Throughout the long history of planet Earth, our world has undergone several cataclysmic events of varying magnitude. Arguably the most widely recognized of these, the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, involved an impact between Earth and a massive asteroid or comet estimated to have been as much as nine miles wide. The result of this impact had been the mass extinction of most life forms on the planet, with as much as three-fourths of all species on Earth at the time—both animals and plants—being wiped from existence.

Although the mass extinctions that occurred at the end of the Cretaceous period had long been recognized by scientists, confirmation of a large-scale impact event as its underlying cause did not begin to surface until the 1980s with the work of experimental physicist Luis Alvarez and his son Walter. The following decade, the discovery of the Chicxulub crater which forms much of the Gulf of Mexico, provided additional evidence that an asteroid impact had been responsible.

Smaller-scale impact events have also been proposed for other mass extinctions recognized throughout time, including the die-offs of megafauna that began to occur at the end of the last ice age. While some of these impact events remain disputed, the reality of cataclysms throughout time is something that many scientists have sought to understand, resulting in a variety of theories about what their various causes might be, and how often they occur.

Among the more unique theories in this regard had been first proposed by William Napier and Victor Clube in 1979, as detailed in their Nature paper titled “A Theory of Terrestrial Catastrophism.” The study took a novel approach, in that it looked at whether subtle gravitational disturbances in our Solar System might cause comets to occasionally become jostled from their positions in the Oort cloud, sending them hurtling toward the inner Solar System and thereby on a potential collision course with any number of our planetary neighbors, or even Earth itself.

In the 1979 paper, Napier and Clube theorized that galactic spiral arms containing small planets which our solar system passes through could account for the current locations of comets, as well as various transient objects in our solar system. They also noted that many apparent extinction events recognized in the fossil record appear to convey impacts with comets that collided with our planet. Napier and Clube concluded that such impacts likely occurred every 30 million years or so, sometimes resulting in large-scale impacts on par with the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event.

The authors found additional support for their theory in locations other than Earth, too. One example had been evidence of the long-term frequency in appearances of craters on the moon, as well as inner planets within our solar system. The authors identified what they believed to be “brief periods of enhanced bombardment,” as well as a nearly constant rate of craters appearing on the moon and inner planets within the last three billion years. This, they attributed “the decay of primordial bodies and the capture of [small planets] into the Oort cloud upon the sun’s passage through Gould’s belt of the Orion arm.”

The authors considered a wide range of theories about the effects such impact events might have had throughout time, citing evidence in stratigraphic records that seemed to convey “patterns indicating transitions between geological periods, catastrophic extinctions and ice ages.”

Things might have ended there in 1979 as far as Napier and Clube’s idea goes, had it not been for the continuing interest it generated among a few scientists. In the middle 1980s, their original idea began getting a makeover when researcher Michael R. Rampino began to expand on it, who during the following decade teamed up with Bruce Haggerty and gave Napier and Clube’s concept an all-new name: the Shiva hypothesis.

Named for the Hindu god of destruction, the Shiva hypothesis as it is known today essentially entails intervals at which cataclysms occur and, in theory, might even be predictable on account of changes in the position of the Sun in relation to the Milky Way. As recently as 2020, Rampino has continued publishing evidence that may support this idea, which analyzed the ages of ten recognized extinction events involving tetrapods throughout time. According to his research, Rampino found “a statistically significant (99% confidence) underlying periodicity” of such events occurring roughly every 27.5 million years.

As Rampino and his colleagues noted in 2020, “These findings suggest that global cataclysmal events with an underlying periodicity of ~27.5 [million years] were the cause of the coordinated periodic extinction episodes of non-marine tetrapods and marine organisms.”

The Shiva hypothesis also appears to share certain elements with (or may have even inspired) other emerging theories about the causes behind extinction events that occur over time. One notable example involves the so-called “Nemesis hypothesis,” which entails the hypothetical existence of a red or brown dwarf which is responsible for extinction events that occur every 26 million years. The idea was first presented in 1984 by paleontologists David Raup and Jack Sepkoski in a paper titled “Periodicity of Extinctions in the Geologic Past” that appeared in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Today, there is still much work to be done as far as determining whether a periodicity or “cycle” of cataclysms that led to extinction events on Earth truly exists. Nonetheless, if ever proven, it could possibly do more than just explain what led to widespread die-offs throughout time; it might even help prevent future deadly impact events that may eventually return to threaten life on our planet.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

Jeff Bezos Launches into Space on Blue Origin’s First Astronaut Flight

Jeff Bezos Launches into Space on Blue Origin’s First Astronaut Flight

Amazon founder and executive chairman Jeff Bezos launched into space on Tuesday, carried aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard spacecraft in its first human flight. Bezos, the richest person in the world, was joined by his brother, Mark Bezos, female aviation pioneer Wally Funk, and a Dutch student, Oliver Daemen.

RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011

{ https://beforeitsnews.com/ }

UFO Found On Moon In 1967 NASA Lunar Photo, Video, UFO Sighting News.

Date of discovery: June 29, 2021

Location of discovery: Earths moon

Source photo: 

• https://www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/lunarorbiter/frame/?3162

This UFO was found by Youtuber Terry's Theories and he found it in an old NASA archive from a 1967 Lunar orbiter mission. When he zooms in I see a detailed metallic ship over horizon. Its 100% clear to me that this is an alien craft that was sent to this location to both observe and to warn the astronauts that...this moon is taken. Humanity intrigues aliens, but only to a point. We also disgust aliens with our illogical and self destructive decisions and behaviors. Therefore they have not make worldwide contact yet. But the time is coming close, and I predict alien species will unite and agree upon a formal disclosure to humanity this decade. 

Scott C. Waring - Taiwan 

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

Ring UFO Over Ogden, Utah, USA On July 15, 2021, Video, UFO Sighting News.

Date of sighting: July 15, 2021

Location of sighting: Ogden, Utah, USA

Source: MUFON 

 

Donut UFOs or ring UFOs as I call them are not new. They have been documented throughout time. For instance in the Bible the famous Ezekiels Wheel comes down before him, rotating like a wheel and out steps a human like being. Also back in 1957 a US Army sergeant took many photos of a ring UFO as it made a white cloud slowly around itself at the US military base Fort Belvoir. 

 

This my friends is a real UFO. It's flying like a disk, but can fly sideways like a wheel. It is unmanned and often controlled by an alien AI and sometimes controlled by an alien far away. This video below is undeniable proof that UFOs exist. 

Scott C. Waring - Taiwan 

 

Eyewitness states: 

Nearly flat, donut looking object traveled across the sky, looked almost like a balloon, but it was way faster and there was no wind; not even a breeze. 

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

UFO Sighting- Caught on Camera [Montello WI, June 13, 2021]

While trying to photo the milky-way I spotted a UFO above my house. I was able to quickly take four photos of this UFO. What is this thing?

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

Donut-shaped UFO flying over South Ogden, UT 15-Jul-2021

This daytime footage of a donut-shaped unidentified flying object was filmed over South Ogden, a city in Weber County, Utah. This happened on 15th July 2021.

Witness report: 

Nearly flat, donut looking object traveled across the sky, looked almost like a balloon, but it was way faster and there was no wind; not even a breeze.

RELATED VIDEO, selected and posted by peter2011

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

Hubble Space Telescope Is Back in Action After NASA Fixes Odd Glitch – The Wall Street Journal

After a month of frantic tinkering, NASA said Friday that its aging Hubble Space Telescope was on the mend, recovering from a computer problem that crippled what many astronomers call the most productive scientific instrument ever built.

As the bus-size observatory circled Earth, space agency engineers worked by remote control to switch Hubble from its vintage electronics to backup hardware. In the final step, they powered up a payload computer that restored control of its six cameras and sensors, which peer through visible, infrared and ultraviolet wavelengths of light to the edge of space and the dawn of time.

“We are absolutely delighted that the observatory is up and running again,” said Kenneth Sembach, director of the Baltimore-based Space Telescope Science Institute, which handles the Hubble science operations. “All indications are that it’s doing well and we will get back to doing science again this weekend.”

In more than a million mind-expanding images of the universe snapped over the past 31 years, the solar-powered telescope has presented to astronomers and amateur stargazers alike a psychedelic tapestry of infant stars, dying supernovae, colliding galaxies, towering billows of stellar dust, dark matter and black holes feasting on spiral nebulae.

Hubble data has been used in more than 18,000 scientific papers that have documented the accelerating expansion of the universe, the evolution of galaxies and studies of planets beyond our solar system, NASA officials said.

“I think there’s a very credible case that the Hubble Space Telescope is the most scientifically productive instrument ever made,” said Paul Hertz, director of NASA’s astrophysics division. “The output of peer-reviewed published papers from Hubble certainly exceeds any of its competitors in any field of science.”

But then on June 13, Hubble was hobbled—and not for the first time. Technical problems that threatened to end the mission have plagued the telescope since the moment it reached its orbital perch some 340 miles above our planet’s surface on April 25, 1990.

Since its launch in 1990, five space shuttle missions have repaired, upgraded and replaced systems on the telescope.

Photo: /Associated Press

Since its launch—with flawed optics causing its photos to be so blurry that the $4.7 billion observatory was initially deemed an embarrassing failure—five space shuttle missions repaired, upgraded and replaced systems on the telescope. All five of its main instruments were fixed, and a $50 million set of corrective lenses was installed to address its manufacturing flaws.

Last repaired by space shuttle astronauts in 2009, Hubble has lasted twice as long as originally expected, space agency officials said.

The latest trouble began when a voltage overload in an onboard payload computer built in the 1980s tripped a circuit breaker and shut down the telescope. It was the most serious technical failure that NASA project engineers had encountered in the 11 years since the last shuttle repair.

“We did a lot of debugging,” said James Jeletic, deputy project manager for the Hubble Space Telescope Project at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. After three weeks of painstaking analysis, they decided to switch the telescope to its remaining backup systems.

“Every single thing worked as planned,” Mr. Jeletic said. “The computer came back up. All the backup hardware works fine. I don’t think we’re biting our fingernails anymore.”

• Write to Robert Lee Hotz at sciencejournal@wsj.com

{ https://newsfeeds.media/category/news/ }

NASA's Kepler Space Telescope spots four mysterious 'free-floating' planets that appear to be alone in deep space, unbound to any host star

• Four 'rogue' planets discovered with similar masses to that of our home planet 

• They were found by NASA's Kepler telescope using gravitational microlensing 

• The planets may have been ejected by heavier planets within their solar system 

By JONATHAN CHADWICK FOR MAILONLINE

NASA's Kepler Space Telescope has found a mysterious population of 'free-floating' or 'rogue' planets that aren't bound to any host star. 

Based on a technique called gravitational microlensing, researchers reveal there are four new rogue planets in total, which likely have similar masses to that of Earth. 

Gravitational microlensing relies on chance events where from a certain viewpoint, one star passes in front of another star. 

The planets may have originally formed around a host star before being ejected by the gravitational tug of other, heavier planets in the system, the experts say. 

The host star is likely still burning brightly in space, but just with fewer planets in its orbit. 

Scroll down for video 

The four newly discovered planets that are consistent with planets of similar masses to Earth

(stock image)

'We don't know exactly how far away they are,' study author Professor Iain McDonald at the University of Manchester told MailOnline.

'They are not among the nearest stars, but closer than the centre of our Galaxy. So it's probably most accurate to say they are several thousand light years away. 

Professor McDonald said they're not sure exactly what these planets are like, but are 'probably rocky' with frozen oceans. 

'If a planet like the Earth was flung out into deep space, far from the heat of a star, we'd expect the oceans to freeze over and the atmosphere to condense out onto the surface,' he said. 

'Life could still continue, but only in places like hydrothermal vents, where there is another energy source.' 

This is an artist impression of the Kepler Space Telescope that was decommissioned by NASA in 2018 after nearly a decade of service

The now retired Kepler telescope spent nearly a decade in space looking for Earth-size planets orbiting other stars, but scientists are still analysing its data. 

Kepler launched in 2009 and was decommissioned by NASA in 2018 when it ran out of fuel needed for further science operations. 

It was launched specifically by NASA with the aim of identifying planets outside of our own Solar System, known as exoplanets. 

For this project, researchers used data obtained in 2016 during the K2 mission phase of NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope – an extension of its original mission.  

During its two-month K2 campaign, Kepler monitored a crowded field of millions of stars near the centre of our Galaxy every 30 minutes in order to find rare gravitational microlensing events. 

Gravity from the closer star acts as a lens and magnifies the distant star over the course of the transit. 

The study team found 27 short-duration candidate microlensing signals that varied over timescales of between an hour and 10 days. 

Many of these had been previously seen in data obtained simultaneously from the ground. 

However, the four shortest events are new discoveries that are consistent with planets of similar masses to Earth. 

These new events do not show an accompanying longer signal that might be expected from a host star, suggesting that these new events may be free-floating planets.   

'These signals are extremely difficult to find,' said Professor McDonald. 

'Our observations pointed an elderly, ailing telescope with blurred vision at one the most densely crowded parts of the sky, where there are already thousands of bright stars that vary in brightness, and thousands of asteroids that skim across our field. 

Artist's impression of a free-floating planet. Such planets may perhaps have originally formed around a host star before being ejected by the gravitational tug of other, heavier planets in the system

'From that cacophony, we try to extract tiny, characteristic brightenings caused by planets, and we only have one chance to see a signal before it’s gone. 

'It’s about as easy as looking for the single blink of a firefly in the middle of a motorway, using only a handheld phone.'    

Since its launch in 2009, Kepler spotted thousands of exoplanets outside our solar system, despite experiencing mechanical failures and being blasted by cosmic rays. 

In 2013, Kepler's primary mission was concluded when a second reaction wheel broke, which meant that the space craft couldn't hold a steady gaze at its original field of view.

But Kepler was given a 'new lease on life' by NASA on its K2 mission, which required it to shift its field of view to new portions of the sky about every three months. 

NASA initially assumed that K2 would only be able to conduct 10 campaigns with the remaining fuel, but it went on to complete an astonishing 16 campaigns. 

Confirming the existence and nature of free-floating planets will be a major focus for NASA's upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope and possibly the ESA's Euclid mission – both expected to detect microlensing events.  

'Kepler has achieved what it was never designed to do, in providing further tentative evidence for the existence of a population of Earth-mass, free-floating planets,' said study author Eamonn Kerins at the University of Manchester.

'Now it passes the baton on to Roman that will be designed to find such signals, signals so elusive that Einstein himself thought that they were unlikely ever to be observed.'     

The results have been published today in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.    

WHAT IS THE KEPLER TELESCOPE?

The Kepler mission has spotted thousands of exoplanets since 2014, with 30 planets less than twice the size of Earth now known to orbit within the habitable zones of their stars.

Launched from Cape Canaveral on March 7th 2009, the Kepler telescope has helped in the search for planets outside of the solar system. 

It captured its last ever image on September 25 2018 and ran out of fuel five days later.

When it was launched it weighed 2,320 lbs (1,052 kg) and is 15.4 feet long by 8.9 feet wide (4.7 m × 2.7 m).

The satellite typically looks for 'Earth-like' planets, meaning they are rocky and orbit within the that orbit within the habitable or 'Goldilocks' zone of a star.

In total, Kepler has found around 5,000 unconfirmed 'candidate' exoplanets, with a further 2,500 'confirmed' exoplanets that scientists have since shown to be real. 

Kepler is currently on the 'K2' mission to discover more exoplanets. 

K2 is the second mission for the spacecraft and was implemented by necessity over desire as two reaction wheels on the spacecraft failed. 

These wheels control direction and altitude of the spacecraft and help point it in the right direction.

The modified mission looks at exoplanets around dim red dwarf stars.  

While the planet has found thousands of exoplanets during its eight-year mission, five in particular have stuck out.

Kepler-452b, dubbed 'Earth 2.0', shares many characteristics with our planet despite sitting 1,400 light years away. It was found by Nasa's Kepler telescope in 2014

1) 'Earth 2.0'

In 2014 the telescope made one of its biggest discoveries when it spotted exoplanet Kepler-452b, dubbed 'Earth 2.0'.

The object shares many characteristics with our planet despite sitting 1,400 light years away.

It has a similar size orbit to Earth, receives roughly the same amount of sun light and has same length of year.

Experts still aren't sure whether the planet hosts life, but say if plants were transferred there, they would likely survive.

2) The first planet found to orbit two stars

Kepler found a planet that orbits two stars, known as a binary star system, in 2011.

The system, known as Kepler-16b, is roughly 200 light years from Earth. 

Experts compared the system to the famous 'double-sunset' pictured on Luke Skywalker's home planet Tatooine in 'Star Wars: A New Hope'.

3) Finding the first habitable planet outside of the solar system

Scientists found Kepler-22b in 2011, the first habitable planet found by astronomers outside of the solar system.

The habitable super-Earth appears to be a large, rocky planet with a surface temperature of about 72°F (22°C), similar to a spring day on Earth.

4) Discovering a 'super-Earth'

The telescope found its first 'super-Earth' in April 2017, a huge planet called LHS 1140b.

It orbits a red dwarf star around 40 million light years away, and scientists think it holds giant oceans of magma.

5) Finding the 'Trappist-1' star system

The Trappist-1 star system, which hosts a record seven Earth-like planets, was one of the biggest discoveries of 2017. 

Each of the planets, which orbit a dwarf star just 39 million light years, likely holds water at its surface.

Three of the planets have such good conditions that scientists say life may have already evolved on them.

Kepler spotted the system in 2016, but scientists revealed the discovery in a series of papers released in February this year. 

Kepler is a telescope that has an incredibly sensitive instrument known as a photometer that detects the slightest changes in light emitted from stars

How does Kepler discover planets?

The telescope has an incredibly sensitive instrument known as a photometer that detects the slightest changes in light emitted from stars.

It tracks 100,000 stars simultaneously, looking for telltale drops in light intensity that indicate an orbiting planet passing between the satellite and its distant target.

When a planet passes in front of a star as viewed from Earth, the event is called a 'transit'.

Tiny dips in the brightness of a star during a transit can help scientists determine the orbit and size of the planet, as well as the size of the star.

Based on these calculations, scientists can determine whether the planet sits in the star's 'habitable zone', and therefore whether it might host the conditions for alien life to grow. 

Kepler was the first spacecraft to survey the planets in our own galaxy, and over the years its observations confirmed the existence of more than 2,600 exoplanets - many of which could be key targets in the search for alien life

Read more:

• Kepler K2 Campaign 9 – I. Candidate short-duration events from the first space-based survey for planetary microlensing | Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society | Oxford Academic
• ESA Science & Technology - Euclid

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

Kepler Data Reveal Four Earth-Mass Free-Floating Exoplanets

Using data from NASA’s Kepler/K2 mission, astronomers have detected four new microlensing events that are consistent with free-floating planets of similar masses to Earth.

Gravitational microlensing is an observational effect that was predicted in 1936 by Albert Einstein using his general theory of relativity.

When one star in the sky appears to pass nearly in front of another, the light rays of the background source star become bent due to the gravitational attraction of the foreground star.

This star is then a virtual magnifying glass, amplifying the brightness of the background source star, so astronomers refer to the foreground star as the lens star.

If the lens star harbors a planetary system, then those planets can also act as lenses, each one producing a short deviation in the brightness of the source.

Roughly one out of every million stars in our Milky Way Galaxy is visibly affected by microlensing at any given time, but only a few percent of these are expected to be caused by extrasolar planets.

“These signals are extremely difficult to find,” said Dr. Iain McDonald, an astronomer in the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics at the University of Manchester and Open University.

“Our observations pointed an elderly, ailing telescope with blurred vision at one the most densely crowded parts of the sky, where there are already thousands of bright stars that vary in brightness, and thousands of asteroids that skim across our field.”

“From that cacophony, we try to extract tiny, characteristic brightenings caused by planets, and we only have one chance to see a signal before it’s gone.”

“It’s about as easy as looking for the single blink of a firefly in the middle of a motorway, using only a handheld phone.”

Dr. McDonald and colleagues analyzed archival data obtained in 2016 during the K2 mission phase of NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope.

They found 27 short-duration candidate microlensing signals that varied over timescales of between an hour and 10 days.

Many of these had been previously seen in data obtained simultaneously from the ground.

However, the four shortest events are new discoveries that are consistent with planets of similar masses to Earth.

These new events do not show an accompanying longer signal that might be expected from a host star, suggesting that these new events may be free-floating planets.

“Kepler has achieved what it was never designed to do, in providing further tentative evidence for the existence of a population of Earth-mass, free-floating planets,” said Dr. Eamonn Kerins, an astronomer in the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics at the University of Manchester.

“Now it passes the baton on to other missions that will be designed to find such signals, signals so elusive that Einstein himself thought that they were unlikely ever to be observed.”

The results appear in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

_____

• I. McDonald et al. 2021. Kepler K2 Campaign 9 – I. Candidate short-duration events from the first space-based survey for planetary microlensing. MNRAS 505 (4): 5584-5602; doi: 10.1093/mnras/stab1377

{ http://www.sci-news.com/ }

Hubble's meest recente prachtige opname: bolvormige sterrenhoop NGC 6380

{ https://nl.mashable.com/ }

Wedge of Aiud: A piece of a 20,000-year-old ship?

A strange artifact known as the Aiud wedge has become one of the most controversial objects in recent years. This is because it could belong to a 20,000 year old UFO …

The Aiud wedge is a piece of metal discovered in the year 73, about 10 meters deep. Strange mastodon bones were accidentally found . However, what caused the most controversy was a piece of metal.

The strange piece found in the city of Aiud, Romania, was donated to the Transylvanian History Museum and was hidden for years until it was rediscovered.

5 pounds and 20 × 12.5 × 7 centimeters in diameter were its characteristics. But what was that strange thing?1

What is the Aiud wedge?

The millimeter-thick oxide covered the entire block evenly, but this helped date its age to about 400 years .

But the geological layer in which it was found suggests that it must have been in the area about 20,000 years ago , in the Pleistocene .

Florin Gheorghita, a famous historian, managed to examine the analysis carried out on the Aiud wedge, ensuring that the metal alloy that made it up was extremely complex .

Gheorghita assured that the alloy is composed of 12 different elements; 89% aluminum, 6.2% copper, 2.84% silicon, 1.81% zinc, 0.41% lead, 0.33% lagoon, 0.2% zirconium, 0.11 % cadmium, 0.0024% nickel, 0.0023% cobalt, 0.0003% bismuth, 0.0002% silver and gallium in minute quantities.

Why was an object with these characteristics next to mastodon bones? It should be impossible, since aluminum in its pure state is not in nature and humanity managed to reach such a degree of purity only appeared in the nineteenth century .

An aeronautical engineer assured that the piece resembles that of an airplane landing gear.

Added to that are two perfect oval piercings, indicating that the Aiud wedge was undoubtedly made artificially .

The hypotheses behind the mystery

Some experts suggest that it is a man-made tool , which would not make sense at the time.

It has even been compared to the fulcrum of space modules , such as the Viking , but it has not had results either.

This and other reasons have led us to think about the possibility that it was part of some extraterrestrial spacecraft . What function would such a modern piece of technology have in the remote past?

Gheorghita, in an article published in Ancient Skies, stated that he asked an aeronautical engineer about the piece about the artifact and the results of his analyzes.

The engineer replied that, according to its composition and the hole in the jock, as well as a pattern of abrasions and scratches on the metal, it was a piece of an airplane landing gear .

How and why was such an advanced piece of technology found alongside such ancient fossils? How did it get there? It is possible that we are facing the remains of a UFO accident in our remote past or something else.

{ https://mysteriousthing.com/ }

One of the things people who have alien and UFO encounters often hear is, “You must have been dreaming.” A team of Russian researchers decided to test if this could indeed be true in at least some cases and enlisted a group of proven lucid dreamers to conduct an experiment involving alien and UFO encounters (AUEs). The results were enlightening and thought-provoking, answering some questions while eliciting many more.

“Alien and UFO encounters (AUEs) have been a well-known part of human culture for centuries, but we are still unsure of their nature. Some studies suggest that in some such encounters, these phenomena could be related to dissociative REM sleep states, like lucid dreams (LDs), sleep paralysis (SP), and out-of-body experiences (OBEs). The present research focuses on the hypothesis that if some of AUEs are indeed the products of REM sleep, then they could be deliberately emulated by LD practitioners. Therefore, this experiment could help to explain the mystery of AUEs.”

Michael Raduga, Andrey Shashkov and Zhanna Zhunusova of the Phase Research Center in Moscow are experienced lucid dreaming researchers but this was their first attempt to link them to AUEs. They assembled a group of 152 proven lucid dreamers and instructed them to induce dreams about aliens and UFOs and report their results. Showing their amazing abilities, 114 managed to have alien dreams, with 70 (61%) dreaming of alien encounters. Breaking that down, 22 encountered humanlike aliens, 44 observed them talking, 22 saw them touching and 14 witnessed them doing both. In addition, 32 had UFO encounters, with 12 being inside one and 3 reporting flying.

The researchers next compared these lucid dream accounts to actual UFO and alien encounter reports to see how similar they were to ‘real’ experiences.

“Regarding the successful cases, 20% were close to reality in terms of the absence of paradoxical dreamlike events. AUEs can be emulated willfully and can be perceived as being very close to reality.”

How close? Lucid dreamers having alien encounters experienced fear and sleep paralysis – a common trait among people who report having alien encounters at night. Could this prove that nighttime abductions are actually dreams?

“The results of the present study show that bedtime AUEs can be deliberately emulated during REM sleep and can mimic reality. As such, ordinary people might spontaneously enter PSs, unintentionally have an AUE, and confuse it with reality. This might be the case every time an AUE starts during sleep or while in a state of relaxation.”

That seems to be the researchers’ conclusion. (More details and results of the study can read in the peer-reviewed International Journal of Dream Research.) Moreover, they propose that other unusual nighttime encounters — religious, paranormal, or mystical – could just be vivid dreams. They suggest as a follow-up training those with alien encounters to enter lucid dreams and attempt to recreate their experiences, thus allowing the researchers to compare ‘real’ and dream accounts from the same person.

This may be disappointing news to those believing their nighttime alien and UFO encounters were the real thing. On the other hand, it might be comforting to know they were just dreaming and not actually probed or chipped. What about daytime encounters? Can the experiments be done with lucid daydreamers? Can they prove they actually conducted this experiment and we didn’t just dream reading about it?

“Our findings aid the general understanding of the human brain, especially regarding the sleep process and its connection to consciousness. Therefore, our results help some irrational parts of our culture to become more reasonable and understandable.”

Anything that helps irrational parts of our culture become rational is most welcome. And THAT’S no dream.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

Many years ago when Earth was in its young stages, numerous asteroids hit our planet – many of which were the size of a city. It’s hard to imagine such large rocks bombarding the planet, as the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs and caused destruction to the Earth around 66 million years ago was about 6 miles across (almost 10 kilometers).

But now, based on new research, asteroids much larger than the one that killed the dinosaurs impacted Earth billions of years ago on a pretty steady basis. According to a recent statement, asteroids the size of a city – some even the size of a province – impacted Earth about every 15 million years. These impacts occurred between 3.5 and 2.5 billion years ago.

The asteroid that killed the dinosaurs was about 6 miles across.

Researchers were able to determine these events by analyzing spherules which are tiny bubbles of vaporized rock that were sent flying into space during each impact but ultimately fell back down to Earth after they became solidified. These spherules were found in layers of bedrock. If the layer of spherules was thicker, it meant that a larger asteroid struck the Earth.

When the experts compared the ancient layers of spherules to modern estimates of previous impacts, they noticed significant differences as explained in the statement by Simone Marchi who is a principal scientist with the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, “We found that current models of Earth’s early bombardment severely underestimate the number of known impacts, as recorded by spherule layers.” “The true impact flux could have been up to a factor of 10 times higher than previously thought in the period between 3.5 and 2.5 billion years ago.”

Additionally, the massive asteroid impacts could have potentially affected the planet’s ability to sustain life as well as the oxygen levels. “We find that oxygen levels would have drastically fluctuated in the period of intense impacts,” Marchi explained, adding, “Given the importance of oxygen to the Earth’s development, and indeed to the development of life, its possible connection with collisions is intriguing and deserves further investigation. This is the next stage of our work.”

As for what type of destruction these massive impacts would have had on Earth, it is hard to know for sure but it’s highly probable that some major damage would have happened. Rosalie Tostevin, who is from the University of Cape Town but was not involved in the study (she does specialize in ancient geology), reiterated this by stating, “These large impacts would certainly have caused some disruption.” “Unfortunately, few rocks from this far back in time survive, so direct evidence for impacts, and their ecological consequences, is patchy. The model put forward by Dr. Marchi helps us to get a better feel for the number and size of collisions on the early Earth.”

It’s a good thing that we don’t have any more of these city-sized asteroids impacting Earth as the destruction they would cause today would be catastrophic.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

New Images of Mars From China’s Rover

On May 14^th, 2021, the China National Space Agency (CNSA) achieved another major milestone when the Tianwen-1 lander successfully soft-landed on Mars, making China the second nation in the world to land a mission on Mars and establish communications from the surface. Shortly thereafter, China National Space Agency (CNSA) shared the first images taken by the Tianwen-1 lander.

By May 22^nd, 2021, the Zhurong rover descended from its lander and drove on the Martian surface for the first time. Since then, the rover has spent 63 Earth days conducting science operations on the surface of Mars and has traveled over 450 meters (1475 feet). On Friday, July 9th, and again on July 15th, the CNSA released new images of the Red Planet that were taken by the rover as it made its way across the surface.

Since the rover deployed to the surface of Mars, it has been traveling southward to explore and inspect the terrain and has taken daily images of rocks, sand dunes, and other features using its Navigation and Topography Cameras (NaTeCam). Meanwhile, other instruments – like the Mars Rover Penetrating Radar (RoPeR), Mars Rover Magnetometer (RoMAG), Mars Climate Station (MCS) – have also been collecting data on Mars’ magnetic field, weather, and subsurface.

Whenever the rover came across notable landforms, it relied on its Mars Surface Compound Detector (MarSCoDe) and Multispectral Camera (MSCam) to carry out fixed-point scans to determine their composition. Among the new images were the two Martian rocks shown above (CNSA via Xinhuanet) that revealed the rocks’ texture features, the thick layers of dust covering them, and impressions left by the ruts of the rover.

Other images in the collection (see below) include a landscape shot that was taken by Zhurong on June 26^th, the rover’s 42^nd day on the Martian surface (Sol 42). On this day, the rover arrived in a sandy area and took images of a red dune located roughly 6 meters (~20 ft) away. As you can see (top gallery image), the dune has several rocks strewn about it, the one directly ahead of Zhurong measuring 34 cm (13.4 inches) wide.

The next image (bottom left) was taken on July 4^th, Zhurong’s 50^th day on the Martian surface (Sol 50), after the rover drove to the south side of the dune – which measures 40 m (~130 ft) long, 8 m (26.25 ft) wide and 0.6 m high (2 ft). The fifth and final landscape image (bottom right) was taken when the Zhurong rover was at a distance of 210 m (690 ft) from its landing site and 130 m (~425 ft) from the lander’s back cover and parachute.

These components were part of the Tianwen-1 mission’s Entry, Descent, and Landing (EDL) module. Whereas the back cover ensured that the rover and lander safely made it through deep-space and survived the turbulent ride through Mars’ atmosphere, the parachute was what allowed for their controlled descent through the atmosphere so they could make a soft landing.

These components are just visible in the upper right corner of the top image while a cluster of stones of various shapes is visible on the left. More recent images acquired by the rover were released on July 15^th, 2021, which showed the rover inspecting the back cover and parachute more closely (see below). The first image (top left) was acquired three days prior and shows these two components on the rover’s left side as it continued on its southbound patrol.

As the CNSA indicated in a press statement that was released along with the images:

“The picture shows the full view of the parachute and the complete back after aerodynamic ablation. Cover structure, the attitude control engine diversion hole on the back cover is clearly identifiable, the rover is about 30 meters away from the back cover and about 350 meters away from the landing site during imaging.”

The second and third images (black and white) were taken by the front and rear obstacle avoidance cameras as the rover made its approach and departure from the back cover and chute. The fourth image shows the parachute after it was deployed during the lander’s descent over Utopia Planitia (where it landed) on May 15^th. Yet another image was released by the CNSA the following day, which shows Tianwen-1’s landing site.

This image was taken by the orbiter element of the mission on June 2^nd, days after the lander and rover element safely landed. The locations of the lander, the rover, the parachute, and back cover, and the heat shield are all indicated in white. The two white dots at the top right corner are the lander and rover, the parachute and back cover are almost directly beneath it (the elongated white mark being the chute) while the heat shield is at the bottom right.

The Tianwen-1 mission was quite the feather in the cap of the CNSA, and not just because it was China’s first mission to Mars. By successfully deploying this mission, China became the first nation to reach Mars with a mission that included an orbiter, lander, and rover element. Prior to this, every space agency that successfully sent a robotic mission to Mars began with orbiters, followed by surface missions – landers first, then landers with rovers.

On top of that, the Zhurong rover makes China the second nation in the world (after the US) to land and operate a rover on the Martian surface. This will be followed in the near future by the Rosalind Franklin rover (part of the ESA-Roscosmos ExoMars program) which will launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome sometime this September and is expected to arrive at Mars on June 10^th, 2023.

These missions will help pave the way for human exploration, which China is now hoping to do (alongside NASA) during the 2030s. Much like all the crewed lunar missions planned for the near future, the human exploration of Mars is expected to be a multinational affair!

Further Reading: Xinhuanet, CNSA

The post New Images of Mars From China’s Rover appeared first on Universe Today.

Source: 

• https://www.universetoday.com/151866/new-images-of-mars-from-chinas-rover/

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MUFON CASE : 116938 Brooklyn, New York ( July 18, 2021 )

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• credit : alienleaks.org

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David Adair – The Twelve Sites on the Moon Where NASA Told Us Not To Go To!

David Adair in Manchester, UK: Awakening Expo Anniversary Triple – Feature Release Special: The Secret Life of an Astronaut, The Twelve Sites on the Moon Where NASA Told Us Not To Go To, and the Future of Space Fairing. David Adair is an internationally recognized expert in space technology spinoff applications for industry and commercial use. At age 11 he built his first of hundreds of rockets which he designed, and test flew. At age 17 he won “The Most Outstanding in the Field of Engineering Services” award from the US Air Force. David describes the life of astronaut Neil Armstrong from a personal view as he was close friends with the Armstrong family, reveals some of the secrets behind the moon landing and those famous words as Neil stepped onto the lunar surface. David also discloses some of the incredible technology utilized by space fairing agencies, and what we can expect in the future.

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