Curiosity Rover Finds EVIDENCE Of LIQUID WATER On Mars 

April 14, 2015 - Cold, desolate conditions on Mars make it difficult to support liquid water, but thanks to some natural anti-freeze, a thin briny film may be forming in the soil near the equator at night. Although, the liquid evaporates just after sunrise. The findings, based on data from the Curiosity rover and published in Nature Geoscience this week, suggest that an active exchange of water is happening between the atmosphere and the surface of Mars—but the conditions are too cold for the possibility of microbes. 

While traversing Gale Crater near the Mars equator, Curiosity has been taking round-the-clock, year-round measurements with its Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (pictured above). Now, a large international team led by Javier Martín-Torres from Luleå University of Technology has analyzed a full Martian year’s worth of data on atmospheric humidity and temperature. And while they can’t detect the liquid brines directly, “what we see are the conditions for the formation of brines on the surface,” Martin-Torres tells BBC. 

Perchlorate is a type of salt that lowers the freezing temperature of water; it also pulls water molecules from the atmosphere to form a corrosive liquid brine. "These perchlorate salts have a property called deliquescence,” Martin-Torres adds. “They take the water vapor from the atmosphere and absorb it to produce the brines." According to these new measurements, liquid brines could be forming in the uppermost soils of the crater during the Martian night, and then they’d evaporate as the ground and air begin to warm up after sunrise. Here’s a schematic of this hypothetical day-and-night water cycle:



Relative humidity depends on the temperature of the air and the amount of water vapor in it, and Curiosity’s measurements have ranged from 5 percent during summer afternoons to 100 percent in the nighttime during fall and winter. Pores in the soil interact with air just above the ground, and when the relative humidity gets above a certain level, the salts absorb enough water molecules to become dissolved in liquid. The subsurface water content estimated using Curiosity data is consistent with the existence of water molecules absorbed by perchlorates in soils.

Perchlorate has previously been identified in Martian soil, and it’s already been proposed as a mechanism for transient liquid brines, but at higher latitudes—where colder temps and more water vapor can lead to higher humidity more often. "Gale Crater is one of the least likely places on Mars to have conditions for brines to form, compared to sites at higher latitudes or with more shading,” study co-author Alfred McEwen of the University of Arizona, Tucson, says in a JPL release. “So if brines can exist there, that strengthens the case they could form and persist even longer at many other locations.”

However, the researchers found that the ground temperature in Gale Crater is too low to support terrestrial microorganisms and life as we know it.

Images: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS (top), Martín-Torres and Zorzano (middle)

( via iflscience.com )

{ http://www.disclose.tv/ }

14-04-2015 om 22:12 geschreven door peter  

La vie sur Terre vient-elle de l'espace ?

DR

Personne n'a oublié les expériences historiques de Stanley Miller à Chicago en 1953 qui avait réussi à recréer en laboratoire les conditions de la "soupe primitive", qui existait sur Terre au moment de l'apparition de la vie, et qui avait montré que ces conditions étaient propices à la formation des acides aminés qui constituent les "briques" de base du vivant. Depuis cette date qui coïncidait d'ailleurs avec la découverte de la structure de l'ADN par Watson et Crick, la communauté scientifique n'a cessé de s'interroger sur la question fascinante de l'origine et de la nature de la vie.

La semaine dernière, une équipe franco-allemande regroupant des chercheurs de l'Institut de chimie de Nice (Université Nice Sophia Antipolis/CNRS) et de l'Institut d'astrophysique spatiale (CNRS/Université Paris-Sud) a publié une étude qui montre, dans une remarquable expérience, que les premières molécules constituant les "briques" de la vie peuvent se former spontanément dans les comètes. Après avoir fabriqué une comète artificielle dans les conditions extrêmes qui règnent dans l'espace (-200°C et sous vide), les chercheurs ont regroupé sur un fragment de fluorure de magnésium (MgF2), des composés présents dans le vide interstellaire (eau, ammoniac (NH3) et méthanol (CH3OH)). Ils ont ensuite irradié cette "soupe" à l'aide d'un rayonnement ultraviolet.
Deux semaines plus tard, la matière organique interstellaire ainsi obtenue a été analysée par les chercheurs (l'équipe d'Uwe Meierhenrich et de Cornelia Meinert) en utilisant un chromatographe multidimensionnel en phase gaz, une technologie de pointe dix fois plus sensible que les systèmes de détection traditionnels. Alors que, jusqu'à présent, seuls trois acides aminés avaient été mis en évidence dans ce type d'expérience, ils ont pu identifier vingt-six acides aminés, les éléments qui constituent les protéines, dans la comète artificielle.

Mais surtout, ils ont aussi découvert pour la première fois six acides diaminés, des molécules formées de deux groupes amines (-NH2), au lieu d'un seul pour les acides aminés classiques. Parmi ces molécules figure la N-(2-Aminoethyl) glycine qui est peut-être le composant majeur des premières molécules d'ADN terrestre : les molécules d'acide peptidique nucléique (APN). Ces résultats confirment donc de manière éclatante que les premières "briques" moléculaires nécessaires à l'apparition de la vie ont bien pu se former dans les comètes et dans le vide interstellaire et "ensemencer" la Terre à l'occasion des chutes permanentes de météorites et de comètes. Ces résultats passionnants justifient largement la pertinence de la mission spatiale européenne « Rosetta » qui vise à faire atterrir en 2015 une sonde sur la comète Tchourioumov-Guerassimenko pour étudier la composition de son noyau.

Cette très belle découverte vient après plusieurs autres qui avaient déjà considérablement élargi et transformé notre approche de la vie. Début 2000, des chercheurs australiens avaient notamment découvert, dans le grès du fond des océans, des organismes vivants d'une taille extraordinairement petite, comprise entre 20 et 150 nanomètres (cf. "Y-a-t-il une vie dans le nanomonde ?").

Fin 1999, une autre découverte réalisée par l'astronome Sun Kwok, de l'Université de Calgary, au Canada avait révélé, en mesurant le spectre de nombreuses étoiles à des stades de développement avancés que celles-ci synthétisaient des quantités importantes de molécules organiques en quelques milliers d'années seulement. Ces molécules organiques qui constituent la base des sucres et des acides aminés étaient ensuite expulsées vers l'espace interstellaire et pouvaient alors entrer dans le processus de constitution de nouvelles planètes, provoquant ou favorisant l'apparition de la vie.

Il faut rappeler que l'idée même de la "soupe primitive" est très ancienne et que le grand Darwin l'avait déjà imaginée dès 1871. Dans les années 1920, deux biologistes, le Britannique John Haldane et le Russe Alexandre Oparine eurent également l'idée, indépendamment l'un de l'autre, que l'atmosphère primitive de la Terre avait pu favoriser l'apparition de molécules organiques qui se seraient ensuite complexifiées jusqu'à produire l'émergence des premiers être vivants monocellulaires. Mais à l'époque, ces chercheurs ne purent étayer leurs hypothèses par l'expérimentation. C'est cette étape décisive qui fut magistralement franchie en 1953 par Stanley Miller, sous la direction d'Harold Urey (Prix Nobel de chimie 1934), qui avait construit un modèle d'atmosphère primitive basé sur le carbone et le méthane.

D'autres expériences réalisées en partenariat par le laboratoire d'Astrochimie du Ames Research Center de la NASA et le Département de Biochimie de l'Université de Santa Cruz Californie ont également montré que la formation des constituants primordiaux de la vie avait pu se dérouler dans les conditions hostiles de l'espace. Cette équipe de recherche menée par Louis Allamandola du Centre Ames avait réussi à provoquer la formation de composés biochimiques particuliers se présentant sous la forme de petites bulles similaires à des membranes cellulaires et permettant des échanges avec l'extérieur. Ces résultats montraient donc que la vie avait très bien pu naître dans l'espace avant d'être apportée sur Terre par une météorite ou un astéroïde.

En 2004, la sonde américaine Stardust était parvenue à collecter des poussières de comète en passant à proximité de la comète Wild 2. Ces poussières avaient été ramenées sur Terre en 2006 et les scientifiques de la NASA eurent la surprise d'y trouver de la glycine, le plus simple des acides aminés. Après trois ans d'analyses et de vérifications, les chercheurs purent démontrer que cette glycine était bien d'origine extraterrestre et ne provenait pas d'une contamination humaine.

En 2007, une équipe internationale d'astrobiologistes a montré, en reproduisant, en laboratoire, les conditions d'impact d'un astéroïde, la possibilité d'un transfert de vie entre Mars et la Terre. En 2010, avec le télescope infrarouge de la Nasa installé sur le M'auna Kea, à Hawaï, une autre équipe américaine avait détecté de la glace d'eau et des composés organiques (briques élémentaires de la vie) sur l'astéroïde 24 Themis. Cette découverte avait alors conforté l'hypothèse selon laquelle l'eau des océans, ainsi que les molécules nécessaires à l'apparition de la vie, proviendraient d'astéroïdes.

En mars 2011, une équipe de chercheurs de la Nasa dirigée par Richard Hoover a découvert sur trois météorites des traces de bactéries fossilisées autochtones dont la structure montre qu'elle ne peuvent pas provenir d'une contamination par des micro-organismes terrestres et qui viendraient donc bien de l'espace. Toujours en 2011, une autre équipe de la NASA, après avoir analysé neuf météorites tombées notamment en antarctique, ont identifié de l'adénine, et la guanine, qui sont des composants de l'ADN.

On voit donc que depuis une dizaine d'années l'accumulation des observations et des expérimentations valide, d'une part, l'hypothèse que la vie est infiniment plus résistante et adaptable qu'on ne l'imaginait et, d'autre part, que l'apparition de la vie sur terre pourrait avoir été provoquée par des micro-organismes extra-terrestres amenés sur notre planète par des comètes et par l'apport d'eau extraterrestre contenue dans les astéroïdes.

En outre, début 2012, une équipe de recherche française a estimé pour la première fois le nombre de planètes existant dans notre galaxie à 240 milliards ! Sur l'ensemble de ces planètes, plus d'un milliard de planètes pourraient être semblables à la Terre et présenteraient des conditions physico-chimiques qui rendraient possible l'apparition et le développement de la vie, selon une autre étude réalisée en 2002 par des astronomes britanniques de l'Open University.

On voit donc, à la lumière de toutes ces avancées et observations scientifiques, que ces deux hypothèses en entraînent une troisième encore plus vertigineuse : la vie, loin d'être un phénomène tout à fait exceptionnel, liée à un extraordinaire concours de circonstances dont la terre aurait été le théâtre, pourrait être, au moins sous ses formes les plus rudimentaires, relativement répandue dans l'univers, surtout si l'on prend en compte le nombre gigantesque de planètes dans le Cosmos. La mise en service de la prochaine génération d'outils d'observations et d'analyses astronomiques et cosmologiques et la poursuite des voyages d'exploration spatiale dans notre système solaire permettront peut-être dans les décennies à venir de découvrir ou observer indirectement des traces de vie extraterrestres.

L'un des grands défis scientifiques et théoriques de ce siècle sera donc de savoir si la vie, même sous des formes très étranges, est bien présente ailleurs que sur terre (il n'est d'ailleurs toujours pas exclu qu'elle existe dans le sous-sol martien ou dans les profondeurs liquides d'Europe, l'un des satellites de Jupiter) ou si nous devons nous résoudre finalement à accepter l'idée qu'elle n'est apparue sur notre planète qu'à la suite d'une succession de circonstances si exceptionnelles et improbables qu'elles n'ont aucune chance de s'être reproduites ailleurs dans l'Univers.

Auteur

René TREGOUËT, sénateur honoraire, fondateur du Groupe de Prospective du Sénat / RT Flash

{ http://www.notre-planete.info/ }

14-04-2015 om 22:05 geschreven door peter  

NASA's New Horizons Spacecraft Nears Historic July 14 Encounter with Pluto

(Source: NASA/JHUAPL)

Artist's concept of the New Horizons spacecraft as it approaches Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, in July 2015. Credit: (JHUAPL/SwRI)

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft is three months from returning to humanity the first-ever close up images and scientific observations of distant Pluto and its system of large and small moons.

"Scientific literature is filled with papers on the characteristics of Pluto and its moons from ground based and Earth orbiting space observations, but we've never studied Pluto up close and personal," said John Grunsfeld, astronaut, and associate administrator of the NASA Science Mission Directorate at the agency's Headquarters in Washington.  "In an unprecedented flyby this July, our knowledge of what the Pluto systems is really like will expand exponentially and I have no doubt there will be exciting discoveries."

The fastest spacecraft ever launched, New Horizons has traveled a longer time and farther away - more than nine years and three billion miles - than any space mission in history to reach its primary target. Its flyby of Pluto and its system of at least five moons on July 14 will complete the initial reconnaissance of the classical solar system. This mission also opens the door to an entirely new "third" zone of mysterious small planets and planetary building blocks in the Kuiper Belt, a large area with numerous objects beyond Neptune's orbit.

The flyby caps a five-decade-long era of reconnaissance that began with Venus and Mars in the early 1960s, and continued through first looks at Mercury, Jupiter and Saturn in the 1970s and Uranus and Neptune in the 1980s.
Reaching this third zone of our solar system - beyond the inner, rocky planets and outer gas giants - has been a space science priority for years. In the early 2000s the National Academy of Sciences ranked the exploration of the Kuiper Belt - and particularly Pluto and its largest moon, Charon - as its top priority planetary mission for the coming decade.
New Horizons - a compact, lightweight, powerfully equipped probe packing the most advanced suite of cameras and spectrometers ever sent on a first reconnaissance mission - is NASA's answer to that call.

"This is pure exploration; we're going to turn points of light into a planet and a system of moons before your eyes!" said Alan Stern, New Horizons principal investigator from Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Boulder, Colorado. "New Horizons is flying to Pluto - the biggest, brightest and most complex of the dwarf planets in the Kuiper Belt. This 21st century encounter is going to be an exploration bonanza unparalleled in anticipation since the storied missions of Voyager in the 1980s."

Pluto, the largest known body in the Kuiper Belt, offers a nitrogen atmosphere, complex seasons, distinct surface markings, an ice-rock interior that may harbor an ocean, and at least five moons. Among these moons, the largest - Charon - may itself sport an atmosphere or an interior ocean, and possibly even evidence of recent surface activity.
"There's no doubt, Charon is a rising star in terms of scientific interest, and we can't wait to reveal it in detail in July," said Leslie Young, deputy project scientist at SwRI.

Pluto's smaller moons also are likely to present scientific opportunities. When New Horizons was started in 2001, it was a mission to just Pluto and Charon, before the four smaller moons were discovered.

The spacecraft's suite of seven science instruments - which includes cameras, spectrometers, and plasma and dust detectors - will map the geology of Pluto and Charon and map their surface compositions and temperatures; examine Pluto's atmosphere, and search for an atmosphere around Charon; study Pluto's smaller satellites; and look for rings and additional satellites around Pluto.

Currently, even with New Horizons closer to Pluto than the Earth is to the Sun, the Pluto system resembles little more than bright dots in the distance. But teams operating the spacecraft are using these views to refine their knowledge of Pluto's location, and skillfully navigate New Horizons toward a precise target point 7,750 miles (12,500 kilometers) from Pluto's surface. That targeting is critical, since the computer commands that will orient the spacecraft and point its science instruments are based on knowing the exact time and location that New Horizons passes Pluto.

"Our team has worked hard to get to this point, and we know we have just one shot to make this work," said Alice Bowman, New Horizons mission operations manager at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, which built and operates the spacecraft. "We've plotted out each step of the Pluto encounter, practiced it over and over, and we're excited the 'real deal' is finally here."

The spacecraft's work doesn't end with the July flyby. Because it gets one shot at its target, New Horizons is designed to gather as much data as it can, as quickly as it can, taking about 100 times as much data on close approach as it can send home before flying away. And although the spacecraft will send select, high-priority datasets home in the days just before and after close approach, the mission will continue returning the data stored in onboard memory for a full 16 months.
"New Horizons is one of the great explorations of our time," said New Horizons Project Scientist Hal Weaver at APL. "There's so much we don't know, not just about Pluto, but other worlds like it. We're not rewriting textbooks with this historic mission - we'll be writing them from scratch."

APL manages the New Horizons mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Alan Stern of SwRI is the principal investigator. SwRI leads the science team, payload operations and encounter science planning. New Horizons is part of the New Frontiers Program, managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
For more information on New Horizons, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/newhorizons

and

http://pluto.jhuapl.edu

{ http://www.nasa.gov/ }

14-04-2015 om 22:00 geschreven door peter  

A history of human space travel: Here's what we've achieved since the first trip into space

14-04-2015 om 21:55 geschreven door peter  

NASA Releases Out-Of-This-World GoPro Footage From Astronauts POV

April 14, 2015 - A NASA astronaut has filmed his out-of-this-world perspective with a GoPro during two spacewalks known as extravehicular activities (EVAs). The videos were taken on February 25 and March 1 of this year.

The footage provides a view that few of us will ever get to see, which is exactly the reason U.S. astronaut Terry Virts filmed the video while he and fellow astronaut Barry Wilmore performed essential maintenance on the International Space Station.

The first of these spacewalks (EVA #30) was filmed as Virts and Wilmore serviced the spacecraft’s robotic arm and made preparations for the International Docking Adapters that will arrive later in 2015. The second video (EVA #31) was taken as the astronauts routed 400 feet (120 meters) of cable and installed antennas for a new communications system that NASA will use in the future. 

{ http://m.disclose.tv/ }

14-04-2015 om 21:50 geschreven door peter  

Could this be proof of water on Mars?

14-04-2015 om 21:34 geschreven door peter  

Rosetta and Philae find comet not magnetised

Measurements made by Rosetta and Philae during the probe's multiple landings on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko show that the comet's nucleus is not magnetised.                                 

Rosetta and Philae investigate magnetic properties of Comet 67P/C-G. Credits: ESA / Data: Auster et al. (2015) / Spacecraft: ESA/ATG medialab

Studying the properties of a comet can provide clues to the role that magnetic fields played in the formation of Solar System bodies almost 4.6 billion years ago. The infant Solar System was once nothing more than a swirling disc of gas and dust but, within a few million years, the Sun burst into life in the centre of this turbulent disc, with the leftover material going into forming the asteroids, comets, moons and planets.

The dust contained an appreciable fraction of iron, some of it in the form of magnetite. Indeed, millimetre-sized grains of magnetic materials have been found in meteorites, indicating their presence in the early Solar System.

This leads scientists to believe that magnetic fields threading through the proto-planetary disc could have played an important role in moving material around as it started to clump together to form larger bodies.

But it remains unclear as to how crucial magnetic fields were later on in this accretion process, as the building blocks grew to centimetres, metres and then tens of metres across, before gravity started to dominate when they grew to hundreds of metres and kilometres in scale.

Some theories concerning the aggregation of magnetic and non-magnetic dust particles show that the resulting bigger objects could also remain magnetised, allowing them to also be influenced by the magnetic fields of the proto-planetary disc.

Because comets contain some of the most pristine materials in the Solar System, they offer a natural laboratory for investigating whether or not these larger chunks could have remained magnetised.

Reconstructing Philae's trajectory. Credits: ESA / Data: Auster et al. (2015) / Comet image: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA

However, detecting the magnetic field of comets has proven difficult in previous missions, which have typically made rapid flybys, relatively far from comet nuclei.

It has taken the proximity of ESA's Rosetta orbiter to Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, and the measurements made much closer to and at the surface by its lander Philae, to provide the first detailed investigation of the magnetic properties of a comet nucleus.

Philae's magnetic field measuring instrument is the Rosetta Lander Magnetometer and Plasma Monitor (ROMAP), while Rosetta carries a magnetometer as part of the Rosetta Plasma Consortium suite of sensors (RPC-MAG).

Changes in the magnetic field surrounding Rosetta allowed RPC-MAG to detect the moment when Philae was deployed in the morning of 12 November 2014.

Then, by sensing periodic variations in the measured external magnetic field and motions in its boom arm, ROMAP was able to detect the touchdown events and determine the orientation of Philae over the following hours. Combined with information from the CONSERT experiment that provided an estimate of the final landing site location, timing information, images from Rosetta's OSIRIS camera, assumptions about the gravity of the comet, and measurements of its shape, it was possible to determine Philae's trajectory.

The mission teams soon discovered that Philae not only touched down once at Agilkia, but also came into contact with the comet's surface four times in fact – including a grazing collision with a surface feature that sent it tumbling towards the final touchdown point at Abydos.

This complex trajectory turned out to be scientifically beneficial to the ROMAP team.

The non-magnetic comet. Credits: ESA / Data: Auster et al. (2015) / Background comet image: ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM - CC BY-SA IGO 3.0

"The unplanned flight across the surface actually meant we could collect precise magnetic field measurements with Philae at the four points we made contact with, and at a range of heights above the surface," says Hans-Ulrich Auster, co-principal investigator of ROMAP and lead author of the results published in the journal Science and presented at the European Geosciences Union General Assembly in Vienna, Austria, today.

The multiple descents and ascents meant that the team could compare measurements made on the inward and outward journeys to and from each contact point, and as it flew across the surface.

ROMAP measured a magnetic field during these sequences, but found that its strength did not depend on the height or location of Philae above the surface. This is not consistent with the nucleus itself being responsible for that field.

"If the surface was magnetised, we would have expected to see a clear increase in the magnetic field readings as we got closer and closer to the surface," explains Hans-Ulrich. "But this was not the case at any of the locations we visited, so we conclude that Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is a remarkably non-magnetic object."

Instead, the magnetic field that was measured was consistent with an external one, namely the influence of the solar wind interplanetary magnetic field near the comet nucleus. This conclusion is confirmed by the fact that variations in the field that were measured by Philae closely agree with those seen at the same time by Rosetta.

"During Philae's landing, Rosetta was about 17 km above the surface, and we could provide complementary magnetic field readings that rule out any local magnetic anomalies in the comet's surface materials," says Karl-Heinz Glassmeier, principal investigator of RPC-MAG on board the orbiter and a co-author of the Science paper.

If large chunks of material on the surface of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko were magnetised, ROMAP would have recorded additional variations in its signal as Philae flew over them.

"If any material is magnetised, it must be on a scale of less than one metre, below the spatial resolution of our measurements. And if Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is representative of all cometary nuclei, then we suggest that magnetic forces are unlikely to have played a role in the accumulation of planetary building blocks greater than one metre in size," concludes Hans-Ulrich.

"It's great to see the complementary nature of Rosetta and Philae's measurements, working together to answer this simple, but important 'yes-no' question as to whether the comet is magnetised," says Matt Taylor, ESA's Rosetta project scientist.

Notes for Editors

"The non-magnetic nucleus of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko," by H.-U. Auster et al. is published in Science Express on 14 April.

The results were also presented on 14 April at the European Geosciences Union (EGU) General Assembly 2015 in Vienna, Austria, during a dedicated Rosetta mission press briefing.

The data were collected by the Rosetta Lander Magnetometer and Plasma Monitor (ROMAP) on board Philae and the Rosetta Plasma Consortium fluxgate magnetometer (RPC-MAG) on board Rosetta.

Overall, the data show that the comet has an upper magnetic field magnitude of less than 2 nT at the cometary surface at multiple locations, with a specific magnetic moment of < 3.1 × 10^-5 Am²/kg, less than known values for lunar material and meteorites measured on Earth.

About ROMAP

ROMAP is the Rosetta Lander Magnetometer and Plasma Monitor. The contributing institutions to ROMAP are: Institut für Geophysik und Extraterrestrische Physik, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Germany; Max-Planck Institut für Sonnensystemforschung, Göttingen, Germany; Hungarian Academy of Sciences Centre for Energy Research, Hungary; and Space Research Institute Graz, Austria. The co-principal investigators are Hans-Ulrich Auster (Technische Universität, Braunschweig) and István Apáthy, KFKI, Budapest, Hungary.

About RPC-MAG

RPC-MAG one of six instruments comprising the Rosetta Plasma Consortium. The fluxgate magnetometer (RPC-MAG) is led by Karl-Heinz Glassmeier, Technische Universität, Braunschweig, Germany.

About Rosetta

Rosetta is an ESA mission with contributions from its Member States and NASA. Rosetta's Philae lander was provided by a consortium led by DLR, MPS, CNES and ASI. Rosetta is the first mission in history to rendezvous with a comet. It is escorting the comet as they orbit the Sun together. Philae landed on the comet on 12 November 2014. Comets are time capsules containing primitive material left over from the epoch when the Sun and its planets formed. By studying the gas, dust and structure of the nucleus and organic materials associated with the comet, via both remote and in situ observations, the Rosetta mission should become the key to unlocking the history and evolution of our Solar System.

For further information, please contact

Markus Bauer
ESA Science and Robotic Exploration Communication Officer
Tel: +31 71 565 6799
Mob: +31 61 594 3 954
Email: markus.baueresa.int

Hans-Ulrich Auster
ROMAP principal investigator
Technische Universität, Braunschweig
Email: uli.austertu-bs.de

Karl-Heinz Glassmeier
RPC-MAG principal investigator
Technische Universität, Braunschweig
Email: kh.glassmeiertu-bs.de

Matt Taylor
ESA Rosetta project scientist
Email: matthew.tayloresa.int

{ http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/area/index.cfm?fareaid=1 }

14-04-2015 om 21:28 geschreven door peter  

14-04-2015 om 21:21 geschreven door peter  

UFOs in the Bible and the Vedas

Baptism of Christ by Aert de Gelder

It is extraordinary how many UFO accounts there are in ancient records and religions – from totally different places, periods of history, cultures and belief systems. Whatever your views on the UFO phenomenon – it is certainly not new. The terminology of some of these archaic accounts may be unfamiliar to us, but, when viewed objectively, the words used are in fact no less primitive than those used in modern times. What, we might wonder, will future generations make of a culture which described extraterrestrial spacecraft as “flying saucers”, or “cigar-shaped objects”?

Below are three extracts from Contacts with the Gods from Space, by Dr. George King with Richard Lawrence, which look at so-called “UFOs” in the Bible, and the Vedas, two highly significant ancient religious works. Please do bear in mind, however, that this is just the tip of the ufological iceberg in terms of how much material there is on this subject in pre-modern literature. There are even mysterious depictions of UFOs in art, in a diverse array of paintings such as the 18th-century ‘Baptism of Christ’ by Aert de Gelder.

UFOs in the Bible

The Annunciation with Emidius, by Carlo Crivelli

The Bible is not completely accurate as an historical document. Numerous scholarly researchers have shown that not only has it been through different translations, but several different scribes have worked on it, some with political motivations of varying kinds, thereby introducing considerable potential for inconsistency. This does not make it worthless – far from it. It is a very valuable document but it cannot be regarded as completely accurate. Everything which follows in this section should be read in the light of this.

The most often quoted account of a biblical UFO occurs in the Book of Ezekiel. This description, which is dated by scholars as occurring in approximately 600 BC, took place when Ezekiel was among the captives in Chaldea by the Chebar River. Ezekiel, Chapter 1, Verse 4, reads as follows:

• And I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself, and a brightness was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the colour of amber, out of the midst of the fire.

This beautiful description of a UFO continues with what is commonly described as “a close encounter of the third kind”. A close encounter of the first kind is a UFO sighting. This type of close encounter has been reported by hundreds of thousands of people around the world. A close encounter of the second kind includes some kind of physical evidence of a UFO sighting, such as a photograph or some physical substance from the craft. This type of close encounter is much rarer than the first, but there have been photographs taken of extraterrestrial spacecraft. A close encounter of the third kind is a meeting with one or more occupants of UFOs who are visitors from other planets. After studying the abundance of evidence for UFOs there is no doubt in my mind that UFOs do exist and have been seen through the ages in a multitude of different countries and cultures (Note 1). What many people do not realise is that, according to opinion polls, believers in UFOs are in a majority, not a minority, as the media often like to imply.

The important thing about UFOs is not so much the craft itself but the people who man and control these craft. Ezekiel’s account is therefore very revealing. He witnessed four Interplanetary Beings stepping out of this UFO and received information and instructions from them. He referred to them as “living creatures”. Later in the same chapter there is a more detailed description of the spacecraft, which is described as “a wheel in the middle of a wheel” and having “eyes round about them four”. This last description is taken to refer to portholes which have often been seen in UFO sightings. A wheel within a wheel could be an inner superstructure revolving whilst an outer one remains stationary. This type of phenomenon has also been witnessed.

After the exodus of the Jews from Egypt, led by Moses, there are numerous descriptions of UFOs which seem to have often accompanied them. Of course, the scribes writing the Bible did not use the kind of terminology that we use. They would refer to clouds and stars with the properties of high speed movement and flight control, as well as fiery chariots and so on. The following extract from the Book of Exodus, Chapter 13, Verses 21-22 is a typical example:

• And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud, to lead them along the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night: He took not away the pillar of cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people.

This description of pillars of cloud and fire is very close to the cigar-shaped description of a UFO. In fact I much prefer the Biblical description of a pillar to the far less evocative one of a cigar! In the 20th century we have become more mundane in our descriptive terminology. Compare, for example, “wheel in the middle of a wheel”, with the rather facile term, “flying saucer”.

The Prophet Elijah was taken to heaven in a space vehicle; his follower Elisha was with him at the time and witnessed this, and II Kings, Chapter 2, Verse 11, reads as follows:

• And it came to pass, as they (Elijah and Elisha) still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.

Obviously the chariot and horses represent a vehicle to the Biblical scribes and the whirlwind suggests an apparent vortex of energy which is often described in UFO sightings.

The Prophet Zechariah gave a very precise description of a UFO, in Chapter 5,

Verses 1-2:

• Then I turned and lifted up mine eyes and looked, and behold, a flying scroll. And he said unto me, “What seest thou?” I answered, I see a flying scroll, the length thereof is 20 cubits, and the breadth thereof 10 cubits.

A scroll, of course, would be a similar shape to the cigar-shaped type of object.

[…]

However, before leaving the Judaic-Christian UFO legacy, I must refer to possibly the most significant and famous biblical sighting of them all, namely, the Star of Bethlehem.

An excerpt from the Book of Matthew, Chapter 2, Verses 9-11, reads as follows:

• And, lo, the Star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was. When they saw the Star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary, his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him.

It is staggering to think that for centuries it was believed that a star had led the three wise men to a stable in Bethlehem. If a star were to come near enough to this planet, assuming that gravity allowed it to do so in the first place, and then pinpointed a country, never mind a city, never mind a young child in a stable in an inn, there would be a dire cosmic catastrophe. All the laws of science prove that stars cannot possibly do that. No, this was a classic example of a UFO leading three advanced men to a great Interplanetary Master who had been born on this Planet to perform a specific mission.

[…]

UFOs in the Vedas

Artist’s impression of a vimana in ancient India

When you look at other religious scripts you find a very similar pattern of UFO involvement in the spiritual revelations of our history. The Hindu texts known as the Vedas are a good example of this. As with the Holy Bible, there is no guarantee of the complete accuracy of these writings which, in some cases, were passed down for thousands of years orally before being written down at all. There is therefore a definite margin for error and the chronology may have been incorrectly altered along the way.

Texts like the Ramayana use the Sanskrit word, vimana, which means “flying celestial vehicle”. The following is an extract from the Ramayana which is typical of the descriptions of vimanas:

• When morning dawned, Rama, taking the vimana Puspaka had sent him by Vivpishand, stood ready to depart. Self-propelled was that car. It was large and finely painted.

In another extract, a vimana is described as follows:

• That aerial and excellent vimana, going everywhere at will, is ready for thee. That vimana, resembling a bright cloud in the sky, is in the city of Lanka.

It is interesting to note here the reference to “at will” which suggests a stupendous science involving thought control by the occupants […]. The Vedas, and indeed the Buddhist scripts, have a concept of life throughout the planetary realms. They fully accept the existence of life on other worlds and life on higher spheres as being part of the same belief in universal consciousness.

One Vedic script describes the liberation of a Maharajah (King) named Dhruva from material bondage into high spiritual consciousness. This is often referred to in metaphysical writings as the state of Ascension. This amazing experience, which takes on a cosmic dimension, is described in the Bhagavata Purana, Book 4, Chapter 12, as follows:

• As soon as the symptoms of his liberation were manifest, he saw a very beautiful vimana coming down from the sky, as if the brilliant full moon were coming down, illuminating all the ten directions…

He was then picked up by this vimana, or UFO, and the following is a description of his journey:

• While Dhruva Maharajah was passing through space, he gradually saw all the planets of the Solar System, and on the path he saw all the demi-gods in their vimanas showering flowers upon him like rain…
• Beyond that region, he achieved the transcendental situation of permanent life in the planet where Lord Vishnu lives.

Not only does this description detail a truly beautiful close encounter of the third kind which took place thousands of years ago, it also indicates that it is possible to attain such a high and elevated state of consciousness, that one is liberated from the need to reside on Earth and can go to other worlds for continued existence.

(Note 1: The use of the first person refers to Richard Lawrence, co-author of Contacts with the Gods from Space – the book from which the extracts on this page were taken.)

Recommended:

• Contacts with the Gods from Space – Dr. George King with Richard Lawrence
• UFOs & the Extraterrestrial Message – Richard Lawrence

{ www.aetherius.org }

14-04-2015 om 21:05 geschreven door peter  

Humans do NOT come from Earth – and sunburn, bad backs and pain during labour prove it, expert claims

• A U.S. ecologist says conditions such as bad backs and sunburn suggest humans did not evolve alongside other life on Earth
• In a new book, Dr Ellis Silver says aliens put humans our planet as recently as tens of thousands of years ago
• He suggests the Earth  might be a prison planet, since humans seem to be a naturally violent  species and are here until we learn to behave ourselves

By Sarah Griffiths

In his book, Dr Ellis Silver points to a number of physiological features to make his case for why humans did not evolve alongside other life on Earth

A U.S. ecologist has claimed that humans are not from Earth but were put on the planet by aliens tens of thousands of years ago.

Dr Ellis Silver points to a number of physiological features to make his case for why humans did not evolve alongside other life on Earth, in his new book.

They range from humans suffering from bad backs - which he suggests is because we evolved in a world with lower gravity – to getting too easily sunburned and having difficulty giving birth.

Dr Ellis says that while the planet meets humans’ needs for the most part, it does not perhaps serve the species’ interests as well as the aliens who dropped us off imagined.

In his book, HUMANS ARE NOT FROM EARTH: A SCIENTIFIC EVALUATION OF THE EVIDENCE, the ecologist writes the human race has defects that mark it of being ‘not of this world’.

‘Mankind is supposedly the most highly developed species on the planet, yet is surprisingly unsuited and ill-equipped for Earth's environment: harmed by sunlight, a strong dislike for naturally occurring foods, ridiculously high rates of chronic disease, and more,’ he told Yahoo.

Dr Ellis says that humans might suffer from bad backs because they evolved on a world with lower gravity.

He also says that it is strange that babies’ heads are so large and make it difficult for women to give birth, which can result in fatalities of the mother and infant.

Dr Ellis says that humans might suffer from bad backs (illustrated) because they evolved on a world with lower gravity. He also says that it is strange that babies' heads are so large and make it difficult for women to give birth, which resulted in fatalities in earlier times

No other native species on this planet has this problem, he says.

He also believes humans are not designed to be as exposed to the sun as they are on Earth, as they cannot sunbathe for more than a week or two – unlike a lizard – and cannot be exposed to the sun every day without problems.

Dr Ellis also claims humans are always ill and this might be because our body clocks have evolved to expects a 25 hour day, as proven by sleep researchers.

This is not a modern condition; the same factors can be traced all the way back through mankind's history on Earth,’ he says.

He suggests that Neanderthals such as homo erectus were crossbred with another species, perhaps from Alpha Centauri, which is the closest star system to our solar system, some 4.37 light years away from the sun.

He also believes humans are not designed to be so exposed to the sun as they are on Earth, as they cannot sunbathe for more than a week or two ¿ unlike a lizard ¿ and cannot be exposed to the sun every day

Dr Ellis said many people feel that they don’t belong and feel at home on Earth.

‘This suggests (to me at least) that mankind may have evolved on a different planet, and we may have been brought here as a highly developed species.’

‘One reason for this … is that the Earth might be a prison planet, since we seem to be a naturally violent species and we're here until we learn to behave ourselves,’ he said.

Dr Ellis said the book is intended to create debate, instead of being a scientific study and hopes it will lead to people getting in touch with him with further suggestions of 'evidence'.

While other scientists have said some bacteria arrived on Earth from space, Chris McKay, an astrobiologist at NASA, said that to jump to the conclusion that it is alien life is ‘a big jump’.

Was this home? Dr Ellis suggests Neanderthals such as homo erectus were crossbred with another species, perhaps from Alpha Centauri. Star Proxima Centauri is pictured in the star system, which is the closest to our solar system some 4.37 light years away from the sun

Professor Wainwright from the University of Sheffield plans to investigate further, and believes that life is constantly arriving from space that did not originate on Earth.

Dr Ellis says that while his idea is an extreme evolution of that idea, it is intended to be thought-provoking and he claims to have had a largely positive response to it.

He is interested in whether humans came to Earth separately, perhaps by arriving on meteors and comets, before evolving into the species we know today.

‘My thesis proposes that mankind did not evolve from that particular strain of life, but evolved elsewhere and was transported to Earth (as fully evolved Homo sapiens) between 60,000 and 200,000 years ago,’ he says. 

{ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

14-04-2015 om 20:41 geschreven door peter  

Strange radio signals coming from microwaves -- not aliens

Monday, April 13, 2015, 6:08 PM - For years, scientists were baffled over a series of brief and intense radio signals that appeared to be coming from deep space -- but a new study has shed some light on their surprising origin.

The signals -- called perytons -- have been reported dozens of times since the 1990s, and while they closely mimic a deep space signal, astronomers had long suspected the perytons were coming from somewhere -- or something -- near the Earth.

Emily Petroff and her team at Australia's Swinburne University of Technology installed a real-time radio interference monitor at the Parkes telescope in Australia and detected three signals right away.

Further study led them to believe the signals could be coming from a nearby microwave oven.

The hypothesis was cemented when the team found they could recreate the perytons by opening a microwave before the timer has gone off.

“It was quite surprising that [the source] ended up being microwaves," Petroff told National Geographic.

If a microwave door is opened before the timer goes off, magnetrons -- the thing in the oven that produces microwaves --aren't given a chance to properly shut off, and the microwaves get transmitted into the atmosphere.

“Radio emission escaping from microwave ovens during the magnetron shut-down phase neatly explain all of the observed properties of the peryton signals,” the study authors write, adding the microwaves causing the radio signals likely originated from the staff kitchen and visitor's centre at Parkes Observatory. 

The complete paper can be found at the Cornell University Library (CUL).

Sources: CUL | National Geographic

{ http://www.theweathernetwork.com/ }

14-04-2015 om 20:27 geschreven door peter  

Daily UFO Headlines 4/14/15

(Before It's News)

openminds.tv

• Hastings’ own UFO expert’s role in upcoming TV documentary – Sussex Express
• UFO Orbs Filmed Over Atlanta By Airline Passenger — Real Or Hoax? – The Inquisitr
• Are we alone? A lecture on extraterrestrial life – MassLive.com
• Aliens come to Coventry libraries ahead of their latest show – Coventry Observer
• Strange radio signals coming from microwaves — not aliens – The Weather Network

Source: http://www.openminds.tv/daily-ufo-headlines-41415/33044

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14-04-2015 om 20:23 geschreven door peter  

UFO Sighting Over Sacramento California April 2015

(Before It's News)

Posted By Paranormal Stories

UFO sighting over Sacramento California April 2015

14-04-2015 om 19:00 geschreven door peter  

14-04-2015 om 18:57 geschreven door peter  

Two linked UFOs over London, UK 12-Apr-2015

This video was just reported to me. It’s showing a two linked lights hovering in the night sky above London, the capital and most populous city of the United Kingdom. Recorded on Sunday, 12th April 2015.

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

14-04-2015 om 18:53 geschreven door peter  

Spheres of light over New Zealand

TheThirdMillenium show presents Damian Nott from Australia. He’s a UFO hunter who captured a few amazing videos of bright orbs.

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

14-04-2015 om 18:51 geschreven door peter  

UFOs in the sky above New York City 11-Apr-2015

This night time UFO video of a two unkown orbs was filmed in the sky above New York City. This happened on Sunday, 11th April 2015.

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

14-04-2015 om 18:48 geschreven door peter  

Video – Enjoy these Excellent UFOs collection:)

Enjoy these Excellent UFOs collection:) - http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2mjbnh_enjoy-these-excellent-ufos-collection_news via @DailymotionUSA

Video – Enjoy these Excellent UFOs collection:)

This video is a collection of some UFOs appeared in different Countries on our Planet.

Related posts:

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   Points To The Celestial Origins Of Our Ancestors!
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   (Photos)
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6. Air Force UFO Rules Vanish After Huffington Post Inquiry
7. Video: Bright UFOs hovering above Texas 14-Dec-2012

ET.Updates - DailyMotion

14-04-2015 om 18:25 geschreven door peter  

UFO sighting near LAX, California on 11th April 2015

New interesting video footage of a  bright UFO sighting recorded near LAX, California on 11th April 2015.

14-04-2015 om 18:19 geschreven door peter  

Crops Circle near Southern Holland on 17th March 2015

New interesting Crop Circle photos recorded near Southern Holland on 17th March 2015.

14-04-2015 om 18:17 geschreven door peter