PREMIUM

Je zou het misschien niet zeggen als ze voorbij zoemen, maar bijen zijn slimmer dan je denkt. © Marit van Ekelenburg

{ https://www.hln.be/ }

07-06-2024 om 17:48 geschreven door peter  

Through the Artemis Program, NASA will send astronauts to the lunar surface for the first time since 1972. While the challenges remain the same, the equipment has evolved, including the rocket, spacecraft, human landing system (HLS), and space suits. In preparation for Artemis III (planned for September 2026), NASA recently conducted a test where astronauts donned the new space suits developed by Axiom Space and practiced interacting with the hardware that will take them to the Moon.

These new suits, the Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit (AxEMU), were developed specifically for the Artemis III mission. The day-long test took place on April 30th at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California, where astronaut Doug “Wheels” Wheelock and Axiom Space astronaut Peggy Whitson interacted with a full-scale model of the SpaceX Starship Human Landing System (HLS). This was the first time astronauts trained in pressurized spacesuits and conducted mock operations with the HLS hardware.

The test provided valuable feedback on the Starship HLS and the AxEMU spacesuits for NASA and its commercial partners. It also gave astronauts a chance to gauge the suits’ range of motion and to get a feel for the interior of the Starship HLS and its mechanical systems. Said Logan Kennedy, lead for surface activities in NASA’s HLS Program, in a NASA press statement:

“Overall, I was pleased with the astronauts’ operation of the control panel and with their ability to perform the difficult tasks they will have to do before stepping onto the Moon. The test also confirmed that the amount of space available in the airlock, on the deck, and in the elevator, are sufficient for the work our astronauts plan to do.”

The test consisted of Wheelock and Whitson practicing putting on and taking off the spacesuits – which included the suit’s Portable Life Support System (PLSS) – in the Starship HLS‘ full-scale airlock. Since the Artemis III astronauts will need to put the suits on with minimal assistance, this test allowed NASA to test how easily the suits are to get in and out of. The suits were then pressurized and powered up, and Wheelock and Whitson began interacting with the mobility aids (handrails and straps) and control panel in the airlock.

They then walked from the airlock deck to the HLS elevator, which will take the Artemis III astronauts and their equipment to the lunar surface to conduct extravehicular activity (EVA). Though the tasks were routine, they validated the spacesuit design and brought NASA one step closer to achieving its goals through the Artemis Program. As Amit Kshatriya (NASA’s Moon to Mars program manager) expressed:

“With Artemis, NASA is going to the Moon in a whole new way, with international partners and industry partners like Axiom Space and SpaceX. These partners are contributing their expertise and providing integral parts of the deep space architecture that they develop with NASA’s insight and oversight. Integrated tests like this one, with key programs and partners working together, are crucial to ensure systems operate smoothly and are safe and effective for astronauts before they take the next steps on the Moon.”

Putting the spacesuits through rigorous testing is necessary since the Artemis III mission will include EVAs in space and on the lunar surface. The four-person crew will launch aboard an Orion spacecraft atop NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) while the Starship HLS launches separately and refuels in orbit. The Orion spacecraft will rendezvous and dock with the HLS in lunar orbit; two astronauts will transfer aboard and then take the HLS to and from the lunar surface. The AxEMU suits are designed to provide greater flexibility and accommodate a wider range of astronauts.

This is in keeping with NASA’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion in its astronaut corps. Despite delays, things are undeniably coming together for Artemis III!

Further Reading: 

• NASA

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

07-06-2024 om 17:21 geschreven door peter  

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

07-06-2024 om 17:00 geschreven door peter  

If Aliens Actually Crashed Into Earth, Would We Know About It?

The military would probably call dibs on the evidence, but any attempt at a cover-up likely wouldn't last long, experts suggest.

BY KIONA SMITH

 

Anton Petrus/Moment/Getty Images

If aliens actually crashed here on Earth, what would happen?

Would the debris, and the aliens themselves, vanish behind a massive government cover-up, only to emerge as classified military technology years later? Or would altruistic civilian scientists work together to study the alien artifacts for the good of humanity?

These questions seem like fodder for very trope-y science fiction, but last week, a former U.S. Air Force intelligence officer told Congress last week, with a straight face, that an unnamed source had told him that the U.S. Department of Defense (or possibly its contractors) has debris and “nonhuman biologics” from a crashed UFO.

To answer these suddenly relevant questions, Inverse spoke with Greg Eghigian, a Pennsylvania State University historian and bioethicist who specializes in the study of UFOs.

WHO OWNS CRASHED UFOS?

If a flying saucer crashes in Oklahoma tomorrow, just for example, what happens next?

No law or treaty spells out who gets to claim the spaceship or alien remains. The U.S. and several other countries have laws about who owns meteorites (spoiler alert for U.S. readers: if the meteorite falls on private land, it belongs to the landowner; on public land, it depends) and even debris from human-made spacecraft re-entering Earth’s atmosphere (you can’t collect rocket parts in Florida, for example). Other laws even spell out who’s liable if a de-orbiting satellite crashes on someone’s house. At the moment, though, there’s nothing on the books about who technically owns a flying saucer that crashes on U.S. soil.

Senators Chuck Schumer and Mike Rounds are hoping to change that with an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act. Their amendment, if it passes, would (among other things) give the U.S. federal government “eminent domain over any and all recovered technologies of unknown origin (TUO) and biological evidence of non-human intelligence (NHI) that may be controlled by private persons or entities in the interests of the public good.”

“I think the sense is that the government, particularly the military, would be the key entity that would take on this stuff,” Eghigian tells Inverse. “I don't think civilian scientists would be getting first dibs on this. I think they would be out of the loop.”

COULD THE GOVERNMENT REALLY KEEP A CRASHED UFO A SECRET?

Does that mean the Department of Defense would whisk the crash debris (and the “nonhuman biologics,” as former Air Force intelligence officer David Grusch recently described it to Congress) away to a top-secret bunker, never to be spoken of again?

“To start with, I think there's no question that the first people on the ground are going to be policing authorities: it’s going to be the police, and it’s going to be the military,” says Eghigian. Once the crash site is secure, the next step would probably be forensic work, involving a mix of technicians, scientists, and engineers from within the military branches or from defense contractors.

It’s likely the military’s interest would be threefold: first, to determine whether the flying saucer and its builders pose a threat to humanity, especially the U.S.; second, to try to reverse engineer the technology for military use; and third, to keep anybody else from doing part two. That would almost certainly involve some secrecy — or at least, an attempt at secrecy.

“Militaries keep secrets all the time, and the intelligence community is built around, not just holding secrets, but also exposing secrets for their benefit,” says Eghigian. “If something remarkable happened, I can believe that that would be a dynamic that would emerge.”

But SETI Institute astronomer Seth Shostak questions how long a veil of secrecy would last on a planet surrounded by high-resolution imaging satellites.

“Actual alien craft in our airspace bigger than an office desk would likely be visible to satellites that — among other things — supply imagery to Google Earth,” he writes in a recent essay for the SETI Institute. And it’s not just satellites; more than one country’s military personnel have managed to share sensitive operational information on social media. “I still strongly maintain that alien visitation is not something that could be kept secret. The size of such a secret is just too big,” writes Shostak.

Eghigian is also skeptical that an alien cover-up could last very long, but he says the fact that so many people expect — or already believe in — a government conspiracy to hide aliens from us is, in itself, very revealing.

“So often this stuff about UFOs isn’t about UFOs at all,” Eghigian says. “It gets to the heart of how a person or an organization or group of people, your image and your idea of how government works, and what modern governments are capable of and what they do."

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

Once the word gets out — and Shostak and Eghigian seem to agree that it almost certainly will, one way or another — scientists around the world would be clamoring for access to the evidence, and even the Department of Defense might have some good reasons to share.

“That would probably be followed by, you would hope, lots of questions coming from journalists like you,” Eghigian says. “And then I think the civilian scientists and researchers, if we catch wind of this stuff, would then be I think clamoring for an opportunity to have a look.”

With nearly 300 research universities in the U.S. alone, not to mention the private sector, there would be a lot of researchers clamoring for dibs on alien autopsies and analyzing the metals in the flying saucer’s hull. Sorting out who should get access to study which pieces of the evidence would quickly become a sticky, and highly politicized, problem.

“One thing I think you can expect absolutely right away is this would turn political,” says Eghigian.

Of course, this story has focused on what would happen if an alien spaceship crashed somewhere in the U.S., but there’s no reason — other than nationalism — to think the U.S. is any more likely to be a UFO crash site than any other country in the world.

“There is a kind of national hubris operating here: If extraterrestrial beings are going to come to Earth, they’re going to visit us!” writes Shostak.

MORE LIKE THIS

• 

This article was originally published on Aug. 3, 2023

• UPDATED: FEB. 20, 2024
• ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: AUG. 3, 2023

{ https://www.inverse.com/ }

07-06-2024 om 16:45 geschreven door peter  

Major Jesse Marcel, an intelligence officer from Roswell Army Air Field, with the debris found 75 miles northwest of Roswell in June 1947. 
Courtesy, Fort Worth Star-Telegram Photograph Collection, Special Collections, The University of Texas at Arlington Library, Arlington, Texas.

77 Years after the Roswell Incident, What Have We Learned?

For many Americans today, the name “Roswell” will inevitably conjure up images of flying saucers crash landing in the remote New Mexico desert; bald, diminutive aliens with gigantic eyes; and bizarre theories about government conspiracies and cover-ups. The events of 75 years ago have spawned books, movies, and TV shows, and the so-called “Roswell Incident” has attained the status of an American myth. To celebrate the 75th anniversary, here is a brief look at some of the many government publications available in Sycamore Library and on the Internet that provide insight into this intriguing story.

THE ROSWELL INCIDENT

In 1947, beginning in the spring and continuing into the fall, a rash of sightings of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) were being reported across the United States, with the maximum number of these sightings occurring during the period from mid-June to early July. 

On July 7, 1947, while interest in UFOs was at its height, W.W. “Mac” Brazel appeared at the office of sheriff George Wilcox in Roswell, New Mexico and described the wreckage of a metal disk and some other materials, including tinfoil, broken wood beams, strips of rubber, and thick paper, which he had discovered a few days earlier on the Foster Ranch where he worked, about 75 miles northwest of Roswell. Brazel had heard stories about UFO sightings on the radio recently and wondered if the debris he found might be part of one of those “flying saucers” everyone was talking about.

Map of New Mexico depicting “crash sites” and “debris field.”
From The Roswell Report: Case Closed, p. 11. 

Sheriff Wilcox contacted Major Jesse A. Marcel, an officer in the Roswell Army Air Field (RAAF) intelligence office, about Brazel’s discovery. Marcel drove to the sheriff’s office to inspect the wreckage, then went out to the ranch with Brazel to collect as much of the debris as they could.

The next day, July 8, the Public Information Office issued a press release, prematurely announcing that the Army Air Force had recovered a “flying disk.” The news media went wild, for this was perhaps the first time the government had ever taken reports of alien aircraft seriously. 

Meanwhile, military police were sent to the sheriff’s office to collect the wreckage, which was flown to Eighth Air Force headquarters in Fort Worth (later known as Carswell Air Force Base) for inspection. Officers and staff in Texas determined that the objects were remnants of a weather balloon and its attached metallic radar target.

A few hours after the previous announcement, the RAAF issued a correction, announcing that the debris found at Foster Ranch was from a weather balloon, not a flying saucer. Immediately suspicion was aroused that the government was covering something up.

Years later it turned out there had indeed been a cover-up, but it had nothing to do with aliens or flying saucers from outer space.

FBI REPORT ON ROSWELL

On July 8, 1947, the Dallas Office of the FBI issued a one-page teletype summarizing the Roswell incident. This document relays information from the U.S. Air Force that a hexagonal object appearing to be a “flying disk” had been recovered in the desert near Roswell, New Mexico. The object was described as being attached by cable to a balloon about 20 feet in diameter, resembling a weather balloon. Because of the interest generated by the recent UFO sightings, the disk and balloon were transported to Wright Field in Ohio for examination.

This document is available on the FBI website in their FOIA library known as The Vault. Several more FBI investigations of UFOs conducted from 1947 to 1954 are also included in The Vault.

PROJECT BLUE BOOK

From 1947 to 1969, a total of 12,618 sightings of UFOs were collected and investigated by the U.S. Air Force. The project, known as Project BLUE BOOK, was headquartered at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio.

As a result of several private and governmental investigations and studies conducted during this time period, the members of the Air Force running Project BLUE BOOK reached the following conclusions:

• No UFO reported, investigated, and evaluated by the Air Force had ever given any indication of threat to our national security.
• There has been no evidence that sightings categorized as “unidentified” represent technological developments or principles beyond the range of present-day scientific knowledge.
• There has been no evidence indicating that sightings categorized as “unidentified” are extraterrestrial vehicles.

On December 17, 1969, the Secretary of the Air Force announced the termination of Project BLUE BOOK. The documentation collected is now in the possession of the U.S. National Archives, and anyone with any further testimony regarding UFOs is referred to one of the many private agencies and individuals that are currently researching such phenomena. 

The following blog posts provide more information about records in the National Archives pertaining to UFOs:

• Aliens in the Archives
• Do Records Show Proof of UFOs?
• Project Blue Book: Spotting UFOs in the Film Record
• Project Blue Book: Home Movies in UFO Reports
• What on Earth Is It?

MAJESTIC 12 HOAX

In early 1987, British UFOlogist Timothy Good claimed to have been given a highly classified government document indicating that a secret committee of senior U.S. officials called the “Majestic 12” had investigated, and then covered up, the 1947 discovery of a crashed flying saucer containing the bodies of four humanoid aliens.

After this sensational story had been publicized through various news outlets, the Air Force Office of Special Investigations referred the Majestic 12 document to the Dallas FBI to determine whether it was still classified. The Office of Special Investigations announced on November 30, 1988 that the document was “bogus,” and FBI Headquarters instructed Dallas to close the investigation.

GAO REPORT

In February 1994, the General Accounting Office (GAO), acting on the request of Steven H. Schiff, a New Mexico Congressman, initiated an audit to attempt to locate any government records connected with the Roswell incident, and to determine if those records had been properly handled according to established procedures for reporting air accidents.

An extensive search ensued for government records related to the crash near Roswell, and a wide range of classified and unclassified documents dating from July 1947 through the 1950s were examined. These records came from numerous organizations in New Mexico and elsewhere throughout the Department of Defense, as well as from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and the National Security Council. 

The findings of GAO were published in July 1995 in a brief report entitled Government Records: Results of a Search for Records Concerning the 1947 Crash Near Roswell, New Mexico, and the information that GAO had requested from the U.S. Air Force relating to Roswell was published in a separate, much longer document entitled The Roswell Report: Fact and Fiction in the New Mexico Desert. 

These were the findings of GAO:

• In 1947, Army regulations required that air accident reports be maintained permanently, and although none of the military services filed a report on the Roswell incident, there was no requirement in 1947 to prepare a report on the weather balloon crash.
• Although some of the records concerning Roswell activities had been destroyed, there was no information available regarding when or under what authority the records were destroyed.
• Only two government records originating in 1947 have been recovered regarding the Roswell incident:
  • A 1947 Federal Bureau of Investigations record revealed that the military had reported that an object resembling a high-altitude weather balloon with a radar reflector had been recovered near Roswell.
  • A 1947 Air Force report noted the recovery of a flying disk that was later determined by military officials to be a radar-tracking balloon. 

PROJECT MOGUL: THE REAL COVER-UP

In July 1994, the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force concluded an exhaustive search for records in response to the General Accounting Office (GAO) inquiry about the “Roswell Incident.” After reviewing its records, the Air Force concluded that the debris recovered from the ranch on July 7, 1947, was a weather balloon, but it was not being used strictly for weather purposes. In early 1995 the results of this inquiry were published in a document nearly 1000 pages long, entitled The Roswell Report: Fact vs Fiction in the New Mexico Desert. 

An examination of now declassified technical and progress reports revealed that the Air Force had been conducting an experimental, top secret balloon project, called by the code name Project MOGUL, at the nearby Alamogordo Army Airfield (now Holloman AFB) during the summer of 1947. The Air Force admitted in the 1990s that they had been using this project to develop and test a surveillance device designed to fly over nuclear research sites in the Soviet Union and spy on them.

Project MOGUL was a then-sensitive, classified project, whose purpose was to determine the state of Soviet nuclear weapons research. This was the early Cold War period, and the U.S. government was concerned about the possibility that the Soviets were secretly developing an atomic weapon behind their closed borders. As early as 1945, Dr. Maurice Ewing of Columbia University had proposed to General Carl “Tooey” Spaatz (supervisor of the bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima) that a connected string of high-altitude balloons equipped with microphones could be sent floating over the Soviet Union to pick up sound waves and monitor any attempts by the Soviet government to test their own atomic weapon.

The weather-balloon story put out in 1947 had actually been a cover for this top secret spy operation, but only after the documents had been declassified in the post-Cold War era could the true cover-up finally be revealed.

CASE CLOSED

The 1995 Roswell Report dealt only with the material recovered from the first reported incident near Roswell, which had occurred in 1947.

In the decades after the Roswell Incident there were many more reports of UFOs, including two more that occurred near Roswell. Some of these new reports mentioned alien bodies that had been discovered among the crash debris. These bodies were not a part of the original reports of 1947, so they were not discussed beyond a brief mention in the Air Force’s report, but at some point dim memories and inaccurate retellings had caused the various reports to become mixed up and conflated, so that the original 1947 incident was associated not just with the idea of a flying saucer landing in the desert, but also with rumors of dead aliens and more government cover-ups. In 1995 there was even a film released of an alleged “alien autopsy” that took place in connection with the 1947 crash. 

In order to respond to these later allegations, the Air Force published a 1997 update to their 1995 report. The update was confidently titled The Roswell Incident: Case Closed. Together, these two reports provide the definitive U.S. Army statement on what really happened during the Roswell incident.

In the final report, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, Air Force researchers investigated reports of alien bodies, and concluded that in every case there was a logical explanation much more mundane than treating them as evidence of the misadventures of extraterrestrial visitors. In almost every case, the fantastic stories collected by UFO theorists and enthusiasts proved to be misinterpretations—intentional or inadvertent—of actual operations and tests carried out by the U.S. Air Force in the 1950s. In some cases, the “alien” bodies were in reality anthropometric test dummies, sometimes damaged, used in scientific experiments involving high altitude balloons. In other cases, there were real bodies, but they were human Air Force personnel who had been injured or killed in the line of duty, not creatures from outer space.

In the public eye and in the popular media, UFOs have come to be associated primarily with “flying saucers” and other visits from extraterrestrial beings. For the armed forces and other government agencies, an unidentified flying object (now more likely to be referred to as “unidentified aerial phenomenon,” or UAP) is thought of as a matter of national security, and is more likely to be an airplane, drone, or other espionage device controlled by a member of an enemy government on Earth. This may not be as sensational as a visit from outer space, but it may be closer to the truth.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO KNOW MORE?

If you would like to check out any of these publications, or explore these and other government publications, visit us in person at Sycamore Library, give us a call at (940) 565-2194, or send us a message at govinfo@unt.edu.

Article by Bobby Griffith.

{ https://library.unt.edu/ }

07-06-2024 om 16:28 geschreven door peter  

Unveiling the Mysteries: Top Secret Alien Crashes and Cover-Ups

The phenomenon of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and their alleged crashes have long intrigued both the public and researchers. Several key incidents, often shrouded in secrecy, have fueled speculation about extraterrestrial life and government cover-ups. This article explores some of the most notable undercover alien crashes reported over the years, drawing on testimonies and investigations that continue to captivate the imagination.

1. The Rendlesham Forest Incident (1980)

One of the most compelling UFO encounters occurred in Rendlesham Forest, near a US Air Force base in Suffolk, England. On December 26, 1980, Airman John Burroughs and Sergeant James Penniston were dispatched to investigate strange lights reported in the forest. What they found defied explanation.

As they approached the lights, Penniston reported seeing a triangular craft with bizarre, hieroglyphic-like inscriptions. Upon touching the craft, he experienced a sudden influx of binary code, which he felt compelled to write down the next day. Decoded years later, this binary message suggested a mission of “exploration of humanity” and hinted at an origin year of 8100, leading some to speculate about time travel rather than extraterrestrial visitation.

Both Burroughs and Penniston experienced lasting health effects, possibly from radiation exposure. The incident, initially investigated briefly by the US military, was allegedly kept away from the public eye, adding to its mystery and allure.

2. The Berwyn Mountains Incident (1974)

Another significant event took place in Llandrillo, Wales, on January 23, 1974. The quiet rural village was shaken by an enormous explosion, accompanied by a bright light falling from the sky. Huw Lloyd, then 14, witnessed the aftermath, describing an intense glow on the mountainside.

Ancient astronaut theorists propose that the explosion was caused by the crash of an extraterrestrial spacecraft. Despite alternative explanations, such as an earthquake, the distinct characteristics of the event—particularly the intense light—make it a compelling case for a UFO encounter.

3. The Kingman Incident (1953)

In 1953, following a nuclear test under the code name Upshot-Knothole, a disc-shaped object was seen descending rapidly from the sky near Kingman, Arizona. Scientists and engineers were covertly assembled to investigate the crash site, where they discovered a 40-foot diameter craft and four extraterrestrial beings.

The craft and its occupants were transported to Groom Lake, Nevada, now known as Area 51. According to accounts, one of the beings, referred to as “J-Rod,” survived and collaborated with the US government to reverse-engineer alien technology. Testimonies from individuals like Navy pilot Bill Uhouse and microbiologist Dan Burish describe direct interactions with J-Rod, who was housed in a special underground chamber.

4. The Roswell Incident (1947)

Perhaps the most famous of all UFO incidents, the Roswell crash, occurred in July 1947. Initial reports claimed the recovery of a flying saucer by the military, but the story was quickly changed to a weather balloon explanation. This sudden retraction has led to widespread belief in a cover-up.

Witnesses reported seeing strange debris and alien bodies at the crash site. Over the years, numerous leaked documents and testimonies have emerged, suggesting that the US government recovered extraterrestrial technology and beings, storing them at military installations. The hangar at Walker Air Force Base in Roswell, where the wreckage was allegedly first taken, remains a focal point for researchers and enthusiasts.

VIDEO:

• Ancient Aliens: UNDERCOVER ALIEN CRASHES

• https://youtu.be/NVuqZhgemoE

These undercover alien crashes, marked by credible witnesses and compelling evidence, continue to spark debate and curiosity. The involvement of military personnel and the detailed descriptions of the encounters lend credence to these accounts, while the recurring themes of government secrecy and advanced technology underscore the potential significance of these events. Whether viewed as extraterrestrial encounters or advanced time travel experiments, these incidents challenge our understanding of the universe and our place within it.

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

07-06-2024 om 16:11 geschreven door peter  

Ukrainian servicemen videotape a disk-shaped UFO

The Ukrainian military recorded the flight of a disk-shaped UFO hovering over the front line.

This is reported by the Daily Mail and publishes the video.

The UFO was spotted by soldiers of the 406th brigade using a Mavic drone. Their drone was more than 150 meters above sea level.

“What can they shoot at us with? Holy shit,” ‘What the hell is that?’, ‘UFO whatever,’ military officials are discussing behind the scenes whether to attack the object.

It is reported that the unknown object could be the size of a large ship and is more than 50 kilometers away.

Ukrainian soldiers film disc shaped UFO hovering over war zone

(Picture: Ukraine Freedom News/frontier_conflict)

The thermal imager showed that the UFO was warmer than its surroundings, but the technology produced a red error message that prevented us from understanding more about the object.

It is noted that this flying object bore a striking resemblance to a thin cylindrical object spotted over Iraq in May 2022 by the infrared “thermal” camera of the US Air Force’s Reaper drone.

This mirage occurs when a top layer of warm air and a bottom layer of cold air create an “atmospheric channel” that refracts or bends light, creating reflections in the air.

The UFO spotted on the drone

(Picture: Ukraine Freedom News/frontier_conflict)

{ https://ua-stena.info/en/ }

06-06-2024 om 23:50 geschreven door peter  

06-06-2024 om 23:11 geschreven door peter  

Starship voor het eerst teruggekeerd naar aarde

Het ruimtevaartuig Starship is bij de vierde testvlucht voor het eerst succesvol teruggekeerd naar de aarde. Fabrikant SpaceX meldt op X, het voormalige Twitter, dat het ruimtevaartuig is neergekomen in de Indische Oceaan.

Starship voor het eerst teruggekeerd naar aarde

© Aangeboden door Belga

"Splashdown bevestigd", schreef SpaceX op het berichtenplatform.

Eerder kon ook de booster 'Super Heavy' een zachte landing uitvoeren.

{ https://www.msn.com/nl-be/feed?ocid=msedgntp&pc=acts }

06-06-2024 om 21:35 geschreven door peter  

The European Space Agency has retired its Ariane 5 rocket, and all eyes are on its next generation, Ariane 6. The rocket’s pieces have been arriving at the Kourou facility in French Guiana and are now assembled.  ESA has now announced they’ll attempt a test launch on July 9th and hope to complete a second flight before the end of 2024. This new heavy-life rocket has a re-ignitable upper stage, allowing it to launch multiple payloads into different orbits.

“Ariane 6 marks a new era of autonomous, versatile European space travel,” said ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher, who announced the launch data at the Innovation and Leadership in Aerospace (ILA) Berlin Air Show on June 5, 2024. “This powerful rocket is the culmination of many years of dedication and ingenuity from thousands across Europe and, as it launches, it will re-establish Europe’s independent access to space. … I would like to thank the teams on the ground for their tireless hard work, teamwork and dedication in this last stretch of the inaugural launch campaign. Ariane 6 is Europe’s rocket for the needs of today, adaptable to our future ambitions.”

Ariane 6 has been in the works since the early 2010s to be a replacement the workhorse Ariane 5, which is no longer in production. Ariane 5’s first successful launch was in 1998, and since then has sent 109 spacecraft on their way, including the first ATV Jules Verne to the International Space Station and the James Webb Space Telescope to the second LaGrange point 1.5 million km (1 million miles) from Earth.

Ariane 6 is an expendable launch vehicle – not reusable like SpaceX’s rockets — that comes in two versions, with a modular design that can be customized: the rocket can use either two or four P120C strap-on boosters, depending on mission requirements. With the various designs, it can put a 4,500 kg payload into a geostationary transfer orbit or 10,300kg into low Earth orbit using the two boosters, and with four side boosters, it can launch 11,500 kg into a geostationary transfer orbit and 20,600kg into low Earth orbit. The re-ignitable upper stage allows for multiple satellites to launch on a single flight.

Ariane 6 was developed at a cost of just under 4 billion euros ($3.9 billion) and was originally planned for its first launch in July 2020. However, the project has been hampered by several delays, including work-related issues during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The rocket has undergone several tests in the past few years, and in November of 2023, a full fueled Ariane 6 was tested on the launchpad, firing its engines for several minutes, simulating a flight to space.

“The announcement of the scheduled date for Ariane 6’s first flight puts us on the home stretch of the launch campaign and we are fully engaged in completing the very last steps,” said Martin Sion, CEO of ArianeGroup, the prime contractor of the Arian 6. “This flight will mark the culmination of years of development and testing by the teams at ArianeGroup and its partners across Europe. It will pave the way for commercial operations and a significant ramp-up over the next two years. Ariane 6 is a powerful, versatile and scalable launcher that will ensure Europe’s autonomous access to space.”

At the Spaceport in French Guiana, various payloads have been integrated on Ariane 6’s payload carrier. One major milestone must be met before launch: a full wet dress rehearsal, which is having a fully fueled vehicle going through all the steps of a countdown, but not the actual ignition of the rocket engines. Once this activity has been completed, the Ariane 6 Task Force will provide an update, confirming the date for the inaugural flight.

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

06-06-2024 om 20:45 geschreven door peter  

The soft splashdown marked a new achievement for Starship. During the third flight test, which took place in March, only a few of Super Heavy’s engines were able to light up again for a crucial landing burn. As a result, the booster hit the water with an uncontrolled splat.

Eventually, SpaceX plans to have the Super Heavy booster fly itself back to its base after doing its job.

The upper stage reached orbital-scale altitudes in excess of 200 kilometers (125 miles), but completing a full orbit wasn’t part of today’s plan. Instead, SpaceX aimed to have Ship make its own soft splashdown in the Indian Ocean.

Streaming video, relayed via SpaceX’s Starlink satellite network, showed the rocket’s protective skin glowing with the heat of atmospheric re-entry. Burning debris broke off from one of Ship’s control fins, damaging the camera’s lens — but the fuzzy view nevertheless confirmed that the spacecraft successfully hit the mark. That represented another advance over the third test, when the Ship broke up during its descent to the ocean.

“Despite loss of many tiles and a damaged flap, Starship made it all the way to a soft landing in the ocean!” SpaceX founder Elon Musk exulted in a posting to his X social-media platform.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson added his congratulations on X, and noted that the successful test was a plus for the space agency’s Artemis moon program. “We are another step closer to returning humanity to the moon through Artemis — then looking onward to Mars,” he wrote.

A customized version of Ship is slated to serve as the lunar lander for Artemis 3, which would mark the first crewed mission to the moon’s surface since Apollo 17 in 1972. That mission is currently scheduled for 2026, but the timing depends in part on when the Starship system will be ready.

SpaceX’s uncrewed flight tests are following a step-by-step path to get Starship in shape for a wide variety of missions — including the deployment of hundreds of Starlink satellites, point-to-point travel between spaceports on Earth, and crewed odysseys to the moon, Mars and beyond.

Starship rockets aren’t carrying payloads for these early tests. “We said it before, we’re going to say it 9,000 times: The data is the payload,” SpaceX commentator Dan Huot said during today’s flight test.

But as the development program proceeds, the envelope for the flight tests will be widened to include multi-orbit operations, payload deployments and precision touchdowns on landing pads. Before today’s test, SpaceX and the Federal Aviation Administration worked out an arrangement that’s expected to streamline the regulatory process for future flights.

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

06-06-2024 om 20:36 geschreven door peter  

Ex-NASA Employee Saw Hi-res UFO/Alien Craft Photos, Ready To Testify Before Congress

After the Pentagon‘s great UFO declassification and congressional hearings, NASA decided to hunt down the aliens. The agency possesses advanced technology on Planet Earth, exploring the possibility of transforming satellites into alien seekers to probe unexplained sightings without launching new equipment. The Galileo Project is designing a space mission to rendezvous with the next anomalous (Oumuamua-like) interstellar object that zooms into our solar system.

Is that the first time NASA became interested in alien civilizations? NASA whistleblowers, who claimed to have closely worked in some of the top missions, do not think so. Former NASA employee, Donna Hare reportedly saw a photo of a distinct UFO. Her colleague explained that it was his job to airbrush such evidence of UFOs out of photographs before they were released to the public.

On May 9, 2001, over twenty military, intelligence, government, corporate and scientific witnesses came forward at the  National Press Club in  Washington, DC to establish the reality of UFOs or extraterrestrial vehicles, extraterrestrial life forms, and the resulting advanced energy and propulsion technologies. As part of the Disclosure Project, Donna Hare, a photographic scientist testified to have worked for NASA contactor Philco Ford in the early 1970s. She had a high-security clearance to walk in NASA’s photo lab and other departments.

During the Disclosure Project press conference, Hare revealed that NASA covered up and eliminated space anomalies such as UFOs from the satellite photos. Hare has got several awards in the space programs. She dedicated most of her time as a technical illustrator to space programs. She created lunar maps and landing slides and had been working for 15 years as a sub-contractor for NASA.

Hare claimed to have had access to a place known as “Building Eight,” from where she made contacts with high-ranking officials. Once, she walked into a restricted area which was NASA’s photo lab. She noticed the lab had photographs of the Moon taken from satellites. She was with a friend who pointed at one of the photographs and surprisingly, she saw a round white dot.

Read also:

• Ret. US Army Major Showed Deleted UFO Photos Captured By Apollo Astronauts On Moon
• Former Area-51 Engineer Claimed Testing Re-Engineered UFO That Crashed In Arizona In 1953 With Four Aliens
• Ret. US Army Colonel Claimed Aliens In Roswell UFO Crash Were Bio-Robots Built For Space Travel
• FBI Chilling UFO Reports: Recovered 3 UFOs With Alien Bodies In New Mexico & 27,000 Mph Craft

Below is the transcript of Hare’s part in the Disclosure Program (Full Video link here):

• https://youtu.be/4DrcG7VGgQU

“Good morning everyone! My name is Donna Hare, and I worked at Philco Ford aerospace from 1967 to 1981. During that time, I was a design illustrator draftsman. I did the launch slides, landing slides, and also projected plotting boards lunar maps for NASA. We were a contractor but most of the time, I worked in Building 8. I had the opportunity to do extra work during downtime which was between missions, and I walked into a photo lab which was the NASA lab across the hallway. I had a secret clearance which is not that high but I was able to go into restricted areas.

At the time, I was talking to one of the techs in there and he drew my attention to a NASA photograph. It had a “Dot” on it, and I asked what it was. Well, he drew my attention to it and I said is that a dot on the emulsion? He was smiling and he had his hands crossed… This was an aerial photograph of the Earth, I’m assuming the Earth because it had pine trees on it and the shadows of the craft or whatever it was were at the same angle as the trees and by its very nature, a UFO. And I wanted to clarify that to the gentleman that was talking to me… So, I did not know what this was but I realized at this point that it’s very secret.

I asked him what he was gonna do with this piece of information. He said they always airbrush these out before they sell them to the public, so they’re pissed pesky little creatures appearing on this photograph they wanted to get rid of. After that, I decided I would ask questions to other people that worked there (away from the site and not on site).

A guard told me that he was asked to burn some photographs and not to look at them, and there was another guard guarding him who was in green fatigues watching him burn the photographs and he said he was too tempted he looked at one.

I knew someone in quarantine with the Apollo astronauts he told me that the Apollo astronauts saw crap on the moon when we landed. He said that the astronauts are told to keep this quiet.”

Hare was told by one of the sources that during one of the moon landings, three UFOs had landed. Subsequently, there was a codeword “Santa Claus” for these crafts. She said she would be willing to testify before Congress. (Source)

In 2000, Gary McKinnon, a British Hacker who got so fed up with the government hiding information related to UFOs and free energy that he decided to hack the most secured servers of NASA and the Pentagon. McKinnon said that he had seen real photographs of UFOs in computer files at the  Johnson Space Center Building. He even took a screenshot of one of the cigar-shaped UFOs in-between space and the earth’s atmosphere. Unfortunately, it was removed from his computer after being seized.

Below is the recreation of the famous ‘NOT MAN MADE’ craft that was seen by McKinnon when he hacked & accessed NASA computers. (Source)

{ https://www.howandwhys.com/ }

06-06-2024 om 18:20 geschreven door peter  

Now, scientists have learned that those aren’t the only massive lifeforms that dwell on Greenland’s ice, although new research is revealing how others have remained undiscovered for so long.

GREENLAND’S INVISIBLE “GIANTS”

Researchers studying Greenland’s icy ecosystem report the new discovery of gigantic viruses thriving on the region’s Arctic ice. These viruses could help manage local algal blooms and may even reduce the speed at which ice melts.

Lying dormant on the ice during the months, Greenland remains in darkness. As spring arrives, algae begin to bloom, causing large darkened areas on the ice sheet. This reduces the sunlight it reflects and induces faster melting, a process that could contribute to global warming.

Although they aBy extracting and sequencing mRNA from their samples, Perini and her team confirmed that viruses were present and living on the ice.

Unlike normal viruses, giant viruses can transcribe their DNA into mRNA themselves, whereas smaller varieties have to rely on hijacking the cells of their hosts. Many questions remain about these unusually large viruses, including what ecological roles they play and about their specific hosts.

Further studies are expected to reveal how these giant viruses interact in their Arctic ecosystem, and in the months ahead, Perini and her team plan to publish additional research on how these viruses infect microalgae, which could help to reveal new insights into the curious, “invisible” giants that thrive on the Greenland Ice Sheet.

Perini and her team’s paper, “Giant viral signatures on the Greenland ice sheet,” was published in the journal Microbiome in May.

• Micah Hanks is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of The Debrief. He can be reached by email at micah@thedebrief.org. Follow his work at micahhanks.com and on X: @MicahHanks.

{ https://youtu.be/WWvWSvEWnKs }

06-06-2024 om 17:54 geschreven door peter  

Unveiling the US Government’s Secret Alien Interrogation Program: Jon Stewart’s Investigation

The idea of the U.S. government engaging in secretive programs involving extraterrestrial beings has long been a staple of conspiracy theories and speculative fiction. However, Jon Stewart, a former professional wrestler turned investigative journalist and political figure, claims to have uncovered evidence supporting the existence of such a program. Stewart’s meticulous investigation over two decades centers around an alleged interrogation of a Gray Alien captured on VHS tape from the early 1990s.

The Discovery and Investigation

In 1997, Jon Stewart stumbled upon a documentary featuring purported footage of an alien interrogation. This documentary, featuring a tan-colored Gray Alien experiencing apparent respiratory distress, captivated Stewart’s interest. Unlike typical Hollywood productions, the footage seemed unremarkable in its presentation, adding to its perceived authenticity. Intrigued by the casual nature of the video, Stewart sought expert opinions from video and animation professionals, all of whom failed to identify any signs of tampering or forgery.

Stewart’s quest for validation led him to consult with medical and military personnel allegedly involved in the interrogation. These interviews unveiled a narrative deeply intertwined with the clandestine activities of a faction within the military establishment, purportedly linked to the secretive S-4 facility within Area 51. The culmination of Stewart’s investigation led him to assert the authenticity of the leaked tape, believed to have been disseminated by an insider known as Victor.

The Whistleblower: Victor

Victor, a biologist employed by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), played a central role in Stewart’s investigation. Victor’s responsibilities included managing the alien interrogation and retention program at S-2 Alpha, a facility south of Area 51. According to Stewart, Victor was the caretaker of six deceased Eban beings stored in glass tubes filled with liquid. His duties also involved educating dignitaries, military personnel, and scientists about the extraterrestrials and their preservation.

Victor’s revelations extended beyond his role at S-2 Alpha. He claimed to have interacted with high-profile figures such as Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, discussing the deceased aliens. Despite his efforts to bring this information to light, Victor expressed frustration in a 2008 documentary about the lack of interest from the ufology community in verifying his claims or the existence of S-4.

The Alien Interrogation Footage

The footage that sparked Stewart’s investigation depicted an alien being interrogated by intelligence officers through telepathic means. Medical personnel attended to the alien, which appeared to be in distress. The video included a digital overlay with the initials “DNI SL-27,” suggesting the involvement of the Department of Naval Intelligence (DNI). This department, although officially non-existent, was mentioned by a U.S. senator in a manner that reinforced the video’s credibility for Stewart.

The alien, described as a hybrid of organic and synthetic material, exhibited unique physical characteristics such as round eyes and a tan complexion, deviating from the typical portrayal of Gray Aliens. The being’s movements, described as mechanical and puppet-like, further fueled the authenticity claims, as these characteristics aligned with descriptions from other alleged encounters with Gray Aliens.

Speculations and Theories

Throughout his investigation, Stewart encountered various theories regarding the nature and origin of these extraterrestrial beings. One prevalent theory suggests that these aliens are interdimensional travelers capable of traversing space and time by bending the fabric of the universe. Others believe that the Grays are synthetic entities created by other extraterrestrial races to serve as scouts or explorers.

The motivations behind the alleged alien presence on Earth remain a topic of debate. While some experts speculate that these beings have benevolent intentions, others suggest a more ominous perspective, viewing them as demonic entities with a hidden agenda. This dichotomy of beliefs reflects the broader uncertainty and fear surrounding the extraterrestrial phenomenon.

The Government’s Stance and Implications

Stewart’s investigation raises critical questions about the U.S. government’s knowledge and involvement in extraterrestrial activities. The reluctance to disclose information and the alleged use of advanced alien technology to maintain global dominance suggest a complex web of secrecy. According to Stewart, the government’s monopoly on alien technology provides a strategic advantage, making the U.S. military 15 to 20 years more advanced than its global counterparts.

The potential benefits of alien technology extend beyond military applications. Innovations such as zero-point energy and advanced medical treatments could revolutionize various sectors, from energy to healthcare. However, the fear of losing control over these technologies and the societal upheaval they might cause has likely contributed to the continued secrecy.

VIDEO:

• https://youtu.be/WWvWSvEWnKs

Jon Stewart’s investigation into the U.S. government’s alleged alien interrogation program presents a compelling narrative that challenges conventional understanding. While the authenticity of the footage and the existence of such a program remain subjects of debate, Stewart’s findings underscore the need for greater transparency and openness in discussing extraterrestrial phenomena. As the quest for truth continues, the hope remains that one day, humanity will have a clearer understanding of its place in the cosmos and the potential interactions with otherworldly beings.

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

06-06-2024 om 17:37 geschreven door peter  

LIFTOFF! WATCH BOEING STARLINER’S HISTORIC LAUNCH THROUGH THESE 7 PHOTOS

An Atlas-class rocket hasn’t sent humans into space since the Mercury program’s final flight 61 years ago.

BY DORIS ELÍN URRUTIA

 

MIGUEL J. RODRIGUEZ CARRILLO/AFP/Getty Images

Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams flew at 17,500 miles per hour northbound along the U.S. East Coast, towards Ireland, and over the Mediterranean Sea before entering orbit around Earth.

If Starliner aces the checks, docking with the International Space Station, reentry and landing in this next week, it will become the second U.S. human-rated spacecraft capable of ferrying astronauts into orbit.

Watch Wednesday’s historic launch, in pictures.

NASA/GETTY IMAGES NEWS/GETTY IMAGES

NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams bid farewell to a crowd, which included their family and friends, by giving away flowers and tossing out mission patches. Astronaut Doug Wheelock (not pictured) was also in the crowd, taking video and photos for their families to remember the moment. Soon after, Wilmore and Williams boarded a van to reach the Boeing Starliner “Calypso” spacecraft for the Crew Flight Test launch.

NASA/JOEL KOWSKY

A view of the Starliner launch from another angle. Starliner launched on a flat trajectory up northward, wrapping around the Atlantic Ocean into Europe, to ensure astronaut safety

(NASA/JOEL KOWSKY)

About 45 seconds after launch, the spacecraft reached the speed of sound (Mach 1).

GREGG NEWTON/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
The next step is certification. Williams and Wilmore will conduct a series of manual tests, and evaluate the performance of Starliner all the way through landing in the U.S. southwest in about one week.

Once Starliner is certified, NASA will have dissimilar redundancy in space, two different options to launch and return astronauts to and from humanity’s farthest human outpost.

{ https://www.inverse.com/ }

06-06-2024 om 17:17 geschreven door peter  

The metal printer that is now on board the International Space Station employs stainless steel wire being fed onto the medium being printed upon. A high power laser which is a million times more powerful than a laser pointer then heats it up melting a small section. As the steel wire feeds into the melt pool it melts, adding to the metal, making it slightly raised. 

Unlike a 3D printer you may have (or I may be trying to justify) which you can control from your own computer, the printer on ISS is controlled entirely from the ground. The crew do have tasks however, they have to open a nitrogen and venting valve before the printing can start. I guess it’s almost the equivalent of putting the paper in your printer at home! 

The printer was developed by a team led by Airbus under the ESA Directorate of the Human and Robotic Exploration contract. It arrived on the ISS in January 2024 where the 180kg printer was installed in the ESA Columbus Module. 

The next step for the printer is to print four shapes that have been chosen for full-scale 3D printing. They will then be returned to Earth for analysis and comparison against reference prints already created in normal gravity. The teams hope to explore how microgravity impacts 3D printing. Two of the 3D printed parts will go to the Materials and Electrical Components Lab at ESTEC in Netherlands. The other two will go to the European Astronaut Centre at the Technical University of Denmark.

Source : 

• First metal 3D printing on Space Station

{https://www.universetoday.com/ }

06-06-2024 om 01:53 geschreven door peter  

Within a single cubic millimeter of brain tissue are close to 57,000 cells, along with hundreds of synapses and blood vessels that, when reproduced in the Harvard and Google collaboration’s reconstructions, resulted in close to 1,400 terabytes of data.

The groundbreaking effort was led by Jeff Lichtman, Harvard’s Jeremy R. Knowles Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology and newly appointed dean of science, offering an unprecedented glimpse at the intricacies of the human brain and its inner workings.

A decade in the making, Lichtman and the Google team’s research combines electron microscopy with Google’s advanced AI in a meticulous reconstruction of the complexities of the brain, as outlined in a recent scientific study by Lichtman, along with former Harvard postdoctoral researcher Alexander Shapson-Coe, Michał Januszewski of Google Research, and Harvard postdoctoral researcher Daniel Berger as co-first authors.

Now, the newly unveiled brain map, which the researchers call a “connectome,” has revealed what Lichtman recently characterized as “an alien world inside your own head.”

In the newly published study, the authors say the functions occurring within our brains represent the key difference that separates us from other life on Earth. Despite this recognition, we currently possess a less-than-complete understanding of the intricate synaptic circuitry underlying these functions.

Enter Google Research’s Connectomics team, which, over the last decade, has worked toward using machine learning to construct a clearer picture of the human brain at previously unmatched scales. The result of this work allows researchers to produce visualizations of extremely large volumes of neural circuits at high resolutions, which could lead to entirely new discoveries about the way our brains function.

A limiting factor in this research involves the problems with obtaining high-quality samples of human brain tissue. Unlike other organ biopsies, brain biopsies rarely occur except when used to extract neoplastic masses, which aren’t ideal for creating visualizations of normal brain structure. In past attempts, brain organoids composed of human cells have been used, but since they lack cortical layers, they were unable to faithfully reproduce all of the features of real human brain tissue.

In their recent paper, the study’s authors proposed a new strategy involving the use of human brain tissue extracted during neurosurgical procedures, which they said “could be leveraged to study normal—and ultimately disordered—human neural circuits.”

Lichtman obtained such a sample a decade ago. Smaller than a single grain of rice, the sample had been retrieved from the brain of a patient with severe epilepsy as part of a standard procedure where a small portion is removed to help reduce seizures and then analyzed to determine whether it is normal. Apart from the patient’s age and gender, Lichtman knew nothing else about the sample’s origins.

In their research, the team used electron microscopy to produce a massive set of very detailed images using this small piece of temporal cortex, which was only about 1 cubic millimeter in size. Then they analyzed the data with Google’s powerful AI, reconstructing thousands of neurons, over a hundred million synaptic connections, and other brain components like glial cells, blood vessels, and myelin.

The tremendous resulting trove of data, which revealed a previously unrecognized class of neurons hidden within deep layers of the tissue and “very powerful and rare multisynaptic connections between neurons throughout the sample,” was made available online, along with tools to aid other researchers in analyzing it. 

“This work provides evidence of the feasibility of human connectomic approaches to visualize and ultimately gain insight into the physical underpinnings of normal and disordered human brain function,” the researchers write in their new study. “It is hoped that this endeavor will be aided by providing free access to all of the data and relevant tools.”

“Given the enormous investment put into this project, it was important to present the results in a way that anybody else can now go and benefit from them,” said Google Research collaborator Viren Jain of the team’s findings.

Supported by the National Institutes of Health BRAIN Initiative, this collaboration’s ultimate goal is to create a high-resolution map of a whole mouse brain’s neural wiring. This ambitious project will require approximately 1,000 times the data produced from the current 1-cubic-millimeter fragment of human cortex used by Lichtman and his collaborators in the recent research.

The team’s landmark paper, “A petavoxel fragment of human cerebral cortex reconstructed at nanoscale resolution,” was published in the journal Science on May 10, 2024.

• Micah Hanks is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of The Debrief. He can be reached by email at micah@thedebrief.org. Follow his work at micahhanks.com and on X: @MicahHanks.

{ https://thedebrief.org/category/science/ }

05-06-2024 om 21:43 geschreven door peter  

Afwijking

WASP-193b gaat voor nu de boeken in als de op één na minst compacte planeet die tot op heden is ontdekt; alleen de eerder gespotte – maar wel veel kleinere – Kepler-51d heeft een nog lagere dichtheid. “De extreem lage dichtheid (van WASP-193b, red.) is wat de planeet echt doet afwijken van de meer dan 5000 andere exoplaneten die tot op heden zijn ontdekt,” vertelt onderzoeker Khalid Barkaoui.

Barkaoui en collega’s vingen een eerste glimp op van WASP-193b dankzij de zogenoemde Wide Angle Search for Planets (kortweg WASP). Binnen dit onderzoeksproject wordt met behulp van een observatorium op het noordelijk halfrond en een observatorium op het zuidelijk halfrond de helderheid van duizenden sterren in de gaten gehouden. Daarbij werd ook gekeken naar WASP-193: de moederster van WASP-193b. En tussen 2006 en 2008 – maar ook tijdens aanvullende waarnemingen in 2011 en 2012 – zagen onderzoekers de helderheid van deze ster met regelmaat afnemen. Die afnames in helderheid bleken vervolgens te herleiden te zijn naar het bestaan van een planeet die rond WASP-193 cirkelde. Wanneer deze planeet – vanaf de aarde gezien – voor zijn moederster langs beweegt, houdt deze een deel van het licht van zijn moederster tegen, waardoor het lijkt of de helderheid van WASP-193 tijdelijk afneemt.

exoplanet, WASP-193B genoemd, is gevonden op een afstand van 1.232 lichtjaren.

Omlooptijd en omvang

Op basis van de metingen van WASP konden onderzoekers dus al concluderen dat WASP-193 een planeet bezat. Ook wezen de observaties uit dat deze ongeveer 6,25 dagen nodig had om een rondje om zijn moederster te voltooien. Daarnaast konden onderzoekers uit de hoeveelheid zonlicht die WASP-193b tegenhield op het moment dat deze voor zijn moederster langs bewoog ook afleiden hoe groot de planeet ongeveer was: ongeveer 1,5 keer groter dan Jupiter.

Massa

Opmerkelijk werd het echter pas toen de onderzoekers met behulp van andere observatoria ook de massa van de planeet poogden te achterhalen. Tot grote verrassing van de onderzoekers wezen deze aanvullende observaties namelijk uit dat WASP-193b een zeven keer kleinere massa heeft dan Jupiter. En daarmee heeft de planeet – die dus wel 1,5 keer groter is dan Jupiter – een zeer geringe dichtheid. Zo zou WASP-193b een dichtheid hebben van 0,059 gram per kubieke centimeter, zo is in het blad Nature Astronomy te lezen. Ter vergelijking: de dichtheid van Jupiter is 1,33 gram per kubieke centimeter en die van de aarde is maar liefst 5,51 gram per kubieke centimeter.

Artistieke weergave van de planeet WASP-193b in een baan om zijn ster WASP-193.

Krediet: MysteryPlanet.com.ar.

Suikerspin

“De planeet is zo licht dat het lastig is om een vast materiaal te bedenken (met een vergelijkbare dichtheid, red.),” merkt onderzoeker Julien de Wit op. Toch is het de onderzoekers gelukt; WASP-193b is qua dichtheid nog het beste te vergelijken met een suikerspin. Het bekende snoepgoed kent namelijk een dichtheid van ongeveer 0,05 gram per kubieke centimeter. “De reden dat (WASP-193b, red.) zo vergelijkbaar is met een suikerspin, is dat beiden in feite grotendeels uit lucht bestaan. De planeet is gewoon super fluffy.”

Waar een suikerspin vooral uit suiker bestaat, bestaat WASP-193b voornamelijk uit waterstof en helium, zo vermoeden de onderzoekers. Die gassen lijken een gigantisch omvangrijke atmosfeer te vormen die tienduizenden kilometers verder reikt dan de atmosfeer van Jupiter. Hoe de planeet zo is kunnen opzwellen, is onduidelijk. Wetenschappers hebben verschillende theorieën over hoe planeten ontstaan, maar geen enkele van die bestaande theorieën kunnen het bestaan van WASP-193b vooralsnog verklaren. “We kunnen niet verklaren hoe deze planeet ontstaan is,” bevestigt onderzoeker Francisco Pozuelos. “WASP-193b is een kosmisch mysterie,” voegt Barkaoui toe. De wetenschappers hopen dat toekomstige waarnemingen – met onder meer de James Webb Telescoop – kunnen helpen om dat mysterie op te lossen.

{ https://scientias.nl/ }

05-06-2024 om 21:28 geschreven door peter  

Around a star in our Milky Way galaxy, astronomers have discovered an extremely low-density planet that is as light as cotton candy. The new planet, named WASP-193b, appears to dwarf Jupiter in size, yet it is a fraction of its density.

CRE

The researchers behind the seemingly impossible find, which also includes experts from Belgium and Spain, say these types of “puffy Jupiters” have left astronomers baffled for over 15 years since they cannot explain how they formed using the best modern-day planet forecasting tools

“We don’t know where to put this planet in all the formation theories we have right now because it’s an outlier of all of them,” explained study co-lead author Francisco Pozuelos, a senior researcher at the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalucia, in Spain. “We cannot explain how this planet was formed based on classical evolution models.”

A NASA illustration of planet WASP-193b which is more than 1,200 light-years away.

(Supplied: NASA)

‘PUFFY JUPITER’ IS AS DENSE AS COTTON CANDY

According to a formal announcement of the discovery, WASP-193b was initially spotted between 2006 and 2008 and then again between 2011 and 2012. Those detections were made by the Wide Angle Search for Planets (WASP) project, which is a collaboration between international astronomers using a pair of robotic observatories in the southern and northern hemispheres.

Together, these robotic arrays of wide-angle cameras scour the stars, looking for the periodic ‘dips’ in light that sometimes indicate a planet is orbiting the star. In the case of WASP 193, a star located 1,232 light years from Earth, the southern WASP observatory spotted these types of dips during both recording sessions.

A detailed analysis of that data determined that a planet was likely crossing in front of its host star every 6.25 days. Further analysis of the amount of light blocked by the planet revealed that it was more or less similar in size to Jupiter. However, when astronomers tried to determine the planet’s mass by measuring how much it affected its host star’s orbit, known as the ‘radial velocity’ method, the numbers didn’t add up. In fact, their initial analysis found no shift in the star’s light spectrum at all, belying the planet’s massive size.

“Typically, big planets are pretty easy to detect because they are usually massive and lead to a big pull on their star,” said study co-author Julien de Wit, an assistant professor in MIT’s Department of Earth. “But what was tricky about this planet was, even though it’s big — huge — its mass and density are so low that it was actually very difficult to detect with just the radial velocity technique. It was an interesting twist.”

After reviewing the data and performing further analysis, the team determined that the planet was actually larger than Jupiter but had to be significantly less dense to exhibit so little gravitational pull on its host star.

“[WASP-193b] is so very light that it took four years to gather data and show that there is a mass signal, but it’s really, really tiny,” said lead study author and MIT postdoc Khalid Barkaoui.

The researchers say finding a solid material that has this type of limited density isn’t easy. In fact, in their published study, the authors say the best comparison they could make is that WASP-193b has the same density as cotton candy.

“The planet is so light that it’s difficult to think of an analogous, solid-state material,” Barkaoui says. “The reason why it’s close to cotton candy is because both are mostly made of light gases rather than solids. The planet is basically super fluffy.”

While clearly an outlier they cannot easily explain, the researchers say astronomers have seen similar readings in previous exoplanets. Still, those cases are still considered extreme outliers that don’t fit within planetary formation models.

“To find these giant objects with such a small density is really, really rare,” says lead study author and MIT postdoc Khalid Barkaoui. “There’s a class of planets called puffy Jupiters, and it’s been a mystery for 15 years now as to what they are. And this is an extreme case of that class.”

FOLLOW-UP OBSERVATIONS COULD UNRAVEL THE MYSTERY

In an effort to better understand the planet’s origin, the researchers say they are planning follow-up observations using a technique developed by de Wit. If successful, this process could reveal the planet’s temperature, composition, and even its pressure at various depths of what they suspect is a mostly hydrogen and helium atmosphere.

“Looking more closely at its atmosphere will allow us to obtain an evolutionary path of this planet,” Pozuelos said.

“The bigger a planet’s atmosphere, the more light can go through,” de Wit said in agreement. “So it’s clear that this planet is one of the best targets we have for studying atmospheric effects. It will be a Rosetta Stone to try and resolve the mystery of puffy Jupiters.”

• Christopher Plain is a Science Fiction and Fantasy novelist and Head Science Writer at The Debrief. Follow and connect with him on X, learn about his books at plainfiction.com, or email him directly at christopher@thedebrief.org.

{ https://thedebrief.org/category/space/ }

05-06-2024 om 21:02 geschreven door peter  

Hoe rusten vogels tijdens lange overzeese migraties?

Door Janine

Trekvogels: hoe steken ze de oceaan over?

Wanneer de winter aanbreekt, maken trekvogels zeer lange reizen op zoek naar warmere omgevingen met voedsel, en keren dan de volgende lente terug. Maar heb je je ooit afgevraagd hoe ze reizen van duizenden kilometers over de oceaan doorstaan, zonder een plek om te stoppen om uit te rusten en te eten? Naast de merkwaardige V-vormige vlucht heeft een onderzoek het antwoord gevonden, en het gaat om een ​​“energiebesparende” techniek. In de praktijk maken vogels tijdens de trek gebruik van de wind tijdens de vlucht om de inspanningen te verminderen.

Ongeveer 40% van de soorten migreert elk jaar en vliegt in groepen van het ene continent naar het andere. Er zijn onderweg veel uitdagingen, vooral voor landvogels die lange tijd over open zee moeten vliegen. In tegenstelling tot zeedieren kunnen ze niet rusten en zich verfrissen met water, daarom kan hun vlucht geen pauzes bevatten. In theorie. Ornithologen waren van mening dat landvogels geen overtochten van meer dan 100 km konden ondernemen, omdat het niet mogelijk is lange afstanden af ​​te leggen door voortdurend met hun vleugels te klapperen, maar dat is niet het geval.

Energiebesparing dankzij wind en opwaartse druk

Freepik

Volgens het Duitse onderzoek van het Max Planck Instituut en de Universiteit van Konstanz wordt de jaarlijkse trek over het water vergemakkelijkt door de atmosfeer: door gebruik te maken van wind en opwaartse druk slagen veel trekvogels op het land in deze prestatie en passen ze hun route zo nodig aan. Hoofdauteur Elham Nourani legt uit: "Tot voor kort werd gedacht dat opwaartse druk zwak of afwezig was aan het zeeoppervlak. In plaats daarvan ontdekten we dat trekvogels hun vliegroutes aanpassen om te profiteren van de beste wind en opwaartse kracht wanneer ze over zee vliegen. Dit helpt hen om hun vlucht honderden kilometers lang vol te houden”.

Het onderzoek omvatte de observatie van vijf verschillende soorten roofvogels die lange overtochten over zee maken: de visarend, de oostelijke honingbuizerd, de grijskopbuizerd, de Eleonora’s valk en de slechtvalk. Deze vogels hebben verschillende afmetingen, morfologieën en strategieën, maar de resultaten bevestigden dat het gebruik van rugwind is geoptimaliseerd om zowel tijd als energie te besparen tijdens de reis, naast de opwaartse druk. Het is echter niet helemaal waar dat vogels nooit stoppen tijdens hun inspannende reizen.

Maritieme migratie van vogels: tussenstop op schepen

Pexels

Sommige landtrekvogels hebben rustplaatsen geïdentificeerd die worden gebruikt door volwassen vogels, die meer ervaring hebben met oversteken, en die door de generaties heen worden doorgegeven. Een studie ontdekte echter onverwacht dat veel soorten, veel meer dan eerder gedacht, schepen gebruiken om uit te rusten tijdens hun oceaanreizen. Men dacht namelijk dat boten slechts bij uitzondering als rustplaats werden gebruikt.

Tijdens een onderzoek in de Middellandse Zee werden gedurende vijfentwintig dagen dertien verschillende soorten waargenomen die de boot van de onderzoekers gebruikten als tussenstop. De tussenstop, oftewel de onderbreking van het vliegen, duurde gemiddeld slechts tweeënveertig minuten, waarschijnlijk door het gebrek aan voedsel op de boot. Desalniettemin voldoende tijd om te schuilen voor slecht weer en de batterijen op te laden. De gegevens die hieruit naar voren kwamen, suggereren verdere monitoring van de herfstmigratie boven het Middellandse Zeegebied en passerende boten: miljoenen vogels zouden het als rustplaats kunnen gebruiken.

{ https://www.curioctopus.nl/ }

05-06-2024 om 18:44 geschreven door peter