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.
I’ve discussed the idea that any aliens we meet someday may be machine-based artificial intelligence (AI). Paul Davies was one of the first astrophysicists to suggest the concept, although science fiction has been mining the idea for many decades. The reasoning is simple: machine-based intelligence is a lot more durable than a biological being, and easier to repair and reproduce. Humans are currently moving towards machine assisted living. Heart pumps and cochlear implants are just two basic examples. Computer interfaces with the brain are being tested. Davies points out that the development of machine assisted human biology is likely to continue. Eventually, we will reach a point where the human body is more machine than biological.
Philosophy professor Susan Schneider takes that idea a step further. In a presentation to a NASA conference, she suggested that aliens would likely be a highly developed form of artificial intelligence: a superintelligence. This is how Nick Bostrom with the University of Oxford defines it: “By a “superintelligence” we mean an intellect that is much smarter than the best human brains in practically every field, including scientific creativity, general wisdom and social skills. This definition leaves open how the superintelligence is implemented: it could be a digital computer, an ensemble of networked computers, cultured cortical tissue or what have you. It also leaves open whether the superintelligence is conscious and has subjective experiences.”
It may sound like an esoteric point to discuss superintelligence when any alien artificial intelligence would likely be much more intelligent than humans, just by existing. However, Schneider examines the difference between human thought and the workings of a superintelligence to tackle some important issues in the consideration of extraterrestrial First Contact.
One primary point in her paper is the issue of consciousness. Could a superintelligence be conscious? Consider the ramifications- the further an alien intelligence is from our biological state, the wider the gulf between us in terms of understanding, if we meet someday. Consciousness defines the human experience in many respects. We are a product of our interaction with our reality, in both physical and mental dimensions. Superintelligence could be so different from human intelligence that finding common ground between the two would be difficult. Schneider brings up an interesting possibility, once again relying on Nick Bostrom for the foundational idea- what if artificial intelligence is engineered to be like the intelligence of the biological originator? Humans are doing this currently as we design our own artificial intelligence. Many researchers are using the human brain and human attributes as a model for AI. Thus, the finished product would operate in a manner consistent with human intelligence. If we’re doing it, it seems quite possible biological aliens would have followed the same process. Why? Dr. Schneider brings up the concept of self-preservation. Many humans are uncomfortable designing AI that would eventually replace us. By designing AI with human thought patterns, we would be preserving part of who we are, even if the biological parts are eventually left behind. If aliens did the same, we could eventually meet a biologically-inspired superintelligent alien (BISA). That sounds daunting, so we probably need to consider the commonalities we still may have. Schneider examines the Bostrom Instrumental Convergence Thesis: “Several instrumental values can be identified which are convergent in the sense that their attainment would increase the chances of the agent’s goal being realized for a wide range of final goals and a wide range of situations, implying that these instrumental values are likely to be pursued by a broad spectrum of situated intelligent agents.”
Bostrom identifies these areas of commonality: “Resource acquisition, technological perfection, cognitive enhancement, self-preservation and goal content integrity (i.e., that a superintelligent being’s future self will pursue and attain those same goals).”
This states that alien AI, whether it be entirely artificial or BSIA in nature, will have a set of behaviors that we could recognize. That could provide a basis for understanding
You can see why I’ve included Nick Bostrom and his Future of Humanity Institute as one of the important experts to consult with in the wake of First Contact. He has been discussing such issues for more than 20 years. I will add Susan Schneider to that list. Applying these superintelligence concepts directly to extraterrestrials could be an important facet of First Contact.
Could the moon be a hollow-bodied construct that contains a hidden message encoding the deeper mysteries of our universe and life on Earth? The team of researchers examine evidence that suggests that our moon is of artificial origin, intentionally placed in exact orbit by advanced civilizations in ancient times.
With recent discoveries from NASA and the European Space Agency, the lunar enigmas have only compounded.
Mystery of Monolith Disappearance Solved? - Live Coverage (Plus Romania Monolith Update)
Mystery of Monolith Disappearance Solved? – Live Coverage (Plus Romania Monolith Update)
The mystery of why the Utah monolith disappeared has apparently been solved. Get the latest details, plus an update on the Romania monolith, in our LIVE COVERAGE.
In this interactive live stream, host Steve Lookner brings you the latest news on the Utah monolith & Romania monolith, and he’ll also read your comments and questions on the air!
Alien Craft Cloaked In Cloud Over Facatativá City in Colombia, Jan 15, 2020, UFO Sighting News.
Date of sighting: Jan 15, 2020 Location of sighting: Facatativa, Colombia
Now I have not seen this so I'm posting it now. Its a great sightings with an amazing disk shaped cloud...which holds a alien UFO within. Its a well known fact among UFO and alien researchers that UFOs not only make clouds to hide within, but can make contained disk clouds...disk because the aliens turn on the ships shields...the cloud is held within the shield, thus taking the shape of the ship itself. 100% proof that aliens frequent the area of Colombia.
Scott C. Waring - Taiwan
Eyewitness states:
In Facatativá on January 15, 2020 in the early morning, a rather rare cloud shaped like a saucer was observed, a radiant object that came out of that cloud was also observed leaving that cloud.
I was looking through a Mars gigapan photo when I found a dragon skull carved into the local environment. Behind the dragon head was two bipedal aliens carved in the stone behind. One alien is taller and has its arm wrapped around the neck and chest of the other shorter aliens. Also the dragon head has a very visible mouth, nose, eye and forehead. The dragon may be another species of intelligent alien that may have lived among them. 100% proof that aliens once existed and thrived on Mars.
Mysterious lights over Ottawa, Canada On Nov 28, 2020, UFO Sighting News.
Date of sighting: Nov 28, 2020 Location of sighting:Ottawa, Canada
The eyewitness noticed some strange lights shooting around in the sky sky. He was outside of town and there were not visible signs of search lights in the distance and no reason there would be lights in the sky. The lights moved differently than search lights and seemed to take a elliptical patter and shoot away. This appears to be a fleet of UFOs that have emerged from an underground base 6km below and began to shoot off to their destination.
Recalling the planet sized refueling UFO tethered to the Sun
Images captured by the Solar Dynamics Observatory on March 12, 2012, show what appears to be a planet-size shadowy object tethered to the sun by a dark filament.
In the image sequence, a burst of brightly lit material can be seen erupting from the sun's surface surrounding the dark object, after which the orb detaches from the sun and shoots out into space, suggesting it shows a UFO spacecraft refueling by sucking up solar plasma.
According to NASA scientists the strange appearance is less exciting than a refueling UFO, the feature is actually a type of solar activity called a "prominence," a feature containing cooler, denser plasma than the surrounding 3.5-million-degree Fahrenheit corona.
It isn't yet known exactly how prominences develop, but these dense plasma loops can extend from the sun's surface thousands of miles into space.
Now, almost 8 years after the incident, many people are still in doubt whether it was a giant UFO tethered to the sun before flying back into space or a solar activity called "prominence" as explained by NASA scientists.
Disk-shaped UFO Fastwalker flying right past a drone
Anew video has emerged showing a disk-shaped UFO Fastwalker flying right past a drone at an incredible speed.
The Fastwalker was captured in South Korea on June 2, 2020 and although these fastwalkers come in many different types, this is the first time such a UFO has been filmed consisting of two half disks connected to each other.
Check out our label: Fastwalkers to see more videos of these mysterious flying objects.
Check out this triangular-shaped formation of UFOs hovering in the night sky above Calgary, Canada on 18th November 2020.
Witness report:
A distant onrage-red object in the sky appeared to be sitting 80 degrees in the atmosphere, moving very slowly toward the west direction.
At 2:50 am, there was a bright light in the night sky. After viewing the object for a few moments, I noticed it was orange in color – and maybe every fifteen seconds a red signal began beeping on one side of it.
The object was not on any sort of path projectory, looked like it was floating at its elevation level. It was not close enough to make out a shape, however I could tell it was an object because of the red signal. The bright light was and consistently stayed mostly orange.
I decided to film the light with my smartphone and began examining the object for an hour and 5 minutes. In the time period, it moved further and closer to the west than its original position. It was a moonless-mostly clear sky, except for some clouds overhead.
When I viewed the object in camera, I noticed when zoomed in, the object looked diamond-shaped with an elongated bottom, with steam emitting from each side. The light was not glowing consistently.
Another mystery in my video footage is another object which appears, similar behavior but smaller in size. The object appears at 3:24 am, thirty four minutes after filming the first object.
At 3:25 am, the secondary objects appears to get brighter 3:34 am, the object is at a new position, maybe dropping elevation and altitude, behind the first object. 3:35 am, the object can be seen on its flight path, but its moving rate is nearly unnoticeable. 3:36 am, the two objects are in noticeable view, the first object looked like a cooler temperature and the second object a warmer temperature, appearing very active. 3:38 am, the two objects appear to be hovering in place. 3:41 am, the second-moving object disappears and is gone. 3:47 am, took one final video of the sky, with a single object continuing its hover on the edges of the city limits, but distant is too far to gather more video. 3:55 I end my investigation and go to sleep.
*Note, the second object was only noticed after review of the videos.
Chang'e 5 touched down on the moon at 10:11 a.m. EST (1511GMT, 11:11 p.m. Beijing Time) near Mons Rümker, a mountain in the Ocean of Storms (or Oceanus Procellarum), CNSA officials said. The probe deployed its solar array and antenna soon after to begin its work on the moon.
Two pieces of the four-module, 18,100-lb. (8,200 kilograms) Chang'e 5 mission hit the gray dirt today — a stationary lander and an ascent vehicle. If all goes according to plan, the lander will spend the next few days collecting about 4.4 lbs. (2 kg) of lunar material, some of it dug from up to 6.5 feet (2 meters) beneath the lunar surface.
The sample will then be transferred to the ascent vehicle, which will launch to lunar orbit and meet up with the other two Chang'e 5 elements — an orbiter and an Earth-return craft. The return vehicle will haul the moon dirt and rocks to our planet, with a touchdown planned in Inner Mongolia in mid-December.
That will be a landmark event; pristine lunar samples have not been delivered to Earth since 1976, when the Soviet Union's Luna 24 mission came home with about 6 ounces (170 grams) of material.
This view of the moon's surface was taken by the landing camera of Chang'e 5 shortly after its Dec. 1, 2020 touchdown in the Ocean of Storms. A shadow from one of the lander's legs is visible on the lunar surface. (Image credit: China National Space Administration/CLEP)
Chang'e 5 just launched on Nov. 23, so it's packing a lot of action into a few short weeks. The compressed timeline is driven largely by the mission's energy needs: The Chang'e 5 lander is solar powered, so it must get all of its work done in two Earth weeks at most, before the sun sets at Mons Rümker. (One lunar day lasts about 29 Earth days, so most moon sites receive two weeks of continuous sunlight followed by two weeks of darkness.)
Chang'e 5 is the latest mission in the Chang'e program of robotic lunar exploration, which is named after a moon goddess in Chinese mythology. The Chang'e 1 and Chang'e 2 orbiters launched in 2007 and 2010, respectively, and Chang'e 3 put a lander-rover duo down on the moon's near side in December 2013.
The Chang'e 5 T1 mission sent a prototype return capsule around the moon and back to Earth in October 2014 to help prepare for Chang'e 5. And in January 2019, the Chang'e 4 lander-rover duo pulled off the first-ever soft touchdown on the moon's mysterious, largely unexplored far side. Both Chang'e 4 robots remain operational today, as does the Chang'e 3 lander.
Though Chang'e 5 has a very short operational life, the mission is designed to have a long-lasting impact. After all, scientists are still studying the 842 lbs. (382 kg) of lunar material brought to Earth by NASA's Apollo missions from 1969 to 1972.
Some of the Apollo material came from Oceanus Procellarum, a huge volcanic plain that Apollo 12 explored in late 1969. But Mons Rümker rocks formed just 1.2 billion years ago, whereas all of the samples collected by the Apollo astronauts are more than 3 billion years old.
China's Chang'e 5 moon lander captured this view of the lunar surface as it approached its landing site in the Ocean of Storms region of the moon during a successful landing on Dec. 1, 2020 (Image credit: China National Space Administration/CLEP)
Chang'e 5 therefore "will help scientists understand what was happening late in the moon's history, as well as how Earth and the solar system evolved," the nonprofit Planetary Society wrote in its description of the mission.
Chang'e 5 isn't the only sample-return game in town. Japan's Hayabusa2 mission is scheduled to deliver pieces of the asteroid Ryugu to Earth on Dec. 5, and NASA's OSIRIS-REx probe collected samples of the space rock Bennu in late October. The Bennu samples are scheduled to come home in September 2023.
Editor's note:This story was updated at 12 p.m. EST with additional details on Chang'e 5's successful moon landing from the China National Space Administration.
Mike Wall is the author of "Out There" (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life.
China has reached a major milestone in its quest to bring home moon rocks, with its Chang'e 5 mission spacecraft separating into two pairs of vehicles in preparation for a lunar landing.
The Chang'e 5 spacecraft launched on Nov. 23 intent on becoming the first mission to bring lunar samples to Earth since 1976; the mission reached lunar orbit on Nov. 28. According to China's state-run news agency Xinhua, the mission's orbiter/return vehicle and its lander/ascender vehicle separated in lunar orbit yesterday (Nov. 29) at 3:40 p.m. EST (2040 GMT; 4:40 a.m. Beijing time on Nov. 30). That move sets the stage for a landing near the peak of Mons Rümker, a mountain in the Oceanus Procellarum ("Ocean of Storms") region of the moon.
"The spacecraft is performing well and communication with ground control is normal," officials with China's National Space Administration (CNSA) said according to Xinhua.
China's Chang'e 5 moon lander and ascent vehicle separates from its orbiter/return vehicle early on Nov. 30, 2020 Beijing Time ahead of a landing in the moon's Ocean of Storms for a lunar sample-return mission. (Image credit: CCTV)
The lunar orbiter and the return spacecraft will continue circling the moon while the lander and ascent vehicle will head toward the lunar surface at a time yet to be announced by China. That landing should happen soon, as the solar-powered Chang'e 5 lander will only two weeks (one lunar day) in which to collect samples. The Chang'e 5 mission is expected to last about 23 days in all, CNSA officials have said.
If all goes well, the pair will touch down gently within the Oceanus Procellarum plain and collect about 4.4 lbs. (2 kilograms) of moon rock, including from a depth of about 6.5 feet (2 meters). Within two weeks, the samples will be packed into the ascent vehicle to blast off the lunar surface and meet up with the orbiting spacecraft.
China already has three active spacecraft on the lunar surface: the Chang'e 3 lander, which arrived in 2013, and the Chang'e 4 lander and Yutu 2 rover, which landed on the far side of the moon in January 2019. All of these missions are part of China's ambitious Chang'e lunar exploration program.
The Chang'e 5 mission is the country's first attempt at a sample-return mission. If it is successful, it will return its moon rock samples to China in mid-December.
Email Meghan Bartels at mbartels@space.com or follow her on Twitter @meghanbartels.
The M4.4-class solar flare was a medium-strength sun storm.
The most powerful solar flare in over three years erupted on Nov. 29, 2020. (Image credit: NASA/SDO/AIA/EVE/HMI)
The sun unleashed its most powerful solar eruption in more than three years on Sunday (Nov. 29).
The solar flare, which is a sudden, bright explosion of electromagnetic energy, measured as an M4.4 on the scale astronomers use for sun storms. M-class flares are medium-sized eruptions (compared to small C-class flares and large X-class flares) and rank on a scale from 1 to 9, with larger numbers representing stronger flares.
The M4.4 flare's bright burst was accompanied by a coronal mass ejection, which can often accompany solar flares. Coronal mass ejections are large releases of plasma and magnetic fields from the sun's corona, or its outermost layer.
This flare kicked off a brand new solar cycle (solar cycle 25), which began in December 2019 and was announced in September. The previous solar cycle ran from 2008 to 2019 and, while this new solar activity phase started off with this powerful explosion, scientists estimate that it will be fairly quiet, much like solar cycle 24 before it.
Solar weather follows an 11-year activity cycle and tracking these cycles and the sun's ever-changing activity is critical not just for science but also for our daily lives here on Earth. Solar flares and coronal mass ejections release incredible bursts of electromagnetic radiation. These sudden energy expulsions can be so intense that their effects can reach Earth, causing radio blackouts and other technological disruptions.
But, while X-class solar flares might be capable of causing radio blackouts around the globe, M-class flares like the one we experienced on Sunday typically trigger only minor consequences on our home planet.
With this bright burst, X-rays and ultraviolet radiation from the solar flare created a shortwave radio blackout over the Southern Atlantic ocean, astronomer Tony Phillips reported at Spaceweather.com, detailing some of the technological effects of this flare.
Although the flare appeared as an M-class from Earth, it may actually have been a stronger flare, since the event took place partially behind the sun. "The explosion was partially eclipsed by the body of the sun. It might have been an X-class event," Phillips wrote. Spacecraft had a better view of the flare, however, so soon we should have more clarification on the exact size of the event.
Email Chelsea Gohd at cgohd@space.com or follow her on Twitter @chelsea_gohd.
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It’s happened again, another monolith has disappeared. Following in its Utah counterpart’s footsteps, the Romanian monolith has suddenly vanished.
The monolith was placed near an ancient Dacian Fortress dating back to B.C. times. Now only a shallow, rubble-holding, square-shaped hole is the only thing that remains of the structure, as seen in a video posted by Jurnal FM.
"Hi.
UPDATE: The Romanian monolith has disappeared.," the editor-in-chief of local newspaper Ziar Piatra Neamt, which first reported the monolith's existence, wrote in an email to me this morning.
The monolith’s disappearance occurred Monday. It also happened to be the night of Saint Andrews Day—which is associated with supernatural activity like sinister wolves being able to talk and people turning into werewolves, according to the Romania-Insider.
“The monolith found near the archaeological site of an old Dacian Stronghold disappeared on the night of Saint Andrew, when reportedly, a bright light surrounded the object,” Journal FM reported. “Locals thought the light came from a car, but the light pointed towards the sky.”
Still no word on how the silver monolith arrived in the Romanian town of Piatra Neamt. This one was a seemingly more scrappy, off-brand version of its stoic Utahnian cousin, as its face showed scratches and etched designs mimicking that of notebook doodles.
However, we may now know what happened to the original monolith.
According to an Instagram post by photographer Ross Bernards, four men came to the site after Bernards had finished snapping some shots of the internet-famous structure. They had a wheelbarrow with them and started pushing against the structure until it finally fell.
“They quickly broke it apart as they were carrying the wheelbarrow that they had brought one of them looked back at us and said ‘leave no trace,’” Bernards post reads. “If you’re asking why we didn’t's stop them well, they were right to take it out. We stayed the night and the next day hiked to a hill top overlooking the area where we say at least 70 different cars (and a plane) in and out. Cars parking everywhere in the delicate desert landscape. Mother Nature is an artist, it’s best to leave the art in the wild to her.”
Not many discoveries hailed as “this changes everything” events actually, do, but a new find adds meat to the skeleton of the history of Monte Albán – the pre-Columbian archeological site at modern-day Oaxaca that contains one of the earliest known Mesoamerican cities and artifacts of its residents, the highly-advanced Zapotec culture that ruled the area for over 1000 years. Researchers from the University of Oklahoma, using ground-penetrating radar, have identified a massive building in the Main Plaza, along with a better picture of what the plaza looked like during its heyday – a picture of monuments and structures that is likened to the National Mall in Washington, D.C..
Marc Levine, assistant curator of archaeology at the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History and assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology, College of Arts and Sciences, made the discovery using lidar laser imaging, drones, land-based ground-penetrating radar, electrical resistance and gradiometry (measures magnetic fields and gravity) to create new high resolution 3-D images of the Main Plaza and its buried buildings and statues. While much has been uncovered by excavation and erosion, the new images show a previously unknown, extremely large building that was probably a temple – making it a key to learning more about the highly ceremonial and ritualistic Zapotec society.
The Zapotecs developed a calendar and a system of writing that used a separate glyph to represent each of the syllables of the language that is believed to be one of the first writing systems of Mesoamerica, predating Maya, Mixtec and Aztec civilizations. Their architecture shows a high degree of artisanship, with elaborate carvings on their mortar and stone structures. Their religion was polytheistic, with their gods generally related to fertility agriculture — Cocijo, the rain god, Coquihani, the god of light and Pitao Cozobi, the god of maize. Jewelry, beads, shells and other precious stone artifacts found in the mounds of the area are related to the rituals, especially obsidian blades which were used in sacrifices and bloodletting rituals
The Zapotec calendar predates that of the Aztecs (above)
Which brings us back to the “this changes everything” temple. Its discovery solidifies the Main Plaza’s role as the center of everything in Monte Albán. However, the real game-changer is the rest of the 3-D images around it. Leveine explains that the Zapotecs placed every monument and every building in the plaza in a certain location and orientation to the others to define and display their significance. The 3-D map will help him and his team discern their meanings – a project he expects will take at least two years.
OK, this may not sound earth-shattering to the layperson, but archeologists and historians know that learning more about the civilization of the sophisticated Zapotecs helps explain and appreciate the rich cultures of Mesoamerica before the more-studied Aztecs and Maya – cultures that rivaled their counterparts around the world in learning, architecture, societies, sports and religions. They were so much more than the human-sacrificing caricatures depicted in history books and movies.
If this discovery changes how Mesoamerican cultures are shown in movies before the Europeans arrived, that would truly change everything.
A mysterious metal monolith has appeared in Romania this week after another similar structure found in the remoteUtah desert was removed by an 'unknown party'.
The shiny triangular pillar was found on Batca Doamnei Hill in the city of Piatra Neamt in northern Romania last Thursday.
It was spotted a few metres away from the well-known archaeological landmark the Petrodava Dacian Fortress, an fort built by the ancient Dacian people between 82 BC and AD 106.
The peculiar find comes after a similar monolith was found in the Utah desert with no explanation, sparking wry speculation that it could have been the work of aliens, but is more likely the work of a prankster inspired by science fiction novel 2001: A Space Odyssey.
In the book by Arthur C Clarke, later made into a film by Stanley Kubrick, a monolith first appears on Earth in Africa three million years ago and appears to confer intelligence upon a starving tribe of great apes to develop tools.
A mysterious metal monolith has appeared in Romania after another similar structure found in the remote Utah desert was removed by an 'unknown party'
The shiny triangular pillar was found on Batca Doamnei Hill in the city of Piatra Neamt in northern Romania last Thursday.
It was spotted a few metres away from the well-known archaeological landmark the Petrodava Dacian Fortress, which is the oldest historical monument in Piatra Neamt.
2001: A Space Odyssey is a 1968 science fiction novel by Arthur C Clarke, later made into a film with the same name by Stanley Kubrick.
In the book, a monolith first appears on Earth in Africa three million years ago and appears to confer intelligence upon a starving tribe of giant apes to develop tools.
The monolith is used as a tool by an alien race to investigate worlds across the galaxy and to encourage the development of intelligent life.
In the book, the tribe approach the monolith, and unknown to them, their minds were being studied and their actions controlled by an alien race.
The great apes use their tools to kill animals to eat meat to end their starvation, and to kill a predatory leopard.
The next day, the main character, Moon-Watcher, uses a club to kill the leader of a rival tribe of apes, leading to an awakening of intelligence and the development of humans.
The book explores technological innovation and traces the development of humans from great apes. It considers the evolution that has led to intelligent life.
When 2001: A Space Odyssey was written, humans had not yet set foot on the moon. The book offers a glimpse of Clarke's imagination of what space exploration might look like.
The monolith is used as a tool by an alien race to investigate worlds across the galaxy and to encourage the development of intelligent life.
In the book, the great apes use their tools to kill animals to eat meat to end their starvation, and to kill a predatory leopard. The next day, the main character uses a club to kill the leader of a rival tribe of apes, leading to an awakening of intelligence and the development of humans.
In Utah, the pillar, which protruded approximately 12 feet from the red rocks in southern Utah, was spotted last Wednesday by baffled local BLM officials who were counting bighorn sheep from a helicopter.
However the three-sided structure was removed by an 'unknown party' on Friday evening, the Bureau of Land Management Utah said in a statement.
News of the discovery in Utah quickly went viral online, with many noting the object's similarity to the strange alien monoliths that trigger huge leaps in human progress in Kubrick's classic sci-fi film '2001: A Space Odyssey.'
In Romania, the triangular structure has a height of about 13 feet and one side faces Mount Ceahlau, known locally as the Holy Mountain.
It is one of the most famous mountains in Romania, and is listed as one of the seven natural wonders of the country.
Romanian officials still do not know who is responsible for erecting the mysterious monolith.
Neamt Culture and Heritage official Rocsana Josanu said: 'We have started looking into the strange appearance of the monolith.
'It is on private property, but we still don't know who the monolith's owner is yet. It is in a protected area on an archaeological site.'
She added: 'Before installing something there, they needed permission from our institution, one that must then be approved by the Ministry of Culture.'
A mysterious monolith that was found in the remote Utah desert has been removed by an 'unknown party', according to officials
The shiny, triangular pillar, which protruded approximately 12 feet from the red rocks of southern Utah, was spotted last Wednesday by baffled local officials counting bighorn sheep from the air
However the three-sided structure was removed (pictured) by 'an unknown party' on Friday evening, the Bureau of Land Management Utah said in a statement
The Utah monolith provoked arguments about tourists who drove huge distances to see the monolith and were accused of trashing the location, which authorities had tried to keep secret to avoid people getting lost.
But many tracked down the co-ordinates and published them - leading people to drive many hours through the night to reach the 12ft aluminium structure.
And it was revealed that a similar version appeared nearly 20 years ago on New Years Day in Seattle.
However access to the site involved a 45-minute off-road drive on a dirt track many miles from any major town at 10mph - and then a 15-minute hike up a dry stream bed.
Across the globe UFO spotters and conspiracy theorists became obsessed with the shiny, triangular pillar.
Officials suggest it could be have been constructed by an artist or a huge fan of 2001: Space Odyssey - the structure resembles the machines found in Arthur C. Clarke's story (pictured)
Though the structure was only discovered by authorities this month, Google Earth images show it had been standing since at least 2015 or 2016.
Lieutenant Nick Street, a spokesman for the Department of Public Safety, said it's possible the structure had been there for '40, 50 years, maybe more.'
'It's the type of material that doesn't degrade with the elements. It may only be a few years old, who knows. There's no real way based on the material it's made out of how long it's actually been there,' he said on Tuesday.
Others pointed out the object's resemblance to the avant-garde work of John McCracken, an American artist who lived for a time in nearby New Mexico, and died in 2011.
McCracken was known for his freestanding sculptures in the shape of pyramids, cubes, or sleek slabs.
The monolith most closely resembles McCracken's plank-like sculptures featured at his exhibit at the David Zwirner art gallery in New York.
On Tuesday a spokeswoman for David Zwirner said it was not one of McCracken's works, but possibly by a fellow artist paying homage.
However later in the day Zwirner gave another statement which suggested the piece was indeed by McCracken, meaning it had lain undiscovered in the desert for nearly a decade.
'The gallery is divided on this,' Zwirner said. 'I believe this is definitely by John.'
One explorer crouches beside the triangular top which has been left next to a stack of rocks
A stack of rocks has been left next to the triangular top of the monolith which has been removed by an 'unknown party'
The BLM said in a Facebook post on Saturday: 'We have received credible reports that the illegally installed structure, referred to as the 'monolith' has been removed from Bureau of Land Management (BLM) public lands by an unknown party'
Some observers also pointed out the object's resemblance to the avant-garde work of John McCracken (left) an American artist who lived for a time in nearby New Mexico, and died in 2011. He was known for his freestanding sculptures in the shape of pyramids, cubes, or sleek slabs (right)
Utah: Officials have refused to disclose the metal obelisk's location out of fear that curious sightseers would flock to the remote wilderness, but internet sleuths managed to pinpoint its position nonetheless. Google Earth images show it has been there since 2016 or 2015
A view of the mystery monolith in Magnuson Park in Seattle pictured on January 2, 2001
Utah has a history of 'land art,' unusual installations that cropped up far from population centers in the 1960s and '70s.
The most famous, Spiral Jetty, a 1,500-foot-long coil by artist Robert Smithson in 1970 that's composed entirely of mud, salt crystals and basalt.
Located on the northeastern edge of the Great Salt Lake near Rozel Point, the jetty appears and disappears depending on water levels.
So far, no one has stepped forward to claim responsibility for the monolith, though.
If this late surge keeps up, 2020 may not just be known as the Year of the COVID but also the Year of the Monolith. Just days after a mysterious monolith was discovered in a Utah desert – only to disappear just as mysteriously – another mysterious monolith appeared in Romania. If it’s not aliens, is it a global art project, an elaborate worldwide prank, undercover government antennas or a 2020 version of the Tide Pod Challenge?
Let’s catch up with the Utah monolith first. Discovered by Utah Department of Public Safety Aero Bureau workers conducting a helicopter count of big horn sheep in a southeastern Utah desert, they landed after seeing the odd object and their pictures and comments quickly went viral. The age of the monolith could not be determined, but Google Earth images showed it had been there a few years and some suggested, because the area was so remote, it could have been installed decades ago – illegally, as the government was quick to point out, because no permit for putting it on private land was ever issued. The 12-foot-tall silver triangular monolith spawned a myriad of rumors from aliens to strange cults, but because it appeared to be manmade, ‘an art project by the late artist John McCracken or one of his imitators’ was the likely winner. Unfortunately, before that could be verified, the Utah monolith disappeared on November 27, taken away by “an unknown party,” according to the Bureau of Land Management.
What about the bighorn – did they ever finish counting them?
Meanwhile, in Romania …
“We have started looking into the strange appearance of the monolith. It is on private property, but we still don’t know who the monolith’s owner is yet. It is in a protected area on an archaeological site. Before installing something there, they needed permission from our institution, one that must then be approved by the Ministry of Culture.”
Neamt Culture and Heritage official Rocsana Josanu reported on November 26 the discovery of another monolith (photos and video here), very similar in size (13 feet tall) to the Utah one, at what many call the Holy Mountain or the Mount Olympus of Romania — Ceahlău Massif (Ceahlau Mountain — seen in feature image above), one of the Seven Natural Wonders of Romania. (Who knew Romania had one wonder, let alone seven?) If that’s not enough of a scandal, the monolith is just meters away from the Petrodava Dacian Fortress, one of six fortresses built between the first century BCE and the first century CE by the Dacians, a dominant culture in the area predating the Romans. The fortresses were built to defend the Dacians in the two Roman-Dacian Wars, which unfortunately ended with a Roman conquest.
This is a bigger deal to Romania than the Utah one was in the U.S. because it’s not only on private property but also in a protected area on an archeological site and a holy mountain of the Dacians with its own holiday. For anything to be built there, it needed to be approved by both the Neamt Culture and Heritage group and the Romanian Minister of Culture. Guess which ones it didn’t have?
Other Dacian ruins and monuments in Romania
So, what’s up with the monoliths all of a sudden? Both the Utah and Romanian structures appear to be manmade – the Utah one disappeared before it could be dismantled and traced, but the Romanian one appears to still be there and, because it’s on protected land in a popular tourist area, may be under heavy guard. Perhaps it can give clues to the origin of both.
In the meantime, isn’t it nice to find something in 2020 that isn’t contagious and deadly… or are they?
It started as a hunting trip with a couple of friends. On September 4, 1964, 28-year-old Donald Shrum went on a bow hunting excursion to a place called Cisco Grove, in Placer County, California, along with a group of friends. They had gone out hunting in the area many times before, so there was at first no reason to suspect that this would be any different from any of their other trips, yet there would be a series of events that would play out that would end in one of the most bizarre alien encounters on record.
At some point during the day, Shrum apparently got so caught up in trying to track down deer that he became separated from the rest of the group. As night began to fall and the trees grew dark, he decided that it would be better to just hunker down for the night and catch up with the others at camp in the morning, and so he took up a position up in a tree. As he sat up there listening to the sounds of the night and trying to find elusive sleep, his attention was suddenly drawn to a strange white light in the sky that seemed to be moving in a sort of zig zagging pattern and looked to descend below the tree line. As Shrum watched, it seemed as the object was bobbing along to approach his position, and although he could not hear any noise, he assumed it was a helicopter.
Curiosity got the better of him, and so he dismounted from his safe perch up in the tree to try and go get a closer look. He suspected that it might be a search party out looking for him after he failed to return to camp, and so he launched a flare to let them know where he was, after which the light rapidly came right towards him, coming to within 50 feet and showing itself to be no normal helicopter. In fact, Shrum would describe it as a glowing, cigar-shaped object that was immense, around 14 stories tall. From this object a smaller one detached and supposedly came to rest not far away, which was enough to send Shrum scurrying back up into his tree for safety. He allegedly cowered there in the shadows in hiding for some time until he heard the sound of what sounded like people walking through the brush below, yet when he peeked down, he could see that these were no normal people at all.
Shrum would claim that he saw three entities, two of them humanoids standing about 5 feet tall and wearing silver coveralls and goggles of some sort, while the third was a hulking robotic creature with glowing orange eyes. These entities approached the tree and much to Shrum’s horror the robot began shaking it violently with incredible strength, in an apparent effort to get Shrum out of it. The terrified man hung on for dear life as these otherworldly beings continued their siege of his tree, and at some point during this ordeal he claims that the robotic entity emitted some kind of white vapor from its mouth, which had a strange odor and caused him to black out. He woke up some time later feeling nauseous and lethargic, but still up in his tree. Unfortunately, his aggressors were still there as well, and Shrum threw some lit matches and other items at them in a pathetic attempt to scare them off, before finally remembering his bow and using that to fire on them, hitting the robot three times to send sparks flying, but doing very little actual damage.
In the end, Shrum’s bow and arrow assault did not dissuade the outlandish beings, and indeed a second robot much like the first soon joined them. Once again, the robots released that toxic gas to render him unconscious, and once again he awoke feeling sick, only this time the aliens had gotten bolder and were actually climbing up the tree. Shrum managed to pelt them with various objects he had on him and they climbed back down to circle and shake the tree. This would go on all night, until the coming of dawn, when they apparently sent nearly a dozen of those robotic things at him and caused him to black out once more with a volumous cloud of that smoke. However, this time when he woke he was oddly hanging from a branch by his belt and they were all gone as if they had never been there at all.
In the light of day Shrum was able to make his way back to camp, where he learned one of his friends had also seen the UFO the previous night. Shrum would come forward with his bizarre tale and even talk to Air Force personnel about it, who were very eager to write it off as either fantasy or someone playing a prank on him. We are left to wonder what it really was he saw, what those creatures were, and perhaps most importantly, why they weren’t able to get him out of that tree despite having vapor spewing robot goons. One interesting point was made by The Iron Skeptic, who says:
Another thing is the way that the aliens are reported to have acted. Think about this for a moment: They could conquer the non-trivial challenge of interstellar travel, but they can’t get a guy out of a tree? That’s ridiculous. That’s like Andre the Giant not being able to open a jar of pickles. One way or another, those pickles are coming out of there. Either these aliens were the absolute stupidest, most bumbling, least competent abductors ever to grace the good green earth, or they had a reason for leaving the terrified man up that tree.
Their actions do, to some extent, appear similar to the actions of the Hopkinsville Goblins or the tiny, wrinkled little men that scared the hell out of some drunkards in Ririe, Idaho in the sixties: the aliens don’t seem to really want anything other than to scare the hell out of some people. The UFO enthusiasts claim that sometimes, aliens just like to screw around with people they abduct, apparently to gauge their reactions. For instance, sometimes they’ll show abductees apocalyptic images of the world being destroyed, just to see how the human will react. Could this just be some evil, alien psychology experiment?
It is an intriguing point to consider, and makes one wonder. How indeed did these forces not manage to get this one guy down from a tree, and was there some mysterious motive for it all? The case is certainly one of the stranger out there, and has remained amazingly under the radar for the most part. Whatever one may think of such far out reports, a case of a guy hiding in a tree while robot aliens attack him certainly is not something you see every day, and it is a truly outlandish case that will most likely remain confined to the outer fringe.
Chinese verkenner die voor eerst in 44 jaar stenen mee terug moet nemen, succesvol geland op de maan
Een onbemande verkenner uit China is vandaag op de maan geland. De Chang'e 5 gaat er komende dagen bodemmonsters verzamelen. Daarmee moet hij vervolgens terugvliegen naar de aarde. De laatste keer dat maanstenen naar de aarde werden gebracht, was in 1976.
De verkenner was vorige week gelanceerd vanuit China. Zijn nieuwe werkplek is Mons Rümker, een oude vulkanische formatie op het noordelijk halfrond van de maan. Die is ongeveer 1 miljard jaar geleden gevormd en is daarmee jonger dan veel plekken op de maan die tot nu toe verkend zijn.
De Chang'e 5 gaat tot een diepte van 2 meter graven. Het is de bedoeling dat hij daarna met ongeveer 2 kilo aan maanstenen terugkeert naar de aarde. In de loop van december moet hij landen op de uitgestrekte grasvlakten van Binnen-Mongolië. Wetenschappers kunnen de stenen dan onder de apparatuur in hun labo’s leggen. Zo willen ze een beter beeld krijgen van de samenstelling en de geschiedenis van de maan.
Een 'sample return mission' is heel complex. Een ruimtevaartorganisatie voert eigenlijk een dubbele missie uit: een vaartuig moet van de aarde gelanceerd worden, de oversteek van bijna 400.000 kilometer maken, in een baan rond de maan komen, veilig landen en materiaal verzamelen, maar moet daarna opnieuw gelanceerd worden, de oversteek terug maken en ook veilig op aarde landen.
China wordt de laatste decennia steeds actiever in de ruimtevaart. Het land werkt heel af en toe samen met een ander land, maar doet het voor het grootste deel zelf. In 2003 ging voor het eerst een Chinese 'taikonaut' de ruimte in. In 2013 landde voor het eerst een Chinees karretje op de maan. Eerder dit jaar vertrok een onbemande Chinese verkenner naar Mars, waar hij volgend jaar moet aankomen. In de komende jaren wil China ook een eigen ruimtestation bouwen.
De laatste geslaagde 'sample return mission' naar de maan, was de missie Luna 24 van de Sovjet-Unie. Die vloog in augustus 1976 naar de maan en keerde tien dagen later terug met 170 gram stenen. De twaalf Amerikanen die op de maan hebben rondgelopen, hebben ook allerlei stenen mee teruggenomen.
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