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.
Druk op onderstaande knop om te reageren in mijn forum
Zoeken in blog
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.
02-04-2025
Aliens in art: the paintings that prove UFOs have been around for a lot longer than we think?
(Credits: Far Out / Adam Jícha / Falco Negenman)
Aliens in art: the paintings that prove UFOs have been around for a lot longer than we think?
The contentious debate surrounding conspiracy theories about the existence of UFOs (unidentified flying objects) seems to not just be what forms a three-hour-long Joe Rogan podcast. On the contrary, the fascination surrounding UFOs, and perhaps also the sighting of them, if they really do exist, is a phenomenon that has been around for ages.
Scientists and art critics have analysed artefacts, such as early cave paintings that seem to represent what are believed to be UFOs. Bobble-headed creatures with bug-like eyes and antennas, flying disks in the sky, and much more. But can we really be sure that these are what UFOs look like, or have we just grown accustomed to what the human mind has imagined them to look like?
One of the first examples of a UFO-looking figure in an artwork was identified in an Italian cave painting from c.10,000 BC. It features a cult-looking group of figures casting a spell on an alien-looking specimen with abnormally long arms that wrap around a smaller alien person. What’s creepy is that the arms of the larger alien also seem to be the antennae that belong to the small alien, somehow fusing them.
It’s rather wild to think that a belief in aliens might have been established even before Christ walked on water. However, I wonder if our interpretation of this cave painting depicting aliens is because we haven’t grown accustomed to seeing humans being portrayed in this unrealistic and anthropomorphic way. Indeed, the further we go back into art history, the more humans were represented as simple stick figures with geometric bodies. It was only much later, when artistic principles prioritised hyper-realism, such as Renaissance and Baroque, that we changed the way humans were portrayed in paintings.
Carlo Crivelli’s The Annunciation with Saint Emidius of 1486 is another example of a UFO sighting. What seems to be a seemingly ordinary religious painting of the Annunciation is actually very futuristic and dystopian. First of all, why is there an abnormally large pickle and apple sitting on the tiled floor? This randomly comical detail is suddenly interrupted when one notices the Virgin Mary being targeted by a laser-like light shining down from the sky.
Traditionally, the Annunciation is painted with the Virgin being doused in a golden light, greeted by the graceful Angel Gabriel. Instead, here it looks like she is being targeted from the heavens by a light that is more akin to Tweety’s laser pointer from the Looney Tunes than the divine light of God.
Some artworks haven’t even been left up to interpretation and flatly announce the presence of a UFO. That’s the case with Hans Glaser’s Celestial Phenomenon Over Nuremburg of 1561. In this illustrated newspaper-looking artefact, Glaser explicitly portrays the sighting of a “dreadful apparition” above the city, in which flying objects battle each other in the sky. There’s a large black spear-headed object looming over the city and smaller coloured objects flying around the sun.
Glaser’s broadsheet is arguably the closest we’ve gotten in recent times to proving that UFOs have always existed and might have been spotted, but I might be closer to moving to Mars than waiting for a web-footed specimen to come knocking at my door.
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Rendlesham UFO incident 'could be secret weapons test between UK and US governments'
Rendlesham UFO incident 'could be secret weapons test between UK and US governments'
A sketch by Peter Parish, one of the first investigators of the Rendlesham UFO claims a main craft landed before a recovery team came in and cleared trees to access a helicopter with a winch that lifted it out of the forest and to the Woodbridge base.
The Rendlesham UFO incident was actually a secret weapons test conducted by the British and American governments, a new documentary alleges.
Flying saucer researcher and filmmaker Mark Christopher Lee claims six unidentified craft landed at Rendlesham Forest, near RAF Woodbridge and RAF Bentwaters in Suffolk, England, in December 1980.
His belief comes as he got his hands on a "detailed and annotated sketch" by Peter Parish, one of the first investigators of the case - of which military personnel reported spotting lights and a triangular-shaped craft in the forest.
Rendlesham Forest UFO sighting: Eyewitness Colonel Charles Halt
The annotations on the sketch show a main craft landed before a recovery team came in and cleared trees to access a helicopter with a winch that lifted it out of the forest and to the Woodbridge base.
Mark thinks that if this is accurate, the "US military in conjunction with the UK" tested "a new advanced craft on its own base and servicemen".
This, as well as other records from the Great British UFO Learning Centre, are being used as the basis for Mark's new film, 'The Rendlesham UFO - The British Roswell'.
He said: "I have found a detailed and annotated sketch made by one of the first investigators of this case - Peter Parish.
"He made this sketch for the Deputy base Commander Colonel Halt, and I'm not aware that this has been made public.
"It states that there were AT LEAST six craft that landed and as well as the military witnesses - one of these craft was seen landing by the Territorial Army who were camping nearby.
"They said that where it landed the sand turned to glass!
"A dog walker was said to have seen men in silver suits covering up a silver object at the impact site!
"What was seen here was super advanced physics in a top-secret craft, possibly developed locally at the Orford Ness secret research base just a few miles away."
The event - in which one witness alleged to have encountered a landed craft that emitted a mysterious light - was officially documented by the US Air Force, however, an explanation was not given.
Mark always used to think the Rendlesham case was "our best evidence of an extra-terrestrial craft landing", but his opinion has now shifted.
He thinks the "UK government was working alongside its NATO ally the US to develop new weapons using advanced theoretical physics".
The filmmaker continued: "As Professor Simon Holland (ex-BBC science editor and NASA filmmaker) has told me ever since the Manhattan Project, governments and their military have wanted to weaponise physics, and I really think this is what was seen at Rendlesham.
"It also accounts for all the health issues that the servicemen involved had since then and how eventually the US military has admitted liability and awarded them disability payments.
"This is why (Margaret) Thatcher said - You can't tell the people."
The James Webb Space Telescope has taken its first look at the near-Earth asteroid 2024 YR4 before a perilous close approach in 2032. The telescope confirmed Earth is safe, but the moon may still be in trouble.
The ‘city-killer’ asteroid 2024 YR4 will come perilously close to the Earth, and may even hit the moon in 2032, James Webb Telescope observations confirm.
(Image credit: JUAN GARTNER via Getty Images)
The powerful James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has just completed the first of two planned observations of the infamous "city-killer" asteroid 2024 YR4, which will make a perilously close approach to Earth and the moon in December 2032.
Making use of emergency telescope time awarded to an international team of astronomers in February, JWST's first observation of the building-size asteroid reveals that 2024 YR4 may be slightly larger and rockier than previous ground-based telescope studies suggested.
Luckily, though, JWST also confirmed what NASA has known for weeks: 2024 YR4 is no longer a hazard, and there is zero chance that the asteroid will strike Earth in 2032. However, a direct collision with the moon is still possible.
JAMES WEBB SPOTS DEADLY "CITY-KILLER" ASTEROID COMING FOR US!
"While an Earth impact by 2024 YR4 on December 22, 2032 has now been ruled out, it continues to have a non-zero probability of impacting the Moon at this time," the researchers wrote in their preliminary report, which has not yet been peer-reviewed. A second round of JWST observations is planned for May 2025, before the asteroid disappears into the outer solar system for the next several years.
Astronomers first discovered asteroid 2024 YR4 in December 2024. Initial observations with ground-based telescopes indicated that the space rock had a diameter of about 180 feet (55 meters) — roughly as wide as the Leaning Tower of Pisa is tall.
Its orbital trajectory frequently crosses Earth's route around the sun, making a direct collision with our planet possible. If such a strike were to occur, it could wipe out an entire city with the equivalent force of 500 Hiroshima bombs.
While analyzing the asteroid's trajectory, researchers briefly estimated that 2024 YR4 had up to a 3.1% chance of crashing into Earth in 2032 — the highest probability ever recorded for an object of this asteroid's size. NASA eventually refined this prediction down to 0%. But, while uncertainty reigned, the European Space Agency (ESA) announced that several hours of JWST's emergency discretionary time would be used to study the potentially hazardous space rock's size and trajectory.
Key to these observations are JWST's infrared sensors, which can directly detect heat emitted by the asteroid and provide insight into both its size and composition. Ground-based telescopes that observe visible light can only see the sunlight reflected off of the asteroid's surface, leaving big questions about its true nature.
"In general, the brighter the asteroid, the larger it is, but this relationship strongly depends on how reflective the asteroid's surface is," ESA officials wrote in a Feb. 10 blog post. "2024 YR4 could be 40 m [130 feet] across and very reflective, or 90 m [295 feet] across and not very reflective … the hazard represented by a 40 m asteroid is very different from that of a 90 m asteroid."
JWST made its first observations of the asteroid on March 26, watching the asteroid rotate once every 20 minutes over a five-hour period. The researchers then converted the asteroid's brightness to mid-infrared wavelengths, taking into account the known distances and angles between the asteroid, the sun and JWST.
With these data, the team estimated that asteroid 2024 YR4 is slightly larger than was previously estimated, measuring about 200 feet (60 m) in diameter. The thermal analysis also suggests that the asteroid is cooler than is typical for objects of this size, hinting that it may be rockier than previously thought as well.
Front-row seats to a lunar impact?
But even if 2024 YR4 is a bit bigger and harder than we thought, it still poses no imminent threat to Earth, the JWST data confirm. But there does remain a roughly 2% chance that the asteroid will slam into the moon in 2032, report co-author Andrew Rivkin, an astronomer at Johns Hopkins University, told New Scientist.
While a lunar impact may sound scary, the moon endures thousands of tiny meteor strikes every year and has the cratered scars to prove it has survived much larger impacts. But seeing a known asteroid, with a known size and trajectory, gouge open a new crater in real time would be a world-first opportunity for lunar researchers.
"We've got our fingers crossed for a moon impact," Alan Fitzsimmons, a physics and math professor at Queen's University Belfast in the U.K. who was not involved in the JWST observations, told New Scientist. "It would have no effect on Earth, but would allow us to study the formation of a lunar crater by a known asteroid for the very first time."
The second round of JWST observations, scheduled for May, will further help to refine the asteroid's orbital trajectory and its chances of hitting the moon.
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Writing: Hieroglyphics, a writing system that uses pictures; hieratic, a quicker type of "cursive"; and demotic, a written short-form script
Ancient Egypt's gods:Osiris (the god of the underworld who was resurrected), Amun-Ra (the god of the sun), Isis (the goddess of healing and magic), Horus (a falcon-shaped god of war and the sky), Maat (the goddess of order) and many others
Ancient Egypt was an influential kingdom in North Africa and the Middle East for thousands of years. Ancient Egyptians were ruled by a leader called a pharaoh and worshipped many different gods.
Today, we can still see traces of this culture in archaeological sites and museums all over the world, as well as in modern pop culture, such as movies and books. Ancient Egypt is best known for the pyramids of Giza, the giant Sphinx, and mummies. However, the early Egyptians also left behind other ancient clues that we can use to learn about their daily lives, including their preserved temples, scrolls, statues, tools, pottery, jewelry, weapons and even their burials.
In fact, it was such a significant civilization that people who study ancient Egyptian history have a special name: Egyptologists. Keep reading to learn all about why ancient Egypt was so influential.
5 fast facts about Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egyptian pyramids were sometimes tombs for pharaohs and other important people.
Because hieroglyphics were complicated to write, ancient Egyptians invented cursive versions called hieratic and demotic.
The Book of the Dead was an ancient Egyptian manual for how to travel through the afterlife.
Pharaohs wore different kinds of headgear to symbolize their power. The most famous of these were striped headcloths called "nemes."
Ancient Egyptians sometimes mummified their pets, including pet cats, dogs and monkeys, and even other animals, like crocodiles, fish and beetles.
Everything you need to know about Ancient Egypt
When did ancient Egypt start and end?
Humans have lived in Egypt for at least 400,000 years, so it's tricky to establish exactly when the ancient Egyptian civilization began. However, because around 3100 B.C. — or 5,100 years ago— Egypt unified under a pharaoh and the writing system of hieroglyphics emerged, Egyptologists commonly use this date as the starting point. Ancient Egyptian history is usually divided into "dynasties" — time periods when a specific family of pharaohs ruled over the kingdom. Around 30 dynasties ruled over ancient Egypt, and the first pharaoh of the first dynasty might have been a ruler named Menes. Cleopatra is considered the last pharaoh. She died in 30 B.C. That means the ancient Egypt civilization lasted around 3,000 years.
Who built the ancient Egyptian pyramids?
People might claim that the Egyptian pyramids were built by aliens, or even the inhabitants of Atlantis. But that's not true — they were built by people thousands of years ago.
A pharaoh named Djoser ordered the construction of a "step pyramid" (a pyramid that looks like it has giant steps on its walls) around 4,600 years ago. The pharaoh Snefru ordered the construction of the first true pyramid around 100 years after that.
Though pharaohs ordered the pyramids to be constructed, the pharaohs didn't build the pyramids themselves. A team of workers moved the giant bricks that make up the pyramids. Egyptologists aren't sure exactly who the workers were, but they may have been farmers or a professional construction crew.
Why did the Egyptians build pyramids?
Most pyramids were royal tombs where the mummies of pharaohs and other important people, like nobles and government officials, were buried when they died.
Mummification was a complex ritual that took 70 days. Priests dried out the body of the person who died with salt and wrapped it in linen cloth before conducting the "Opening of the Mouth" ceremony, in which a priest touched different parts of the mummy with a special instrument. The ancient Egyptians believed this allowed the person to use their senses in the afterlife.
Then, the mummies were placed in a coffin and the coffin was put in a special room in the pyramid called the burial chamber. Ancient Egyptians also buried "grave goods" with the people who had died — valuable objects they could use in the afterlife.
Who are the most famous pharaohs?
The most famous pharaohs are perhaps Ramesses II and Tutankhamen. But others — including Cleopatra, Hatshepsut and Ptolemy I Soter — accomplished great things.
Hatshepsut was a woman who reigned from 1473 to 1458 B.C., or about 3,500 years ago. She ruled on behalf of her young stepson and nephew for several years before officially becoming a co-ruler in 1473, and one of the few known female pharaohs. She ordered important building projects, including a great temple at Deir el-Bahari, and established good relationships with a nation called the land of Punt, which probably existed somewhere in northeastern Africa.
Tutankhamun, also known as King Tut, reigned from 1336 to 1327 B.C., roughly 3300 years ago. He is known more for the famous discovery of his extravagant tomb than for anything he did. He inherited the throne when he was just 9 or 10 and died at just 18 or 19 years old.
Ramesses II, also known as Ramesses the Great, inherited the throne in 1279 B.C. after his father died. He was perhaps the most powerful ancient Egyptian ruler; he vastly expanded the Egyptian empire and built many large monuments. He also reigned for more than 60 years, dying in 1213 B.C.
Ptolemy I Soter was a general of Alexander the Great and started the last dynasty of Egypt — the Ptolemies, which included Cleopatra — before the Roman Empire took over. When Alexander the Great died in what is now Iraq, Ptolemy moved Alexander's body more than 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) — about the distance from Washington, D.C., to Miami — to start a new city in Egypt, called Alexandria. He reigned from 367 to 282 B.C., or about 2,300 years ago.
Cleopatra, who reigned from 51 to 30 B.C., was the last pharaoh and perhaps one of the most famous female rulers of all time. She convinced the Roman emperor Julius Caesar to help put her in power, during which she ruled over Egypt, parts of Libya and regions of the Middle East.
What was the religion of ancient Egyptians, and what did it say about the afterlife?
Ancient Egyptians worshipped many different gods and goddesses. The most important ones included Osiris (the god of the underworld who was later resurrected), Amun-Ra (the god of the sun), Isis (the goddess of healing and magic), Horus (a falcon-shaped god of war and the sky) and Maat (the goddess of order).
Ancient Egyptians believed that pharaohs were related to the gods, and religion played a role in all aspects of life. They also believed in the existence of life after death. When someone died, they were turned into mummies and buried with tools to help them navigate and live comfortably in the afterlife.
Part of the journey in the afterlife included weighing their soul on a scale — if the soul was lighter than a feather, it meant the person had committed more good deeds than bad deeds and was allowed to continue.
Ancient Egypt pictures
(Image credit: Ricardo Liberato)
The Pyramids of Giza
Ancient Egyptian pyramids were tombs for pharaohs and other important people.
(Image credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art, CC0)
A statue of Hatshepsut
Hatshepsut was one of ancient Egypt's few female pharaohs.
(Image credit: stellalevi via Getty Images)
The weighing-of-the-soul ceremony
Ancient Egyptians believed that after people died, their souls should be weighed on a scale. If they had committed more good deeds than bad ones, their soul would be lighter than a feather and they would be allowed to continue into the afterlife.
(Image credit: skaman306 via Getty Images)
Tutankhamun's tomb and burial chamber
Tutankhamun died when he was just 18 or 19, but he's famous because of his extravagant tomb, which was discovered in 1922.
(Image credit: dpa picture alliance via Alamy)
A mummy in an archaeology museum
Mummification was an important part of ancient Egyptian burial practices.
(Image credit: Hoberman Collection via Getty Images)
One of Ramesses II's temples at Abu Simbel
Ramesses II ordered many impressive constructions during his reign.
Unitree's G1 demonstrates a new level of robotic agility with a complex movement following an AI software update.
World's First Side-Flipping Humanoid Robot: Unitree G1
Scientists just showcased a humanoid robot performing a complicated side flip.
The company that makes the robot, Unitree, posted a video to Youtube showcasing its acrobatics. In the video, the silver-grey G1 crouches slightly, then launches up before rotating sideways through the air.
The robot catches itself primarily with its left leg and stabilizes almost immediately as the other foot makes contact with the floor. As impressive as it is at full speed, it's even more mesmerizing in slow motion, particularly the ease with which the robot seems to balance and right itself after landing.
Last year, the same model mastered a backflip. To teach G1 its new trick, the company mainly upgraded the artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm it used to make the software faster and more responsive, Unitree representatives told Live Science.
"The side flip was performed under reinforcement learning training," they added.
Reinforcement learning is a mainstay technique used to teach robots how to navigate and interact with the physical world. This is the same technology that robotics company Figure has used to train its Figure 02 robots to move in a more humanlike way.
The G1 can also walk and run at up to 2 meters per second (4.5 miles per hour or 7.2 kilometers per hour). (Image credit: Unitree Robotics)
A robotic acrobat
The G1 can do more than acrobatics; during a martial arts demonstration, it disarmed a baton-wielding opponent. After a series of feints with its hands, the bot executed a spinning kick that sent the baton flying from its opponent's hands.
Like its human counterparts, the robot's lightweight, compact form helps it perform acrobatic moves with ease.
The G1 stands at just over 4.3 feet (1.3 meters) in height and weighs only 77 pounds (35 pounds) G1 also sports a 3D light detecting and ranging (LIDAR) and depth camera, which gives it a 360-degree view of its environment. Perhaps most importantly, it incorporates 23 degrees of freedom, a measure of the number of joints or axes of movement available to the bot.
The G1 can also walk and run at up to 2 meters per second (4.5 miles per hour or 7.2 kilometers per hour).
The company envisions robots like G1 or its successors doing everything from helping out with chores at home to performing industrial operations to assisting with hazardous rescue missions, the Unitree representative said.
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Figure 02's human-like gait is the product of the company's simulated reinforcement learning system, and is just the beginning of its plans to make its robots perform physical tasks more naturally.
(Image credit: Figure)
A U.S. robotics company has used artificial intelligence (AI) to give its humanoid robots a more natural-looking stride, and they say it's just the beginning.
In the promotional video, the robot, called Figure 02 and manufactured by the company Figure, marches with a "human-like" gait. This is an ability it claims will help its robot to navigate the physical world more easily.
"These initial results are exciting, but we believe they only hint at the full potential of our technology," company representatives wrote in a blog post accompanying its announcement. "We're committed to extending our learned policy to handle every human-like scenario the robot might face in the real world."
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The problem, known as Moravec's Paradox, emerges because computers excel at problems that require complex calculations and large datasets, but lack our real-world experience honed by millions of years of evolution. This makes robots' shuffling gaits, well, robotic at best. At worst, it gives them the appearance that they may have soiled themselves.
To tackle the robot's unnatural gait, Figure's engineers used a learning technique called reinforcement learning — placing thousands of virtual robots inside a physics simulator that recreates various terrains, thereby improving their walking through trial and error.
By rewarding the virtual robot army for natural motions, they refined their gaits to appear more human-like. With this task accomplished, they uploaded the refined "Learned Natural Walking" model to a real-world Figure 02 robot. The result is an android that can move somewhat naturally, with heel strikes, toe-offs and synchronized arm swings.
Figure's reinforcement learning technique is key to the California company's plans to roll out its robots on factory floors. It has already tested its humanoid robots in a BMW factory in 2024 and plans to introduce more this year. Meanwhile, Apptronik, a Texas-based competitor, is also commercializing its humanoid robot, Apollo, for use in Mercedes-Benz factories by the end of 2025. Agility Robotics' Digit will also be introduced into warehouses this year.
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Found in the Zohar Valley near Israel's border with Jordan, this massive pyramid is made of hand-hewn stones, many weighing several hundred pounds.
Israel Antiquities AuthorityThe ancient pyramid structure, dating back 2,200 years, that was discovered in the Judean Desert.
Archaeologists searching the Judean Desert in hopes of finding additional Dead Sea Scrolls recently made an unexpected discovery of an ancient pyramid structure.
Located 72 miles south of Jerusalem, the pyramid stands roughly 20 feet tall and is comprised of large, heavy stones that were hand-hewn roughly 2,200 years ago. Artifacts found at the site, such as coins, weapons, and furniture, date the structure back to the Hellenistic period (323 B.C.E. to 30 B.C.E.), when Greek culture rapidly spread across the Mediterranean world.
Although the ample artifacts found at the scene have helped narrow down the structure’s age, they have left puzzling questions about the purpose of the site. While archaeologists debate the possible purposes of the structure — ranging from guard tower to monumental burial site — the public has been called to aid the excavation crew in their quest to unravel the mysteries of this ancient desert pyramid.
Archaeologists Uncover A Mysterious Pyramid Dating Back 2,200 Years In The Judean Desert
Israel Antiquities AuthorityArchaeologists conduct a full excavation of the ancient pyramid.
In 2017, Israel’s Ministry of Heritage and the Israeli Antiquities Authority (IAA) began a large-scale project to survey and excavate large areas of the Judean Desert. Located in the West Bank and Israel, the desert stretches as far south as the Dead Sea and covers an area of 1,560 square miles.
During the almost decade-long excavation project, archaeologists have surveyed more than 100 miles of desert and 900 caves, uncovering artifacts like papyri, tools, weapons, leather goods, and coins.
A piece of papyrus with Greek writing Emil Aladjem
Israel Antiquities Authority
Recently, a team of archaeologists led by Matan Toledano, Dr. Eitan Klein, and Amir Ganor was examining an area in Nahal Zohar when they discovered something completely unexpected. Originally hoping to find additional Dead Sea Scrolls, the crew stumbled upon a 2,200-year-old pyramid structure from the Hellenistic period, an era when Greek culture rapidly spread across the Mediterranean.
The pyramid, standing nearly 20 feet tall, is comprised of large hand-hewn stones, many of which weigh hundreds of pounds. Surrounding the structure, the research team discovered a wealth of artifacts, including furniture, vessels, and coins.
Israel Antiquities AuthorityAn ancient sewing needle discovered inside the pyramid.
“In the first excavation week, the volunteers found written historical documents, exceptional bronze vessels, and remains of ancient furniture, which thanks to the desert climate were preserved in amazing condition,” the crew explained in their statement. “Every moment new findings are discovered, and we are filled with anticipation for what else the next three weeks might reveal.”
Decoding The Mysteries Of The Judean Desert Pyramid
Israel Antiquities AuthorityArchaeologists search for more artifacts to shed light on the origins and use of the pyramid.
Due to the large number of historical artifacts discovered both in and around the pyramid, experts wondered if the site served as a strategic outpost in ancient times.
At first, archaeologists assumed that the structure was a burial site from the First Temple period, between the 10th and 6th centuries B.C.E. However, artifacts at the site, such as Greek papyri and coins minted under the reign of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, king of the Seleucid Empire, show that the structure was in use during the 3rd and early 2nd centuries B.C.E.
Israel Antiquities AuthoritySome of the ancient Greek papyri discovered at the site.
Artifacts found at the site also point to the pyramid being used as a possible guard tower or tax-collection center. It is possible that merchants traveling through the desert stopped at the structure to pay fees.
“Is this a guard tower, guarding an important commercial route through which the Dead Sea resources of salt and bitumen were transported to the coastal ports? Or at some point was this enormous structure on the mountaintop marking a grave, or serving as a monument in ancient history?” excavation leaders wrote in their statement.
To help solve the mystery of the Judean Desert pyramid, the IAA has called on volunteers from the public to help conduct excavations alongside archaeologists in the next three weeks. With their help, it’s possible that the pyramid’s secrets will be unveiled in full.
“The Judean Desert survey is one of the most important archaeological operations ever undertaken in the State of Israel’s history,” the IAA wrote. “The discoveries are exciting and even emotional, and their significance for archaeological and historical research is enormous. It is an enthralling historical mystery – and to our delight, the public coming to volunteer in the
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Ze leefden niet alleen samen, maar deelden ook met elkaar in technologie, levensstijlen en begrafenisrituelen, zo toont een nieuwe studie aan.
Wetenschappers zijn nog steeds bezig de mysterieuze band tussen Neanderthalers en moderne mensen te ontrafelen. We weten dat ze het bed met elkaar deelden, aangezien we Neanderthaler-DNA in ons hebben. Maar er wordt ook gesuggereerd dat de komst van de moderne mens misschien wel de nekslag voor de Neanderthaler heeft betekend. Opgravingen in de Tinshemetgrot in centraal Israël werpen nu nieuw licht op de nog steeds raadselachtige band tussen deze twee mensensoorten.
Tinshemetgrot Opgravingen in de Tinshemetgrot zijn al sinds 2017 aan de gang. Een van de belangrijkste doelen van het onderzoeksteam is om te begrijpen hoe de relatie tussen Homo sapiens en Neanderthalers was gedurende het midden-Paleolithicum in de Levant, een deel van Zuidwest-Azië (een regio die de huidige landen Israël, Palestina, Libanon, Syrië en Jordanië omvat).We weten namelijk dat beide mensensoorten tegelijkertijd in dit gebied leefden. Maar waren ze rivalen die om middelen streden, vreedzame buren, of werkten ze zelfs samen?
Begrafenissen Een recente ontdekking in de Tinshemetgrot onthult nu dat er veel meer wederzijdse invloed was dan vroeger werd gedacht. De grot, rijk aan archeologische vondsten, heeft meerdere menselijke begrafenissen onthuld – de eerste uit het midden-Paleolithicum in meer dan vijftig jaar. Dit levert sterk bewijs op dat Neanderthalers en moderne mensen in de regio niet alleen samenleefden, maar ook aspecten van hun dagelijks leven, technologie en begrafenisrituelen met elkaar deelden. Deze bevindingen benadrukken de complexiteit van hun interacties en suggereren een nauwere relatie dan voorheen werd gedacht.
Een stenen voorwerp ontdekt in de Tinshemetgrot dat is vervaardigd met een techniek die zowel door Homo sapiens als Neanderthalers werd gebruikt. Afbeelding: Marion Prévost
Interacties Kortom, de bevindingen duiden erop dat verschillende Homo-groepen in het midden-Paleolithicum in de Levant dus belangrijke praktijken met elkaar deelden, zoals begrafenisrituelen en het symbolisch gebruik van minerale pigmenten. Zo vonden de onderzoekers in de Tinshemetgrot bijvoorbeeld oker, dat vermoedelijk werd gebruikt voor lichaamsversiering. Het betekent dus dat de twee mensensoorten veel met elkaar in contact stonden. Deze interacties zorgden vervolgens voor culturele uitwisseling, meer sociale complexiteit en nieuwe gedragingen, zoals formele begrafenissen.
Overnemen Het is echter nog niet duidelijk welke groep welke praktijken van de ander overnam — bijvoorbeeld of moderne mensen de jachttechnieken van Neanderthalers leerden, of Neanderthalers de begrafenisrituelen van moderne mensen overnamen, of dat ze samen nieuwe tradities ontwikkelden. Wat de onderzoekers in ieder geval vermoeden, is dat de interacties tussen Neanderthalers en Homo sapiens geen toevallige ontmoetingen waren, maar dat er wezenlijke contacten waren die leidden tot het overnemen van elkaars gedragingen.
Kerkhof De clustering van menselijke begrafenissen in de Tinshemetgrot roept daarnaast interessante vragen op over de rol van de grot in de samenleving van die tijd. Zou het misschien een speciale begraafplaats of zelfs een kerkhof kunnen zijn geweest? Als dat het geval is, zou dit kunnen wijzen op gedeelde rituelen en sterke gemeenschappelijke banden. Het plaatsen van belangrijke voorwerpen, zoals stenen werktuigen, dierenbotten en oker, in de begrafeniskuilen kan ook duiden op vroege overtuigingen in het leven na de dood.
Smeltkroes Op basis van de interessante bevindingen omschrijft onderzoeksleider Yossi Zaidner de vindplaats als een ‘smeltkroes’ waar verschillende menselijke groepen elkaar ontmoetten, met elkaar omgingen en samen evolueerden. “Onze gegevens laten zien dat menselijke connecties en interacties tussen populaties essentieel zijn voor het stimuleren van culturele en technologische vernieuwingen door de geschiedenis heen”, legt hij uit.
De ontdekkingen in de Tinshemetgrot geven een fascinerend inzicht in de sociale structuren, symbolische gedragingen en het dagelijks leven van vroege menselijke groepen. Ze laten een tijd van grote demografische en culturele veranderingen zien en werpen nieuw licht op het complexe netwerk van interacties die de wereld van onze voorouders bepaalden. De voortzetting van de opgravingen in de Tinshemetgrot zal ongetwijfeld nog meer inzichten bieden in de oorsprong en evolutie van menselijke samenlevingen.
An eerie new video from ESA's Solar Orbiter shows a towering 'cyclone' of plasma exhibiting behaviors never seen before on our sun.
A newly released video shows a giant gust of spiralling solar wind shooting out of the sun in 2022. Strange, dark UFO-like lines also move across the screen during the sped-up footage.
(Image credit: ESA & NASA/Solar Orbiter/Metis & EUI Teams, V. Andretta and P. Romano/INAF)
A newly released video has revealed a gigantic plume of solar wind towering above the sun in a never-before-seen, "cyclone-like" configuration that emerged in the wake of a massive solar explosion. The striking timelapse footage also captured strange lines streaking across the fiery scene like pixelated UFOs — but are actually distant stars.
The video, which was released March 26 by the European Space Agency (ESA), is sped-up footage originally taken over an eight-hour period on Oct. 12, 2022, by ESA's Solar Orbiter. The spacecraft captured the scene by blocking out the main disk of the sun, which enabled the probe's camera to focus on the extremely faint light given off by the flow of superfast charged particles, or solar wind, that streams out of our home star nearly constantly.
This is the first time solar wind has been recorded "flying out from the sun in a twisting, whirling motion," ESA representatives wrote in a statement. "The solar wind particles spiral outwards as if caught in a cyclone that extends millions of kilometres from the sun."
A Glimpse of the Sun [4K]
The striking video also shows around a dozen perfectly flat, half-dark, half-light lines that creep across the screen like the UFOs and aliens in arcade games such as "Space Invaders."
These features are actually stars that are moving across the background as the orbiter circles the sun, which show up thanks to an editing technique used to make the video, ESA representatives wrote.
In a new study of the video, released March 26 in The Astrophysical Journal, researchers described the giant solar corkscrew as a "large pseudostreamer" that erupted near the sun's north pole in the wake of a solar flare that launched a cloud of plasma, or coronal mass ejection (CME), into space. The pseudostreamer reached up to 1.5 times as long as the sun is wide and lasted for around three hours.
The "helix" structure of the wind jet is likely the result of Alfvénic fluctuations triggered by waves of ions that oscillate in response to magnetic field disturbances that occurred during the flare, the researchers wrote. They noted that the unique shape may also be tied to the streamer's position near one of the sun's polar regions, where magnetic fields are usually much stronger than near the sun's equator.
The sun is currently experiencing the peak in its roughly 11-year cycle of activity, known as solar maximum, which officially began in early 2024. During this phase, powerful solar flares explode more frequently from the sun and solar wind intensifies. However, this video was captured before solar activity started ramping up, which surprised the scientists.
The pseudostreamer shot out from near the sun's north pole, which may have played a role in its creation. (Image credit: ESA & NASA/Solar Orbiter/Metis & EUI Teams, V. Andretta and P. Romano/INAF)
Until recently, the origin and complex behaviors of solar wind have remained largely elusive. But a new generation of spacecraft is helping to unravel these mysteries.
When the video was recorded, ESA's Solar Orbiter was the only probe capable of capturing solar wind in such great detail. However, ESA's Proba-3 mission, which launched in December 2024, is also capable of viewing solar wind thanks to its ability to create artificial solar eclipses in space. NASA's Parker Solar Probe, meanwhile, was launched in 2018 and has helped to capture important solar wind data during its recent super-close flybys of our home star.
Sounds of the Solar Wind from NASA's Parker Solar Probe
Solar wind is expected to become more extreme over the next few years as we enter the solar "battle zone" — a period after solar maximum when magnetic instabilities on the sun cause large coronal holes to open up on the sun's surface and shoot out extreme solar gusts. These solar events will be much like a dark patch that showered Earth with charged particles last week, triggering significant aurora activity.
UFO Armada Over Denver, Colorado March 2025, UAP Drone Sighting News.
UFO Armada Over Denver, Colorado March 2025, UAP Drone Sighting News.
Date of sighting: March 2025
Location of sighting: Denver, Colorado, USA
Source:Email report
This is a great catch of a four glowing spheres in military formation triangle over Denver this week. The guy was driving home from work and struggled to hold his phone and drive safely as you can see from the video. However he did succeed in show the craft, which reveals its size of about that of a car, its color being white and they move at about car speed. Now there have been thousands of reports over the last decade of white car size spheres over Denver and also some being chased by USAF jets. Mayors and police have also made reports about seeing them so we know they are up there. But my theory is that there is an alien base under the Rocky Mountains because most sphere sighting happen along the mountains. It seems the UFOs are now openly flying over towns! You know what this means right? Full disclosure is just around the corner. Aliens are pushing for the big reveal regardless of what the US gov wants us to know and not know. I believe full disclosure will happen in 2027. Not far now folks.
Scott C. Waring - Utah
UFO Fleet In Formation Over Denver, Colorado March 2025, UAP Drone Sighting News.
Breaking News: ET Base On Moon io in Shape of Worm! UFO UAP Sighting News.
Breaking News: ET Base On Moon io in Shape of Worm! UFO UAP Sighting News.
Date of discovery: March 31, 2025
Location of discovery: Moon io
Source: Me
Guys I found this amazing worm structure on Jupiter moon io yesterday. The structure looks segmented and shiny metallic. This really reminds me of the old Mars tunnels that were seen long ago and then suddenly the US gov made all that information disappear. Well, this may be wiped from the internet soon, but for now...it's here. This is absolute proof that intelligent beings live and build structures on the moon io. You don't need to believe me, but do you believe your own eyes?
If Earth had similar auroras to Neptune, they would be over Argentina and Japan (Picture: Metro/Google Maps)
New photos of Neptune’s glowing auroras are the most detailed ever captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope – but has also left astronomers with more questions.
A composite Hubble-JWST image showing the auroral activity on Neptune.
Auroras can happen on any planet, and occur when electrically charged particles from space enter and collide with molecules in the atmosphere, creating a series of reactions that emit light.
On Earth, auroras tend to occur near the polar regions, producing spectacular northern and southern lights.
But on Neptune, the auroras are in very different areas. Hints of auroras were first faintly detected in ultraviolet light when the Voyager 2 spacecraft flew past Neptune in 1989.
Now, the Webb telescope has captured Neptune’s shimmering lights in infrared light, providing direct evidence they exist.
‘Neptune has always been elusive,’ University of Reading planetary scientist James O’Donoghue, co-author of the new study, told Metro.
The auroras would be visible north of Japan if they were on Earth like Neptune (Picture: Metro/Google Maps)
‘If you were to overlay where Neptune’s Aurora occurs on the Earth, the southern aurora would fall just over Argentina and the northern Aurora would fall north of Japan,’ he added.
‘To see the auroras on Earth, we typically try to go as high a latitude as possible close to the poles, whereas if we had near Aurora, like Neptune, we would be rushing over to Argentina and the north of Japan.’
Dr O’Donoghue also told Metro that after taking a photograph of Neptune’s aurora, scientists also found that Neptune cooled down a great deal more than they expected.
‘Based on observations taken by Voyager in the 1980s, the upper atmosphere was around 750 Kelvin (476.85C). But we measured it to be at 370 Kelvin (96C), which doesn’t sound like a large numerical difference, but it is,’ he explained.
‘The thing that fascinates me is the amount of light we see from the Aurora on Neptune mostly depends on temperature – so the fact that it’s cooled down that much does explain why we haven’t been able to see it with anything until now.’
Neptune’s rings and several of its moons were revealed in striking Webb images collected by the telescope in 2022
(Credit: NASA).
‘We’ve used the world’s biggest telescopes over the last two decades to years to try and find this aurora, and we did not manage to find it until now.
‘It was a long-running saga, but what excites me is trying to figure out what it is that makes temperature change in the upper atmosphere of Neptune,’ he said.
Dr O’Donoghue added: ‘Temperature mysteries are everywhere in this field – I mainly look at Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus. It may be seasonal variations in the upper atmosphere temperatures, but it’s a very big mystery.’
Countries like Iceland, Finland and Sweden normally get the best views of the Northern Lights (Picture: PA)
Scientists have studied auroras on Saturn and Jupiter for decades, but Neptune, the farthest planet from the sun, has been harder to see up close.
Its auroras ‘had only been seen by Voyager, and we’ve been trying to see it again ever since’.
Neptune’s auroras occur near the mid-latitudes of the planet, not the polar regions, because of differences in its magnetic field, Mr O’Donoghue said.
The researchers also revealed that Neptune’s atmosphere has cooled significantly since the 1980s, which may have dimmed the light of the auroras.
If you’re looking for some spectacular stargazing this week, you may not be able to see Neptune’s auroras, but you could see the Earth’s.
Tonight, parts of Scotland will be able to see the Northern Lights – Earth’s aurora (Picture: PA)
But a geomagnetic storm that has raged for months has made this celestial fireworks display visible further south – even in London.
The Met Office says a burst of solar activity means the aurora will dance above northern Scotland.
On the weather agency’s ‘space weather’ forecast (yes, really), it says: ‘There is a chance of aurora sightings at times across northern Scotland this week, given clear night-time skies, with a slight chance of sightings across Southern Scotland and similar latitudes.’
UFO ORBS CAUGHT ON NIGHT VISION in Kingsville, MD – Fast Movers & Strange Lights Fill the Sky! 👽✨ #UFOs #UAP #Kingsville
UFO ORBS CAUGHT ON NIGHT VISION in Kingsville, MD – Fast Movers & Strange Lights Fill the Sky! 👽✨ #UFOs #UAP #Kingsville
KINGSVILLE, MD – The skies lit up with mystery on the night of April 1st, 2025, as strange glowing orbs were caught on camera between 9:00 and 9:45 PM in what could be one of the most intriguing UFO sightings in recent months.
Using a Sionyx Aurora night vision camera, the witness recorded multiple bright objects hovering, pulsing, and darting through the sky while facing west/northwest. Some of the orbs appeared to remain suspended, while others shot across the frame at high speeds — behavior that’s hard to explain with known aircraft or drones.
“I’ve been seeing this kind of activity for months now, and finally managed to capture a few solid clips,” the witness stated. “Most of the UFO activity I observe tends to appear in the same W/NW direction.”
The video shows clear evidence of orb-like anomalies that exhibit unusual movement and illumination patterns. These aren’t stars, satellites, or planes — and they don’t behave like conventional drones either.
Why This UFO Sighting Matters
While many UFO sightings turn out to have mundane explanations, the Kingsville footage stands out due to:
Use of verified night vision tech
Multiple objects captured at once
A witness with repeated experiences in the same sky sector
Some objects exhibiting non-linear, high-speed flight paths
Watch the Footage
Curious? Watch the raw and enhanced footage below and decide for yourself — are we seeing advanced drones, natural phenomena… or something not yet understood?
UFO Orbs Over Kingsville, MD | Night Vision Footage (April 1, 2025)
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A 2014 satellite image captured a rare glimpse of a massive, eerily circular ring of clouds that formed slap-bang in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
A massive, lone cloud ring was spotted in the middle of the Pacific Ocean in 2014. It reached roughly 280 miles across.
(Image credit: NASA/Terra/MODIS)
QUICK FACTS
Where is it? In the middle of the Pacific Ocean
What's in the photo? A circular, open-celled cloud above the ocean surface
Which satellite took the photo? NASA's Terra satellite
When was it taken? Sept. 3, 2014
This striking satellite image reveals a giant, near-perfect cloud circle that formed in the heart of the Pacific Ocean more than a decade ago. While this type of cloud is not uncommon, it is extremely rare to find one isolated and in the middle of nowhere, experts say.
The strange structure, which is approximately 280 miles (450 kilometers) wide, was spotted "a few thousand kilometers southwest of the Hawaiian Islands" by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Terra satellite, according to NASA's Earth Observatory.
The fluffy ring is made up of cumulus clouds that have been sculpted into a Rayleigh-Benard convection cell — a meteorological phenomenon powered by the rising and falling of air that's been warmed or cooled to different temperatures, known as convection.
There are two types of cloud cells: closed cells, which occur when cold air sinks around the cells' border, causing clouds to form at their centers; and open cells, which occur when cold air sinks at the cells' center, triggering clouds to form around their borders, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The cloud ring in the satellite photo was formed by a closed cell.
Cloud cells are normally hexagonal and usually appear alongside other cells of the same type, creating noticeable patterns in the sky. Open-cell clouds often form wispy honeycomb-like lattices, but for some reason, this cell appears to be all on its own.
This 2016 satellite image shows a band of open-celled clouds (top) next to a band of closed-celled clouds (bottom). Open cells have gaps at their center, while closed cells have gaps around their edges. (Image credit: NASA/Terra/MODIS)
The lone cloud ring was likely triggered by a parcel of warm air over a small island or patch of water that was superheated by the sun, according to the Earth Observatory.
"As the warm air became buoyant and rose, cumulus clouds and eventually patches of light rain probably developed. The rain would have cooled the air beneath the clouds, causing a downdraft that sent rain-cooled air outward from the original location of the clouds," Earth Observatory representatives wrote. "When the rain-cooled air encountered warmer air at the edge of the cell, it likely pushed the warm air up, which caused the ring of cumulus clouds to form."
The cloud cell was located just south of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ICZ) — a low-pressure belt near the equator where the trade winds trigger frequent thunderstorms and heavy rainfall. This may have also played a role in the cloud's creation, according to the Earth Observatory.
The ocean surface to the east (right) of the cloud ring appears to have a metallic shine. This is the result of a sunglint, where sunlight bounces off the sea and directly back to an observing instrument in space. This can transform large patches of the ocean into swirling silver mirrors.
Cloud cells were only discovered in 1961, thanks to images from NASA's Television Infrared Observation Satellite 1 (TIROS-1) satellite — the first full-scale weather satellite ever launched into space. Before then, the intricate patterns of the cells had gone largely unnoticed by meteorologists, according to the Earth Observatory.
Social Robots Can Improve Astronauts' Mental Health
Social Robots Can Improve Astronauts' Mental Health
By Andy Tomaswick
An image of Robonaut, one of NASA's humanoid robots, and an astronaut in EVA suit. Credit - NASA
Many health problems are faced by astronauts who spend significant amounts of time in space. But perhaps one of the most insidious is the danger to their mental health. In particular, a prolonged sense of loneliness that could crop up as part of a long-term deep space mission could have dire consequences. A recent paper from Matthieu Guitton, the editor-in-chief of the journal Computers in Human Behavior: Artificial Humans and a researcher at the CERVO Brain Research Center in Quebec, proposes one potential solution to that risk - social robots.
Radiation is a commonly cited risk to human health during long-term expeditions, but the operation of a person's actual body in low gravity is also a concern. Plenty of studies have noted changes in astronauts' decision-making capabilities and tracked physiological changes in their brains. Since astronauts are some of the most highly trained people in the world, with extreme selection criteria, they generally seem able to weather that storm, but what happens when space flight becomes more ubiquitous, and people who are not as mentally well-prepared start to participate?
Robots are already a key part of exploration activities, as Fraser discusses.
The lack of general social interaction can exacerbate those problems. In many space missions, only a few people can interact with each other. As missions get farther into space, the light lag in communication will make it more difficult to talk to anyone not in a person's immediate proximity, which limits overall social interaction, and limited social interaction itself can lead to poor mental health. So, why not simply increase the number of people to interact with but not have them take up pesky resources like food, water, and air? Can a robot truly fulfill the need for human social interaction to a point where it can reverse the isolation effects of long-term spaceflight? Dr. Guitton seems to think so.
Robots are commonly used throughout space exploration. Whether flying above the red planet or moving large installations around the ISS, robots play a central role in our modern concept of what it means to explore space. They are also becoming increasingly common on Earth, and one particular branch, that of "social robotics," is gaining increased interest due to the proliferation of seemingly human-level communication skills of some large language models.
However, most of those language models don't have a physical presence - at least not yet. That might change in the future, but Dr. Guitton thinks it is a critical feature of any robot intended to help deal with the isolation on long space missions. He points to "standard social interactions," like sitting down and talking to someone, as a key feature in the social lives of humans. Interacting with a disembodied AI, even through voice chat over a computer, doesn't have the same emotional impact.
Robots can also replace humans in a lot of dangerous settings, as Fraser discusses.
Having a physical "embodiment" begs the question—does the robot have to look human for this support structure to work? Not necessarily. In the paper, he says, "Human-like design does not necessarily mean having a fully humanoid robot. Indeed, some specific human-like features relevant for social interactions could be sufficient to induce a marked effect."
The paper doesn't go into detail about the psychological impact of being stuck in a spaceship with a semi-humanoid robot that falls directly into the uncanny valley. But with our current level of technology, that would be the most likely outcome if we were to try to produce a physical manifestation of the type of social robot described in the paper. As robots become better at mimicking actual human features and materials improve to allow them to do so, the risk of falling into that valley decreases.
Testing the types of interactions necessary to prove the efficacy of such a robot would be difficult as well, as there are ethical questions regarding whether it's appropriate to potentially harm someone's mental health better to understand the effects of human/robot interaction. Eventually, there will be more of that interaction going on, and Dr. Guitton has been leading the charge in adapting that interaction to benefit those involved in space exploration for over a decade now. That is a concept any scientific enthusiast can get behind.
Earth Bacteria Could Survive on the Moon for Decades
Earth Bacteria Could Survive on the Moon for Decades
By Laurence Tognetti
Image of Shackleton Crater on the Moon. (Credit: NASA/KARI/ASU)
Could microbes survive in the permanently shadowed regions (PSRs) of the Moon? This is what a recent studypresented at the 56th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference hopes to address as a team of researchers from the United States and Canada investigated the likelihood of long-term survival for microbes in the PSR areas of the Moon, which are craters located at the poles that don’t see sunlight due to the Moon’s small axial tilt. This study has the potential to help researchers better understand unlikely locations where they could find life as we know it throughout the solar system.
Here, Universe Today discusses this incredible research with Dr. John Moores, who is an associate professor in the Centre for Research in Earth and Space Science at York University and lead author of the study, regarding the motivation behind the study, significant results, how these findings could influence human exploration to the PSRs, possible contamination from human exploration, and how any microbes could have arrived at the PSRs. Therefore, what was the motivation behind the study?
“A few years ago in 2019, I participated in a study looking at the potential for the Moon to preserve microbial contamination on spacecraft, led by University of Florida researcher Dr. Andrew Schuerger,” Dr. Moores tells Universe Today. “At the time, we did not consider the PSRs because of the complexity of modelling the ultraviolet radiation environment here. However, in the years since, a former student of mine, Dr. Jacob Kloos at the University of Maryland, had developed a sophisticated illumination model. Furthermore, with the renewed interest in PSR exploration, we decided to take another look at these regions and realized we had all the pieces of the puzzle we needed to understand their ability to preserve terrestrial microbial contamination.”
For the study, the researchers conducted a series of models to ascertain if the reduced amount of ultraviolet (UV) radiation and increased temperatures within the PSRs could enable the possible survival of microorganisms within two PSR craters, Shackleton and Faustini. The researchers chose these two craters based on previous studies involving the modeling of light entering the craters and both craters are also current landing site targets for the upcoming Artemis missions.
As noted, the lunar PSRs are devoid of sunlight due to the Moon’s axial tilt, which is approximately 1.5 degrees with respect to Sun. For context, the Earth’s axial tilt is approximately 23.5 degrees with respect to the Sun, resulting in the seasons we experience as Earth orbits the Sun. As a result from this small axial tilt, certain lunar PSRs crater like Shackleton and Faustini have not received sunlight in potentially billions of years. While the Moon lacks an atmosphere and is exposed to the vacuum of space, this creates very cold pockets that the researchers propose could preserve microbes for long periods of time. Therefore, what are the most significant results from this study?
“In space, microbes are typically killed by high heat and ultraviolet radiation,” Dr. Moores tells Universe Today. “However, the PSRs are very cold and very dark and, as a result, they are one of the most protective environments in the solar system for the kinds of microbes that are typically present on spacecraft. To be clear, those microbes cannot metabolize, replicate or grow here, but they likely remain viable for decades until their spores are killed by the effects of vacuum. The organic molecules that make up their cells likely would persist far longer.”
As noted, the lunar PSRs are currently targeted landing sites for the upcoming NASA Artemis program, most notably Shackleton, due to the potential pockets of water ice that are trapped within the PSR craters that future astronauts could use for water, fuel, and oxygen. However, all space missions run the risk of bringing unwanted microbes to the target location, thus potentially and unnecessarily contaminating an otherwise pristine location devoid of microbes. This could result in faulty data being collected and inaccurate results after analyzing the data, potentially leading to inaccurate findings regarding finding life beyond Earth.
This is especially true for human missions to the Moon, as humans are naturally dirty creatures that carry a myriad of microbes that could travel with them to the Moon. Thus, whatever microbes that could exist within the PSRs could become influenced by human microbes, possibly killing them off.
To combat this, the NASA Planetary Protection office is tasked with overseeing that outgoing spacecraft are sterilized and clean of microbes prior to launch but also tasked with ensuring returned spacecraft did not carry unwanted microbes from outside the Earth. Therefore, how can the findings from this study influence human exploration in lunar PSRs?
Dr. Moores tells Universe Today, “While we can clean robotic spacecraft fairly well, it is more difficult to decontaminate equipment and spacesuits used in human exploration. As a result, humans walking into the PSRs will likely carry considerably more contamination with them, some of which will be left behind and be preserved far longer than anywhere else on the moon.”
Additionally, the study notes that “care should be taken in their exploration” regarding the PSRs, but is this referring to planetary protection?
Dr. Moores tells Universe Today, “It is less a question of planetary protection than of preserving the PSRs in as close to a pristine state as possible for future scientific analyses. The question then is to what extent does this contamination matter? This will depend on the scientific work being done within the PSRs. One possible goal is to retrieve samples of water ice from within the PSRs to better understand their origins and how they came to be found here. Part of that analysis could include looking at organic molecules present in the ice that are known to occur in other places, for instance within comets. That analysis will be easier if contamination from terrestrial sources is minimized.”
If there are microbes at the lunar PSRs, the question then becomes how they arrived there. Given the heavily-craters surface of the Moon, they could have arrived from an impacting body from elsewhere in the solar system, or beyond. However, humans have also sent a number of spacecraft that have impacted the lunar surface, including the Ranger spacecraft that occurred leading up to the Apollo missions, but these spacecraft crashed near the Moon’s equator and far from the poles.
In 2009, NASA’s Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) mission to the Moon intentionally crashed its Centaur upper stage into Cabeus crater, which is a PSR crater located approximately 100 kilometers (62 miles) from the lunar south pole, with the goal of measuring the amount of water produced from the ejecta plume. But, how could microbes have arrived in lunar PSRs and what can this teach us about the Moon’s formation and evolution?
“The chance that there is already terrestrial microbial contamination in the PSRs is low but not zero,” Dr. Moores tells Universe Today. “Several spacecraft have impacted within or near the PSRs. Though they all did so at high speed, past research by others has suggested that small numbers of spores can survive simulated impacts into regolith-like materials. If any microbes survived those impacts, they would have been widely dispersed.”
What new discoveries about potential microbes living on the Moon will researchers make in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!
Image of plumes erupting from Io’s surface taken by NASA’s Galileo spacecraft in June 1997. (Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)
What can a sample return mission from Jupiter’s volcanic moon, Io, teach scientists about planetary and satellite (moon) formation and evolution? This is what a recent study presented at the 56th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference hopes to address as an international team of more than two dozen scientists discussed the benefits and challenges of a mission to Io with the goal of sampling its volcanic plumes that eject from its surface on a regular basis.
Here, Universe Today discusses this incredible research with Aanu Adeloye, who is a PhD Candidate in Aerospace, Aeronautical, and Astronautical Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin and lead author of the study, regarding the motivation behind the study, significant takeaways, next steps for making a sample return a reality, and the importance of returning Io samples to Earth. Therefore, what was the motivation behind the study?
“This study was sponsored by the Keck Institute for Space Studies (KISS) at the California Institute of Technology as part of a two-part workshop series titled ‘Sample Return from All across the Solar System’,” Adeloye tells Universe Today. “The primary objective was to evaluate both the scientific case for and the feasibility of returning samples from the surface, atmosphere, or plumes of diverse planetary bodies—from Mercury to Kuiper Belt Objects beyond Pluto’s orbit. Through this workshop, we developed a prioritized list of solar system targets for sample return missions over the coming decades, based on expected scientific yield and technological readiness. Io emerged as one of the key targets on this list.”
Image of Io’s nightside and dayside taken by NASA’s Juno spacecraft.
For the study, the researchers discussed the reasons behind choosing Io for their sample return mission, vital questions that returned samples could answer about volcanism and Io’s formation and evolution, the mission design, and the scientific impact on the planetary science community. The researchers emphasized how a sample return mission to Io could build off previous spacecraft missions to the Jovian (Jupiter) system, including Galileo, New Horizons (flyby en route to Pluto), and Juno (currently active).
Potential questions a sample return mission could address include Io’s geologic and isotopic composition, plume source and composition, geologic similarities to Europa, and Io’s interaction with Jupiter’s massive magnetic field. For mission design, the researchers propose a fast-moving spacecraft that would travel through the plumes while collecting samples, highlighting the importance of not needing to land on the surface. They estimate the total mission length from launch to return would be approximately 9.4 years based on proposed propulsion technologies. Finally, the researchers emphasized how a sample return mission could help planetary scientists gain greater insight into planetary formation and evolution, specifically Jupiter and its moons. Therefore, what were the most significant takeaways from the study?
“Io stands out as the most volcanically active body in our solar system, boasting hundreds of active volcanoes that emit plumes of gas and dust reaching heights of up to 400 km [250 miles] and spanning widths as large as 1500 km [930 miles],” Adeloye tells Universe Today. “Positioned at the boundary between the outer and inner Solar System, Io occupies a unique location that makes it an ideal target for sample return missions. Analyzing samples from Io promises to shed light on many enduring questions about the origins and evolution of the Solar System.”
NASA missions typically take years, and sometimes decades, to go from a concept to returning relevant scientific data. They are typically designated specific mission types based on budget and scope of the mission, including Discovery, New Frontiers, Solar System Exploration, and large strategic missions (formerly called Flagship). This also includes whether the mission will be a flyby, orbiter, lander, or rover. For this Io sample return mission, the researchers have designated it as a flyby since it will fly through Io’s plumes without stopping and returning to Earth with the collected samples.
Image of plumes erupting from Io’s surface taken by NASA’s Galileo spacecraft in June 1997.
(Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)
The NASA selection process for each mission typically consists of several phases involving concept, designs, testing hardware in a laboratory or ground setting, re-designs, more tests for specific systems, integrating all systems together, more tests, launch, cruise, arrival, and finally data collection. Therefore, what are the next steps for making an Io plume sample return mission a reality?
“The Io sample return study evaluated both the scientific rationale and the technological requirements needed for such a mission,” Adeloye tells Universe Today. “We concluded that, with current technology, a ‘New-Frontiers-style’ mission could feasibly perform a fly-through of one of Io’s volcanic plumes to collect gas and dust ejected from its crust. This concept is achievable using today’s propulsion and sample collection systems.”
Adeloye continues, “Furthermore, our ability to develop sophisticated simulations of Io’s plumes will greatly aid in mission planning and execution. Although further improvements in laboratory techniques are needed to optimize the analysis and yield of returned samples, we expect these challenges to be addressed over time. The next step is to assemble a team of leading scientists and engineers to develop and present detailed concept missions to the scientific community.”
As noted, Io is the most volcanically active planetary body in the solar system, boasting hundreds of volcanoes that eject magma and other materials hundreds of kilometers into space. This volcanic activity results from a phenomenon known as tidal heating, which occurs when the gravity of a much larger body tugs on a smaller body, causing it to stretch and compress during the latter’s orbit. In Io’s case, Jupiter’s intense gravity tugs on the much smaller moon as the latter orbits in an elliptical (oval-shaped) pattern, meaning Io is closer to Jupiter at some points during its orbit and farther away at other points.
Io’s volcanic activity was first discovered by Voyager 1 when it and its sister spacecraft, Voyager 2, conducted flybys of Jupiter and its moons in 1979. This was the first time that active volcanism was observed on another planetary body aside from Earth, opening new understandings into the complex and unique nature of the solar system. Therefore, what is the importance of returning Io plume samples to Earth for further analysis?
“Io occupies a unique position within both the Jovian system and the broader Solar System,” Adeloye tells Universe Today. “Its dynamic, transient atmosphere and vigorous volcanic activity continually renew its surface, effectively mitigating the space-weathering effects seen on more geologically inactive bodies. Consequently, Io's distinctive properties have preserved its surface materials in a relatively pristine state. Collecting samples from Io thus offers an unparalleled opportunity to probe early Solar System materials in a way that samples from more weathered bodies cannot.”
What will sampling Io’s volcanic plumes teach scientists about planetary formation and evolution in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!
If anything was going to clear up the mystery of the Loch Ness Monster, it's this.
A camera trap, lowered to the bottom of the Loch more than 50 years ago, has been discovered by scientists.
The device is thought to be one of six cameras placed 180 metres (590ft) below the surface in 1970 by Professor Roy Mackal, of the Loch Ness Investigation Bureau, and the University of Chicago.
It is likely one of the earliest attempts to catch the famous monster on film and, remarkably, remained dry within its clear waterproof plastic container.
It was unearthed during trials of a National Oceanographic Centre (NOC) submersible vessel – commonly known as Boaty McBoatface.
During the test, part of the mooring that was holding the camera system in place became caught on its propeller.
Thankfully, a NOC engineer was able to develop the film, which was still in a good condition.
So, can you spot any signs of the legendary beast?
Film recovered from the camera - can you see any hint of the mythical beast lurking in the depths of Loch Ness?
Another image captured by the device, which had been lowered to a depth of 180 metres (590ft)
Remarkably, the camera has remained dry despite being submerged for more than 50 years - meaning its film could be developed
Close analysis of images of the loch's murky depths unfortunately showed no evidence of its most famous inhabitant.
Adrian Shine, who founded the Loch Ness Project in the mid-1970s, helped to identify the camera as one of those placed in the water by Professor Mackal.
'It was an ingenious camera trap consisting of a clockwork Instamatic camera with an inbuilt flash cube, enabling four pictures to be taken when a bait line was taken,' he said.
'It is remarkable that the housing has kept the camera dry for the past 55 years, lying around 180 metres deep in Loch Ness.'
Sam Smith, of NOC's marine autonomous robotics systems group, said: 'At 230 metres deep, Loch Ness is an ideal location to test our robotics, their sensors and systems, before they're deployed in the deep ocean to help answer the big questions we have.
'While this wasn't a find we expected to make, we're happy that this piece of Nessie-hunting history can be shared and perhaps at least the mystery of who left it in the loch can be solved.'
The camera, it's housing and the film have been given to the Loch Ness centre in Drumnadrochit so that it can be displayed as part of Nessie's history.
Nagina Ishaq, manager of the centre, said she hoped people would be inspired by what could be hidden in the loch.
Adrian Shine, who founded the Loch Ness Project in the mid-1970s, holding the camera within its protective housing
Moment double-humped creature emerging from Loch Ness caught on camera
'It's been over 90 years since the first sighting of Nessie, since then there have been many expeditions to find the elusive beast,' she said.
'We are guardians of this unique story and, as well as investing in creating an unforgettable experience for visitors, we are committed to helping continue the search and unveil the mysteries that lie underneath the waters of the famous loch.
'We want to say a big thank you to Noc for handing over the film and camera, that we believe has been hidden for over 50 years, for everyone to come and discover and be inspired by what could be hidden in the mysterious loch.'
NOC is currently testing two Autosub vehicles in the loch – one used for mapping seabed habitats and another used for long-range autonomous operations.
The vehicles can descend to 6,000 metres (19,685ft), collecting a vast amount of ocean data that would be 'extremely difficult' to gather using other means.
Rumours of a strange creature living in the waters of Loch Ness have abounded over the decades, yet scant evidence has been found to back up these claims.
One of the first sightings, believed to have fuelled modern Nessie fever, came in May 2, 1933.
On this date the Inverness Courier carried a story about a local couple who claim to have seen 'an enormous animal rolling and plunging on the surface'.
Another famous claimed sighting is a photograph taken in 1934 by Colonel Robert Kenneth Wilson.
It was later exposed as a hoax by one of the participants, Chris Spurling, who, on his deathbed, revealed that the pictures were staged.
Other sightings James Gray's picture from 2001 when he and friend Peter Levings were out fishing on the Loch, while namesake Hugh Gray's blurred photo of what appears to be a large sea creature was published in the Daily Express in 1933.
Robert Kenneth Wilson, a London physician, captured arguably the most famous image of the Loch Ness Monster. The surgeon’s photograph was published in the Daily Mail on April 21, 1934 - however it was later proven to be a fake
The first reported sighting of the monster is said to have been made in AD565 by the Irish missionary St Columba when he came across a giant beast in the River Ness.
But no one has ever come up with a satisfactory explanation for the sightings - although in 2019, 'Nessie expert' Steve Feltham, who has spent 24 years watching the Loch, said he thought it was actually a giant Wels Catfish, native to waters near the Baltic and Caspian seas in Europe.
An online register lists more than 1,000 total Nessie sightings, created by Mr Campbell, the man behind the Official Loch Ness Monster Fan Club and is available at www.lochnesssightings.com.
So what could explain these mysterious sightings?
Many Nessie witnesses have mentioned large, crocodile-like scutes sitting atop the spine of the creature, leading some to believe an escaped amphibian may be to blame.
Native fish sturgeons can also weigh several hundred pounds and have ridged backs, which make them look almost reptilian.
Some believe Nessie is a long-necked plesiosaur - like an elasmosaur - that survived somehow when all the other dinosaurs were wiped out.
Others say the sightings are down to Scottish pines dying and flopping into the loch, before quickly becoming water-logged and sinking.
While submerged, botanical chemicals start trapping tiny bubbles of air.
Eventually, enough of these are gathered to propel the log upward as deep pressures begin altering its shape, giving the appearance of an animal coming up for air.
"That capability gap is significantly narrowed, and we've got to change the way we're looking at space, or that capability gap may reverse and not be in our favor anymore."
Vice Chief of Space Operations Gen. Michael Guetlein speaks at the 16th annual McAleese "Defense Programs" Conference in Arlington, Virginia, Tuesday, March 18.
The United States is approaching a turning point in space security, and needs to step up its game before Russia and China close the gap in capabilities, a U.S. Space Force general said.
China has a 'kill mesh system' in space (stock)
(Image: Getty Images/Science Photo Library RF)
Vice Chief of Space Operations Gen. Michael Guetlein spoke at the 16th annual McAleese "Defense Programs" Conference in Arlington, Virginia on Tuesday (March 18), warning the Space Force needs to rethink how it defends the country's satellites. Space Force should shift its focus from managing spacecraft in support of defense infrastructure on the ground, to growing its ability to keep pace with the on-orbit weaponry being developed by the country's adversaries, Guetlein argued.
"We are in the process of pivoting from what used to be a service focused on providing the most exquisite space services on the planet to the warfighter and to the nation" Gen. Guetlein said, "to make it a warfighting force capable of protecting and defending our capabilities in and through space."
For decades, spacefaring nations largely avoided interfering with each other's satellites and other spacecraft, but now that era seems to be coming to an end. The shift comes as China and Russia have ramped up displays of orbital warfare capabilities over the past few years. Some of these incidents have more publicly-facing than others, such as Russia's anti-satellite (ASAT) test in 2022, which created a cloud of supersonic debris in low-Earth orbit. That same year, a Chinese satellite "grappled" one of the nation's defunct satellites and towed it into a "graveyard orbit."
"We're seeing grappling arms in space capable of towing another satellite or holding it hostage," he warned. "We're also now starting to see our near peers focusing on practicing dogfighting in space with satellites," he added, stressing that propping up the Space Force would deter such aggression.
China has established a sophisticated "kill mesh" in orbit. This advanced network of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) satellites, integrated with weapon systems, marks a significant leap in Beijing’s orbital warfare capabilities, posing a direct challenge to U.S. space superiority.
The advancement of Chinese and Russian technologies has led to the proliferation of satellites equipped with the ability to jam, spoof, and dazzle US assets in orbit.
Guetlein says the old norms in space are beginning to erode. "There was a gentleman's agreement until recent [sic] that we didn't mess with each other's space systems," Guetlein said. "We didn't jam them, we didn't spoof them, we didn't lase them, we just kept them safe," he explained. "Unfortunately, our current adversaries are willing to go against international norms of behavior […] and they're willing to do it in very unsafe and unprofessional manners."
Guetlein also noted the "jamming, spoofing, and dazzling" trend becoming norms of behavior, highlighting the tactics as a rapid addition to the new operational environment in space. Now, the stakes are rising higher. Foreign satellites have begun shadowing US spacecraft, moving in lockstep in what Guetlein described as a "cat and mouse game."
The Space Force general added that as new orbital warfare technologies and capabilities emerge, it's important that the US maintain superiority. But the once-massive technological advantage in space held by the U.S. is narrowing. "That capability gap used to be massive," Guetlein noted. "That capability gap is significantly narrowed, and we've got to change the way we're looking at space, or that capability gap may reverse and not be in our favor anymore."
China, in particular, is advancing its intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) technologies. "The Chinese ISR capabilities are becoming very capable. They have gone from what we used to call a 'Kill Chain' to a 'Kill Mesh'," he said, describing an integrated network that intertwines ISR satellites with weapon systems.
2025 16th Annual McAleese "Defense Programs" Conference #DPC25 – General Michael A. Guetlein
To combat the adversarial overtake, the Space Force has begun reinforcing its infrastructure and adding redundancies where it can, but Gen. Guetlein says more needs to be done. In some areas, he pointed out, the commercial space sector has surpassed some of what the Space Force is able to accomplish from orbit. He says commercial and international partnerships are absolutely crucial.
"We no longer have the corner on technology. Commercial has it, as well as our allies. All of us operating together are better than the sum of the parts," Guetlein said. "Partnerships get us proliferation, that gets us excess capacity, that gets us redundancy, that makes the attack surface much broader for our adversaries."
Space Force is also developing integrated defense systems, including an initiative called Golden Dome, proposed during President Trump's first address to Congressduring his new term in office. "The magic of Golden Dome, in my mind, is going to be the integration of capabilities that were never meant to be networked or integrated before," Gen. Guetlein said. "Many pieces of the puzzle for Golden Dome already exist. They're just not connected today."
Ancient Egyptian Secrets Revealed: How Did They Bore Through Granite?
Ancient Egypt is known for many technological and artistic achievements, constructing pyramids and temples, inventing a system of writing, hieroglyphs, and making advancements in medicine, astronomy, and many other fields. One area for which the Egyptians are particularly famous, of course, is their stone working. A particularly controversial issue is how the ancient Egyptians were able to cut and bore through solid granite - which is considerably more difficult to do than cutting through softer, sedimentary rock such as limestone or sandstone.
View One: The Egyptians Used Common Tools to Bore Holes in Granite
The mainstream archaeological view is that it was done with copper, bronze, and wooden tools used by Egyptian masons today to cut granite. Others, however, have suggested that it was done with more advanced equipment that is yet to be discovered. For the time being, the balance of evidence seems to suggest the mainstream view that primitive metal and wooden tools used by common stone masons were sufficient for cutting through granite.
Reproduction Ancient Egyptian stone mason’s tools used for carving demonstrations. (St. Luke's Finsbury/Stephen Critchley) Were primitive metal and wooden tools used by common stone masons sufficient for cutting through granite?
The first modern Western archaeologists to study ancient Egypt in the 19th century were mostly upper class gentlemen who had no experience with manual labor. As a result, when they encountered structures which they didn’t think could be built with simple hammers and chisels, they assumed that it must have meant that the people at the time had access to more advanced tools than previously believed, advanced machinery with which they were more familiar - such as cranes and other industrial machinery.
Later archaeologists decided to examine the work of stone masons to better understand how the ancient Egyptians built things. They realized that contemporary Egyptian masons of the day had been using primitive tools such as hammers, copper and bronze chisels, and wooden wedges to cut through granite for centuries, dating back to pharaonic Egypt.
Ancient Egyptian sculptors making a statue. (Underground Science) The mainstream view suggests ancient Egyptian stone masons used common tools to crave and bore holes in granite.
The current understanding of how Egyptians bored through granite among mainstream archaeologists is that they used a method where they would drive a wooden wedge into a crack in the rock and soak the wedge with water. As the water expanded, this would cause the crack in the rock to widen. After doing this, they would continue to drive the wedge in even further. Doing this repeatedly would eventually split the rock into blocks. This process happens all the time in nature through frost wedging. Water in the cracks of rocks, including granite and other igneous rocks, will freeze. Freezing of the water causes it to expand, which, over successive freezing and melting, will cause a crack to widen. This can sometimes cause an entire boulder to split in two. The stone mason, modern or ancient, would be using the same principle to cut granite blocks along pre-existing zones of weakness.
An unfinished Egyptian obelisk at Aswan with holes showing how the granite would be split.
View Two: The Egyptians Used Advanced Technology to Bore Holes in Granite
This is still hard for some skeptical writers and observers to believe. They insist that the primitive methods used by early modern and ancient Egyptian stone masons were not enough and that it must have been with more advanced equipment that the ancient Egyptians bored through solid granite. They argue that this is evidence that the ancient Egyptians and other civilizations were much more technologically sophisticated than is currently believed.
We do know that strange devices and materials have been found in archaeological sites in different parts of the world, and have been labeled, boxed and hidden out of view because they do not fit the conventional historical paradigm. Sir William Flinders Petrie was one of the great Egyptologists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and he found a number of core drills, many of which are now housed in the museum named after him at the University College London in London England. The actual hollow drill bits that apparently made them have not been found, but the cores made of limestone, alabaster, granite and other stones have.
Renegade scholar Chris Dunn, author of several books that dispute the assertions of mainstream Egyptologists, sees the existence of these cores as strong evidence in favor of the advanced technology hypothesis. He spent hours in the Petrie museum and was allowed to personally examine some of the drill cores. Here he discusses the characteristics of one of them:
“The most fascinating feature of the granite core Petrie describes is the spiral groove around the core indicating a feed rate of 0.100 inch per revolution of the drill. It was 500 times greater than modern diamond drills, but the rotation of the drill would not have been as fast as the modern drill's 900 revolutions per minute.”
The often times quoted idea that these drill cores were achieved using a bow and copper tube with sand used as an abrasive must be thrown out, as no modern replication of these cores has been done to the level of efficiency as discussed above, Dunn and other researchers claim.
While it is possible that more advanced technologies could have been developed in ancient Egypt, smoking-gun evidence is lacking. There is no indisputable evidence of physical remains of electrical batteries or wires or anything else that would suggest that the ancient Egyptians used technology that was more advanced than what is expected for that period.
Abusir, Egypt. Remnant of granite pillar with lines etched on it.
There is another case which some proponents of the idea that ancient Egypt was more advanced than contemporary archaeology would suggest - evidence that the ancient Egyptians used light bulbs. The temple of Hathor at the Dendera complex in Egypt contains several stone reliefs that appear to some observers to be a light bulb.
The so-called ‘Dendera light’ in one of the crypts of Hathor temple at the Dendera Temple complex in Egypt. (CC BY 2.5) Could the Egyptians have had electricity and electric tools to bore through granite?
It is far from conclusive, however, that this is a light bulb and most experts agree that it is a depiction of a djed pillar, a type of pillar associated with Ptah the creator god and a lotus flower. It also involves other references to Egyptian mythology such as the sun barge which the god Ra uses to travel across the sky. The fact that no unambiguous ancient Egyptian lightbulbs have ever been discovered also makes the mainstream view more likely for the time being. We know that the Egyptians had stories involving a djed pillar, a lotus flower, and a sun barge. We do not however know, or have concrete indications, that they had electric lighting (or electric drilling for that matter.)
At the moment, without independent corroborative evidence to support the existence of electrical or other similarly advanced technology in ancient Egypt, these sorts of explanations don’t seem to fair well against Occam’s Razor (which admittedly may not always be the best standard, as the best answers are sometimes complex). They require us to assume that the ancient Egyptians had mechanical or electrical technology - for which there is currently no indisputable evidence from archaeology or from historical records written by the ancient Egyptians.
Resourcefulness Allowed the Egyptians to Bore the Holes in Granite
There are still a lot of questions about how exactly the ancient Egyptians were able to build their monuments with the tools that they had, but the fact that we know they had these tools (as opposed to more advanced tools) makes it more likely that they used these primitive tools in some way.
Aswan, Egypt granite quarry with hole where an obelisk block was carved out.
With our modern cranes, power tools, and lasers, we tend to assume that engineering projects such as cutting or drilling through hard crystalline rock require reasonably advanced, modern technology, but humans have always shown themselves to be resourceful. Ancient civilizations were able to make up for their relatively primitive technology by being clever in finding ways to accomplish great architectural achievements with very simple means.
Perhaps we are the limited ones, relying too much on our own technology and not our ingenuity to overcome obstacles. That is a lesson that we can learn from the ancient Egyptians, the ancient Maya, the ancient Incas, and countless other cultures across the world who brought us a collective cultural heritage.
Top Image:Using common tools to work stone in ancient Egypt. (Egyptraveluxe Tours)The so-called ‘Dendera light.’ (Olaf Tausch/CC BY 3.0) Giza, Egypt. Close-up of drill hole in granite with spiral grooves. (Chris Dunn.2007)
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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.
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