Experts Investigate Houston’s Mysterious UFO Sighting

For decades, the mysteries of the cosmos have captivated the human spirit, and UFO sightings remain at the forefront of this enigma. One particular incident that sparked intrigue and debate was the Houston UFO sighting of 2014.

On the fateful night of August 11th, 2014, the night sky over Houston was lit not just by flashes of lightning but also by a perplexing anomaly. A resident, attempting to capture the building storm, inadvertently filmed a hovering circle of lights that took the online community by storm. For many, this added another intriguing chapter to Houston’s storied relationship with the unknown.

At the first glance, this captivating footage seemed irrefutable evidence of extraterrestrial existence. With the object so clear and looming large in the sky, theories ran wild. One popular hypothesis proposed that it was merely light reflecting from noctilucent clouds – high-altitude clouds known for their unusual glowing effects. Others believed it could be an instance of the elusive ball lightning, a phenomenon that, despite thousands of reports over centuries, remains enigmatic. However, the peculiar circular formation of the Houston lights rendered such an explanation as unlikely.

As the speculation intensified, multiple witnesses came forward with similar accounts. Coincidentally, all these incidents occurred within a 30-mile radius of NASA’s Johnson Space Center. This proximity led to wild theories that perhaps extraterrestrials were spying on NASA or that these sightings could be connected to NASA’s secretive crafts, like the LDSD (Low Density Supersonic Desellerator). But the LDSD, designed to aid human travel to Mars, was unlikely to be tested over a populated city like Houston.

Months passed before a logical, earthly explanation emerged. The mysterious lights bore a striking resemblance to Houston’s distinct freeway street lights. The conclusion? A lens flare created by these lights. It was an answer that grounded the UFO speculation but showcased the intriguing dance between our natural environment and human interpretation.

Another curious incident in 2015 involved a milky rain in Washington State and Oregon. Reminiscent of a previous phenomenon in 1994, conspiracy theories linked it to potential germ warfare. Yet, the real cause lay in the heart of nature: a windstorm over an ancient saline lake in Oregon, which led to the peculiar rainfall.

These incidents remind us of the power of nature and its ability to mystify, even in our modern age. While the quest for understanding UFO sightings continues, we’re often reminded that sometimes the answers lie closer to home than we might think.

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

Pentagon says it's received 291 UFO sightings over past year: Warns some craft appeared to display 'unusual maneuverability' and 'high-speed travel'

The Pentagon's dedicated UFO investigations office has fielded at least 291 UFO cases within the past year, according to a report made public late Wednesday night.

Some of these seemingly advanced craft appeared to exhibit 'concerning performance characteristics,' the military's UFO investigators wrote, including 'high-speed travel' and 'unusual maneuverability.'

The report caps off a summer hot with extraterrestrial intrigue in Washington, where multiple government UFO whistleblowers have come forward, some publicly, some behind closed doors, with allegations of an illegal UFO crash retrieval program. 

The claims — which have included 'intact and partially intact vehicles,' exotic weapons programs, charges of witness intimidation and recovered 'non-human' bodies — are now being investigated by federal and congressional oversight authorities alike. 

While that new report concludes that none of 2023's airborne mysteries were the result of classified US programs, the Pentagon's UFO chief told reporters that a few UFOs displayed 'concerning' signs of being made by America's foreign adversaries.

In fact, the Pentagon UFO head said 'a lot' of these UFO cases have been referred to law enforcement and, in some serious cases, US counterintelligence investigators.

While that new report concludes that none of 2023's airborne mysteries were the result of classified US programs, the Pentagon's UFO chief told reporters that a few UFOs displayed 'concerning' signs of being made by America's foreign adversaries

'A lot' of UFO cases were referred to law enforcement last year, Dr. Kirkpatrick told reporters, and, in some serious cases, to US counterintelligence investigators. Above a heat map of the UAP or UFO hot spots that have emerged from the past year of reports to the Pentagon

'I am worried from a national security perspective,' physicist Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick, director of the US Department of Defense's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) told CNN in advance of his office's new UFO report.

'There are some indicators that are concerning that may be attributed to foreign activity,' Dr. Kirkpatrick said, 'and we are investigating those very hard.' 

The physicist — whose classified work prior to assuming leadership of AARO included stints with the Air Force Research Laboratory and the CIA — expressed fear that foreign nations may be designing espionage drones specifically to evade US radar and other detection hardware. 

'There are ways to hide in our noise that always concern me,' Kirkpatrick told CNN.

The annual report published Wednesday by Dr. Kirkpatrick and his team included a glossary to aid in the standardization of the once fringe topic of UFOs, now known professionally as UAP, for 'Unidentified Anomalous Phenomenon.' 

The glossary defined 'UAP Threat' as any UAP that demonstrate a national security risk to military 'persons, materiel, or information,' in an indication of the priority AARO has given to intelligence and espionage risks posed by the phenomenon.  

Despite Kirkpatrick's statement that his office is actively chasing down possible foreign espionage cases, AARO's annual UAP report drew a more measured conclusion: 'None of these UAP reports have been positively attributed to foreign activities'

In one now infamous wave of cases, following identification of a large white Chinese spy balloon last February, military officials identified more potential airborne surveillance platforms by readjusting the sensitivity of their radar system filters. 

'I suspect that filters on US systems had previously been ignoring things that were too slow, high, or small to be considered threats,' RAND Corporation senior technical analyst and former US Navy aviator Brynn Tannehill told Wired that month.

'Now that the parameters on the filters have been adjusted, we're seeing more of what was already there for the past few years.'

Those adjustments to US military radar's noise reduction methods led to the identification of an object, first spotted north of Anchorage, Alaska, reportedly the size of a small car.

US Air Force F-22 Raptors and F-16s were dispatched by the Biden White House to shoot down the sedan-sized UFO and others spotted over Canada's Yukon territory and the Great Lakes north of Michigan. 

Despite Dr. Kirkpatrick's statement that his office is actively chasing down potentially similar cases, AARO's annual report Wednesday drew a more measured conclusion. 

'None of these UAP reports have been positively attributed to foreign activities,' according to AARO's unclassified report for fiscal year 2023.  

In addition to statistics on the typical elevations and locations at which UAP have been reported, the FY2023 AARO reported took pains to note the issue of 'collection bias' and its future plans to better collect space-based and undersea data on UAP.

'The space and maritime domains need to be fully integrated into AARO's processes,' the report stated.

Kirkpatrick's UFO office plans to work with the US Navy and the National Intelligence Manager for Military Integration (NIM-MIL) to improve the speed and quality of reporting on undersea UAP or sea-to-air transmedium UAP.

'Collaboration with Space Force, US Space Command, NRO [the National Reconnaissance Office, which oversees US spy satellites] and NASA is well underway,' AARO said in the report.

In a nod to NASA's own UAP advisory panel, the report made numerous references to the need to better calibrate, or prepare and standardize, military sensors in an effort to obtain the kind of reliable and comparable data needed to investigate UAP.

Despite the ostensible openness and promises detailed in AARO's report, many longtime civilian UFO researchers, expressed concern that the office has overseen a retrenchment in transparency on the topic.  

At least one longtime UFO researcher, government open records advocate John Greenewald, Jr., described the Pentagon's new policies as 'a weird mixture' of 'increased excessive secrecy surrounding UAP' and 'preaching about 'transparency.''

Greenewald has noted new difficulties in obtaining government records on UFOs via the US Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in the years since the creation of dedicated UAP investigative mandates internally within the Pentagon. 

He flagged one comment from the new AARO report as particularly worrisome,  which stated the belief that 'most UAP will likely resolve to ordinary phenomena.'

'AARO's, and subsequently the DoD's, position is once data is fine tuned and proper, most - if not all - UAP cases will resolve to simply being 'ordinary,'' Greenewald posted to X (formerly Twitter).

'This is exactly how Project Blue Book progressed and then ended,' he said, in reference to the US Air Force's Cold War-era UFO investigation program.

'They concluded the majority were explainable; they convened a panel of scientists to independently look at the findings; and it all ended with the military halting interest and stopping all funding for more than 40 years,' Greenewald said.

Have YOU seen one? The Pentagon reveals what the most commonly reported UFO looks like

Ever since the first sighting more than 75 years ago, popular culture has usually depicted a UFO as a flying saucer emitting a powerful halo of light.

But that could finally change following the official release of information from the Pentagon about the mysterious aerial phenomena. 

The new Department of Defense document reveals characteristics of the typical UFO, including the colour and the shape, velocity, and flight level 

Based on clues from reported sightings, the typical UFO has a round shape, usually described as spherical or an orb, with a white or silver colour, often translucent. 

It also has a size of between 3 and 13 feet (1 to 4 metres) and usually travels through the air at a height just below commercial passenger planes. 

The Pentagon has also released a hotspot map that reveals the location of reported UFO sightings, including Japan and the Middle East. 

Read more here. 

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

NASA sun probe becomes the fastest man-made object in history after traveling nearly 400,000mph over the solar surface

• NASA's Parker Solar Probe clocked 394,736 mph, faster than a bolt of lightning
• Lightning-fast craft coasted just 4.5 million miles above the sun's 9,980F surface
• READ MORE: NASA captures eerie sounds from Venus during planetary flyby

By MATTHEW PHELAN FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

A NASA probe has become the fastest man-made object in history.

The Parker Solar Probe, which investigates our sun, hit a record speed of  394,736 miles per hour (mph) last month, twice as fast as a bolt of lightning or 200 times the speed of a rifle bullet.

The achievement was made during its 17th sun swing on September 27, breaking its distance record by skimming just 4.51 million from the solar surface.

The Parker Solar Probe will spend the next week finishing off data transmissions back to Earth from this last encounter, which focused on recording solar winds' properties, structure, and behavior.

The Parker Solar Probe, which investigates our sun, hit a record speed of 394,736 miles per hour (mph) last month, twice as fast as a bolt of lightning or 200 times the speed of a rifle bullet

The spacecraft entered the encounter in good health,' Michael Buckley of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory reported in a post to NASA's blog, 'with all systems operating normally.'

Since the Parker probe's launch in 2018, a team of roughly a dozen physicists, engineers and support staff at Johns Hopkins have managed the NASA mission, including the initial design and construction of the $1.5 billion spacecraft.

The record-setting and lightning-fast craft has been 'sending a stream of telemetry (status data)' back to mission operators at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, since October 1st.

The probe's latest speed milestone came thanks to a gravity-assist flyby from Venus, which is approximately 67,237,910 miles from the sun. 

Parker completed that 'Venus Flyby 6' on August 21, meaning it traveled over 67 million miles in just over a month.

In April 2021, NASA's Parker Solar Probe traveled through the corona on its eighth attempt, the spacecraft flew by structures called coronal streamers (pictured). Such a view is only possible due to the spacecraft's ability to go above and below the streamers inside the corona

READ MORE: 

NASA's Parker Solar Probe captures a STUNNING visible light image of 'Earth's evil twin' for the first time

The US space agency's probe revealed distinctive surface features such as continental regions, plains, and plateaus, as well as a luminescent halo of oxygen in the atmosphere that surrounds Venus. 

In April of 2021, the Parker Solar Probe battled temperatures of 2370F and radiation 500 times stronger than Earth's on its first confirmed pass through the sun's upper atmosphere.

Due to the sun's lack of a solid surface, the corona is where the action is; exploring this magnetically intense region up close can help scientists better understand solar outbursts that can interfere with life here on Earth. 

'Parker Solar Probe 'touching the Sun' is a monumental moment for solar science and a truly remarkable feat,' Thomas Zurbuchen, the associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, said that year celebrating the probe's eighth solar flyby. 

'Not only does this milestone provide us with deeper insights into our Sun's evolution and (its) impacts on our solar system, but everything we learn about our own star also teaches us more about stars in the rest of the universe.'

Having completed its 17th 'solar encounter,' Parker has seven more sun-examining orbits planned by its mission scientists back home until the end of 2024. 

Its last act after those pass-bys will be an every-encroaching curve into the sun's atmosphere, recording solar winds data until the probe vaporizes in the heat. 

In its final moments, the Parker Solar Probe will become part of the solar wind itself - a 'sort of a poetic ending,' as one mission researcher, space plasma physicist David Malaspina, told Popular Science.

WHAT IS NASA'S PARKER SOLAR PROBE?

The Parker Solar Probe travelled seven times closer to the sun than any spacecraft before it

Nasa's Parker Solar Probe (PSP) will travel seven times closer to the sun than any spacecraft before it by the end of its mission.

It launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket on August 12, 2018.

The probe flew to the sun's outer atmosphere to study life of stars and their weather events.

It is hoped that Parker can help scientists to better understand solar flares — brief eruptions of intense high-energy radiation from the sun's surface that can knock out communications on Earth.

Over the next few years the probe will continue to make new discoveries as it moves closer to the sun, eventually making its closest approach in the year 2024, as it flies 3.9 million miles above the solar surface. 

The craft faces extremes in heat and radiation and will reach speeds of up to 430,000 miles per hour (700,000 kph) at its closest flyby of the star.

The craft's kit includes a white light imager called Whisper, which will take images of solar waves as the craft propels through them at high speeds.

To measure the 'bulk plasma' of solar winds — described by Nasa as the 'bread and butter' of the flares — a set of magnetic imaging equipment will also be stored on board. 

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

Pentagon says it's received 291 UFO sightings over past year

By MATTHEW PHELAN SENIOR SCIENCE REPORTER

The Pentagon 's dedicated UFO investigations office has fielded at least 291 UFO cases within the past year, according to a report made public late Wednesday night. Some of these seemingly advanced craft appeared to exhibit 'concerning performance characteristics,' the military's UFO investigators wrote, including 'high-speed travel' and 'unusual maneuverability.' The report caps off a summer hot with extraterrestrial intrigue in Washington, where multiple government UFO whistleblowers have come forward, some publicly, some behind closed doors, with allegations of an illegal UFO crash retrieval program. The claims — which have included ' intact and partially intact vehicles ,' exotic weapons programs , charges of witness intimidation and recovered 'non-human' bodies — are now being investigated by federal and congressional oversight authorities alike.

While that new report concludes that none of 2023's airborne mysteries were the result of classified US programs, the Pentagon's UFO chief told reporters that a few UFOs displayed 'concerning' signs of being made by America's foreign adversaries. In fact, the Pentagon UFO head said 'a lot' of these UFO cases have been referred to law enforcement and, in some serious cases, US counterintelligence investigators. 'I am worried from a national security perspective,' physicist Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick, director of the US Department of Defense's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) told CNN in advance of his office's new UFO report. 'There are some indicators that are concerning that may be attributed to foreign activity,' Dr. Kirkpatrick said, 'and we are investigating those very hard.'

The physicist — whose classified work prior to assuming leadership of AARO included stints with the Air Force Research Laboratory and the CIA — expressed fear that foreign nations may be designing espionage drones specifically to evade US radar and other detection hardware. 'There are ways to hide in our noise that always concern me,' Kirkpatrick told CNN . The annual report published Wednesday by Dr. Kirkpatrick and his team included a glossary to aid in the standardization of the once fringe topic of UFOs, now known professionally as UAP, for 'Unidentified Anomalous Phenomenon.' The glossary defined 'UAP Threat' as any UAP that demonstrate a national security risk to military 'persons, materiel, or information,' in an indication of the priority AARO has given to intelligence and espionage risks posed by the phenomenon. In one now infamous wave of cases, following identification of a large white Chinese spy balloon last February , military officials identified more potential airborne surveillance platforms by readjusting the sensitivity of their radar system filters.

'I suspect that filters on US systems had previously been ignoring things that were too slow, high, or small to be considered threats,' RAND Corporation senior technical analyst and former US Navy aviator Brynn Tannehill told Wired that month. 'Now that the parameters on the filters have been adjusted, we're seeing more of what was already there for the past few years.' Those adjustments to US military radar's noise reduction methods led to the identification of an object, first spotted north of Anchorage, Alaska, reportedly the size of a small car. US Air Force F-22 Raptors and F-16s were dispatched by the Biden White House to shoot down the sedan-sized UFO and others spotted over Canada's Yukon territory and the Great Lakes north of Michigan . Despite Dr. Kirkpatrick's statement that his office is actively chasing down potentially similar cases, AARO's annual report Wednesday drew a more measured conclusion.

'None of these UAP reports have been positively attributed to foreign activities,' according to AARO's unclassified report for fiscal year 2023. In addition to statistics on the typical elevations and locations at which UAP have been reported, the FY2023 AARO reported took pains to note the issue of 'collection bias' and its future plans to better collect space-based and undersea data on UAP. 'The space and maritime domains need to be fully integrated into AARO's processes,' the report stated. Kirkpatrick's UFO office plans to work with the US Navy and the National Intelligence Manager for Military Integration (NIM-MIL) to improve the speed and quality of reporting on undersea UAP or sea-to-air transmedium UAP. 'Collaboration with Space Force, US Space Command, NRO [the National Reconnaissance Office, which oversees US spy satellites] and NASA is well underway,' AARO said in the report. In a nod to NASA's own UAP advisory panel, the report made numerous references to the need to better calibrate, or prepare and standardize, military sensors in an effort to obtain the kind of reliable and comparable data needed to investigate UAP. Despite the ostensible openness and promises detailed in AARO's report, many longtime civilian UFO researchers, expressed concern that the office has overseen a retrenchment in transparency on the topic.

At least one longtime UFO researcher, government open records advocate John Greenewald, Jr. , described the Pentagon's new policies as 'a weird mixture' of 'increased excessive secrecy surrounding UAP' and 'preaching about 'transparency.'' Greenewald has noted new difficulties in obtaining government records on UFOs via the US Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in the years since the creation of dedicated UAP investigative mandates internally within the Pentagon. He flagged one comment from the new AARO report as particularly worrisome, which stated the belief that 'most UAP will likely resolve to ordinary phenomena.' 'AARO's, and subsequently the DoD's, position is once data is fine tuned and proper, most - if not all - UAP cases will resolve to simply being 'ordinary,'' Greenewald posted to X (formerly Twitter). 'This is exactly how Project Blue Book progressed and then ended,' he said, in reference to the US Air Force's Cold War-era UFO investigation program. 'They concluded the majority were explainable; they convened a panel of scientists to independently look at the findings; and it all ended with the military halting interest and stopping all funding for more than 40 years,' Greenewald said. 

Read the full story: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-12650087/Pentagon-says-received-291-UFO-sightings-past-year-Warns-craft-appeared-display-unusual-maneuverability-high-speed-travel.html?ito=msngallery

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

InSight’s Largest Marsquake Was Likely Caused by Geological Processes, Study Says

During its time on Mars, NASA’s InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) lander recorded over 1,300 seismic events, known as marsquakes. Of these, a number were identified as coming from meteoroid impact cratering events on the planet’s surface. The largest event identified by InSight, labeled S1222a, bore some similarities to two large impact events recorded earlier in the mission. In order to investigate whether the S1222a event might also have been caused by an impact event, planetary scientists from the University of Oxford and elsewhere undertook a comprehensive search of the region in which the S1222a marsquake occurred. The researchers did not identify any fresh craters in the area, implying that the marsquake was likely caused by geological processes.

An artist’s impression of the InSight lander on Mars.

Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

On May 4, 2022, InSight recorded the seismic waves from an event on Mars of magnitude 4.7.

This event, labeled S1222a in the catalog, was the largest of the mission and displayed characteristics spanning all previously identified marsquake families. The event also displayed clear evidence of surface waves.

Because its seismic signal was similar to previous quakes known to be caused by meteoroid impacts, the InSight team believed that S1222a might have been caused by an impact as well, and launched an international search for a fresh crater.

Although Mars is smaller than Earth, it has a similar land surface area because it has no oceans.

In order to survey this huge amount of ground (144 million km²), University of Oxford researcher Benjamin Fernando and colleagues sought contributions from ESA, the Chinese National Space Agency, the Indian Space Research Organisation, and the United Arab Emirates Space Agency.

This is thought to be the first time that all missions in orbit around Mars have collaborated on a single project.

Each group examined data from their satellites orbiting Mars to look for a new crater, or any other tell-tale signature of an impact (e.g. a dust cloud appearing in the hours after the quake).

After several months of searching, the scientists announced that no fresh crater was found.

They conclude that the S1222a event was instead caused by the release of enormous tectonic forces within Mars’ interior.

The results indicate that the Red Planet is much more seismically active than previously thought.

This spectrogram shows the magnitude 5 marsquake discovered by NASA’s InSight lander on May 4, 2022.

Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / ETH Zurich.

“We still think that Mars doesn’t have any active plate tectonics today, so this event was likely caused by the release of stress within Mars’ crust,” Dr. Fernando said.

“These stresses are the result of billions of years of evolution; including the cooling and shrinking of different parts of the planet at different rates.”

“We still do not fully understand why some parts of the planet seem to have higher stresses than others, but results like these help us to investigate further.”

“One day, this information may help us to understand where it would be safe for humans to live on Mars and where you might want to avoid!”

“This experiment shows how important it is to maintain a diverse set of instruments at Mars, and we are very glad to have played our part in completing the multi-instrumental and international approach of this study,” said Dr. Daniela Tirsch, science coordinator for the High Resolution Stereo Camera on board ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft.

“We are willing to collaborate with scientists around the world to share and apply this scientific data to get more knowledge about Mars, and are proud to have provided data from the color imagers on Tianwen-1 to contribute to this effort,” said Dr. Jianjun Liu, an astronomer at the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

“This has been a great opportunity for me to collaborate with the InSight team, as well as with individuals from other major missions dedicated to the study of Mars,” said Dr. Dimitra Atri, group leader for Mars at New York University Abu Dhabi and contributor of data from UAE’s Hope spacecraft.

“This really is the golden age of Mars exploration!”

• The results appear in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

• Benjamin Fernando et al. 2023. A Tectonic Origin for the Largest Marsquake Observed by InSight. Geophysical Research Letters 50 (20): e2023GL103619; doi: 10.1029/2023GL103619

{ https://www.sci.news/ }

Planetary Researchers Probe Origin of Complex Organics on Ceres

How aliphatic organic compounds originated on the dwarf planet Ceres has been the subject of intensive research since their discovery by NASA’s Dawn mission in 2017. Some studies have concluded that a comet or other organic-rich impactor delivered them to Ceres; others indicate the molecules formed on the dwarf planet after its primordial materials were altered by briny water. New research led by Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory planetary scientists is extending our understanding of how impacts have affected Ceres’ aliphatic molecules and what the implications are for determining their origin and assessing the dwarf planet’s habitability.

This false-color image shows the dwarf planet Ceres. Scientists use false color to examine differences in surface materials. The color blue on Ceres is generally associated with bright material, found in more than 130 locations, and seems to be consistent with salts.

Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA.

“The organics were initially detected in the vicinity of a large impact crater, which is what motivated us to look at how impacts affect these organics,” said lead author Dr. Terik Daly, a planetary scientist at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.

“Although researchers have performed impact and shock experiments on various types of organics in the past, what was missing was a study dedicated to the type of organics detected on Ceres using the same type of analytical method used by the Dawn spacecraft to detect them.”

Dr. Daly and colleagues conducted a series of experiments at the NASA Ames Vertical Gun Range.

The experiments mimicked the impact conditions typical of Ceres, with impact speeds ranging between 2-6 km/s (4,400-13,000 mph) and impact angles varying between 15 and 90 degrees relative to horizontal.

The authors also conducted a new analysis that combined data from two different instruments — the camera and the imaging spectrometer that flew on the Dawn spacecraft — and then used an algorithm to extrapolate the compositional information from the spectrometer down to the camera’s higher spatial resolution.

The results allowed them to investigate the organics at finer detail than has previously been possible.

“People had looked at the Dawn camera data and the Dawn spectrometer data separately, but no one else had taken the approach our team used to extrapolate the data from one instrument to another, which provided new leverage in our search to map and understand the origin of organics on Ceres,” said co-author Dr. Jessica Sunshine, an astronomer at the University of Maryland.

“By capitalizing on the strengths of two different datasets collected over Ceres, we’ve been able to map potential organic-rich areas on Ceres at higher resolution,” said Dr. Juan Rizos, an astrophysicist at the Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia.

“We can see a very good correlation of organics with units from older impacts and with other minerals like carbonates that also indicate the presence of water.”

“While the origin of the organics remains poorly understood, we now have good evidence that they formed in Ceres and likely in the presence of water.”

“There is a possibility that a large interior reservoir of organics may be found inside Ceres. So, from my perspective, that result increases the astrobiological potential of Ceres.”

The researchers hope the results from NASA’s Lucy mission will soon shed more light on organics in the Solar System.

“We will likely find differences, as the Trojan asteroids have experienced very different impact histories from Ceres, and because there are two compositionally different types of Trojan asteroids,” Dr. Sunshine said.

“Comparisons to Ceres will help up us understand the distribution of organics in the outer Solar System.”

• The scientists present their findings today at the Geological Society of America’s GSA Connects 2023 meeting.
• R. Terik Daly et al. 2023. The effects of impacts on the reflectance spectra of aliphatic organics: implications for Ceres. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs 55 (6): 153-1; doi: 10.1130/abs/2023AM-392730

{ https://www.sci.news/ }

Admiral’s Bombshell: UFOs Beneath Our Oceans! 

In an era where every smartphone is equipped with a camera and social media platforms are rife with shared content, “UFO sightings” have risen to a level of prominence never seen before. Yet, while grainy images and shaky footage often dominate UFO discussion boards, an increasing number of credible professionals are turning their attention to the sky, and beneath the ocean’s waves, in search of answers.

The Ocean’s Silent Observers

Dr. Chris, an ocean scientist with three and a half decades of experience, expressed astonishment that more ocean experts aren’t delving into what he calls “the story of the century.” He described instances where submariners from the Cold War era reported inexplicable sonar readings—objects that moved in ways no known underwater vessel could. Another captivating account includes the USS Omaha’s radar operator, who noticed a USO (unidentified submerged object) speeding by underwater.

An Involved Scientific Community

But it’s not just anecdotal evidence that’s raising eyebrows. Research teams, like those from the Galileo project, are developing intricate collection systems, employing a combination of radar, electro-optical/infrared (EOIR), and acoustic means. These systems have picked up spheroid objects detectable only in infrared—meaning they’d be invisible to the naked eye. Such advancements underscore the evolving landscape of UFO sightings research.

Championing a New Age of Exploration

UAP Society, a recently founded organization, is taking the hunt for UFO evidence to new heights (and depths). They’ve announced a “UAP Video Challenge,” urging enthusiasts to share their ideas on capturing tangible UAP evidence. From sophisticated camera systems to innovative apps, they’re looking for fresh perspectives to shed light on these enigmatic phenomena.

Video:

• Admiral Revelations: Underwater UFOs

UFO sightings are no longer just the domain of conspiracy theorists or science fiction enthusiasts. From seasoned oceanographers to dedicated research teams, the concerted effort to unravel the mystery of UAPs is in full swing. As technology advances and the world becomes ever more connected, perhaps we’re on the cusp of understanding one of the universe’s most intriguing questions: Are we truly alone?

RELATED VIDEOS

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

NASA benadrukt een fascinerende foto van een komeet tussen de sterrenstelsels (Dan Bartlett // NASA – APOD)

© Aangeboden door Tech Break

Astronomen en ruimteliefhebbers hebben de kans om dagelijks naar de bijzonderheden van het heelal te kijken dankzij de “Astronomische Foto van de Dag” van de NASA. Op de afbeelding van vandaag (20 oktober) kun je het exacte moment zien waarop een komeet zich een weg baant tussen de sterrenstelsels.

• +NASA-sonde legt fascinerende foto’s vast van de maan van Jupiter

De foto is genomen op 12 oktober onder de hemel van June Lake, Californië, Verenigde Staten, en toont fascinerende sterrenstelsels in het noordelijke sterrenbeeld Canes Venatici, ofwel de ‘Jachthonden’.

In de linkerbovenhoek van de afbeelding, op een afstand van ongeveer 23,5 miljoen lichtjaar, zie je het prachtige spiraalvormige sterrenstelsel NGC 4258, ook wel bekend als Messier 106. Direct boven en rechts van het midden, op een afstand van 60 miljoen lichtjaar, bevindt zich een ander spiraalvormig sterrenstelsel, NGC 4217. Opmerkelijk in deze waarneming is de komeet C/2023 H2 Lemmon, die in april is ontdekt.

De komeet vertoont een groene kleur en een gladde staart die zich uitstrekt naar de bovenkant van de afbeelding. C/2023 H2 Lemmon zal op 29 oktober het perihelium bereiken, het punt het dichtst bij de zon, terwijl het perigeum, het punt het dichtst bij de aarde, zal plaatsvinden op 10 november.

NASA benadrukt een fascinerende foto van een komeet tussen de sterrenstelsels (Dan Bartlett // NASA – APOD)

© Aangeboden door Tech Break

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Rizwan Choudhury

This image of Jupiter from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) shows stunning details of the majestic planet in infrared light.

NASA, ESA, CSA 

The research team used Webb's NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) data in July 2022. The camera captured images of Jupiter in four different filters, each showing a different altitude of the atmosphere. The images were taken 10 hours apart, or one Jupiter day.

De Pater noted that despite the observations made by various ground-based telescopes, spacecraft such as NASA's Juno and Cassini, and NASA's Hubble Space Telescope on the changing weather patterns within the Jovian system, Webb has already delivered fresh insights on Jupiter's rings, satellites, and its atmosphere.

Jupiter is very different from Earth, but both planets have layered atmospheres. The other missions have observed the lower layers of Jupiter's atmosphere, with massive storms and ammonia ice clouds. Webb can see farther into the near-infrared than before and detect the higher layers of the atmosphere, about 15-30 miles (25-50 km) above the cloud tops. In these layers, high-altitude hazes usually look blurry in near-infrared images. But with Webb, they look sharper and more detailed.

Webb and Hubble data

The researchers used Webb and Hubble data to compare the winds at different altitudes. They found that the winds change speed and direction with height, creating wind shears. They also saw that some storms in Jupiter's equator were not connected to the jet stream.

Michael Wong, a team member from the University of California, Berkeley, who led the Hubble observations associated with the study, explained that the distinct wavelengths of Webb and Hubble allowed them to unveil the three-dimensional configuration of storm clouds. Additionally, they harnessed the timing of the data to track the rapid development of storms.

The researchers added some context to their findings by explaining that Jupiter has a complex pattern of winds and temperatures in its equatorial stratosphere, which repeats itself over time. They said that one of their team members, Leigh Fletcher of the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom, suggested that the strength of the new jet stream might be related to this pattern and that they expected it to vary a lot over the next 2 to 4 years. They said that they were excited to test this theory in the future.

They also said that Fletcher was amazed by their discovery, as he had been tracking Jupiter's clouds and winds from many observatories for years, and he expected to find such a hidden feature when they saw the new NIRCam images in 2022.

Study abstract:

The atmosphere of Jupiter haseast–westt zonal jets that alternate as a function of latitude as tracked by cloud motions at tropospheric levels. Above and below the cold tropopause at ~100 mbar, the equatorial atmosphere is covered by hazes at levels where thermal infrared observations used to characterize the dynamics of the stratosphere lose part of their sensitivity. James Webb Space Telescope observations of Jupiter in July 2022 show these hazes in higher detail than ever before and reveal the presence of an intense (140 m s−1) equatorial jet at 100–200 mbar (70 m s−1 faster than the zonal winds at the cloud level) that is confined to ±3° of the equator and is located below stratospheric thermal oscillations that extend at least from 0.1 to 40 mbar and repeat in multiyear cycles. This suggests that the new jet is a deep part of Jupiter’s Equatorial Stratospheric Oscillation and may therefore vary in strength over time.

Image: Jupiter’s Winds

While Webb’s exquisite resolution and wavelength coverage allowed for the detection of small cloud features used to track the jet, the complementary observations from Hubble taken one day after the Webb observations were also crucial to determine the base state of Jupiter’s equatorial atmosphere and observe the development of convective storms in Jupiter’s equator not connected to the jet.  

“We knew the different wavelengths of Webb and Hubble would reveal the three-dimensional structure of storm clouds, but we were also able to use the timing of the data to see how rapidly storms develop,” added team member Michael Wong of the University of California, Berkeley, who led the associated Hubble observations.

The researchers are looking forward to additional observations of Jupiter with Webb to determine if the jet’s speed and altitude change over time.

Image: Zoom in on Webb’s View of Jupiter

“Jupiter has a complicated but repeatable pattern of winds and temperatures in its equatorial stratosphere, high above the winds in the clouds and hazes measured at these wavelengths,” explained team member Leigh Fletcher of the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom. “If the strength of this new jet is connected to this oscillating stratospheric pattern, we might expect the jet to vary considerably over the next 2 to 4 years – it’ll be really exciting to test this theory in the years to come.”

“It’s amazing to me that, after years of tracking Jupiter’s clouds and winds from numerous observatories, we still have more to learn about Jupiter, and features like this jet can remain hidden from view until these new NIRCam images were taken in 2022,” continued Fletcher.

The researchers’ results were recently published in Nature Astronomy.

• The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Canadian Space Agency.

{ https://interestingengineering.com/ }

Webb Spots High-Speed Equatorial Jet in Jupiter’s Stratosphere

The newly-discovered intense (140 m/s) jet is confined to ±3° of Jupiter’s equator, is approximately 4,800 km wide, and is located in the gas giant’s lower stratosphere, according to a paper published in the journal Nature Astronomy.

This Webb image of Jupiter shows stunning details of the majestic planet in infrared light. In this image, brightness indicates high altitude. The numerous bright white ‘spots’ and ‘streaks’ are likely very high-altitude cloud tops of condensed convective storms. Aurorae, appearing in red in this image, extend to higher altitudes above both the northern and southern poles of the planet. By contrast, dark ribbons north of the equatorial region have little cloud cover.

Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI / Ricardo Hueso, UPV / Imke de Pater, UC Berkeley / Thierry Fouchet, Observatory of Paris / Leigh Fletcher, University of Leicester / Michael H. Wong, UC Berkeley / Joseph DePasquale, STScI.

“This is something that totally surprised us,” said Dr. Ricardo Hueso, an astronomer at the University of the Basque Country.

“What we have always seen as blurred hazes in Jupiter’s atmosphere now appear as crisp features that we can track along with the planet’s fast rotation.”

In the study, Dr. Hueso and colleagues analyzed data gathered by Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) instrument in July 2022.

“Even though various ground-based telescopes, spacecraft like NASA’s Juno and Cassini, and the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have observed the Jovian system’s changing weather patterns, Webb has already provided new findings on Jupiter’s rings, satellites, and its atmosphere,” said Professor Imke de Pater, an astronomer at the University of California, Berkeley.

“While Jupiter is different from Earth in many ways — Jupiter is a gas giant, Earth is a rocky, temperate world — both planets have layered atmospheres.”

“Infrared, visible, radio, and ultraviolet-light wavelengths observed by these other missions detect the lower, deeper layers of the planet’s atmosphere — where gigantic storms and ammonia ice clouds reside.”

“On the other hand, Webb’s look farther into the near-infrared than before is sensitive to the higher-altitude layers of the atmosphere, around 25-50 km above Jupiter’s cloud tops.”

“In near-infrared imaging, high-altitude hazes typically appear blurry, with enhanced brightness over the equatorial region. With Webb, finer details are resolved within the bright, hazy band.”

Hueso et al. discovered a high-speed jet stream sitting over Jupiter’s equator, above the main cloud decks. At a wavelength of 2.12 microns, which observes between altitudes of about 20-35 km above Jupiter’s cloud tops, the astronomers spotted several wind shears, or areas where wind speeds change with height or with distance, which enabled them to track the jet. This image highlights several of the features around Jupiter’s equatorial zone that, between one rotation of the planet (10 hours), are very clearly disturbed by the motion of the jet stream.

Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI / Ricardo Hueso, UPV / Imke de Pater, UC Berkeley / Thierry Fouchet, Observatory of Paris / Leigh Fletcher, University of Leicester / Michael H. Wong, UC Berkeley / Joseph DePasquale, STScI.

The newly-discovered jet stream travels at about 515 km per hour, twice the sustained winds of a Category 5 hurricane here on Earth.

It is located around 40 km above the clouds, in Jupiter’s lower stratosphere.

By comparing the winds observed by Webb at high altitudes, to the winds observed at deeper layers from Hubble, the astronomers could measure how fast the winds change with altitude and generate wind shears.

While Webb’s exquisite resolution and wavelength coverage allowed for the detection of small cloud features used to track the jet, the complementary observations from Hubble taken one day after the Webb observations were also crucial to determine the base state of Jupiter’s equatorial atmosphere and observe the development of convective storms in Jupiter’s equator not connected to the jet.

“We knew the different wavelengths of Webb and Hubble would reveal the three-dimensional structure of storm clouds, but we were also able to use the timing of the data to see how rapidly storms develop,” said Dr. Michael Wong, an astronomer at the University of California, Berkeley.

The researchers are looking forward to additional observations of Jupiter with Webb to determine if the jet’s speed and altitude change over time.

“Jupiter has a complicated but repeatable pattern of winds and temperatures in its equatorial stratosphere, high above the winds in the clouds and hazes measured at these wavelengths,” said Dr. Leigh Fletcher, an astronomer at the University of Leicester.

“If the strength of this new jet is connected to this oscillating stratospheric pattern, we might expect the jet to vary considerably over the next 2 to 4 years — it’ll be really exciting to test this theory in the years to come.”

“It’s amazing to me that, after years of tracking Jupiter’s clouds and winds from numerous observatories, we still have more to learn about Jupiter, and features like this jet can remain hidden from view until these new NIRCam images were taken in 2022.”

• R. Hueso et al. An intense narrow equatorial jet in Jupiter’s lower stratosphere observed by JWST. Nat Astron, published online October 19, 2023; doi: 10.1038/s41550-023-02099-2

{ https://www.sci.news/ }

Huge alien structures in moon craters, NASA photos, UFO Sighting News.

Guys, this is just a sample of what I found today during breakfast. Think about what I can find by lunch time. These structures have a lot of right angles, similar to structures on Earth. They also have some unique colors to them, green, pink, dark blue and dark gold-orange. 

 

This is from a much larger map-like photo and I will make a few videos about it soon. I'm just blown away that NASA didn't discover these structures and edit them out. 

 

Scott C. Waring 

Youtube channel link https://www.youtube.com/@ScottWaring/videos 

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

Two compelling UFO sightings have emerged; the first incident unfolds over SRQ Sarasota Bradenton International Airport in Florida, where a metallic orb defied explanation and the second sighting, occurring over the skies of Colombia, where a plane passenger while traveling from Bogotá to Salento captured an amazing footage of a spinning flying saucer. 

UFO sighting over Florida's SRQ Airport: 

 

The live footage captures a steady, silver orb hovering in the sky, its metallic surface gleaming in the sunlight. The orb maintaining a consistent position, defying the characteristics commonly associated with conventional aircraft. 

Some suggest that the object might be a top-secret military aircraft, while others lean towards the possibility of extraterrestrial involvement. The absence of discernible propulsion systems or conventional wings only adds to the mystery, leaving room for various interpretations. 

A Spinning Saucer over Colombia:

As if synchronized with the intrigue over SRQ Airport, another astonishing sighting occurred high above the Colombian skies. 

A passenger, en route from Bogotá to Salento, managed to capture a video of a spinning flying saucer. The footage, taken from the vantage point of an airplane, depicts the saucer-like object rotating gracefully against the backdrop of clouds and sky. There is much speculation on the origins and intentions of the mysterious craft. 

The Florida and Colombia UFO sightings add new chapters to the ongoing saga of mysterious aerial phenomena. Whether these sightings are the result of experimental human-made crafts or encounters with extraterrestrial intelligence, the search for answers continues...

   

{ http://ufosightingshotspot.blogspot.com/ }

Nan Madol: The Mysterious Ancient Coral Reef City

Nan Madol is the only ancient city ever built upon a coral reef.  It is comprised of a set of almost 100 stone and coral filled platforms atop artificial islands separated by narrow channels and enclosed by an outer seawall. Nan Madol includes the remains of stone palaces, temples, tombs and residential domains.

Despite the enormity of the undertaking in building the city, no records exist regarding when exactly it was built, where the enormous rocks came from, how they were transported there, and for what reason Nan Madol was constructed on top of a reef .

A Globally Significant Masterpiece of Creative Genius

UNESCO has finally paid attention to the immense historical significance of Nan Madol, a mysterious ancient coral reef city off the island of Pohnpei in Micronesia, by placing it on the World Heritage List. Describing it as a “globally significant masterpiece of creative genius”, Nan Madol is an engineering marvel, but it has not yet given up all its secrets.

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The ancient city of Nan Madol was built atop a coral reef.

( Dmitry / Adobe )

Evidence of the early human activity on the islands dates back to the first or second century BC, but it is not known exactly when the construction of the artificial islets started. Theories range from the 5th to the 11th century AD, when it was purportedly built as a ritual and ceremonial center for the ruling chiefs of the Saudeleur Dynasty. UNESCO dates the site at 1200 to 1500 AD.

However, uranium dating techniques completed in 2016 suggest it was built sometime between 1180 and 1200. This date means it is the oldest known monumental scaled burial site on the remote islands of the Pacific.

The Saudeleur dynasty was the first organized government uniting the people of Pohnpei island, ruling from around 1100 to around 1628 AD. However, this era was preceded by the Mwehin Kawa (“period of building”) and Mwehin Aramas (“period of peopling”).

Nan Madol was Originally the Reef of Heaven

The name Nan Madol means “spaces between” and refers to the canals that crisscross the ruins. However, its traditional name was  Soun Nan-leng  (Reef of Heaven), according to Gene Ashby in his book  Pohnpei, An Island Argosy .

The total area of the enclosure is 75 hectares. The foundations of the islets were constructed of huge basalt boulders , on which walled enclosures were built using columnar basalt in a header and stretcher pattern in-filled with coral rubble. Walls were as high as 15 meters (49.21 ft.) and up to 5 meters (16.40 ft.) thick.

The average weight of each stone is 5 tons, with some weighing as much as 50 tons, and it has been estimated that the total weight of the columnar basalt that makes up the city’s construction is up to 750,000 metric tons.

The walls of Nan Madol.

( robnaw /adobe)

Probable quarry sites around the island have been identified, but the exact origin of the stones used in the construction of Nan Madol is yet to be determined. No quarries exist in the immediate vicinity meaning that the stones must have been transported to their current location. What is even more incredible is that the builders managed to accomplish the task without pulleys, levers, or metal to aid in the process.

Legends of Nan Madol’s Construction

Most Pohnpeians still believe the legend that Nan Madol began with the arrival of twin sorcerers Olisihpa and Olosohpa from the mythical Western Katau. The twins were said to be much taller than native Pohnpeians.

The brothers sought a place to build an altar so that they could worship Nahnisohn Sahpw, the god of agriculture . The two sorcerers successfully built an altar at Nan Madol, where they performed rituals to levitate the huge stones with the aid of a flying dragon. When Olisihpa died of old age, Olosohpa became the first Saudeleur.

Historians and archaeologists have suggested that they huge rocks may have been floated via raft to the islets, however, the exact means of engineering with which the massive stones were moved from their distant quarries, over land and water, and erected on the reef complexes is still unknown.

According to UNESCO, Nan Madol represents a “globally significant masterpiece of creative genius” because it exhibits the most perfectly preserved habitation, leadership, and ceremonial plan of an architectural ensemble of the Pacific region. In a statement published on their website, they write: “The huge scale of the edifices, their technical sophistication and the concentration of megalithic structures bear testimony to complex social and religious practices of the island societies of the period.”

However, it seems that local authorities are not yet ready for the UNESCO status to encourage large-scale international tourism at Nan Madol. Concerns have recently been raised that the site is “more fragile than it appears” and that sustainable tourism is the only real option to preserve the site.

Huge stones were transported to the ancient city.

( bluesea / Adobe)

The Tyrannical Saudeleur Dynasty

Nan Madol housed the ruling elite caste of Saudeleur dynasty and was used as a political and ceremonial seat of power. As a means of control of their subjects, Saudeleur rulers forced local chieftains to leave their home villages and move to the city where their activities could be more closely observed.

The islets to the northeast, particularly Nan Douwas, were used for rituals and ceremonies, while over time all the seawall islets (nearly 60) functioned as burial places. Other islets were administrative and residential, and some served special purpose, such as food preparation, coconut oil production or canoe construction .

Rule was maintained by one man, the Saudeleur, at Nan Madol. The land, its contents, and its inhabitants were owned by the Saudeleur ruler, who leased the land to landlord classes overseeing commoners harvesting the land. The commoners were required to present the ruler with frequent tributes of fruit and fish.

The logistical difficulties of the site, which involved having no fresh water and no place capable of growing crops, were not a problem for the Saudeleur because the people of the islands brought everything that was needed.

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The Saudeleur dynasty ruled the islands for more than a millennium, yet there is nothing left of them but legend and the crumbling black basalt ruins. There is no art, no carvings, and no writing. The only knowledge that remains is that which has been passed down through oral history by the Pohnpeians, who describe the Saudeleurs as deeply religious, tyrannical, and cruel, and the remains of their civilization are often viewed with fear and superstition by modern-day Pohnpeians.

According to local lore, the ultimate downfall of the Saudeleurs was their increasingly oppressive rule and centralized social system. The dynasty was toppled in 1628 by the semi-mythical warrior Isokelekel, who came from the island of Kosrae 530 km (329.33 miles) to the east, creating the modern Nahnmwarki system of tribal chiefdom that has existed in one form or another to this day in the island’s five municipalities.

Saudeleur dynasty tomb (mausoleum) inside walls of Nan Madol.

( Dmitry/ Adobe)

New Rulers and the Abandonment of Nan Madol

There is much variation among sources for the exact events before, during, and after the invasion of Nan Madol by Isokelekel; at least 13 different accounts of the war have been published and told by the Pohnpeians. In most versions of the legend, the Saudeleur ruler had become oppressive and its lords had offended the Thunder God revered by the Pohnpeians.

Thus, the Thunder God left Pohnpei for Kosrae, where he impregnated a human by feeding her a lime. This union produced the semi-divine Isokelekel, who in the womb knew his destiny of vengeance.

There are many accounts of Isokelekel’s battle with the Saudeleur ruler. In one version, Isokelekel's warriors are aided by hidden weapons that suddenly appeared. The tide of war reversed several times, but ended against the Saudeleur, who retreated with his army into the main island of Pohnpei.

Legend recounts that the battle ended with the Saudeleur lord retreating uphill to a stream, where he transformed into a fish and remains today. Isokelekel took the title of Nahnmwarki and assumed the seat of power in Nan Madol.

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When the period of the Nahnmwarkis began, the new rulers at first resided at Nan Madol, but they could not depend on anyone regularly supplying them with food and water and eventually they moved back to their own districts, abandoning Nan Madol forever.

Since then local legends have arisen saying that the ruins of Nan Madol are haunted, and the site has received the nickname “Ghost city.” The strange tales associated the abandoned city led H.P. Lovecraft to make it the home of Cthulhu in a short story.

By any measure, the city of Nan Madol is impressive. The work required to build it was on such an enormous scale, yet the current inhabitants of Pohnpei live in humble grass huts . What accounts for this huge contrast? More importantly, how was the city built in the first place?

The fact that there are no existing records on Nan Madol means that we may never know the secrets buried within the walls of this unique coral reef city.

• Top Image: Nan Madol - archaeological site on the island of Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia.
• Source: robnaw /Adobe

By Joanna Gillan

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{ https://www.ancient-origins.net/ }

 Unraveling Nan Madol’s Mind-Blowing ALIEN Mysteries!

Nestled amid the serene waters of the Western Pacific lies one of the world’s most enigmatic archaeological sites: Nan Madol. With its labyrinthine network of canals and artificial islands, the stone city rises majestically from the sea, seemingly defying the very laws of physics with its massive basalt columns. How could an ancient civilization have built such a colossal structure? The legends and mysteries surrounding this site make it a perfect backdrop for an epic tale.

A Sight to Behold

When adventurers David and Georgio first laid eyes on the towering walls of Nan Madol, they were left awestruck. Spread over a vast expanse, this site boasts an estimated 250 million tons of basalt stacked into immense walls and artificial islands. Some of the individual blocks are so huge that they would dwarf a modern-day car. David’s reaction perfectly encapsulates the grandeur of the site: “It boggles the mind… some of these blocks are massive, just massive.”

Many, like David, believe that Nan Madol might predate its officially recorded history. The awe-inspiring complexity of the site suggests a level of engineering and architecture that many think was not possible for the era it is believed to have been built in.

The Legends of Nan Madol

The people of Pohnpei, the island upon which Nan Madol stands, have passed down tales of its creation for generations. The most enduring legend tells of two twin sorcerers, Olopa and Osba, who were foreign to the island. These towering figures, with their vast knowledge and inexplicable powers, are said to have levitated the massive stones into place.

While skeptics might scoff at such tales, one cannot help but draw parallels between the legends of Nan Madol and those of other ancient sites. From the giant statues (Moai) of Easter Island to the mammoth blocks of the Great Pyramid in Giza, stories of levitating stones and otherworldly assistance are a recurring theme.

Extraterrestrial Theories

Given the seemingly impossible feat of constructing Nan Madol, some ancient astronaut theorists, including Georgio, argue that the site may be the handiwork of extraterrestrial beings. They base this theory on oral traditions, like the one that speaks of a “giant bird” – possibly a misunderstood piece of advanced technology – that flew the basalt blocks from their quarry to the construction site.

Such theories gain traction when you consider the baffling fact that around 60% of the basalt used in Nan Madol’s construction cannot be sourced to any known location. Furthermore, a recent revelation suggests that some stones might have been excavated from the top of a nearby volcanic outcrop, Pen Mik. The sheer inaccessibility of this location has led many to wonder how such a feat could have been achieved without advanced technology.

Video:

• Ancient Aliens: Decoding the Strange ALIEN Secrets of Nan Madol

The mysteries of Nan Madol, from its awe-inspiring architecture to its enigmatic legends, make it a must-visit for any history or archaeology enthusiast. Whether the site was the result of human ingenuity, extraterrestrial intervention, or a mix of both remains a topic of passionate debate. What is undeniable, however, is the sense of wonder and intrigue that this ancient city evokes in all who lay eyes upon it.

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

A classified report detailing the Pentagon’s latest findings in its ongoing investigations into unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAP, has been delivered to Congress, the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) has revealed.

The 2023 Annual Report on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena was presented to Congress by the DoD and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) on Wednesday, October 18, 2023, according to a Pentagon press release issued that same evening.

An unclassified version of the report, required by the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2022, as amended by the NDAomaly ResoA for Fiscal Year 2023, was also subsequently made available on the website of the All-domain Anlution Office (AARO), the official office within the DoD tasked with investigations into mysterious aerial incursions and other phenomena encountered by U.S. personnel which currently remain unresolved.

Cover page of the 2023 Annual UAP Report, released on October 18, 2023

(Credit: AARO/DoD).

What follows are several of the key findings detailed in the unclassified version of the 2023 Annual UAP Report released late on Wednesday:

291 NEW REPORTS OF UNIDENTIFIED ANOMALOUS PHENOMENA

The latest UAP report primarily documents sightings that occurred between August 31, 2022 and April 30, 2023, with 274 of the reports having occurred during this period, and an additional 17 from previous reporting periods dating as far back as 2019, amounting to a combined total of 291 reports.

As of April 2023, AARO has reportedly been reviewing more than 800 UAP incident reports.

COLLECTION BIASES REMAIN, DESPITE BROADENING SOURCES

The report, while acknowledging the persistence of a “strong but shifting collection bias,” notes that the abundance of UAP reports AARO has received that occurred within restricted military airspace has been tempered somewhat by reports from commercial pilots which show “a more diverse geographic distribution of UAP sightings across the United States.”

However, even the broadening number of reports from commercial aviators AARO has begun to integrate into its dataset still conveys what the report calls a “U.S.-centric collection bias that will grow significantly relative to the rest of the world.”

NO ADVERSE HEALTH EFFECTS ASSOCIATED WITH UAP INCIDENTS

The report says that none of the reports collected between August 2022 and April 2023 indicated U.S. personnel or other witnesses had suffered any adverse health effects resulting from their unexplained encounters.

“ODNI and DoD acknowledge that health-related effects may appear at any time after an event occurs,” the report states, “therefore any reported health implications related to UAP will be tracked and examined if and when they emerge.”

CONCERNING PERFORMANCE CHARACTERISTICS

Some UAP reports involved objects that “potentially exhibited one or more concerning performance characteristics such as high-speed travel or unusual maneuverability,” the report states, raising concerns over possible flight safety issues that may result from UAP encountered by aviators. While acknowledging such safety risks, the report adds that “none of these reports suggest the UAP maneuvered to an unsafe proximity to civil or military aircraft” or posed any other direct threats to any aircraft or their crew and passengers.

NO EVIDENCE LINKING RECENT UAP SIGHTINGS TO FOREIGN ACTORS

The report also states that none of the UAP reports from the period in question have been directly linked to foreign activities by any U.S. adversaries or other state actors.

BETTER DATA IS NEEDED

Insufficient data from various sensors and other collection platforms “can cause observational misperceptions,” the report adds, noting that as better data is collected over time, “most UAP will likely resolve to ordinary phenomena and significantly reduce the amount of UAP case submissions.”

UAP REPORTING IS INCREASING OVERALL

The report states that reports involving unidentified anomalous phenomena are increasing, primarily due to what it characterizes as “deepening federal relationships and AARO’s ability to incorporate new reports into its adjudication and research process.

290 of the most recent batch of reports involved aerial encounters, while just one occurred “in the maritime domain.” There were no space-based UAP sightings during the recent period, nor were there any incidents involving transmedium phenomena that were observed.

AN ABUNDANCE OF SPHERICAL UNIDENTIFIED ANOMALOUS PHENOMENA

Among the most common shapes reported in the recent batch of sightings, about a quarter (25%) involve

Earlier this year during an April 2023 Senate hearing, Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick, Director of the DoD’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), said at that time that more than half of all UAP reports collected by his Office involved observations of objects characterized as orbs or otherwise spherical objects with white, silver, or translucent coloration.

“That’s what we’re looking for and trying to understand what that is,” Kirkpatrick said during the hearing, shortly before sharing footage obtained by an MQ-9 Reaper Drone in the Middle East in 2022 where a flying object resembling a metallic sphere could be seen passing through the air.

Diagram displaying common morphologies associated with unidentified anomalous phenomena in reports collected between August 2022 and April 2023 (Credit: AARO/DoD).

While more than half (53%) of all sightings provided no details on the shape of the objects that were encountered, 6% of the incidents involved “irregular shapes,” while 4% involved oval-shaped objects, discs and rectangles each comprised 2% respectively, while cylindrical objects and triangles each comprised 1% respectively. An additional 5% of reports involved what were characterized as “Ambiguous Sensor Contact.”

FEWER UAP DISPLAYED LIGHTS

Of the 291 reports from the recent collection period, less than a quarter (21%) possessed lights, while the vast majority (79%) appeared to possess no lights, or at least none were displayed at the time of the observations.

IT’S ALL ABOUT THE DATA

Intriguingly, the report also describes the data collection and analysis process as new UAP reports are acquired, noting that “AARO’s analysts scour multiple classified and unclassified databases to identify any existing data on each UAP case,” adding that investigations prioritize “technical sensor information that yields the highest quantity of pertinent, valuable data for review.”

HIGH SPEED TRAVEL AND OTHER ODDITIES

Based on the ongoing analysis of UAP sightings AARO has collected, the report states that “only a very small percentage of UAP reports display interesting signatures, such as high-speed travel and unknown morphologies.” Currently, most of the sightings AARO has collected involve objects that “demonstrate ordinary characteristics of readily explainable sources,” although a lack of data has prevented a large number of cases from being able to be resolved.

Screenshot from a video filmed off the Baja California coast in 2004 depicting unidentified anomalous phenomena famously nicknamed the “Tic Tac” by U.S. Navy personnel who encountered it

(Credit: DoD).

“For the few objects that do demonstrate characteristics of interest,” the report adds, “AARO is approaching these cases with objectivity and analytic rigor.”

SENSOR CALIBRATION TO HELP RULE OUT KNOWN OBJECTS

Known objects, which include balloons, unmanned aircraft systems (UAVs), atmospheric events and other natural phenomena are all being considered in relation to ongoing sensor calibration efforts which are aimed to help rule out such objects or events, and offer future avenues for pilot training and algorithm development.

DECLASSIFICATION OF “FULL-MOTION VIDEOS” AND MORE

Notably, the report states that AARO is “working to standardize and routinize” a declassification process for the release of data and “full-motion videos,” adding that this process had been employed prior the public display of such data during Congressional hearings held earlier this year.

UAP BY AIR, SPACE, AND SEA

Within the report’s Appendix section, a new series of definitions is provided for UAP respective of the domains in which they are observed. These are Spaceborn UAP, defined as “Sources of anomalous detections above the Karman Line (i.e., 100 km above Earth’s mean sea level),” Airborne UAP, which occur “between Earth’s mean sea level and the Karman Line,” and Seaborn UAP, which involve “Sources of anomalous detections at or below Earth’s mean sea level within a body of water.”

Additionally, the report advises that integration between space and maritime domains into AARO’s current analytic efforts would be beneficial, though adding that “Collaboration with Space Force, U.S. Space Command, NRO, and NASA is well underway.”

ONGOING CONTROVERSY OVER UNIDENTIFIED ANOMALOUS PHENOMENA

The 2023 annual report arrives amidst widespread public interest in the UAP subject that has ensued since 2017, following a report featured in The New York Times that reinvigorated the debate over mysterious aerial encounters reported by military personnel.

More recently, whistleblower allegations first reported by The Debrief in June 2023 resulted in additional scrutiny of the subject, garnering attention from lawmakers over the possibility that the U.S. has maintained secretive programs for decades that may have involved the acquisition of exotic technologies.

The 2023 Annual UAP Report was also preceded by the release of new government documents in recent weeks detailing sightings of aerial phenomena that have occurred over sensitive U.S. government facilities.

Sandia National Laboratories, one of several U.S. Department of Energy sites where UAP observations have been made in recent years

(Credit: DOE).

“Analyzing and understanding the potential threats posed by UAP is an ongoing collaborative effort involving many departments and agencies,” said Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder in a statement following the release of the unclassified version of the 2023 Annual UAP Report, which appeared on AARO’s official website.

“The safety of our service personnel, our bases and installations, and the protection of U.S. operations security on land, in the skies, seas, and space are paramount.”

“We take reports of incursions into our designated space, land, sea, or airspaces seriously and examine each one,” Ryder added.

The entire 2023 Annual UAP Report can be read online at AARO’s website.

• Micah Hanks is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of The Debrief. He can be reached by email at micah@thedebrief.org. Follow his work at micahhanks.com and on Twitter: @MicahHanks.

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BY ANDY TOMASWICK

There are 14,000 Potentially Hazardous City-Killing Asteroids Left to Find

Those new telescopes have been doing work – the infographic points out that, as of the end of August 2023, there are 32,000 known Near-Earth asteroids. The effort to find and track them has been even more impressive – more than 405 million observations from amateur and professional astronomers alike have been submitted to the Minor Planet Center, one of the central hubs of NASA’s planetary defense strategy and a central clearinghouse for asteroid hunters all over the globe.

Now for the disturbing parts – of those 32,000 near-Earth asteroids, more than 10,000 are more than 140 m in diameter. By most common estimates, if one of those were to hit the Earth, it would be capable of wiping out an entire city. In comparison – the asteroid that hit the Chelyabinsk district of Russia back in 2013, shattering windows and injuring almost 1,500 people, was estimated to be at most 20 meters.

An asteroid seven times that size would be much more devastating and likely hit the ground. In contrast, the Chelyabinsk meteor disintegrated in an air burst before it got there. Placed in the right spot, such an asteroid could easily wipe out a city and, depending on where it came down, could potentially kill millions of people.

As of now, we aren’t aware of any of those 10,000 140-meter-wide asteroids that are on a collision course with Earth. But another number in the infographic is probably the most terrifying – NASA’s planetary defense experts think we haven’t even found half of the near-Earth asteroids of this size.

They estimate there are more than 14,000 140m diameter asteroids that we have yet to find. And one of those could well be on a collision path. Even more strikingly, they estimate that there are around 50 1km diameter asteroids that we have yet to find floating in the void of space. An asteroid that size could be catastrophic to civilization on a scale far larger than a single city, though still not quite on the scale of the impact that did for the dinosaurs, estimated to be about 10 kilometers in diameter.

The planetary defense community, which includes a slew of other organizations – not just NASA, has a lot more work to do to ensure the safety of humankind if these estimates are correct. But every little bit helps – even infographics that simply convey information can potentially inspire someone to join the hunt. We need all the help we can get.

Learn More:

• NASA – Near-Earth Asteroids as of August 31, 2023
• UT – Here’s How NASA is Planning to Protect Earth From Asteroids and Comets
• UT – NASA Makes Asteroid Defense a Priority, Moving its NEO Surveyor Mission Into the Development Phase
• UT – Should Planetary Defence Take Center Stage?

Lead Image:

• Infographic released from NASA regarding the current population of near-Earth asteroids.
  Credit – NASA

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If There Was Ever Life on Mars, this Ancient Mud Lake is the Perfect Place to Look

“The quest for past Martian life hinges on locating surface formations linked to ancient habitability,” the researchers write in their paper.

One region that attracts attention is where massive outflow channels carried material from Mars’ Southern Highlands into its Northern Lowlands, to the east of Valles Marineris. Massive amounts of sediments accumulated in these northern lowlands, and that might suggest that it’s a good place to explore. But the authors of a new paper say that might be a mistake.

The paper is “Exploring the evidence of Middle Amazonian aquifer sedimentary outburst residues in a Martian chaotic terrain.” It’s published in Nature Scientific Reports, and the lead author is Alexis Rodriguez, Senior Researcher at the Planetary Science Institute.

Instead of exploring the region where the sediments flowed into, scientists should focus on the source of the sediments.

“Venturing into the northern plains for sampling could prove precarious, as distinguishing between materials sourced from the aquifers and those eroded and transported during channel formation could become an intricate task,” said Rodriguez.

Instead, researchers should focus on the Hydraotes Chaos region, a sub-region of Oxia Palus. Hydraotes Chaos might contain an ancient mud lake in the form of plains, and the sediments there could be hiding evidence of life.

“The plains, situated within Hydraotes Chaos, offer a unique glimpse into ancient aquifer materials. These plains, which we think formed from mud extruding into a basin directly above their source aquifer, provide a more targeted exploration opportunity,” Rodriguez said.

The vast flood channels stretching from the highlands into the lowlands are a region that’s so vast it’s almost impossible to explore. There’s also the complicated task of differentiating between sediments from different sources in the enormous region. The flat basin in Hydraotes Chaos could simplify exploration. “Unlike vast flood channels with their complex erosion patterns, this finding simplifies the examination of Martian aquifers, reducing the risk of overland sedimentary acquisition, and opens a new window into Mars’ geological past,” said Rodriguez.

This basin is more directly connected to Mars’ subsurface, and if the planet was ever habitable, its subsurface would’ve likely remained habitable longer than the surface. When Mars’ magnetic shield failed around four billion years ago, the surface became an inhospitable place. But simple life could’ve persisted underground, in the right conditions.

“Our research focuses on a sedimentary unit within Hydraotes Chaos, which we interpret to be the remnants of a mud lake formed by discharges from gas-charged mudstone stratigraphy dating back to nearly 4 billion years ago, a time when the surface of Mars was likely habitable. These sediments might harbor evidence of life from that or subsequent periods,” said Rodriguez. “It is important to remember that the subsurface of Mars might have included habitability lasting the duration of life’s history on Earth,” added Rodriguez.

Mars’ surface and its geology is a puzzle that’s not easy to solve, even though scientists have made progress. Sometimes it involves some deep sleuthing, as in this research. The ancient mud lake isn’t where life persisted, but it’s intricately linked to where it could have existed, if it did at all.

Here’s what the researchers think happened in this region in Mars’ deep past.

The ancient mud lake had a source aquifer of mudstone directly under the lake. Within the mudstone, igneous activity triggered phase segregation, forming vast chambers of mostly liquid water that were several kilometers wide and hundreds of meters in depth. The chaotic nature of Hydraotes Chaos’ terrain suggest there were many of them, and that they were interlinked. Earth has similar features, but nowhere near as large.

But all that water and sediment didn’t stay in the aquifer.

“Initially, biomolecules could have been dispersed throughout the volume of large groundwater filled cavities.” Rodriguez said. “As the water was released to the surface and ponded, the water went away leaving behind lags of sediments and potentially high concentrations of biomolecules.”

Potentially high concentrations is a good place to start, and NASA has taken note.

“NASA Ames is considering the plains as a possible landing site for a mission to search for evidence of biomarkers, specifically lipids. These biomolecules are extremely resistant and could have endured billions of years on Mars,” co-author Mary Beth Wilhelm of NASA Ames Research Center said.

The region holds other interesting features as well, and they’re also pieces of the Martian puzzle. There are widespread mud volcanoes and also diapirs, igneous intrusions of deformable material forced through brittle overlying rock. That gives researchers a glimpse of underground processes and structures without having to dig for them.

“In addition, the study region includes widespread mud volcanoes and possible diapirs, providing additional windows into subsurface, potentially habitable rocks,” said co-author Jeffrey Kargel, also from NASA AMES. “A small rover could within short distances sample the mud lake sediments and these materials, dramatically increasing the odds of biosignature detection.”

The region’s age also aligns with Mars exploration goals, and the planet’s history. The plains may be only one billion years old, meaning any biomolecules wouldn’t have been on the surface for three or more billion years like some other regions. That boosts the chances of finding any intact biomolecules, since the surface exposure would degrade them.

“Our crater counts indicate that the plains are relatively recent, returning an age of 1 billion years. This age is good news for our search for life. This age is way younger than the ages of most aquifer releases on Mars, dating back to approximately 3.4 billion years ago. So, the materials spent a huge amount of time in the subsurface.” co-author Berman said.

A small rover could visit many of these features without travelling great distances, and that’s always an attractive idea. The farther a rover needs to travel, the larger, more complicated, and more expensive it usually needs to be. There’s also more risk of failure, breakdown, or other problems.

The ESA’s upcoming Rosalind Franklin rover will land in Oxia Planum sometime after 2028, but it’s landing spot is far from this region. There are currently no plans for a mission to Hydraotes Chaos and the ancient mud lake. But the team has targeted a particular landing site for a potential mission to the region.

Who knows how long or how many missions it’ll take before we find the evidence we’re looking for. Maybe we never will. But as long as we keep looking, there’s a chance. The better we understand the planet as a whole, the more we know where to look. This work points out what could be a prime location for exploration, but we’ll have to wait and see.

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