Ontdek de Fascinerende Wereld van UFO's en UAP's: Jouw Bron voor Onthullende Informatie!
Ben jij ook gefascineerd door het onbekende? Wil je meer weten over UFO's en UAP's, niet alleen in België, maar over de hele wereld? Dan ben je op de juiste plek!
België: Het Kloppend Hart van UFO-onderzoek
In België is BUFON (Belgisch UFO-Netwerk) dé autoriteit op het gebied van UFO-onderzoek. Voor betrouwbare en objectieve informatie over deze intrigerende fenomenen, bezoek je zeker onze Facebook-pagina en deze blog. Maar dat is nog niet alles! Ontdek ook het Belgisch UFO-meldpunt en Caelestia, twee organisaties die diepgaand onderzoek verrichten, al zijn ze soms kritisch of sceptisch.
Nederland: Een Schat aan Informatie
Voor onze Nederlandse buren is er de schitterende website www.ufowijzer.nl, beheerd door Paul Harmans. Deze site biedt een schat aan informatie en artikelen die je niet wilt missen!
Internationaal: MUFON - De Wereldwijde Autoriteit
Neem ook een kijkje bij MUFON (Mutual UFO Network Inc.), een gerenommeerde Amerikaanse UFO-vereniging met afdelingen in de VS en wereldwijd. MUFON is toegewijd aan de wetenschappelijke en analytische studie van het UFO-fenomeen, en hun maandelijkse tijdschrift, The MUFON UFO-Journal, is een must-read voor elke UFO-enthousiasteling. Bezoek hun website op www.mufon.com voor meer informatie.
Samenwerking en Toekomstvisie
Sinds 1 februari 2020 is Pieter niet alleen ex-president van BUFON, maar ook de voormalige nationale directeur van MUFON in Vlaanderen en Nederland. Dit creëert een sterke samenwerking met de Franse MUFON Reseau MUFON/EUROP, wat ons in staat stelt om nog meer waardevolle inzichten te delen.
Let op: Nepprofielen en Nieuwe Groeperingen
Pas op voor een nieuwe groepering die zich ook BUFON noemt, maar geen enkele connectie heeft met onze gevestigde organisatie. Hoewel zij de naam geregistreerd hebben, kunnen ze het rijke verleden en de expertise van onze groep niet evenaren. We wensen hen veel succes, maar we blijven de autoriteit in UFO-onderzoek!
Blijf Op De Hoogte!
Wil jij de laatste nieuwtjes over UFO's, ruimtevaart, archeologie, en meer? Volg ons dan en duik samen met ons in de fascinerende wereld van het onbekende! Sluit je aan bij de gemeenschap van nieuwsgierige geesten die net als jij verlangen naar antwoorden en avonturen in de sterren!
Heb je vragen of wil je meer weten? Aarzel dan niet om contact met ons op te nemen! Samen ontrafelen we het mysterie van de lucht en daarbuiten.
Generally, the discussion of UFOs today revolves around one of two dominant, relatively polarized positions on the subject. One is the advocacy or “belief” in a real, tangible phenomenon, and the other is the skeptically-oriented attitude that all belief in UFOs can be chalked up to misperception, or some other underlying psychological factor ranging from delusions and fantasies, to outright dishonesty.
While the debate over the existence of UFOs rages on, there is an underlying factor that is less widely discussed, which has little concern for whether a case “for” or “against” UFOs can be made. This is because it deals with the fact that both of these positions have been actively promoted by official agencies over the years, whenever circumstances arose in which one or the other became particularly advantageous in the name of government secrecy.
Because of this, over time I have begun to gravitate more toward what I perceive as being the likelihood that, while certainly not all UFO sightings and reports can be easily explained, a distinct majority of the more well-documented UFO cases over the years involve some element of misdirection, typically presented to one or more individuals that are in some way involved with UFO research. This is typically for the purpose of steering their attitudes on the subject, perhaps in an effort to distract them from coming to more logical conclusions (as we will examine in a moment with the story of Paul Bennewitz), although there are also instances where the broader objectives appear to be aimed at merely gauging the reactions of the targeted individuals.
The story of Paul Bennewitz is, arguably, among the most widely-recognized instances where a person interested in UFOs was deliberately given bad information about the subject by a government agency. Here, the reason for this had been aimed at misdirecting his attention from what were, at the time, secret NSA coded microburst tests that were being carried out at Kirkland Air Force Base (and, as I have noted on many occasions before, my friend Greg Bishop’s book Project Beta is the best source of information on the Bennewitz affair; I also reference Bishop’s research in an article here at MU, which suggests that astronomer and UFO advocate J. Allen Hynek may even have played a roll in the operation). Bennewitz was given equipment that helped him decode what he thought were “alien” messages, and furthermore, was encouraged to continue this UFOlogical research by Air Force authorities that included AFOSI Special Agent Richard Doty.
Influenced by Bishop’s work, London-based researcher and musician Mark Pilkington’s book Mirage Men (upon which a documentary film of the same name was based) delves into numerous other famous UFO cases from the last several decades, in which similar operations could have been underway. These range from the possible manipulation of some of the key players in the famous Maury Island UFO incident, (which included pilot Kenneth Arnold), and the strange role of one man, Fred Crisman, whose role in the affair seems to strongly suggest government involvement; as noted by Pilkington, and cited earlier by researchers Peter Levenda and Nick Redfern, Crisman would go on to be associated with numerous circumstances which makes his appearance all-the-more questionable.
Fred Crisman
No less among these had been the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, as Crisman was later subpoenaed to appear before the Warren court regarding the case against Clay Shaw, the only man prosecuted — and acquitted within one hour of appearing before a jury — in the investigation of the assassination of JFK.
There is also the bizarre kidnapping and sexual escapades of Brazilian farmer Antonio Villa-Boas in the 1950s (an early “UFO abduction” so lacking in sophistication by its players that it can hardly be disputed that the “craft” which kidnapped him had been a helicopter… though his forced sexual encounter with a beautiful blonde “alien” while on board isn’t the worst thing he might have been subjected to). Such staged UFO sightings and phony “alien” encounters were carried out in this way, with the apparent intention of inspiring belief in extraterrestrials among the more imaginative members of the general public… but to what end?
Meanwhile, official disclosures made by government groups and scientific organizations such as the 1968 Rand Corporation study, as well as the University of Colorado UFO Project headed by Edward Condon, presented “objective” opinions on the matter which underscored the need for “badly needed objective data”, paired rather paradoxically with the notion that no further scientific benefit could be derived from the study of UFOs. Of course, we can’t prove precisely who, or what agencies were likely behind incidents like the Villa-Boas “abduction”, or countless other stories involving UFOs; careful review of the evidence, however, suggests that there was hardly anything “alien” about such cases, with the data favoring psychological manipulation and misdirection instead.
Even more recently, the degree to which detailed data has appeared in conjunction with UFO hoaxes has been impressive; consider the famous case of the CARET drones (more about which can be read here). With the plentiful appearance of digital imagery that had been *almost* convincing, paired with shadowy, official-looking documentation, supplemented by further commentary by an individual calling himself “Issac”, the entire affair brought an air of realism to it that was almost on-par with the famous MJ-12 documents… another classic example of bad information that has made its hands into otherwise good researchers, with the net result of dividing opinions, and feeding the polarization of people’s attitudes.
Today, that polarization continues, of course. But as we stop to consider the way our beliefs are so often affected by what information appears before us, we must remind ourselves that there are deeper questions that we must ask from time to time… questions with implications beyond simple “do you” or “don’t you” positions. Between the realms of doubt and belief, one can find that dogmatic attitudes about UFOs, and perhaps countless other subjects, have slowly formed — or have perhaps even been shaped — over time, with the help of those who have pushed either ideology for purpose of gain in other areas.
CO2 Gets Stoned: Method Turns Harmful Gas Into Solid
By Jesse Emspak, Live Science Contributor
Researchers have captured carbon dioxide from Iceland's Hellisheidi geothermal power plant and turned it into a solid.
Credit: Kevin Krajick/Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
Engineers have taken a tip from Medusa, it seems. They have stared down the pesky greenhouse gas carbon dioxide and turned it to stone.
The process they used was not as easy as simply eyeballing the gas, though. Essentially, they relied on a sped-up version of natural processes to take the carbon dioxide (CO2) spewed from a power plant in Iceland and transform the gas into a solid.
This ability to capture carbon dioxide and store it indefinitely may help curb the levels of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere and stem global warming, the researchers noted. [Changing Earth: 7 Ideas to Geoengineer Our Planet]
"We need to deal with rising carbon emissions," lead study author Juerg Matter, now an associate professor of geoengineering at the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom, said in a statement. "This is the ultimate permanent storage — turn them back to stone."
Natural carbon storage
Human-caused global warming occurs mostly because of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide and methane, that get poured into the air by humans burning fossil fuels for energy and other processes. These gases trap heat before it can escape out into space. Carbon dioxide is the biggest factor in this warming, scientists have said, because billions of tons of the gas are released every year and it stays in the atmosphere for long periods of time.
Ordinarily, this gas is drawn out of the atmosphere by plants, which use it for photosynthesis, and a chemical process called weathering of rocks. This process happens when carbon dioxide and other gases that dissolve in water form weak acids that then chemically react with minerals in rocks to form other solids, like clays. However, both of those uptake processes are relatively slow, and they can't keep up with human output, the study researchers noted. [The Reality of Climate Change: 10 Myths Busted]
As such, engineers and other scientists have been working on several efforts to somehow inject the carbon dioxide into the ground. For instance, carbon dioxide is pumped into the tiny holes, or pores, in sedimentary rock — the kind laid down by layers of sand, for example, on the ocean floor.
The problem is that the carbon dioxide is a gas, and tends to rise. To keep it underground requires a placing a layer of less porous rock on top of the porous rock where the gas is stored. The carbon dioxide will eventually react with the porous rock and turn into a solid, carbonate compound, but that process can take centuries, if not millennia, according to study co-authorSigurdur Gislason, research professor at the University of Iceland in Reykjavik.
A new way to hide CO2
The team, led by Juerg Matter, now an associate professor of geoengineering at the University of Southampton, tried something different. The researchers took the carbon dioxide emitted by a power plant in Iceland, pressurized it to 25 atmospheres. They then pumped the CO2 into a borehole that was filled with water, dissolving the gas and making something like seltzer water. The mixture was then pumped into a layer of porous, volcanic rock located some 1,640 feet (500 meters) below the surface of the ground. The rock reacted with the mixture and formed carbonate compounds.
Study co-author Sandra Snaebjornsdottir holds a sample of volcanic rock that is loaded with solidified carbonate, formed when the researchers pumped carbon dioxide into the rock.
Credit: Kevin Krajick/Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
Essentially, the researchers sped up the weathering of rocks, Gislason told Live Science. Here's how it works: The carbon dioxide in the water forms carbonic acid, which dissolves the basalts and makes them more porous. Meanwhile, the carbonand oxygen from the CO2 make new compounds, largely magnesium, iron and calcium carbonates, which are solids that can't go anywhere. "Calcium, iron, magnesium can all form carbonates," Gislason said.
The process is very like what happens naturally, except that when stone — either as mountains or stone buildings – weathers, it happens as it rains, and rainwater only converts a small amount of carbon at a time. In addition, because the CO2 added to the water is under a lot more pressure than it is in the atmosphere, the concentration of carbonic acid is many times higher than in rainwater, or even in the carbonated water that people drink.
The study was conducted over a two-year period, noted study co-author Martin Stute, a research scientist at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in New York. In that time, the team monitored the water as it percolated through the rock using monitoring stations placed some distance from the injection site. They detected no CO2.
Even though the process requires a lot of water initially, that water can be recycled, because the other elements in it — the carbon dioxide and the compounds in the rock — are all removed in the reactions that form the carbonates, said Stute. He added that another advantage is that the water needn't be fresh; seawater should work just as well, though that hasn't been tried yet.
The next steps will be conducting more experiments and scaling up, the researchers said.
Both Gislason and Stute noted that the carbon dioxide would need to be transported to pumping sites if projects like this were built commercially, so the technique probably lends itself best to power plants that are close to areas with porous basaltic rock. Gislason said that describes many areas with power plants. "There are opportunities for this in Indonesia, or Japan," he said.
Still, the method offers a possible way to get rid of carbon dioxide quickly and cleanly, he said. "In a sense, you just mimic nature," Gislason said. "Just speeding up the process."
Eerste contact met aliens laat misschien nog wel 1500 jaar op zich wachten
Caroline Kraaijvanger
We kunnen in theorie elk moment contact leggen met een buitenaards wezen, maar het zou ook helemaal niet gek zijn als het nog meer dan 1000 jaar duurt.
Die conclusie trekken onderzoekers van Cornell University. Waarom moeten we misschien nog wel 1500 jaar geduld hebben? Simpel. Omdat de ruimte heel groot is. “We hebben nog niets van aliens gehoord, omdat het heelal heel groot is, maar dat wil niet zeggen dat er verder niemand is,” vertelt onderzoeker Evan Solomonides.
Fermi Paradox Solomonides en zijn collega’s bogen zich voor dit onderzoek over de Fermi Paradox. Naar schatting zijn er miljarden aardachtige planeten te vinden in ons sterrenstelsel. Maar ondanks dat is er nog geen contact geweest met aliens. En dat is de paradox: er zijn zoveel plekken waar buitenaards leven kan ontstaan en zich kan ontwikkelen, waarom hebben we dan nog nooit iets van aliens gehoord?
Groot Op basis van hun onderzoek komen de wetenschappers tot de conclusie dat de Fermi Paradox eigenlijk helemaal niet zo’n paradox is. “Het heelal is groot. En zelfs al reizen signalen met de snelheid van het licht, dan nog moeten de signalen die beschavingen proberen te versturen een enorme afstand afleggen. Zelfs met de snelheid van het licht duurt het decennia, eeuwen of millennia om die afstanden te overbruggen.”
Tv-signalen Ze illustreren dat aan de hand van een voorbeeld. Wij mensen sturen voortdurend signalen de ruimte in: tv- en radiosignalen. Die haasten zich al zo’n tachtig jaar met de snelheid van het licht van de aarde vandaan. Dat betekent dat deze signalen inmiddels elke ster binnen 80 lichtjaar van de zon bereikt hebben. Het gaat dan om zo’n 8531 sterren en zo’n 3555 aardachtige planeten. Dat lijkt misschien een hoop, maar onze Melkweg telt naar schatting zo’n 200 miljard sterren! We hebben dus nog maar een fractie van de potentieel leefbare planeten in onze Melkweg bereikt.
Logisch Wanneer we rekening houden met de relatief korte periode (zo’n 80 jaar) waarin we signalen uitzenden, de frequentie waarmee leven waarschijnlijk voorkomt en de omvang van het heelal is de Fermi Paradox geen paradox. Sterker nog: het is heel logisch dat er nog geen contact is geweest.
Het lijkt erop dat we nog wel even na kunnen denken over wat we als eerste tegen de aliens gaan zeggen.
1500 jaar Op basis van hun onderzoek stellen de wetenschappers dat we waarschijnlijk pas van aliens horen als ongeveer de helft van de Melkweg door onze uitgezonden signalen is aangedaan. En dat duurt nog zo’n 1500 jaar. “Dat wil niet zeggen dat we dan contact moeten hebben gelegd en we als dat niet gebeurt alleen zijn,” benadrukt Solomonides. “We beweren alleen maar dat het onwaarschijnlijk is dat we dan nog niets van ze hebben gehoord.”
Het kan dus nog wel even duren voor we contact hebben gelegd. Maar we moeten de moed zeker niet laten zakken. “We kunnen elk moment wat horen, maar het is waarschijnlijk dat we over 1500 jaar van nu iets hebben gehoord. Tot die tijd kan het lijken dat we alleen zijn, zelfs als dat niet het geval is. Maar als we stoppen met luisteren of kijken, missen we de signalen misschien. Dus we moeten blijven kijken.”
Astronomen vinden zuurstof op recordafstand van de aarde
Tim Kraaijvanger
Wetenschappers hebben gloeiend zuurstof gevonden op vele miljarden lichtjaren van de aarde. Het zuurstof is gevonden in een sterrenstelsel, dat astronomen zien zoals het er slechts 700 miljoen jaar na de oerknal uitzag.
Artistieke impressie van het jonge sterrenstelsel.
Het gaat in dit geval om het sterrenstelsel SXDF-NB1006-2. Niet eerder vonden onderzoekers zuurstof in een nog jonger sterrenstelsel dan SXDF-NB1006-2 en dat is vooral te danken aan de Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). Astronomen hebben deze radiotelescoop namelijk gebruikt om het zuurstof te vinden. ALMA is het grootste astronomische project op aarde en bestaat uit 66 antenneschotels. De schotels worden ingezet om de koudste objecten in het heelal te bestuderen, zoals de bouwblokken van sterren, maar ook van planetaire systemen en sterrenstelsels.
Het zuurstof in SXDF-NB1006-2 is mogelijk geïoniseerd door de krachtige straling van jonge reuzensterren. In een zuurstofatoom bevinden zich normaal gesproken acht protonen, acht neutronen en acht elektronen. Wanneer een atoom een elektron verliest, dan zijn er meer protonen dan elektronen en dan is de zuurstofatoom geladen, oftewel geïoniseerd.
Kosmische reïonisatie Toen het heelal nog piepjong was, toen waren er nog geen sterren, sterrenstelsels en andere objecten. Het universum was gevuld met elektrisch neutraal gas. Een paar honderd miljoen jaar na de oerknal begonnen de eerste objecten te stralen. Door de krachtige straling braken de ongeladen atomen af en werd het gas geïoniseerd. Deze periode wordt ook wel de kosmische reïonisatie genoemd, een tijd waarin het heelal transformeerde.
De geschiedenis van het universum. 400 miljoen jaar na de oerknal begon de reïonisatieperiode, die duurde totdat het heelal één miljard jaar oud was.
Er is relatief weinig zuurstof gevonden in SXDF-NB1006-2, namelijk tien keer zo weinig als de zon bevat. “Deze geringe abundantie komt niet als een verrassing,” vertelt wetenschapper Naoki Yoshida van de universiteit van Tokio. Ze doelt daarmee op het feit dat zwaardere elementen – zoals zuurstof – pas later in aantallen zijn toegenomen, nadat de eerste generaties sterren explodeerden. “Maar we hebben ook nog iets onverwachts ontdekt: een zeer geringe hoeveelheid stof.”
Het feit dat er geïoniseerde zuurstof is gevonden in het jonge sterrenstelsel is een teken dat er in SXDF-NB1006-2 veel extreem heldere sterren zijn gevormd. Deze sterren zijn tientallen keren zwaarder dan de zon. Deze reuzensterren zenden de intense ultraviolette straling uit, waardoor zuurstofatomen ioniseren.
Vervolgwaarnemingen “Hiermee is de beantwoording van de vraag welk soort objecten de kosmische reïonisatie heeft veroorzaakt een stap dichterbij gekomen,” concludeert Yoichi Tamura van de universiteit van Tokio uit. “Onze volgende waarnemingen met ALMA zijn al begonnen. Nog nauwkeurigere waarnemingen zullen ons in staat stellen om de verdeling en de beweging van geïoniseerde zuurstof in het stelsel te zien, en cruciale informatie opleveren over de eigenschappen van het sterrenstelsel.”
Tien jaar na de klimaatdocumentaire van Al Gore: hoe staan we ervoor?
Vivian Lammerse
Al Gore, de ex-vice president van Amerika, vertelde in 2006 het verontrustende verhaal van ons klimaat. Maar zette het mensen daadwerkelijk aan tot verandering? Waar staan we nu tien jaar later?
Alweer tien jaar geleden schokte Al Gore met zijn documentaire ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ de hele wereld. IJskappen die als de wiedeweerga smelten, de toename van orkanen en de rigoureuze stijging van de zeespiegel schrijft Al Gore in zijn film allemaal toe aan de door de mens veroorzaakte klimaatverandering. In 2007 nam hij dankzij de documentaire het alom begeerde Oscarbeeldje mee naar huis. Tegelijkertijd kwam er ook veel kritiek op de film: was Al Gore’s verwoording van het klimaatprobleem niet een tikkeltje overdreven?
KOOLSTOFTAX
Duurzame keuzes maken ligt op dit moment nog in handen van de consument. Maar als mensen mogen kiezen tussen een duurzaam geproduceerde smartphone, of een hele goedkope smartphone, kiezen de meeste mensen toch eerder voor de goedkopere variant. Hoe kunnen we duurzamere keuzes meer stimuleren? “Beprijzen,” vindt Bregman. “Laat mensen het maar voelen in hun portemonnee. Als jij iets koopt dat veel CO2-uitstoot heeft veroorzaakt of dat een groot effect heeft op een ecosysteem, zou dat belast kunnen worden met koolstoftaxen.” Dit ligt echter politiek erg gevoelig en bovendien is het lastig de schade te bepalen. Toch zou het een oplossing kunnen zijn voor milieuproblemen. Lees hier meer over de ecoprijs.
Film Bram Bregman, voormalig VN-representant, tegenwoordig businessmanager klimaatverandering bij het KNMI, en hoogleraar klimaatwetenschap en beleid bij de Radboud Universiteit zag de film ook destijds in 2006. “Al Gore was natuurlijk fenomenaal,” zegt hij. “Zowel qua presentatie, communicatief en agendasettend. Ik hoor vaak van mensen dat ze door Al Gore bepaalde duurzaamheidsprojecten op hebben gezet of duurzamer zijn gaan leven. Mensen zijn zich denk ik meer bewust geworden van de dreigingen en zijn daardoor beter gaan nadenken.” Er wordt vaak over de film gezegd dat deze heeft bijgedragen aan het klimaatbewustzijn in de wereld en een hoop mensen heeft geïnspireerd.
Overdrijven Maar Al Gore’s inspanningen om het klimaatprobleem overal in de wereld aan de kaak te stellen, werden hem niet altijd in dank afgenomen. “Ik ken genoeg onderzoekers die zich eerlijk gezegd hebben doodgeërgerd aan Al Gore,” zegt Bregman. “Wij hadden last van zijn manier van overdrijven die zijn geloofwaardigheid aantastte. Amersfoort dat binnen no time aan zee zou liggen, ijskappen die na elkaar naar beneden zouden storten… Aan de ene kant snap ik dat wel. Om het publiek goed te raken en wakker te schudden is enige overdrijving soms nodig. Maar voor beleidsmakers en wetenschappers werkt dat erg verstorend. Wij moesten vervolgens weer gaan uitleggen: ‘nee, zo gaat dat niet, het ligt allemaal iets genuanceerder’.”
“IK KEN GENOEG ONDERZOEKERS DIE ZICH EERLIJK GEZEGD HEBBEN DOODGEËRGERD AAN AL GORE”
Langzaam Nu, tien jaar nadat de film uitkwam, is er op klimaatgebied niet veel veranderd. Sterker nog, het klimaat is er op dit moment nog slechter aan toe. In 2006 was de CO2-concentratie met 300 ppm al hoog, maar vandaag de dag hebben we te maken met een CO2-concentratie van meer dan 400 ppm. “In 2015 was de toename van CO2 in de atmosfeer het hoogst van alle jaren daarvoor,” zegt Bregman. “De groeisnelheid was ongekend. Ik maak me daarom ook best zorgen over de instabiliteit van het klimaatsysteem op dit moment.” Heeft de film dan niets teweeg kunnen brengen? Daar is Bregman niet zo zeker van. De film heeft volgens hem zeker mensen wakker geschud en aangezet tot duurzamer gedrag. Alleen merk je het effect daarvan op het klimaat niet gelijk de volgende dag. “Het heeft tijd nodig,” legt hij uit. “Het klimaat verandert langzaam. Het zou zomaar kunnen dat we over dertig jaar pas het effect van Al Gore gaan zien.” Bregman legt dit wat duidelijk uit met een voorbeeld. “Er zit op dit moment nog een hele hoop warmte in de oceaan, waardoor we een temperatuurstijging gaan krijgen van een halve graad. Ook al zouden we nu wereldwijd stoppen met emissies, dan alsnog krijgen we die halve graad erbij. Daar valt niets meer aan te doen. Het klimaat heeft nou eenmaal een lange adem.”
De CO2-concentratie in de atmosfeer. De zwarte lijn geeft het gemiddelde aan, de rode lijn de maandelijkse schommelingen.
Credits: NOAA
Klimaatakkoord Een stukje Al Gore is volgens Bregman al wel terug te zien in het klimaatakkoord van Parijs. “Het akkoord heeft tot een ongekend resultaat geleid,” zegt hij enthousiast. In het klimaatakkoord staat onder andere dat de gemiddelde temperatuur op aarde niet meer dan twee graden Celsius mag stijgen en dat landen zelfs zullen proberen te streven naar een opwarming van niet meer dan 1,5 graden Celsius. “Je zou kunnen zeggen dat Al Gore daar ook mede een bijdrage aan heeft geleverd,” zegt Bregman. “Hij heeft wel een beweging in gang gezet.”
Mensen die dichtbij een rivier wonen, zullen zich eerder zorgen maken om de gevolgen van klimaatverandering.
Doordringen Toch lijkt het gevaar van klimaatverandering nog niet echt tot mensen door te dringen. We blijven met z’n allen veel te veel CO2 uitstoten. “Alleen mensen die direct de gevolgen van klimaatverandering ondervinden, zullen ook de urgentie ervan voelen,” zegt Bregman. “Dat zijn bijvoorbeeld mensen die bij grote rivieren wonen of in Zeeland. Die zijn misschien daarom ook wel bereid om meer belastinggeld te betalen om droge voeten te houden. Maar mensen in de Achterhoek zullen zich veel minder druk maken om droge voeten. Als je kijkt naar hoogstaande prioriteiten bij gemeentes of provincies staat daar klimaatverandering vaak niet tussen. Wel merk je dat langzaam aan het besef bij mensen begint te groeien. Dat komt deels doordat zich in de wereld steeds meer extremen en rampen voordoen. Deze zijn niet alleen toe te schrijven aan klimaatverandering, maar ze zorgen voor meer bewustwording van de kwetsbaarheid van onze samenleving en dat we niet zo door kunnen gaan met onze manier van leven. Een diepgewortelde duurzaamheidsgedachte over dat we naar een nieuw systeem moeten om de wereld voor onze kinderen en kleinkinderen behapbaar te houden, komt steeds meer naar boven.”
ALS JE KIJKT NAAR DE HOOGSTAANDE PRIORITEITEN VAN GEMEENTES OF PROVINCIES STAAT DAAR KLIMAATVERANDERING VAAK NIET TUSSEN”
Fiasco Als burger kun je zeker meewerken aan een beter klimaat door duurzamere keuzes te maken. Maar het echte goud ligt in handen van politici en beleidsmakers. Toch bleken die in voorgaande klimaatconferenties niet zomaar de handen ineen te slaan. Doelen werden niet behaald, vergaderingen gingen moeizaam en de klimaatconferentie van Kopenhagen liep al helemaal uit op een fiasco. Waar ligt dat nou aan? “Belangen,” zegt Bregman stellig. “Een klimaatakkoord wordt gemaakt op basis van consensus. Iedereen moet het er mee eens zijn. Maar vaak zijn belangen zo tegenstrijdig. Kijk naar Saoedi-Arabië, een belangrijk olieproducerend land. Saoedi-Arabië wil wel compensatie voor gederfde inkomsten. Dan is het erg lastig om compromissen te sluiten.” Een andere reden is het historisch perspectief. “Landen wijzen in eerste instantie naar de rijke landen die de meeste vervuiling hebben veroorzaakt,” legt Bregman uit. “Westerse landen, zoals de Verenigde Staten en Angelsaksische landen worden er voornamelijk op aangekeken. ‘Het is bij hen begonnen dus moeten ze ook zelf maar het vuil opruimen,’ zo wordt erover gedacht.”
“LANDEN WIJZEN IN EERSTE INSTANTIE NAAR DE RIJKE LANDEN DIE DE MEESTE VERVUILING HEBBEN VEROORZAAKT”
Nu, tien jaar na de documentaire van Al Gore en bijna dertig jaar na de eerste geluiden over klimaatverandering, boeken we nog steeds niet veel vooruitgang. Zijn we niet al te laat? “Nee hoor, te laat zijn we nog niet,” zegt Bregman geruststellend. “Maar we kunnen niet blijven wachten. Bedenk dat er nu al eilandstaten zijn die vanwege de zeespiegelstijging de bevolking moet verplaatsen naar andere landen. Omdat het klimaat traag reageert kun je echter niet zeker weten wanneer het echt te laat is. Vandaar dat het voorzorgsprincipe zo belangrijk is. Je kunt het klimaatsysteem namelijk niet stoppen als het te hard gaat, bijvoorbeeld met het smelten van de ijskappen aan de polen. Daarom is het wel de bedoeling dat er nu wat gaat gebeuren.” Met het klimaatakkoord van Parijs zijn we in ieder geval op de goede weg. “Met mijn ervaring in de VN weet ik dat het echt fantastisch is dat dit akkoord er op dit moment ligt. Ik besef ook dat het er nu op neerkomt dat het ook echt uitgevoerd wordt. En dat kan taai zijn, taaier dan je wilt. Maar dat is helaas de realiteit. In ieder geval zijn we tot dit akkoord gekomen. Dat is al heel wat!”
Bronmateriaal:
Interview met Bram Bregman Documentaire An Inconvenient Truth van Al Gore "Recent Global CO2" - NOAA
Star Trek has finally met its match in real life with the U. S. Air Force’s revelation of a new stealth technology that works as effectively as the “cloaking devices” used by Captain Kirk’s nemesis, the Klingons. Officially announced, the X-86b is the world’s first truly invisible airplane, according to the Air Force information office*. While most details of its operation are still classified, it has been confirmed that it uses a large array of carefully-modulated dark-emitting diodes “DEDs” to render the craft invisible to the naked eye.
Fig.1: A photo taken just outside Groom Lake of an aircraft reputed to be the X-86b “DED Jet” displays a stealthy profile.
Although dark-emitting diodes (DEDs) have been manufactured for nearly three decades, their low efficiency and relatively narrow photonic absorption bands limited their use for anything beyond a handful of applications such as power off indicators and active camouflage systems, such as handheld “darklights” and so-called "stealth suits used by some special forces squadrons for covert operations. There have also been persistent rumors about "cloaking devices" for military vehicles, and the long-rumored "DED Jet", believed to be in development since the early 1990's at the Air Force's Advanced Technology Center, located in Groom Lake, Nevada.
The DED Jet's existence was confirmed for the first time yesterday by Pentagon officials, just prior to a hastily-arranged press conference with YoYo Dyne Propulsion Systems, a prime contractor for the project, based in historic Grovers Mill, NJ. In addition to the embarrassment it caused the Pentagon, the incident forced YoYo Dyne to prematurely announce a line of advanced darkness emitters, based on the company's new Zener-enhanced DED technology. Officials of the Grovers Mill NJ-based technology firm apologized for the sudden announcement of the ZeDED yesterday evening which caught the industry by complete surprise. "We'd been planning on introducing our new ZeDEDs at LightFair next month," said John F. Cutbait, Chief Product Evangelist at YoYo Dyne. "Unfortunately, we had to change plans when the stealth aircraft we've been working on with the Air Force hit the news yesterday afternoon" he concluded.
a) b)
Fig. 2: a) An early ground-based test bed for DED cloaking techology b) The X-86a, the first airborne prototype stealth aircraft with its DED array deactivated.
Cutbait was referring to the incident which occurred at the Lakehurst Naval Air Station when a DED-equipped experimental stealth aircraft was forced to land after experiencing a minor problem with its flight systems. The highly-classified aircraft landed at the naval air station undetected, thanks to the conformal array of RGBD (red, green, blue and dark) emitters embedded in its composite skin. All went well as the DED jet began to taxi to a remote corner of the field with the intention of making repairs. Unfortunately, the disabled jet's active camouflage was so effective that the driver of an airport service vehicle failed to see the see it crossing an intersection and crashed into it.
a)
b)
Fig.3: a) The DED-Equipped X-86b in Stealth Mode, as seen by a chase plane during flight tests at 30,000 ft. b) Meanwhile, YoYo Dyne flight engineers monitor the X86b's performance from a bunker located under McGuire AFB.
Analysts believe that the aircraft is the X-86b (unofficially dubbed the “DED-Jet”), a jet-powered version of the earlier X-86a which served as a test bed for DED-based cloaking technologies (see fig.3, above). It is rumored to be built on a retired B-58 “Hustler” airframe recovered from mothball storage in Arizona. Industry experts speculate that an IR-DED-equipped plane would be able to evade heat-seeking missiles and other thermal detection arrays without the use of flares or other conventional stealth technology. Analysts also speculate that research is progressing on using IR-DEDs which have been specially tuned to operate in a sub-harmonic mode that would absorb radar signals from both airborne and ground-based emitters.
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* Editor's note: EDN thanks the U.S. Air Force for permission to cover the accidental exposure if its highly-classified technology. As part of the agreement which made this story possible, EDN has redacted the most sensitive details and agreed to publish it as an "April Fools satire". To the skeptics who wonder if this is a joke or a conspiracy being perpetrated in plain sight, we say: "We report - you decide".
Huge spacecraft and 100 km highway discovered in 1968 moon Photo
A 1968 photo taken during a Lunar Orbiter mission to the moon shows what appears to be a spacecraft that is at least 10 miles (16 km) long resting inside the Crater Manlius. Most of the object is well illuminated by the sun, but the rest is in the shadows of the crater which is approximately 24 miles in diameter and 2 miles deep, What appears to be a spacecraft cockpit is in shadows. What is even more compelling in the Lunar Orbiter photo is what appears to be a road that stretches across the entire horizontal width of the photo. The road can be estimated to be 120 miles (200 km) long and as much as a mile wide (1.6 km).
In 70 dagen naar Mars: ‘Brandstofloze’ EmDrive toch niet in strijd met natuurwetten
Wetenschappelijk onderzoek uit Finland laat zien dat de ‘onmogelijke’ EmDrive, een experimentele aandrijving die een ruimteschip zou kunnen versnellen zonder stuwstof, echt werkt. Dat gaat volkomen in tegen de wet van behoud van impuls, die juist stelt dat stuwstof altijd noodzakelijk is.
Met een EmDrive kunnen we in theorie zonder enige raketbrandstof in minder dan 10 weken naar Mars reizen. De wetenschap kan maar niet verklaren hoe de motor zou moeten werken en toch, op de één of andere manier, doet hij het.
Finse wetenschappers hebben nu ontdekt dat de aandrijftechnologie werkt door microgolven om te zetten in fotonen (lichtdeeltjes). Dr. Arto Annila van de Universiteit van Helsinki, dr. Erkki Kolehmainen van de Universiteit van Jyväskylä en natuurkundige Patrick Grahn van het bedrijf Comsol hebben hun onderzoek gepubliceerd in het tijdschrift AIP Advances.
Transformeren
De EmDrive werd in 1999 uitgevonden door de Brit Roger Shawyer, maar die werd jarenlang geridiculiseerd door de wetenschappelijke gemeenschap. Volgens Shawyer kan de EmDrive de lucht- en ruimtevaartindustrie transformeren en de energiecrisis oplossen.
Sinds 2012 zijn er negen onafhankelijke studies gedaan door wetenschappers uit China, Duitsland en zelfs van de NASA. Ze kwamen allemaal tot de conclusie dat de EmDrive werkt.
“De EmDrive verschilt in principe niet van andere motoren,” zei Annila. “De motor verbruikt brandstof, dat kan iedereen begrijpen – er gaan microgolven in. Het probleem is dat er niets uit lijkt te komen, en om die reden denken mensen dat de EmDrive niet werkt.”
Onzichtbare uitlaat
Terwijl de fotonen in de EmDrive rondstuiteren heffen ze elkaars elektromagnetisch veld op. Ze bestaan dan nog steeds, je kunt ze alleen niet meer zien als licht. Dr. Annila kwam tot de ontdekking dat de fotonen in paren door de wand van het apparaat lekken, een soort onzichtbare uitlaat dus.
De Finse wetenschapper zegt dat de EmDrive zich netjes houdt aan de natuurwetten. Omdat veel wetenschappers nog niet geloven dat de motor werkt, pleit hij voor meer onderzoek.
“We hebben hier te maken met een echt fenomeen. Het moet worden onderzocht. Sceptisch zijn helpt niet,” benadrukte Annila.
“Nieuwe reeks Britse ‘X-Files’ bewijst mogelijk dat Groot-Brittannië is bezocht door aliens”
Britse X-Files die binnen enkele weken worden vrijgegeven zullen naar verwachting nieuw licht gaan schijnen op de mysterieuze UFO-waarneming in het Britse Rendlesham Forest.
Afgelopen jaar erkende het Britse ministerie van Defensie het bestaan van de documenten. In 2013 claimde het ministerie al zijn voormalig topgeheime stukken over aliens te hebben vrijgegeven, maar na een aantal Wob-verzoeken bleek dat de overheid stukken heeft achtergehouden.
De papieren zijn inmiddels overgedragen aan het Britse Nationaal Archief, dat moet bepalen wanneer ze worden geopenbaard. De Duitse website Grenzwissenschaft-aktuell.de (GreWi) heeft ontdekt dat ze in augustus zullen worden vrijgegeven.
Laagvliegende UFO’s
De stukken bevatten naar verluidt informatie over de UFO-waarneming in 1980 in Rendlesham Forest, die ook wel het Britse Roswell wordt genoemd. Drie Amerikaanse officieren die waren gestationeerd op vliegbasis Bentwaters zagen in de vroege uren van 26 december 1980 een driehoekig vaartuig in het bos landen.
Het drietal sprak van knipperende lichten en hiërogliefachtige symbolen op de zijkant van het object. Een dag later kwam het object terug. Plaatsvervangend commandant kolonel Charles Halt (76) ging met een team het bos in en trof gaten aan in de grond waar het vaartuig zou zijn geland. Ook werden er ongewoon hoge stralingsniveaus gemeten.
De reeks documenten die wordt vrijgegeven bevat ook informatie uit de periode 1971-76, 1996-2000 en 2004. Ze gaan volgens het ministerie over laagvliegende UFO’s en onbekende objecten die op de radar zijn vastgelegd.
‘Smoking gun’
Nick Pope, die jarenlang voor het ministerie onderzoek deed naar UFO’s, zei dat de inhoud van de stukken interessant is, hoewel hij niet kan beloven dat ze een ‘smoking gun’ bevatten.
Pope verwees ook naar de uitspraken die presidentskandidaat Hillary Clinton onlangs heeft gedaan over het onderwerp. In interviews heeft ze aangegeven veel meer gegevens over UFO’s boven Amerikaans grondgebied openbaar te willen maken. “Ik geloof niet dat mensen aan hun keukentafel zitten en deze verhalen verzinnen,” zei ze.
Uit uitspraken die ze door de jaren heen heeft gedaan blijkt dat ze waarschijnlijk ook in buitenaardse bezoekers gelooft. Haar campagneleider John Podesta zei: “De Amerikaanse regering zou beter moeten omgaan met de legitieme vragen die mensen hebben over wat er aan de hand is met ongeïdentificeerde vliegende objecten.”
An Alaskan witness at Wasilla reported watching and videotaping two bright orange, oval-shaped UFOs, according to testimony in Case 43911 from the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) witness reporting database.
Cropped and enlarged still frame from witness video.
(Credit: MUFON)
The witness was loading her children into a vehicle for a trip to a haunted house when the objects were first noticed about 7:50 p.m. on October 27, 2012.
“I saw two bright, orange, oval-shaped objects coming through the trees and going straight up,” the witness stated. “My first reaction was to scream and point.”
Cropped and enlarged still frame from witness video.
(Credit: MUFON)
The witness felt positive it was not a plane because the objects were moving straight up.
“I took a picture and tried to get a video, but I was a little shaky and scared. I watched it until I could no longer see it and was scared out of my mind.I know this was a UFO sighting.”
Cropped and enlarged still frame from witness video.
(Credit: MUFON)
The report indicates the object were seen under 500 feet and less than 500 feet from the witness.Wasilla is a city in Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Alaska, population 8,621. The case was reported to MUFON November 14, 2012, investigated by Alaska MUFON, and closed as an Unknown.
Wasilla, Alaska.
(Credit: Wikimedia Commons)
Please remember that most UFO sightings can be explained as something natural or man-made. The above quotes were edited for clarity. Please report UFO activity to MUFON.com.
A Florida witness at St. Augustine reported watching as many as “32 lighted objects” as low as the tree tops in a vertical, rectangle design colored red and white, according to testimony from Case 76886 from the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) witness reporting database.
Witness illustration #1.
(Credit: MUFON)
The witness was looking out a back door when the objects were first noticed about 8:45 p.m. on May 20, 2016.
“They came out of the west and most headed northeast, but three split off and one went north, one went northwestand one went west,” the witness stated.“These objects appeared to fly in a military configuration.”
Witness illustration #2.
(Credit: MUFON)
The witness was able to take some photos, “but the objects appear as just dots of light in the photos.”
The witness was unable to upload these images with the original report, which was filed on June 7, 2016.
“These objects were vertical, not horizontal. On most of them, the top three-quarter was red and the bottom one-quarter was white. When they got real low, they appeared to have a pinkish color to them. I was in the Army in Air Defense and these things are like nothing I have ever seen before. My wife also witnessed some of these objects in the sky.”
Witness illustration #3.
(Credit: MUFON)
Florida State Section Director Dinah Lechner is investigating. Please remember that most UFO sightings can be explained as something natural or man-made. The above quotes were edited for clarity. Please report UFO activity to MUFON.com.
Internationally-recognized UFO expert Travis Walton speaks at the 2016 Aurora Alien Encounter held on Sat. Apr. 16, 2016 at the MD Resort in Aurora, Texas.
Darin Crapo UFO Show Talks About Travis Walton, June 16, 2016, Video, UFO Sighting News
Date of video: June 16, 2016 Maker of video:Darin Crapo This is a cool discussion about Travis Walton and how he is going to appear at a Canadian Expo on June 25. Sounds cool and if you get there, tell us about it. One of the interesting things about the Travis case is that he says there were tentacle-like roots and a sticky slime around his ship he woke up on. That sounds a lot like a biologically grown ship to me. Scott C. Waring www.ufosightingsdaily.com News states: Disclosure is closer than ever. With U.S. Presidential race contender Hillary Clinton hinting she will look into whether Extraterrestrials are real – and have been in contact with governments for decades – the time couldn’t be better for hearing into the UFO phenomena. On Saturday, June 25, the world’s attention will be on Brantford, Ontario,Canada where the first-ever Canadian inquiry into UFOs and Extraterrestrials will be held. Seven internationally-renowned experts will be panelists for the ET Disclosure Hearing being held on Saturday June 25 at the Best Western Plus Brant Park Inn in Brantford. Panelists include; Travis Walton, Richard Dolan, Nick Pope, Stanton Friedman, Grant Cameron, Stephen Bassett and former Canadian Defence Minister Paul Hellyer. They will be questioned by another panel of Canadian journalists and academics who will challenge the positions of these UFO researchers. Government documents will be presented attesting to Canadian military and NORAD involvement in the tracking of and chasing UFOs. To obtain tickets for the event follow the link below: Main web site:https://aliencosmicexpo.com Tickets: https://aliencosmicexpo.com/tickets/
A Genetic Study Appears To Confirm Advanced Alien Lineage Of Ancient Egyptians
There have been talks about an advanced alien race being responsible for incredible structures of Ancient Egypt, such as pyramids, for quite some time now. According to the related theory, the designers and builders of these pyramids had a substantial connection with beings outside the planet Earth.
Stuart Fleischmann, a comparative genomics assistant professor at the Swiss University in Cairo, published the results of their 7-year study that mapped the genomes of nine ancient Egyptian Pharaohs. Their findings have the potential to change the world history books and humanity’s understanding of our role in the Universe.
Fleischmann and his team of scientists started this potentially incredible find when they subjected the samples of ancient DNA to Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR); a process usually used to replicate and amplify a copy of a piece of DNA. The technique offers a far clearer picture to researchers of someone’s genetic fingerprint.
After an initial test, the most exciting thing seemed to happen. All examples except for one returned with somewhat interesting but typical results. The source of the DNA sample from Akhenaten, a 14th century BC pharaoh and father of Tutankhamun, was a little fragment of desiccated brain tissue. The test was repeated using a bone tissue. All tests obtained the same results, but none of them came back completely normal.
CXPAC-5 gene is one of the culprits of an anomaly being discovered. The gene is responsible for cortex growth. The prevalence of the CXPAC5 gene is not usual in Akhenaten. It suggests that Akhenaten had a higher cranial capacity to house a far larger cortex.
The mutation could be an explanation of a human brain to grow like Akhenaten. However, despite many breakthroughs in genetic science no technique yet that could support such theory. Could the finding of Akhenaten sample point to the evidence of ancient genetic manipulation on a human subject? Possibly the work of advanced alien beings?
Fleischmann explained that only two processes can expend telomerase (a genetic enzyme), namely an extreme aging or extreme mutation. Based on archaeological and genetic data, Akhenaten/Amenhotep IV lived for around 45 years, which is way insufficient to consume all the chromosomal telomerase. The explanation leaves behind the mutation theory, but still a possible explanation.
Another fascinating piece of finding can be found in microscope photographs of osseous tissue from the skull of Akhenaten. When compared to a different mummy of similar age, Akhenaten’s sample revealed that he had a far denser and basically different at a nanoscopic scale. It means that Akhenaten had increased strength of the skull bones, which could be an indicator of a rise in brain development.
The story has been here for quite some time, but despite its possible enormous impact on the scientific community, it never made to the mainstream media. If advanced alien entities were involved in the life of some of the most influential people thousands of years ago, then a return would not be impossible. Or perhaps, these advanced extraterrestrials never leave humans at all, and they are just in the skies observing our activities.
Another theory is that the direct descendants of ancient royal lineage, who still have the alien genes implanted in their ancestors’ genomes, continue to have the power and control.
VIDEOAstronomen hebben een kleine asteroïde ontdekt die de Aarde bij haar baan rondom de Zon begeleidt, zo heeft het Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) van de NASA bekendgemaakt. De ontdekking wordt beschreven als een "mini-maan". De asteroïde lift als het ware mee met de Aarde.
Asteroïde 2016 HO3 heeft een diameter van 40 tot 100 meter en wordt door de aantrekkingskracht van onze planeet in zijn baan gehouden en dat zal dat nog eeuwen zo blijven.
De mini-maan draait niet in een nette cirkelvormige baan om de Aarde, maar lift min of meer mee tijdens de baan van de aarde om de zon. Tegelijkertijd wordt het object door de Aarde heen en weer geslingerd.
De afstand tot de aarde is af en toe heel groot en wordt dan in de loop van enkele tientallen jaren weer kleiner. Het hemellichaam verwijdert zich maximaal tot 100 keer de afstand Aarde-Maan en komt niet veel dichter dan 38 keer deze afstand.
Het is volgens het JPL te ver om als een echte maan van ons te gelden. "Wij bestempelen het als een bijna-maan van de Aarde", zei Paul Chodas van het JPL. "Men kan zeggen dat deze kleine asteroïde en de Aarde met elkaar dansen".
Het ding is op 27 april ontdekt met de Pan-Starrs 1 telescoop van de Universiteit van Hawaii in het Nationaal Park Haleakala. Het zou ons al honderd jaar begeleiden.
Het had ook een voorganger: 2003 YN107 draaide in een gelijkaardige baan rondom ons. Maar tien jaar geleden verdween het hemellichaam uit onze buurt.
Naast zijn trouw zal het brok gesteente ook geen brokken maken bij ons. Volgens Lindley Johnson van de NASA is er geen gevaar dat het ding in de komende twee jaar tegen onze planeet zal aanknallen. "Verder in de toekomst kunnen we niet zien".
Wetenschappers hebben met de ALMA-radiotelescoop in Chili zuurstof in het jeugdige heelal ontdekt. Dat heeft de Europese Zuidelijke Sterrenwacht ESO gemeld.
Een team astronomen uit Japan, Zweden, Groot-Brittannië en van het Europese Ruimtevaartbureau ESA gebruikte de ALMA om één van de verste sterrenstelsels waar te nemen die we kennen: SXDF-NB1006-2. Het heeft een roodverschuiving van 7,2. Dit betekent dat we het zien zoals het er slechts 700 miljoen jaar na de Oerknal uitzag.
Meer bepaald wilde het team meer te weten komen over de zware chemische elementen in het sterrenstelsel, omdat die iets kunnen vertellen over de stervormingsactiviteit ervan. Dat levert dan weer aanwijzingen op over een periode in de kosmische geschiedenis die bekendstaat als de kosmische reïonisatie en die het universum drastisch veranderde.
Intense ultraviolette straling Uiterst nauwkeurige waarnemingen met de ALMA leidden tot de ontdekking van elektrisch geladen zuurstof in het sterrenstelsel, waardoor de verst verwijderde eenduidige vondst van zuurstof een feit was. In het sterrenstelsel moeten zich talrijke zeer heldere sterren hebben gevormd, die tientallen keren zoveel massa hebben als onze Zon. Deze reuzensterren zenden de intense ultraviolette straling uit die nodig is om de zuurstofatomen te ioniseren.
SXDF-NB1006-2 blijkt verhoudingsgewijs tien keer minder zuurstof te bevatten dan de Zon, wat volgens de onderzoekers geen verrassing is.
Wel onverwacht is dat slechts een zeer geringe hoeveelheid stof ontdekt. Een emissie van koolstof is helemaal niet gevonden. Dit wijst erop dat dit jonge stelsel heel weinig niet-geïoniseerde waterstofgas bevat, zegt ESO.
Een internationaal team van wetenschappers heeft opnieuw een zwaartekrachtgolf gemeten. Het is pas de tweede keer dat dit lukt. Zulke golven zijn misschien wel het grootste mysterie van het universum. De wetenschap heeft jaren geploeterd en gespeurd, maar nu wordt duidelijk dat ze inderdaad bestaan. De bijzondere meting is gisteren bekendgemaakt op een persconferentie in San Diego naar aanleiding van de jaarlijkse bijeenkomst van de American Astronomical Society.
De nieuwe zwaartekrachtgolf, waarvan het signaal zwakker was dan dat van de eerste gedetecteerde ooit, werd in de nacht van eerste op tweede kerstdag opgepikt door geavanceerde sensoren van het Ligo-instrument in het zuiden en in het westen van de Verenigde Staten, 3000 km van elkaar verwijderd. Het signaal is in feite een schokgolf die door de vezels van het heelal trekt.
Zwarte gaten De golf werd verstuurd op het moment dat twee zwarte gaten samensmolten. Dat gebeurde ongeveer 1,4 miljard jaar geleden. Het ene zwarte gat woog veertien keer zo veel als onze zon, het andere zwart gat ongeveer acht keer zo veel. Bij elkaar wegen ze dus 22 'zonnen', maar het nieuwe object blijkt 21 keer zo zwaar als onze ster. De ene resterende 'zonnenmassa' werd weggeslingerd als energie, naar alle hoeken van het heelal, en komt nu in onze omgeving.
Er is mogelijk ook al een derde zwaartekrachtgolf gemeten, op 2 oktober, maar dat staat nog niet helemaal vast. De wetenschappers hebben tijd nodig om die meting na te pluizen.
De onderzoekers hadden in februari voor het eerst bekendgemaakt dat ze een zwaartekrachtgolf hadden gemeten. Die kwam van de fusie van twee andere zwarte gaten. Door de golf verschoof een speciale laserstraal een miljoenste van een miljoenste van een miljoenste van een meter.
Ruimtetijd Albert Einstein had in 1915 geopperd dat het heelal bestaat uit ruimte en tijd en dat die één geheel vormen. Na een heftige gebeurtenis kan die 'ruimtetijd' trillen. De schokgolven, de zwaartekrachtgolven, gaan dan door het heelal als rimpelingen na een steen in een vijver. Bij zo'n rimpeling rekt de ruimte iets uit of krimpt hij iets. Pas nu kan het gelijk van Einstein worden bewezen, dankzij de meest geavanceerde laserapparatuur.
Wetenschappers kunnen met zwaartekrachtgolven op een hele nieuwe manier naar het heelal kijken. Dan zien ze dingen die tot nu toe verborgen bleven, zoals objecten die geen licht uitstralen.
Wetenschappers van het Amsterdamse onderzoeksinstituut Nikhef, de Radboud Universiteit in het Nederlandse Nijmegen en de Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam zijn bij het onderzoek betrokken.
Gravitational waves announcement: Scientists hail ‘spectacular’ new detection of ripples in...
Gravitational ripples in the fabric of spacetime, first predicted by Albert Einstein a century ago, have been detected for a second time by scientists - who believe the “spectacular” discovery could...
Het team dat eerder dit jaar het bestaan van Einsteins zwaartekrachtgolven kon bevestigen, heeft voor vanavond opnieuw een persconferentie aangekondigd. De verwachtingen onder natuurkundigen zijn (opnieuw) groot - er wordt vermoed dat de onderzoekers een tweede zwaartekrachtgolf hebben gezien. Het LIGO-team houdt op de jaarvergadering van astronomen in San Diego een persconferentie, om 19.15 uur Belgische tijd.
LIGO mocht op 11 februari aankondigen dat zij voor de eerste keer de al door Albert Einstein in 1916 beschreven zwaartekrachtgolven hadden opgemerkt. De Duitse fysicus omschreef de golven destijds als "rimpels in het weefsel van ruimtetijd". Volgens Einsteins theorie vervormt elk object dat zich in de ruimte beweegt de ruimte. Hoe zwaarder dat object, planeten bijvoorbeeld, hoe meer vervorming er is. Zwaartekracht is dan het gevolg van de vervorming die massa's geven aan de ruimtetijd.
Die rimpelingen zijn vanop de aarde nauwelijks vast te stellen, maar LIGO kon dat, met de hulp van twee reusachtige L-vormige laseropstellingen in de Verenigde Staten, voor de eerste keer opmerken. Die trilling werd veroorzaakt door de botsing van twee zwarte gaten, 1,3 miljard lichtjaar verwijderd van de aarde.
Bronnen in de sector menen dat LIGO eind december een tweede ruimtetrilling heeft waargenomen. Het signaal zou wel veel zwakker zijn, wat de theoretische analyse minder zeker maakt.
RUIMTEMorgenavond houdt het team van gravitatiegolfdetector LIGO een persconferentie, vermoedelijk met de mededeling dat een tweede ruimtetijdgolf is waargenomen, een rimpeling van het heelal zelf.
Op 11 februari bevestigde LIGO de voorspelling van Albert Einstein uit 1916 dat ruimte en tijd kunnen trillen door heftige botsingen of explosies ver in het heelal. Volgens Einsteins zwaartekrachttheorie vormen ruimte en tijd één geheel en is zwaartekracht het gevolg van de vervorming die massa's eraan geven.
Grote massa's als planeten willen naar elkaar toe bewegen zoals twee bowlingballen op een matras naar elkaar rollen. Heftige botsingen van grote massa's kunnen rimpelingen in de ruimtetijd teweegbrengen als in een waterbed waar een klap op is gegeven.
Versmeltende zwarte gaten
Heftige botsingen van grote massa's kunnen rimpelingen in de ruimtetijd teweegbrengen als in een waterbed waar een klap op is gegeven
De Einsteintrilling werd volgens LIGO veroorzaakt door een botsing van twee zwarte gaten, 1,3 miljard lichtjaar ver weg. Die draaien dan steeds sneller rond elkaar, tot ze versmelten. De golven die ze veroorzaken hebben een steeds hogere frequentie, waardoor een typisch 'chirp-signaal' ontstaat.
Volgens ingewijden is nu een tweede ruimtetrilling waargenomen, weer met de kenmerken van twee versmeltende zwarte gaten. De nieuwe waarneming kan volgens astronomen vooral meer zicht geven op de vraag of op elkaar klappende zwarte gaten in het heelal een zeldzaam verschijnsel zijn of juist vrij normaal.
Ruim tachtig procent van de wereldbevolking kan 's nachts nauwelijks sterren zien door lichtvervuiling. Dertig procent van de wereldbevolking kan zelfs helemaal geen sterren onderscheiden. Oorzaak is kunstmatige verlichting op de aarde, zo blijkt uit onderzoek.
Het onderzoek van de Amerikaanse wetenschappers verscheen in het wetenschappelijke tijdschrift Science Advances. "Het is goed om via dit onderzoek de ogen van mensen te openen", zegt de Amerikaanse wetenschapper Travis Longcore. Hij bestudeert stadsecologie aan de universiteit van Zuid-Californië in Los Angeles en is niet aan het onderzoek verbonden. "Wat een afschuwelijk idee dat we altijd leven in permanente schemer en dat we de sterren over een aantal jaren niet meer kunnen zien."
Meeste lichtvervuiling
Uit eerder onderzoek bleek dat de afgelopen halve eeuw de lichtvervuiling in Europa en Amerika met zes procent per jaar is toegenomen. In West-Europa zijn alleen in Schotland, Zweden en Noorwegen nog gebieden te vinden die 's nachts compleet donker zijn. Met name de lucht boven Singapore en San Marino is het meest vervuild door licht. Ook in de regio rond Nederland, België en Duitsland is de Melkweg nog maar moeilijk te zien.
In Afrika is de sterrenhemel juist goed te zien: de top tien landen die de lucht het minst vervuilen, bevinden zich allemaal op dit continent.
Volgens onderzoeker Fabio Falchi heeft de lichtvervuiling sterke invloed op dieren en mensen. "Sterke kunstmatige verlichting kan ervoor zorgen dat vogels bijvoorbeeld eerder hun eieren gaan leggen. Mensen die te lang blootstaan aan licht kunnen volgens Falchi meer melatonine gaan produceren, wat leidt tot een verstoord slaapritme en een verhoogd risico op bepaalde vormen van kanker", zegt hij op de nieuwssite Science Now.
"We kunnen de schade zeker verlagen. Maar de schade die we al hebben aangericht kan niet worden teruggedraaid." De onderzoekers zeggen dat het gebruik van afgeschermd straatlicht en bewegingssensoren de lichtvervuiling kan tegengaan. Ook zouden kantoren hun lichten uit moeten doven tijdens sluitingstijd.
Landen waar de Melkweg moeilijk te zien is:
- Singapore en San Marino (100%) - Malta (89%) - West Bank (61%) - Qatar (55%) - België en Koeweit (51%) - Trinidad, Tobago en Nederland (43%) - Israël (42%)
Afrika, Australië en Canada zijn het minst vervuild.
From the the intricate monuments and cities that once covered the ancient Indus Valley, to the weathered steppes of Central Asia; and much further beyond, the ruined, vine-decorated temples of South America, such remnants of the ancient world have long remained among our most fascinating treasures.
The ancient past has long kept many mysteries, some of which we possess at least a degree of knowledge here in modern times. Among these are the notions of ancient cataclysms of truly epic proportion, which seem to suggest that there was more great change on our planet in ancient times than history has managed to yet account for.
Some of the most famous examples of epic, earth-shaking mysteries from times long past come to us in the retellings found in documents from antiquity. For instance, Plato’s dialogue Critias, a text for which only incomplete portions exist today, is famous among both historians and alternative scholars alike, for its description of the fabled island kingdom of Atlantis.
Critias divulges the following about the mythic Atlantean kingdom, and its war with those further inland:
“Let me begin by observing first of all, that nine thousand was the sum of years which had elapsed since the war which was said to have taken place between those who dwelt outside the Pillars of Heracles and all who dwelt within them; this war I am going to describe. Of the combatants on the one side, the city of Athens was reported to have been the leader and to have fought out the war; the combatants on the other side were commanded by the kings of Atlantis, which, as was saying, was an island greater in extent than Libya and Asia, and when afterwards sunk by an earthquake, became an impassable barrier of mud to voyagers sailing from hence to any part of the ocean.”
The passage is indeed a curious one, likened by many to an actual retelling of events, while others maintain that its origins had been a mere thought experiment, never with intention that its contents should be taken literally. Whatever the truth may be, this odd bit of information from the halls of antiquity has spun innumerable legends about the true nature of the lost kingdom of Atlantis, as well as speculation about its origins and possible existence.
Perhaps of equal interest, however, is Plato’s reference to a war that had transpired nine thousand years prior to his own retelling of the events. This, again, might only be a brief, but novel aside in the broader legend; however, its similarity to stories that appear elsewhere — namely those within ancient Hindu epics like the Mahabharataand the Bhagavad-Gita — also seem to describe ancient battles that were fought not only on an epic scale, but with weapons possessing tremendous destructive potential.
The Mahabharata speaks, for instance, of an “unknown weapon” that destroyed an entire race, which is described thusly:
“…. a blazing shaft possessed of the effulgence of a smokeless fire (was) let off… That was how this weapon was perceived. The consequences of its use also evoke involuntary associations. ‘… This makes the bodies of the dead unidentifiable… The survivors lose their nails and hair, and their food becomes unfit for eating. For several subsequent years the Sun, the stars and the sky remain shrouded with clouds and bad weather’.
The weapon, sometimes called either the “Weapon of Brahma,” “Flame of Indra,” was described in the Hindu epics in such a way that, to the modern mind, many of its characteristics resemble our conception of modern nuclear weapons, the likes of which were developed and first used during the Second World War:
“(It was) a single projectile charged with all the power of the Universe. An incandescent column of smoke and flame as bright as the thousand suns rose in all its splendor… it was an unknown weapon, an iron thunderbolt, a gigantic messenger of death, which reduced to ashes the entire race of the Vrishnis and the Andhakas.”
It would be difficult build a case around the existence of actual weapons of mass destruction that were utilized in the ancient world. Nonetheless, such descriptions have provided fodder for the speculations of “ancient alien theorists”, as well as the research of alternative historians like Graham Hancock, which suggests the existence of an ancient super-civilization. With little doubt, there are likely to have been many formations of civilization that have come and gone, and of which we may possess little knowledge today. Could they have utilized technologies similar to those in use in the modern world, and perhaps those with equal destructive potential?
A more plausible scenario would hold that the evidences of epic cataclysms found in texts from antiquity likely represent catastrophic changes occurring on Earth long ago, possibly stemming from any number of different natural sources that range from asteroid impact, to supernovae, or even cosmic ray jets, as suggested by researchers William Topping and Richard B. Firestone, in their 2001 article, “Terrestrial Evidence of a Nuclear Catastrophy in Paleoindian Times”, in which the authors related that, “The entire Great Lakes region (and beyond) was subjected to particle bombardment and a catastrophic nuclear irradiation that produced secondary thermal neutrons from cosmic ray interactions.”
Perhaps this can account for the evidence of mass-destruction in the ancient world, the likes of which many have compared with the effects of modern warfare though, in likelihood, such ancient occurrences were of natural origin. And yes, there is scientific data that helps substantiate such ideas, based on geological and other data spanning the last several hundred thousands of years, showing the degree to which wild changes have occurred on our ancient planet.
Still, no complete picture seems to have emerged. In truth, we may never fully reveal the epic levels of destruction that occurred on this planet since ancient times, though perhaps the persisting question is whether the holy epics and dialogues of antiquity, opposed to being merely folk tales, are actually based on factual occurrences that detail multiple levels of devastation that occurred — perhaps on a global scale — in our ancient world.
Damn you, Fermi! In yet another attempt to determine why we haven’t yet been contacted in some way by extraterrestrials (for those who don’t believe it’s already happened), astronomers at Cornell University say Fermi’s paradox may be resolved and Earth will hear from aliens … but not for 1,500 years.
It’s strictly mathematical, according to Cornell student Evan Solomonides, co-author ofA Probabilistic Analysis of the Fermi Paradox, a paper prepared for the American Astronomical Society’s current meeting.
We haven’t heard from aliens yet, as space is a big place – but that doesn’t mean no one is out there.
Solomonides estimates that Earth has been sending out electronic signals – radio and television – for about 80 years. The good news is, this means they’ve reached around 8,500 stars and 3,500 planets within 80 lights years from us. The bad news is, according to Solomonides, there’s still 200 billion stars left to contact in the Milky Way alone. Then there’s the challenge of deciphering our signals, translating our languages and sending a message back that we can possibly understand.
What about the stars that have heard our signals so far? Isn’t it possible one of them is working on breaking our code and responding in 80 years? Based on the Mediocrity Principle, which basically states that we humans aren’t that special, and the Drake Equation, which estimates the number of possible communicative extraterrestrial civilizations in the galaxy, that’s a definite possibility. However, Solominides’s calculations would seem to tell Fermi that the clock only started 80 years ago and we need to give it more time.
It’s possible to hear any time at all, but it becomes likely we will have heard around 1,500 years from now. Until then, it is possible that we appear to be alone – even if we are not. But if we stop listening or looking, we may miss the signals. So we should keep looking.
The latest in a series of videos appearing online that purportedly show a strange, unidentified triangle-shaped aircraft, has come to the attention of UFO researchers following a submission to the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON).
The video, which the Express featured on its site recently, shows an odd, slow moving object in the distance, which appears on camera for several minutes. The object appears to have a red, green, and white light, each marking one of the three corners of the object (see below).
The object in the recent MUFON video appears to have some resemblance to another aircraft, which was filmed over Longview, Texas one year ago. At that time, the observers labeled it the “Texas (Belgium) Triangle”, due to it’s similarity to an object that appeared throughout a famous wave of sightings over Belgium in the early 1990s.
MUFON has been collecting a number of similar reports over the last several weeks. As reported by Roger Marsh at MUFON’s website, in one recent observation the witness described seeing a large, dark triangle aircraft as it passed at an altitude of just 500 feet as it moved over Shelby County, Ohio. Initially, the witness believed the object had been “a motorized glider.”
Additional reports came from areas that include the town of Indian Land, South Carolina, where a witness reported that on May 26, 2016, the craft was observed as it quickly moved through the sky outside their residence:
“I see a white light with red and blue lights blinking on it flying by. I thought it was just a plane, but what really caught my attention and made me get up and run to the window was how fast the object was moving. I have never seen a plane or anything for that matter move that fast before.”
Additional reports have been made as far away as Britain, where one witness observing the sky in the early evening managed to capture a photograph of an odd, triangular object at it hovered in the sky at some distance.
According to the witness report:
“There was a black triangle hovering in the sky,” the witness stated.“We didn’t take our eyes off it. Very slowly it moved to the north. After approximately 10minutes and to the left of it a black orb appeared. There was another object just below and to the right of the orb that looked like a line and seemed to follow the orb.”
The reports of the alleged triangle “UFOs” appear within weeks of one particularly interesting video, filmed by a motorist in Florida back in May, which appeared to show what some hold to be the best recent footage of one of the unidentified “triangles”, as seen below:
Speculation about the origins of these aircraft have included the theory that many sightings have been of a secret military aircraft. A study carried out by the National Institute of Discovery Science in 2004 noted that, “The United States is currently experiencing a wave of Flying Triangle sightings that may have intensified in the 1990s, especially towards the latter part of the 1990s. The wave continues. The Flying Triangles are being openly deployed over and near population centers, including in the vicinity of major Interstate Highways.”
Space.com similarly reported on NIDS and its findings, which suggested a link to known flight corridors used by the US Air Force. Their conclusion at the time had been that the aircraft are, in likelihood, a variety of stealth blimp being operated by the Department of Defense.
To date, no explanation that offers a conclusive determination on these aircraft has been offered. Hence, the debate as to their origins, and ultimate purpose, remains very much alive; and in likelihood, it is a conspiratorial debate which will continue for some time.
Many decades ago, when the construction of the library facilities at Western Carolina University near Cullowhee, North Carolina, had been underway, a local story tells of the discovery of an underground chamber, in which the bodies of what appeared to be a number of Native Americans were found. As the story goes, the construction proceeded as planned at the time, and the chamber was sealed shortly after a small group of archaeologists were allowed to examine the remains, along with a number of items that also filled the ancient underground chamber.
Whether the story above, related to me by a member of the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching, is based on fact, or merely legend, is a worthwhile question. However, there are similar stories that surface from time to time in other parts of the United States as well. The March 12 & April 5, 1909 issues of the Arizona Gazette purportedly carried a story about a similar underground discovery, this time an entire “city”, which was found near the Grand Canyon. One account of the narrative (which can be found here), borrows the very familiar trope of involvement by the Smithsonian Institute in relation to the alleged discovery:
“Smithsonian archaeologists S. A. Jordan and associates also explored the man-made cavern with hundreds of rooms, enough to hold over 50 thousand people. The underground city is about 42 miles up river from El Tovar Crystal Canyon and Crystal Creek, and about 2000 feet above the river bed on the east wall. John Rhodes after 3 years of field research reportedly discovered the Grand Canyon city, which is now being used as a museum for elitist groups and has lower levels that are being used by “super secret black book operatives”, which can only be entered via a stainless steel door at the bottom of a stairwell deep within the “city” that is “guarded by a very lonely soldier staring into the darkness… dressed in a white jumpsuit and armed only with an M16 assault rifle to ward off his imagination.”
The story above is indeed tantalizing, though it should be noted that it contains some conflicting information; namely, the fact that the excerpt discusses a “lonely soldier” armed with an M16 which, despite the story’s attribution to the year 1909, didn’t come into use until after World War II (it is unclear, based on the source, whether the anecdote about the lonely guard was added later).
Similar stories do emerge from time to time that stem from more reliable sources. Researcher Chris O’Brien, author of books like The Mysterious Valley trilogy and co-host of The Paracast, recently told a story related to him by an individual he describes as a “very reliable source”, who had been involved with expansions of the lab facilities at Los Alamos a number of years ago. The individual in question had been an underground demolitions expert, and described “an ancient, antediluvian tunnel system” that he and his team discovered during the underground expansion operation, which he and several others followed for some distance. “They literally went as far as they could before they had to turn around so they could get back by the end of their shift,” O’Brien recalled, with his contact having estimated the tunnels to be at least several thousands of years old.
Another story involving odd underground happenings was featured on the same podcast, as O’Brien and host Gene Steinberg interviewed a friend of mine, Walter Bosley, who discussed his new book Origin: The Nineteenth Century Emergence of the 20th Century Breakaway Civilizations. The book focuses primarily on the 19th Century airship mysteries (as outlined in Bosley’s earlier book, Empire of the Wheel II: Friends from Sonora), although at one point in the interview, Walter begins to discuss an unusual story his father had shared with him decades ago, which seems to offer a radically different interpretation of the famous alleged crash of a mysterious aircraft at Roswell, New Mexico, in the summer of 1947.
Bosley’s father had been a member of the U.S. Air Force throughout the 1950s, in what would have been the early years of Project Mercury, the first human spaceflight program which lasted from 1958 to 1963. The senior Bosley’s unit was involved in testing for pressurized spacesuits, and possessed a high security clearance.
At one point, Bosley’s father was stationed further East at Gunter Air Force Base (now called Gunter Annex) near Montgomery, Alabama, when he and a number of others from his unit were ordered to travel to a USAF base in Texas for what was described as a “briefing issue” at the time. As the aircraft carrying the unit passed above Louisiana, its direction changed to a northerly course, and the men in Bosley’s father’s unit were told they were being taken to Wright Patterson in Ohio. Upon arriving, the group was debriefed about what is known today as the Roswell incident.
“From there,” Bosley recalls of his father’s story, “He and the two guys from his unit were then sent out to Arizona, to a specific location — all I know is that it was in the vicinity of Winslow — an underground location where they were a part of the retrieval of the pilots, crew, or whatever of another crash.” Bosley’s father explained that the aircraft, rather than being of “alien” origin, had belonged to “a hidden civilization here on Earth, in the underground, and that’s what Roswell had been.” In other words, the aircraft recovered during these alleged crashes, as well as the bodies (one of which Bosley’s father said he had been shown while visiting Wright Patterson Air Force Base), had belonged to hidden civilization that exists below ground.
“For what it’s worth, he was very sincere telling this story,” Bosley notes, who says the story was told to him years prior to the initial book on the Roswell incident, authored by Bill Moore and Charles Berlitz. “Over the years, he would tell me a little more about it,” Bosley explained. “But I learned the most about it after I was working for the government myself.” (Walter served with the U.S. Air Force for a number of years).
Walter’s story is similar to one told by another colleague of mine, Nick Redfern, in which Redfern recounted an incident involving “mysterious people” that were found in the southwestern desert (admittedly, I don’t recall right off-hand if this was information that appeared in one of Nick’s articles here at Mysterious Universe, or if it was told to me during one of our many personal conversations on subjects like this). Nonetheless, it was implied in Nick’s story that these “people” may have also had some kind of subterranean origin.
Of his father’s strange story, Walter explains that, “Of course, people ask me, do you believe that? Do you think that?” He also notes that he plans to write a forthcoming book which looks more deeply at his father’s claims… stories which, coming from a man who had been involved with the early innovations in manned spaceflight, are indeed rather interesting.
It is worth noting that a lot of insinuations have been made over the years that, in similar fashion, look at the “underground” angle as it relates to UFOs and similar odd happenings. Many of these theories seem to draw influence from earlier narratives and, specifically, the popular “Shaver Mystery” tales that appeared in Ray Palmer’sAmazing Stories magazine back in the 1940s. But whether or not the answers to things like UFO sightings can literally be attributed to legions of lost inner-earth dwellers, it seems an almost inescapable reality that much of the strange phenomena that has been recounted over the years probably have origins of the terrestrial kind… despite having the appearance, at times, of being quite “unearthly”.
Astronomers predict when aliens will finally make contact with mankind
BYJOHN VON RADOWITZ
Experts have calculated when ET will finally phone Earth - and don't hold your breath
UFO over a city
It might take another 1,500 years before extraterrestrial aliens make contact with the human race, a team of astronomers has predicted.
The scientists performed a calculation based on the likelihood of technological civilisations arising among the stars, and the probable length of time they had been transmitting signals across space.
They concluded there was no reason to think we are alone in the universe. We just need to exercise a little patience.
US researcher Evan Solomonides, a PhD student from Cornell University, said: “We haven’t heard from aliens yet, as space is a big place - but that doesn’t mean no one is out there.
“It’s possible to hear any time at all, but it becomes likely we will have heard around 1,500 years from now.
“Until then, it is possible that we appear to be alone - even if we are not. But if we stop listening or looking, we may miss the signals. So we should keep looking.”
Astronomers have long pondered why, given the number of stars in our galaxy, the Milky Way, there has been such a deafening silence from the cosmos, despite attempts by Seti (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) scientists to eavesdrop on alien signals.
There are more than 200 billion stars in the Milky Way, almost half of which may host Earth-like planets, according to one estimate.
If life is not unique to the Earth and has evolved in a similar way elsewhere, the galaxy should be teeming with civilisations. Yet not one confirmed alien signal has ever been detected.
This puzzle was highlighted in 1950 by Italian physicist Enrico Fermi in what has become known as the “Fermi Paradox”.
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Prince Harry makes contact with an alien from Kashyyyk
A number of logical reasons for the lack of contact have been suggested. These include the possibility that intelligent extraterrestrial life is very rare or non-existent, that all intelligent civilisations eventually destroy themselves before reaching out to the stars, that the aliens have decided inter-species communication is too dangerous, or that they are observing us from afar as part of a “hands off” experiment.
The new research suggests there is nothing contradictory about “Fermi’s Paradox” and we should not have expected to make contact so soon.
The scientists’ starting point is the fact that humans have only been broadcasting TV and radio signals into space for around 80 years. By now these signals should have reached more than 8,500 stars within 80 light years of the sun.
Although this seems a large figure, it is tiny compared with the number of stars in the Milky Way.
Adopting the so-called “Mediocrity Principle” that says there is nothing at all special about the Earth or its occupants, the team ruled out the likelihood of humans being among the first or last civilisations to develop radio technology.
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UFO: Not coming soon
As a result, the average length of broadcasting history in the galaxy was found to be the same as ours, roughly 80 years.
This figure was included in an equation that also measured the frequency of life arising on extrasolar planets.
The conclusion was that we could expect to start hearing from alien civilisations once their signals had spread across half the Milky Way.
And that could take another 1,500 years, said the scientists, who are to present their findings at the American Astronomical Society’s annual meeting in San Diego, in the US.
“This is not to say that we must be reached by then or else we are, in fact, alone,” Mr Solomonides pointed out. “We simply claim that it is somewhat unlikely that we will not hear anything before that time.”
He added: “We are on the third planet around a tediously boring star surrounded by other completely normal stars about two-thirds of the way along one of several arms of a remarkably average spiral galaxy.
“The Mediocrity Principle is the idea that because we are not in any special location in the universe, we should not be anything special in the universe.”
Interview with John Mack Psychiatrist, Harvard University
NOVA: Let’s talk about your own personal evolution from perhaps skepticism to belief …
MACK: When I first encountered this phenomenon, or particularly even before I had actually seen the people themselves, I had very little place in my mind to take this seriously. I, like most of us, were raised to believe that if we were going to discover other intelligence, we’d do it through radio waves or through signals or something of that kind. Quote: I came very reluctantly to the conclusion that this was a true mystery
The idea that we could be reached by some other kind of being, creature, intelligence that could actually enter our world and have physical effects as well as emotional effects, was simply not part of the world view that I had been raised in. So that I came very reluctantly to the conclusion that this was a true mystery. In other words, that I—I did everything I could to rule out other sources, or sexual abuse. Some of these people are abused. But they’re able to tell, distinguish clearly the abduction trauma from other forms of abuse. Some forms of psychosis or people making up stories—I could reject that on the basis that there was no gain in this for the vast majority of these people.
…. I’ve now worked with over a hundred experiencers intensively. Which involves an initial two-hour or so screening interview before I do anything else. And in case after case after case, I’ve been impressed with the consistency of the story, the sincerity with which people tell their stories, the power of feelings connected with this, the self-doubt—all the appropriate responses that these people have to their experiences.
NOVA: So tell us, please, how literally you intend people to take this? Are you suggesting people are really being snatched from their beds by aliens and experiments on board a spaceship?
MACK: Just how literally to take this, is one of the most interesting and complex aspects of this. And I want to walk through that as clearly as I can. There are aspects of this which I believe we are justified in taking quite literally. That is, UFOs are in fact observed, filmed on camera at the same time that people are having their abduction experiences.
People, in fact, have been observed to be missing at the time that they are reporting their abduction experiences. They return from their experiences with cuts, ulcers on their bodies, triangular lesions, which follow the distribution of the experiences that they recover, of what was done to them in the craft by the surgical-like activity of these beings.
All of that has a literal physical aspect and is experienced and reported with appropriate feeling, by the abductees, with or without hypnosis or a relaxation exercise.
….There is a—I believe, a gradation of experiences and that go from the most literal physical kinds of hurts, wounds, person removed, spacecraft that can be photographed, to experiences which are more psychological, spiritual, involve the extension of consciousness. The difficulty for our society and for our mentality is, we have a kind of either/or mentality. It’s either, literally physical; or it’s in the spiritual other realm, the unseen realm. What we seem to have no place for—or we have lost the place for—are phenomena that can begin in the unseen realm, and cross over and manifest and show up in our literal physical world.
So the simple answer would be: Yes, it’s both. It’s both literally, physically happening to a degree; and it’s also some kind of psychological, spiritual experience occurring and originating perhaps in another dimension. And so the phenomenon stretches us, or it asks us to stretch to open to realities that are not simply the literal physical world, but to extend to the possibility that there are other unseen realities from which our consciousness, our, if you will, learning processes over the past several hundred years have closed us off.
NOVA: I wonder, if in that vein, you can speak to what you think this experience is about?
MACK: ….There are several effects that these experiences have for those who undergo alien abduction encounters. First is the most familiar aspect or fit, which is a traumatic event in which a blue light or some kind of energy paralyzes the person, whether they’re in their home or they’re driving a car. They can’t move.
They feel themselves being removed from wherever they were. They floated through a wall or out a car, carried up on this beam of light into a craft and there subjected to a number of now familiar procedures which involve the beings staring at them; involves probing of their body, their body orifices; and a complex process whereby they sense in the case of men, sperm removed; in the women, eggs removed; some sort of hybrid offspring created which they’re brought back to see in later abductions. That’s the sort of literal experience.
Now, the effect of that is—or what seems to be going on there, in a number of abductees—not just people I see, but the ones Budd Hopkins and other people see—is to produce some kind of new species to bring us together to produce a hybrid species which—the abductees are sometimes told—will populate the earth or will be there to carry evolution forward, after the human race has completed what it is now doing, namely the destruction of the earth as a living system. So it’s a kind of later form. It’s an awkward coming together of a less embodied species than we are, and us, for this evolutionary purpose.
However, that might not be literally true. It might be that that this is a communication to us. That perhaps we need to change our ways. It may not be that these are literally our babies. It may be a kind of expression of images of babies; or it may be that these hybrids we’re told is what will have to be. It’s a kind of insurance policy if the earth continues to be subjected to the exploitation of its living environment to the point where it can’t sustain human and other life as it’s now occurring. But it may not be literally what is going to happen. So that’s one area.
Another area is the whole visual environmental and informational aspect of this in which people are shown on television screens a huge variety of scenes of environmental destruction of the earth polluted; of a kind of post-apocalyptic scene in which even the spirits have been routed from their environment because they live in the same physical and spiritual environment that we do; and canyons are shown with trees destroyed; pieces of the earth are seen as breaking away—portions of the East Coast or West Coast.
NOVA: …..Alien hybrid. What does that mean?
MACK: Sometimes along the way, as you go deeper and deeper into the person’s consciousness, into their experience, they will discover….what is called a dual identity. In other words, that they are both human—in one dimension; but they also are themselves, have an alien identity. That they are participatory in this reproductive hybrid program, as if they were altogether part of it. And that they may, in fact, even experience themselves as aliens.
One of the men in my book actually was an active participant in taking a woman from Texas up into the ship and being, and acting the reproductive function of the alien being, and felt he was himself alien. And often the abductees will feel that their job, developmentally, is to integrate these two dimensions or these two aspects of themselves: the human and the alien. And that the alien dimension is a part of ourselves, our souls, if you will even, from which we were or have been cut off over the centuries of human beings living on this earth in this densely embodied form.
NOVA: You and others have said that there is no other psychological explanation. But that there is some reality to it. What do you think of the work of people like Michael Persinger and Robert Baker who have these complicated theories about neurology or they charge that hypnogogic hallucinations being at the root of these perceived—these experiences?
MACK: These experiences often occur in literal consciousness. Not in a hypnogogic or dreamlike state. The person may be in their bedroom quite wide awake. The beings show up. And there they are and the experience begins. That they’re not occurring in any dreamlike state. Now sometimes they do occur when a person is dozing off or in a hypnogogic state. But very frequently not.
Also, any theory that is going to look upon this as a purely endogenous phenomenon, by which I mean generated purely from the psyche of the person themselves. Which is a kind of arrogance too, really. Because it means that we just can’t accept the notion there could be another intelligence at work here. Which is a much more economical explanation. But if we must find a theory within ourselves, then we should keep in mind that any theory that’s going to even begin to address this, has to take into account five factors:
Number one, the extreme consistency of the stories from person after person. Which you would not get simply by stimulating the temporal lobes. You would get very variable idiosyncratic responses that would differ a great deal from person to person.
Number two, you would have to deal with the fact that there is no ordinary experiential basis for this. In other words, there’s nothing in their life experience that could have given rise to this, other than what they say. In other words, there’s no mental condition that could explain it.
Third, you have to account for the physical aspects: the cuts and the other lesions on their bodies, which do not follow any psychodynamic distribution, like the stigmata associated with the identification with the agony of Christ.
Fourth, the tight association with UFOs, which are often observed in the community, by the media, independent of the person having the abduction experience, who may not have seen the UFO at all, but reads or sees on the television the next day that a UFO passed near where they were when they had an abduction experience.
And finally, the phenomenon occurs in children as young as two, two and a half, three years old. And any theory that simply attributes this to the activity of the brain, does not take into account at least three of those five fundamental dimensions…
NOVA: Aren’t you really at risk of losing quite a bit, personally and professionally, because of …criticism?
MACK: I think that, in some ways, I’ve gained more than I’ve lost in terms of inviting people into this mystery, having a dialogue with all kinds of very wonderful, open, intelligent, brilliant people from many different fields. It’s been quite exciting. I mean I’ve been attacked, but the attacks have not been really nearly as serious to me as the openness that I’ve found among many people throughout the culture and internationally, who are saying: Yeah, I always suspected something like this was going on, and I’m glad you were willing to come forward and report about it.
……It’s often said that I’m a believer and sort of have gone and lost my objectivity. I really object to that. Because this is not about believing anything. I didn’t believe anything when I started, I don’t really believe anything now. I’m come to where I’ve come to clinically. In other words, I worked with people over hundred and hundreds of hours and have done as careful a job as I could to listen, to sift out, to consider alternative explanations. And none have come forward. No one has found an alternative explanation in a single abduction case.
NOVA: Many say that this is just really a function of cultural images.
MACK: …I have been looking at this phenomenon as it manifests in indigenous people, in Native Americans—the Cherokee, the Hopi, who know these beings as the star people. We’ve looked at this in South Africa, particularly in interviewing in depth a leading South African sangoma, or medicine man, who calls these beings “mandingdas”.
We’ve investigated it in Brazil with a farmer in—outside Belo Horizante who had identical abduction experiences to what have been reported in this country. I’m getting recent—I received a letter about abduction experiences from a person in Malaysia today. In other words, this is—as far as we can tell—a worldwide phenomenon. This is not restricted, as some people have thought, to Western or particularly American culture.
I’ve interviewed airline pilots who have had sighting—close up sightings of UFOs. They will not report it, because they will be removed from their work. Even if they’ve had abduction experience, they will not talk about it. And 25 to 30 percent of airline pilots, according to a survey that one of the people I’ve talked with did, have had close up sightings, but will not discuss it.
This simply is not something that is accepted as OK to talk about or—And that may be changing. I recently saw a Harvard Divinity School student, and I asked him these questions. I said: Do you talk about this among your fellow students? And he said: ‘Oh, yes.’ And it turned out several of them had also had abduction experiences. And even the ones that had not, were fascinated, interested, didn’t ridicule ’em. So maybe the climate is changing.
Why should we pay attention to the UFO ET Question?
When it comes to the question of UFOs and Aliens, a majority of the populace on our Planet remain divided about their understanding and knowledge on the subject, thanks to all the disinformation propaganda and covert planting of false beliefs and self limiting ideas which have confused us, making it even more challenging to find the truth. There has been enough said about this on this website … but its never enough, as we still have a long way to go before we are really ready to face what lies ahead of us … Our true galactic origins and our deep connection with other races and advanced human civilizations. We are being nudged forward to see our true nature ….. realize our true origins which would make us realize how we are all united in spirit, however remain divided when we feed the illusions of separation !
Here is an article by Steven Greer about the UFO/ET questions and its implications ….. Hope this helps some of us deepen our understanding of whats really going on …
NATIONAL SECURITY IMPLICATIONS OF THE UFO/ETI SUBJECT
A Brief Summary by Steven M. Greer, M.D August 1995
National security implications of the UFO/ETI subject are profound and far-reaching, albeit currently unrecognized. These implications may be considered in separate but related aspects: those intrinsic to extraterrestrial activity and those arising from current covert management of the issue.
Historical Background:
Early national security considerations dealt with concern over public panic arising from the detection of near-earth and earth-landed extraterrestrial spacecraft (ETS), and from the technological implications of advanced extraterrestrial material as it may impact the arms race and Cold War. Additional concerns were related to the impact on religious belief systems, the political order and economic systems.
Importantly, once actual ETS were retrieved in 1947, thereby allowing extraterrestrial hardware to be studied and back-engineered for possible human military applications, the need for complete secrecy regarding the matter was deemed paramount by authorities at that time. Given the tensions of the early atomic era and the mounting ‘Cold War’ with the USSR, it is understandable that the introduction of extraterrestrial technology was thought to be destabilizing to an already dangerous situation. Moreover, given the history of technological secrets related to atomic and hydrogen weapons being stolen by agents of the USSR, there was understandable concern that any technological breakthrough related to extraterrestrial technology might find its way into Soviet hands. If such an event enabled the USSR to produce actual military applications before the US, obviously this would have placed the US military capability in a potentially catastrophic disadvantage.
Since the 1970’s, we have reason to believe that a degree of cooperation on this matter has evolved with the USSR and the US and perhaps other nations. Certainly the end of the Cold War has largely removed earlier concerns vis a vis technological breakthroughs and the fear of Soviet aggression.
Moreover, the psychological reasons for secrecy related to public panic are not valid today. At least 57% of the population accept that UFOs are real and are of extraterrestrial origin. And 30-40 years of space exploration by human society has prepared the population for the possible existence of other extraterrestrial civilizations capable of space travel. In short, the previous concerns motivating secrecy are not relevant today. Intrinsically, there is no reason to believe that the extraterrestrial presence pose a threat to the national or world security. If hostility and aggression were related to their purpose here, it is likely that events congruent with hostility would have transpired long before now. It is our assessment that the extraterrestrials are not hostile, but are very concerned with human capability related to warfare and the militarization of space. Activity by extraterrestrial assets related to the neutralization of ICBM facilities and to containing military-oriented space exploration should be understood in light of their concern over a known history of human aggression which has been coupled with the advent of weapons of mass destruction and space exploration. Indeed, given the past history of human military assets focusing on and pursuing extraterrestrial spacecraft, we believe the extraterrestrials have responded with remarkable restraint.
Ironically, the threat to national security exists not with the extraterrestrial presence, but the current covert management of the subject. In the absence of extra-terrestrial hostility over 50 years, current secrecy cannot be justified on the basis of fear of extraterrestrial aggression. A disclosure related to the extraterrestrial presence, if calmly and rationally presented, will not cause panic in the USA or elsewhere. 1995 is not 1945, and world society has evolved to the point where this information can be assimilated in a positive fashion.
In contrast, the covert and apparently extra-constitutional management of this matter is a real threat to national and world security, and undermines constitutional freedom and democracy. Unless it is terminated, this covert management will greatly harm US national security and the chances of a lasting world peace.
Assessment:
It is our assessment that the current covert management of this issue involves the following elements which are a direct, immediate and ongoing threat to the national security. 1. The continued denial of the extraterrestrial presence creates a situation where a sudden, undeniable public extraterrestrial event could induce panic, since proactive disclosure efforts which could ameliorate public fears are non-existent. It is likely that such a public extraterrestrial event will transpire within the next 2-10 years or sooner. Therefore, secrecy and denial are a real threat to national and world security.
2. The current covert management of this issue appears to be operating independently and outside of the constitutional chain of command. The group controlling these operations, which involves reconnaissance, extraterrestrial technology back-engineering, and space-based targeting of ETS (among others) is non-responsive to congressional or Executive Branch oversight and control. This constitutes a real and grave threat to national security and to constitutional democracy and freedom. 3. We have credible, first-hand sources who insist that extraterrestrial spacecraft have been targeted by human covert space weapons and on at least two occasions have been destroyed. If true, the risks to world peace and security are real and imminent, and the continuation of these covert activities constitute the gravest dangers to national and world security. Hostile actions taken by human covert assets against extraterrestrial assets constitute a grave and immediate threat to the national security. A relatively small, covert entity, acting without consultation with the United Nations, the Congress, the President of the United States, or the public is engaging in actions on behalf of all humans which endanger the earth and world peace. Unless controlled, these actions could precipitate interplanetary conflict and a disaster for the world generally and the United States specifically. This covert management must be terminated and control of this issue returned to constitutional authority and to public domain.
4. The concentration of the technological advances related to the back-engineering of extraterrestrial technology into the hands of a small covert operation constitutes a grave and immediate threat to the national security, to world security, and to the future of the earth. These extraterrestrial technologies, which have been the object of covert research and development for over 45 years, are potentially of great benefit to humanity if used wisely for peaceful purposes, but are of immense danger when concentrated into a small covert operation which is unresponsive to the public or the legal and constitutional chain of command. The threat this poses to the US and world security is great, and the longer this situation continues, the greater the concentration of advanced technological power in the hands of a relative few. The secret control of such powerful technologies is inherently a threat to freedom, democracy, and to our nation and the world. Its utilization for covert agendas outside constitutional control represents a grave danger to the US and must be restrained and reversed.
5. Importantly, secrecy and covert operatives per se constitute a real threat to the national security, since national security in a constitutional democracy can only be legitimately related to freedom and democratic government. Only in very rare and well- justified circumstances can extreme secrecy and covert operations exist, since by nature freedom and democracy cannot coexist with unrestrained secrecy and secret power. The profound implications of the detection of extraterrestrial civilizations cannot be allowed to be the exclusive domain of covert operations which are unrelated to public discourse and consultation. To do so is to undermine the US Constitution, democracy and freedom, and this constitutes a real and grave threat to national security. 6. Finally, exclusive covert control of this matter has resulted and continues to result in the loss of opportunity for the world to come to terms with the extraterrestrial presence in a peaceful and mutually beneficial fashion. This means that the people of the world, the United Nations and other international and national institutions are deprived of the opportunity to deal rationally with this issue. National and world security are therefore negatively impacted by the loss of opportunities in the following areas:
The environment, which is seriously at risk for large-scale collapse over the next 100 years, would be profoundly improved if extraterrestrial technologies could be peacefully deployed. So-called zero point or free energy systems, which are non-polluting, would permit a sustainable technological civilization to exist on earth and would transform the earth environmentally and economically. Establishing peaceful and mutually beneficial relations with extraterrestrial civilizations would eventually permit us to understand and apply such technologies.
World unity and peace will be enhanced by the global realization that we are not alone in the universe. The acknowledgement of this fact will enhance the awareness that we are really one people living on the shared homeland of earth, and many of the conflicts currently afflicting the earth will be seen in a new perspective. This can be achieved without either deifying or demonizing the extraterrestrial presence, but rather placing it in a fair, scientific, and neutral light. Eventually, world peace and a significant enhancement in the current geopolitical situation may result from the disclosure that we are not alone. An international infrastructure, and institutions capable of dealing peacefully with relations with extraterrestrial civilizations would, of necessity, evolve, and this in turn would strengthen world unity and cooperation.
World culture, ideas, science and many other diverse areas may benefit through the development of peaceful relations with other worlds. While this process may take decades, if not centuries, its delay only puts off the time when the people of the earth will be united not only globally, but with other planetary civilizations as well.
In summary, it is imperative to the national security that the President and Congress undertake measures to terminate the secret, covert management of the UFO/ETI subject. Failure to place this matter in open, public discourse and control constitutes the gravest failure of democracy and government in the history of the world. That we do this is a test of our faith in democracy and our faith in the people. As the 21st century approaches, we must roll up the cancerous excesses of secrecy which are the legacy of the Cold War and unfurl a new era wherein democracy is reaffirmed and a lasting world peace is given a chance.
Steven M. Greer, M.D. Here is an interesting compilation of some intriguing videos by Steven Greer …
If Aliens Asked You to Board Their Craft,..What Would You Do?
If Aliens Asked You to Board Their Craft,..What Would You Do?
This is a question I ponder many times when thinking about UFO’s and a possible Extraterrestrial Presence on Earth.
What would I do if a Extraterrestrial craft landed in my backyard and the door opened or some kind of entry appeared where it seemed like I was being invited in to the craft?
Here is my thoughts on how my experience may play out! Please tell me what yours may be!
Maybe “they” would even be beckoning me telepathically or even standing by the entrance gesturing for me to come forward into the craft.
So hopefully after my initial shock and disbelief I would be still be thinking rationally and come up with a answer and either move forward and enter or maybe try to ask a few important questions like, “So you’re not going to poke and probe?”,..and “We are coming back right?”
As I run this scenario thru the my thought process, I realize I also should be documenting my experience with photo’s and video! “Where’s my Camera?”, “I’m Exited, Overwhelmed and Delirious in What I should Do!”
Then reality sets in and questions rise up as to why I would be experiencing this?
Why Me?
If a highly advanced race of Aliens made the journey to earth ,…why my backyard?
Surely Stephen Hawking, Seth Shostak (head of SETI), or even Giorgio A. Tsoukalos the “Alien Guy” would be a better choice?
This cant be Good!
I revert back to instinct and a voice in my head screams load and clear!
“NOT IN MY BACKYARD!”
Humans are the Species on Earth that claims ownership to the Planet and the dirt beneath its feet. Although we share the Planet with millions of other species we have claimed that we are the dominate species and ruler of the Planet,..and its Galaxy. With our technological advances we have claimed the Moon, Mars and more as ours. If we land there,we own it type attitude. Consuming property as our history as shown over and over again with each human empire pushing for more land and more control.
We defend what we own.
As humans we own our backyard and eliminate any intruders we find “unworthy”. We manicure our lawns and eliminate pests, rodents and plants we consider undesirable. We get angry if our space is trespassed by other people, I myself have been frustrated with teenagers who use my backyard as a short cut between streets. Also in our community complaints arise about crop duster noise and low flying planes over “MY BACKYARD”.
Even if we traverse past our own claimed domains we make temporary ownership. We camp in a forests and bring weapons to protect agonist predators!… in their own backyard! We dam rivers, manipulate weather, and continue to defy mother nature and build wherever we want to.
We may decide that parts of the Amazon are needed for our expansion?,..Oh we have done that!,.. or the Moon is ripe for strip mining! The Planet Mars for our new home away from home!
Haman quest is to always to reach past that final frontier and stake the flag indicating ownership.
“Planting the flag” usually means making a claim to something, usually … Throughout history men have “planted the flag” claiming ownership.
Realizing that no self-respecting galactic colonization force can conquer other planets without a proper flag, Oskar Pernefeldt created the International Flag of Planet Earth and showed off how it might look on a spacesuit and planted on extra-terrestrial soil.
So what would I do if a Alien Craft landed in my backyard?
Well, I didn’t go in to the backyard at night without some protection!
As the craft approached and attempted landing in my garden I unleashed a a warning shot over its spinning translucent top.
With visible extraterrestrials in the cockpit and as they ignored my warnings and landed on my sweet corn I took action.
I unleashed my Pit bulls on the open door in the craft! They took off as I unloaded the remaining bullets in the clip and although as they took off with my earth enslaved animals and seemed to explode in space due to the carnage I expect on board, I cant help wonder if they came in Peace?
This is just my thoughts and yours could be vastly different!
I hope they are and would love to hear them! (Cause I’m not a good ambassador candidate, obviously)
Dwarf planet discovery hints at a hidden Super Earth in solar system
Orbits sun at greater distance than any other known object
• 2012 VP 113 may be shepherded by unseen planet • Discovery team call it VP, or ‘Biden’ after US vice president
Astronomers have increased the size of the observable solar system after spotting a 450-km wide object orbiting the sun.
The lump of ice and rock circles the sun at a greater distance than any known object, and never gets closer than 12bn kilometres – 80 times the distance from Earth to the sun.
If its size is confirmed it could qualify as a dwarf planet in the same category as Pluto. Researchers said the discovery proves the existence of the inner Oort cloud, a region of icy bodies that lies far beyond the orbit of Neptune – which at 4.5bn kilometres from the sun is the most remote planet in the solar system.
Until a proper name is decided upon, the body is known only as 2012 VP113.According to the science journal Nature, the team that discovered it call it VP for short, or “Biden”, after US vice president Joe Biden.
Its pink tinge comes from radiation damage that alters the make-up of frozen water, methane and carbon dioxide on the surface.
Three images of the newly discovered dwarf planet 2012 VP 113 taken about two hours apart on 5 November 2012. Photograph: Scott S Sheppard/Carnegie Institution for Science
Though exciting in its own right, the discovery raises a more tantalising prospect for many astronomers: that a “Super Earth” up to 10 times the mass of our planet orbits the sun at such a great distance that it has never been seen.
Astronomers found 2012 VP113 by taking snapshots of the night sky an hour or so apart with an instrument called the Dark Energy Camera on the US National Optical Astronomy Observatory telescope in Chile. When they turned the images into a time-lapse movie of the sky, they could see the new body moving against the background of stationary stars.
“This object has the most distant orbit known,” Scott Sheppard at the Carnegie Institution of Washington told the Guardian. “It extends the known boundary of the observable solar system.”
The object’s orbit brings it as close as 12bn kilometres from the sun, and swings out as far as 67bn kilometres. There are comets that come from even farther out, but they pass much closer to our home planet.
The solar system has three distinct regions. Closest to the sun are the rocky planets, such as Venus, Earth and Mars. Farther out are the gas giants, such as Saturn and Jupiter. More distant still, beyond the orbit of Neptune, is a band of icy objects called the Kuiper belt.
In 2003, astronomers found an object beyond the Kuiper belt, which they called Sedna. For more than a decade, the object was a loner, an anomaly in the solar system. But the new body, 2012 VP113, lurks in the same no-man’s land of space, leading astronomers to believe there could be thousands of similar bodies waiting to be discovered there.
“People wondered if Sedna was unique, and 10 years on, we have at last found another object that shows it is not. There is probably a large population of objects out there,” Sheppard said.
The dwarf planet (coloured dots). Three images, each taken about two hours apart, were combined into one. The first was artificially colored red, second green and third blue. The background stars and galaxies did not move and so their red, green and blue images combine to show up as white sources. Photograph: Scott S Sheppard/Carnegie Institution for Science
The region of space where Sedna and 2012 VP113 were found is called the inner Oort cloud. Astronomers are unsure how this remote cloud of objects formed, but there are three competing theories. One is that a rogue planet was flung out of the early solar system and dragged the Oort cloud material with it.
Another is that the material was pulled out of the inner solar system by a passing star. The third option has the same job done by planets orbiting stars born in the same cluster as the sun.
“What is exciting about this work is that we know the inner Oort cloud is there. This is the second object we know of, and it’s a smoking gun,” said Meg Schwamb, a planetary scientist at theInstitute of Astronomy and Astrophysics at Academica Sinica in Taiwan. By studying the objects, astronomers hope to confirm how the inner Oort cloud formed.
Sheppard found the new object, reported in Nature, with fellow astronomer, Chad Trujillo, who works at the Gemini Observatory in Hawaii. Trujillo was a co-discoverer of Sedna in 2003.
The latest work has already thrown up an intriguing possibility. The angle of the body’s orbit and that of Sedna’s are strikingly similar, an effect most likely caused by the gravitational tug of another, unseen body. One possibility is a “Super Earth” that traces so large an orbit around the sun that it has never been seen.
“If you took a Super Earth and put it a few hundred astronomical units out, the gravity could shepherd Sedna and this new object into the orbits they have,” said Sheppard. An astronomical unit (AU) is around 150m kilometres, or the mean distance from Earth to the sun.
Earlier this month, Nasa’s Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (Wise) reported the results from its search for “Planet X”, a hypothesised planet far out in the solar system. It found no evidence for a new planet larger than Saturn within 10,000 AU of the sun. But Saturn is 95 times more massive than Earth, so a smaller Super Earth could go undetected in that region.
A fragment of a mysterious meteorite has been discovered
A small chunk of a giant meteorite has been discovered in a limestone quarry in Sweden, where it had been hidden for more than 270 million years.
The small slice of meteorite – which was once part of a 19 mile long meteorite which smashed into another body before being scattered over Earth – is different to every meteorite that has so far been found on Earth.
Experts have found fragments of the other body, but this is the first time they have discovered a part of the second meteorite that was involved in the collision.
The other meteorite, a much bigger body which was about 93 miles across, is believed to have crumbled in deep space and formed a debris belt between Mars and Jupiter.
However, some of the debris is believed to have rained down on Earth at the same time that invertebrate ocean life boomed – scientists are yet to conclude if the two events are linked.
Study co-author Birger Schmitz of Lund University in Sweden said: “The single meteorite that we now found ... is of a type that we do not know of from today’s world.
“The object contains very high concentrations [compared to Earth materials], of elements such as iridium, which is very rare on Earth.
GETTY
At the time the meteorite scattered on Earth, ocean life began to bloom
“The meteorite also contains high concentrations of rare isotopes of the element Neon.”
Scientists base their understanding of the formation of the solar system on meteorites which have fallen to Earth.
But this discovery adds more mystery about how our Sun and its surrounding bodies came to be.
The team explain in their study published in Nature Communications: “Apparently, there is potential to reconstruct important aspects of solar-system history by looking down on Earth sediments, in addition to looking up at the skies.”
It has launched a competition for scientists to create a thick and functional skin tissue that could survive off the planet.
The space agency is studying the health risks and improvements needed to medicine keep space crews healthy during future, longer, space missions.
It was worked with Methuselah Foundation's New Organ Alliance to investigate how to improve bioengineering through a competition called the Vascular Tissue Challenge.
The agency fund to three teams asked to create a "metabolically-functional" human vascularized organ tissue that can be artificially controlled inside a laboratory.
To win, teams have to produce a 1cm-thick tissue that can maintain more than 85 percent survival of its cells over 30 days.
Steve Jurczyk, associate administrator for NASA, said: "The humans who will be our deep space pioneers are our most important resource on the Journey to Mars and beyond."
The competition will test if the human tissue can withstand the factors involved in deep space explorations.
NASA spokesman
A NASA spokesman said: "The result of the competition will not only be beneficial to space exploration but it is also expected to revolutionize health care on Earth as well.
"The competition will test if the human tissue can withstand the factors involved in deep space explorations."
Tissues produced during the competition will serve as a model or organ substitute that will be used to study the effects of deep space factors such as radiation.
The spokesman added: "This technique will help NASA minimise the damage to actual healthy cells."
NASA believes that once the key barrier is removed, progress and further understanding follows, "once the 'vascularization limit' is solved, via the NASA Vascular Tissue Challenge, there inevitably will be a historic advance in progress and commercialization of tissue engineering applications to everyone's benefit," said Jurczyk, in a statement.
There are fears that creating artificial tissue will lead on to body parts and possibly eventually, full-blown human cloning.
Moons orbiting the gas giant could house alien life.
The US space agency has announced how scientists using the Kepler Space Telescope, which is used specifically to look for habitable planets, have found a giant Jupiter-sized planet orbiting two suns.
The planet would be unlikely to support life, as like Jupiter it is made of gas.
However, they said any moons orbiting it may be suitable for life to develop.
A team led by astronomers from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and San Diego State University (SDSU) in California, used NASA's Kepler Space Telescope to identify the new planet, Kepler-1647b.
A NASA spokesperson said: "Kepler-1647 is 3,700 light-years away and approximately 4.4billion years old, roughly the same age as Earth.
"The stars are similar to the Sun, with one slightly larger than our home star and the otherslightly smaller.
NASA
Comparison of the relative sizes of several Kepler circumbinary planets. Kepler-1647 b is substantially larger than any of the previously known circumbinary planets.
"The planet has a mass and radius nearly identical to that of Jupiter, making it the largest transiting circumbinary planet ever found.
"Like Jupiter, however, Kepler-1647b is a gas giant, making the planet unlikely to host life. Yet if the planet has large moons, they could potentially be suitable for life."
Planets that orbit two stars are known as circumbinary planets, or sometimes “Tatooine” planets, after Luke Skywalker’s home world in Star Wars.
Using Kepler data, astronomers search for slight dips in brightness that hint a planet might be passing or transiting in front of a star, blocking a tiny amount of the star’s light.
SDSU astronomer William Welsh said: "Finding circumbinary planets is much harder than finding planets around single stars.
Like Jupiter, however, Kepler-1647b is a gas giant, making the planet unlikely to host life. Yet if the planet has large moons, they could potentially be suitable for life.
NASA spokesperson
“The transits are not regularly spaced in time and they can vary in duration and even depth.”
SDSU astronomer Jerome Orosz, a co-author on the study, said: "It’s a bit curious that this biggest planet took so long to confirm, since it is easier to find big planets than small ones.
“But it is because its orbital period is so long.”
The planet takes 1,107 days – just over three years – to orbit its host stars, the longest period of any confirmed transiting exoplanet found so far.
The planet is also much further away from its stars than any other circumbinary planet, breaking with the tendency for circumbinary planets to have close-in orbits.
Interestingly, its orbit puts the planet with in the so-called habitable zone–the range of distances from a star where liquid water might pool on the surface of an orbiting planet
Mr Welsh said: "Habitability aside, Kepler-1647b is important because it is the tip of the iceberg of a theoretically predicted population of large, long-period circumbinary planets.”
Once a candidate planet is found, researchers employ advanced computer programs to determine if it really is a planet. It can be a grueling process.
Laurance Doyle, a co-author on the paper and astronomer at the SETI Institute, noticed a transit back in 2011. But more data and several years of analysis were needed to confirm the transit was indeed caused by a circumbinary planet.
A network of amateur astronomers in the Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope 'Follow-Up Network' provided additional observations that helped the researchers estimate the planet’s mass.
The discovery was announced today in San Diego at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society. The research has been accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal with Veselin Kostov, a NASA Goddard postdoctoral fellow, as lead author.
L’Hexagone vient de se doter d’un réseau unique au monde de détection des météorites, auquel participe la Suisse. Objectif: faciliter la récupération de ces objets riches en informations
Le 17 mai dernier à 0h50, un bolide a fendu le ciel du nord-est des Etats-Unis et du sud-est du Canada. Les centaines de personnes qui assistaient à la scène raconteront avoir aperçu une «boule de feu», très lumineuse, lancée à pleine vitesse. Quelques-unes feront aussi état d’une détonation, semblable à celle produite par un avion franchissant le mur du son.
De quoi s’agissait-il? Selon l’American Meteor Society (AMS), un petit astéroïde de moins d’un mètre, probablement un objet double, a pénétré cette nuit-là dans l’atmosphère terrestre et explosé en altitude. Mais ces experts ne peuvent guère en dire plus. Ils n’ont réussi ni à établir la provenance de ce corps dans le système solaire, ni à découvrir l’endroit où il était tombé.
Une telle mésaventure devrait être évitée en France. Une équipe du Muséum national d’histoire naturelle (MNHN), de l’Observatoire de Paris, du CNRS et d’Universités vient, en effet, d’annoncer le lancement d’un ambitieux projet, baptisé «FRIPON», (pour «Fireball Recovery and InterPlanetary Observation Network») visant à doter l’Hexagone d’un réseau unique au monde de «détection des bolides et des boules de feu», ces météores qui, à la différence des étoiles filantes, sont assez gros pour atteindre le sol.
Points de chute
Grâce à une vingtaine de détecteurs radio et à une centaine de caméras, offrant une vue du ciel sur 360°, disséminées sur le territoire français et dans certains Etats voisins dont la Suisse, ces chercheurs espèrent être bientôt en mesure de repérer et de suivre, au besoin sur des centaines de kilomètres, la trace flamboyante produite par ces astres au moment de leur entrée dans l’atmosphère. Avec un double objectif: reconstituer la trajectoire dans l’espace de ces objets avant leur rencontre avec la Terre et déterminer leurs points de chute à 1 km près. L’idée est de partir ensuite à la recherche des météorites, quitte à faire appel pour cela à des volontaires!
Caméra FRIPON à l'Observatoire du Pic du Midi
C’est ce qu’explique Brigitte Zanda du MNHN: «Une météorite peut apporter autant d’informations sur les astéroïdes que des échantillons ramenés par une mission spatiale.» Ces millions de petits corps rocheux ou cométaires dont 700 000 environ parmi les plus gros sont connus, naviguent, pour beaucoup d’entre eux, dans une région située entre Mars et Jupiter. Classés par familles selon les orbites qu’ils occupent, ils s’écrasent sur notre sol lorsqu’ils croisent le chemin de la Terre.
En théorie, l’analyse des météorites qui en sont les restes pourrait fournir une moisson de renseignements sur leur composition minéralogique, chimique ou isotopique, et permettre de mettre au jour de nouvelles catégories voire d’établir s’ils se regroupent en essaims d’objets de grande taille.
Un voyage mouvementé
Malheureusement, réussir à relier la météorite trouvée au sol à l’astéroïde ou au bolide aperçu dans l’espace, ou dans le ciel, s’avère ardu. En effet, au cours de son voyage mouvementé, l’objet subit toutes sortes de transformations, qui le rendent à chaque étape de moins en moins reconnaissable. Résultat, indique François Colas, de l’Observatoire de Paris: «A quelques exceptions près, on ne sait pas associer à une classe de météorites une famille d’astéroïdes, et encore moins un astre en particulier.»
Et cela même, dans le cas rarissime où la météorite a été récoltée suffisamment vite après sa chute pour ne pas avoir été contaminée par son séjour terrestre! Quant à essayer de suivre de bout en bout l’aventure aérospatiale vécue par l’un de ces objets, la méthode serait affaire de chance. Une seule équipe du SETI (le programme américain de recherche d’une intelligence extraterrestre) a réussi, en 2008, cet exploit. Mais elle avait bénéficié d’un formidable concours de circonstances!
D’où l’idée de revisiter à l’aune des progrès technologiques les vieilles méthodes. Installés en République tchèque, au Canada, en Allemagne, aux Etats-Unis, et en Australie, des réseaux «fireball» («boule de feu») constitués d’abord d’appareils photographiques, puis de caméras automatiques tentent, depuis les années 1950, de saisir l’image des bolides et des boules de feu lorsque, à 100 kilomètres d’altitude, ils pénètrent à une vitesse de 30 à 70 km par seconde dans les hautes couches de l’atmosphère.
Grâce à ces données et en faisant appel à des logiciels sophistiqués tenant compte de la topographie de la région, des vents et même d’une éventuelle fragmentation en morceaux de ces objets, les astronomes qui les utilisent réussissent à déterminer des points de chute. Une quinzaine de météorites ont été récoltées par ce moyen et une vingtaine d’orbites reconstituées!
La participation du public
«FRIPON» prétend faire beaucoup mieux. Le réseau français, entièrement automatisé, a d’abord à son actif d’être le plus dense et le plus étendu du monde. «Il déborde sur des pays voisins comme la Suisse où l’installation de quatre caméras est prévue sur des sites gérés par des amateurs comme celui de l’Observatoire astronomique du Jura à Vicques», explique le passionné suisse Michel Ory, qui est en relation avec l’équipe de «FRIPON».
Il aura ensuite l’avantage d’être équipé d’une vingtaine de récepteurs radio. Branchés en permanence sur le signal du radar militaire français «GRAVES» de surveillance des satellites survolant le territoire de l’Hexagone, ces dispositifs détecteront l’écho des bolides au moment de leur arrivée afin d’établir précisément leur vitesse. Une donnée qui, combinée à d’autres, permettra aux astronomes de reconstituer l’orbite où ils circulaient avant de rencontrer la Terre. Et de là, peut-être, de déterminer la zone du système solaire dont ils sont issus.
Enfin, «FRIPON» pourra compter sur la participation du public mobilisé dans le cadre d’un ambitieux programme de science participative. L’un de ses objectifs est de créer, dans chaque région, des groupes de volontaires prêts à se rendre sur les points de chute, à la recherche des météorites!
Grâce à l’ensemble de ces dispositions, les membres de FRIPON espèrent reconstituer en dix ans l’orbite d’un millier de bolides. Et retrouver une trentaine des 50 à 250 météorites qui selon leurs calculs tomberont sur le territoire français au cours de cette période.
La communauté scientifique suisse pourrait-elle être impliquée? «Ce n’est pas d’actualité, mais il n’est pas interdit de réfléchir à l’idée d’une collaboration tant le projet est enthousiasmant», estime Pierre Bratschi, astronome à l’Observatoire de Genève.
POSSIBLE ALIEN CRAFT CRASH IN SOUTH AFRICA’S WATERS
FEBURARY 18, 2008 …………. PORT SHEPSTONE SOUTH AFRICA
Port Shepstone rescuers are monitoring a mysterious situation in which “numerous” eye-witnesses reported an unidentified object crashing into the sea on 20 May 2006 around Cape Town, during the afternoon, the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) in South Africa had reported.
Eddie Noyons, NSRI Shelley Beach Station Commander, said eye- witnesses reported that an unidentified object had crashed into the sea behind the breaker line off-shore of the Port Shepstone High School. Police, rescue craft and a fixed wing aircraft were alerted to the scene to investigate. “Following a full scale search of the area covering 12 square nautical miles nothing has been found.” “There are no reports of activity in the area that may be related to this incident and there are no aircraft reported to be overdue or missing,” said Noyons.
He said numerous eye witnesses—including teachers and pupils attending a sports event at the high school and other by-standers including local fishermen—were convinced they had seen an craft go into the water, including seeing smoke and water exploding. Interviews with the witnesses revealed that some also reported seeing flames. “Some reported seeing something, an unidentified object, splash into the sea causing a ripple effect of waves,” Noyons said.
Due to the number of eye-witnesses with similar reports, it was presumed that weather activity in the area at the time might have given the impression of something falling into the sea. “We will continue to monitor the situation which remains a mystery,” he had said.
An image of the center of our galaxy, where Sagittarius B2 is located.
(Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ESA/CXC/STScI)
A peculiar new molecule hovering within a star-forming dust cloud in deep in space could help explain why life on Earth is the way it is.
The cloud, called Sagittarius B2, resides near the center of the Milky Way, and it’s there that researchers from the California Institute of Technology discovered an organic element that displays a key property shared by all life. Propylene oxide is the first element discovered outside of our solar system to exhibit chirality, or the presence of two distinct, mirror-image forms. Many complex molecules have this property, including myriad organic molecules necessary for life. The chemical formula of these two versions is exactly the same, but the structure is flipped.
Chirality? So What?
All life on Earth is composed of chiral molecules, and the versions organisms use, either right- or left-handed, determines fundamental properties of their biology. For example, all living things only use the right-handed form of the sugar ribose to form the backbone of DNA, giving it that the signature twist. You can think of molecular handedness by picturing gloves — hence the “handed terminology”. The gloves, or molecules, may look similar, but you could never put a left-handed glove on your right hand.
Ignoring the chirality of the molecules that we put in our bodies can have deadly consequences. The drug thalidomide, used in the mid-20th century as a sedative for pregnant women, turned out to cause terrible birth defects if taken at the wrong time. It turned out that thalidomide was made up of chiral molecules — some were left-handed and others were right-handed. One version would act as a sedative, while the other would lead to birth defects.
The fact that we are made up of molecules that look one way and and not the other has long presented a near-ontological question for researchers. The various building blocks of life here, sugars and amino acids, all share chirality with each other —sugars are all right-handed and amino acids are all left-handed — what’s called homochirality. While just one version may exist here on Earth, both right and left-molecules are possible. It isn’t known how life on this planet chose its preferred molecular handedness.
The question for researchers now is whether molecules on Earth are inherently better suited for life, or if chirality is a product of pure chance. It could be that conditions in the universe favor one form of organic molecules over the other — it has been suggested that the way that photons or electrons are polarized could preferentially destroy one form of a molecule over another.
“[It] provides us with a lab to try and test theories about the role chiral molecules played in the origins of life on earth and elsewhere in the galaxy,” says Brandon Carroll, a PhD candidate at Caltech and coauthor of the paper.
Powerful Telescopes
The researchers found traces of propylene oxide in Sagittarius B2 with the help of two radio telescopes, one in West Virginia and one in Australia. Every molecule emits radio waves in a unique frequency as it moves through space, which serves as an invisible signature. Using radio telescopes, researchers detect these emissions and match the wave frequency to known spectra. Using this method, the Caltech researchers determined that Sagittarius B2 contains significant amounts of propylene oxide, an organic chemical often used to manufacture plastics here on Earth.
While this propylene oxide is not used by any organic lifeforms here on Earth, it does prove that finding chiral molecules beyond our solar system is possible. They couldn’t determine which form of the molecule was present in Sagittarius B2, but the researchers say that it may be possible to determine handedness in the future by exploiting differences in how polarized light passes through the cloud.
We have previously found chiral organic molecules on comets and asteroids from our solar system, but scientists wanted to discover the presence of such molecules beyond our backyard. Our entire solar system was likely formed from a cloud of dust and gas much like Sagittarius B2, and the chirality of the molecules that went on to form the Earth, and eventually us, determined some of the most basic features of Earthly life. Discovering chiral molecules elsewhere is an important step toward elucidating the role that chirality plays in creating life and guiding its development.
This post has been updated to clarify that amino acids and sugars display different handedness.
1) Thalidomide rapidly racemizes under physiological conditions. Resolving the optical isomers achieves nothing. NSAIDs like ibuprofen had better be resolved, for the wrong isomer is overtly toxic - and these molecules slowly racemize in vivo. Think about that, pill poppers. 2) Any tetrahedral carbon with four different substituents is a chiral center. Finding propylene oxide in space pronounces on nothing re biological homochirality. "the structure is flipped." No, the structure is mirror-image (one coordinate axis' signs all reversed) non-superposable by only translations and rotations. 3) "you could never put a left-handed glove on your right hand." Turn it inside-out. Right glove! 4)" sugars and amino acids, all share chirality with each other" NO, all natural chiral sugars are right-handed, all natural chiral amino acids are left-handed - and don't use CIP notation for that, re cysteine. Racemases invert amino acid handedness for biological advantages. Remember naughty glycine. 5) "They couldn’t determine which form of the molecule was present in Sagittarius B2" Enantiomers have rigorously identical physical properties absent a chiral field to create diastereomeric divergence re optical rotation, linearly polarized light being a racemic mixture of left- and right-circularly polarized light interacting with a net chiral medium to suffer different refractive indices, hence a relative phase shift. 6) Electronic chirality is generated by a pseudoscalar, a vector, and a pseudodeviator. Only the first requires geometric chirality. 7)"Discovering chiral molecules elsewhere is an important step toward elucidating the role that chirality plays in creating life and guiding its development." Aw, crap. Yo momma so stupid she she thinks menopause is a boy's bathroom.
Initially the article' writing made me think they'd found a lot of left-handed propylene oxide. That would have been stunning. However, it looks to me like they have zero evidence the stuff they found is not merely a racemic mixture. And that "discovery" is of absolutely no interest.
Humans are unlikely to hear from aliens for at least 1,500 years, scientists have calculated
Astronomers at Cornell University in the US have developed a new equation which seeks to explain the Fermi Paradox, a philosophical conundrum which asks why extra-terrestrials have not been in touch if billions of Earth-like planets exist in our galaxy.
Essentially, if the universe is teeming with aliens, as predicted, where is everyone?
The scientists have calculated that signals from Earth would need to reach half of all the Sun systems in the Milky Way to be sure of being picked up by an advanced civilisation. And that is unlikely to happen for 1,500 years.
Zoom into the heart of the Milky Way in Hubble Space Telescope's new videoPlay!00:38
“We haven’t heard from aliens yet, as space is a big place but that doesn’t mean no one is out there,” said student Evan Solomonides , who is presenting the equation at Astronomical Society’s meeting June 16 in San Diego.
“It’s possible to hear any time at all, but it becomes likely we will have heard around 1,500 years from now.
“Until then, it is possible that we appear to be alone, even if we are not. But if we stop listening or looking, we may miss the signals. So we should keep looking.”
Signals are being beamed from Earth - pictured here surrounded by orbiting satellites - all the time, and should be picked up by a civilisation within 1,500 years
Aliens are likely to first hear TV and radio signals that are being sent into space all the time as a by-product of broadcasting.
These signals have been traveling from Earth for 80 years at the speed of light.
For aliens receiving these transmissions, they would likely be indecipherable, and only an advanced civilisation would be capable ofdecoding radio waves into sounds, then working out the languages spoken.
Top 10 Mysterious UFO Sightings Caught Around The World
So far Earth’s broadcast signals have reached every star within about 80 light-years from the Sun, around 8,531 stars and 3,555 Earth-like planets. But our Milky Way galaxy alone contains 200 billion stars so there is still a long way to go.
However Mr Solomonides is optimistic because of the Mediocrity Principle, which suggests that Earth is unlikely to be unique in the Universe.
Stephen Hawking Launches Search for Signs of Life in Universe
“We are on the third planet around a tediously boring star surrounded by other completely normal stars about two-thirds of the way along one of several arms of a remarkably average spiral galaxy,” he added.
“We are not in any special location in the universe, we should not be anything special in the universe.”
Last year Russian billionaire Yuri Milner and Professor Stephen Hawking announced a multi-million pound project to hunt for signs of alien life.
BOOK REVIEW: The Aztec UFO incident by Scott Ramsey, Suzanne Ramsey, and Frank Thayer, PhD (The Career Press) 2016
It was around 1982 when I came across a copy of Charles Berlitz and William L. Moore’s 1980 book The Roswell Incident, with its garish, red dust jacket, in a public library in Little Rock, Arkansas.
By that time I was already consuming vast pages of Berlitz material, including his popular books about The Bermuda Triangle, The Philadelphia Experiment and the lost continent of Atlantis. It was much later when I learned that both Berlitz and Moore were likely covert government agents who were possibly spreading disinformation.
Nevertheless, I was hooked on the information in that book and other books to come about the 1947 Roswell UFO crash and the mystery (and government cover-up) surrounding it.
On the periphery of the Roswell story involved another UFO crash in another part of New Mexico, this one near the small town of Aztec, in the northern part of the state, near the Colorado line. It was here, on March 25, 1948 - some eight months after a saucer crashed near Roswell - that a similar “extraterrestrial spacecraft” crash-landed on a mesa, above Hart Canyon, and was seen by dozens of civilians who happened to be in the area, until the military swooped in, secured the area and trucked the craft away.
A pretty extraordinary story, right? You bet! I’d heard rumors about it but nothing substantial. And since 1980, the word “Roswell” has dominated, sucking all the air out of the room. But with this Aztec story, it was usually dismissed as a hoax, even though it was back in 1950 when journalist Frank Scully wrote Behind the Flying Saucers, the book that brought the Aztec mystery to the masses, only to be smeared by various intelligence agents and jealous journos of the day (against the backdrop of the Cold War and witch hunts against anti-American “subversives”), leaving a cloud hanging over the story for decades. The authors, here, get into that matter as well, explaining it clearly.
My views on Aztec, however, have definitely changed. In fact, I would say the UFO crash near Aztec, N.M., as described in The Aztec UFO Incident by husband-and-wife research team Scott and Suzanne Ramsey, along with journalist Dr. Frank Thayer, has utterly convinced me that a 100-foot diameter flying saucer – complete with dead aliens onboard – did go down that spring morning 68 years ago.
And while skeptics often point to books like The Roswell Incident as sloppy and quick cash-ins meant to both titillate and (possibly) deceive the public, The Aztec UFO Incidentinvolved literally three decades of research; lengthy interviews with witnesses and their families and friends, examinations of thousands of government documents, numerous visits to the actual crash site, samples of soil taken and studied, and an indefatigable desire to present the truth about what happened at Aztec all those years ago.
And there is plenty of page-turning intrigue and “wow” moments in these pages, along with photos, maps and photocopied documents related to the Aztec mystery. The Ramseys and Thayer have done their homework here – and then some!
One eyewitness, a Colorado preacher named Solon Brown, told his son – who told the authors – about coming upon the crash site that morning and seeing the large, disc-shaped craft and “little bodies (that) had passed on” and appeared to have been burned. The experience shook Brown to the core and he would share this – tears in his eyes - with others at his church, people who knew this respected pillar of the community would never make up an outrageous story.
Another eyewitness, Fred Reed, told of being in the OSS (Office of Strategic Services) and being involved in the “clean up” of the crash site, “re-landscaping,” which involved planting new trees where existing ones had been damaged in the crash.
There are more stories like that, gathered by these three authors who exhaustively – and conclusively – prove that an unidentified flying object, likely disabled, came out of the sky, struck a mesa and continued flying northward until it landed at another mesa near Aztec. Oil field workers, police, ministers and other saw the craft – and a dozen or so dead alien bodies.
(OpenMinds.tv)
The Aztec UFO Incident is a gripping story, in a way that is even more bizarre than the Roswell crash in that so many more eyewitnesses were present. But with the US Government stung by the aftermath of Roswell – the initial report and the subsequent cover-up – made them wiser and more secretive about future incidents such as Aztec. But this book shines a spotlight on this world-shaking event, and we have these authors to thank.
Hopefully, The Aztec UFO Incident will open the eyes of the public – a public that has been lied to, by its own government, for far too long when it comes to the UFO reality.
Last night, friends of the Scotland From The Roadside page got in a Facebook frenzy after this '"fireball" dropped from the sky.
The original poster, Reg Connon, uploaded some pictures from Macduff on the Moray Firth coast , and asked "Last night about 10pm dot in the sky - any ideas what it is?"
The (more than 120) answers he got ranged from an aeroplane reflecting the sun to a passing International Space Station, aliens landing in a UFO and even Superman.
Some thought it was a meteor and others blamed a 'second coming'.
The most plausible explanation came from Steve Balfour, who worked out which plane it could have been.
‘Gloed in de lucht’ en harde explosies: Siberische landschap bezaaid met mysterieuze kraters
Overal in Siberië ontstaan reusachtige gaten in de bevroren grond. De explosies die daarmee gepaard gaan worden tot op een afstand van 100 kilometer gehoord, schrijft de Siberian Times. Waar komen de mysterieuze gaten vandaan?
Een groep herders ontdekte drie jaar geleden in West-Siberië voor het eerst zo’n krater, meldt Tech Insider. De herders werden naar eigen zeggen bijna opgeslokt door de krater. Daarna zijn er nog zo’n 20 enorme gaten gevonden, waarvan sommige meer dan 100 meter diep zijn.
Lokale bewoners die op enkele tientallen kilometers van een krater wonen, zeggen vreemde dingen te hebben gezien en gehoord kort voordat de krater werd gevonden. “Inwoners van nabijgelegen dorpen spreken van een geluid als een explosie en één van hen zag duidelijk een gloed aan de hemel,” zei de gerespecteerde wetenschapper dr. Vladimir Epifanov.
Poort naar de onderwereld
In 2014 werd door een piloot een enorme krater gespot op het Siberische Jamal-schiereiland. Men noemde onder meer aliens en ondergrondse raketten als mogelijke verklaringen, aldus de Washington Post.
Aangezien het gebied enorm groot en dunbevolkt is, is het aannemelijk dat er nog meer kraters zijn. Drie jaar later tasten wetenschappers nog steeds in het duister over de oorzaak van de kraters.
De Batagaika-krater zorgt bij wetenschappers voor kopzorgen. ‘De poort naar de onderwereld’ zoals het gapende gat ook wel wordt genoemd, wordt ieder jaar 20 meter breder. Ondertussen is het gat al meer dan een kilometer lang en 90 meter diep. De grootste bezorgdheid bij de lokale bevolking zijn de luide ploffen die te horen zijn in de krater.
Pingo’s
Wetenschappers zien de opwarming van de aarde als de grote boosdoener, maar permafrostdeskundige Jorien Vonk is voorzichtiger. De klimaatopwarming hoeft volgens haar geen dader te zijn. “De opwarming zorgt met name voor effecten aan het oppervlak en niet zozeer op grote diepte,” zei ze.
Om te achterhalen hoe de mysterieuze gaten zo plots kunnen ontstaan, heeft aardwetenschapper Ko van Huissteden met zijn collega’s een onderzoeksvoorstel ingediend. Hij wil met satellieten vier jaar lang bijhouden waar de grond inzakt.
Van Huissteden ziet instortende heuvels als een mogelijkheid. “In de aardwetenschap heten deze heuvels pingo’s,” zei hij. “Ze ontstaan als onder de grond water bevriest. Omdat water uitzet als het bevriest, drukt het de grond omhoog. In de zomer ontdooit het water waardoor de grond ineens kan instorten.”
California pilot reports ‘dogfight’ with sphere UFO
A California private pilot at San Bernardino reported a close encounter with a sphere-shaped UFO that came within 150 feet of his aircraft, according to testimony in Case 76954 from the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) witness reporting database.
The pilot encountered the object at about 1,000 feet AGL. Pictured: San Bernardino, CA, skyline.
(Credit: Wikimedia Commons)
The event occurred on June 5, 2016, while the witness was flying a private aircraft shortly after takeoff while still in the traffic pattern.
“I encountered an unidentified object at approximately 1,000 feet AGL,” the witness stated.“Object was going in the opposite direction and passed within 300 feet off my left wing. It was a metallic orb that reflected the light brilliantly and was approximately the size of a basketball.”
The object first passed within 300 feet of the aircraft. (Credit: Google)
The pilot banked hard left in an attempt to chase the object, placing his aircraft at its 6:00 position.
“Almost immediately the object did a hard left turn accelerating to a position opposite my left wing and within 150 feet. I banked hard left again and became engaged in a two-turn ‘Dogfight’ with the object as we both tried to get on each other’s tail. After the second turn the object broke away in a southern direction. I lost sight after that.”
This is the second encounter the pilot has had with an identical object while in the air. The pilot stated that the last encounter was in 1978.
The object came within 150 feet of the airplane on a second pass.
(Credit: Google)
San Bernardino is the county seat of San Bernardino County, CA, population 209,924. California Field Investigator Linda Flechtner is investigating. Please remember that most UFO sightings can be explained as something natural or man-made. The above quotes were edited for clarity. Please report UFO activity to MUFON.com.
This is a really cool sighting from Mexico. I actually saw something like this yesterday on the Colima cam, but didn't report it because it wasn't clear enough, but this one is fantastic. Here you can make out dark disk with a thick center area and a round window or doorway on the edge. Wow, just mind-blowing. Scott C. Waring www.ufosightingsdaily.com Inexplicata states: Mexico: A "Flying Saucer" over Colima's Volcán de Fuego Mexico's Criterio Hidalgo (from Pachuca, state of Hidalgo)has reprinted a photograph of an alleged UFO captured by Webcams de Mexico (which has acquired a worldwide reputation for its captures of unusual phenomena over the Popocatepetl Volcano). The text reads as follows: "A new UFO photo has gone viral on social media, shown near the Volcan de Fuego in the state of Colima. Through its Facebook account, Webcams de Mexico displayed the photograph last Friday, showing an object crossing the sky near the fiery colossus. The photo asks the question "what could it be?" in order that users may leave their comments about what appears to be a flying saucers."
Internationally-recognized UFO expert and conspiracy theorist Jim Marrs speaks at the 2016 Aurora Alien Encounter held on Sat. Apr. 16, 2016 at the MD Resort in Aurora, Texas.
Writer Nick Redfern, expert on the paranormal who has written dozens of books on UFOs, cryptozoology, and other arcane subjects, will give a presentation about famous UFO cases in Texas including the Lubbock Lights, the Levelland UFO case, the Cash-Landrum UFO Incident, and the Stephenville Lights. Redfern has been featured on numerous TV shows including the BBC’s Out of This World; the SyFy Channel’s Proof Positive; and the History Channel’s Monster Quest, America’s Book of Secrets, Ancient Aliens and UFO Hunters. Originally from the United Kingdom, Nick now resides just outside of Dallas
Texas author Noe Torres, will talk about another UFO crash in Texas similar to the Aurora case but 58 years later. Torres’ book The Other Roswell: UFO Crash on the Texas-Mexico Border first disclosed the amazing story of Air Force Reservist Colonel Robert Willingham’s encounter with a crashed UFO near Del Rio, Texas, in 1955. Willingham said he visited the site of the saucer and saw three non-human entities through a hole in the ruptured hull of the ship. The strange beings, two of which were badly mangled, appeared to have died in the crash. “It didn’t look like humans to me,” Willingham said. The retired aviator said the beings had large heads, slit-like mouths, and “arms like broomsticks.” World-renowned UFO investigator Dr. Bruce Maccabee calls the case “One of the world’s most interesting UFO crash retrieval stories.” He has written seven books about famous UFO cases, has appeared on the History Channel’s UFO Hunters television series, the Travel Channel’s Mysteries at the National Parks, and has spoken at and also helped organize numerous UFO conferences throughout Texas.
Texas UFO researcher Stephen Andrasko, will talk about UFO sightings in the 1800s, as featured in the recent book The Real Cowboys and Aliens: UFO Encounters of the Old West, for which he assisted with the research. When the Steven Spielberg movie Cowboys and Aliens was released in 2011, many people wondered if UFOs were really ever seen by the cowboys and ranchers of America’s Old West. The answer is a resounding “YES,” according to Andrasko, who will present a number of incredible tales of encounters between real cowboys and real UFOs.
Award winning Writer Tui Snider, specializing in offbeat, quirky travel destinations. Aurora, was featured in her book Unexpected Texas: Your guide to Offbeat & Overlooked History, Day Trips & Fun things to do near Dallas & Fort Worth. She has titled her talk “What on Earth were they Thinking? Public Reaction to the 1897 Texas Airship Mystery.”
An Expert Warns Human Race Has No Match Against Alien Invasion
The extraterrestrial threat may not be the same as what Hollywood movies are trying to portray where humans put up a defiant fight against alien invasion. Top scientist Dr Michio Kaku, who believes there’s life out there undiscovered, suggests that aliens can destroy humanity very quickly. However, he claims they may not be bothered by our existence.
NASA’s Kepler satellite has so far discovered over 100 confirmed alien planets. However, Dr Kaku, Discovery channel’s Curiosity series advisor, claims even if extraterrestrial beings do exist, they may not be bothered.
Dr Kaku says that Hollywood gets it all wrong on its portrayal of the human-alien hostile encounter. Kaku explains that Hollywood assumes advanced civilisations of maybe 100 years can be defeated if we have a secret weapon that will defeat the aliens. He stresses that this assumption is wrong.
Dr Kaku offers two possible scenarios; either the aliens consider humans too primitive, and it is a waste of time to bother about us, or if they do invade, it will like Bambi vs. Godzilla.
He notes that the universe is 13.7 billion years old, and extraterrestrials could be a thousand, or even a million years advanced than mankind.
Dr Kaku, however, believes that humanity can still defeat aliens if humanity will learn and adapt to their technology.
He uses the feat of the Barbarians against the Romans as an example. The Barbarians did not have a secretive weapon against the Romans, but the former learned the technology from the latter. The Barbarians eventually defeated Caesar and the Romans.
This Day In UFO History; Man Meets With Aliens And Takes Photos, June 16, 1963, UFO Sighting News
Date of sighting: June 16, 1963 Location of sighting: Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA Source:
June 16, 1963-close Albuquerque, N.M. Apolinar A. Estate, Jr., 49, a technician of 601 Niagara N.E.; Albuquerque, New Mexico, had a one of a kind benefit having prearranged gatherings with Space People for the particular reason for taking photos of their art.
Evidently, contacts of some kind with space individuals are not new to Mr. Estate. He says that he has been taught clairvoyance by extraterrestrial insight since he was five years of age. Despite the fact that he didn't finish the tenth grade of school, he appears to have a decent learning on such subjects as arithmetic, power, material science, and mechanics, and has a bizarre "blessing" for distinguishing deformities in motors, generators, and so on.
Manor says that preceding capturing his first arrangement of saucers in 1963, he had seen around five Flying Saucers in the past five years, and he had chatted with a spaceman already. He said that his first picture-taking contact was his second in-individual meeting with extraterrestrial creatures. The first was in 1953 while he was working for the Department of Water and Power in Los Angeles. While at work one day in Long Beach, he had a compelling impulse to go down to the shoreline, an inclination he didn't get it. There he met a man around 7 feet tall. At first Villa was a perplexed and needed to flee. Be that as it may, the man called him by name, and let him know numerous individual things about himself. "Manor understood that he was speaking with an extremely predominant insight, and he then got to be mindful this being was a spaceman. "He knew all that I had in my brain and let me know numerous things that had happened in my life," Villa says. " He then instructed me to watch out past the reef. I saw a metallic looking plate formed item that appeared to drift on the water. At that point the spaceman inquired as to whether I might I want to get onto the art and glance around, and I ran with him." He said the saucer inhabitants were totally humanoid in appearance, albeit preferable looking as a rule over Earth individuals, as they were certainly more refined in the face and the body. Additionally they had a propelled learning of science, as confirm by their specialty, and by their discussion with him."
They advised Villa that the entire cosmic system to which our Earth has a place is a grain of sand on an immense shoreline, in connection to the unbelievable number of possessed worlds in the whole Universe. In view of their innovative progression, their spaceships can infiltrate the Earth's radar location framework, with the goal that they are gotten on our radar screens just when they point out their nearness in our skies. It appears that their art are always dynamic over our surface, and that they arrange more sightings and arrivals with a specific end goal to expand open consciousness of their presence.
They said they were here on a neighborly mission to help our kin; that they have bases on our moon; that Phobos, one of the two moons of Mars is empty and is misleadingly developed; and that their is a Superior Intelligence that represents the Universe and everything in it.
For his first arrangement of pictures, Mr. Estate says his space contacts let him know, clairvoyantly, to drive his get truck on June 16, (1963), to the meeting place, alone. There he saw a landed Flying saucer which he assessed to be around 70 feet in distance across. There were nine individuals on board the boat: four men and five ladies. They landed through a hermetically fixed entryway. These creatures, he says, extended in range from seven to nine feet and were proportional. Some were light; some were red-headed; (like cleaned copper); and some had dark hair. They let him know they originated from the cosmic system of Coma Berenices, numerous light years separation.
They could talk numerous dialects, and in addition to convey clairvoyantly. Manor was told the art worked as a Mothership for its nine remotely-controlled observing plates which were 14 inches in measurement, and were controlled from instrument boards in the Mothership. They could get pictures and sounds from any zone from which they were coordinated, and after that could then transfer them to TV boards on board the Mother Craft. They allowed Villa to take photograph's of their boat which postured and drifted near the surface somewhere around 2 and 4P.M. while he took different shots of the art surrounded by the trees in the frontal area. He utilized a Japanese-made Rokuoh-Sha camera with a f4.6, 75mm lens stacked with 120 Kodak film. Two of the photograph's demonstrate the boat in a vertical position, on its side, to show that the Space People have made a manufactured gravity inside the specialty, and in this way are totally agreeable regardless of what position the boat is in, with respect to a planet's surface..
By chance, in photograph #7...???, the vents in the body, thought by some to be port gaps, are not windows, but rather are openings straightforwardly worried with the drive of the boat. Manor says they let him know that the vents are opened just inside a planets environment - never in space.
Another contact... for his second arrangement of pictures, Villa was clairvoyantly guided, to another region close Bernalillo, New Mexico - around 15 miles north of Albuquerque. This was on Easter Sunday, April 18, 1965. The boat found in photograph's #1,2 and 3, anticipated a beam which brought about a little wildfire. The smoke from the flame is visible(more unmistakably in color)in the trees just underneath the art, and simply above and to one side of the rear end of Villa's truck.(Note: I have the photo's..Dex) In one photograph they scorched a tree top - by utilization of a beam coordinated from the boat.
These things were done to exhibit some of their capacities. The boat landed and Villa passed judgment on it to be 300 feet in distance across. It had telescopic, tripod landing gear, which are distending from the base of the art in photograph's ???(Note: I don't have...Dex). The three crew member had light chestnut hair and tan skin. They gave off an impression of being around 5'8" or 5'9" tall. Estate chatted with them for almost two hours about individual and also broad matters. They let him know that our Astronauts, Edward White and James McDivitt, on their now-renowned GT-4 flight, were truly seeing a spaceship when they reported locating the Pegasus-like item. They additionally said our Government won't discharge the Mariner-4 photograph's since they indicate pumping stations for the waterway frameworks on Mars. They included, that by 1966, 17 countries will have the Atomic Bomb. Manor says they bantered both in Spanish(his local language)and in English. On their recommendation, the Contactee says, he quit smoking to upgrade his capacity to get clairvoyant interchanges.
'Twisty' Molecule Essential to Life Spotted in Deep Space For 1st Time
By Sarah Lewin, Space.com Staff Writer
For the first time, scientists have measured a "handed" molecule in interstellar space. The molecule, propylene oxide, comes in both "left-handed" and "right-handed" varieties. It was found in the huge star-forming cloud of gas Sagittarius B2, pictured here alongside Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the Milky Way's center.
Credit: B. Saxton, NRAO/AUI/NSF from data provided by N.E. Kassim, Naval Research Laboratory, Sloan Digital Sky Survey
Molecules with "right-handed" and "left-handed" versions are essential to all life on Earth, and have been found in meteors and comets. Now, for the first time, one has been spotted in interstellar space.
Discovering such molecules in deep space, called chiral molecules, can help researchers understand the development of life on Earth, which is rich in those complex molecules — what presenters at the American Astronomical Society's summer meeting in San Diego called "life's first handshake." The discovery is explained in this new video by Science Magazine.
"This [discovery] is going to provide us with a laboratory to try to test theories about the role that chiral molecules played in the origins of life here on Earth and how that chirality might play a role in the origins of life elsewhere in the galaxy," Brett McGuire, a researcher at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Virginia and co-first author on the new work, said at the AAS press conference today (June 14). [50 Fabulous Deep-Space Nebula Photos]
The researchers used the National Science Foundation's Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia and the Parkes radio telescope in Australia to pinpoint the intricate molecule propylene oxide near the center of the Milky Way, in the mammoth star-forming cloud of gas called Sagittarius B2.
Science of chirality
Key biological reactions on Earth rely on molecules with the property called chirality — compounds that can form in two different varieties that are mirror images of each other, sort of like left and right hands. Though the molecules are made of the same components, it's impossible to flip one around to make it exactly match the other.
On Earth, most chiral molecules exist largely in a single formation, even though when you create them chemically from scratch, both varieties will form. Many chemical reactions only work when molecules of a particular "handedness" interact with each other.
"When you shake somebody's hand, your right hand shakes another right hand, and it forms that nice, interlocking gesture; if you try to shake a left hand with your right hand it's a little awkward because the interaction is different," McGuire said. "Chiral molecules work the same way."
(For instance, the chemical carvone will smell like spearmint in one configuration, but its mirror image smells like caraway.)
Processes powered by one particular "handedness" will produce more of that same type of molecule, and molecules with the wrong "handedness" won't work at all in many biological systems. Because of that, most of the important chiral molecules on Earth, like amino acids, are all the same "handedness" as each other. But scientists don't know how the Earth came to favor particular varieties to start with.
A cosmic handshake
Researchers have found complex organic molecules on meteorites and comets, including chiral molecules which have shown a slight preference for one handedness over the other. Just a few percent excess "could be the tipping point that pushed life in a single direction, and that gave life the push it needed to, say, use only left-handed amino acids," Brandon Carroll, the work's other first author and a chemistry graduate student at California Institute of Technology, said at the conference.
"But if we want to understand where and how this started, we have to go even further back than the meteorites; we have to look at the gas clouds where these molecules formed from," he added.
In this case, they spotted a hefty dose of propylene oxide in distant interstellar space — about 80 percent Earth's mass, which at room temperature would take up five and a half earths' worth of space, Carroll said.
If chiral materials had existed already in the cloud of gas and dust from which the solar system formed, or if they'd fallen to Earth on a meteoriteor had been carried on a comet, that could explain Earth's preference — and also help explain the process of life's first formation on Earth.
The researchers' measurements of the propylene oxide don't reveal which handedness the far-off molecules have; the data from the radio telescopes show only the composition, not how each molecule is put together. However, future work could try to determine that by watching how the molecules interact with polarized light, which corkscrews in a particular direction, the researchers said.
"Now it gives us a testbed, some molecule we can actually go back and perform the far more complicated and challenging observations necessary to detect the handedness," Carroll said. "That's what we're really excited about, because that will let us start to test theories about processes that might actually have chiral preference in the interstellar medium."
Gravitational Wave Detector Finds Double Colliding Black Holes — Again (Woot!)
By Calla Cofield, Staff Writer
Distortions in the fabric of space-time, which were predicted by Albert Einstein a century ago, have been directly detected for the second time.
Approximately 1.4 billion light-years from Earth, two black holes spiraled around each other and collided, creating ripples in the fabric of space-time. These ripples, known as gravitational waves, arrived at Earth in December 2015, and were detected by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO).
The LIGO collaboration announced the finding today (June 15) during a news conference at the 228th meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) in San Diego. The gravitational wave signal — officially known as GW151226 — was detected by LIGO on Dec. 25, 2015, at 11: 38 p.m. EDT (0338 a.m. GMT on Dec. 26). [Again! Gravitational Waves Detected from 2nd Black Hole Collision]
In the U.S., many of the LIGO scientists were still been celebrating Christmas Day when the news arrived, and it "destroyed a few family dinners," said Vicky Kalogera, an astrophysicist at Northwestern University and a member of the LIGO collaboration, in an interview with Space.com.
LIGO made the first-ever direct detection of gravitational waves in September 2015, and team members announced that finding in February. That first gravitational wave signal was also created by two colliding black holes.
An artists illustration of two black holes circling around each other and colliding, 1.4 billion light years from Earth. The merger created ripples in spacetime called gravitational waves. LIGO detected those waves in December, 2015.
Credit: LIGO
"The second discovery means the first discovery was not a one-off, 'we got lucky,' kind of thing," David Reitze, current executive director of the LIGO Laboratory, told Space.com. "If I could encapsulate what the second discovery means … it's that LIGO is for real."
LIGO scientists waited until now to announce the second detection because they had to make sure that it was real, and that it was caused by a black hole collision, team members said.
Warped space
Einstein showed that space is not a fixed stage on which cosmic events play out, but rather a flexible fabric, like a 3D rubber sheet. Space can be warped by gravity, so the mass of the Earth, for example, creates a curve in space. (Einstein also showed that time is par of this universal fabric, and he combined space and time into the single universal feature called space-time).
Black holes are the densest objects in the universe, and create intense curves in space-time. When two black holes move around each other very quickly, those curves in space become ripples, and move outward.
This graph shows the gravitational wave signal detected by LIGO on in December of 2016.
Credit: LIGO
Kalogera said the masses of the black holes provide clues about how they formed. Lighter black holes — those around 10 times the mass of the sun — very likely formed from two massive stars that lived close to each other, each perhaps siphoning material away from the other in a sort of cannibalistic relationship.The black holes that collided 1.4 billion years ago weighed about 14.2 and 7.5 times the mass of the sun, according to a paper detailing the new finding, published in the journal Physical Review Letters this week. (The gravitational wave signal detected by LIGO in September was created by two colliding black holes with masses of about 29 and 36 times that of the sun.) [How Gravitational Waves Work (Infographic)]
The fate of the two stars most likely followed a pattern seen all over the universe: Eventually the stars ran out of fuel, and their internal engines stopped burning. With nothing to keep them inflated, the stars collapsed. Following such a collapse, most massive stars will explode into a supernova, but at their core, the rapid inward rush of material drives up the internal pressure to the point that it creates a black hole. The gravitational pull of the new object is so intense, even light cannot escape.
The two black holes remain partners even after death, slowly spiraling around each other, eventually colliding. Einstein also showed that mass and energy are two sides of the same coin, and during this black hole merger, a quantity of mass "roughly equivalent to the mass of the sun was converted into gravitational waves," according to a statement from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which operates LIGO in collaboration with the California Institute of Technology.
This map of the sky shows the region where the gravitational wave signal detected by LIGO in December, 2015, came from. The detectors are currently only able to narrow down the location of the signal source to an area spanning 1,400 square degrees of sky.
Credit: LIGO
The signal from the newly discovered black holes was slightly fainter than the signal detected in September. The faintness of the signal partly determines how well LIGO can narrow down the location of the event in the sky — the new signal came from somewhere in a region that measures 1,400 square degrees (the full moon is about one-half a degree on the sky). The September signal, which was "louder," came from a region measuring 600 square degrees.
Scientists hope to be able to narrow down the location of future events with the addition of more gravitational wave detectors, including the Virgo facility, located in Italy, which is scheduled to come online in January. The Virgo collaboration consists of 19 European research groups.
LIGO's first detection of gravitational waves back in September came immediately after a significant upgrade to the instruments, which increased LIGO's overall sensitivity. The observatory's detection of two double-black-hole collisions in its first four months of operation after the upgrade suggests that the observatory will be seeing more of these events in the future, Reitze said.
Black holes, true to their name, do not radiate or reflect light. However, in some cases, rapidly moving matter around a black hole will generate light and reveal the monster's presence to astronomers.
But as two black holes orbit around each other, any nearby matter is expected to be flung outward, like a cosmic salad spinner. According to scientists with the LIGO collaboration, that means these types of black hole pairs (those that are about 10 to 100 times the mass of the sun) are not expected to be visible to telescopes and observatories that see light or other particles.
"So far, gravitational wave detectors are the only way to see these kinds of systems," Reitze said. "So that's pretty exciting. I think we've opened up a window on black hole astrophysics that heretofore has not been opened."
(However, Kalogera added that the astrophysics community is open to the possibility that observations of these black hole collisions will reveal surprises, including, perhaps, the discovery that they do create light).
Each detector is an L-shaped structure with arms 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) long. A laser beam shines down each arm from the L's crux, and mirrors at the ends reflect the light back. If a gravitational wave passes through the detector, it warps space-time, lengthening one arm relative to the other very slightly — a change that the detector can pick up.
LIGO has been described by Reitze and other LIGO scientists as "the most precise measuring device ever built," and this sensitivity essentially requires that there be two detectors — a signal must be picked up by both detectors to ensure that it is not a false alarm.
Currently, LIGO is undergoing additional upgrades that will make it as much as 20 percent more sensitive than it was last fall (when the two detections were made), Reitze said. The improvements will allow LIGO to search for signals in a volume of space 1.5 to 2 times larger than before, according to the statement from MIT.
An Ex-NASA Chief is Making Chips That Use The Same Biological Principles As The Brain
Above: KnuEdge founder and former NASA head Daniel Goldin.
Image Credit: KnuEdge
IN BRIEF
Ex-NASA Chief Dan Goldin has revealed his company KnuEdge, which develops neural chips that follow the principles of the human brain and produces voice recognition and authentication technology.
OUT OF THE SHADOWS
After almost 10 years of working incognito, former National Aeronautics and Space Administration head Daniel Goldin is finally ready to formally present KnuEdge to the world.
KnuEdge is a “neural technology innovation company,” an outfit that builds hardware and software based on neural technology, with a main focus on human-machine interaction. While newly revealed publicly, it has been in stealth mode for a decade now, and has already raised $100 million in funding to build its neural chips.
The company has revealed its two primary products: KnuVerse, which is a voice authentication technology, and KnuPath, its state-of-the-art neural chip. It has also unveiled Knurld.io, a software development kit with a cloud-based voice recognition and authentication service.
PRODUCTS
Foremost of these offerings is KnuPath. Its inspiration comes from the inner workings of the brain, much like several products of IBM. Specifically, the chip is built on the same biological principles that the brain uses to get a lot of computing work done with a small amount of power, something called “sparse matrix heterogeneous machine learning algorithms.”
Say that three times fast.
The KnuPath neural chip. Credit: KnuEdge
KnuPath has something called LambdaFabric computing. The chip, KnuEdge’s first model, has 256 cores. Each of the cores could be made to run a different algorithm and run them simultaneously, since the LambdaFabric makes it possible to instantly connect these cores to each other. The LambdaFabric is designed to connect up to 512,000 devices, which gives it an interaction delay of only 400 nanoseconds.
KnuVerse comes from military-grade voice recognition and authentication technology, and hopes to develop the potential of voice interfaces in next-generation computing. It primarily focuses on the biometrics side, the use of the human voice to authenticate computers, mobile/web apps and IoT (Internet-of-Things) devices. Its technology eliminates noise, allowing for use even in extremely loud environments.
Part of the development of voice technologies is Knurld.io, which allows businesses and other parties to tap into the technology of KnuVerse. It delivers speaker authentication interfaces for developers and businesses, so that the voice recognition and authentication service can be integrated into apps and other UI’s.
Above: KnuEdge’s KnuPath chip.
Image Credit: KnuEdge
And to think—the idea for the company and its cutting edge technology arose over a perceived need to supply faster and more efficient computing, able to crunch tens of millions of lines of computer code, for a potential Mars mission.
“It all started over a mission to Mars,” says Goldin, with immense and justifiable pride in the new endeavor.
LIGO Just Detected Gravitational Waves From a Second Black Hole Collision!
IN BRIEF
Scientists at LIGO have found more gravitational waves—another signal from two black holes, 14 and 8 times the Sun’s mass, that collided 1.4 billion years ago.
RUSSELL KIGHTLEY/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
An artist's illustration of the merger of two black holes (centre) causing gravitational waves to spiral out from the collision.
THEY’VE DONE IT AGAIN!
Scientists at LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) just observed gravitational waves for the second time—another historic milestone for the observatory, in what is proving to be a very fruitful year for gravitational wave research.
Five months ago, there was still some doubt as to whether these elusive ripples in the fabric of spacetime—first predicted a century ago by Albert Einstein—would ever be detected. Now, in the span of little more than four months, the observatory has detected two major events resulting from the merger of black holes in the distant universe.
The first detection was announced on February 11, and involved the merger of two black holes roughly 30 times the mass of the Sun. The second detection—which was actually made on December 26, 2015—shows what promises to be the great diversity of gravitational wave generating events. These merging black holes were much smaller, 14 and 8 solar-masses, releasing a quantity of gravitational wave energy equivalent to the total mass of the Sun to produce a final object of 21 solar-masses.
To learn more about gravitational waves, and why discovering them is so fantastically groundbreaking, check out the video below:
IT PUTS THE “O” FOR OBSERVATORY IN LIGO
“It is very significant that these black holes were much less massive than those observed in the first detection,” says Gabriela González of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration.
“Because of their lighter masses compared to the first detection, they spent more time—about one second—in the sensitive band of the detectors. It is a promising start to mapping the populations of black holes in our universe.”
The merger occurred about 1.4 billion years ago, producing a detectable signal during the final 27 orbits of the two black holes before they coalesced. Due to the arrival lag of the signal—it arrived 1.1 milliseconds earlier at the Livingston, LA detector than the Hanford, WA detector—it’s possible to at least roughly ascertain the signal’s point of origin in the sky.
In the future, it’s hoped that the soon-to-be-online Virgo gravitational wave interferometer in Europe will work in conjunction with LIGO to triangulate these signals, which we now know must be fairly frequent.
“With detections of two strong events in the four months of our first observing run,” says Caltech’s Albert Lazzarini, deputy director of the LIGO Laboratory, “we can begin to make predictions about how often we might be hearing gravitational waves in the future. LIGO is bringing us a new way to observe some of the darkest yet most energetic events in our universe.”
This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the brand-new science of gravitational wave observation. Ultimately, these are the remarkable first fruits of a rich new harvest of astronomical information. LIGO’s next observing run, to begin this fall, will include an upgrade in sensitivity that’s expected to allow it to encompass 1.5 to 2 times more of the universe’s volume. Virgo is also expected to be online by that time, marking the true beginning of the age of gravitational wave astronomy.
Astronomers: There May Be Two (Or More) Extra Planets In Our Solar System
T. PYLE, CALTECH/NASA
IN BRIEF
Astronomers are debating new research that suggests there may be two additional massive planets beyond Neptune in our Solar System.
PLAN(ET) NINE FROM OUTER SPACE
Planet Nine, the massive icy world that may be lurking in the farthest reaches of our Solar System, might have a friend. After performing new calculations on the data that originally gave rise to the Planet Nine hypothesis, astronomers believe multiple planets could be hiding at the edge of our Solar System.
Yes, that’s right. Astronomers say there could be at least two more planets in our Solar System
José Antonio Peñas (SINC)
Researchers from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) originally found evidence for Planet Nine based on the unusual movement of six large objects floating in the Kuiper belt, suggesting that their orbits are shaped by a hidden planet. Now, a new team of astronomers suggests that these Kuiper belt objects (KBOs) might not be as stable as had been previously thought.
“With the orbit indicated by the Caltech astronomers for Planet Nine, our calculations show that the six ETNOs [extreme trans-Neptunian objects, which are often dwarf planets], which they consider to be the Rosetta Stone in the solution to this mystery, would move in lengthy, unstable orbits,” says one of the team, Carlos de la Fuente Marcos, an independent Spanish astronomer.
In other words, the gravitational effect that Planet Nine itself would have on these ETNOs could help make them too unstable to be moving the way the Caltech scientists thought. According to de la Fuente Marcos, it’s possible that the stability of these objects might instead be due to the gravitational pull of a number of undiscovered planets.
“That is to say we believe that in addition to a Planet Nine, there could also be a Planet Ten and even more,” said de la Fuente Marcos.
NASA WEIGHS IN
So, should we start rewriting the science textbooks? Not everyone is convinced. Mike Brown, a member of the Caltech team, is critical of the new findings.
“I think it’s way too early to start speculating about a second planet, but, in general, I am confused by their results,” he told Abigail Beall at the Daily Mail. “We have a nearly identical analysis which shows nearly the opposite result.”
Jim Green, director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division, also weighed in on the possibility of a Planet Nine (and beyond), clarifying that the results are interesting and inspiring, but that thisevidence does not equate to a discovery:
“The possibility of a new planet is certainly an exciting one for me as a planetary scientist and for all of us. This is not, however, the detection or discovery of a new planet. It’s too early to say with certainty there’s a so-called Planet X. What we’re seeing is an early prediction based on modelling from limited observations. It’s the start of a process that could lead to an exciting result.”
By Leonard David, Space.com's Space Insider Columnist
Mars as viewed by NASA's Curiosity rover. Nice vistas, but what does the Red Planet smell like?
Credit: NASA/JPL
Robot explorers have found Mars to be a world of sulfur, acids, magnesium, iron and chlorine compounds, all of which are sunbaked and wrapped in a carbon-dioxide-rich atmosphere.
But what would this complex and exotic brew smell like?
It turns out that everyone — not just Mars explorers — might be able to find out, because there may be ways to recreate whiffs of the Red Planet here on Earth. [The 7 Biggest Mysteries of Mars]
Headspace tech
One relatively recent innovation in the perfume business is "Headspace" .
"It gathers the molecules, and then the sample is brought back to the lab to be analyzed by spectral analysis. The results are typically synthesized to create a scent that mimics the smell of those molecules," said Jacquelyn Ford Morie, founder and chief scientist of the California-based company All These Worlds LLC, which uses virtual reality (VR) and other technology to create "immersive experiences" for a variety of applications.
A scent collar has been invented to bring the power of smell to augment virtual-reality experiences.
Credit: All These Worlds
Morie thinks Headspace, or something like it, could be used to decode the smell of Mars.
"I think that new artisan fragrance designers would love to design a series of scents that are their own, nonsampled interpretations of what Mars might smell like," she told Space.com.
A future mission could take a spectroscopic reading of the Martian atmosphere, then beam that information back to Earth, where Headspace hardware could reconstruct (or evoke) the Red Planet scent, Morie added.
"That's the cool thing about the artisan scent designers," she said. "They can add the more stinky elements to make a scent that hints at the real Mars while still being cool to smell. Many top fragrances have small bits of those otherwise smelly elements in them."
Eau de Red Planet
Astronaut-geologist Harrison Schmitt on an Apollo 17 moonwalk in 1972. The cohesive nature of the lunar soil is borne out by the "dirty" sheen of his space suit, later tracked into the nearby lunar module. Apollo crewmembers likened the smell of lunar regolith to spent gunpowder.
Credit: NASA
Morie suspects that the predominant Mars odor is a slightly acrid, gassy smell of sulfur compounds, with a chalky, sweet overtone punching through. This scent would become a big part of Red Planet settlers' lives.
"Imagine 30 or 40 years from now, when we have established colonies on Mars, and the colonists have become not only accepting of the scented detritus they track into their habitats, but actually consider it the smell of home," Morie said.
Future colonists could perhaps also use finely crafted habitat scents as harmonious counterpoints to the native smells of their adopted planet, she added.
Studies have shown repeatedly that smell is intimately tied to memory; whiffs of a familiar scent can trigger nostalgia and other strong feelings about times long past.
So, if Mars colonists "need to return to Earth, they would absolutely require a vial or two of 'Eau de Red Planet' to remind them of their life on this distant human outpost," Morie said.
Extraterrestrial encounters
Decoding or replicating Mars' scent would not be the first extraterrestrial encounter of the odor kind.
During the Apollo lunar landing program, for example, some of the moonwalkers noticed that they had brought back rock and dust particles into their lunar module. The material tainted their spacesuits. Once the astronauts took off their helmets, the moon's smell — which was likened to wet ashes in a fireplace, or spent gunpowder from a just-fired shotgun — was evident.
Then, in 1998, scientists with New York-based International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. (IFF) sent a miniature rose plant aboard the space shuttle Discovery on its STS-95 mission, to study the effect of microgravity on scent.
Mars
No planet is more steeped in myth and misconception than Mars. This quiz will reveal how much you really know about some of the goofiest claims about the red planet.
Using proprietary technologies, the team, led by Braja Mookherjee, tracked radical shifts in the living flower's scent over the course of the shuttle flight.
"Ultimately, they discovered and created new-to-world profiles that have since gone on to enormous commercial success," IFF representatives wrote in a blog post late last year.
In addition, artisan Carrie Paterson has investigated making scents of life on Earth that can be embedded as olfactory information into multichannel interstellar messages. Then, there's the work of designer Saskia Wilson-Brown, who's interested in finding out what UFOs might smell like.
Leonard David is author of "Mars: Our Future on the Red Planet," to be published by National Geographic this October. The book is a companion to the National Geographic Channel six-part series coming in November. A longtime writer for Space.com, David has been reporting on the space industry for more than five decades. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.
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Misinformation: The “Bad” Ideas That Shape Our Beliefs
Uncle Al
