AMAZING! Cigar-shaped UFO filmed over Andes (Chile)

This really interesting UFO video was filmed from a plane that was flying over Andes in Chile on 11th November 2020.

Witness report: (Google translate from Spanish)

 I present my case, my name is Rodrigo from Chile, on 11/11/2020 on the sky flight H272 from Puerto Montt to Santiago (departure 18:36, arrival 20:14 hours). Approximately arriving in Santiago at 8:00 p.m., I was looking at the landscape (Andes mountain range) the only “cloud” (dark and fat, in the shape of a worm) catches my attention, “rain cloud” style, above the peak of the Montana. From my window at an angle of about 65 degrees.
As the plane was in parallel with the “cloud”, I noticed that it began to be “clearer” (I thought it was “something” normal of the winds and altitude) and it was there that at the right point of the cloud, it made a ” small flash of white light “that caught my attention and amazement (in a matter of second), I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, I was stunned, when I turned around and saw inside the cabin if someone was looking at the same thing as me, the person closest to me, I was in an intermediate seat to mine (Mrs. Older) sleeping with masks (I also had the mask on), when trying to take my cell phone that was locked and is unlocked with facial recognition, I lost valuable seconds when using alphanumeric unlock. After enabling the cell phone, I focus on the “cloud” to take a photo and then a video.
As can be seen in the photo “it was no longer a rain cloud”, but it took the form of something solid and clearer. After the first photo, go to video in slow motion format (effect that was used when making videos to my daughter), where “you can see that it is no longer a cloud” but a “solid disk” (it passed all its metamorphosis) It was impressive to see the “UFO” (calmly in my house and thanks to google map, look for the reference hill, when measuring, it showed me that the UFO was approximately 6 kilometers long). Video 1 and Video 2 (use of filter on video)
When the plane moves away from the UFO, at first glance it gives a visual effect of fading on the horizon, it may be an optical effect, but when occupying filters in the video the UFO was still but getting smaller …), at that moment the plane makes a U-turn preparing the landing, at that moment I thought I had already lost sight of the UFO, and to my surprise I see it again at another point of the Andes mountain range, on the horizon, where I take my cell phone , I unlock it for the last photo and video of the UFO …

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Ex-CIA boss John Brennan believes there may be life beyond Earth

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Richard Rokeby claims mysterious lights that started appearing near Burton Dassett, Warwickshire, in December 1922 were UFOs mistaken as the festive ghosts of World War One soldiers

By Berny Torre

Mysterious lights believed to be the festive ghosts of World War One soldiers were in fact aliens, a police detective has claimed.

Mysterious lights believed to be the festive ghosts of World War One soldiers were in fact aliens, a police detective has claimed.

The sightings were attributed to a natural phenomenon known as marsh gas or Will O' the Wisps by a local newspaper.

But amateur UFO researcher Richard Rokeby has penned a book, The Lights Upon The Hills, where he claims the witness accounts show they were actually ETs.

The married dad-of-three wrote: "Following the First World War desperate families wanted to believe that there is a hope of communicating with their lost sons again.

"Therefore, it would be natural at this time to assign any strange phenomena to ghosts and spirits.

"But as we will see if we look at these events through modern eyes, it is very clear that what they are witnessing is an historic Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon event."

He told of how several sightings of "multi-coloured" lights moving at speed were reported by the Banbury Guardian in February 1923.

And insisted the paper's explanation was not "credible" as the lights reportedly spooked horses and exerted "downward pressure".

The author wrote: "What we have here is multiple witnesses saying that they saw strange lights in the sky and above the ground moving in ways that modern aircraft find very difficult to do today.

READ MORE

• Mysterious pink glowing 'UFO' seen in sky hours after huge fireball crashes near town

"I firmly believed that what was actually being witnessed here was a mass Unidentified Flying Object ( UFO) or Unexplained Aerial Phenomena (UAP) event.

"Therefore, over the course of this book I hope to show that what was seen in the winter of 1922-23 was not ghosts or marsh gas, but was in fact a well documented, multi-witnessed, extraterrestrial encounter and that these encounters may have been happening for hundreds years, are still happening today and perhaps a large event is going to occur there again and very soon!"

Top British flying saucer investigator Philip Mantle has published the former Army man's book on the Flying Disk Press.

{ https://www.dailystar.co.uk/ }

Planetary Researchers Create Map of Early Mars’ River Systems

Using data from the Context Camera aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, planetary researchers have generated an 8-trillion-pixel global map of Mars and performed the first systematic global survey of Martian fluvial (river) ridges.

Mars used to be a wet world, as evidenced by rock records of lakes, rivers, and glaciers.

The Martian river ridges were formed between 4 and 3 billion years ago (the Noachian to Hesperian period), when large rivers deposited sediments in their channels, rather than only having the water cut away at the surface.

Over time, sediment built up in the channels; once the water dried up, those ridges were all that was left of some rivers.

The ridges are present only in the southern hemisphere, where some of Mars’ oldest and most rugged terrain is, but this pattern is likely a preservation artifact.

“These ridges probably used to be all over the entire planet, but subsequent processes have buried them or eroded them away,” said lead author Dr. Jay Dickson, a researcher in the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences at Caltech.

“The northern hemisphere is very smooth because it’s been resurfaced, primarily by lava flows.”

“Additionally, the southern highlands are some of the flattest surfaces in the Solar System,” said co-author Dr. Woodward Fischer, also from the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences at Caltech.

“That exceptional flatness made for good sedimentary deposition, allowing the creation of the records being studied today.”

The new map allows planetary researchers to explore questions at global scales, rather than being limited to patchier, localized studies and extrapolating results to the whole hemisphere.

In addition to identifying 18 new fluvial ridges, using the map allowed the team to re-examine features that had previously been identified as fluvial ridges. Upon closer inspection, some weren’t formed by rivers after all, but rather lava flows or glaciers.

“If you only see a small part of a ridge, you might have an idea of how it formed,” Dr. Dickson said.

“But then you see it in a larger context — like, oh, it’s the flank of a volcano, it’s a lava flow.”

“So now we can more confidently determine which are fluvial ridges, versus ridges formed by other processes.”

“Now that we have a global understanding of the distribution of ancient rivers on Mars, future explorations — whether by rover or by astronauts — could use these rock records to investigate what past climates and tectonics were like.”

“One of the biggest breakthroughs in the last twenty years is the recognition that Mars has a sedimentary record, which means we’re not limited to studying the planet today,” Dr. Fischer said.

“We can ask questions about its history.”

“And in doing so, he says, we learn not only about a single planet’s past, but also find truths about how planets evolved… and why the Earth is habitable.”

The team’s results are published in the journal Geology.

• J.L. Dickson et al. The global distribution of depositional rivers on early Mars. Geology, published online December 21, 2020; doi: 10.1130/G48457.1

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Massive Tsunami Hit the Neolithic Middle East 9,000+ Years Ago

Study may explain why previous archaeological surveys have found no evidence until the Late Neolithic for low-lying coastal villages at Tel Dor, Israel

The small bays of Israel’s Tel Dor.

Image courtesy of University of Haifa-UC San Diego Carmel Coast Marine Archaeology Expedition.

This wasn’t Noah’s flood. But it was still a catastrophic event that profoundly changed the landscape and could have given rise to legends, too. According to a new study from an international team of researchers, a massive tsunami swept over the coastline near Tel Dor, Israel, sometime between 9,910 and 9,290 years ago.

The date makes it the oldest known paleo tsunami in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Published in the open-access journal PLOS ONE, the paper is by Gilad Shtienberg, Richard Norris and Thomas Levy from the University of California San Diego, with colleagues from Utah State University and the University of Haifa. It is part of an ongoing, long-term project between UC San Diego’s Scripps Center for Marine Archaeology (SCMA) and Haifa’s Leon Recanati Institute for Maritime Studies, directed by paper co-author Assaf Yasur-Landau, to investigate how humans have, over the past 12 millennia, adapted to climate and environmental change along Israel’s Carmel Coast.

Taking a sediment core from South Bay, Tel Dor, Israel.

Photo by T. E. Levy.

The researchers discovered evidence for the tsunami by cutting open sediment cores from their coastal study area at the South Bay of Tel Dor. In these samples, they found an abrupt layer of seashells and sand, dated to between 9,910 and 9,290 years ago, in the middle wetland layers deposited 15,000 to 7,800 years ago. The only way that this marine material could have arrived so far inland, or what would have been inland at that time, the authors determined, was through a destructive wave.

They estimate that the wave capable of doing this would have traveled inland between 1.5 to 3.5 kilometers (about 1 to 2 miles) and would have been between 16 and 40 meters (52 to 130 feet) high at the coast.

Tsunamis are not uncommon in the eastern Mediterranean; historical records and geographic data suggest that a tsunami has been occurring about once per century over the past 6,000 years. For comparison, however, previously documented tsunami events have traveled inland only around 300 meters (or about 1,000 feet). In other words, this Neolithic event was significant. The authors suspect a strong earthquake on the Dead Sea Fault System was followed by an underwater landslide.

Gilad Shtienberg identifies tsunami deposit in sediment core from Tel Dor.

Photo by T. E. Levy.

If there was a village at the site, this tsunami would have devastated it – and destroyed crop lands, pastures and herds, as well as near-shore marine fisheries and resources.

This event, which occurred during the Early to Middle Neolithic cultural periods of the region, might explain why previous archaeological surveys have found no evidence for low-lying coastal villages in that particular area until the late Neolithic, the researchers said. The evidence for earlier settlement may have been wiped out.

“We can’t know for sure why people weren’t living there, in a place otherwise abundant with evidence of early human habitation and the beginnings of village life in the Holy Land,” said Levy, the paper’s senior author, co-director of UC San Diego’s SCMA and an archaeology professor in the university’s Department of Anthropology. “Was the environment too altered to support life? Was the tsunami part of their cultural knowledge – did they tell stories of this destructive event and stay away? We can only imagine.”

By the Late or Pottery Neolithic period, however, archaeological sites along the coast begin to reappear – and coincide with the resumption of wetland deposition in the core samples from Dor, indicating resettlement and highlighting, Levy said, people’s resilience in the face of massive disruption.

One of those rare Pottery Neolithic submerged sites was excavated at the South Bay of Tel Dor by Assaf Yasur-Landau and Levy’s joint University of Haifa-UC San Diego team as part of the PLOS ONE paper.

To conduct their analysis, the authors of this paper used photogrammetric remote sensing techniques to create a digital model of their study area at Tel Dor, combined with underwater excavation and terrestrial borehole drilling. The dating was locked down using a relatively new radiometric dating technique called Optical Stimulated Luminescence, or OSL, in co-author Tammy Rittenour’s Luminescence Laboratory at Utah State University. OSL dates the last time quartz sediment was exposed to light.

“Our project focuses on reconstructing ancient climate and environmental change over the past 12,000 years along the Israeli coast,” said Shtienberg, the paper’s first author and a Koret postdoctoral scholar at UC San Diego’s SCMA, who is studying the sediment cores. “We never dreamed of finding evidence of a prehistoric tsunami in Israel.”

Marine shells that were transported inland by the paleo tsunami at Tel Dor, Israel.

Detail of figure by G. Shtienberg, PLOS ONE.

In the future, the researchers hope to do more geophysical research in deeper water and send divers down to test their results and perhaps find evidence of earlier settlements.

The research is supported, in part, by funding from the Koret Foundation (Grant ID 19-0295); the Murray Galinson San Diego-Israel Initiative; the Israel Institute (Washington, D.C.); Marian Scheuer-Sofaer and Abraham Sofaer Foundation; Norma and Reuben Kershaw Family Foundation; Ellen Lehman and Charles Kennel - Alan G Lehman and Jane A Lehman Foundation; Paul and Margaret Meyer and the Israel Science Foundation (Grant ID 495/18).

{ https://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/ }

Archaeologists Find Evidence of Neolithic Mega-Tsunami in Israel

A catastrophic tsunami occurred sometimes between 7,910 and 7,290 BCE with an extreme 16 m (52.5 feet) wave height and 1.5-3.5 km (0.93-2.2 mile) run-up on the Carmel coast of Israel, according to new research published in the journal PLoS ONE.

“Tsunami events in antiquity had a profound influence on coastal societies,” said lead author Dr. Gilad Shtienberg from the Department of Anthropology in the Scripps Center for Marine Archaeology at the University of California, San Diego, and colleagues.

“6,000 years of historical records and geological data show that tsunamis are a common phenomenon affecting the eastern Mediterranean coastline, occurring at a rate of around 8 events per century in the Aegean region over the past 2,000 years and approximately 10 per century over the past 3,000 years in the Levant basin.”

“Most of these events are small and have only local impacts.”

In the study, the researchers found a large paleo-tsunami deposit (between 9,910 to 9,290 years ago) at the archaeological site of Tel Dor in northwest Israel.

“Tel Dor, located along the Carmel coast of northwest Israel, is a maritime city-mound that has been occupied from the Middle Bronze II period (2000 to 1550 BCE) throughout the Roman period (3rd century CE) while Byzantine and Crusader remains are also found on the tel,” they said.

“The local environment of Dor is characterized by a series of unique embayments/pocket beaches that stand out from the linear morphology of the southeastern Mediterranean littoral shore face.”

To conduct their analysis, the scientists used photogrammetric remote sensing techniques to create a digital model of the Tel Dor site, combined with underwater excavation and terrestrial borehole drilling to a depth of 9 m (29.5 feet).

In their samples, they found an abrupt layer of seashells and sand, dated to between 9,910 and 9,290 years ago, in the middle wetland layers deposited 15,000 to 7,800 years ago.

They estimate that the ancient tsunami had a run-up of at least 16 m and traveled between 3.5 to 1.5 km inland from the paleo-coastline.

The near absence of Pre-Pottery Neolithic A-B archaeological sites (11,700-9,800 years ago) suggest these sites were removed by the tsunami, whereas younger, late Pre-Pottery Neolithic B-C (9,250-8,350 years ago) and later Pottery-Neolithic sites (8,250-7,800 years ago) indicate resettlement following the event.

“We can’t know for sure why people weren’t living there, in a place otherwise abundant with evidence of early human habitation and the beginnings of village life in the Holy Land,” said Professor Thomas Levy, a researcher in the Department of Anthropology and the Levant and Cyber-Archaeology Laboratory in the Scripps Center for Marine Archaeology at the University of California, San Diego.

“Was the environment too altered to support life? Was the tsunami part of their cultural knowledge — did they tell stories of this destructive event and stay away? We can only imagine.”

“Our project focuses on reconstructing ancient climate and environmental change over the past 12,000 years along the Israeli coast; and we never dreamed of finding evidence of a prehistoric tsunami in Israel,” Dr. Shtienberg said.

“Scholars know that at the beginning of the Neolithic, around 10,000 years ago, the seashore was 4 km (2.5 miles) from where it is today.”

“When we cut the cores open in San Diego and started seeing a marine shell layer embedded in the dry Neolithic landscape, we knew we hit the jackpot.”

_____

G. Shtienberg et al. 2020. A Neolithic mega-tsunami event in the eastern Mediterranean: Prehistoric settlement vulnerability along the Carmel coast, Israel. PLoS ONE 15 (12): e0243619; doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0243619

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If a spacecraft (like the one shown in this artist’s concept) ever touches down on Jupiter’s icy moon Europa, the craft will need to be especially agile in order to stick its landing.

JPL-CALTECH/NASA

Since the dawn of the space age, Mars and the moon have gotten almost all the lander love. Only a handful of spacecraft have landed on Venus, our other nearest neighbor world, and none have touched down on Europa, an icy moon of Jupiter thought to be one of the best places in the solar system to look for present-day life (SN: 5/2/14).

Researchers are working to change that. In several talks at the virtual American Geophysical Union meeting that ran from December 1 to December 17, planetary scientists and engineers discussed new tricks that hypothetical future spacecraft may need to land on unfamiliar terrain on Venus and Europa. The missions are still in a design phase and are not on NASA’s launch schedule, but scientists want to be prepared.

Navigating a Venusian gauntlet

Venus is a notoriously difficult world to visit (SN: 2/13/18). Its searing temperatures and crushing atmospheric pressure have destroyed every spacecraft lucky enough to reach the surface within about two hours of arrival. The last landing was over 30 years ago, despite increasing confidence among planetary scientists that Venus’ surface was once habitable (SN: 8/26/16). That possibility of past, and perhaps current, life on Venus is one reason scientists are anxious to get back (SN: 10/28/20).

In one of the proposed plans discussed at the AGU meeting, scientists have ridged, folded mountainous terrain on Venus called tessera in their sights. “Safely landing in tessera terrain is absolutely necessary to satisfy our science objectives,” said planetary scientist Joshua Knicely of the University of Alaska Fairbanks in a talk recorded for the meeting. “We have to do it.”

Knicely is part of a study led by geologist Martha Gilmore of Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn., to design a hypothetical mission to Venus that could launch in the 2030s. The mission would include three orbiters, an aerobot to float in the clouds and a lander that could drill and analyze samples of tessera rocks. This terrain is thought to have formed where edges of continents slid over and under each other long ago, bringing new rock up to the surface in what might have been some version of plate tectonics. On Earth, this sort of resurfacing may have been important in making the planet hospitable to life (SN: 4/22/20).

Ridged, folded mountainous terrain on Venus called tessera (bright region in this false-color image from NASA’s Magellan spacecraft) might have formed through long-ago tectonic activity. JPL-CALTECH/NASA

But landing in these areas on Venus could be especially difficult. Unfortunately, the best maps of the planet — from NASA’s Magellan orbiter in the 1990s — can’t tell engineers how steep the slopes are in tessera terrain. Those maps suggest that most are less than 30 degrees, which the lander could handle with four telescoping legs. But some could be up to 60 degrees, leaving the spacecraft vulnerable to toppling over.

“We have a very poor understanding of what the surface is like,” Gilmore said in a talk recorded for the meeting. “What’s the boulder size? What’s the rock size distribution? Is it fluffy?”

So the lander will need some kind of intelligent navigation system to pick out the best places to land and steer there. But that need for steering brings up another problem: Unlike landers on Mars, a Venus lander can’t use small rocket engines to slow down as it descends.

The shape of a rocket is tailored to the density of air that it will push against. That’s why rockets that launch spacecraft from Earth have two sections: one for Earth’s atmosphere and one for the near-vacuum of space. Venus’ atmosphere changes density and pressure so quickly between space and the planet’s surface that “dropping a kilometer would go from the rocket working perfectly, to it’s going to misfire and possibly blow itself apart,” Knicely says.

Instead of rockets, the proposed lander would use fans to push itself around, almost like a submarine, turning the disadvantage of the dense atmosphere into an advantage.

The planet’s atmosphere also presents the biggest challenge of all: seeing the ground. Venus’ dense atmosphere scatters light more than Earth’s or Mars’ does, blurring the view of the surface until the last few kilometers of descent.

Worse, the scattered light makes it seem like illumination is coming from all directions at once, like shining a flashlight into fog. There are no shadows to help show steep slopes or reveal big boulders that the lander could crash into. That’s a major issue, according to Knicely, because all of the existing navigation software assumes that light comes from just one direction.

“If we can’t see the ground, we can’t find out where the safe stuff is,” Knicely says. “And we also can’t find out where the science is.” While proposed solutions to the other challenges of landing on Venus are close to doable, he says, this one remains the biggest hurdle.

Sticking the landing on Europa

Jupiter’s icy moon Europa, on the other hand, has no air to blur the surface or break rockets. A hypothetical future Europa lander, also discussed at the AGU meeting, would be able to use the “sky crane” technique (SN: 8/6/12). That method, in which a platform hovers above the surface using rockets and drops a spacecraft to the ground, was used to land the Curiosity rover on Mars in 2012 and will be used for the Perseverance lander in February 2021.

“The engineers are very excited about not having to deal with an atmosphere on the way down,” said spacecraft engineer Jo Pitesky of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., in a recorded talk for the meeting.

Still, there’s a lot that scientists don’t know about Europa’s surface, which could have implications for any lander that touches down, said planetary scientist Marissa Cameron of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in another talk.

The best views of the moon’s landscape are from the Galileo orbiter in the 1990s, and the smallest features it could see were half a kilometer across. Some scientists have suggested that Europa could sport jagged ice spikes called penitentes, similar to ice features in the Chilean Andes Mountains that are named for their resemblance to hooded monks with bowed heads — although more recent work shows Europa’s lack of atmosphere should keep penitentes from forming.

Another mission, the Europa Clipper, that’s already underway will take higher-resolution images when the orbiter visits the Jovian moon later this decade, which should help clarify the issue.

In the meantime, scientists and engineers are running elaborate dress rehearsals for a Europa landing, from simulating ices with different chemical compositions in vacuum chambers to dropping a dummy lander named Olaf from a crane to see how it holds up.

“We have a requirement that says the terrain can have any configuration — jagged, potholes, you name it — and we have to be able to conform to that surface and be stable at it,” says John Gallon, an engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. (The dummy lander was named for his 4-year-old daughter’s favorite character in the movie Frozen.)

Olaf, a scale model of a possible Europa lander, is helping NASA engineers test different strategies for landing on the icy moon of Jupiter. The rover is named for the snowman in the movie Frozen.

Over the last two years, Gallon and colleagues have tested different lander feet, legs and configurations in a lab by suspending the lander from the ceiling like a marionette. That suspension helps simulate Europa’s gravity, which is one-seventh that of Earth’s.

Without much gravity, a massive lander could easily bounce around and damage itself when trying to land. “You’re not going to stick the landing like a gymnast coming off the bars,” Gallon says. His team has tried sticky feet, bowl-shaped feet, springs that compress and push into the surface and legs that lock to help the lander stay put on various terrains. The lander might crouch like a frog or stand stiff like a table, depending on what type of surface it lands on.

Although Olaf is hard at work helping scientists figure out what it will take to build a successful Europa lander, the mission itself, like its Venusian counterpart, remains only on some planetary scientists’ wish lists for now. Meanwhile, other researchers dream about voyages to entirely different worlds, including Saturn’s geyser moon Enceladus.

“Some people will pick favorites,” Cameron says. “I just want to land someplace we’ve never been to that’s not Mars. I’d love that.”

• Questions or comments on this article? E-mail us at feedback@sciencenews.org

CITATIONS

• P.M. Beauchamp and M.S. Gilmore. Preparing for a Flagship: Lessons learned from the Venus Flagship Mission Planetary Decadal Survey Study. American Geophysical Union meeting, December 9, 2020.
• J. Knicely et al. Strategies for safely landing on Venus tesserae. American Geophysical Union meeting, December 9, 2020.
• J. Pitesky et al. The Europa Lander Mission Concept: In situ exploration of an ocean world. American Geophysical Union meeting, December 11, 2020.
• M. Cameron et al. Landing on Europa: Science-driven preparations for touching an unknown surface. American Geophysical Union meeting, December 11, 2020.
• M. S. Gilmore et al. 2020 Venus Flagship Mission Decadal Study report. August 8, 2020.
• Europa Lander Mission Concept Team. Europa Lander Study 2016 report. August 10, 2017.

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A report that Venus (shown in a false-color composite image) has phosphine gas — a potential sign of life — in its atmosphere stoked controversy in 2020.

JPL-CALTECH/NASA

Discoveries about the cosmos and ancient life on Earth tantalized scientists and the public in 2020. But these big claims require more evidence before they can earn a spot in science textbooks.

1. Cloudy with a chance of life

The scorching hellscape next door may be a place to look for life. Telescopes trained on Venus’ clouds spotted traces of phosphine in quantities that suggest something must be actively producing the gas (SN: 9/14/20). On Earth, phosphine is emitted by certain bacteria or industrial processes, leading some astrobiologists to speculate that microbes may be living in Venus’ relatively temperate upper atmosphere. But other research teams’ analyses suggest the phosphine detection was a misread — perhaps the result of a fluke in data processing (SN: 10/28/20).

2. Flashback

For the first time, astronomers may have glimpsed a fast radio burst in the Milky Way. Even more intriguing, the source of the super-bright boost of radio waves appears to be a magnetar — a type of neutron star with an intense magnetic field (SN: 6/4/20). But it’s too soon to claim that magnetars caused any of the dozens of previously detected fast radio bursts, as those flashes came from galaxies too far away to trace the bursts back to a source.

A bright radio burst generated by a magnetar (one illustrated) in the Milky Way suggests that these highly magnetic neutron stars may be responsible for other fast radio bursts previously observed.L. CALÇADA/ESO

3. Totally tubular

Tubes stuck to the outer shells of hundreds of fossilized brachiopods discovered in an outcropping in China may have housed the earliest-known parasites. The clamlike brachiopods lived about 512 million years ago. Researchers speculate that organisms living inside the tubes swiped food from their filter-feeding hosts (SN: 6/2/20). That the tubes were never found alone or on other fossils in the outcropping suggests that the organisms could not survive on their own. But some critics question whether the relationship was truly parasitic, given that the tubed-up brachiopods didn’t seem any worse off than their tube-free counterparts.

Ancient organisms that lived in tubes stuck to clamlike brachiopods (illustrated) may be the earliest known examples of parasites. ZHIFEI ZHANG/NORTHWEST UNIV.

4. Found: ordinary matter

Only about half of the universe’s expected amount of ordinary matter has ever been cataloged. But this year, astronomers claimed that the other half is hiding out in intergalactic space (SN: 5/27/20). That conclusion is based on an analysis of how a small sample of fast radio bursts from other galaxies were distorted by particles on the way to Earth. Before the case of the missing matter can be closed, though, more of these bright blasts of radio waves need to be examined.

Observations of brief, brilliant flashes of radio waves from other galaxies, detected by the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (shown), suggest that all of the universe’s “missing” ordinary matter lurks in intergalactic space CSIRO, ALEX CHERNEY

5. Start your cosmic engines

A ghostly subatomic particle may have been revved up by a star’s destructive encounter with a black hole. Sensed by the IceCube detector in Antarctica, the neutrino carried 200 trillion electron volts — about 30 times as much energy as that of a proton accelerated by the Large Hadron Collider. Scientists matched the neutrino detection to a flash of light in the sky caused by a black hole shredding a star. The probability of the neutrino and the flash coinciding by chance is just 0.2 percent. If the finding holds up, it would be only the second time a high-energy neutrino has been traced to its source, and the first direct evidence that shredding a star can accelerate neutrinos to high energies (SN: 5/26/20).

A high-energy neutrino may have been born when a black hole ripped apart a star (illustrated). M. WEISS, CXC/NASA

6. On the move

The long-running debate over when humans first traveled to and from the Americas rages on. One group of researchers reported that people arrived to North America more than 15,000 years earlier than generally thought, based on the discovery of roughly 33,000-year-old stone tools unearthed in Mexico (SN: 7/22/20). Some archaeologists, however, doubt that the artifacts are even stone tools and say they instead are just naturally broken rocks.

If confirmed as stone tools, this object and others unearthed in a cave in Mexico suggest humans arrived in North America by at least 33,000 years ago. CIPRIAN ARDELEAN

Another research group reported that Indigenous South Americans crossed thousands of kilometers of open ocean and reached eastern Polynesia more than 800 years ago, not long after settlers from Asia initially colonized the islands (SN: 7/8/20). That conclusion rests on genetic evidence suggesting the intrepid South Americans mated with ancient Polynesians. But some anthropologists question whether early South American groups had the equipment or seafaring skills necessary for the journey. Ancient Polynesians, who were expert navigators, may have traveled to South America, bringing new DNA with them on a return trip home.

Questions or comments on this article? E-mail us at feedback@sciencenews.org

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Extraterrestrial evidence: 10 incredible findings about aliens from 2020

One charity said: ‘Babies are being born pre-polluted.’

Photograph: Zffoto/Getty Images/iStockphoto

Microplastic particles have been revealed in the placentas of unborn babies for the first time, which the researchers said was “a matter of great concern”.

The health impact of microplastics in the body is as yet unknown. But the scientists said they could carry chemicals that could cause long-term damage or upset the foetus’s developing immune system. The particles are likely to have been consumed or breathed in by the mothers.

The particles were found in the placentas from four healthy women who had normal pregnancies and births. Microplastics were detected on both the foetal and maternal sides of the placenta and in the membrane within which the foetus develops.

A dozen plastic particles were found. Only about 4% of each placenta was analysed, however, suggesting the total number of microplastics was much higher. All the particles analysed were plastics that had been dyed blue, red, orange or pink and may have originally come from packaging, paints or cosmetics and personal care products.

The microplastics were mostly 10 microns in size (0.01mm), meaning they are small enough to be carried in the bloodstream. The particles may have entered the babies’ bodies, but the researchers were unable to assess this.

“It is like having a cyborg baby: no longer composed only of human cells, but a mixture of biological and inorganic entities,” said Antonio Ragusa, director of obstetrics and gynaecology at the San Giovanni Calibita Fatebenefratelli hospital in Rome, and who led the study. “The mothers were shocked.”

In the study, published in the journal Environment International, the researchers concluded: “Due to the crucial role of placenta in supporting the foetus’s development and in acting as an interface with the external environment, the presence of potentially harmful plastic particles is a matter of great concern. Further studies need to be performed to assess if the presence of microplastics may trigger immune responses or may lead to the release of toxic contaminants, resulting in harm.”

The potential effects of microplastics on foetuses include reduced foetal growth, they said. The particles were not found in placentas from two other women in the study, which may be the result of different physiology, diet or lifestyle, the scientists said.

Revealed: microplastic pollution is raining down on city dwellers

Read more

Microplastics pollution has reached every part of the planet, from the summit of Mount Everest to the deepest oceans. People are already known to consume the tiny particles via food and water, and to breathe them in.

Their effect in the body is unknown but scientists say there is an urgent need to assess the issue, particularly for infants. In October, scientists revealed that babies fed formula milk in plastic bottles are swallowing millions of particles a day. In 2019, researchers reported the discovery of air pollution particles on the foetal side of placentas, indicating that unborn babies are also exposed to the dirty air produced by motor traffic and fossil fuel burning.

The Italian researchers used a plastic-free protocol to deliver the babies in order to prevent any contamination of the placentas. Obstetricians and midwives used cotton gloves to assist the women in labour and only cotton towels were used in the delivery room.

Andrew Shennan, professor of obstetrics at King’s College London, told the Daily Mail it was reassuring that the babies in the study had normal births but “it is obviously preferable not to have foreign bodies while the baby is developing”.

Elizabeth Salter Green, at the chemicals charity Chem Trust, said: “Babies are being born pre-polluted. The study was very small but nevertheless flags a very worrying concern.”

• A separate recent study showed that nanoparticles of plastic inhaled by pregnant laboratory rats were detected in the liver, lungs, heart, kidney, and brain of their foetuses.

RELATED VIDEOS,selected and posted by pieter2011

{ https://www.theguardian.com/international }

{ https://www.hln.be/ }

Alien Face Found On Mars Almost Looks Human, Why Is NASA Missing These Things? Photos, UFO Sighting News.

Date of discovery: Dec 25, 2020
Location of discovery: Mars
Source photo: 

• http://www.gigapan.com/galleries/13476/gigapans/192393

I found an alien face and it is important, more important than any other discoveries you can make on Mars. But is it life? Is it fungus? Is it a plant? Is it an animal? No...but NASA has never shown you such things either, but if you have been watching me over the last 15 years...you would already know that I have reported most of those already. A face is a sculpture of the ancient species that once walked this planet...that once owned this planet we call Mars. They lived, concurred and died on this planet. A cycle that we humans are also following. Criticize this face as being ugly, a rock a figment of my imagination, but know this...its fate and yours...is the same in the end. Nothing in the universe can change that. So, lets focus on the positive shall we? We now know the facial appearance of this alien species. Something 30 seconds ago you never knew existed. In just 30 seconds...I changed your whole perspective on life. Imagine what I could do with a full hour. 

Scott C. Waring - Taiwan 

 

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

Tower Found On Earths Moon 2.5km Tall, A Testament To Alien Intelligence On Our Moon! NASA Source! Photos, UFO Sighting News.

Date of discovery: Dec 25, 2020
Location of discovery: Earths Moon

Source photo:

• http://ser.sese.asu.edu/LO/lo5-125-h2a.tif

I found a tower in this old Lunar Orbiter photo today. The tower is about 2.5 km tall. Its probably gone unnoticed so long because it sits on a crater edge in the shadows. The bottom base has six legs supporting it, but only four are viable at this angle. Defiantly proof that a species far more advanced than our own lives on the moon right now.  This is why we don't go back and never will. Its occupied and they don't want us inferior species messing up their society and culture. Humans...we do what we want, how we want. It seems futile to aliens to try to change us. 

 

I also found a lot of other things, but will only report a few below. Most people wont have the experience or practice at seeing these things...but any university student in the art department would pick them out without trouble. Or...test yourself, can you see below what I saw? Or...do you see nothing? Its not luck, not a gift, not a curse, just good old practice at my passion. I'm sure your passion is something I probably don't get too. Why am I so good at it? Because I don't require others approval of my discoveries. I already know...without doubt what they are, who possibly has my experience about this that I could possible need their approval? No one exists with such experience. Just me...and I approve. 

Scott C. Waring - Taiwan

Huge Black structure in below photo. 

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

This day in UFO history: The 1980 UFO Landings In Rendlesham Forest

England holds one of the most compelling UFO landing accounts. In late December 1980, invasion of unidentified flying objects over a period of several nights took place in the joint air bases of Bentwaters and Woodbridge, situated within the vast Rendlesham Forest in late December.

Description of alien beings added to the controversial stories of the twin air bases. The hype took into another level with anomalous radar readings, electromagnetic effects, and surrealistic atmospheric conditions. Professionals, deemed to be credible, have been coming forward revealing their knowledge of the real alien event on the Bentwaters and Woodbridge Air Force Bases.

Uncorrelated object showed on the radar screens at RAF in Norfolk shortly after midnight on December 27, 1980. The thing then suddenly vanished in the area of the Rendlesham Forest in Suffolk. Bentwaters RAF radar also picked up the object.

The bases were allegedly housed a large stockpile of nuclear weapons, and the Woodbridge was the base of the 67th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron.

The radar operator that night, Mal Scurrah, said that they did not have any idea of what they captured on their radar. They checked the air traffic agencies and found out that there should have been nothing in the vicinity at the time. They sent a jet aircraft to investigate, and the pilot reported seeing a dazzling light in the sky in front of them after getting within about a quarter of a mile.

They saw on radar the object was stationary and it moved off in seconds. In just five minutes the UFO reached 90,000 feet and higher, and they had lost it in the radar scope.

The Woodbridge/Bentwaters started their extraordinary events with the sighting of a massive glowing object by three security guards of the twin bases. They followed the lights into the forest with initial thought that it was a commercial or military aircraft that crash landed.

The patrol was stunned to see a saucer-like craft with small beings with large heads suspended by a type of beam from the bottom of the craft. The beings reportedly performing a repair to their craft unaware of the three men watching their activities.

The guards radioed the base headquarters and requested emergency help. Assistance reportedly arrived headed by senior officers of the base. Later, there would be off record reports that they encountered strange anomalies, such as reality-bending, time displacement, and surreal atmospheric conditions.

Some of the senior officers allegedly communicated with the alien beings.

Called out on the second night of the sightings was then the now famous Colonel Halt. The group of Colonel Halt was reportedly one of the groups to chase the glowing UFO in the forest. He made an audio recording of the details of his trek into the woods.

Patrolmen Jim Penniston, John Burroughs, and Larry Warren later co-wrote a book about the incident, titled Left at East Gate.

Other men who were present during the encounter later revealed that there was an underground theater where soldiers were interrogated, sworn to secrecy and threatened. They also revealed that they were shown several films featuring UFO recoveries around the world. It was also reported that an alien being was there in one of the meetings.

RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011

{ https://www.latest-ufo-sightings.net/ }

Credit: Gabriel on Unsplash

• Small objects such as asteroids get trapped for a time in Earth orbit, becoming "minimoons."

• Minimoons are typically asteroids, but this one is something else.

• The new minimoon may be part of an old rocket from the 1960s.

From time to time, asteroids whizzing past Earth get trapped by our gravitational pull, falling into orbit around the planet. These rocks only stay for a while, eventually escaping and continuing on their journey to who-knows-where. While they're here, they're considered "minimoons."

Astronomers have detected an object that's likely to become our next minimoon. But it's either not an asteroid or it's an odd one. Really, scientists suspect it's man-made tech returning home after many years out in cold, lonely space.

Minimoons

Scientists have confirmed just two prior minimoons. One was 2006 RH120, which orbited us from September 2006 to June 2007. The other was 2020 CD3, which got stuck in the 2015–2016 timeframe, and is believed to gotten away in May 2020.

2020 SO, the new kid on the block, is expected to arrive in October 2020 and pop out of orbit in May 2021.

Identifying 2020 SO

The first clue 2020 SO isn't your ordinary asteroid is its exceptionally low velocity. It's traveling much more slowly that a typical asteroid — their average rate of travel is 18 kilometers (58,000 feet) per second. Even moon rocks sent careening into Earth orbit by impacts on the lunar surface outpace pokey 2020 SO.

For another thing, 2020 SO has an orbital path very similar to Earth's, lasting about one Earth year. It's also just slightly less circular than our own orbit, from which it's barely tilted off-axis.

So, what is it? NASA estimates that the object has dimensions very reminiscent of a discarded Centaur rocket stage from the Surveyor 2 mission that landed an unmanned craft on the moon. Back in the day, rocket stages were jettisoned as craft were aimed toward their desired position. This stuff, if released high enough, remains in space. It appears that this Centaur rocket, launched in September 1966, is now making its way back homeward, at least for a little bit.

When 2020 SO arrives at its closest point in December, the rocket is expected to be about 50,000 kilometers from Earth. Its next closest approach is much further: 220,000 kilometers, in February 2021.

Centaur rocket stage

Credit: NASA/Wikimedia

What we may be able to learn

Earthly space programs being as young as they are, scientists would love to know what's happened to our rocket during a half century in space.

While 2020 SO won't get close enough to drop into our atmosphere, its slow progress has scientists hopeful that they'll still get some kind of a decent look at it.

Spectroscopy may be able to reveal what the rocket's surface is like now — has any of its paint survived, for example? Of course, being out in space, it's likely to have been hit by lots of dust and micrometeorites, so the current state of its surfaces is also of interest. Experts are curious to know how reflective the rocket is at this point, valuable information that can help planners of future long-term missions anticipate how well a craft out in space for extended periods will remain able to reflect sunlight.

RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011

{ https://bigthink.com/ }

Eyewitnesses were frightened by the appearance of a Blue Orb over New Hampshire

As you can already tell from the title, this new picture emerged out of nowhere earlier this year on the internet, and ever since it was first uploaded experts have tried to explain its existence.

The picture shows what appears to be a massive blue orb in the sky, protruding through the clouds with its bright luminescence.

The picture was taken from Merrimack, New Hampshire, and through it, experts have tried to explain the fact that aliens are real and that what we’re looking at here is actually a UFO after all.

Since the original photographer wasn’t the biggest fan of conspiracy theories, he decided to contact the NH1 News Station in hopes of getting an answer that would explain his discovery.

However, this plan ended up backfiring as their explanation didn’t make much sense, to say the least. They stated that this was all just a refraction of the light that emerges when the clouds and the Sun are blocking each other at the exact same time.

So, he then switched over to UFO Sightings Hotspot, sending them the exact same picture. They reported that this could only be the result of a lens flare retracted back by a UFO.

They even brought solid proof to back their discovery up in the form of a video that NASA took back on June 11th in which you can see the same UFO lens flare from outer space.

The same lens flare was spotted in Ontario, Canada, and Alta, Utah too. They’re watching us, and that’s a fact.

Video:

{ https://factleaks.net/ }

UFO sighting: Claims ’silver orb’ spotted over New Hampshire - ‘100% alien’

UFO watchers bizarrely think they have finally found incontrovertible evidence of our alien overlords over the US in a new video.

By TOM FISH

Some alien life conspiracy theorists suggest a UFO has been captured in footage purportedly filmed on October 1 in Canterbury, New Hampshire. The amateur video apparently shows a shows an odd anomaly sandwiched between two clouds.

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The object in question is similarly cloud-coloured and vaguely spherical in shape.

This is 100 percent alien in origin

Scott Waring

This has led UFO hunters such as Scott Waring to speculate about its provenance.

Mr Waring wrote on his UFO Sightings blog: “The eyewitness was driving through Canterbury when he noticed a silver orb near the clouds.

“He tried his best to record it, but keeping an eye on the road was clearly more important.

READ MORE: 

• UFO sighting: Claim ‘silver objects behaving oddly’ over Sydney 

UFO sighting: Conspiracy theorists bizarrely think they have found evidence of aliens 

(Image: UFO Sightings Daily)

UFO sighting: The vast majority of supposed UFO sightings can be explained with the phenomenon called pareidolia 

(Image: Getty)

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“Lucky for us, he also kept an eye and camera on the UFO.

“The object is round and does seem to be deliberately flying near the clouds.

“It may have been hiding within one of them and decided to move to a new cloud.

“At the end of the video is a close up in slow motion. This is 100 percent alien in origin.”

UFO sighting: Many sightings are actually forgeries 

(Image: Getty)

Mr Waring also provides a short statement from whom he claims is the original eyewitness.

They are quoted as saying: “Silver sphere in clouds moves slowly while shape shifting until it blasts away from me.

“Sun reflecting off it while it appears to be struggling to launch off.

“You can see it clearly in the video even though it is small.

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“Video zoomed and slowed down.”

However, closer inspection of the three and a half minute-long clip does not back-up their claims.

The object is more likely to be simply a very small, fluffy cloud being blown across the horizon.

The phenomenon of UFO sightings shows no sign of abating, most likely due to the ubiquity of smartphone cameras.

UFO sighting: Earth remains the only known source of intelligent life in the Universe 

(Image: Express)

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Earth remains the only known source of intelligent life in the Universe - at least so far.

The vast majority of supposed UFO sightings can be explained with the phenomenon called pareidolia.

This is a form of apophenia, which relates to our unconscious bias of seeing recognisable shapes and patterns where they do not actually exist.

RELATED ARTICLES

• UFO sighting: Hunter spots an anomaly in archive photos - '100% alien'
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{ https://www.express.co.uk/ }

A groggy climate giant: subsea permafrost is still waking up after 12,000 years

'VERGETEN' ONDERZEES PERMAFROST LIJKT EEN ENORME IMPACT OP ONS KLIMAAT TE GAAN HEBBEN

Vivian Lammerse

Het permafrost – dat momenteel nog aan het bijkomen is van het einde van de IJstijd – blijkt veel CO2 en methaan te herbergen.

Tegen het einde van de laatste ijstijd – zo’n 14.000 jaar geleden – overspoelde in het hoge noorden de aanzwellende Noordelijke IJszee grote delen van de kusttoendra. Hoewel het oceaanwater slechts een paar graden boven het vriespunt lag, begon het onderliggende permafrost te dooien. En die dooi is nog steeds gaande. Hierdoor worden er elk jaar miljarden tonnen CO2 en methaan de lucht in gepompt. En ondanks dat dit onderzeese permafrost een enorme impact op ons klimaat lijkt te hebben, is het niet opgenomen in klimaatakkoorden of klimaatdoelen.

Dooi
Permafrost is een normaliter permanent bevroren laag aarde. Maar toen het onderzeese permafrost duizenden jaren geleden begon te dooien, werd het organische materiaal blootgesteld aan microbiële afbraak. De ontbindende organische stof begon CO2 en methaan te produceren; twee belangrijke broeikasgassen. Het wegsmelten van het onderzeese permafrost is dus een verontrustend proces. Want al die opgeslagen broeikasgassen worden naar de atmosfeer getransporteerd en leveren zo een belangrijke bijdrage aan de opwarming van de aarde. “Onderzees permafrost is echt uniek, omdat het nog steeds reageert op de klimaattransitie van meer dan tienduizend jaar geleden,” zegt onderzoeker Sara Sayedi. “In sommige opzichten kan het ons een kijkje geven in de mogelijke reactie van permafrost dat vandaag door menselijk toedoen ontdooit.”

Illustratie van het onderzeese permafrost en de manier waarop opgeslagen broeikasgassen vrijkomen.

Afbeelding: Original artwork created for this study by Victor Oleg Leshyk at Northern Arizona University

Hoewel onderzoekers al decennialang de teloorgang van onderzees permafrost bestuderen, is het nog niet zo gemakkelijk om betrouwbare metingen uit te voeren. Hierdoor weten we eigenlijk nog steeds niet precies hoeveel broeikasgassen er tijdens dit proces de lucht in worden gepompt. Ook weten we niet precies hoe snel dit gebeurt. En dus waagde een onderzoeksgroep in een studie, gepubliceerd in het vakblad Environmental Research Letters, opnieuw een poging. De onderzoekers combineerden de bevindingen van verschillende studies om zo de omvang van de onderzeese koolstofvoorraad uit het verleden en in het heden te schatten. Ook bestudeerden ze hoeveel broeikasgassen er nog in de komende drie eeuwen vrij zouden kunnen komen.

Broeikasgassen
De resultaten zijn best zorgelijk. Want de onderzoekers schatten dat het sediment en de bodem in het betreffende onderzeese permafrostgebied momenteel zo’n 60 miljard ton methaan en 560 miljard ton CO2 vasthoudt. Voor je beeldvorming, de mensheid heeft sinds de industriële revolutie in totaal ongeveer 500 miljard ton CO2 in de atmosfeer gepompt. Wanneer alle broeikasgassen die het onderzeese permafrost herbergt een weg naar onze atmosfeer weten te vinden, zou dat dus een enorme impact hebben op ons mondiale klimaat.

Geen houden aan
De vraag is in hoeverre we het proces nog kunnen stoppen. Want momenteel komt er al veel broeikasgas vrij. De onderzoekers schatten dat het onderzeese permafrost jaarlijks zo’n 140 miljoen ton CO2 en 5,3 miljoen ton methaan de atmosfeer in pompt. Dat is qua omvang vergelijkbaar met de totale uitstoot van Spanje. Maar dat is nog niet het enige. Want de onderzoekers ontdekten dat wanneer de door de mens veroorzaakte klimaatverandering aanhoudt, de afgifte van CO2 en methaan uit het onderzeese permafrost aanzienlijk zou kunnen toenemen. Die toename zal waarschijnlijk heel geleidelijk, verspreid over de komende driehonderd jaar, plaatsvinden.

Mensen
De resultaten wijzen erop dat de hoeveelheid toekomstige uitstoot van broeikasgassen door onderzeese permafrost dus rechtstreeks afhangt van onze menselijke emissies. Als we niets doen om klimaatverandering een halt toe te roepen, zal er zo’n vier keer meer CO2 en methaan de atmosfeer weten te bereiken in vergelijking met wanneer de menselijke uitstoot wordt verminderd en de opwarming van de aarde onder de 2 graden Celsius wordt gehouden. Ondanks dat actie dus vereist is, lijken we het probleem van onderzees permafrost een beetje te zijn ‘vergeten’. Want geen enkel klimaatakkoord of klimaatdoel rept over dit onderzeese permafrost en de mogelijk grote bijdrage van de dooi aan de opwarming van de aarde.

Volgens de onderzoekers is het erg belangrijk dat we meer over dit onderzeese permafrost te weten komen. “Vergeleken met hoe belangrijk het zou kunnen zijn voor ons toekomstige klimaat, weten we eigenlijk schrikbarend weinig over dit ecosysteem,” concludeert Sayedi. “We hebben meer sediment- en bodemmonsters nodig, evenals betere metingen. Op die manier kunnen we begrijpen hoe de uitstoot van broeikasgassen reageert op de huidige opwarming en hoe snel deze gigantische opbergplaats van koolstof uit zijn bevroren slaap ontwaakt.”

BEVERS

Niet alleen onderzees permafrost dooit, ook het Noordpoolgebied wordt geteisterd door smeltend permafrost. En dat ligt niet alleen aan extreem weer. Zo blijkt uit een nieuwe studie dat ook bevers een vinger in de pap hebben. Hoe? Gewapend met hun scherpe tanden bouwen de bevers van struiken en bomen dammen, waardoor er kleine poeltjes ontstaan die uitgroeien tot nieuwe meren die soms wel een paar hectare omvatten. En dat gaat rap. In slechts vijf jaar tijd hebben bevers woonachtig in noordwest-Alaska 56 nieuwe meren gecreëerd. Ook al bestaande meren dijen door toedoen van de bever uit. En dat gaat ten koste van kwetsbaar permafrost. Het water is namelijk warmer dan de omringende grond. En dus kunnen deze meren en vijvers de dooi van permafrost versnellen. Meer weten? Lees hier verder!

Bronmateriaal:

• "A groggy climate giant: subsea permafrost is still waking up after 12,000 years" - IOP Publishing
• Afbeelding bovenaan dit artikel: 2017, P. Overduin

{ https://www.scientias.nl/ }