Ontdek de Fascinerende Wereld van UFO's en UAP's: Jouw Bron voor Onthullende Informatie!
Ben jij ook gefascineerd door het onbekende? Wil je meer weten over UFO's en UAP's, niet alleen in België, maar over de hele wereld? Dan ben je op de juiste plek!
België: Het Kloppend Hart van UFO-onderzoek
In België is BUFON (Belgisch UFO-Netwerk) dé autoriteit op het gebied van UFO-onderzoek. Voor betrouwbare en objectieve informatie over deze intrigerende fenomenen, bezoek je zeker onze Facebook-pagina en deze blog. Maar dat is nog niet alles! Ontdek ook het Belgisch UFO-meldpunt en Caelestia, twee organisaties die diepgaand onderzoek verrichten, al zijn ze soms kritisch of sceptisch.
Nederland: Een Schat aan Informatie
Voor onze Nederlandse buren is er de schitterende website www.ufowijzer.nl, beheerd door Paul Harmans. Deze site biedt een schat aan informatie en artikelen die je niet wilt missen!
Internationaal: MUFON - De Wereldwijde Autoriteit
Neem ook een kijkje bij MUFON (Mutual UFO Network Inc.), een gerenommeerde Amerikaanse UFO-vereniging met afdelingen in de VS en wereldwijd. MUFON is toegewijd aan de wetenschappelijke en analytische studie van het UFO-fenomeen, en hun maandelijkse tijdschrift, The MUFON UFO-Journal, is een must-read voor elke UFO-enthousiasteling. Bezoek hun website op www.mufon.com voor meer informatie.
Samenwerking en Toekomstvisie
Sinds 1 februari 2020 is Pieter niet alleen ex-president van BUFON, maar ook de voormalige nationale directeur van MUFON in Vlaanderen en Nederland. Dit creëert een sterke samenwerking met de Franse MUFON Reseau MUFON/EUROP, wat ons in staat stelt om nog meer waardevolle inzichten te delen.
Let op: Nepprofielen en Nieuwe Groeperingen
Pas op voor een nieuwe groepering die zich ook BUFON noemt, maar geen enkele connectie heeft met onze gevestigde organisatie. Hoewel zij de naam geregistreerd hebben, kunnen ze het rijke verleden en de expertise van onze groep niet evenaren. We wensen hen veel succes, maar we blijven de autoriteit in UFO-onderzoek!
Blijf Op De Hoogte!
Wil jij de laatste nieuwtjes over UFO's, ruimtevaart, archeologie, en meer? Volg ons dan en duik samen met ons in de fascinerende wereld van het onbekende! Sluit je aan bij de gemeenschap van nieuwsgierige geesten die net als jij verlangen naar antwoorden en avonturen in de sterren!
Heb je vragen of wil je meer weten? Aarzel dan niet om contact met ons op te nemen! Samen ontrafelen we het mysterie van de lucht en daarbuiten.
Zondag 25 augustus 2019
“Rolling Stones Rock” on Mars
“Rolling Stones Rock” on Mars
The team behind NASA's InSight lander has informally named a rock on Mars “Rolling Stones Rock” after the band.
A little larger than a golf ball, the rock appeared to have rolled about 3 feet (1 meter) on Nov. 26, 2018, propelled by InSight's retrorockets as the spacecraft touched down to study the Red Planet's deep interior.
In images taken by InSight the next day, several divots in the orange-red soil can be seen trailing "Rolling Stones Rock." It's the farthest NASA has seen a rock roll while landing a spacecraft on another planet.
NASA will use its robotic missions to Mars to help prepare for eventual human exploration of the Red Planet. Charged with returning astronauts to the Moon, NASA's Artemis program is the next step in human exploration. It is a part of NASA's broader Moon to Mars exploration approach, which will quickly and sustainably explore the Moon and enable humanity's next giant leap to Mars.
Linda Moulton Howe: Invisible Flying Object That Sounds Like a Jet Interrupts Beam of High Power Laser Pointer
Lately, many strange and unknown flying objects have been observed in the sky. Now, according to the latest reports and published by Linda Moulton Howe, people heard strange jet-like sounds but their were no planes, even according to two witnesses, the invisible craft interrupted the beam of high power laser pointers.
Image: Transparent ‘invisible’ craft photographed in the sky above Kaufman, Texas on July 19, 2016.
On August 14, 2019, a scientist in San Diego, California, who has heard loud jet noises in clear sky and two times flashed a powerful laser in direction of unexplained jet noise and saw the beam interrupted by something invisible.
Earlier this month, a Boeing employee witnessed the same phenomenon.
Boeing employee: “I took my high power laser pointer and shot it up in the direction of the unexplained loud jet sound. … On two separate occasions, I have seen the beam interrupted momentarily — It seems to me there is a real physical object moving through the air that is simply not visible.”
In both cases the laser beam was interrupted – Does that mean that there is a real physical object moving through the air that is simply not visible?
In the next video Linda Moulton Howe talks on the invisible flying object reported by the Boeing employee. (Report starts at the 9.50 mark in the video.)
Pristine wall art and delicate pots have been found inside a stunning thousand-year-old imperial tomb unearthed by Chinese builders of a school sports field.
The underground chamber - believed to be one of several rooms - was located underneath Xiaojingyu Elementary School in the city of Taiyuan.
The school field was undergoing renovations, with workers sinking new foundations when they unintentionally punched through the ceiling of the burial chambers.
They are believed to date back to the Tang Dynasty, one of the greatest empires in the medieval world that ruled from 618 to 907 AD.
Pristine wall art and delicate pots have been found inside a stunning thousand-year-old imperial tomb unearthed by Chinese builders of a school sports field
Officials said the perfectly preserved murals and pottery appeared to be from the middle of the Tang Dynasty.
A cultural relics expert told local media the work bears the style of a roughly half-century period known as 'Sheng Tang', when the dynasty flourished between 713 and 766 AD.
A tombstone inside the burial chamber suggested the individual laid to rest underground was 'not a commoner'.
Their exact identity remains shrouded in mystery, however.
The underground chamber - believed to be one of several rooms - was located underneath Xiaojingyu Elementary School in the city of Taiyuan
They are believed to date back to the first century Tang dynasty, one of the greatest empires in the medieval world
A tombstone inside the burial chamber suggested the individual laid to rest underground was 'not a commoner', but their identity remains shrouded in mystery
The Tang era is seen by many historians as an era of progress as well as the greatest period for Chinese poetry.
Chinese civilisation flourishing during the first half of the dynasty before the empire eventually collapsed under social unrest.
Construction work at Xiaojingyu Elementary School, which is in Taiyuan's Wanbailin District, has been halted since the discovery.
An official said further excavations into the tomb would not be easy due to the primary school's teaching buildings nearby.
The work will require extensive negotiations with the school, which could be asked to relocate and have its building demolished.
The school field was undergoing renovations, with workers sinking new foundations when they unintentionally punched through the ceiling of the burial chambers
The eighth century heralded the second important epoch in Tang history, which is ranked as the classical period of Chinese art and literature, as it set the high standard to which later poets, painters, and sculptors aspired
WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT THE TANG DYNASTY?
After 300 years of division and fragmentation following the collapse of the Han dynasty in 220 AD, China was once again unified under the Sui dynasty (581–618).
The political and governmental institutions established during this brief period lay the foundation for the growth and prosperity of the succeeding Tang dynasty.
Marked by strong and benevolent rule, successful diplomatic relationships, economic expansion, and a cultural efflorescence of cosmopolitan style, Tang China emerged as one of the greatest empires in the medieval world.
Merchants, clerics, and envoys from India, Persia, Arabia, Syria, Korea, and Japan thronged the streets of Chang’an, the capital, and foreign tongues were a common part of daily life.
In the beginning decades of the Tang, especially under the leadership of Emperor Taizong (r. 626–49), China subdued its nomadic neighbors from the north and northwest, securing peace and safety on overland trade routes reaching as far as Syria and Rome.
The seventh century was a time of momentous social change; the official examination system enabled educated men without family connections to serve as government officials.
This new social elite gradually replaced the old aristocracy, and the recruitment of gentlemen from the south contributed to the cultural amalgamation that had already begun in the sixth century.
The eighth century heralded the second important epoch in Tang history, achieved largely during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong (r. 712–56), called minghuang—the Brilliant Monarch.
It is rightfully ranked as the classical period of Chinese art and literature, as it set the high standard to which later poets, painters, and sculptors aspired.
Construction workers at an elementary school in school in China thought they were renovating the school’s sports field. Instead they ended up up unearthing a mysterious 1,000-year-old tomb filled with pottery and art from the Tang dynasty of imperial China.
The tomb was discovered underneath Xiaojingyu Elementary School in the city of Taiyuan. Workers were setting new foundations for structures in the sports field when they accidentally punched through the ceiling of the 1,000 year old tomb. Which probably came as a decent surprise. The tomb is believed to be one of several rooms in a larger underground complex.
Inscriptions on in the mysterious tomb indicate that it belonged to someone of influence, but the exact identity of the eternal resident is still unknown. Archaeologists who have examined the ornate underground tomb say that it most likely dates back to the rule of the Tang dynasty, a golden age and high point of imperial China, which lasted from 618 to 907 AD.
According to the Daily Mail, a “cultural expert” told local media that the artwork bears the very specific style of a roughly 50-year period known as Sheng Tang, when the Tang dynasty flourished between 713 and 766 AD.
Mural from the Tang dynasty similar to those found in the newly discovered tomb.
The Tang dynasty period was one of immense progress until it collapse.d after social unrest during. At its height, Tang China was a period of social progress and imperial expansion. During the Tang dynasty, China stretched its economic influence across the world, trading with other empires even as far as Rome and Syria and merchants, envoys, and travelers from other nations were a common sight in the capital. It was also a period of progress in education and art. The Tang period of imperial China was the first to enable educated men without family connections to serve as government officials. The Tang dynasty is also seen by historians as the high water mark for classical Chinese literature and art. The tomb found in Taiyuan was probably built during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong, who was called minghuang or “brilliant monarch.”
Engraved brick from the Tang dynasty.
Since the discovery of the tomb, construction work at Xiaojingyu Elementary School has been halted. Officials say that further excavations will be difficult due to the proximity of the school’s teaching buildings. According to the officials, negotiations with the school may result in the school having to be relocated and its buildings torn down. Fairly ironic for what started as a renovation project.
But, even if the school is shut down for a little while, it might end up having a net positive impact on the children’s education. I know if, when I was a kid, a thousand-year-old tomb from Imperial China destroyed my school, I’d want to know everything there was to know about imperial China. That’s how you get kids interested in history.
According to new evidence obtained from excavations, archaeologists say that the ancient city of Troy in northwestern Turkey may have been more than six centuries older than previously thought. Rüstem Aslan, who is from the Archaeology Department of Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University (ÇOMU), said that because of fires, earthquakes, and wars, the ancient city of Troy had been destroyed and re-established numerous times throughout the years.
In the last 150 years or so, ten layers of settlements had been uncovered and they were named “Troy I” to “Troy XI”. This year, however, they discovered an eleventh layer of settlement that they named “Troy o”. “We found traces of burns, pottery and wooden beams in the Troy o layer,” Aslan told the Daily Sabah.
Ancient city of Troy
The items recovered were of great significance as they prove that the city’s history dates back to approximately 5,500 years ago in around 3500 BC. Prior to this year’s significant discovery of an eleventh layer, the previous layers of the settlements were from the ancient Greek to Byzantine time periods between 3000 BC and 1300 AD.
The ancient city of Troy can be found on the mounds of Hisarlik, looking over to the Turkish Aegean coastal plain. It is known as one of the most famous and most visited archaeological sites in the entire world. Excavations of the ancient city began in 1870 by a German businessman named Heinrich Schliemann, who is very well known in the field of archaeology.
Troy was famously known in the Greek Trojan War when Spartan and Achaean warriors from Greece laid siege on the city in the 13th century BC. It was written about in the famous poem called The Iliad by the Greek poet Homer.
Trojan horse of Troy
As for more recent times, in order to celebrate the 20thanniversary o+f being declared a UNESCO World Heritage site, the Turkish government declared the year 2018 the “Year of Troy”. Hundreds of thousands of visitors have toured the famous archaeological site, which also includes a Troy Museum that opened in 2018 and houses around 2000 artifacts representing the ancient city. You can see more pictures here of the archaeological site of Troy.
APAnne McClain verbleef zes maanden in het Internationaal ruimtestation (ISS). Daar zou ze het bankaccount van haar ex gehackt hebben.
Het Amerikaanse ruimtevaartagentschap NASA heeft officieel een onderzoek opgestart naar een mogelijk misdrijf dat in de ruimte zou gepleegd zijn. Het gaat wellicht om het eerste ruimtemisdrijf ooit, zo meldt de krant New York Times.
De astronaute Anne McClain zou zich op onrechtmatige wijze toegang hebben verschaft tot de bankrekening van haar ex-vrouw. Ze zou dat gedaan hebben tijdens haar zes maanden durende missie in het internationaal ruimtestation ISS. Toen Summer Worden, de ex van McClain, dat ontdekte, diende ze een klacht in bij de Federal Trade Commission. Ook bij de algemene inspectie van NASA werd intussen een klacht neergelegd.
Volgens New York Times is er wellicht geen geld van de rekening gehaald. De astronaute wordt wel beschuldigd van identiteitsfraude. Ook wordt aangehaald dat McClain mogelijk op zoek was naar bewarend materiaal om Worden de voogdij over hun zoon te ontzeggen. McClain, die in juni naar de aarde terugkeerde, zegt via haar advocaat dat ze niets verkeerd heeft gedaan. Ze zegt dat ze in het ISS enkel de gemeenschappelijke rekening van het koppel bekeek, omdat ze wilde nagaan of alles in orde was met de - nog steeds verstrengelde - financiën van het ex-koppel. Zo wilde ze zeker weten of er nog wel genoeg geld aanwezig was voor de opvoeding van hun kind. McClain zegt dat dit tijdens de relatie ook al gebeurde en dat ze gewoon gebruik maakte van het wachtwoord dat ze toen van Worden had gekregen.
Maan
McClain is een gelauwerd militair en astronaut. In de Irakoorlog maakte ze meer dan achthonderd gevechtsvluchten. Ze staat ook op de kandidatenlijst van de NASA van astronauten die mogelijk als eerste vrouw op de maan zullen landen.
EPADe capsule van de Sojoez-MS-14 is onbemand, maar bevat wel de mensachtige robot Fiodor, die 1,80 meter groot is en bijna 160 kilogram weegt.
WETENSCHAPDe Russische Sojoez-capsule met aan boord de humanoïde robot Fiodor, is er niet in geslaagd om zich op het voorziene uur vast te hechten aan het internationaal ruimtestation ISS. Dat melden de Russische nieuwsagentschappen. Er zal wellicht maandagmorgen een nieuwe poging volgen.
De koppeling had vanmorgen om 7.30 uur (Belgische tijd) automatisch moeten gebeuren, maar voorlopig heeft die nog niet kunnen plaatsvinden. De capsule was tot op 96 meter van de aanmeerplek genaderd, maar begon daarna weg te driften. Momenteel bevindt ze zich op ongeveer 280 meter van het ISS, zo meldt een reporter van het persbureau Tass vanuit het controlecentrum. Het ruimtevaartuig heeft de manoeuvres voor het uitvoeren van de koppeling opnieuw moeten opstarten. Volgens het Amerikaanse ruimtevaartagentschap is het mislukken van de koppeling niet te wijten aan de capsule. Wel zou er een probleem zijn met Kurs, het naderings- en koppelingssysteem op het ruimtestation. Een volgende poging om aan te meren zal wellicht pas na 48 uur uitgevoerd kunnen worden, ten vroegste maandagmorgen dus. Tot die tijd zal de Sojoez-capsule, met aan boord Fiodor, op “veilige afstand” van het ISS blijven.
Skybot F-850 De capsule van de Sojoez-MS-14 is onbemand, maar bevat wel de mensachtige robot Fiodor, die 1,80 meter groot is en bijna 160 kilogram weegt. Fiodor - Skybot F-850 voor de vrienden - is een Russische voornaam, maar luidt in het Engels Fedor. Dat staat voor “Final Experimental Demonstration Object Research”.
De robot moet twee weken lang verschillende taken uitvoeren onder toezicht van de Russische kosmonaut Aleksandr Skvortsov. Hij zal de vaardigheden van Fiodor testen onder micro-zwaartekracht. Een van de belangrijkste vaardigheden van de robot is dat hij menselijke bewegingen kan imiteren, waardoor hij astronauten kan helpen of taken van hen kan overnemen. Zijn terugkeer is voorzien op 6 september om 20.13 uur Belgische tijd.
Fiodor heeft zelfs een eigen account op Instagram en Twitter, waarop hij een inkijk geeft in de dagelijkse beslommeringen van een humanoïde robot.
VIA REUTERSFiodor heeft net genoeg plaats in de Sojoez-capsule, die verder onbemand is.
Onbemande capsule
Rusland heeft sinds 2002 gebruik gemaakt van Sojoez-FG-draagraketten om mensen naar het ISS te brengen. Maar in 2020 wordt overgeschakeld op de draagraket Sojoez-2.1a, die ook al een Russische vrachtruimteschip van het type Progress gelanceerd heeft. Een lancering met een Progress mislukte, vandaar de test met een Sojoez-capsule die niet bemand is.
About 35 million years ago, an asteroidtraveling nearly 144,000 mph (231,000 km/h) smashed into the Atlantic Ocean near the modern-day town of Cape Charles, Virginia. The space rock vaporized instantly, but its impact triggered a gargantuan tsunami, cast up a monsoon of shattered rocks and molten glass that spanned hundreds of miles and carved out the single largest crater in the United States — the so-calledChesapeake Bay impact structure.
Today, that 25-mile-wide (40 kilometers) crater is buried half a mile below the rocky basement of Chesapeake Bay — the 200-mile-long (320 km) estuary linking Virginia and Maryland on the East Coast. That hasn't stopped scientists from trying to piece together the site's mysterious history since it was first discovered during a drilling project in 1990.
In a recent study of ocean sediment cores taken almost 250 miles (400 km) northeast of the impact site, researchers found traces of radioactive debris dating to the time of the strike, providing fresh evidence of the impact's age and destructive power.
When the Chesapeake Bay impactor smashed into the Atlantic, it showered the surrounding land and water with shards of molten glass (known as "tektites") for hundreds of miles in every direction. This rain of meteoric debris formed what scientists call the North American tektite strewn field, the study authors wrote, which stretches from Texas to Massachusetts to Barbados, covering about 4 million square miles (10 million square km) of terrain. By studying shards of meteoric rock buried deep within this sweeping field of impact wreckage, scientists can gather clues about the asteroid's key characteristics, including its age.
The Chesapeake Bay impactor threw molten debris over 4 million square miles (10 million square km) of land and water, from Massachusetts to Barbados.
(Image credit: GEBCO world map 2014)
In their recent study (published June 21 in the journal Meteoritics and Planetary Science), researchers from Arizona State University dated 21 microscopic shards of zircon — a durable gemstone that can survive underground for billions of years. These zircons were lodged in a sediment core taken from roughly 2,150 feet (655 meters) below the Atlantic Ocean. Not only is zircon commonly found in tektites, but it is also a choice mineral for radiometric dating, thanks to some of its radioactive elemental components.
In this case, the researchers used a dating technique called uranium–thorium–helium dating, which looks at how radioactive isotopes, or versions, of uranium and thorium decay into helium. By comparing the ratios of specific helium, thorium and uranium isotopes in each mineral sample, the researchers calculated approximately how long ago the zircon crystals solidified and started to decay.
The team found that the 21 crystals ranged widely in age, running the gamut from about 33 million to 300 million years old. The two youngest samples, which had an average age of about 35 million years old, fit in with previous studies' estimates for the time of the Chesapeake Bay impact. A closer examination showed that the zircons also bore a cloudy appearance and deformed surface, two signs the minerals were kicked through the air and water by a great impact.
The team concluded that these two young crystals were part of the Chesapeake impact's path of destruction, confirming that the impact occurred about 35 million years ago. Moreover, the researchers wrote, it showed that uranium–thorium–helium dating is a viable method for constraining the age of ancient impact events, giving scientists a fresh tool to reveal our planet's long and violent past.
We're already picking up more signals from deep space.
Danielle Futselaar
Fast radio bursts from space are a uniquely 21st-century mystery. They were first identified just 12 years ago and, up until very recently, almost nothing was known about them and where they come from.
FRBs are essentially just what they sound like -- radio signals from somewhere in deep space that last for just milliseconds.
"Fast radio bursts are exceedingly bright given their short duration and origin at great distances, and we haven't identified a possible natural source with any confidence," Avi Loeb, a Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics theorist, said in a press release back in 2017.
Since then, an "FRB Theory Wiki" hosted by the McGill Space Institute has grown to include over four dozen possible explanations ranging from "annihilating mini black holes" to "alien light sails," although most explanations at this point have something to do with pulsars or neutron stars.
An (extraterrestrial) intelligent explanation?
It should really be no surprise that, as with most space stuff that can't yet be explained without a doubt by some natural phenomenon, aliens have been proposed as a possibility, including by Loeb himself.
"An artificial origin is worth contemplating and checking," he says.
Loeb and his colleagues worked out how much power would be needed to send such signals across the universe. Turns out it would require covering two Earth-size planets with energy collectors, leading Loeb to theorize that such a massive project might be used not to communicate, but to propel starships using high-energy beams.
While aliens might be the most exciting possible explanation, that doesn't mean they're the most probable. There are, after all, natural phenomena in the cosmos that could generate such signals and are known to actually exist, which is more than we can say for extraterrestrials.
In addition to neutron stars, there's also exploding black holes, magnetars and hypothetical blitzars that could be throwing off radio emissions that eventually make it to us.
Or maybe there are different types of FRBs out there or different explanations we haven't even thought of yet.
One aspect of FRBs that has made them so hard to trace back to a source is that they rarely seem to repeat. For the first decade of FRB research, they were all just detected and never heard from again. Then, in January 2017, researchers announced they'd finally identified that FRB 121102 repeats.
This allowed them to trace the blinking signal to a surprising source: a distant dwarf galaxy 3 billion light-years beyond the Milky Way.
"That's weird isn't it? You'd expect to find FRBs where there are more stars ... more stars means more neutron stars," Shriharsh Tendulkar of McGill University and the discovery team said at the time.
But after the CHIME radio telescope in British Columbia came online in late 2017, scientists had a new and highly valuable stream of FRB observations at their disposal. As of August 2019, a total of a dozen repeating fast radio bursts have now been confirmed or are in the process of being confirmed.
Notably, one of the repeating FRBs picked up by the new Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) appears to be much closer than the first couple observed. While those came from somewhere billions of light years away on the other side of the universe, this newly heard one could come from the edge of our own galaxy.
As more new observing equipment comes online, our understanding of FRBs could begin to crystallize very soon.
Researchers have also been able to integrate artificial intelligence with one telescope in Australia to detect FRBs in real-time as they arrive at Earth. That could rapidly speed up the work of studying the odd signals, which previously required combing through past observations taken months or even years previous.
At this rate, we might soon be able to stream FRBs live as they arrive at our planet. Podcasts are fun, but I now look forward to a golden age of (tiny) bite-sized alien radio broadcasts.
NASA scientists recently discovered an enormous crater in Greenland that was likely caused by a meteorite or some other unidentified object. Bigger than Washington DC or even Paris, the crater is hiding under the deep snow of Greenland. What caused the impact is unknown. Though, it could be the very same UFO that brought us the sand that we use nowadays to make our glass.
What NASA Knows About UFO
NASA has being studying ETs for many years now. The agency managed to discover secret planets in multiple different solar systems and flying objects that could easily be alien ships. Although there were no official statements, it is no secret that aliens likely exist. And these very aliens have been helping humanity for many years.
Aliens Who Brought Us Glass
In recent discoveries, NASA outlined the idea of a star that hit our planet millions of years ago. This unidentified object could represent the resources that aliens tried to send to help sustain life on Earth. When you put together recent events, it is possible to believe that intelligent species sent ancient objects to Earth.
If Aliens Knew How to Make Artificial Stars
Chinese scientists have recently managed to create their very own mini sun, which is artificial. This artificial sun can reach a temperature of one million degrees Celsius. This makes one think that intelligent creatures might be able to harness artificial stars. If they are more intelligent than us, they could have learned how to create artificial suns millions of years ago. If they did, they might be millions of steps ahead of our innovations. They might even treat humans in a similar way to how humans treat lab rats. Meaning, there is a possibility that these outer space civilizations are keeping us alive for the purpose of running experiments on us.
There’s Data from “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” R2-D2 and C-3P0 from “Star Wars,” and of course the super-scary HAL 9000 from “2001: A Space Odyssey.”
But space bots aren’t just science fiction anymore: Russia has sent a robot to space to learn how to help cosmonauts and astronauts aboard the International Space Station.
Model Skybot F-850, nicknamed “Fyodor” — short for Final Experimental Demonstration Object Research — is shaped like a human and designed to perform tasks that humans can do, like using a screwdriver or a wrench. It blasted off from Kazakhstan late Wednesday aboard an unmanned Russian Soyuz MS-14 rocket, and will arrive at the ISS Saturday and spend five days aboard.
The spaceship that Fyodor flew on usually carries a crew of three into space. But Fyodor had the whole ship to itself. The robot might be sitting in the driver’s seat, but it’s not flying the rocket. The ship is on autopilot, using its own internal navigation system — another non-human helper — called Kurs.
Дмитрий Рогозин
@Rogozin
Робот платформы F.E.D.O.R. показал навыки стрельбы с двух рук. Идёт работа над мелкой моторикой и алгоритмами принятия решений
The Russians want to be clear: Fyodor isn’t a killer robot, though it canshoot guns. It’s designed to be used in all sorts of high-risk scenarios, including gunfights and space. It’s nimble, able to administer first aid with its metal, hinged, human-like fingers, which can also pull a gun’s trigger.
“We are not creating a terminator but artificial intelligence which will have a great practical importance in various fields,” said Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin in a tweet in 2017, referring to the sci-fi film about a time-traveling murderous android played by Arnold Schwarzenegger. Rogozin also praised the robot’s “decision-making skills.”
Video of the launch shows the robot sitting in the pilot’s seat, holding a small Russian flag. Beside Fyodor sat a small toy Russian cosmonaut, which floated into the air as the rocket left the Earth’s atmosphere and entered into low-gravity space.
Robots like Fyodor, which stands at 5-foot-11 and weighs about 350 pounds, have been around for about five years, and other models have been used to drive cars and conduct rescue work, according to Space.com.
And though Russia’s never sent a humanoid robot into space before, the primary purpose of the flight was to test the rocket Fyodor was on, NASA spokesperson Rob Navias said during the launch broadcast. This was the first time that this particular capsule-rocket combination has been used for a flight of this type, and researchers want to be sure the flight is safe for humans before sending actual people up to space on them.
Fyodor’s good for figuring that out. The android is equipped with a bunch of sensors that will help give a sense of just how comfortable — or uncomfortable — a flight on this ship will be for human astronauts.
The spacecraft is also bringing up nearly 1,500 pounds of supplies and food for the station's six-person crew.
Fyodor isn’t the first robot to visit the ISS. The U.S. sent up Robonaut 2 back in 2011, specially-equipped with (very goofy-looking) “climbing legs” for zero-gravity mobility. It was designed to help astronauts in high-risk situations, and was sent back to Earth in 2018 after experiencing some technical difficulties.
Japan also sent up Kirobo, a friendly Japanese-speaking robot modeled on manga character Astro Boy, designed to keep astronauts from getting lonely in space. The robot got lonely in space after his buddy, Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata, went home to Earth.
"I'm a little tired, so I think I'll rest awhile, but I hope you'll look up at the sky sometimes and think of me,” Kirobo said in a video messageafter Wakata left the ISS.
Cover: Humanoid robot Fyodor prepares for the Soyuz MS-14 orbital flight to the International Space Station aboard a Soyuz-2.1a rocket carrier. Roscosmos State Corporation/TASS (Photo by TASS\TASS via Getty Images)
ONDERZOEKERS TREFFEN STERRENSTOF AAN IN ANTARCTISCHE SNEEUW
Vivian Lammerse
De sneeuw bevat de zeldzame isotoop ijzer-60 die ontstaat bij enorme stellaire explosies.
Elk jaar dwarrelt er kosmisch stof op aarde neer. De hoeveelheden kunnen variëren van enkele duizenden tot wel tienduizend ton. Het meeste hiervan bestaat uit hele kleine deeltjes afkomstig van planetoïden of kometen in ons zonnestelsel. Maar nu zijn onderzoekers op iets heel bijzonders gestuit. De sneeuw op Antarctica blijkt namelijk de zeldzame sterrenstof ijzer-60 te bevatten die mogelijk uit de interstellaire buurt afkomstig is. De bevindingen zijn gepubliceerd in Physical Review Letters.
Meer over ijzer-60 IJzer-60 is een onstabiele radioactieve isotoop van ijzer, een overgangsmetaal. Deze isotoop komt niet van nature op aarde voor en ontstaat uitsluitend als gevolg van supernova-explosies of door reacties van kosmische straling met kosmisch stof. Vervolgens bereikt maar een hele kleine hoeveelheid de aarde.
Diepzee Het is niet voor het eerst dat wetenschappers de zeldzame isotoop op aarde aantreffen. Zo’n twintig jaar geleden vond een onderzoeksteam ijzer-60 in afzettingen afkomstig uit de diepzee. Het zette onderzoeker Gunther Korschinek, destijds deel van het onderzoeksteam, aan het denken. Want zouden er ook sporen van stellaire explosies terug te vinden kunnen zijn in pure, onaangeroerde Antarctische sneeuw?
Sneeuw Om deze hypothese te verifiëren reisde een nieuw team af naar Antarctica en verzamelde zo’n 500 kilogram sneeuw, dat vervolgens naar München werd getransporteerd. Daar werd de sneeuw gesmolten en het smeltwater van de vaste componenten gescheiden. Met behulp van verschillende chemische methoden vonden de onderzoekers uiteindelijk vijf ijzer-60-atomen. “Door onze analyses konden we uitsluiten dat de ijzer-60 afkomstig was van kosmische straling, kernproeven of reactorongevallen,” vertelt onderzoeker Dominik Koll. “Omdat de radioactieve isotoop niet van nature op aarde voorkomt, wisten we dat de ijzer-60 afkomstig moest zijn van een supernova.”
Wanneer Hoewel dit al een ontdekking op zich is, kon het onderzoeksteam ook nog eens relatief nauwkeurig bepalen wanneer de ijzer-60 op aarde is afgezet. Zo was de geanalyseerde sneeuwlaag niet ouder dan 20 jaar. Bovendien konden de onderzoekers uitsluiten dat de isotoop van een hele verre stellaire explosie afkomstig is, omdat de deeltjes in dat geval tijdens hun reis door de barre omstandigheden in de ruimte zouden zijn verzwolgen. Koll gaat er daarom vanuit dat de gevonden isotoop afkomstig is uit de interstellaire buurt, bijvoorbeeld uit de gaswolk waarin ons zonnestelsel zich momenteel bevindt.
“Ons zonnestelsel is ongeveer 40.000 jaar geleden deze wolk binnengegaan en zal deze binnen een paar duizend jaar weer verlaten,” legt Korschinek uit. “Als onze hypothese correct is, zou materiaal uit ijskernen ouder dan 40.000 jaar geen ijzer-60 bevatten.” Vervolgonderzoek kan eigenlijk niet uit blijven. “We zouden hiermee de overgang van het zonnestelsel naar de gaswolk kunnen verifiëren,” gaat Korschinek verder. “En dat zou een baanbrekende ontdekking zijn.”
India's Chandrayaan-2 mission captured this photograph of the moon on Aug. 21, 2019, days after the mission entered lunar orbit. It's Chandrayaan-2's first photo of the moon.
(Image credit: ISRO)
India'sChandrayaan-2 mission is in orbit around the moon, and its view is spectacular.
The spacecraft entered lunar orbit on Aug. 19 (Aug. 20 local time at mission control in India), about a month after its launch, on July 22. In order to make the journey more feasible with a smaller rocket, the spacecraft took a long road to the moon, with about seven weeks between launch and the scheduled touchdown of the mission's lander and orbiter.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), which runs the Chandrayaan-2 mission, has now released the spacecraft's first image of the moon taken from orbit. That image was snapped from about 1,650 miles (2,650 kilometers) above the lunar surface on Wednesday (Aug. 21). The photograph shows part of the far side of the moon, including Apollo crater and Mare Orientalis.
But that region is not Chandrayaan-2's destination. An orbiter will separate from the Indian mission, and then the lander, with a rover tucked onboard, will head toward a location much closer to the moon's south pole, with landing scheduled for Sept. 6 (Sept. 7 local time at mission control).
The ISRO chose that destination in part based on the findings from the mission's predecessor, which carried the instrument that spotted water ice frozen in permanently shadowed craters near the lunar south pole. And so India built a second mission, adding a landed component this time, to follow up on that discovery.
If the lander safely touches down, India will become the fourth country to complete that feat, after the Soviet Union, the U.S. and China. The lander and rover would operate for one lunar day but are not designed to withstand the frigid lunar nights.
Editor's note: This article has been updated to correct a description of the region shown in the photograph. Email Meghan Bartels at mbartels@space.com or follow her @meghanbartels. Follow uson Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.
A video taken just before 4 a.m. on August 11th over Jackson Hole in Wyoming appears to show an unidentified flying object emit a flash of light before streaking away. A second, larger flash occurs after it is off-screen.
The object was spotted on the webcam at Spring Creek Ranch by an anonymous witness who was trying to keep an eye out for the Perseid Meteor Shower.
The witness sent the video to Buckrail the same morning it was shot.
Buckrail released two versions of the video.
The original is three minutes and thirty five seconds long and shot frame-by-frame, wherein the camera only records one image every second.
A sped up version shows a much smoother flight.
The object is too bright and moving too slowly to be a meteor, and, according to the flight log database on the US Department of Transportation website, no flights were in that airspace at the time the video was recorded.
“My coworker thought something was broken on the camera,” the witness said. “I checked online, there weren’t any flights that I could find at that time.”
“It would totally be a plane in my mind if there weren’t a weird, bright flash in the end," she added.
Historical weather data does not show any meteorological explanation, such as lightning, for the flash.
A drone or fighter jet have both been lobbied as possible explanations for the object.
Samuel Singer, former Executive Director of Wyoming Stargazing, speculated that the object could be a drone, and local photographer and drone pilot Sam Cook agreed, since FAA guidelines require drone lights to be visible for at least three statute miles.
That's "pretty bright," said Cook.
Michael Brotherton, a professor of Astronomy at the University of Wyoming, also agreed that a drone is a valid hypothesis.
The flash of light could have been a relatively dim flash exaggerated by the webcam's low-light sensitivity, he said.
“There does seem to be a flash of light from the object partway through that is likely artificial,” Brotherton wrote in an email to Buckrail.
A former Air Force turned commercial pilot asked about the video said it could be a fighter jet pilot “showboating over the valley with an afterburner and flares.” While there is a jet route matching the object's path in the video, there is no military training airspace in that area, and most fighter jets fly in pairs unless they're moving from base to base. The early morning hour, too, would have been an unusual time for a fighter jet to be flying solo.
So far, the object remains unexplained.
To report your own encounter with the impossible, reach out to us directly at the Singular Fortean Society through our contact page.
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Look out, aliens, because human scientists are about to start snapping some photos of you.
The Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Lab has finished construction on the 3.2-gigapixel sensor array for the world’s largest camera, which is ready to take photos of life, the universe, and everything that cosmology, physics, and astronomy can create. The camera will be used in the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), a massive telescope that will observe the universe like never before.
“This is the biggest charge-coupled device (CCD) array that has ever been built,” Paul O’Connor, senior scientist at Brookhaven Lab’s instrumentation division, said in a press release. “It’s three billion pixels. No telescope has ever put this many sensors into one camera.”
Now that the array is done, work can continue on the massive telescope that is currently under construction on a mountaintop in Chile. I’m not going to pretend to understand the technology that is involved with this massive camera (Gizmodo has you covered on that front), but the digital sensor array is an important part of the project—a collaborative effort involving more than 30 institutions from around the world. Once complete, it will be used to create a time-lapse movie of the complete visible universe accessible from Chile.
And rest assured, photography technology has improved since the days when they had to build a train-size camera just to photograph a train, so while the telescope is large, it’s not as big as the universe it hopes to capture on film.
Riddle as Himalayan skeleton lake is found to contain remains of hundreds of people who died thousands of years apart, including bodies from as far away as Greece
Roopkund Lake on Indian side of the Himalayas thought to be site of catastrophe
Mystery first emerged amid WW2 when British guard found lake full of skeletons
Now, scientists believe Greeks were among hundreds of those who died at site
This suggests that the lake drew visitors from across the globe not just locals
DNA from remains found high in the Himalayas suggest that Greeks were among hundreds of people who died at a mysterious location known as Skeleton Lake.
Roopkund Lake on the Indian side of the Himalayas was once thought to be the site of an ancient catastrophe that left several hundred people dead.
But the first ancient whole genome DNA data from India shows that several different groups of people died at the lake in several incidents up to 1,000 years apart.
The mystery first emerged during the Second World War when a British guard discovered the frozen lake full of skeletons some 16,000 feet (5,000 metres) above sea level.
Study senior author Doctor Niraj Rai, of the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences in India, said: 'Roopkund Lake has long been subject to speculation about who these individuals were, what brought them to Roopkund Lake, and how they died.'
DNA from remains found high in the Himalayas (pictured) suggest that Greeks were among hundreds of people who died at a mysterious location known as Skeleton Lake
WHAT HAPPENED AT SKELETON LAKE?
Theories ranging from a landslide to a mass suicide were put forward to explain the deaths, but it is only recently that researchers believe they know what caused the cracks in their skulls.
A 2004 expedition to the site concluded the group was killed by cricket ball-sized hailstones during a sudden storm.
This, they decided, was the only way to explain why the skulls and shoulder bones of the dead had all been hit by rounded objects directly from above.
As there was nowhere to shelter in the valley, the group was at the mercy of the storm.
Their bodies lay in the lake, which regularly freezes, for the next 1,200 years until their wartime discovery
Researchers say that analysis of DNA obtained from the skeletons reveals that they derive from at least three 'distinct' genetic groups.
The first group was made up of 23 people with ancestries that are related to people from present-day India, who do not appear to belong to a single population, but instead derived from many different groups.
The second largest group is made up of 14 individuals with ancestry that is most closely related to people who live in the eastern Mediterranean, especially present-day Crete and Greece.
A third individual has ancestry that is more typical of that found in South East Asia.
Stable isotope dietary reconstruction of the skeletons also supports the presence of multiple distinct groups.
Study first-author Éadaoin Harney, from Harvard University, said: 'We were extremely surprised by the genetics of the Roopkund skeletons.
'The presence of individuals with ancestries typically associated with the eastern Mediterranean suggests that Roopkund Lake was not just a site of local interest, but instead drew visitors from across the globe.'
Radiocarbon dating indicates that the skeletons were not deposited at the same time, as previously assumed.
Instead, the study showed that the two major genetic groups were actually deposited around 1,000 years apart.
The first ancient whole genome DNA data from India shows that several different groups of people died at the lake in several incidents up to 1,000 years apart. Pictured: Snow covered bones at Roopkund Lake
First, during the 7th to 10th Centuries, individuals with Indian-related ancestry died at Roopkund, possibly during several distinct events.
But it was not until sometime during the 17th to 20th Centuries that the other two groups, likely composed of travellers from the eastern Mediterranean and South East Asia arrived at Roopkund Lake.
Ice melting revealed even more skeletal remains, floating in the water and lying around the lake's edges.
The first assumption was that they were the remains of Japanese soldiers who had died of exposure while trying to invade British India. But it soon became apparent that the bones were much older.
Many theories were put forward as to how so many people had died at such a remote location - including an epidemic, landslide, and ritual suicide.
One popular theory was that the people whose remains were found there had been killed by giant hailstones.
Roopkund Lake (pictured) on the Indian side of the Himalayas was thought to be the site of an ancient catastrophe that left several hundred people dead
The Mystery of the Himalayas’ Skeleton Lake Just Got Weirder
Every summer, hundreds of ancient bones emerge from the ice. A new genetic study helps explain how they got there.
Roopkund Lake, in the Indian Himalayas, is frozen for much of the year. But in warmer months it delivers a macabre performance, earning the nickname Skeleton Lake.CreditCreditAtish Waghwase
By Robin George Andrews
Nestled in the Indian Himalayas, some 16,500 feet above sea level, sits Roopkund Lake. One hundred and thirty feet wide, it is frozen for much of the year, a frosty pond in a lonely, snowbound valley. But on warmer days, it delivers a macabre performance, as hundreds of human skeletons, some with flesh still attached, emerge from what has become known as Skeleton Lake.
Who were these individuals, and what befell them? One leading idea was that they died simultaneously in a catastrophic event more than 1,000 years ago. An unpublished anthropological survey from several years ago studied five skeletons and estimated they were 1,200 years old.
But a new genetic analysis carried out by scientists in India, America and Germany has upended that theory. The study, which examined DNA from 38 remains, indicates that there wasn’t just one mass dumping of the dead, but several, spread over a millennium.
The report, published Tuesday in Nature Communications, has led to a “far richer view into the possible histories of this site” than previous efforts provided, said Jennifer Raff, a geneticist and anthropologist at the University of Kansas who was not involved with the work.
Anthropologists have known about Roopkund Lake for several decades, but little was known about the provenance of its skeletons. Rockslides, migrating ice and even human visitors have disturbed and moved the remains, making it difficult to decipher when and how the individuals were buried, much less who they were. “In a case like this, that becomes impossible,” said Cat Jarman, a bioarchaeologist at the University of Bristol in England who was not part of the research team.
Genetic analysis has helped make some sense of the jumble of bones. The researchers, led in part by Niraj Rai, an expert in ancient DNA at the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences in India, and David Reich, a geneticist at Harvard University, extracted DNA from the remains of dozens of skeletal samples, and managed to identify 23 males and 15 females.
Based on populations living today, these individuals fit into three distinct genetic groups. Twenty-three, including males and females, had ancestries typical of contemporary South Asians; their remains were deposited at the lake between the 7th and 10th centuries, and not all at once. Some skeletons were more ancient than others, suggesting that many were interred at the lake lifetimes apart.
Human skeletal remains at Roopkund lake. A new genetic study partially identified some of the individuals: young and old, some interred long before others, none of them related.
CreditHimadri Sinha Roy
Then, perhaps 1,000 years or so later, sometime between the 17th and 20th centuries, two more genetic groups suddenly appeared within the lake: one individual of East Asian-related ancestry and, curiously, 14 people of eastern Mediterranean ancestry.
How all these individuals met their end is anyone’s guess. There’s no evidence of bacterial infections, so an epidemic was probably not to blame. Perhaps the challenging high-altitude environment proved fatal.
The earlier study, of five skeletal samples, found three with unhealed compression fractures, perhaps inflicted by huge hailstones, although that conclusion is open to debate. In any case, across a range of centuries “it’s hard to believe that each individual died in exactly the same way,” said Éadaoin Harney, a doctoral student at Harvard and the lead author on the study.
The individuals included children and elderly adults, but none were family relatives. Chemical signatures from the skeletons indicate that the individuals had significantly different diets, adding support to the notion that several distinct population groups are represented.
If accounts of their journeys exist somewhere, none have been uncovered so far. “We have searched all the archives, but no such records were found,” said Dr. Rai.
The researchers note that Roopkund Lake is situated on a route known to modern-day Hindu pilgrims, so perhaps some of the South Asian individuals died while taking part. But that is less likely to explain the presence of individuals from the distant eastern Mediterranean.
Perhaps they weren’t actually Mediterranean migrants, Dr. Jarman said. Their genetic ancestry resembles that of present-day people from Greece or Crete, but current distribution may not apply to ancient populations. Regardless, this group came from somewhere far from Roopkund Lake, for reasons unknown.
Maybe the site held significance for groups with various religious beliefs, said Dr. Jarman. Maybe some of the skeletons were brought for burial, possibly to be left in the lake. Or maybe there were ill-fated explorers — driven by a desire to see a spectacular mountain range, killed by their own curiosity.
A few answers have begun to emerge, at least. Archaeology is full of such enigmatic sites, Dr. Reich said, and when science comes along and digs in, “it enriches the story in immeasurable ways.”
View of Skeleton Lake, where hundreds of bodies appear when the snow melts. Researchers have now discovered the bodies belonged to distinct groups and were deposited there over 1,000 years.
PRAMOD JOGLEKAR
Skeletons at the lake in the Himalayas. Researchers do not know why people from the Mediterranean ended up there.
Area 51is a region of the southern Nevada desert owned and operated by the US Air Force, within their larger Nellis Air Force Base and Nevada Test Site, a huge swath of land stretching from the Indian Springs Auxiliary Field to the Tonopah Test Range. Just a few hours from Las Vegas, this site has entered conspiracy theory and general cultural folklore as an alleged secret containment area for the US government to house either extraterrestrials, captured extraterrestrial spaceships, reverse-engineered technology from aliens, or some mixture of related alien spookery.
Area 51 shares this honor with other sites maintained by the US government in the American southwest, to wit Roswell Army Air Field in Roswell, New Mexico, and more recently, a supposed Dulce Base in Dulce, New Mexico. All three of these sites have been the focus of theories about the US government hiding evidence of aliens and their ships there. We’ll get into the give-and-take of theory and fact on all three of these sites, because even if we don’t find flying saucers, the answers are pretty mind-blowing anyway!
In any case, Area 51 is a site related to the US military and a matter of national security, so aliens or not, the USAF tends to keep mum about what exactly they do there. Area 51 is at least part of a secrecy designation of some sort, official or unofficial. This fans the flames of conspiracy theories, of course.
In July of 2019, Area 51 suddenly spiked in popularity again when a Facebook event titled “Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All of Us” proposed a mass charge on foot by the general public to raid the Area 51 facility and discover once and for all whether it is housing any aliens. The original poster, Matty Roberts in California, later recanted that the post was just a joke. But despite this, the meme went viral, with some 3 million people signing up. Even a number of celebrities weighed in, including Elon Musk, which is the threshold for crazy ideas reaching critical mass on the Internet.
For the record, the USAF has released a statement saying the facility will be protected from a mass raid like any military base would. And yes, indeed, the world’s largest and most expensive military force can “stop all of you” with some ammo to spare if it comes to that, although the most likely outcome of a civilian breech is getting arrested by the Lincoln County Sheriff.
But let’s back up here: First off, is Area 51 really worth storming at all?
WHAT WE CAN CONFIRM ABOUT AREA 51
Area 51, and the surrounding Nellis Air Force Base and Nevada Test Site, has a history going back to the Cold War. It started out being used as a testing grounds for nuclear weapons, and yes, we mean the kind that make mushroom clouds. Along with being such a remote location handy to test bombs, the flat, virtually featureless desert of Nevada also makes a good airport location, so they threw in the air force base too.
Now, when you have a remote airport where you’re already keeping off-limits because it’s a nuclear test range, it’s also a handy place to fly something when you need a little privacy. And that, it turns out, is exactly what was going on when a 2013 declassified documentrevealed that Area 51 was a testing site for US spy planes, including the U-2 and OXCART aerial surveillance programs. Beyond that, the area has served as a proving ground for numerous Lockheed craft, and nearby Tonopah Test Range has served as a reverse-engineering arena for captured foreign aircraft. Yes, we do this! Over the years whenever US armed forces get their mitts on aircraft from another country, particularly from less-than-friendly neighbors, they take it out to Tonopah to see what she can do. Some of these exercises include simulated dogfights between the foreign craft and our own equipment. Cool job, isn’t it?
Photo: Finlay McWalter / CC by SA-3.0 / Wikimedia Commons
A 1966 CIA diagram of Area 51, found in an untitled, declassified paper, showing the runway overrun for OXCART (Lockheed A-12) and the turnaround areas.
As for Roswell, the supposed crash of a UFO there in 1947 was explained as a weather balloon. Buy it or not, that’s the story. As for Dulce, there are Cold War missile installations there, but no air base confirmed. But when it comes to Area 51, we have a whole list of interesting US military airborne activity that’s come and gone or is rumored to be ongoing now.
Strictly speaking, we have indeed confirmed “UFOs at Area 51”! Just remember that “UFO” just stands for “Unidentified Flying Object,” and anybody sighting a strange airplane swooping by, which is still part of a top-secret military experiment, can definitely say they saw a flying object they could not identify. Furthermore, there’s even a kernel of truth in the “reverse-engineering foreign technology” part, if you just substitute “foreign governments” for “aliens.”
REALITY CHECK
Before we ask if there’s aliens at Area 51, we have to define what we mean. Surely the first thing we have to throw out is our popular concept of “aliens.” If you’re talking about little green men from Mars in those 1950s-style flying saucers that look like an orange wearing a tutu, then no, they don’t exist. But any living organism originating from any point but planet Earth does qualify as an alien!
If we were to discover and confirm extraterrestrial life, it would automatically be the most shattering news ever in recorded history. That applies even down to the smallest bacteria. As it is, the collective human race has been busily scouting for the tiniest nit of alien life. We have rovers on Mars, probes in space, SETI scanning the skies, telescopes probing the farthest reaches of the universe. The 50th anniversary of the Apollo Moon Landing has just passed, and we’re more interested in off-Earth exploration than ever before.
Buzz Aldrin salutes the U.S flag on the Moon / NASA / Neil A. Armstrong
So it’s highly unlikely that if we were to actually uncover alien life forms of any kind, that we would keep it a secret. Just think, the first person to confirm extraterrestrial life guarantees themselves a place in the history books! They’d have a career for life just giving TED talks after that. Their name would be celebrated in science alongside Galileo, Einstein, and Hawking. There is an informal global competition underway to discover extraterrestrial life.
The motivation to keep it a secret is minimal. But… suppose there was something dreadful about this extraterrestrial life form? What if it had some Lovecraftian evil power, what if it was intelligent and demanded secrecy on threat of invasion, or what if it presented some health threat to the human race in some other way, such as an infection vector? You can never say “never” when dealing with the unknown!
Conclusively, we’d have to move that scenario to “implausible,” but not “impossible.”
IS THERE A CONSPIRACY TO SPREAD A CONSPIRACY?
Keep in mind, any military operation involving flying things you want to keep a secret isn’t hurt at all by UFO rumors. And it’s not like the US government hasn’t enjoyed a convenient smokescreen provided by a conspiracy theory obfuscating what it’s really up to before. Just look at these official mission patches for US spy satellite launches by the CIA / NSA / DOD. Come on, they’re messing with our heads on purpose here!
So whether you want to believe or not, there’s government on one side and commerce on the other who both benefit when you go chasing flying saucers. Which still doesn’t mean there are no aliens anyway, but, as usual, does indicate that the truth is always far more complex than we first assume.
A robot deployed on one of the darkest asteroidsin the solar system may now shed light on the origins of some of the oldest, rarest meteorites, a new study finds.
These findings suggest that this asteroid formed during a collision of two very different space rocks, the scientists said. The research also suggests that dust may float off this asteroid, possibly driven by electric fields.
In 2018, the Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa2 arrived at Ryugu, a 2,950-foot-wide (900 meters) near-Earth asteroid that is one of the darkest celestial bodies in the solar system. Its name, which means "dragon palace," refers to a magical underwater castle in a Japanese folktale.
One reason scientists may want to learn more about Ryugu is because its orbit brings it close — potentially dangerously close — to Earth.
"Knowing the composition and geological structure of asteroids and comets is essential to [developing] mitigation strategies in the case of potential collision scenarios," study lead author Ralf Jaumann, a planetary scientist at the Institute of Planetary Research in Berlin, told Space.com.
In addition, previous research suggested Ryugu may contain primordial material from the nebula that gave birth to the sun and its planets. Hayabusa2 is designed to return samples from the asteroid to shed light on the formation of the solar system.
The first image captured by the MASCOT rover during its descent to Ryugu's surface.
(Image credit: Jaumann et al., Science (2019))
To investigate Ryugu's surface, Hayabusa2 deployed the Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout (MASCOT) lander. This shoebox-size robot took photos both as it dropped from the main Hayabusa2 spacecraft onto Ryugu and after it landed on the asteroid's surface, where it operated for a little more than 17 hours before its batteries ran out.
"To have this small lander reaching the surface and providing detailed images of the surface was very exciting," Jaumann said.
MASCOT found Ryugu was covered with two kinds of rocks and boulders — one dark with a cauliflower-like, crumbly surface and the other bright with smooth faces and sharp edges. Both types are nearly evenly distributed on the surface of the asteroid, suggesting Ryugu was a pile of rubble that coalesced after two parent bodies crashed into one another, "indicating a violent history of asteroid collision," Jaumann said.
Close-up images of Ryugu's dark, rough stones revealed they often seem to possess small, colored inclusions similar to those found in one of the most primitive and rare types of meteorites, known as carbonaceous chondrites.
"Carbonaceous material is the primordial material of the solar system, from which all planets and moons originate," Jaumann said. "Thus, if we want to understand planetary formation, including the formation of Earth, we need to understand its building parts." He said the new findings support long-standing speculation that carbonaceous chondrites come from C-type asteroids — dark-gray, carbon-rich space rocks such as Ryugu.
Unexpectedly, the MASCOT images of Ryugu showed no fine dust, which scientists had expected would accumulate on the asteroid's surface due to micrometeoroid impacts and other forms of weathering. The mission's predecessor, Hayabusa, found that another rubble-pile asteroid, Itokawa, also seemed dust-free.
The researchers suggested that some as-yet-unknown force removes dust from Ryugu's surface. Electric fields on the asteroid might cause dust to float away, Jaumann said, or micrometeoroid impacts and seismic vibrations could be responsible.
The scientists detailed their findings online on Aug. 22 in the journal Science.
We don't have optimum ocean-circulation patterns, it would seem.
The artist's concept depicts Kepler-62f, a super-Earth exoplanet in the habitable zone of a star smaller and cooler than the sun, located about 1,200 light-years from Earth in the constellation Lyra.
Alien planets with more favorable ocean-circulation patterns might support life in even greater abundance and variety than our own world does, the study determined.
"Life in Earth's oceans depends on upwelling (upward flow), which returns nutrients from the dark depths of the ocean to the sunlit portions of the ocean where photosynthetic life lives," study leader Stephanie Olson, of the University of Chicago, said in a statement.
"More upwelling means more nutrient resupply, which means more biological activity," added Olson, who presented the new research today (Aug. 22) at the Goldschmidt Conference in Barcelona, Spain. "These are the conditions we need to look for on exoplanets."
The new study provides a step in this direction. Olson and her team used computer models to determine which types of alien worlds have the most efficient ocean upwelling and are therefore probably especially good places for life as we know it to thrive.
"We found that higher atmospheric density, slower rotation rates and the presence of continents all yield higher upwelling rates," Olson said.
"A further implication is that Earth might not be optimally habitable — and life elsewhere may enjoy a planet that is even more hospitable than our own," she added, describing this conclusion as "surprising."
"We expect oceans to be important in regulating some of the most compelling remotely detectable signs of life on habitable worlds, but our understanding of oceans beyond our solar system is currently very rudimentary," Chris Reinhard, of the Georgia Institute of Technology, said in the same statement.
"Dr. Olson's work represents a significant and exciting step forward in our understanding of exoplanet oceanography," added Reinhard, who was not involved in the new study.
Oceans are probably incredibly common across the Milky Way galaxy. After all, observations by NASA's Kepler space telescope and other instruments suggest that about one in four stars hosts a potentially Earth-like planet — a rocky world at the right orbital distance to host liquid water on its surface.
And our own solar system hosts multiple ocean worlds, though most of them are very different from Earth. Jupiter's moons Europa, Callisto and Ganymede are all thought to harbor big oceans of liquid water beneath their icy shells, for example, as does Saturn's moon Enceladus.
The oceans of Europa and Enceladus are thought to be in contact with the moons' rocky cores, making possible complex chemical reactions that may well have led to life, scientists say.
Mike Wall's book about the search for alien life, "Out There" (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated byKarl Tate), is out now. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter@Spacedotcom orFacebook.
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