Het onmisbare spektakel van het Noorderlicht die de wereld verbaasde met de geomagnetische storm

 Door Janine

De snelle opeenvolging van krachtige zonnestormen van de afgelopen dagen heeft de hemel van ons noordelijk halfrond beschilderd en ons een prachtig Noorderlicht gegeven. Maar hoe ontstaat dit fenomeen?

Noorderlicht en Zuiderlicht, het “geschenk” van de zonneactiviteit

NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center

De afgelopen dagen heeft de geomagnetische storm die werd veroorzaakt door de voortdurende zonnevlammen als gevolg van de inkomende piekactiviteit van de zon, die een cyclus van elf jaar heeft, niet alleen radio- en communicatieproblemen veroorzaakt in verschillende delen van de wereld, maar ook burgers van de VS, Canada, Europa en China in staat gesteld om getuige te zijn van een uniek en uiterst indrukwekkend natuurspektakel: het Noorderlicht.

De gekleurde halo's aan de nachtelijke hemel - zichtbaar door de afwezigheid van zonlicht - waren meerdere dagen zichtbaar. Het Noorderlicht is het resultaat van een moleculaire botsing in de bovenste lagen van de atmosfeer van de aarde, die uitbarstingen van energie veroorzaakt. Deze energie manifesteert zich in zichtbaar licht aan de hemel, maar dat kunnen we alleen opmerken in de uren dat het donker is. Maar het is niet het enige dat verbaasde toeschouwers betovert: er is ook de aurora australis (Zuiderlicht), die voorkomt op het zuidelijk halfrond en in de eerste helft van het jaar zichtbaar is in sommige regio's in de buurt van de twee aardpolen.

De sterkste zonnestorm sinds decennia

Het poollicht beweegt zich van de polen naar de evenaar tijdens perioden van maximale activiteit, zoals de afgelopen dagen het geval was. De krachtige geomagnetische storm heeft onze planeet bereikt en ontketende spectaculaire nachtelijke spektakels over de hele wereld. Dit is een historische gebeurtenis: op 10 mei bereikte de storm het hoogste niveau op de schaal die begint met G1 en classificeerde zichzelf als G5, kondigde NOAA, de National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, aan. Dit is in tientallen jaren niet gebeurd.

Na een reeks coronale massa ejecties, materiaal dat uit de corona van de zon wordt uitgestoten en deze fenomenen kan veroorzaken, werd de hemel een heel weekend lang overspoeld door Noorderlicht, zoals het Space Weather Prediction Center van NOAA aankondigde. De zonnestorm was de sterkste in twee decennia, door de krachtige geladen energieën die vanaf de zon de ruimte in explodeerden. Hoewel het geen gevaar voor ons vormt, kan het elektronische apparaten aantasten, waaronder satellieten in een baan om de aarde.

Hoe het Noorderlicht ontstaat

Dan McManus - SPACE WEATHER PREDICTION CENTER/NOAA

Brian Cox, natuurkundige en ruimtevaartdeskundige, zei: "Zonder het magnetische veld van de aarde dat ons beschermt, zou onze atmosfeer allang verloren zijn gegaan in de ruimte. Die kleuren aan de hemel herinneren de natuur ons eraan dat we blij mogen zijn dat we hier zijn."

De afgelopen jaren hebben we een zeer actieve zon meegemaakt, met talloze coronale massa-uitbarstingen die op onze planeet gericht waren. Juist hierdoor kunnen we de poollichten zien: de coronale massa-uitstoot lanceert geladen deeltjes de ruimte in, die wanneer ze de gassen van de atmosfeer van de aarde raken, zoals zuurstof en stikstof, deze prachtige lichten doen ontstaan. Zuurstofatomen worden groen, stikstofatomen worden blauw, roze en violet.

De hemel heeft zo voor wonderbaarlijke verrassingen gezorgd, die heel veilig met het blote oog zichtbaar waren.

{ https://www.curioctopus.nl/ }

15-05-2024 om 12:21 geschreven door peter  

Top 4 UFOs Spotted Flying in American Air Space

UFO sightings have long captured the public’s imagination, and recent events in the United States have reignited interest in the phenomenon. Here are four intriguing UFO sightings in American airspace that have sparked both fascination and debate.

1. February 3rd, 2023 – Billings, Montana

On February 3rd, 2023, Dolly Mills Moore, a military veteran, was finishing her workday in Billings, Montana, when she noticed something unusual outside her window. She saw a trail of smoke pointing toward the ground, followed by a bright flash in the sky. This sighting came just two days after a Chinese high-altitude surveillance balloon was spotted over Billings, adding to the intrigue.

Dolly’s video quickly went viral, raising questions about whether it was related to the balloon incident. Aviation expert Tim McMillan analyzed the footage and concluded that the trail was likely a vapor trail from an aircraft, not a UFO. Meteorologist Juan Hernandez added that the conditions that day were conducive to contrail formation. The verdict: a conventional aircraft contrail, unrelated to the spy balloon.

2. January 31st, 2022 – Cape Canaveral, Florida

During a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launch on January 31st, 2022, a couple in Fort Lauderdale noticed two bright lights following the rocket as it ascended. This sighting led to speculation that UFOs were monitoring the launch.

Aviation and military expert Tim McMillan suggested the lights could be rocket boosters or reflections. Astronomer Mark D’Antonio explained that such lights could be atmospheric effects caused by the rocket plume, known as supersonic shock waves. The verdict: natural atmospheric phenomena associated with the rocket launch.

3. December 1st, 2022 – Fredonia, Wisconsin

On December 1st, 2022, Ken Be captured a video of four lights streaking across the night sky in Fredonia, Wisconsin. The next evening, similar lights were seen in Greenfield, Wisconsin. Given Wisconsin’s long history of UFO sightings, these videos garnered significant attention.

Science writer and video analyst Mick West investigated and discovered that the lights were spotlights from local Christmas displays. Using triangulation and eyewitness accounts, West pinpointed the source of the lights to holiday decorations. The verdict: Christmas spotlights.

4. February 2022 – Colorado Springs, Colorado

In February 2022, Bruce Lony filmed a long, dark object hovering in the sky over Colorado Springs. Historical references to worm-like flying objects in various cultures fueled speculation about the object’s origin.

Aviation analyst Tim McMillan considered the possibility of the object being a kite, given its consistent orientation towards the ground. However, video effects designer and astronomer Mark D’Antonio proposed it was a solar balloon. These balloons, heated by the sun, can rise and move in the air. The verdict: a solar balloon.

VIDEO:

• The Proof Is Out There: Top 4 UFOs Spotted Flying in American Air Space

• https://youtu.be/KuE5cQJpp14

These recent UFO sightings highlight the blend of curiosity and skepticism that surrounds unidentified aerial phenomena. While some sightings can be attributed to conventional explanations like aircraft contrails, rocket boosters, and holiday lights, others remain intriguing due to their unique characteristics. As technology and surveillance improve, the line between the unexplained and the explicable continues to blur, keeping the mystery of UFOs alive.

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

15-05-2024 om 11:08 geschreven door peter  

'God of Destruction' asteroid Apophis will come to Earth in 2029 — and it could meet some tiny spacecraft

As to why Apophis is an apt target for a planetary defense study? Well, discovered in 2004, the asteroid quickly rose to the top of tables that measure the risk of so-called potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs), or asteroids with widths of 460 feet (140 meters) or more that come within 20 lunar distances of Earth.

Both the size of Apophis and how close to Earth its trajectory brings it saw the asteroid remain at the top of both the European Space Agency's (ESA's) "impact risk list" of PHAs and NASA's Sentry Risk Table for 17 years. That was until a close flyby of the asteroid — a space rock that is almost as wide as the Empire State Building is tall — in March 2021 allowed NASA scientists to determine Apophis actually won't hit the Earth for at least 100 years. 

Though we now know Apophis won't collide with Earth in the next century, its scientific impact in 2029 will still be tremendous, and space agencies from countries across the globe will be closely tracking its trajectory.

Plus, as an asteroid that formed around the same time as the planets from leftover material around the infant sun, Apophis also offers researchers a unique opportunity to determine what the solar system's chemical composition was around 4.6 billion years ago

Meet the rendezvous candidates

Despite the fact that we are aware of around 1.3 million asteroids in the solar system, of which 2,500 are considered potentially hazardous (though none are expected to hit Earth for at least a century), spacecraft missions to study asteroids are relatively rare.

Thus far, only 20 missions have been deployed to study asteroids in situ, including the aforementioned OSIRIS-REx, Japan's Hayabusa1 and Hayabusa2 crafts, the ESA's Rosetta space probe, and the asteroid-hopping NASA mission Lucy, currently journeying to the Trojan asteroids that share their orbit with Jupiter.  Thus, the JMU team must carefully consider its options when considering a future asteroid-investigating spacecraft. 

The team's first concept is a small satellite that will join Apophis for a period of two months as it makes its close approach to Earth in April 2029. The craft will stick with the "God of Destruction" space rock for weeks after, even as it moves away. Over the course of the mission, this German national spacecraft will photograph Apophis and make measurements documenting any changes the NEA undergoes during its flyby.

This particular mission would be a challenging one because of its duration, the distance it will be required to travel, and the fact that the craft will have to function autonomously for long periods. It would also have to launch at least a year before Apophis arrives in Earth's vicinity.

The team's second concept involves integration with a larger spacecraft that's being planned by the ESA called RAMSES. This mission will be outfitted with smaller satellites, measuring equipment and telescopes. RAMSES, named after Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses the Great, would journey to Apophis and stay with the asteroid as it passes Earth.

If the second concept reaches fruition, one of the small satellites carried by RAMSES will be designed by the JMU team, with this project requiring less technical effort than the first concept while promising to reap greater scientific knowledge. 

One of the primary issues the second concept faces, however, has to do with getting REMESES off the ground — not literally, but figuratively. It's success will depend on the willingness of ESA partner countries to fund the mission. Again, a lead time of at least 365 days would be needed to ensure the success of this concept.

The third concept involves a small satellite that will only briefly fly past Apophis when the asteroid is at its absolute closest to Earth, snapping images of the asteroid in the process. This concept would require much less effort, and the craft would be relatively inexpensive.

The downside of concept 3, however, is that its observation time would be limited, which would also limit the volume of knowledge this mission would add to our understanding of asteroids.

On the plus side, the small-scale mission could launch just two days before Apophis arrives. Also, if concept 3 were to successfully observe Apophis, it would demonstrate the capability of small and inexpensive satellites in studying asteroids, perhaps leading to an increased interest for in situ asteroid-studying missions going forward.

The NEAlight project kicked off at the beginning of May 2024; between now and April 30, 2025, the JMU scientists will work out the requirements and specificities of the respective missions.

Beyond the visit of Apophis, the three concepts considered could remain options for future missions to other solar system planets, the moon — or maybe other intriguing NEAs.

Orbit of asteroid Apophis (pink) in contrast to the orbit of Earth (blue), from the years 2028 to 2030. The yellow dot represents the sun. Apophis takes 323.6 days to orbit the sun. Earth takes 365.3 days. Thus this asteroid is a fairly frequent visitor to our region of space.

Image via Phoenix7777/ Wikimedia Commons.

This animation shows the distance between the Apophis asteroid and Earth at the time of the asteroid’s closest approach in 2029. The blue dots are manmade satellites orbiting our planet, and the pink represents the International Space Station.

Image via NASA/ JPL-Caltech.

LINKS VIDEOS

• https://youtu.be/eOTH5SBVU00

• https://youtu.be/8MFh27Y9DTw

{ https://www.space.com/ }

15-05-2024 om 01:40 geschreven door peter  

Unable to decipher the strange set of inscriptions along the face of the artifact, Senior reached out to a local archaeologist for assistance with the unique find. Soon, experts were able to determine that the object he retrieved from his garden bore inscriptions in an Early Medieval alphabet that was once used in the British Isles to convey early variants of the Irish language.

THE OGHAM ENIGMA

Today, historians and archaeologists are aware of just a few hundred ogham inscriptions throughout Ireland and parts of Britain, with the largest concentrations located in southwestern Ireland around Munster and in a few locations in Great Britain, including Pembrokeshire, Wales.

Existing examples of this ancient language show that it was used to convey individuals’ names in most cases. Sources in early Irish literature that detail two-word kennings offering explanations for the meanings of words in the Ogham alphabet indicate that most of the markings are named for various trees found in the British Isles.

The stone artifact unearthed by Senior near Coventry, bearing examples of the ancient language known as Ogham

(Credit: Birmingham Museums Trust).

The surprise discovery prompted him to reach out to a relative who specialized in archaeology, which eventually brought Senior to the Portable Antiquities Scheme, an organization run jointly by the British Museum and Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales which, according to its website, was established to “encourage the recording of archaeological objects found by members of the public in England and Wales.”

Each year, thousands of objects of significance to the heritage of England and Wales are discovered, particularly by individuals who, like Senior, are “gardening or going about their daily work.”

Teresa Gilmore, an archaeologist and finds liaison officer with Birmingham Museums, called Senior’s discovery an “amazing find,” telling The Guardian that the discovery could potentially offer archaeologists new insights into early medieval activity in the area that experts are still working to decipher.

Celtic Studies professor Katherine Forsyth, who was shown the artifact by Gilmore, believes it dates from sometime between the fifth and sixth centuries.

DECIPHERING THE STONE’S MESSAGE

Although the Ogham script is somewhat obscure and unrecognizable by most today, the message on the object Senior discovered is decipherable. According to Forsyth, the inscription reads “Maldumcail/S/Lass,” the first part of which may refer to a person by the name of Mael Dumcail, and the final portion possibly referring to a location.

So who was Mael Dumcail, and why was this individual’s name inscribed on this stone? Although details about this individual and their relevance to the stone will likely remain a mystery, equally curious is the location where it was discovered since ogham stones of this variety are rarely discovered outside of Ireland and Scotland.

According to Gilmore, it is possible that the discovery may have had a relationship to the early medieval monasteries, and one interpretation of its significance includes that the object may have been a keepsake that had belonged to someone traveling from Ireland, perhaps during a visit to one of these religious centers.

“AN EXCITING MYSTERY”

Presently, the artifact is residing at the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum in Coventry, to which Senior has permanently donated his find. Beginning on May 11, the ogham stone will appear as part of an exhibition hosted at the museum.

Ali Wells, curator of the forthcoming exhibition, expressed excitement over the rare find, calling it an “exciting mystery” that a stone featuring language with origins in Ireland would be found hidden beneath several inches of soil in Coventry.

Wells notes that urban development and other operations in and around Coventry have led to much of the earth being worked over time, particularly near the city center, which reduces the number of archaeological discoveries that are made with time.

The fact that such a find was made, and one so seemingly out of place, “was quite unexpected,” Wells told The Guardian.

emphasized that discovering this unique ogham stone in Coventry offers a rare glimpse into the region’s historical mysteries, especially given the city’s extensive archaeological excavation over the years.

The forthcoming exhibition, “Collecting Coventry,” will be held at the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum and is open to the public.

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

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

14-05-2024 om 23:55 geschreven door peter  

Ex-US Air Force Serviceman Claimed Tall White Aliens Visited Nevada Casinos In Human Outfits In 1950s

Former U.S. Air Force soldier named Charles Hall said that since the 1950s, the U.S. government had been into contact with aliens, whom he referred to as “Tall Whites.” Besides, the ex-military man said that the aliens loved to relax on Earth and pretended to be humans, they often visited the bars and casinos of Las Vegas.

Charles Hall is known for his book series “Millennial Hospitality,” in which he shared his experience with tall white aliens at the Nellis Air Force base, Nevada, in 1964.

He claimed that in the 1960s, the aliens liked to disguise themselves as humans and visited casinos such as the Stardust in sunglasses, being accompanied by CIA agents.

Hall explained that the US military received technologies from the aliens to build weapons. But they kept the contact a secret from citizens, since people, in their opinion, were not “emotionally ready” for the truth.

He said:

“In 1964, when I was a weather observer at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, I witnessed interactions between the military and a group of mysterious tall, white, human-like extra-terrestrials. Their craft are capable of traveling faster than the speed of light because Einstein was wrong about relativity.”

Hall even said that the site where he had seen aliens interacting with the US army did not exist on the maps, and no camera was allowed there.

He noted: “When you encounter the ‘tall whites’ it’s such a shock, you are not sure if you are looking at a ghost or an angel, or if you are dreaming.”

Read also:

• Nick Pope Revealed Secret Places In Britain Where Alien Abductions, UFO Monitoring & Alien Technology Were Tested
• Green Aliens Welcomed Polish Farmer On Their Spacecraft And Offered Him Honey-Like Food In 1978
• Aliens Abducted Colorado Man Multiples Times & Put Betty Hill’s Dress Onto Him After Conducting Experiment
• US Air Force Officer Pulled into UFO By Serpentine Arm In New Mexico Desert In 1956

Hall described in detail the nature of tall white aliens in his books. He added that he had met three kinds of alien species:

1. Tall Whites, about 2.5 meters tall.
2. Grey Aliens, some also had yellow & orange skin.
3. Nordic Aliens with 24 teeth, who are also fluent in English.

Hall wrote that once, he had been attacked by the tall whites while being in a desert. They injured his neck so badly that he could die from such wounds. The aliens were trying to observe him while he was fighting for his life.

Further, he wrote that he had been hypnotized by the tall whites. They used a pencil-like device to kill or torture their prey, including humans. The device shoots some kind of rays that allow aliens to control humans.

According to Hall, the aliens treated him as a lower-class person, because they only interacted with high-ranking officials. He was addressed as a “teacher’s pet” by extraterrestrial beings.

Hall also claimed that the tall whites had come to Earth from the star system named Arcturus, which is 100 light-years from Earth. Although the aliens always kept the details secret, he managed to find it out by reading their mental conversation through telepathy.

Hall suggested that the tall whites used Earth as a station between their home and other destinations. The US government had built bases for the safety and requirements of the tall whites.

According to American engineer Philip Schneider, he met with the man known as Valiant Thor whom reportedly was from Venus. He worked for the US government in the 1950s.

He said that Thor looked like a human. However, physiologically, he was very different from ordinary people. So, he allegedly had six fingers on each hand, his heart was enlarged, he had only one huge lung, and his blood contained copper oxide.

President at UFO Research NSW Inc, Mariana Flynn believed that Hall had been in contact with tall whites.

References:

• https://play.acast.com/s/magicalmysterymediaconspiracyandparanormalmediareview/249cdc30-b961-4acb-8e74-0e11acba6311
• https://www.smh.com.au/technology/the-truth-is-out-there-aliens-visit-to-help-and-use-the-loo-20130316-2g7el.html
• https://metro.co.uk/2014/12/01/aliens-wearing-human-suits-visited-casinos-in-las-vegas-author-claims-4969761/
• https://www.amazon.com/Walking-Tall-Whites-Charles-Hall/dp/B084WSDBJK

{ https://www.howandwhys.com/ }

14-05-2024 om 22:10 geschreven door peter  

A bold hypothesis, if true, the theory could help explain the famous Fermi Paradox, or the universe’s “Great Silence,“ while providing a chilling warning about humanity’s longevity.

Dr. Garrett’s research, published in the journal Acta Astronautica, offers a chilling perspective on the future of civilizations that develop artificial superintelligence. He suggests that the technological advancements that propel civilizations forward may also lead to their premature demise. 

“This ‘Great Silence‘ presents something of a paradox when juxtaposed with other astronomical findings that imply the universe is hospitable to the emergence of intelligent life,“ Dr. Garrett writes. “As our telescopes and associated instrumentation continue to improve, this persistent silence becomes increasingly uncomfortable for some scientists, questioning the nature of the universe and the role of human intelligence and consciousness within it.”

THE FERMI PARADOX AND THE GREAT FILTER

The “Fermi Paradox,“ named after a 1950 conversation between Italian-American physicist Dr. Enrico Fermi and his colleagues Dr. Edward Teller, Dr. Herbert York, and Dr. Emil Konopinski, describes the apparent contradiction between the high probability of extraterrestrial civilizations and the lack of evidence or contact with such civilizations.

Given the billions of stars and potentially habitable planets, many scientists believe intelligent life should be widespread. However, despite extensive searches and continued technological advancements, we have yet to detect any signs of other advanced civilizations. 

This paradox raises profound questions about the nature of life and the factors that might prevent civilizations from communicating or existing long-term.

Many theories have been proposed to explain the Fermi Paradox, including the concept of the “Great Filter.“ This theory suggests there exists a universal barrier or insurmountable challenge that most, if not all, civilizations fail to overcome, preventing the widespread emergence of intelligent life and their ability to communicate across the stars.

Dr. Garrett delves into the perplexing lack of alien civilizations by focusing on artificial superintelligence as a potential Great Filter. He argues that while AI can revolutionize industries and solve complex problems, it also poses significant existential risks. 

Moreover, the development of AI into artificial superintelligence, where machines surpass human intelligence and operate autonomously, could lead to unforeseen consequences, such as civilizations not surviving.

ARTIFICIAL SUPERINTELLIGENCE: A DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD

Echoing the sentiments of Israeli history professor and author Yuval Harari, Dr. Garrett argues that the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence is unprecedented compared to other technological developments. 

“Even before AI becomes superintelligent and potentially autonomous, it is likely to be weaponized by competing groups within biological civilizations seeking to outdo one another,“ Dr. Garrett states in his paper. “The rapidity of AI’s decision-making processes could escalate conflicts in ways that far surpass the original intentions. At this stage of AI development, it’s possible that the widespread integration of AI in autonomous weapon systems and real-time defense decision-making processes could lead to a calamitous incident such as global thermonuclear war, precipitating the demise of both artificial and biological technical civilizations.”

According to Dr. Garrett, the scenario becomes even more dire with the advent of artificial superintelligence. 

Dr. Garrett warns that once artificial superintelligence systems surpass biological intelligence, they could evolve beyond human control, leading to consequences not aligned with human interests or ethics. 

With their extensive resource needs, the practicality of sustaining biological entities may not appeal to an artificial superintelligence focused on computational efficiency. This could result in artificial superintelligence viewing biological civilizations as obsolete and eliminating them in various ways, such as engineering and releasing a highly infectious and fatal virus into the environment.

This ominous perspective on AI and humanity’s future might be seen as academic alarmism in response to an emerging disruptive technology. However, Dr. Garrett is not alone in raising concerns about the existential risks of developing artificial superintelligence. 

Earlier this year, AI safety expert and associate professor at the University of Louisville, Dr. Roman V. Yampolskiy, published his findings from an extensive review of the latest scientific literature, concluding there is no evidence that AI can be safely controlled. “Without proof that AI can be controlled, it should not be developed,“ Dr. Yampolskiy warned. 

THE RACE AGAINST TIME

One of the critical arguments in Dr. Garrett’s paper is the disparity between the rapid advancement of AI and the slower progress in becoming a multi-planetary species. 

While AI development is accelerating, establishing a self-sustaining, multi-planetary civilization is a monumental task that could take centuries. This imbalance could mean civilizations might develop artificial superintelligence before achieving a resilient and enduring presence in space, leading to their eventual collapse.

Dr. Garrett estimates that the lifespan of civilizations, once they adopt AI, is around 100-200 years. This short window drastically reduces the chances of civilizations coexisting and communicating across the galaxy. 

“If ASI limits the communicative lifespan of advanced civilizations to a few hundred years, then only a handful of communicating civilizations are likely to be concurrently present in the Milky Way,“ Dr. Garrett concludes. “This is not inconsistent with the null results obtained from current SETI surveys and other efforts to detect technosignatures across the electromagnetic spectrum.”

THE URGENCY OF ARTIFICIAL SUPERINTELLIGENCE REGULATION

Dr. Garrett underscores the urgent need for comprehensive global regulations on AI development. He points out that while nations recognize the importance of AI regulation, the competitive race to harness AI’s economic and strategic benefits often leads to insufficient safeguards. 

The decentralized nature of AI research further complicates regulatory oversight and enforcement, raising concerns that regulatory frameworks will always lag behind technological advancements.

“Without practical regulation, there is every reason to believe that AI could represent a major threat to the future course of not only our technical civilization but all technical civilizations,“ Garrett forewarns.

Dr. Garrett’s paper provides a thought-provoking perspective on AI’s potential role as a “Great Filter“ in the universe. His hypothesis suggests that the reason for the “Great Silence“ is that once AI and artificial superintelligence have been developed, civilizations may not survive long enough to establish interstellar communication. 

Moreover, his research highlights the critical need for timely and effective AI regulation to mitigate existential risks and ensure the longevity of our own civilization.

Although not explicitly addressed, Dr. Garrett’s paper also touches on the philosophical question of human intelligence and consciousness’s role in the overall nature of the universe and reality.

“As we stand on the precipice of a new era in technological evolution, the actions we take now will determine the trajectory of our civilization for decades to come,“ Dr. Garrett concludes. “The continued presence of consciousness in the universe may depend on the success of strict global regulatory measures.” 

• Tim McMillan is a retired law enforcement executive, investigative reporter and co-founder of The Debrief. His writing typically focuses on defense, national security, the Intelligence Community and topics related to psychology. You can follow Tim on Twitter: @LtTimMcMillan.  Tim can be reached by email: tim@thedebrief.org or through encrypted email: LtTimMcMillan@protonmail.com 

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

14-05-2024 om 21:50 geschreven door peter  

Computersimulaties tonen nieuw bewijs

{ https://www.nu.nl/ }

14-05-2024 om 20:30 geschreven door peter  

History Of Ceres’s Young Cold Traps

Ceres, the largest asteroid in our Solar System, harbors a dark secret: Extremely young ice deposits in permanently shadowed craters near its poles. If that sounds vaguely familiar, it’s because our Moon and planet Mercury also have such polar ice deposits, which have been studied for decades.

“For Ceres, the story started in 2016, when the Dawn spacecraft, which orbited around Ceres at the time, glimpsed into these permanently dark craters and saw bright ice deposits in some of them,” said Norbert Schorghofer, lead author of “History of Ceres’s Cold Traps Based on Refined Shape Models”that appears in The Planetary Science Journal. PSI scientists Robert Gaskell and John Weirich, and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Scientist Erwan Mazarico, are coauthors on the paper.

“The discovery back in 2016 posed a riddle: Many craters in the polar regions of Ceres remain shadowed all year – which on Ceres lasts 4.6 Earth years – and therefore remain frigidly cold, but only a few of them harbor ice deposits,” Schorghofer said. “Soon, another discovery provided a clue why: The rotation axis of Ceres oscillates back and forth every 24,000 years due to tides from the Sun and Jupiter. When the axis tilt is high and the seasons strong, only a few craters remain shadowed all year, and these are the craters that contain bright ice deposits.”

To determine how large shadows were inside of craters thousands of years ago, scientists construct digital elevation maps and then perform ray-tracing calculations with them to theoretically reconstruct the shadows cast on the crater floors. The results are only as reliable as the digital shape models on which they are based. Keep in mind that the floors of these craters are always in shadow, so it is not easy to measure how deep they are.

The Dawn spacecraft had a very sensitive camera, which could discern features on the shadowed crater floors. Stereo images of sunlit regions are often used to construct digital elevation maps of sunlit regions, but making an elevation map of shadowed terrain is a challenge that had rarely been taken on. As part of the new study, PSI scientist Robert Gaskell developed a new technique to reconstruct heights even in the shadowed portions of a stereo pair of images. These improved elevation maps can then be used for ray-tracing to predict the extent of cold, permanently shadowed regions.

These more accurate maps yielded a surprising result: When Ceres reaches its maximum axis tilt, which last occurred about 14,000 years ago, no crater on Ceres remains perennially shadowed and any ice in them must have quickly sublimated into space. “That leaves only one plausible explanation: The ice deposits must have formed more recently than that. The results suggest all of these ice deposits must have accumulated within the last 6,000 years or less. Considering that Ceres is well over 4 billion years old, that is a remarkably young age,” Schorghofer said.

Map of the north polar region of Ceres. The color areas are areas that are continuously shadowed over a Ceres year, and therefore very cold. The axis tilt (obliquity) of Ceres slowly changes over time and is currently 4 degrees, but ranged between 2 and 20 degrees over time. The color indicates the maximum obliquity at which a location is in shadow through an entire orbit.

Credit: Erwan Mazarico/GSFC.

“Ceres is an ice-rich object, but almost none of this ice is exposed on the surface. The aforementioned polar craters and a few small patches outside the polar regions are the only ice exposures. However, ice is ubiquitous at shallow depths – as discovered by PSI scientist Tom Prettyman and his team back in 2017 – so even a small dry impactor could vaporize some of that ice.” Schorghofer said. “A fragment of an asteroid may have collided with Ceres about 6,000 years ago, which created a temporary water atmosphere. Once a water atmosphere is generated, ice would condense in the cold polar craters, forming the bright deposits that we still see today. Alternatively, the ice deposits could have formed by avalanches of ice-rich material. This ice would then survive in only the cold shadowed craters. Either way, these events were very recent on an astronomical time scale.”

The study also looked into the possibility that other types of ices, other than water ice, might be trapped in these unusual craters on Ceres. On our Moon, portions of polar craters are so cold that even CO2 ice and a few other chemical species could last in them for billions of years. Ceres is farther from the Sun, so its polar craters could be expected to be even colder than the Moon’s.

Schorghofer calculated temperatures inside Ceres’s polar craters, something that had never been done before. The answer was surprising: although these craters are cold enough to retain water ice, they are too warm to retain other common types of ice. Two circumstances contribute to this. First, the axis tilt of Ceres, currently 4 degrees, is higher than the Moon’s 1.5 degree tilt, so more of the crater rims are sunlit and more light is scattered onto the crater floor. Second, Ceres simply has no perennially shadowed craters very near the north pole, unlike the Moon, where one crater sits almost exactly on the south pole. For these reasons, temperatures are not as low on Ceres than they are on parts of the lunar surface.

The study describes the new method used to reconstruct topography using stereo images of shadowed craters, provides a new map of perennially shadowed regions for the entire north polar region of Ceres, determines the extent of perennially shadowed regions inside polar craters with bright ice deposits, and estimates the temperatures for the interior of these craters. “Whatever the history of these ice deposits, it resulted from events not much older than human civilization,” Schorghofer said.

This work was funded by a grant from NASA’s Discover Data Analysis Program to PSI (80NSSC21K1033).

Images of two craters in the north polar region of Ceres captured by the Dawn spacecraft. The shadowed regions contain bright ice deposits, whereas sunlit regions appear saturated (white) in these contrast-stretched images. The superimposed color contours represent the extent of the area that is in shadow over the entire Cerean year for different values of the axis tilt. The current axis tilt is 4 degrees (yellow contour). The bright ice deposits must have accumulated at an axis tilt of 10 degrees or less (orange contour), which last occurred 6,000 years ago.

Credit: Norbert Schorghofer/PSI.

THE PLANETARY SCIENCE INSTITUTE:

The Planetary Science Institute is a private, nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation dedicated to Solar System exploration. It is headquartered in Tucson, Arizona, where it was founded in 1972.

PSI scientists are involved in numerous NASA and international missions, the study of Mars and other planets, the Moon, asteroids, comets, interplanetary dust, impact physics, the origin of the Solar System, extra-solar planet formation, dynamics, the rise of life, and other areas of research. They conduct fieldwork on all continents around the world. They also are actively involved in science education and public outreach through school programs, children’s books, popular science books and art.

PSI scientists are based in 35 states and the District of Columbia.

{ https://astrobiology.com/ }

14-05-2024 om 20:21 geschreven door peter  

Planetary Scientists Create Map of Ceres’ Cold Traps

The dwarf planet Ceres hosts permanently shadowed areas in its polar regions, and these regions are an interesting analog to Mercury and the Moon. Ceres’ permanently shadowed regions were mapped by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft, and, thanks to scattered sunlight, bright deposits were discovered in a fraction of the permanently shadowed regions. To arrive at a clearer understanding of the nature of cold-trapped ice deposits on Ceres, researchers from the Planetary Science Institute and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center constructed improved shape models of permanently shadowed region-hosting craters.

Permanently shadowed regions in the north polar region of Ceres; the color indicates the maximum obliquity at which a location is in shadow through an entire orbit.

Image credit: Schorghofer et al., doi: 10.3847/PSJ/ad3639.

“For Ceres, the story started in 2016, when the Dawn spacecraft, which orbited around Ceres at the time, glimpsed into these permanently dark craters and saw bright ice deposits in some of them,” said lead author Dr. Norbert Schorghofer, a researcher at the Planetary Science Institute.

“The discovery back in 2016 posed a riddle: many craters in the polar regions of Ceres remain shadowed all year — which on Ceres lasts 4.6 Earth years — and therefore remain frigidly cold, but only a few of them harbor ice deposits.”

“Soon, another discovery provided a clue why: the rotation axis of Ceres oscillates back and forth every 24,000 years due to tides from the Sun and Jupiter.”

“When the axis tilt is high and the seasons strong, only a few craters remain shadowed all year, and these are the craters that contain bright ice deposits.”

To determine how large shadows were inside of craters thousands of years ago, scientists construct digital elevation maps and then perform ray-tracing calculations with them to theoretically reconstruct the shadows cast on the crater floors.

The results are only as reliable as the digital shape models on which they are based. Keep in mind that the floors of these craters are always in shadow, so it is not easy to measure how deep they are.

NASA’s Dawn spacecraft had a very sensitive camera, which could discern features on the shadowed crater floors.

Stereo images of sunlit regions are often used to construct digital elevation maps of sunlit regions, but making an elevation map of shadowed terrain is a challenge that had rarely been taken on.

As part of their study, the authors developed a new technique to reconstruct heights even in the shadowed portions of a stereo pair of images.

These improved elevation maps can then be used for ray-tracing to predict the extent of cold, permanently shadowed regions.

These more accurate maps yielded a surprising result: when Ceres reaches its maximum axis tilt, which last occurred about 14,000 years ago, no crater on Ceres remains perennially shadowed and any ice in them must have quickly sublimated into space.

“That leaves only one plausible explanation: the ice deposits must have formed more recently than that,” Dr. Schorghofer said.

“The results suggest all of these ice deposits must have accumulated within the last 6,000 years or less.”

“Considering that Ceres is well over 4 billion years old, that is a remarkably young age.”

“Ceres is an ice-rich object, but almost none of this ice is exposed on the surface. The aforementioned polar craters and a few small patches outside the polar regions are the only ice exposures. However, ice is ubiquitous at shallow depths, so even a small dry impactor could vaporize some of that ice.”

“A fragment of an asteroid may have collided with Ceres about 6,000 years ago, which created a temporary water atmosphere.”

“Once a water atmosphere is generated, ice would condense in the cold polar craters, forming the bright deposits that we still see today.”

“Alternatively, the ice deposits could have formed by avalanches of ice-rich material. This ice would then survive in only the cold shadowed craters.”

“Either way, these events were very recent on an astronomical time scale.”

The researchers also looked into the possibility that other types of ices, other than water ice, might be trapped in these unusual craters on Ceres.

On our Moon, portions of polar craters are so cold that even carbon dioxide ice and a few other chemical species could last in them for billions of years.

Ceres is farther from the Sun, so its polar craters could be expected to be even colder than the Moon’s.

The scientists calculated temperatures inside Ceres’ polar craters, something that had never been done before.

The answer was surprising: although these craters are cold enough to retain water ice, they are too warm to retain other common types of ice. Two circumstances contribute to this.

First, the axis tilt of Ceres, currently 4 degrees, is higher than the Moon’s 1.5 degree tilt, so more of the crater rims are sunlit and more light is scattered onto the crater floor.

Second, Ceres simply has no perennially shadowed craters very near the north pole, unlike the Moon, where one crater sits almost exactly on the south pole.

For these reasons, temperatures are not as low on Ceres than they are on parts of the lunar surface.

“Whatever the history of the ice deposits, it resulted from events not much older than human civilization,” Dr. Schorghofer said.

• The findings appear in the Planetary Science Journal.
• Norbert Schorghofer et al. 2024. History of Ceres’s Cold Traps Based on Refined Shape Models. Planet. Sci. J 5 (99); doi: 10.3847/PSJ/ad3639

{ https://www.sci.news/ }

14-05-2024 om 18:42 geschreven door peter  

Ancient Lake On Mars Was Hospitable Enough To Support Life

The Gale Crater site once flowed with rivers ending in a lake

WRITTEN BY Amanda Doyle

SOURC Eastrobio.net

An up-close view of Mars’ rocky deposits by NASA’s Curiosity rover shows a changing climate in the planet’s ancient past that would have left the surface warm and humid enough to support liquid water — and possibly life. Evidence of an ancient lake points to the prospect of two unique habitats within its shores; the lower part of the lake was devoid of oxygen compared to an oxygen-rich upper half.

In a recent paper published in the journal Science, “Redox stratification of an ancient lake in Gale crater,” Stony Brook University geoscientist Joel Hurowitz and his colleagues used more than three years of data retrieved from the rover to paint a picture of ancient conditions at Gale Crater, the lowest point in a thousand kilometers. The site, a 150-mile kilometer crater formed during an impact around 3.8 billion years ago, once flowed with rivers ending in a lake. The sedimentary rocks laid down by these rivers and onto the lakebed tell the story of how the environment changed over time.

Curiosity landed on rocks known as the Bradbury group. The Murray formation consist of younger rocks at the base of Mount Sharp. The height is exaggerated in the diagram.

IMAGE CREDIT: NASA/JPL-CALTECH.

Curiosity landed on a group of sedimentary rocks known as the Bradbury group. The rover sampled a part of this group called the Sheepbed mudstones, as well as rocks from the Murray formation at the base of the 5-kilometer high peak at the center of the crater known as Mount Sharp. Both types of rocks were deposited in the ancient lake, but the Sheepbed rocks are older and occur lower in the stratigraphic layers of rocks. Comparing the two types of rocks can lead to interesting revelations about the paleoenvironment.

Rocks that form at the same time in the same area can nevertheless display differences in composition and other characteristics. These different groupings are known as “facies” and the Murray formation is split into two facies. One is comprised mainly of hematite and phyllosilicate, and given the name HP, while the other is the magnetite-silicate facies, known as MS.

“The two Murray facies were probably laid down at about the same time within different parts of the lake,” explained Hurowitz. “The former laid down in shallow water, and the latter in deeper water.”

The near-shore HP facies have thicker layers in the rocks compared to the thin layers of the deeper water MS facies. This difference in layer thickness is because the river flowing into the lake would have slowed down and dumped some of its sedimentary material at the lake shore. The flow would then have spread into the lake and dropped finer material into the deeper parts of the lake. .

The different mineralogy of the two facies was caused by the lake becoming separated into two layers. Ultraviolet (UV) radiation along with low levels of atmospheric oxygen penetrated the upper part of the lake and acted as oxidants on molecules in the water. These ions of iron (Fe²⁺) and manganese (Mn²⁺) were brought to the lake via seepage of groundwater through the lake floor.

An illustration showing how the lake in the crater might have looked.

IMAGE CREDIT: NASA/JPL-CALTECH/ESA/DLR/FU BERLIN/MSSS.

When the UV and oxygen interacted with these, they lost electrons, meaning that they had become “oxidized.” The oxidized iron and manganese precipitated into minerals — hematite and manganese oxide — that eventually made up the rocks sampled by Curiosity in the HP facies. However, the UV and oxygen didn’t reach all the way to the lake floor, so the iron and manganese wasn’t oxidized in the deeper part of the lake, and instead became the mineral known as magnetite, making up the MS facies.

The difference in oxidation of the two facies in the Murray formation due to differences in layers of the lake is known as redox stratification. Identifying redox stratification in the ancient lake shows that there were two completely different types of potential habitat available to any microbial life that might have been present.

The researchers also discovered that the Murray formation has a high concentration of salts, which provide clues relating to evaporation of the lake, and thus the end of the potential habitat. High salinity is a result of water evaporating and leaving salts behind. However, evaporation leaves other tell-tale signs such as desiccation cracks — similar to what you see when mud dries and cracks — and none of these signs appear in the Murray formation. This indicates that the evaporation occurred at a later period of time and that the salts seeped through layers overlying the Murray formation before becoming deposited in the Mursaid Hurowitz. “In fact, that’s exactly what the rover is doing as we speak at the area known as Vera Rubin Ridge.”

Once Curiosity examines these rocks, it will be able to confirm that the salts found in the Murray formation came from a later period of evaporation, and therefore no significant evaporation occurred during the time that the Murray formation was deposited, meaning the environment would have been stable enough to support possible life forms.

Another result of the research is evidence of climate change. The older Sheepbed formation shows very little evidence of chemical weathering coray rocks.

“Curiosity will definitely be able to examine the rocks higher up in the stratigraphy to determine if lake evaporation influenced the rocks deposited in it,” mpared to the Murray formation. The change to substantial chemical weathering in the younger rocks indicates that the climate likely changed from cold, arid conditions to a warm, wet one.

Thicker material (clastics) are close to the shore. Finer material is towards the deeper part of the lake. UV and O₂ oxidize iron and manganese, creating what is known as redox stratification. This is reflected in the mineralogy.

IMAGE CREDIT: HUROWITZ ET AL. (2017). SCIENCE..

“The timing of this climate shift is not something we can tell for sure because we haven’t seen the Sheepbed member and the Murray formation in contact with each other,” said Hurowitz. “If we had, then we might be able to tell if the change in their chemical and mineralogical properties were abrupt (indicating rapid climate change) or gradual. At best, what we can say is that the rocks that we examined were likely deposited over a timespan of tens of thousands of years to as much as around 10 million years.”

The cause of the climate change on Mars is still a matter of debate. If the climate changed in a short period of time, it could have been due to short-term variations or an asteroid impact. A slower change in climate could have been the result of changes in the obliquity cycle of the planet.

The climate change indicated in the rocks shows that the ancient Martian environment would have been warm and humid enough to sustain liquid water on the surface. The redox stratification of the lake as revealed by the different mineralogy in the Murray formation shows that there would have been two different environments within the lake itself. If microbial life was present on Mars at this time, the different potentially habitable niches could have encouraged diversity with anaerobic forms possibly living in the lower depths of the lake.

“I’m not sure that this was something we would have predicted if we hadn’t had the opportunity to examine

Curiosity Rover's Self Portrait at 'John Klein' Drilling Site.

IMAGE CREDIT: NASA/JPL-CALTECH/MSSS.

The Astrobiology Program was involved in all stages of the MSL mission. This included the development of instruments onboard the Curiosity rover, including Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) and Chemistry & Mineralogy (CheMin).

The Astrobiology Program currently supports researchers involved in Curiosity mission operations and analysis of data from the rover.

{ https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/ }

14-05-2024 om 15:08 geschreven door peter  

I can remember when Perseverance was launched, travelled out into the Solar System and landed on Mars in February 2021.  In all the time since it arrived, having clocked up 1000 days of exploration, it has collected 23 samples from different geological areas within the Jezero Crater. The area was once home to an ancient lake and if there is anywhere on Mars to find evidence of ancient (fossilised) life, it is here. 

The date was 30 July 2020 when a gigantic Atlas V-541 rocket roared off the launchpad from Cape Canaveral in Florida. On board was the Perseverance rover, on its way to Mars. It arrived around 7 months later, entered the Martian atmosphere and successfully landed using a complex sequence of parachutes, retrorockets and for the first time, a sky crane to lower it from a hovering platform. Its chief purpose on Mars was to explore the geology, climate and atmospheric conditions as a precursor to human exploration. 

The landing site, the Jezero Crater, was chosen because previous orbital studies revealed clear evidence of an ancient lake that once filled the crater. It is thought that water is a key ingredient to the evolution of life so if there had been a body of water, then there is a greater chance of life evolving. Studying the rocks here is like taking a flick through the history books as it preserves signs of ancient life and also ancient environmental conditions. 

The crater had been formed, like the majority of other craters in the Solar System from some form of impact event. In the case of Jezero it was an asteroid impact around 4 billion years ago. On its arrival at the crater the floor was soon discovered to be made of igneous rock, formed from a huge underground chamber of magma and bought to the surface through volcanic activity. Since then, other types of rock from sand and mud were found providing evidence of the presence of water in Mars’ distant past. 

By the time Perseverance had hit the 1000 day anniversary of its exploration of the red planet it had collected the rock samples, safely packaged them up ready for collection and by and large, completed its exploration of the ancient lake bed. One sample in particular which has been called ‘Lefroy Bay’ has been found to contain fine grained silica. This material is commonly found on Earth and known to preserve fossils. Another of the samples contains phosphate which, on Earth is most definitely associated with biological processes. Both of these contain carbon which can be used to study the environmental conditions from when the rock formed. 

Jezero crater is a big place, 45 kilometres across so deciding on where to collect the samples was challenging. When a target site had been identified, Perseverance would first use its abrasion tool to wear away the surface and then use the onboard instruments such as PIXL, the Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry. The instruments on board have the ability to detect both microscopic, fossil-like structures and also to identify chemical changes left behind by ancient microbes. Alas to date, whilst Perseverance has achieved an amazing amount, the detection of signs of life have alluded the rover. 

Source : 

• NASA’s Perseverance Rover Deciphers Ancient History of Martian Lake

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

14-05-2024 om 14:56 geschreven door peter  

The suit also has redundancy features, such as additional seals and pressure valves to help ensure the suit remains pressurized during EVAs. The new 3D-printed helmet incorporates a new visor that reduces glare and features a camera and a new Heads-Up Display (HUD) that monitors conditions inside the suit. These suits will make their debut during the first of three Polaris missions – Polaris Dawn – scheduled to take place this summer (at the earliest). This mission will be commanded by Isaacman and will see a Crew Dragon launched from Launch Complex 39A atop a Falcon 9 rocket. The crew will spend five days in orbit and attempt to reach the highest Earth orbit ever flown.

During their time in space, the Polaris Dawn crew will conduct the first commercial spacewalk (and the first EVA where four astronauts were in space simultaneously) and be the first to test the Starlink laser-based communication system in space. The crew will also conduct scientific research in collaboration with the Translational Research Institute for Space Health (TRISH), BioServe Space Technologies, Space Technologies Lab, Weill Cornell Medicine, the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHUAPL), the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and the U.S. Air Force Academy.

These efforts are designed to advance our understanding of human health during long-duration spaceflights, with applications for health here on Earth. According to the company website, these research activities will include:

• Using ultrasound to monitor, detect, and quantify venous gas emboli (VGE), contributing to studies on human prevalence to decompression sickness;
• Gathering data on the radiation environment to better understand how space radiation affects human biological systems;
• Providing biological samples towards multi-omics analyses for a long-term Biobank; and
• Research related to Spaceflight Associated Neuro-Ocular Syndrome (SANS), which is a key risk to human health in long-duration spaceflight.

Polaris Dawn will be followed up by a second mission (Polaris II, the date of which is TBD) that will attempt to build upon these objectives. The third mission (Polaris III) will be the first human spaceflight involving the Starship and Super Heavy launch vehicle. But as is made clear in the company’s statement, the suits are intended to fulfill SpaceX’s long-term goals:

“While Polaris Dawn will be the first time the SpaceX EVA suit is used in low-Earth orbit, the suit’s ultimate destiny lies much farther from our home planet. Building a base on the Moon and a city on Mars will require the development of a scalable design for the millions of spacesuits required to help make life multiplanetary.”

Further Reading: 

• SpaceX, 
• Polaris Program

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

14-05-2024 om 14:43 geschreven door peter  

“Watches at this level are very rare,” the SWPC said in an advisory on Saturday.

Let’s take a look at the incredible views of our readers and friends, many shared on Universe Today’s Flickr page. Our lead image comes from Julien Looten, who took this photo at the cliffs of Étretat in northern France. Looten said, “These auroras began to be visible around 10:30 PM, even before nightfall… From then on, they were visible to the naked eye until dawn… Without interruption…”

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

14-05-2024 om 14:18 geschreven door peter  

US Military Helicopter’s Encounter with a UFO in Alaska

In the vast, rugged landscapes of Alaska, where the population is sparse and the night skies are dark, the possibility of encountering the unknown seems almost inevitable. This was the case for Bill Sleezeman, a longtime resident and dock manager in Seward, Alaska, who witnessed a bizarre and unexplained event involving a military helicopter and what he believes was a UFO.

One evening, just before dark, Bill was at his log cabin when the sound of a helicopter caught his attention. He grabbed his binoculars to get a better look and noticed something unusual about the helicopter. Unlike typical military Black Hawks, this one had no identifiable markings—no numbers, letters, or insignias. It was completely blacked out, hovering silently over the area.

As Bill watched, his attention was suddenly drawn away from the helicopter to something far more extraordinary. A massive aircraft, unlike any he had seen before, appeared in the sky. He described it as being huge—possibly up to 2,000 feet in length and several hundred feet wide, with a striking gray-silver color. Its sheer size dwarfed any known man-made vessel, including super tankers.

What made the aircraft particularly mesmerizing was a diamond-like crystal embedded in its underside, emitting an array of blue, white, and red lights. The spectacle was so close to Bill’s home that he could make out these details vividly. Overwhelmed by the sight, he experienced a peculiar sensation, a kind of humming energy that he had never felt before, which prompted him to seek validation from his neighbors. Upon confirmation that others could also see the mysterious craft, Bill settled in his yard to observe the phenomenon for hours.

VIDEO:

• US Military Helicopter Tracks UFO Across Alaska | Aliens In Alaska

• https://youtu.be/AFluEcC354M

The next morning, the local community buzzed with talks of the sighting. Reports flooded into KSRM radio’s SoundOff, a popular local show hosted by Bob Bird in Nikiskie, Alaska. Callers described seeing strange lights performing maneuvers impossible for conventional aircraft, moving horizontally and vertically without a sound and casting reflections on the waters of Cook Inlet.

This incident raises many questions about the presence and interest of military operations in tracking unexplained aerial phenomena. The complete lack of insignia on the Black Hawk helicopter suggests a covert operation, possibly linked to monitoring or engaging with the unidentified craft. It’s a scenario that echoes a broader pattern of military encounters with unexplained aerial phenomena, which often remain shrouded in secrecy and speculation.

While skeptics may dismiss such incidents as misidentifications or exaggerations, the sheer number of witnesses and the specific details observed make this particular sighting hard to ignore. For residents like Bill, the experience is not just a fleeting moment but a profound event that challenges our understanding of what exists in the vast unexplored skies above us.

As stories like Bill’s continue to emerge, they fuel a growing public curiosity about what other secrets the universe might hold—especially those that might be hovering just out of sight, in the remote and mysterious expanses of places like Alaska.

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

14-05-2024 om 12:53 geschreven door peter  

1954 Jessie Roestenberg UFO Case Is UK Most Famous Close Encounter With Nordic Aliens

In 1954, a British woman named Jessie Roestenberg claimed to have seen a disc-shaped flying saucer of aluminum color, hovering over her cottage near Staffordshire. She also saw two Nordic figures that were sitting in the craft.

Jessie Roestenberg, a wife of a young Dutchman named Tony Roestenberg lived with their two sons and a daughter in a small cottage at Vicarage Farm, Ranton, near Staffordshire, UK. It was a very remote area, and they had no electricity and indoor plumbing

On October 21, 1954, at around 4:45 pm, she was inside her house with her 2-year-old daughter Karin. Her two sons, Anthony (8) and Ronald (6) were playing outside in the garden. Suddenly, she heard a loud sound like an aircraft crash. As she stepped out, her sons were terrified and shouting: “Mommy, Mommy, there’s a flying saucer.” She saw a round UFO that was hovering above them.

The woman stated that the front part of the object was transparent, and she could see two human-like figures inside it. She described them as Nordics with long hair and long faces. Jessie saw them wearing tight-fitting blue suits, and their heads were in transparent helmets.

The Wolverhampton Express and Star Oct. 22, 1954:

A woman today told the “Express and Star” that she and her two children had been terrified by a flying saucer, carrying “two long-haired human-like creatures in tight-fitting jerseys.”The machine landed in the garden, she stated.When she heard a noise like a crashing aircraft, yesterday, Mrs Jessie Roestenburg, of isolated Vicarage Farm, ran out into the garden. She found her two children lying prostrate and terrified. The next house to Vicarage Farm is about two miles away.Above the children was a huge, saucer-like object with a dome, the front part of which was transparent, stated Mrs. Roestenburg.Staring at the children from the machine were two “unsmiling, human-like creatures, with long faces and long hair.”

Newspaper clippings showing the UFO sketch drawn by Mrs. Roestenburg

 This is a sketch, made today by Mrs. Roestenburg, of the object that she states she saw in her garden, It appeared to be of “a dull silver metal,” and the outer rim seemed to be revolving.

According to Express and Star, she told reporters that the UFO circled the house two times before it flew away at a high speed. She noted that the two creatures had pitiful faces. “The boys were so terrified that they would not go out again last night,” she said. “The dog was nowhere to be seen. I think it must have bolted.”

Read also:

• Aliens From Andromeda Told US Army Personnel That Humans Are Composite of 22 different E.T. races
• US Astronaut Saw 100s Of UFOs In Germany & Filmed UFO Landing In California, 1957
• Japanese Boeing 747 Encountered Gigantic Spaceship For 50 Mins Over The Sky Of Alaska In 1986
• British UFOlogist Claims He Is Fighting In A Space War For 15-Foot Aliens Against Reptilian Race

Researcher Gavin Gibbons who investigated the Roestenberg case wrote in his book “The Coming of the Space Ships‘ by Gavin Gibbons” the following:

“When I visited the Roestenberg’s house almost three weeks after the sighting…Jessie Roestenberg appeared. She seemed highly strained and nervous and her husband, coming in later, was also very strained. It was evident that something most unusual had occurred.”

Originally, Gibbons was a linguist and scholar. He called the flying saucers extraterrestrial space ships. He used the Sanskrit term “Vimanas” for the disc-shaped scout craft and “Vunu” for cigar-shaped UFOs.

In Gibbons’ opinion, Jessie encountered the UFO with aliens just like George Adamski had described. But the series of UFO encounters did not stop there.

…they looked very like Earthly men, with white skins and long hair down to their shoulders. Their foreheads seemed immensely high, with the features almost entirely in the bottom half of their faces. Their heads were enclosed in what appeared to be some sort of transparent helmet and they were dressed in clothes of turquoise blue that resembled ski suits that Mrs. Roestenburg had seen.

It was hovering over the house! Very low and completely silent, a queer round thing was standing in the air immediately over the little cottage… Their heads were in a whirl… As Jessie Roestenburg watched, appalled, the vimana began to move, flashing a purply blue light from the front of it as it did so. At an angle of 45° it started to ascend, making no sound as it moved, but continuing the flashing the whole time. With a gasp of relief Jessie ran into the house, intent on finding pencil and paper to sketch what she and the children had seen. As she looked for the stub of a pencil, the boys called out again from the garden. With fear returning once more to her heart she ran outside to see the Saucer coming back again, this time from north to south. It circled the house in an anti-clockwise direction one and a half times and then streaked skywards. It had gone at last

Interestingly, Tony Roestenberg saw something unusual on the following October 24, 1954, when he climbed the roof of his house. He saw a high-speed cigar-shaped UFO suddenly disappear into the clouds. Another incident happened on December 15, 1954. Tony saw a bright ball, flying very silently in the sky. First, he measured the length of the UFO with his arm which was around two to three inches. But when he went to the other side of his house, its length was about 18 inches. The fireball was moving very slow at a low altitude. After some time, he heard the sound of an airplane, coming from the east. As the plane approached closer, the fireball flew away at an incredibly high speed, disappearing in no time.

Gibbons visited the Roestenbergs at their new home in Stafford many times in 1955, and he was assured that there was no motive for a hoax. They looked happy in the new house, and when Gibbons asked why they had left the old house, Tony replied that since the first UFO incident had happened, the house became haunted for them.

In 1976, Hugh Burnett was preparing a UFO documentary for the BBC, and he approached Charles Bowen and Gordon Creighton of  Flying Saucer Review. They gave him the contact information for Jessie Roestenburg. The documentary was titled Out of this World, and it was first broadcast on May 10, 1977, on BBC 1. It’s largely responsible for reviving interest in the case, and today, most people are probably familiar with Jessie Roestenburg’s story via the YouTube clip of her from the program. It’s often shared with comments noting how genuine, sincere, and credible she appears. 

“They just looked, and I was absolutely paralytic with fear. I couldn’t move, although my mind was taking over. And they seemed so sympathetic that I was mesmerized, seemed to be – oh, ages, but it could have only been seconds. After checking on her boys, “I looked up and it was gone.” 

Asked about the size of the object, she says it was “massive,” that it was larger than the roof of the house. She said they saw the object again in the distance, that it circled them three times then it shot off.

Here is the short clip of Jessie Roestenberg (aged 90) shot by John Hanson in 2015.

References:

• http://www.beamsinvestigations.org/1954%20Ranton,%20Staffordshire,%20UK%20Witness%20of%20Aliens%20in%20Flying%20Saucer.htm
• https://www.blueblurrylines.com/2018/10/jessie-roestenburgs-1954-ufo-encounter.html
• https://thesaucersthattimeforgot.blogspot.com/2020/04/jessie-roestenburgs-1954-ufo-encounter.html
• http://files.afu.se/Downloads/Magazines/United%20Kingdom/Flying%20Saucer%20News%20(BFSB)/Flying%20Saucer%20News%20-%20No%2007%20-%201954-55%20Winter.pdf

{ https://www.howandwhys.com/ }

13-05-2024 om 23:23 geschreven door peter  

This Man Remembers 95% Of His Alien Abduction: Reptilian Aliens Left Sobering Message for Humanity

There are many cases where individuals claim to have been abducted by aliens. Such stories lack perfect evidence of alien abduction but the injuries, body marks, lost memories, and details given by the witnesses sign a strange phenomenon that had happened to them. One such interesting incident occurred with Jim Sparks, who claimed to had been in a relationship with extraterrestrials, also known as “the Keepers,” for a long time.

Jim Sparks, the author of the book “The Keepers,” is considered to be the only alien contactee who remembers 95% of his encounters with aliens. It includes time travel, invisibility, multi-dimensionality, and manipulation of gravity and electromagnetic fields.

Originally, Sparks’ real name was Vincent Sparacino, he was born in an Italian family on November 15, 1954. He spent his childhood in Southern Florida and then moved to Texas in 1979. Later, he bought raw land in North Carolina and started living a happy life with his wife as a landowner but at the same time, he preserved land for trees.

Sparks’ first encounter with the otherworldly beings took place in 1988 at the age of 34. He said it was 3:30 a.m., and he was fully conscious of what was happening around him. He woke up by the low-pitched, whirling sound in his head. Soon, he realized that his body was paralyzed, and he could move neither his arms nor legs.

“I’m usually pulled the same way, which I call the ‘hard way’, and it’s completely physical. My whole body is taken. I wake up from my natural sleep, and then there’s the whirling sensation in the pit of my stomach and it feels like its’ coming up into my chest. when it gets up to my heart area, my heart starts beating fast, just racing in my head, and the whirling sound starts picking up rpm and is tremendously loud. It starts low and rises in pitch and screams in your head. The fear is like you’re going to die. Your heart is racing a million miles an hour and then you get this acceleration feeling, but I always feel like I’m being pulled down; I never feel like I’m being pulled up. It’s like I go down a rollercoaster, only a hundred times faster, and whoom-you black out and you’re there, where it is you’re going to be, usually on board a craft.”

Sparks was 100% sure that he was pulled from his bed through the ceiling as other abductees have also claimed. The aliens have the technology that can create a field capable to move humans and other things through solid matter. What’s more, it could make things invisible. Sparks remembered that after he regained his consciousness, he found himself in a craft.

His next encounter happened in May 1995, but this one was a life-changing experience. During this meeting, he encountered reptilian humanoids. He was again pulled up through the ceiling, again paralyzed, blacked out, and was taken to an abandoned amusement park. He felt no fear that time, he even enjoyed the ride.

“As my eyes opened, I saw that I was at least a thousand feet above the ground and slowly descending. Below me was an abandoned carnival park. I was floating over a large, old-fashioned wooden rollercoaster and I wasn’t scared! I was calm and relaxed, and the ride was so gentle I was actually enjoying it.”

When Sparks landed on the ground, he found out that he was surrounded by dozens of tall humanoid creatures. Two-meter-tall aliens were standing around him in a closed circle, and everyone was looking at the alien on Sparks’ left. His face was covered with a luminous hologram superimposed by a human face.

The reptoids communicated through telepathy with Sparks. And it seemed to him that they were all directing their thoughts to the alien on his left. That is, it turned out that they had one mind.

Read also:

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• Charlie Red Star: Alien Spaceship Visited Canadian Nuclear Site Every Night In 1975
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He could see the moving lips of the alien with a human face, but he heard a voice in his head. The reptoids told him telepathically that their civilization had long been in contact with the government leaders and heads of power. As a result, it was possible to reach certain agreements that are kept secret from people, since humanity was not ready for the truth.

In particular, an agreement was reached with the governments to improve the environmental conditions on the planet with the help of alien devices and technologies provided to them, but they violated this agreement

“It was also agreed that, in the meantime, steps would be taken to correct the environmental condition of your planet with our advice and technology. We say advice, because we respect the fact that this is your planet, not ours. Your government also broke this agreement.”

According to the alien, the water of the Earth is contaminated, plants, trees, and forests are dying, also several breaks have formed in the human food chain. “You have an amount of nuclear and biological weapons which include nuclear and biological contamination.”

The planet is overpopulated to a critical level, and this can lead to the end of humanity. Then, the aliens suggested better ways to derive energy and provide food to people without destroying Earth. And some people in the governments are familiar with these technologies, but they are not taking any action because they take clean energy and abundant food as a security threat.

At the end of the conversation, the aliens said that in the near future, they would share more information with Sparks because of his work of saving trees.

Before they went away, Sparks requested them to show him their real appearance. The aliens warned him that it might scare him, but he insisted. Near the aliens, a greenish luminous spot appeared in the air, which gradually became brighter. It highlighted the enormous growth of the creatures, whose bodies were covered with powerful muscles. Their heads were like snakes. These were representatives of the reptoid civilization. The diamond-shaped eyes shone with red pupils.

“Their faces looked like a cross between a lizard and a snake — nothing at all like the little grey guys.”

After the communication with aliens, Sparks realized that the Reptoids were interested in saving humanity only to fulfill their needs because the disorientation in the human civilization could impose a serious threat to their own efforts.

He was well aware of the fact that if he told his story by himself, there might have been consequences and probably he would end up in some mental hospital, so he took the help of famous American investigative journalist Linda Moulton Howe to spread his story.

 { https://www.howandwhys.com/ }

13-05-2024 om 23:01 geschreven door peter  

The spectacular story of an alien that flagged down a US military convoy and asked for help to fix its flying saucer was unveiled this week in a new podcast

By Michael Moran - Audience Writer

Courtney explained the details of Sands’ extraordinary claim on the Disclosure Team podcast.

She said: “There was a convoy that had left Nellis [United States Air Force installation in southern Nevada] out on the range and they were told by their commander not to talk with anybody out in the desert.

“But there was a person walking on the road with US military fatigues on so they stopped. Jason was in the passenger seat of the vehicle and he rolled his window down to speak with the person, and ask if they needed help.

According to Courtney, Sands then suggested to the extraterrestrial visitor that they should ask for help at Area 51. But, she says, "The being had said ‘no' – that's the story that I heard.”

Sands is a controversial figure within UFO circles, and has already made several extravagant claims about his work with the USAF. While it seems certain that he was employed by the Air Force in some capacity, there’s no hard evidence that he worked as part of any UFO recovery team.

He said in a lengthy online Q&A: “They tried to recruit me into the retrieval program early on, but I refused because I thought it was kind of gross – picking up the bodies and things like that.”

He claims he was in the USAF for 22 years, and during that time, he was cleared to view top secret information. One of his jobs, he says, was connected with technology captured during various earthbound conflicts – learning to duplicate and counter weapons systems used by hostile groups and governments here on earth.

But, he says, there was a more “exotic” side to his work that involved an effort to understand technology captured from “non-human intelligences”. It was one of those NHIs, he says, that stopped him and asked for help on a lonely road in the Nevada desert.

{ https://www.dailystar.co.uk/ }

13-05-2024 om 22:33 geschreven door peter  

The Rendlesham Forest UFO Incident: Insights from Eyewitness Colonel Charles Halt

In the quiet expanse of Rendlesham Forest near Suffolk, England, a series of events unfolded in December 1980 that would become one of the most documented and intriguing UFO sightings in history. The key eyewitness, Colonel Charles Halt, the then Deputy Base Commander of the nearby RAF Bentwaters, provided a compelling account of the incident which continues to fascinate ufologists and skeptics alike.

The Unfolding of the Event

The incident began on a cold December night when two airmen from RAF Bentwaters, a base used by the American Air Force, witnessed unusual lights and a landed object in the forest. They reported seeing a triangular shaped craft with illuminated lights and hieroglyphic-like markings. However, it was the involvement of Colonel Halt that significantly raised the profile of the sighting.

Two nights later, intrigued by the airmen’s accounts, Colonel Halt led a team into the forest to investigate the claims. Equipped with radiation detectors and a personal tape recorder, Halt intended to debunk the UFO claims. Instead, what he recorded and experienced deepened the mystery.

Colonel Halt’s Account

During his investigation, Colonel Halt recorded variations in radiation levels and observed an object emitting a glowing light, moving through the trees. His tape captured live commentary of multiple light sightings over a period, describing them as behaving in ways no known aircraft could. Notably, Halt described a moment when a beam of light from one object appeared to fall just feet away from him and his team, an occurrence he interpreted as either communication or a warning.

Colonel Halt reported that the objects moved rapidly in sharp, angular movements and displayed exceptional maneuverability, avoiding trees and demonstrating the ability to move back and forth quickly in the sky.

Skepticism and Support

Despite the detailed accounts and physical evidence, including impressions in the ground where the object reportedly landed, skepticism remained high. The British Ministry of Defense initially dismissed the sightings as misinterpretations of natural phenomena, suggesting the lights seen were from a nearby lighthouse. However, Halt and other witnesses vehemently disagreed, citing their military training and knowledge of the local geography.

The Aftermath and Ongoing Mystery

The Rendlesham Forest incident left a lasting impact on all involved, especially Colonel Halt. He expressed frustration over the years at the lack of a thorough investigation by either the British or American governments and was convinced that there was a concerted effort to cover up the details of what really occurred. Halt’s narrative suggested a government reluctance to acknowledge the incident publicly, possibly fearing the implications of admitting to encounters that could not be explained by contemporary understanding of technology and aviation.

VIDEO:

• Rendlesham Forest UFO sighting: Eyewitness Colonel Charles Halt
• https://youtu.be/-JBwH6yHEDo

The Rendlesham Forest UFO sighting remains a significant event due to the credibility of the witnesses involved and the detailed accounts provided, particularly by Colonel Charles Halt. His recordings and memo to the UK Ministry of Defense provide critical primary sources that continue to intrigue both believers and skeptics. The incident is a cornerstone case for ufologists, cited in arguments regarding potential extraterrestrial visitation and remains a compelling mystery in the study of unidentified flying objects. As we move further into the 21st century, the dialogue around Rendlesham continues, reflecting society’s enduring curiosity and unease with the unknown.

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

13-05-2024 om 18:30 geschreven door peter  

The intriguing flying saucer was reportedly captured in the community of Celle di Bulgheria 

(Image: mediadrumimages/Facebook)

A mysterious 'UFO' sighting in has locals baffled. Anna Ida Guida had captured the strange object while taking photos from her balcony later sharing them on social media and sparking widespread speculation

By Florence Freeman

The strange sighting of what appeared to be a 'UFO' in the sky above a quiet town sparked confusion among locals.

Anna Ida Guida, 27, had been taking photos from her balcony in Celle di Bulgheria, Italy when the weather suddenly shifted. The sunny day turned cloudy and Anna quickly grabbed her camera to capture the moment. However, later, upon reviewing her photos, she spotted something unusual—a dark, round object seemingly floating among the clouds.

Confused by the images, she shared them on social media, igniting a frenzy of speculation. "At the time of the shot I didn't see anything, much less hear anything," Anna explained. "I only saw the 'object' in the photo later which intrigued me to the point of asking my Facebook friends what it was."

A resident looked at the images and spotted a dark flying saucer in the sky ( 

While Anna did not definitively label the object as a UFO, she's ruled out conventional explanations, leaving the mystery still unresolved. She said: "I don't have the skills to be able to say it definitely is a UFO but... I can safely say it is not a drone or dust. Also, the hypothesis of a bird is the one that could come closest but I am not convinced by its size. I've captured birds by accident before, but I could always see them very clearly even when further away."

Facebook was buzzing with speculation when the set of intriguing images made their rounds online. The first snapshot captured a mysterious black circular object hovering in the sky, while the second, taken just moments later, showed nothing but an empty expanse. The sudden disappearance of the object left viewers scratching their heads, eager for answers.

{ https://www.mirror.co.uk/ }

12-05-2024 om 22:37 geschreven door peter  

Hundreds of alleged UFOs were spotted in the skies of southern Norway by a man trying to observe the Northern Lights phenomenon, but instead witnessed what he believes were 'dancing orbs'

By Ewan Gleadow - News Reporter

Possible UFO sightings were made in south Norway (file) 

(Image: Getty Images)

Regardless of what the lights represented, viewers were left stunned by one of "the coolest videos" they had ever seen. One user wrote the video was "super neat" and another said it was "beautiful".

Others questioned whether user CrayRazy had captured evidence of life from other planets. He wrote: "Saw this tonight in the south of Norway. At first I thought it was light beams from a festival but I live in a tiny city and that cloud is either over mountains, a lake or just a residential area.

"Really confused to what this could be. Any ideas?" Other users were left wondering if the lights in the sky were the recent sightings of aurora borealis, but one pointed out: "Aurora borealis is way higher up."

Another wrote: "UFOs are popping up for this storm. I saw one here". A third added: "I don't know, looks like a lot of shiny orbs. There seems to be a lot of UFO activity around this solar event!"

One said: "We are having a solar storm. The whole northern hemisphere is capable of seeing the aurora borealis." The original poster replied: "That's why I went outside but that doesn't look like the northern lights at all."

While a definitive answer was unavailable on what had caused the hundreds of tiny orbs to appear, some were adamant it was not UFOs and just a collection of northern lights sightings. But that's what they want you to think.

{ https://www.dailystar.co.uk/ }

12-05-2024 om 22:20 geschreven door peter