Scientists Drilled Into An Underwater Mountain In the Atlantic’s ‘Lost City’ To Obtain A Massive Core Sample

The deep ocean is packed with clues about early life.

by Doris Elín Urrutia

 

Johan Lissenberg

Johan Lissenberg, igneous petrologist at Cardiff University, and his colleagues are fascinated with the extreme temperatures of melted rock. Earth churns out molten rock, and seawater cools it down. It is intrinsic to the planet itself, and likely created life. The undersea mountain, called the Atlantis Massif, is home to a hot spring environment known as the Lost City hydrothermal field. Eons ago, a place like this may have been the cradle of unique microbes and the creatures that consumed them.

In a new study published Thursday in the journal Science, Lissenberg and a team of scientists analyzed the mantle rock the JOIDES Resolution research ship drilled out of Atlantis Massif last year. The trip was led by the International Ocean Discovery Program.

Down below the surface

Atlantis Massif is one of the rare places on Earth where geochemists can get their hands on material from the largest part of our planet: the upper mantle.

“Say three to four billion years ago, the continental crust was formed from magma that was sourced in the mantle," Lissenberg tells Inverse.

“But the oceanic crust is always forming. Every day, basically,” he adds. As subaquatic tectonic plates spread apart, the melted rock that makes up Earth's mantle rises up. The material that reaches the surface forms new crust. So, the drill core is a snapshot of processes happening deep below the oceanic floor otherwise inaccessible to researchers.

“The rocks that were present on early Earth bear a closer resemblance to those we retrieved during this expedition than the more common rocks that make up our continents today,” Susan Lang, an associate scientist in Geology and Geophysics at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and co-chief scientist on the expedition, said in a study announcement.

Enigmatic reactions

The ship’s sample is mantle rock, the residue of partial melting underneath Earth’s crust. Embedded within it are minerals that may have been key to understanding early life, like serpentine. This mineral gets its name from a resemblance to snake skin. It’s usually grayish, white or green in color. It occurs when the primary mineral in mantle rock, called olivine, reacts with seawater.

This process releases hydrogen. “Hydrogen can then make compounds such as methane, which can then underpin microbial communities,” Lissenberg says.

Going forward, Lissenberg really wants to understand those reactions. The new study is a start. As the team logged the details of the core centimeter by centimeter, they were surprised. Instead of being rather homogenous, they saw a variability in the mineral composition.

This matters when scientists reconstruct the “chemical kitchen,” Lissenberg says, that led to reactions supporting life. Ultimately, Lissenberg wants to understand all the “flavors” of the upper mantle.

{ https://www.inverse.com/ }

Asteroids in Gaia data release 3

Doorbraak: ruimtetelescoop Gaia heeft mogelijk honderden manen rond ruimtestenen ontdekt

Vivian Lammerse

Het bewijst dat het door NASA geramde maantje Dimorphos zeker niet de enige is die rond een ruimtesteen cirkelt.

We weten dat planeten manen kunnen herbergen. Onze aarde heeft er bijvoorbeeld één, terwijl Saturnus met 146 erkende manen de grootste verzameling in ons zonnestelsel heeft. Maar ook ruimtestenen kunnen maantjes hebben. Denk maar aan het maantje Dimorphos, dat de plantoïde Didymos omcirkelt en door NASA’s Dart-missie van koers werd veranderd. Maar hoe uniek is het eigenlijk dat ruimtestenen maantjes hebben?

Binaire planetoïden
Het is mogelijk een stuk minder bijzonder dan we dachten. Ruimtetelescoop Gaia heeft namelijk mogelijke maantjes ontdekt rond meer dan 350 planetoïden waarvan niet eerder bekend was dat ze een metgezel hadden. Als deze ontdekking wordt bevestigd, komen er 352 nieuwe binaire planetoïden bij, wat het aantal bekende ruimtestenen met manen bijna verdubbelt.

Moeilijk te vinden
Dat er tot nu toe nog niet veel maantjes rond ruimtestenen zijn gevonden, is niet zo verwonderlijk. “Binaire planetoïden zijn lastig te vinden omdat ze vaak klein en ver weg zijn,” legt onderzoeksleider van de nieuwe studie Luana Liberato uit. “We verwachten dat iets minder dan een zesde van de planetoïden een metgezel heeft. Tot nu toe hebben we slechts 500 van de naar schatting één miljard planetoïden in binaire systemen ontdekt. Onze studie suggereert dat er nog veel manen zijn die op ontdekking wachten.”

Gaia
Door zijn speciale vermogen om de hele hemel in de gaten te houden, heeft Gaia sinds de lancering in 2013 al verschillende belangrijke ontdekkingen op het gebied van planetoïden op zijn naam staan. In de derde gegevensrelease heeft Gaia de posities en bewegingen van meer dan 150.000 planetoïden met grote precisie bepaald (zie ook de afbeelding hieronder).

Gaia heeft meer dan 150.000 banen van planetoïden in kaart gebracht. Op deze afbeelding zie je verschillende kleurrijke banen die rond de zon cirkelen, waarbij elke kleur een andere planetoïde vertegenwoordigt. In het midden van de afbeelding, waar een gebied binnen de baan van Jupiter wordt afgebeeld, zijn de banen van de planetoïden bijzonder dicht op elkaar gepakt. Afbeelding: ESA/Gaia/DPAC

Deze precisie maakte het mogelijk voor wetenschappers om verder te zoeken naar planetoïden die het typische ‘wiebelen’ vertonen, veroorzaakt door de aantrekkingskracht van een omcirkelende maan (zoals bij een binaire ster). En op deze manier kwamen onderzoekers dus honderden planetoïden met een natuurlijke satelliet op het spoor.

Meer over Gaia
ESA’s Gaia-satelliet (afkorting van Global Astrometric Interferometer for Astrophysics) werd eind 2013 gelanceerd en had een duidelijk doel voor ogen: de positie, afstand en bewegingen van miljarden sterren vastleggen, met een betere nauwkeurigheid dan ooit tevoren. De ruimtetelescoop opereert in een baan om het zogenoemde tweede Lagrangepunt, op een slordige 1,5 miljoen kilometer van de aarde. Op dit tweede Lagrangepunt zijn de zwaartekrachten tussen de aarde en de zon in evenwicht, waardoor de telescoop in een stabiele positie blijft en op lange termijn vrijwel onbelemmerd zicht heeft op de nachtelijke hemel. En de metingen zijn heel nauwkeurig; Gaia is zo gevoelig dat de telescoop zelfs de groei van een mensenhaar op de maan zou kunnen meten!

Waarom astronomen zo geïnteresseerd zijn in (de maantjes van) planetoïden? Dat komt omdat deze ruimtestenen waardevolle inzichten verschaffen in de vorming en evolutie van ons zonnestelsel. Binaire systemen zijn nog interessanter omdat ze ons de kans bieden te onderzoeken hoe verschillende hemellichamen ontstaan, botsen en met elkaar interageren in de ruimte.

Nieuwe gegegevengrelease
Ondertussen heeft Gaia al meerdere datasets vrijgegeven. In 2016 kwamen onderzoekers met de eerste dataset op de proppen. Deze bevatte de afstanden en bewegingen van twee miljoen sterren. In 2018 volgde de tweede dataset, waarin de 3D-posities, 2D-bewegingen, de helderheid en kleur van meer dan 1,3 miljard sterren werd onthuld. In 2020 volgde de derde gegevensrelease. De meer dan 150.000 ontdekte planetoïde banen werden vervolgens verfijnd als onderdeel van de Focused Product Release van dat jaar. En hier blijft het niet bij. We kunnen namelijk nóg meer planetoïde banen verwachten in de volgende gegevensrelease 4 van Gaia, die voor midden 2026 wordt verwacht.

Geheimen
Dankzij de ruimtetelescoop vergroten we dus steeds meer onze kennis over ons zonnestelsel. “Gaia heeft bewezen een geweldige ontdekkingsreiziger van planetoïden te zijn,” zegt Timo Prusti van ESA. “De telescoop werkt hard om de geheimen van het universum, zowel binnen als buiten ons zonnestelsel, te onthullen. Deze nieuwste ontdekking benadrukt hoe elke gegevensrelease van Gaia een grote verbetering in datakwaliteit betekent en laat zien welke opwindende nieuwe wetenschappelijke inzichten door de missie mogelijk worden gemaakt.”

Dat ESA zich blijft richten op het bestuderen van planetoïden blijkt ook wel uit de aanstaande lancering van de Hera-missie, later dit jaar. Hera bouwt voort op NASA’s DART-missie, die in 2022 Dimorphos ramde, om te testen of we planetoïden kunnen afbuigen. Hera zal Dimorphos na de impact onderzoeken. Het is bovendien de eerste missie die een binaire planetoïde op een bezoekje trakteert. En met aankomende missies zoals Hera in het vooruitzicht, kunnen we verwachten dat we nog veel meer zullen leren over planetoïden en hun manen, wat ons begrip van de kosmos verder zal uitbreiden.

Bronmateriaal

• "Gaia spots possible moons around hundreds of asteroids" - ESA
  
• Afbeelding bovenaan dit artikel: ESA–D. Ducros, 2013

Gaia spots possible moons around hundreds of asteroids

Artist impression of Hera gliding past Didymos to Dimorphos

{ https://scientias.nl/ }

AUFO crashed in Arizona, leaked documents claim. The US seized a UFO in May 1953 that crashed outside Kingman, near Route 66, according to a conversation between government officials.

A cartoon space ship appears to abduct a human 

(Image: Getty)

The visitors came tumbling down from the sky and slammed into the desert just east of Kingman, according to UFO researchers. Author Preston Dennett believes it's more than just a story.

He's been investigating UFOs since 1986 and is one of many who have looked at this alleged particular UFO crash, calling it the "Paradise Valley Crash" or "Kingman Crash".

The incident is not well known to those outside of Kingman and is not as famous as the 1947 Roswell Crash, but Dennett believes it to be in the top five of known UFO crashes.

"It's very rare to have multiple witnesses, multiple sources of information, confirming an incident like this," Dennett told 12news. Researchers have several differing theories as to what brought the UFO down.

To view the above tweet, please click here.

These include nuclear tests taking place in the area, unstable gravitational field lines or powerful radars being tested around Kingman to combat foreign aircraft.

At the research center at the Mohave Museum of History and Arts right off Route 66, there's a section dedicated to the UFO crash. Some redacted government documents allegedly detail the crash from those who were there.

Fritz Werner is a name that kept coming up, who Dennett now knowns him to be Arthur Stansel. Werner was a pseudonym Stansel reportedly used when he talked about what happened in Kingman.

An unidentified flying object 

(Image: Getty)

Stansel was an Air Force Engineer who studied the impact nuclear blasts had on homes and buildings, documents claim. He was one of 40 people taken to the crash scene in a blacked-out bus so passengers wouldn't know their surroundings. They were told this was part of a secret project, according to the redacted documents.

The reports claim they saw a UFO measuring 14 feet high and 30 feet in diameter upon arrival. It was made out of an unfamiliar metal that was plunged about 20 inches into the ground but was not damaged from the impact.

"It was [Stansel's] job to basically determine the speed of this object as it came down, based upon the gouge it made in the soil, and he estimated it was about 1200 miles per hour," Dennett said.

Next to the UFO, documents claim, was the reported dead body of a man, understood to be the pilot, who was described as being about four feet tall and wearing a silver metallic suit.

The workers conducted their studies on the aircraft. When they piled back on the bus, the document claims an Air Force Colonel who was heading up the operation made them take an oath to keep the mission a secret.

Around two decades later, Stansel signed an affidavit reportedly confirming what he saw. Fifty years after that, claims began circulating that investigators didn't just investigate the crash but took it.

Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Christopher Mellon released a redacted conversation between him and a person he called a senior U.S. government member whose name was not disclosed.

It claimed people would be "slack-jawed" if word got out about what they knew—writing that the federal government seized the Kingman UFO.

"These craft are scooped up, taken to various Air Force bases, scientific labs, and studied intensely, intently to figure out exactly what we can figure out about how they work," Dennett said.

Dennett believes we will never truly know if what happened in Kingman is true unless the US Government admits to it. He added that this is unlikely.

{ https://www.irishstar.com/ }

EXCLUSIVE - Pentagon official reveals tantalizing seven-minute encounter with glowing blue UFO - which emitted enough energy to 'power a small city'

• READ MORE: Experts have identified 'hairy UFO' that crashed in North Carolina

By MATTHEW PHELAN SENIOR SCIENCE REPORTER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

A US Department of Defense contractor's tantalizing encounter with a giant, glowing UFO has sparked 10 years of research and two patents inspired by his encounter.

Three witnesses, including that Pentagon engineer, report that they captured electronic evidence of a 'barbell' UFO, half the length of a football field, that glowed an eerie 'indigo' blue.

The craft, they said, flew silently over an old logging road in southwestern Ontario, Canada, on August 28, 2013, near where the trio had camped for a hunting trip.

DailyMail.com spoke with the case's first investigators, who shared electronic data from the contractor's attempt to film the object — showing 'white noise' pulses in the video that recur in one-second loops identical to strobing light from the UFO itself.

Three witnesses, including a Pentagon engineering contractor, report capturing electronic evidence of a 170-ft long 'barbell' UFO that glowed an eerie 'indigo' blue. Above a  Computer-Aided Design (CAD) 3D render of the UFO, made by the Pentagon contractor witness himself

'The captured data of the event,' the witness reported, 'may be the first real physical proof of not just a craft flying, but that it flies by virtue of an incredibly complex and [...] powerful spinning electromagnetic propulsion system.'

The case was investigated by the same nanotechnology expert whose analysis of a 2007 mass UFO sighting in Texas became a centerpiece of the Steven Spielberg-produced UFO docuseries 'Encounters' last year on Netflix.

'Is there another 'barbell' case we've investigated like this?' that engineer, UFO investigator Robert Powell, told DailyMail.com of this rare case. 'No, it's the only one.'

Powell told DailyMail.com that UFO cases with this shape are so rare that only about '50 to 60 cases' exist 'throughout history.'

Powell, whose new book on UFOs has garnered praise from former Defense Department intelligence official Chris Mellon, personally visited the contractor's lab and worked with him on analyzing the eerie interference on his UFO video.

'He gave me a tour of the defense facility,' Powell said, who vetted the source's identity and biographical claims.

'There was a heavy duty commercial 3D printer in the lab and there were offices with three or four engineers that worked there beside him in that his building,' he noted.

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The August 28, 2013 'barbell' UFO encounter itself, these witnesses said, began at around 9:40pm as they were returning to civilization from a black bear hunting expedition, a practice that is legal when done in season in Canada.

The defense contractor witness was seated in the back of Dodge 4x4 truck, with the two other witnesses in the front seat, as reported to Powell and his co-investigator, retired former police detective Phil Leech.

'We were roughly four-and-a-half or five miles from the main road, when I noted something over my shoulder,' continued the defense contractor, who wishes to remain anonymous to preserve his Defense Department business contacts.

'The very first thing that was intense was just how bright this thing was,' he noted. 

'It was spectacular. Having been involved with optical systems in the past, we're talking about a vehicle that looked like a stadium lighting scenario — it was brilliant.'

The witness described 'an indigo plasma that covered most of the craft,' which was bone-shaped or barbell-shaped and extended about 170-feet long, 60-feet wide and 20-feet tall, as it flew slowly just over the tree-line above this old logging road. 

The case was investigated by UFO researcher Robert Powell (above) - the same nanotech engineer whose analysis of a mass UFO sighting witnessed by over 300 people in Texas became a centerpiece to Netflix's Steven Spielberg-produced UFO docuseries 'Encounters' 

'The craft rotated slowly around its center while emitting an electrical-spark-like shower, always opposite of the direction of travel,' the defense contractor stated, 'but without a specific origin point.'

The witness said he first attempted to film the UFO with two devices that he had on him, a Motorola cellphone and a Sony HD camera. 

But both devices behaved has if they were caught in 'a boot sequence,' failing to stay on while the craft was nearby, about 400 feet, leaving the witness to view the UFO more closely through the scope of his rifle. 

Up close, he told investigators, 'The lights that it emitted were not incoherent light,' meaning not the diffuse 'soft light' like that from a light bulb, but more like laser light.

The lay person's terms, he described the light as like 'tens of thousands of small lit particles, best described as those that occur during a fountain-type firework.'

But, more technically, the contractor described it as 'coherent' light: 'It was salty to my eyes. It was just as if I was looking into a laser that had been passed through a diffraction grating or something of that nature.'

Witnesses described 'an indigo plasma that covered most of the craft,' which was barbell-shaped and extended about 170-ft long, 60-ft wide and 20-ft tall, as it flew slowly over the tree-line Above a CAD 3D render of the UFO showing the UFO on the logging road in Ontario

About the logging road in southwestern Ontario where the 'barbell' UFO was spotted in 2013

'Both the other witnesses were extremely worked up about this,' the defense contractor said in a video taped interview. 'In fact, one of them said [...] "Just shoot it!" like he wanted me to actually shoot a rifle round into this thing.' 

The UFO moved in its slow rotating motion for approximately six or seven minutes, eventually allowing the defense contractor witness to film the event with his Sony HD camera, which yielded only static despite working before and after the event.

The sighting ended with 'a similar lit craft' emerging on the horizon and both UFOs zipping off a 'at incredible speed.' 

The moment left just visual static and the witnesses' astonished voices on their tape.

'I flew up to meet the guy,' Powell told the DailyMail.com, 'because it was just such an unusual case. I wanted to verify the reality of it. It was more of a personal thing.'

When Powell toured the defense contractor's engineering business, he worked with him to test his Sony footage via an oscilloscope — a device that tracks changes in electrical voltages, frequency, and other specs to troubleshoot electronics. 

'The time I spent with him on the oscilloscope was probably 20 or 30 minutes,' Powell said. 

'The first thing we looked at were the black bears that they had shot, mostly because we wanted to see a baseline on the oscilloscope, what the camera looks like just under normal operation,' he noted. 

'Then we looked at it when it was all basically noise in terms of video,' Powell said, 'here's some signals on the oscilloscope that repeat.'

Powell toured the defense contractor witness's engineering business and worked with him to test his Sony footage via an oscilloscope - a device that tracks changes in voltages, frequency, distortion and other electrical behavior (picture from that test above)

As provisionally concluded in Powell and Leech's report on the UFO case, produced in 2015 and 2016 for the civilian group the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), the oscilloscope 'post process of the video' matched the rhythm of the UFOs light show (testing shown above)

This oscilloscope processing of the video revealed that the 'interference' matched the rhythm of the UFO's light show, according to Powell and Leech's report on the UFO case, conducted for the civilian group the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), 

What looked just like 'white noise' on the video tape actually showed 'a perfect pulsation function,' according to their report.

This hidden 'perfect' pulse revealed by the scope was 'timed to the revolution of the lights' on the UFO and repeated at the same speed 'roughly 1-second intervals.'

According to the defense contractor witness, the pattern was what would be expected if the 'indigo' plasma outside the UFO was behaving like a very large version of an normal alternating current (A/C) motor. 

Such a giant A/C motor would produce a magnetic field around it that could disrupt nearby electronics in a similar way. 

'I believe this to be a poly phasing of two immense high frequency A/C fields polarized differently,' as the defense contractor put it.

'A white noise screen with a perfect pulsation function,' according to their report's appendix, 'is timed to the revolution of the lights from the [UFO's two] disks at roughly 1-second intervals.' Above, 11 cycles of the repeating one-second pulse as pulled from the video noise

Above, a close up on one of the repeating pulses, showing harmonic resonance. The researchers hope that this 'harmonic hash' will provide more clues on the UFOs propulsion system in the near future

'A more in-depth report is being generated for continued studies of this apparent "electronic signature,"' the defense contractor witness noted.  

But Powell and Leech added that interesting progress has already been made: 'The witness has two patents that resulted from information derived from the event.'

Based on the defense contractor's own experience producing plasmas at a much smaller scale than the indigo plasma that he said enveloped the giant craft, he was able to calculate a ballpark figure for the energy required to produce this field — which he suspects is the UFO's propulsion system.

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Calculated that the the craft had an approximate surface area of 3.1 million square inches, as he wrote to Powell and Leech, 'a minimum of 160MW (160 million watts)' of power would be needed to surround the craft in plasma. 

'This amount of power is 33 percent of the 478 million-watt nuclear power plant in Fort Calhoun, Nebraska,' he said, but packed into an object a fraction of that size.

'Unquestionably this craft was the highest power density vehicle I have ever even imagined,' at least according to the defense contractor witness.

Powell is sympathetic to view of skeptics who have noted that that while the case is 'a great story [...] without proof it's still anecdotal.'

The UFO investigator told DailyMail.com that he is still is in contact with the witness and 'prodding him every once a while about getting a raw copy of the video.'

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

EXCLUSIVE - Top UFO investigator reveals three spine-tingling, never-before-seen encounters

• READ MORE Pentagon reveals seven-minute encounter with UFO 

By ROB WAUGH FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

You may have heard of the Tic Tac UFO encounter or the Gimbal and Go Fast videos.

But years before these now-world-famous craft sightings went mainstream, a little-known research group was analyzing them over and over again.

MUFON - the Mutual UFO Network - has 700 investigators in the U.S. and has been collecting evidence of strange encounters since the 1960s.

One of its top analysts, Bob Spearing, told DailyMail.com 'Our slogan is, 'Doing the Air Force's job since 1969'.' MUFON now has 137,000 reports of UFO encounters in its files.

Searing is today revealing the strangest cases which he believes could be the catalyst for further government investigations and congressional hearings.

Flying squids

The idea of 'Jellyfish' UFOs rocketed into the public consciousness thanks to a video on an Iraqi military base, released by journalist Jeremy Corbell.

MUFON debunked that video, which Spearing describes as having 'so many flaws' - but looked in its archive to find others.

'What we found was startling,' said Spearing - there were dozens of similar cases, both of larger squid-like craft - and smaller floating squid, some of which seemed to 'suck the life-force' from victims.

This floating squid was pictured in Denmark in 1975(MUFON)

This 'squid' was spotted in Rhode Island in 2023 (MUFON)

'We found a lot of drawings and photographs starting from Denmark in the 70s of these giant cloud-like mushrooms, and it goes right up until today - but then we also discovered that there's also a phenomenon of indoor jellyfish.

One strange encounter in Singapore found sleeping women attacked by floating objects with bioluminescent tentacles.

This squid was spotted in Russia in 1977 (MUFON) 

Spearing said: 'They noticed that in the corner of the room there were these squid-like objects with bio luminescent tentacles. 

'In one case, the creature, whatever it was, had attached itself to the back of the woman, and she felt pain, and that's what woke her up.

'The thing was sentient because it jumped away. She could hear it actually feel disturbed in English, like she could hear it telepathically.'

The squid attached itself to her like it was sucking the life force out of her.

Other squid encounters included one in Vancouver in 2016, and one in 2024 - as well as two further encounters in Iran.

MUFON's record of one of the Iranian encounter reads: 'The witness is a 45 year old woman, married with two sons.

'Few nights ago on October 24th the witness heard a sound again. She knew something was coming for her again. She woke up feeling a pressure against her chest. She said out-loud what is going on?'

A witness sketched what they saw for MUFON (MUFON) 

The Iranian woman woke up with scars on her abdomen (MUFON)

'That's when she saw what looked like a Boxed Jelly fish with lots of short legs, Half blue and half red on her stomach. It looked like a sea creature. It was right on top of her and then it got up and sat on the floor. 

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'Then disappeared after a few minutes. The next day she saw a scar few inches long on her abdomen. It has been itching and burning from inside out. Witness is very worried.'

The octagon spacecraft

Back in 2023, MUFON's interest was piqued after the U.S. military shot down three alleged Chinese spy balloons - one of which was octagonal in shape.

The search for the octagonal object was called off by Canadian mounted police after it was shot down with a Sidewinder missile.

'They could find the Titan submersible in 12,000 feet of water, but they couldn't find something in 142 feet of water?' says Spearing.

MUFON accessed its database of 137,00 cases, and found many reports of octagonal objects - some of which were startlingly similar.

Spearing said, 'It's mostly drawings. It's all drawings by witnesses, but there were a tremendous amount of cases, and the objects all look the same. 

'They were between 30 and 60 feet somewhere, octagons. They all had patterns of yellow, orange and white lights on the bottom.'

A map of octagon-shaped UFO sightings across the USA (MUFON)

One witness drew an image of what they saw (MUFON) 

Many had been spotted near strategic military base - and one was in the Upper Michigan peninsula on Lake Huron, where the USAF shot down the first Octagon.

One California sighting in 2014 was described in a MUFON UFO report: '… I… thought it might be a helicopter, or a new aircraft, but ..it was neither one of these,.. no propellers or wings. 

'There was NO sound at all…..Marsh Air Force base is several miles away, and I also took that into consideration. I counted the points of the shape, which was eight.

'It was dark out, but there were lights surrounding the craft in white, yellow red and orange.'

Cases stretched back to 1976, and were found in countries in Europe and beyond - often around military bases and other high-security installations.

In August 2023, a witness saw an Octagon over Fort Knox at 4.23 in the morning - and it sparked a reaction from a UFO-sensing device known as a MADAR detector built to detect changes in pressure and magnetism.

A UFO-sensing device known as a MADAR detector built to detect changes in pressure and magnetism (MUFON)

The MADAR devices are built to detect changes in pressure (MUFON)

Spearing said: 'These are all over the country. Volunteers have these hooked up all over the country.'

The witness wrote: 'The entire object and lights appeared to be under shallow water changing the shape very slightly yet still very visible. I've been totally freaked out ever since my sighting and was totally frozen as the object past over me and my home.'

The sighting was described and sketched in detail by a witness (MUFON) 

The octagon sighting coincided with a change in pressure which Spearing believes is related to a craft entering or leaving Earth's atmosphere.

The Delaware encounter

One of the most disturbing encounters in MUFON's archives involved a cylindrical craft which seemed to 'suck' a coyote up into the sky - and then turned its attention to human prey.

Spearing said: 'We have one drawing, basically a girl was on vacation in Delaware, near the Atlantic Ocean, a summer community, and behind her, about 100 yards out, is a forest of pine trees.

'She saw a silver-ish cylinder come down with purple lights on it. It comes down almost to maybe three feet above the ground. It was four feet long. 

The 1980 encounter saw a coyote 'sucked up into the sky' (MUFON)

'And she sees it drop something out of the bottom of the cylinder. And it turns out, it seems to be a chunk of meat.

'The coyote comes up to the meat sucked up into the cylinder. It vibrates again, incredibly loud, and about three minutes later, she hears what sounds like bones crunching them, plop. The coyote gets dropped out, and the thing takes off.'

The girl ran back into the house to grab a camera and came out to take a picture, Spearing said.

Spearing said, 'So she goes back in the house, and her mother says, Where have you been? 

'She goes, I just went outside to take a picture of something. She goes, you've been gone for four hours. It's one o'clock in the afternoon, so the girl had four hours missing time.'

Spearing says that it may be that the girl was abducted and investigated - but she may have been 'very, very lucky'.

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

• READ MORE: Top UFO investigator reveals three never-before-seen encounters

By BETHAN SEXTON FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

A Texas city which has seen a huge spike in UFO sightings is hoping a new app can help identify the phenomena.

The skies of Austin are increasingly lit up by unexplained sightings, partly thanks to Elon Musk's Starlink.

The network of 6,000 satellites were launched by his SpaceX company to try and bring internet to remote areas.

As a result there has been a rise in the number of suspected UFO sightings, although experts acknowledge not all can be explained by billionaire's project.

'With Starlink and other phenomenon up there in the night sky, you see more and more stuff that that you can't explain right away,' Michael Endl, a professor of astronomy and physics at Austin Community College told KXAN.

A Texas city which has seen a huge spike in UFO sightings is hoping a new app can help identify the phenomena

Now the Enigma Labs app is attempting to try and gather more data on UFO sightings in order to classify them better.

The app asks users to upload photo of the object, description and location data which is then sent to the government.

The company examines the reports and rules out objects which have a clear explanation such as Starlink. 

'One of the things that we've heard from the Pentagon and from NASA is that a lot of the issue with this topic is there's not enough data. So that's exactly what we're trying to do is gather more data,' Alejandro Rojas, a UFO researcher with the app said.

'Once you can't rule things out, that's when you have something anomalous that either deserves more research, or can point you in a direction.'

Among the unexplained phenomena submitted through the app was a 'small, cylindrical' UFO seen 'zig-zagging' above the Austin skies on July 28, 2023.

The skies of Austin are increasingly lit up by unexplained sightings, partly thanks to Elon Musk 's Starlink

The Enigma Labs app is attempting to try and gather more data on UFO sightings in order to classify them better

Another stargazer gave an account of a strange object spotted in December.

'I can't remember who saw it first, but we noticed this object directly above us. It felt distinctly weightless, spherical, and kind of amorphous,' the account reads.

'The texture was almost like a static TV, kind of gaseous, and grayish black except for a BRIGHT red glow that would flash along one edge, then another, then emanate from the bottom of the object. 

.'Tt was definitely at or above cloud level and was visible until it was way off in the distance, never changing its speed to my perception. We have no idea what this was - not balloons because it was too far and cutting against the wind, definitely not a plane, definitely not a consumer drone.'

 One curious incident during the solar eclipse saw a black object float past the sun during the cosmic event.

'We were on a boat waiting for the solar eclipse to happen,' the poster explained.

The app asks users to upload photo of the object, description and location data which is then sent to the government

Starlink is a network of 6,000 satellites were launched by SpaceX to try and bring internet to remote areas

'Ten minutes before totality I see this object through my camera fly by on the screen, didn't think much of it at the moment until I reviewed the footage a few days later.'

But UFO-skeptic Robert Shaeffer has his doubts about the usefulness of the app.

'Since we know that the vast majority of reported UFO sightings are readily explained, and hence of no scientific value, this app encourages the reporting and sharing of low-quality UFO sightings, thus muddying the waters,' he said.

'It promotes the idea that seeing a UFO is something that the average person can expect to experience, but even if you don't see anything, send us a photo of the sky, anyway!' 

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

Getty Images

Are Underwater UFOs an Imminent Threat? The U.S. Government Sure Thinks So—And Here’s the Proof

In 1992, “multiple witnesses” in California reported that more than 200 disk-shaped objects soundlessly exited Santa Monica Bay waters, hovered for a moment, and then sped away into the sky. Six years later, U.S. Navy Chief Petty Officer Charles Howard wrote an account of an apparent underwater anomaly. “My ship was visiting Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, when I saw three strange, big white lights in the water,” he said in the History Channel show UFO Files. They were “10 or 20 feet on each side with a rounded shape,” according to Howard’s written account.

Claims of such Unidentified Submerged Objects, or USOs, have intrigued UFO enthusiasts for decades. Based on eyewitness reports, some of the objects have even seemed to traverse the boundary between air and water, traveling at shocking speeds of hundreds of miles per hour.

A small group of UFO devotees, including government security and military officials, have believed for years that the U.S. should be seriously looking into potentially threatening anomalies in bodies of water, as well on land and in the air. In a bipartisan effort, that group ultimately helped convince the U.S. government to legislate a name change for the term it uses to refer to UFOs today—from “Unidentified Aerial Phenomena” to “Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena,” reflecting lobbyists’ concerns about underwater threats.

The slight name change may appear to be a simple case of semantics, but it proves the Pentagon sees underwater UFOs as a legitimate concern.

The Department of Defense has made it clear that it doesn’t assume UAPs necessarily indicate extraterrestrial activity. In fact, these phenomena have so far proven to have mundane explanations. These include human-made technology like drones and weather balloons, Starlink satellites, or atmospheric events such as lenticular cloud formations.

The Government’s Name Game

A shift in how the government handled UFO reports first came to a head in the 2010s. Pressure from legislators, as well as public interest in the government’s disclosure of classified UFO reports, started changing defense culture. For instance, after decades of shielding information on sightings from the public, the military now encourages service members to report unexplained phenomena. Today, Navy pilots report odd incidents in the interest of national defense, such as the 2019 sighting by a Navy warship that seemed to link UFOs and USOs.

In 2021, the Department of Defense created the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force, a program within the U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence meant to “standardize collection and reporting” of UFO sightings. Aiming to integrate knowledge and efforts across the Pentagon and other government agencies, the Office of the Secretary of Defense established the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) soon afterward. By law, every federal agency must “review, identify, and organize each Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) record in its custody for disclosure to the public and transmission to the National Archives.”

Prior to the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act—which authorizes funding levels for the U.S. military and other defense priorities—UAP originally stood for only aerial objects. Now, it includes underwater and trans-medium phenomena. It’s why AARO was so named, to investigate “All-domain” anomalies. But, before the legal name change, AARO was already considering objects over and in the water—so it was a little confusing to keep calling them all “aerial.”

In 2022, the terminology to describe unexplained incidents officially switched from “aerial” to “anomalous.” Congress enacted the name change that December. At the time, Ronald Moultrie, the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security told a roundtable of AARO:

“You may have caught that I just said unidentified anomalous phenomena, whereas in the past the department has used the term unidentified aerial phenomena. This new terminology expands the scope of UAP to include submerged and trans-medium objects. Unidentified phenomena in all domains, whether in the air, ground, sea or space, pose potential threats to personnel security and operations security, and they require our urgent attention.”

This legal change traces back to pressures from UFO enthusiasts who believed submerged and trans-medium objects, which seem to fly between air and sea, should be included in the government’s potential threat evaluation. These proponents include U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Tim Gallaudet, Ph.D., who published a report on the potential maritime threat of USOs, and Luis Alizondo, who once ran the government’s secret Pentagon unit, the 2007–12 Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program. A dearth of data about USOs and UAPs is “unsettling,” because they “jeopardize US maritime security, which is already weakened by our relative ignorance about the global ocean,” Rear Admiral Gallaudet wrote in his report. In addition, this is an opportunity to expand maritime science and meet the security and scientific challenges of the future, he added.

The Hunt For Solid Evidence

Yet, evidence of submerged objects is murky at best, says UAP investigator Mick West. There is “vastly less evidence than for flying objects,” he explains in an email. “You can’t see very far underwater, so there’s no video or photos. There are only stories about anomalous sonar returns and occasional sightings that might as well be of sea monsters.”

The Puerto Rico “Aguadilla” incident of 2013 also influenced USO and trans-medium enthusiasts, West says. However, they base their claim largely on one video of the incident, which when analyzed turns out to have “a perfectly reasonable explanation of two wedding lanterns and parallax illusions,” West says.

Based on the angle of the camera, positioned on a moving airplane, and consequently its changing line of sight on the flying objects, the viewer sees the objects streaking rapidly over the ocean, apparently diving in, and then emerging again. West’s analysis confirms a theory first proposed by Rubén Lianza, the head of the Argentinian Air Force’s UAP investigation committee.

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The objects were wedding lanterns that originated at a nearby hotel and floated on the wind. Lianza confirmed the hotel typically released lanterns that were consistent with the video. The thermal camera (which reads heat) made it appear that the objects merged with the ocean because when the lantern’s flames were hidden, they were about the same temperature as the water they floated over. At the same time, the lanterns seemed to emerge from the water when the flame was visible again.

New trans-medium and submerged UAP reports could crop up in the future. The government will only be able to take reports of strange underwater lights or objects flying out of the water seriously, says West, if the sightings come with enough solid evidence to follow up with a solid analysis.

{ https://www.popularmechanics.com/ }

10 Movies About Extraterrestrial Life That Feel Like They Could Really Happen

ByAlexander Valentino

SUMMARY

Movies centered around extraterrestrial life have always been a popular subject, but it's a select few of them that manage to truly depict what genuine human contact with aliens might realistically look like. Compared to other types of paranormal phenomena commonly depicted in movies, alien stories have the greatest chance of becoming real, with real-world governments even admitting to studying unidentified aerial phenomena. The best alien movies typically take advantage of this by thinking about what contact with extraterrestrial life would realistically mean.

To make a movie about aliens feel realistic, there are several things that must be mastered. The extraterrestrials themselves should feel alien in the true sense of the word, being unlike anything found in our own world. But more importantly, a given film's human cast should react appropriately to their presence, usually doing so in terror, making alien stories great for blends of horror and science fiction. In addition to all this, a sci-fi film should strive for an even tone if they hope to make their story of alien contact believable.

10. Contact - 1977

Robert Zemeckis' 1977 sci-fi classic takes advantage of the real life SETI programs to ground his story in realism. Standing for the Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence, SETI programs refer to real efforts to locate evidence of alien civilizations among the stars, typically doing so with advanced telescopes and listening devices capable of picking up all kinds of possible avenues of communication. Contact takes place in one such program, following a doctor who makes the discovery of a lifetime.

Beyond taking inspiration from real-life searches for alien life, Contact is very meticulous in its attention to scientific detail. The film has been acclaimed by scientists for being one of the most realistic looks at extraterrestrial life ever conceived, describing an alien civilization so fundamentally advanced that their capabilities seem almost magical to humans. The film's ultimate ambiguous levels of hard evidence is also very true to life, with real alien experiences being notoriously difficult to prove.

9. Arrival - 2016

Whereas Contact ends with humanity aching for hard evidence confirming the existence of aliens, Arrival takes a more thoughtful look at what an obvious global arrival of interstellar travelers could look like. Directed by Denis Villenueve, now famous for the Dune movies, the film follows a linguist who is recruited by the government to establish a rapport with alien creatures that arrive in massive ships all over the Earth. During her time studying the aliens' language, she makes an incredible discovery of their awesome abilities.

The military response to a neutral alien presence in Arrival feels incredibly genuine, with nervous generals being quick to see threats while trying to ascertain the aliens' goals on Earth. The creatures themselves, called "heptapods" for their seven-limbed bodies, are properly bizarre, communicating with the strange formation of inky black sigils. In addition to simply being a marvelous film that examines the human spirit, Arrival feels like a thoughtful interpretation of realistic human response to aliens.

8. Close Encounters Of The Third Kind - 1977

The legendary filmography of Stephen Spielberg includes quite a few alien movies, with E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial being by far the most famous. As great as E.T.'s family-friendly story is, it's far from a realistic portrayal of alien life, especially when compared to its directorial sibling Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Close Encounters of the Third Kind revolves around a simple blue-collar worker whose life trajectory is forever changed by a close encounter with a UFO.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind conveys both the potential beauty and madness alien visitors could bring, turning Roy into an obsessive fanatic following his encounter, just like many real-life claimants of alien abduction do. The government's attempts at communication and cover-ups in the film feel very true-to-life, whereas the presence of real-world mysteries like the missing ships of the Bermuda Triangle help connect the story further to real-life. Despite being a dreamier film, Close Encounters of the Third Kind is astonishingly realistic.

7. Nope - 2022

Not every tale of aliens results in such warm, fuzzy feelings as Arrival, Contact, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind does, with Jordan Peele's recent film Nope being a premiere example of realistic alien horror. The film revolves around a family business of horse ranchers that discover their property being used as a hunting ground for a mysterious flying saucer. The object turns out to be far more dangerous than suspected, but the starring siblings, played by Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer, make a vow to capture it on video.

Despite its unassuming name, Jean Jacket is one of the most terrifying alien entities in cinema history, and its full unfurled form is almost divine in its horrific Lovecraftian imagery that pushes the limits of human sensation. Stephen Yuen's Jupe also plays a venture capitalist seeking to profit off the beat that feels all too true to life, owing to his survival of a chimp attack based on a real-life incident. From the human greed that drives the action to the incomprehensible terror of its alien, Nope is a triumph of extraterrestrial horror.

6. War Of The Worlds - 2005

Stephen Spielberg's aliens aren't always as friendly as E.T., as proven by his overly-disparaged 2005 film War of the Worlds. Based on the famous H.G. Wells science fiction novel of the same name, the film describes humanity's contact with an openly hostile invading alien force, capable of wiping out human civilization with their advanced technology. Tom Cruise stars as a simple dockworker and father trying to survive the hectic events from a boots-on-the-ground perspective.

In terms of all-out alien wars, it doesn't get much more realistic than War of the Worlds, whose horrifying Martian invaders paint scenes of destruction comparable to real human warfare. The film is rooted in the wartime paranoia that ran rampant in American society following the September 11 terror attacks, further grounding the film in a dark reality. While the film makes a few concessions that feel very Hollywood, for the majority of its runtime, War of the Worlds could be studied as a simulation of actual alien attackers.

5. Fire In The Sky - 1993

As realistic as some alien movies can get, it's rare for a film to directly cite a real-world alleged alien abduction as inspiration. Fire in the Sky does just that, however, loosely basing itself off a book written by a supposed survivor of alien abduction called The Walton Experience. The film follows logger Travis Walton as he goes missing on the job, only to turn up later traumatized by the ordeal of his terrifying alien encounter.

What makes Fire in the Sky both so scary and realistic is the fact that it's based on the real-life Walton's alleged true experiences, making the gruesome experiments he suffers at the hands of his captors in the film all the more chilling. The film doesn't go out of its way to inject some moral or false narrative into Walton's tale, acting as a straightforward recollection of events, making it feel even more grounded and tangible. From the gut-wrenching realism of the abduction scenes to the heartbreaking reactions of Walton's friends and family, Fire in the Sky is disturbingly real.

4. District 9 - 2009

District 9 twists the typical formula of alien contact with an interesting supposition that humanity would pose a bigger threat to aliens than the other way around. The film chronicles a higher-up in a weapons manufacturing company who seeks to exploit alien technology after a massive ship full of buglike beings, called "prawns", lands in South Africa. Soon, the hapless Wikus finds himself embroiled in a bitter war against his own species as he slowly mutates into one of the extraterrestrial creatures.

Being a semi-found footage film, and chronicled with grounded shakycam when it does switch to non-diegetic perspectives, District 9 does a great job at pulling viewers into its gritty world. The discrimination the prawns face is a clear allegory for the real crimes of apartheid in South Africa, further drawing parallels between District 9 and the real world, both driven by human greed and fear. As one of the most plausible-feeling alien movies, it's a shame District 9's obviously-teased sequel never manifested even 15 years later.

Similarly to Fire in the Sky, Dark Skies relies on real accounts of alien abduction to generate deep-pitted fear in its viewers. Whereas the former strove to be a faithful account of a singular story, the latter instead pulls inspiration from multiple accounts in order to craft the most deliberately horrifying tale it can. The film revolves around a family who quickly become haunted by an alien presence, culminating in a terrifying encounter with extraterrestrial life.

Dark Skies plays out more like a haunted house story than an alien story, but manages to feel disturbingly true to life in its depictions of alien activity. Real concepts like amnesia, sleep paralysis, and hysteria are all weaponized against the film's hapless humans, who struggle to get out from under the shadow of their extraterrestrial tormentors. Considering the film's Grey aliens are based on actual descriptions of alien visitors, Dark Skies might be one of the most accurate alien movies around.    

2. 2001: A Space Odyssey - 1968

One of the most famous films of all time, let alone among Stanley Kubrick's legendary movie catalog, 2001: A Space Odyssey still holds up today as one of the most breathtaking, and possibly accurate, depictions of human life. The film describes a long journey through space in order to find an alien artifact, the mysterious monolith, a massive black structure of vast cosmological importance. It's up to the astronaut Dave to brave the dangers of his mission and ascend humanity to a new plane of being.

The interstellar travel depicted in 2001: A Space Odyssey, which came out a year before humanity walked on the moon for the first time, is so realistic that conspiracy theorists accused Kubrick of having a hand in fabricating the moon landing. Not only that, but the film's predictions of A.I. have thus far been eerily prescient. As far as the aliens are concerned, it makes sense that an interstellar species advanced enough to cross the vast distances of space would be as god-like in power as the ending of 2001: A Space Odyssey implies.

1. Cloverfield - 2008

Admittedly far less heady than 2001: A Space Odyssey, Cloverfield deserves more credit as an alien film that revitalized the found-footage horror genre. It's easy to forget that the titular monster is indeed alien in origin, crash-landing on the planet in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it background details towards the end of the film. Cloverfield depicts a group of friends trying to find safety in the wake of a giant alien kaiju's attack on New York City, dodging hysteria and destruction.

Matt Reeves' mastery of found-footage editing and realistic cinéma vérité style makes Cloverfield almost seem like a documentary at times. While giant monsters are an inherently unrealistic premise, it's hard to imagine a film that takes the concept more seriously as Cloverfield does, likely accurately conveying what such a disaster would look like in real life. Technically an alien movie, Cloverfield shouldn't be discounted for its ability to bring a creature from another world to life without sacrificing realism.

{ https://screenrant.com/ }

An extraterrestrial lobbyist who wants the US Congress to acknowledge aliens says the Vatican and indeed the Pope have serious questions to answer over UFO secrets

The Vatican should open up its archives after bombshell alien claims, one expert believes 

(Image: Getty Images)

Dramatic claims that the Pope has alien secrets in the Vatican should be looked into, according to a UFO expert.

Steve Bassett is convinced the Catholic Church knows about alien activity and believes they have evidence stashed away in secretive archives. He told The Sun he believed the Church considers extraterrestrials "important”, something evidenced through their existence in religious artwork.

Bassett is best known as an extraterrestrial lobbyist and he wants the US Congress to acknowledge “an extraterrestrial presence engaging the human race”.

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His comments come in the wake of bombshell claims from David Grusch. Last year, the former Air Force intelligence officer said the US has possession of "craft of non-human origin" discovered in Italy during Mussolini’s reign in 1933.

Grusch said this was later "backchannelled" to US President Franklin Roosevelt via Pope Pius XII before American officials took control of the potential spaceship. The comments are leading extraterrestrial experts to push the Vatican for the truth.

Bassett said Grusch’s "striking" remarks had caught many believers and activists off guard. He explained the story was previously unknown to them and came as a “surprise”.

"The Catholic Church, we have always known, has been aware of this subject going back perhaps hundreds and hundreds of years,” he said. "It's gone so far as to say whoever these beings are, they [the Church] would be happy to baptise them if they wanted to be baptised."

Now, extraterrestrial experts hope the Vatican Apostolic Archives will uncover the truth. But The Sun reported they will need permission from Holy See — the Church’s supreme governing body — to sift through records spanning thousands of years.

Bassett said he thought the Church would eventually allow researchers in but this was unlikely to happen happen until the US formally revealed the existence of aliens. Until then, he added, question marks will linger over Grusch's claim.

{ https://www.dailystar.co.uk/ }

Wetenschappers ontwerpen een opslagplaats op de maan om de soorten van onze planeet te beschermen

Door Janine

Freepik

Bedreigde diersoorten op aarde zouden dankzij een nieuwe studie een nieuw leven op de maan kunnen vinden. Laten we samen kijken wat het is.

Bedreigde diersoorten op aarde en cryopreservatie van de maan

Wetenschappers hebben een nieuw doel: terrestrische soorten cryogeen kunnen beschermen op onze satelliet. Nieuw onderzoek heeft geleid tot het idee om maankraters te gebruiken die zich voortdurend in de schaduw van de zon bevinden om levende wezens op onze wereld te beschermen voor het geval zich problemen voordoen op aarde.

Deze kraters zouden temperaturen hebben die koud genoeg zijn om de cryogene instandhouding van soorten mogelijk te maken, waarbij het gebruik van vloeibare stikstof en elektriciteit achterwege zou blijven. Wetenschappers hebben dit plan ontwikkeld op basis van de succesvolle cryopreservatie van huidweefselmonsters van een vis, wat leidde tot het doel een biologische opslagplaats te creëren die monsters en biologisch materiaal kan beschermen dat ook tot andere aardse soorten behoort.

Mary Hagedorn, cryobioloog bij het Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, VS, en eerste auteur van het onderzoek, zei: "Aanvankelijk zou een biorepository op de maan gericht zijn op het beschermen van de meest bedreigde soorten op aarde vandaag de dag, maar ons uiteindelijke doel zou zijn om de meeste soorten op onze planeet te cryopreserveren."

Waarom maankraters gebruiken als biologische opslagplaatsen?

AI generated/Freepik

Zoals hierboven vermeld, werd het idee specifiek geïnspireerd door de Global Seed Vault in het noordpoolgebied van Noorwegen, om precies te zijn op de Svalbard-eilanden, waar meer dan een miljoen verschillende zaden worden opgeslagen om verschillende gewassen te beschermen. In 2017 werd deze opslagplaats echter bedreigd door het ontdooien van de permafrost, waardoor werd bedacht dat stijgende temperaturen en een stijgende zeespiegel nieuwe oplossingen noodzakelijk zouden kunnen maken.

Om dierlijke cellen effectief te bewaren, zijn temperaturen onder -196° vereist, in tegenstelling tot plantencellen, waarvoor Arctische temperaturen voldoende zijn. Op onze planeet vereist het bereiken van een vergelijkbare koudedrempel de hulp van elektriciteit, vloeibare stikstof en menselijke arbeid. Maar als deze hulpbronnen niet langer beschikbaar zouden zijn, zou de biorepository in gevaar komen. Dat is de reden waarom Hagedorn en haar medewerkers dachten aan de maan en zijn kraters in de poolgebieden. Deze gebieden bereiken -246° dankzij de diepte en de eeuwige schaduw die ze genieten, maar er blijft een probleem dat moet worden opgelost: straling die de monsters en hun DNA zou kunnen beschadigen.

Doelstellingen en beperkingen van het biologisch depot op de maan

Om dit probleem te overwinnen hebben wetenschappers besloten de monsters ondergronds op te slaan of in een structuur met wanden gemaakt van maangesteente. De mogelijke effecten van straling op gecryopreserveerd materiaal en de microzwaartekracht moeten nog worden opgehelderd, daarom zal verder onderzoek noodzakelijk zijn. Het doel is ook om "de ruimtevaart te vergroten; het leven is kostbaar en, voor zover wij weten, zeldzaam in het universum. Deze biologische opslagplaats biedt een andere parallelle benadering voor het behoud van de kostbare biodiversiteit van de aarde."

Sommige deskundigen merken op dat dit project in ieder geval aanzienlijke kosten en inspanningen zou vergen die zouden worden afgetrokken van de huidige natuurbeschermingsprojecten die op aarde worden uitgevoerd. Het enige dat overblijft is afwachten of het project van Hagedorn, dat dankzij cryopreservatie erin is geslaagd enkele bedreigde koraalsoorten te beschermen, werkelijkheid zal worden of niet.

{ https://www.curioctopus.nl/ }

In our article from 2013 'Scientific proof human race was created by aliens' we have written about the various scientific studies that indicate that the so-called 97% non-coding sequences originally known as "junk DNA" in human DNA is no less than genetic code of extraterrestrial life forms. The overwhelming majority of Human DNA is "Off-world" in origin and the complete 'program' was positively not written on Earth and that the mathematical code in human DNA cannot be explained by evolution. 

In the next video of Ancient Aliens episode 'Dark Secrets of Alien-Human Genetics' more evidence is provided that all humans are the result of alien genetic manipulation. 

Transcript: In the middle of the night in 2008, 20-year-old Charmaine de Roserio Sage was sleeping when she was abruptly awakened by a terrifying sight: a reptilian humanoid standing over her. Charmaine describes the encounter vividly: "I woke up, and a reptilian entered the room. We went to an underground cave where a group of reptilians surrounded me. Each one placed a hand on my body, and I began to change. It was an extraordinary but bizarre experience to watch my body morph from a human form into a reptilian one, with my smooth skin transforming into scales and a tail emerging." 

Charmaine claims that during this experience, she learned that all humans are the result of alien genetic manipulation, although some people are more affected than others. She believes that different extraterrestrial races have visited Earth throughout history and have selectively manipulated certain groups of humans. According to her, these alien interventions are part of an ongoing war between various intelligent species, fighting over territory and involving the creation and manipulation of life forms. 

In 2010, biologists led by Sante Pääbo of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology made a remarkable discovery. They found that early humans not only coexisted with other primitive hominids but also interbred with them. Even more astonishing was the suggestion that another, unidentified species might also be represented in human DNA. This finding challenges the traditional view of human evolution as a straightforward progression from earlier hominids to modern humans. 

Dr. John Hawks, an anthropologist from the University of Wisconsin, conducted a comprehensive analysis of human DNA and discovered that the rate of genetic evolution in the past 5,000 years has been 100 times faster than in any previous 5,000-year period. This raises the question: what caused such rapid changes in human DNA? Is it possible that extraterrestrial beings interbred with humans within the last 5,000 years, leading to these significant genetic alterations? 

One notable case occurred in Sydney, Australia, in July 1992. Peter Khoury awoke one night to find himself paralyzed and unable to speak, with a strange, milky-white-skinned woman with large eyes and sharp features straddling his body. Another woman, with Asian features, stood nearby. The blonde woman touched her stomach, pointed to the sky, and then both women disappeared, leaving behind a single strand of blonde hair. 

Khoury took the hair to a laboratory for DNA analysis, and the results were surprising. The hair was optically clear, unlike any human hair, and contained a rare combination of Chinese and Celtic DNA. While it didn't conclusively prove an alien origin, it did indicate something highly unusual. 

In May 2013, mathematician Vladimir Shcherbak and astrobiologist Maxim Makukov published a study suggesting that the human genome contains a hidden code with precise mathematical patterns and an unknown symbolic language. Their research led them to believe that an extraterrestrial "stamp" might be embedded in our DNA, pointing to deliberate manipulation by alien beings in the distant past. 

For ancient astronaut theorists, this finding supports the idea that extraterrestrials targeted human DNA with artificial mutations, potentially creating a form of organic robots—intelligent beings designed by advanced alien civilizations. This theory also raises the possibility that our own drive to create cybernetically enhanced versions of ourselves might be a continuation of the same agenda initiated by our extraterrestrial creators. 

In 1966, scientists made a groundbreaking discovery by deciphering the genetic code, revealing that DNA is structured in clusters of three molecules known as codons or triplets. This discovery was revolutionary because it hinted at the possibility that the ultimate proof of extraterrestrial involvement in our past might be found within our own DNA, rather than in physical artifacts like crashed spaceships. 

Ancient astronaut theorists argue that this triplet structure in DNA might be evidence of extraterrestrial tampering, suggesting that the number three holds a key to understanding our genetic language and our connection to otherworldly beings. 

Could this be the ultimate proof that humanity's origins are not solely earthly but are intertwined with extraterrestrial influences?

  

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

Fossielen van oude kleine mensen genaamd "hobbits" onderzocht: studie onthult mogelijke oorsprong

door Janine

Cicero Moraes et alii/Wikimedia commons - CC BY 4.0

Er zijn nieuwe fossielen ontdekt van de Floresmens, een uitgestorven soort die net iets meer dan twee decennia bekend is en veel twijfels heeft opgewekt onder wetenschappers.

Floresmens, klein mens uit het verleden

Fossielen van de zogenaamde ‘hobbits’ die op Indonesisch grondgebied zijn gevonden, vertellen over minuscule mensen die 700.000 jaar geleden leefden. De nieuw ontdekte overblijfselen voegen informatie toe over hun twijfelachtige oorsprong: deze oude menselijke soort, die het eiland Flores bewoonde en ongeveer 50.000 jaar geleden uitstierf, heeft in feite voor veel verwarring onder wetenschappers gezorgd.

Homo floresiensis werd eenentwintig jaar geleden voor het eerst ontdekt en dit leidde tot twijfels over het oorspronkelijke idee dat de menselijke evolutie een lineair pad volgde, met een voortdurende ontwikkeling van primitieve wezens tot de moderne mens. De homo "hobbit", zo genoemd vanwege zijn kleine formaat, leefde echter in vrij recente tijden ondanks zijn kleine lichaam.  Bovendien, hoe slaagde hij erin om de oceaan over te steken naar het Indonesische eiland, waar past hij in de stamboom van de mensheid en waarom is hij uitgestorven?

Homo hobbit, miniatuurversie van Homo erectus?

Nature Communications

De auteurs van een nieuwe studie probeerden deze twijfels weg te nemen door fossielen te onderzoeken die toebehoorden aan een van deze kleine mensen en die ontdekt zijn op de eindplek Mata Menge, een van de slechts twee plaatsen op het eiland Flores waar overblijfselen van deze soort zijn gevonden. De resultaten van het onderzoek, zo leggen de auteurs uit, bevestigen de al eerder geformuleerde hypothese, volgens welke hobbits een soort miniatuurversie zouden zijn geweest van Homo erectus, de eerste die Afrika 1,9 miljoen jaar geleden verliet. Fossielen van Homo erectus zijn gevonden in Azië, Afrika en op het eiland Java, in Indonesië. Volgens wetenschappers bereikten ze het eiland ongeveer een miljoen jaar geleden en hier nam de omvang ervan in de loop van 300.000 jaar drastisch af.

Hetzelfde proces komt ook voor bij andere dieren die op afgelegen eilanden leven, vanwege de beperkte beschikbaarheid van hulpbronnen. Yousuke Kaifu, eerste auteur van het onderzoek en professor aan de Universiteit van Tokio, legt uit: "Misschien was het niet nodig om een groot lichaam te hebben, dat meer voedsel nodig heeft en er langer over doet om te groeien en zich voort te planten. Het geïsoleerde eiland Flores had geen roofdieren van zoogdieren en andere hominide soorten, dus de kleine omvang was prima".

Daarom was de hobbit zo klein

De hobbit waartoe de fossielen behoorden was een volwassene van ongeveer 100 meter lang en de tanden leken sterk op die van de Homo erectus die op Java is gevonden. Een andere bekende Homo floresiensis, ontdekt in de grot Liang Bua in 2003, ongeveer 75 km van Mata Menge, was zes centimeter groter en ongeveer 60.000 jaar oud. Dit verschil in grootte zou kunnen worden toegeschreven aan het verschil dat bij de moderne mens is gevonden. Homo floresiensis heeft zijn kleine formaat echter lange tijd consistent behouden.

De vondsten suggereren dat deze kleine mensen op het eiland konden overleven en zich konden vermenigvuldigen, ondanks de aanwezigheid van krokodillen en Komodovaranen, waarvan de lengte 3 meter bedroeg. De auteurs schrijven dat "de eerste dramatische vermindering en de daaropvolgende stabiliteit in omvang erop wijzen dat het hebben van een kleinere lichaamsgrootte op dit eiland een overlevingsvoordeel was voor deze archaïsche mensen."

Naast de hobbit leidt de ontdekking van andere kleine mensen zoals Homo naledi uit Zuid-Afrika en Homo luzonensis uit de Filipijnen, maar ook de grotere Denisovamens uit Tibet, tot de conclusie dat er verschillende soorten mensen bestonden, waarvan vele uit de tijd van de onze, Homo sapiens, en dat geen enkele soort zich in de loop van de tijd heeft ontwikkeld. Hoe dan ook, niet alle experts zijn het eens over de oorsprong van de hobbits en hun geschiedenis moet nog definitief worden opgehelderd.

{ https://www.curioctopus.nl/ }

The Alien Orb Summoner: Chris Bledsoe’s Miraculous Encounter and Healing Powers

Chris Bledsoe’s experiences with unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs) have transformed his life and captured the attention of both believers and skeptics worldwide. In a story that blends the extraordinary with the spiritual, Bledsoe recounts a series of encounters that not only changed his perception of reality but also seemingly cured him of a debilitating disease. Dubbed “The Alien Orb Summoner,” Bledsoe’s tale raises intriguing questions about the nature of these phenomena and their potential impact on human health.

The Initial Encounter: A Night to Remember

On January 8, 2007, Chris Bledsoe was facing a personal and financial crisis. At 46, he had gone from living a comfortable life to struggling to provide for his family. Desperate for a reprieve, he took his son, Chris Jr., and some friends on a fishing trip to the Cape Fear River in North Carolina.

While his companions fished, Bledsoe wandered away, seeking solitude. As he climbed a nearby hill, he witnessed a sight that defied explanation: what appeared to be two suns in the sky, soon joined by a third. These glowing orbs, approximately 40 to 50 feet in diameter, radiated a fiery red and orange light.

Terrified, Bledsoe hid in the grass, watching the orbs hover silently. When he eventually returned to his group, he was shocked to discover that several hours had passed, though he believed he had only been gone for about 20 minutes. This mysterious loss of time was only the beginning of a night filled with extraordinary events.

The Frightening Ordeal of Chris Jr.

While Bledsoe grappled with his inexplicable experience, his son, Chris Jr., embarked on his own terrifying encounter. Concerned about his father’s prolonged absence, Chris Jr. set off to search for him. Along the way, he spotted two red orbs, which eventually approached him, transforming into two small beings approximately three feet tall with glowing red eyes.

Paralyzed by fear, Chris Jr. was unable to move or cry out for help. The beings seemed to observe him before disappearing into the night, leaving him deeply shaken. When father and son reunited, they recounted their experiences, both grappling with the bizarre and frightening events of the evening.

A Night of UAP Sightings

The group’s ordeal continued as they witnessed additional UAP activity. Multiple orbs appeared in the sky, performing erratic maneuvers and eventually landing nearby. Overcome with fear, Bledsoe, his son, and their friends fled the area in their truck, pursued by one of the orbs.

The orb hovered above their vehicle before shooting off into the night sky, leaving the group in a state of shock and confusion. As they returned home, the reality of what they had witnessed began to set in, raising more questions than answers.

The Mysterious Healing of Crohn’s Disease

In the days following the encounter, Bledsoe experienced a remarkable transformation. For years, he had suffered from severe Crohn’s disease, a debilitating intestinal condition that caused frequent and painful symptoms. Yet, after the night of the UAP encounter, Bledsoe found himself symptom-free and no longer reliant on medication.

This unexpected healing sparked speculation about a possible connection between the UAP encounters and his improved health. The profound change in his condition seemed to defy medical explanation, leading Bledsoe to believe that the beings he encountered may have played a role in his recovery.

A Spiritual Awakening

Bledsoe’s encounters have also had a significant spiritual dimension. He describes receiving messages from a mysterious female entity who granted him insight and understanding about the phenomena. These experiences have drawn parallels to the work of Edgar Cayce, a renowned spiritualist known for his healing abilities and psychic insights.

Bledsoe believes that his encounters are not merely extraterrestrial but are deeply spiritual, offering a glimpse into a greater cosmic order. This perspective has led him to view the phenomena as interconnected with human consciousness and spirituality, rather than simply as alien encounters.

The Healing of Others

Bledsoe’s alleged healing powers extend beyond his own experience. Word spread about his ability to heal, and others began seeking his help. One notable case involved a woman named Sharon, who was suffering from stage IV lung cancer. After visiting Bledsoe and witnessing an orb during a prayer session, Sharon’s cancer reportedly went into remission, leaving only a tiny speck behind.

This apparent miracle, along with other similar accounts, has fueled interest in Bledsoe’s story and the potential connection between UAPs and healing. While these claims remain controversial and unverified by mainstream science, they continue to inspire curiosity and debate.

The Struggle for Acceptance

Despite the extraordinary nature of his experiences, Bledsoe has faced significant skepticism and ridicule. His initial attempts to share his story were met with disbelief, and media portrayals often cast him as delusional. The negative attention affected his family, with his children facing mockery at school.

However, over time, Bledsoe’s story has gained credibility through witness testimonies and investigations by organizations like the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON). As more people come forward with their own experiences and evidence, his account has become a touchstone for discussions about UAPs and their implications.

VIDEO:

• The Alien Orb Summoner: How a Close Encounter Granted Divine Healing Powers | Chris Bledsoe

• https://youtu.be/xpQFXljgfyg

Chris Bledsoe’s journey from despair to hope, from illness to healing, and from skepticism to belief, is a testament to the complexity of human encounters with the unknown. His story challenges our understanding of reality, blurring the lines between science, spirituality, and the unexplained.

As interest in UAPs continues to grow, Bledsoe remains a compelling figure at the intersection of these domains, offering a unique perspective on the potential for UAPs to impact our lives in profound ways. Whether viewed as a modern-day prophet or a subject of scientific curiosity, Chris Bledsoe’s tale is a fascinating exploration of the intersection between the earthly and the divine.

As interest in UAPs continues to grow, Bledsoe remains a compelling figure at the intersection of these domains, offering a unique perspective on the potential for UAPs to impact our lives in profound ways. Whether viewed as a modern-day prophet or a subject of scientific curiosity, Chris Bledsoe’s tale is a fascinating exploration of the intersection between the earthly and the divine.

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

Posted  by Evan Gough

Scientists Discover New Geological Link Between Earth and Venus

Venus is sometimes called Earth’s sister planet because of their shared physical, geological, and atmospheric features. Scientists have discovered something new about Venus’ geology that’s reminding us of the similarities between the two planets. We have to look deep inside both planets to see what the researchers found.

There are a few reasons why the pair of planets are sometimes called twins. They have several characteristics in common:

• They’re inner Solar System neighbours.
• They’re both rocky.
• They’re roughly the same size and mass.
• They both have few craters, implying young surfaces.
• They both have atmospheres and dense clouds.
• They both have geological similarities and surface features like volcanoes, mountains, plateaus, and plains.

New research published in Nature Geoscience focuses on the last item in that list. Its title is “Ishtar Terra highlands on Venus raised by craton-like formation mechanisms.” The lead author is Fabio Capitanio, an Associate Professor from the Monash University School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment.

Ishtar Terra is one of three large highland regions on Venus. Its topography includes mountains, plains, and plateaus. The Maxwell Montes mountain chain is in Ishtar Terra, and it’s about 11 km (6.8 mi) high, compared to Mt. Everest, which is 8.8 kilometres (5.5 mi).

Ishtar Terra has highly complex terrain and appears to be heavily deformed. These are indications that Venus underwent powerful geological activity in its past.

This view of Venus is centred on its north pole. Ishtar Terra is the red region just below the image’s centre. The white region is Maxwell Montes, and the left-most red lobe is Lakshmi Planum. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/USGS – http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA00007, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18235544

Ishtar Terra also contains Lakshmi Planum, a two million square kilometre plateau about four km high and surrounded by extremely deformed terrain. It’s made of smooth lava flows and features two large shield volcanoes. Colette Patera is about 130 km in diameter, and Sacajawea Patera is about 200 km across and 1-2 km deep. Though Venus is tectonically inactive now, scientists think that ancient tectonic activity is responsible for the region’s wild topography.

Click on the image to explore an interactive 3D map of Ishtar Terra at Sketchfab by user v7x. Image Credit: Sketchfab/v7x

The new research in Nature Geoscience zeroes in on a specific part of geology called cratons. Cratons are the ancient geological cores of Earth’s continents. They’re stable parts of Earth’s lithosphere that are usually found in the center of the planet’s continental plates. Cratons have survived Earth’s extensive history of continental rifting and merging. They’re typically composed of extremely durable basement rock and have deep roots that can extend several hundred kilometres into the planet’s mantle.

Some cratons date from the Precambrian era, more than 2.5 billion years ago. Others may be even older and could date back to the Earth’s early days during the Hadean and Archaean Eons.

In this new work, Capitanio and his co-researchers used data from NASA’s Magellan spacecraft and high-performance computer simulations to investigate the formation of Ishtar Terra more deeply. They found that Ishtar Terra may have formed the same way that Earth’s cratons may have formed.

“The structures emerging in this model provide topography, gravity and crustal thicknesses remarkably comparable to the plateaus of Venus.”

From “Ishtar Terra highlands on Venus raised by craton-like formation mechanisms.”

On Earth, plateaus and belts of mountains like Ishtar Terra would clearly result from colliding continental plates. Ishtar Terra is similar to the Tibetan Plateau, and continental collision is the primary driver behind its formation. Something else must be behind Ishtar Terra and Venus’s other terrae because the planet lacks plate tectonics. But Ishtar Terra shares something particular with Earth. It has a thick crustal floor similar to Earth’s cratons.

This suggests that the planets have or had processes in common. Ishtar Terra and Venus’ other terrae may have risen from the planet’s hot interior. While there are several competing explanations for the formation of Earth’s cratons, one is the molten plume model. It states that rising plumes of molten rock came from deep within Earth’s mantle and built up thick layers with the cratons on top.

“The study challenges our understanding of how planets evolve,” lead author Capitanio said. “We did not expect Venus, with its scorching 460°C surface temperature and lack of plate tectonics, to possess such complex geological features.”

While Venus doesn’t have plate tectonics, it does have a hot lithosphere. The planet’s surface temperature is about 460°C (860°F). The heat extends into the lithosphere, which is hotter than Earth’s due to Venus’s runaway greenhouse effect. The surface simply can’t shed heat the way Earth does. The high heat means that Venus’s lithosphere is probably thinner than Earth’s. While Earth’s lithosphere can be as thick as 200 km, maybe even thicker, Venus’s is only about 50-100 km thick. Since it’s so much thinner, it’s also weaker.

“Venus’s hot lithosphere might make it a good analogue of early Earth and might enable the same types of continent-forming processes that occurred on Earth,” the researchers write in a briefing from Nature. “Our focus was on Ishtar Terra, the broadest of the plateaus, for which we found that the topography, crustal thicknesses and gravity signals are consistent with our simulations when the modelled lithosphere is about 10–50 times weaker than Earth’s.”

This figure from the research compares observations (a, c, e) with modelled results (b, d, f). The columns are topography, crust thickness, and gravity anomaly at 194 million years. “The structures emerging in this model provide topography, gravity and crustal thicknesses remarkably comparable to the plateaus ofVenus,” the researchers explain. Image Credit: Capitiano et al. 2024.

The thin lithosphere favours “the emplacement of a thick magmatic crust on top of a deep residual
depleted mantle,” the authors write in their research.

“This finding provides a fascinating new perspective on Venus and its potential links to early Earth,” Capitanio said. “The features we found on Venus are strikingly similar to Earth’s early continents, suggesting that the dynamics of Venus’ past may have been more similar to Earth’s than previously thought.”

The research shows that despite their differences, divergent rocky planets can share underlying mechanisms. Spotting these cratons or craton-associated mechanisms on another planet can help scientists understand Earth. “By studying similar features on Venus, we hope to unlock the secrets of Earth’s early history,” Associate Professor Capitanio said.

Venus is like the Solar System’s plan B. If life couldn’t make it work on Earth, maybe it could’ve worked on Venus. There’s evidence that Venus may have once had liquid water and used to be in the habitable zone, though that’s not certain. In any case, while Earth is resplendent with life, Venus is far too hot.

Earth’s ancient cratons are a part of Earth’s story. On our planet, geology, life, and the planet’s atmosphere are all intricately connected. By recognizing what Earth and Venus have in common and how they are also so different, researchers can learn more about Earth’s trajectory toward a living planet.

Future missions to Venus are in the works, and they should provide even more explanations for the sister planets’ divergent outcomes.

“Our research has paved the way for future missions to Venus, such as DAVINCI, VERITAS, and EnVision,” Capitanio said. “These missions will provide further insights into Venus’ geological history and its connection to Earth.”

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

The Moon’s Atmosphere Comes from Space Weathering

Tracking the Space Weathering Influence on the Moon’s Atmosphere

Researchers have known about the lunar atmosphere for decades. It was first observed in the 1980s as a layer of atoms hugging close to the surface. The LADEE mission specifically studied that exosphere. The atoms don’t just lie there, however. They bounce around, largely stirred up by constant impacts of tiny objects called micrometeoroids. Those dust-sized particles—along with larger objects smacking into the surface—kick up the lunar soil. That vaporizes some of the atoms of material—including potassium and rubidium. Those atoms are suspended in the thin exosphere. Or, if they get enough velocity in the weak lunar gravity, they escape to space.

The different ways that space weathering can affect the lunar surface. Cartoon by IntrplnetSarah, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0

The MIT/Chicago team members wanted to prove the exosphere is produced by this impact vaporization component of space weathering. So, they analyzed samples of lunar soil collected during the Apollo missions. They zeroed in on the potassium and rubidium content. That’s because those elements vaporize easily. If the Moon’s atmosphere is atoms suspended above the surface, lighter isotopes of those atoms should be more easily lofted. The heavier isotopes are more likely to settle back in the soil. Furthermore, scientists predict that impact vaporization, and ion sputtering, should result in very different isotopic proportions in the soil. The specific ratio of light to heavy isotopes that remain in the soil, for both elements they tested, eventually proved that impact-related vaporization is an important part of exosphere creation.

The Solar Wind’s Effect on the Moon

The solar wind also plays a role in creating the Moon’s exosphere. That occurs as the ionized particles in the solar wind ions interact with the surface and “sputter off” neutral atoms. Not only does this process contribute to the creation of an exosphere, but it also affects the erosion of materials on the Moon. The current MIT/Chicago study, however, pinpoints the constant rain of impacts as a significant contributor and the two processes work together to create the lunar exosphere

“With impact vaporization, most of the atoms would stay in the lunar atmosphere, whereas with ion sputtering, a lot of atoms would be ejected into space,” Nie said. “From our study, we now can quantify the role of both processes, to say that the relative contribution of impact vaporization versus ion sputtering is about 70:30 or larger.”

Space Weathering and Future Missions

So, about 70 percent or more of the lunar exosphere is a product of meteorite impacts. The rest occurs thanks to the incessant influence of the solar wind. While this space weathering activity doesn’t produce anything like a breathable atmosphere that future lunar explorers could breathe, it does give insight into the processes that affect the Moon.

Both meteoritic bombardments and solar wind activity pose continuing risks to lunar visitors and their infrastructure. In addition to simply understanding the evolution of the lunar surface and atmosphere, such studies will be useful to anyone who seeks to build—and live—on the Moon in the future.

For More Information

• Scientists Pin Down the Origins of the Moon’s Tenuous Atmosphere
• Lunar Soil Record of Atmosphere Lost over Eons

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

Posted by Matt Williams

New Study Suggests that Our Galaxy is Crowded or Empty. Both are Equally Terrifying!

Is there intelligent life in the Universe? And if so, just how common is it? Or perhaps the question should be, what are the odds that those engaged in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) will encounter it someday? For decades, scientists have hotly debated this topic, and no shortage of ink has been spilled on the subject. From the many papers and studies that have been written on the subject, two main camps have emerged: those who believe life is common in our galaxy (aka. SETI Optimists) and those who maintain that extraterrestrial intelligence is either rare or non-existent (SETI Pessimists).

In a recent paper, David Kipping (Prof. “Cool Worlds” himself) and Geraint Lewis examined this debate more closely and offered a fresh take based on a form of probability analysis known as Jayne’s Experiment. By applying this method to astrobiology and the Drake Equation, they concluded that the existence of intelligent life in our galaxy may be an “all or nothing” proposition. To quote the late and great scientist and science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke: “Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe, or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.”

David Kipping is an Associate Professor of Astronomy at Columbia University and a Carl Sagan Fellow at the Harvard College Observatory. He is also the Principle Investigator of the Cool Worlds Lab at Columbia, which is dedicated to studying and characterizing exoplanet systems. Geraint Lewis is a Professor of Astrophysics at the Sydney Institute for Astronomy, part of the University of Sydney’s School of Physics. Their paper, “Do SETI Optimists Have a Fine-Tuning Problem?” recently appeared online and is being reviewed for publication in the International Journal of Astrobiology.

The Drake Equation

In 1961, famed astronomer Frank Drake hosted the first SETI meeting ever at the Greenbank Observatory in West Virginia. In preparation for the event, he created an equation summarizing the challenges SETI researchers faced. This came to be known as the Drake Equation and is expressed mathematically as:

• N = R* × fp × ne × fl × fi × fc × L

Where:

• N is the number of currently active, communicative civilizations in our galaxy.
• R* is the rate at which stars form in our galaxy.
• fp is the fraction of stars with planets.
• ne is the number of planets that can potentially host life, per star that has planets.
• fl is the fraction of the above that actually do develop life of any kind.
• fi is the fraction of the above that develop intelligent life.
• fc is the fraction of the above that develop the capacity for interstellar communication.
• L is the length of time that such communicative civilizations are active.

The Drake Equation was not intended to estimate the number of extraterrestrial civilizations (ETCs) in our galaxy but to stimulate dialogue about SETI. Since Drake first formulated it, the equation has been subject to criticism, additions, and revisions and has often been misrepresented in the process. As Prof. Kipping explained to Universe Today via email, part of the problem is how values are often arbitrarily applied to the parameters:

“Since we don’t know most of the parameters, this is just pure speculation, and it should be labeled as such. Another point often missed is that it represents the mean number of civilizations and, thus, an expectation value of some underlying distribution. These days, it’s become a bit of a sport to critique the Drake equation. Certainly, anyone using it as a calculator should be fairly criticized, but the basic idea is not wrong. There must be some number of civilizations out there, and we could, in principle, collect relevant parameters to calculate it. The issues arise in the exact formulation, which parameters to include, what they really mean, and how to deal with nuances like time variability.”

Jaynes’ Experiment

Edwin Jaynes (1922-1998) was the Wayman Crow Distinguished Professor of Physics at Washington University in St. Louis. In 1968, he imagined an experiment where a person in a lab is presented with a jar containing an unknown and unlabelled compound (chemical X). Along a laboratory bench, there are a large number of beakers filled with water, and the experiment is to test how often chemical X will dissolve within them. Jaynes argued that one should expect the compound to either dissolve in nearly every instance or almost never.

The function of the Haldane prior (F ^–1(1 – F ) ^–1) that captures this behavior. Credit: D. Kipping & G. Lewis (2024).

When plotted on a graph, the probability distribution would be bowl-shaped, with values peeking at 0 and 1. As Kipping explained in more detail:

“Jaynes imagined a series of what we call Bernoulli experiments – that is, experiments that return yes/no answers. These could be anything really, but as an example, he imagined dissolving an unknown chemical into a series of beakers containing water and then asking – what fraction of them will dissolve? Another scientist, the legendary John Haldane, had already suggested that an answer of ~50% was unlikely a-priori. One should expect that either nearly all of them will dissolve or hardly any.

“Jaynes rigorously proved that and pioneered many of the tools of objective Bayesian inference. We can equally replace the Bernoulli experiment under consideration to other questions, like what fraction of stars will become a black hole? Before obtaining any observations, an answer of ~50% would be surprising, implying that the distribution of stellar masses is finely balanced such that half are above the critical mass threshold and half below. In reality the answer is one-in-a-thousand, which falls in line with Jayne’s position.”

Because of his immense contributions to the field of statistics, Jaynes is credited with being one of the founders of “Objective Bayesianism.” While his experiment was not intended as such, Kipping and Lewis saw its potential application in astrobiology.

All or Nothing?

In his seminal 1983 paper, “The Great Silence – the Controversy Concerning Extraterrestrial Intelligent Life,” David Brin addressed the ongoing debate regarding the existence of extraterrestrial life. From this, he discerned the presence of two camps when it came to the debate: “Contact Optimists” and “Contact Pessimists” – or as Kipping and Lewis refer to them in their paper, “SETI Optimists” and “SETI Pessimists” – those who believe that there are civilizations in our galaxy humanity can make contact with and those who believe it is fruitless since humanity is alone in the Universe.

When Jaynes’ Experiment is applied to the question of intelligent life in our galaxy, we should expect that it would either be very common or very rare. In the middle, where the probability distribution is weakest (i.e., extraterrestrial life is semi-common), is where the “fine-tuning problem” emerges. In the context of cosmology and astrobiology, fine-tuning refers to the proposition that the conditions for life can occur only when certain universal constants lie within a very narrow range of values.

If any of these fundamental constants were slightly different, the Universe would not be conducive to the development of matter, large-scale structures, or life as we know it. As Kipping explained, this presents a problem for SETI Optimists:

“Unlike the black hole example I gave you earlier, there’s no lower bounds on this problem. With black holes, we know the smallest and biggest allowed star mass from astrophysics and it’s only a few orders of magnitude. The black hole threshold must be in that fairly narrow range somewhere. When it comes to aliens, the probability of intelligence could be 1% or 0.000….00001% (add as many zero’s as you like).

“With a such a vast range of possibilities, SETI optimists have to believe the rather contrived view that the % value is not so high that we wouldn’t see anyone yet, but certainly far higher than the deep abyss of low probabilities that are plausible. Thus they have a fine-tuning problem essentially, needing the percentage to live in a fairly narrow corridor.”

If our galaxy were filled with extraterrestrial civilizations, surely there would be undeniable signs that we would have noticed—i.e., radio signals, megastructures, Clarke Bands, and other “technosignatures.” If this is starting to sound familiar, it’s because this argument is the very core of the Fermi Paradox (which we have written an entire series about!) As such, one could construe Kipping and Lewis’ argument as an example of SETI Pessimism. Luckily, the story does not end there.

Kipping and Lewis’s revised formalism for the Drake Equation, based on the theoretical birth and death rates of civilizations. Credit: Kipping, D. & Lewis, G. (2024)

A New Formalism

Faced with this result, Kipping and Lewis attempted to devise a new formalism for the Drake Equation that considers just two processes: the birth rate and the death rate of civilizations. When this is done, all of the parameters in the equation (except for L, the lifespan of civilizations) collapse into a single parameter: the birth and death rate of civilizations (r_c). Or as it would appear mathematically: N_C = r_c x L_C. Said Kipping:

“In the standard Drake equation, we often get caught up arguing about which parameters to include (should there be a fraction for the probability of life developing into multicellular life, for example). But it’s completely undeniable that every civilisations must have a beginning and an end, in fact we can even set the death rate to zero which corresponds to infinite lifetimes if we so desire in this framework. In an ecological system, like a petri dish, for example, there is a well-defined maximum possible population that we call the carrying capacity. So, we updated the birth-death version of the Drake equation to account for this nuance.”

In this case, the distribution of probabilities became S-shaped (see image above), but the end result was still the same: either the galaxy is crowded or empty. One way around this is the idea that humanity could be alive during a period in which ETCs have emerged and are beginning to expand throughout the galaxy and thus have not been noticed by our instruments yet. However, as Kipping and Lewis showed, this also suffers from the fine-tuning problem, as biology indicates that population growth is an accelerating phenomenon.

“You see, galactic expansion phases should be relatively quick on a cosmic timescale; in fact, really like the blink of an eye,” said Kipping. “So it’s unlikely you’d live during such a phase; you’re more likely to live when the galaxy is essentially empty before this happens or after it’s happened (which, in fact, is arguably impossible since your planet is colonized). Once again, Fermi’s Paradox rears its head, where the strongest likelihood is that humanity is either alone, early to the party, or one of a few civilizations currently existing in the Milky Way.

Hope for SETI?

But before you go thinking it’s all bad news, Kipping and Lewis emphasize that SETI is an important and vital experiment that deserves dedicated resources. “While the odds of success appear small, such a success would arguably represent the most impactful scientific discovery in human history,” they conclude. They also suggest several reasons to remain hopeful, which include Hanson’s “Grabby Aliens” hypothesis, which states that humanity is at the midpoint in the S-shaped curve and that we will encounter an ETI in a few hundred million years.

In the meantime, Kipping also suggests that SETI could benefit from casting a wider net. If, as their study suggests, advanced civilizations are very rare (or non-existent) in our galaxy, then we should look to extra-galactic sources. “I think my favorite way out is that our galaxy is just unusually quiet, most are busy and filled, but we are the first in the Milky Way,” he added. “This seems improbable, but perhaps being born in a busy galaxy is impossible since the habitable real estate has already been gobbled up. This suggests we should put more emphasis on extra-galactic SETI as our best shot.”

Further Reading: 

• arXiv

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If Advanced Civilizations Using Quantum Communications, Is That Why We’ve Never Seen Them?

Establishing communication with an alien intelligence is one of the news items I, and I’m sure many others, long to see. Since we have started the search for advanced civilisations we have tried numerous ways to detect their transmissions but to date, unsuccessfully. A new paper suggests quantum communication may be the ideal method for interstellar communication. It has many benefits but the challenge is that it would require a receiver over 100km across to pick up a signal. Alas they know we don’t have that tech yet!

The search for alien signals has been undertaken under the banner of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence or SETI for short. It began in 1960 when Frank Drake commenced the first search. It was of course not fruitful but since then, large radio telescopes have been used to undertake searches. There have been many projects but of particular interest has been Project Breakthrough. It has used advanced technology and international collaborations but still there has been no success. 

Frank Drake writing his famous equation on a white board. Credit: SETI.org

To be able to effectively search for alien signals its imperative to fully understand the nature of communication. A quest that started back in 1948 with the development of the modern theory of classical communication. In 1959 it was proposed that human technology was available to send or receive interstellar classical communication which simply requires a message, someone to send it and someone to receive it. 

Over the years that followed communication theories developed and quantum information theory emerged. It explores how quantum mechanics has an affect on the storage of and transmission of information. At the centre of the theory is the quantum bit or qubit which can exist in a number of states all at once due to the phenomenon of superposition. In classical information theory, bits of information are either 0 or 1 but in quantum theory they can be any infinite number of combinations with certain probabilities until measured. At that point, the wave function collapses to one of the definite states.

Another key element of quantum theory is entanglement where two or more particles are interconnected so that the state of one is related to the state of the other no matter how far apart they are. With qubits linked in this way data processing can be far faster than in classical model and more secure too. The paper authored by Latham Boyle from the University of Edinburgh suggests that it may be possible to send or receive information between the stars using quantum communications. A previous study by Arjun Berera proposed photon qubits could be used to transmit information over interstellar and even possibly intergalactic distances without loss of coherence. 

The concept of quantum coherence describes the ability to maintain the specific quantum state but this alone is not enough for communication. The communication channel must also have sufficient capacity. In addition, specific wavelengths must be used (or avoided for example wavelengths less than 26.5 cm to avoid issues with the cosmic microwave background.) To facilitate this, radio telescopes with a diameter of 100 km must be used. Currently we don’t have the capability to build such instruments and this may explain why, in such a large and old universe, we still haven’t detected any aliens yet! We may simply have to wait until we can build such instruments before aliens can communicate with us.

Source : 

• On Interstellar Quantum Communication and the Fermi Paradox

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