The Dylatov Pass incident has more theories, explanations and excuse than a lost election, but none have ever plugged all of the holes in the sieve that started with the disappearance in February 1959 of nine healthy young Russian hikers on a skiing expedition across the northern Urals in Sverdlovsk Oblast during the Cold War heyday of the Soviet Union. The lack of visible concrete evidence of what happened, the strange ways they each died and the mysterious disarray of the campsite spawned investigations, theories of the UFO, Yeti, weather, criminal and conspiracy kind, and countless books and TV shows … but no answers. Now, an exhaustive investigation by the Russian government has reached what it says is a concrete conclusion. They say the cause of the deaths of the Dyatlov Pass nine was …

“It was a heroic struggle. There was no panic. But they had no chance to save themselves under the circumstances.”

First, a few hints from Andrey Kutyakov, the deputy head of Russia’s General Prosecutor’s Office branch in the Urals which has been conducting an intense investigation since February 2019. “Heroic struggle.” “No panic.” “No chance to save themselves under the circumstances.” What kind of circumstances would cause experienced hikers and skiers to put up a struggle, yet not panic in circumstances that were fatal?

“[The dead tourists’] injuries are characteristic for the injuries of rock climbers caught in an avalanche.”

TASS, Reuters and other media sites reported on the conclusion of Kutyakov and the General Prosecutor’s Office announced via the RIA news agency. Avalanche. The biggest clue was the injuries.

“If we take a [tennis] ball, create surrounding pressure and push from above, it will break not where the force is applied, but on the opposite side. Correspondingly, if the snow presses everywhere from above (three or four meters of snow, that is approximately half a tonne of snow), then the injury should be on the opposite side. Hence, everybody had them on the opposite side.”

According to the investigation, the group was surprised and quickly covered and crushed, in some cases crushed to death, by the avalanche. The rest were forced to quickly cut their way out of their tents wearing what they had been sleeping in – which explains the strange combinations of clothing (and lack of clothing) their bodies were found in. They managed to stay together to climb to the protection of a nearby ridge 50 meters (165 feet) away (a smart move) but then made the mistake of attempting to return to their tents in a blinding blizzard.

“They started walking down the mountain, made a fire and then attempted to get back to the tent, but froze to death, because the temperature was minus 40-45 degrees Celsius (minus 40-49 F).”

That explains why the bodies were found scattered around the campsite – especially the four that weren’t found until two months later.

Disappointed it’s not UFOs, Yeti, a secret nuclear test or something more exotic and mysterious? Disbelieving because it’s an investigation by a government that is probably tired of answering questions about an incident that happened 61 years ago? You’re probably not alone and this is probably not the last search for the cause of the Dylatov Pass incident despite this one’s official conclusion.

“But they had no chance to save themselves under the circumstances.”

When it comes to theories about the Dylatov Pass incident, neither do we.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

13-07-2020 om 23:36 geschreven door peter  

1999: The Washington State Elk Abduction

Date: February 25, 1999

Sighting Time: before noon

Day/Night: daytime

Location: Cascade Mountains, Near Mt. St. Helens, Washington

Hynek Classification: DD

Duration:

Shape of Object(s): Disc

Number of Witnesses: Multiple

No. of Object(s):  1

Size of Object(s): 7 to 8 feet

Distance to Object(s): 800 yards

Color of Object(s): red and a white patch on the surface

Source: NUFORC report: Source

Summary: A team of forestry workers allegedly had been witness to an incident on Thursday, February 25, 1999, during which time an elk was lifted off the ground and carried away by a very peculiar, disc-shaped object.

Full Report

Above: Rendition by Robert Fairfax, UFO researcher, of elk abduction.

(credit: FATE Magazine)

One of the witnesses, “Augustine”, points toward where he saw the craft carry the elk.

(credit: MUFON Journal

Diagram of UFO by Robert Fairfax. (credit: FATE Magazine)

UFO Elk Abduction Said Witnessed In Washington State

On Monday, March 01, 1999, the National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC) received a call over its telephone Hotline (206-722-3000) from an individual who identified himself as an employee in the forestry industry in Washington State. The individual left a message, in which he reported that a team of forestry workers allegedly had been witness to an incident on Thursday, February 25, 1999, during which time an elk was lifted off the ground and carried away by a very peculiar, disc-shaped object. [*Click here to hear an excerpt from the hotline recording.]

Peter B. Davenport, Director of NUFORC, contacted several of the individuals whose names and telephone numbers had been provided by the first contact. Based on those telephone conversations, he elected to initiate a preliminary investigation of the incident.

Because NUFORC traditionally does not serve as an investigative body, Mr. Davenport contacted Mr. Robert A. Fairfax, Director of Investigations for the Washington State Chapter of the Mutual UFO Network, which does conduct investigations of alleged UFO sightings. Messrs. Davenport and Fairfax traveled to the location of the alleged incident, and jointly have been conducting an investigation of this elk abduction case since Friday, March 05.

Their investigation to date has included a trip to the site of the incident, an interview of three of the alleged fourteen witnesses to the actual abduction, and several conversations with individuals who work with the eyewitnesses. In addition, the investigators inspected the carcass of an adult elk, a pregnant cow, which was found dead beside a logging road on March 01 by other forestry employees within a few miles of the principal event.

The investigation and collection of facts surrounding the case will continue. This preliminary summary of their findings to date is submitted jointly by Messrs. Davenport and Fairfax.

—————————

By Low Lawhon

The Washington State Elk Abduction
February 25, 1999
11:58 A.M.

On this winter morning, fourteen forestry workers, employees of a large, unnamed company, were planting trees in the Cascade Mountains of Washington State about 20 miles west of Mt. St. Helens. Three of the men had been watching a nearby herd of elk in the valley below them all morning.
Suddenly, a heel-shaped object with two stripes on its back appeared over a nearby ridge and began drifting in a northeast direction. Initially, the three men thought it was something like a parachute, but it maintained a steady altitude, following the contours of the terrain below it.

As the object began to move toward the herd of elk, the three men called out to the other eleven members of the work crew. All fourteen men stood on the hillside and watched as the object floated down into the valley towards the elk.

The silent object was able to get quite near the elk before the animals noticed it. When they did notice it, most of the herd ran to the east, toward a densely wooded area. One elk, though, trotted off toward the north, down a logging road. It was to this lone elk that the object flew. The amazed workers watched as the object floated above the elk and then appeared to lift the elk off the ground with some sort of invisible force. The object then moved off, with the elk slowly rotating beneath it. It moved up the ridge, barely clearing the trees, and then down into the next valley, out of sight of the forestry workers. After a few minutes, the object then reappeared, apparently without the elk, and rose at high speed until it disappeared into the sky.

The case was reported to NUFORC, and Peter Davenport of NUFORC and Robert Fairfax of MUFON Washington traveled to the site and interviewed the witnesses. For their report go to NUFORC. They also examined the body of a female elk that was found to the north of the site. It could not be determined if this was the same elk. Many of the witnesses had been with the company for years and they were generally deemed to be reliable.

MUFON REPORT

On February 25, 1999 three forestry workers in the Mt. St. Helens area of Washington State witnessed a daytime elk abduction. The preliminary report appeared in the MUFON UFO Journal of May 1999. The follow-up investigation reveals additional details and corrects inaccuracies. For purposes of confidentiality, all witness names are pseudonyms.

The preliminary investigation:

On a cold March afternoon with fresh snow up to their boot tops and a rolling valley before them, Peter Davenport (Director, National UFO Reporting Center) and Robert Fairfax (MUFON investigator) stood contemplating the account of an extraordinary event. Also at the edge of the bank stood Jack (landowner’s representative) recounting details-albeit secondhand – of”the incident witnessed by members of a crew of Hispanic forestry workers: a daytime elk abduction. As it turned out, Jack did not have all the particulars of the elk abduction correct, but we were not to find that out until much later. The 14 forestry workers could not plant seedling trees the Friday we arrived on site because ten inches of snow had fallen the previous night; therefore the crew had been given the day off. Hastily, an interview was arranged, through their employer, with three of the witnesses that same afternoon.

However, circumstances were not conducive to obtaining an accurate and detailed report. The meeting took place in a deserted parking lot of a wayside cafe. The cacophony of rushing traffic saturated the background, creating additional handicaps, since none of the three witnesses spoke more than a smidgen of English. Add to this picture a chill to the air, a limited time before sunset, and the requirement of telling the story through their boss, Emanuel, as interpreter to get an idea of the situation. So here we were, seven of us, standing around the tailgate of a pickup truck for an extemporaneous investigation. Conducting separate interviews was not a viable option. Even though group interviewing conflicts with traditional investigative practice, we perceived little choice in the matter-we needed to take advantage of this opportunity. Fully aware of the pitfalls this method of investigation presented, we made sure we scrutinized the group dynamics. As far as we could tell, each held to a personal version without acquiescing to group decision or falling under another’s influence. We were aware the participants had discussed the events among themselves extensively.

Emanuel’s efforts at translating were laudable, but he was neither a trained investigator nor interpreter. He had not been present during the abduction, and the event floated somewhere outside his compass of understanding. This presented a challenge, since we were unable to understand for ourselves what the witnesses were saying. Compounding these difficulties, Emanuel seemed reserved in his translations. We knew he believed something strange had happened to his workers; however, we also suspected he was not ready to believe anything as exotic as an alien craft snatching up an elk. The testimony waxed expansive and waned timid by turns-torn between the need to tell their story and the anxiety of raised eyebrows at the outrageousness of the tale they told. We struggled with the narrative for 35 minutes. There were innumerable questions yet to ask, but the hour grew late and signals via body language suggested we close the interview and bid farewell. Though crippled by the language barrier, our initial interview provided a tentative and skeletal picture of the event. We wanted to schedule individual interviews for the upcoming week, but were told that the witnesses would be too busy planting trees for the next few weeks-an apparent conspiracy of wet weather and time of year.

Our wait was to last 57 days. Weighing on our minds during this time-out was the knowledge that the ponderous passage of time truncates a witness’ sharp recollection of details-the blur factor. In the meantime we searched for another translator. Finding no suitable candidate in Washington, our eyes turned south to California where we knew an ideal interpreter resided. Ruben Uriarte, MUFON’s State Director for Northern California, was the answer to our problem: he not only speaks fluent Spanish, but also excels in investigation. Could we recruit him and persuade him to fly to Washington and give us a hand? The answer was an enthusiastic “yes.”

The follow-up investigation:

Ruben began immediately by phoning Emanuel and coaxing the witnesses’ phone numbers out of proprietary insularity. Then, over the next few days he arranged a meeting with several of the witnesses at one of the worker’s home. Prior to Ruben’s involvement in the case, another Washington MUFON investigator, Kathleen Andersen, joined the team. Kathleen began by cross checking other UFO events in the Mt. St. Helens area, seeking correlation and commonalities. She found cases, but no matches. An early gray Seattle morning on the first Saturday of May found Kathleen packing her Jeep with food, with equipment, and with two investigators—Ruben and Robert. We headed south. When we arrived at the designated house, the scene was a bit awkward at first, due to a small crowd that included friends and relatives milling about. The witnesses were not quite sure if they wanted to be interviewed. Fortunately, Ruben has the gift of setting people at ease, and within a short time the witnesses began talking. We were able to interview the witnesses both individually and together as a group. Later that afternoon, seven of us jumped into two vehicles and drove to the remote site in the foothills where the abduction had taken place. After 9 1/2 hours of investigation, we discovered that the preliminary report (as reported in MUFON UFO JOURNAL of March, 1999) needed amendment.

The incident:

Shortly before noon on the last Thursday of February, 1999, fourteen forestry workers had just broken for lunch and were heading for the crew vehicle. Francisco and Augustine were nearly at the turnout (1900 ft. elevation), Manuel and two others were walking up the slope (about 1600 ft. elevation) from an old overgrown access road, while the rest of the crew was scattered, most midway between the two groups on the north-facing hillside. Francisco stopped to rest momentarily and watched the 14 elk of a herd that had been browsing all morning on a nearby slope northeast of them.

Then, out of the northeast, he spotted a strange moving object. The UFO, presumably, had already dropped some 70 feet down the height of the Douglas Fir trees bordering the dirt road and was now drifting over a hilltop. Skimming the clear-cut at brush top level and hugging the contour of the hill, the UFO appeared to be heading slowly toward the herd of elk. The object’s initial location was approximately 800 yards distant and 200 ft. lower in elevation than Francisco’s location. At first Francisco mistook it for a bi-colored paraglider silently drifting in for a landing. The object had a strange, slow wobble. It showed red on the right half, white on the left. Francisco quickly realized that he was not seeing any type of parachute.

The object advanced toward the elk herd, staying close to the ground as if in a “stealth mode.” When the elk became aware of the object, they bolted. Most tried running up the slope to the east, but the going was slow. A lone elk separated from the herd and headed north. The craft targeted the loner and moved in. Surprised and astounded, Francisco shouted to Augustine, “Look at that! Look at that!” The clear-cut terrain prevented rapid movement for the animals: innumerable small deciduous trees had trunks cut about 18″ above the ground, transforming them into sharp stakes pointing skyward. The trunks, bristling with branches, lay helter-skelter, presenting criss-crossing barricades. The lone animal could not run fast. The wobbling craft, moving no faster than between 5 and 7 mph (est.), easily overtook it.

Augustine had missed the pursuit but caught sight of the UFO as it took the elk. Down-slope, Manuel (crew supervisor) also witnessed the capture-500 yards distant. Nearly every other person’s attention had been diverted toward the main group of fleeing animals. The craft moved directly above the female elk and somehow lifted it into the air without any visible means of support evident to the observers. At this point, the animal ceased discernible movement-no kicking legs, no struggling body, and no indication of consciousness. The witnesses were amazed that the craft could lift the 500-pound animal. The “wing span” of the object measured not much longer than the length of the elk-about 7 to 8 feet. (The increase in size attributed to the craft in the earlier report seems to have been an illusion caused by a change in the craft’s angle of tilt over the terrain at the point of capture.)

The captured elk, its head apparently against the ventral surface of the craft, and body standing stiffly upright, was lifted off the ground-just enough to clear the underbrush. The craft continued its slow, wobbling oscillation. The suspended elk moved likewise as if she were a solid metal sculpture welded to the craft. After the craft acquired (without pause) the animal, it moved away at the same slow pace, to the north, following the contour of the land. The elk’s feet were observed sweeping circles, in conjunction with the craft’s movement, just above the brush and tree tops. Within a short time the craft approached the forest edge that defined the end of the clear-cut area. Apparently the craft did not stop or maneuver in time to avoid hitting some of the lower branches. Because of the considerable distance of the craft, the witnesses could not discern exactly what had hit the trees-whether the craft, the elk, or something else is unknown.

After hitting the branches, the witnesses saw it dip sharply and reverse direction before ascending vertically in front of the tree line. All three had the impression that the object had almost dropped the animal. Once above the tree top level, it moved over the forest margin and continued northward, dipped out of sight momentarily (perhaps still following the contour line of tree tops), then ascended at roughly a 45-degree angle into the distance until it was obscured by clouds. Meanwhile, the rest of the herd had gathered into a tight huddle near the tree line, a normal behavior when a predatory threat is perceived. This herd consisted of cows and yearlings. The bulls at this time of year stay in bachelor groups at a higher elevation. The huddle lasted for two hours.

Reactions and emotions:

The witnesses shared their story among themselves at lunch. Several of the workers that had not sighted the craft expressed doubt that anything extraordinary had happened. Nevertheless, the reactions of both the elk and the excited co-workers evoked fear, generating a tense emotional atmosphere. The humans, analogous to the elk’s behavior, consciously stayed in close proximity for the rest of the afternoon. Even those that doubted the story knew something had happened and were not comfortable working far from the rest. Some, perhaps because of limited beliefs imposed by philosophical predisposition, clung to a tightly fenced world – trying to force all that they had heard into some familiar pattern, consistent with their reality. These were the fellows that had directed jokes and gibes at Francisco in particular. These skeptics continued planting seedling trees throughout the afternoon in a normal manner. This was in sharp contrast to those workers who feared a return of the object-they planted with heads continually swiveling skyward.

Craft Details:

Curiously, the witnesses were unable to agree on all the structural details of the craft. No one person had a complete description. Generally, all agreed on the length of the “wing span” (7-8 ft.) because they could compare it to the elk suspended beneath. Augustine perceived the relative depth to length, which measured out to 14 -18 inches. Manuel had the clearest perception of the width to length (5-6 feet) and the rear indentation. All agreed that the UFO intermittently showed a red and a white patch on the surface. Francisco was sure it was a part of the craft’s skin, but Augustine thought they were lights, and Manuel could not tell either way. They were unanimous that the red was dull (comparable to red pencil on a heavy textured paper), without luminescence, and that the white reflected like bright enamel paint. They were in agreement that red was on the right, white on the left, yet size, shape and position of the colors was not precisely known.

The craft’s wobble caused the red and white to show intermittently. (See illustration of oscillation cycle: the top surface orients toward the observer for approximately one half of the wave revolution period.) The craft’s color, other than the red and white areas, was described as gray. There were no reflections or surface characteristics that suggested the surface was metallic (note: it was an overcast day.). The trio described the craft’s complex motion primarily through hand movements. As close as can be determined, the UFO had an oscillatory period of about 2 to 2 1/2 seconds. This particular motion-apart from the object’s forward motion-is difficult to describe except in terms of analogy. Peter described the motion as similar to that of a spinning coin as it is winding down and closely approaching a flat surface. Francisco expressed regret that he had not taken time to carefully examine the details of the craft. He had been astounded and felt so much concern for the elk that his attention was focused on watching the animal. He realized immediately that if the object could carry off a 500-pound animal, it could easily abduct a per-son-a frightening notion that several members of the group later shared.

Puzzling Question:

The craft’s estimated speed (“I could walk as fast as it moved.”-i.e. approximately 5-7 mph) closely matches the estimated duration (3-5 min.) required for the observed distance traveled, as measured on a topographical map. With such a long sighting duration, an important question looms: “Why didn’t more people see the craft with an elk suspended under it?” A number of reasons appear to answer this:

• When Francisco excitedly announced and pointed out the event, only Augustine was near enough to discern that the direction of his index finger pointed left of the herd. 14 panic-stricken elk, all weaving their way up slope, presented a sight that would be apt to draw a person’s attention.
• Not everyone heard Francisco shout, and the other witnesses remained quiet.
• Within a very short time, the craft and herd (both moving away from each other) had separated enough that when bystanders visually searched for an assumed predator, such as a mountain lion, they did not scrutinize terrain far enough away from the herd to see the craft. They also spent time checking the immediate area around themselves for dangerous animals.
• All three witnesses to the craft were so astounded and absorbed with watching the UFO that at the time they did not think to question other spectators as to what they were watching.

Aftermath:

Most of the workers have developed a sudden interest in UFOs following this incident. Some related that their spouses did not believe the story. A few are nervous when working in the forest, especially when in the general area of the incident-they constantly search the sky. Francisco could not understand what he saw, and spent several sleepless nights pondering whether the object was some type of prehistoric animal or an extraterrestrial craft. All want answers.

An update to this case appeared in Filer’s Files #12-1999. Mr. Filer contacted Mr. Robert A. Fairfax to see if he had more details on the case. Part of Mr. Fairfax’s response follows:

Filer: “I am particularly interested in the description of the craft itself.”

Fairfax: “So am I; this is one of the areas we will try and nail. There were two flashes described as the craft wobbled. A fluorescent magenta (top) and a white (bottom). These were apparently not lights but seemed to be areas on the surface. They were seen intermittently but again we will need to pin the details down along with many others.”

Filer: “What was the direction of flight and the last known direction of travel?”

Fairfax: “It was first seen in the SE traveling toward the NNW. It departed slowly to the NE, and then made a near vertical ascent into cloud cover.”

Filer: “Did they notice any kind of plasma, lighting, or electrical effects around the craft?”

Fairfax: “Possibly, the two bright color areas. The craft seemed to increase in size as it was capturing the elk. We’re trying to clarify that.”

Filer: “Did the craft tilt as it changed direction?”

Fairfax: “Wobbling was reported that was more pronounced before direction changes, but we need to verify with more witnesses.

Filer” “Did they notice a hum or sound?”

Fairfax: “There was no sound.

Filer: “Did you notice the height of the trees or the approximate height and distance from picking up the elk to the top of the trees?”

Fairfax: “Yes, but no precise calculations have been done. It had plenty of room to maneuver and climb.”

Filer: “Did they notice any windows?”

Fairfax: “There were no windows.”

{ http://www.thinkaboutitdocs.com/ }

13-07-2020 om 23:27 geschreven door peter  

There has been much written of on alien abductions and the people who have had to endure them. It is a phenomenon that has really taken off and become its own strange corner of the world of the weird, and such cases continue to generate debate and discussion. Yet, it is not always just people who seem to be the target of such otherworldly entities. Here we will look at the strange case of the time an elk was plucked off the ground to be whisked off by a UFO right in full view of a group of witnesses.

According to the original report logged by the National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC) and followed up by UFO researchers Peter B. Davenport, Director of NUFORC and Robert Fairfax, Director of Investigations for the Washington State Chapter of the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), on February 25, 1999, it all began with a group of forestry workers out at the Cascade Mountains of Washington State, about 20 miles west of Mt. St. Helens. On this day their mission was to plant trees. It was a cold winter morning, their breath frosting the air, and as they took a lunch break at one point just before noon, some of the workers had their attention diverted to a herd of elk in the valley below them. For this area it was not a particularly unusual sight, but things would quickly get very odd indeed.

As the workers watched the animals go about their business, the men noticed something odd come drifting up over the distant ridge, which was described as “a heel-shaped object with two stripes on its back.” They at first thought it was just perhaps a parachute of a skydiver, but whatever it was soon proved to be keeping at a steady height and travelling along horizontally over the terrain, seemingly headed straight towards those elk. This was curious enough that the three workers called over the others to see what they thought, and all of them watched this strange object drift along the terrain completely silently towards the elk herd, which did not seem to be aware of its presence. They could now see that whatever the object was, it was disc-shaped, and perhaps 8 to 10 feet in diameter, and with red and a white patch on the surface. None of them could figure out what they were looking at, and watched it with a combination of surprise and curiosity.

When the herd of elk did become aware of the mystery object approaching them, they scattered and bolted to run into the trees, and in the pandemonium one lone animal ran off down a logging road. The object allegedly pursued this single animal, moving in a sort of odd wobbly way, and as the shocked workers looked on it then seemed to somehow levitate the elk off of the ground with some sort of tractor beam as it appeared to somehow increase in size. After this, the UFO shot off towards a distant ridge with the animal apparently still dangling within that unseen invisible force beneath it, oddly not kicking or struggling, and seeming to be as if an insect caught in amber. The UFO then disappeared behind the ridge, only to go shooting up into the sky moments later without the elk. The investigators of the case would describe this series of events thusly:

The captured elk, its head apparently against the ventral surface of the craft, and body standing stiffly upright, was lifted off the ground-just enough to clear the underbrush. The craft continued its slow, wobbling oscillation. The suspended elk moved likewise as if she were a solid metal sculpture welded to the craft. After the craft acquired (without pause) the animal, it moved away at the same slow pace, to the north, following the contour of the land. The elk’s feet were observed sweeping circles, in conjunction with the craft’s movement, just above the brush and tree tops. Within a short time, the craft approached the forest edge that defined the end of the clear-cut area. Apparently, the craft did not stop or maneuver in time to avoid hitting some of the lower branches. Because of the considerable distance of the craft, the witnesses could not discern exactly what had hit the trees-whether the craft, the elk, or something else is unknown.

After hitting the branches, the witnesses saw it dip sharply and reverse direction before ascending vertically in front of the tree line. All three had the impression that the object had almost dropped the animal. Once above the tree top level, it moved over the forest margin and continued northward, dipped out of sight momentarily (perhaps still following the contour line of tree tops), then ascended at roughly a 45-degree angle into the distance until it was obscured by clouds.

When the report was logged and Davenport and Fairfax went to investigate, they interviewed several of the witnesses and deemed them to be reliable people who seemed to really believe what they had seen. During the investigation there was even an elk carcass found along a logging road to the north of the site, and although the cause of death could not be ascertained, it was unknown if this was the same animal that had been mysteriously “abducted.” Unfortunately, most of the interviewing was done with workers who were not fluent in English, and so was done through their boss, a man named Emanuel, who happened to be skeptical and reticent about the whole thing, and the investigators would lament:

Emanuel’s efforts at translating were laudable, but he was neither a trained investigator nor interpreter. He had not been present during the abduction, and the event floated somewhere outside his compass of understanding. This presented a challenge, since we were unable to understand for ourselves what the witnesses were saying. Compounding these difficulties, Emanuel seemed reserved in his translations. We knew he believed something strange had happened to his workers; however, we also suspected he was not ready to believe anything as exotic as an alien craft snatching up an elk. The testimony waxed expansive and waned timid by turns-torn between the need to tell their story and the anxiety of raised eyebrows at the outrageousness of the tale they told. We struggled with the narrative for 35 minutes. There were innumerable questions yet to ask, but the hour grew late and signals via body language suggested we close the interview and bid farewell. Though crippled by the language barrier, our initial interview provided a tentative and skeletal picture of the event.

It is worth noting that many of the witnesses were very reluctant to talk about it any further, and it leaves us wondering just what to think of all of this. What was going on here? Why would this UFO want to go after that animal? Was there some purpose to all of this, and can we ever hope to understand it? Or was it just a tall tale told by these workers to liven up a slow day? No one really knows, and it is a very odd abduction report to throw on the pile with all of the others.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

13-07-2020 om 23:13 geschreven door peter  

En ondertussen gebeuren er ook andere dingen

Ook bij ons werden rond diezelfde tijd vreemdkleurige luchten en regenbogen waargenomen zoals de volgende:

Volgens een nieuwsbrief van Planet X onderzoeker Nancy Lieder is er een reden dat deze luchten overal ter wereld een vreemde kleur vertonen. Zij zegt dat de vreemde regenboogverschijnselen zoals die in Birmingham te zien waren niets nieuws zijn, maar wel de kleur van de luchten zoals die nu overal wordt waargenomen.


Waar we hier mee te maken hebben volgens de nieuwsbrief is rode stof zoals die wordt veroorzaakt door de staart zoals die als het ware achter de planeet Nibiru aansleept. In een eerder artikel schreven wij hier het volgende over:

Zo schreef zij met de informatie van de Zeta's in 1997 al over de manen van Nibiru en vergeleek zij deze met een parelsnoer en de reden daarvoor is omdat deze manen niet in een baan om de planeet draaien, maar achter elkaar als een soort slinger achter Nibiru aan zwieren.

Naast de manen bevindt zich achter de planeet een lang gestrekte roodachtige wolk bestaande uit ruimtepuin die er ook uitziet als de rode draak zoals die in de Chinese cultuur een prominente rol speelt en binnen allerlei profetieën ook wordt genoemd in relatie tot deze onbekende planeet.

At thetime of the great destruction of Earth, God caused a dragon from out of Heaven to come and encompass her about. The dragon was frightful to behold, it lashed its tail, it breathed out fire and hot coals, and a great catastrophe was inflicted upon mankind.
 
Indertijd gaf Nancy aan dat het er ongeveer als volgt uit zou zien:

{ https://www.niburu.co/ }

13-07-2020 om 22:56 geschreven door peter  

Scientists Propose Plan to Determine If Planet Nine Is a Primordial Black Hole

Scientists at Harvard University and the Black Hole Initiative (BHI) have developed a new method to find black holes in the outer solar system, and along with it, determine once-and-for-all the true nature of the hypothesized Planet Nine. The paper, accepted to The Astrophysical Journal Letters, highlights the ability of the future Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) mission to observe accretion flares, the presence of which could prove or rule out Planet Nine as a black hole.

Artist’s conception of accretion flares resulting from the encounter of an Oort-cloud comet and a hypothesized black hole in the outer solar system..

The focus on Planet Nine is based both in the unprecedented scientific significance that a hypothetical discovery of a planet-mass black hole in the solar system would hold as well as the continued interest in understanding what’s out there. “The outskirts of the solar system is our backyard. Finding Planet Nine is like discovering a cousin living in the shed behind your home which you never knew about,” said Loeb. “It immediately raises questions: why is it there? How did it obtain its properties? Did it shape the solar system history? Are there more like it?”

The research was funded in part by a grant from the Breakthrough Prize Foundation, and by Harvard’s Black Hole Initiative (BHI), which is funded by grants from the John Templeton Foundation (JTF) and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (GBMF).

• Amy Oliver

Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA)

• Searching for Black Holes in the Outer Solar System with LSST
  Amir Siraj, Abraham Loeb  https://arxiv.org/abs/2005.12280

{ https://beforeitsnews.com/ }

13-07-2020 om 22:40 geschreven door peter  

UFO Seen Near Comet Neowise Over Taiwan At 4AM, July 12, 2020, UFO Sighting News.

Date of sighting: July 12, 2020, 4AM Taiwan time.
Location of sighting: Hehuan Mountain, Taiwan
Source: Facebook friend in Taiwan

The person woke up early to catch the famous comet Neowise as it was crossing the sky. Later when looking at the photos, a strange red glowing object was seen. The object looks like four balls flying two by two next to each other. The UFO looks huge. You can clearly see it in all three photos of the comet. And this was taken at Hehuan Mountain area, no city lights to bother the camera at all. 

Only one photo shows the UFO is high detail, the other two show a fuzzy red blur. So fortunately for us, the eyewitness got three decent photos, each with the UFO. The morning light seemed to cause the last photo to blur the UFO more. The UFO probably left the comet and was gone in 15-30 seconds. Awesome photos. Incredible evidence that Neowise is much more than we believed. 

Absolutely extraordinary and I believe this UFO came from Neowise itself. Leaving over the ocean near Taiwan in hopes of not being noticed at 4AM. But as luck would have it...aliens underestimated Taiwanese photographers. Neowise is not a comet but an alien ship making its rounds to transport and to patrol the aliens territories. 
Scott C. Waring - Taiwan

{ https://www.etdatabase.com/ }

13-07-2020 om 19:49 geschreven door peter  

Alien Body Parts In Armor Found On Mars, Would Have Stood 4 Meters Tall. UFO Sighting News.

Date of discovery: July 12, 2020

Location of discovery: Mars

Source photo:

• http://gigapan.com/gigapans/219254

The reality is right in front of us. The legs, arms, hand, foot and head with crown of an alien species. The body is not naked, but still wearing the armor it was fighting in. They all lay next to one another. Thats a sign that the person was in battle and attacked, being cut into sections by a very fine and powerful weapon...similar to a laser sword...or light saber. Take a look at the screenshots I took and the parts that I have identified. Clearly its from one person who was very tall. They stood between 3.5-4 meters tall. This is similar to the other dead body of the "King of Mars" I found several years ago...click here to see those photos. There is not a doubt in my mind that this being has multiple strands of DNA, because for every added strand comes added compactness and strength of body. This body has degraded very little since his death. 

This is undeniable proof that 4 meter tall aliens did exist on Mars. 

Scott C. Waring - Taiwan

The shoulder below has an eye and design on it, still wearing armor over the arm.

{ https://www.etdatabase.com/ }

13-07-2020 om 19:44 geschreven door peter  

VIDEO Unknown lights above Reno, Nevada 7-Jul-2020

These four very bright lights were caught on tape in the night sky above Reno, a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, approximately 22 miles from Lake Tahoe. This happened on 7th July 2020.

Witness report: 

Large round or possibly triangular object with 5 white lights. Was on a walk in neighborhood- Observed a very bright object in the sky, could not make out what it was but took picture of it (at 9:27). Continues walking and at 9:38 turned a corner and same object was hovering between a church and flag pole. I could make out the object was large and solid and had five circular bright white lights that would go on and off at various times. I began videoing it with my phone and described it as did so.

Don’t forget to follow us on Instagram for the latest UFO videos & photos.

Link: instagram.com/latestufos/

Other Videos , selected by peter2011µ

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

13-07-2020 om 19:38 geschreven door peter  

Top UFO videos last week!

I went live yesterday on my Youtube channel (please don’t forget to subscribe, click here) and I’ve check some of the best UFO videos from the last week.

Click play and watch the video!

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

13-07-2020 om 19:21 geschreven door peter  

VERITAS: Exploring the Deep Truths of Venus

An artist's concept of active volcanos on Venus, depicting a subduction zone where the foreground crust plunges into the planet's interior at the topographic trench.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Peter Rubin
› Larger view

Under consideration to become the next Discovery Program mission, VERITAS would reveal the inner workings of Earth's mysterious "twin."

Imagine Earth. Now fill the skies with thick, Sun-obscuring clouds of sulfuric acid; boil off the oceans by cranking up the temperature to 900 degrees Fahrenheit (nearly 500 degrees Celsius), and boost the air pressure high enough to flatten you like a pancake. What you now have is Venus, a rocky planet similar in size to Earth but different in almost every other way.

How these "sister planets" evolved so differently has been a burning scientific question for decades, and a proposed mission called VERITAS seeks to provide answers by transforming our understanding of the internal geodynamics that shaped the planet. The mission could lend insights into our own planet's evolution and even help us better understand rocky planets orbiting other stars.

Short for Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography & Spectroscopy, VERITAS is being considered for selection under NASA's Discovery Program and would be managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. The project's partners include Lockheed Martin, the Italian Space Agency, the German Space Agency, and the French Space Agency.

"Venus is like this cosmic gift of an accident," said Suzanne Smrekar, principal investigator of VERITAS at JPL. "You have these two planetary bodies - Earth and Venus - that started out nearly the same but have gone down two completely different evolutionary paths, but we don't know why."

This interactive model compares the sizes of Venus (left) and Earth. To discover more about the similarities and differences of the two planets, zoom in and give them a spin, or use the search function at bottom for more.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech. View the full interactive experience at Eyes on the Solar System. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The last mission to study the planet's surface, NASA's Magellan spacecraft, ended in 1994. While it provided tantalizing clues about Venus' geology, the instrumentation couldn't provide certitude as to the origin of many of the planet's surface features.

Proposed for a 2026 launch, VERITAS would orbit the planet and peer through the obscuring clouds with a powerful state-of-the art radar system to create 3D global maps and a near-infrared spectrometer to figure out what the surface is made of. It would also measure the planet's gravitational field to determine the structure of Venus' interior. Together, the instruments would offer clues about the planet's past and present geologic processes, from its core to its surface.

A Window Into Early Earth

Here on Earth, the rigid crust that envelops the planet is broken into a jigsaw puzzle of tectonic plates atop the mantle. Convection in the mantle helps drive motion of the surface plates. As some plates descend into the interior - a process known as subduction - they melt, and volcanic outgassing releases volatiles (such as water, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and methane) into the atmosphere.

Learning more about the geologic processes on Venus - where the warm crust is a good analogy for early Earth's, when the plates were just beginning to form - could offer a valuable glimpse into how these processes began on Earth.

"The biggest mystery to me is the extent of deformation structures on Venus" - areas of rock on the surface that have buckled under immense geologic pressure - "that could be studied to understand the nature of tectonic activity on the planet," said science team member Joann Stock, a professor of geology and geophysics at Caltech's Seismological Laboratory in Pasadena.

Producing high-resolution 3D topographic maps VERITAS would bring into focus structures that have previously been too small to resolve, added Stock. These structures could include raised topography on both sides of strike-slip faults, like the San Andreas Fault, which is an indicator of major tectonic activity. VERITAS would also look for active surface faulting using something called interferometric deformation maps for the first time beyond Earth.

In addition, VERITAS would study vast deformation structures called tessera. These plateau-like features may be analogous to Earth's continents. A leading theory is that Earth's continents formed when iron-rich oceanic crust subducted and melted in the presence of water, producing huge volumes of new, less iron-rich continental crust that rose above the ocean.

To determine if Venus' tessera plateaus formed in a similar way to Earth's continents, VERITAS would construct the first global multispectral maps of Venus' surface composition. If their composition resembles that of continental crust, we'd also gain information about Venus' wetter past.

A Volcanic World

On Earth, plate tectonics and volcanism go hand in hand. But what about on Venus?

"Determining whether Venus is actively undergoing volcanic activity and understanding what process is driving it is one of the really exciting questions I'd love to see answered," said planetary scientist Jennifer Whitten, a VERITAS science team member at Tulane University in New Orleans.

Using its spectrometer, VERITAS would determine which rocks recently formed from erupting magma, before interactions with the atmosphere have had time to change their chemical composition. In addition, the spectrometer would search for hotspots from active eruptions, while the radar instrument would search for active faulting, an indication of tectonic activity.

In getting to know Venus' volcanoes and the geophysical processes causing them, scientists could also gauge their impact on the planet's climate and, perhaps, answer another key question: Does the planet's interior still contain large quantities of water like Earth's does?

Making Planets Habitable

Plate tectonics and volcanism don't just affect how a planet takes shape; they are intimately tied to a planet's habitability. Plate tectonics strongly affects Earth's long-term climate by influencing the processes that keep the atmosphere in balance: volcanism, which release volatiles into the atmosphere, and subduction, which recycles volatiles back into the interior. Also, the formation and erosion of Earth's continents have a major influence on the composition of the oceans and atmosphere. Together, these processes provide the nutrients and a habitable climate for life to thrive.

But what is the delicate geodynamic balance that ultimately makes a planet habitable? Considering the discovery of thousands of exoplanets orbiting stars other than our Sun, the answer could inform our understanding of their nature.

"To unwrap the mysteries of Venus we have to look under the hood at Venus' interior; it is the engine for global geologic and atmospheric evolution," said Smrekar. "Are Venus and Earth fundamentally unique worlds? Or are the differences between these 'twins' only cosmetic? Answering this question is key to understanding what makes other rocky planets habitable and, ultimately, emerge with life."

Read more about Discovery Mission proposals selected to develop concept studies here.

News Media Contact

• Ian J. O'Neill
  Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
  818-354-2649
  ian.j.oneill@jpl.nasa.gov
• Grey Hautaluoma / Alana Johnson
  Headquarters, Washington
  202-358-0668 / 202-358-1501
  grey.hautaluoma-1@nasa.gov / alana.r.johnson@nasa.gov

{ http://www.nasa.gov/ }

13-07-2020 om 18:14 geschreven door peter  

Ingenious Abandoned Jungle City of Guayabo de Turrialba in Costa Rica

South and Central America have many amazing archaeological sites, some of which were left behind by pre-Columbian peoples and cultures who left no written records . One of the most significant sites in Costa Rica is Guayabo de Turrialba. This mysterious city in the jungle was declared a National Monument in 1973, protected for future generations and further archeological exploration. In 2009 it was recognized by the American Engineering Society as an International Historic Civil Engineering Landmark.

The Known History of Guayabo De Turrialba

Since the people who built the amazing city of Guayabo de Turrialba left no documentary evidence, we do not know what they were called, but thanks to archeologists who have studied this site, there have been numerous fascinating finds. These have helped researchers to establish some facts about the mysterious builders of Guayabo de Turrialba.

Guayabo de Turrialba monument covers 540 acres, but only a small portion has been uncovered. 

CC BY 2.0

It is believed that the location was first inhabited in around 1000 BC, about the same time as Jerusalem was founded. Based on a survey of the city, it was at its peak in the 9 ^th century AD and it is believed that some 10,000 people resided here. It appears to have been a major regional administrative, political, cultural, and religious center . Based on the many finds of agricultural tools, the society was based on farming.

There is no evidence that it was a war-like society that practiced human sacrifice like its neighbors to the north, such as the Maya and the Aztecs.

The many great monuments that have been found at Guayabo de Turrialba indicate that it was a hierarchical society, ruled by chieftains or caciques. They would have been authority figures who could command a large number of people to build the monuments found at the site.

For reasons unknown, it was abandoned by 1400 AD, before colonization. Certainly, the Spanish Conquistadors left no records of the city, and it was forgotten, left to be concealed by the tropical jungle. It was only in the 19 ^th century that it was re-discovered and has since then been extensively investigated by archaeologists, although only a small area has been excavated.

Representation of the circular homes on stone foundation.

(Axxis10 / CC BY-SA 4.0 )

The Unique Monuments and Genius Engineering

There are many impressive stone platforms at the site. The largest measures 76 feet (28m) in diameter and stands 9 feet (2.76m) high. The smaller mounds were once topped by conical wooden constructions, that would have been used either as temples or homes for the elite.

A cobbled road connecting the settlement led to the biggest stone platform , known as the ‘Central Mound’ which has been restored in recent years. The heart of the city is dominated by this large rectangular platform which was accessed by a stone staircase and may have been used in ceremonies and expressions of power. Along the road, leading into the plaza, are two structures, built in a ‘figure of eight’ which are unique to Costa Rica. Their purpose was either to protect the central plaza or to store goods.

• Giant Stone Spheres of Costa Rica
• The Lost Knowledge of the Ancients: Were Humans the First?
• The Lost City of Dur-Sharrukin – The Capital That Never Was

Amphibian petroglyph found at Guayabo de Turrialba, Costa Rica. 

(Axxis10 / CC BY-SA 4.0 )

Unlike Mesoamerican cultures, the many tombs found at the archaeological site did not contain golden burial goods . While many relics and artifacts found in the city, such as ornate grinding stones and pottery, are now on display in the National Museum in San Jose, pictographs carved on rocks remain at Guayabo de Turrialba. These images of amphibians and other animals may have had some religious or cultural significance.

Evidence remains of a sophisticated hydrological system which directed fresh water into several stone tanks with drainage to prevent flooding. Numerous stone circles may have been the foundations of family homes.

Fresh water capture tank built at Guayabo de Turrialba

(Gould, A/ CC BY-NC 2.0 )

Exploring This National Treasure

Guayabo is situated near the attractive town of Turrialba on the slope of the extinct Turrialba volcano, a two-hour journey from the capital of San Jose. An admission fee is payable on entry and guided tours are available, although the monuments are all sign-posted.

Hotels near Guayabo, as well as a camping park, are available and visitors to the area can enjoy a day out to the butterfly farm near the city.

• Top image: Guayabo Monument, Costa Rica                  
• Source: Maertens, L / CC BY-SA 3.0

By Ed Whelan

{  https://www.ancient-origins.net/  }

13-07-2020 om 18:01 geschreven door peter  

Mount Shasta: Spirits and Danger on a Sacred California Mountain

Mount Shasta, located near the Oregon border in northern California, holds the distinction of being one of the world’s preeminent sacred mountains. It is recognized as an eligible Native American cultural and cosmological property on the National Register of Historic Places. Artifacts found in the surrounding area conservatively suggest at least 11,000 years of human habitation, designating this region as one of the longest-occupied areas of North America.

On a clear day, Mount Shasta can be seen from over 100 miles away (160 km). The mountain, part of the thousand-mile-long Cascade Range stretching from northern California to British Columbia, is one of the largest stratovolcanoes in the world, rising to an altitude of 14,179 feet (4321 meters); it is also part of a chain of volcanoes that encompasses the Pacific Basin’s notorious “Ring of Fire,” along which the majority of the planet’s earthquakes and eruptions occur.

The Constant Threat of a Volcanic Eruption

Geologists consider Mount Shasta to be a very dangerous, high threat volcano; someday it will wake up and erupt again, possibly during this century.

A volcanic eruption from Mount Shasta could match or exceed the scale of the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. The effects of an eruption on the surrounding towns close to the base of the mountain are predicted to be catastrophic, and because volcanoes stay active for years after an eruption, the region may have to be closed off to the public for a very long time.

Mount Shasta’s fuse is already burning, and experts all agree, it’s not a matter of if Mount Shasta will erupt again—but when…

Sunrise on Mount Shasta.

( CC BY-SA 2.0 )

Sacred Mountain

Throughout history mankind has always been drawn to mountains as a sacred feature of the landscape. It’s likely that mountains are among the oldest places of worship on the planet; the first temples. They figure prominently in the earliest religious myths of mankind, and our connection to them is so powerful that many of the world’s oldest monuments, such as the Egyptian and Mayan pyramids, were obviously built in their semblance.

• Deadly Volcanoes: The Eruptions that Reshaped the World and Became Legends – Part I
• Searching for The Gold of the Lost Dutchman Mine in Superstition Mountain
• They’re Alive! Megalithic Sites Are More than Just Stone

Northwestern California Native American tribes traditionally view Mount Shasta as being structurally and energetically connected to a wide range of important volcanic landscapes and mountains, which extend northwards and southwards of their tribal territories.

A primordial spiritual connection is believed to link all these energetically powerful sites together, including Mount Shasta, Lassen Peak, Lava Beds, Medicine Lake Highlands, Crater Lake , as well as many other lesser landmarks found throughout the region.

View of snow-capped Mount Shasta.

( Joyce Marrero /Adobe Stock)

Pulses of human occupation surrounding Mount Shasta have been traced back to around the end of the last Ice Age , some 11,000 years ago, marking this area of northern California as one of the oldest continually occupied regions in North America. More recent discoveries suggest there may have been substantial human occupation along the northern California-Nevada border going as far back as 14,000 years ago.

Mythical Significance of the Monument

Mount Shasta’s vast antiquity and mythic relevance places its significance on par, historically and categorically, with other sacred sites found among the world’s oldest known civilizations, including the temples and pyramids of Egypt, Stonehenge, the Mayan pyramids , and Machu Picchu .

From a philosophical and spiritual standpoint, Mount Shasta is far more powerful and impressive than anything ever built by man. It is a Creator-made temple and monument, half a billion years old. In an abstract geological sense, Mount Shasta is still alive and under construction–and it will continuously erupt, regenerate, and change forms far into the future.

Beautiful Mount Shasta and Siskiyou Lake.

( fenlio /Adobe Stock)

Native Americans have observed Mount Shasta as a sacred mountain from time immemorial; they viewed the mountain and its surroundings as holy ground; it is thought to be one of the first earthly places created by the Great Spirit . In the past, no one but medicine men or women climbed up the mountain beyond the tree line. It was thought to be too powerful for ordinary people to visit, and inhabited by hosts of potentially dangerous spirits and guardians who could harm a person who traveled up the mountain unprepared.

Mount Shasta’s significance as a “power spot” for non-indigenous people did not begin until the 19th century. The naturalist John Muir described the mountain’s peak as a religious icon, and helped to spread its legendary fame. Since its discovery, it quickly became one of California’s must-see tourist destinations.

There are many tangible and intangible qualities which make a mountain sacred, and some of these qualities go beyond its mere appearance. Mount Shasta isn’t the tallest mountain in the west, but it is the most legendary. A sacred mountain tends to possess unusual characteristics which are more than just the accumulation of natural processes.

Panther Meadows - Mount Shasta

© Dustin Naef

There is, we feel, something different about a sacred mountain which cannot be easily explained, something that makes it exceptional. It possesses a kind of energy that’s unique to itself, which can be sensed and felt as much as seen. It draws people to it…inexplicably, mysteriously: “The power of such a mountain,” writes Lama Anagarki Govinda,

“is so great and yet so subtle that without compulsion pilgrims are drawn to the mountain from near and far, as if by the force of some invisible magnet, and they will undergo untold hardships and privations in their inexplicable urge to approach and to worship the sacred spot. Nobody has conferred the title of sacredness upon such a mountain; by virtue of its own magnetic and psychic emanations the mountain is intuitively recognized to be sacred. It needs no organizer of its worship; innately, each of its devotees feels the urge to pay it reverence.”

Anomalous Energies at Mount Shasta

All over the world there are places anciently known for their anomalous energies and mysterious phenomenon.

Today experts recognize that these “sacred sites” around the world influence human consciousness and other living organisms in a number of unusual and remarkable ways. They have become colloquially known as ancient “power spots,” places where people commonly experience unusual phenomenon such as UFO-related activit y, portals into other dimensions, consciousness-altering experiences, and other paranormal-phenomenon.

When one enters into a sacred site of so-called “powerful energy,” the mind, body, and spirit are instantly affected. The energy at these places can be felt, sensed, dowsed, photographed, and measured with scientific instrumentation.

The spiritual use of these major “power spots” around the world is now beginning to be thought of as the unifying influence behind the rise of human civilization. Previously it was believed that spirituality arose only after mankind had already developed farming and villages, and religion was subsequently invented as a coercive means to promote social cooperation and control.

• Mountains of Silver: Tiny Bolivian village of Potosi was once the largest industrial mining complex in the world
• Monte Pindo: A Legendary Celtic Olympus from Ancient Galicia
• The Colorful Folklore Behind the Flaming Mountains of Turpan

It turns out, however, that this theory is completely backwards. Now it’s beginning to be understood that mankind’s spiritual awakening actually precipitated the rise of human civilization.

The Modoc are a Native American people who originally lived in the Mount Shasta area (northeastern California and central Southern Oregon, USA). Chief Yellow Hammer painted in traditional clothing by E.A Burbank, 1901. 

(Public Domain )

Humanity’s earliest spiritual experiences drew diverse groups of people to come together, who invariably clustered around the locations where most of the world’s major sacred sites and great spiritual centers exist to this day.

People came together at these sites for ritualistic and ceremonial purposes, and this, it turns out, created the need for people to form communities to grow food to accommodate the large populations gathering at these sites all over the world; and subsequently develop farming, villages, culture, and social cooperation.

Mount Shasta is one of these places ; an ancient, sacred mountain pilgrimage destination – whose mysteries still call out to us from the past and continue to challenge our comprehension in the modern era.

• Top Image: Mount Shasta in the clouds at sunset. Source: Jordan /Adobe Stock

By Dustin Naef

{ https://www.ancient-origins.net/ }

13-07-2020 om 17:49 geschreven door peter  

Yet ancient minerals aren't the only things of wonder down here. In a new study, researchers report the identification of a number of deep-sea creatures unknown to science before now, living at depths greater than 5 kilometres (3.1 miles) below the ocean's surface.

The specimens in question are known as xenophyophores, a clade of giant, single-celled protozoans that belong to the class foraminifera.

Xenophyophores are one of the most common types of large life-forms found along the CCZ abyssal plains, and while they've been described since the late 19th century, there's not an awful lot we know about them, largely due to the extreme depths at which they reside.

Moanammina semicircularis on the seafloor.

(Jennifer Durden/Craig Smith/DeepCCZ Project)

"These four new species and two new genera have increased the number of described xenophyophores in the CCZ abyss to 17 (22 percent of the global total for this group), with many more known but still undescribed," says marine ecologist Andrew Gooday from the National Oceanography Centre in the UK.

"This part of the Pacific Ocean is clearly a hotspot of xenophyophore diversity."

Among the new discoveries is the new genus Abyssalia, named after the abyss in which it lurks. In a 2018 expedition aboard the RV Kilo Moana in 2018 in the western CCZ, the researchers found two Abyssalia species: A. foliformis and A. sphaerica.

These xenophyophores have shells called tests, made up of tiny particles glued together. In the case of Abyssalia, the shells are made from a homogeneous mesh of sponge spicules, with no distinct surface layer.

A. sphaerica takes on a spherical shape – resembling a somewhat matted dandelion – while A. foliformis embodies a flatter, leaf-like shape.

The other new genus identified, Moanammina, took its name from Moana, meaning 'ocean' in Hawaiian, Maori, and other Polynesian languages.

Unidentified 'mudball' xenophyophore.

(Gooday et al., EJP, 2020)

Moanammina semicircularis has a stalked, fan-shaped test, while another new species, Psammina tenuis, belonging to the genus Psammina, has a delicate, thin, plate-like test.

The researchers also discovered what they suggest could be a novel xenophyophore in a spherical 'mudball' shape, but unfortunately its mudball-like composition disintegrated before a detailed examination could confirm its identity.

{ https://www.sciencealert.com/ }

13-07-2020 om 17:34 geschreven door peter  

Comet NEOWISE is 'an awesome sight' from space, astronaut says (video)

13-07-2020 om 17:12 geschreven door peter  

New map of the universe unveils a stunning X-ray view of the cosmos

13-07-2020 om 16:52 geschreven door peter  

Bestemming Mars: drie ruimtevluchten in één zomer

In het kort

• In een ver verleden had Mars een milder klimaat, en zeeën en oceanen aan het oppervlak. In die omstandigheden zouden eencelligen kunnen leven.
• Met onbemande ruimtesondes hopen zowel de VS als China en de Verenigde Arabische Emiraten daar bewijs voor te vinden.

Op zoek naar leven

‘Het is alsof je geologisch veldwerk doet terwijl overal om je heen sluipschutters staan die je af en toe onder vuur nemen’

Bij de landing, gepland voor 18 februari volgend jaar, wordt net als bij Curiosity gebruik gemaakt van een hitteschild, parachutes en een zogeheten ‘luchtkraan’ (sky crane), die met behulp van retroraketjes op enige hoogte boven het Marsoppervlak blijft hoveren en de Marswagen aan kabels naar beneden laat zakken. ‘Er zijn tijdens de hele missie talloze momenten waarop het fout kan gaan’, zegt Bell. ‘Het is een beetje alsof je geologisch veldwerk doet terwijl er overal om je heen sluipschutters staan die je af en toe onder vuur nemen.’ Ooit zal Perseverance de geest geven (net als de meeste van zijn voorgangers); volgens Bell is het de uitdaging om zo veel mogelijk wetenschap te bedrijven voordat het zo ver is.

{ https://www.eoswetenschap.eu/ }

13-07-2020 om 16:37 geschreven door peter  

A Mars 'Hope': The UAE's 1st interplanetary spacecraft aims to make history at Red Planet

By Meghan Bartels

"If a small nation like us is able to achieve this kind of mission and get ourselves to Mars, then everything is possible."

A photograph of the UAE's Hope Mars probe seen before launch.

(Image: © MBRSC)

Next week, the United Arab Emirates will launch its first-ever interplanetary mission, a Mars orbiter that the nation hopes will inspire the region and advance Red Planet science.

The mission, called Hope or the Emirates Mars Mission, is designed to spend one Martian year, or about two Earth years, studying the thin Martian atmosphere. Mission personnel hope that the spacecraft's results will teach scientists something new about the Red Planet's past and present atmosphere — and perhaps even help humans keep our own planet's atmosphere from becoming its twin. But the mission is also an ambitious step for a country not yet 50 years old that reached space for the first time only in 2009.

"I think one of the messages of this mission is hope, which is the name of the probe itself," Hessa Al Matroushi, science data and analysis lead for the mission at the UAE's Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center, told Space.com. "If a small nation like us is able to achieve this kind of mission and get ourselves to Mars, then everything is possible."

• Related: Meet Hope: The UAE's first spacecraft bound for Mars is now complete

Now, that satellite is tucked into the nosecone of a Japanese H-2A rocket at the Tanegashima Space Center in Japan, awaiting its moment to leap from Earth. Launch is currently scheduled for 5:51 a.m. local time on July 15 (4:51 p.m. EDT or 2051 GMT July 14).

The $200 million Hope mission was always designed to make that sort of larger statement both at home and abroad. The decision to go to Mars was meant to jolt the nation's technology industry and create a planetary science community where essentially none existed. The mission would pose a host of challenges, known and unknown, and be the first time an Arab country reached for another planet.

And everything would need to happen fast, much more quickly than a traditional Mars mission might. UAE leadership began floating the idea of sending an orbiter to Mars in 2014. And they had a deadline: arrival at Mars before December 2021, the nation's 50th anniversary. Because of the finicky orbital mechanics of reaching our neighbor, that meant blasting off this summer — and if the spacecraft misses its window, it will need to wait 26 months to try again.

The team was asked to tap international expertise and domestically build a spacecraft that could conduct new science at Mars on that timeframe. That meant mission personnel needed not only to manage the engineering challenges of spaceflight, but also to become part of the international community of Mars scientists. They needed to be familiar enough with the history of Mars exploration to identify what projects might be scientifically promising.

"We don't want to have these massive amounts of data and nobody's interested in it," Fatma Lootah, manager for Hope instrument science, told Space.com. "We want this data to be novel, this data to be breakthrough."

The team decided to focus on the atmosphere of Mars, which probes have studied before but not comprehensively. By putting Hope into an orbit no spacecraft has used at Mars, the mission will be able to study the upper and lower atmosphere simultaneously, allowing scientists to better understand how they interact. The unique orbit will also give scientists the first detailed understanding of Mars weather at large: across the globe, throughout the day and over the full seasonal cycle.

The team also needed to be pragmatic enough to choose something feasible on the assigned timeline, and to bring in colleagues who could make that schedule more manageable. One such partnership was with the University of Colorado at Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, which houses the science team of NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission, which has been orbiting Mars since 2014 studying a different set of atmospheric questions.

That mission's principal investigator, Bruce Jakosky, said that working as project scientist on Hope has been a very different experience from his time on NASA missions. "One is very aware [while] working on this of the international collaboration. That's new," he told Space.com. "We're working hand in hand with the Emiratis on this, and that really brings a different perspective to how one approaches a mission."

Jakosky said that for Hope, mission work wasn't just about the mission itself, it was about the international stage. "The UAE today doesn't have a strong science background. I will point out it did 1,000 years ago, they were the leaders in the world and I see this as an opportunity for them to regain some of that stature," he said. "It is a big step to take to do a Mars mission. Historically more have failed than have succeeded."

Since the UAE began its space program, it has considered spaceflight to be about more than just getting a piece of metal and electronics into space. The country has built itself on oil revenue but knows that income is unstable and wants to diversify. Some of the motivation for a Mars mission was that such a project would force developments in technology and other non-oil sectors.

"If you deliver something that works in space and is capable of performing tasks in space, it sends also a strong message about the quality of work you do within your country," Omran Sharaf, mission lead for the Hope spacecraft, told Space.com earlier this spring of the UAE's decision to build its first fully domestic satellite, KhalifaSat, which launched in 2018.

But while the UAE wants to make a statement, the scientists on the Hope mission are here to do science.

"When this [mission] was announced, a lot of people were like, 'Oh, they're just doing it for show,'" Lootah said. "It's not for that at all; it's for the greater good. This novel science that's going to come out, the data, this is going to further humanity's knowledge of another planet, the most similar planet to Earth we know of right now. So I think I want to focus on the science."

• Email Meghan Bartels at mbartels@space.com or follow her on Twitter @meghanbartels.
• Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

{ https://www.space.com/ }

13-07-2020 om 16:06 geschreven door peter  

NASA's Parker Solar Probe swings through Venus 'tail' in flyby today

13-07-2020 om 15:41 geschreven door peter  

Fluffy galaxies are more common than you thought.

 by Mihai Andrei

The Hubble Space Telescope produced another gem: a striking image of a galaxy located in the Cancer constellation. Known as NGC 2775, the galaxy is 67 million light-years away from Earth and has fuzzy arms spiraling from if its center.

The ‘fuzzy’ spirals of the galaxy are obscured by clouds of patchy gas, which create the fur-like effect. We tend to think of galaxies as having clearly defined arms (like the Milky Way, for instance), but these ‘flocculent’ galaxies may be much more common.

In fact, spiral galaxies only make up 10% of all galaxies. It’s believed that some 70% of them are either flocculent (like NGC 2775) or a flocculent-hybrid.

We don’t know for sure how many galaxies there are; one analysis points at 2 trillion galaxies, brimming with countless stars at planets.

Many of these galaxies are known thanks to Hubble. Launched 30 years ago, Hubble has taken our understanding of outer space to the next level, traveling 4 billion miles in a continuous orbit around the Earth and spurring over 15,000 scientific papers.

NASA is currently preparing to launch Hubble’s successor, the James Webb Space Telescope, in March 2021. James Webb will be able to look further into the void than Hubble, with over 100 times greater magnification.

In addition to many other tasks, astronomers will use the James Webb telescope to look at some of the first galaxies formed after the Big Bang.

Undoubtedly, many of these will be fluffy.

 

{ https://www.zmescience.com/ }

13-07-2020 om 01:41 geschreven door peter  

The proposed VERITAS mission to Venus is one of the finalists for NASA’s Discovery Program. If selected, it will revolutionize our knowledge about the planet’s geology and how this formerly habitable world became a fiery wasteland.

Artist’s concept of VERITAS spacecraft orbiting Venus, using its radar to peer through the planet’s dense clouds and produce high-resolution maps of its surface.

Image via NASA/ JPL-Caltech.

Venus is often called Earth’s sister planet, and it’s also our closest planetary neighbor. It’s about the same size and density as Earth. But, beyond that, Venus is a very different – and hostile – world. While Earth is a garden, Venus is hot enough on its surface to melt lead. Scientists think that Venus used to be more Earthlike a few billion years ago, when the solar system was younger. Something happened that altered its evolutionary course forever, but exactly what that was is still not well understood. Somehow, Venus changed from being a clement world, possibly with oceans, to the cloud-enshrouded, searing hellhole we know today. A proposed new NASA mission, called VERITAS, would study Venus’ geology, both below and on the surface. It would try to answer fundamental questions about how this world ended up being so very different from our own.

The latest overview of the VERITAS mission was posted by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) on July 8, 2020.

VERITAS – Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography & Spectroscopy – is one of the four proposed missions being considered for NASA’s Discovery Program. Suzanne Smrekar, principal investigator of VERITAS at JPL, stated:

Venus is like this cosmic gift of an accident. You have these two planetary bodies – Earth and Venus – that started out nearly the same but have gone down two completely different evolutionary paths, but we don’t know why.

Artist’s concept of active volcano on Venus, and a subduction zone, where a tectonic plate on the surface sinks into the interior of the planet.

Image via NASA/ JPL-Caltech/ Peter Rubin.

Venus is a rocky world like Earth, but its surface is completely obscured by a thick, dense atmosphere of carbon dioxide. Temperatures at the surface never fall below about 900 degrees Fahrenheit (500 degrees Celsius), and the pressure, similar to that deep in the oceans on Earth, would quickly crush humans. The clouds contain sulfuric acid. Not exactly the most hospitable place in the solar system, although higher up in the atmosphere, temperatures and pressures are much more clement.

VERITAS would peer through the dense clouds with radar and a near-infrared spectrometer to create 3-D global maps of the planet and analyze what the surface is composed of (we do know already that most of the surface is volcanic basalt). By measuring Venus’ gravitational field, VERITAS could also determine the structure of the planet’s interior. VERITAS would provide the most detailed analysis of Venus ever obtained by an orbiting spacecraft.

If selected, VERITAS would launch sometime in 2026.

An example of tessera deformation terrain (white terrain on right side of image) on the western edge of Maxwell Montes on Venus.

Image via NASA/ JPL/ Wikipedia.

Scientists are very interested in learning more about Venus, to understand why it changed so dramatically. This could also offer new insights into Earth’s own evolution as a planet, as well as other rocky planets orbiting other stars.

VERITAS will study Venus’ geology and the similarities it may have to that of the early Earth. The planet’s warm crust is thought to be a good analog to that of Earth a few billion years ago, when tectonic plates were just starting to form. Did the same thing happen on Venus? According to Joann Stock, a geologist and geophysicist at Caltech’s Seismological Laboratory in Pasadena:

The biggest mystery to me is the extent of deformation structures on Venus that could be studied to understand the nature of tectonic activity on the planet.

The deformation structures are areas of rock on the surface that have buckled under immense geologic pressure. On Earth, the outer crust is broken into tectonic plates that sit on top of the mantle. Some plates descend downward in a process called subduction, caused by convection in the mantle. Since the temperature increases the farther down you go, those plates start melting. This releases volcanic gases and other materials called volatiles, including water, nitrogen, carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere.

Map of extensive tessera terrain on Venus (white outlines).

Image via USGS Astrogeology Science Center/ Sjoh197/ Wikipedia.

Could the deformation structures be a form of tectonic plates similar to those on the early Earth? VERITAS would help scientists answer that question. The 3-D topographic maps would be able to see features much smaller than previously possible with earlier missions. It could identify strike-slip faults, similar to San Andreas Fault in California, by seeing the raised topography on each side of the fault. If VERITAS found such formations, that would be evidence for substantial tectonic activity on the planet in the past, and perhaps even today. VERITAS would also use interferometric deformation maps – using interferometry – to look for active faulting on the planet’s surface, something never done before anywhere but on Earth.

If plate tectonics were to be confirmed on Venus, that would be an exciting discovery, since Earth is the only planet in our solar system known to have that kind of geological activity. (Jupiter’s moon Europa is now thought to have a more primitive form of plate tectonics, but Europa’s crust is composed of water ice, not rock).

The largest and most widespread deformation structures on Venus are called tessera, plateau-like regions that may be analogous to Earth’s continents. VERITAS would study their composition, to see if they formed in a similar manner to continents on Earth. That could provide valuable clues about the former ocean(s) that many scientists think once existed on Venus, Earth’s continents are thought to have formed when iron-rich oceanic crust subducted and melted in the presence of water.

Perspective view of the Maat Mons volcano on Venus, based on radar images from Magellan. The volcano is 5 miles (8 km) tall.

Image via PD/ USGOV/ NASA/ Wikipedia.

What about volcanism? Volcanism is very much intertwined with plate tectonics on Earth. We already know that Venus has many volcanoes, but are any of them still active? There is currently tentative evidence of still-active volcanoes on Venus, but it is not completely confirmed yet. VERITAS could help do that. Jennifer Whitten, a VERITAS science team member at Tulane University in New Orleans, said:

Determining whether Venus is actively undergoing volcanic activity and understanding what process is driving it is one of the really exciting questions I’d love to see answered.

VERITAS would be able to look for hotspots from active eruptions using its spectrometer, and the radar could detect active faulting, which would be evidence for current tectonic activity. The spectrometer could also detect rocks that had been formed from hot magma, before the chemical composition of the rocks had been altered by the corrosive atmosphere. Knowing how geologically active Venus still is, or isn’t, would also help scientists figure out how much water is in the interior of the planet.

Venus’ geology, plate tectonics in particular, is also important to understand in terms of habitability. The planet’s surface may be extremely inhospitable now, but it wasn’t always like that. Plate tectonics and volcanism have played a major role in Earth’s habitability, where plate tectonics help keep the long-term climate stable (apart from human-caused climate change). Volcanism releases volatiles into the atmosphere, while subduction recycles them back into the planet’s interior. This continuous cycle keeps the atmosphere in balance. The composition of both the atmosphere and oceans is affected by the formation and erosion of the continents, which provide the necessary nutrients for life.

Suzanne Smrekar, principal investigator of VERITAS at JPL.

Image via Keck Institute for Space Studies.

Smrekar said:

To unwrap the mysteries of Venus we have to look under the hood at Venus’ interior; it is the engine for global geologic and atmospheric evolution. Are Venus and Earth fundamentally unique worlds? Or are the differences between these ‘twins’ only cosmetic? Answering this question is key to understanding what makes other rocky planets habitable and, ultimately, emerge with life.

The last spacecraft to study Venus’ surface from orbit was Magellan, whose mission ended in 1994. If it does get selected as a mission, VERITAS will revolutionize our understanding of how Venus formed and evolved, and why our sister planet changed so dramatically from a habitable world to one that could just as well have been forged in hell itself.

• Bottom line: The proposed VERITAS mission would study the complex geology of Venus.
• Via Jet Propulsion Laboratory

{ https://earthsky.org/  }

13-07-2020 om 01:26 geschreven door peter