The purpose of this blog is the creation of an open, international, independent and free forum, where every UFO-researcher can publish the results of his/her research. The languagues, used for this blog, are Dutch, English and French.You can find the articles of a collegue by selecting his category. Each author stays resposable for the continue of his articles. As blogmaster I have the right to refuse an addition or an article, when it attacks other collegues or UFO-groupes.
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Deze blog is opgedragen aan mijn overleden echtgenote Lucienne.
In 2012 verloor ze haar moedige strijd tegen kanker!
In 2011 startte ik deze blog, omdat ik niet mocht stoppen met mijn UFO-onderzoek.
BEDANKT!!!
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UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN - DE ALLERLAATSTE NIEUWTJES
UFO's of UAP'S in België en de rest van de wereld In België had je vooral BUFON of het Belgisch UFO-Netwerk, dat zich met UFO's bezighoudt. BEZOEK DUS ZEKER VOOR ALLE OBJECTIEVE INFORMATIE , enkel nog beschikbaar via Facebook en deze blog.
Verder heb je ook het Belgisch-Ufo-meldpunt en Caelestia, die prachtig, doch ZEER kritisch werk leveren, ja soms zelfs héél sceptisch...
Voor Nederland kan je de mooie site www.ufowijzer.nl bezoeken van Paul Harmans. Een mooie site met veel informatie en artikels.
MUFON of het Mutual UFO Network Inc is een Amerikaanse UFO-vereniging met afdelingen in alle USA-staten en diverse landen.
MUFON's mission is the analytical and scientific investigation of the UFO- Phenomenon for the benefit of humanity...
Je kan ook hun site bekijken onder www.mufon.com.
Ze geven een maandelijks tijdschrift uit, namelijk The MUFON UFO-Journal.
Since 02/01/2020 is Pieter ex-president (=voorzitter) of BUFON, but also ex-National Director MUFON / Flanders and the Netherlands. We work together with the French MUFON Reseau MUFON/EUROP.
ER IS EEN NIEUWE GROEPERING DIE ZICH BUFON NOEMT, MAAR DIE HEBBEN NIETS MET ONZE GROEP TE MAKEN. DEZE COLLEGA'S GEBRUIKEN DE NAAM BUFON VOOR HUN SITE... Ik wens hen veel succes met de verdere uitbouw van hun groep. Zij kunnen de naam BUFON wel geregistreerd hebben, maar het rijke verleden van BUFON kunnen ze niet wegnemen...
02-02-2023
Astronomers Detect a Second Planet Orbiting Two Stars
Artist's impression of Kepler-16b, the first planet known to definitively orbit two stars - what's called a circumbinary planet. The planet, which can be seen in the foreground, was discovered by NASA's Kepler mission.
Astronomers Detect a Second Planet Orbiting Two Stars
Planets orbiting binary stars are in a tough situation. They have to contend with the gravitational pull of two separate stars. Planetary formation around a single star like our Sun is relatively straightforward compared to what circumbinary planets go through. Until recently, astronomers weren’t sure they existed.
Astronomers rarely find binary stars with planets orbiting them. It may be because they’re rare, or it may be because they’re difficult to detect, likely both. Now a team of researchers has found a binary star with more than one planet. This is only the second instance of a multiplanet, binary star system.What does it tell us about these types of solar systems?
The system is called TOI-1338 and is a binary star about 1300 light-years away in the constellation Pictoris. TOI 1338 A is a main sequence star of 1.12 solar masses, and TOI 1338 B is an M-dwarf (red dwarf) of 0.3 solar masses. The star system is about 4.4 billion years old.
A summer intern at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center found the first planet around the binary in 2017. TOI 1338 b is a circumbinary planet with about 33 Earth masses and is in between Saturn and Neptune in size. It’s on a 95-day orbit around the binary stars.
This is an artist’s illustration of TOI-1338b, the first planet found around the binary star. An intern found it in 2017, and now astronomers have found its sibling, TOI-1338/BEBOP-1c. Image Credit: By NASA – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FrlhrtVEW8&t=16s, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=103785521
Circumbinary planets are hard to find in the data because the stars can eclipse each other, making planetary transits difficult to discern. Their transits can also be irregular, and they can transit in front of only one of the binary stars. TOI 1338 b’s transits occur irregularly, between every 93 and 95 days, making it non-periodic. And since both stars are moving, the depth of the transit varies.
Because of TOI 1338 b’s inclination, from our perspective, it will stop transiting in front of its star in November 2023. Then in about 2031, we’ll see the transits again.
The angle of TOI 1338 b’s orbit around the stars changes over time, so after 2023, there will be an eight-year gap in transits from our point of view. This gap leads astronomers to believe that there are many other circumbinary planets out there, but we have to be observing at the right time to find them. Image Credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.
Now astronomers have found a second planet orbiting TOI 1338. It’s called TOI-1338/BEBOP-1c, and they found it using the radial velocity method rather than the transit method. The name BEBOP comes from an observing project. “To increase the number of known circumbinary planets and to provide accurate masses for systems discovered with the transit method, we initiated a radial-velocity observing survey dedicated to circumbinary planet detection called Binaries Escorted By Orbiting Planets (BEBOP),” the authors explain in their paper.
The researchers reported their findings in a paper titled “The First Circumbinary Planet Discovered with Radial Velocities.” It’s been accepted for publication in Nature Astronomy and is available on arxiv.org. The lead author is Matthew R. Standing, a Ph.D. student at the School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham, UK.
The new planet is a gas giant of about 65 Earth masses. It’s on a wider orbit than TOI 1338 b and has an orbital period of about 215 days. Astronomers discovered it using radial-velocity data collected with the HARPS and ESPRESSO spectrographs. This discovery marks the first time astronomers have found a circumbinary planet using radial velocity, and the system is only the second multiple-planet circumbinary system found.
This graphic from the research shows the TOI-1338 system in detail. Planet c has a much wider orbit than planet b, and neither is in the system’s habitable zone. Image Credit: Standing et al. 2023.
Astronomers are very interested in circumbinary planets. They’ve been common in science fiction but weren’t confirmed until the Kepler mission found the first one. It’s called Kepler-16b, and it’s an oddball in its own way. It’s inside the radius that astronomers thought was the inner limit for planets in binary star systems. Kepler-16b has no sibling planets.
Now we know of 12 circumbinary planets, and two of them are in multiplanet systems. The first multiplanet circumbinary system astronomers found is called Kepler-47, and it hosts three known explanets. The BEBOP observing program is designed to uncover more circumbinary planets and find out more about them. Its main goal is to find more of them, and it’ll do that by overcoming some of Kepler’s observational biases.
Binary star systems are far more complicated than single-star systems like ours. Binary stars disrupt planet formation in ways that more predictable single-star systems don’t. The dual stars create harsh conditions in the protoplanetary environment. Astronomers used to think that planets in these systems would be subjected to catastrophic collisions or be flung out of their systems by gravitational perturbations. But all these recent discoveries show that’s not necessarily true. By finding more circumbinary planets and characterizing their similarities with and differences from single-star planets, astronomers will learn a lot about how planets form and migrate.
One of the difficulties in studying circumbinary planets is determining their masses. BEBOP was designed to not only find planets but to measure their masses more accurately. That’s critical because knowing their masses helps determine which ones are puffy, with extended atmospheres suitable for atmospheric spectroscopy. BEBOP not only found the second planet, but it measured TOI-1338’s inner planet’s mass more accurately.
“If we are to unveil the mysteries of circumbinary Tatooine-like exo-atmospheres, the TOI-1338/BEBOP-1 system provides a new hope.”From
“The First Circumbinary Planet Discovered with Radial Velocities.”
Finding another multi-planet circumbinary system and determining their masses is an important discovery. While these systems up-end some parts of the models for how planets form, they’ll ultimately make our models more accurate.
This figure from the study illustrates what the astronomers found in TOI-1338. The red inset graph shows the magnified 14.6-day binary period associated with the stars, and the blue inset graph shows the magnified 215.5-day period of TOI1338/BEBOP-1c. Image Credit: Standing et al. 2023.
The researchers say that at some point, TOI-1338/BEBOP-1c is guaranteed to transit the primary star, but they can’t say when. That’s in spite of the misalignment between the planet and the star. “It may seem counterintuitive at first that a planet-binary misalignment makes transitability more likely,” they write. That’s because the planet’s sky inclination oscillates around the binary’s sky inclination, according to the authors, and eventually, the planet’s inclination will approach 90o. That means “… the vast majority of circumbinary planets orbiting eclipsing binaries will eventually transit.”
The team also examined the issue of other planets around the binary star. None have been detected yet, but they may yet be. While they can’t say for sure if there are additional planets, they calculated and graphed the limitations on any potential detections.
This density plot from the research shows the detection limits of the researchers’ method. It’s pretty complicated, but it basically shows that their method is “…sensitive to additional sub-Saturn mass planets for periods out to 2000 days, while we are sensitive to Neptune mass planets near the instability limit.” Image Credit: Standing et al. 2023.
One of the problems with studying circumbinary planets around binary stars is that most of the ones we know of are too faint. That means that for most of them, including the new planet TOI-1338/BEBOP-1c, there’s no opportunity to employ spectroscopy to probe their atmospheres. But its previously discovered sibling, TOI-1338b, might be illuminated enough. “Therefore,” the researchers write, “despite the challenges it may present, TOI-1338/BEBOP-1b is our only possibility to shed light on the atmospheric make-up of circumbinary planets.”
“Of the now 15 known circumbinary exoplanets, TOI-1338/BEBOP-1b is the only one for which James Webb Space Telescope transmission spectroscopy can currently be pursued. If we are to unveil the mysteries of circumbinary Tatooine-like exo-atmospheres, the TOI-1338/BEBOP-1 system provides a new hope,” the authors write in their paper.
AI Joins Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligent Life
AI Joins Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligent Life
Paul Seaburn
It is safe to say that not a day goes by without a new group of workers fearing they will soon lose their jobs to artificial intelligence. Customer service representatives, receptionists, proofreaders, data entry clerks, fast food help, assembly line workers, retailers, doctors … even writers. This week, an unexpected job category has been added to the list – people who search for extraterrestrial life. That’s right – AI is taking over SETI. A new study reveals how machine learning, a subset of artificial intelligence, is being used to analyze the skies and has recently identified eight previously undetected signals of interest that have certain characteristics expected of genuine technosignatures of intelligent life forms. When that ship from another star system lands and an alien demands to be taken to our leader, will it be GPT-3?
Isn't searching for extraterrestrial intelligent life the job of Earth's intelligent life?
“The biggest challenge for us in looking for SETI signals is not at this point getting the data. The difficult part is differentiating signals from human or Earth technology from the kind of signals we’d be looking for from technology somewhere else out in the Galaxy.”
Sofia Sheikh, an astronomer at the SETI Institute, is a co-author of “A deep-learning search for technosignatures from 820 nearby stars,” published in the journal Nature Astronomy, points out why artificial intelligence is the perfect non-person for this job. Telescopes are great at scanning the skies and collecting data – in fact, they’ve collected so much data that it is impossible for even supercomputers with sophisticated search algorithms to process it. That problem is compounded by the fact that we don’t really know what kind of signal extraterrestrials will be sending. While biosignatures may be easier to predict from a planet with a similar geological and atmospheric composition to Earth, those same planets could be millions of years more advanced than us technologically. We have no idea what their technosignature might look like.
“The key issue with any technosignature search is looking through this huge haystack of signals to find the needle that might be a transmission from an alien world. The vast majority of the signals detected by our telescopes originate from our own technology – GPS satellites, mobile phones, and the like. Peter’s algorithm gives us a more effective way to filter the haystack and find signals that have the characteristics we expect from technosignatures.”
Dr. Steve Croft, an astrophysicist with the Breakthrough Listen team at the University of California, Berkeley, uses a Breakthrough Initiatives press release to introduce us to Peter Ma, the first author on the paper and an undergraduate student at the University of Toronto. Ma looked at the challenge presented by Earth’s technology and determined that we are just not smart enough to outsmart ourselves when it comes to filtering out our own signals. While machine learning had been used as a supplemental tool in SETI before, Ma decided to give it the entire job to create a neural network to do it.
“In total, we had searched through 150 TB of data of 820 nearby stars, on a dataset that had previously been searched through in 2017 by classical techniques but labeled as devoid of interesting signals,"
Ma explains in a SETI Institute press release how he used data collected from 820 nearby stars which conventional analysis determined had no ET technosignatures. He notes that the algorithms used were good for finding signals that may be coming from a specific point in space, but completely ineffective when the data comes from crowded regions. He compares this to listening for a unique whisper in a loud and crowded auditorium. To solve this problem, Ma inserted simulated signals into real data, and then trained an artificial intelligence algorithm known as an autoencoder to learn their fundamental properties. The output from this process was then fed into a second algorithm known as a random forest classifier, which learns to pick out the potential signals from the noisy background.
Once trained, Ma gave the AI algorithm the data taken with the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia which showed no technosignatures of interest. This time, it found eight radio signals that could potentially be transmissions from extraterrestrial intelligence belonging to five different star systems located 30 to 90 light years away from Earth. The signals of interest had these characteristics:
The signals were narrow band, on the order of just a few Hz. Signals caused by natural phenomena tend to be broadband.
The signals had non-zero drift rates, which means the signals had a slope. That meant they were not local to the radio observatory.
The signals appeared in ON-source observations and not in OFF-source observations. Human radio interference usually occurs in ON and OFF observations due to the source being close by.
Does this mean the eight signals are from intelligent extraterrestrials? Hardly. For one thing, the SETI researchers examined the eight targets of interest again and have not had any re-detections of the signals. This doesn’t mean the machine learning algorithm is wrong – it just means these signals are unusual but likely not intelligent. On the positive side, Ma’s machine learning neural network approach will help identify signals of interest more quickly in large datasets, allowing a quicker re-analysis to confirm or reject the signal as a technosignature. The study’s research team is now reexamining other datasets previously analyzed and looking at new and even large datasets, like observations using the MeerKAT telescope in South Africa.
Is SETI another job lost to AI?
Does this mean that the job of SETI researcher is soon to be all AI with no human involvement? Not yet … but it’s a definite possibility. In February 2023, astronomers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), will launch a project where volunteers from the public will sort through images of radio signals and classify them as potential types of interference. Those selected signals will then be used to train another machine-learning algorithm to search SETI data. That’s right – humans are training AI to take their jobs. In fact, astronomers have used machine learning to come up with a ranking of stars to be observed in a SETI project using the 500-metre FAST radio telescope in China. These projects are a mixture of classical and machine-learning approaches – but leaning more towards AI.
Are we becoming sheep that are training a wolf AI to one day eat us … or at least take away our jobs of providing wool and lamb chops? Are intelligent life forms watching us and shaking their heads? Or are they rubbing their hands and making evil grins?
There are few UFO researchers in the UK as well-versed in extraterrestrial encounters than Malcolm Robinson – an investigator and author who began as a skeptic and debunker but has become one of the world’s leading authorities on these subjects. Robinson recently made headlines when he revealed in an interview that he believes extraterrestrials vising Earth “have an agenda” … but “I wouldn't say they are peaceful.” Should we be worried? Does Malcom Robinson know something the rest of us don’t? Let’s find out.
"What is in no doubt, is that the UFO enigma is real, very real, it has been with us throughout time. We see this in Renaissance paintings and old cave paintings, these strange shapes and entities."
Malcom Robinson tells The Daily Star what he as well as many other UFO investigators have found – this is not a new phenomenon. Robinson says he himself has been investigating them since he was 20 when he “honestly felt that there was no validity to UFOs." His opinion on UFOs and extraterrestrials changed quickly as he learned enough to inspire him to found Strange Phenomena Investigations in 1979 – now Scotland's oldest active UFO/Paranormal society with members around the world. his experiences have resulted in Robinson authoring numerous books on UFOs and paranormal subjects, including “UFO Case Files of Scotland,” “The Dechmont Woods UFO Incident, and “The A70 UFO Incident,” as well as others on the Loch Ness monster and ghosts.
They don't look too friendly.
“[These are] small childlike creatures, about 3 to 4 feet in height with bluey-grey translucent skin, large pear-shaped heads with inky black wrap-around eyes. No sign of any genitalia. These small greys are the most commonly reported entities seen in close proximity to UFOs."
Robinson has interviewed many UFO and ET witnesses, including a number of them who report being abducted. “The A70 UFO Incident” details Scotland's first-ever alien abduction – on August 17, 1992, Edinburgh residents Garry Wood and Colin Wright claimed they encountered a two-tiered disc shaped UFO wider than the A70 road they were on. While watching the smooth, black object, they blacked out and were in a daze when they arrived at their destination … one-and-a-half hours later than expected with no recollection of what had happened. On a recent podcast, Robinson recalled that the two men contacted him for help figuring out what had happened. He arranged for the two men two have separate hypnotic regression sessions and their memories matched exactly … and what memories they were!
Wood and Wright claimed their car had been hit by a light and was approached by six humanoid being who put them on stretchers and gave them electric shocks. They were taken to the circular UFO, stripped naked, examined physically, then imprisoned in a glass cell and scanned by a device with a triangular head and two red lights. Both men experienced pain and heard strange noises during the scanning. They estimated there were 20 to 30 beings on the ship and described them as “deformed and extremely ugly” with “what looked like Native American markings below their eyes.” One word they understood the beings saying was “sanctuary.” They claimed when they awoke that stuff from inside the car was scattered on the ground, and the vehicle was covered with a “white crystallization” that remained for weeks.
“Both Garry and Colin are left feeling bemused by what happened to them. Their lives may have changed, but they are still the men they were, albeit with a different perspective on life."
Despite the men being “bemused,” Robinson was concerned then and is more concerned today about what purpose these aliens – especially the ones making abductions and examinations like the A70 UFO incident – have in visiting Earth and what kind of response we humans should be prepared to give.
"They have an agenda for sure - we can but speculate.”
If anyone can speculate and offer advice, it would be Malcolm Robinson. He was the chief Investigator into the Bonnybridge UFO sightings in Central Scotland in 1992. Many witnesses saw unidentified lights in the sky over Bonnybridge, and they soon stretched from Stirling to Fife, causing the area to be called the "Falkirk Triangle" and for it to be designated as one of the world’s top UFO hot spots with an average of around 300 sightings per year. One incident in 1992 involved a mother and daughter who saw a blue light, followed by a UFO landing and a door opening. While police wrote off the sightings as balloons released from a party, investigators like Robinson found that some of the witnesses were police officers and pilots, and some of the UFOs were picked up by radar. However, none have been identified.
“I wouldn't say they are peaceful, due to the thousands of UFO abductions worldwide."
One famous abduction Robinson wrote a book about is the Dechmont Woods Encounter or “Taylor Incident.” On November 9, 1979, forestry worker Robert ‘Bob’ Taylor claimed he saw a “flying dome” land on Dechmont Law (a law is a hill) in Livingston, West Lothian, Scotland. He later recounted that two-spiked spheres rolled out towards him and, as he passed out, they grabbed his legs and dragged him onboard. He awoke 20 minutes later looking like he had been assaulted and he remembered a burning smell. Because he came home with torn clothes and injuries on his chin and thighs, the police were brought in and started a criminal investigation. Robinson examined his trousers and said the rips and tears did not look like they were caused by Taylor crawling on the ground. The police went to the sight where Taylor said he was abducted and found something strange -- 32 holes in the ground that were about 3.5 inches in diameter, along with what looked like bulldozer tracks. Taylor’s employer said the marks and tracks were not from their equipment, and one police report made many suspect Taylor was telling the truth about a flying disk.
Close encounters of the road kind don't seem to turn out well.
"These marks just arrived. They did not come from anywhere or go anywhere. They just arrived as though a helicopter or something had landed from the sky."
“(The marks indicated an) object of several tons had stood there but there was nothing to show that it had been driven or towed away".
"There appeared to be no rational explanation for these marks."
The Dechmont Woods Encounter has come to be known as the "only example of an alien sighting becoming the subject of a criminal investigation.” For Malcolm Robinson, they are yet another indication that aliens are not visiting Earth with a peaceful agenda.
"Whilst a large proportion of UFOs can be explained away as having natural explanations, only a few remain, and it is to that small one percent that I and my colleagues worldwide are trying to get to the bottom."
One final takeaway from his interview with The Daily Star – Robinson seems to believe that most, if not all, of these alien encounters are with small grey aliens of the kind most often depicted in movies and on television. While that may give some comfort to humans over four feet tall that they can survive an encounter, people like Bob Taylor, Garry Wood, Colin Wright … and Malcolm Robinson … disagree, and may have the evidence to prove it.
Rotsschilderingen van 4.000 jaar oud ontdekt in Frankrijk
In het zuidoosten van Frankrijk zijn meer dan honderd rotsschilderingen van 4.000 jaar oud ontdekt die van de nieuwe steentijd dateren, een vondst van formaat volgens de voorzitter van het Franse instituut Ipaam (Institut de préhistoire et d’archéologie Alpes-Méditerranée).
De 120 rotsschilderingen, die oorlogen en “gevechtstaferelen, chaos of begrafenissen” weergeven, dateren van 2.000 jaar voor onze jaartelling, van “het laatneolithicum en het prille begin van het bronzen tijdperk”, legde Claude Salicis uit, de voorzitter van Ipaam. Hij bevestigde een bericht in de regionale krant Nice-Matin.
De site van Valdeblore, op een twintigtal kilometer van de duizenden rotsgravures van de Vallée des Merveilles, is “een ontdekking van groot belang in de streek want tot nu toe werden slechts twee van dit soort schilderingen in dit departement geïdentificeerd”, benadrukte Salicis.
De datering en echtheid van de schilderingen konden met een analyse van de gebruikte pigmenten achterhaald worden.
Twee judoka’s die in de omgeving wonen, ontdekten de rotsschilderingen in de zomer van 2022. De schilderingen bevinden zich in overhangende rotswanden op een klif die in 2017 van struikgewas ontdaan werd voor beklimmingen. “Het komt er nu op aan de schilderingen als erfgoed te beschermen”, aldus nog Salicis.
PHILIPPE LOPEZ / AFPIllustratie -
Grotschilderingen in de grot van Lascaux in Frankrijk
Alpes-Maritimes: 4000 jaar oude grotschilderingen ontdekt in een "heilig" neolithisch gebied
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Holes In Clouds Are 100% Proof Of Alien Craft Passing Through, San Antonio, Texas, UFO Sighting News.
Holes In Clouds Are 100% Proof Of Alien Craft Passing Through, San Antonio, Texas, UFO Sighting News.
Date of sighting: January 26, 2023
Location of sighting: San Antonio, Texas, USA
Some newscasters tried to explain away these holes in the cloud by making up anything they could, like trying to say its planes punching holes in the clouds. Wow, no...planes would not do that. I worked in the USAF on B1 Lancer bombers and no, they don't do that. But I wouldn't expect a weatherman to understand aircraft.
These holes are made by huge UFO either came from below from underground bases or came from space then broke through the clouds as they went to an underground base. The UFOs have energy shields which they use to appear invisible or cloaked. The UFOs push within the clouds to hide and when they leave...a hole is left for up to 15 minutes after they leave. The faster the UFO, the more perfect the edges of the whole. These UFOs moved fast but not super fast, they were probably coming down, ready to enter a tunnel in the desert floor of Texas going to the alien base.
How do I know this? Easy, the case of the UFO over O'hare airport. You see, the O'Hare Airport UFO incident that UFOs make holes in cloud as proven by many eyewitness accounts of the event. Also the 90 page MUFON report they wrote also states this eyewitnesses seeing it happen. The UFO over O'Hare (Nov 2006) hung out there for several minutes disturbing pilots and radar tower then shot up at an angle cutting an round hole through the low level clouds that remained there for over 15 minutes later. So yeah, UFOs make holes in clouds. However, this looks like the UFO came from above as you see the uneven edges were pushed down rather than up.
100% proof that several huge UFOs flew over San Antonio, Texas and entered an alien base located somewhere outside of San Antonio.
A UFO sighting was reported on the night of January 20th, 2023. The witness, who was observing the night sky, noticed an unusual object that appeared to be flying lower than the clouds. The object was silent and was seen to change its formation at some point, which left the witness feeling bewildered. Despite not being an expert in this field, the witness was confident that what he saw was not a conventional aircraft. The incident has left the witness with more questions than answers, and he is still uncertain about the nature of the object he saw that night.
Stanton sighting – UFO only seen on camera, not with naked eye!
Stanton sighting – UFO only seen on camera, not with naked eye!
UFO sighting over California
On March 22, 2022, a UFO sighting was caught on camera in Stanton, California and it was just recently submitted to MUFON. The strange object was only captured on camera and was not visible to the naked eye. According to the witness, the camera malfunction was not related to their iPhone and they were able to obtain photos and video footage of the sighting.
In the footage, the UFO can be seen hovering in the sky while cars pass by and the moon is also visible. The exact nature of the object remains unknown and it is not clear if it was a natural phenomenon or a man-made object.
This is not the first time a UFO sighting has been reported in Stanton, and it has sparked interest and speculation among the local community. Despite the increasing number of UFO sightings in recent years, there is still much that is unknown about these strange objects and the reasons for their appearance. This recent sighting in Stanton adds to the growing body of evidence and serves as a reminder of the mysteries that still exist in our world.
Stunning UAP Sightings by Pilots: Its Implications for Aviation Industry
Stunning UAP Sightings by Pilots: Its Implications for Aviation Industry
The aviation industry is in dire need of a proactive approach to addressing the phenomenon of unidentified flying objects (UFOs). With reports of UFO sightings increasing in number, it’s time for the industry to start taking the issue seriously and come up with a trustworthy reporting mechanism for pilots and other stakeholders.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has a reactive rather than proactive approach to the issue, only addressing the problem when it becomes necessary. However, there are trusted resources such as the integration and Outreach committee at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), NASA’s UAP study team, and other organizations that are working towards finding a solution.
Recently, a commercial pilot and guest on a Merged podcast, Mark, spoke about his own experience with a UFO sighting and the need for a more proactive approach to the issue. He believes that encouraging more pilots to come forward and share their experiences is a crucial step in solving the mystery.
The aviation industry should also be exploring different technologies that might be useful in detecting and reporting UFO sightings. Off-the-shelf technology can be modified to build sensors and improve the overall reporting process. The industry should strive to make this a continuous and active conversation, taking new data and great ideas to drive the conversation forward.
At the end of the day, NASA holds the authority for aviation safety in the United States and has established trusted programs for reporting safety hazards. However, the current procedures for reporting UFO sightings are scattered and not official, and there is no practical method for reporting such incidents.
It’s time for the aviation industry to take the issue of UFOs seriously and come up with a reliable and trustworthy reporting mechanism for all stakeholders. This way, the industry can work towards finding solutions and understanding the phenomenon of UFOs.
SETI, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, is deploying machine-learning algorithms that filter out Earthly interference and spot signals humans might miss.
Machine learning is good at picking out unconventional signals that might have come from an E.T.
Credit: Universal Pictures/Allstar/Alamy
From the hills of West Virginia to the flats of rural Australia, some of the world’s largest telescopes are listening for signals from distant alien civilizations. The search for extraterrestrial intelligence, known as SETI, is an effort to find artificial-looking electromagnetic-radiation signals that might have come from a technologically advanced civilization in a far-away solar system. A study published today1 describes one of several efforts to use machine learning, a subset of artificial intelligence (AI), to help astronomers sift quickly through the reams of data such surveys yield. As AI reshapes many scientific fields, what promise does it hold for the search for life beyond Earth?
“It is a new era for SETI research that is opening up thanks to machine-learning technology,” says Franck Marchis, a planetary astronomer at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California.
The problem of big data is relatively new for SETI. For decades, the field was constrained by having hardly any data at all. Astronomer Frank Drake pioneered SETI in 1960, when he pointed a telescope in Green Bank, West Virginia, towards two stars and listened for radio transmissions. Most of the SETI searches that followed were also limited to a small number of stars.
But in 2015, billionaire Yuri Milner funded the biggest SETI programme ever, in Berkeley, California: the Breakthrough Listen project to search one million stars for signs of intelligent life. Using telescopes in West Virginia, Australia and South Africa, the project looks for radio emissions that come from the direction of a star and that change steadily in frequency, as would happen if an alien transmitter were on a planet moving with respect to Earth.
“The biggest challenge for us in looking for SETI signals is not at this point getting the data,” says Sofia Sheikh, an astronomer at the SETI Institute. “The difficult part is differentiating signals from human or Earth technology from the kind of signals we’d be looking for from technology somewhere else out in the Galaxy.”
The Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia is one of several helping to look for alien civilizations.
Credit: Jim West/Alamy
Going through millions of observations manually isn’t practical. A common alternative approach is to use algorithms that look for signals matching what astronomers think alien beacons could look like. But those algorithms can overlook potentially interesting signals that are slightly different from what astronomers are expecting.
Enter machine learning. Machine-learning algorithms are trained on large amounts of data and can learn to recognize features that are characteristic of Earthly interference, making them very good at filtering out the noise.
Overlooked signals
Machine learning is also good at picking up candidate extraterrestrial signals that don’t fall into conventional categories and so might have been missed by earlier methods, says Dan Werthimer, a SETI scientist at the University of California, Berkeley.
Peter Ma, a mathematician and physicist at the University of Toronto, Canada, and lead author of today’s paper, agrees. “We can’t always be anticipating what ET might send to us,” he says.
Ma and his colleagues sifted through Breakthrough Listen observations of 820 stars, made using the 100-metre Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope. They built machine-learning software to analyse the data; this netted nearly three million signals of interest but discarded most as Earth-based interference. Ma then manually reviewed more than 20,000 signals and narrowed them down to 8 intriguing candidates.
The search ultimately came up empty — all eight signals disappeared when the team listened again. But the methods could be used on other data, such as a flood of observations from the MeerKAT array of 64 radio telescopes in South Africa, which Breakthrough Listen began using in December. The machine-learning algorithms could also be used on archived SETI data, says Ma, to seek signals that might previously have been overlooked.
Citizen SETI
Machine learning is also at the heart of a separate SETI effort that will launch next month. On 14 February, astronomers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), will launch a community-science project in which volunteers from the public will sort through images of radio signals and classify them as potential types of interference, to train a machine-learning algorithm to search SETI data from Green Bank.
And AI can help with other stages of the SETI process. Werthimer and his colleagues have used machine learning to come up with a ranking of stars to be observed in an ongoing SETI project that uses the world’s largest single-dish telescope, the 500-metre FAST radio telescope in China.
Still, SETI will probably continue to use a mixture of classical and machine-learning approaches to sort through data, says Jean-Luc Margot, an astronomer at UCLA. Classical algorithms remain excellent at picking up candidate signals, and machine learning is “not a panacea”, he says.
“The machines can’t do it all, yet,” agrees Werthimer.
doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-00258-z
References
Ma, P. X. et al.Nature Astron. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-022-01872-z (2023).
Groene komeet bereikt na 50.000 jaar zijn dichtste punt bij de aarde: waar en hoe kan je hem zien aan de nachtelijke hemel?
Maar liefst 50.000 jaar is C2022 E3 (ZTF) onderweg geweest. Dat is de naam van de groene komeet die voor het laatst in de buurt van de aarde kwam toen de Neanderthalers er nog op rondliepen. Momenteel nadert hij zijn dichtste punt bij de aarde. Maar wat is een komeet precies en hoe spot je hem in de komende nachten?
Martijn Peters
KIJK.
Groene komeet bereikt na 50.000 jaar zijn dichtste punt bij de aarde
Kometen zijn, net zoals asteroïden, restjes van toen de planeten zich vormden. Het is een allegaartje van stof, rots en ijs. Vandaar hun toepasselijke bijnaam: stoffige ruimtesneeuwballen. Meestal zijn ze enkele honderden meters tot kilometers groot. Kometen zijn afkomstig uit de Kuipergordel of Oortwolk. De donutvormige kuipergordel ligt net voorbij Neptunus op ongeveer 4,5 miljard kilometer van de zon. De Oortwolk ligt nog een stukje verder, op 300 miljard kilometer afstand. Hij zit als een schil rond ons zonnestelsel.
De groene komeet die onze planeet nadert, is afkomstig uit die Oortwolk. Wetenschappers ontdekten hem vorig jaar en gaven hem de naam C/2022 E3 (ZTF). Dat is niet zomaar. De “C” betekent dat zijn baan rond de zon meer dan 200 jaar duurt. Voor deze komeet is dat zelfs een pak langer, zo’n 50.000 jaar. De “2022” verwijst naar het jaar waarin hij ontdekt is. Dat was in de eerste helft van maart en het was de derde al die maand, daarom “E3”. Tot slot staat de “ZTF” nog voor Zwicky Transient Facility, die legde de komeet vast op beeld.
Op dit moment komt C/2022 E3 (ZTF) het dichtst in de buurt bij de aarde. Al is dat wel nog zo’n 43 miljoen km. Met een magnitude rond de 6 zal hij net helder genoeg zijn om met het blote oog te zien. Je kijkt dus best met een verrekijker of telescoop. Waar precies? Zoek de poolster in het noorden. Een klein stukje rechts daarvan vliegt C/2022 E3 (ZTF). Vannacht doe je dat best tussen 06u en 08u. De maan en zon zijn dan allebei achter de horizon.
A scientist, Peter Ma, has applied machine learning and artificial intelligence to data collected by the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute, a press statementreveals.
Based on initial results, there is a slight chance the new method may have unearthed non-Earth-based "technosignatures". That would mean it had achieved SETI's goal of finding signs of extraterrestrial intelligence.
Algorithm finds 8 promising signals that could be of alien origin
SETI was founded in 1984 to scan the skies for radio signals that could originate from technology developed by intelligent alien civilizations. The search so far has turned up empty-handed, though there is a slight chance that we may have seen a breakthrough.
In a new paper published in the journal Nature Astronomy, Ma describes how he trained a machine-learning algorithm on 480 hours of telescope data from 820 stars collected in 2016. The algorithm identified eight signals of interest that previous algorithms had failed to detect.
Ma, an undergraduate at the University of Toronto, told VICE in an interview that their method completely removes humans from the equation, unlike previous machine learning algorithms applied to SETI data. "This work relies entirely on just the neural network without any traditional algorithms supporting it and produced results that traditional algorithms did not pick up," Ma explained to VICE.
Why did the algorithm single out those 8 signals?
The result of Ma and colleagues' experiment is that we now have eight signals that may have originated from advanced extraterrestrial species. Ma's algorithm specifically pinpointed signs that "are narrow band, doppler drifting signals originating from some extraterrestrial source."
As the SETI Institute's press statement points out, "signals caused by natural phenomena tend to be broadband,". In contrast, the ones picked up by the algorithm "were narrow band, meaning they had narrow spectral width, on the order of just a few Hz." The signals also exhibited a number of properties that suggest they aren't caused by Earth-based interference, such as the fact they had non-zero drift rates.
Machine learning could crack the SETI code
Essentially, Ma and colleagues' algorithm filters out Earth-based interference while also identifying signals with specific features that could mean they are being used for communication or other technological applications.
Scientists are increasingly using machine learning and artificial intelligence to sift through massive amounts of cosmic data that could otherwise take humans years to investigate. Machine learning is a subset of AI that uses data to refine its search parameters and improve its capabilities.
Ma chose to use a machine learning neural network because this allows adaptability that is not afforded by more traditional artificial intelligence algorithms. "The issue is that the nature of an ET signal is not completely known," he told VICE, "hence our proposed approach is to just learn it."
Though Ma and colleagues' algorithm pinpointed eight unique signals, there is no guarantee that these signals did, indeed, originate from alien civilizations. The next step is for researchers to investigate the signals in more detail and determine whether it's worth carrying out follow-up observations on the regions of space from which the mystery signals originated.
Artificiële intelligentie ontdekt 8 signalen die van buitenaards leven kunnen zijn
Sinds de jaren ‘80 al speurt de mens doelbewust naar buitenaards leven. Vooral met grote radiotelescopen, die overal ter wereld staan. Ze vangen signalen op uit de kosmos. Artificiële intelligentie kan nu helpen om die signalen te onderzoeken, en er zijn er al 8 ontdekt door AI die wel eens van een andere beschaving in het heelal konden zijn.
Kenneth Dee
SETI heet het onderzoek naar buitenaards leven - Search for extraterrestrial intelligence - en het gebeurt met gigantische telescopen die ‘straling’ uit het heelal opvangen. Het doel is simpel maar moeilijk: zoeken naar signalen die van intelligente wezens op een andere planeet, in een ander zonnestelsel kunnen komen.
Uiteraard vangen die telescopen ook allerlei signalen op die helemaal niets met aliens te maken hebben. Denk aan het signaal van radiozender Q-Music of de ontploffing van een ster. SETI zet nu artificiële intelligentie in om tussen alles wat wordt opgevangen te speuren naar iets wat mogelijk contact met buitenaardse wezens kan zijn.
“De grootste uitdaging voor ons is niet om signalen op te vangen en de data te krijgen”, vertelt Sofia Sheikh van het SETI-instituut. “Het moeilijke gedeelte is het onderscheid te maken tussen signalen uitgezonden door menselijke technologie of door die van technologie ergens anders in het heelal.”
De grootste uitdaging is niet om signalen op te vangen maar om het onderscheid te maken tussen menselijke en buitenaardse signalen.
Sofia Sheikh, SETI
Daarom gebruikt SETI vanaf nu ook ‘machine learning’, eigenlijk heeft een computer geleerd om signalen te zoeken die mogelijk van buitenaardse beschavingen komen. En daar is die AI béter in dan andere technieken. Zo heeft hij acht signalen ontdekt in gegevens die eerder al waren onderzocht. Die acht signalen bleken uiteindelijk niet afkomstig van een beschaving op een andere planeet.
Maar de toekomst is wel aan AI, voor SETI: “Het is echt een nieuw tijdperk waarin we nu terchtkomen, dankzij deze nieuwe technologie”, zegt Franck Marchis van SETI Californië. Het enthousiasme van wetenschappers is groot, en ook de kans dat het eerste contact ooit met aliens niet ontdekt wordt door een mens maar een ‘slimme’ computer.
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Mystical Blue Spiral Illuminates Hawaiian Skies
Mystical Blue Spiral Illuminates Hawaiian Skies
UFO sighting over Hawaii?
A National Astronomical Observatory of Japan camera at the summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii captured a mesmerizing blue “flying spiral” on January 18th, 2023. The video of the event has since gone viral, capturing the attention of people all over the world.
SpaceX’s launch of a new satellite earlier that day is believed to be related to the formation of the blue spiral, according to officials at the Subaru Telescope. The spiral can be seen twisting and turning in the sky, creating a mesmerizing spectacle for those lucky enough to witness it.
This incredible phenomenon provides us with a glimpse into the beauty and mysteries of the sky above us. It serves as a reminder of the vastness and intricacy of our universe, and the endless possibilities that exist beyond our understanding.
While the exact cause of the blue spiral is still unknown, it is a fascinating example of the wondrous sights that can occur in our skies. It is a thrilling reminder that there is still so much to be discovered and explored in the vastness of space.
“Living Nostradamus” Athos Salomé, has a prediction for 2023: He believes aliens will arrive through a portal in the controversial Area 51. He previously predicted the Covid-19 pandemic and conflict in Ukraine!
“Living Nostradamus” Athos Salomé, has a prediction for 2023: He believes aliens will arrive through a portal in the controversial Area 51. He previously predicted the Covid-19 pandemic and conflict in Ukraine!
Athos Salomé, dubbed the “Living Nostradamus”, predicts aliens’ descent through Area 51 portal in 2023
Athos Salomé, known as the “Living Nostradamus,” (you can check him out on Linktr.ee) has made a new prediction for 2023 that is causing a stir. He claims that a three-dimensional portal will open under Area 51, the highly classified US Air Force base in Nevada. Salomé says that this portal will transport people between space and time dimensions and that Elon Musk already knows about it. According to the so-called psychic, the portal will be accessible through an underground tunnel located at Area 51.
Area 51 has been the subject of many conspiracy theories and has long been associated with aliens and UFO sightings. The base covers 2.3 million acres of remote desert in Nevada and is said to have a network of airstrips stretching up to 12,000ft. The official explanation from the US military is that it serves as a testing ground for tactics, development, and advanced training.
However, the true purpose of Area 51 has remained a mystery for decades, fueling speculation about its connection to aliens and extraterrestrial technology. The base has been the site of many supposed UFO sightings, and rumors of secret experiments and underground facilities have circulated for years.
This latest prediction by Salomé has added fuel to the fire, with many wondering what could be hidden at Area 51 and what kind of technology or secrets could be harnessed through this supposed portal. The fact that Elon Musk is said to know about it only adds to the intrigue.
Musk, the billionaire founder of Tesla and SpaceX, has been open about his interest in space and the potential for futuristic technology. He has made headlines in recent years for his ambitious plans to colonize Mars and his interest in developing advanced transportation systems.
It is said that Musk has an idea of the power that lies underground at Area 51, and that his company SpaceX even has a secret area known as “Area 59.” In a 2019 interview, Musk hinted at the existence of this secret area, stating that it was where SpaceX developed much more robust projects and prototypes.
This latest prediction by Salomé raises the question of whether there could be some truth to the rumors and speculation surrounding Area 51. Could this supposed portal be a gateway to advanced technology and secrets that could change the course of human history?
While many remain skeptical of psychic predictions, the idea of a portal at Area 51 is certainly intriguing. The mysterious base has been a source of fascination for decades, and the idea of aliens and advanced technology being connected to it only adds to the allure.
In conclusion, Athos Salomé’s prediction about a portal at Area 51 is a reminder of the many mysteries and legends that surround this iconic and controversial site. Whether or not the prediction will come true remains to be seen, but it is clear that the speculation and fascination surrounding Area 51 will continue for many years to come.
The Contact team have traveled the world to gather UFO footage and talk to witnesses about their encounters. The footage they have collected is stunning and has been analyzed using sophisticated software to determine its authenticity.
One piece of footage, captured in Rio Blanco, showed an object moving at a high speed and maintaining a general shape. The team used motion analysis software to track the object’s movement and found that the motion vectors were consistent with the object’s predicted path. This level of detail and accuracy would be difficult to fake, leading the team to conclude that the footage is authentic.
Another piece of footage was captured by a medical doctor in Phoenix, who saw a formation of six lights in the sky. The doctor captured video of the lights, which appeared to be attached to something, and over 10,000 people reported seeing the same sighting. Despite multiple sightings over several years, there has been no official explanation from the military or government.
“Despite multiple sightings over several years, there has been no official explanation from the military or government.” Sorry but that is statement misleading. Fact is that there were military exercises being carried out on the other side of the mountain bordering that side of Phoenix and flares were being dropped from aircraft. An analysis performed by a completely credible but non-military or government organization showed the descent rate of deployed flares, intensity, duration etc, and then they compared that to the “lights” and the mountain and camera locations…..everything checked out. Even if the Gov or military does step up remain skeptical, they love when people blame ALIENS for things they do and people misinterpret. That all being said that white object ripping through the air across that valley? That’s something very intriguing.
The Mysterious Stone Kingdom of the Great Zimbabwe
The Mysterious Stone Kingdom of the Great Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is home to one of the most stunning historical monuments in Africa – the monument of the Great Zimbabwe. Built 900 years ago, the massive stone structures of the Great Zimbabwe create a breathtaking view, leaving visitors to wonder about the historical events that transpired many centuries ago. How were these massive stone structures built? What kind of society lived here? Why was such an impressive and durable structure ultimately abandoned?
The name ‘Zimbabwe’ is an anglicized form of an African word meaning ‘stone houses’, for the ruins of the Great Zimbabwe are comprised of several stone walls, monuments, and buildings built mainly of granite. The structures were created using a method called dry stonewalling, which requires a high level of masonry expertise. The internal structure contains many passageways and enclosures. It spans almost 1800 acres of the southeastern area of the country of Zimbabwe. While it may seem that the structure was named after the country, it is actually the other way around.
It is estimated that construction spanned more than 300 years, and that the complexes housed a civilization of up to 18,000 people. The Great Zimbabwe would have been used as a political seat of power, serving as a palace for the Zimbabwean monarch. It is not known who constructed the Great Zimbabwe, but there are several groups that may have been involved, including the Bantu people of the Gokomere, ancestors of the Southern African ethnic group known as the Lemba or Venda, or a branch of the Shona-speaking people known as the Karanga.
Preserved wall of the Great Zimbabwe ruins.
Image source: Wikipedia
The Great Zimbabwe was ultimately abandoned, with parts of it falling into ruin. However, many of the structures are still standing today, and the site has been recognized as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. According to some, the most impressive remains of the Great Zimbabwe are the massive stone walls. The walls were constructed of granite; a local natural resource that was collected from the exposed rock in the surrounding hills. The large slabs were easy to remove, transport, and construct, creating an expansive set of walls around the complex.
Great Zimbabwe, stone imitation of a wooden lintel.
The ruins of the Great Zimbabwe form three distinctive architectural groupings, which have been labeled as the Hill Complex, the Valley Complex, and the Great Enclosure. There is some disagreement as to the meaning or purpose of the three groupings. Some say that each group represents a different king, with new rulers creating a new residence upon taking power. This would suggest that the focus of power shifted throughout the Great Zimbabwe over the centuries. Others suggest that the groupings were used consistently throughout the lifespan of the Great Zimbabwe, with each complex serving a specific purpose within society; the Hill Complex possibly served as a temple, the Valley Complex was where citizens resided, and the Great Enclosure housed the king.
Some evidence of the peoples that inhabited the Great Zimbabwe comes from the artifacts that have been discovered in the area, including soapstone figurines, pottery, iron gongs, elaborately worked ivory, iron and copper wire, iron hoes, bronze spearheads, copper ingots and crucibles, and gold beads, bracelets, pendants and sheaths. One of the most notable artifacts discovered to date is known as the eight Zimbabwe Birds. The birds are 16 inches tall, carved from soapstone and had been placed atop massive stone monoliths that were about a yard tall. Unfortunately, the birds were not discovered in situ, so it is not known where they were placed when constructed. There are some physical indications that the Zimbabwe Birds were placed at the Eastern Enclosure of the Hill Complex. The birds contain both human and bird-like features, including lips for a beak, and five-toed feet for claws. They may have been symbols of a royal presence. Determining exactly where the birds were located could provide insight as to where the king or leader lived within the Great Zimbabwe.
Copy of one of the soapstone birds found at the Great Zimbabwe.
There has been much speculation as to what led to the decline of the inhabitants of the Great Zimbabwe, mostly adducing to a decline in available resources. Some say it may have been due to declines in trade from the North, or exhaustion of the resources in the nearby gold mines. Others cite political unrest, famine, and water shortages caused by climate changes, which would have forced the citizens to move to an area with a higher abundance of resources available.
The Great Zimbabwe give visitors a glimpse into the landscape of past human civilization, but it remains a great enigma. So much is still unknown about the ancient site – how it came to be, why it was built, how it was used, and why it was abandoned. We may never know the answers to these questions, but we can still marvel at the breathtaking ruins that gave the country of Zimbabwe its name.
Featured image: Skyview of the Citadel of Great Zimbabwe.
Riding the Seas: Kelpies, Hippocampus, and More Monstrous Horses
Riding the Seas: Kelpies, Hippocampus, and More Monstrous Horses
There are many interesting legends from around the world and through the ages that refer to mythical beings that are similar to horses. The Scottish Kelpies are some of the more intriguing of these creatures and tales about these water horses have been told far and wide around that country. But before those creatures existed there was a sea horse in Greek myth that was known as a hippocampus.
Shape-shifting and Sacrifices to Water Spirits
In Scotland, the kelpie is a shape-shifting water spirit which resides in lakes and pools. The historian Douglas Harper defined kelpies as demons appearing specifically in the shape of horses. However, some legends say that it can also assume human form.
While appearing as a human, the kelpie will still have its hooves. For this reason, the kelpie is seen as a malefic entity. In Scotland, almost every lake has a story about a kelpie. Probably the most well-known of these stories is the one about the kelpie of Loch Ness .
In the past, human sacrifices were made to appease the gods and spirits of the waters. In time, this practice led to the appearance of the belief in evil water horses. There are some stories, however, in which kelpies are seen in a more positive light and are said to protect small children from drowning in lakes. Kelpies also apparently warned young women to be wary of handsome strangers.
Kelpies are the most common water spirits in Scottish folklore and they can live both in water as well as on land. They often appear in legends as strong and beautiful black horses which live in the deep pools of rivers and streams in Scotland.
Kelpies are known for preying on the humans they encounter. The hooves of the kelpie are thought to be reversed to those of a regular horse. In Aberdeenshire, the kelpie allegedly has a mane of serpents, while the kelpie of River Spey was known to be white and capable of singing.
The tangie or tongie is another shape-shifting spirit from Orkney and the Shetland Isles. It is a sea spirit appearing in the form of a horse or as a merman. This spirit can also appear as an old man. The creature is said to be covered with seaweed and it allegedly loves to terrorize lonely travelers.
Specifically, the tangie has a predilection for young women, whom it allegedly will abduct and devour under water. Black Eric, a sheep rustler, was known in legends for riding a tangie. The tangie he rode offered him supernatural assistance while raiding surrounding crofts. Ultimately, Black Eric fell to his death in the sea - but his tangie continued to terrorize the area.
People in the Highlands were often wary of lone animals and strangers they encountered near the water’s edge.
The each-uisge of Scotland is known as “Ech-Ushkya” or as the “each-uisce” in Ireland. Literally meaning “water horse” it is a water spirit resembling the kelpie, but is far more vicious. Folklorist Katharine Briggs described the mythical being as “perhaps the fiercest and most dangerous of all the water-horses”.
While the kelpie inhabits rivers and streams, the each-uisge lives in the sea and in lakes. It is a shape shifter disguised as a beautiful horse, a pony, a giant bird or as a handsome man. While it is in its horse form, should a person mount it, then the individual is only safe while the each-uisge is on land.
However, as soon as the horse smells water it is the end for the rider. The horse’s skin will become adhesive and the horse creature will immediately take its rider into the deepest part of the lake, drowning him. Once the victim has drowned, the each-uisge rips the corpse apart and devours it, leaving only the liver to float to the surface. For this reason, people in the Highlands were often wary of lone animals and strangers they encountered near the water’s edge.
Representation of each-uisge, a supernatural water horse found in the lochs of Scotland.
On the Isle of Lewis, Croc-na-Beist, meaning “hillock of the monster”, is a knoll where an each-uisge was said to have been slain by the brother of a woman it tried to seduce while in its human form.
Apart from humans, these malevolent water creatures also fed on cattle and sheep. The use of these animals could also help someone to lure, capture, and kill the each-uisge. The smell of roasted meat attracts the each-uisge in McKay’s story from “ More West Highland Tales ”:
A blacksmith from Raasay lost his daughter to the each-uisge. In revenge the blacksmith and his son made a set of large hooks, in a forge they set up by the loch side. They then roasted a sheep and heated the hooks until they were red hot. At last a great mist appeared from the water and the each-uisge rose from the depths and seized the sheep. The blacksmith and his son rammed the red-hot hooks into its flesh and after a short struggle dispatched it. In the morning there was nothing left of the creature apart from a jelly like substance .
The hippocampus, meaning “horse monster” in Greek, is a mythical creature in Greek and Phoenician mythology. In English, the creature is often called a “sea-horse”. The being was also adopted by Etruscan mythology and it is described as having the upper body of a horse and the lower body of a fish.
Melquart, the tutelary god of the Phoenician city of Tyre, was depicted as riding a winged hippocampus. Poseidon was also the god of horses and known as Poseidon Hippios.
A representation of a mythical hippocampus (sea horse).
Even though it was not a water horse, Sleipnir of Norse mythology is also worth mentioning here. Sleipnir was believed to be the eight-legged steed of the chief god Odin, the child of Loki, and the fastest horse in all of the nine worlds.
Horses have been present since the beginning of human history and they have also entered the myths and legends of the world in a variety of forms – sometimes sweet, sometimes scary.
NASA has Simulated a Tiny Part of the Moon Here on Earth
Using the Lunar Lab and Regolith Testbeds at NASA’s Ames Research Center, a team created this simulated lunar environment to study lighting conditions experienced at the unexplored poles of the Moon.
NASA has Simulated a Tiny Part of the Moon Here on Earth
Before going to the Moon, the Apollo astronauts trained at various sites on Earth that best approximated the lunar surface, such as the volcanic regions Iceland, Hawaii and the US Southwest. To help prepare for upcoming robotic and human Artemis missions, a newly upgraded “mini-Moon” lunar testbed will allow astronauts and robots to test out realistic conditions on the Moon including rough terrain and unusual sunlight.
The Lunar Lab and Regolith Testbed at the Ames Research Center in California simulates conditions on the Moon in a high-fidelity environment, allowing researchers to test hardware designs intended for the lunar surface. The lab is currently being used as a test environment for the next phases of the Artemis Program, to conduct studies on optical sensing and drill testing, and tests for in-situ resource utilization identification and extraction techniques.
A look at the lighting system for Lunar Lab and Regolith Testbeds. Credit: NASA/Uland Wong.
The facility was originally built in 2009 but has now been expanded and upgraded to include a lunar lab with multiple testbeds with a variety of simulated lunar regolith. These large indoor “sandboxes” can be configured and customized to simulate various regions on the Moon. In addition, a special lighting system can re-create realistic lighting conditions on the Moon, such as the darkness of a lunar polar crater, or the glaring rays of the Sun that the Apollo astronauts had to deal with in the lunar mares.
The testbeds aren’t huge, but big enough to provide a variety of conditions. The first original sandbox measures approximately 13 feet by 13 feet by 1.5 feet (4 meters by 4 meters by 0.5 meter) and is filled with eight tons a lunar regolith simulant called Johnson Space Center One simulant (JSC-1A), which makes this the world’s largest collection of the material. The JSC-1A simulant mimics the Moon’s mare basins and is dark grey in color.
The new larger testbed, measures 62 feet by 13 feet by 1 foot (19 meters by 4 meters by 0.3 meter) and is filled with more than 20 tons of Lunar Highlands Simulant-1 (LHS-1), which is light grey to simulate the lunar highlands. This larger sandbox can be reconfigured if needed to be a smaller, but deeper, testbed.
Some of the things tested are how various tools and rovers work in the incredibly abrasive and “sticky” regolith. Moon dust has grains as fine as powder, but it can also be sharp as tiny shards of glass. In addition, it has the annoying ability to electrostatically cling to everything.
The special lighting system can mimic both the dark polar regions of the Moon and the glaring, unfiltered light elsewhere on the Moon.
“When rovers and astronauts carry out missions at the lunar South Pole, they’ll have to navigate in low-angle lighting and overcome harsh solar glare that makes it difficult to see,” NASA said in a press release. “Because the Sun will never rise overhead, even the smallest rock or crater will cast long shadows and cloak craters in darkness. And, at times, the Sun will blaze at eye-level as it reflects off the soil.”
In the Regolith Testbeds at NASA’s Ames Research Center, which are designed to mimic lunar terrain as it would appear in different areas at the Moon’s poles, the VIPER team tests out lighting systems for the rover with a very low-angle illumination simulating the Sun. Credit: NASA/Dominic Hart
The new testbeds have been instrumental in testing out NASA’s new Moon rover, the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER). VIPER’s rover drivers will rely on a system of rover-mounted lights and cameras to steer clear of boulders, descend steep declines into craters, and avoid other potentially mission-ending dangers. The facilities at the Regolith Testbed allowed research teams create over 12 different scenarios of craters and rock formations to improve the rover’s autonomous navigation system, so it can navigate safely through unknown terrain and harsh conditions.
An artist’s concept of the completed design of NASA’s Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, or VIPER. VIPER will get a close-up view of the location and concentration of ice and other resources at the Moon’s South Pole, bringing us a significant step closer to NASA’s ultimate goal of a long-term presence on the Moon. Credits: NASA/Daniel Rutter
Astronomers Find 25 Fast Radio Bursts That Repeat on a Regular Basis
Like Gravitational Waves (GWs) and Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs), Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) are one of the most powerful and mysterious astronomical phenomena today. These transient events consist of bursts that put out more energy in a millisecond than the Sun does in three days. While most bursts last mere milliseconds, there have been rare cases where FRBs were found repeating. While astronomers are still unsure what causes them and opinions vary, dedicated observatories and international collaborations have dramatically increased the number of events available for study.
A leading observatory is the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME), a next-generation radio telescope located at the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory (DRAO) in British Columbia, Canada. Thanks to its large field of view and broad frequency coverage, this telescope is an indispensable tool for detecting FRBs (more than 1000 sources to date!) Using a new type of algorithm, the CHIME/FRB Collaboration found evidence of 25 new repeating FRBs in CHIME data that were detected between 2019 and 2021.
Despite their mysterious nature, FRBs are ubiquitous and the best estimates indicate that events arrive at Earth roughly a thousand times a day over the entire sky. None of the theories or models proposed to date can fully explain all the properties of the bursts or the sources. While some are believed to be caused by neutron stars and black holes (attributable to the high energy density of their surroundings), others continue to defy classification. Because of this, other theories persist, ranging from pulsars and magnetars to GRBs and extraterrestrial communications.
CHIME was originally designed to measure the expansion history of the Universe through the detection of neutral hydrogen. Roughly 370,000 years after the Big Bang, the Universe was permeated by this gas, and the only photons were either the relic radiation from the Big Bang – the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) – or that released by neutral hydrogen atoms. For this reason, astronomers and cosmologists refer to this period as the “Dark Ages,” which ended roughly 1 billion years after the Big Bang as the first stars and galaxies began reionizing neutral hydrogen (the Reionization Era).
Specifically, CHIME was designed to detect the wavelength of light that neutral hydrogen absorbs and emits, known as the 21-centimeter hydrogen line. This way, astronomers could measure how fast the Universe was expanding during the “Dark Ages” and make comparisons to later cosmological eras that are observable. However, CHIME has since proven itself to be ideally suited for studying FRBs, thanks to its wide field of view and the range of frequencies it covers (400 to 800 MHz). This is the purpose of the CHIME/FRB Collaboration, which is to detect and characterize FRBs and trace them back to their sources.
As Dunlap Postdoctoral Fellow and lead author Ziggy Pleunis told Universe Today, each FRB is described by its position in the sky and a quantity known as its Dispersion Measure (DM). This refers to the time delay from high to low frequencies caused by the burst’s interactions with material as it travels through space. In a paper released in August 2021, the CHIME/FRB Collaboration presented the first large-sample catalog of FRBs containing 536 events detected by CHIME between 2018 and 2019, including 62 bursts from 18 previously reported repeating sources.
Artist‘s impression of a fast radio burst and the observatories dedicated to detecting them. Credit: Danielle Futselaar
For this latest study, Pleunis and his colleagues relied on a new clustering algorithm that looks for multiple events co-located in the sky with similar DMs. “We can measure the fast radio burst’s sky position and dispersion measure up to a certain precision that depends on the design of the telescope that’s being used,” said Pleunis. “The clustering algorithm considers all fast radio bursts that the CHIME telescope has detected and looks for clusters of FRBs that have consistent sky positions and dispersion measures within the measurement uncertainties. We then do various checks to make sure the bursts in a cluster are really coming from the same source.”
Of the over 1000 FRBs detected to date, only 29 were identified as repeating in nature. What’s more, virtually all repeating FRBs were found to be repeating in irregular ways. The only exception is FRB 180915, discovered by researchers at CHIME in 2018 (and reported on in 2020) and pulses every 16.35 days. With the help of this new algorithm, the CHIME/FRB collaboration detected 25 new repeating sources, almost doubling the number available for study. In addition, the team noted some very interesting features that could provide insight into their causes and characteristics. As Pleunis added:
“When we carefully count all our fast radio bursts and the sources that repeat we find that only about 2.6% of all fast radio bursts that we discover repeat. For many of the new sources we have detected only a few bursts, which makes the sources quite inactive. Almost as inactive as the sources that we have only seen once.
“We thus cannot rule out that the sources for which we have so far only seen one burst, will eventually show repeat bursts as well. It is possible that all fast radio burst sources eventually repeat, but that many sources are not very active. Any explanation for fast radio bursts should be able to explain why some sources are hyperactive while others are mostly quiet.”
An illustration of CHIME detecting Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) in the night sky.
Credit: James Josephides/Mike Dalley
These findings could help inform future surveys, which will benefit from next-generation radio telescopes that will become operational in the coming years. These include the Square Kilometer Array Observatory (SKAO), which is expected to gather its first light by 2027. Located in Australia, this 128-dish telescope will be merged with the MeerKAT array in South Africa to create the world’s largest radio telescope. In the meantime, the prodigious rate at which new FRBs are being detected (including repeating events) could mean that radio astronomers could be close to a breakthrough!
Draper to send a mission to the far side of the Moon
Draper to send a mission to the far side of the Moon
Draper has received a USD 73 million NASA contract to deliver several cargoes to the far side of the Moon. It was given as part of the CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) program, the main purpose of which is to attract American industry to the development of the moon of our planet.
Draper lander on the Moon (concept). Source: Draper
Under the terms of the agreement, Draper is responsible for cargo integration, its delivery from Earth to the Moon (the SERIES-2 platform developed by the company will be used for landing) and operations on the lunar surface. This is the eighth contract issued under the CLPS program.
Schrödinger impact basin
The landing site of the mission will be the Schrödinger impact basin, a 312-kilometer crater located near the south pole of the Moon. This place is of great interest to geologists. Schrödinger is one of the youngest lunar craters. The impact that formed it tore off the lunar crust, exposing the upper part of the mantle in the inner ring. The outer ring of the crater consists of an impact melt.
Schrödinger Basin. Source: NASA
Another interesting feature of the impact formation is that its bottom is covered with smooth sedimentary deposits. According to scientists, after the formation of the crater it became the site of a major eruption. Scientists hope that studying the basin will allow them to better understand the thermal and geophysical properties of the Moon’s interior, as well as the electrical and magnetic properties of the surface in a place sheltered from the influence of Earth’s electromagnetic fields.
Draper Mission Payload
The Draper descent platform will have to deliver instruments to the Moon for the implementation of three NASA experiments with a total mass of 95 kg. Among them:
Pair of FSS seismometers (Farside Seismic Suite), which will provide the first-ever seismic data from the far side of the Moon.
LITMS Payload Kit (Lunar Interior Temperature and Materials Suite). It is designed to study the structure of the heat flow and subsurface electrical conductivity of the lunar soil.
The LuSEE instrument (Lunar Surface ElectroMagnetics Experiment), which will conduct a comprehensive study of electromagnetic phenomena on the surface of the Moon. LuSEE also uses plasma wave measurements to characterize the lunar ionosphere and the interaction of the solar wind and magnetospheric plasma with the magnetic fields of the lunar surface and the Earth’s crust.
Currently, the implementation of the Draper mission is planned for 2025. It is not yet known which launch operator will be chosen to launch it to the Moon.
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Ik ben Pieter, en gebruik soms ook wel de schuilnaam Peter2011.
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