Neil Savage

Credit: Neil Webb

When Rohit Bhattacharya began his PhD in computer science, his aim was to build a tool that could help physicians to identify people with cancer who would respond well to immunotherapy. This form of treatment helps the body’s immune system to fight tumours, and works best against malignant growths that produce proteins that immune cells can bind to. Bhattacharya’s idea was to create neural networks that could profile the genetics of both the tumour and a person’s immune system, and then predict which people would be likely to benefit from treatment.

But he discovered that his algorithms weren’t up to the task. He could identify patterns of genes that correlated to immune response, but that wasn’t sufficient¹. “I couldn’t say that this specific pattern of binding, or this specific expression of genes, is a causal determinant in the patient’s response to immunotherapy,” he explains.

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Bhattacharya was stymied by the age-old dictum that correlation does not equal causation — a fundamental stumbling block in artificial intelligence (AI). Computers can be trained to spot patterns in data, even patterns that are so subtle that humans might miss them. And computers can use those patterns to make predictions — for instance, that a spot on a lung X-ray indicates a tumour². But when it comes to cause and effect, machines are typically at a loss. They lack a common-sense understanding of how the world works that people have just from living in it. AI programs trained to spot disease in a lung X-ray, for example, have sometimes gone astray by zeroing in on the markings used to label the right-hand side of the image³. It is obvious, to a person at least, that there is no causal relationship between the style and placement of the letter ‘R’ on an X-ray and signs of lung disease. But without that understanding, any differences in how such markings are drawn or positioned could be enough to steer a machine down the wrong path.

For computers to perform any sort of decision making, they will need an understanding of causality, says Murat Kocaoglu, an electrical engineer at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. “Anything beyond prediction requires some sort of causal understanding,” he says. “If you want to plan something, if you want to find the best policy, you need some sort of causal reasoning module.”

Incorporating models of cause and effect into machine-learning algorithms could also help mobile autonomous machines to make decisions about how they navigate the world. “If you’re a robot, you want to know what will happen when you take a step here with this angle or that angle, or if you push an object,” Kocaoglu says.

In Bhattacharya’s case, it was possible that some of the genes that the system was highlighting were responsible for a better response to the treatment. But a lack of understanding of causality meant that it was also possible that the treatment was affecting the gene expression — or that another, hidden factor was influencing both. The potential solution to this problem lies in something known as causal inference — a formal, mathematical way to ascertain whether one variable affects another.

Causal inference has long been used by economists and epidemiologists to test their ideas about causation. The 2021 Nobel prize in economic sciences went to three researchers who used causal inference to ask questions such as whether a higher minimum wage leads to lower employment, or what effect an extra year of schooling has on future income. Now, Bhattacharya is among a growing number of computer scientists who are working to meld causality with AI to give machines the ability to tackle such questions, helping them to make better decisions, learn more efficiently and adapt to change.

A notion of cause and effect helps to guide humans through the world. “Having a causal model of the world, even an imperfect one — because that’s what we have — allows us to make more robust decisions and predictions,” says Yoshua Bengio, a computer scientist who directs Mila – Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute, a collaboration between four universities in Montreal, Canada. Humans’ grasp of causality supports attributes such as imagination and regret; giving computers a similar ability could transform their capabilities.

Climbing the ladder

The headline successes of AI over the past decade — such as winning against people at various competitive games, identifying the content of images and, in the past few years, generating text and pictures in response to written prompts — have been powered by deep learning. By studying reams of data, such systems learn how one thing correlates with another. These learnt associations can then be put to use. But this is just the first rung on the ladder towards a loftier goal: something that Judea Pearl, a computer scientist and director of the Cognitive Systems Laboratory at the University of California, Los Angeles, refers to as “deep understanding”.

In 2011, Pearl won the A.M. Turing Award, often referred to as the Nobel prize for computer science, for his work developing a calculus to allow probabilistic and causal reasoning. He describes a three-level hierarchy of reasoning⁴. The base level is ‘seeing’, or the ability to make associations between things. Today’s AI systems are extremely good at this. Pearl refers to the next level as ‘doing’ — making a change to something and noting what happens. This is where causality comes into play.

A computer can develop a causal model by examining interventions: how changes in one variable affect another. Instead of creating one statistical model of the relationship between variables, as in current AI, the computer makes many. In each one, the relationship between the variables stays the same, but the values of one or several of the variables are altered. That alteration might lead to a new outcome. All of this can be evaluated using the mathematics of probability and statistics. “The way I think about it is, causal inference is just about mathematizing how humans make decisions,” Bhattacharya says.

Bengio, who won the A.M. Turing Award in 2018 for his work on deep learning, and his students have trained a neural network to generate causal graphs⁵ — a way of depicting causal relationships. At their simplest, if one variable causes another variable, it can be shown with an arrow running from one to the other. If the direction of causality is reversed, so too is the arrow. And if the two are unrelated, there will be no arrow linking them. Bengio’s neural network is designed to randomly generate one of these graphs, and then check how compatible it is with a given set of data. Graphs that fit the data better are more likely to be accurate, so the neural network learns to generate more graphs similar to those, searching for one that fits the data best.

This approach is akin to how people work something out: people generate possible causal relationships, and assume that the ones that best fit an observation are closest to the truth. Watching a glass shatter when it is dropped it onto concrete, for instance, might lead a person to think that the impact on a hard surface causes the glass to break. Dropping other objects onto concrete, or knocking a glass onto a soft carpet, from a variety of heights, enables a person to refine their model of the relationship and better predict the outcome of future fumbles.

Face the changes

A key benefit of causal reasoning is that it could make AI more able to deal with changing circumstances. Existing AI systems that base their predictions only on associations in data are acutely vulnerable to any changes in how those variables are related. When the statistical distribution of learnt relationships changes — whether owing to the passage of time, human actions or another external factor — the AI will become less accurate.

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For instance, Bengio could train a self-driving car on his local roads in Montreal, and the AI might become good at operating the vehicle safely. But export that same system to London, and it would immediately break for a simple reason: cars are driven on the right in Canada and on the left in the United Kingdom, so some of the relationships the AI had learnt would be backwards. He could retrain the AI from scratch using data from London, but that would take time, and would mean that the software would no longer work in Montreal, because its new model would replace the old one.

A causal model, on the other hand, allows the system to learn about many possible relationships. “Instead of having just one set of relationships between all the things you could observe, you have an infinite number,” Bengio says. “You have a model that accounts for what could happen under any change to one of the variables in the environment.”

Humans operate with such a causal model, and can therefore quickly adapt to changes. A Canadian driver could fly to London and, after taking a few moments to adjust, could drive perfectly well on the left side of the road. The UK Highway Code means that, unlike in Canada, right turns involve crossing traffic, but it has no effect on what happens when the driver turns the wheel or how the tyres interact with the road. “Everything we know about the world is essentially the same,” Bengio says. Causal modelling enables a system to identify the effects of an intervention and account for it in its existing understanding of the world, rather than having to relearn everything from scratch.

This ability to grapple with changes without scrapping everything we know also allows humans to make sense of situations that aren’t real, such as fantasy movies. “Our brain is able to project ourselves into an invented environment in which some things have changed,” Bengio says. “The laws of physics are different, or there are monsters, but the rest is the same.”

Counter to fact

The capacity for imagination is at the top of Pearl’s hierarchy of causal reasoning. The key here, Bhattacharya says, is speculating about the outcomes of actions not taken.

Bhattacharya likes to explain such counterfactuals to his students by reading them ‘The Road Not Taken’ by Robert Frost. In this poem, the narrator talks of having to choose between two paths through the woods, and expresses regret that they can’t know where the other road leads. “He’s imagining what his life would look like if he walks down one path versus another,” Bhattacharya says. That is what computer scientists would like to replicate with machines capable of causal inference: the ability to ask ‘what if’ questions.

Imagining whether an outcome would have been better or worse if we’d taken a different action is an important way that humans learn. Bhattacharya says it would be useful to imbue AI with a similar capacity for what is known as ‘counterfactual regret’. The machine could run scenarios on the basis of choices it didn’t make and quantify whether it would have been better off making a different one. Some scientists have already used counterfactual regret to help a computer improve its poker playing⁶.

The ability to imagine different scenarios could also help to overcome some of the limitations of existing AI, such as the difficulty of reacting to rare events. By definition, Bengio says, rare events show up only sparsely, if at all, in the data that a system is trained on, so the AI can’t learn about them. A person driving a car can imagine an occurrence they’ve never seen, such as a small plane landing on the road, and use their understanding of how things work to devise potential strategies to deal with that specific eventuality. A self-driving car without the capability for causal reasoning, however, could at best default to a generic response for an object in the road. By using counterfactuals to learn rules for how things work, cars could be better prepared for rare events. Working from causal rules rather than a list of previous examples ultimately makes the system more versatile.

Using causality to program imagination into a computer could even lead to the creation of an automated scientist. During a 2021 online summit sponsored by Microsoft Research, Pearl suggested that such a system could generate a hypothesis, pick the best observation to test that hypothesis and then decide what experiment would provide that observation.

Right now, however, this remains a way off. The theory and basic mathematics of causal inference are well established, but the methods for AI to realize interventions and counterfactuals are still at an early stage. “This is still very fundamental research,” Bengio says. “We’re at the stage of figuring out the algorithms in a very basic way.” Once researchers have grasped these fundamentals, algorithms will then need to be optimized to run efficiently. It is uncertain how long this will all take. “I feel like we have all the conceptual tools to solve this problem and it’s just a matter of a few years, but usually it takes more time than you expect,” Bengio says. “It might take decades instead.”

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Bhattacharya thinks that researchers should take a leaf from machine learning, the rapid proliferation of which was in part because of programmers developing open-source software that gives others access to the basic tools for writing algorithms. Equivalent tools for causal inference could have a similar effect. “There’s been a lot of exciting developments in recent years,” Bhattacharya says, including some open-source packages from tech giant Microsoft and from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He and his colleagues also developed an open-source causal module they call Ananke. But these software packages remain a work in progress.

Bhattacharya would also like to see the concept of causal inference introduced at earlier stages of computer education. Right now, he says, the topic is taught mainly at the graduate level, whereas machine learning is common in undergraduate training. “Causal reasoning is fundamental enough that I hope to see it introduced in some simplified form at the high-school level as well,” he says.

If these researchers are successful at building causality into computing, it could bring AI to a whole new level of sophistication. Robots could navigate their way through the world more easily. Self-driving cars could become more reliable. Programs for evaluating the activity of genes could lead to new understanding of biological mechanisms, which in turn could allow the development of new and better drugs. “That could transform medicine,” Bengio says.

Even something such as ChatGPT, the popular natural-language generator that produces text that reads as though it could have been written by a human, could benefit from incorporating causality. Right now, the algorithm betrays itself by producing clearly written prose that contradicts itself and goes against what we know to be true about the world. With causality, ChatGPT could build a coherent plan for what it was trying to say, and ensure that it was consistent with facts as we know them.

When he was asked whether that would put writers out of business, Bengio says that could take some time. “But how about you lose your job in ten years, but you’re saved from cancer and Alzheimer’s,” he says. “That’s a good deal.”

• doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-00577-1

• This article is part of Nature Outlook: Robotics and artificial intelligence, an editorially independent supplement produced with the financial support of third parties. About this content.

References

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Download references

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28-02-2023 om 00:36 geschreven door peter  

BY ANTON POZDNYAKOV

“The Universe Breakers”: Six Galaxies That are Too Big, Too Early

New images from JWST show six galaxies at a time when the Universe was only 3% of its current age, 500-700 million years after the Big Bang. They should be baby galaxies, but they contain 100 times more stellar mass than astronomers were expecting to see soon after the beginning of the Universe. If true, this calls the current thinking of galaxy formation into question or challenges most models of cosmology.

• More about the “impossible” galaxies.

A 500-Meter-Long Asteroid Flew Past Earth and Astronomers Were Watching

An asteroid the size of the Empire State Building flew past Earth on Feb. 3rd, coming within 1.8 million km of our planet. For context, that’s about five times the distance between the Earth and the Moon. Astronomers turned the Goldstone Solar System Radar dish on the space rock, mapping its surface. The asteroid, called 2011 AG5, is one of the most elongated objects ever seen, with a length-to-width ratio of 10:3. It’ll have another close flyby in 2040 when it comes within three times the Earth-Moon distance.

Source of Dark Energy

A new paper was released suggesting that there might be a link between dark energy and the growth of supermassive black holes. Researchers speculate that, in fact, black holes can be the source of dark energy. If true (which we yet need to prove) this can be ground-breaking.

To shed more light on the research here’s an in-depth interview with Dr Chris Pearson from STFC RAL Space, who is a co-author of the paper.

• More about black holes and dark energy.

New Spacecraft Can See Into the Permanently Shadowed Craters on the Moon

The permanently shadowed craters at the Moon’s south pole are exciting because they contain vast reserves of water ice that future human explorers could use. But studying these craters is difficult because they’re in shadow and have no direct illumination falling inside them. NASA’s new ShadowCam instrument is at the Moon, flying with Korea’s Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter. ShadowCam can see in such low light that it can reveal incredible details in these shadowed craters as if they were lit in sunlight.

• More about ShadowCam.-

ESA’s Early Warning System for Asteroids

ESA is considering their own mission to search for potentially dangerous asteroids. The spacecraft will be called NEOMIR and it will go to the Earth-Sun L1 Lagrange point. This way it will be able to see incoming space rocks that will otherwise be missed because of the Sun blinding the telescopes. NEOMIR will also operate in the infrared, which will make its task even easier.

• More about NEOMIR.

Don’t Miss Out On Space News

If you want to get a curated selection of the most important space and astronomy news every week, subscribe to our Weekly Email Newsletter and get magazine-size ad-free news directly from Fraser Cain.

If you prefer the news to be videoed at you, check out our Space Bites playlist on our YouTube channel

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

27-02-2023 om 22:48 geschreven door peter  

Lights Over Luke AFB Near Glendale, Arizona Feb 1, 2023, UFO Sighting News. Warning The Military That Aliens Are Still #1 Most Powerful On Earth.

Date of sighting: Feb 1, 2023

Location of sighting: Glendale, Arizona, USA

 

They eyewitness was really on top of it when he caught a fleet of glowing spheres over Luke AFB a few days ago. The UFOs glowed powerfully and each was almost the same size as the one next to it. UFOs are often seen investigating the USAF military bases, even known at to shut down nuclear missiles in silos, forcing the military to remove them entirely since they could never repair them (Ellsworth AFB, South Dakota). Ellsworth was my personal base I worked at in the USAF (Scott Waring) and its also where I had a sighting of a fleet of over 25 spheres the size of 747s back in 1990 abouts, when I worked on B1 Lancer Bombers. There is another aliens interaction with guards at Ellsworth, but this is about Luke AFB, so for a later time. Aliens have a high interest in US military, to both predict, control and warn the Governments of the world of their own alien power being still #1 on Earth.

Scott C. Waring - Taiwan 

Eyewitness states: 

Started off with 3 Lights then I initially saw them they slowly faded in then 5 other lights fade into sight then faded out the same way they appeared.

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

27-02-2023 om 20:29 geschreven door peter  

Mexican president photographed a Maya elf in a tree, releasing it on Twitter, UFO Sighting News.

The president of Mexico has posted a photo on Twitter of a strange tree climbing, hiding creature that resembles a human with a hoodie. The photo resembles some ancient mayan gods carved in stone, but he said it reusables a woodland elf. Maybe, maybe not, but its odd, and he  himself recored this strange alien creature. Yes I said alien. I believe it to be an alien species watching the president, recording him, because he will do something very important, very soon. Similar sightings occurred to US president Ronald Reagan, who saw twice a UFO while flying his private plane as Governor of California. Also US president Jimmy Carter said he came out of the building and saw from a distance a glowing light in the sky, watching him. It was such a profound experience that President Carter went home and wrote it all down in a diary. So yeah, presidents are on the top of the list for aliens to observer, record, and even visit. In 1957 US president Eisenhower met with an alien from Venus Captain Val Valient Thor, so says the US delegated priest in charge of meeting all foreign VIPs at the US presidents side. 

Scott C. Waring - Taiwan 

Negative focused view above. 

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

27-02-2023 om 20:27 geschreven door peter  

The remote village of Hessdalen, Norway may well be the scene of the longest continuously recorded UFO activity in the world. For more than forty years, people have observed -- and scientists have recorded -- highly unusual and so far inexplicable phenomena there. 

Especially high activity of Hessdalen lights took place from December 1981 until the summer of 1984 when lights were observed 15–20 times per week. Since then, the activity has decreased and now the lights are observed some 10–20 times per year. 

Some researchers believe that that bubbles of ionized gas are created when sulphurous fumes from the River Hesja react with the humid air of the valley. The geology also forms electromagnetic field lines in the valley, which could explain why for example orbs of light move around, but that has not been proven and it doesn't explain all the other unknown objects appearing over Hessdalen from which some of these objects appear to have involved craft under intelligent control, others have not. 

Now, Dr. Erling Strand has studied the Hessdalen mystery since the beginning and speaks with Richard Dolan about what he knows.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmdBWCB1n8s

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

27-02-2023 om 18:25 geschreven door peter  

Unexplained UFO Sighting in Glendale, Arizona – Witness Reports Mysterious Appearance and Disappearance of Lights on February 1, 2023

On February 1, 2023, a mysterious sighting of unidentified flying objects occurred in Glendale, Arizona. According to a witness report, the sighting started with three lights that slowly faded into view. Then, five additional lights appeared and also slowly faded out of sight, leaving observers puzzled and intrigued.

The witness report describes the UFO sighting as a slow and deliberate appearance and disappearance of the lights. This raises questions about what type of technology was used to create such an effect. Were the lights under the control of a human operator, or was this something beyond our current understanding of technology?

Glendale, Arizona is not a stranger to UFO sightings, as there have been numerous reports of similar events in the past. In fact, Arizona is considered to be one of the top places in the United States for UFO sightings, with some of the most famous sightings taking place in Phoenix in 1997.

• Two round bright UFO that didn’t move - San Diego, CA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWD_4T8C42Q

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

27-02-2023 om 17:10 geschreven door peter  

27-02-2023 om 01:58 geschreven door peter  

Wat waren de twee heldere lichtpuntjes aan de hemel afgelopen nacht?

Gisterenavond en afgelopen nacht kon je naast de maan nog twee andere, heldere puntjes opmerken aan de hemel. Op Twitter zijn er verschillende foto’s terug te vinden van dit fenomeen. Wetenschapsjournalist Martijn Peters bracht al snel helderheid. “De planeten Venus en Jupiter zijn nu prachtig zichtbaar boven de westelijke horizon”, klonk het op Twitter en Facebook.

 Bron: Twitter

KIJK.

• Twee heldere lichtpuntjes waren zichtbaar aan de hemel. Dat waren de planeten Venus en Jupiter

De planeten Venus en Jupiter zijn naast de zon en de maan de twee helderste objecten aan de hemel. Op dit moment zijn de twee planeten op weg naar een conjunctie of dichte samenstand, die vindt plaats op 1 en 2 maart. “Venus is de helderste van de twee. De volgende dagen zullen de planeten mekaar verder naderen”, aldus Martijn op Facebook.

Bij een conjunctie of dichte samenstand lijkt het, vanaf de Aarde bekeken, alsof de twee planeten met elkaar zullen botsen, maar niet is minder waar. In werkelijkheid staan de planeten zo’n 700 miljoen kilometer uit elkaar.

Een conjunctie of dichte samenstand komt wel vaker voor, telkens zijn de planeten dan ‘s avonds en ‘s nachts te zien boven onze westelijke horizon. En dat was gisterenavond en vorige nacht dus het geval. Dat blijkt uit verschillende foto’s die Twitter-gebruikers de wereld in stuurden.

LEES OOK:

• Kijk vannacht even omhoog: zie Mars van zijn beste kant én verduisterd door de maan

• James Webb-telescoop werd een jaar geleden gelanceerd: een overzicht van de waanzinnige beelden

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27-02-2023 om 00:56 geschreven door peter  

The Planet That Shouldn’t Exist

“The host star, TOI-5205, is just about four times the size of Jupiter, yet it has somehow managed to form a Jupiter-sized planet, which is quite surprising!” exclaimed Dr. Shubham Kanodia, who is a postdoctoral fellow in the Carnegie Earth & Planets Lab and an expert in red dwarf stars, and lead author of the study. Dr. Shubham recently discussed the discovery in an in-depth blog post, as well. Using food as an analogy, Jupiter orbiting our Sun is equivalent to a pea orbiting a grapefruit, whereas TOI-5205b orbiting its parent star would be equivalent to a pea orbiting a lemon.

The general theory of planetary formation begins with a massive, rotating disk of gas and dust encircling young stars, with gas planets initially being formed from rocky material comprising approximately 10 Earth masses. Over time, this material forms the core of the giant planet which then accumulates large amounts of gas from the disk to produce the massive gas giants we observe today. As it turns out, the confirmation of TOI-5205b could throw this theory into disarray.

“TOI-5205b’s existence stretches what we know about the disks in which these planets are born,” explained Dr. Kanodia. “In the beginning, if there isn’t enough rocky material in the disk to form the initial core, then one cannot form a gas giant planet.  And at the end, if the disk evaporates away before the massive core is formed, then one cannot form a gas giant planet.  And yet TOI-5205b formed despite these guardrails. Based on our nominal current understanding of planet formation, TOI-5205b should not exist; it is a ‘forbidden’ planet.”

The discovery was initially made using data from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), which uses the transit detection method for locating exoplanets, and the data indicated that TOI-5205b blocks approximately 7% of its parent star’s light, making TOI-5205b one of the largest transits ever recorded for a confirmed exoplanet in orbit around a main-sequence star.

To confirm the TESS data, follow-up observations were made from an international collaboration of instruments and observatories. These include the Habitable-zone Planet Finder, the ARCTIC camera on the 3.5-m Apache Point Observatory, the NN-Explore Exoplanet Stellar Speckle Imager, the 0.6-m Red Buttes Observatory, and the Three-hundred MilliMeter Telescope.

Given the very large transit that TOI-5205b produced, the researchers demonstrated that this could make this exoplanet an ideal candidate for future atmospheric observations using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which could help scientists better understand the secrets behind its formation and evolution, as well. This is because JWST has already been successful in observing exoplanet atmospheres in incredible detail, as it recently demonstrated with exoplanet, WASP-39b.

What fascinating new discoveries will scientists make about exoplanets in the coming years and decades, and how much will these discoveries continue to push our knowledge of planetary formation and evolution? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!

As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

27-02-2023 om 00:32 geschreven door peter  

UFO Caught On NASA Sun Image Recored Turning, 100% Intelligently Controlled UFO Sighting News.

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

27-02-2023 om 00:14 geschreven door peter  

Pulsating Orb Over El Paso, Texas Feb 25, 2023, UFO Sighting News. Video.

Date of sighting: Feb 25, 2023

Location of sighting: El Paso, Texas, USA

 

Wow, this one was recorded over Texas a few days ago. The eyewitness saw it coming from over the mountains and then all about for 15+ minutes. From the colors, I would say this one has a real friendly and happy glow about it. The orb knew it was being watched and didn't want to cause any fear. Oh, and yes, orbs can change colors, saw a softball size UFO up close 2 meters from me here in Taiwan and it was like cloudy liquid silver, colors moving slowly within it, but 50 meters away it was white as a star. Orbs change colors at will, they can also read your mind, your thoughts and if you call them to you with a kind and open heart, I promise, you will see one. But they are sneaky, the one I saw so close, it came behind my camera. As I said, it could read my thoughts and knew where to come safely. 

Scott C. Waring - Taiwan 

Eyewitness states: 

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

27-02-2023 om 00:07 geschreven door peter  

LATEST UFO SIGHTINGS AND VIDEOS - 26-02-2023

Ancient Aliens: Great Flood DESTROYS Lost Iraqi Civilization (Season 19)

Did civilization exist 12,000 years ago? See more in this scene from Season 19, Episode 3, "Mystery of the Lost Civilization."

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The UnXplained: "Unearthly Image" Hidden in Utah Desert (Season 4)

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This new aircraft could change the balance of power in the world. Currently the United States is the only nation to operate a strategic stealth bomber fleet like the B-2. This new Chinese stealth bomber is the type of aircraft that is sent to destroy an entire enemy airfield or soften up defenses for an invasion. The H-20 would have major ramifications for a possible invasion of Taiwan if it is able to evade their air defense systems.

19 Events That Will Happen Before 2050 Compilation

19) Colonization of Mars No, we’re not talking about an upcoming sci-fi blockbuster – the colonization of Mars is a real possibility in the foreseeable future.

18) Technological singularity The technological singularity is the hypothesis that the invention of artificial super-intelligence will trigger rampant technological growth, resulting in unimaginable changes to human civilization.

17) Nuclear fusion In nuclear physics, nuclear fusion is a reaction in which two or more atomic nuclei are combined to form one or more different atomic nuclei and subatomic particles - neutrons or protons. Fusion was accomplished in 1951 with the Greenhouse Item nuclear test, while nuclear fusion on a large scale in an explosion was first carried out on November 1, 1952, in the Ivy Mike hydrogen bomb test.

16) Interstellar exploration Until recently, interstellar travel was nothing more than a theoretical possibility. However, the exploration of other star systems may become reality sooner than you think

15) Ice-free Arctic The loss of Arctic sea ice is one of the clearest signs of human-caused climate change and so far the Arctic Ocean has melted to its lowest extent ever recorded since satellites began measuring it in 1979

14) 99942 Apophis asteroid threat Before global warming brings humanity on the verge of extinction, a giant rock from outer space might wipe us all out

13) Chocolate extinction Bad news for all of you chocolate lovers out there: your favorite food may actually become extinct in a few decades

12) Antibiotics stop working According to a major 2016 UK study, urgent action is needed to control the use of antibiotics before they stop working and leave a number of major conditions untreatable

11) Technological singularity The technological singularity is the hypothesis that the invention of artificial super-intelligence will trigger rampant technological growth, resulting in unimaginable changes to human civilization

10) New countries Situations and circumstances keep changing, but conflicts rarely end. Unfortunately, in most cases, it is war that ultimately leads to the division of borders and fights for independence have been ongoing for a long time in many parts of the world. Countries and Land Masses At first, this one may sound a bit...abstract. After all, don't we already have a LOT of countries on this Earth of ours?

9) A New Pandemic? We're sure that this one terrifies you to a certain level, but if 2020 proved anything to us, it's that you don't know what to expect until it happens

8) Brand New Medicines If you were to look at medicine as it was in the 1920s and see where they are in the year 2020, you'll see such a rapid scale improvement it would see ludicrous that people survived during the times without this medicine.

7) Sci-Fi Tech Don't go overboard on this one, we're not saying that hovercars and jetpacks are going to be commonplace in our world in the year 2050, however, certain pieces of sci-fi tech are likely to come around by 2050.

6) Green Planet? This one is honestly a bit more wishful thinking than anything else but it could happen should the right forces come into play.

5) Y2K Part 2? If you recall the year 1999, you might remember a gigantic fear that was going on called the Y2K Bug.

4) True Virtual Reality Heading back to sci-fi tech, let's single out another desired object that might just happen by 2050: true virtual reality.

3) A.I. Everywhere Judgment Day is inevitable, and yes, we're quoting Terminator.

2) Super-Automation Here's a darker element of growing technology that we're already facing right now. The more that technology grows, the more that humans can be replaced by automated machines.

1) The Unthinkable When it comes to predicting the future...there's always a risk. Because in truth, you have NO idea what's going to happen in the next however many days or months or years or decades

{ https://www.youtube.com/ }

26-02-2023 om 22:38 geschreven door peter  

On January 24, 2023 what seems to be a metallic UFO has been spotted while hovering above the Arizona desert. the UFO is accompanied by another object visible in the distance. 

Isn't it strange that these kinds of unknown objects can fly through US airspace at low altitudes seemingly undisturbed and are not intercepted and brought down like the Chinese hot air balloon and the other three unknown objects? 

Wouldn't it make sense that these types of objects would also be intercepted and shot down by the US Airforce as happened with the Chinese balloon and the other three unknown objects? 

Since the many UFOs and UAPs are left alone, not only does it say a lot about the knowledge the Pentagon and the US government have about these UFOs and UAPs to make the decision not to shoot down these objects, but it also says a lot about the shooting down of the other objects, likely indicating that these actions were carried out as part of a secret agenda behind the scenes, that may not be known to the US government, to archive a particular target in the near future.

  

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

26-02-2023 om 18:43 geschreven door peter  

Where Are The Aliens? The Search For Extraterrestrial Life

For more than four decades, scientists have been on a mission to find techno-signatures – signals coming from distant alien civilizations. Despite the search, no convincing evidence has been found for biology beyond Earth. But, considering the vastness of the universe, it is estimated that our galaxy, the Milky Way, which contains about 400 billion stars, is likely to have life beyond our planet.

The Fermi paradox remains unresolved, which states that if intelligent extraterrestrial life exists, then why haven’t we seen any evidence of it? Some scientists have attempted to estimate the number of technologically advanced species in the universe through the Drake Equation, which has seven terms that need to be answered to get an estimate. While this equation has been useful, a slightly different approach has been suggested by Adam Frank from the University of Rochester. Rather than estimating how many civilizations are out there to communicate with today, they estimate how many civilizations have been out there since the beginning of the universe.

The first term of the Drake Equation is the rate of star formation, which we now know is about one star forming per year. The next two terms we’ve recently nailed down are the fraction of stars that have planets and the number of habitable zone planets – planets in the right place for life to form. For every five stars, one of them has a planet in the right place for life to form.

• Bodies Of Alien Creatures Were Found In The Basement Of Old House

While we have made a lot of progress in the last 20 years, the question remains, where are the aliens? The answer to this question could lie in the search for technological signatures of other civilizations. Several international scientific projects are devoted to searching for evidence of life beyond Earth, from biomolecular detection to exoplanet atmospheres and biomarker detection.

In 2017, an object hurtled through the solar system. Although most astronomers believe it was a natural phenomenon, some believe it was the result of advanced technology developed by an alien civilization. NASA has funded a mission concept known as the Extrasolar object Interceptor.

The search for alien life has progressed a long way. According to a study published in the planetary science journal Planetary Science Journal earlier this month, NASA’s James Webb telescope can detect consistent passive technosigns. One of the most common characteristics of industry on Earth is atmospheric pollution. If this type of pollution is found in an exoplanet’s atmosphere, it could provide evidence of alien technology.

Watch 

• Where Are The Aliens? The Search For Extraterrestrial Life from Science Time

Civilizations need only be older than ours to have technology that we are incapable of understanding. If we were to meet life from a planet that had no contact with Earth, it would likely be shocking to us. Other planets have different histories of cooking their soup of chemicals and making life out of it. Most stars are different than the sun, which may explain why interstellar tourist agencies never advertise Earth as a desired tourist destination, as all we can offer them is green grass vacation sites illuminated by visible light.

In conclusion, the search for aliens has been ongoing for several decades, and we have made significant progress in our understanding of the universe. The quest to find intelligent extraterrestrial life may still be ongoing, but we continue to make discoveries that bring us closer to the answer.

RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011

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

26-02-2023 om 18:15 geschreven door peter  

Ancient Aliens: Origins of Humanity

Over the past couple of years, the number of reports of extraterrestrial beings being spotted in different parts of the world has increased. These sightings put a question mark over the possibility of alien life. While some believe that the notion of alien life is just science fiction, other believers think that there’s more to it.

One of the most interesting aspects about the UFO phenomenon is the idea that extraterrestrial beings may have been visiting Earth for thousands of years. In ancient cultures, there have been numerous stories about encounters with beings in the sky. These stories provide a glimpse into the beliefs of our ancestors.

In ancient Egyptian literature, the gods were referred to as individuals who came from the sky and taught people how to build structures such as pyramids. In the Bible, there are also references to extraterrestrial beings and chariots of fire. The Mahabharata, which is a part of the Hindu epicurean literature, talks about the gods’ use of flying machines known as “Vimas,” which were capable of moving across different dimensions.

• Pictures Mainstream Archaeology Does Not Want You To See

The increasing number of reports about extraterrestrial beings has raised various questions about the nature of our existence. Some believe that these beings could have helped us develop our ancestors by providing us with the necessary tools and knowledge to build advanced civilizations. Others think that they might have left us with advanced technology that governments around the world have been keeping secret.

Although the idea of ancient aliens has been around for a long time, the mainstream scientific community has started to take it seriously in the last couple of years. In 2017, the U.S. Defense Department released footage of an alleged alien encounter, which caught the public’s attention.

Despite the lack of evidence supporting the existence of alien life, the discovery of new planets outside our solar system has raised the possibility that other civilizations could also exist. Some believe that the conditions in the universe are so similar that intelligent life could easily evolve.

Despite the various cover-ups and mysterious nature of alien life, the evidence supporting the notion of alien existence continues to grow. As we continue to search for new planets outside of Earth, it’s possible that we will find more proof of alien life. However, it’s not yet clear if we will ever encounter these beings.

Although it may seem extraterrestrial life is already a distant idea for some people, the evidence suggests there could be more to it than we currently know. We must not lose sight of the fact that these beings have been a part of our culture and history. As the universe continues to expand, we can only look for answers to the many alien-related questions.

Watch FULL documentary movie about Origins of Humanity

RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011

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

26-02-2023 om 17:56 geschreven door peter  

{ https://scientias.nl/ }

26-02-2023 om 01:41 geschreven door peter  

'Mars' interior is not behaving,' active mantle plume reveals

26-02-2023 om 01:01 geschreven door peter  

26-02-2023 om 00:47 geschreven door peter  

Op een koude februaridag in 2021 lichtte een ruimtesteen de nachtelijke hemel op in Alberta, Canada. De vuurbal liet de wetenschap schudden op zijn grondvesten.

De ruimtesteen kwam namelijk vanuit de Oortwolk aansuizen en was opgebouwd uit rotsachtig materiaal. Tot op heden werd verondersteld dat objecten uit deze immense wolk aan de rand van ons zonnestelsel alleen uit verschillende soorten ijs, zoals waterijs, methaan, ethaan, koolstofmonoxide of waterstofcyanide konden bestaan.

On Feb. 22, YouTuber Mieszko Paradis caught a glimpse of a meteor as it flew through the sky over Edmonton.

(Video credit: Mieszko Paradis/YouTube)

De Oortwolk bestaat uit vele miljarden komeetachtige objecten rondom ons zonnestelsel. De Nederlandse astronoom Jan Hendrik Oort bedacht deze hypothese in 1950. Volgens Oort is er een stabiele wolk waar zo nu en dan een komeet vandaan komt die richting de aarde gaat, met een omlooptijd van duizenden jaren, zoals de bekende komeet Hale-Bopp. Dichterbij de aarde zijn er de Kuipergordel en de scattered disk, twee schijven vol puin buiten de baan van Neptunus. Hier komen periodieke kometen met een omlooptijd van minder dan tweehonderd jaar vandaan, zoals de komeet Halley. Materiaal uit deze meer dichtbijgelegen verzameling ruimtepuin bestaat vaker uit gesteente.

Mysterieuze Oortwolk
Passerende sterren, die mogelijk ook een eigen Oortwolk in hun buitenste schil hebben, duwen de ijzige reizigers uit ‘onze’ Oortwolk soms richting de zon, is de veronderstelling. We kunnen deze kometen dan waarnemen als lange lichtgevende slierten, omdat het ijzige materiaal verdampt en kleur afgeeft. Wetenschappers hebben nog geen objecten in de Oortwolk direct waargenomen, maar alles wat tot nu toe onze kant op is geslingerd, leek gemaakt van ijs. Tot de ontdekking van vorig jaar dus. En dat zet ons begrip van het ontstaan van ons zonnestelsel op z’n kop. Er zouden alleen ijzige objecten moeten bestaan in deze buitenste regionen, in de theorieën is geen plaats voor rotsachtig materiaal.

De astronomie kan echter niet om de rotsachtige meteoroïde heen, die als een oogverblindende vuurbal door de lucht boven centraal Alberta vloog. Vele professionele en amateurastronomen legden de immense vuurbal vast op de gevoelige plaat en analyseerden de data en het beeldmateriaal. Een team van de University of Western Ontario concludeerde dat alle tekenen erop wijzen dat de oorsprong van de ruimtesteen recht in het midden van de Oortwolk ligt.

Bom onder ontstaanstheorieën
“Deze ontdekking dwingt ons na te denken over een geheel ander model van de vorming van het zonnestelsel, een model dat het idee ondersteunt dat aanzienlijke hoeveelheden rotsachtig materiaal samen met ijzige objecten rondvliegen in de Oortwolk”, zegt expert in de meteoorfysica Denis Vida. “De conclusies uit ons onderzoek stroken niet met de meest gangbare modellen waarin de vorming van het zonnestelsel wordt beschreven. Dit is een complete gamechanger.”

De superscherpe Global Fireball Observatory (GFO)-camera’s van de University of Alberta kregen de rotsachtige meteoroïde van ongeveer 2 kilo, ter grootte van een grapefruit, in het vizier en hebben het laatste stukje van zijn reis door het zonnestelsel en door de aardse dampkring vastgelegd. Het team kon zo berekenen dat de ruimterots zich in een baan bewoog die normaal gesproken alleen wordt afgelegd door ijsklompen uit de Oortwolk.

“In zeventig jaar van regelmatige vuurbalwaarnemingen is dit een van de meest bijzondere ooit geregistreerd. Het is geweldig hoe de GFO, die vijf jaar geleden is opgestart en zo het bereik enorm vergrootte, het voor elkaar heeft gekregen om wetenschappelijke experts van over de hele wereld bij elkaar te brengen”, zegt hoofdonderzoeker van de GFO Hadrien Devillepoix. “We kunnen hierdoor meer kostbare meteorieten vinden en bestuderen, maar misschien nog wel belangrijker: het lukt ons nu om deze zeldzame gebeurtenissen rechtstreeks te volgen en de gegevens op te slaan die zo essentieel zijn voor het begrijpen van ons zonnestelsel.”

Rotsvast bewijs
Waarom denkt men nu dat de vuurbal van Alberta van steen was gemaakt en niet van ijs? De ruimteklomp drong veel dieper de atmosfeer binnen dan ijzige objecten die in het verleden in vergelijkbare banen richting het aardoppervlak vlogen. Hij brak op exact dezelfde manier in stukken als een vuurbal, die in rotsachtige delen uit elkaar valt. Dit bewijst dat dit stuk ruimtepuin van steen is gemaakt en niet van ijs.

“We willen erachter komen hoe deze rotsachtige meteoroïde daar aan de rand van ons zonnestelsel is terechtgekomen, omdat we onze eigen oorsprong willen begrijpen. Hoe beter we de omstandigheden begrijpen waarin het zonnestelsel werd gevormd, hoe beter we snappen wat nodig was voor het ontstaan van leven op aarde”, legt Vida uit. “We willen een zo nauwkeurig mogelijk beeld schetsen van deze vroege momenten van het zonnestelsel, die zo cruciaal waren voor alles wat er daarna gebeurde.”

{ https://scientias.nl/ }

26-02-2023 om 00:31 geschreven door peter  

Where could aliens exist in our solar system? Mars, Jupiter's moon Europa and Saturn's satellites Enceladus and Titan are among the worlds most likely to host extraterrestrial life, experts say - PART I

• MailOnline looks at the worlds in our solar system most likely to harbour alien life
• They include Jupiter's moons, a dwarf planet, Mars, Venus and Saturn's satellites 

By SAM TONKIN FOR MAILONLINE

For thousands of years, humanity has wrestled with the idea we may not be alone in our solar system.

Speculation that aliens might exist dates back to philosophers in ancient Greece, but it was the middle of the 20th century when people's imaginations really began to run riot — suddenly 'little green men' were everywhere in popular culture.

Although the use of the phrase is believed to have originated in 1908, it was between the 1920s and 50s that green Martian characters were plastered all over the covers of science fiction

The reality is that if extraterrestrial life does exist in our solar system it will be of a more simpler variety, perhaps hidden in Venus' clouds, beneath Mars' surface or in the vast underground oceans of one of Saturn's icy moons. 

But where else is the best bet of finding it? MailOnline speaks to a number of experts to find out.

Are we alone? For thousands of years, humanity has wrestled with the idea that aliens might exist in our solar system. But despite mid-20th century's excitement about 'little green men', if there is extraterrestrial life it will be of a more simpler variety, perhaps hidden in Venus' clouds, beneath Mars' surface or in the vast underground oceans of one of Saturn's icy moons

Mars

The most obvious candidate for extra-terrestrial life either past or present.

Scientists know the Red Planet was once habitable because billions of years ago it had lakes and rivers of liquid water on its surface, as well as a much thicker atmosphere than the thin one it has now.

But although the conditions were right for life to emerge, is that actually what happened?

Scientists have been trying to find out since the 19th century, although the answer has so far eluded them. Telescopes and probes have offered clues, while NASA has also deployed rovers to hunt for evidence over the past two decades.

Near neighbour: Mars is the most obvious candidate for another world in our solar system to harbour alien life either past or present. NASA's Perseverance rover is currently collecting samples in its search for evidence of ancient life, which will be analysed on Earth in the 2030s

Opportunity and Curiosity began the work, but today that baton has very much been handed over to Perseverance and its accompanying Ingenuity helicopter, which touched down on the Red Planet in February 2021.

Car-size robot Perseverance, nicknamed Percy, has so far collected 18 samples of rock and regolith (broken rock and soil) from the Jezero Crater where a river flowed billions of years ago.

Busy: Car-size robot Perseverance (pictured) has so far collected 18 samples of rock and regolith (broken rock and soil) from the Jezero Crater where a river flowed billions of years ago

When these sample tubes are eventually collected and returned to Earth by a European spacecraft some time in the 2030s, it could help scientists determine whether microbial left ever existed in the region.

If there are signs of ancient life, it is also possible that there are still alien microbes on Mars today, although these would more likely be underground rather than on the surface.

Several studies have previously used radar observations to show that reservoirs of liquid water probably exist just over a mile below the surface, but it would take future exploration – and likely a tricky mission – to try and establish once and for all if life exists there.  

Professor Andrew Coates, from the Department of Space & Climate Physics at University College, said the UK-built Rosalind Franklin rover could help with this.

'We're searching for evidence of biomarkers with the Rosalind Franklin rover (launch 2028), which will drill 2m under the surface, below where UV and oxidants are, and below where energetic solar and galactic radiation can penetrate,' he told MailOnline.

Professor Coates said Mars would be in his top three most likely worlds to host life in our solar system.

'Mars had the right conditions 3.8 to 4 billion years ago – with evidence for water on the surface, CHNOPS [the six elements of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulfur make up 98 per cent of living matter on Earth] and energy – at about the same time life was starting on Earth,' he added.

'It is the nearest possibility for life beyond Earth. Even the cold night side on the Mars surface (about 150K) is warmer than the surfaces on Europa (140K), Enceladus (70K) and Titan (90K).

Professor Michael Garrett, of the University of Manchester, said: 'There is probably no life above ground (Mars' atmosphere is thin to absorb sterilizing UV radiation from the sun) but underground looks a better bet.

'There is likely to be significant quantities of water underground and the temperature is also higher, so it's possible some sort of basic life might be hiding there, like microbial life.'

How are we going to confirm either way?

In all likelihood, Perseverance. There are high hopes for the Mars rover, but it won't be for another decade until we potentially get an answer. 

Venus

Earth's closest neighbour and the second planet from the sun, Venus is a hellish world where surface temperatures are hot enough to melt lead and its atmosphere is thick with carbon dioxide.

But despite such inhospitable conditions, there has been a lot of excitement recently that it might in fact host a type of life in an unusual place.

Just over a year ago, a new study suggested that alien lifeforms 'unlike anything we've ever seen' may be living in the clouds of Earth's 'evil twin'.

Scientists claimed that the planet could be becoming 'more habitable' after identifying a chemical pathway by which life could neutralise Venus' acidic environment, creating a self-sustaining, habitable pocket in the clouds.

For nearly 50 years experts have been baffled by the presence of ammonia, a colourless gas made of nitrogen and hydrogen, which was tentatively detected in Venus' atmosphere in the 1970s. 

Hellish world: Venus has been in the news a lot recently amid excitement that the planet might host life. Just over a year ago, a new study suggested that alien lifeforms 'unlike anything we've ever seen' may be living in the clouds of Earth's 'evil twin' 

At the heart of the confusion is that it should not be produced through any chemical process known on the hellish planet.

In the study by Cardiff University, MIT and Cambridge University, researchers modelled a set of chemical processes to show that if ammonia is present, the gas would create a cascade of reactions that would neutralise surrounding droplets of sulphuric acid. 

If that were the case, this would then result in the acidity of the clouds dropping from -11 to zero, which although still very acidic on the pH scale, is a level that life could potentially survive at. 

As for the source of ammonia itself, the authors believe the most plausible explanation is of biological origin, rather lightning or volcanic eruptions.

This chemistry suggests that life could be making its own environment on Venus.

'No life that we know of could survive in the Venus droplets,' said study co-author Sara Seager, from MIT. 

'But the point is, maybe some life is there, and is modifying its environment so that it is liveable.'

If the researchers are correct, the lifeforms are likely to be microbes similar to bacteria found on Earth.

However, a separate study by Cambridge University scientists – published in the summer of last year – claimed to have found no evidence of life in the planet's clouds.

Any life form in sufficient abundance is expected to leave chemical fingerprints on a planet's atmosphere as it consumes food and expels waste. 

But the Cambridge experts found no sign of this in the atmospheric and biochemical models they used.

'We wanted life to be a potential explanation [for the strange behaviour going on in Venus' clouds], but when we ran the models, it isn't a viable solution,' said lead author Sean Jordan from Cambridge's Institute of Astronomy. 

The debate rages on and will likely not end until the various hypotheses can be tested with proposed Venus-bound missions set to launch later this decade.

The belief that life may exist in Venus's clouds has been disputed. Some studies say it could but others have ruled it out. Pictured is an artist's impression of what microbial life could look like

How are we going to confirm either way? 

Two new NASA probes, coming in at a total cost of $500million (£352m), are set to blast-off later this decade and head for Venus. They have cool acronyms – DAVINCI+ and VERITAS – but they won't actually be able to confirm the existence of life.

Despite this, scientists hope the information and findings they can gather will at least get us closer to answering that question more concretely. 

VERITAS (Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography, and Spectroscopy), will orbit Venus and peer through its thick clouds to map the surface.

Its aim is to understand the planet's geological history and investigate why it developed so differently to Earth. The probe could also discover whether volcanoes and earthquakes are still happening on Venus.

WHAT ARE NASA'S TWO NEW MISSIONS TO VENUS?

In June NASA announced that it is sending two new missions to Venus to examine the planet's atmosphere and geological features. They will be the first US probes sent to explore the hellish world in 30 years. 

The missions, which have each been awarded $500million (£352m) in funding, are:

DAVINCI+

Pictured: The Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging probe (DAVINCI+) that will carry out flybys of Venus and land on its surface

What does it stand for?

Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging

What will it do?

As it drops to the surface the high-tech probe will measure Venus' acrid atmosphere to understand how it formed and evolved.

It will also aim to determine whether Venus — which is the hottest planet in the solar system with a surface temperature of 500C — ever had an ocean.

As it heads toward the surface, DAVINCI+ is expected to return the first high resolution images of the planet's 'tesserae' geological features in Alpha Regio.

Scientists believe these features could be comparable to continents on Earth and may possibly suggest that Venus has plate tectonics.

When will it launch?

2029

When will its scientific experiments begin?

The spacecraft will carry out two flybys of the planet in 2030 to study its atmosphere and the nightside surface. 

Seven months after the two flybys, the craft will make a one-hour descent through the clouds, beaming back data all the way down to its landing site Alpha Regio.

What could its big discovery be?

Whether Venus ever had an ocean.

VERITAS

Pictured: The Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography, and Spectroscopy (VERITAS) probe that will orbit Venus and peer through its clouds to map the surface

What does it stand for?

Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography, and Spectroscopy

What will it do?

VERITAS will orbit Venus and peer through its thick clouds to map the surface.

The aim is to understand the planet's geological history and investigate why it developed so much differently than Earth.

When will it launch?

2028

What could its big discovery be?

Whether volcanoes and earthquakes are still happening on Venus.

DAVINCI+ (Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging), meanwhile, will go one step further by actually landing on the hothouse world.

As it drops to the surface the high-tech probe will measure the planet's acrid atmosphere to understand how it formed and evolved.

It will also aim to determine whether Venus — which is the hottest planet in the solar system with a surface temperature of 900°F (500°C) — ever had an ocean.

US company Rocket Lab is also developing the first privately-funded science mission to Venus called Venus Life Finder (VLF).

It will see a probe inserted into the planet's hot, thick cloud layers to spend just five minutes searching for signs of habitable conditions. 

The plan is for VLF to be launched in May this year and arrive at Venus in October, but if it misses this target lift-off date it will have to wait until the next launch window in January 2025.

Enceladus

You wouldn't think that an object completely covered in ice would offer even the remotest chance of hosting life.

But although the surface of Enceladus is freezing cold, there is a lot of activity going on beneath it.

Scientists know this because Saturn's sixth largest moon ejects liquid water, ice and organic material from its core out into space.

The organic molecules have been identified as nitrogen and oxygen-bearing compounds, similar to those involved in chemical reactions on Earth that produce the amino acids that are the building blocks of life.  

Saturn's moon Enceladus is thought to have a vast salty, liquid water ocean hidden below its frozen crust, while NASA has also found evidence of hydrothermal activity deep underground. This, scientists believe, could provide the source of heat needed to give life a chance to thrive

The world is thought to have a vast salty, liquid water ocean hidden below its frozen crust, while NASA has also found evidence of hydrothermal activity deep underground.

This, scientists believe, could provide the source of heat needed to give life a chance to thrive.

'If the conditions are right, these molecules coming from the deep ocean of Enceladus could be on the same reaction pathway as we see here on Earth,' Nozair Khawaja, of the Free University of Berlin, has previously said.

He carried out research on data from NASA's Cassini mission, which discovered the organic compounds during a 13-year mission that ended in 2017.

'We don't yet know if amino acids are needed for life beyond Earth, but finding the molecules that form amino acids is an important piece of the puzzle,' Khawaja added.

Professor David Rothery, of the Open University, said he believed Enceladus was one of two worlds in our solar system most likely to harbour extraterrestrial lifeforms.

'The big unknown is how likely it is for life to get started, if conditions are suitable for life,' he told MailOnline.

'However, Enceladus and Europa both have internal (below an ice shell) oceans sitting on top of tidally-heated (so warm) rock. 

'Chemical reactions between water and hot rock probably result in "hydrothermal vents" (hot springs) on the ocean floor, where microbes can feed off the chemical energy. 

'It doesn't matter that sunlight can't penetrate to those depths — we have similar "chemosynthetic life" clustered around hydrothermal vents on Earth's sunless ocean floors too.

'If there are microbes, maybe some more complex forms of life have evolved that eat the microbes.'

Active: Saturn's sixth largest moon ejects liquid water, ice and organic material from its core out into space. It is thought to have a salty, liquid water ocean hidden below its frozen crust, while NASA has also found evidence of hydrothermal activity deep underground (pictured)

Professor Andrew Coates, of UCL, also said Enceladus was one of the leading contenders to host alien life.

'The plumes discovered by Cassini-Huygens come from a subsurface salty ocean under the ice, and the mission also discovered evidence for silicates in the plumes, which likely come from vents on the ocean floor, perhaps a bit like black smokers on Earth,' he told MailOnline.

'Also hydrogen was directly found, completing CHNOPS at Enceladus. [The six elements of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulfur make up 98 per cent of living matter on Earth.]'

How are we going to confirm either way?

Unfortunately there aren't currently any missions scheduled to study Enceladus. A number of proposals have been put forward, including several to NASA, but nothing has been picked to actually go to Saturn's moon.

This is a shame, given that many scientists believe Enceladus to be one of the most likely candidates to host extra-terrestrial life.

If and when we ever do go there, digging into the ocean would be the best way to see if any lifeforms exist on the moon, although it might also be possible to detect biosignatures in cryovolcanoes.

These are volcanos that erupt vaporised materials such as water or ammonia rather than molten rock.

Europa

Another popular candidate to host alien life — and this time there might soon be an answer from missions scheduled to fly to it.

Europa is the smallest of Jupiter's four Galilean moons but it is seen by most experts as the most likely to have the right ingredients for life.

Part of the reason is its massive subsurface, and potentially salty, ocean which is heated up by tidal forces.

This is believed to create an internal circulation system which keeps waters moving and replenishes the icy surface on a regular basis.

Such a theory is significant because it means scientists would not necessarily have to delve deep into the underground ocean to find evidence of life, as the fact that the ocean floor interacts with the surface means it could throw up clues there. 

A big contender: Europa is the smallest of Jupiter's four Galilean moons but it is seen by most experts as the most likely to have the right ingredients for life

'Of the Galilean satellites, Europa is the most likely [to have alien life] as the ocean is likely in contact with sand/rock according to models,' Professor Coates told MailOnline, 'whereas at Ganymede and Callisto the ocean floor would be ice due to lower temperature'.

He added that because Europa is bathed by Jupiter's energetic radiation belts this too could be useful for emerging life, as it could result in oxygen potentially finding its way into the subsurface oceans.

Professor Garrett, of the University of Manchester, added: 'The giant planets like Saturn and Jupiter tend to churn up the interiors of their icy moons, so there is a lot of mixing of water with carbon rich chemistry — but it would probably be microbial life, if there is any life at all.

'If we do find life in the solar system, I wouldn't be shocked if we discover it somewhere we think is least likely — new science is always full of surprises.'

How are we going to confirm either way?

NASA's Europa Clipper will provide the best chance of confirming the existence of extraterrestrial life on Europa.

The spacecraft is due to launch in 2024 and reach the Jovian moon in 2030, at which point it will carry out a series of low-altitude flights to study the surface.

Clipper will also investigate the subsurface environment where possible, in an attempt to find signs of alien activity.

More data will also be provided by the European Space Agency's Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) spacecraft, which is due to launch in April.  

It will make two flybys of Europa during its time in the Jovian system and is set to explore three of Jupiter's moons during its mission.

The Europa Clipper (pictured) will provide the best opportunity of confirming the existence of extraterrestrial life on Jupiter's moon. It is due to launch in 2024 and reach Europa in 2030

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25-02-2023 om 23:48 geschreven door peter