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.
Zaterdag 12 december 2020
Anonymous: Linda Moulton Howe - "You Need to Hear This, They Are Already Here!"
Anonymous: Linda Moulton Howe - "You Need to Hear This, They Are Already Here!"
Anonymous: You Need to Hear It, They Are Already Here!
“It’s called the American Dream, because you need to be asleep to believe it”
– George Carlin
Anonymous is the most famous ‘hacktivist’ group in the world. The informal nature of the group makes its mechanics difficult to define. Subsequently, without a formal organizational hierarchy, it’s difficult to explain Anonymous to the general public and the media. In this article, I’ll explain the history of the group, and offer some clarity on what’s misunderstood about them.
‘Hacktivist’ is a portmanteau of ‘hacker’ and ‘activist’. When people have technical skills, have access to the Internet, and understand how network infrastructure and servers work, it can be tempting to put that knowledge into having some effect on the world. The ‘activist’ part of ‘hacktivist’ means that they don’t do their hacking and cracking without a cause.
The various people behind Anonymous worldwide are united in the belief that corporations and organizations they consider to be corrupt should be attacked. If you’re an administrator for a network that has little reason to be a target for social activists, your network and servers are unlikely to become a target for Anonymous.
If for some reason you believe your network might become a target, I recommend testing it for handling DDoS attacks, as that’s the most common method Anonymous uses to bring down web servers.
Tictac UFO Seen Over City In Mexico On Dec 3, 2020, Video, UFO Sighting News.
Date of sighting: Dec 3, 2020
Location of sighting: Cuautepec, Mexico
The eyewitness was outside recording chem trails and he noticed a long white UFO in the shape of a tictac. The UFO was very near the area of the chem trail and my have either been investigating the chem trail or it had made it earlier itself. The object has no wings, no tail no lights, no landing gear no insignias of any kind. It cloud be a blimp, but moves incredibly fast for a blimp and doesn't have the right shape for a blimp. This is an alien ship.
Scott C. Waring - Taiwan
Eyewitness states:
I stopped to record chemtrails that appear in the background of the video and UFO appears at very high speed. UFO in Cuautepec, Chemtrails in the Sky.
Black Disk Moving Slowly Over Belfast, Ireland During Evening, Nov 27, 2020, Video, UFO Sighting News.
Date of sighting: Nov 27, 2020
Location of sighting:Belfast, Ireland
The eyewitness was lucky enough to catch a black disk flying over Belfast, Ireland two weeks ago. The UFO moved slowly during the evening. The object is a disk, it's not a balloon because it would be rotating or flipping end over end. This however is keeping the flat side down. Very interesting, looks 100% alien technology to me. Awesome catch.
Ring UFO Over Highway at Irvine, California On Dec 9, 2020, UFO Sighting News.
Date of sighting: Dec 9, 2020 Location of sighting: Irvine, California, USA
Listen to the eyewitnesses surprise as they soon resize the glowing light ahead of them is a glowing ring UFO. You can really hear the surprise in their voices and I have to admit...I was a bit excited too because white rings are a rare event. Very cool, and seen over the freeway in Irvine...there should be more reports coming in over the next few days. 100% proof that UFO are buzzing over Irvine.
Scott C. Waring - Taiwan
Eyewitness states:
I first spotted it when we are halfway back from Long Beach entering Irvine over the 405 there was three I initially spotted and the total went up to nine. My daughter who is four years old, my boyfriend who is in the passenger seat and I all saw the crafts and watched them move very erratically and descend closer to us. My boyfriend became very afraid at this point as we could all see the lights in a circular pattern around the Circumference of the crafts and the one that descended very close to us in particular but they all seem to descend closer in unison heading inland and south.
My boyfriend was recording this on his phone and we both saw a orb pass right through Our eyeline as we are watching the crafts. They followed us all the way until we got home and then there was only one left and it too disappeared. It was very strange almost like they were trying to communicate with us. This isn’t my first foray into UFO spotting‘s but it was my boyfriend and my daughters first actual sighting although they’ve been with me when I’ve seen them.
Orb Follows Guy Recording It, Over Port Orchard, Washington On Dec 9, 2020, UFO Sighting News.
Date of sighting: Dec 9, 2020 Location of sighting: Port Orchard, Washington, USA
The eyewitness believes that the UFO was actually watching the it being recorded. Often times UFOs do that. Its been recorded in dozens of Project Blue Book reports. So when he said that...it clicked. This is a real UFO over Washington.
Scott C. Waring - Taiwan
Eyewitness states:
I believe this sighting to be a possible drone, it seemed to take notice of me filming it and then follow me around where I was walking in the evening. At one point it appeared that the luminous ball was aflame. It continued to move slowly over and near where I was walking. I watched it move about for about 30 minutes. I did see a group of younger people a good distance from me looking at something together, drone controller? I left the area after about thirty minutes so I don’t know where it went.
Two Black UFOs Over Washington DC On Dec 11, 2020, UFO Sighting News. MUFON.
Date of sighting: Dec 11, 2020 Location of sighting: Washington DC, USA Source: MUFON
The eyewitness stated that they noticed some black objects in the sky and began recording. The two objects were moving slightly and seemed to be following one another. Similar UFOs have been recorded by the US military in recent released videos in infrared. These black UFOs look very similar to one of those UFO videos. Aliens over Washington DC...the most powerful city in all America...thats kind of expected right? Aliens want an insight into how the government officials are thinking right now...and tapping into our communication networks is the fast track to such information.
Glowing UFO Over Bronx, New York On Nov 2020, UFO Sighting News.
Date of sighting: Nov 2020 Location of sighting:Bronx, New York, USA
Watch as this person catches a glowing orb at night passing over the home in the Bronx a few weeks ago. The eyewitness said he noticed it but was slow to begin to record it. It does look like an orb and also seems to be interested in the people watching it since it passes very close to them. John Lennon himself had a UFO sighting in New York, and so have thousand of other regular folks. Aliens fly over all cities some time or other and New York is especially interesting since the pandemic and spread of covid is so widespread.
Cylindrical UFO moving slowly at low altitude near El Paso, Texas
The next video posted byUfo contactados Mexicali V.I.P on their Facebook page was captured in El Paso Texas on December 8, 2020, the witness while driving noticed a strange flying object that was at low altitude very close to the road.
He immediately took out his cell phone and began to record, the huge object which was moving slowly. Apparently it appears to be a cylindrical UFO.
It seems that UFOs like this one are common in that area.
Daytime UFO sighting over Washington, DC YESTERDAY
This daytime UFO video was filmed on 11th December 2020 over Washington DC.
Witness report:
I was sitting in tree stand facing southeast deer hunting. At 5:38 pm cst a light was noticed approx 70 degrees overhead traveling east. I struggled for about 20 seconds to get rifle rested, gloves off, and cell phone out of my pocket. Light immediately changed direction of travel to southeast and I started recording video. Light continued moving southeast for approx 36 seconds before going out.
An enormous supervolcano may be hiding under Alaskan islands
A geologic game of connect the dots reveals hints of a giant undersea crater
The multiple volcanoes in the Islands of the Four Mountains (shown), part of the chain that make up the Aleutian Islands in southwestern Alaska, appear to be connected by one large caldera created when a supervolcano erupted, a new study suggests.
A mysterious, previously undiscovered supervolcano may be lurking beneath Alaska’s Aleutian Islands.
A new study suggests a wide crater, created when the supervolcano exploded, connects at least four existing volcanoes. It’s so big that if the supervolcano erupted during the last few thousand years, it could have disrupted civilizations around the world, says John Power, a geophysicist at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Alaska Volcano Observatory. Power presents the findings at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union on December 7.
The discovery, not yet confirmed, emerged from several pieces of evidence that at first glance seem unrelated, says Diana Roman, a volcanologist at Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C. “There’s no one smoking gun,” she says. And in fact, the mythical-sounding Islands of the Four Mountains, actually six volcanoes located near the center of the island chain, look like an ordinary volcanic cluster.
But taken together, the data point convincingly to the existence of a caldera about 20 kilometers across. The volcanoes’ peaks are arranged in a ring and bathymetric seafloor mapping, mostly from the 1950s, shows arc-shaped ridges and a 130-meter-deep depression in the center of the ring. Both are clues that the volcanoes are connected by one big caldera, a massive crater that forms when a very large magma chamber in a volcano explodes and empties.
Gravity data from satellites echo the look of other calderas. And analysis of such volcanic gases such as sulfur dioxide, as well as patterns of microearthquakes also suggest the presence of a caldera.
Searching for a supervolcano
Some of the clues that a supervolcano may lurk under the Islands of the Four Mountains, in the Aleutian Islands chain in southwest Alaska, come from seafloor topography mapping, like this bathymetry map compiled by NOAA. Gray areas mark the existing volcanoes. The orange zones show shallow volcanic areas apparently connected below the surface in a roughly circular pattern.
Seafloor mapping around Mount Cleveland
HÉLÈNE LE MÉVEL
“We weren’t surprised there were microearthquakes,” says Roman, considering one of the volcanoes, Mount Cleveland, is one of the most active volcanoes in the Aleutians. But, she says, those microearthquakes extended farther east and north than they would expect just based on the volcanoes seen at the surface. “That makes more sense in the context of the caldera.”
One hallmark of many calderas is still-active volcanoes on their rims that tap into the same magma chamber, even long after the caldera itself formed. Mount Cleveland fits that scenario. It has “erupted 60 or 70 times since 2001,” says Power. Besides blasting out sky-high ash plumes that disrupt air travel (SN: 11/27/18), this level of constant activity is typical of volcanoes rimming other known calderas, he says. One such volcano is Indonesia’s Rinjani, whose eruption around the year 1257 dumped enough sulfur particles into the atmosphere to cool the entire planet (SN: 6/14/12).
Piecing the evidence together has been challenging, thanks to the extremely remote location, a largely underwater setting and newer volcanic deposits which obscure older ones. In addition, separate studies provided different lines of evidence for a supervolcano caldera, but none connected the dots. Roman likens the team’s approach to “looking under the couch cushions.”
“It’s a neat example of how lots of threads come together to make a bigger story,” says Michael Poland, a volcanologist with the USGS’s Yellowstone Volcano Observatory who was not involved in the study. “We’re starting to get the datasets we need to make these sorts of discoveries.”
The Aleutians site is accessible only a short time each year, Poland says, so “it’s a mad rush to collect data.” But that’s exactly what the team hopes to do to confirm the caldera’s existence. It also plans to search for matching ash in ice cores collected in other parts of the world to determine when the supervolcano would have erupted. “These very large calderas have very large impacts globally,” says Power. “This potential identification helps us understand what we might expect, why Cleveland is so active, and understand the hazards.”
Japanese scientists are thrilled to finally have asteroid samples arrive Monday (Dec. 7) after a long flight from Australia — and a much longer journey through the solar system.
Those rocks originate on a near-Earth asteroid called Ryugu; the Hayabusa2 spacecraft snagged them in 2019 before a yearlong journey to deliver them to Earth in a small sample-return capsule. The capsule landed on Dec. 5 in the Woomera Prohibited Area in South Australia, creating a stunning fireball in the pre-dawn skies. Japanese scientists on site successfully tracked down the capsule and collected the precious cosmic delivery to begin the final leg of its journey.
"The dream has come true," Hitoshi Kuninaka, director general of the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), which runs the Hayabusa2 mission, said during a news conference held Dec. 5 in Japan.
The Hayabusa2 spacecraft left Ryugu in November 2019 after snagging samples from the asteroid's surface and interior. The main spaceship parted ways with the return capsule just two days before the delivery was complete and retreated to begin work on its extended mission, which will feature encounters with two more asteroids, in 2026 and 2031.
Meanwhile, scientists in Australia waited for the distinctive fireball the capsule would create on its way in through the atmosphere. "The weather was crystal clear," Yuichi Tsuda, project manager for Hayabusa2, said during the news conference of the weather at the capsule's arrival. The fireball streaked through the Southern Cross and near Alpha Centauri, according to officials during the news conference.
But the stunning re-entry fireball images that observers were able to capture nearly didn't exist. A storm passed through the area the day before, and scientists worried that the weather would make the retrieval process more difficult. "One day before there was heavy rain; we were very lucky," Satoru Nakazawa, recovery manager for the mission, said during the news conference.
Although the weather cleared, there was still a tense moment during the recovery, he said. The sun hadn't yet risen when the capsule landed, which made its beacon signal less clear to waiting receivers. "I was very, very, very nervous and uneasy," Nakazawa said. "We had to spend a very jittering frustrating time until the sun rose."
Once the sun rose, the scientists could see the capsule for themselves, perfectly within the planned landing area and crashed next to a bush on Woomera's red soil. JAXA personnel carefully untangled the parachute, bush and capsule, Nakazawa explained, cautious in case any explosive parachute triggers remained loaded.
After the initial inspection, about two dozen staff jumped into action, ferrying the spacefaring capsule into a box for safekeeping, then to a helicopter that carried it to the team's headquarters. There, scientists attempted to draw a gas sample from the capsule, which may still contain gases from Ryugu itself.
But the clock was ticking: The Hayabusa2 team wanted the sample in Japan within 100 hours of its return to Earth in order to keep the space rock pristine. So the capsule's next destination was an airplane for a nine-hour flight from Australia to Japan on Monday.
"There the sample will start to tell its stories and reveal to us some wonderful science," Megan Clark, head of the Australian Space Agency, said during the news conference. "2020 has been a difficult year all around the world, but Hayabusa2 and the safe return of the capsule reminds us to renew our faith in the world and our trust and appreciation and awe in the science of our universe."
Even before setting eyes on the sample themselves, scientists with the mission are thrilled about the successful collection procedure and the scientific discoveries that will result.
"Hayabusa2 is home. It has finished six years of voyage and we landed in the Woomera and we could collect the treasure box," Tsuda said. (The mission launched in December 2014.) "Hayabusa2 is still in perfect shape and the capsule is also perfect … We're really looking forward to seeing that capsule."
Email Meghan Bartels at mbartels@space.com or follow her on Twitter @meghanbartels.
NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter captured an image of China's Chang'e 5 lander on the moon just hours after its historic landing.
The Chang'e 5 lander set down on the lunar surface last Tuesday, Dec. 1. Thanks to China's prompt release of the stunning Chang'e 5 landing video, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) team were able to locate the roughly 4-ton spacecraft in Oceanus Procellarum, the "Ocean of Storms," and prepare for when LRO would pass overhead the next day.
The image shows the Chang'e 5 lander in the center of three craters. Automated systems had helped the spacecraft avoid these hazards to land safely.
The relatively flat area near the Chang'e 5 lander was created by basaltic lavas. While over a billion years old, this unit of basalt is thought to be much younger than the Apollo landing areas, which are aged at over 3 billion years. Samples are therefore of great interest to scientists, who want to know why this region was volcanically active much more recently than most other places on the moon.
The image was taken before the Chang'e 5 ascent vehicle blasted off from the surface with the collected samples. The ascent vehicle has since performed a spectacular rendezvous and docking with the Chang'e 5 orbiter and handed over the samples. Chang'e 5 will begin its journey to Earth later this week.
A wider view of the Chang'e 5 landing area taken by LRO. (Image credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University)
The Chang'e 5 sample return mission is expected to last just 23 days, ending with a landing in Inner Mongolia around Dec. 17.
LRO meanwhile has been mapping the moon in high definition for more than 11 years while also hunting for signs of water.
Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.
Any alien intelligence capable of traveling to Earth would likely have some secrets to share about the laws of physics.
KTSIMAGE/ISTOCK/GETTY IMAGES PLUS
Any science journalist would rejoice at the revelation of aliens on Earth. It would be the story of a lifetime. So it’s not surprising that a former Israeli space official’s claim that a Galactic Federation is known to the U.S. government has made a few headlines and trended on Twitter.
Of course, most science journalists have already been alerted to the presence of aliens by any number of readers who would like to testify about their personal E.T. encounters.
Yet despite how desperately some science journalists wish for alien visitation to be real, few among us ever believe any such reports. Proper policy is to decline to interview any would-be informant about their alien experience and instead insist on interviewing the aliens themselves.
And so I would be willing to come out of retirement and conduct such an interview if any Galactic Federation alien monitoring Science News would be willing to submit to some tough questions. Only condition would be the alien must wear a high-quality mask, covering its damn nose if it has one.
Now, it’s a pretty safe bet that such an interview isn’t going to happen. It’s more likely that the Washington Football Team wins the next Super Bowl. Or even the New York Jets. But just in case, it’s a good idea to start preparing the questions. Here are my Top 10, followed by my best guesses at the alien’s answers.
The questions:
Q1. How do you spell your name?
Q2. Using Earth astronomical terminology, where are you from?
Q3. Have you not seen The War of the Worlds?
Q4. What is your favorite interpretation of quantum mechanics?
Q5. Are you in any way responsible for COVID-19 or any other serious disease-causing agent, and are you sorry?
Q6. When you looked at that dress, did it look black and blue or white and gold?
Q7. What particular scientific theoretical breakthrough enabled the technology you have exploited for interstellar travel?
Q8. Can you define P value correctly and explain its limitations for drawing scientific inferences?
Q9. What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?
Q10. Why in the world haven’t you provided us with sufficiently sophisticated algorithmic artificial intelligence to neutralize the damage to our civilization perpetrated by social media?
And the possible answers:
Q1. How do you spell your name?
A1. “Spell? There is no spell. There is name or not name.”
Hard to argue with that.
Q2. Using Earth astronomical terminology, where are you from?
A3. “Saw both versions. Tom Cruise is no Gene Barry. Galaxy Quest was a more realistic movie, though.”
Q4. What is your favorite interpretation of quantum mechanics?
A4. “Quantum mechanics needs no particular interpretation if it is formulated without the preexisting prejudice that nature should exhibit cause-and-effect determinism. It’s all about understanding the nature of time as a source of novelty rather than a continuous parameter dictating the evolution of a function. What you call randomness or indeterminism is what we call information creation. A few of your earthling scientists have begun to catch on a little bit to this idea. Check out arxiv.org/abs/2002.01653.”
Q5. Are you in any way responsible for COVID-19 or any other serious disease-causing agent, and are you sorry?
A5. “Possibly we brought in a disease or two, but on the other hand, you hooked us on tobacco.”
Q6. When you looked at that dress, did it look black and blue or white and gold?
A6. “Hah! We invented that dress to keep you guys distracted from some other stuff we had going on.”
Q7. What particular scientific theoretical breakthrough enabled the technology you have exploited for interstellar travel?
A7. “Well, that’s related to the quantum question. The key insight came from the Vulcans, who realized that continuum mathematics at the foundation of calculus was not the only possible logical mathematical system. You need what you call intuitionistic math — as I mentioned, read arxiv.org/abs/2002.01653. And also this paper. Once you get rid of that unwieldy infinity of real numbers lots of things are easier to solve, like quantum gravity. Technology takes off from there.”
Vulcans? Well, right, this is the Galactic Federation.
Q8. Can you define P value correctly and explain its limitations for drawing scientific inferences?
A8. “Oh, we’ve been trying for years to feed you guys clues about how worthless P values are. We don’t allow any new worlds into the federation until their scientists stop using P values. A P value is the probability of getting an observed result or a more extreme result if the hypothesis of getting a null result is true, given the mathematical model of the data and all other assumptions built into your experiment. Doesn’t tell you a damn thing about whether the null hypothesis is true or not. Just gives a hint about whether your result is surprising or not. It could be surprising and therefore wrong or could be surprising and right. Go read this paper.”
I did.
Q9. What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?
A9. “What do you mean?”
Only half credit for that — it’s not the whole answer.
Q10. Why in the world haven’t you provided us with sufficiently sophisticated algorithmic artificial intelligence to neutralize the damage to our civilization perpetrated by social media?
Alien runs off.
OMG, I just realized the answer to that one is that Zuckerberg is one of the aliens.
Coronal mass ejections – CMEs for short – are powerful eruptions near the surface of the sun that ripple through our solar system and can interfere with satellites and power grids on Earth.
Coronal mass ejection of February 27, 2000. A disk is being used to block out the light of the sun. The white circle indicates the sun’s surface.
Every so often, the sun burps, with the power of 20 million nuclear bombs. These hiccups are known as coronal mass ejections or CMEs. They are powerful eruptions near the surface of the sun, driven by kinks in the solar magnetic field. The resulting shocks ripple through the solar system and can interrupt satellites and power grids on Earth.
During a CME, enormous bubbles of superheated gas – called plasma – are ejected from the sun. Over the course of several hours, a billion tons of material are lifted off the sun’s surface and accelerated to speeds of a million miles per hour (1.6 million kilometers per hour). This can happen several times a day when the sun is most active. During its quieter periods, CMEs occur only about once every five days.
The underlying cause of CMEs is not well understood. Astronomers agree, however, that the sun’s magnetic field plays a major role. Because the sun is a fluid, turbulence tends to twist the magnetic field into complex contortions. Twist the field too much, and it kinks, much like a phone cord or toy Slinky. These kinks snap the magnetic field and can potentially drive vast amounts of plasma into space.
The plasma itself is a cloud of protons and electrons carried aloft by the solar wind. Traveling at a million miles per hour (1.6 million kph), the ejecta can cross the 93-million-mile (150-million-km) distance to Earth in just a few days.
A jet moving that fast would get you from Los Angeles to New York in 18 seconds.
Because CMEs get blown off the sun in all directions, most don’t come anywhere near Earth. But every so often, an eruption is aimed right at us. When the plasma cloud hits our planet, a geomagnetic storm follows. The shock wave of charged particles compresses the Earth’s dayside magnetic field while the nightside gets stretched out. Like an elongated rubber band, the terrestrial magnetic field eventually snaps back with the same amount of energy as a bolt of lightning.
The video below shows the particle flow around Earth as solar ejecta associated with a coronal mass ejection strike:
The onslaught of charged particles and the temporary restructuring of the Earth’s magnetic field has observable effects. Auroral lights, usually only seen near the poles, can drift to lower latitudes and become more brilliant. The disturbance of the magnetic field can also expose Earth to deadly cosmic rays. The atmosphere still provides enough protection for everyone on the ground. But astronauts in space may receive lethal doses of radiation. During a solar storm in 1989, cosmonauts aboard the Mir space station received their maximum yearly radiation dose in just a few hours!
The real long-lasting danger comes from the storm’s effect on technology. The flurry of magnetic activity and induced electric currents has the potential to severely disrupt power grids, satellites, communication networks, that is, anything that uses electricity. When the sun aimed a CME at us in that 1989 event I just mentioned, the resulting storm collapsed the Hydro-Québec power grid. Six million people were without power for nine hours.
But the 1989 storm is nothing compared to the geomagnetic storm of 1859. Known as the Carrington Event, after amateur astronomer Richard Carrington, who observed the flares that triggered the storm, it was the most powerful geomagnetic storm ever recorded. Auroras were observed as far south as Hawaii and the Caribbean. Witnesses at higher latitudes reported being able to read newspapers by the light of the aurora alone. Telegraph networks around the globe catastrophically failed; operators received shocks and telegraph paper caught on fire.
A repeat of the Carrington Event in today’s far more interconnected world would be devastating. Cascading failures could quickly shut power down to millions of people in a matter of minutes. Communication networks would fail and GPS satellites, upon which the entire air traffic system relies, would shut down.
A repeat of 1859 could be truly catastrophic!
Obviously, we don’t want to be surprised by a powerful Earth-bound CME. That’s why astronomers study the sun. Besides the joy of discovering how stars work, a better understanding of solar activity can help us be better prepared. With even just a few hours warning before an impending CME strike, we could safely shut down and protect essential services. Disruptions may then only last a few hours, rather than the days, weeks, and months that might otherwise occur.
CMEs are just another reminder of how fragile our pale blue dot is as it races around the sun.
On August 31, 2012, the Solar Dynamics Observatory caught the sun launching streams of plasma into space at nearly 900 miles (about 1,400 km) per second.
Image via NASA/GSFC/SDO.
Bottom line: Coronal mass ejections – also knowns as CMEs – are powerful eruptions on the sun’s surface. Caused by instabilities in the sun’s magnetic field, they can launch a billion tons of superheated gas into space. Most drift harmlessly across the solar system, but occasionally one is aimed at Earth. When that happens, the resulting magnetic storm can severely disrupt electrical systems and produce brilliant auroral displays.
KOMENDE ZONDAG ZIJN BIJ HELDER WEER TOT WEL 100 VALLENDE STERREN PER UUR TE ZIEN
Vivian Lammerse
De Geminiden lijken een mooie show weg te gaan geven.
Het koude en gure weer is zondag alles behalve een reden om binnen te blijven. In de nacht van zondag op maandag zijn namelijk weer de befaamde geminiden te aanschouwen; één van de mooiste jaarlijkse meteorenzwermen. Volgens Marc van der Sluys van Hemel.waarnemen.com zijn de omstandigheden dit jaar bijzonder gunstig. En dus kunnen we bij helder weer tot wel 100 vallende sterren per uur spotten!
Geminiden Geminiden kenmerken zich door hun grote aantallen, de helderheid, gelige kleur en de korte sporen die ze achterlaten. Bovendien kunnen ze snelheden van wel 125.000 kilometer per uur bereiken. Dat klinkt misschien heel wat, maar voor meteoren is dit niet heel snel of langzaam.
Naam De meteorenzwerm heeft de naam de Geminiden gekregen omdat de sterrenregen uit het sterrenbeeld Tweelingen (Gemini) lijkt te komen. Dit sterrenbeeld vind je ‘s avonds boven de oostelijke en ‘s ochtends boven de westelijke horizon. Maar in werkelijkheid is het te danken aan planetoïde Phaethon. Deze heeft puin in zijn baan achtergelaten en elk jaar beweegt de aarde rond dezelfde tijd door die met puin gevulde baan heen.
Lichtflits Hoewel meteoren in de volksmond ook wel vallende sterren worden genoemd, hebben de lichtflitsjes die je langs de hemel ziet schieten helemaal niets met sterren te maken. De lichtflitsjes ontstaan doordat ruimtepuin – vaak gaat het dan om vrij kleine deeltjes – in de aardatmosfeer belanden. Het ruimtepuin dringt de aardatmosfeer met hoge snelheid binnen, waardoor het wordt afgeremd en verhit. Ook de lucht rond het puindeeltje wordt verhit en gaat gloeien. En zo ontstaat het lichtflitsje dat wij vanaf de aarde zien.
Van zondag op maandag zijn er rond middernacht zo’n 75 tot 90 meteoren – afkomstig uit oostelijke richting – per uur te zien, zo voorspelt Hemel.waarnemen.com. Naarmate de nacht vordert, neemt dat aantal toe. Zo wordt verwacht dat er rond 2.00 uur ’s nachts – in het zuiden – zo’n 100 tot 120 Geminiden per uur verschijnen.
De afbeelding toont een kaartje van de sterrenhemel in zuidwestelijke richting op 14 december om 1:45 uur, wanneer de meeste Geminiden te zien zijn. De (groene) balk onderin is de horizon. De (gele) cirkel geeft het punt aan de hemel aan waar de meteoren vandaan lijken te komen; de sporen stellen meteoren voor (schematisch). De figuurtjes zijn de sterrenbeelden; de naam is in het sterrenbeeld vermeld. Hieronder zijn kaartjes in zwart-wit en/of PDF/vectorformaat beschikbaar. Credit: hemel.waarnemen.com
Zoals gezegd lijken de omstandigheden dit jaar heel gunstig. Dat komt doordat het maanlicht geen storende factor zal zijn. Het hoogtepunt van de Geminiden zal laat in de avond plaatsvinden en de maan komt vervolgens pas in de ochtend op. Daarom zul je de Geminiden prachtig met het blote oog aan de nachtelijke hemel kunnen zien pronken.
Tenminste… …Als de weersomstandigheden natuurlijk goed zijn. Het huidige weerbericht voor zondagavond is niet heel veelbelovend. Maar geen nood. Want de Universiteit van Amsterdam organiseert samen met de Koninklijke Nederlandse Vereniging voor Weer- en Sterrenkunde vanaf 21.00 uur een livestream. Bij slecht weer gebruikt de organisatie beelden van radiotelescopen. En met die telescopen kunnen onderzoekers door de wolken heen turen. Sterrenkundehoogleraar en radioastronoom Ralph Wijers (UvA) en meteorenexpert Felix Bettonvil (Universiteit Leiden en KNVWS) geven tijdens de livestream de nodige uitleg. Na de livestream kunnen liefhebbers samen virtueel verder kijken met de Werkgroep Meteoren.
Wil je liever je eigen geluk beproeven, dan kan dat natuurlijk ook. Want als de wolken wegblijven, kun je de meteorenzwerm ook op eigen houtje bewonderen. Je hebt hier namelijk geen speciale apparatuur voor nodig. Het blote oog en een heldere hemel volstaan. Zoek wel even een donkere plek op, want dan kun je ook de zwakkere meteoren aan de hemel zien prijken. En oh, denk ook even aan warme kleding.
A captured the images to create this composite on December 14, 2018. He wrote of the 2018 Geminid shower, “I witnessed 200+ meteors, most of them very faint.”
If you had to pick one morning for watching the 2020 Geminid meteor shower, it’d probably be Monday morning, December 14. But Saturday and Sunday mornings might be good as well. At their peak, on a dark, moonless night, the Geminids have been known to produce 120 meteors per hour – or more – in the wee hours after midnight. Any and all meteors are fun to see! Plus, the moon is at and near the new phase for this year’s shower, giving us a dark, moonless sky for this year’s Geminid shower. Not sure where to watch? Try EarthSky’s Best Places to Stargaze page.
Not sure how to watch? Here are 10 tips.
1. Watch late night to dawn.
Geminid meteor numbers tend to intensify as evening deepens into late night, with the greatest number of Geminids likely falling an hour or two after midnight, when the meteor shower’s radiant point appears highest in the sky as seen from around the globe. That time holds true no matter your time zone.
A farmer’s field? A stretch of country road? A campsite with a clear view in one or more directions? An open sky will increase your chances of seeing some meteors.
4. Watch for an hour or more.
The 2020 Geminid meteor shower will be better if you let your eyes adapt to the dark. That can take as long as 20 minutes. Plus the meteors tend to come in spurts, followed by lulls. Be patient! You’ll see some.
5. Don’t worry about the radiant point.
You don’t need to look in a single direction – or locate the Geminid’s radiant point – to have fun watching the shower. The meteors will appear all over the sky. The radiant point is interesting, though. If you track Geminid meteors backwards on the sky’s dome, you’ll find them streaming from this point, within the constellation Gemini the Twins. Hence this shower’s name.
In December 2020, there’s no moonlight to ruin the show. New moon is December 14. But – in the weekend mornings, just prior to the Geminids’ peak morning (also December 14), you can catch the waning crescent moon moon and Venus in the east before sunup. They would be a grand way to end a meteor shower!
As the predawn darkness begins to give way to morning twilight, watch for the waning crescent moon and the dazzling planet Venus rise into your eastern sky. What a wonderful way to cap a night of meteor watching!
7. Think about the Geminids’ parent object.
Most meteors in annual showers originate in comets. But the parent of the Geminid meteor shower is a mysterious body named 3200 Phaethon. This solar system object is termed an Apollo (near-Earth) asteroid, and it might be a dormant comet. How does that help you watch the shower? It doesn’t. But it’s fun to contemplate on a dark night under the stars.
Both of you watch different parts of the sky. If one of you sees one, shout out “meteor!” Again, don’t worry about which direction to look. Just let your eyes rove casually in all parts of the sky.
9. Special equipment? Not necessary.
You only need a dark sky, a reclining lawn chair and the warmth of a sleeping bag. A hot drink and a snack can also be good.
10. Enjoy nature.
As a wise man once said, meteor watching is a lot like fishing. You go outside. You hope you catch some!
Bottom line:We anticipate 2020 will be a great year for watching the Geminid meteor shower! Here are 10 tips.
Oldest mammal hair ever discovered is found preserved in amber dating back 110MILLION years - as experts say its owner probably got stuck to a tree while snoozing
Scientists uncovered dinosaur feather at site in Teruel, Aragon, eastern Spain
Three strands of mammal hair and dinosaur feathers found at Santa María mine
Both pieces 'exceptionally preserved' and date back to Early Cretaceous period
The oldest piece of mammalian hair ever discovered has been found preserved in amber that could be 110 million years old.
Scientists also found a dinosaur feather at the same site in Teruel, Aragon, eastern Spain, and say the remains date from between 105 and 110 million years ago.
The two pieces of resin containing three strands of mammal hair and dinosaur feathers were uncovered the Santa María mine near Teruel's capital Ariño.
Although mammal hair has been found imprinted in 160 million year old fossils, the previous oldest piece actually preserved dates from 100 million years ago.
The two pieces of resin containing three strands of mammal hair and dinosaur feathers (pictured) were uncovered the Santa María mine in Teruel, Aragon, eastern Spain
Both pieces date back to the Early Cretaceous period and have been 'exceptionally preserved' through a process dubbed 'pull off vestiture'.
This suggests the animals came into contact with the resin while resting or sleeping in a tree over 100 million years ago.
The feathers and hair would have then been 'torn off' when the animals woke up and tried to move as the amber had dried.
Microscopic scale patterns on the three hairs, their parallel predisposition and similar proportions, allowed the researchers to identify them as belonging to a mammal.
While Spain is a known hot spot for Cretaceous fossils, the researchers were not expecting to find animal remains preserved in amber.
Co-author doctoral student Sergio Álvarez-Parra from the University of Barcelona said: 'The determination of both findings is very complex, but it is likely for the feather remains to correspond to the extinct birds Enantiornithes, like other feathers in amber.
'Regarding the lock of hair, we should consider that the surface scale pattern is similar to the current mammalian hair.
'Ariño was already known for its vertebrate fossils, such as the dinosaurs Proa valdearinnoensis and Europelta carbonensis, but no-one thought we could find remains from vertebrates included in amber.'
While Spain is a known hot spot for Cretaceous fossils, the researchers were not expecting to find animal remains preserved in amber
(pictured)
The dinosaur feathers were discovered in a piece of amber shaped like a stalactite in Saint Just near the municipality of Utrillas a few years ago.
Both pieces were formed between 105 and 110 million years ago, during the Early Cretaceous period.
Senior author Professor Xavier Delclòs, also at the University of Barcelona said: 'The feature of the process described in this research is that a somewhat long time must pass between the animal's contact with the resin and the pulling off of the vestiture.
'Thus, the findings of this study and the new process shed light on the complexity of ecosystems during the Cretaceous.'
The Cretaceous period began 145 million years ago and ended 66 million years ago with the extinction of the dinosaurs.
Both pieces of amber are in the Palaeontological Museum of Aragon, Fundación Conjunto Paleontológico de Teruel - Dinópolis.
The findings were published in the journal Scientific Reports.
RELATED IMAGES AND VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011
The oldest mammal hair that’s ever been found preserved in amber dates back to the Early Cretaceous period between 105 and 110 million years ago. The three strands of mammal hair and dinosaur feathers were discovered at Santa Maria mine which is located in Teruel (near Ariño), Aragon, eastern Spain.
The reason why the hair and feathers were “exceptionally preserved” in the amber was because of a “pull off vestiture” which means that the animals would have rested against the sticky resin while sleeping or resting against a tree and once it hardened up, it would have pulled the hair/feathers off of the animal.
Professor Xavier Delclòs from the University of Barcelona, an author of the study, stated, “The feature of the process described in this research is that a somewhat long time must pass between the animal’s contact with the resin and the pulling off of the vestiture.”
The animals would have rested against the sticky resin in order for their fur or feathers to be pulled off.
While mammal hair had previously been found imprinted in fossils dating back 160 million years, the oldest one that was preserved dated back around 100 million years ago (prior to this new discovery).
After experts analyzed the pieces, they were able to confirm that the hair belonged to a mammal and the feathers most likely came from an extinct bird. Sergio Álvarez-Parra, a doctoral student at the University of Barcelona and another author of the study, explained this further, “The determination of both findings is very complex, but it is likely for the feather remains to correspond to the extinct birds Enantiornithes, like other feathers in amber.”
He went on to say, “Regarding the lock of hair, we should consider that the surface scale pattern is similar to the current mammalian hair.” “Ariño was already known for its vertebrate fossils, such as the dinosaurs Proa valdearinnoensis and Europelta carbonensis, but no-one thought we could find remains from vertebrates included in amber.”
Another example of resin dripping from a tree.
Professor Delclòs added that “the findings of this study and the new process shed light on the complexity of ecosystems during the Cretaceous.”
Spain is known for their many fossils that date back to the Cretaceous period, but the fact that they found hair and feathers so well preserved in amber was a definite surprise. The study was published in the journal Scientific Reports where it can be read in full.
Pictures of the mammal hair and feathers that were preserved in amber can be seen here.
On January 7, 1970, two men by the names of Aarno Heinonen and Esko Viljo were out for a leisurely day of cross-country skiing at a quaint forest near Imjarvi Finland, training for an upcoming competition. The day had been calm and relaxing, and the two of them had chatted about their lives, and when dusk came, they stopped to admire the clear night sky and its stars. They watched the sun dipping beyond the horizon even as it grew very cold, and as they watched the darkening sky there was something rather bizarre that demanded their attention. It started as a strange buzzing sound that filled their ears and heads, and as they looked about trying to ascertain where it was coming from, they allegedly saw a bright light in the sky rapidly moving towards them, which seemed to be a metallic craft of some sort. This would mark the beginning of a rather bizarre ordeal, which has gone on to become one of the most famous and weirdest UFO cases Finland has ever seen.
As the mystery light approached, that alien buzzing sensation became more acute, until it was nearly deafening, and the object seemed to be rounded and disc-shaped, around 10 feet in diameter. It came in to hover over the ground, and they could see that is seemed to be surrounded by a strange reddish gray mist. It was all a very unusual sight, and Heinonen would say of it:
The huge disk began to descend as it was enveloped with the red gray fog, which became more thin and transparent. It began to hover at a height of 10 to 13 ft, so near I could have touched it with my ski stick. The craft was completely round. When it came down obliquely towards us we saw it had a dome on the upper side. Along the lower edge was a kind of raised part on which were three spheres or domes spaced equidistantly.
Just when things couldn’t have possibly been any weirder, an opening suddenly appeared in the bottom of the craft, from which extended a tube that burst forth an intense bright light, which created a delineated circle of black-tinged light on the snow. The bright was so bright as to be almost blinding, with the men squinting and trying to get their bearings. It was about then that Heinonen felt as if he had been yanked backwards by some invisible force, and he then saw some sort of being ahead. He would explain of this:
I don’t think we said anything to each other at all. We were completely amazed. We saw the light move a couple of times before stopping and intensely illuminating a patch of snow about a meter in diameter, with round it a dark edge, almost coal-black and 1 cm wide. I was standing completely still. Suddenly I felt as if somebody had seized my waist from behind and pulled me backwards. I think I took a step backwards, and in the same second I caught sight of the creature. It was standing in the middle of the light beam with a black box in its hands. Out of a round opening in the box there came a yellow light, pulsating. It was about 3 ft tall, with very thin arms and legs. Its face was like pale wax. The nose was a hook rather than a nose. The ears were very small and narrowed toward the head. The creature wore some kind of overall in a light green material and a conical helmet shining like metal. The creature stood in the middle of the bright light and was luminous like phosphorus, but its face was very pale. Its shoulders were very thin and slanting, with thin arms like a child’s. There were also white gauntlets going up to the elbows, and the fingers were bent like claws around the black box.
This mysterious being stood there in the light with its black box, which was illuminated by an eerie yellow glow, and the red mist was suddenly everywhere again, obscuring their view of it and becoming so thick that they could barely see each other anymore. Throughout the mist could be seen dancing purple sparks, and the whole scene was at the same time frightening, surreal, and beautiful. The entity then whipped the box upward to point it right at the startled men, and both mist and sparks flew in their direction, which caused them to feel nauseous and for their legs to go numb. Heinonen would say:
The pulsating light was very bright, almost blinding. It was very silent in the forest. Suddenly a red-grey mist came flowing down from the object and large sparks started to fly from the illuminated circle of snow. The sparks were like tapers, about 10 cm long, red, green and violet. They floated out in long curves, rather slowly; many of them hit me, but though I expected them to burn me, At first I did not feel anything. My right leg had been nearest the light. The whole leg was stiff and aching. My foot was as if anaesthetized.
The strange fog got thicker and thicker until suddenly both the humanoid and its bizarre craft just seemed to disappear. The two men managed to stumble out of there, feeling nauseous, numb, and vomiting the whole way. They would later be plagued by health problems afterwards, including what they describe as black urine like ‘black coffee,” facial swelling, headaches and vision and memory problems. A doctor who examined them, a Dr Pauli Kajanoja, would say:
l think the men have suffered a great shock. Viljo was very red in the face and seemed a little swollen. Both seemed absent-minded. They talked quickly and incoherently. I could not find anything clinically wrong with Heinonen. He did not feel well, but that could have been his stomach reacting to the shock. The symptoms he described are like those after being exposed to radioactivity. Unfortunately, I had no instrument to measure that. As to the black urine, it seems inexplicable. Possibly it could have been blood in it, but this cannot go on for several months. If blood samples had been taken, they might have revealed changes in his blood. Both men seemed sincere, and I don’t think they had made the thing up. I’m sure they were in a state of shock when they came to me; something must have frightened them.
It is all very harrowing and inexplicable, indeed, and since both men were known as being honest and reliable the case was treated as very promising by ufologists at the time. Yet, Heinonen would muddy the waters in later years, when he claimed that between 1970 and 1972 he had over two dozen further UFO experiences, sometimes involving a beautiful blonde alien who would appear and talk to him. This humanoid was described as possessing some sort of spherical object and claimed to be over 180 years old, and was sometimes accompanied by a dwarfish creature about 3 feet tall and wearing a grey suit with white stripes. He also claimed that he had received a green pen from her at some point, but would say that it had gone missing, and he also complained that every time he tried to take a picture of the creatures his camera would vanish into thin air or be knocked out of his hand by an unseen force. Convenient.
The case is so orbited by bizarreness that it is really rather hard to know what to make of it. Heinonen’s later oddball comments would certainly shed skepticism on what was originally taken to be a possibly genuine report, leaving us to wonder what is going on here. What happened out there in that frigid wilderness? Was this a real alien encounter or just delusional ranting? It remains unknown.
Meer van UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN - DE ALLERLAATSTE NIEUWTJES
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