Dit is ons nieuw hondje Kira, een kruising van een waterhond en een Podenko. Ze is sinds 7 februari 2024 bij ons en druk bezig ons hart te veroveren. Het is een lief, aanhankelijk hondje, dat zich op een week snel aan ons heeft aangepast. Ze is heel vinnig en nieuwsgierig, een heel ander hondje dan Noleke.
This is our new dog Kira, a cross between a water dog and a Podenko. She has been with us since February 7, 2024 and is busy winning our hearts. She is a sweet, affectionate dog who quickly adapted to us within a week. She is very quick and curious, a very different dog than Noleke.
DEAR VISITOR,
MY BLOG EXISTS ALREADY 13 YEARS.
ON 06/06/2024 MORE THAN 2.056.610
VISITORS FROM 134 DIFFERENT NATIONS ALREADY FOUND THEIR WAY TO MY BLOG.
THAT IS AN AVERAGE OF 400GUESTS PER DAY.
THANK YOU FOR VISITING MY BLOG AND HOPE YOU ENJOY EACH TIME.
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 In België had je vooral BUFON of het Belgisch UFO-Netwerk, dat zich met UFO's bezighoudt. BEZOEK DUS ZEKER VOOR ALLE OBJECTIEVE INFORMATIE , enkel nog beschikbaar via Facebook en deze blog.
Verder heb je ook het Belgisch-Ufo-meldpunt en Caelestia, die prachtig, doch ZEER kritisch werk leveren, ja soms zelfs héél sceptisch...
Voor Nederland kan je de mooie site www.ufowijzer.nl bezoeken van Paul Harmans. Een mooie site met veel informatie en artikels.
MUFON of het Mutual UFO Network Inc is een Amerikaanse UFO-vereniging met afdelingen in alle USA-staten en diverse landen.
MUFON's mission is the analytical and scientific investigation of the UFO- Phenomenon for the benefit of humanity...
Je kan ook hun site bekijken onder www.mufon.com.
Ze geven een maandelijks tijdschrift uit, namelijk The MUFON UFO-Journal.
Since 02/01/2020 is Pieter ex-president (=voorzitter) of BUFON, but also ex-National Director MUFON / Flanders and the Netherlands. We work together with the French MUFON Reseau MUFON/EUROP.
ER IS EEN NIEUWE GROEPERING DIE ZICH BUFON NOEMT, MAAR DIE HEBBEN NIETS MET ONZE GROEP TE MAKEN. DEZE COLLEGA'S GEBRUIKEN DE NAAM BUFON VOOR HUN SITE... Ik wens hen veel succes met de verdere uitbouw van hun groep. Zij kunnen de naam BUFON wel geregistreerd hebben, maar het rijke verleden van BUFON kunnen ze niet wegnemen...
11-06-2024
Alien Tech Unveiled: Navy Scientist Confirms Secret UAP Program
Alien Tech Unveiled: Navy Scientist Confirms Secret UAP Program
In a groundbreaking revelation at the Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies (SCU) conference, investigative journalist Ross Coulthart shared insights into Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs), shedding light on secretive programs involving non-human technology and biologics. Coulthart, renowned for his investigative prowess, embarked on a journey from skepticism to firm belief in the existence of these phenomena, fueled by testimonies from credible sources, including high-ranking military personnel.
From Skeptic to Believer
Ross Coulthart’s transformation from a skeptic to a fervent investigator of UAPs is a narrative worth noting. Initially doubtful, his perspective shifted dramatically after encounters with key figures like David Grusch, who claimed knowledge of secretive UAP retrieval and reverse engineering programs. Coulthart’s extensive background in journalism, focused on crime and corruption, added weight to his investigation into these mysterious phenomena.
Government Cover-Ups and Media Silence
One of the central themes of Coulthart’s keynote was the persistent government cover-up and the mainstream media’s failure to adequately address the UAP issue. He criticized the systematic disinformation campaigns aimed at ridiculing and dismissing UAP sightings, despite the U.S. government’s admissions of their existence. Private aerospace companies and government officials were implicated in maintaining the secrecy, often misusing funds and exploiting legal loopholes to conceal information.
Testimonies from Credible Sources
Coulthart’s investigation was bolstered by testimonies from credible witnesses, including former U.S. Navy scientist Nat Kobitz. Kobitz, who served as the Navy’s Director of Science and Technology Development, revealed his involvement in a classified program focused on retrieved non-human technology and reverse engineering efforts. He recounted being briefed on operations that involved recovering alien spacecraft and attempting to understand and replicate their advanced technology.
Historical Context and Official Deception
The historical context provided by Coulthart highlighted a long-standing strategy of debunking and discrediting UAP reports. He referenced the CIA’s Robertson Panel, established 70 years ago, which aimed to reduce public interest in UAPs through a mass media campaign. This panel recommended using television, movies, and popular articles to strip UAPs of their “aura of mystery,” effectively reducing public gullibility and susceptibility to propaganda.
The Call for Transparency
Coulthart’s speech culminated in a passionate call for transparency and accountability. He urged the public and Congress to demand the truth about UAPs, emphasizing the misuse of laws to hinder governmental oversight. Coulthart stressed that without public pressure, the truth about UAPs might remain concealed for decades, urging voters to push for changes and hold officials accountable.
An Emotional Appeal
In a fervent appeal, Coulthart criticized the diversion of trillions of dollars to secretive programs while neglecting public infrastructure. He urged Americans to demand transparency, invoking the spirit of the greatest generation that once made the nation proud. His frustration with the current state of affairs was palpable, as he called for a collective effort to uncover the truth and restore the country’s greatness.
Ross Coulthart’s revelations at the SCU conference have brought the issue of UAPs to the forefront, highlighting the need for transparency and accountability. His journey from skepticism to belief, supported by credible testimonies and historical context, underscores the significance of this issue. As the public and lawmakers grapple with these revelations, the call for truth and openness in the face of decades of secrecy becomes increasingly urgent. Coulthart’s passionate plea serves as a reminder of the power of investigative journalism and the importance of public vigilance in uncovering hidden truths.
Rain will probably never fall on Mars’ giant volcano, Olympus Mons (our condolences to the MMC). But a glittering swath of frost covers the Martian mountaintop on chilly mornings, according to new research, suggesting that the planet has an active, if sparse, water cycle.
A team of scientists recently discovered frozen water in an unlikely place on Mars: 13.5 miles above the surface, nestled near the peak of our Solar System’s largest mountain, Olympus Mons (which is also a volcano, though its last eruption was 25 million years ago.) For a few hours each morning during the colder Martian seasons, huge patches of frost settle in the ancient calderas of Mars’s Tharsis Mountain range, which includesOlympus Mons. The recent study is the first time scientists have seen frost anywhere near the planet’s equator, and it could suggest new places to look for water and potential signs of life on Mars.
The frost is visible in blue in this image of Olympus Mons.
ESA/DLR/FU BERLIN
FROST-CAPPED MOUNTAIN PEAKS IN THE MARTIAN TROPICS
Valentinas and his colleagues spent five years poring over data from an instrument called CaSSIS (Color and Stereo Surface Imaging System) aboard the European Space Agency’s Trace Gas Orbiter. In 2018, the scientists thought they had glimpsed frost in the high calderas of Olympus Mons and some of the other dormant volcanoes of Tharsis, and more data from the Mars Express Orbiter confirmed what they had seen. The team spent the next five years studying more than 30,000 images of the region, captured at different times of day and in different seasons, to piece together a record of how the frost came and went.
It turns out that during Mars’s colder months, a super-thin layer of frost forms at the peaks of the towering mountains and in their calderas — the collapsed craters formed by cataclysmic volcanic eruptions millions of years ago. The icy layer is only about as thick as a human hair, and it lasts just a few hours before it evaporates under the heat of the Martian Sun. However, it covers such a wide swath of ground that even that thin, short-lived frost layer contains about 150,000 tons of water, enough to fill 6 Olympic swimming pools. And in the mostly-dry environs of modern Mars, that’s a lot of water.
“We thought it was improbable for frost to form around Mars’s equator, as the mix of sunshine and thin atmosphere keeps temperatures during the day relatively high, at both the surface and the mountaintops — unlike what we see on Earth, where you might expect to see frosty peaks,” says Valentinas in a recent statement.
Valentinas and his colleagues suggest that there’s something about air circulation around the tops of the mountains and through the calderas that creates a microclimate that’s cool enough and humid enough to allow frost to form on cold mornings. Building computer simulations of how the frost forms and evaporates could help scientists understand Mars’s water cycle, such as it is, in more detail.
Rijm ontdekt op de hoogste vulkanen van Mars: "Altijd gedacht dat zoiets onmogelijk was"
Rijm ontdekt op de hoogste vulkanen van Mars: "Altijd gedacht dat zoiets onmogelijk was"
Artikel door Wim De Maeseneer
In de winter wordt wel eens gewaarschuwd voor rijm- en ijsplekken op de weg. Rijm is de witte laag die je soms op je gazon ziet als het in de winter vriest. Het zijn de fijne waterdruppels uit de lucht die condenseren op het gras of op de weg en dan bevriezen. Voor het eerst is er bewijs dat er zich ook rijm op Mars kan vormen.
Op de kilometers hoge toppen van enkele vulkanen is een dun laagje rijm ontdekt, dat tijdens het koude seizoen elke dag verschijnt rond zonsopgang en enkele uren later weer verdampt in het zonlicht. Dat blijkt uit waarnemingen van 2 Europese satellieten rond Mars: de ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) en de Mars Express.
Nochtans werd altijd gedacht dat er op die plek, dicht bij de evenaar van Mars, onmogelijk water kon bevriezen. "Tot nog toe dachten we dat de temperaturen aan de evenaar te hoog zouden zijn, zowel op het oppervlak als op de bergtoppen, door het zonlicht en de dunne atmosfeer", zegt onderzoeker Adomas Valantinas die de studie heeft geleid. "Er moeten dus ongewone processen meespelen waardoor er zich toch rijm kan vormen."
Belgische bijdrage
Wat die ongewone processen dan wel zouden kunnen zijn, dat onderzochten wetenschappers van de Koninklijke Sterrenwacht van België. "Onze modellen van de luchtcirculatie op Mars hebben aangetoond dat vochtige lucht inderdaad kan condenseren tot rijm van water op de bodem van caldera's (de grote krater aan de top van een uitgedoofde vulkaan, red.), gedurende de nacht en vroege ochtend. Vergelijkbaar met wat kan worden waargenomen op aarde", klinkt het in een persbericht.
"In die caldera's zou de temperatuur toch iets kouder kunnen zijn. Net koud genoeg om toch rijm te kunnen vormen", vult Karolien Lefever van het Koninklijk Belgisch Instituut voor Ruimte-Aeronomie (BIRA) aan. Het is mede dankzij het NOMAD-instrument van het BIRA, aan boord van de ExoMars-satelliet, dat de rijm kon worden ontdekt.
Credit: Adomas Valantinas
Deze vroege ochtendopname van Olympus Mons (LST = 7:20 uur, Ls = 346,7°, lat = 18,2°N, lon = -133,2°E) is gemaakt door de Mars Express High Resolution Stereo Camera (MEX-HRSC). Deze foto toont voor het eerst de aanwezigheid van rijm van water op de top van de vulkaan, de hoogste vulkaan op Mars en in het hele zonnestelsel.
Mars is miljoenen jaren lang geteisterd door grote vulkaanuitbarstingen en dat is op het oppervlak nog altijd goed te zien. De vulkanen waar het over gaat, bevinden zich in het Tharsisgebied, een enorm vulkanisch plateau op de evenaar van Mars. Hier liggen de grootste vulkanen van ons zonnestelsel.
Olympus Mons torent 25 kilometer boven het oppervlak uit en is de grootste bekende vulkaan. Hij is meer dan 600 kilometer breed. Er liggen nog verschillende andere vulkanen van 10 kilometer hoog en meer. Ter vergelijking: de hoogste vulkaan ter wereld, de Ojos del Salado in Chili, is net geen 7 kilometer hoog.
"Hoewel het om een heel dun laagje gaat, ongeveer de dikte van een menselijk haar, bedekt het een enorm groot gebied. Alles samen komt het overeen met zo'n 150.000 ton water, dat elke dag tussen de atmosfeer en het oppervlak wordt uitgewisseld."
"Deze ontdekking is een nieuw, klein puzzelstukje in het beter begrijpen van de watercyclus op Mars", zegt Lefever. "Waterijswolken en waterdamp werden eerder al gedetecteerd op Mars. En we weten dat die wolken een heel belangrijke rol spelen in de watercyclus, omdat ze water van de polen naar de droge gebieden aan de evenaar brengen."
"Als we ooit mensen naar Mars willen sturen, dan zal die kennis over de watercyclus zeker van pas komen. Want het zal belangrijk zijn voor astronauten om zelf drinkwater te maken, om water te maken om zich te wassen en om planten te laten groeien, bijvoorbeeld. "
The Milky Way’s Last Merger Event Was More Recent Than Thought
The Milky Way is only as massive as it is because of collisions and mergers with other galaxies. This is a messy process, and we see the same thing happening with other galaxies throughout the Universe. Currently, we see the Milky Way nibbling at its two satellite galaxies, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. Their fate is likely sealed, and they’ll be absorbed into our galaxy.
Researchers thought the last major merger occurred in the Milky Way’s distant past, between 8 and 11 billion years ago. But new research amplifies the idea that it was much more recent: less than 3 billion years ago.
This new insight into our galactic history comes from the ESA’s Gaia mission. Launched in 2013, Gaia is busily mapping 1 billion astronomical objects, mostly stars. It measures them repeatedly, establishing accurate measurements of their positions and motions.
A new paper published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society presents the findings. It’s titled “The Debris of the ‘Last Major Merger’ is Dynamically Young.” The lead author is Thomas Donlon, a post-doctoral researcher in Physics and Astronomy at the University of Alabama, Huntsville. Donlon has been studying mergers in the Milky Way for several years and has published other work on the matter.
Each time another galaxy collides and merges with the Milky Way, it leaves wrinkles. ‘Wrinkles’ obviously isn’t a scientific term. It’s an umbrella term for several types of morphologies, including phase space folds, caustics, chevrons, and shells. These wrinkles move through different groups of stars within the Milky Way, affecting how the stars move through space. By measuring the positions and velocities of these stars with great precision, Gaia can detect the wrinkles, the imprint of the last major merger.
“We get wrinklier as we age, but our work reveals that the opposite is true for the Milky Way. It’s a sort of cosmic Benjamin Button, getting less wrinkly over time,” said lead author Donlon in a press release. “By looking at how these wrinkles dissipate over time, we can trace when the Milky Way experienced its last big crash—and it turns out this happened billions of years later than we thought.”
The effort to understand the Milky Way’s (MW) last major merger involves different pieces of evidence. One of the pieces of evidence, along with wrinkles, is an Fe/H-rich region where stars follow a highly eccentric orbit. A star’s Fe/H ratio is a chemical fingerprint, and when astronomers find a group of stars with the same fingerprint and the same orbits, it’s evidence of a common origin. This group of stars is sometimes called ‘the Splash.’ The stars in the Splash may have originated in a Fe/H-rich progenitor. They have odd orbits that stand out from their surroundings. Astronomers think they were heated and their orbits altered as a by-product of the merger.
There are two competing explanations for all of the merger evidence.
One says that a progenitor dwarf galaxy named Gaia Sausage/Enceladus (GSE) collided with the MW proto-disk between 8 and 11 billion years ago. The other explanation is that an event called the Virgo Radial Merger (VRM) is responsible for the stars in the inner halo. That collision occurred much more recently, less than 3 billion years ago.
This is a Hubble Space Telescope image of the globular cluster NGC 2808. It might be the old core of the Gaia Sausage. Image Credit: By NASA, ESA, A. Sarajedini (University of Florida) and G. Piotto (University of Padua (Padova)) http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2007/2007/18/image/a/ (direct link), Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2371715
“These two scenarios make different predictions about observable structure in local phase space because the morphology of debris depends on how long it has had to phase mix,” the authors explain in their paper.
The wrinkles in the MW were first identified in Gaia data in 2018 and presented in this paper. “We have observed shapes with different morphologies, such as a spiral similar to a snail’s shell. The existence of these substructures has been observed for the first time thanks to the unprecedented precision of the data brought by Gaia satellite, from the European Space Agency (ESA)”, said Teresa Antoja, the study’s first author, in 2018.
This AI-generated image illustrates the MW’s ‘wrinkles’ from the last major merger event. Image Credit: University of Barcelona.
But Gaia has released more data since 2018, and it supports the more recent merger scenario, the Virgo Radial Merger. That data shows that the wrinkles are much more prevalent than the earlier data and the studies based on it suggest.
“For the wrinkles of stars to be as clear as they appear in Gaia data, they must have joined us less than 3 billion years ago—at least 5 billion years later than was previously thought,” said co-author Heidi Jo Newberg, from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. If the wrinkles were much older and conformed to the GSE merger scenario, they’d be more difficult to discern.
“New wrinkles of stars form each time the stars swing back and forth through the center of the Milky Way. If they’d joined us 8 billion years ago, there would be so many wrinkles right next to each other that we would no longer see them as separate features,” Newberg said.
This doesn’t mean there’s no evidence for the more ancient GSE merger. Some of the stars that hint at the ancient merger may be from the more recent VRM merger, and some may still be associated with the GSE merger. It’s challenging to figure out, and simulations play a large role. The researchers in previous work and in this work ran multiple simulations to see how they matched the evidence. “Our goal is to determine the time that has passed since the progenitor of the local phase-space folds collided with the MW disc,” the authors write in their paper.
“We can see how the shapes and number of wrinkles change over time using these simulated mergers. This lets us pinpoint the exact time when the simulation best matches what we see in real Gaia data of the Milky Way today—a method we used in this new study too,” said Thomas.
“By doing this, we found that the wrinkles were likely caused by a dwarf galaxy colliding with the Milky Way around 2.7 billion years ago. We named this event the Virgo Radial Merger.” Those results and the name come from a previous study from 2019.
As Gaia delivers more data with each release, astronomers are getting a better look at the evidence of mergers. It’s becoming clear that the MW has a complex history.
The VRM likely involved more than one entity. It could have brought a whole group of dwarf galaxies and star clusters into the MW at around the same time. As astronomers research the MW’s merger history in greater detail, they hope to determine which of these objects are from the more recent VRM and which are from the ancient GSE.
“The Milky Way’s history is constantly being rewritten at the moment, in no small part thanks to new data from Gaia,” adds Thomas. “Our picture of the Milky Way’s past has changed dramatically from even a decade ago, and I think our understanding of these mergers will continue to change rapidly.”
“This finding improves what we know of the many complicated events that shaped the Milky Way, helping us better understand how galaxies are formed and shaped—our home galaxy in particular,” said Timo Prusti, Project Scientist for Gaia at ESA.
Landing on Pluto May Only Be A Hop Skip and Jump Away
There are plenty of crazy ideas for missions in the space exploration community. Some are just better funded than others. One of the early pathways to funding the crazy ideas is NASA’s Institute for Advanced Concepts. In 2017 and again in 2021, it funded a mission study of what most space enthusiasts would consider only a modestly ambitious goal but what those outside the community might consider outlandish—landing on Pluto.
Two major questions stand out in the mission design: How would a probe arriving at Pluto slow down, and what kind of lander would be useful on Pluto itself? The answer to the first is one that is becoming increasingly common on planetary exploration missions: aerobraking.
Pluto has an atmosphere, albeit sparse, as confirmed by the New Horizons mission that whizzed past in 2015. One advantage of the minor planet’s relatively weak gravity is that its low-density atmosphere is almost eight times larger than Earth’s, providing a much bigger target for a fast incoming aerobraking craft to aim for.
Fraser discusses future missions to Pluto.
Much of the NIAC Phase I project was focused on the details of that aerobraking system, called the Enveloping Aerodynamic Decelerator (EAD). Combined with a lander, that system makes up the “Entrycraft” that the mission is designed around. Ostensibly, it could alternatively contain an orbiter, and there are plenty of other missions discussing how to insert an orbiter around Pluto. Hence, the main thrust of this paper is to focus on a lander.
After aerobraking and slowing down to a few tens of meters a second, from 14 km/s during its interplanetary cruise phase, the mission would drop its lander payload, then rest on the surface, only to rise again under its own power. The answer to the second question of what kind of lander would be useful on Pluto is – a hopper.
Hoppers have become increasingly popular as an exploration tool everywhere, from the Moon to asteroids. Some apparent advantages would include visiting a wide array of interesting scientific sites and not having to navigate tricky land-based obstacles. Ingenuity, the helicopter that accompanied Perseverance paved the way for the idea, but in other words, the atmosphere isn’t dense enough to support a helicopter. So why not use the current favorite method of almost all spacecraft – rockets?
Fraser discusses the results from New Horizons.
A hopper would fire its onboard thrusters to reach the area on Pluto’s surface and then land elsewhere. It could then do some science at its new locale before taking off and doing so again somewhere else. The NIAC Phase I Final Report describes five main scientific objectives of the mission, including understanding the surface geomorphology and running some in-situ chemical analysis. A hopper structure would enable those goals much better than a traditional rover at a relatively low weight cost since Pluto’s gravity is so weak.
Other objectives of the report include mathematical calculations of the trajectory, including the aerobraking itself and the stress and strain it would have on the materials used in the system. The authors, who primarily work for Global Aerospace Corporation and ILC Dover, two private companies, also updated the atmospheric models of Pluto with new New Horizons data, which they then fed into the aerobraking model they used. Designing the lander/hopper, integrating all the scientific and navigation components, and estimating their weights were also part of Phase I.
The original launch window for the mission was planned as 2029 back in 2018, though now, despite receiving a Phase II NIAC grant in 2021, that launch window seems wildly optimistic. Since the mission would require a gravity assist from Jupiter, the next potential launch window would be 2042, with a lander finally reaching the surface of Pluto in the 2050s. That later launch window is likely the only feasible one for the mission, so we might have to wait almost 30 years to see if it will come to fruition. Sometimes crazy ideas take patience – we’ll see if the mission team has enough of that to push it onto the surface of one of the most interesting minor planets in the solar system.
Newly published research from scientists at Cornell University is casting doubt on previous findings hinting at the presence of a large lake of liquid water underneath Mars’ polar ice caps. Instead, the researchers say their models were able to produce the same signals detected by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter back in 2018 in a simpler and likelier way that doesn’t require the presence of liquid water.
Previous studies have found overwhelming evidence for large amounts of water billions of years in Mars’ past, increasing the possibility that life may have had a chance to evolve on the red planet. However, the presence of liquid lakes on or underneath Mars would greatly increase the chances that life currently resides on the red planet. If confirmed, these latest findings, which say the readings were caused by ice reflections, would represent a dramatic setback to those hopes, potentially restricting any living Martian organisms to the planet’s watery ancient past.
“I can’t say it’s impossible that there’s liquid water down there,” said Daniel Lalich, research associate at the Cornell Center for Astrophysics and Planetary Science and an author on the study outlining the team’s findings, “but we’re showing that there are much simpler ways to get the same observation without having to stretch that far, using mechanisms and materials that we already know exist there.”
In fact, Lalich is so confident in his team’s findings that he says random chance could “create the same observed signal in the radar.”
EVIDENCE FOR LIQUID WATER UNDERNEATH MARS’ POLAR ICE CAPS
Ever since NASA and the European Space Agency began sending various probes, rovers, and satellites to Mars, they have found a steadily increasing body of evidence that the red planet was once home to large amounts of liquid water. Some research even showed that a massive ocean may have existed on Mars’ surface around three billion years ago, even though the temperature at the surface was well below freezing, thanks to constant water circulation and periodic coastal rainfall. An examination of rocks collected by the Perseverance Rover also found that water in Jezero Crater may have persisted for much longer than previously thought, increasing the opportunity for life to form.
Then suddenly, in 2018, researchers using the ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft reported the discovery of a large lake of liquid water underneath Mar’s polar ice caps in the Planum Australe region. The researchers were so confident in their findings that they went so far as to say that the 20km wide lake “is probably kept from freezing by dissolved salts and the pressure of the ice above.”
Now, both of those studies have been called into question, with the new models suggesting that the reflections that seemed to indicate the presence of this massive lake were likely just illusions created by layers of ice.
RANDOMLY GENERATED LAYERING SCENARIOS REPLICATE READINGS WITHOUT NEED FOR WATER
In the media release announcing the new findings, Lalich notes that he had developed earlier models that could account for the presence of reflections underneath the Martian ice caps. However, he says that those models, which relied on assumptions about layers of frozen carbon dioxide hiding beneath the ice caps, “likely were incorrect.”
Hoping to refine his approach, Lalich says he decided to use much more sophisticated modeling techniques, which helped in “closing the gaps” in his radar interference hypothesis. This included modeling thousands of randomly generated layering scenarios based specifically on the atmospheric and material conditions present only at the Martian poles. Throughout these different scenarios, Lalich and his team periodically adjusted the spacing and composition of the various ice layers, like those already known to exist beneath the surface of Mars, while monitoring how this would affect readings captured by a satellite like the Mars Express.
Just like his previous models, Lalich said that those slight adjustments started to produce “bright subsurface signals consistent with observations” found by all of the three frequencies analyzed by the Mars Express orbiter’s MARSIS radar instrument during the 2018 discovery. In effect, his data showed that when the RADAR waves bounced off of ice layers that were too close together for the MARSIS instrument to tell them apart, the instrument most likely combined them together, resulting in amplified peaks and troughs in the signal that matched those made by liquid water.
“This is the first time we have a hypothesis that explains the entire population of observations below the ice cap without having to introduce anything unique or odd,” Lalich said. “This result where we get bright reflections scattered all over the place is exactly what you would expect from thin-layer interference in the radar.”
While this research doesn’t permanently shut the door on the idea of liquid water underneath Mars’ polar ice caps, the researchers behind the finding do seem to agree that the scientific community tends to prefer the simplest explanation whenever possible, as opposed to the one that is more exciting.
“The idea that there would be liquid water even somewhat near the surface would have been really exciting,” Lalich said. “I just don’t think it’s there.”
Christopher Plain is a Science Fiction and Fantasy novelist and Head Science Writer at The Debrief. Follow and connect with him on X, learn about his books at plainfiction.com, or email him directly at christopher@thedebrief.org.
Although the U.S. Department of Defense and its All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office may be the most headline-grabbing government investigation into what the Pentagon now calls unidentified anomalous phenomena, it certainly isn’t the only officially sanctioned investigation into mysterious aerospace phenomena.
Originally established in France in the late 1970s, the French Group for the Study and Information on Unidentified Aerospace Phenomena (GEIPAN), an official division of the French national space agency CNES, has long been tasked with the examination of UAP. From its launch in 1977 until 1988, the program operated under the name GEPAN, and then as SEPRA between 1988 and 2004. The program officially adopted its current designation, GEIPAN, in September 2005.
In the past, the French Gendarmerie was officially ordered to forward all its UFO sighting reports to SEPRA, thus providing the agency with a substantial collection of such incidents to analyze.
As the official French public UFO office, GEIPAN was tasked with answering questions from citizens regarding UAP and investigating sightings, and in 2007, GEIPAN released its files and made them publicly accessible on its website.
Recently, The Debrief was able to speak with Frédéric Courtade, the new chief of GEIPAN, which currently sorts UAP sighting reports into four categories: 1) UAP A: Identified Phenomenon (24.6 %), 2) UAP B: Probably identified Phenomenon (39.7%), 3) UAP C: Unidentified Phenomenon due to lack of data (32.4%), and 4) UAP D: Unidentified Phenomenon after investigation (3.3%).
The following is a transcript of The Debrief’s interview with Courtade, conducted by journalist Baptiste Friscourt, which features minor edits for overall clarity.
Baptiste Friscourt: Hello, Mr. Courtade. You are the new head of the GEIPAN, you have a degree in materials science, you have 20 years of expertise/investigation of materials within the expertise laboratory of the National Centre for Space Studies (CNES), then five years on the development of scientific instruments in planetology and exobiology as part of a project to prepare for the future, and most recently four years as manager of the Space Mechanisms and Equipment for Satellite Attitude Control department. Can you tell us what GEIPAN’s mission is and how it differs from other organizations involved in research into Unidentified Aerospace Phenomena?
Frédéric Courtade: GEIPAN, as its name suggests, is a study and information group on unidentified aerospace phenomena. This service is attached to the digital technical department of CNES. We are based in Toulouse, and we have the resources to investigate reports of unidentified aerospace phenomena reported to us by French citizens. The GEIPAN is legitimate in France. We carry out a pre-characterization and, if necessary, investigations to try to identify what has astonished these citizens – sometimes arousing their curiosity, sometimes worrying them – using a network of volunteer investigators recruited and trained by the GEIPAN which covers the entire country.
Our investigations are published on a website which is accessible to the public worldwide. Our work is monitored by a supervisory committee, COPEIPAN (Steering Committee for Studies and Information on Unidentified Aerospace Phenomena), chaired by an independent authority within French institutions and comprising civil, military, and scientific authorities and any other person with significant expertise in UAP.
Today, GEIPAN is housed by CNES, it has legitimacy, and I have an operating budget that enables me to carry out investigations and to ensure the impartiality of the results of these investigations.
We do, of course, consult associations and certain organizations that are run by scientists in Europe, but from an operational point of view, I would say that this autonomy of means enables us to be completely impartial, whatever the testimony that is given to us. We investigate facts for which the witness has given us prior authorization for publication, whatever the result.
BF: What perspective would you like to develop during your tenure?
FC: Today, GEIPAN has reached cruising speed, I think, with a body of investigators who are fairly seasoned. I have to bring in new people to complete this body of investigators. We have people who have been here since GEIPAN was created, so they are seasoned people, people who are ready to share their experience. For me, the aim is to build up this body of investigators so that we can continue to conduct rigorous investigations using tried and tested methods. My aim is also to try to increase the number of national institutions we work with, which give us access to data that we can make available to these investigators so that we have the information we need to eliminate or explore certain hypotheses and come up with a solution that we think is perfectly acceptable in terms of explaining these phenomena.
BF: What made you want to take this job?
FC: CNES is a public industrial establishment that serves the public and is responsible for bringing everything we can learn from space to French and European citizens. All this has also happened in the context of my previous jobs, working in the field of engineering, with direct relations with engineers or technicians from other organizations comparable to CNES or industrialists who help to develop space data and put it at the service of the public. In the case of GEIPAN, it’s really the direct link with the public that attracted me.
In this context, we are in direct contact with them, and we have the legitimacy to do this. So we meet people from all over the country; people who are concerned; people who are curious; people who are educated and people who are less so; people who have a culture of space and people who have none at all. It’s very enriching and that’s what attracted me to GEIPAN.
BF: Speaking of contact with the public, there is a two-edged sword here. In other words, the contact can come from people who are wondering about what they have observed, but there can also be comments from the public about the actions carried out. Have you ever come across this type of contact?
FC: Yes, of course, there are people who question our surveys and challenge us on the results. We accept being challenged and there’s nothing to worry about. We think we’re sufficiently sure when we come to our conclusions, but there may be adjustments to be made. That much is clear – we accept that. And there are also people who will have an approach that is closer to credulity, thinking they’ve been chosen to witness something that goes beyond comprehension, I would say.
And these people, of course, we receive their requests. GEIPAN also has an educational mission, to provide rational answers to what they have seen and experienced.
So, of course, this is something that happens to us.
BF: To stay on this subject, there was recently a congress in Limoges to promote a supposed extraterrestrial contact and, at the other end of the spectrum, a few months earlier there were three international conferences on the technical aspects of research into UAP.
Does GEIPAN have a position on this type of event?
FC: No, we have no position on this type of event. We were not consulted about this event, which took place on national territory. I was questioned indirectly by the press about this event.
I have to say that this is absolutely not a theme that is developed at GEIPAN and that it is not one of my missions.
BF: Last month, Francisco Guerreiro, MEP, organized a conference at the European Parliament on the subject, during which GEIPAN was mentioned several times. Were you represented?
FC: I was connected remotely, and I thought it was a very good initiative. It’s clear that for a subject which affects society, raises questions in people’s minds, frightens them, it would be very good if something could be organized on a cross-border basis.
But then, I realize how difficult it is, I can see at the national level all the things we have to put in place, in terms of cooperation with the national civil and military authorities to be able to work, but it will have to be done in a cross-border context, and that is likely to pose a lot of problems, especially as the Parliament is going to change. However, I think it’s a very good initiative to put UAP in the context of European space law, because I’ve realized since I took up my job that a huge number of people are passionate about this phenomenon – UAP/UFOs – and having an institution, a delegation, an authority that could provide a framework for all this would be great.
BF: Do you envision GEIPAN taking on a European mandate, or Europe creating ex nihilo a structure GEIPAN would participate in?
FC: That’s more like it. GEIPAN’s mission is a national one, and I’ve spoken to the people at CNES who deal with European affairs, who also have a positive view of this, but it’s not on the agenda to take the lead or any kind of leadership in this area. So, it would really be a matter of ensuring that Europe can benefit from the organization that we have put in place and which is working very well.
BF: At this conference, one of the main lines of argument used was the possible danger to air safety posed by UAP. Do you share this point of view within GEIPAN?
FC: In the modern history of UFOs, it’s true that observations by pilots have been exacerbated over the years since the end of the Second World War. So it’s true that these people may wonder about their safety, whatever they’ve seen.
We’re currently working in particular on visibility and the recurrent sightings of Starlink satellites in the vision of pilots who have difficulty deciding whether what they see is dangerous, their inability to assess the distance, the fact that it’s moving erratically for them, all of which poses a problem in terms of flight safety. We have a lot of testimonies from pilots, and we are authorized to work on testimonies from pilots on flights departing from or bound for France, which is what we are doing. We try to respond to pilots to reassure them when it comes to Starlink and try to sort out what it might be when it’s something else.
BF: Since 2017 there have been declarations by former US administration and defense officials on the subject. Does GEIPAN have a view on these statements, declaring that UAP also represent national defense vulnerabilities?
FC: I have no particular position on what is being done in the United States. GEIPAN is hosted by CNES, which has always been under the supervision of the Ministry of Defense, and the decision was made at the time (1977) for CNES, which is responsible for civil and military space issues, to manage these phenomena. I don’t think that’s the case in the United States, or it used to be, but it isn’t any more – there’s perhaps a tendency to change once more.
So the fact that this matter is being handled by military authorities who, by their very nature, are not supposed to communicate, may suggest that they want to avoid saying things and discourage some people from speaking up, in the face of this lack of communication. When you cultivate secrecy, it sometimes awakens fantasies.
BF: April 9, Japan’s defense minister said: “We believe that it is essential to take all possible measures to respond to incidents that affect Japan’s security, including those involving unidentified objects.” Is GEIPAN a resource that can be used by the French armed forces regarding any concerns they may have about UAP?
FC: GEIPAN comes under the “space security” theme. There are several themes that are maintained and developed as part of CNES missions. Some are concerned with the sciences of the universe and space research, others with telecommunications, Earth observation, hydrology, climate… and a huge number of other sectors.
CNES also covers ‘space security’. And GEIPAN is part of this. On the other hand, as far as I can remember, we’ve never had to request any kind of alarm for the arrival of a phenomenon that would endanger the public. Perhaps in Japan there’s no equivalent. GEIPAN is identified as a link in the ‘space security’ theme.
BC: There were a lot of cases of confusion in the 80s around American stealth bomber tests and UFO sightings. In the case of France, how would you deal with a case that is sent to GEIPAN where, after investigation, you realize that it was a French military prototype?
FC: Up until now, the Directorate General for Armaments has communicated quite openly with us. Without actually telling us what happened, but saying: “something happened there, we can reassure you, there’s nothing dangerous”.
We relayed information about the hypersonic glider tests, the missile tests… The army communicates quite openly, and our official collaboration with the air and space force through the CNOA, the National Air Operations Centre, is very positive. Even without telling us what really happens, that allows us to respond and reassure the population.
BF: Does GEIPAN also deal with reports from military personnel?
FC: Any member of the public can submit a report through the usual channels. As far as I know, there is no priority channel for military personnel. We deal with first-level reports made by individuals. In any case, I’ve never been confronted with one and to my recollection, no investigation has been brought to our level following a statement by a military authority.
BF: There were hearings this summer with a whistleblower – a former American intelligence officer – who stated that there were secret programmes in the United States, carrying out tests on recovered materials.
Has GEIPAN ever been involved in collecting debris from anything that might have been found and can it carry out material expertise, given that this is part of your personal expertise?
FC: Yes, I’ve done it in the past, on material that had been found at an observation scene and we didn’t demonstrate any extraordinary origin. We’re currently working on an expert report on material found during an observation reported to us by the SIGMA 2 association of 3AF, with which we’re trying to work with the CNES expert laboratory, which is developing a whole range of analysis and expert report techniques that enable us to go back quite a long way to the origin, both elementary and chemical, of what we can see. A priori, we haven’t found any signature that would lead us to think that it came from somewhere else.
BF: And are these analyses, even conventional ones, available to the public to examine?
FC: The expert report is signed by my counterpart in charge of the “laboratory and expertise” department, so it is distributed to the applicant, and then he is free to distribute them, it’s the applicant who gets the first look.
BF: So, last year, there was an independent audit ordered by NASA which concluded that more scientific research needed to be carried out into UFOs. If NASA were to develop a scientific research programme on UAP, could GEIPAN be asked to contribute to it, since it has already been asked to contribute to the audit group, and from what CNES perspective could this take place?
FC: There is no research activity on the UAP themselves, but there is a great deal of work being done to improve the data we receive from our partners, particularly radar data. We’re trying to work on the raw signals, before filtering, which are produced by Meteo France and which would give us more usable information than the weather data, for example.
Would we contribute? At present, GEIPAN has no research mission. It’s a study group. CNES of course maintains networks of space radio telescopes. Indirectly, we may help to detect electromagnetic radiation from the universe, but we don’t do any research as such.
BF: But on the other hand, if you were called by NASA to provide data from the French cases, would you object?
FC: Everything that is published is already free of copyright. To go further, I would say that knowing whether we are in a position to want to share anything in this area with NASA or other international bodies depends on the French space policy options chosen by the CEO of CNES.
Collaboration in space, whether bilateral or multilateral, is something that has been done at CNES since its inception. To my knowledge, there has never been any collaboration on the topic, so if it develops, why not, but it won’t depend on me.
Baptiste Friscourt is a certified visual arts instructor based in France. You can follow his work online via Sentinel News on Substack.
A non-partisan group of Japanese lawmakers says it plans to investigate sightings of unidentified flying objects, citing concerns over possible foreign surveillance efforts and other national security issues.
The group, composed of more than 80 members that include former defense ministers, was announced on Thursday. The lawmakers say it will aim to enhance Japan’s capabilities in the detection and analysis of what the U.S. military now calls unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAP.
“It is extremely irresponsible of us to be resigned to the fact that something is unknowable, and to keep turning a blind eye to the unidentified,” said former Japanese defense minister Yasukazu Hamada, coinciding with the new group’s launch.
In the U.S., the Pentagon’s official UAP investigative effort, the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), had previously identified Japan as a hotspot for such sightings. The new Japanese group aims to complement AARO’s efforts by urging Japanese government officials to establish an official investigative office of its own in response to several incidents involving unauthorized drone incursions and surveillance balloons that have raised concerns about possible spying by nations like China.
Christopher Mellon, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence in the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations, joined the inaugural meeting of Japan’s new UAP Caucus as a virtual attendee, telling The Debrief in an email following the event that it was “a packed room” that included several former defense officials.
“This initiative marks a highly significant and admirable commitment to transparency, national security, and scientific inquiry,” Mellon said in a written statement before fielding questions from the group’s attendees.
“We also know from a national security standpoint that the importance of identifying and monitoring unmanned aerial systems cannot be overstated. The immense impact of unmanned vehicles in the ongoing conflict in Ukraine is demonstrating their profound effects on modern warfare daily. By staying vigilant and informed, we can enhance national security and leverage these technologies for positive outcomes,” Mellon’s statement read.
The establishment of the new caucus follows recent incidents that include the unauthorized release of footage depicting a docked Japanese helicopter destroyer, which circulated on Chinese social media after an apparent drone intrusion over one of the country’s military facilities.
In another incident last year, “flying objects” observed over Japan were revealed to be monitoring balloons originating from China. Also in 2023, AARO released information involving global concentrations of UAP sightings, which specified western Japan and China as UAP ‘hotspots’ based on trends observed from 1996 to 2023.
Lawmaker Yoshiharu Asakawa expressed that UAPs have traditionally been seen as “an occult matter that has nothing to do with politics.” One notable example from Japanese folklore that some modern UAP proponents link to the phenomenon involves an 1803 incident where a round vessel of unknown origin was reportedly found adrift along the coast of Japan’s Hitachi province.
According to records from the country’s Edo period, a young woman was said to have emerged from the object wearing strange clothes and carrying a box. Although the story has garnered attention from UFO researchers, primarily due to artistic representations of the woman’s unusual-looking vessel, historians and folklorists identify the story as bearing similarities to other traditional beliefs that appear in Japanese folklore.
The establishment of its new UAP investigative group marks a notable shift in the country’s attitudes toward the subject, which are in line with a growing number of countries whose governments express concerns over the possibility that some presently unidentified aerial phenomena may be linked to foreign espionage. However, the new group is not Japan’s first time engaging in the UAP debate.
“This is now the second time in the last few years Japan has taken a public stance on the UAP issue, the first time by entering into a bilateral information sharing agreement with the Department of Defense,” said Luis Elizondo, a former U.S. Army Counterintelligence Special Agent and former employee of the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence.
In an email to The Debrief, Elizondo said Japan’s establishment of a UAP investigative group serves as a reminder “that this issue affects many of our allies and adversaries alike.”
“This should be a clear indicator that other countries are also taking this topic seriously,” Elizondo said.
Aviation safety and other potential concerns arising from the presence of unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) were among the issues addressed by Member of the European Parliament Francisco Guerreiro and others during a recent conference at the European Parliament.
The public meeting, which aimed to offer reliable information to policymakers, was held in March in cooperation with the UAP CoalitionNetherlands. Several experts presented talks on various aspects of the UAP problem at the event, with a central focus on UAP as a potential threat to aviation safety.
Francisco Guerreiro, an independent Member of the European Parliament (MEP) representing Portugal, opened the event, which he said aimed to “start the debate inside the European Parliament on unidentified anomalous phenomena, which is a topic that is dear to thousands of Europeans,” as well as to “decrease the stigma associated with the topic inside important sectors of our society, such as civil aviation, the military, journalism, but also politics.”
Guerreiro said it is “essential that all the debates surrounding UAP are based on the scientific method and held in close cooperation with public institutions, academia, civil society, and all the professionals who are willing to open and voluntarily share their experiences.”
“Lastly, the path of the European Union in regard to UAPs must be made with transparency, data sharing, and accountability, so we don’t lose our credibility in a topic that is dear to many of our constituents and citizens,” Guerreiro said.
Guerreiro said the feedback he got from EU citizens and even outside European borders had been overwhelming, although his involvement in the UAP matter goes beyond hosting the conference. Last month, he asked questions to the European Commission – the executive branch of the E.U. – and gave speeches during the Plenary session of the European Parliament, proposing a modification to the E.U. Space law integrating UAP, and introduced a motion for resolution to the European Commission requesting the establishment of a harmonized E.U. reporting system.
Asked by The Debrief if he expected any resistance against such a resolution from other groups, Guerreiro said the topic “is not a priority for the rest of the MEPs and groups, so my action is individual.”
Asked about his level of confidence that it will be accepted, Guerreiro told The Debrief that he honestly doubted there would be much progress.
“The Individual Motions for Resolution mostly go to a specific committee, decided by the EP bureau, and then approved by the committee Chair and respective committee chairs from each political group. Since we´re ending the mandate (2019-2024), I doubt there will be any development on the matter. It will be upon the next mandate (2024-2029) to move forward on this topic,” Guerreiro said, noting that he does not plan to run for a second term.
The Debrief also asked Guerreiro about reports involving UAP seen in close proximity to aircraft, which are not made public by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), partially to avoid hurting companies’ credibility and to prevent passengers’ concerns.
“I think the main focus should be on building a scientific and transparent report EU system that would encourage professionals but also companies and institutions to analyze with credibility the UAP subject,” Guerreiro told The Debrief. “This way, everyone would be included in the decrease of dogma surrounding the subject, and we could better understand the phenomena.”
UAP IN THE NETHERLANDS
The first speaker at the event was André Jol with UAP Coalition Netherlands, an NGO dedicated to raising “awareness, promoting scientific research and building a bridge between the public and policymakers”.
After explaining that improvements in detection and surveillance allowed more evidence to be gathered regarding the existence of UAPs, he reminded the audience that the phenomenon is understood to have been observed at sea, and not only in the air, that pilots have reported near misses, and that military personnel have reported witnessing UAP near nuclear bases and power plants.
Jol explained that for someone to consider that UAP are hallucinations would mean that trained observers have been seeing “things which are a fantasy” for decades, while “we rely on the same professionals to be good observers in their professional capacities”. He then noted that NASA now has a director for UAP Research and has shown UAP footage of unidentified objects during last year’s conference.
“If a commercial pilot with passengers encounters a UAP, this could lead to confusion, distraction, and potentially even a risk of accidents. With 32,000 flights per day in the EU airspace, we feel it is necessary to address the topic. By understanding and addressing the UAP topic, we can enhance the safety and security of our skies.”
As Europe is home to one of the most crowded airspaces on Earth, UAP incursions could have a devastating effect on the aviation industry if the risk isn’t mitigated by authorities. In a climate of growing public distrust towards the reliability of commercial aircraft, as showcased by scandals in recent months regarding Boeing, the broader realization that our airspace is frequently violated by unregulated platforms, exotic or conventional, presents challenges for the aviation industry and lawmakers alike.
“In this era of heightened political, geopolitical tensions and rapid technological developments, the presence of unidentified objects in our airspace raises questions about surveillance, defense capabilities, and potential threats,” Jol also said, emphasizing the geopolitical and military risk of unmitigated UAP incursions. “We feel it’s imperative that these issues are explored and addressed.”
While addressing the geopolitical aspects of the phenomenon, Jol also spoke briefly about reports of Beijing’s engagement with issues related to UAP.
“It’s also interesting to note that China has issued a shoot-down order of UAP in at least one and possibly several provinces. They’re using AI to research UAP data, and they consider UAP to be a national threat and a flight safety issue. We also know that the Russian government is aware of it and doing research on this topic.”
Following a discussion of physical characteristics often attributed to UAP, Jol finished his talk by noting that despite decades of information gathered, witnesses are still faced with ridicule when reporting their sightings:
“We feel it’s crucial that policymakers do create an environment and the required legislative frameworks to allow witnesses to feel comfortable coming forward with their experiences and knowing that they will be heard, respected, and supported.”
As a solution, André Jol proposes to “raise awareness and educate policymakers, professional scientists, the media, and the public about the reality and the significance of UAP” to gain a better understanding of UAP through “leveraging expertise, technological research, resources, and international collaboration” in the hope of gaining “a deeper understanding of these phenomena.” Finally, he called for the establishment of protocols and procedures regarding UAP reporting and included UAP-related modifications to the E.U. regulations on aviation safety and Space Law.
Jol concluded his speech by calling EU stakeholders to assume their “responsibility to address this topic with seriousness, integrity and scientific rigor.”
ANOMALIES IN EUROPEAN AIRSPACE
Italian MUFON Chapter director Edoardo Russo followed, describing the European UFO/UAP investigation history from 1946 to today and the efforts that have been made by countless organizations to archive knowledge kept outside the Hall of Science by the stigma. Russo also discussed similar past unsuccessful initiatives in the European Union.
Dr. Beatriz Villaroel then took the stand, presenting her astronomy research into transient light phenomena and showing how some coincided with mass UAP sightings, giving the example of the Washington D.C. incursions in the summer of 1952. She listed the other scientific research into UAP and presented methods of searching for UAPs, in particular mysterious, unknown objects outside the Earth (ExoProbe). She then called for the establishment of an infrastructure that could support scientific research on UAP in the European Union.
Pilot Christiaan Van Heijst then spoke about the encounters he witnessed while flying civilian airplanes. He began by explaining that it was only after he heard testimonies from Ryan Graves and David Fravor, two NAVY pilots who have come forward in recent years regarding UAP incursion in sensitive areas of the United States, that he realized that what he saw could be more than what he originally thought. One could wonder how many pilots also dismiss what they see because they were never taught how to recognize physical UAP signatures.
“In the last 20 years of flying, I’ve seen a lot of interesting things,” Van Heijst said. “The most anomalous, taking place in the first few years of my flying career, always over Europe – which is important to note, because many people think that the UAP or UFO topic is from Hollywood, that it’s American.”
Executive director of American for Safe Aerospace Ryan Graves followed Van Heijst, noting that “Pilots are seeing UAP every day; we need to trust their expertise and support them coming forward.”
“Too often, pilots are afraid to share their stories due to stigma,” Graves said. “UAP are in global airspace, but they are grossly underreported. These sightings are not rare nor isolated. They are routine.”
Graves emphasized that “military aircrews and commercial pilots, trained observers whose lives depend on accurate identification, are frequently witnessing these phenomena but are either unable or unsure how to report UAP officially.”
As a solution, he pointed out the government’s role in destigmatizing UAP by supporting witness reporting and investigation.
“Government plays an important role to destigmatize UAP and to investigate the phenomenon. The stigma attached to UAP is real and powerful. It silences commercial pilots who fear professional repercussions and discourages military witnesses from sharing their reports. Governments can help by taking reports seriously and creating mechanisms to collect UAP data and investigate and evaluate it.”
Graves concluded his speech by stating that the U.S. military realized that it has an awareness gap on UAP, and called for the pursuit and evaluation of data to counter the skepticism regarding UAP.
When The Debrief asked Graves about his feelings regarding the AARO historical report, also published in March, and its reception in the media, Graves expressed frustration.
“Generally speaking, no, I’m not satisfied with the historical report,” Graves said.
“I won’t pretend to be a historian of the UAP topic going back to the 40s or earlier. However, one thing that was clear is that the language and the dismissal that was inherent within that report did not align with the joint chiefs of staff recommendations for reporting UAPs that went out to all service branches,” Graves said. “And in that reporting, they were very clear that this was a serious issue that was occurring internationally as well as domestically and was a concern, both for aviation safety and for our domain awareness.”
During a Q&A at the end of the conference, José-Luis Penedo Del Rio, the Chief of Political Affairs of the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), noted that a system to report sightings by professionals existed already available through the EASA website. He added that it could be improved, but it was available freely, not specifically for UAP.
Van Heijst replied that if he filed a UAP report to his company regarding a sighting, the company itself couldn’t do anything.
Guerreiro then intervened, explaining that his proposal aimed to change this specific EASA system so that observation reports could be recorded even if the situation did not endanger the safety of the flight.
Guerreiro concluded the conference by emphasizing the need for political leadership in the European Union on the UAP issue, expressing his hopes that lawmakers will “move ahead and also surpass the U.S. on this topic.”
“Then we all—united—can have a very scientific approach on this topic.”
Baptiste Friscourt is a certified visual arts instructor based in France. You can follow his work online via Sentinel News on Substack.
Dat microplastics overal aanwezig zijn is geen mysterie: ze zitten in ons water, in het voedsel dat we eten en zelfs in ons lichaam. We weten nog steeds niet precies wat hun effecten op de gezondheid zijn, maar het is cruciaal om te leren hoe we ze kunnen opsporen en verwijderen. Een belangrijke stap in deze richting is gezet door Victoria Ou en Justin Huang, twee jongeren uit Texas die een innovatieve methode presenteerden om microplastics uit water te filteren met behulp van ultrageluiden. Laten we eens kijken waar het over gaat.
Een nieuwe methode om microplastics uit water te filteren: twee tieners winnen een prijs
We zijn op de Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair in Los Angeles, Verenigde Staten. Dit is een evenement dat de beste wetenschappelijke projecten ter wereld samenbrengt en in totaal $9 miljoen aan prijzen toekent aan verdienstelijk onderzoek. Eén daarvan is het project van Victoria Ou en Justin Huang, een nieuwe methode om microplastics uit water te filteren, dat de Gordon E. Moore-prijs van $50.000 won.
Zoals we in de inleiding al zeiden, zijn de korte- en langetermijneffecten van microplastics op de menselijke gezondheid nog steeds niet helemaal duidelijk. Toch blijft het elimineren van microplastics een fundamenteel doel van onze samenleving, misschien met een methode die eenvoudig, effectief en goedkoop te implementeren is. En het lijkt erop dat het project van Ou en Huang aan deze kenmerken voldoet.
Een voordelige, effectieve en eenvoudige oplossing voor het filteren van microplastics
Unsplash
Tijdens de prijsuitreiking vertelden de twee Texaanse studenten hoe ze op het idee kwamen om microplastics uit het water te filteren. Tijdens een bezoek aan een waterzuiveringsinstallatie ontdekten Ou en Huang dat er geen middelen zijn om microplastics uit afvalwater te filteren. Als gevolg daarvan komen deze kleine plastic fragmenten in het ecosysteem terecht. Er bestaan wel enkele methoden, maar om de een of andere reden zijn die niet zo gemakkelijk toe te passen. Het gebruik van chemische coagulanten kan het milieu verder vervuilen, terwijl fysieke filters ineffectief en duur zijn.
In plaats daarvan ontwikkelden de twee studenten een compact apparaat dat ultrasoon geluid gebruikt om microplastics uit water te filteren. Ook in dit geval is het gebruik van ultrageluid om microplastics te verwijderen niet nieuw, een recente studie spreekt erover, maar het is een duurdere en complexere methode. De oplossing van Victoria Ou en Justin Huang is daarentegen goedkoop, effectief en eenvoudig: het verwijdert tussen 84% en 94% van de microplastics in één enkele stap. Maar hoe?
Microplastics uit water verwijderen: werking en perspectieven van het nieuwe instrument
SocietyForScience/Youtube
De werking van de innovatieve methode die Ou en Huang hebben ontwikkeld, is conceptueel gezien relatief eenvoudig. In feite wordt het instrument in het water gestoken zodat het er vrij doorheen kan stromen. Het opgewekte ultrageluid zorgt ervoor dat het water blijft stromen, maar duwt de microplastics terug, waardoor ze effectief worden gefilterd. Zoals we hebben gezien, hebben we het over een verwijdering van ongeveer 90% polyurethaan, polystyreen en polyethyleen, maar dit is nog maar het begin.
Zodra de technologie die de twee studenten hebben ontwikkeld klaar is, kan deze worden gebruikt in verschillende toepassingen, variërend van afvalwaterzuivering tot huishoudelijke wasmachines. Dankzij de prijs van 50.000 dollar kunnen Ou en Huang hun apparaat perfectioneren en het concreet toepassen in het dagelijks leven. We staan uiteraard nog aan het begin, maar het is binnenkort mogelijk om microplastics uit water te filteren: een kleine stap, maar toch fundamenteel voor de toekomst van onze planeet.
Uncovering the 3.19-Year UFO Crash Cycle: Evidence and Theories
Uncovering the 3.19-Year UFO Crash Cycle: Evidence and Theories
Welcome back, UFO enthusiasts! 🌌 Today, we delve into a fascinating theory that might revolutionize our understanding of UFO crash retrievals. The theory suggests a cyclic pattern, occurring every 3.19 years, which could explain many reported UFO crashes over the past century. From the famous Roswell incident to the Varginha encounter in Brazil, we will explore the evidence and theories behind this intriguing phenomenon. Could these crashes be influenced by planetary cycles, such as Mars’ orbit? Let’s uncover the truth!
The Origin of the Theory
The idea of a 3.19-year UFO crash cycle originates from Joseph Ritrovato, who proposed this theory in his article “A Cyclic Period that Correlates with Alleged UFO Crash Retrievals.” Ritrovato observed that many reported UFO crashes seemed to occur in a repeating pattern approximately every 3.19 years. This pattern intrigued him, leading to a detailed analysis of historical UFO crash data.
Key Incidents Supporting the Cycle
One of the most notable UFO crashes, the Roswell incident, took place in July 1947. However, this was not an isolated event. Over the years, numerous other crashes have been reported, many of which align with the proposed 3.19-year cycle. For instance, the Varginha incident in Brazil in January 1996, often dubbed Brazil’s Roswell, involved the capture of alleged extraterrestrial beings and fits perfectly into the cycle.
Ritrovato theorizes that there might be a connection between these UFO crashes and planetary cycles, particularly Mars’ orbit, which is approximately 776 days (a little over 2 years). It has been suggested that the Mars cycle can affect plate tectonics on Earth, raising questions about the possible influence of planetary positions on UFO activities.
Interestingly, some crash dates coincide with Mars’s closest approaches to Earth. For example, crashes on November 3, 1958, and October 17, 1973, occurred on the same day as Mars’s closest approach, suggesting a potential correlation.
Statistical Analysis and Findings
To further investigate this theory, a detailed analysis was conducted, considering various cycles, including Mars (2.1 years), Jupiter (11.86 years), and Saturn (29.5 years). The analysis revealed:
Mars cycle: Multiple pairs of years showed a 2.1-year cycle alignment, suggesting potential correlation, although not consistent enough to establish a definitive pattern.
Jupiter cycle: Only one pair of years showed alignment, insufficient to indicate a strong correlation.
Saturn cycle: Several pairs of years showed a 29.5-year cycle alignment, indicating potential influence.
These findings suggest that planetary cycles, particularly those of Mars and Saturn, might influence the timing of significant UFO events. However, a larger data set and more precise timing of incidents are needed for more definitive conclusions.
Future Predictions
Based on the 3.19-year cycle, Ritrovato predicted future peak dates for UFO crashes. Notable predictions include April 24, 1999, and September 9, 2005. While some of these predictions align with reported UFO activities, the theory requires further investigation and validation.
VIDEO:
Chris Lehto – Uncovering the 3.19 Year UFO Crash Cycle: Evidence & Theories
Joseph Ritrovato’s research presents a compelling case for a cyclic pattern in UFO crash retrievals. While further investigation is necessary, the evidence suggests a potential link between planetary cycles and UFO activities. This theory opens up new avenues for understanding UFO phenomena and encourages further research and data collection.
As we look to the future, could we anticipate significant UFO events based on these cycles? By studying past data and predicting future patterns, we might be better prepared to investigate and understand these mysterious occurrences.
Thank you for joining us on this exploration of the 3.19-year UFO crash cycle. Please like and subscribe for more intriguing content. If you have any insights or data to share, join the discussion on the UAP Society Discord. Until next time, keep watching the skies!
A retired carpenter named Gerry Battles (65) claimed that he had been abducted by aliens while coming home after Christmas drinks in Pallaskenry (a village in County Limerick, Ireland) on December 26, 2001. The aliens warned him that the Earth would end with an asteroid the size of Munster in 850 years.
Gerry Battles, Kilidmo, a local man, was abducted by aliens in 2001. Picture Brendan Gleeson
In 2016, Gerry told the Limerick Post what had happened to him in 2001. He said that the sky was very clear and beautiful on the night he had been abducted.
“IT was a clear, dry night. It was really crisp and frosty — just beautiful. You could have read a book with the light off the night sky, but I wasn’t drawn by the light of the stars or the moon but by a bright, surgical, white light coming from the other end of the boreen,” he said.
It was around 8 PM, he was returning home from The Seven Sisters Pubs in Kildimo, when a strange light coming from the end of the laneway took him to the spacecraft. He remembered that there were 40 males of different ages upon the board, but they all were in a subdued state, standing shoulder to shoulder like mannequins and not moving.
Gerry Battles told the alien talked with him through telepathy
The man standing next to Gerry was wearing a Columbo-style coat and hat. He felt himself in a state of paralysis and could only move his eyes. “I was only minutes away from my house but it was such a clear and beautiful night that I stopped to gaze at the stars,” he explained.
“They were all male, of different age groups, all standing shoulder to shoulder like mannequins. I remember one man next to me wearing a Columbo-style coat and hat. We were all in a state of paralysis, I could only move my eyes, so I couldn’t see much,” Gerry tells me.
After that, he found himself floating into another chamber but bigger in size with a 360-degree view, and that was the place where he first saw the extraterrestrial. He only remembered seeing the alien’s big cone head and his beautiful, ginormous eyes.
The alien talked to Gerry through telepathy and said to him not to be terrified.
“No, I am not. Should I be?” Gerry asked.
The next thing the alien asked Gerry was what would he like to see. He instantly chose the North Pole. The alien fulfilled his wish and took him to the North Pole within seconds.
He said that people laughed at him when he revealed his fantastical story to them, but he assured them that he had never had any history of mental illness.
The world will be destroyed in 850 years, the alien said.
Gerry claimed the alien had told him they are four million light-years more advanced than humans, and they have been observing us for thousands of years.
On Stephen’s Night, 2001, the alien warned him that an asteroid the size of Munster (a city in Germany) originating from the ’35th Quadrant’ would end our world in 850 years (19 years have passed since the message was conveyed).
“In all that time you have only excelled at two things — global warfare and lying to your own species. You must use force. Be one with the force. Harness the force,” the alien said.
According to Gerry, the alien told him that the government and the banks tell lies to people because they are a hidden agenda and we should not trust them.
“He also forewarned the impending global financial crisis and told me that if we do not change our ways we are going to end up like the dinosaurs.”
Gerry did not remember how he was abducted and had no memory of the incident only until he found his coat he had been wearing on the day of his abduction.
A few weeks later, his coat was found at the rooftop of the regional hospital, and he had no idea how it had got there. After he received his coat, his memory of December 26, 2001, started to come back.
According to him, the aliens use ‘dark matter’ or ‘dark energy’ to hide in the universe. He is hopeful his story will reach the world’s scientific community and prove useful in helping to finally uncover these distant galaxies. “The truth is definitely out there,” he insisted.
The biggest UFO revelation happened in 2022. A mysterious UFO photo from the Calvine incident, which was set to be released on January 1, 2072, was somehow found and released by UAP Media UK. The 1990 Calvine UFO incident is one of the most discussed cases in the UAP community. After 34 years, the colleague of the two British photographers who witnessed and captured this historic UFO photo has finally come forward with an even more bizarre story.
There are many videos and photographs of UFOs on the Internet, and some of them have credibility. However, there is one photograph sent to the UK defense ministry, the MoD, which is considered to be the most spectacular UFO photo, although somehow, it has disappeared. The photograph contains a 100-foot diamond-shaped flying saucer hovering over a village named Calvine in the Scottish Highlands. The photo was taken in 1990.
Vinnie Adams of the UAP Media UK disclosed that his team not only found the original print of the Calvine “UFO,” taken directly from the negatives, but also the original envelope which was sent from the Scottish Daily Record to Craig Lindsay, who was the MOD Press Officer that dealt with the case at the time.
Retired RAF Press Officer Craig Lindsay and Dr. David Clarke. Credit: VINNIE ADAMS
Mail Online has covered the new addition to the Calvine incident. Dr David Clarke, a research fellow and lecturer in journalism at Sheffield Hallam University writes that retired chef Richard Grieve, who at the time of the incident was 21, spoke about that mysterious night in 1990 for the first time in 34 years. The story goes like this: (Source)
On a dark, stormy night in Pitlochry, Scotland, a group of young chefs took a break outside their hotel kitchen. Normally, they joked and shared drinks, but this night was different. Two chefs were talking excitedly about seeing a huge, diamond-shaped object hovering silently in the sky while hiking in Calvine a few nights earlier. They took photos and showed them to a newspaper.
As they discussed their experience, a dark car arrived, and two men in black suits emerged, calling the two chefs by name. The rest of the group was ordered to get back inside. The chefs were taken for a private talk.
The following morning, different chefs were on duty. Richard remembered the two chefs being very shaken after the meeting with the men who claimed to be from the Royal Navy. Following the encounter, the chefs felt they were being followed, their behavior changed dramatically, and they eventually left their jobs. Richard never saw them again. One of the chefs hinted that whatever they saw involved Americans.
Dr. David Clarke writes that for over 15 years, he has been deeply intrigued by the “Calvine Incident” and the mystery surrounding the photographs taken by two chefs on that night. His search for the truth has led him from the Highlands of Scotland to the secretive depths of the US Pentagon. Dr. Clarke first discovered the story in 2009 when the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) disbanded its UFO desk and released thousands of files. Among these files, he found the heavily redacted Calvine file, which contained a poor photocopy of the chefs’ photograph.
After years of continued investigation with other experts, Dr. Clarke finally found the original photo at the home of Craig Lindsay, a retired RAF press officer. Lindsay had kept the photo hidden on a bookshelf for 32 years. When Dr. Clarke contacted him in 2022, Lindsay, then in his 80s, revealed he had been waiting for someone to ask about the photo for more than 30 years.
The original Calvine photograph, showing the diamond-shaped craft and a Harrier aircraft in what appears to be close proximity. credit: VINNIE ADAMS From UAP Media UK
In 2022, this Calvine UFO photo was published by the Daily Mail. Dr. Clarke has been flooded with emails from UFO enthusiasts wanting more information and sharing their theories about the object in the photo. Some believe it is an alien spacecraft that was intercepted by Royal Air Force (RAF) jets. Others think that it might be a secret U.S. military project involving advanced technology, like the Hopeless Diamond or Aurora, which is known for its stealth capabilities.
Some skeptics think the photo could be a hoax. Despite all this interest, Dr. Clarke has not been able to contact the two men who had taken the photo. Richard Grieve, who worked at a hotel in Pitlochry where those men were chefs in 1990, mentioned that they seemed to have disappeared.
The name “Kevin Russell” was written on the back of the photo print. The Daily Record newspaper sent the photo to Lindsay. Lindsay then faxed the photo to the Ministry of Defense (MoD) and tried to contact the photographer using the phone number provided by the newspaper. However, there was no luck finding any further information about them.
The chefs who took the photo reported seeing a military Harrier jet flying below the UFO, and another jet circling it. They also said the UFO shot up into the sky without making any noise. Lindsay summarized this account and sent it to the MoD, who told him to let their London office handle it.
Dr. Clarke and a film crew have been looking for Kevin Russell, the photographer of a controversial photo, for 18 months. They found 140 people named Kevin Russell, but none admitted to taking the photo. It is possible the name is fake, or the real photographer is still too scared to come forward.
Richard Grieve believes they were genuinely frightened and would not have made up the story. After developing the photos, one chef took a bus to Glasgow to deliver them to the Daily Record newspaper. Soon after, a mysterious dark car appeared. One chef hinted to Richard that “it was the Americans,” suggesting U.S. involvement. The Ministry of Defence refuses to release information about the photos, saying the negatives were returned to the newspaper and all other records were sent to The National Archives or destroyed.
The MoD file mentions that analysis of one of the missing images revealed a second jet in the distance, making a hoax even less likely. The images underwent at least three separate analyses by UK and US government agencies. A 1990 briefing for Defence Minister Ken Carlisle concluded that the jet in the photo was likely a Harrier, even though no Harriers were known to be flying in Scotland that evening. The experts could not definitively identify the diamond-shaped object.
Despite preparing for a story, the Daily Record never published the photos. Malcolm Speed, a former news editor at the paper, recalls seeing the photos and being surprised they were not published, especially after being told by the picture editor, Andy Allan, that the RAF said they were fakes. Andy Allan, who passed away in 2007, could not provide his account, leaving Malcolm Speed to wonder if Andy was misled by the RAF.
Richard Grieve who is now 55 describes the mysterious night of 1990. Image via Dail Mail
Dr. Clarke noted the sighting’s date, August 4, 1990, coincided with the early stages of the Gulf War. The US military was mobilizing many resources, including the F117A stealth fighter, which had been in development for years and resembled the object photographed in Scotland. The US government has since admitted to flying prototype aircraft that looked like UFOs, including triangle-shaped ones capable of hovering. The Calvine UFO might have been one of these prototypes.
The US Department of Defence’s All Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) recently released a report stating that many UFO sightings were actually misidentified highly sensitive national security programs. The report refers to a 1990s sighting near a US military facility, possibly Area 51, where experimental aircraft were tested. This sighting had characteristics matching those of a secret platform being tested at the time.
Dr. Clarke suggests that what the chefs saw over Calvine might have been one of these secret American prototype aircraft.
According to a 30-year rule in the UK, the MoD was supposed to release the secret UFO dossier on January 1, 2021, but the UK government banned the release for another 50 years. This secret file is said to contain the infamous UFO photo from the Calvine incident. Now, it is set to be released on January 1, 2072.
UAP Media UK has been working hard to bring a serious resource to British media outlets on the discussion of UFOs. One of the members of this project, Vinnie Adams had been working with Dr. Clarke and a small team of researchers on the Calvine case from 1990 in Scotland.
In May 2022, Dr. Clarke interviewed Craig in Scotland and was shown the original print. In June, Craig agreed to donate the photograph to the Sheffield Hallam University Archives, handing it to Dr. Clarke and Vinnie Adams. The image now resides in its new home at the Sheffield Hallam University folklore archives.
Authenticity of Calvine UFO Photo
Andrew Robinson, a senior lecturer in Photography at Sheffield Hallam University claims the authenticity of the 1990 Scottish highlands UFO photo. In his detailed analysis, he found the image showing no evidence of negative or print-based manipulation, and all visible signs suggest this is a genuine photograph of the scene before the camera. (Source)
Robinson concluded in his study:
The photograph is a color print from XP-1 or XP-2 chromogenic Black and White C41 film printed on a standard;
It is not possible to identify the object in the center of the frame. However, the evidence present suggests that this object was in front of the camera in the position shown when the photograph was captured;
Thus it follows that this is either a genuine unidentified flying object in the sky OR that any construction or manipulation used to create this effect occurred in front of the camera and not in the capturing of the scene on film nor in the subsequent processing and printing of the image;
The results of this analysis are consistent with, and support the claimed heritage of the print.
The origin of humanity is perhaps the most significant mystery that the world needs to unravel. In mainstream science, the theory of evolution is proposed to provide an explanation for human biological history. However, not many people subscribe to this theory, and there may be much more to the story that we are not yet aware of.
In episode number 2028 of the Joe Rogan podcast, the two current popular figures in UFOlogy, Jeremy Corbell & George Knapp discussed the possibility that humans were genetically engineered by a non-human intelligence for nefarious purposes, and some individuals within the government are aware of this. Knapp also mentions that he knows someone high-ranking who told him that human conflict, specifically war, is sometimes intentionally designed by a malevolent non-human intelligence through manipulation.
During the podcast, George Knapp discussed Bob Lazar and mentioned that Lazar was told while working on “the program” that humans were viewed by extraterrestrials as “containers of souls.” This may sound bizarre and fictional to many people; however, Lazar can be seen saying the exact same thing in his 1989 interviews. (Source)
“These beings conveyed information about the capability of affecting the human brain to anesthetize the human body. This is done without any physical contact from a remote source. For this anesthesia to be accomplished, the brain has to be in a relaxed state, similar to that required for hypnosis. If the brain is subject to any external stimulation, like stimulant drugs or loud music, this manipulation of the nervous system is ineffective.
These beings said that man was the product of externally corrected evolution. They said that man, as a species, had been genetically altered 65 times. They referred to humans as containers. Yet, I don’t know what we’re containers of. As I’m sure you now know, it was impossible for me to corroborate the information in the second section. And obviously, if this information is true, the ramifications are far-reaching and you don’t have to be a nuclear physicist to figure that out.”
In the podcast, Corbell discusses John Lear, who told him that “Aliens see us like a wine and our bodies are containers and our souls are beings matured as like a commodity.” Moreover, according to another bizarre theory that has been covered by researchers like Linda M. Howe, David Icke, etc., these non-human intelligence or extraterrestrials feed on human souls.
“It’s my conclusion over many years that reincarnation is a trap. It’s not that it doesn’t exist although I don’t think it’s quite the same as it’s explained it’s a bit more subtle maybe but I do think it’s a trap, said David Icke.” Whereas Linda said, “The recycling of souls reincarnation is the Machinery of this universe.” (Watch this episode of the Why Files for more context)
Robert Allan Monroe (1915-1995) was a radio broadcasting executive from Indiana known for his research into altered consciousness and founding The Monroe Institute. His 1971 book, “Journeys Out of the Body,” popularized the term “out-of-body experience.”
In 1958, Monroe suffered a series of bizarre events, prompting him to seek medical advice, but doctors found him to be healthy. He decided to dedicate his life to studying altered states of consciousness, eventually developing Hemispheric Synchronization (Hemi-Sync), a technology using binaural beats to harmonize brain hemispheres.
The US government took an interest in Monroe’s work and invited him to join a classified project called the Gateway Process, aimed at using his techniques for remote viewing. According to declassified files, this program aimed to alter consciousness, allowing participants to access intuitive knowledge and other dimensions. (CIA file)
During these experiments, participants sat in darkness wearing headphones and reported encountering interdimensional entities. According to Robert, subjects would often encounter interdimensional entities. Most frequently, reptilian humanoids were witnessed. Viewers referred to the uncanny creatures as ‘the alligators’ due to their crocodilian features. Curiously, Monroe was already quite familiar with the unsettling breed. During countless expeditions, he observed identical saurian creatures. For over 35 years, he gathered insight about these startling beings.
Experiments opened portals to other dimensions where reptilian humanoids reside.
Robert A. Monroe Photo. Image Credit: The Monroe Institute
Here is what he uncovered: For millennia, humanity has been controlled and enslaved by nefarious vertebrates known as Reptilians, who operate within the 4th dimension, invisible to most but those who can perceive beyond our limited spectrum of visible light. These parasitic entities thrive on our spiritual lifeforce, referred to as “loosh” by Monroe, and rely on negative and low vibrational energy for their survival. Viewing Earth as a vast farm, they harvest human emotions such as fear, hatred, anxiety, anger, and depression. With intelligence equal to or surpassing that of humans, this elusive lizard-like race considers itself superior and the rulers of mankind.
Robert Monroe pursued transcendental endeavors until he passed away in 1995. His beliefs never changed, and he frequently warned of the sinister spiritual vampires. Gateway’s revolutionary experiments continued throughout the 1980s.
There is a case of a British woman named Samantha McDonald who claimed that she had been repeatedly abducted by reptilians since her first contact in the 1990s, but on every abduction, her memory was wiped by her abductors. In 2014, she was invited to a British talk show named “This Morning,” where she revealed there were two alien species, the Greys and Reptilians, who worked together. (Source)
She said that when she woke up, there were needle marks, scratches, and bruises on her body. “I’ve asked them what they want with me and they said they have come to take me and my family. What they were after was my energy and soul essence. I don’t know why they keep coming back to me. I think it is to do with my energies as I’m into healing and meditation.”
Dr. Ellis Silver, an author of the book “Humans are not from Earth: A Scientific Evaluation of the Evidence,” has a strong belief that life on Earth was sparked by aliens thousands of years ago. He said, “Mankind is supposedly the most highly developed species on the planet, yet is surprisingly unsuited and ill-equipped for Earth’s environment: harmed by sunlight, a strong dislike for naturally occurring foods, ridiculously high rates of chronic disease, and more.” (Source)
Ellis strongly believes that Earth is some kind of galactic jail made by aliens to teach humans a behavior lesson. Similarly, in 2019, members of METI (Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence), a San Francisco-based research organization, convened in Paris and suggested that we could all be living in a Galactic Zoo run by aliens.
Florence Raulin Cerceau, who is the METI director as well as an astrobiologist explained: “This puzzle of why we haven’t detected extraterrestrial life has been discussed often,” adding, “But in this workshop’s unique focus, many of the talks tackled a controversial explanation first suggested in the 1970s, called the ‘zoo hypothesis.’” METI president Douglas Vakoch weighed in by saying, “Perhaps extraterrestrials are watching humans on Earth, much like we watch animals in a zoo.” (Source)
MIT researcher John Ball presented the zoo hypothesis in his 1973 paper. He wrote, “Extraterrestrial intelligent life may be almost ubiquitous,” adding, “The apparent failure of such life to interact with us may be understood in terms of the hypothesis that they have set us aside as part of a wilderness area or zoo.” He later wrote in another research paper: “ETI may be discreetly and inconspicuously watching us but not dabbling.”
Additionally, former U.S. Army Counterintelligence Special Agent, UFO advocate, and media personality Luis Elizondo explained his reasoning behind claiming that UFO mysteries have made him “somber.” His speculative ideas are straight out of middle 20th-century science fiction, particularly the so-called “zoo hypothesis” that appeared in a number of stories at that time, imagining that Earth was essentially a zoo run by space aliens.
“What if it turns out that there’s another species that is even higher on that ladder than we are? Do we need the social institutions that we have today, do we need government and religious organizations that we have today, if it turns out that there is something else or someone else that is technologically more advanced and, perhaps from an evolutionary perspective, more advanced? Have we been wasting our time all this time? Or are we doing exactly as we are supposed to be doing?
[What] if it turns out that mankind is in fact just another animal in the zoo? If we saw ourselves as the zookeeper before, maybe we’re just another exhibit inside the zoo? What would that mean to us?
So, when I say ‘somber’ or ‘sobering’, I mean there’s going to come a point in this conversation when we’re going to have to do a lot of reconciling with ourselves, whatever that means, from whatever philosophical background you have. This is going to impact every single one of us. And I think that’s important. Do we find ourselves in a situation where history may have to be rewritten? So that’s what I meant.”
The pit crater possibly opens into a larger cave that could provide a sheltered environment for both astronauts and hypothetical Martian life.
The alluring pit crater on Arsia Mons, imaged by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) instrument on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
(Image credit: NASA/JPL–Caltech/UArizona)
A mysterious pit on the flank of an ancientvolcano on Mars has generated excitement recently because of what it could reveal beneath the surface of the Red Planet. Here's what that means.
First things first, the pit, which is only a few meters across, was actually imaged on Aug. 15, 2022 by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which was about 159 miles (256 kilometers) above the Martian surface at the time. This hole in the ground is also not alone. It's one of many seen on the flanks of a trio of large volcanoes in the Tharsis region of Mars. This particular pit is found on a lava flow on the extinct volcano Arsia Mons, and appears to be a vertical shaft. That raises a question: Is it just a narrow pit, or does it lead to a much larger and remarkable cavern? Or, could it perhaps be a really deep lava tube formed underground long ago when the volcano was still active?
There are several reasons why pits and caves on Mars are of interest. For one, they could provide shelter for astronauts in the future; because Mars has a thin atmosphere and lacks a global magnetic field, it cannot ward off radiation from space the way that Earth does. Consequently, radiation exposure on the Martian surface averages between 40 and 50 times greater than on Earth.
The other enticing aspect of these pits is they might not just provide shelter for human astronauts; they could hold astrobiological interest in the sense that they could have been sheltered abodes for Martian life in the past — perhaps even today, if microbial life indeed exists there.
The presence of these so-called holes on the flanks of volcanoes is a big clue that they are probably connected to volcanic activity on Mars. Channels of lava can flow away from a volcano underground; when the volcano grows extinct, the channel empties. That leaves behind a long, underground tube. We see such tubes not only on Mars, but also on the moon and on Earth.
Another pit crater on Arsia Mons, again imaged by the HiRISE instrument on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. (Image credit: NASA/JPL–Caltech/UArizona)
Sometimes, if the crust is thin enough, the ceiling of these tubes collapses. If a collapse happens along the tube's entire length, it forms a feature called a rille, which is a long trench commonly found on the moon and sometimes in other areas of Mars. If the tube's ceiling just collapses in small areas, however, we get pits like those imaged on Arsia Mons. Planetary scientists have also seen pit chains on the flanks of Martian volcanoes, which are linear stretches of multiple pits seemingly following the length of a lava tube.
Pit chains in a region of Mars called Tractus Catena, which is on the south-western flank of Alba Mons, an old volcano. This image was taken by the European Space Agency's Mars Express mission. (Image credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum))
How deep these pits descend is a mystery, however, and it remains uncertain whether the pits open into a large cavern or whether they are contained to a small, cylindrical depression. Some Martian pits have been imaged when the sun is high enough in the sky to illuminate what appears to be the sides of the pit wall, which implies they are shafts that go straight down into the flank of the volcano. This would seem to suggest these pits are unlikely to open into larger caves or tubes. If so, this would make them similar to pit craters found on the volcanic mountains of Hawaii, which also don't open up to anything larger and which are produced by the collapse of material deeper underground, which causes material above to sink.
However, pits on the moon have been shown to have boulder-strewn floors that appear as though they could lead to a larger subterranean volume.
A pit crater on the moon, imaged by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Boulders can be seen on the floor of the pit, and it gives the impression of opening into a wider chasm. (Image credit: NASA/Goddard/Arizona State University)
Pits can also be formed through tectonic stresses that fracture a world's surface, and these may be less likely to lead to a larger cavern. And finally, one other — possibly less likely — explanation is that these pits open up into where underground rivers once flowed billions of years ago.
We can see a similar phenomenon on Earth, in the form of a geological feature called a karst, which forms when limestone bedrock dissolves and weakens, creating pits and sinkholes that open up into areas of groundwater. If that is the case on Mars, then, if the Red Planet ever once had life, those organisms may have sheltered in karsts. Indeed, running water down the flank of an active volcano would have been warm, providing the perfect protected environment for life to flourish and stay safe.
Still, this is all speculation for now. We'll only have some concrete answers after future missions actually explore some of these pits. Though a rover that drives to the edge of a pit would be unable to descend, an airborne mission along the same lines as NASA's Ingenuity helicopter, which operated on Mars for three years before it became grounded in January 2024 after damaging one of its rotor blades, would have the ability to hover over and descend into a pit to see what is down there.
If these pits do open up into caves, they may become a preferred landing site for future crewed missions to Mars that will require astronauts to build a sheltered basecamp away from the world's unrelenting radiation.
Seahenge werd opgericht tijdens een periode van intense kou, met als doel de zomer te verlengen en de warmere dagen terug te brengen, zo vermoedt een Engelse onderzoeker nu.
Op het strand in Norfolk, gelegen in het oosten van Engeland, werd in 1998 een mysterieuze, duizenden jaren oude houten cirkel ontdekt. Het monument, dat bestaat uit een omgekeerde boomstronk die omringd is door 55 nauwsluitende eiken palen, kwam aan het licht door verschuivende zandduinen. Sinds zijn ontdekking vragen wetenschappers zich al af waar dit monument in vervlogen tijden precies voor diende. En onderzoeker David Nance denkt het nu te weten.
Seahenge Hoewel het raadselachtige monument oorspronkelijk bekend stond als Holme I, verwierf het al snel de bijnaam Seahenge vanwege zijn gelijkenis met Stonehenge en zijn ligging aan de kust. Wat we over het monument weten, is dat het zo’n 4000 jaar oud is en uit de oude Bronstijd stamt. Het lijkt te zijn gebouwd met hout dat dateert uit het voorjaar van 2049 vóór Christus. In eerste instantie werd het gebouwd op het zoutmoeras, ver verwijderd van de kustlijn. Door de moerassige omgeving ontstond er een laag turf die geleidelijk aan de houten structuren bedekte, waardoor ze werden beschermd tegen verval.
Het mysterieuze monument Holme I (Seahenge): een houten cirkel met een omgekeerde eiken boomstronk in het midden. Afbeelding: Mark Brennand
Functie Ondertussen gaan al veel speculaties over de oorspronkelijke functie van het monument de ronde. Men vermoedde al eerder dat de cirkel is opgericht om de dood van een persoon te markeren. Sommigen denken dat het werd gebruikt voor begrafenissen, waarbij de overledenen binnenin werden gelegd om door aaseters te worden opgepikt. Maar nu brengt Nance in zijn onderzoek een ander idee naar voren.
Prehistorische klimaatverandering Nance vermoedt dat Seahenge werd gebouwd als reactie op een periode van hevige klimaatverandering tegen het einde van het derde millennium vóór Christus. Zo zou het zijn opgericht tijdens een periode van extreme kou. Hij denkt dat dit gebeurde met het doel om rituelen uit te voeren die bedoeld waren om de zomer te verlengen en warmer weer terug te brengen. “Ongeveer 4000 jaar geleden, toen Seahenge werd gebouwd, waren er langdurige periodes van koud weer met strenge winters en late lentes,” licht Nance toe. “Dit zorgde voor problemen voor de mensen die langs de kust woonden. Het lijkt er sterk op dat dit monument werd gebouwd met als doel om de ernstige dreiging van het koude weer te stoppen.”
Koekoek Om dit te ondersteunen, wijst Nance op de uitlijning van Seahenge met de zonsopgang tijdens de zomerzonnewende. “Het onderzoek naar de houten palen van Seahenge toonde aan dat ze in het voorjaar werden omgehakt,” licht Nance toe. “Het is aannemelijk dat deze palen werden geplaatst in overeenstemming met de opkomst van de zon tijdens de zomerzonnewende.” Hij denkt dat Seahenge opgericht werd om een oude legende na te bootsen waarbij een koekoek wordt gevangen om de zomer langer te laten duren. “Volgens de oude verhalen stopte de koekoek, die werd gezien als een symbool van vruchtbaarheid, op de zomerzonnewende met zingen,” zegt Nance. “Dan keerde hij terug naar de ‘Andere Wereld’, en verdween de zomer samen met hem.” Het lijkt erop dat het monument de vorm nabootst van twee veronderstelde winterverblijven van de koekoek uit de legende: een holle boom of de ‘bogen van de Andere Wereld’, gerepresenteerd door de omgekeerde eiken boomstronk in het midden.
Holme II Nance bestudeerde ook ‘Holme II’ – een tweede, aangrenzende cirkel die dateert uit hetzelfde jaar, en die gecentreerd is rond twee plat gelegde eiken stammen. Voor Holme II verwijst hij naar legendes over ‘heilige koningen’ uit de IJzertijd in Ierland en noordelijk Groot-Brittannië. Volgens deze legendes werden deze koningen geofferd als er tegenspoed over de gemeenschap kwam. Dit werd gedaan in een poging om de godin Venus gunstig te stemmen en zo harmonie te herstellen. “Ze werden elke acht jaar ritueel geofferd tijdens Samhain (nu Halloween), in overeenstemming met de achtjarige cyclus van Venus,” legt Nance uit. “De structuren in Holme II, die verondersteld werden een doodskist vast te houden, waren gericht op de zonsopgang tijdens Samhain in het jaar 2049 vóór Christus, toen Venus nog steeds zichtbaar was.”
Al met al denkt Nance voor beide mysterieuze monumenten nu een sluitende verklaring te hebben gevonden. “Hoewel beide monumenten zijn opgericht voor verschillende rituelen, delen ze één gemeenschappelijk doel: het stoppen van het extreme koude weer,” besluit hij.
Plastic is overal, zo blijkt maar weer eens uit een nieuw onderzoek waarin wetenschappers de samenstelling van bloedpropjes die werden verwijderd nadat ze bloedvaten in onder meer de hersenen en het hart van mensen blokkeerden, onderzochten. In maar liefst 80 procent van de bloedpropjes werden microplastics aangetroffen.
Dat heel kleine stukjes plastic – ook wel microplastics genoemd – ook in het menselijk lichaam rondwaren, komt niet als een verrassing. Tijdens eerdere onderzoeken werden ze bijvoorbeeld ook al aangetroffen in de longen, het hart, het bloed, de lever, teelballen en placenta. Een nieuw onderzoek onthult nu echter nog een plek waar microplastics zich op kunnen houden: in bloedpropjes. Dat is te lezen in het blad eBioMedicine.
Het onderzoek Voor het onderzoek verzamelden de wetenschappers 30 patiënten bij wie bloedpropjes verwijderd waren nadat ze gediagnosticeerd waren met een beroerte, hartinfarct of diepveneuze trombose. Het ging dan om bloedpropjes die zich respectievelijk ophielden in slagaders in de hersenen, kransslagaders in het hart of bloedvaten in de benen. De onderzoekers bogen zich over de samenstelling van deze bloedpropjes en hoopten zo een aantal prangende vragen te beantwoorden, vertelt onderzoeker Shaowei Guo aan Scientias.nl. “Zijn in deze bloedpropjes microplastics aanwezig? En zoja, in welke concentraties? En wat voor typen microplastics komen het vaakst voor? En hoe groot zijn ze? En is er misschien een verband tussen de concentraties waarin de microplastics voorkomen en de ernst van de ziekte?”
De resultaten De analyse onthult allereerst dat microplastics inderdaad in bloedpropjes terug te vinden zijn. In 80 procent van de bestudeerde bloedpropjes kwamen namelijk microplastics voor. Hun concentraties liepen gemiddeld uiteen van 61.75 microgram per gram (voor bloedpropjes die uit de hersenen waren gehaald) tot 141.80 microgram per gram (voor bloedpropjes die uit het hart waren verwijderd). In de bloedpropjes werden ook verschillende soorten microplastics teruggevonden. De meestvoorkomende vorm was polyetheen, een type plastic dat bijvoorbeeld gebruikt wordt om flesjes en tasjes van te maken. Maar ook ontdekten de onderzoekers polyacrylaat (wordt ook wel gebruikt in cosmeticaproducten) en polypropeen (dat bijvoorbeeld gebruikt wordt om jerrycans en plastic meubelen te maken). De omvang van de microplastics die in de bloedpropjes werden teruggevonden, liep behoorlijk uiteen. De meeste teruggevonden microplastics waren tussen de 20 en 50 micrometer groot, maar er werden ook microplastics gedetecteerd die tussen de 100 en 500 micrometer groot waren.
Herkomst Hoe de microplastics in de bloedpropjes beland zijn, is onduidelijk. “We hebben wel demografische informatie verzameld, waarbij we ook keken naar leefgewoonten, het gebruik van plastic producten en de beroepen die mensen beoefenden, maar de resultaten daarvan waren niet uitzonderlijk,” vertelt Guo. In andere woorden: de 30 patiënten leefden een vrij gewoon leven. “Maar we vermoeden – ook afgaand op eerdere studies – dat de microplastics in de bloedpropjes terecht zijn gekomen nadat mensen die microplastics hebben ingeslikt of geïnhaleerd of nadat deze tijdens een medische ingreep in het lichaam zijn beland.”
Medische ingreep De 30 patiënten die aan deze studie deelnamen, hebben vanwege hun beroerte, hartinfarct of trombosebeen natuurlijk ook een medische ingreep ondergaan, waarbij de bloedpropjes uit hun lichaam zijn gehaald. In theorie zou het kunnen dat de bloedpropjes tijdens die ingreep met microplastics zijn ‘besmet’, bijvoorbeeld doordat de microplastics los zijn gekomen van door de chirurgen gebruikte materialen of gereedschappen. Om er zeker van te zijn dat dat niet het geval was, hebben de onderzoekers zeven materialen of instrumenten die tijdens het verwijderen van bloedpropjes gebruikt worden – zoals katheters – getest. Vijf daarvan waren tijdens de daadwerkelijke verwijdering van bloedpropjes gebruikt; twee waren nog ongebruikt. Voor alle instrumenten bleek te gelden dat ze geen enorme hoeveelheden microplastics afgaven. “En daarmee is besmetting door microplastics uit de omgeving uitgesloten,” zo concluderen de wetenschappers.
Verband tussen bloedpropjes en microplastics? Veruit de meest opvallende conclusie die de wetenschappers op basis van hun studie kunnen trekken, is dat er een verband bleek te zijn tussen de concentratie microplastics in de bloedpropjes en de ernst van de ziekte die de patiënten daardoor ondervonden. “In feite betekent het dat wanneer er meer microplastics in de bloedpropjes zitten, de patiënten ernstigere symptomen ondervonden,” vertelt Guo. Het is interessant, omdat het er mogelijk voorzichtig op hint dat microplastics een rol spelen in het ontstaan en de verdere ontwikkeling van bloedpropjes. “Maar meer onderzoek is nodig om dat te kunnen bevestigen,” benadrukt Guo. Op basis van hun onderzoek kunnen de onderzoekers namelijk alleen concluderen dat er mogelijk sprake is van een verband (of correlatie) tussen bloedpropjes en microplastics. Maar ze kunnen op basis van de data niet concluderen dat dat een causaal verband is. “We kunnen dus niet concluderen dat microplastics de vorming van bloedpropjes veroorzaken, maar de microplastics lijken er wel op de één of andere manier mee verbonden te zijn.”
Geen paniek In afwachting van vervolgonderzoek is het gemakkelijk om je veel zorgen te maken over deze nieuwe bevindingen. Maar dat heeft geen zin, zo benadrukt Guo. “Ik denk dat het belangrijk is om niet in paniek te raken door deze resultaten. Hoewel het klopt dat plastics schadelijk zijn voor het milieu en we nu ook weten dat microplastics aanwezig zijn in bloedpropjes, zijn er nog steeds maatregelen die je als individu kan nemen om milieubewuster en gezonder te leven. Zo kun je het gebruik van plastic producten bijvoorbeeld beperken.”
Guo hoopt ondertussen vooral dat zijn studie onderzoekers aanzet om meer onderzoek te doen naar microplastics, de impact die zij hebben op de menselijke gezondheid en manieren om die impact te verkleinen. “Aangezien microplastics zo wijdverspreid zijn in onze lichamen, is het essentieel dat klinische onderzoekers strategieën ontwikkelen om de belasting die microplastics voor onze patiënten kunnen vormen, aan te pakken.” Gelijktijdig is er echter ook werk aan de winkel voor beleidsmakers. “Zij moeten striktere regelgeving opstellen om de plastic vervuiling terug te dringen.”
Starship’s fourth test flight launched at 8:50 am Eastern Time today, and both SpaceX and NASA are declaring the flight, which included splashdown of the Super Heavy first stage, plus re-entry and splashdown for Starship itself, a success.
Flights of the world’s largest rocket are starting to seem almost routine this spring, but SpaceX is under tremendous pressure to have Starship ready to fly the Artemis 3 crew to the Moon — and land there — by late 2026. Starship’s test flights are also part of the key to making sure potential future missions to the Moon and Mars don’t run out of gas on the way. As SpaceX put it in a tweet shortly before launch, “The payload for these flights is data.”
The SpaceX Starship launches on its fourth flight test from Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, on June 6, 2024. The Starship is vital to NASA's plans for landing astronauts on the Moon later this decade, and to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk's hopes of eventually colonizing Mars. (Photo by Chandan KHANNA / AFP) (Photo by CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images)
CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
AN EXTREMELY COOL ENGINEERING CHALLENGE
The largest rocket ever flown, Super Heavy uses a combination of liquid oxygen and methane to get off the ground. Despite the exhaust blasting out the back end of the rocket at several thousand degrees Fahrenheit, the propellant in Super Heavy’s tanks has to be kept at a chilly -300 degrees Fahrenheit; any warmer, and it will boil away into gas, useless for fueling those 33 Raptor engines. SpaceX is one of several contractors — including Eta Space, Lockheed Martin, and United Launch Alliance — whose flights will gather data for NASA’s study of how to manage propellants like these on long flights.
On its third test flight (also known as the first one in which Starship made it to orbit), engineers moved propellant from the header tanks to the main tanks while the ship was coasting in orbit. That's going to be an important step for the Artemis III and IV missions to get the spacecraft out of Low Earth Orbit and on their way to the Moon. Engineers are also using these test flights to study how all those bouncing blobs of rocket fuel affect Starship’s stability in orbit.
Rockets have used super-cold, or cryogenic, liquid propellants, for decades. The Apollo missions traveled to the Moon on a mix of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen, both cryogenic (after using liquid kerosene and liquid oxygen to get to space). They work well, but they can be tricky, especially in space, where the temperature can swing from bitter cold to boiling hot in a matter of hours — and the way liquid floats around in microgravity means it’s difficult to transfer fuel from a storage tank to a thruster, or even measure how much is left in the tank.
And if NASA wants to realize its ambitions on the Moon, and eventually Mars, the agency and its contractors will need to store and transfer more cryogenic propellant, for longer flights, than ever before.
“Storing and transferring cryogenic propellant in orbit has never been attempted on this scale before,” said Jeremy Kenny, project manager, NASA’s Cryogenic Fluid Management Portfolio at Marshall, in a March 2024 statement.
That’s where SpaceX comes in, along with a few of its competitors. Starship is working on a particular piece of the problem, called slosh. Once Starship’s main engines cut off, there’s no acceleration forcing the propellant to sit neatly at one end of its tank, where it’s easy to measure. Instead, you get a bunch of little blobs of super-cold fluid bouncing around in the tank. If there’s not enough pressure to keep the propellant all together, then the engine may end up pulling in a bunch of gas, rather than propellant, which means it won’t fire.
One way Starship deals with this problem is by using header tanks: a pair of smaller propellant tanks that can keep the propellant under enough pressure that it doesn't have room to slosh. The header tanks provide the initial sip of propellant the engines need to restart in orbit. Once the engines restart, their thrust will push the liquid in the main tanks back into the right position to flow to the engines and keep them firing.
It should not be surprising that Venus is dry. It is famous for its hellish conditions, with dense sulphurous clouds, rains of acid, atmospheric pressures comparable to a 900 meter deep lake, and a surface temperature high enough to melt lead. But it’s lack of water is not just a lack of rain and oceans: there’s no ice or water vapour either. Like Earth, Venus is found within our Solar System’s goldilocks zone, so it would have had plenty of water when it was first formed. So where did all of Venus’s water go?
Venus is an extremely dry planet, although it wasn’t always like this. At some point in its history, a run-away greenhouse effect began, ending with its current extreme state. Most models agree that this process would have driven off most of its original water, but that there should still be some remaining. And yet, observations show us that there is practically no water at all. Planetary scientists at the University of Colorado Boulder believe that they have found an explanation: a molecule called HCO+ high in Venus’s atmosphere may be responsible. Unfortunately, they may have to wait for future missions to Venus before they can confirm it.
Until the middle of the 20th century, Venus was thought of as Earth’s twin. Both planets are approximately the same size and mass, and they’re both within the sun’s habitable zone – the region where temperatures can exist that are warm enough to melt ice, but not so hot that water boils into steam. It was long assumed that, beneath its shining white cloud cover, Venus must have a similar climate to Earth. Science fiction authors even wrote stories about visitors to Venus exploring verdant jungles and meeting exotic civilizations. But the truth is much harsher: Venus is an extreme place, with sulphuric acid rains, crushing atmospheric pressure, and a surface temperature hot enough to melt lead. But it wasn’t always like that.
The general assumption among astronomers and planetary scientists is that both Earth and Venus started life with similar amounts of water. But something happened to release enormous quantities of carbon dioxide into its atmosphere, leading to an extreme runaway greenhouse effect. The high temperatures melted off any ice, and boiled away any liquid water, filling the atmosphere with water vapour. Much of this hot vapour would eventually blow off into space, drying out the planet, but some should remain. The puzzle is that the usual models predict a great deal more remaining water vapour than what is actually there. So, what happened?
According to a study, led by Dr Eryn Cangi and Dr Mike Chafin, both of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP), the answer may be a molecule named HCO+. In their earlier work studying the atmosphere of Mars, they discovered a process by which this molecule can remove water from planetary atmospheres. In their new paper, they suggest that the same process could be at work on Venus. The only catch is that this molecule has never been detected in the Venusian atmosphere.
Unfortunately, there is little evidence to confirm this theory. HCO+ has never been detected in the atmosphere of Venus. However, Cangi and Chafin point out that this is because nobody has ever looked for it, and none of the missions sent to Venus so far were equipped with instruments that could detect it. They are optimistic for future missions, however.
Illustration of NASA’s DAVINCI probe falling to the surface of Venus. (Credit: NASA GSFC visualization by CI Labs Michael Lentz and others)
“One of the surprising conclusions of this work is that HCO+ should actually be among the most abundant ions in the Venus atmosphere,” says Chaffin. “There haven’t been many missions to Venus,” adds Cangi. “But newly planned missions will leverage decades of collective experience and a flourishing interest in Venus to explore the extremes of planetary atmospheres, evolution and habitability.”
The planetary science community has gotten increasingly interested in Venus, and a number of future missions are planned to study it in more detail. NASA’s planned Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging (DAVINCI) mission is one example. DAVINCI will drop a probe down to the surface, which will study the atmosphere at different altitudes as it falls. Unfortunately for Cangi and Chafin, it is not designed specifically to look for HCO+, but it may reveal other clues to either confirm or disprove their theory. But they remain optimistic that additional missions will be sent in future that will carry the necessary instruments that they can use to test their work.
For more information, visit CU Boulder’s announcement at
Een nieuw onderzoek heeft schimmels ontdekt in het noordelijke deel van de Stille Oceaan die een belangrijke rol spelen: het afbreken van plastic in het water. Laten we eens kijken hoe.
Schimmels zetten plastic in het noordelijke deel van de Stille Oceaan om in koolstofdioxide
Freepik
Plastic is helaas aanwezig in de zeeën en oceanen van onze planeet, dat weten we. Onderzoekers van het NIOZ, het Koninklijk Nederlands Instituut voor Onderzoek der Zee, hebben echter een aangename ontdekking gedaan: een schimmel genaamd Parengyodontium album, die in de Stille Oceaan is gevonden, is in staat om dit soort afval af te breken, en ook nog eens heel snel.
Dit organisme is in het bijzonder in staat om polyethyleen af te breken tot kooldioxide met een snelheid van 0,5 procent in één dag gedurende negen dagen, na voorbehandeling met UV-licht. Daarna geeft het de CO₂ af in milieuveilige hoeveelheden. Voor hun studie, die is gepubliceerd in Science of The Total Environment, isoleerden de wetenschappers de schimmel uit gebieden in het noordelijke deel van de Stille Oceaan waar de hoeveelheid plastic het grootst is. Vervolgens gebruikten ze gelabelde koolstofisotopen om het afbraakproces zo nauwkeurig mogelijk vast te leggen.
Het is niets nieuws dat bacteriën plastic afval kunnen afbreken: volgens onderzoekers zijn enkele nog onbekende soorten mariene en oceanische schimmels verantwoordelijk voor het afbreken van plastic in de diepere zeebodem.
Schimmels die plastic afbreken en de impact op het mariene ecosysteem
De Parengyodontium album is in feite slechts één van de vier bekende schimmels die dit vermogen hebben en er zijn er zeker nog meer die hetzelfde werk kunnen doen in afgelegen gebieden van de oceaan. In ieder geval is de ontdekking van dit nieuwe plastic-etende organisme een baken van hoop voor het welzijn van de zee, omdat het een belangrijke bondgenoot is in de strijd tegen de hoge aanwezigheid van plastic en microplastics in deze kwetsbare ecosystemen.
Het kan echter nauwelijks worden beschouwd als een oplossing voor de situatie van de Great Pacific Garbage Patch, of Pacific Trash Vortex, de draaikolk van afval bestaande uit deeltjes zeeafval in de centrale Noordelijke Stille Oceaan. De hoeveelheid afval in dit gebied is zodanig dat het zeer lang zou duren voordat deze schimmels dit significant zouden kunnen verminderen.
Jaarlijkse plasticproductie en voorspellingen
Freepik
Jaarlijks wordt er meer dan 400 miljard kg plastic geproduceerd en de verwachting is dat dit aantal in 2060 verdrievoudigd zal zijn. Een groot percentage van dit afval is bestemd om in zee terecht te komen en op de oppervlakte te drijven, om uiteindelijk naar de zeebodem te zinken. Zoals Annika Vaksmaa van het NIOZ, hoofdauteur van het onderzoek, uitlegt, raken ze vaak verstrikt in subtropische draaikolken, concentrische oceaanstromingen waarbij het water bijna stilstaat. In de noordelijke Stille Oceaan is de hoeveelheid drijvend plastic ongeveer 80 miljoen kg.
Uiteindelijk kan deze schimmel met succes koolstofhoudend polyethyleen afbreken dat eerder is blootgesteld aan UV-licht. In de praktijk is dit een veelvoorkomend soort plastic waaruit waterflessen en plastic tassen bestaan, voorwerpen die vaak in onze wateren terechtkomen. Vaksmaa gelooft dat UV-licht de mechanische afbraak van plastic bevordert, evenals de biologische afbraak door Parengyodontium album. Natuurlijk impliceert of stimuleert het effectieve werk van deze schimmels niet een onbewust en schadelijk gebruik van plastic: om het welzijn van het mariene ecosysteem te bevorderen, is het essentieel dat iedereen met gezond verstand handelt en dat het gebruik van plastic drastisch wordt verminderd.
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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 73 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.
