The purpose of this blog is the creation of an open, international, independent and free forum, where every UFO-researcher can publish the results of his/her research. The languagues, used for this blog, are Dutch, English and French.You can find the articles of a collegue by selecting his category. Each author stays resposable for the continue of his articles. As blogmaster I have the right to refuse an addition or an article, when it attacks other collegues or UFO-groupes.
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Deze blog is opgedragen aan mijn overleden echtgenote Lucienne.
In 2012 verloor ze haar moedige strijd tegen kanker!
In 2011 startte ik deze blog, omdat ik niet mocht stoppen met mijn UFO-onderzoek.
BEDANKT!!!
Een interessant adres?
UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN - DE ALLERLAATSTE NIEUWTJES
UFO's of UAP'S in België en de rest van de wereld Ontdek de Fascinerende Wereld van UFO's en UAP's: Jouw Bron voor Onthullende Informatie!
Ben jij ook gefascineerd door het onbekende? Wil je meer weten over UFO's en UAP's, niet alleen in België, maar over de hele wereld? Dan ben je op de juiste plek!
België: Het Kloppend Hart van UFO-onderzoek
In België is BUFON (Belgisch UFO-Netwerk) dé autoriteit op het gebied van UFO-onderzoek. Voor betrouwbare en objectieve informatie over deze intrigerende fenomenen, bezoek je zeker onze Facebook-pagina en deze blog. Maar dat is nog niet alles! Ontdek ook het Belgisch UFO-meldpunt en Caelestia, twee organisaties die diepgaand onderzoek verrichten, al zijn ze soms kritisch of sceptisch.
Nederland: Een Schat aan Informatie
Voor onze Nederlandse buren is er de schitterende website www.ufowijzer.nl, beheerd door Paul Harmans. Deze site biedt een schat aan informatie en artikelen die je niet wilt missen!
Internationaal: MUFON - De Wereldwijde Autoriteit
Neem ook een kijkje bij MUFON (Mutual UFO Network Inc.), een gerenommeerde Amerikaanse UFO-vereniging met afdelingen in de VS en wereldwijd. MUFON is toegewijd aan de wetenschappelijke en analytische studie van het UFO-fenomeen, en hun maandelijkse tijdschrift, The MUFON UFO-Journal, is een must-read voor elke UFO-enthousiasteling. Bezoek hun website op www.mufon.com voor meer informatie.
Samenwerking en Toekomstvisie
Sinds 1 februari 2020 is Pieter niet alleen ex-president van BUFON, maar ook de voormalige nationale directeur van MUFON in Vlaanderen en Nederland. Dit creëert een sterke samenwerking met de Franse MUFON Reseau MUFON/EUROP, wat ons in staat stelt om nog meer waardevolle inzichten te delen.
Let op: Nepprofielen en Nieuwe Groeperingen
Pas op voor een nieuwe groepering die zich ook BUFON noemt, maar geen enkele connectie heeft met onze gevestigde organisatie. Hoewel zij de naam geregistreerd hebben, kunnen ze het rijke verleden en de expertise van onze groep niet evenaren. We wensen hen veel succes, maar we blijven de autoriteit in UFO-onderzoek!
Blijf Op De Hoogte!
Wil jij de laatste nieuwtjes over UFO's, ruimtevaart, archeologie, en meer? Volg ons dan en duik samen met ons in de fascinerende wereld van het onbekende! Sluit je aan bij de gemeenschap van nieuwsgierige geesten die net als jij verlangen naar antwoorden en avonturen in de sterren!
Heb je vragen of wil je meer weten? Aarzel dan niet om contact met ons op te nemen! Samen ontrafelen we het mysterie van de lucht en daarbuiten.
19-05-2025
The Deepening Mystery Around the JWST's Early Galaxies
The Deepening Mystery Around the JWST's Early Galaxies
By Evan Gough
When the JWST found Little Red Dot galaxies, astronomers were puzzled. They appeared to be brighter, and more massive, than galaxies should be in the very early Universe. New research is deepening this mystery. Image Credit: Matthee et al. 2024, The Astrophysical Journal. CC BY 4.0
When the JWST came to life and began observations, one of its first jobs was to gaze back in time at the early Universe. The Assembly of Galaxies is one of the space telescope's four main science themes, and when it observed the Universe's first galaxies, it uncovered a mystery. Some of them appear to have supermassive black holes (SMBH) in their centers that are fuelling active galactic nuclei (AGN). However, they're not emitting X-rays, which is one of the hallmarks of AGN.
Little Red Dot (LRD) galaxies are small, red galaxies that formed about 600 million years after the Big Bang. The JWST has found more than 300 of them, but they remain a mystery collectively. Their brightness indicated they're more massive and swollen with stars than they should be at an early age. Our models suggest there wasn't enough time for them to grow so massive.
Astronomers then discovered AGN signatures that could explain the excess light. Rather than only stars, the LRD's excess light came from AGN. That would mean that the LRDs wouldn't need to be so massive to emit all that light, and their size wouldn't challenge our galaxy evolution models.
Unfortunately, that potential conclusion causes another problem. AGN emit powerful X-rays as the material swirling around in their accretion disks heats up. However, according to new research, LRDs appear to emit no X-rays.
The new research, titled "Chandra Rules Out Super-Eddington Accretion For Little Red Dots," has been submitted to The Astrophysical Journal. The authors are Andrea Sacchi and Akos Bogdan, both from the Harvard and Smithsonian Centers for Astrophysics. The paper is currently available at arxiv.org.
"A key feature of LRDs is their extreme X-ray weakness: analyses of individual and stacked sources have yielded non-detections or only tentative, inconclusive X-ray signals, except for a handful of individual cases," the authors write.
The lack of X-rays winds everything backward. If there are no X-rays, there can't be AGN with accretion disks. If there are no accretion disks, then LRD's powerful brightness can't come from SMBHs. If it can't come from SMBHs, it has to come from stars. Then we're back to square one: trying to explain how early galaxies were so massive and swollen with stars.
This Chandra image from the research shows the 55 LRDs in the Chandra Deep Field South in the 0.3 − 7 keV X-ray band. This range encompasses both soft X-rays and a good portion of the hard X-ray band. It's a broad and informative band for astrophysical observations, yet it turned up no X-ray detections.
Image Credit: Sacchi and Bogdan, 2025, The Astrophysical Journal.
Some researchers have suggested another solution. They say that the SMBHs are experiencing super-Eddington accretion rates.
SMBH black hole accretion is governed by the Eddington limit. The Eddington limit is a fundamental concept in astrophysics that explains the maximum brightness and accretion rates for astrophysical objects like SMBH. An object reaches the Eddington limit when two forces are balanced: outward radiation and inward gravitation. If one of these forces is too powerful, the object either expels its outer layers or ceases further accretion.
Astrophysicists know that the Eddington limit influences SMBH growth. However, they've proposed what's called super-Eddington accretion to explain how these massive objects became so massive so early in the Universe. Objects can exceed the Eddington limit for periods of time and experience super-Eddington accretion. Can that explain why LRDs are so bright while also being so weak in X-rays?
The authors point out that the only other explanation for the lack of X-rays is obscuration, and that explanation hasn't held up.
"As the most natural explanation, high obscuration, is disfavored by JWST spectroscopic evidence, several authors have suggested that the X-ray weakness of LRDs is intrinsic, due to super-Eddington accretion rates," the authors write. "In this work, we test that scenario by stacking X-ray data for 55 LRDs in the Chandra Deep Field South, accumulating a total exposure time of nearly 400 Ms."
400 megaseconds is the cumulative observing time for the 55 LRDs combined, not the total telescope observing time. That's an impressive depth of observation for the 55 objects. If super-Eddington accretion were occurring, that would explain the lack of X-rays.
Super-Eddington accretion still creates X-rays. However, those photons can get trapped in the accretion flow. They can also be absorbed or scattered by outflows and winds, or obscured by the thick disk or envelope around the SMBH. Current models show that super-Eddington accretion still emits X-rays, but as lower-energy soft X-rays. 400 megaseconds of stacked X-ray observations should detect them.
However, they didn't.
The Chandra X-ray Observatory is the world's most powerful X-ray telescope. It has eight times greater resolution and can detect sources more than 20 times fainter than any previous X-ray telescope. 400 megaseconds of stacked observing time should've detected X-rays if they were being emitted.
Image Credit: NASA/CXC & J. Vaughan
"Despite reaching unprecedented X-ray depths, our stack still yields a non-detection," the authors write. "The corresponding upper limits are deep enough to rule out current super-Eddington accretion models, and are compatible only with extremely high levels of obscuration."
The authors say we're left with only one explanation: "To explain the X-ray weakness of LRDs, we therefore speculate that the SMBHs in these systems are neither as massive nor as luminous as currently believed. " Other researchers have also suggested this.
So what's going on if observations show no X-rays, and if the JWST shows that dust obscuration is responsible?
"If the bolometric luminosities are overestimated by an order of magnitude, much lower levels of obscuration can hide the X-ray emission from accreting SMBHs without invoking super-Eddington accretion," the authors conclude.
The JWST has fulfilled its promise by revealing the Universe's earliest galaxies. That the results go against our models isn't surprising. Every new mission and telescope delivers some surprises, and scientists often look forward to surprising results.
For now, the LRD galaxies are unexplained. In fact, the mystery has deepened.
A triple crater in the ancient martian highlands viewed by the ESA's Mars Express. Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin
Examine just about any extraterrestrial body in the Solar System, and you will find that they all have the same thing in common: a long history of impacts. Whether it is the Moon, Mercury, Mars, or virtually all of the icy moons of the outer Solar System, the surface of these objects is pockmarked with craters. These craters tell a story about the evolution of these bodies and the kinds of forces that shaped them. Now, a team of researchers led by Brown University has determined that craters can be used to determine a body's subsurface composition.
For decades, scientists have examined the size and shape of craters on extraterrestrial bodies to learn about what lies beneath the surface. According to Sokolowska's research, the rock layers and other ejecta produced by an impact can vary in size depending on the composition of materials beneath the impact point. Several factors play a role in altering a crater's characteristics, including the strength of the subsurface material and its porousness. This allows scientists to study planetary interiors from orbit without having to land and take drill samples.
Sokolowska performed the work with Dauba as a postdoctoral researcher at Brown University. This technique could allow scientists to spot patches of subsurface ice on Mars and other bodies based on data collected by orbiting missions. As Sokolowska indicated in a Brown University news release:
“Historically, researchers have used the size and shape of impact craters to infer the properties of materials in the subsurface. But we show that the size of the ejecta blanket around a crater is sensitive to subsurface properties as well. That gives us a new observable on the surface to help constrain materials present underground.”
For their study, Sokolowska and her colleagues sought to determine if crater ejecta could provide another source of information. This consisted of running models co-developed by Collins that simulate the physics of planetary impacts. The simulations also allowed them to vary the characteristics of the materials beneath the surface (single, layered, mixed) and the materials themselves (bedrock, sediment, loose rock with ice, solid glacial ice). The simulations showed that these characteristics produced a wide range of ejecta patterns.
The team then tested their results by examining two fresh impact craters on Mars, which were already known to have taken place over bedrock and subsurface ice. Since the ejected materials were young, they had not yet eroded much, making it easy to measure their distance from the impact site. They found that the ejecta pattern over the bedrock site was much larger than the one over subsurface ice. This was consistent with model predictions, confirming that differences in ejecta radius reflect subsurface properties.
"The differences in ejecta radius can be quite large, and we predict that they could be measured from orbit with the HiRISE camera onboard Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter." Said Sokolowska. "Once the method is thoroughly tested, it could become a promising new tool for investigating subsurface properties. Turning this proof-of-concept work into a tool is the subject of my current fellowship at Imperial."
The team indicates that this method could be useful for current and future missions as they continue to explore Mars for clues about its past and where crewed missions could land someday. However, the team's findings have applications in the study of other astronomical bodies in the Solar System. This includes the double asteroid system Didymos, which the ESA's Hera spacecraft will rendezvous with in February 2026. In September 2022, NASA's Double Asteroid Redirect Test (DART) conducted the first kinetic impact test with Dimorphos, the small satellite that orbits Didymos.
When it arrives, Hera will examine the crater created by the impact to learn more about the asteroid's interior. Sokolowska said that examining the ejecta pattern could assist in this objective: "Our work suggests that ejecta that did not escape from the asteroid and blanketed its surface could hold valuable information about the asteroid's interior."
Astronauts Could See Auroras on Mars with their Eyes
Astronauts Could See Auroras on Mars with their Eyes
By Matthew Williams
ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti took this picture of aurora borealis from the ISS on Dec. 9, 2014. Credit:
On March 15th, 2024, the Sun released a powerful solar flare that coincided with a heightened period of solar activity. This was accompanied by a coronal mass ejection (CME), a massive cloud of solar energetic particles (SEP) that led to auroras all across the Solar System. This included Mars, where NASA's Perseverancerover made history by capturing a visible light image of the event with its Mastcam-Z instrument. This was the first time that an aurora was witnessed from the surface of another planet.
On Earth, auroras are a common phenomenon that occurs whenever solar particles interact with the global magnetic field. This field channels these energetic particles towards the poles, where they interact with atmospheric gases to produce the famous Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis) and Southern Lights (Aurora Australis). While Mars does not have a global magnetic field like Earth, it has localized magnetic fields and a very thin atmosphere by comparison (less than 1% of the atmospheric pressure).
On Earth, the most common color associated with auroras is green, which is caused by the excitation of oxygen atoms. For years, scientists predicted that Mars might also experience green light auroras, except they would be far fainter and more difficult to image. Hence why all previous observations of auroras on Mars have been by orbiters in ultraviolet wavelengths. This includes NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN), which observed an SEP aurora from orbit in 2014.
Consequently, capturing this image required serious coordination and timing. Elise Knutsen, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oslo in Norway, was the lead author of the study that reported the detection, which recently appeared inScience Advances. Since SEPs typically occur during solar storms, especially during the peak of the Sun's eleven-year solar cycle (aka solar maximum), Knutsen and her team planned their observations to coincide with the peak of the Sun's current solar cycle.
They also created models that determined the optical angle for the Perseverance rover's SuperCam spectrometer and Mastcam-Z camera to observe it. The next step consisted of waiting for the right type of CME to happen. This task fell to NASA's Moon to Mars (M2M) Space Weather Analysis Office and the Community Coordinated Modeling Center (CCMC) at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. The former provides real-time analysis of solar eruptions to the CCMC, which uses the data to run simulations of CMEs and determine if they could impact NASA missions.
When their simulations predict a potentially hazardous CME, the M2M team sends out of alert. As Knutsen explained in a NASA press release:
"The trick was to pick a good CME, one that would accelerate and inject many charged particles into Mars' atmosphere. When we saw the strength of this one, we estimated it could trigger [an] aurora bright enough for our instruments to detect. This exciting discovery opens up new possibilities for auroral research and confirms that auroras could be visible to future astronauts on Mars' surface."
The team included researchers from Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP), UC Berkeley, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, and Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which collaboratively oversee NASA's MAVEN mission. By coordinating Perseverance's observations with measurements from MAVEN's SEP instrument, the teams helped determine that the light detected was the same emission line as green auroras on Earth.
"Perseverance's observations of the visible-light aurora confirm a new way to study these phenomena that's complementary to what we can observe with our Mars orbiters," said Katie Stack Morgan, acting project scientist for Perseverance at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "A better understanding of auroras and the conditions around Mars that lead to their formation are especially important as we prepare to send human explorers there safely."
What's more, future astronauts are likely to be able to see this type of aurora from the Martian surface. While most will be difficult to see, mission crews could spend up to a year on the surface,
This is Ingo Swann. He worked with the CIA. He claimed he could see Jupiter while sitting millions of miles away in a room. In 1973, he saw rings around Jupiter — a detail later confirmed in 1979 by the Voyager space probe, which discovered the Jovian ring system.
Ingo Swann was an American artist who had special psychic abilities, which means he could do things like extrasensory perception (ESP) and psychokinesis or moving objects with his mind.
Because of his abilities, he took part in experiments in 1970s that showed these powers might be real. He played an important role in the study of remote viewing. He was involved in remote viewing experiments established by the U.S. Army and the CIA in collaboration with the Stanford Research Institute.
This clandestine initiative — code-named Project Stargate — later became the basis for the movie The Men Who Stare at Goats, starring George Clooney and Jeff Bridges. (Source)
In July 1971, Ingo Swann took part in an experiment during a party where people were trying to photograph signs of psychic powers in a dark room. In Swann’s photo, a ball of light appeared above his head. This event, along with other experiences, helped him realize that he had psychic abilities, which he had first noticed when he was a child.
This led him to become involved in the study of psychic phenomena.
One researcher, Gertrude Schmeidler, tested him at the American Society for Psychical Research. Swann was able to change the temperature of graphite samples without touching them. The setup was carefully controlled to avoid outside influence.
For example, the temperature sensor was kept in a thermos 25 feet away. Instructions were given in a strict, pre-planned order, alternating between trying to make things hotter or colder.
Results showed that Swann could change the temperature near the target and also cause the opposite effect in a faraway area. These changes weren’t based on physical factors like distance, but rather on mental or psychological ones.
Around the same time, Swann also worked with Cleve Backster (interrogation specialist for the CIA), who studied how plants react to thoughts and emotions.
Swann also worked with Cleve Backster, interrogation specialist for the CIA.
But after a few tries, the plant stopped reacting—possibly because it “learned” nothing bad would happen. When a new threat, like acid, was imagined, the plant reacted again, but this too faded over time. They believed these meant plants might have some kind of awareness or consciousness.
Swann tried to affect a plant that was hooked up to a lie detector. When he imagined burning the leaf, the machine showed a reaction, as if the plant was stressed.
But after a few tries, the plant stopped reacting—possibly because it “learned” nothing bad would happen. When a new threat, like acid, was imagined, the plant reacted again, but this too faded over time. They believed this meant plants might have some kind of awareness or consciousness.
Swann also influenced the electrical behavior of graphite in other tests, both from nearby and remotely.
He even affected pressurized gas in small containers. Electrodes picked up changes in electron activity at the exact times he was focusing on the gas, almost like he was sending invisible energy beams into it. He called these his “psi probes.” He was also able to affect his own blood cell
Because of these successes, Swann became more deeply involved in research on psychic abilities.
Ingo Swann continued doing psychic research for a long time at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI). When he first arrived at SRI, he was tested again for his psychokinetic (PK) abilities at a nearby lab. In this test, he tried to mentally affect the magnetic field of a very sensitive device called a Josephson junction, which was inside a quark detector. (Source)
This machine is designed to pick up tiny particles smaller than atoms. The equipment was completely sealed off—it was covered with layers of aluminum and copper and buried deep in concrete, so no one could physically reach it.
During the times Swann was visualizing changes, the machine recorded unusual changes in its output. These changes couldn’t be explained by things like traffic vibrations or Swann secretly moving around.
At one point, he even managed to stop the output of the device for 45 seconds. This was such a surprising result that the only way to explain it—if you didn’t believe in PK—would be to assume that someone running the experiment was cheating or helping him, which was not the case.
In 1971, Swann took part in tests for ESP (extra-sensory perception) at the American Society for Psychical Research. He was connected to an EEG machine, which recorded his brain activity, while he lay down and tried to have an out-of-body experience.
The goal was to describe objects placed on a tray that he couldn’t see. Some of the tests were successful, especially when Swann talked about his feelings and impressions rather than trying to give exact descriptions. During the successful trials, his brain showed high alpha wave activity, a type of brain pattern that often appears in other psi experiments too.
Around the same time, a computer scientist Jacques Vallée became interested in remote viewing. Vallée learned about psi research being done at the Stanford Research Institute by Russell Targ and Hal Puthoff. He was also working there on the ARPAnet, which later evolved into the Internet.
Vallée designed a remote viewing experiment using the ARPAnet. He invited twelve people involved in psi research, including Swann, to take part. Each person was located in different parts of the US and Canada. They had to describe mineral rock samples that were hidden from view, and they typed their responses through computer terminals—making this one of the first online psychic experiments. (Source)
The samples were split into two types of tests: some where the participants knew a little about the possible targets (open series), and others where they had no clue (double-blind series).
A group of five independent judges rated the accuracy of their descriptions. Overall, the correct sample was identified in 8 out of 33 trials, which had odds of about 100 to 1 against chance—considered statistically significant. But Swann did even better. In his few attempts, he was always correct, performing well above chance.
The results supported the idea that remote viewing is real, and they challenged critics who said positive results only happen because of sloppy experimental methods. However, while the experiment did show evidence of psi, the specific thing Vallée was trying to test—his main experimental idea—didn’t succeed.
For Stargate, Swann and a group of psychics used their abilities to spy on Russia from Palo Alto, California, even remotely discovering a downed Soviet spy plane under a jungle canopy in the African country of Zaire after the U.S. Department of Defense had deemed it lost.
Swann’s various remote views of celestial bodies included: Jupiter (1973), Mercury (1974), the Moon (1975), and Mars (1975, 1976, and 1984). Selected information on these sessions is provided below. More can be found in his archives at the University of West Georgia.
In one early test, Swann was given map coordinates for ten different locations and had to identify the correct one. He got it right seven times, which is much better than random chance. He was equally successful when the coordinates were scrambled or when the places he viewed were secret locations in China or Russia, later verified by satellite images. This showed his ability was truly psychic, not just a strong memory of geography.
Swann had many impressive successes. For example, he accurately described details of the French-controlled island of Kerguelen, including a joint French-Russian weather station. He also described the rings around the planet Jupiter six years before the Voyager spacecraft confirmed them. His description of crystals in Jupiter’s atmosphere was later confirmed by the Galileo space mission.
THE 1973 REMOTE VIEWING PROBE OF THE PLANET JUPITER
In 1973, the scientific community, universities, and media strongly rejected any research into psychic or paranormal abilities, including parapsychology and psycho-energetics. So, it was surprising and shocking when the Stanford Research Institute ties to the military and intelligence agencies, began researching these topics.
One of their early experiments was called the “Jupiter Probe.” Its goal was to explore and understand how far human remote sensing abilities could reach—that is, the ability to sense or perceive things from a distance without using normal senses. Because these abilities were so unusual, the experiment was considered very radical and carefully reviewed by top scientists and supervisors before it happened.
The Jupiter Probe experiment was run by respected physicists Dr. H.E. Puthoff and Russell Targ at SRI’s Radio Physics Laboratory. Despite this, some people who don’t believe in psychic research have mocked the experiment without actually studying it carefully.
Two key points skeptics often ignore are that the Jupiter Probe was meant only as a first, exploratory test and not as a claim that remote sensing to distant planets is real. Also, skeptics tend to hide the fact that the experiment had important and respected sponsors and scientific oversight. (Source)
The experiment’s unusual subject—remote sensing a planet far away like Jupiter—was very different from the simpler psychic tests common at the time, like guessing cards. This new, bold topic made both mainstream scientists and even parapsychologists uncomfortable because it challenged accepted ideas about what is possible.
He could see how it was shining with a blinding light. He could look at it from all directions of his mind’s eye. At first, everything was seen in miniature and then everything was suddenly expanded.
“These visions are inside me, then outside. There is a yellow cast to space and seeming dark objects show through it. Can they be other moons of contrasting colors or densities? The impressions come to me that there are 17, some yet undiscovered by earth scientists, much closer to Jupiter, and the feeling also comes that some of them have been and are being spawned by the conclusive, volcanic action in the interior..,” Swann said, according to the document.”
Ingo also “saw” rings around Jupiter, but, he said that they were not as noticeable as that of Saturn.
Later, in 1979, the space probe Voyager confirmed the existence of the Jovian ring system; however, the hypothesis of its existence was put forward by the Soviet astronomer Sergey Vsehsvatskiy in the 1960s.
Scientists later confirmed thirteen surprising details Swann described.
These included things like a layer of hydrogen gas around the planet, strong storms and tornado-like cyclones, very high heat detected in infrared, unusual temperature layers, the color and shape of clouds, orange as the main color, presence of water or ice crystals in the air, and even a ring inside Jupiter’s atmosphere.
Many of these things were confirmed by scientific research between the early 1970s and late 1970s, with some confirmed as early as 1973 and others as late as 1979. Scientists initially did not believe there was a ring inside Jupiter’s atmosphere until it was officially discovered in 1979.
Swann may have also given the CIA information about ancient civilizations on Mars. The CIA started the Stargate project in 1970 because they had heard the Soviet Union was spending a lot of money on research into psychic phenomena.
Some people who don’t believe in psychic research have mocked this experiment, but they often miss two important points: first, the Jupiter remote viewing was just an initial test, not a definite claim of discovery; second, the experiment had strong support and oversight from respected scientists and organizations.
Trying to remotely sense a faraway planet was a very unusual and challenging idea, going against normal scientific beliefs and the usual parapsychology methods at the time.
Six of these thirteen factors were given scientific substantiation by 1975. Before Jupiter’s ring was “scientifically” discovered in 1979, most scientists flatly denounced the possibility of the RING. (Source)
In February 1975, Swann was contacted by a high-ranking official in Washington who warned him that a man named Axelrod would call him.
Soon after, Swann met Axelrod in a mysterious way—he was blindfolded and flown by helicopter to a secret underground place. Axelrod was not his real name, adding to the secrecy.
Axelrod told Swann that the government wanted to use his remote viewing abilities for a secret mission and offered him a large payment. Swann agreed. Axelrod asked what Swann knew about the Moon, revealing that the government wanted the Moon to be remotely viewed.
When Swann began remote viewing the Moon, he saw surprising images. He described a huge tower, as big as a famous United Nations building, and was told it wasn’t built by humans but by unknown extraterrestrials.
In later sessions, Swann saw many strange things like dome-shaped buildings, advanced machines, tall towers, large cross-shaped structures, strange tubes, and mining activities. It seemed someone had built a secret base on the Moon.
Swann also saw a group of naked human-like people inside some kind of enclosure, digging into a cliff. Suddenly, Axelrod stopped the sessions, warning that these beings might have noticed Swann was watching and that he could be in danger.
Axelrod asked if Swann knew a man named George Leonard, who Swann did not know. Leonard was writing a book called “Somebody Else is on the Moon,” published in 1977, which described strange structures on the Moon—exactly the kind of things Axelrod was worried about.
Swann and Axelrod had several secret meetings that felt like scenes from a spy movie. These meetings ended suddenly in 1977, leaving Swann unsure if what he saw was an alien base or a secret Earth-based facility on the Moon.
The mystery is still unsolved, but it raises questions about aliens secretly using the Moon, similar to other claims about aliens on Earth.
A 1997 book, ‘Remote Viewers by Jim Schnabel’ discusses U.S. intelligence’s use of psychic spying in the 1970s. One remote viewer, Pat Price, believed that Mount Hayes in Alaska was home to a large alien base. He described these aliens as human-like but with different internal organs and the ability to control people’s minds. Price said this base caused problems for both U.S. and Soviet space missions.
FYI, in an interview with biochemist Colm Kelleher (with New Thinking Allowed host, Jeffrey Mishlove), who wasthe manager of AAWSAP through a contract with Bigelow Aerospace. He was also part of NIDS at Skinwalker. He also mentions an intelligence guy named Axelrod, but goes into more detail like how he was deployed in Iraq and how Axelrod was at Skinwalker along with Kelleher, Bigelow, and others, including some of their families.
In the late 1990s, Ingo Swann was studied by a neuroscience team led by Michael Persinger at Laurentian University. They wanted to understand how his brain worked during remote viewing—his reported ability to see distant places or objects using only his mind.
In their first study, they found unusual brain activity in Swann while he was successfully remote viewing. Specifically, there were 7-Hz (hertz) spikes and slow brain waves over the back part of his brain, known as the occipital lobes.
MRI scans also showed that the part of his brain where the parietal and occipital areas meet—especially on the right side—was physically and functionally different from most people’s brains.
Persinger concluded that magnetic fields could enhance Swann’s remote viewing and that specific brain activity patterns were linked to when he succeeded.
In a second study, Swann was asked to remote view images on cards, which had been exposed to patterned magnetic fields. Some cards were exposed to signals from DOS (an older computer system), and others to Windows (a newer, more complex system).
Swann could view the DOS-exposed cards accurately, but not the Windows-exposed ones. Persinger believed this was because the simpler magnetic field from DOS helped with remote viewing, while the more complicated field from Windows interfered and made it harder to focus on the target.
On Tuesday, astronomers watched as a vast 'bird wing' eruption sent waves of superheated plasma surging across the sun's northern hemisphere.
At over 600,000 miles long (one million km), the filament of solar material was more than twice as long as the distance from the Earth to the moon.
Now, scientists predict that part of this filament eruption could hit Earth tomorrow.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, aurora chaser Jure Atanackov predicted that the full force of this eruption could trigger a severe or even extreme geomagnetic storm, the highest level on official rating systems.
Stunning video recorded by NASA's solar observation satellites shows the moment that filaments of plasma 75 times larger than Earth peeled away from the sun in a pair of sweeping 'wings'.
Most of the material was shot out of the sun's north pole, so it will mostly avoid Earth.
However, astronomers say that Earth will probably receive a glancing blow from the wake of the passing storm.
That means there is an increased chance of being able to spot the Northern Lights and a risk of disruption to electrical equipment.
Astronomers have detected a 'bird wing' solar eruption emerging from the sun on Tuesday, and say it is heading for Earth
Astronomers now warn that the enormous filament eruption could strike Earth with a glancing blow tomorrow (artist's impression)
Aurora chasers watching the eruption were shocked by its sheer size, with one saying it could cause a G5 or 'extreme' geomagnetic storm
Solar filaments are dense ribbons of cooler solar plasma which are suspended above the sun's surface by powerful magnetic fields.
When these magnetic fields become unstable, they can release the filaments in a violent eruption.
Jake Foster, astronomer at the Royal Observatory Greenwich, told MailOnline: 'Loops of hot plasma can sprout up from the Sun’s surface, following along its magnetic field lines, and occasionally they break free and shoot off into space at high speeds.'
Sometimes this triggers an event called a coronal mass ejection, a wave of plasma and magnetic fields which is launched into space.
It is the arrival of these coronal mass ejections (CMEs) which trigger geomagnetic storms and enhanced auroral activity on Earth.
As astronomers observed, this is exactly what happened on Tuesday as two huge filaments became unstable and collapsed, triggering a huge CME.
As the filament eruption tore away from the sun's surface, eagerly-watching aurora chasers were amazed by the sheer scale of the blast.
Mr Atanackov wrote in a post on X that the blast 'dwarfs all the filament eruptions we have seen recently.'
At over 600,000 miles long (one million km), the filament of solar material was more than twice as long as the distance from the Earth to the moon
Northern Lights photographer Vincent Ledvina dubbed it the 'bird-wing' or 'angel-wing' eruption
The Met Office predicts that the arrival of the solar eruption could create a chance to see the Northern Lights over Scotland
Likewise, Northern Lights photographer Vincent Ledvina said: 'Not sure what to call this eruption, maybe the "bird-wing" or "angel-wing" event? Either way, it is truly something to witness! Look at how large the blast is off the Sun's northern hemisphere.'
In her solar forecast, space weather physicist Dr Tamitha Skov reported a 'massive dual filament launch that could give Earth a glancing blow.'
When a filament eruption escapes the solar surface, it leaves behind a cool 'scar' on the sun, which shows up as a dark region in solar imaging cameras.
While it initially appeared that most of the blast had been directed northward, away from Earth, the remains scars suggested that some of the eruption could be coming our way.
Dr Skov said: 'You’d think this was just going northward. But, believe it or not, the scar from this thing as it lifted off the sun makes us think that maybe there's part of this that’s Earth-directed.'
It is considered likely that part of the CME or its wake will hit Earth tomorrow, causing a minor geomagnetic storm and lingering effects for a few days.
Mr Foster says: 'These eruptions are huge collections of high energy solar particles, so when they hit the Earth’s atmosphere they can cause a few different effects.
'With enough energy, they have the potential to cause a geomagnetic storm, temporarily blocking out radio communications and satellite navigation in certain areas.
Cool regions known as scars left by the filament eruption indicate that some of the coronal mass ejection is heading towards Earth
'On the more serious end of the scale, they can cause an overload to electrical infrastructure, damaging the power grid and railway lines, and potentially even sparking electrical fires.'
Additionally, as charged particles from the sun arrive, they are channelled towards the poles by the planet's powerful magnetic fields.
These particles then collide with nitrogen and oxygen in the air, transferring their energy into the gases and causing them to glow, in an effect we see as the aurora.
Since the Earth's magnetic fields protect us extremely well from these charged particles, auroras are only normally visible close to the magnetic poles.
Although Dr Skov predicts a 20 per cent chance of a major storm occurring, the chances of significant geomagnetic activity are low.
Stephen Dixon, Met Office spokesperson, told MailOnline: 'A coronal mass ejection could possibly glance the Earth later this evening and could lead to aurora being visible in northern Scotland, though there is low confidence in this.
'Should it occur, skies are relatively clear, but viewers might need to take a photo with a long exposure.'
Earth could be hit by 600,000 mile-wide 'bird wing' solar eruption TOMORROW, astronomers warn
A massive solar filament over 600,000 miles long erupted from the sun's northern hemisphere earlier this week, in a dramatic event dubbed a 'bird wing' eruption by scientists.
Why It Matters
This filament, more than twice the distance between Earth and the moon, was captured by satellites peeling away from the sun in "wings" 75 times larger than Earth.
Specialists indicated that any impact would likely increase auroral activity and could trigger a minor geomagnetic storm.
The eruption, made up of superheated plasma and charged particles, raised concerns of potential disruptions, but its impact was minimal.
(X/@TamithaSkov)
What To Know
The eruption occurred late on Monday into Tuesday, according to Space.com.
Most solar material was headed away from Earth, but scientists expressed concerns about a glancing blow, according to the Daily Mail. If this happens, the most likely results would be enhanced auroral displays, particularly at high latitudes and a minor geomagnetic disturbance.
According to NASA, a solar filament is a vast, luminous structure that projects outward from the Sun's surface. These features are rooted in the photosphere and stretch outward into the Sun's hot outer atmosphere, known as the corona. Prominences typically take about a day to form, and those that remain stable can endure in the corona for several months, arching hundreds of thousands of miles into space.
Jake Foster, astronomer at the U.K.'s Royal Observatory Greenwich, told the Mail that eruptions of this type can cause geomagnetic storms, potentially blocking out radio communications and disrupting satellite navigation in some areas.
Sarah Matthews, a professor of solar physics with the University College London's Mullard Space Science Lab told Newsweek that some effects from the eruption would be possible on Friday.
Matthews said that while most of the event was directed northward, the lower flank did make its way into the Earth-Sun line.
"Based on the current forecasts, it looks like at most a minor geomagnetic storm, with an increased chance of high latitude aurora, but probably not making it mid latitudes."
What People Are Saying
Krista Hammond, a space weather expert at the U.K.'s Met Office told Newsweek: "On Tuesday we observed an eruption of plasma from the Sun which a very common event at this point in the solar cycle. Because of where this left the Sun, the vast majority of the material will miss Earth. This means that even if we do receive a glancing blow from the eruption, it will be
Space weather physicist Tamitha Skov said on X, formerly Twitter, Tuesday: "The Earth-facing side of our Sun has been taking a bit of a nap recently, but finally did something noteworthy! Check out this gorgeous "bird wing" filament eruption today. Thus far, it looks like it will mostly miss us, but we could get the wake of the structure passing by Earth sometime May 16."
What Happens Next
"We've seen some more activity from a sunspot region that recently rotated on to the front side of the disk, but because that's not yet well connected to us it's not causing too much in the way of disturbance at the moment," Matthews said.
"That may change in the coming days as it rotates further towards the West limb of the sun though."
The Deepening Mystery Around the JWST's Early Galaxies
The Deepening Mystery Around the JWST's Early Galaxies
By Evan Gough
When the JWST found Little Red Dot galaxies, astronomers were puzzled. They appeared to be brighter, and more massive, than galaxies should be in the very early Universe. New research is deepening this mystery. Image Credit: Matthee et al. 2024, The Astrophysical Journal. CC BY 4.0
When the JWST came to life and began observations, one of its first jobs was to gaze back in time at the early Universe. The Assembly of Galaxies is one of the space telescope's four main science themes, and when it observed the Universe's first galaxies, it uncovered a mystery. Some of them appear to have supermassive black holes (SMBH) in their centers that are fuelling active galactic nuclei (AGN). However, they're not emitting X-rays, which is one of the hallmarks of AGN.
Little Red Dot (LRD) galaxies are small, red galaxies that formed about 600 million years after the Big Bang. The JWST has found more than 300 of them, but they remain a mystery collectively. Their brightness indicated they're more massive and swollen with stars than they should be at an early age. Our models suggest there wasn't enough time for them to grow so massive.
Astronomers then discovered AGN signatures that could explain the excess light. Rather than only stars, the LRD's excess light came from AGN. That would mean that the LRDs wouldn't need to be so massive to emit all that light, and their size wouldn't challenge our galaxy evolution models.
Unfortunately, that potential conclusion causes another problem. AGN emit powerful X-rays as the material swirling around in their accretion disks heats up. However, according to new research, LRDs appear to emit no X-rays.
The new research, titled "Chandra Rules Out Super-Eddington Accretion For Little Red Dots," has been submitted to The Astrophysical Journal. The authors are Andrea Sacchi and Akos Bogdan, both from the Harvard and Smithsonian Centers for Astrophysics. The paper is currently available at arxiv.org.
"A key feature of LRDs is their extreme X-ray weakness: analyses of individual and stacked sources have yielded non-detections or only tentative, inconclusive X-ray signals, except for a handful of individual cases," the authors write.
The lack of X-rays winds everything backward. If there are no X-rays, there can't be AGN with accretion disks. If there are no accretion disks, then LRD's powerful brightness can't come from SMBHs. If it can't come from SMBHs, it has to come from stars. Then we're back to square one: trying to explain how early galaxies were so massive and swollen with stars.
This Chandra image from the research shows the 55 LRDs in the Chandra Deep Field South in the 0.3 − 7 keV X-ray band. This range encompasses both soft X-rays and a good portion of the hard X-ray band. It's a broad and informative band for astrophysical observations, yet it turned up no X-ray detections.
Image Credit: Sacchi and Bogdan, 2025, The Astrophysical Journal.
Some researchers have suggested another solution. They say that the SMBHs are experiencing super-Eddington accretion rates.
SMBH black hole accretion is governed by the Eddington limit. The Eddington limit is a fundamental concept in astrophysics that explains the maximum brightness and accretion rates for astrophysical objects like SMBH. An object reaches the Eddington limit when two forces are balanced: outward radiation and inward gravitation. If one of these forces is too powerful, the object either expels its outer layers or ceases further accretion.
Astrophysicists know that the Eddington limit influences SMBH growth. However, they've proposed what's called super-Eddington accretion to explain how these massive objects became so massive so early in the Universe. Objects can exceed the Eddington limit for periods of time and experience super-Eddington accretion. Can that explain why LRDs are so bright while also being so weak in X-rays?
The authors point out that the only other explanation for the lack of X-rays is obscuration, and that explanation hasn't held up.
"As the most natural explanation, high obscuration, is disfavored by JWST spectroscopic evidence, several authors have suggested that the X-ray weakness of LRDs is intrinsic, due to super-Eddington accretion rates," the authors write. "In this work, we test that scenario by stacking X-ray data for 55 LRDs in the Chandra Deep Field South, accumulating a total exposure time of nearly 400 Ms."
400 megaseconds is the cumulative observing time for the 55 LRDs combined, not the total telescope observing time. That's an impressive depth of observation for the 55 objects. If super-Eddington accretion were occurring, that would explain the lack of X-rays.
Super-Eddington accretion still creates X-rays. However, those photons can get trapped in the accretion flow. They can also be absorbed or scattered by outflows and winds, or obscured by the thick disk or envelope around the SMBH. Current models show that super-Eddington accretion still emits X-rays, but as lower-energy soft X-rays. 400 megaseconds of stacked X-ray observations should detect them.
However, they didn't.
The Chandra X-ray Observatory is the world's most powerful X-ray telescope. It has eight times greater resolution and can detect sources more than 20 times fainter than any previous X-ray telescope. 400 megaseconds of stacked observing time should've detected X-rays if they were being emitted.
Image Credit: NASA/CXC & J. Vaughan
"Despite reaching unprecedented X-ray depths, our stack still yields a non-detection," the authors write. "The corresponding upper limits are deep enough to rule out current super-Eddington accretion models, and are compatible only with extremely high levels of obscuration."
The authors say we're left with only one explanation: "To explain the X-ray weakness of LRDs, we therefore speculate that the SMBHs in these systems are neither as massive nor as luminous as currently believed. " Other researchers have also suggested this.
So what's going on if observations show no X-rays, and if the JWST shows that dust obscuration is responsible?
"If the bolometric luminosities are overestimated by an order of magnitude, much lower levels of obscuration can hide the X-ray emission from accreting SMBHs without invoking super-Eddington accretion," the authors conclude.
The JWST has fulfilled its promise by revealing the Universe's earliest galaxies. That the results go against our models isn't surprising. Every new mission and telescope delivers some surprises, and scientists often look forward to surprising results.
For now, the LRD galaxies are unexplained. In fact, the mystery has deepened.
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The Cosmic Origins of Life: Exploring the Evidence for Panspermia and Earth's Biological Heritage
The Cosmic Origins of Life: Exploring the Evidence for Panspermia and Earth's Biological Heritage
Abstract: Recent scientific developments have rekindled interest in the hypothesis that life on Earth may have extraterrestrial origins. This dissertation examines the multifaceted evidence supporting this idea, including the concept of life from space, the historical trajectory of the panspermia theory, cosmic chemistry of life's ingredients, and Earth's resilience in hosting life. We explore critical perspectives, the gaps in current knowledge, and the notion of a universe that breathes life. The synthesis of these themes suggests that Earth's biosphere may be a product of cosmic seeding, challenging traditional Earth-centric origins and opening new avenues for astrobiology.
Introduction
The origin of life on Earth remains one of the most profound scientific mysteries. While many scientists favor the hypothesis of abiogenesis—life arising from non-living matter—an alternative perspective posits that life was seeded from space, either via comets, meteorites, or cosmic dust. This concept, known as panspermia, has gained renewed interest due to discoveries of complex organic molecules in space and the resilience of microorganisms under harsh conditions. This dissertation delves into why some scientists now consider that Earth's life may have extraterrestrial roots, exploring scientific evidence, historical ideas, and cosmic chemistry.
1. Life from Space: The Forgotten Idea That Never Quite Died
The question of life's origins has fascinated humanity for centuries. For much of this period, most scientific and philosophical thought centered on the idea that life began uniquely on Earth—spontaneously emerging from the primordial "soup" of chemicals, driven by natural processes. This terrestrial origin theory dominated scientific discourse and public imagination. However, an alternative concept, often overshadowed by these mainstream ideas, has persisted through history: that life or its fundamental building blocks originate beyond our planet. This notion, known as panspermia, suggests that life may have extraterrestrial origins, arriving on Earth via space-faring objects such as comets, meteorites, or cosmic dust.
While the idea that life might have cosmic beginnings was largely neglected or dismissed for centuries, recent scientific discoveries have rekindled interest in this hypothesis. In particular, the detection of organic molecules—complex carbon-based compounds essential for life—in space rocks has provided compelling evidence that the ingredients for life are widespread throughout the universe. One of the most famous cases is the Murchison meteorite, which fell in Australia in 1969. Analysis of this meteorite revealed the presence of amino acids—the fundamental building blocks of proteins, which are crucial for the development of life as we know it. The discovery indicated that complex organic molecules could form naturally in space and be transported across vast distances, challenging the notion that life’s origins are solely Earth-bound.
This resurgence of interest in extraterrestrial origins can be traced back to the ideas of ancient philosophers and scientists. The Greek philosopher Anaxagoras, for instance, speculated that life might have originated elsewhere and been transported to Earth. Moving forward to the early 20th century, Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius revived the concept in a more scientific framework. Arrhenius proposed that microscopic organisms could be propelled through space embedded within dust particles or comets, traveling across the cosmos and seeding planets like Earth with life. His ideas laid the groundwork for what would later be called panspermia—a term derived from the Greek words “pan” (all) and “sperma” (seed).
Panspermia is not merely a hypothesis about the movement of microorganisms; it encompasses a broader view that life’s building blocks, or even primitive life forms, can survive the harsh conditions of space and the entry into planetary atmospheres. This idea is appealing because it circumvents many of the difficulties faced by the traditional abiogenesis theory, which posits that life arose spontaneously from inorganic chemicals in Earth's primordial environment. Instead, panspermia suggests that life was "seeded" on Earth from extraterrestrial sources, perhaps during its violent early history when the planet was bombarded by comets and meteorites.
The persistence of the panspermia hypothesis demonstrates its resilience in scientific discussions. It also reflects a shift in understanding that the universe is replete with organic molecules. Recent space missions and telescopic observations have confirmed that the building blocks of life are abundant in space. For example, the detection of amino acids and other organic compounds in comets and meteorites implies that the universe is a chemically rich environment where prebiotic chemistry occurs naturally.
The significance of these discoveries extends beyond mere chemical abundance. They suggest that the basic ingredients necessary for life are not unique to Earth but are widespread throughout the cosmos. This notion has profound implications for astrobiology—the scientific study of life's potential in the universe. If organic molecules are common, it raises the possibility that life, or at least its precursors, could also be common in other planetary systems. This, in turn, fuels the debate about the likelihood of extraterrestrial life existing elsewhere in the universe.
Furthermore, the idea that life could be transported through space provides a plausible mechanism for how life might have originated on Earth. During the tumultuous period of its formation, Earth was subject to intense asteroid and comet impacts. These collisions could have carried organic molecules or primitive microorganisms, effectively delivering the necessary ingredients or even viable life forms to the young planet. Such "impact delivery" processes could have jump-started biological evolution, providing a biological inventory that would otherwise take immeasurable time to assemble from scratch.
In recent decades, advances in microbiology have shown that some microorganisms are remarkably resilient. Certain species can survive extreme conditions, including high radiation levels, vacuum, and temperature fluctuations—conditions typical of space environments. Experiments conducted on the International Space Station and in laboratory settings have demonstrated that some microbes can endure the journey through space, supporting the feasibility of panspermia.
Despite its intriguing potential, the panspermia hypothesis remains controversial and is not universally accepted. Critics argue that while organic molecules are widespread, the transfer of viable microorganisms across space is improbable given the extreme conditions involved. Moreover, even if life or its building blocks arrived from space, questions remain about whether this explains the origin of life itself or simply transfers the problem elsewhere.
Nevertheless, the idea that life might have cosmic origins continues to inspire scientific research and philosophical pondering. Missions like the European Space Agency's Rosetta probe, which analyzed the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, and NASA’s ongoing explorations of Mars and icy moons aim to uncover more evidence of extraterrestrial organic compounds or microbial life. These endeavors could eventually confirm or refute the panspermia hypothesis, shedding light on one of the most profound questions in science: where did life come from?
In conclusion, the idea of life from space—the notion that life or its building blocks arrived on Earth via cosmic carriers—remains a captivating and scientifically plausible hypothesis. With accumulating evidence of organic molecules in space and the resilience of microorganisms, the "forgotten" idea continues to challenge the terrestrial-centric view of life's origins. As our understanding of the universe expands, so too does the possibility that life is not unique to Earth but a widespread phenomenon, born in the stars and carried across the cosmos.
2. Cosmic Chemistry: Tracing Life’s Ingredients Across the Solar System
The concept of cosmic chemistry explores the fascinating idea that the fundamental building blocks of life are not exclusive to Earth but are instead widespread throughout the solar system. Advances in astrochemistry—a field that combines astronomy and chemistry—have significantly expanded our understanding of how complex organic molecules form and distribute in space. These molecules, including amino acids, sugars, and nucleobases, are crucial components in the chemistry of life as we know it. Their presence across various celestial bodies suggests that the ingredients for life are common in the cosmos, potentially supporting theories like panspermia, which proposes that life or its precursors could be transferred between planets via space debris.
One of the key methods scientists use to study cosmic organic molecules is through astronomical observations with telescopes and dedicated space missions. These tools allow researchers to analyze the atmospheres of planets and moons, as well as the composition of comets and asteroids. Comets, often called "dirty snowballs," contain a mixture of ice, dust, and organic compounds that have remained relatively unchanged since the early solar system. Space missions such as the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft have provided direct evidence of organic molecules within comets. In 2014, the Rosetta mission’s analysis of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko confirmed the presence of amino acids and other complex organic compounds. This discovery was groundbreaking because it demonstrated that comets carry essential ingredients for life, which could have been delivered to Earth and other planets during the solar system's formation.
Similarly, meteorites—fragments of asteroids that have fallen to Earth—have been found to contain rich assemblages of organic molecules. The Murchison meteorite, which fell in Australia in 1969, is famous for its complex organic composition, including amino acids, hydrocarbons, and other prebiotic molecules. These findings suggest that organic chemistry occurs naturally in space and that such materials can survive the intense conditions of atmospheric entry and impact, ultimately reaching planetary surfaces where they might contribute to prebiotic chemistry.
A snapshot of the surface of the near-Earth carbonaceous asteroid Ryugu taken by the Hayabusa2 spacecraft just before landing.
Credit: JAXA / U. Tokyo / Kochi U./Rikkyo U./Nagoya U./Chiba Inst. Tech./Meiji U./U. Aizu / AIST
Japan’s Hayabusa2 mission, which targeted asteroid Ryugu, exemplifies recent efforts to analyze space-derived organics. Launched in 2014, Hayabusa2 collected samples from Ryugu and returned them to Earth in 2020. Preliminary analysis of these samples indicates that Ryugu’s material is rich in organic compounds, including amino acids, which are essential building blocks of proteins. Interestingly, nucleobases such as uracil—important components of RNA—have also been detected in the samples. The presence of uracil is particularly significant because it plays a key role in genetic information storage and transfer in living organisms
However, despite these exciting discoveries, some organic molecules, notably sugars such as ribose, have not yet been identified in the samples. The absence of sugars may be due to limitations in current analytical techniques or the small size of the collected samples, which makes detection more challenging. It is also possible that sugars are present but in quantities below the current detection thresholds or that they are more fragile and have degraded over time. Future advancements in analytical methods and the collection of larger or more pristine samples could help determine whether sugars and other complex molecules are more widespread in space than current data suggest.
The formation of complex organic molecules in space occurs through various processes driven by energetic phenomena. Ultraviolet radiation from stars can induce chemical reactions in icy grain mantles, leading to the synthesis of complex organics. Shock chemistry—caused by collisions and shock waves in molecular clouds—also facilitates the formation of prebiotic molecules. These processes demonstrate that the chemistry necessary for life can occur naturally in the harsh environments of space, without the need for biological activity. Once formed, these molecules can be incorporated into comets, asteroids, and other small bodies, which may then deliver their organic cargo to planetary surfaces during impacts.
The delivery of organic molecules from space to Earth and other planets has profound implications for the origins of life. It suggests that the building blocks of life are not unique to Earth but are instead distributed throughout the cosmos. This widespread distribution increases the likelihood that life—or at least its precursors—could emerge elsewhere or be transferred from one celestial body to another through mechanisms like panspermia. If these molecules can survive the conditions of space and the process of landing on a planet, they could serve as the initial substrates for prebiotic chemistry, eventually leading to the emergence of living organisms.
In summary, the study of cosmic chemistry reveals that complex organic molecules are common across the solar system. Discoveries from space missions, meteorite analyses, and astronomical observations show that amino acids, nucleobases, and other prebiotic compounds are synthesized in space and can survive the rigors of space travel and planetary impact. Although some molecules like sugars have yet to be definitively detected in extraterrestrial samples, ongoing research continues to uncover the rich organic inventory present in our cosmic neighborhood. These findings support the idea that the ingredients for life are widespread, making the emergence of life on Earth and possibly elsewhere in the universe an increasingly plausible scenario. As analytical techniques improve and new samples are studied, our understanding of the distribution and diversity of cosmic organics will deepen, shedding light on the fundamental question of whether life is unique to Earth or a common feature of the universe.
3. Life’s Brutal Resilience; Earth Was Ready. Maybe Too Ready
One of the most compelling pieces of evidence supporting the theory of cosmic seeding—also known as panspermia—is the extraordinary resilience of life, particularly microorganisms, to extreme conditions. This resilience suggests that life, once originating or arriving in space, could survive the harsh journey through the cosmos and successfully establish itself on hospitable planets like Earth.
The Resilience of Microorganisms
Microorganisms such as tardigrades, bacterial spores, and certain extremophiles are renowned for their ability to withstand environments that would be lethal to most forms of life. Tardigrades, colloquially called "water bears," have demonstrated the capacity to survive the vacuum of space, intense radiation, and temperature extremes. Experiments conducted on these resilient creatures, notably the European Space Agency’s EXPOSE mission aboard the International Space Station, have shown that some microbes can endure prolonged exposure to the vacuum and radiation of space. These findings are significant because they indicate that biological material could survive the interplanetary travel embedded within comets or meteorites.
Bacterial spores, in particular, are highly resistant dormant forms capable of withstanding radiation, desiccation, and extreme temperatures. Their hardy nature makes them prime candidates for surviving the journey across space. When embedded within celestial bodies like comets or meteorites, these spores could potentially be shielded from the most damaging elements of space, remaining viable until they reach a hospitable environment.
Interplanetary Transfer and Survival
The concept of microbial survival during interplanetary transfer is supported by the understanding that celestial bodies such as comets and meteorites frequently collide with planets. These impacts could eject material from one planet and send it hurtling through space, carrying embedded microorganisms. This process, known as lithopanspermia, posits that life—or at least its building blocks—can be transferred between planets.
Once these microbial-laden rocks arrive at a planet like Earth, the question becomes whether they can survive the entry process and establish themselves. Given their resilience, some microbes could endure the intense heat generated during atmospheric entry. Moreover, once on the surface, they could find niches—such as underground caves, hydrothermal vents, or other protected environments—where conditions are suitable for survival and proliferation.
Earth’s Early Environment: A Perfect Host
Earth’s early environment, roughly 4.5 billion years ago, was a tumultuous and volatile place. Its surface was dominated by volcanic activity, frequent asteroid impacts, and a thick, toxic atmosphere. Despite these harsh conditions, Earth was also abundant in water, which is essential for life, and energy sources such as volcanic vents and lightning strikes. These conditions created a dynamic and energetic environment conducive to the emergence and spread of life.
The idea that Earth was "ready" for life hinges on the notion that the planet’s early conditions provided the necessary ingredients—water, energy, and protective niches—for any resilient microorganisms arriving from space to take hold and flourish. The presence of water, in particular, is critical; it acts as a solvent for biochemical reactions and provides a medium where life can develop and evolve.
A Cosmic Perspective on Life’s Origin
This resilience and the early conditions of Earth suggest a paradigm shift in the narrative of life's origins. Instead of viewing Earth as the sole cradle of life, the cosmic seeding hypothesis posits that life is an intrinsic feature of the universe—pervasive and ready to emerge whenever conditions align. Microorganisms with the ability to survive interstellar journeys could have been transported across the cosmos, seeding planets with life whenever they became suitable environments.
This perspective implies that life might be far more common in the universe than previously assumed. The universe’s vastness and the resilience of microbial life increase the possibility that life exists elsewhere, perhaps even thriving on other planets or moons with environments similar to early Earth. It also suggests that Earth's biosphere may have been "seeded" from space, rather than originating solely from terrestrial chemical processes.
Conclusion
In summary, the resilience of microorganisms to space's extreme conditions supports the idea that life could be a cosmic phenomenon, capable of traveling across the universe and establishing itself on worlds like Earth. The early Earth's volatile but water-rich environment provided an ideal setting for such hardy microbes to survive and proliferate. This interplay between cosmic resilience and planetary readiness paints a picture of life as an intrinsic, resilient feature of the universe—ready to emerge whenever the conditions are right. It challenges traditional notions of Earth's unique emergence of life, opening the door to the possibility that life is more widespread and interconnected than previously imagined.
4. Critics and Cosmic Gaps
The panspermia hypothesis presents an intriguing explanation for the origins of life on Earth, suggesting that life, or at least its building blocks, arrived from extraterrestrial sources. However, despite its appeal, this theory faces significant criticism and unresolved scientific questions that challenge its plausibility.
One of the primary concerns revolves around the mechanism of transfer. While it’s hypothesized that microbes or organic molecules could have hitchhiked on space debris such as comets or meteorites, the actual process of transfer remains uncertain. For life to survive the journey through space, it must endure extreme conditions, including intense radiation, vacuum, and temperature fluctuations. Critics argue that the survival of microbes during ejection from their parent planet, their transit through the harsh environment of space, and finally during entry into Earth’s atmosphere is highly improbable. The physical forces involved—such as high-velocity impacts and atmospheric friction—could easily destroy microbial life, making the successful transfer a rare and uncertain event.
Beyond the transfer process, significant cosmic gaps exist in understanding how complex life, particularly multicellular organisms, could have emerged solely from microbial seeding. The transition from simple organic molecules to self-replicating, evolving life involves numerous intricate steps. While organic molecules such as amino acids and nucleotides have been detected in space, the leap from these basic compounds to the formation of primitive life forms remains only partially understood. The pathway through which these molecules assembled into more complex structures capable of replication, metabolism, and eventual cellular organization is still a subject of intense research and debate. Many scientists believe that local prebiotic chemistry on Earth, driven by natural processes, might have sufficed to produce life independently, without extraterrestrial input.
Another critical issue is the lack of direct evidence supporting extraterrestrial life. Despite extensive searches—such as the analysis of meteorites, space missions, and telescopic observations—scientists have yet to find definitive proof that life exists elsewhere in the universe or that it has been transported to Earth. This absence of concrete evidence leaves the panspermia hypothesis within the realm of possibility rather than established fact.
Furthermore, some researchers argue that Earth’s own prebiotic chemistry could explain the origin of life without invoking extraterrestrial sources. The early Earth had a rich environment of organic molecules, water, and energy sources like volcanic activity and lightning, which could have fostered the spontaneous formation of life through natural chemical reactions. This perspective suggests that life’s emergence was an inherent outcome of Earth’s conditions, challenging the necessity of cosmic seeding.
In conclusion, while panspermia offers a compelling narrative for the potential extraterrestrial origins of life, it faces significant scientific hurdles. These include uncertainties about the transfer mechanism, gaps in understanding the transition from simple molecules to complex organisms, and the lack of direct evidence. As scientific techniques advance, future research may clarify these issues, but presently, the hypothesis remains an intriguing yet unconfirmed explanation for the origins of life on Earth.
5. A Universe That Breathes Life
The concept of a universe that breathes life is an intriguing and revolutionary perspective that challenges conventional understanding of cosmology and biology. Emerging theories suggest that life is not a rare accident confined solely to Earth but is, in fact, a fundamental component of the universe itself. This idea posits that the universe actively participates in the creation, distribution, and perhaps even the sustenance of life, giving rise to a dynamic, interconnected cosmic ecosystem.
At the core of this theory is the notion that the universe is a living, breathing entity—often described metaphorically as a "breathing universe." This metaphor implies that cosmic processes are ongoing and cyclical, continually generating and dispersing the building blocks of life. These processes include stellar formations, supernova explosions, planetary system developments, and cosmic dust circulation—all of which play roles in synthesizing organic molecules, complex compounds, and potentially even life forms. The universe, in this view, is not a static expanse but a vibrant, evolving system that actively fosters the emergence and dissemination of life.
One key element of this paradigm is the idea that organic molecules and microorganisms are not confined to Earth but are circulating between celestial bodies. Evidence from meteorites and comets has already shown that organic compounds can survive the harsh conditions of space travel, suggesting that the seeds of life can be transported across the cosmos. This process, known as panspermia, supports the notion that life can be seeded from one planet or star system to another, effectively creating a cosmic web of biological material. Such exchanges would imply that life is more widespread than previously believed, and that Earth’s biosphere is part of a larger, interconnected network of life-bearing worlds.
Furthermore, this perspective aligns with the hypothesis that many planets and moons throughout the universe could host their own biospheres. Places like Europa, Enceladus, and Titan—moons of Jupiter and Saturn—are considered promising candidates due to their subsurface oceans and chemical compositions conducive to life. If the universe is indeed a "breathing" entity, it would mean that life is a natural and inevitable outcome of cosmic processes, arising independently on multiple worlds. This broadens the scope of astrobiology and shifts the focus from searching for isolated instances of extraterrestrial life to understanding the universe as a whole as a cradle for life.
The implications of a universe that sustains and propagates life extend beyond scientific curiosity; they challenge traditional, Earth-centric views of our place in the cosmos. Instead of considering Earth as a unique oasis of life, we would recognize it as part of a vast, interconnected biosphere that spans countless worlds. This interconnectedness suggests a cosmic ecosystem where life is continually rejuvenated and enriched by extraterrestrial sources, creating a dynamic interplay that sustains life across the universe.
Such a paradigm also raises profound philosophical questions about the nature of life and consciousness. If the universe is inherently hospitable and actively involved in creating life, then perhaps life itself is a fundamental aspect of the universe’s fabric—an intrinsic property rather than a rare anomaly. This perspective invites us to reconsider the origins of life, not as a fortunate happenstance but as an essential feature of cosmic evolution.
In conclusion, the idea of a universe that breathes life offers a compelling and expansive view of our universe. It encourages us to see cosmic processes not just as physical phenomena but as vital, life-generating mechanisms. Recognizing the universe as a living, breathing entity that sustains and disperses life fundamentally alters our understanding of existence and our place within this grand cosmic tapestry. It opens new horizons for scientific exploration, philosophical reflection, and our sense of connection to the cosmos—reminding us that we are part of an ongoing, vibrant dance of life that spans the universe.
Conclusion
The hypothesis that Earth was seeded by life from space remains a compelling and evolving scientific narrative. Evidence from cosmic chemistry, the resilience of microorganisms, and the widespread presence of organic molecules in space support the possibility that life’s origins may be cosmic rather than solely terrestrial. While challenges and gaps in understanding persist, the idea that life could be a cosmic phenomenon encourages a broader perspective on our origins and our universe.
As research advances with new space missions and laboratory experiments, the line between Earth life and extraterrestrial life continues to blur. Recognizing Earth as part of a cosmic network of life-bearing worlds could profoundly influence our understanding of biology, evolution, and the universe itself.
References
Arrhenius, S. (1908). Worlds in the Making. Harper & Brothers.
Ehrenfreund, P., & Charnley, S. B. (2000). Organic molecules in the interstellar medium, comets, and meteorites: a voyage from dark clouds to the early Earth. Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics, 38, 427–483.
Flynn, G. J., et al. (2000). Organic matter in the Murchison meteorite: a review. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 64(3), 391–399.
Pearce, A., et al. (2017). Organic molecules in comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko suggest an early Solar System reservoir of prebiotic molecules. Nature Astronomy, 1, 0095.
Horneck, G., et al. (2010). Microbial resistance to space conditions. International Journal of Astrobiology, 9(2), 65–74.
Wallis, M. K., & Wickramasinghe, N. C. (2004). Panspermia: the origin of life from space. International Journal of Astrobiology, 3(2), 41–45.
NASA's Perseverance rover recently captured a photo of green auroras shining in the Martian sky for the first time. The alien light show, previously assumed to be impossible, could be visible to future astronauts.
Auroras have been detected on Mars before. However, unlike in this artist's illustration, they do not normally emit visible light.
(Image credit: Emirates Mars Mission)
NASA's Perseverance rover has captured the first-ever photo of "naked eye" auroras onMars. The alien light show — snapped after the Red Planet was battered by a powerful solar storm last year — is not as visually stunning as Earthly auroras, but it's arguably even more impressive.
The wandering robot snapped the newly released image on March 18, 2024, roughly three days after a sizable cloud of charged particles, known as a coronal mass ejection (CME), erupted from the sun. In a new study, published May 14 in the journal Science Advances, researchers revealed that the CME collided with Mars' patchy magnetic field, exciting the gas within the planet's wispy atmosphere to emit light, similar to how the most vibrant northern lights displays are created on Earth.
In addition to being the first visible auroras on Mars, the faint green lights are believed to be the first auroras anywhere in the solar system to be captured using only visible wavelengths of light.
The new findings raise hopes that human eyes will one day witness auroras on another world firsthand. Under the right circumstances, Martian auroras "will be visible to future astronauts," the researchers wrote.
Faint green light from auroras can be detected in both parts of this photo captured by Perseverance's Mastcam-Z on March 18, 2024. However, the color is more obvious when the glare from Mars' moon Phobos is removed (on the left hand side). (Image credit: Knutsen et al., Sci. Adv. 11, eads1563 (2025))
The new photo was not captured by chance. Instead, researchers realized that the CME would likely hit Mars, so they positioned Perseverance's Mastcam-Z camera toward the Martian night sky in anticipation of catching a glimpse. However, even then, they were not confident they would see a visible aurora.
This also marks the first time a Martian aurora has been detected from the planet's surface. Until now, all observations have been captured by orbiting spacecraft, such as NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) probe and the UAE's Emirates Mars Mission orbiter.
Lights on Mars
Visible auroras were long assumed to be impossible on Mars because its atmosphere is extremely diffuse; the planet lacks a proper planet-wide magnetic field, which has allowed the solar wind and past solar storms to strip away most of Mars' air. However, the new image proves that there is still enough gas to emit the colorful lights.
Analysis of the auroras' green hues revealed that the light was emitted by excited oxygen molecules, which make up around 0.13% of Mars' limited atmosphere, according to Live Science's sister site Space.com. The low concentration of the gas, combined with high levels of dust in the air, is why the light from the auroras is barely visible in the photo.
The auroras were so weak that the light was apparent only after the glare from Mars' largest moon, Phobos, was edited out of the photo, which is why the image above is split in half.
Researchers also believe that future astronauts may see Martian airglow shining above the Red Planet. This photo shows a greatly exaggerated version of this phenomenon.(Image credit: ESA)
It is unlikely that humans could have seen such weak auroras. However, the researchers think a higher dose of solar particles, coupled with reduced atmospheric dust, could allow the phenomenon to be visible to the naked eye in the future.
At night, another type of green, aurora-like light — known as airglow — can occur near the planet's poles and may be visible to future astronauts. This phenomenon occurs when oxygen molecules ionized by the sun cool down and recombine, releasing excess energy in the process. However, the newly observed auroras emitted a wavelength separate from any observed Martian airglow, which strongly hints that they are a new phenomenon.
Extraterrestrial auroras
Every other solar system world with an atmosphere — Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune — is home to some sort of extraterrestrial aurora. However, as with Mars, these alien light shows occur in non-visible parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, including ultraviolet, infrared and X-ray light.
NASA's Perseverance rover became to first human-made object to witness visible-light auroras on another planet. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)
For distant worlds beyond the orbit of Mars, these auroras are triggered mainly by a constant stream of charged solar particles, known as the solar wind. However, some planets, such as Jupiter, can also experience extremely powerful auroras due to other phenomena, including magnetic anomalies triggered by these worlds' giant moons, recent research has revealed.
For planets closer to the sun — like Venus, Earth and Mars — more violent space weather events, such as CMEs, can also trigger auroras. Despite having virtually no atmosphere, Mercury has also been known to experience aurora-like X-ray emissions near its surface when the sun's closest neighbor is frequently hit by solar storms.
Large-scale solar outbursts have become more common in recent years as the sun has reached the peak of its roughly 11-year cycle of activity, known as solar maximum, when solar storms become more frequent and more intense. At various points, scientists have used Mars rovers to spy on the sun's far side, to predict when hidden CMEs may impact Earth.
Artist's illustration of water ice in a protoplanetary system.
Water ice shapes the outer regions of our Solar System in profound ways, forming the thick crusts of moons like Europa and Enceladus that hide subsurface oceans, constituting major portions of Uranus and Neptune, and providing structure to countless comets and Kuiper Belt objects including Pluto. Beyond merely existing, this ice actively participates in exotic geological processes through sublimation, cryovolcanism, and tidal heating, creating some of the most dynamic environments beyond Earth while preserving chemical signatures from our Solar System's birth nearly 4.6 billion years ago.
The icy nucleus of of Comet Hartley 2 imaged by the Deep Impact (EPOXI) mission on November 2010
(Credit : NASA)
A new study, published in Nature, reports that observations using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has confirmed the presence of crystalline water ice in a dusty debris disk orbiting a Sun-like star 155 light-years away, validating hints previously detected by the retired Spitzer Space Telescope in 2008. Lead researcher Chen Xie of Johns Hopkins University emphasised that JWST’s unprecedented spectral data revealed not just ordinary water ice but specifically crystalline water ice, the same form found in Saturn's rings and objects in our solar system's Kuiper Belt.
Artist impression of the Spitzer Space Telescope hinted at water ice in 2008
(Credit : NASA/JPL-Caltech)
This breakthrough, as noted by co-author Christine Chen of the Space Telescope Science Institute, finally enables researchers to study how water ice, which is crucial for giant planet formation functions across planetary systems, not just our own.
The young star HD 181327 is just 23 million years old compared to our 4.6 billion year old Sun and hosts an active debris disk that the team believe resembles our own Kuiper Belt billions of years ago. JWST's observations reveal a significant dust-free gap between the star and its debris disk. It’s here that frequent collisions between icy bodies continuously release tiny particles of dusty water ice perfectly sized for JWST to detect.
The water ice in the HD 181327 system is unevenly distributed, with the highest concentration—over 20%—in the cold, outer region of its debris disk, and much less (about 8%) in the middle. Near the star, almost no ice was detected, likely due to vaporisation by ultraviolet light or ice being trapped inside unseen planetesimals. The team used the JWST’s Near Infra-Red Spectrograph which can detect faint dust from space. Though slightly more massive and hotter than the Sun, HD 181327 offers a valuable look at what our early Solar System may have been like.
JWST's Near Infra-Red Spectrograph
(Credit : Astrium GmbH)
As astronomers continue mapping the presence of water ice across star systems, these discoveries build toward a more comprehensive understanding of planetary formation and evolution throughout the Galaxy. The striking similarities between HD 181327's debris disk and our own Kuiper Belt not only validate theoretical models but also suggest that our Solar System's development may be more representative than unique.
Future JWST observations of additional debris disks will likely reveal whether the patterns observed in HD 181327—with ice concentrations increasing at greater distances from the host star—represent a universal principle of planetary systems. This research opens exciting possibilities for understanding how water, essential for life as we know it, gets distributed during a planetary system's formation and potentially delivered to habitable zones where rocky planets reside. As we learn more about water in the Galaxy, we're ultimately learning more about the conditions that may have set the stage for Earth's own evolution and the emergence of life billions of years ago.
New research suggests vast surface features on Venus called coronae continue to be shaped by tectonic processes. Observations of these features from NASA’s Magellan mission include, clockwise from top left, Artemis Corona, Quetzalpetlatl Corona, Bahet Corona, and Fotla Corona. (Credit : NASA/JPL-Caltech)
Venus, Earth's scorching twin, is our closest and most extreme planetary neighbour. Perpetually shrouded in thick, sulfuric acid clouds, it endures crushing atmospheric pressure 90 times Earth's and temperatures hot enough to melt lead. Despite appearing serene from space, the Venusian landscape features vast volcanic plains, towering mountains, and bizarre terrain forged in geological activity. Perhaps habitable billions of years ago, Venus now serves as a stark cautionary tale of runaway greenhouse effects.
Venus, the second planet in our Solar System enshrouded in cloud
(Credit : NASA)
According to new research analyzing 30-year-old NASA Magellan data, Venus is now thought to be tectonically active after all. Unlike Earth's shifting tectonic plates generating mountain ranges and valleys, Venus displays large circular structures called coronae—ranging from dozens to hundreds of miles across. It’s here where hot material from the planet's mantle pushes upward against the lithosphere, creating distinctive oval formations surrounded by concentric fractures. These hundreds of coronae suggest Venus's surface is still being actively reshaped by internal forces despite lacking Earth-style plate tectonics.
Magellan with its Star 48B solid rocket motor undergoing final checks at the Kennedy Space Center
(Credit : NASA/JPL)
The new study published in Science Advances reveals these active processes through analysis of these corona formations. The circular features may offer insights into Earth's early development too before plate tectonics began. The team combined gravity and topography measurements from Magellan to understand the subsurface forces currently reshaping Venus.
"Coronae don't exist on modern Earth but likely did when our planet was young," - Gael Cascioli from the University of Maryland
The team used advanced 3D modelling to reveal that most studied coronae (52 of 75) have hot, buoyant mantle material beneath them actively driving tectonic processes. These processes include Venus-style subduction (where surface material spreads outward from rising plumes and pushes surrounding material downward), lithospheric dripping (where cool material sinks into the hot mantle), and volcanic activity where molten rock pushes through thicker crust—all providing crucial insights into planetary evolution.
The research builds on recent discoveries of volcanic eruptions at Maat Mons, Sif Mons, and Eistla Regio. While these findings are groundbreaking, researchers need higher-resolution data to fully understand Venus' tectonic activity. NASA's upcoming VERITAS mission, launching no earlier than 2031, will use high-resolution gravity data to further illuminate these planetary processes.
"VERITAS gravity maps will improve resolution by at least two to four times, potentially revolutionising our understanding of Venus' geology and its implications for early Earth," - Suzanne Smrekar, VERITAS principal investigator.
This renewed understanding of Venus as a geologically dynamic world challenges decades of assumptions. As we continue to unravel Venus's mysteries through both reexamination of existing data and upcoming missions, we may not only piece together its evolutionary past but also gain critical insights into Earth's potential future.
These images of Titan were taken by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope on July 11, 2023 (top row) and the ground-based W.M. Keck Observatories on July 14, 2023 (bottom row). They show methane clouds (denoted by the white arrows) appearing at different altitudes in Titan’s northern hemisphere. These are the first detailed observations of summer in Titan’s northern hemisphere. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Keck Observatory
Saturn's moon Titan is the only other body in the Solar System with weather similar to Earth's. The large moon has a thick, nitrogen-rich atmosphere like Earth's, liquid on its surface, and a precipitation cycle. But instead of water, the surface liquid and the precipitation cycle are mainly based on methane.
Planetary scientists have questions about Titan's methane cycle, especially regarding the moon's northern hemisphere, where its hydrocarbon lakes are concentrated. The Cassini-Huygens mission examined that region during its mission, but left many questions unanswered. Titan's year lasts 29.45 Earth years, so the northern hemisphere experienced winter and spring the entire time that Cassini-Huygens was there.
In new research, scientists used the JWST and the Keck II telescope to observe Titan during 2022 and 2023, when the moon's northern hemisphere was experiencing summer. They gained new insights into Titan's methane cycle and other aspects of its atmosphere.
Titan has a thick atmosphere, and it's the only moon in the Solar System with one. Due to its cold surface and troposphere, methane can condense in the moon's lower atmosphere. "Methane therefore plays a similar meteorological role to water on Earth, evaporating from the surface and reaching the middle troposphere, where methane clouds form and rainfall occurs in changing seasonal patterns," the researchers explain in their article.
Titan is known for its thick, nitrogen-rich atmosphere, as seen in this true-colour Cassini image.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/Kevin M. Gill
"Titan is the only other place in our solar system that has weather like Earth, in the sense that it has clouds and rainfall onto a surface," Nixon explained in a press release.
In both worlds, convection drives the cycle. The Sun heats the surface and causes methane, or water in Earth's case, to evaporate and rise in the atmosphere. The temperature drops at higher elevations, and the vapour condenses and falls as rain.
"Together, these results provide a new, integrated look at the composition and meteorology of Titan's atmosphere in 2022 and 2023 from the upper atmosphere to the surface, at a season that was poorly documented by previous observations," the authors write in their research article.
One of the key questions facing scientists who study Titan's atmosphere concerns how the methane cycle changes through the seasons in different hemispheres. In this research, Nixon and his colleagues used the JWST's Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) to detect the methyl radical CH3. CH3 has lost one of its hydrogen atoms and has an unpaired electron. That unpaired electron makes the radical highly reactive, and it typically has a very short lifetime because of it. CH3 is the main product of methane breakup in Titan's atmosphere, and is also the key to forming ethane and other heavier molecules like hydrogen cyanide (HCN) and acetylene (C2H2).
JWST observations show how the methane cycle works in Titan's atmosphere. The moon has a thick, nitrogen-rich atmosphere that also contains methane. Sunlit and energetic protons from Saturn split apart methane, forming the methane radical CH3. CH3 is highly reactive and rapidly combines with other molecules or other CH3 molecules, forming molecules like ethane (C2H6). Then methane, ethane, and other molecules precipitate out of the atmosphere and fall as liquids onto Titan's surface, where they collect in the northern hemisphere's lakes.
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Elizabeth Wheatley (STScI)
They used the JWST's Near-Infrared Spectrograph to detect CO and CO2 emission bands and measured these species over a wide range of altitudes. They also used the infrared cameras on the JWST and the Keck II to image tropospheric clouds over the northern hemisphere as they evolved by altitude. Scientists have observed clouds rising convectively over the southern hemisphere, but never over the northern hemisphere.
This figure from the research shows the JWST's spectroscopy results from NIRSpec (top) and MIRI (bottom). Grey bands in the top image show Titan's atmospheric windows. Note the detection of CH3 in the MIRI data, the first definitive detection of the methane radical in the moon's atmosphere.
Image Credit: Nixon et al. 2025, Nature Astronomy.
This is significant because Titan's methane seas are concentrated in the northern hemisphere. This research shows how the seas can be the source of methane evaporation that fuels the moon's methane cycle.
Titan's lakes or seas are concentrated in the northern hemisphere and have about the same surface area as the Great Lakes.
Image Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Agenzia Spaziale Italiana / USGS, Public Domain.
This isn't the first time scientists have observed clouds in Titan's atmosphere, but it's the first time observations have revealed such powerful convection.
"Our new observations of methane clouds in Titan's troposphere during late northern summer on Titan add to a catalogue of previous detections recorded by ground- and space-based observations that trace the seasonal variation of Titan's weather over nearly a full year," the authors write. Cassini detected many clouds in the southern hemisphere, and ground-based telescopes have observed large cloud outbursts in the same region.
In the last summer solstice in the northern hemisphere in 2017, clouds were increasingly being detected, "but few indicated deep, moist convection," the authors write. "Our observations indicate a continuation of cloud activity into late northern summer, roughly in agreement with the behaviour at high southern latitudes during southern summer, and also indicate the occurrence of deep, moist convection extending to the tropopause over the region of Titan where most of the surface liquids exist," they explain.
This figure from the research article shows how clouds were detected over Titan's northern hemisphere. Arrows show the clouds as they change over time.
Image Credit: Nixon et al. 2025, Nature Astronomy.
The research also examines what these new insights into Titan's atmosphere could mean for its future.
When methane breaks up in Titan's atmosphere, some of it joins with other molecules and falls back to the surface; however, some hydrogen escapes into space. That means that without constant methane replenishment from some source, Titan's atmosphere will deplete methane over time. This happened on Mars, which is now a cold, dry world.
"On Titan, methane is a consumable. It’s possible that it is being constantly resupplied and fizzing out of the crust and interior over billions of years. If not, eventually it will all be gone and Titan will become a mostly airless world of dust and dunes," said lead author Nixon.
Scientists looked at Jupiter's massive auroras using the James Webb and Hubble Space Telescopes — and found a mystery they can't fully explain.
JWST captured auroras on Jupiter "fizzing and popping with light" on Christmas Day 2023.(Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Ricardo Hueso (UPV), Imke de Pater (UC Berkeley), Thierry Fouchet (Observatory of Paris), Leigh Fletcher (University of Leicester), Michael H. Wong (UC Berkeley), Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Jonathan Nichols (University of Leicester), Mahdi Zamani (ESA/Webb))
On Christmas Day in 2023, scientists trained theJames Webb Space Telescope (JWST) on Jupiter's auroras and captured a dazzling light show.
The researchers observed rapidly-changing features in Jupiter's vast auroras using JWST's infrared cameras. The findings could help explain how Jupiter's atmosphere is heated and cooled, according to a study published May 12 inNature Communications.
"What a Christmas present it was — it just blew me away!" study coauthorJonathan Nichols, a researcher studying auroras at the University of Leicester in the UK, said in astatement. "We wanted to see how quickly the auroras change, expecting them to fade in and out ponderously, perhaps over a quarter of an hour or so. Instead, we observed the whole auroral region fizzing and popping with light, sometimes varying by the second."
Auroras form when high-energy charged particles, often released from the sun, slam into gases in a planet's atmosphere, causing the gas to glow. Jupiter's strong magnetic field scoops up charged particles such as electrons from the solar wind — and from eruptions on its highly volcanic moon Io — and sends them hurtling toward the planet's poles, where they put on a spectacle hundreds of times brighter than Earth's Northern Lights.
In the new study, the team looked closely at infrared light emitted by the trihydrogen cation, H3+. This molecule forms in Jupiter's auroras when energetic electrons meet hydrogen in the planet's atmosphere. Its infrared emission sends heat out of Jupiter's atmosphere, but the molecule can also be destroyed by fast-moving electrons. To date, no ground-based telescopes have been sensitive enough to determine exactly how long H3+ sticks around.
But by using JWST's Near Infrared Camera, the team observed H3+ emissions that varied more than they expected. They found that H3+ lasts about two and a half minutes in Jupiter's atmosphere before being destroyed. That could help scientists tease out how much of an effect H3+ has on cooling Jupiter's atmosphere.
But the scientists don't have the full picture yet. They also found some puzzling data when they turned the Hubble Space Telescope toward Jupiter at the same time. Hubble captured the ultraviolet light coming from the auroras, while JWST captured infrared light.
"Bizarrely, the brightest light observed by Webb had no real counterpart in Hubble's pictures," Nichols said in the statement. "This has left us scratching our heads. In order to cause the combination of brightness seen by both Webb and Hubble, we need to have a combination of high quantities of very low-energy particles hitting the atmosphere, which was previously thought to be impossible. We still don't understand how this happens."
In future work, the researchers plan to study the source of this unexpected pattern using additional JWST data as well as observations from NASA's Juno spacecraft, which has been observing Jupiter from orbit since 2016.
In an unprecedented revelation, Michael Herrera, an ex-Marine, recalls how he and his five-member team allegedly witnessed anunidentified flying objectthat was being loaded with weapons, while on duty in Indonesia back in 2009. Their encounter was followed by a threatening confrontation with unknown US forces, marking a chilling incident in their military service.
Unusual Sighting during Humanitarian Mission
Herrera, who was stationed on a humanitarian mission following the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami in Sumatra, discloses how he and his unit encountered an octagonal, hovering craft purportedly crewed by undercover US forces. The extraordinary event occurred while they were safeguarding an aid supply drop outside Padang city in October 2009.
After 14 years of reticence, Herrera has decided to break his silence. Encouraged by new protections for UFO whistleblowers, he officially testified under oath in April before the government’s UFO investigative team, the All Domains Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), and a Senate committee. Backing his claims, Herrera presented his spotless four-year service record and correspondence relating to the incident with a reluctant fellow witness who feared jeopardizing his life and family’s safety.
Validation of Peripheral Facts
Through its military sources, the Daily Mail confirmed some aspects of Herrera’s story. However, the 33-year-old Denver native lacks tangible proof or photographs of the actual incident.
Herrera’s journey as a Marine started straight after high school. Less than two years into his service, he was deployed to the Philippines with the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit to assist with typhoon relief. When a 7.6 magnitude earthquake hit Sumatra on September 30, 2009, his 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines, 2nd Platoon from Echo Co. was dispatched to safeguard humanitarian aid drops around Padang city, plagued by local insurgent violence.
A massive UFO was loaded with weapons
During their mission, around October 8, Herrera and his team were heli-dropped at a clearing in Padang city’s northeast region. They climbed a ridge to their assigned positions for the supply drop, and that’s when Herrera spotted a peculiar object across the hill in the jungle.
Herrera narrates how he saw the object, as large as a football field, changing colors and emitting a peculiar hum. This octagonal craft with a pyramid top featured scales, sharp edges, and Vantablack-like panels. As Herrera and his team ventured closer, they were intercepted by eight unidentified men in all-black armor, wielding M4 rifles with high-end night vision attachments.
The Confrontation and Threat
Upon confrontation, the mysterious troops seized their weapons, scanned their military IDs, and loaded large containers onto a platform beneath the craft. The ship lifted off the ground, flashed lights of varying colors, and sped off silently at a remarkable speed. Shaken by the experience, Herrera and his team were ordered to retreat and not look back.
Back at their aid drop site, they faced reprimands from their artillery sergeant for returning early but kept mum about their unsettling encounter. Herrera recalls his fear and confusion, struggling with how to explain the situation.
UFO silence: Post-Incident Interrogation and Silencing
Once aboard the USS Denver, Herrera’s unit faced questions from an unrecognized rear admiral. Herrera’s camera’s memory card and battery, along with his comrades’ phones, went missing. Later in Okinawa, Japan, an unnamed Air Force lieutenant colonel warned Herrera against discussing the incident, sealing his silence with an NDA.
Herrera, who successfully served four years in the Navy and earned various medals, now leads a private security company, Valkyrie Eye. His public confession coincides with a recent claim from a former intelligence official about the US recovering and reverse-engineering crashed non-human spacecraft.
This image from NASA's Cassini spacecraft shows a vast river system on Saturn's moon Titan. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASI
Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, looks more Earth-like on its surface than any other place in the Solar System. With its thick atmosphere and liquid methane rain, it has lakes, rivers, sand dunes and seas. But appearances can be deceiving and in other ways, Titan is in fact a very alien world. One baffling difference, recently discovered, is that Titan's rivers do not seem to form deltas when they reach the sea.
Titan is the largest moon of Saturn. It was discovered in 1655 by Christiaan Huygens, and was the 6th moon to be discovered after our own, and the 4 Galilean moons around Jupiter. It is the second largest moon in the Solar System, and orbits Saturn at an average distance of roughly 1.2 million kilometers. Although it is larger than Mercury, it has less than half as much mass. It also has a thick, cloudy atmosphere, and until a few decades ago, that was almost all we knew.
A breathtaking view of Titan's mysterious hydrocarbon seas, where rivers end in deep pits, challenging our understanding of planetary geology.
Similarities with Earth
When the Cassini mission arrived, we learned that Titan was surprisingly similar to Earth. It has an atmosphere thicker than our own and is the only place in the entire universe, outside of Earth, where we have observed the presence of free-running liquids on the surface. Despite the extreme cold, it has weather systems complete with rain falling from the clouds.
This rain, when it lands, rolls downhill to form streams and rivers, which eventually empty out into lakes and seas. Like on Earth, these rivers carve channels unto the ground, forming river beds, and they carry sediment.
But despite these similarities, they are still very different worlds. Titan is a place of extreme cold. Being so far from the Sun, it doesn't receive a lot of warming sunlight, and it doesn't have a massive molten iron core. At these temperatures, water is frozen so hard that it is just another kind of rock. The liquids raining from the sky and flowing on the surface? Super-chilled ethane and methane.
Hydrology
On Earth, water circulates around the planet in a cycle. Liquid water gives up some of its molecules to the atmosphere, driven out by their internal heat energy, in a process we call evaporation. The water vapour in the atmosphere circulates around the globe until it finds a region where the pressure is high enough, the temperature low enough, that it condenses into tiny droplets around nucleation sites: specks of dust or airborne bacteria. Sometimes these droplets stay liquid, and combine to form larger and larger droplets, sometimes they freeze into ice crystals, but either way we can see them from the ground as clouds. If the droplets get big enough, they start to fall, and we get precipitation (rain, snow, hail, depending on conditions).
If the rain falls from low enough that it doesn't simply evaporate again, it reaches land and wets the ground. Some soaks into the soil, the rest trickles down to form small streams, which in turn combine to form rivers, and eventually flow into the sea (or not! Some rivers in arid areas simply fade away, either soaking into the parched earth or evaporating away entirely). As rivers flow, they erode the ground beneath them, carving river beds, and transporting silt. This silt can be deposited wherever the flow is slow, and eventually builds up enough to change the course of the river. When this happens at a river mouth, the mouth begins to block up with silt and the river eventually breaks a new path around the blockage. Over enough time, this happens often enough that you are left with the classic triangular river delta formation.
But for some reason, this doesn't seem to happen on Titan!
Cassini
Titan's thick soupy atmosphere makes it hard to observe any of these features. None of this would be known without Cassini's synthetic aperture radar (SAR). Unfortunately liquid methane and ethane are completely transparent to the SAR instrument, so many of the details are inferred. We don't observe rivers or seas directly, but instead we see what they've done to the ground beneath: river beds cutting across the landscape, emptying to large basins that make up lake and sea beds.
Given that Deltas are formed from silt accumulated over very long times, blocking up river mouths and forcing rivers to find new paths, you might expect these formations to be easy to spot. But researchers studying Cassini mission data have not found them.
"It's kind of disappointing as a geomorphologist because deltas should preserve so much of Titan’s history," said Sam Birch, an assistant professor in Brown University’s Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences. "We take it for granted that if you have rivers and sediments, you get deltas. But Titan is weird. It’s a playground for studying processes we thought we understood."
The hunt continues
To test his assumptions, Birch developed a numerical model to process similar data from a more familiar world: Earth. The model simulated what Earth's underwater features might look like to the same SAR instruments, if they were under liquid methane and ethane instead of water, and confirmed that river deltas should have been easily visible.
"If there are deltas the size of the one at the mouth of the Mississippi River, we should be able to see it," Birch said. "If there are large barrier islands and similar coastal landscapes like those we see all along the U.S. Gulf Coast, we should be able to see those."
But when Birch and his colleagues returned to the Cassini data they did not find the missing features: Only two rivers, near the South Pole of Titan, showed possible delta formations. By their count based on the Cassini data, only 1.3% of large rivers on Titan terminate in deltas, compared to almost all comparable rivers on Earth.
We're unlikely to know for certain what's going on until another mission can be sent to Saturn to study its moons more closely. But Birch and his team do have some ideas: Perhaps the sea level rises and falls fast enough that the sediments are regularly submerged, washing the silt away before it has time to form a proper delta. Or possibly strong winds and coastal currents are doing the same thing. After all, radar imaging has also revealed deep river channels cut into the sea beds themselves, another mystery that hasn't yet been solved.
As usual, it will take more data, and a lot more hard work from planetary scientists to find answers.
"This is really not what we expected," Birch said. "But Titan does this to us a lot. I think that’s what makes it such an engaging place to study."
Martian Resource Potential and Challenges for Future Human Activities
Martian Resource Potential and Challenges for Future Human Activities
By Laurence Tognetti, MSc
Artist's rendition of in-situ resource utilization on Mars. (Credit: NASA)
What steps can be taken to enhance in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) for future astronauts on Mars? This is what a recent study presented at the 56th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference hopes to address as an international team of researchers investigated the reasons, benefits, and challenges of conducting ISRU on Mars. This study has the potential to help astronauts, scientists, engineers, and mission planners develop new methods for enhancing the survivability of future Mars astronauts while also maximizing mission success.
Here, Universe Today discusses this incredible research with Dr. Christoph Gross, who is a postdoctoral researcher at Freie Universität Berlin (Free University of Berlin) and lead author of the study, regarding the motivation behind the study, specific locations on Mars for ISRU purposes, and the importance of ISRU in future crewed Mars missions. Therefore, what was the motivation behind the study?
Dr. Gross tells Universe Today, “The main motivation is the prospect that one day humans will set foot on Mars and will need resources to survive there. It may be feasible for short duration stays to bring everything to Mars (comparable to the lunar Apollo missions), but for long duration missions at least propellant and water/oxygen resources are needed to sustain the landed crews.”
Based on a 2024 study by the same researchers, the team discussed the benefits of growing food on Mars for future crewed missions. Based on the EDEN ISS project in Antarctica that operated from 2018 to 2022 and managed by the German Aerospace Center, the team estimated amount of area required to produce the necessary amount of food for one crewmember over one year was between 40 m2 to 65 m2 (430 ft2 to 700 ft2). Additionally, the team noted how growing plants on Mars could contribute to producing oxygen and removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
The team also discussed various locations on Mars where resources could be exploited, including Juventae Chasma and Meridiani Planum, which the team notes possess hydrated minerals and uniform deposits, respectively. Juventae Chasma is a box canyon measuring 250 kilometers by 100 kilometers (155 miles by 62 miles) and located near the Martian equator just north of Valles Marineris, the latter of which is the largest canyon in the solar system. Meridiani Planum is a giant plain whose diameter stretches approximately 1,060 kilometers (659 miles) also located near the Martian equator and resides on top of hydrated sediments. But what other locations on Mars could be investigated for ISRU purposes?
“Our first study was in Juventae Chasma and more limited in Mawrth Vallis,” Dr. Gross tells Universe Today. “However, many places appear to be good candidates. Our investigations use remote sensing data from orbiting instruments. In Utopia Planitia, subsurface ice and salt deposits are suspected. However, remote sensing data is pretty sparse from this location, because the basin is so deep and the atmosphere thicker there, this makes the identification of specific minerals difficult.”
Dr. Gross continues, “Also, we try to find places which are also good candidates as landing sites, e.g. scientific interest, resources present, good location for transmissions to earth, good environmental conditions (not too extreme) etc. It also depends what kind of resources you are looking for. For example, larger impact craters could harbor important ore deposits too, depending on where they impacted (water-rich or water-poor substrate).”
ISRU involves using available resources to maximize mission success while also reducing the number of resources that are shipped from home. In the context of space exploration, this means astronauts on Mars would use available water from buried water ice for drinking, bathing, and producing oxygen from electrolysis. Since the atmosphere of Mars is incapable of having liquid water on its surface, buried water ice has become a target for future crewed mission plans.
Additionally, converting carbon dioxide, which is the dominant Martian atmospheric component, to oxygen using existing tools could reduce the amount of oxygen that is shipped from Earth. Finally, due to the harsh radiation that rains down on the Martian surface daily, Martian regolith could be used to cover habitats as a shield. Therefore, what is the importance of ISRU in future crewed Mars missions, and could it potentially lead to a self-sustaining settlement, someday?
“ISRU will make settlements self-sustaining one day,” Dr. Gross tells Universe Today. “There is no question about it. I think the fact that NASA demonstrated oxygen production with the MOXI experiment on the Perseverance rover shows in which direction the research is going. It will for sure not happen at once, but it will happen.”
Dr. Gross concludes, “I think it is important to note that many more exploration missions are needed since there are still so many question marks since we have only limited data from landed missions. This could be done with small and ‘cheap(er)’ scout missions that have specific tasks to discover and specify resource deposits.”
How will ISRU help enhance future crewed Mars missions in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!
Glass Beads on the Moon Contain Material Dug Up from Deep Down
Glass Beads on the Moon Contain Material Dug Up from Deep Down
By Evan Gough
A massive, ancient impact on the Moon likelyexcavated material from deep in the mantle, and deposited glass beads on the surface. Image Credit: By Ferruggia Aldo - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=131912687
If we could peel back the Moon's cratered crust and examine its mantle, we might find answers to some foundational questions about the Solar System. We lack the technological capability to excavate the Moon's mantle, but Nature has a way. A massive, ancient impact excavated material from deep beneath the Moon's crust and left it on the surface for us to find. It could help confirm the Moon's origins.
The Giant Impact Hypothesis (GIH) is the widely accepted explanation for the origin of the Moon. It proposes that a massive protoplanet about the size of Mars, named Theia, slammed into Earth about 4.5 billion years ago. The impact melted Theia and some of Earth, sending the material into orbit around Earth. Eventually, some of it coalesced into the Moon. The GIH was first proposed in 1946 but didn't attract much interest until decades later, when the Apollo lunar samples generated renewed interest.
This artist's illustration shows the protoplanet Theia impacting Earth more than 4 billion years ago.
Image Credit: By NASA/JPL-Caltech, Public Domain
The GIH says that the Moon formed primarily from the mantles of Earth and Theia. The lunar samples supported this idea because their isotopic ratios are similar to Earth's. However, surface rock has been exposed to space weathering and impacts for billions of years, altering its composition. What we need is a sample of the untouched mantle.
Ancient, massive impacts like the one that created the Imbrium Basin had the power to excavate material from the mantle and spread it around the crust near the impact site. China's Chang'e-5 mission returned its samples to Earth in 2020, and they contained glass beads. These beads are common near energetic impact sites, where the intense heat blasts rock and melts it into little pieces that land back on the ground near the site.
Normally, impact beads are made of crustal material. In new research, scientists from Curtin University, Nanjing University, and the Australian National University examined a large lunar bead from the Chang'e mission and found that it contains an unusually high level of magnesium oxide (MgO). This indicates that its parent rock is from the Moon's upper mantle.
Evidence shows that all lunar rock contains glass beads. These beads are from lava eruptions and impacts and provide a collective record of lunar history. Samples from different sites on the Moon confirm this. However, the Chang'e 5 samples are different.
"The chemical compositions of most lunar impact glass beads reflect mixing of crustal components, including mare basalts, highlands rocks, and KREEP [from high concentrations of K, REE (rare earth element), and P]," the authors write in their research article. "However, a few glass beads in the soil from the Chang’e-5 mission have unusually high MgO contents that require distinct target compositions."
The young age of the glass beads indicates that they come from the impact melting of ultramafic rock, which generally contains higher amounts of MgO. "Of particular interest here is a group of glasses with MgO contents exceeding 18 wt% %," the authors write. "The high MgO concentrations clearly differentiate them from the local basalt and regolith at the Chang'e-5 landing site, which have MgO contents ~6.5 wt% %."
This figure from the research illustrates the high concentration of Magnesium Oxide in the Chang'e 5 glass beads in this study.
Image Credit: Ding et al. 2025, Science Advances.
Though these rocks could be from surface material, they don't appear similar to any of the Moon's known lithologies. "Alternatively, these high-Mg beads might be sampling the upper mantle brought to the surface by the Imbrium basin–forming event," the researchers write.
Professor Alexander Nemchin from the School of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Curtin University in Perth, Australia, is one of the study's co-authors. In a press release, Nemchin said, "These high-magnesium glass beads may have formed when an asteroid smashed into rocks that originated from the mantle deep within the Moon. This is exciting because we've never sampled the mantle directly before: the tiny glass beads offer us a glimpse of the Moon's hidden interior."
Professor Tim Johnson, also from Curtin's School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, is one of the paper's co-authors. Since the rocks' chemistry is so different from that of other lunar samples, they could've been excavated by a massive impact.
"One such event could be the formation of the Imbrium Basin, which is a huge crater formed more than 3 billion years ago," Professor Johnson said. "Remote sensing has shown the area around the basin's edge contains the kind of minerals that match the glass bead chemistry."
"This is a big step forward in understanding how the Moon evolved internally; if these samples really are pieces of the mantle, it tells us that impacts can excavate otherwise inaccessible mantle material to the surface," Johnson said.
While volcanism can produce similar types of glass beads, the authors explain why it's not likely that these beads are volcanic. The mission's sample includes other glass beads of various ages. For all of them to be volcanic, there must have been multiple volcanic eruptions in the region very early in the Moon's history. However, while impacts can spread their glass beads over a wide area, volcanoes don't have the same reach, and their glass beads tend to accumulate near the center of the eruption. There's no evidence of that accumulation. "Therefore, while the possibility of very young volcanism on the Moon is provocative, there is no geological evidence for this, and we interpret the high-MgO beads in the Chang'e-5 regolith to have an impact origin," they write.
These results can't confirm the Giant Impact Hypothesis. But they do support the idea that the Moon experienced a magma ocean phase during its formation, which the GIH predicts. This opens a window into the Moon's deeper interior that wasn't there before. Scientists will work with these results and see what they tell them about the Moon and the Solar System. The results may help them constrain lunar magma ocean crystallization models and determine whether the mantle is rich in olivine and pyroxene, as predicted.
"Understanding how the Moon’s interior is made helps us compare it to Earth and other planets," said co-author Professor Xiaolei Wang from Nanjing University. "It could even guide future missions, whether robotic or human, that aim to explore the Moon’s deep geology."
In 2000, Gary McKinnon, a British Hacker who got so fed up with the government hiding information related to UFOs and free energy that he decidedto hack the most secured servers of NASA and the Pentagon. McKinnon said that he had seen real photographs of UFOs in computer files at the Johnson Space Center Building. He even took a screenshot of one of the cigar-shaped UFOs in-between space and the Earth’s atmosphere. Unfortunately, it was removed from his computer after being seized.
Recently, MacKinnon shocked the UFO lovers with his “Ask Me Anything” post on Reddit where he explained how he hacked into various .gov/.mil networks in America.
“I was arrested in March 2002 for ‘hacking’ into various .gov/.mil networks in America, looking for evidence of UFOs and ‘free energy.’ It wasn’t a clever hack, no fragmented packets to bypass firewalls or any of the glossy crap. I had a specific intention and, like any good sysadmin (which i was at the time) I wanted a simple process that would catch basic weaknesses, sometimes network-wide, with a simple script and a little creativity. It was cracking more than hacking.
As any sysadmin knows, the laziest solution is often the best;
In my effort to find solid proof that gov/mil knew about these crafts i followed information found in a book by the Disclosure Project, run by Steven Greer. In the book, Donna Hare (who was a NASA launch photographic specialist) said that in building 8 of Johnson Space Centre there was a lab set aside, especially for ‘airbrushing out’ UFOs from high-res sat imagery.
The tool I wrote scanned for local Administrator accounts on Windows PCs that had a password of either :
(same as user name)
password
(blank)
It was written in PERL (actually a compiled .exe so it would run on all NT machines, using PERL2EXE at the time) and scanned a class B in 8 minutes, the low-latency due to me running the scan on an already compromised machine on the same or another gov/mil network.
I found building 8 by reading the comment sections of the PCs via the command console, these fields are used for auditing and luckily NASA filled them all in, so i knew which PCs were in building 8.
There weren’t many machines in building 8 but one of the first I looked at had folders called ‘raw’ and ‘processed’, or ‘raw’ and ‘cleaned’ or ‘filtered’. The images averaged around 250MB and would have taken a long time at 5 minutes per megabyte on a 56K modem so, having remote control of the PC via a program called Remotely Anywhere I decided to view it live on the desktop, which was risky since they work odd hours at NASA!
The image was coming down very slowly via the Java-based Remotely Anywhere program so I cut the color to 4-bit (16 colors/shades) and the lowest res which was 640×480 I think, it may even have been 320×240.
The image slowly filled the screen and I could see blackness, superimposed upon which was a blue/white planet, and superimposed on that was a tubular form that was metallic white and had domes around its central circumference and at its ends. This thing had no rivets or seams and looked futuristic, though of course, with the low res and number of shades in the image detail was lacking.
This was my Eureka moment, Donna Hare’s lab was still in existence! I was waiting for this image to come down and planning on the fastest way to get all of the other images to me, and right when I was making my plans I saw the mouse cursor move to the bottom-right of the screen, right-click the network icon and choose disconnect. I’d been caught and disconnected, missing my chance to grab even a single image.”
Gary Mckinnon who confirmed his identity via video verification has answered some of the most awaited questions of the UFO enthusiasts.
Question 1: After all your investigating what are your conclusions? Are govs in contact with UFOs? Have they reverse-engineered ufo tech? What are ET motives? What are government motives? In your opinion Is Steven Greer’s hypothesis right? Dolores Canons’ ideas right? Or someone else? Are there based on the moon?
Answer: Bottom line – I don’t know. All that I’m sure of is that they know they are there and that they are not Human. If you read Dolan’s ’12 documents that prove the government knows about aliens or some such title, it’s pretty plain no one knew where this tech was coming from.
Question 2: What do you think of the current (open) position of the government about the UAPs and its approach as a national security threat?
Answer: I think it’s the start of the alien false-flag psyop.
Question 3: Could you get on Nikola Tesla (free energy or zero point energy)?
Answer: That’s a big, phat LOL 🙂 Yes, apparently he was killed by the Office of Naval Intelligence for communicating with Martians and Venusians;
In all seriousness though, there is one device I replicated that is anomalous and would seem to defy the work-energy principle in physics. I did a short video on the effect back in 2012, all it does (i love the simplicity of it) is retard the counter-EMF in the standard inductor/magnet topology found in generators. If the rise-time of the counter-EMF is delayed there is no repelling on the way in or drag on the way out, so Lenz’s Law is ‘bent’. In a motor/generator like this, it runs faster and uses less power when we ask it to do work!
Question 4: Do you recall any details about the “ship to ship transfers” and “Non-terrestrial Officers”? Any ship names? During your legal ordeal did anyone indicate to you that you were being chased because of the UFO element rather than hacking in general?
Answer: No I remember none of the names, I did look a few up and none were Navy. No, as best I could learn the US mil/gov were really embarrassed and that drove them more than anything – ‘stoner hacks Pentagon’.
Question 5: Greer or Elizondo…. who do you trust more?
Answer: Greer academically and Elizondo in a bar fight
Question 6: Any interesting file names or anything extra you noticed that you saw but didn’t have time to actually open and look at?
Answer: Nope, but I did have an experience I still can’t explain, I only mentioned it once in an interview with Richard, scratch that, I did tell it on the Binnall of America podcast. I should add it to the intro post or something at the end, it’s interesting.
Question 7: Have you had any personal experiences with the phenomena? Also, what inspired you to head down the path to searching government databases?
Answer: I had a sighting when I was around 12. I decided to break the law because I thought it was immoral to be hiding the truth.
Question 8: You say up the thread ‘I think it’s the start of the alien false-flag psyop.’ So you believe in Steven Greer’s hypothesis about space Weapons and Von brown?
Answer: I believe in evidence and gov/mil will use anything to sway the populace. I believe what Carol Rosin told us about Von Braun.
Question 9: Do you think the Space Force was created for something more than the race amongst terrestrial powers?
Answer: I think that governments, the major ones at least, are all in it together. Governments are a facade, there is no left or right anymore, it’s all theatre put on to manipulate the masses into more control and less privacy.
Question 10: What names can be FOIA’d? The specific name of the file you clicked and which computer? I’m not a lawyer of course but those all would support a FOIA right?
Answer: Johnson Space Centre, building 8 is all I know. Donna Hare would have more useful info for FOIA, including the names of other employees.
Question 11: Have you ever personally witnessed a UFO/alien/something strange?
Answer: Only once, a red, glowing light that moved pretty fast from horizon to horizon, moving erratically left to right as it went on its path.
[Update] McKinnon on Mexican UAP hearings
Despite recent developments in the discussion of UFOs (Unidentified Flying Objects) and UAPs (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena), with Mexico’s congress reportedly being shown two alleged ‘non-human’ alien corpses and the White House acknowledging the issue of UFOs and UAPs, McKinnon remains skeptical about the likelihood of full disclosure. He believes that the truth about UFOs, UAPs, and aliens will never be revealed to the public.
He told the US Sun: “They will never tell us the truth… As usual, they said nothing, on balance. And when pressed they just repeated their non-committal statement. We’ll never get any truth from military institutions, which NASA is, regardless of the fact that it pretends to be a civilian institution.”
He said previously, “It’s a fact that there are objects we don’t understand flying around in our skies, it’s also a fact that there are scientific, intelligence and military departments that study these objects.”
NASA’s recent development int he UAP study is very elusive says Representative Tim Burchett. Burchett who was one of the leading voices of the July 2023 hearing said that he left Thursday’s meeting with NASA “disappointed,” telling his followers in a video message to X, formerly Twitter, that the report “didn’t say a whole lot to me.”
“My colleague [Alabama Representative] Gary Palmer asked about classified stuff at NASA, and they said, ‘We don’t have anything classified,'” Burchett said regarding the meeting. And so, what I think they’ve done is, they sent these two folks in here, like the Pentagon did, that have very little knowledge of the issue,” Burchett continued. “So they can say they can hold up their hand before Congress and swear that they know nothing about the issue, and it doesn’t exist.”
Burchett said that he also pressed the NASA representatives about the testimonies that came out during July’s hearing, as well as videos of UAP that have been declassified and shared with the public.
“So anyway, didn’t get a lot from that, and I’m a little disappointed,” the congressman concluded…We’re probably going to have to get some more people from the Pentagon in there to tell us what exactly is going on…I just want the truth,” he added. “Give me the facts.”
An abrupt change in Antarctica has caused the continent to gain ice. But this increase, documented in NASA satellite data, is a temporary anomaly rather than an indication that global warming has reversed, scientists say.
Antarctica is almost entirely covered in freshwater ice.
(Image credit: Mario Tama/Staff via Getty Images)
Antarctica has gained ice in recent years, despite increasing average global temperatures and climate change, a new study finds.
Using data from NASA satellites, researchers from Tongji University in Shanghai tracked changes in Antarctica's ice sheet over more than two decades. The overall trend is one of substantial ice loss on the continent, but from 2021 to 2023, Antarctica gained some of that lost ice back.
However, this isn't a sign that global warming and climate change have miraculously reversed. Picture a long ski slope with a small jump at the end. That's what a line through the Antarctic ice sheet data looks like when plotted on a graph. While there have been some recent ice gains, they don't even begin to make up for almost 20 years of losses.
Most of the gains have already been attributed to an anomaly that saw increased precipitation (snow and some rain) fall over Antarctica, which caused more ice to form. Antarctica's ice levels fluctuate from year to year, and the gains appear to have slowed since the study period ended at the beginning of 2024. The levels reported by NASA thus far in 2025 look similar to what they were back in 2020, just before the abrupt gain.
The ice sheet covering Antarctica is the largest mass of ice on Earth. Bigger than the whole of the U.S., the sheet holds 90% of the world's fresh water, according to the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition, an environmental non-governmental organization. Antarctica is also surrounded by sea ice (frozen ocean water), which expands in the winter and retreats to the Antarctic coastline in the summer.
This latest study, published March 19 in the journal Science China Earth Sciences, analyzed data from NASA's Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment (GRACE) and GRACE Follow-On satellites that have been monitoring this ice sheet since 2002. Studying changes to the sheet is important because any melt releases water into the ocean, which is a major driver of rising sea levels.
The satellite data revealed that the sheet experienced a sustained period of ice loss between 2002 and 2020. The ice loss accelerated in the latter half of that period, increasing from an average loss of about 81 billion tons (74 billion metric tons) per year between 2002 and 2010, to a loss of about 157 billion tons (142 billion metric tons) between 2011 and 2020, according to the study. However, the trend then shifted.
The ice sheet gained mass from 2021 to 2023 at an average rate of about 119 billion tons (108 metric tons) per year. Four glaciers in eastern Antarctica also flipped from accelerated ice loss to significant mass gain.
"This isn't particularly strange," said Tom Slater, a research fellow in environmental science at Northumbria University in the U.K. who wasn't involved in the study. "In a warmer climate the atmosphere can hold more moisture — this raises the likelihood of extreme weather such as the heavy snowfall which caused the recent mass gain in East Antarctica," he told Live Science in an email.
A 2023 study documented Antarctica's unprecedented mass gain between 2021 and 2022. That study, written by many of the same authors behind the new study, found that a high precipitation anomaly was responsible for the gain in ice. The latest study suggests that the trend continued until at least 2023.
Slater noted that researchers expect the ice gains to be temporary.
"Almost all of Antarctica's grounded ice losses come from glaciers elsewhere which are speeding up and flowing into the warming ocean," Slater said. "This is still happening — while the recent snowfall has temporarily offset these losses, they haven't stopped so it's not expected this is a long-term change in Antarctica's behaviour."
A warming world
Climate change doesn't mean that everywhere on Earth will get hotter at the same rate, so a single region will never tell the whole story of our warming world. Historically, temperatures over much of Antarctica have remained relatively stable, particularly compared to the Arctic, which has cooked four times faster than the rest of the globe. Antarctica's sea ice has also been much more stable relative to the Arctic, but that's been changing in recent years.
In 2023, Antarctic sea ice hit record lows, which researchers concluded was extremely unlikely to happen without climate change. Meanwhile, global sea ice cover is consistently dropping to record lows or near-record lows, while global temperatures are consistently at record or near-record highs.
In 2015, world leaders signed the Paris Agreement, an international treaty promising to limit global warming to preferably below 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5 degrees Celsius) and well below 3.6 F (2 C). However, that first promise is on the line: April 2025 was the 21st out of the last 22 months to breach the 2.7 F limit, according to the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service.
Webb Watches Auroras Dance in Jupiter's Atmosphere
Webb Watches Auroras Dance in Jupiter's Atmosphere
By Mark Thompson
Webb views of Jupiter's auroras
Auroral displays are breathtaking light shows that can be seen across high latitude skies, created by the interaction between the solar wind and a planet's magnetic field. High-energy particles from the sun—mostly electrons and protons—hurtle through space until captured by magnetic field lines, which funnel them toward the poles. There, these charged particles collide dramatically with atmospheric molecules, transferring energy that excites atoms and molecules to higher states. As these excited particles return to their ground state, they release their excess energy as the shimmering curtains of coloured light we know as aurora.
Stunning northern lights display
It’s not just Earth that enjoys auroral displays though, in particular, Jupiter’s auroras dwarf Earth's aurora creating vast light shows that could swallow our entire planet. Powered by the gas giant's colossal magnetic field—14 times stronger than Earth's—these polar displays glow with an intensity never seen on Earth and never fully disappear. Unlike Earth's auroras, which depend primarily on solar wind, Jupiter generates much of its auroral energy internally through its rapid 10-hour rotation and interactions with its volcanic moon Io, which pumps tons of sulphur and oxygen into Jupiter's magnetosphere daily.
Auroral displays on Jupiter captured by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2016
(Credit : NASA)
Recent observations by the James Webb Space Telescope's (JWST) Near-InfraRed Camera on Christmas Day 2023, led by Jonathan Nichols from the University of Leicester, have leveraged the telescope's exceptional sensitivity to capture the rapidly changing Jovian auroral features with unprecedented detail, revealing new insights into these massive electromagnetic storms.
“What a Christmas present it was – it just blew me away! We wanted to see how quickly the auroras change, expecting it to fade in and out ponderously, perhaps over a quarter of an hour or so. Instead we observed the whole auroral region fizzing and popping with light, sometimes varying by the second.” - Jonathan Nichols, University ofLeicester.
Further observations were completed using the Hubble Space Telescope and together, the observations of Jupiter's auroras revealed that emissions from the trihydrogen ion (H3+) fluctuate much more dramatically than previously thought, offering new insights into the heating and cooling mechanisms of Jupiter's upper atmosphere.
However, the team encountered a mystery: the brightest infrared emissions captured by JWST had no corresponding features in Hubble's ultraviolet imagery. This suggests an apparently impossible phenomenon—what Nichols describes as "a tempest of drizzle," where large quantities of very low-energy particles somehow create intense auroral brightness visible only to JWST, leaving researchers baffled about the underlying mechanisms that could produce such contradictory observations.
Artist impression of the James Webb Space Telescope
The team acknowledge more work is required to investigate the discrepancy between the observations. They now hope to use additional JWST sessions to compare with NASA's Juno spacecraft data, hoping to solve the mystery.. These findings could prove valuable for the European Space Agency's Juice mission—which is currently traveling to Jupiter—to examine the gas giant's auroras using seven scientific instruments, including two imaging systems. They hope the study will improve our understanding of the interactions between Jupiter's magnetic field, atmosphere, and the charged particles from its moons, particularly Io.
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Over mijzelf
Ik ben Pieter, en gebruik soms ook wel de schuilnaam Peter2011.
Ik ben een man en woon in Linter (België) en mijn beroep is Ik ben op rust..
Ik ben geboren op 18/10/1950 en ben nu dus 74 jaar jong.
Mijn hobby's zijn: Ufologie en andere esoterische onderwerpen.
Op deze blog vind je onder artikels, werk van mezelf. Mijn dank gaat ook naar André, Ingrid, Oliver, Paul, Vincent, Georges Filer en MUFON voor de bijdragen voor de verschillende categorieën...
Veel leesplezier en geef je mening over deze blog.
