The sudden and catastrophic collapse of the Bronze Age civilizations was one of the most dreadful events in history. Towards the beginning of the 12th century BCE, cities across the eastern Mediterranean region – in Cyprus, Crete, Greece, Anatolia, Egypt, Syria, Levant, etc. – went up in flames, never to rise again, and the cultural expressions and religious institutions of the Bronze Age were lost forever. Historian Robert Drews, Professor of Classical Studies, Emeritus, at Vanderbilt University, wrote in the book, The End of the Bronze Age: Changes in Warfare and the Catastrophe ca. 1200 BC, that, 

“Within a period of forty to fifty years at the end of the thirteenth and the beginning of the twelfth century almost every significant city in the eastern Mediterranean world was destroyed, many of them never to be occupied again…Throughout the eastern Mediterranean, the twelfth century BC ushered in a dark age, which in Greece and Anatolia was not to lift for more than four hundred years. Altogether, the end of the Bronze Age was arguably the worst disaster in ancient history...”[1]

The intensity and geographic scale of this devastation are quite mind-boggling. When the archaeologists of the mid-19th century started exploring the ancient Bronze Age sites in the eastern Mediterranean, they found that the cities and palaces – which were constructed of megalithic blocks of stone - had been entirely leveled and almost everywhere they detected a layer of ash containing charred wood. At Hattusa, the capital of the mighty Hittite Empire, the excavators found a layer of “slag, formed when mud-bricks melted from the intense heat of the conflagration,”[2] while at Mycenae, the “masonry structures within the fortification walls (of the citadel) melted in a fire of great intensity.”[3]

Everywhere there were signs of a massive, violent conflagration that had brought on the utter demise of these longstanding centers of culture. Many of these sites – such as Hattusa or Mycenae - remained unoccupied, forgotten, and lost from the pages of history for thousands of years, until they were dug up by archaeologists in the 19th century. At some of the sites, archaeologists have detected signs of rebuilding after the initial wave of devastation in the early 12th century BCE. However, even the rebuilt cities did not last long and were destroyed and abandoned shortly. Apparently, whatever had brought on this widespread disaster lingered on for some time during the 400 years of the Dark Ages that followed.

However, not all cultures in the region were utterly decimated in the 12th century itself. In some cases, the collapse was long drawn out. In Egypt, the rule of Ramses III – the last of the great pharaohs - ended in 1155 BCE with his murder, following which there was a “mega drought” lasting 150 years or more, which caused a severe economic crisis.[4] The end of the 20th Dynasty in 1069 BCE marked the end of Egypt as an independent power. The period from 1070 BCE – 664 BCE is called the “Third Intermediate Period” of Egypt, when the Libyans and the Kushites claimed the throne, at a time of political turmoil, social disintegration, droughts and famine. 

Another ancient empire that survived the initial wave of destruction in the 12th century was Assyria, even as most cities in the Levant and Southern Mesopotamia went up in flames. However, upon the death of Ashur-bel-kala in 1056 BCE, even Assyria went into a comparative decline for the next hundred or so years. The empire shrank significantly, and by 1020 BCE, Assyria appears to have controlled only areas close to Assyria itself.

The effect of this catastrophic civilizational collapse on the people of the eastern Mediterranean was traumatic, to say the least. There was large-scale depopulation, and the people lived in small, isolated, settlements. Some squatters occupied the ruins of the big cities and lived in small huts. Famine gripped the lands, and people migrated in search of food. The ancient trading networks came to a grinding halt. A Dark Age gripped the lands for nearly 400 years, during which time the entire cultural edifice of the Bronze Age was lost forever. 

When the Iron Age began at around 750 BCE, the construction of megalithic cities and palaces had ceased. The pottery had simple geometric patterns. Iron replaced bronze as the metal of choice for manufacturing tools and weapons. Chariots were no longer used in warfare. The Linear B writing of the Mycenaean period was forgotten, and the Greeks had to re-learn the alphabet from the Phoenicians in the 8th century BCE. It was almost as if an “epoch” of humanity was over and the old had given way to the new.

Modern historians think of the Greek Dark Ages as a time of “transition” from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age. Robert Drews used the term “dawn time” to refer to this period of catastrophe and transformation. He wrote that,

“The end of the eastern Mediterranean Bronze Age, in the twelfth century BC, was one of history’s most frightful turning points. For those who experienced it, it was a calamity. In long retrospect, however, the episode marked a beginning rather than an end, the “dawn time” in which people in Israel, Greece, and even Rome sought their origins. ...The metallurgical progress - from bronze to iron - was only the most tangible of the innovations. More significant by far were the development and spread of alphabetic writing, the growth of nationalism, of republican political forms, of monotheism, and eventually of rationalism.”[5]

The philosophers of ancient Greece generally thought of the Dark Ages as a time when a “Shift in the Ages” took place from the “Age of the Heroes” to the “Iron Age”. Many Greek writers dated the famous battle of Troy described in the Iliad, to around the same time that the Late Bronze Age collapse had occurred: Ephorus had dated it to 1135 BCE, Sosibius to 1172 BCE, and Eratosthenes to 1184 BCE. 

As it turns out, the ruins of the city of Troy were discovered by Heinrich Schliemann in 1870, in the course of his excavations on the mound of Hisarlik, which overlooks the plain along the Turkish Aegean coast. The excavations at the site have revealed multiple occupation layers dating back to 3600 BCE. 

What is interesting is that, Troy was destroyed at around 1180 BCE – coinciding with the onset of the Late Bronze Age collapse - following which the city was rebuilt but was destroyed again in 1050 BCE, possibly due to an earthquake. Troy was again rebuilt by the survivors, but suffered yet another destruction by a fire in 950 BCE. This tells us that the entire Mediterranean region was visited by an extended period of catastrophes during the Dark Ages. Robert Drews makes a similar observation: 

"Altogether, then, the Catastrophe seems to have begun with sporadic destructions in the 1st quarter of the thirteenth century, gathered momentum in the 1190s, and rages in fully fury in the 1180s. By about 1175 the worst was apparently over, although dreadful things continued to happen throughout the twelfth century."

The question is, what could have caused this widespread and long drawn-out calamity in the Mediterranean region that obliterated the Bronze Age cultures that had flourished in the region for nearly three millennia? 

The Sea Peoples

Some historians believe that the so-called “Sea Peoples”- a loose, seafaring, confederation of uncertain origin – are to blame for these upheavals. The principal evidence for the invasions of the Sea Peoples comes to us from the inscriptions and pictorial reliefs on the walls of the mortuary temple of Ramesses III at Medinet Habu. 

They tell us that, during the eighth year of the pharaoh’s reign, a coalition of foreign states that originally lived “on the islands in the middle of the (Aegean) sea” attacked Egypt. The attackers are said to have defeated a number of countries in the Eastern Mediterranean, including Hatti (Hattusa), Alashiya (Cyprus) and Arzawa (a small city in Western Anatolia). Ramesses III claims to have slaughtered the Sea Peoples in a naval battle, and took many of them as captives.[6]

Scholars now believe that the Sea Peoples were a military alliance of “western Anatolian petty states”, since the names of some of the individual tribes that made up the Sea Peoples (which have been mentioned in the Egyptian inscriptions) are, to a large extent, identical to the neighbors of the Hittites in the west and the southeast.

But, if we think about it, the Sea Peoples were not such a powerful adversary, since they were easily annihilated by Ramses III, and therefore - while they might have defeated a few Hittite cities - they were unlikely to have reduced those cities to utter rubble. Besides, the Late Bronze Age collapse took place over a vast swathe of land in the eastern Mediterranean and the Sea Peoples certainly didn’t go anywhere after the thrashing they received in Egypt. Moreover, the catastrophic events in the Mediterranean region had persisted for some time during the Dark Ages. It was not just a collapse of cities that we are dealing with here. Famines had overtaken the lands, trade networks were disrupted, people forgot how to read and write, and all the cultural expressions of the Bronze Age were lost.

Clearly, this was not the work of some invaders of uncertain origin, but of Mother Nature. A major environmental cataclysm must have brought this on.

Some historians have pointed to the eruption of the Hekla volcano in Iceland as a potential trigger. The eruption of Hekla has been dated to around 1021 BCE (±130), and it caused worldwide temperatures to drop for nearly 18 years, as recorded in Irish bog oaks.[7] Since the explosion occurred nearly two hundred years after the beginning of the Late Bronze Age collapse it cannot be a regarded as a cause, although it certainly contributed to the woes already inflicting the people. 

Meteor Airbursts? 

A possible cause for the Late Bronze Age collapse could be a series of meteor airbursts above the eastern Mediterranean region. When meteors explode in the air, they do not leave any impact craters, but their effects on human civilization can be utterly devastating. Shock waves from meteor airbursts can flatten cities and the intense temperatures from the explosions can cause violent conflagrations capable of melting mud-bricks and stone walls – which is what has been seen at many Late Bronze Age sites. 

A well-known example of a meteor airburst is the Tunguska event of June 30, 1908, when a large meteor - about 120 feet across weighing 100 million kilograms - exploded over Eastern Siberia with the force of 1000 Hiroshima nuclear bombs, and flattened over 2000 square kilometers of forest. Strong seismic waves and near-hurricane gusts of wind were felt 600 kilometers from the site. Locally, hundreds of reindeer were killed, but there was no evidence that any person was killed in the blast, due to the remoteness of the location. The same explosion over a densely populated city would have had tragic consequences on human life. 

In the eastern Mediterranean, a devastating meteor airburst had occurred a few centuries prior to the Late Bronze Age collapse. In 2021, a team of scientists discovered that the Bronze Age city of Tall el-Hammam in Jordan had been completely flattened by a Tunguska-sized meteor airburst at around 1650 BCE. The high temperatures from the airburst melted pottery shards and clay bricks and produced diamond-like carbon, while the incredible pressures shocked quartz crystals. Their findings were published in the journal Nature.[8]

Some researchers believe that Tall el-Hammam could be the biblical city of Sodom mentioned in Genesis, which, in addition to Gomorrah, had been destroyed by God, since its inhabitants had become wicked. As per Genesis, fire and sulfur had rained down on the cities, which leveled the buildings, killed all the inhabitants and destroyed the vegetation in the fields.[9]

James Kennett, emeritus professor of Earth Science at UC Santa Barbara, who was leading the research team, said that “All the observations stated in Genesis are consistent with a cosmic airburst…but there's no scientific proof that this destroyed city is indeed the Sodom of the Old Testament.”[10]

While the biblical identity of Tall el-Hammam will continue to be debated, it is becoming evident that meteor airbursts can have devastating consequences on human civilization, and many such events have occurred in the past. But, did anything of this sort occur during the time of the Late Bronze collapse?

The Kaali Crater 

A recent scientific paper published in the International Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics (2020), claims that the Kaali Crater in Estonia - which is named after a small village called Kaali located close to the impact site - was caused by a meteorite impact between 1183 - 1162 BCE. The force of the impact set up a Baltic-wide mega-tsunami at 1171 BCE, and caused a violent seismotectonic effect in Sweden. 

The author of the paper, Nils-Axel Morner, a retired geologist of Stockholm University wrote,

“At about 1200 cal. yr. BC something quite unique occurred in the Baltic region: a meteorite impacted the ground on Saaremaa Island in Estonia giving rise to the Kaali Crater and 8 minor impact marks. At the same time along the Swedish east coast, we record high-magnitude paleoseismic activity, ground shaking with power of fracturing the bedrock, intensive methane venting tectonics, and the occurrence of a mega-tsunami with a run-up on the order of 15 m. In this paper, we propose that all the events occurred at the same time, and that the geodynamic events along the Swedish east coast were all triggered by the Kaali impact.”[11]

The main Kaali Crater has a diameter of around 110 m and a depth of 25 m, including its debris rim. Today, the crater has a lake in it, fed by groundwater and precipitation. There are eight minor craters within 1 km of the main crater, with diameters ranging from 12 – 40 m. It is believed that these craters were created when a large meteor, weighing anywhere between 400 – 1000 tons entered the earth’s atmosphere and fragmented into multiple pieces, which struck the Saaremaa Island in Estonia with a velocity of about 10 - 20 km. per second.

There have been ongoing debates about the age of the Kaali Crater, with the span of uncertainty ranging between 1700 BCE – 1000 BCE. New mathematical models used by Brendan Duffy for the computation of the boundary age for the onset of sedimentation within the crater provide dates ranging from 1183 BCE - 1162 BCE. This is in close agreement with the 1171 BCE date for the Baltic-wide mega-tsunami that has been recorded at 11 sites in Sweden. 

Nils-Axel Morner has proposed that a large meteor fragment must have fallen into the Baltic Sea, somewhere between Estonia and Sweden, and caused the mega-tsunami. Around the same time, there was an abnormal peak of seismotectonic events at 13 sites in Sweden resulting in bedrock deformation, large-scale liquefaction, and explosive methane venting tectonics. 

The timing of the impact i.e. between 1183 - 1162 BCE coincides with the catastrophe that struck the eastern Mediterranean at the beginning of the 12th century BCE. Since multiple fragments of the meteorite struck the land in Estonia, and a large fragment probably fell into the Baltic Sea, all of them may have originated from a large, disintegrating, comet. 

It is quite possible that some large chunks of cometary debris exploded over the eastern Mediterranean region, flattening the Bronze Age cities, and causing the mud-bricks and stone masonry to melt. Cosmic airbursts and impact events can also destroy the vegetation in the fields and induce widespread aridity, thereby causing famines. Since volcanism can also be triggered by meteor impacts, the Hekla eruption could have been a result of these bombardments. 

The reason why the Sea Peoples were invading other cultures of that time was possibly because they were one of the first victims of the meteor airbursts; and having lost their homes and food sources, they were searching around for a new place to settle. 

There are indications that meteor impacts continued to occur during the Dark Ages. Lars Franzen and Thomas Larsson of Goeteborg University, Sweden, have presented evidence from sites in Tunisia and Sweden, which show that,

“A major atmospheric cooling event, accompanied by excessive precipitation, which led to flooding, occurred around 1000 BCE. The event was sudden and widespread, and the finding of small glassy spherules pointed to a possible impact origin. Franzen and Larsson suggested that an asteroid or comet of diameter in the range 0.5-5 km may have landed in the eastern Atlantic around 1000 BCE, affecting in particular Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.”[12]

Now, why would the earth be subjected to an extended period of bombardment from asteroids and meteors? From where did these impactors originate? The answer to that question probably lies within the dense core of the Taurid meteor stream. 

The Taurid Swarm

The Taurids are the largest meteor stream in the inner solar system. It contains some large chunks of rocks that have struck the earth in the past. Most scientists believe that the Beta Taurids – which is the section of the stream we cross from June 5 to July 18, with peak activity on June 29 – was the source of the Tunguska meteor of June 30, 1908. 

The progenitor of the Taurid stream was a giant comet, around 50 - 100 km in diameter, which had entered the inner solar system at least 20,000 to 30,000 years ago. The comet was tossed into a short-term orbit around the Sun, and disintegrated in stages, leaving behind a trail of debris known as the Taurid meteor stream or Taurid Complex.[13]

The giant progenitor comet of the Taurid meteor stream still remains hidden in the center of the Taurids, moving within a tightly packed swarm consisting of several large comets formed by the fragmentation of the progenitor (all of which are in a dormant state), and dozens of full-size asteroids up to 1 km wide. This dense cluster of comets and asteroids within the Taurid meteor stream is called the “Taurid Resonant Swarm”. The faint Comet Encke, which is the only visible comet within the Taurid meteor stream today, could be a recently reactivated fragment of the Taurid progenitor comet. 

In an article in National Geographic, Australian astronomer Duncan Steel provided an estimate of how often we get hit by the comets and asteroids within the Taurid swarm:

“Every 2,500 to 3,000 years or so, the core of the Taurid stream passes near Earth and produces much more intense meteor showers for a few centuries, said Steel. A gap of a few centuries separates the era of intensity between Northern Taurids and Southern Taurids.”[14]

This is a significant observation from the perspective of the Late Bronze Age collapse. If the earth had passed through the dense core of the Taurids towards the beginning of the 12th century BCE, then it would have resulted in intense meteor showers over a period of a few centuries – with consequent cosmic airbursts and impact events - which could account for all the calamities that befell the eastern Mediterranean region over the next 400 years. 

The area of collapse, in fact, was much wider than the eastern Mediterranean. In reality, the Greek Dark Ages was a time of global collapse of civilization. 

A Global Catastrophe

Everywhere we look around the world, the period from 1200 BCE – 700 BCE was the time when the erstwhile Bronze Age cultures collapsed and gave way to the Iron Age civilizations. In Persia, for instance, the Median kingdom emerged in the 8th century BCE, but what do we know about the Bronze Age cultures of the region? Very little, for all of them disappeared, and it is only at sites like Jiroft that we get an inkling of Bronze Age Persia.

The Indus Valley civilization had already undergone a catastrophic collapse at around 1900 BCE due to a host of environmental conditions – notably droughts and earthquakes - and most Indus cities had been abandoned by 1700 BCE. However, a Late Harappan, post-urban culture continued to survive in parts of Sindh and Saurashtra, which was characterized by relative poverty in their material culture – crude pottery, poorly constructed buildings, disappearance of urban amenities etc. The Late Harappan phase continued till around 1000 - 900 BCE,[15] and ended due to factors not clearly known. After a gap of nearly 400 years we see the emergence of the 16 Great Kingdoms (Mahajanapadas) in the Gangetic plains at around 600 BCE, marking the beginning of the Iron Age culture of India. While certain Harappan traditions were carried over to the later-day Indian civilization, many elements of their skills, beliefs, customs, and socio-cultural setup were lost forever.

Catastrophe also struck the Olmec civilization of Mesoamerica at this time. The center of Olmec culture in the early years was at San Lorenzo Tenochtitlan. However, in c.950 BCE there was a wholesale destruction of San Lorenzo monuments. The site was abandoned at around 900 BCE, and the center of power shifted to La Venta soon afterward. Mesoamerican scholars believe that severe environmental changes may have been responsible for this shift in Olmec centers, with certain important rivers changing course.

Apparently, the Greek Dark Ages was a time when civilizations across the world got a drastic reboot. The old ways of doing things were violently erased, and while some elements of the Bronze Age societies were carried forward, we mostly see the emergence of new artistic styles, religious beliefs, philosophies, architecture, and modes of governance. This brings to mind those haunting words that the Egyptian priest of Sais had spoken to Solon, the Athenian law-giver when Solon had gone to Egypt at around 600 BCE: 

“Whereas just when you and other nations are beginning to be provided with letters and the other requisites of civilized life, after the usual interval, the stream from heaven, like a pestilence, comes pouring down, and leaves only those of you who are destitute of letters and education; and so you have to begin all over again like children, and know nothing of what happened in ancient times, either among us or among yourselves.”[16]

The “stream from heaven” that the Egyptian priest spoke of, could refer to the Taurid meteor stream, which seems to play a crucial role in the periodic annihilation of civilization. In my book Yuga Shift, I have proposed that the Greek Dark Ages correspond to the period of transition between the descending Kali Yuga and the ascending Kali Yuga in the Yuga Cycle, and I have identified the Taurid meteor stream as the primary trigger for the cataclysms of the transitional periods between the Yugas.

References

[1] Robert Drews, The End of the Bronze Age: Changes in Warfare and the Catastrophe ca. 1200 B.C., Princeton University Press, 1993, p. 3-4.
[2] Ibid p. 8.
[3] Ibid p. 24
[4] Dave Roos, “What Caused Ancient Egypt’s Decline?”, History, 10 August 2022, https://www.history.com/news/decline-ancient-egypt-causes
[5] Ibid p. 3.
[6] "The Sea Peoples’ Inscriptions and Excavation Results", Luwian Studies, https://luwianstudies.org/the-sea-peoples-inscriptions-and-excavation-results/
[7] Mike Baillie, “Do Irish bog oaks date the Shang dynasty?” Current Archaeology 1989, 10: 310–313.
[8] Ted E. Bunch et al, “A Tunguska sized airburst destroyed Tall el-Hammam a Middle Bronze Age city in the Jordan Valley near the Dead Sea”, Scientific Reports, 2021, Vol.11, Article No.18632, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-97778-3
[9] Genesis 19:24-26.
[10] Sonia Fernandez, “Evidence that a cosmic impact destroyed ancient city in the Jordan Valley”, Phys.org, 20 September 2021, https://phys.org/news/2021-09-evidence-cosmic-impact-ancient-city.html
[11] N. Mörner, “The Kaali Impact as Trigger of a Mega-Tsunami Event and Violent Seismotectonics in Sweden”, International Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics, 2020, Vol.10, No.3, pp. 235-246, https://www.scirp.org/journal/paperinformation.aspx?paperid=103095
[12] Trevor Palmer, Robert N. Brandon, Perilous Planet Earth: Catastrophes and Catastrophism Through the Ages, Cambridge University Press, 2003, p. 344.
[13] D.I. Steel, D.J. Asher, S.V.M Clube, “The Taurid Complex: Giant Comet Origin?” International Astronomical Union Colloquium, 1991, Vol. 126, pp. 327-330, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0252921100067063 
[14] John Roach, “Meteor Shower Promises Seven Shooting Stars an Hour”, National Geographic News, 7 November 2003, https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/11/1107_031107_taurids.html
[15] Jim G. Shaffer, “Reurbanization: The Eastern Punjab and Beyond”, Studies in the History of Art, 1993, vol. 31, pp. 53–67.
[16] Plato, Timaeus, http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/timaeus.html

LINKS VIDEOS

• https://youtu.be/q0AIYIjZKWY

• https://youtu.be/B965f8AcNbw

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16-07-2024 om 00:26 geschreven door peter  

CIA Secret Files Show John F. Kennedy Killed 10 days After Demanding UFO Files

A few days before his mysterious death, the 35th US president John F. Kennedy demanded that the CIA provide him with a UFO dossier. From another archival note by John Kennedy, it became known that he wanted to offer the USSR a joint program for space exploration. Almost half a century after the death of John F. Kennedy, sensational details were revealed regarding his latest orders. It turned out that just 10 days before his death, the 35th president of the United States requested top-secret information about flying ships from special services.

According to the Daily Mail, Kennedy sent two requests: one to the CIA, the other one to NASA. The circulars had been useless in the archives of these departments for many years, but in the end, on the request made by author William Lester under the Freedom of Information Act, the CIA had to release the documents to him.

Author William Lester said the CIA released the documents to him under the Freedom of Information Act after he requested while researching for his new book ‘A Celebration of Freedom: JFK and the New Frontier.’

While working on a new book ‘A Celebration of Freedom: JFK and the New Frontier,’ the writer got the opportunity to familiarize himself with the contents of archival materials. Studying those documents, the author came across two sensations at once.

In a letter dated November 12, 1963, to the Director of the CIA, John F. Kennedy demanded a detailed report on the secret materials of the department devoted to UFOs and other paranormal phenomena. In another one, that was addressed to the administration of the National Space Agency (NASA), the president expressed a desire to cooperate with the Soviet Union in the field of space research and even join forces in space exploration.

Of course, there could be no talk of any opening of the Iron Curtain: after the Caribbean crisis, relations between the two nuclear powers became extremely heated. However, according to Lester, the coincidence of the two documents in time is far from accidental. The fact is that flying ships had repeatedly been seen over the territory of the Soviet Union. Kennedy rightly feared that the USSR might regard the appearance of unidentified objects in the sky above its territory as military aggression.

“I think this is one of the reasons why he wanted to get his hands on this information and get it away from the jurisdiction of NASA so he could say to the Soviets,” said Lester.

NBC News wrote:

”The government regularly declassifies documents after a certain amount of time goes by, and then you have to file a request for those documents,” Lester told Life’s Little Mysteries, a sister site of Space.com. “When I was in the process of filing, those letters had just become declassified and released to the public.” This happened in 2006 or 2007, Lester said. “At the time, I think other people were getting them too.”

The top secret memo hasn’t turned up anywhere else besides Lester’s book, however, and some archivists question its authenticity. A research technician at the JFK Library in Boston, who asked not to be named, was unable to find a carbon copy of it in its presidential archive, which holds copies of all of JFK’s letters.

“We did some research into the presidential papers to try to find any evidence of the Nov. 12, 1963, letter to the director of the CIA, John McCone,” the technician told Life’s Little Mysteries. Despite the fact that JFK kept carbon copies of all his letters, even the classified ones, “in searching through the president’s office files — CIA, NASA and National Security files — we could find no evidence of this memo or anything like it.”

“Something is a little odd about it,” the technician said. “It is sanitized in very odd places: the director’s name, the top heading of the document (which usually distinguishes which agency is generating it) and then the tiny “top secret” print at the top of letter. Top secret items are usually stamped in large dark ink on the letter.“

The publicized documents once again convinced ufologists that the president was killed because of his interest in UFOs. According to paranormal researchers, behind the tragic death of Kennedy were people who were not interested in the head of state who was wildly popular among ordinary Americans, to learn the truth about UFOs.

Supporters of the conspiracy theory in connection with newly discovered circumstances recall other documents: the sensational “burned memo.” In 1999, ufologist Timothy Cooper was given a certain document with charred fields. The papers contained internal correspondence of senior CIA officers. In particular, the director of intelligence services drew the addressee’s attention to the fact that ‘Lancer’(Kennedy’s Secret Service code name) was too actively making inquiries, and his curiosity needed to be stopped.

It was reported that this top-secret file, subject to destruction, was saved from the fire by a CIA officer who served in the department from 1960 to 1974. The authenticity of the document was repeatedly questioned, and its last owner even turned to forensic experts for a professional opinion. However, the examination results have not yet been made public.

UFO investigator Robert Wood said he has tested the paper it was printed on, the ink age, watermarks, font types and other markings. He said: ‘I hired a forensics company to check the age of the ink and check several other things that you can date, using the same techniques you’d use in a court of law.’

{ https://www.howandwhys.com/ }

15-07-2024 om 22:00 geschreven door peter  

(Adobe/AI-generated)

EVIDENCE OF ANCIENT HUMAN INTERACTIONS WITH INTELLIGENT “LOST” SPECIES OFFERS CLUES TO THEIR MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE

MICAH HANKS

Led by Joshua Akey from Princeton University, the team says it has discovered evidence of such genetic exchanges dating back as far as 250,000 years. This data challenges existing theories about human migrations in the ancient world and what factors may have steered human evolution over time.

The new findings point to a far deeper level of interaction that once occurred between ancient humans and our Neanderthal cousins.

THE NEANDERTHAL ENIGMA

First discovered in 1856, what eventually came to be recognized as the first known Neanderthal bones were found in a limestone quarry in the Neander Valley near Düsseldorf, Germany. The discovery introduced these mysterious archaic hominins to the paleoanthropological record and prompted serious scientific interest in what factors shaped human evolution over time.

According to Akey and his team, multiple different waves of interbreeding between Neanderthals and modern humans appear to have taken place.

“We now know that for the vast majority of human history, we’ve had a history of contact between modern humans and Neanderthals,” Akey recently said.

Liming Li, a professor at Southeast University in China who was also a contributor to the study, called the team’s findings “the first time that geneticists have identified multiple waves of modern human-Neanderthal admixture.”

COMMON ORIGINS WITH AN INTELLIGENT “LOST” SPECIES

The findings help to confirm that around 600,000 years ago, modern humans and Neanderthals split from an earlier common ancestor. More than 350,000 years would pass before each group developed distinctive physical characteristics that clearly defined them as separate species.

However, over the course of the 200,000 years leading up to their disappearance, humans continued to interact with Neanderthals. In their research, Akey and the team used genomes collected from 2,000 living humans, as well as genomes from three Neanderthals and one Denisovan, to map the flow of genetic information between these groups spanning a period of about 250,000 years.

Additionally, the team’s research was aided by a machine learning tool called IBDmix, which helped them identify three major waves of contact that occurred between 200,000 and 250,000 years ago, 100,000 to 120,000 years ago, and a final wave between 50,000 and 60,000 years ago, just before the last known Neanderthals vanished from the fossil record.

The team made additional insights into the presence of modern human DNA in Neanderthal genomes, an approach that helped identify that offspring from such interbreeding events were likely to remain in Neanderthal populations, with no traces present in the genomes of living humans.

According to Akey and his team, this very dynamic state of early human movement also complements archaeological evidence of cultural and tool exchanges that were believed to have occurred between these hominin relatives.

Finally, the Princeton research team’s findings offer a revision to past estimates of the size of Neanderthal populations. They reveal that past figures were interpreted as being greater than they actually were, reducing the breeding population of Neanderthals the team observed in their data by close to 1000 individuals

Although Akey prefers the notion of slow assimilation into human populations over the idea of extinction, he nonetheless concedes that the disappearance of the Neanderthals had been foreshadowed by population decline over a fairly long period.

“Neanderthals were teetering on the edge of extinction, probably for a very long time,” Akey says.

Ultimately, the steady growth in modern human populations coinciding with the slow decline and assimilation of Neanderthals resulted in their absorption. Akey and his team’s research strongly support this gradual assimilation model, offering what may be the clearest picture yet of the rise and fall of the enigmatic Neanderthals.

“Modern humans were essentially like waves crashing on a beach, slowly but steadily eroding the beach away,” Akey said in a statement.

“Eventually, we just demographically overwhelmed Neanderthals and incorporated them into modern human populations.”

Akey and his team’s findings were published in a recent study, “Recurrent gene flow between Neanderthals and modern humans over the past 200,000 years,” which appeared in the journal Science.

• 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/tech/ }

15-07-2024 om 21:42 geschreven door peter  

A new Pentagon study examining reported sightings of UFOs and UAPs over nearly the last century found no evidence of aliens or extra-terrestrial intelligence.

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There is no evidence the US government has encountered aliens or that officials possess extraterrestrial technology, a new report released by the Pentagon has found.

The report delves into historical and famous UFO reports to analyse theories the government was reverse engineering alien spacecraft that had crashed in the country.

It concluded many of those so-called sightings of what are now officially known as unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAPs, were likely new human technologies that “observers would have understandably reported as UFOs”.

In the report tabled to congress on Friday US time, the Department of Defense’s All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office found pop culture “most likely” influenced the public perception of a conspiracy to hide the truth.

More than 40 per cent of Americans believe humans have sighted UFOs, according to a 2021 survey.

“A consistent theme in popular culture involves a particularly persistent narrative that the USG — or a secretive organisation within it — recovered several off-world spacecraft and extraterrestrial biological remains, that it operates a program or programs to reverse engineer the recovered technology, and that it has conspired since the 1940s to keep this effort hidden from the United States Congress and the American public,” the report states.

“AARO recognizes that many people sincerely hold versions of these beliefs which are based on their perception of past experiences, the experiences of others whom they trust, or media and online outlets they believe to be sources of credible and verifiable information.”

Hundreds of reports remain unsolved, the report states, but it says if more and better quality data was available “most of these cases also could be identified and resolved as ordinary objects or phenomena”.

A video taken by navy pilots that have circulated for years showing interactions with ‘unidentified aerial phenomena’.

Picture: Handout/DoD/AFP

In recent years the Pentagon has poured money into UFO research and released several declassified videos as part of its investigations into the aircraft.

In 2019, Pentagon spokeswoman Susan Gough confirmed two videos of a fast moving object flying past US fighter jets were “part of a larger issue of an increased number of training range incursions by unidentified aerial phenomena in recent years”.

For the new report, officials interviewed 30 people who claimed to have knowledge of government secrets but the document states many of their claims were debunked through research of past programs.

The well-known Roswell incident of 1947 is addressed in the 67-page document, which has gone down in folklore as one of the most famous UFO conspiracies.

US Army officials announced at the time they had come into possession of a “flying disk” among debris in the New Mexico desert, but soon retracted that statement.

Officials identify metallic fragments found near Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947.

Picture: INP Soundphoto

It was officially explained as the wreckage of a military balloon which used dummies to test how pilots ejected from aircraft.

The Pentagon’s report found the Roswell incident likely stemmed from Project Mogul, a Cold War program aimed at securing Soviet intelligence through the use of sensor-carrying balloons.

“A crashed balloon associated with Project Mogul outside of Roswell, New Mexico, is assessed to be the source of early UFO claims,” it found.

The Roswell incident captured the imagination of America and was depicted in a titular film.

Overall, the report concluded some of the sightings from the 1940s, 50s and 60s could be explained by the testing of new technologies such as spy planes, satellite launches and the country’s space program.

It also found no evidence former personnel had been threatened with nondisclosure agreements to prevent them from leaking secrets about aliens to the public.

A 2021 survey found 41 per cent of Americans believed humans have seen an alien spacecraft, up from 33 per cent two years earlier.

The Pentagon, in its report, stated it was not trying to dismiss honest beliefs but was working only with empirical evidence to review the information at hand.23

{ https://www.news.com.au/technology }

15-07-2024 om 21:29 geschreven door peter  

Pentagon Releases New Report With Analysis Of Alleged Roswell UFO Crash Debris

BY DOUGLAS CHARLES

GETTY IMAGE

When it comes to the subject of UFOs and aliens, the so-called Roswell incident is right up there near the top of the list of conspiracy theories.

For almost 80 years, people have been arguing over whether the United States Army lied about what actually happened in June and July of 1947.

Much of the UFO and alien speculation stems from the fact that the Army initially reported to the public that they had come into possession of a “flying disc.” That story was then retracted within a day and changed to say that what they found was actually nothing more than a weather balloon.

The conspiracy theory was further fueled in 1978 when retired Air Force officer Jesse Marcel (seen in the photo above with the alleged debris from Roswell) claimed that the weather balloon story had been a cover-up and that the crash debris the Army found was actually extraterrestrial in nature.

Now, the Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) decided that 75 years after the Roswell incident they would have some of the crash debris analyzed.

So, in 2022, they sent a sample of the alleged crashed UFO to Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Last Thursday, Oak Ridge issued a report, without actually mentioning Roswell specifically, detailing their findings after two years of analysis.

“This specimen has been publicly alleged to be a component recovered from a crashed extraterrestrial vehicle in 1947, and purportedly exhibits extraordinary properties, such as functioning as a terahertz waveguide to generate antigravity capabilities,” the AARO explained in its report. “Considering all available evidence, AARO assesses that this specimen is likely a test object, a manufacturing product or byproduct, or a material component of aerospace performance studies to evaluate the properties of [magnesium] alloys.”

The person who has publicly alleged this is Blink-182 frontman Tom DeLonge and his independent research organization To The Stars Academy which provided the sample to the AARO.

“Although the origin, chain of custody, and ultimate purpose of this specimen remain unclear, a modern and robust analysis of its chemical and structural composition and properties does not indicate that its origin is non-terrestrial, nor do the data indicate that the material examined ever had the pure single-crystalline bismuth layer that could possibly have acted as a terahertz waveguide,” Oak Ridge stated in its report.

The report essentially chalks up the unusual material to being nothing more than “experimental [magnesium] alloys” that were being tested “for airframes, engines, weapons, and delivery systems starting in 1915 and peaking during World War II.”

“Unsurprisingly, records of failed [magnesium] alloy designs are scant. Neither AARO nor ORNL could verify the specimen’s historical origin. Unverifiable, conflicting personal accounts complicate its undocumented chain of custody,” they concluded.

Believe it or not?

{ https://brobible.com/ }

15-07-2024 om 21:09 geschreven door peter  

AI Focused Photos of Two Asteroids With UFOs Orbiting Them! UAP Sighting News.

I decided to run these two different asteroid through the ai program and quickly got blown away my what I saw. Not only are these tiny things orbiting the asteroids, but they are not moons at all as NASA would have you believe, but instead or alien craft orbiting and controlling the trajectory of these asteroids to guide them safely past earth. The UFOs are watching out for all life on Earth, protecting the lesser species of the universe until they are able to protect themselves one day. Good to know right?

Hey, if you can please like, subscribe and share this info, thanks Scott Waring.

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

15-07-2024 om 20:59 geschreven door peter  

AI Focused Parasite or String on Mars, NASA Links, UFO Sighting News.

Please subscribe friends, we need your input on these things, thanks.

Source: 

https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/multimedia/raw-

/FRF_0495_0710895621_433ECM_N0261004FHAZ00206_01_295J 

Source 2: 

https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/multimedia/raw-images/image-of-the-week/ 

 

 I used ai to focus the photo and put it into natural color again. When it did, I saw that the string-like parasite creature was now pink and white. I also noticed what looked like a mouth similar to an ant and an eye with a visible eyeball. Now the tentacles are very similar to that of a parasitic organism often seen on earth so I believe this creature burrowed from below the ground briefly and then dug back under the surface for safety. 

Scott C. Waring 

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

15-07-2024 om 20:56 geschreven door peter  

Is There a Connection Between the Phoenix UFO and the Roswell Incident?

In the annals of UFO history, two incidents stand out prominently: the Roswell Incident of 1947 and the lesser-known but equally intriguing sighting by William Rhodes in Phoenix, Arizona, that same year. The timing and geographical proximity of these events raise compelling questions about potential connections and government cover-ups.

The Roswell Incident: A Brief Overview

In early July 1947, the quiet desert of Roswell, New Mexico, became the epicenter of what is now the most famous UFO incident in history. A local rancher discovered strange metallic debris scattered across his property, which was subsequently handed over to the nearby Roswell Army Air Field. On July 8, 1947, the Army issued a sensational press release claiming the recovery of a “flying disk.” This announcement ignited widespread media frenzy, but the excitement was quickly dampened when the military retracted the statement, attributing the debris to a weather balloon.

The Phoenix Sighting: William Rhodes’ Encounter

Simultaneously, about 500 miles away in Phoenix, Arizona, an amateur scientist named William Rhodes captured a photograph of a peculiar object in the sky. Rhodes, known for his scientific acumen and numerous patents, reported seeing a disk-shaped craft maneuvering in the evening sky. His photograph, taken in early July 1947, gained attention due to its similarity to descriptions of the Roswell debris.

Possible Connections and Government Cover-Up

The coincidence of these two events occurring within such a short period and geographic proximity has fueled speculation about a possible link. Some researchers suggest that the Roswell incident might have been a diversion orchestrated by the military to draw attention away from more significant events or discoveries happening elsewhere, such as Rhodes’ sighting in Phoenix.

There are compelling reasons to consider this theory:

1. Timing and Proximity: The events in Roswell and Phoenix occurred within days of each other and within a 500-mile radius. This geographical and temporal proximity suggests a potential connection or at least a coordinated response.
2. Government Disinformation: The swift retraction of the Roswell press release and the subsequent weather balloon explanation have long been suspected as part of a disinformation campaign. If the military was engaged in managing public perception of unexplained aerial phenomena, it is plausible they would use high-profile incidents to distract from other significant sightings.
3. William Rhodes’ Credibility: Rhodes was not just a casual observer; he was a highly educated and scientifically inclined individual. His photograph and testimony add a layer of credibility to the Phoenix sighting. His interest in optics and scientific inquiry further supports the authenticity of his observation.

Investigating the Phoenix Connection

Although William Rhodes has since passed away, the investigation into his sighting continues. Researchers have turned to individuals like Bill Morris, a close family friend, to gain deeper insights into Rhodes’ life and his encounter with the mysterious object. According to Morris, Rhodes was a genuine and logical man, fascinated by science and innovation. He was a prolific inventor, with patents and creations that showcased his ingenuity.

Morris’ accounts highlight Rhodes’ credibility and the importance of his sighting. Described as someone who would have thrived in Silicon Valley today, Rhodes’ scientific background and detailed observations make his experience a crucial piece of the puzzle in understanding potential UFO cover-ups.

VIDEO:

• Is This Phoenix UFO Cover-Up Linked To Roswell? | Alien Contact

• https://youtu.be/bYRd-XZGPkY

The potential link between the Phoenix sighting and the Roswell incident remains a tantalizing possibility. The combination of Rhodes’ credible scientific background, the timing of his sighting, and the historical context of the Roswell incident suggest a more complex narrative than a simple weather balloon explanation. As researchers continue to delve into declassified documents, eyewitness accounts, and historical records, the quest to uncover the truth behind these 1947 events persists. The possibility of a coordinated government cover-up, spanning multiple locations and incidents, underscores the need for continued investigation into the enigmatic world of UFO phenomena.

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

15-07-2024 om 20:46 geschreven door peter  

42-million-year-old biting midge. 

Maria Blake

Australian Fossilized Amber Reveals A 42 Million Year-Old Secret

Amber is fossilized tree resin. Unlike traditional fossils found on land or in the sea, amber can preserve ancient life forms in incredible detail.

BY MARIA BLAKE, JEFFREY STILWELL AND THE CONVERSATION

 

Przemek Klos/500px/Getty Images

Australian amber is now helping to understand the biological diversity of ancient Gondwanan environments from 42 million years ago and their connections to today’s Australian forests. From it, we can learn yet more reasons for why we must protect today’s forests.

THE UNIQUE VALUE OF AUSTRALIAN AMBER

Unlike typical, squashed fossil rock shapes, paleontologists value amber for its remarkable ability to preserve inclusions in full three dimensions. This means we can study fossil organisms that would otherwise not have been recorded in such detail.

This is especially important considering that around 85% of modern biodiversity comes from arthropods (spiders, flies, beetles, bees, and the like). Only 0.3% is represented by the “bony” mammals more commonly found as fossils in rocks.

Overall, only a tiny fraction of all life throughout geologic time has been fossilized. This means we work with a biased fossil record that may not accurately represent past diversity.

Amber provides a unique opportunity to find less common specimens. It helps to reveal the diversity of past ecosystems and to reduce these biases in our understanding of ancient life.

Most amber discoveries come from the Northern Hemisphere (the Baltic region, Spain, China, and Myanmar). Australia is one of the rare places in the Southern Hemisphere where scientists can also study organisms trapped in amber.

The most promising site for finding these preserved organisms is a former coal mining area in Victoria. The amber and fossils from this site are estimated to be 42–40 million years old, dating back to the Eocene epoch.

At that time, Australia and Antarctica were still connected as part of the slowly fragmenting supercontinent called Gondwana. Australia had a warm and moist climate and forests teeming with insects, arachnids, and other creatures.

LIVING FOSSILS

The amber we’re working with has been studied by researchers since 2014. Findings described in 2020 include biting midges, baby spiders, and even a pair of mating flies.

Our latest work reveals more details on the species. We’ve learned not only where these organisms lived in the past but also the surprising fact that many of them still exist in Australia’s forests today, albeit in greatly reduced geographic ranges.

This means creatures from ancient Gondwana have persisted for more than 40 million years. Their survival for so long gives even more reason to protect them in the future.

One major breakthrough in our research is based on new advancements at ANSTO’s Australian Synchrotron research facility in Melbourne. Improved resolution and the capability to scan smaller samples with X-rays have greatly improved how we can produce images of organisms trapped in amber. This allows us to create detailed 3D reconstructions, and we can identify the species more easily.

The synchrotron has also made it possible to finally detect inclusions within large, opaque pieces of amber that were hard to examine previously with traditional microscopes.

WHAT HAVE WE FOUND IN AUSTRALIAN AMBER?

Some of the new major findings have been a “non-biting” or “feather” midge from the Podonominae insect subfamily. It’s the first fossil record of the genus Austrochlus in the Southern Hemisphere. Even though it was widely distributed globally in the past, it is now restricted to Australia.

With the synchrotron, we revealed not only the specimen’s sex and position in its family tree but also the internal structures of what are potentially wing muscles. Even in amber fossils, that’s a rarity.

We also found a true biting midge that’s still around today (Austroconops). It’s the first fossil of its kind dating back to the Cenozoic, spanning the last 66 million years. Once widespread, today this midge is only found in Western Australia, again restricted just to our continent.

A wasp from the family Embolemidae, recognised today from all around the world to be a parasite on planthopper nymphs, is another highlight from Australian amber. This group has quite a scarce fossil record, and this is only the second time one has been found in the Southern Hemisphere.

This parasitic wasp has a very scarce fossil record. 

Maria Blake

All of these insect fossils are the first of their kind found in Australia. And we’ve only scratched the surface – there are many more yet to be described.

Remarkably, these insects are still around in Australian forests today, tracing their lineage back in time to ancient Gondwana. Without realizing it, we exist among living fossils.

While we know these species were widely distributed in the past, today, most of them are found only on this continent. They now face new challenges which threaten their habitats. The threats include climate change, deforestation, and urban sprawl.

Protecting these ancient “living fossils” and their environments is essential for the health of our native ecosystems.

• This article was originally published on The Conversation by Maria Blake and Jeffrey Stilwell at Monash University. Read the original article here.

Long-legged flies were 'caught in the act' 42-40 million years ago, 

Image credit: Jeffrey Stilwell

{ https://www.inverse.com/ }

15-07-2024 om 20:30 geschreven door peter  

Astronomers Believe A Star Is About To Explode 3000 Light Years From Earth — Here’s How to See It

T CrB is usually much too faint to be seen. But once every 80 years or so, it brightly erupts.

BY TANYA HILL, AMANDA KARAKAS AND THE CONVERSATION

Stellarium Web Online Star Map

Most of the time T CrB, which is 3,000 light years away, is much too faint to be seen. But once every 80 years or so, it brightly erupts.

A brand new star suddenly seems to appear, although not for long. Just a few nights later, it will have rapidly faded, disappearing back into the darkness.

A BURST OF LIFE

During the prime of their lives, stars are powered by nuclear fusion reactions deep inside their cores. Most commonly, hydrogen is turned into helium, which creates enough energy to keep the star stable and shining for billions of years.

But T CrB is well past its prime and is now a stellar remnant known as a white dwarf. Its internal nuclear fire has been quenched, allowing gravity to compress the dead star dramatically.

T CrB also has a stellar companion – a red giant that has puffed up as it enters old age. The white dwarf mops up the swollen red giant’s gas, and this forms what’s known as an accretion disc around the dead star.

The matter keeps piling up on a star that’s already compressed to its limit, forcing a continual rise in pressure and temperature. Conditions become so extreme they mimic what once would’ve been found inside the star’s core. Its surface ignites in a runaway thermonuclear reaction.

When this happens, the energy released makes T CrB shine 1,500 times brighter than usual. Here on Earth, it briefly appears in the night sky. With this dramatic reset, the star has then expelled the gas, and the cycle can begin all over again.

HOW DO WE KNOW IT’S DUE?

T CrB is the brightest of a rare class of recurrent novae that repeat within a hundred years — a time scale that allows astronomers to detect their recurrent nature.

Only ten recurrent novae are currently known, although more novae may be recurrent — just on much greater timescales that aren’t as easily tracked.

The earliest known date of T CrB erupting is from the year 1217, based on observations recorded in a medieval monastic chronicle. It’s remarkable that astronomers can now predict its eruptions so precisely as long as the nova follows its usual pattern.

The star’s two most recent eruptions — in 1866 and 1946 — showed the exact same features. About ten years prior to the eruption, T CrB’s brightness increased a little (known as a high state), followed by a short fading or dip about a year after the explosion.

T CrB entered its high state in 2015, and the pre-eruption dip was spotted in March 2023, setting astronomers on alert. What causes these phenomena are just some of the current mysteries surrounding T CrB.

HOW CAN I SEE IT?

Start stargazing now! It’s a good idea to get used to seeing Corona Borealis as it is now so that you get the full impact of the “new” star.

Corona Borealis currently reaches its best observing position (known as a meridian transit) around 8:30 pm to 9 pm local time across Australia and Aotearoa. The farther north you are located, the higher the constellation will be in the sky.

The nova is expected to be a reasonable brightness (magnitude 2.5): about as bright as Imai (Delta Crucis), the fourth brightest star in the Southern Cross. So it will be easy to see even from a city location, if you know where to look.

WE WON’T HAVE MUCH TIME

We won’t have long once it goes off. The maximum brightness will only last a few hours; within a week T CrB will have faded and you’ll need binoculars to see it.

It almost certainly will be an amateur astronomer that alerts the professional community to the moment when T CrB outbursts.

These dedicated and knowledgeable people routinely monitor stars from their backyards on the chance of “what if” and, therefore, fill an important gap in night sky observations.

The American Association of Variable Star Observing (AAVSO) has a log of over 270,000 submitted observations on T CrB alone. Amateur astronomers are collaborating here and around the world to continually monitor T CrB for the first signs of eruption.

Hopefully, the nova will erupt as expected sometime before October because, after that, Corona Borealis leaves our evening sky in the Southern Hemisphere.

• This article was originally published on The Conversation by Tanya Hill at Museums Victoria Research Institute and Amanda Karakas at Monash University. Read the original article here.

{  https://www.inverse.com/ }

15-07-2024 om 17:38 geschreven door peter  

Ariane 6 vs. SpaceX: How the rockets stack up

The European Space Agency is planning to use the Ariane 6 for a variety of missions.

BY DORIS ELÍN URRUTIA AND MIKE BROWN

 

ESA

The Ariane 6 will take the Arianespace fleet to the next level. The modular design enables the rocket to take on light and heavy launches, adapting to the client’s needs. It can lift off with the power of either two or four boosters. It also offers two lengths for its fairing, the tip of the rocket that carries satellites into space. Ariane 6’s upper stage Vinci engine can also reignite in space, which means that on a single launch, the rocket can deliver several different missions into their orbits. ESA expects it to be a lot cheaper to launch than its predecessors.

But Arianespace still faces tough competition from SpaceX, which currently operates its semi-reusable Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets to provide launch services. SpaceX is already looking ahead to the fully-reusable Starship, which can lift more than ever into space. The Ariane family, unfortunately, is not reusable..

CEO Elon Musk has previously criticized European efforts in the emergent new space race. In March 2021, he wrote on X: “They are aiming too low. Only rockets that are fully & rapidly reusable will be competitive. Everything else will seem like a cloth biplane in the age of jets.”

Here’s what you need to know about how they compare.

ARIANE 6 VS SPACEX: HOW MUCH CAN IT SEND TO LOW-EARTH ORBIT?

The Ariane 6 will send up varying amounts depending on the booster configuration. The two-booster version, known as Ariane 62, can launch 4,500 to 5,000 kg (9,920 to 11,023 pounds) to geostationary transfer orbit — where the Vinci engine would place a satellite on into the first leg so the mission can transfer towards its final orbit — or 6,500 kilograms (14,330 pounds) to a nearly polar, low-Earth orbit.

In the four-booster configuration, known as Ariane 64, the rocket can launch payloads of around 11,500 kg (25,353 pounds) into geostationary transfer orbit and 21,600 kg (47,620 pounds) into low-Earth orbit.

In its expendable configuration, the Falcon 9 Block 5 (the only variant in operation at the moment) can launch a similar amount to the four-booster Ariane 6. It can send 8,300 kg (18,300 pounds) to geostationary transfer orbit and 22,800 kg (50,265 pounds) to low-Earth orbit. The Falcon Heavy expands on this with the ability to launch 63,800 kilograms (140,660 pounds) to low-Earth orbit.

The Starship is set to blow these figures out of the water, with the ability to send 100,000 to 150,000 kgs (220,000 pounds) to low-Earth orbit. Its most recent launch test flew in June 2024.

ARIANE 6 VS. SPACEX: IS IT REUSABLE?

In 2014, SpaceX first successfully landed a Falcon 9 booster. This component of the rocket, Musk has claimed, comprises around three-quarters of the total rocket price. By 2021, SpaceX was recovering 30 boosters successfully in a year. In April 2024, SpaceX hit a major milestone: 300 total booster recoveries. SpaceX also recovers the boosters used with the Falcon Heavy rocket.

The company has also started attempting to recover the protective fairing that protects the satellite during launch. SpaceX first successfully recovered a fairing in 2019, and it successfully recovered 13 in 2021.

The upcoming Starship should take this to the next level. SpaceX has designed the rocket to be entirely reusable, which means that the booster and ship can return to Earth for re-use after a flight.

The Ariane 6 is not reusable. It stems back to a design decision in 2014, when the space agency chose to stick with expendability. France’s economy minister, Bruno Le Maire, admitted at a 2020 conference that “in 2014 there was a fork in the road, and we didn’t take the right path.”

“We should have made the choice of the reusable launcher,” Le Maire said. “We should have had this audacity.”

{ https://www.inverse.com/ }

15-07-2024 om 00:24 geschreven door peter  

It has been nearly two decades since a mysterious humanoid encounter took place high up in the Himalayas, and the group of eminent glaciologists and geologists of ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization), who had observed this strange humanoid entity for nearly 45 minutes, are still baffled by what they had witnessed and what it all means. 

The bizarre event unfolded on September 27, 2004, on the penultimate day of a week-long expedition undertaken by the Ahmedabad-based, Space Application Centre (SAC) of ISRO. The 5-member team of scientists were camping in the Samudra Tapu glacier region, roughly 14,500 feet above sea level, not far from the ethereal Chandratal Lake which is steeped in local legends about otherworldly beings. The objective of the expedition was to study the Samudra Tapu glacier using satellite data, and other means.

One of the earliest accounts of the incident had been published in SiliconIndia, a few days after it had occurred. Although brief, it contained some intriguing details. Apparently, the humanoid entity was spotted at around 7 am, and it had “hovered around for about 45 minutes, some 200 metres from the stunned scientists.” Anil Kulkarni, the marine and water resources scientist of ISRO, went on to provide more details about the incident:

“There were balloons attached to this unusual object. It had ‘legs’ but we could not see the ‘hands’. It was moving closer to the hilltop. The object started moving in our direction when we started walking towards it. But when our porters made a noise, it moved away towards the hilltop,” he said. The object remained stationary for about five minutes after reaching the hilltop, then moved away in another direction before it disappeared, he added. “Interestingly when it was exposed to the sun, it turned black and in the shadow of the hill, it became white,” the scientist said.[1]

Nearly a year after the incident had occurred, a more detailed account of the events of that unusual day was published in the India Today magazine. The report states,

Around 6.45 a.m., as the scientists were preparing to leave their tents, one of the porters spotted a white object on top of an adjacent mountain ridge, and screamed: "Sir, the snow man is coming."
Anil Kulkarni, a senior ISRO scientist who has been mapping glaciers for a quarter century, and his team members saw what appeared to be a robot floating a few inches above the ground, approaching the camp along the mountain slope. Kulkarni and his co-researcher, geologist Sunil Dhar, pulled out their digital cameras and began shooting the object even as the team raced towards the mountain to investigate.
The oblong object, between 3 and 4 feet high, kept moving down the slope towards the team. It had a cylindrical head with two balloon-type attachments, a body, hands and two legs. “It seemed to be walking, planting and pacing its steps like a human being,” recalls Dhar.[2]

The scientists were flummoxed by what they had seen. They submitted the photographs to ISRO, and each of the scientists gave their versions of what had happened on that day. The report was circulated to the army and the SASE (Snow and Avalanche Study Establishments) - the only agencies stationed in high altitude areas. 

According to Kulkarni, the object could have been an UFO or an advanced espionage device capable of complex maneuverability. “It is a riddle beyond human perception,” said Dhar who, along with Kulkarni, contacted robotic labs across the world to determine what is technologically possible in unmanned flying vehicles. “But there is no known matching technology yet in the civilian realm to explain the mysterious object we saw so up close,” according to Kulkarni. “It didn't look like a man-made object,” opined geologist Rajesh Kalia.[3]
But, if it was not a balloon, UAV, spying robot, or any kind of man-made object for that matter, what could it possibly be?

If we put on our Sherlock Holmes hat, and apply that famous logic of his i.e. “When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth,” then we are inevitably led to the conclusion that, what the team of scientists had seen at Samudra Tapu was a humanoid being, possibly of alien origin! 

This is not the first time that bizarre humanoid entities of a similar nature have been sighted, although it is certainly one of the first cases where a team of experienced scientists were the witnesses, which is why the matter received mainstream coverage. A quick perusal of some of the UFO and humanoid reports from around the world reveals that, what the ISRO scientists had seen on that day conforms to a general pattern. But first, let us take stock of some of the conspicuous attributes of this humanoid entity. 

1. It was a dwarf, humanoid being, between 3 to 4 feet tall. 
2. It had a large cylindrical head, hands and legs. 
3. It had two balloon-type attachments, probably on its head. 
4. It had robot-like movements, and appeared to pace its legs like a human. 
5. It floated a few inches above the ground, as it came down the mountain slope. It effortlessly went up the slope in a similar manner
6. It appeared white, but turned black when sunlight fell on it. 
7. It seemed to be a curious, non-threatening entity, which came down from the hilltop to “observe” the team of scientists and, perhaps, even interact with them, but moved away when it sensed the excitement and anxiety of the group. 

Similar sightings of dwarf humanoid beings with oversized heads, dressed in a silvery or gray suit, and walking in a robotic manner while floating a few inches above the ground, have been reported from all parts of the world for more than half a century. In some cases, the humanoid beings were spotted coming in and out of an UFO. Typically, these types of sightings are dismissed as hallucinations, observational mistakes or made-up stories, but now that a team of highly experienced scientists, who are trained in making observations at high altitudes, have seen a similar humanoid entity at close quarters for more than 45 minutes, it is a matter that cannot be treated flippantly any more. 

Let’s peruse some of the similar cases that have been reported over the years. One of the earliest sightings of a similar nature occurred way back in 1937, at a place near the small town of Chashniki in the Vitebsk Region of Belarus. A 7-year old girl named Ludmila Chepik was shepherding some cows and collecting flowers on a meadow near the River Uloy when suddenly she saw a “man” descending from the sky towards her without a parachute. 

“He descended to about 1 to 2 meters from her. The man was approximately 113 cm – 143 cm in height (dwarf like), of athletic built, with broad shoulders and a disproportionately large head. The man wore dark, tight-fitting clothing and had a helmet on his head, with a cone-shaped or “bulb” shaped protrusion on top. His face was visible, reddish in color and was wearing something resembling a transparent visor. The entity spent approximately 1 minute with the witness. He opened his visor, produced a protracted smile at the girl, looked around, and touched the grass with an oval device in his hands. After that, he waved his hands, and zoomed soundlessly up into the sky at high speed. After gaining an altitude of about 100 meters, he seemed to compress into a ball and dissolve into thin air.”[4]

On September 2, 1954, in Coldwater, Kansas, 12-year old John Jacob Swaim had just finished driving a tractor when he saw something downright bizarre.

“A dark complexioned little man about the size of a 5-year old child, with pointed nose & ears, was crouching about 20 feet away. The little man wore shiny clothing and carried 2-foot long cylinders on his back. He ran, apparently floating, to a 50 foot disc hovering 5 feet above the ground, jumped in, and took off without tilting the saucer, lights shone from windows as it flew off faster than a jet. At the site were found numerous pear shaped footprints 2" x 4.5", with very narrow heels.”[5]

In the idyllic city of Clermont Ferrand, in the Puy-de-Dome administrative department of France, something out of the ordinary had transpired in March 1969. 

“On the slopes of the bare hill, Puy-de-Chanturgue, Miss B. saw, about 600 feet away, 3 little humanoid forms of squat aspect and uniform gray color. Without touching the ground, they were moving rapidly back and forth. After she had watched these “gnomes” for 3 to 4 minutes they suddenly disappeared.”[6]

In August 1973, Edmund, a 19-year old youth from the Amparo settlement, in the Novo Friburgo municipality of Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, was in the fruit garden of the farm when he noticed agitation among the nearby fruit trees. He went out to investigate the matter, and saw a strange spherical object with metallic sheen, around 2 meters wide, hovering just above the ground and revolving slowly. As he gazed at it from a distance of about 4 meters,

“At this point an aperture appeared in the side of the craft with a loud bang; from it emerged a small humanoid figure in a one-piece suit that covered his head. Strapped to his back was a rather large, squarish backpack. The entity did not walk, but floated, with a "feverish" swinging of arms and legs in midair. The entity approached Edmund to within a distance of a meter, at which time the youth became panic stricken and fled, seeking others at the farmhouse. As he ran off, he looked back and saw the little being still “hovering” in the air at the spot where he stopped when the boy ran off.”[7]

A number of strange humanoid sightings were reported during the UFO invasion of Italy in 1978, of which a couple surprisingly similar to what the Indian scientists saw in the high Himalayas. On August 28, 1978, at 02:30 a.m., near Chieti, Italy, a baker named Amerigo Rocci was on his way to work when his car broke down. While checking under the hood, a powerful bright light illuminated the area around him.

“Approaching the light he noticed five strange figures, the height of an eight-year old child. The figures moved in unison in "synchronized" movements and appear to float 25 cm above the road. The figures wore a dark gray tight-fitting diver's suits that covered them from head to toe. They had thick necks and from the top of their heads protruded an “antenna” like device resembling a funnel. The beings were about 500 meters away and Rocci was not able to see any facial features. The beings glided away in single file from the witness, who noticed that the last figure was carrying something resembling a “shovel” like apparatus.”[8]

Another equally inexplicable event occurred in San Vito Chietino, Italy, on December 23, 1978. At around 8:30 pm, the Bucco family was returning from visiting relatives when a dazzling light began to follow their vehicle. The light overtook the vehicle and the vehicle suddenly stopped without the driver applying the brakes. 

“Then, at the same time a strange little man crossed road in front of the vehicle in bounding jumps. While Francesco and Fiorentina Bucco saw only one humanoid, the other two passengers in the vehicle reported seeing two. The figure or figures wore brown astronaut like suits, large helmets with black square visors, and 5-digit white gloves. The beings were about 1 meter in height, and moved over the road in unison, in a strange robot-like manner, floating 20-35 cm above the road, as if moving and bouncing on an invisible cushion. Mr. Bucco noticed a green flashlight like object wrapped over the humanoid's shoulder.”[9]

A mystifying account was reported from the small town of Los Zazos in the Tucuman province of Argentina, which had many of the classic ingredients of a humanoid encounter. A goat-herder called Flores de Mamani, was walking her animals back to her ranch along an isolated hillside when she suddenly felt paralyzed, completely unable to move. 

“She was leaning back against a rock when she saw, a hovering sphere very close to her position. The normally fierce dog remained quiet and the goats remained very still. A door-like opening became visible on the sphere and two little men came out. They wore brown diver's suits, and had what appeared to be backpacks on their backs. The witness attempted to scream but could not. The beings were about 4 feet tall, heavy set and there appeared to be some stripes on their shiny brown suits. They wore helmets with a glasslike visor. She also noticed what appeared to be two antennas coming out of their suits. They seemed to glide just above the ground. The sphere was described as shiny and silvery with several multi-colored lights around it. 
One of the little men then approached the witness grabbed her arm and tied a rubber hose around it, and then he proceeded to extract blood from the witness arm using a syringe like instrument. She felt no pain. The other little man then proceeded to milk one of the goats that remained completely still. Soon the little men glided back to the silvery sphere and went inside. The sphere then shot away at tremendous speed.”[10]

The dwarf humanoids seem to be very interested in collecting samples, for, in many humanoid sighting reports they have been seen collecting samples of vegetation or soil and putting them into the cylinders strapped to their back. They have also been seen poking the ground with long stick-like devices and digging holes with shovels. It’s almost as if they are interdimensional scientists keeping tabs on the planetary health and ecosystem.

Some witnesses have described these humanoid entities as “gnomes” (from Latin gnomus, meaning "earth-dweller") – that legendary race of dwarf people possessing various magical abilities, who are said to live in lavish comfort in underground chambers. The gnomes were said to be a wise, intelligent race who were beneficent to humans and were proficient in smithing, crafting, and mining. In ancient and medieval mythologies, gnomes were believed to guard mines and subterranean treasures. The Encyclopedia Brittanica tells us that, in Germanic legends, “Mine-dwelling dwarfs were usually more capricious and spiteful than their mountain brothers. They could be heard moving about the lower levels and were sometimes seen by miners, who took care to placate them by gifts of food.”

This is why the next report is so important – for it is one of those rare humanoid sighting that took place inside a mine.

This fascinating encounter took place on August 27, 1989, deep within a mine 1070 meters below the earth’s surface in Donetsk, Ukraine. An electrical worker in one of the mines was working the night shift when he suddenly saw two strangers standing at the end of the electric train depot. The figures moved slowly along the garage, stopping from time to time and studying different areas and equipment located there. Finally, the witness gathered up enough courage to confront the strangers, and walking out of his hiding place he yelled, “Who are you? What are you doing here? “and began to walk slowly towards the pair. 

“After taking several steps he looked closely and literally became numb with fear as he realized that the entities standing before him were not human. They were short creatures, dwarf-like with sallow facial complexions, and features he could not recognize as human. Both were dressed in silvery colored coveralls and their chest they had lighted circles and luminous dots circling around, like the screen of an oscillograph. After standing for a while, the entities turned around and walked away, quickly moving away floating just above the ground. In several seconds they vanished behind a bend on the underground tunnel.”[11]

Now that we have looked at a few similar humanoid sighting reports that have come in from all over the world over the past century or so, it becomes quite obvious that what the Indian scientists had witnessed in the Samudra Tapu glacier region of the Himalayas, some 14,500 feet above sea level, was not something unique or unprecedented. Everything that the scientists had noted about the humanoid entities has been reported elsewhere: the silvery suits, the oversized heads, the helmets with a pair of “balloon” or “funnel” or “bulb”-shaped extensions on top, the robot-like movements while floating a few inches above the ground, etc. Typically, such reports go unnoticed, but since the sighting in the Himalayas was reported by a group of respected scientists it generated more interest, at least in India.

It’s time to roll up our sleeves and tackle the big question: Who are these humanoid entities that have been spotted around the world, including the upper reaches of the Himalayas, and have been seen getting in and out of UFOs? Some witnesses have described them as “gnomes”, and since these entities have also been sighted inside mines, the “gnome” angle definitely needs to be explored. Perhaps, the gnomes are not imaginary beings as they have been made out to be, and maybe there is something to the ancient stories that speak of them.  

In India, the dwarfs or gnomes were called yakshas (also yakhhas, jakkhas or jakhs). They were the custodians of the earth’s wealth and were regarded as the protectors of sacred sites and villages. Yakshas statues were placed outside temples, on either side of the entrances, to ward off intruders. Not long ago, people used to set up altars for them under trees, made offerings of food and prayed to them for wealth, protection and fertility. A lot of interesting details about the yakshas have been recorded in the ancient Indian texts, which I shall probably discuss at a later time, but a couple of points stand out in relation to this case.

Firstly, in ancient Indian legends, the yakshas have often been associated with the flying vehicles called “vimanas”. The Ramayana relates that, in the Treta Yuga, after killing the rakshasha Ravana in a fierce battle, Rama had returned from Lanka to Ayodhya on the spacious, dome-shaped, vimana called “Pushpaka”, which was gilded and shone like the sun and was operated by thoughts or voice instructions.[12] The Pushpaka vimana originally belonged to Kuvera, who was the “chief of the yakshas”, and it had been snatched away from him by his half-brother Ravana, who was a rakshasha i.e. giant. 

Incidentally, the yakshas had access to many such vimanas. As per the Puranic Encyclopedia, Ravana had attacked Kuvera's city Alaka located on Mount Kailash, and "in the fight that followed, between Kubera and Ravana, the former fell down unconscious. But the yakshas brought two vimanas and carried Kubera to the palace.”[13]

The association of the yakshas with vimanas bolsters the argument that they could be the dwarf humanoids reported in UFO sightings. Another intriguing point about the yakshas throws light on the humanoid encounter that took place in the Himalayas. While yakshas were said to inhabit remote forests, hills and lakes, their favorite haunt was the Himalayan ranges. In the Mahabharata, there are many passages that highlight this. For instance,

“This Himalaya is inaccessible, and abounds with Yakshas (dwarfs) and the Rakshasas (giants), and searching about for me, they will be distracted.”[14]
“We shall now ascend that white rock, the mountain Mandara (one of the peaks of the Himalayas), inhabited by the Yakshas, Manibhadra and Kuvera, king of the Yakshas.”[15]

One of the mighty peaks of the Himalayan range is Mount Kailash, which is sacred to the Hindus, Buddhists and to all the mountain folk, and is an important place of pilgrimage. Kuvera’s city Alaka was said to be established on the summit of Kailash. The Mahabharata states, “It was here, on the breast of Kailasa, O Galava, that Kuvera, was installed on the sovereignty of the Rakshasas (giants), the Yakshas (dwarfs), and the Gandharvas (elves).” In the book Yaksas, the renowned scholar and art-historian Ananda Coomaraswamy, who was also a curator at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, wrote of Kuvera that,   

“His city Alaka (or Alakapuri) situated on Mt. Kailasa (also the abode of Siva) is a magnificent walled town, where dwell not only Yaksas, but also Kinnaras (sirens), Munis (sages), Gandharvas (elves) and Raksasas (giants)...Kubera has many beautiful palaces, groves, gardens, etc., on Mt. Kailasa. These need not be referred to in detail, but it may be remarked of the grove Caitraratha that its trees have jewels for their leaves and girls as their fruits.”[16]

Let’s look at a few images of Mount Kailash (6638 m), which is located in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. Even though it is not a very high peak, being nearly 2000 m lower than Mount Everest, it has never been scaled. And that’s because the peak has a pyramidal shape with steep sides, and some sections are almost vertical which makes climbing impossible. The inhospitable climatic conditions and almost perennial snow cover makes the task even more challenging. 

The Chinese government had imposed restrictions on climbing the sacred peak – so as not to offend the religious sentiments - once the region came under the control of China in 1951, but prior to that many mountaineers had tried to work out a route to the summit, but failed.  In 1926, Hugh Ruttledge studied the north face of Mount Kailash, and described it as “utterly unclimbable”. His mountaineering colleague Colonel R. C. Wilson attempted to climb via the southeast ridge, when he ran into heavy snowfall, and aborted the effort.

My question is, when we look at the imposing, awe-inspiring images of Mount Kailash, does it seem like it could have ever hosted the walled city of Kuvera called Alaka, complete with palaces, groves and gardens? Absolutely not. You can’t even stand steadily on those steep, treacherous, snow-covered slopes on a windy day, let alone build a city. In which case, one needs to ask, why did the Indian texts make such an extravagant claim? Was it a made-up story, or could there be more to this than meets the eye?

My guess is that, Kuvera’s city Alaka may have been built “inside” Mount Kailash and not on its summit or slopes. In other words, there may exist giant, well-lit, and lavishly decorated caverns inside the Kailash Mountain where the yakshas and other magical beings live. Isn’t that what is said of the gnomes, in general? While they usually live underground, they also inhabit the interiors of mountains, and “gnome tunnels” were said to lead to fabulous places inside mountains. A Welsh story written by Walter Map at around 1183 CE, in De Nugis Curialmn, tells of a dwarf king who led Herla, and ancient king of the Britons, to his own kingdom. 

“He [Herla] and his guide entered a very lofty cliff and after a space of darkness they passed into the light, seemingly not of the sun but of many lamps, like the palace of the sun in Ovid’s description.”[17]

Apparently, a similar belief is still associated with Mount Demerdzhi in Crimea, which is a popular tourist destination, for, on the slope of the mountain lies the so-called “Valley of Ghosts” that contains a large number of stone formations resembling humans, animals, mysterious creatures, pyramids and other puzzling objects. The region generally remains enveloped in a characteristic haze, and when the light conditions change the stone formations seem to magically change their shape and color. Although these formations are said to have been “naturally formed”, it is not impossible that some of them may have been sculpted by intelligent hands eons ago, and then suffered erosion over time.

In Albert Rosales, “1978 Humanoid Reports”, there is an entry about an odd incident that occurred on Mount Demerdzhi in June 1978.

A local teenager, Andrey, from the nearby town of Alushta had climbed to the top of Mount Demerdzhi and had camped there to spend the night. During the night a bright light pointed directly at his face suddenly awakened him. He opened his eyes and saw the outlines of several human-shaped figures. They had domed-shaped heads connected directly to their shoulders. Their faces were not visible or were absent…Apparently the witness was paralyzed and everything was brightly lit around him. Andrey felt no fear or any other emotions during the encounter; he soon fell asleep and could not remember anything else. A local legend states that Demerdzhi is hollow and had been excavated thousands of years before by a race of dwarfs in an effort to extract supposed treasures buried within. A local clairvoyant, Lenura Azizova, claims that there still exists an ancient underground alien base under the mountain.”[18]

The possibility of a “city of the yakshas” being concealed inside Mount Kailash is not a very outlandish proposition, if we think about it. Not only do we have analogous stories coming down to us from ancient times, but there are persistent local beliefs along similar lines in other parts of the world.

Now that we have explored the Himalayan humanoid encounter from a few different perspectives, what would you say happened on that intrigue-filled day at the Samudra Tapu glacier? I would reckon that the scientists saw a “juvenile” yaksha, who was ambling around the mountainside, going about his normal routine of collecting samples of soil, snow and vegetation, when he chanced upon the group of scientists who had camped there. The yaksha may not have seen humans, or at least interacted with them, before, and was led on by his curiosity. But on sensing the agitation within the group, it moved away and probably returned to his “yaksha city” hidden in the interiors of the mountains to tell his friends what he had just seen.

It may feel somewhat strange to hear of “yakshas” or “gnomes” being talked about as real entities, but a couple of thousand years ago no-one would have batted an eyelid to hear what I just proposed. Yakshas were an integral part of the belief systems of the people in the subcontinent, and many “yakshas shrines” were erected in their honor. Much has been forgotten over time as the inter-dimensional interactions began to dry up, but the increased sightings since the 1950s suggest that we could be living at a time when contact is re-established.     

References

[1] "UFO photo puts Indian scientists in fix", SiliconIndia, 06 October 2004, https://www.siliconindia.com/shownews/ufo-photo-puts-indian-scientists-in-fix-nid-25663-cid-2.html
[2] Ramesh Vinayak, "UFO sighting in Himachal Lahaul-Spiti district remains a mystery", INDIA TODAY Feb 13, 2006, https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/science-and-technology/story/20060213-ufo-sighting-in-himachal-lahaul-spiti-district-remains-a-mystery-783701-2006-02-12
[3] Ibid.
[4] Albert Rosales “1937 Humanoid Reports” Case # 4, Source: Aleksandr Kuzovkin, Selected reports of UFO observations in the USSR, 1982
[5] Albert Rosales “1954 Humanoid Reports” Case # 63, Humcat 1954, Source: Sheriff Floyd Hadley & Rev. Albert Baller
[6] Albert Rosales “1969 Humanoid Reports” Case # 51, Humcat 1969, Source: LDLN Circle of Clermont Riom
[7] Albert Rosales “1973 Humanoid Reports” Case # 103, Humcat 1973, Source: SBEDV Bulletin # 104
[8] Albert Rosales “1978 Humanoid Reports” Case # 189, Source: Archivio S.U.F.
[9] Albert Rosales “1978 Humanoid Reports” Case# 303, Source: Archivio S.U.F.
[10] Albert Rosales “1990 Humanoid Reports” Case# 13, Source: Pablo Villarrubia Mauso 
[11] Albert Rosales “1989 Humanoid Reports” Case# 210, Source: Gennadiy Ya. Leszshenko, “Edge of the Unknown or What is Behind the Curtain” Donetsk, 1994.
[12] Valmiki Ramayana, 6.124 - 126, https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-ramayana-of-valmiki/d/doc424752.html
[13] Vettam Mani, Puranic Encyclopedia, Motilal Banarsidass, 1975.
[14] Mahabharata 3.178.8839
[15] Mahabharata 3.139.7068
[16] Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, Yaksas, The Smithsonian Institution, 1928, p. 6.
[17] Vernon J. Harward Jr., The Dwarfs of Arthurian Romance and Celtic Tradition, E. J. Brill, Leiden, 1958, p 6-20
[18] Albert Rosales “1978 Humanoid Reports” Case# 132, Source: Anton Anfalov

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

15-07-2024 om 00:00 geschreven door peter  

AI Focuses Cigar UFO Over Thermal, California May 14, 2022, UFO Sighting News

 

Date of sighting: May 14, 2022
Location of sighting: Thermal, California, USA

Email report: Sent to scwaring@yahoo.com 

 

Hey all I just wanted to take a screenshot and ai focus this UFO that was reported to me back in 2022, and wow! I was blown away by what ai showed me. This is a real alien cigar UFO and it's never before been seen this clear until today. Watch the video till the end, because the ai enhanced version is at the end. 

Scott C. Waring 

 

Eyewitness states: 

Saw a very large cigar shape object hovering floating in the sky over the mountain. Airplane flew towards the object but as it got closer the airplane disappeared because of the distance but the cigar shape was huge so I could easily see it.

 

{ https://www.ufosightingsdaily.com }

14-07-2024 om 23:21 geschreven door peter  

AI Focused Black Knight Satellites, Up Close And Personal, UFO UAP Sighting News.

Hey all, I was asked on X and Youtube by many people to put the Dark Knight satellites through the ai program and see what happens. Well I did and it sharpened them a lot and brought the surface of the space craft into focus. It is said that these satellites are tens of thousand of years old or older. That they cannot be approached or they will paralyze the oncoming spacecraft. Tell me your thoughts of what these are and why they are in Earths orbit and why did NASA move the links three times before giving up?

Scott C. Waring 

{ https://www.ufosightingsdaily.com }

14-07-2024 om 23:14 geschreven door peter  

Dat de ontdekking van die extra ogen zo lang op zich heeft laten wachten, is wel te verklaren. Ze zitten – in gefossiliseerde trilobieten – namelijk enigszins verstopt.

Zo’n 500 miljoen jaar geleden wemelden de oceanen van de trilobieten. Dit zijn een bekende klasse uitgestorven geleedpotigen die in vervlogen tijden in de zee leefden. Trilobieten behoren samen met ammonieten en dinosauriërs ongetwijfeld tot de bekendste fossielen. Maar ondanks 150 jaar onderzoek heeft het beestje alsnog verrassingen voor ons in petto. Zo zijn wetenschappers op extra ogen gestuit, die al die tijd over het hoofd zijn gezien.

Ogen

Geleedpotigen hebben meestal twee soorten ogen. Allereerst hebben ze een paar samengestelde ogen (ook wel facetogen genoemd). Deze bestaan vaak uit duizenden aparte lensjes. Daarnaast zijn geleedpotigen ook nog eens uitgerust met mediane ogen. Dit zijn eigenlijk een extra set enkelvoudige ogen, die zich in het midden van het voorhoofd bevinden, tussen de samengestelde ogen in. Alleen trilobieten, een belangrijke groep geleedpotigen die ten tijde van het Paleozoïcum leefden, leken vreemd genoeg geen mediane ogen te hebben.

Ontdekking
Tenminste, dat was tot voor kort de veronderstelling. Totdat onderzoekers de trilobiet Aulacopleura koninckii, waarvan een deel van de kop was afgeschraapt, aan een nadere inspectie onderwierpen.

Het team ontdekte drie bijna identiek gevormde, donkere, onopvallende kleine ovale vlekjes van dezelfde grootte aan de voorkant van de kop. Deze drie structuren lopen evenwijdig aan elkaar en waaieren aan de onderkant iets uit. Alle drie de vlekken worden gekenmerkt door een gladde, duidelijke omtrek en een uniforme, donkerbruine kleur. “Deze plekken onderscheiden zich duidelijk van de vlekken die ontstaan door verval of fossilisatie,” legt onderzoeker Brigitte Schoenemann uit. “In plaats daarvan komt het precies overeen met hoe de overblijfselen van eenvoudige mediane ogen eruitzien.

Mediaan oog
Het betekent dat trilobieten mogelijk toch – net als alle andere geleedpotigen én veel naaste verwanten – niet alleen samengestelde ogen hadden, maar ook met een extra set ogen waren uitgerust. “De ontdekking ondersteunt de veronderstelling dat trilobieten oorspronkelijk mediane ogen hadden,” concludeert Schoenemann.

Onopgemerkt
Dat de trilobiet dit geheimpje zolang heeft weten te bewaren, is opvallend. Zoals gezegd is de trilobiet al ruim een eeuw uitgebreid bestudeerd. Bovendien zijn er ondertussen al meer dan 22.000 soorten ontdekt. Ondanks dat, zijn de mediane ogen al die tijd onopgemerkt gebleven. Toch is dit wel te verklaren. Ze zitten – in gefossiliseerde trilobieten – namelijk enigszins verstopt.

Verstopt
De wetenschappers gaan ervan uit dat de mediane ogen kenmerkend waren voor het larvenstadium, zo leggen ze in hun studie uit. Bovendien bevonden ze zich onder een transparante laag van het schild. Gedurende het fossilisatieproces wordt deze laag echter ondoorzichtig. “Dit heeft er beide toe bijgedragen dat de ontdekking van de extra set ogen zo lang op zich heeft laten verwachten,” aldus Schoenemann.

Meer over trilobieten
Trilobieten zijn te herkennen aan een verkalkt exoskelet aan de rugkant van het lichaam. Ze hadden een halvemaanvormige kop die wel wat weg had van de hedendaagse degenkrab. Hoewel de dieren onderhand zijn uitgestorven, waren ze een succesvolle soort in termen van evolutie. Ze hebben meer dan 250 miljoen jaar weten te overleven; langer dan de dinosauriërs.

Het betekent dat trilobieten waarschijnlijk meerdere verborgen ogen hadden. Toen de onderzoekers de trilobiet Cyclopyge sibilla bestudeerden, vonden ze namelijk ook drie mediane ogen op het voorhoofd, precies tussen de twee samengestelde ogen in. Deze waren bovendien zelfs uitgerust met lenzen die vergelijkbaar zijn met die in menselijke ogen. Dit wijst erop dat deze trilobiet waarschijnlijk beter kon zien dan zijn naaste verwant Aulacopleura koninckii, die – in tegenstelling tot Cyclopyge sibilla – enkel op de bodem leefde.

Variërend
Kortom, uit de bevindingen blijkt dat trilobieten veel meer ogen hadden dan gedacht; waarschijnlijk minstens vijf! Al kan dat aantal ook nog weleens hebben gevarieerd. De onderzoekers denken dat geleedpotigen namelijk op verschillende momenten in de evolutie over een verschillend aantal mediane ogen beschikten. “Het oorspronkelijke aantal mediane ogen is twee,” vertelt Schoenemann. “Daarnaast hadden zeer primitieve geleedpotigen er waarschijnlijk vier. Hedendaagse dieren, zoals insecten en schaaldieren, zijn uitgerust met drie mediane ogen.”

Al met al zijn de onderzoekers er dankzij hun eigen scherpe oog in geslaagd het mysterie van de ontbrekende mediane ogen bij trilobieten op te lossen. Maar dit breidt niet alleen onze kennis over deze uitgestorven prehistorische zeedieren uit. Dat het aantal mediane ogen in geleedpotigen varieerde, zou mogelijk de evolutionaire classificatie van archaïsche geleedpotigen kunnen vergemakkelijken. “Met behulp van het aantal mediane ogen kunnen we nu mogelijk eenvoudiger de positie van een geleedpotige in de evolutieboom bepalen,” besluit Schoenemann.

Bronmateriaal

• "New eyes discovered in trilobites" - University of Cologne
  
• Afbeelding bovenaan dit artikel: jonnysek van Getty Images (via canva.com)

{ https://scientias.nl/ }

14-07-2024 om 23:10 geschreven door peter  

Er is een "Pompeii van de zee" ontdekt met perfect bewaarde fossielen: het dateert van 515 miljoen jaar geleden

Abderrazak El Albani, University of Poitiers

Allerlei families van trilobieten verschijnen plotseling in het Cambrium en zien er al direct zeer complex uit. Van evolutionaire voorouders is vooralsnog geen spoor te bekennen.

Overblijfselen van trilobieten bewaard gebleven dankzij gevonden vulkanische as: de studie

We zijn in Aït Youb, in de regio Souss-Massa in Marokko. Hier heeft een team onderzoekers onder leiding van Abderrazak El Albani fossielen ontdekt van twee nieuwe soorten trilobieten die gedateerd kunnen worden op ongeveer 515 miljoen jaar geleden. Tot zover niets vreemds, behalve dat de staat van bewaring van deze trilobieten de beste is die ooit is gevonden.

Zoals we in de inleiding al zeiden, was het tot nu toe onmogelijk om de interne structuren van trilobieten goed te bestuderen: meestal fossiliseert alleen het exoskelet. In het geval van Aït Youb daarentegen heeft vulkanische as van uitbarstingen uit het Precambrium het mogelijk gemaakt om exemplaren te vinden die bijna perfect bewaard zijn gebleven, zo goed zelfs dat ze doen denken aan de vondsten in Pompeii. Aan de andere kant, zo stelt El Albani, is de dynamiek die ten grondslag ligt aan het behoud ervan vrijwel hetzelfde.

Wat is er gebeurd met de trilobieten die ontdekt zijn in Aït Youb?

Didier Descouens/Wikimedia Commons - CC BY-SA 4.0

Volgens El Albani en zijn team hebben we de uitstekende conservering van de trilobieten in feite te danken aan een snelle vulkaanuitbarsting, die de exemplaren begroef en in zeer korte tijd gevangen hield. Sommige trilobieten zijn al opgerold, terwijl andere zich voorbereiden om te ontsnappen, en er zijn enkele exemplaren die zelfs het spijsverteringskanaal vol sediment laten zien dat kort voor de uitbarsting is ingenomen. Als je bedenkt dat het tot voor kort niet mogelijk was om de interne anatomie van een trilobiet te bestuderen, begrijp je heel goed de revolutionaire betekenis van deze ontdekking.

Om deze fossielen beter te kunnen bestuderen, gebruikten de onderzoekers röntgenmicrotomografie, zodat ze een driedimensionale weergave konden bekijken zonder de exemplaren uit de rotsmatrix te halen.  Dit is een innovatieve techniek waarmee anatomische details kunnen worden bekeken zonder de vondsten in gevaar te brengen. Het onderzoek, gepubliceerd in het tijdschrift Science, onthulde ook tot nu toe onbekende anatomische structuren van trilobieten, waaronder sporen van mondaanhangsels en zacht weefsel.

Een bijna perfecte bewaring... zoals in Pompeii

El Albani zelf noemde de vondst in Marokko een “Pompeii van de zee”, en met een goede reden. Zoals we hebben gezien, creëerde de vulkanische as driedimensionale mallen van de trilobieten, waardoor ze in feite bevroren werden in de tijd. Maar terwijl er in het geval van Pompeii zo'n 2000 jaar is verstreken, is er hier 515 miljoen jaar verstreken en daarom was het gebruik van röntgenmicrotomografie bijzonder nuttig.

Ontdekkingen zoals deze zorgen voor een beter begrip van het belang van vulkanische asafzettingen voor het behoud van fossielen, maar tegelijkertijd testen ze de technologische vooruitgang in het bestuderen van het verleden. In staat zijn om trilobieten van 515 miljoen jaar geleden te analyseren vertegenwoordigt een onmisbare kans, die in het verleden onmogelijk was: vanuit een bepaald oogpunt is het ook een vorm van respect voor deze oude fossielen. Laten we niet vergeten dat ze een groot deel van de geschiedenis van onze planeet hebben overbrugd en bijna perfect bewaard zijn gebleven.

Allerlei families van trilobieten verschijnen plotseling in het Cambrium en zien er al direct zeer complex uit. Van evolutionaire voorouders is vooralsnog geen spoor te bekennen.

{ https://www.curioctopus.nl}

14-07-2024 om 23:00 geschreven door peter  

NASA heeft twee asteroïden ontdekt die dicht langs de aarde kwamen: planetaire radarbeelden

Unsplash - Not the actual photo

De ruimte van het zonnestelsel is bijna helemaal leeg, zelfs als je rekening houdt met de hemellichamen die rond de zon draaien, maar minder dan 0,15 procent van de massa van het hele stelsel uitmaken. Toch is het niet zo onwaarschijnlijk dat twee hemellichamen heel dicht bij elkaar kunnen zijn, zoals gebeurde met twee asteroïden die dicht bij de aarde passeerden, slechts een paar dagen na elkaar. De ontdekking werd gedaan door wetenschappers van JPL dankzij de Goldstone Solar System Radar, die er ook in slaagde om enkele beelden van deze asteroïden, die beide potentieel gevaarlijk zijn, vast te leggen.

Eerste waarneming: asteroïde van 1,5 kilometer passeerde dicht bij de aarde

Eén van de doelstellingen van op de ruimte gerichte radars is het relatief vroeg detecteren van de passage van asteroïden vlakbij de aarde. Onlangs werd bijvoorbeeld asteroïde 2011 UL21 slechts 13 dagen vóór zijn dichtste nadering tot onze planeet gedetecteerd. Nu hebben we het over een relatief groot hemellichaam, ongeveer 1,5 kilometer breed en potentieel gevaarlijk voor de aarde.

Gelukkig zijn er momenteel geen risico's, zoals bevestigd door wetenschappers van het Jet Propulsion Laboratory van NASA. 2011 UL21 passeerde feitelijk op 27 juni 2024 op een afstand van ongeveer 6,6 miljoen kilometer, oftewel ongeveer 17 keer de afstand tussen de aarde en de maan. Maar dat is nog niet alles: dankzij de Goldston Solar System Radar heeft JPL ontdekt dat 2011 UL21 niet één enkele asteroïde is, maar een systeem van twee asteroïden in een baan om de aarde. Een beetje zoals wat er gebeurde met Dinkinesh, het kleine binaire systeem dat werd geïdentificeerd door de Lucy-missie die eind 2023 richting Jupiter reisde.

Tweede waarneming: asteroïde passeerde veel dichter bij onze planeet

NASA/JPL-Caltech

Slechts twee dagen na de waarneming van 2011 UL21 op zo'n 6,6 miljoen kilometer van de aarde, hebben wetenschappers van JPL een tweede asteroïde gezien, dit keer veel dichter bij onze planeet. Het gaat om asteroïde 2024 MK, die slechts 150 meter breed is en dus veel kleiner dan het hemellichaam dat eerder werd waargenomen. 2024 MK wordt echter ook beschouwd als een potentieel gevaarlijke asteroïde en deze asteroïde passeerde slechts 295.000 kilometer van de aarde. Met andere woorden, ongeveer driekwart van de afstand die ons van de maan scheidt.

Dergelijke naderingen zijn vrij zeldzaam en komen ongeveer elke 20 jaar voor. Hoewel ze in strikte zin niet gevaarlijk zijn voor onze planeet, zijn ze essentiële informatiebronnen voor ons begrip van het zonnestelsel. De eenvoudige passage naar 295 duizend kilometer van de aarde verminderde bijvoorbeeld de baan van 2024 MK rond de zon met ongeveer 24 dagen.

Potentieel gevaarlijke asteroïden: wat betekent dat?

Er zijn verschillende factoren waarmee wetenschappers bij NASA en andere ruimtevaartorganisaties rekening houden om een ​​asteroïde als "potentieel gevaarlijk" te definiëren. Hiervan zijn de volgende zeer belangrijk:

•  de afmetingen, met een diameter van minimaal 140 meter;
• de afstand tot de aarde, binnen 0,05 Astronomische Eenheden, of ongeveer 7,5 miljoen kilometer;
• de naderingssnelheid, de onregelmatige vorm en samenstelling, als secundaire factoren.

Zoals je kunt zien, zijn potentieel gevaarlijke asteroïden niet de asteroïden die een gevaar in de strikte zin van het woord voor de aarde inhouden, een beetje zoals in het geval van 2011 UL21 en 2024 MK. Kortom, we hebben het niet over Chicxulub dat 66 miljoen jaar geleden leidde tot het uitsterven van niet-aviaanse dinosaurussen, maar over hemellichamen die NASA van plan is te observeren tijdens hun passage op een bepaalde afstand van onze planeet. In de hoop dat deze afstand altijd groter zal zijn.

{ https://www.curioctopus.nl/ }

14-07-2024 om 22:35 geschreven door peter  

THIS SCORCHINGLY HOT PLANET THAT RAINS DOWN GLASS APPARENTLY ALSO SMELLS LIKE ROTTEN EGGS

A study published Monday shows evidence for the toxic, nasty-smelling gas hydrogen sulfide in a nearby exoplanet.

BY DORIS ELÍN URRUTIA

 

Roberto Molar Candanosa/Johns Hopkins Univeristy

A study published Monday in the journal Nature shows evidence for the presence of the toxic, nasty-smelling gas hydrogen sulfide in HD 189733 b. The knowledge isn’t just for sensorial space exploration: It shapes how astronomers understand the evolution of all planets under the Sun – err, stars.

Sewer gas on another world is a helpful clue. The chemical compound aids the construction of more complex molecules, including those essential to life. “Sulfur is a vital element for building more complex molecules, and — like carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and phosphate — scientists need to study it more to fully understand how planets are made and what they’re made of,” Guangwei Fu, lead researcher and astrophysicist at Johns Hopkins University, said in an announcement about the new paper.

In the case of this particular exoplanet, Fu said, researchers aren’t looking for life. Astronomers already know this world, located 64 light years away from Earth, is inhospitable. Temperatures reach 1,700 degrees Fahrenheit there, and its glass-filled wind would humble any terrestrial storm, thanks to its 5,000 mph winds.

“We’re not looking for life on this planet because it’s way too hot, but finding hydrogen sulfide is a stepping stone for finding this molecule on other planets and gaining more understanding of how different types of planets form,” Fu added.

HD 189733 b is one of many exoplanets analyzed through a technique called the transit method. Astronomers glean details about it as the gas giant passes in front of its parent star. HD 189733 b is one of the nearest known “hot Jupiters” to Earth, making it a scientifically-rich object.

According to NASA, there are now more than 5,600 confirmed exoplanets in the Milky Way.

{ https://www.inverse.com/ }

14-07-2024 om 00:13 geschreven door peter  

5 Fascinating Facts On The Sleek USAF U-2 Dragon Lady Spy Plane

By Mike Scanlon

SUMMARY

With its sleek design and technological prowess, the U-2 spy plane, often referred to as the "Dragon Lady," represents one of the most iconic aircraft in military aviation history. Developed in the early 1950s in response to increasing nuclear and long-range nuclear missile threats from the USSR during the Cold War, the high-flying aircraft changed the landscape of aerial reconnaissance and espionage, providing the United States with unmatched intelligence-gathering capabilities. In this article, we take a look at a healthy handful of interesting facts about the legendary Dragon Lady.

1. Secretive U-2 test flights caused a spike in UFO sightings

Fiery objects in the sky baffle pilots below

When given just eight months to design an aircraft capable of flight above 70,000 feet (21,336 m), Lockheed Chief Engineer Clarence "Kelly" Johnson (pictured below) and his team at the secret Skunk Works plant in California delivered what was essentially a jet-powered glider, the CL-282, which would later be dubbed the U-2. As time was of the essence, the design was quickly approved by the CIA, and production was immediately underway.

Completed units were delivered to the highly classified Nevada Test and Training Range, also known as Area 51, for testing under tremendous secrecy. According to the CIA, high-altitude testing of the aircraft led to a significant spike in UFO reports. With most commercial flights flying under 20,000 ft (6,096 m) and military aircraft below 40,000 ft (12,192 m), pilots of these aircraft were dumbfounded by the object flying above them at 60,000 ft (18,288 m), a feat considered impossible at the time

Under certain conditions, the sun would reflect off the then-silver wings of the U-2, which made them appear as "fiery objects" flying high above to pilots below. The overwhelming reports of UFOs led to the USAF's Operation Blue Book, also known as Project Blue Book, based at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.

Operation Blue Book gathered all the reports of UFOs and cross-referenced them against U-2 flight logs. USAF investigators would subsequently dismiss the reports as "natural phenomena," unable to reveal the truth behind these sightings. U-2 (and later OXCART) are believed to have been the source of over half of the UFO reports from the late 1950s through the 1960s.

RELATED

U-2 Dragon Lady: Meet One Of The US Air Force’s Oldest Cold War Aircraft Still Operating

The U-2 spy plane has had a long career, although it appears to be finally approaching the end of it.

2. Suited for space travel

U-2 pilots wear space suits similar to those worn by NASA astronauts

Photo: Senior Airman Alexander Recupero | US Air Force

Soaring to the edge of space at altitudes over 70,000 feet (21,336 m), U-2 pilots are required to wear specialized space suits, also known as full-pressure suits, made by the same company that supplies NASA, to ensure their survival in the harsh environment of the upper atmosphere. The model S1034 space suit serve as a personal life support system, should the cockpit pressurization system fail, and are key to safeguarding the pilots against decompression sickness, hypoxia, and exposure to the near-vacuum conditions of high altitudes.

Photo: US Air Force

The suit's engineering is nothing short of remarkable, meticulously designed to balance safety, functionality, and comfort, highlighting the extreme conditions U-2 pilots face. It features a distinct helmet equipped with a communications system, a visor that can be heated to prevent fogging and an oxygen supply system that guarantees the pilot has a steady flow of breathable air. Furthermore, the suit includes a cooling garment integrated with tubing to circulate temperature-controlled water, ensuring the pilot remains comfortable during long missions.

3. It's like riding a bicycle...that weighs 16,000 pounds with massive wings

The U-2 has a very unique set of wheels

Photo: US Air Force

Designed to minimize aircraft weight and promote higher altitude, the U-2's unique landing gear configuration distinguishes it from most conventional aircraft. Unlike typical aircraft that utilize a tricycle arrangement, the U-2 employs a bicycle-style arrangement with two sets of wheels positioned along the longitudinal axis of the fuselage.

This setup includes a forward main landing gear located just behind the cockpit and an aft main landing gear near the tail and connected to the rudder to provide steering functionality during taxiing.

To maintain balance during takeoff, the U-2 utilizes outrigger gears, known colloquially as "pogos." These removable wheels are attached to mid-wing sockets and jettisoned during takeoff, falling to the runway. Upon landing, once the aircraft comes to rest on its wingtip, the pogos are reinstalled for taxiing. Suffice it to say that U-2 takeoff and landing procedures are not for the faint of heart, as shown in the X link below.

4. Taming the Dragon Lady

The U-2 is considered by many to be the most difficult airplane to fly

• https://youtu.be/eiA6u0mT4oI

The U-2 is widely considered the most difficult airplane to fly. Mastery of the U-2 requires an exceptional level of expertise, dexterity, and resilience, qualities that define the elite group of pilots (fewer than 1500) capable of taming the "Dragon Lady." There are several factors contributing to its notoriously difficult handling, making it a true test of a pilot's skill and endurance.

Firstly, the U-2 operates at extreme altitudes, often above 70,000 ft (21,336 m), where the air is thin and the margin for error is minimal. The aircraft's design prioritizes performance at these altitudes over ease of control, leading to a unique combination of a highly sensitive control system and low maneuverability.

Secondly, the U-2's takeoff and landing phases are particularly challenging. During takeoff, the aircraft's massive wings and lightweight frame make it highly susceptible to crosswinds and other atmospheric disturbances.

Landing the U-2 is equally daunting due to the bicycle-like landing gear configuration, as described above. Landing the U-2 requires exceptional skill and coordination, as the pilot must balance on the bicycle gear while reducing speed and altitude, with the assistance of a chase car driven by another pilot as shown below, providing real-time feedback and assistance. To make matters worse, visibility is limited during the landing because of the plane's unique design.

Moreover, pilots must endure long missions that can extend beyond ten hours, confined to a pressurized suit similar to those worn by astronauts. This suit is necessary due to the harsh conditions at cruising altitude and introduces additional challenges in terms of physical comfort, fatigue management, and sustenance.

The U-2 is still in service but the US Air Force plans to retire the iconic aircraft in 2026.

5. What do U-2 pilots eat during flight?

Hint: The Dragon Lady isn't much of a cook

Photo: David Kamm | US Army

Flying sorties up to and beyond ten hours, U-2 pilots often need to eat and drink during flight. However, at such extreme altitudes, doing so isn't as simple as it sounds. According to U-2 Support Launch and Recovery Supervisor Staff Sergeant David Labarge, U-2 pilots are instructed that once their helmet is locked down, they are not to open it until they land. Failure to heed this warning could have disastrous consequences.

As long as the cockpit is pressurized, theoretically, a U-2 pilot could safely open their helmet to eat, scratch their nose, or have a sip of water. However, Sgt. Labarge cautions that, at such high altitudes, were a pilot to open their helmet and the cockpit pressurization system suddenly failed, "the blood in their body would instantaneously boil, leading to instantaneous death."

"The blood in their body would instantaneously boil, leading to instantaneous death."

As such, the helmet is designed with a feeding port through which pilots can drink from a gravity-fed water bottle and eat "tube food, made by the same people who make traditional meals-ready-to-eat (MRE).

Photo: Airman 1st Class Drew Buchanan | US Air Force

The food is squeezed from a toothpaste-like tube through the helmet's feeding port directly into the pilot's mouth.

Photo: Jeff Sisto | US Army

Dinner service aboard a U-2 offers a variety of choices, including beef stroganoff, truffle mac and cheese, chicken alfredo, peaches, pears, chocolate pudding, and even caffeinated cinnamon applesauce. A heater inside the aircraft ensures their meatloaf-in-a-tube is nice and hot. Bon Appétit!

U-2 Specifications
Power plant	One General Electric F118-101 engine.
Thrust	17,000 pounds
Wingspan	105 feet (32 meters)
Length	63 feet (19.2 meters)
Height	16 feet (4.8 meters)
Weight	16,000 pounds
Speed	410 mph
Range	6,090 nautical miles
Crew	One
Initial operating capability	1956
Unit cost	Classified

{ https://simpleflying.com/ }

14-07-2024 om 00:00 geschreven door peter  

Failed Thrusters, Helium Leaks, and a Hard Deadline: Inside NASA’s Decision to Keep Boeing’s Starliner At the ISS

Does it still count as being "grounded" when you're in space?

BY KIONA SMITH

 

Maxar/Getty Images

Inverse has all the details about why it’s taking so long to bring Starliner home, how the not-stranded-but-definitely-delayed crew is spending their time in orbit, and why the spacecraft has to leave ISS by mid-August.

AN ABUNDANCE OF CAUTION

Boeing and NASA don’t believe that any of Starliner’s thrusters are damaged, say Stich and Nappi speaking at a press conference on Wednesday. If Starliner had to leave the International Space Station immediately (maybe because of a collision with a piece of satellite debris, like the near-miss that caused the crew to take shelter aboard Starliner earlier this week), the ship could get its crew home safely, according to Nappi.

“If we were to have to do that today, we would just perform a nominal undocking and return,” Nappi told reporters during a press conference on Wednesday.

The extensive tests keeping the spacecraft docked at ISS, they said at the press conference, are a chance for engineers to figure out exactly why five of Starliner’s 28 maneuvering thrusters (technically called the Reaction Control System, or RCS) failed while the spacecraft was docking with the International Space Station on June 6. Starliner’s service module — which houses the thrusters — is designed to burn up during re-entry to Earth’s atmosphere, so once the ship heads home, engineers will lose their chance to poke at the problem.

Boeing and NASA also want to be extremely sure there’s actually nothing wrong. “We don’t believe that we have damaged thrusters, but we want to fill in the blanks and run these tests to assure ourselves of this,” Nappi says.

Stich adds, “Really, what we're doing is just taking the time to make sure that we have looked under every rock and every stone, just to make sure that there's nothing that would surprise us.”

STARLINER RECAP: FAILED THRUSTERS AND HELIUM LEAKS

During its rendezvous with ISS on June 6, five of Starliner's 28 maneuvering thrusters failed. The crew and mission control managed to get four of them back online, but one (thruster B1A3) refused to cooperate, first sputtering out just 11 percent of its normal thrust, and then nothing at all. B1A3 will remain shut off for the rest of the mission.

The thruster issues appeared after Starliner had to fire its thruster more — and more often, in several short pulses — than engineers had expected.

And then there are the helium leaks. Starliner uses helium to pressurize its thrusters, and some of that helium is leaking out around the O-rings used to seal the area where the helium — and two lines that carry rocket propellant — pass through a flange and into the thruster.

"Helium was getting out from that flange area and somehow getting around that O-ring," says Nappi "The design should have been sufficient, but there's obviously something going on in that cavity that we don't understand."

SO MUCH TESTING, SO LITTLE TIME

Last week, Starliner test-fired its thrusters while docked to the ISS, using the station’s flight control system to measure how much thrust the thrusters were actually thrusting (Inverse would certainly not like to apologize for that sentence, thank you).

Meanwhile, at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, engineers have test fired several thrusters, trying to re-create the extreme temperatures and workload Starliner’s thrusters faced during flight. Those tests are now complete, but engineers still need to physically check the tested thrusters for damage and analyze a tremendous collection of data about their performance. Next, engineers will be repeating the process — but this time they’ll be simulating the “downhill” phase of the mission, or the return to Earth.

“We really wanted to get that testing completed and actually physically inspect the thruster before we committed to the nominal undocking,” says Stich. “I think there's ways from what we've learned from this flight to change the number of pulses required for the rendezvous and docking phase to not put such demand on the thrusters.”

Engineers are also working on the helium leak, which means smearing grease on spare flanges, tossing debris into them, and blasting them with heat to test possible causes for the leak. They also need to make sure that the thrusters are still getting enough helium to keep them pressurized — at least enough to work reliably and safely.

“We would like to duplicate that flange design on the ground under a controlled test and see if we can't make it leak, and experiment with some larger seals or maybe a different seal material that might not be as susceptible to degradation from the propellant,” said Nappi.

“THE NATURE OF WHAT WE DO”

To bystanders, it seems like an alarming situation: a new spacecraft launches with its first crew, only for its thrusters to fail and start leaking helium pressurizer. But for test pilots like Starliner test commander Butch Wilmore, it’s another day at the office.

“Human spaceflight is not easy. There have been multiple issues with every spacecraft that has ever been designed, and that's the nature of what we do,” said Wilmore.

Nappi and Stich repeated a similar message to reporters.

“We knew that there would be some learning from this flight test. We've learned a great deal from how the hardware works, how our processes work, and how we can improve the things that we're doing,” said Nappi. “As engineers, we test, we learn, we fix, and that’s exactly what we’re going through.”

MAKE ROOM, MAKE ROOM!

The testing and analysis are likely to take another couple of weeks, at least, which means Wilmore and Starliner test pilot Suni Williams probably won’t be bidding farewell to the ISS until at least the end of July – and Stich described that possible timeframe as optimistic. But Starliner needs to be on its way by mid-August, when a SpaceX Crew Dragon is set to bring a new quartet of spacefarers (astronauts Zena Cardman, Nick Hague, and Stephanie Wilson, as well as Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov) to the ISS.

The SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft that carried Crew-8 (astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, and Jeanette Epps, as well as Russian cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin) to the ISS is still docked at the station, waiting for Crew-8 to hop aboard and fly it home. Before they leave, though, they need to meet and brief their replacements, a process NASA calls a handover. Crew-9 will dock their Crew Dragon with ISS and come aboard before Crew-8 leaves. At the moment, that’s a problem, because Starliner is sitting in Crew-9’s parking spot.

That gives NASA and Boeing a deadline for finishing their tests and either deeming Starliner fit to fly home or making other arrangements.

“The beautiful thing about the commercial crew program is that we have two vehicles, two different systems, that we could use to return the crew,” said Stich, referring to Starliner and Crew Dragon. “We have a little more time to go through the data and decide whether we need to do anything different but the prime option today is to return Butch and Suni on Starliner.”

“LIKE COMING BACK HOME”

For now, Wilmore and Williams are safe and sound on the ISS, where they’ve been pitching in with maintenance and science experiments.

“Butch and I have been up here before, and it feels like coming back home,” says Williams. “We've been integrated right into Expedition 71. We've been doing science with them, maintenance, and some major maintenance that has been waiting for a little while.”

Wilmore recently tested NASA’s Moon Microscope, a handheld 3D-printed microscope that’s part of a medical kit that could help future lunar explorers diagnose illnesses and make sure their food, water, and quarters aren’t contaminated. And Williams sequenced DNA while zipping around Earth at 17,500 miles per hour. The pair also helped swap out a urine processor pump. (Never a dull moment aboard ISS, and no lack of variety, either.)

Stich says the whole ISS crew is comfortable and has plenty of supplies — including things like food and clothing — to last the duration. A Northrop-Grumman Cygnus cargo spacecraft is scheduled to launch in early August, bringing new supplies and probably some extra items from home for the Starliner crew, if they’re still aboard. Meanwhile, this isn’t even close to the most crowded the ISS has ever been.

In fact, situations like this one may become more common over the next few years. Stich, paraphrasing retired astronaut Ken Bowersox, said earlier today that now that ISS can provide electricity to docked spacecraft, it can serve as a sort of temporary hangar for engineers to troubleshoot spacecraft in orbit.

Meanwhile, Williams and Wilmore sound calm and confident – which is also part of their job.

“I have a really good feeling in my heart that the spacecraft will bring us home,” says Williams.

{ https://www.inverse.com/ }

13-07-2024 om 23:43 geschreven door peter