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.
Maandag 30 september 2019
January 1950 Was A Peak Month For Ufo Sightings
January 1950 Was A Peak Month For Ufo Sightings
One of the first officially recorded sightings of the 1950 UFO wave occurred on the afternoon of 6th January at a little after 2 pm over the town of Howard in Kansas. Three United States Air Force crew were piloting a C-47 on their way to Offut Air Force Base in Omaha, Nebraska.
They would describe the object as between 30 and 60 feet long and “shaped like a football”. They would also note how it was a “bright silver color” which would shine in the afternoon sun. It was in their sights for around two minutes, moving between 300 to 500 miles per hour at an altitude of approximately 2,000 feet.
Whether there is a connection or not, later that day at 9:45 pm over Mundy Point in Virginia, two witnesses would report seeing a strange object moving through the sky, remaining visible for around 30 seconds.
Picture: Kaggle/UFO Sighters
Strange Sightings Over Air Bases Across America
The following evening, at around 10:15 pm at Holloman Air Force Base in Corona, New Mexico, another bizarre sighting occurred.
This time, several strange balls of light were seen traveling through the sky, changing color as they did so from yellow-white to a distinct orange. Bizarrely, as it approached the mountain ranges in the area it would “level off” and change color once again to a blue-green color.
Of course, this last detail would dismiss the notion that the objects were merely “falling” and were in fact under some kind of control. The lights would return on the evening of the 12th January, once more changing direction before disappearing out of sight.
Less than 24 hours after the initial sighting over Holloman Air Force Base, on themorning of the 10th January at a little after 10 am in Las Vegas, two civilian pilotsat the Las Vegas Air Force Base – a father and son – would observe two F-80 fighter jets approaching the base as they came in to land.
However, at an altitude of around 2,000 feet, each of the witnesses would also observe a strange round balloon-like object of “pure silver” and seemingly of solid metal. They would further estimate that the object was between 25 and 30 feet across and made no noise whatsoever. Furthermore, they could see no antennas or any other external fittings of any kind. It would move calmly through the skies, seemingly uninterested in the two fighter jets, and then began to accelerate somewhat before disappearing over a nearby mountain range.
On the evening of the 11th January at the Ohio Air National Guard at Norwood in Ohio, several members would happen to point their searchlight at a “space platform” in the night sky above the city.
The Gulf of Mexico Incident
On the evening of 12th January, at 11:25 pm, the crew of a B-29 aircraft would notice three strange objects on their onboard radar while flying over the Gulf of Mexico.
As an example as to the speed with which these strange objects were moving, the radar screen onboard covered a 100-mile radius. The objects would clear the screen from one side to the other in no more than 20 seconds. The overall estimated speed of these bizarre, metallic and most definitely solid objects was between 2,500 and 3,000 miles per hour.
While two of the objects would eventually disappear from sight, the other would continue to follow the B-29. Even more concerning were the two near approaches from the craft before it halted and hovered only 20 miles away. It would then move back into a pursuing position.
The object would disappear after around half-an-hour. However, the plane’s radar systems would remain jammed for around ten minutes after.
Interestingly, despite the wealth of radar information, no visual sightings of the object were made by any of the crew. This, of course, leaves open the possibility, however, remote it might be, that the incident was down to radar malfunction. A chink that many skeptics will point out.
Sightings Spreading Out Into Urban Areas
Sightings would continue throughout the United States following the incident, however. For example, in Peoria in Illinois on the evening of the 14th January, an aerial object was witnessed overhead. And while it didn’t move in a manner that would suggest it wasn’t a normal aircraft, residents would report “electromagnetic effects” as it passed.
Earlier the same day, just before 5 pm in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, several workers at the town’s nuclear facility witnessed a “fiery ball of light” hover for several moments over restricted military airspace.
Although further afield than the United States, the 15th January brought three more reports. A saucer-shaped object was witnessed hovering and rotating just off the coast of Newfoundland in Canada. On the same afternoon at Sierra de Comechingones in Argentina, a silver cigar-shaped object emerged from nearby mountains and remained visible for several minutes.
Later that evening, back in the United States, multiple witnesses would report “several strange objects” hovering over Tacoma, Washington. The following evening in Portland, Oregon, a husband, and wife would watch a similar object for almost two hours.
During the early evening of 17th January, just off the coast of Kauai Island in Hawaii, another silver disc-shaped object was reported hovering over the water. Then, it would shoot “straight-up” and vanish into the early evening sky. The following evening, on the other side of the United States in Summit, New Jersey, several witnesses observed a “spherical UFO” glowing a “reddish-orange” color moving slowly over the region.
On the same evening six military pilots, including Lieutenant Webb, would witness a “round reddish-white” object moving slowly through the evening sky over Denver, Colorado.
The Kodiak, Alaska Incident
In the early hours of 23rd January 1950 at around 2:40 am, Navy Patrol pilot, Lt. Smith was guiding his plane near the Bering Sea at Kodiak, Alaska in what was a routine security flight. He would pick up an unidentified object on his radar on two separate occasions.
When he radioed the control tower at Kodiak to enquire if there were other aircraft in the area, he was informed by the operator not only wasn’t there any other craft, but the interference on the communication line was some of the worst he had witnessed.
Around 20 minutes later, on board the USS Tillamock slight to the south of Kodiak, came the first visual confirmations of the incident. One of the on-duty personnel on the deck of the vessel would report seeing a “very fast-moving red glow light”. What’s more, the object appeared to circle the Kodiak region. Another member of the crew then came to the deck and also witnessed the bizarre object for around 30 seconds. Bizarrely, no sound whatsoever came from the glowing craft.
At 4:40 am – two hours after first noticing the strange activity – Lt. Smith was still experiencing problems with his onboard systems. However, he would notice another read on the radar. One that moved so fast that it “left a trail on the screen”. When Smith notified his crew, they would witness the object visually.
It made some bizarre maneuvers in the sky and appeared to be moving somewhere in the region of 2,000 miles per hour. General descriptions of the craft were of “two orange lights rotating around a common center”.
After heading toward his plane following a sudden sharp turn, the object disappeared from sight.
Photographer films cigar-shaped UFO that turns into ring-shaped UFO
On September 28, 2019 the photographer captured from an unknown location a long bright object in the sky when suddenly a flash of light illuminates the sky.
Directly after the flash the cigar-shaped object seems to have changed into a ring-shaped object.
Immediately after the flash on which the cigar-shaped object turns into a ring-shaped UFO object starts at the 1.47 mark in the video.
NASA Probes a Video Showing a UFO Rapidly Moving in a Spanish City
An interesting video that shows a UFO moving fast over the Spanish city of Alicante has reportedly attracted the attention of the primary state-run American space agency.
The footage was reportedly shot during an electrical storm that engulfed the city recently. Alejandro Molla, a local computer scientist, was the one who captured the video.
Molla reportedly suffered the bad weather, which resulted in his sleepless night. He decided to record the incredible lightning show in the sky instead. After creating some video files, he noticed he had recorded on video something mysterious rapidly moving behind the clouds.
The clip shows an apparent silver disc looping through the clouds. Spanish news outlet Agencia 6 broadcasted the controversial video and Molla claimed that NASA filed an official request for the original copies of the video to the Spanish news outlet.
NASA is now reportedly investigating the incident through the video.
Meanwhile, some UFO enthusiasts have suggested that this specific sighting is evidence of an extraterrestrial spacecraft approaching the Earth for regular recharging, using the storm’s electric energy.
According to numerous writings and oral legends of Native American tribes, a race of ‘White Giants’ existed in the distant past. Interestingly, similar accounts of Giants existing on Earth in the distant past can be found all around the world.
There are numerous legends among various Native American tribes, from the Comanches in the north to other tribes in the south, which speak of a mysterious race of white-skinned giants who inhabited North America thousands of years ago, before mysteriously vanishing from the face of the planet.
In his book “History of the Choctaw Indians, Chickasaw and Natchez” (1899), Horatio Bardwell Cushman writes: “The tradition of the Choctaws . . Told of a race of giants that once inhabited the now State of Tennessee, and with whom their ancestors fought when they arrived in Mississippi in their migration from the west. … Their tradition states the Nahullo ( a race of giants) was of wonderful stature.”
Cushman stated that, over time, the term “Nahullo” became common to refer to all white people, but originally, the term was used to designate a race of white giants with which the Choctaws fought after crossing the Mississippi River.
There is plenty of evidence today which suggests that Giant beings did, in fact, walk on Earth.
Interestingly, according to an account in 1857, Chief Rolling Thunder of the Comanche said:
“Innumerable moons ago, a race of white men, 10 feet high, and far more rich and powerful than any white people now living, here inhabited a large range of country, extending from the rising to the setting sun. Their fortifications crowned the summits of the mountains, protecting their populous cities situated in the intervening valleys. “They excelled every other nation which was flourished, either before or since, in all manner of cunning handicraft—were brave and warlike—ruling over the land they had wrested from its ancient owners with a high and haughty hand. Compared with them the palefaces of the present day were pygmies, in both art and arms. …” (source)
According to the Comanche chief, a Great Spirit wiped out the White Giants when they forgot all about justice and mercy, becoming too proud.
The Navajo are another ancient tribe that offers evidence of Giants walking the Earth. The Navajo speak of a rave of ‘white giants’ called the Starnake people, describing them as a “regal race of white giants endowed with mining technology who dominated the West, enslaved lesser tribes, and had strongholds all through the Americas. They were either extinguished or ‘went back to the heavens.’”
The mysterious Starnake were either extinguished or “went back to the heavens.” The name may be a corruption of the Biblical race known as Anakim (Num. 13:33, Deut. 1:28). The name Og (Hebrew “chief”) appears to be characteristic (see Zimmerman, pp. 188-91). The ogham alphabet is attributed to this cultural founder. (Source)
However, more stories of White Giants can be found in numerous other accounts of ancient North-American tribes. The Choctaw also happen to mention the mystery giants. According to the Choctaw tribe, in that, is now known as Tennesee, a race of giants dominated the land in the distant past. It is said that their ancestors fought against them when they arrived in Mississippi during their westward migration.
Interestingly the Paiutes have oral legends that speak of red-haired giants, white cannibals that stood above 10 feet in height inhabiting the Lovelock Cave, in Nevada. Interestingly, in the past, archaeologists have discovered remains of people with red hair in the region.
In what is now modern-day Mexico, Ancient Aztec legends also happen to mention the existence of a race of giants.
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In Aztec mythology, these giants are referred to as the Quinametzin.
The ruler of the Giants was, according to some versions of the myth, the god Tlaloc. Interestingly, the Quinametzin were believed to be the builders of the city of Teotihuacan and Tlachihualtepetl. The ‘Tlaxcaltecas’ recounted that, near the time of the Spanish Conquest, they themselves had fought the last Quinametzin on Earth.
If we travel to South America, we will find that the ancient Manta people of Peru, speak of a race of giants that in the distant past, coexisted with them.
Their legend says that: “There arrived on the coast, in boats made of reeds, as big as large ships, a party of men of such size that, from the knee downwards, their height was as great as the entire height of an ordinary man, though he might be of good stature.
Their limbs were all in proportion to the deformed size of their bodies, and it was a monstrous thing to see their heads, with hair reaching to the shoulders. Their eyes were as large as small plates.” (Source)
Mars rovers being launched next summer WILL find life on the red planet, Nasa's chief scientist predicts - but he warns Earth is not prepared for the 'revolutionary' discovery
Europe's ExoMars Rover and NASA's Mars 2020 rover will be launched in March
The vehicles will drill down in to rock formations to search for organic matter
Dr Jim Green, a scientist working on both rovers, says Earth is not prepared
Alien life could be discovered in less than two years but the world is 'not prepared for the results', NASA's chief scientist says.
Europe's ExoMars Rover, which has been named Rosalind in memory of British chemist Rosalind Franklin, will be launched with NASA's rover Mars 2020 in March.
They will search for extraterrestrial life and organic matter by targeting rock formations, with the ExoMars drilling 6.5ft in to Mars' core to extract samples.
Signs of life could be found within months of their arrival on Mars in March 2021, Dr Jim Green, a scientist working with both missions told the Sunday Telegraph.
Europe's ExoMars Rover, which has been named Rosalind in memory of British chemist Rosalind Franklin, will be launched with NASA's rover Mars 2020 in March. Pictured, an artist's impression of the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter and its entry, landing and descent module
But the 'revolutionary' discovery will 'start a whole new line of thinking' and Dr Green says: 'I don't think we're prepared for the results.'
Questions about whether humans can move between planets and what other life is like will be sparked by the breakthrough.
When Europe's ExoMars rover lands on Mars the core samples it extracts will be broken up and examined for organic matter.
NASA's rover will drill in to rock formations on the surface of the planet before sending test tubes filled with these samples back to earth.
Signs of life could be found within months of their arrival on Mars in March 2021, Dr Jim Green, a scientist working with both missions told the Sunday Telegraph
It will be the first time Martian matter is brought onto this planet.
Scientists will be specifically looking for the 300 minerals that can only be created by life and will focus the search around the site of the ancient Martian ocean.
'When environments get extreme, life moves into the rocks,' Dr Green added.
Earlier this year scientists detected the first geological evidence of a system of water reservoirs deep beneath the surface of Mars.
The study on data from the Mars Express satellite revealed the extent of the former underground lakes based on features at the bottom of deep craters.
‘Early Mars was a watery world, but as the planet’s climate changed this water retreated below the surface to form pools and “groundwater,”’ said lead author Francesco Salese of Utrecht University, in the Netherlands.
‘We traced this water in our study, as its scale and role is a matter of debate, and we found the first geological evidence of a planet-wide groundwater system.’
In the study published to the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, researchers investigated 24 deep, enclosed craters in Mars’ northern hemisphere.
Each of these craters dip down to roughly 4,000 meters below Martian ‘sea level’ – which scientists have defined based on elevation and atmospheric pressure.
Numerous features seen on the crater floors at depths of 4,000-4,500 meters are suggestive of water, with evidence of pools and flows that changed over time.
This includes channels, valleys, curved deltas, ridged terraces, and fan-shaped deposits of sediments.
According to the researchers, the levels indicated by the crater features line up with predictions for the shorelines of a Martian ocean that’s thought to have existed three to four billion years ago.
The European Space Agency's ExoMars rover being prepared to leave Airbus in Stevenage. The ExoMars 2020 rover Rosalind Franklin is Europe's first planetary rover and will search for signs of past or present life on Mars
'The bottom line is where there is water there is life', says Dr Green. Scientists believe if there used to be water on Mars then there could also have been life.
It comes just a week after never-seen-before bursts of magnetic energy on Mars puzzled astronomers.
The magnetometer fixed to the cutting-edge NASA InSight spacecraft detected a bizarre jump in pulsations on the surface of the planet at nighttime.
Since November 2018, the InSight capsule has been harvesting information from the Red Planet - including recording the ferocity of so-called 'Marsquakes' and taking the temperature of its upper crust.
And scientists have not yet determined the causes behind the sudden magnetic pulses, which were 20 times stronger than previous observations, according to National Geographic.
A working prototype of the newly named Rosalind Franklin ExoMars rover at the Airbus Defence and Space facility in Stevenage, north of London
However the baffling aspect of these most recent findings was the clockwork-like frequency of the midnight pulses.
The InSight lander is currently placed on Mars's equator. On Earth's equator, no such pulses have ever been recorded.
A team from California University presented their paper at the European Planetary Science Congress annual meeting.
They wrote: 'The nighttime continuous pulsations found by InSight FluxGate are unexpected because they are distinct from what are typically observed on the Earth's surface at the same local time.'
The lander expedition also revealed there is a two-mile thick layer deep below Mars's surface capable of conducting electricity.
It is thought this could be a body of water, but that has not been confirmed.
Boeing's planned hypersonic airliner could fly from NYC to London in two hours
The ultra-fast plane would be capable of flying five times the speed of sound.
Boeing says the first passenger-carrying hypersonic plane could be ready to fly in 20 to 30 years.Boeing
By Denise Chow
Boeing has unveiled plans for what could be the world’s first hypersonic airliner, a sleek, futuristic-looking craft that the Seattle-based company said would be capable of flying five times the speed of sound, or about 3,800 miles per hour.
At that speed — Mach 5 in aviation parlance — it would be possible to travel from New York City to London in about two hours instead of the eight hours the trip takes on a conventional airliner.
That means someone could conceivably fly overseas for a meeting and return home in a single day.
“Humankind has always wanted to go faster — always wanted to do things faster,” said Kevin Bowcutt, chief scientist of hypersonics at Boeing. “People cannot make time, so there’s an inherent value in time.”
The as-yet-unnamed plane would be much faster not only than conventional airliners, which cruise at about 550 miles an hour, but also the supersonic Concorde aircraft that flew routes across the North Atlantic Ocean from 1976 to 2003. Concorde, produced by a British-French consortium, could reach Mach 2.04, meaning the New York City-London trip took just under four hours.
Boeing’s proposed plane, described in broad strokes at an industry conference in Atlanta this week, could be used for military applications as well as commercial aviation. But it might take 20 to 30 years to take to the skies, Bowcutt said.
Supersonic and hypersonic (meaning five times the speed of sound or faster) have been hyped as the next era of commercial aviation since at least the 1950s. But with the exception of the Concorde, which was permanently grounded three years after a deadly crash in France, building such airplanes has proven to be an elusive goal.
“It’s been a dream for a while now,” said Stuart Craig, an assistant professor of aerospace and mechanical engineering at the University of Arizona, who is not affiliated with Boeing. “We’ve been striving for this hypersonic technology for the better part of half a century, but in recent years, advances in computational technology and materials technology have made it much more in grasp.”
One key question for Boeing and other aircraft manufacturers will be whether airline passengers would be willing to pay the higher ticket prices that hypersonic air travel would command.
High prices, along with limited routes, played a role in the demise of the Concorde, said Mike Sinnett, Boeing’s vice president of future airplane development. “We can do all kinds of cool things, but those cool things have to lead to something that creates value, or at the end of the day it’s not going to be all that successful,” he said. “In general, people flew on [the Concorde] as a novelty — it didn’t change the world, and the economics weren’t right.”
But Craig said new technologies and designs for supersonic and hypersonic aircraft are making high-speed air travel more attractive to travelers.
The Concorde’s routes were limited in part because regulators barred supersonic travel over populated areas to protect people on the ground from hearing the loud sonic booms that the plane created. But in the years since the Concorde’s retirement, Craig said researchers at NASA and elsewhere have made significant strides in mitigating sonic booms caused by supersonic and hypersonic craft.
As for what it would be like to experience a hypersonic flight, Bowcutt said it would be a lot like flying in a conventional jet — but with a few key differences.
Rather than cruising at 30,000 to 40,000 feet, as is typical for conventional airliners, a hypersonic craft like the one proposed by Boeing would cruise at 90,000 to 95,000 feet.
“At that altitude, you’re going to see the curvature of the Earth below you,” Bowcutt said. “You won’t see the entire Earth, but you will see the curvature — and above you, you’ll have the blackness of space. It’s also a very smooth ride because there isn’t atmospheric turbulence at that altitude.”
But while there would be less turbulence, more time would be needed to accelerate to Mach 5. On a conventional airline flight, passengers feel the sensation of being pushed back in their seats for about a minute or so during and shortly after takeoff. On a hypersonic flight, Bowcutt said, that sensation would last for about 12 minutes.
NASA proof of aliens? Did NASA photograph a flying bird on Mars? UFO expert stunned
NASA’S Curiosity Mars Rover has photographed an unexpected anomaly amid the Red Planet’s rocky surface – an terrestrial bird seemingly in flight, which a UFO expert claims could be proof Curiosity is not on Mars at all.
US space agency NASA has been exploring the Gale Crater on Mars since 2012 via its car-sized Curiosity rover. The NASA rover’s comprehensive mission involves examining the apparently arid Martian climate and geology and even assessing whether microbial forms of alien life ever existed on the Red Planet. Now a prominent UFO conspiracy theorist believes the NASA Curiosity Rover has captured a flying bird in one of its Red Planet photos.
Well-known alien life hunter and UFO conspiracy theorist Scott C Waring took to his etdatabase.com blog to broadcast his outlandish claims.
He wrote: “This flying bird on Mars was found by Marcelo Irazusta who actually found a bird flying across the surface of Mars captured last week by the Curiosity Rover!
Either animals exist on Mars or ... the rover might not be on Mars at all, but on Devon Island
Scott Waring
“This is impossible, and yet, there it is … captured in a photo on a NASA website.
“The Curiosity Rover has a 13 minute delay from the time they push the keys on Earth to the time rover gets it.
“So if this is a large bird, then it was taken by accident and was probably not in that area for long.
NASA proof of aliens? A UFO hunter claims to have spotted a bird in flight on Mars
(Image: NASA/Getty)
NASA proof of aliens? The so-called sighting is little more than a black speck
(Image: NASA)
“Of course it could be a UFO – aliens like to use nature to inspire their structures and ships.’
The so-called sighting is little more than a black speck showing up against a great sky in the black and white photograph taken on Sol 2446.
Mr Waring speculated about the potential ramifications of such a dubious find.
He wrote: “It looks like a soaring eagle … which if this is true, it may mean one of two things.
“Either animals exist on Mars or – and I hate this idea, but it needs to be considered – the rover might not be on Mars at all, but on Devon island in Canada.
“Devon is a desolate island area with only a handful of people and NASA has gone there many times to test the rovers in a environment similar to Mars.”
Devon Island is the world's largest uninhabited island selected by NASA for testing its Mars exploration technology.
This is because Devon Island’s harsh climate mimics the environmental conditions on Mars and other planets.
Unexpected anomalies on photographs taken on Mars and the Moon and beamed back to Earth for further examination by NASA are nothing new.
NASA proof of aliens? Curiosity rover has roamed 13.38 miles (21.58km) on Mars
(Image: NASA)
NASA proof of aliens? Ironically, NASA is confident of discovering microbial forms of life on Marsl
(Image: Getty)
However, the reality of the anomaly is far more prosaic.
Camera lens flares, cosmic rays or just reflected sunlight are the most likely candidates for the Mars anomaly.
Cosmic rays are formed by highly charged atomic particles, often travelling from outside the solar system, which are capable of producing tricks of the light on impact.
Cosmic rays are more common on Mars than on Earth due to the Red Planet's thin atmosphere which offers little resistance to such cosmic radiation.
AFP‘The Starship’ moet mensen tot bij de maan, Mars en ook nog verder brengen.
WETENSCHAP & PLANEET Ruimtevaartpionier Elon Musk heeft op zijn lanceerbasis in Texas een SpaceX-prototype gepresenteerd van een ruimtetuig dat op termijn onder meer een bemande reis naar de maan of naar Mars moet kunnen maken. Volgens Musk kan de eerste proefvlucht van zijn ‘Starship’ al over één of twee maanden plaatsvinden.
Starship ziet eruit als een roestvrijstalen kogel met twee vinnen aan de onderkant en drie motoren. Het ruimteschip is bijna 50 meter hoog, 9 meter breed en zou voorlopig tot zo’n 20 kilometer hoogte kunnen vliegen. Binnen een half jaar moet een hoogte van 200 kilometer kunnen worden gehaald, waardoor officieel sprake is van een ruimtevlucht. En op termijn moet het tuig mensen en vracht naar pakweg overal in ons zonnestelsel kunnen brengen.
De bedoeling is dat Starship ook weer veilig terugkeert op aarde en hergebruikt wordt. Volgens Musk is dat de enige manier om ruimtevaart rendabel te krijgen.
APElon Musk presenteert zijn nieuwe ruimtevaartuig. De presentatie werd gehouden op de elfde verjaardag van de eerste lancering van de Falcon, de eerste commerciële ruimteraket van Musk.
Starship zal tot honderd - jawel, honderd - mensen naar de maan, Mars of andere bestemmingen kunnen brengen. En terugbrengen. Ook vrachtvervoer is mogelijk, wat de bouw van een basis op de natuurlijke satelliet van de aarde, of Mars, al wat dichterbij brengt.
Het ruimteschip kan niet zelf de ruimte in gaan. Het heeft daarvoor een enorme eerste trap nodig die de naam Super Heavy kreeg (eveneens herbruikbaar), en die uiteindelijk zelf ook de bekende commerciële ruimteraket Falcon naar de geschiedenisboeken kan verwijzen. Naargelang de aard van de missie is het aantal Raptor-motoren van het gevaarte aan te passen, tot 37 stuks als het nodig is, en minimaal wellicht 24. Met als nieuwigheid ook dat die op methaan draaien.
AFP
AFP
Vanaf 2025 al naar Mars?
SpaceX maakt zich sterk al vanaf 2025 mensen naar de rode planeet te kunnen brengen, terwijl het Amerikaanse ruimtevaartbureau NASA pas ten vroegste in de jaren dertig een bemande missie naar Mars voor mogelijk acht.
Nog veel dichterbij hoopt het bedrijf volgens de gezaghebbende website space.com al binnen een half jaar een prototype van Starship in een baan rondom onze planeet brengen. Indien het testprogramma naar wens verloopt, kunnen al volgend jaar of zo mensen ermee reizen.
SpaceX✔@SpaceX
11 years ago today, we launched our first successful mission. To date, we’ve completed 78 launches and have developed the world’s only operational reusable orbital class rockets and spacecraft—capable of launching to space, returning to Earth, and flying again
Starship at our launch facility in Cameron County, Texas. Watch as @elonmusk gives an update on the vehicle today at ~7:00 p.m. CDT → http://spacex.com/webcast
Why does Venus’ upper atmosphere circle the planet in just 4 Earth-days, while the planet itself takes 243 Earth-days to spin once? Japan’s Akatsuki spacecraft probed the mysterious “super-rotation” of Venus’ clouds.
Venus dayside in false color via PLANET-C Project Team/ EuroPlanet.
Japan’s Akatsuki spacecraft – aka the Venus Climate Orbiter – got off a rocky start but has been sending back useful data from Venus for several years now. Akatsuki launched in May, 2010, but failed to enter orbit around Venus in December of that year. Space engineers saved the day with a 20-minute firing of the craft’s attitude control thrusters, placing the craft into an alternative orbit around Venus – albeit a highly elliptical one – five years later, in 2015. This month, at the EPSC-DPS Joint Meeting 2019 in Geneva, Switzerland, Kiichi Fukuya of the University of Tokyo reported on new insights into the mysterious super-rotation of Venus’ atmosphere, made possible by Akatsuki’s data. That is, the upper atmosphere of Venus rotates around the planet much faster than the planet spins; the atmosphere rotates around the planet in just 4 Earth-days, while the planet itself takes 243 Earth-days to spin once.
Fukuuya said:
The most exciting discovery is the frequent occurrence of equator-ward motions [of the atmosphere] on the nightside. This is in contrast to the strong poleward circulation on the dayside we have observed previously at other wavelengths.
Overall, these scientists reported that data from Akatsuki show:
… striking variety in wind speeds year-on-year and between the planet’s northern and southern hemispheres.
Takeshi Horinouchi of Hokkaido University, Japan, and Yeon Joo Lee of JAXA/ISAS and TU Berlin also detected planetary-scale atmospheric waves at the cloud tops, which may interact with the super-rotation. For these studies they used:
… advanced cloud-tracking and quality control techniques to analyze with high accuracy the direction and speed of cloud top winds using data collected by [Akatsuki’s] Ultraviolet Imager instrument over three years.
And they said the difference they observed in Venus winds between the planet’s hemispheres might be linked to a second mystery at Venus: an as-yet unidentified chemical in the atmosphere that strongly absorbs ultraviolet radiation from the sun. You might know that Venus is considered Earth’s “twin” in size and desnity. It’s a world very similar to Earth in many ways, but its atmosphere sets it apart. The atmosphere of Venus – which is mostly carbon dioxide – is extremely dense and hot; atmospheric pressure on Venus’ surface is some 90 times that of Earth. This as-yet-unknown ultraviolet absorber in the atmosphere is interesting to these scientists because its variability in Venus’ atmosphere might cause the asymmetry in wind speeds between the planet’s northern and southern hemispheres. Thus the scientists commented:
Our results provide new questions about the atmosphere of Venus, as well as revealing the richness of variety of the Venus atmosphere over space and time.
Artist’s concept of Akatsuki in orbit around Venus.
New insights on Venus’ cloud-tops and super-rotation
Venus
The article here notes that: ‘The atmosphere of Venus – which is mostly carbon dioxide – is extremely dense and hot; atmospheric pressure on Venus’ surface is some 90 times that of Earth.’ An extremely dense atmosphere with enormous atmospheric pressure is always going to be hot, regardless of its composition. Just a thought, but maybe it needs a lot of convection (wind) to offset the heat.
Why does Venus’ upper atmosphere circle the planet in just 4 Earth-days, while the planet itself takes 243 Earth-days to spin once?
Japan’s Akatsuki spacecraft probed the mysterious “super-rotation” of Venus’ clouds, reports EarthSky.org.
The spacecraft – aka the Venus Climate Orbiter – got off a rocky start but has been sending back useful data from Venus for several years now.
Akatsuki launched in May, 2010, but failed to enter orbit around Venus in December of that year. Space engineers saved the day with a 20-minute firing of the craft’s attitude control thrusters, placing the craft into an alternative orbit around Venus – albeit a highly elliptical one – five years later, in 2015.
This month, at the EPSC-DPS Joint Meeting 2019 in Geneva, Switzerland, Kiichi Fukuya of the University of Tokyo reported on new insights into the mysterious super-rotation of Venus’ atmosphere, made possible by Akatsuki’s data.
That is, the upper atmosphere of Venus rotates around the planet much faster than the planet spins; the atmosphere rotates around the planet in just 4 Earth-days, while the planet itself takes 243 Earth-days to spin once. Fukuuya said:
The most exciting discovery is the frequent occurrence of equator-ward motions [of the atmosphere] on the nightside. This is in contrast to the strong poleward circulation on the dayside we have observed previously at other wavelengths.
Overall, these scientists reported that data from Akatsuki show:
… striking variety in wind speeds year-on-year and between the planet’s northern and southern hemispheres.
Takeshi Horinouchi of Hokkaido University, Japan, and Yeon Joo Lee of JAXA/ISAS and TU Berlin also detected planetary-scale atmospheric waves at the cloud tops, which may interact with the super-rotation. For these studies they used:
… advanced cloud-tracking and quality control techniques to analyze with high accuracy the direction and speed of cloud top winds using data collected by [Akatsuki’s] Ultraviolet Imager instrument over three years.
And they said the difference they observed in Venus winds between the planet’s hemispheres might be linked to a second mystery at Venus: an as-yet unidentified chemical in the atmosphere that strongly absorbs ultraviolet radiation from the sun.
You might know that Venus is considered Earth’s “twin” in size and density. It’s a world very similar to Earth in many ways, but its atmosphere sets it apart. The atmosphere of Venus – which is mostly carbon dioxide – is extremely dense and hot; atmospheric pressure on Venus’ surface is some 90 times that of Earth.
This as-yet-unknown ultraviolet absorber in the atmosphere is interesting to these scientists because its variability in Venus’ atmosphere might cause the asymmetry in wind speeds between the planet’s northern and southern hemispheres.
Weird blue UFO lights moving through the sky over Louveciennes, France
On September 25, 2019 a resident of Louveciennes in France noticed unidentified blue lights moving through the sky on which she started to film the weird phenomenon.
Like many other people who have been witnessed a similar phenomenon, also the resident of Louveciennes wonders what it might have been.
This sky phenomenon has been going on for a while and nobody knows where it comes from or what it could be.
Some of the weirdest and most controversial supposed ancient artifacts of the world are the numerous crystal skulls of Mexico and Central America, mysterious items that have spurred all kinds of debate amongst scientists, archeologists, and indeed those in the field of the paranormal. The skulls themselves are typically life-sized and fashioned in great detail out of clear or smoky colored quartz crystal, often with movable jaws and painstakingly carved and ground, and their origins are just about as mysterious as their appearance. One of these crystal skulls in particular has long been associated with magical powers, curses, and mysteries, and has remained debated and discussed to this day.
Typically, crystal skulls are said to have been made many thousands of years ago in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, mostly said to come from the Aztec or Maya civilizations, and there is supposedly much legend and lore surrounding them to drive their mystique. One of the most popular legends regarding the crystal skulls is that they were forged not from human hands, but through thought alone, and that they contain vast stores of mystical knowledge, receptacles for the ancient wisdom of the gods. It was said that these skulls could speak, sing, and project telepathic thoughts, and that they also held great magical powers beyond comprehension. According to this legend, there are 13 original crystal skulls, each containing the souls of the ancients, and that if they are ever brought together they will teach us the answers to the great mysteries of the universe.
While this sounds like just a bunch of spooky legend and myth, there are indeed many crystal skulls in collections which are said to have paranormal powers orbiting them. By far the most well-known individual crystal skull was purportedly discovered in 1924 inside the ruins of a pyramid in the ancient Mayan city of Lubaantun, in what is now called Belize. The skull was allegedly found by Anna Mitchell-Hedges, the adopted daughter of famed British adventurer F.A. Mitchell-Hedges, as they were exploring an ancient Mayan pyramid in what was then called British Honduras. She would claim that she had snuck out to climb up the pyramid, and that as she had reached the top she had spied something glinting down in the darkness of a crack in the pyramid.
After telling her father of what she had seen she allegedly went with him the next morning to see what it was. Since the crack could not be accessed easily, they went about moving stones until there was enough of an opening to send young Anna to squeeze into a gloomy passageway leading into a collapsed temple, where she could see something glinting in the light of her lamp. When she examined it closer she could see that it was an exquisite skull made of scintillating pure crystal, almost completely transparent, which she described as unreal and “the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.” The skull itself, when examined, was found to be about the size of a small human skull, measuring 5 inches (13 cm) high, 7 inches (18 cm) long and 5 inches (13 cm) wide, and was thought to be extremely old. F.A. Mitchell Hedges would later write of what he called “The Skull of Doom” his 1954 memoir Danger My Ally:
It is at least 3,600 years old and according to legend it was used by the High Priest of the Maya when he was performing esoteric rites. It is said that when he willed death with the help of the skull, death invariably followed. It has been described as the embodiment of all evil. I do not wish to try and explain this phenomenon.
In the years after its discovery, the skull was said to have various supernatural powers, such as glowing in the dark or projecting images as if it were a film projector, or to even implant visions directly into the mind, and is was also said to have healing abilities and to be able to read the future or manipulate the emotions of those who gazed upon it. Anna would over the years make several bold and incredible claims, such as that the skull could be used to kill a person with a thought, that it could cure cancer, and even that she had predicted the assassination of John F. Kennedy. When her father died in 1959, Anna took the mysterious skull on tour, where its ethereal, unearthly quality mesmerized throngs of curiosity seekers, and it became a popular topic for TV programs, newspaper articles, and books. This new found popularity launched the crystal skull into the popular consciousness, and all manner of wild theories swirled, such as that it was an artifact from the lost continent of Atlantis or that it had been made by aliens. However, by this time there had never really been any scientific analysis of it done.
Anna’s crystal skull
Despite the years of mystery it was providing, it was not until the 1960s that any careful analysis would be done on what was by then called the Mitchell-Hedges skull, when it was examined by art restorer and expert in quartz crystals Frank Dorland. He carefully looked at the skull and determined that it had been crafted without the use of any noticeable metal tools, as it displayed no scratch or buff marks at all. He theorized that it had been first roughly shaped out of a lump of quartz and then painstakingly sanded away by hand over a period of 150 to 300 years, speculating that it could be over 12,000 years old.
This was curious enough, but an even more in-depth analysis would be carried out in 1970, when the skull was submitted for testing by Hewlett-Packard’s crystal laboratories in Santa Clara, California. They found that the skull was composed of a single large piece of quartz, and that it was devoid of markings from machine tools except for some grinding on the teeth. It was deemed to be a work of art that would be very difficult to recreate even with modern technology, which only further deepened the mystery. The skull was also found to have some other odd properties, such as that it had positive and negative polarity and could produce an electrical charge under mechanical stress, as well as that it harbored strange optical qualities that caused light shone under it to project from the eye sockets and for reflections of the surroundings to be contained within it. Indeed, these phenomena convinced Dorland that through its electrical and optic capabilities the skull “triggered certain reflexes in the brain,” which could explain some of its supposed supernatural powers.
Anna would go on to continue to stand by the skull’s authenticity and magical powers all of her life, and many New Agers also stood by her, believing the skull to have been fashioned by some ancient advanced technology or even aliens. Anna frequently gave interviews about the skull, and maintained that she received potent visions through it, that spirits used it to communicate to her, and that it had extended her life. Indeed, she would live to the ripe old age of 100, after which the skull would fall under the ownership of her younger husband, Bill Homann, who continued to keep the mystique and legend of the crystal skull alive.
Anna Mitchell-Hedges and her crystal skull
It is all a very strange odyssey for a very unique artifact, but in more recent years there has been quite a lot of skepticism aimed at the purported powers and origins of the Mitchell-Hedges skull, and indeed the phenomenon of crystal skulls in general. Pertaining to Anna’s skull, the story becomes immediately suspicious when one realizes that her father, F.A. Mitchell-Hedges, makes only one mention of the skull in all of his writings, that single passage in Danger My Ally, and there is no mention of where or by whom it was found or what had happened to it. Considering he wrote extensively and enthusiastically about his exploits at Lubaantun this seems like an odd omission. In fact, there is no actual mention of the skull by any of the others present at the dig, and there is doubt that Anna was even ever at the dig at all. Furthermore, in later years it would be found that the crystal skull had likely been purchased by her father from a Sotheby’s auction in London on October 15, 1943, after which his well-known penchant for telling tall tales of the mysterious had gotten the better of him.
This is all pretty damning evidence against Anna’s claims of having found it in a collapsed chamber of a mysterious ancient Mayan pyramid, and it is thought that she more or less made the whole thing up. Considering that the tales only really started to come out after F.A. Mitchell-Hedges’ death, it is very likely that she merely crafted this amazing tale around her father’s crystal skull, with further embellishments added over the years. Further unraveling the whole tale is the fact that it seems that the skull was almost definitely not a pre-Columbian artifact at all, but a modern fake.
Crystal skull at the British Museum
Although we have been mostly focused on the Mitchell-Hedges skull there are others in museums around the world as well, such as one at the Musée del’Homme’s in Paris and also at The British Museum, among others, and in more recent times these have been analyzed with more advanced techniques such as electron microscopes, X-ray crystallography, and CT scans. The results have shown that the skulls do indeed seem to have been worked with some sort of modern jeweler’s rotary tool, which would use an abrasive substance such as corundum or diamond spun at high speeds with a metal tool to polish and carve the object, and this analysis puts them at no older than the 19th century. It has therefore been supposed that the Mitchell-Hedges crystal skull is the same way, possibly even a direct copy of the skull at the British Museum, although widely regarded as of better craftsmanship. It is thought that these skulls were probably fashioned in Germany in the 19th century and then later found their way to Mexico, where they were sold as curios and the legends subsequently took off around their otherworldly weirdness. This fits in with the fact that none of the known skulls on display are from recognized excavation digs, and there is additionally no verified ancient legends associated with them, meaning that there is a very good possibility that every single one of them is not pre-Columbian at all, but rather faked using modern techniques.
This has not stopped some people from believing that these are in fact ancient artifacts crafted by advanced lost civilizations or aliens. The fact that crystal cannot be dated through usual means males it so that it is impossible to know the true age of these skulls, and the presence of machine working to the believers only means that someone had access to such technology long before modern times. Therefore, the modern analysis has done little to discourage those who really believe, and there is still much talk of the crystal skulls, their origins, and there powers to this day. Who made these artifacts? Is it, as mainstream science asserts, that they are clever medorrn fakes? Or is there something more mysterious going on here? The debate goes on.
FOSSILS of the earliest known life on Earth have been discovered, according to a new study.
The mind-blowing 3.5billion-year-old fossils were found in the Australian desert but experts have struggled to confirm their identity until now.
The ancient fossilised microbe formations are called stromatolites and have finally been shown to contain traces of organic matter.
Geologist Raphael Baumgartner from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Australia explained: "This is an exciting discovery - for the first time, we're able to show the world that these stromatolites are definitive evidence for the earliest life on Earth."
Searching for fossilised microbes is so difficult because it's hard to tell whether you're looking at fossilised microbe formations or just natural folds in the rock.
The fossils in question were discovered at the Dresser Formation fossil site of the Pilbara region in Australia back in the 1980s.
The rock formations contained organic matter, which indicates that small living microbes made themCredit: Baumgartner et al / Geology
However, without modern technologies it was hard to prove the fossils weren't just plain old rocks.
A recent study in Greenland wrongly claimed to have found 3.7billion-year-old fossils, which turned out to just be rock creases.
The Australian study is different because it has definite evidence of organic matter to back it up as something must have been living in the rocks to produce it.
Baumgartner said: "The organic matter that we found preserved within pyrite of the stromatolites is exciting - we're looking at exceptionally preserved coherent filaments and strands that are typically remains of microbial biofilms.
"I was pretty surprised - we never expected to find this level of evidence before I started this project."
Perhaps the most exciting thing about the ancient microbe fossils is that they could point us to evidence of life on Mars.
This is because the deposits in the region of Australian desert in question are the same age as the crust of Mars.
Nasa has been investigating the Pilbara region to try and learn more about the geological signatures that could pinpoint the presence of stromatolites on the red planet.
It is likely that the fossilised organisms found lived in hot springs when they were alive and Mars does show evidence of its own ancient hot springs.
Signs that the organisms once lived include air bubbles created by the gases that they produced.
It can be difficult to tell whether stromatolite rock structures like this one were made by organisms or just occurred naturallyCredit: Getty - Contributor
Baumgartner concluded: "Understanding where life could have emerged is really important in order to understand our ancestry.
"And from there, it could help us understand where else life could have occurred – for example, where it was kick-started on other planets."
This research has been published in the journal Geology.
A timeline of life on Earth
The history of the planet in years...
4.6billion years ago – the origin of Earth
3.8billion years ago – first life appears on Earth
2.1billion years ago – lifeforms made up of multiple cells evolve
1.5billion years ago – eukaryotes, which are cells that contain a nucleus inside of their membranes, emerge
550million years ago – first arthropods evolve
530million years ago – first fish appear
470million years ago – first land plants appear
380million years ago – forests emerge on Earth
370million years ago – first amphibians emerge from the water onto land
Earliest life on Earth from billions of years ago has been discovered in an ancient Australian desert. What’s even more incredible is that it could have also lived on Mars.
The rock formations contained organic matter, which indicates that small living microbes made them
Credit: BAUMGARTNER ET AL / GEOLOGY
It can be difficult to tell whether stromatolite rock structures like this one were made by organisms or just occurred naturally
Credit: GETTY - CONTRIBUTOR
The 3.5 billion-year-old fossils were discovered at the Dresser Formation fossil site of the Pilbara region in the 1980s but only recently did the experts finally confirm what they actually were. There were small traces of organic matter found in the stromatolites (which are ancient fossilized microbe formations).
“This is an exciting discovery – for the first time, we’re able to show the world that these stromatolites are definitive evidence for the earliest life on Earth,” stated geologist Raphael Baumgartner who is from the University of New South Wales.
Pilbara Region, Australia
One of the biggest challenges in looking for fossilized microbes is that they look very similar to natural folds that are often found in rocks. In fact, that’s exactly what happened in Greenland when researchers claimed to have found 3.7 billion-year-old fossils but were instead just creases in the rock.
The discovery in the Australian desert has been proven to contain organic matter which means that something would have been living inside of the rocks in order to create the matter. “The organic matter that we found preserved within pyrite of the stromatolites is exciting – we’re looking at exceptionally preserved coherent filaments and strands that are typically remains of microbial biofilms,” explained Baumgartner. Their researched was published in the journal Geology and can be read in full here.
He went on to say that he was quite surprised at the evidence they uncovered. Another surprising fact is that this evidence suggests that there could be life on Mars because the crust on the Red Planet is the same age as the deposits found in the Australian desert. In fact, NASA has even been studying the geological signatures in Australia’s Pilbara region in order to get a better understanding of stromatolites possibly being present on Mars. It is believed that the fossilized organisms found in Australia once lived in hot springs and there has been evidence found that strongly suggests that Mars once had hot springs.
The fossils discovered in Australia suggest that Mars could also have life.
Baumgartner finished off by saying, “Understanding where life could have emerged is really important in order to understand our ancestry,” adding, “And from there, it could help us understand where else life could have occurred – for example, where it was kick-started on other planets.”
Since Earth was formed 4.6 billion years ago and the earliest life form has been found in Australia from 3.5 billion years ago is quite an astonishing discovery.
A timeline of life on Earth
The history of the planet in years...
4.6billion years ago – the origin of Earth
3.8billion years ago – first life appears on Earth
2.1billion years ago – lifeforms made up of multiple cells evolve
1.5billion years ago – eukaryotes, which are cells that contain a nucleus inside of their membranes, emerge
550million years ago – first arthropods evolve
530million years ago – first fish appear
470million years ago – first land plants appear
380million years ago – forests emerge on Earth
370million years ago – first amphibians emerge from the water onto land
This newly discovered species of nematode is considered an extremophile--it thrives under high-salt, high-pH, arsenic-rich conditions that are otherwise hostile to life. But it is surprisingly versatile because it can also live in "normal" conditions in the laboratory.
Credit: Caltech
‘Alien’ Worm With Three Sexes Discovered in Hostile California Lake
Before you start screaming, “How do you known it’s an alien?”, tell me what other Earth species has three sexes? And can survive 500 times the lethal human does of arsenic? And can live in a lake with only two other species in water three times as salty as the ocean? And gives birth to its young like a kangaroo? Go ahead … google away. I’ll wait.
Finished? Find anything? Then it’s an alien, right? Or at least an “alien.”
“Arsenic resistance is something we can study in the lab, but maybe that’s not the most interesting part of the story. The most important thing is that there’s this diversity of life in extreme environments that we just haven’t appreciated before.”
Paul Sternberg, Bren Professor of Biology at CalTech, is so respected in the field of nemotodes that he has a lab named after him, and that’s where he led a team of researchers in a search for any type of weird tiny worms that could live in the harsh waters of California’s Mono Lake — a salty, alkaline, arsenic-rich body of water known to be home to just two species: brine shrimp and diving alkali flies.
Mono Lake
Mono Lake has the world’s highest concentration of alkali flies – another strange species that takes its head off to emerge from its pupal stage and then puts it back on to become a fly. This didn’t bother the native Kutzadika’a people whose name means “fly eater” and … you can figure the rest of it out.
Back to the aliens. Researchers at the Sternberg lab like to look for extremophiles — organisms that live and thrive in conditions unsuitable for most other life forms. Since nemotodes (roundworms) are the most abundant creatures on Earth, and since those are their specialty, that’s what Paul Sternberg and his lab assistants looked for in Mono Lake. While they expected they might find one, they were surprised to find eight different species of nemotodes. And they were shocked at the unique characteristics of one of them.
“One species, Auanema sp., is new, culturable, and survives 500 times the human lethal dose of arsenic.”
As the study, published in Current Biology and described in a CalTech press release, points out, Auanema sp. has three sexes – male, female and hermaphrodite – and gives birth to its young live instead of in eggs. It’s now the most dominant species in a lake so hostile, it only has two others.
So, is it an alien?
“Understanding biodiversity is important for so many reasons: many organisms can act like canaries in a coal mine, alerting us to danger. Others can teach us how to thrive under what seem to be harsh conditions: chemicals, temperature, acidity or alkalinity, salt, radiation, you name it. Also, there are so many mysteries about life: each species has an interesting story to tell us.”
Sternberg hints that we don’t yet know the whole story about Auanema sp. It sounds like the kind of tough survivor like tardigrades that can survive in outer space – making it a prime candidate for panspermia … traveling to Earth from another planet.
Tardigrade
Did they? Who knows? In the meantime, the researchers at Sternberg lab will certainly be watching them to see how the three sexes have sex, not to mention trying to figure out how they survive. And we should be watching them too because … if something starts killing off the toughest creatures on Earth who can have sex three ways, what does the future hold for us?
One of the largest craters in our Solar System is found on the far side of the Moon’s south pole and it’s called Aitken basin. While it was previously thought that a large impact billions of years ago caused the crater, scientists now say that it couldn’t have been created by a meteor.
The gigantic oval-shaped crater that’s nearly the size of the United States is leaving scientists completely baffled as to how it got there. The crater has a depth of 8.1 miles, making it approximately six times deeper than it is wide.
The original theory was that a huge, fast meteor slammed into the Moon billions of years ago which caused huge chunks of the lunar’s mantle to be thrown across its surface. However, a new study conducted by the Chinese seemingly disproves that theory.
Aitken basin
When China’s Yutu-2 Moon rover landed in the Aitken basin in January, it collected six soil samples from the bottom of the crater. After analyzing them, the researchers believe that the soil samples were made up of crust and not from the Moon’s mantle. If their theory is correct, it would mean that the meteor that created Aitken basin did not hit hard enough to cause parts of the mantle to be scattered across the lunar surface.
“We are not seeing the mantle materials at the landing site as expected,” stated Dr. Hao Zhang, who is a planetary scientist at the China University of Geosciences. Their research has been published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters which can be read in full here.
Had the Moon been hit by a large, fast meteor, chunks of the mantle would still be scattered across the lunar surface even to this day. But since scientists are arguing that theory, what do they think caused Aitken basin?
Scientists now claim that a meteor couldn’t have caused the Moon’s Aitken basin.
Researchers have not given an alternate explanation as to what caused the gigantic crater, but the idea of a meteorite colliding with the Moon is the most likely reason. Instead of a full on impact to the Moon, the meteorite could have grazed the lunar surface hard enough to cause a crater but not so hard as to cause chunks of the mantle to be thrown across the surface.
This isn’t the only question surrounding Aitken basin, as just a few months ago, it was announced that a large chunk of metal five times bigger than Hawaii’s Big Island had been discovered embedded in the crater.
What's the difference between an asteroid, meteor and comet?
Here's what you need to know, according to Nasa...
Asteroid: An asteroid is a small rocky body that orbits the Sun. Most are found in the asteroid belt (between Mars and Jupiter) but they can be found anywhere (including in a path that can impact Earth)
Meteoroid: When two asteroids hit each other, the small chunks that break off are called meteoroids
Meteor: If a meteoroid enters the Earth's atmosphere, it begins to vapourise and then becomes a meteor. On Earth, it'll look like a streak of light in the sky, because the rock is burning up
Meteorite: If a meteoroid doesn't vapourise completely and survives the trip through Earth's atmosphere, it can land on the Earth. At that point, it becomes a meteorite
Comet: Like asteroids, a comet orbits the Sun. However rather than being made mostly of rock, a comet contains lots of ice and gas, which can result in amazing tails forming behind them (thanks to the ice and dust vapourising)
I was using the World Wide Telescope and discovered this strange object near Canis Major constellation. The object seems to be a fake sun with huge structures built at its center long cable like structures entering and exiting the glowing sphere. What I found here is a Dyson Sphere, a once hypothetical megastructure that completely encompasses a star and captures a large percentage of its power output.
A civilization might create such a sphere starting with one or two rings around the star. As time passed, a civilization might continue to add Dyson rings to the space around its star, creating a relatively simple, but incredibly powerful, Dyson sphere. Scott C. Waring
NASA Fails To Report Giant Donut UFO Fleet Near Sun, UFO Sighting News.
Date of sighting:2006, but reported today Location of sighting: Earths sun Source:Helioviewer A youtube user going by the name of Terrys Theories found some interesting donut UFOs near our sun. It looks like a fleet of three UFOs and they are huge. You can clearly make out the donut shape with the whole in the middle. This is a common UFO seen near our sun and still has never received an explanation from NASA. The fact that he found this going through the archives and its dated 2006 is evidence that giant UFOs have been recorded by NASA and have gone unreported for a long time. Scott C. Waring
Nasa’s Chief Scientist Dr Jim Green warns “It will be revolutionary,” he said. “It’s like when Copernicus stated ‘no we go around the Sun’. Completely revolutionary. It will start a whole new line of thinking. I don’t think we’re prepared for the results. We’re not. I’ve been worried about that because I think we’re close to finding it, and making some announcements."
Ok, sure a NASA scientist says this...but if he is replaced in a few years, the announcement may never be made. NASA was not created to find alien life and tell the public...it was created to pretend to explore the universe while gathering a lot of top secret intel about alien life...all while drop feeding the public boring scientific facts in order to get continued public support and funding by the government. NASA has a 100 years mission for this...and for the scientist to say this now...when NASA is only 61 years old...make me suspicious that they have something else up their sleeve for the public.
Two years ago Russian astronauts were cleaning the solar panels on the space station, and were first to discover alien life on the space stations outer hull on the solar panels. They found giant plankton growing using the suns energy to grow...plankton that were living in space! Which came from space and landed on the panels! That is the historic first encounter of alien life. But Americans don't want to give Russia credit for this...but doesn't change the fact that its true.
The NASA scientist Dr Green didn't say they would announce intelligent alien life, only life, which means a fungus, moss, grass blades or a bacteria. They have no intention to announce intelligent alien life. It basically fake news...NASA is learning from Trump. Scott C. Waring
Astronomers have found evidence for a possible exomoon orbiting a gas giant planet 550 light-years away. If they’re interpreting the evidence correctly, this moon would be a place of destruction, even more volcanically active than Jupiter’s famous volcanic moon, Io.
Artist’s concept of the moon orbiting WASP-49. The observations are similar to what’s seen with Jupiter and its moon Io in our own solar system. Researchers found sodium gas near WASP-49b, but far enough away that the gas is unlikely to be due to winds on the planet. Is this moon like Io on steroids?
Astronomers may have discovered a “hyper-volcanic” exomoon – an extreme version of Jupiter’s moonIo– orbiting a distant planet. A new study suggests that this possible moon, 550 light-years away, is even more volcanically active thanIo, the most volcanically active body in our own solar system. An amazing discovery, if true.
The new peer-reviewed findings were published by researchers from the University of Bern in Switzerland, and a draft version of the new paper was posted on arXiv on August 29, 2019.
Apurva Oza led the new study, and described what this Io-on-steroids world might be like:
It would be a dangerous volcanic world with a molten surface of lava, a lunar version of close-in super-Earths like 55 Cancri e, a place where Jedis go to die, perilously familiar to Anakin Skywalker.
The possible exomoon would orbit a hot Jupiter gas giant planet – WASP-49b – that orbits its sun-like star, WASP-49 in the constellation Lepus. WASP-49b orbits its star in less than three days.
The exomoon hasn’t been confirmed yet, but there is good circumstantial evidence for its existence. The researchers found sodium gas near WASP-49b, but far enough away that it is unlikely to be due to winds on the planet. The observations are similar to what is seen with Jupiter and Io in our own solar system. According to Oza:
The neutral sodium gas is so far away from the planet that it is unlikely to be emitted solely by a planetary wind. The sodium is right where it should be.
Artist’s concept of WASP-49b, a hot Jupiter exoplanet 550 light-years from Earth.
If confirmed, this would be an interesting analog to the Jupiter-Io system, but a more extreme version.
An earlier study in 2006 had also shown that large amounts of sodium near an exoplanet could be evidence for a moon, and that compact systems of a star, planet and moon – like with WASP-49 – could be stable for billions of years. According to Oza:
The enormous tidal forces in such a system are the key to everything. Sodium and potassium lines are quantum treasures to us astronomers because they are extremely bright. The vintage street lamps that light up our streets with yellow haze, are akin to the gas we are now detecting in the spectra of a dozen exoplanets.
While the researchers think that an exomoon is the most likely explanation, there are still other possibilities such as a ring of ionized gas around the planet. More data is needed, Oza said:
We need to find more clues. While the current wave of research is going towards habitability and biosignatures, our signature is a signature of destruction.
WASP-49b is located in the constellation Lepus, just below the larger constellation Orion.
Image via IAU/Sky & Telescope/Roger Sinnott/Rick Fienberg/Wikipedia.
Exomoons by nature are extremely difficult to detect, and there has been only one other good candidate so far, a possible Neptune-sized moon orbiting the giant planet Kepler-1625b, 8,000 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus. Confirmation of the moon of WASP-49b would be exciting, not only because of it being a moon orbiting a distant planet in another solar system, but also because it would be a discovery of “destruction” in a planetary system. As Oza explained:
The exciting part is that we can monitor these destructive processes in real time, like fireworks.
The possible moon orbiting WASP-49b would be similar to Jupiter’s moon Io, but a more extreme version. That’s a remarkable finding, since Io is the most volcanically active body in our solar system, even more than Earth. Io has hundreds of sulfur volcanoes, many of which are erupting at any given time. The moon’s multi-colored surface is covered in new and old lava flows, including lakes of molten silicate lava, and its appearance is often compared to a pizza. The volcanic activity is so intense and persistent, the moon is essentially always “turning itself inside out.” It also has a very thin atmosphere of sulfur dioxide.
Volcanic plume from Pillan Patera on Io, the most volcanically active body in the solar system.
Io’s volcanism is the result of its being continuously tugged at by Jupiter’s immense gravity, which keeps its insides molten. The process would probably be similar for the moon orbiting WASP-49b, which is also a gas giant planet. Io has been visited and observed by the Voyager, Cassini, Galileo and New Horizons spacecraft, but its volcanic eruptions are big enough to be seen by large telescopes on Earth.
If the moon is confirmed, it will be an incredible discovery: a tiny, distant world whose presence was given away by volcanic eruptions more powerful than any seen in our own solar system.
Bottom line: Astronomers have found evidence for a possible exomoon orbiting the gas giant exoplanet WASP-49b. If it’s real, this moon is an incredibly destructive place, even more volcanically active than Jupiter’s moon Io.
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