to do so.

Aliens do exist #4: Super-intelligent civilizations prey on lesser civilizations like ours

Runwayjam

It's possible we haven't heard from anyone else because they know better to broadcast any signals, or at least encrypt them (as Snowden suggests) — lest one of these killer civilizations pick it up. That's why some experts are vehemently opposed to a Messaging to Extraterrestrial Intelligence (METI) mission: the controversial next step to SETI, where instead of just passively listening, we actively send messages out into the cosmos.

You can take this creepy idea even farther. Maybe the first civilization that managed to achieve super intelligence is the ruler of the universe and it's out there destroying anyone else that gets close to its level.

So unfortunately, once again, we might be on a dangerous path — this time by blasting any and all communications into space.

Aliens do exist #5: Aliens are broadcasting all kinds of signals, but we're so laughably primitive we can't pick them up

MGM

Aliens might be actively broadcasting signals and trying to communicate with us, we just might not have the means to detect any of it.

Maybe we can't access the right frequencies. Maybe we don't have the right technologies yet. Maybe other life forms only communicate via telepathy.

Or perhaps super-advanced aliens might exist, and they don't want to blow our minds by visiting us with their incomprehensible technology and intelligence. They're simply waiting until we catch up, treating us as an exhibit at a zoo — look but don't touch...

Aliens do exist #6: They're everywhere, but we can't wrap our puny Type-I minds around what they are

Spinning black hole in "Interstellar"Interstellar Movie

If you've seen Interstellar, think about the aliens that exist in a fifth dimension and built a wormhole.

Like a person trying to communicate with a bug, wemay not be able to comprehend what aliens are at all. In this scenario we're completely irrelevant to them.

...Or we're completely wrong about all of this, and reality is nothing like what we perceive

Flickr/Sudhee

We could be living in the Matrix, and we were put here by another super-intelligent race as an experiment. Or maybe we're all just one big computer simulation.

The bottom line is we don't know. The most intelligent people in the world have wildly different opinions about the answer to the Fermi paradox.

Humanity could be completely alone — the king of the cosmos, as our Earth-bubble has already led us to believe. Or other Type II and Type III lifeforms exist and we're a tiny, insignificant piece of a vast universe full of life. It's humbling, but also oddly comforting to consider that there could be far more to existence than we think there is.

Whatever the answer is, there's a lot to think about the next time you look up at the night sky.

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