Earth Size UFO Near Our Sun On Feb 25, 2017, Video, UFO Sighting News.
Don’t Believe In Destiny?! THIS Is The MIND-BLOWING Chain Of Events Which Occurred So YOU Can Exist…
I watched a documentary a couple of years ago about what happens inside the belly of a mother the 9 months before the baby is born. However, the first 10 minutes of the documentary, that described the journey of the spermatozoid which will win “the race of its life” I was in awe. I got inspired, and exactly that inspiration led me to create this article.
Most of us live our lives unaware of all the incredible (almost impossible) things that happened so we can be born. Many of us even feel worthless. The majority cannot sleep at night stressing about some absolutely artificial problem that they may not even have. We live with so much unhappiness, worry, racing, fighting and killing each other for scoring on an artificial scoreboard. Some even try or commit suicide.
We forget that we already won the race. We won life. This is the price here and we spend it like we are still fighting for something. That’s why I decided to create an article with all (at least I’ll try to add all) the FREAKISHLY “random” events which took place so you can exist. To remind you how much you matter. THIS WILL BLOW YOUR MIND!
THIS IS YOUR REAL ORIGIN STORY:
Long, long time ago (and I mean really long, this is not a fairy tale), long like 13,7 billion years ago, there was only darkness. Suddenly, a spark of light smaller than an atom entered this darkness and tada, The Universe was born.
This light and the darkness, entangled in an eternal dance, created the 4 fundamental forces of The Universe (Gravity, Electromagnetism, Weak and Strong). The Universe started expanding and very soon the first quarks were created. Then the first electrons, the first protons, and all of this happened in the first second, like literally.
After the first second, things didn’t change much for quite a while (380,000 years to be exact). The Universe just kept expanding and slowly cooling down. The Universe was TOO HOT in the beginning (no pun intended) for atoms to form.
After 380,000 years loose electrons cooled enough so they can combine with protons and form atoms. (“Produce An Atom” Achievement Unlocked). These were mainly Helium and Hydrogen, and a new era of “nothing really happening” began. This era lasted longer than the first one.
1.6 million years later, gravity began to form stars and galaxies from clouds of gas. Here things STARted to get a little more interesting.
As new stars formed and others were dying out The Universe looked like a Fireworks show (or a Michael Bay movie); with explosions and UNBELIEVABLE amounts of energy blowing up, and crumbling down, creating new sources of light and destroying anything in its way. Stars were blowing up in supernovas giving birth to new stars who lived, died and blew up and gave birth to other stars, and so on, and so on. This chaotic battleground lasted for almost 200 million years.
After 200 million years the first black holes were formed and because of Gravity the first galaxies were created.
It’s MINDBLOWINGLY amazing to think that even 1 single star forming too early or too soon could have prevented the existence of our entire Solar System. 1 single star from trillions and trillions that existed and still exist. Each one of them lived and gave their life in a way so our galaxy can exist. Like perfectly arranged dominos, or gears inside the most expensive clock.
This precise domino effect lasted “brief” 9 billion years resulting with a giant molecular cloud from which you, your parents, every plant, animal, and being that ever existed on this planet came to be. With a gravitational collapse of just a tiny part of this molecular cloud, the sun, the planets, moons, asteroids, and other small Solar System bodies formed , creating the system today famously known as Our Solar System (“The Birth Of The Solar System” Achievement Unlocked).
In order for life to exist and thrive inside our solar system a planet needs to orbit the sun at just the right distance. Scientists call this belt “The Goldilocks Zone” were the conditions for life are just perfect. Guess what! Our home planet Earth formed EXACTLY inside this zone.
Like that’s not miraculous enough, our moon formed to be exactly in the right place so it would not conflict the evolution of life but help it thrive. When I say exactly, I mean EXACTLY and in an absolutely perfect ratio; not just with its distance but with its size too;
(Really Interesting Fact: What makes a full solar eclipse possible is that the sun is 400 times the size of the moon, and the sun is also 400 times further from the moon than the moon is from earth. The distance between the moon and the earth is equivalent to 108 moons; the distance from the earth to the sun is equivalent to 108 suns; the radius of the sun is equivalent to 108 earths;
Everything until now fits perfectly to allow life on earth. The earth started cooling down and the oceans started forming. First life on earth was created 10 billion years after The Big Bang initially with single-celled prokaryotic cells, such as bacteria.
After a couple of million years, life evolved into the first multicelled organisms. Life inside the oceans thrived. Trilobites came into existence, Nautiloids and BOOM!
The planet experienced its first mass extinction event (it was formatted).
Many life forms were extinct. However, some life forms prevailed; the strongest and most adaptable ones.
13 billion years after the big bang the first fishes formed on planet earth. Soon after, the first insects, the first life that walked the earth. Things were going great for planet earth and its inhabitants, life just recovered from the disaster and started thriving again. BOOM!
The second mass extinction event wiped out most of the life on earth. This was the closest earth came to being wiped out of all its life. For a couple of million years, the earth could have been called a dead planet. However, few of the strongest species survived.
Things were tough, but what was left alive on this planet was tougher. In the midst of the disaster life decided to thrive, to explore new frontiers. Life crawled its way out of the oceans and into the beautiful lands. The frogs, snakes, first primitive dragonflies, all of them were the first courageous explorers of the lands. They made the ever moving continents their permanent home.
After 120 million years of peace, sunshine and rainbows, the planet was struck with its third mass extinction event. This mass extinction wiped out most of the species, however, it paved the way for the movie Jurassic Park to be created (and the first dinosaurs too).
And then BOOM! Like something was against life thriving, a fourth mass extinction event wiped most of the dinosaurs. However, life was more stubborn. This event started the Jurassic era. Life did not just thrive, but it surpassed its limits with the first birds conquering the skies.
The dinosaurs ruled the earth for a couple of million years. They were the big and scary predators that everybody feared. The world was theirs.
Far away, in the vastness of our galaxy, a star blew up in a supernova. This event started a chain of events that blasted meteors in a course collision with a giant asteroid. The meteors hit the asteroid steering it away from its course into a new one. A course that will change the history of the earth forever. A course that will pave the way for the first humans.
It was a normal day for the dinosaurs. They went on doing what they were always doing, hunting smaller animals and ruling the earth. However, they had no idea what’s shining brighter and brighter upon the sky. It was their demise. BOOM!
The earth was struck by its fifth mass extinction event, the giant asteroid. The blast itself wiped out most of the dinosaurs. The drought and the ice age finished them.
Smaller animals were smart enough to hide inside the earth. They survived the ice age. When they came out after a couple of million years, they saw that the mighty rulers, the big and scary dinosaurs were no longer there.
Now, I don’t know if you know, but ice ages come and go. This period we live in right now, since the last big ice age that wiped out the dinosaurs, is a time of intermission between ice ages. Scientists say it will last for about 50,000 years more (which is kind of good news).
It happened so, that the asteroid which hit the earth created a global shift in the climate and wiped out the scary “monsters” just so life can keep evolving (without being eaten every time it tried).
The first Homosapiens evolved from years and years of animals migrating, hunting, surviving and passing their DNA code unto the next generation. Each generation tweaked this code just a little bit with their choices. It was changed to better survive, adapt and thrive.
One tiny little choice made differently, like making a settlement on a top of a mountain instead of inside a cave, could have impacted the way humans evolved today (or whether we evolved at all).
Because we developed a perfect system of sweating (yes dear humans, that’s our special ability, to sweat) we were able to run for hours and not overheat our bodies. We ran for average of 50 miles per day. That’s more than even running a marathon.
This ability enabled us to out run even the fastest of the animals. We would wait for their body to overheat and catch them than (all cool and sweaty). Because we would run so far away from our home, we needed a new kind of ability, a better memory of landmarks (because I guess iStones back then didn’t had the Google maps app).
Exactly THIS over stimulation of our brain evolved our prefrontal cortex. We developed something no animal has, the ability to visualize things, our imagination. We upgraded our consciousness and expanded our Inner World, and all because we would not give up. Just because we were not the fastest, or the strongest, it doesn’t mean it was a game over for us. Oh, no.
The upgrade of imagination enabled us to create tools. “We are not the strongest, but let’s see what strength does when it meets the sharp end of a stone tied on a stick.” We invented, and created, and invented, and created, and pretty soon we climbed on the top of the food chain (started from the bottom now we here).
We established societies, cultures, cities and countries. We waged wars and we killed each other still driven by our animal instincts, by fear of survival and the fire to thrive, to be better, to excel and evolve. Every war fought, every hero choosing courage over fear, every act of love and kindness, every single decision of all our ancestors, brought us the world we live in today.
It was every man for himself. Then, it was every family for themselves. Every city, every country, every race for themselves. And today, we can see glimpses that we are still evolving and thriving, we can see people from different families, cities, countries and races coming together to unite; to stand for what we represent together, HUMANITY!
We have changed our ways with animals. We are not that scared to love anymore; we start to love and care for the same animals who would have prevented humanity from ever evolving. Instead of vengeance, we show love. And through this love, we show them a better way. We are not just thriving, we’ve become a force that helps other species to experience love.
And because your father loved dogs, he got one. One day he went to walk his dog in the park where he bumped into your mother (this probably never happened but you get what I am trying to say). Do you know what’s the chance of your father meeting your mother?
The population was smaller 30 years ago so your dad could have met almost 200 million of its women. But over 25 years, he probably met around 10,000 women (go dad)! The same is true for your mother. So, the odds that your mom was in this small group and met your dad is 1 in 20,000.
And this is just them meeting. We know how tricky love can be. Combining the chance of them starting to talk to each other, going on a second date, keep dating and having children in that precise moment when you were a ready spermatozoid results with 1 in 40 million.
Things get even more unbelievable when we take in consideration the odds that the 1 of 100,000 eggs met the 1 of 4 trillion spermatozoids, which together made you (and not your brother/sister). But wait, we are just getting started.
Because your existence here, now, and on planet earth presupposes undeniable chain of events (like every one of your ancestors living to reproductive age) going all the way back not just to the first Homosapiens, but all the way back to the first singlecelled organism, there are a lot more variables. You are a representative of an unbroken lineage of life going back 4 billion years.
Do you know what the chance is right now? It’s 1 in 10 with 2,685,000 zeroes after it.
(In comparison: The number of atoms in a human body is 10 with 27 zeroes after it; the number of atoms making up earth is 10 with 50 zeroes after it; the number of atoms in the known universe is estimated at 10 with 80 zeroes after it;)
Think of it like this: The odds of you existing is the same as 2 million people getting together to play a game of dice each rolling a trillion sided dice. They each roll the dice and they all come up with the exact same number (for example 550,343,279,002)!
So, the odds that YOU exist at all are basically 0! But you still does!
And in order to exist you won a race against 250 million contestants.
You were not just first to touch the egg, but you were one of the few to pass all the traps of the race. This video will show you the whole journey:
ALL that we mentioned above refers ONLY to planet earth. And that’s just a tiny, tiny, tiny piece of the puzzle.
To put things in perspective here is Our Planet inside our Solar System:
Here is our Solar System with its other “Solar friends” inside The Solar Interstellar Neighborhood:
Here is where The Interstellar Neighborhood flows inside our Milky Way Galaxy:
Here is The Milky Way Galaxy with its “Galactic friends” inside our Local Galactic Group of galaxies:
Here is The Local Galactic Group inside The Virgo Supercluster:
Here is The Virgo Supercluster with its “Supercluster friends” inside The Local Supercluster Group:
And, believe it or not, this is not all! Here is where The Local Supercluster Groupis positioned inside Our Observable Universe (which means there is possibly a lot more we cannot yet observe, and all of this might still be just a tiny piece of the puzzle):
But here you are, on this blue speck of dust orbiting a fireball in an ever expanding Universe where more than 99,99999999% is empty space. But not you! You are the 0.00000001% of The Universe that is made out of matter (you matter). For some reason, The Universe conspired to start a chain of events that will create YOU on THIS planet, in THIS time, with THOSE people around you.
And ALL OF THIS happened, all unbelievably precise, so you will be born. Every single choice you made in your life led you here, today, to read this article. And if you think that’s not a sign of destiny, think about this:
If one star blew up too late or too early; if our planet was just a tiny little bit outside of the goldilocks zone; if those meteors never changed the course of the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs; if your ancestors never ran for 50 miles per day, or did just a tiny little choice differently; if just 1 war your ancestors won was lost, or one of your ancestor warriors was killed; if your parents never met, or were not brave enough to talk to each other; if they postponed the night they conceived you just for 1 day; if just 1 of 250 million spermatozoids was faster than the one that made you; if any single one of these things happened (and many many more) YOU WOULD NOT READ THIS RIGHT NOW!
You are a 13,7 billion year old product in the making; forged in the hottest fires of giant stars and chaotic explosions that wiped out worlds; holding a 4 billion year old lineage of the toughest species on earth, surviving 5 mass extinctions and stubbornly crawling its way to land; outwitting larger and stronger than you, courageously choosing and never giving up; climbing on the top of the food chain and outshining fear itself to choose love; produced by a union of 2 opposites coming together, shaped out from love itself;
In This MIND BLOWINGLY BIG Universe you are really, really tiny. FREAKISHLY tiny. But you are not small! You are inside a rare group of beings (with free will) which makes the 0.00000001% of The Universe that’s not an empty space.
So no matter if you believe in destiny or not, you are a miracle!
You are The Universe becoming conscious of itself!
You have a purpose that’s inside your heart and everything conspired so you can be the one to realize it (and still, you are allowed to whine about your life).
Stop acting so small! Go forth and feel and act like the miracle that you are! THRIVE!
Sources:
– Space;
– Scienceblogs;
– Theblaze;
– NewScientist;
– BlogsHarvardEdu;
– wikipedia.org/wiki/Formation_and_evolution_of_the_Solar_System;
References:
Written by of www.lifecoachcode.com
VIDEO: Onderzoek ingesteld naar mysterieuze dood van complottheoreticus Max Spiers
De vermoedelijke vriendin van een Britse complottheoreticus die twee liter zwarte vloeistof braakte voordat hij stierf is ondervraagd door de politie.
Max Spiers werd in juli 2016 dood gevonden in het huis van Monika Duval, enkele dagen voordat hij zou spreken op een conferentie over complottheorieën in Polen.
De 39-jarige Spiers, die overheidscomplotten blootlegde, gaf twee liter zwarte vloeistof over voordat hij overleed.
De politie heeft nu een onderzoek ingesteld naar zijn dood. Aanklager Lukasz Lapczynski vertelde aan de BBC: “We hebben vastgesteld dat de partner van Spiers een ambulance liet komen.”
Spiers werd tevergeefs gereanimeerd. De informatie over zijn dood bereikte het kantoor van Lapczynski pas op 30 augustus, toen zijn lichaam al was overgebracht naar Groot-Brittannië.
“We konden geen autopsie verrichten, iets wat bij dit soort zaken van essentieel belang is,” zei hij.
De aanklager is van plan iedereen te ondervragen die aanwezig was in de woning op het moment dat Spiers overleed.
“We weten dat Monika er was, maar het is onduidelijk wie er nog meer waren,” klonk het.
Max waarschuwde zijn moeder voordat hij naar Polen afreisde om zijn dood te laten onderzoeken als er iets met hem zou gebeuren.
Hij zou een natuurlijke dood zijn gestorven, hoewel er geen autopsie is verricht. In december werd het onderzoek geopend.
Door zijn onderzoek naar UFO’s en overheidscomplotten heeft hij mogelijk vijanden gemaakt die hem dood wilden hebben, zegt zijn moeder Vanessa Bates.
Enkele dagen voor zijn dood schreef Max aan zijn moeder: “Je jongen zit in de problemen. Als er iets met me gebeurt, ga dan op onderzoek uit.”
Vriend Miles Johnson vertelde aan Project Camelot: “Ik denk niet dat het normaal is dat iemand die gewone medicijnen slikt plotseling zwarte vloeistof begint te braken en kort daarna sterft.”
Vlak voor zijn dood dook Spiers in het leven van beroemdheden en politici. Veel van zijn aanhangers zijn ervan overtuigd dat hij is gedood door de overheid.
Complottheoretici stellen dat UFO-jagers die te dicht in de buurt van de waarheid komen worden uitgeschakeld door geheime diensten of mannen in het zwart.
Bekijk deel 1 van de BBC-reportage over de mysterieuze dood van Max Spiers hieronder terug:
[BBC]TRAPPIST-1: How Long Would It Take to Fly to 7-Planet System?
The discovery of seven Earth-size planets around a nearby star, TRAPPIST-1, is certainly exciting news. But what would it take to visit one of these potentially Earth-like alien worlds?
TRAPPIST-1 is 39 light-years away from Earth, or about 229 trillion miles (369 trillion kilometers). It would take 39 years to get there traveling at the speed of light. But no spacecraft ever built can travel anywhere near that fast.
That said, people have sent some pretty fast vehicles into outer space. With today's technology, how long would it take to get to TRAPPIST-1?
Given a spacecraft's speed, calculating the amount of time it would take to travel to TRAPPIST-1 is simple. Because speed is equal to distance divided by time, the total travel time must equal the distance to TRAPPIST-1 (39 light-years) divided by the spacecraft's speed.
New Horizons, the fastest spacecraft ever launched, flew past Pluto in 2015 and is currently traveling out of the solar system at 14.31 kilometers per second, or about 32,000 mph, according to NASA's New Horizons tracking page. At this rate, it would take the Pluto probe about 817,000 years to reach TRAPPIST-1.
NASA's Juno spacecraft actually flew faster than New Horizons during its approach to the gas giant Jupiter in 2016. With the help of Jupiter's gravity, Juno hit a top speed of about 165,000 mph (265,000 km/h) relative to Earth, making it the fastest human-made object ever (though New Horizons' initial speed was faster than Juno's speed after launch).
Even if Juno were constantly traveling that fast — not just getting a speed boost en route — it would take the spacecraft 159,000 years to reach TRAPPIST-1.
Voyager 1, Earth's most distant spacecraft, left the solar system and entered interstellar space in 2012. According to NASA, it is currently speeding away at 38,200 mph. For Voyager 1 to get to TRAPPIST-1, it would take the spacecraft 685,000 years.
But Voyager 1 isn't going there anytime soon, or ever. Instead, the spacecraft is heading for a different star, AC +79 3888, which lies 17.6 light-years from Earth. It will fly within 1.7 light-years of this star in about 40,000 years.
NASA's space shuttle traveled around the Earth at a maximum speed of about 17,500 mph (28,160 km/h). A spaceship traveling at this speed would take around 1.5 million years to get to TRAPPIST-1.
So for a human mission to the TRAPPIST-1 solar system, the space shuttle would not be a practical mode of transportation.
One ultrafast spacecraft that could reach TRAPPIST-1 in a much shorter time span is an interstellar mission dreamed up by Stephen Hawking in his Breakthrough Starshot initiative.
Hawking's tiny, laser-propelled probes could theoretically fly as fast as 20 percent of the speed of light, or 134 million mph (216 million km/h). That's about 4,000 times faster than NASA's record-breaking New Horizons spacecraft! A spacecraft that fast could reach TRAPPIST-1 in less than 200 years. But that concept has yet to leave the ground.
With today's technology, there's no way that anyone alive right now could make it to TRAPPIST-1 in a lifetime. While discussing the new discovery at a news conference today (Feb. 22), NASA officials suggested that it would likely take at least 800,000 years to reach the TRAPPIST-1 system.
So don't start making any interstellar vacation plans anytime soon.
Email Hanneke Weitering at hweitering@space.com or follow her @hannekescience. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
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Christian Astrophysicist Sees Little Chance Of Alien Life In New Earth-Size Planets Discovered By NASA
Seven new Earths? As in seven new habitable worlds?
That was the tantalizing possibility dangled by NASA this week following the discovery of seven Earth-sized planets orbiting a star.
All the seven planets could have the key to life –liquid water—with the chances of this highest in three of the planets located in the habitable zone, NASA said in a press release.
"This discovery could be a significant piece in the puzzle of finding habitable environments, places that are conducive to life," said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. "Answering the question 'are we alone' is a top science priority and finding so many planets like these for the first time in the habitable zone is a remarkable step forward toward that goal."
The seven planets were found orbiting the TRAPPIST-1 ultracool dwarf star about 40 light-years, or 235 trillion miles, away from Earth in the constellation Aquarius. These planets are scientifically known as exoplanets because they are located outside of our solar system0
One Christian astrophysicist, however, is not about to shout "Eureka!" with NASA's announcement.
Interviewed by The Christian Post on Thursday, astronomer and best-selling author Dr. Hugh Ross pointed out that the chances of these planets being habitable are small, and that they do not diminish Earth's uniqueness.
"I think that NASA is looking for funding, so I think they are actually hyping it a little more than they should," Ross said.
In an article on his ministry's website, Reasons to Believe, the astrophysicist pointed out the seven so-called Earth-size planets are orbiting an "extremely small star."
"The luminosity of the star is less than a thousandth that of the Sun," he said.
"Ultracool, fast-rotating stars exhibit frequent huge flares that are accompanied by strong x-ray and ultraviolet radiation," Ross said.
Since the exoplanets are orbiting very close to their star, this means they are tidally locked — "one side of the planet will always be facing the star, while the other side will be in perpetual darkness," he explained.
Ross said these are just some of the details that prove how special the Earth is.
"The more planets they discover, and the more we learn about them, the more we recognize how unique our own planetary system is, and its capacity to support life," he said.
‘Lover’ of UFO investigator who died after vomiting black fluid questioned by police
The suspected lover of conspiracy theorist Max Spiers, who vomited two litres of black fluid before dying, has been quizzed by police over his death.
Monika Duval was called in for questioning this week, seven months after the UFO theorist died in her flat in Poland.
The duo were said to be involved in a secret romance behind his girlfriend, Sarah Adams’, back.
According to Polish prosecutors, they have opened a new investigation into involuntary manslaughter.
Science fiction writer Duval is being questioned as she was reportedly present at the time he died.
Max died after throwing up two litres of black liquid (Picture: Facebook) The duo were said to be involved in a secret romance behind his girlfriend, Sarah Adams’, back (Picture: Facebook) Prosecutors have opened a new investigation (Picture: Facebook)Speaking to the BBC, Lukasz Lapczynski, prosecutor in Warsaw, said: ‘At this stage we have determined that the ambulance arrived at the request of Mr Spiers’s partner.
‘Our initial investigation indicates that it was Mr Spiers’s partner [who called the ambulance], but the nature of this relationship is unclear.
‘The nature of this relationship will be determined during the investigation. The prosecutor told me he plans to interview everyone that was present when Max died. We know Monika was there, but it’s unclear who else was around.’
Max Spiers, 39, sought to expose government cover ups and visited Poland to speak at a conference, shortly before he died.
But his mother, Vanessa Bates, claimed he was ‘digging in some dark places and somebody wanted him dead’.
Just days before his death, the dad-of-two had texted his mum the chilling message: ‘Your boy’s in trouble. If anything happens, investigate.’
He died in Poland (Picture: Facebook)Max, a world-renowned conspiracy theorist from Canterbury, Kent, was said to have been probing into the lives of well-known figures in politics, business and entertainment.
Polish authorities had initially dismissed his death as from natural causes but a postmortem examination at Margate QEQM Hospital, Kent, was unable to determine how he died.
In a statement, coroner’s investigations officer Caroline O’Donnell said: ‘When they returned, Mr Spiers became ill with a high temperature and was weak. The following day, Mr Spiers vomited two litres of black fluid.
‘The friend called a doctor who attempted resuscitation before pronouncing him dead.’
Tombaugh, others headed for Pluto fame again
NASA/APL/SwRI
PLUTO's "heart" icy plains outlined by darker features, has been dubbed " Tombaugh Regio"
The name of Clyde Tombaugh, discoverer of Pluto, is a step closer to being formally affixed to the planet’s most recognizable feature, a heart-shaped region that was informally called “Tombaugh regio” when the New Horizons spacecraft sent back the first pictures of the planet in July 2015.
The International Astronomical Union has approved the naming strategy devised by the NASA space mission’s operators, clearing the way for Tombaugh, Percival Lowell, the UA’s Michael Drake and a host of science-fiction creators and characters to be honored with their names on features of Pluto or its moon Charon — including characters from “Star Wars,” “Star Trek” and Sigourney Weaver’s “Ripley” character from the “Alien” movies.
The union, the same body that stripped Pluto of its planetary status in 2006, announced in a news release Thursday that it had approved the “naming themes” for Pluto and Charon.
In addition to names associated with mythology (Pluto is the Roman god of the underworld), the union said it would consider the names of “scientists and engineers associated with Pluto and the Kuiper Belt, pioneering space missions and spacecraft, and historic pioneers who crossed new horizons in the exploration of the Earth, sea and sky.”
That clears the way for Tombaugh to be honored with a “regio” or region of Pluto, along with Percival Lowell, who established the Flagstaff observatory from which Tombaugh found the planet in 1930.
The late Michael Drake, former head of the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Lab, who chaired the committee that approved the New Horizons mission, has a crater tentatively named for him.
The IAU approved honoring authors, artists and fictional space explorers on Charon. Craters, chasms, regions and mountains on Charon had been informally named for characters in science fiction books and movies.
“Star Wars” names include Leia, Skywalker and Vader, while “Star Trek” is represented by Spock, Kirk, Sulu and Uhura — all located in Vulcan Planum.
Film director Stanley Kubrick and novelist Arthur C. Clarke, both of “2001: A Space Odyssey” fame, are also named.
Back on Pluto, there is a crater named for Venetia Burney, who suggested the name for the planet shortly after it was discovered. She was 11 at the time.
Honored space missions include the Columbia and Challenger shuttles, Pioneer, Voyager and the Soviet Sputnik satellite.
Terrestrial explorers include Leif Erikson and Sir Edmund Hillary.
Maps of the features and their names are posted on the New Horizons “Our Pluto” page at ourpluto.org
The names are not yet official. After the mission formally submits them, they need approval from the IAU’s Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature.
Alan Stern, who led the New Horizons mission and who waged a very public spat with the IAU over its demotion of Pluto, praised the action.
“I’m very happy with both the process and partnership that New Horizons and the IAU undertook that led to wonderful, inspiring, and engaging naming themes for surface features on Pluto and its moons,” Stern said in a news release.
Contact: tbeal@tucson.com
Polish 'secret lover' of British conspiracy theorist, 39, who died after throwing up two litres of black liquid in her flat is quizzed by police for 'manslaughter' seven months after coroner ruled he died from natural causes
The suspected Polish lover of a British conspiracy theorist who vomited two litres of black fluid before dying suddenly in Poland has been questioned by police on suspicion of manslaughter seven months after a coroner ruled that he had died from natural causes.
Father-of-two Max Spiers was found dead in Warsaw, Poland, July 2016
Monika Duval, who is said to have secretly been romancing Max Spiers while his girlfriend Sarah Adams was in Britain, was this week quizzed after the mysterious death of the father-of-two in the Pole's flat in July last year.
Polish prosecutors did not reveal why they suddenly opened an investigation into involuntary manslaughter or if any new evidence has come to light.
They are quizzing science fiction writer Duval, who was present at the time of his death, and said they have no plans yet to question anyone else.
Lukasz Lapczynski, prosecutor in Warsaw, said: 'At this stage we have determined that the ambulance arrived at the request of Mr Spiers's partner.
'Our initial investigation indicates that it was Mr Spiers's partner [who called the ambulance], but the nature of this relationship is unclear.'
He told the BBC: 'The nature of this relationship will be determined during the investigation.
'The doctor started resuscitation which was not successful. As a result of the doctor's decision, the police weren't involved in conducting additional procedures.
'The information about Max Spiers's death reached the prosecution office on August 30 when the body had already been transported to the UK. We couldn't do a post-mortem which is essential in such cases.
Spiers (centre) with suspected lover Monika Duval who is being quizzed by police over his mysterious death
'The prosecutor told me he plans to interview everyone that was present when Max died. We know Monika was there, but it's unclear who else was around.'
He was ruled to have died from natural causes by Polish authorities despite no post-mortem examination being carried out on his body.
An inquest at Canterbury Coroners opened in December after his body was repatriated but a second post-mortem at the Margate QEQM Hospital, Kent, was unable to determine how he died.
Spiers had only known Duval for three months before his death and had recently returned to Poland after a holiday to Cyprus with her.
Lukasz Lapczynski, prosecutor in Warsaw, confirmed that investigation into his death is being opened
Spiers with his mother Vanessa Bates who also believes that her son's death is suspicious
The conspiracy theorist, who believed governments have covered up contact with Extraterrestrials, texted his mother to say 'If anything happens to me, investigate' just days ahead of his mysterious passing.
In one of his final social media messages he wrote, in a reply to a friend who asked how he was: 'I'm good, I am just wayyyyyy too tired.'
Spiers' mother, Vanessa Bates, 63, after her son's death said there were a number of people who wanted him dead due to his bid to uncover supposed government secrets.
Vanessa said: 'He was making a name for himself in the world of conspiracy theorists and had been invited to speak at a conference in Poland in July.
![Bates by Spiers' grave in Canterbury. She said he was 'exposing' who was 'dangerous in the world of government [and] the entertainment world'](http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/02/25/18/3DAA61B000000578-0-image-a-24_1488047056578.jpg)
Bates by Spiers' grave in Canterbury. She said he was 'exposing' who was 'dangerous in the world of government [and] the entertainment world'
'He was staying with a woman who he had not known for long and she told me how she found him dead on the sofa.
'But I think Max had been digging in some dark places and I fear that somebody wanted him dead.'
Spiers was a UFO conspiracy theorist who believed that the governments had been in contact with alien life
Leading up to his death, Spiers, who hails from Canterbury in Kent, was said to be probing into the lives of well-known figures in politics, business and entertainment.
Conspiracy theorists have long been convinced that UFO chasers who get too close to the truth are 'bumped off' by the secret services or so-called 'Men in Black'.
On one UFO news portal, Project Camelot, a blogger wrote: 'The entire circumstances are suspicious and I urge everyone to encourage the release of details about what really happened and call for an autopsy.'
Vanessa, who works as an English teacher, added: 'Max was a very fit man who was in good health and yet he apparently just died suddenly on a sofa.
Spiers had been working with science fiction writer Madlen Namro and Duval, who he is also believed to have been staying with while in Poland
The type of relationship he had with Duval is unclear as it was believed Sarah Adams, 31, was his girlfriend at the time.
Speaking soon after his death Adams stated: 'He was terrified, he wanted to leave. He rang secretly as they wouldn't let talk. He said they were trying to get away from them.'
He had gone to Poland give a talk about conspiracy theories and UFOs.
Spiers with his girlfriend Sarah Adams, He was also penned to speak at a conference in Wiltshire in August 2016 but died weeks before
Police to quiz girlfriend over British UFO conspiracy theorist's mystery death after he vomited two litres of black fluid
BY BRADLEY JOLLY
A science fiction writer will be quizzed by police on suspicion of killing a British conspiracy theoristwho died suddenly on her sofa.
Max Spiers, 39, sought to expose government cover-ups and investigated UFO sightings — after, his mum says, he saw "the darker side" as a child.
The dad-of-two, from Canterbury, Kent, visited Poland to speak at a conference before he died at partner Monika Duval's home 24 hours later in July 2016.
He vomited two litres of a black fluid before he died, his inquest heard in December.
Now prosecutors have opened an investigation into involuntary manslaughter and want to speak to his girlfriend, who was present at the time of Mr Spiers's death.
Lukasz Lapczynski, prosecutor in Warsaw, said: "At this stage we have determined that the ambulance arrived at the request of Mr Spiers's partner.
"Our initial investigation indicates that it was Mr Spiers's partner [who called the ambulance], but the nature of this relationship is unclear."
Speaking to the BBC, he added: "The nature of this relationship will be determined during the investigation.
"The doctor started resuscitation which was not successful. As a result of the doctor's decision, the police weren't involved in conducting additional procedures.
"The information about Max Spiers's death reached the prosecution office on August 30 when the body had already been transported to the UK. We couldn't do a post-mortem which is essential in such cases.
"The prosecutor told me he plans to interview everyone that was present when Max died. We know Monika was there, but it's unclear who else was around."
When the conspiracy theorist's body was transported to the UK, his laptop and phone weren't among his belongings.
His mum Vanessa Bates said science fiction writer Monika sent the valuables a few weeks later
but there was no Sim card in the phone.
She added: "There was nothing on the computer at all. Somebody had clearly, definitely wiped everything off it.
"It makes no sense to wipe somebody's computer, no sense to me."
Ms Bates, who had previously stated she believed her son was "murdered by enemies", added: "I spoke to Monika for probably a couple of weeks [since Mr Spiers's death]. She was kind, she lived in a lovely house.
"She said to Max 'Come stay here for a while, I've got a couple of good business things that we can get going'.
"I don't know what happened, but I know there's been a lot of people suggesting a lot of things and pointing a lot of fingers in her direction, and I'm sure that she wants to go very quiet."
Mr Spiers's inquest opened in December and continues later this year.
Largest UFO Conference In The World Draws Thousands
The International UFO Congress presented by OpenMinds.tv, an Arizona based organization dedicated to the dissemination of information related to UFOs and the search for extraterrestrial life drew thousands of people with their own experiences and encounters.
Amazing UFO footage filmed over Summerlin, Nevada February 2017
Check out this amazing video filmed over Summerlin in Nevada. This happened on 8th and 21st February 2017.
Witness report:
I shot this video from my backyard in the Summerlin area of Las Vegas, Nevada on the night of February 21, 2017, and during the day of February 8, 2017. I had to put this video out. Too many people believe that the lights on this hill are off-road vehicles. There is no way that is possible. The land on this small mountain is under BLM control. It is also very close to National Conservation land. Riding any motorized vehicles is strictly forbidden and carries a huge fine if caught. A local friend climbed it twice looking for evidence of motorized vehicles and found only his own footprints. Whatever these are they are extremely strange. I have videos of the same objects lining up in the air (as many as 12 or 13 of them) in a perfectly horizontal row which would be impossible if they were on the ground. I have checked and double checked and no clubs, businesses or anybody else has been riding up there. The only legal place to drive off-road vehicles is about 30 miles from here out at the Nellis Dunes. My wife, me and our dog attempted to climb it a couple weeks ago so I could prove the soil up there was undisturbed but we couldn’t find any way to get up there. I believe that the lights are very similar to the “Marfa Lights” in Texas.
Author (source: MUFON)
Radio silence from star with seven Earth-sized rocky planets
Alien hunters have already begun checking out a newly discovered planetary system for any messages from ET. And the news so far is that if intelligent life exists on any of the seven Earth-sized rocky planets, it is keeping itself to itself.
Astronomers from the SETI Institute – it stands for Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence – turned a collection of radio telescopes onto red dwarf star TRAPPIST-1. This ultra cool star, just a little bigger than Jupiter, lies just 39 light-years away, which is right on our cosmic doorstep, and has at least three rocky worlds warm enough to host life.
The alien hunters pointed the 42 dishes forming the Allen Telescope Array in California at the star last year when three of the seven planets had already been detected. For two days, they scoured the region around TRAPPIST-1, scanning through ten billion radio channels to listen for any signals from ET. No transmissions were detected.
Seth Shostak, Senior Astronomer at the SETI Institute, said on the organisation’s blog: “How sensitive was this search? Assuming that the putative inhabitants of this solar system can use a transmitting antenna as large as the 500-metre FAST radio telescope in China to beam their messages our way, then the Allen Array could have found a signal if the aliens use a transmitter with 100 kilowatts of power or more. This is only about ten times as energetic as the radar down at your local airport.”
Other scientists point out that life in the TRAPPIST-1 star system might only have advanced to the level of microbes or simple organisms.
Part of the Allen Telescope Array, built by the University of California at Berkeley, near San Francisco, which is used to listen for possible signals from E.T. Image credit: Colby Gutierrez-Kraybill via Wikimedia Commons.
The alien hunters are planning to make further attempts to tune in to the planets using their radio telescopes. And a new NASA observatory being launched next year, the James Webb Space Telescope, will be powerful enough to detect any chemical signatures in the planets’ atmospheres that would indicate life.
Dr Amaury Triaud, of the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge, who was part of the discovery team, told Skymania: “From the cocktail of molecules detected, we will deduce whether there is active biology on the surface or whether the planets are barren.
“I prefer using the term “biology” because if I say life, people imagine little green men. Here we are looking at bacteria, plants – the sort of more inert type of life.”
Will NASA’s New Discovery Be the Key to Finding Extraterrestrial Life?
This week NASA released news of an astounding discovery—a solar system that may harbor the right conditions for life as we know it. The system is named TRAPPIST-1, not after those monks in Belgium who brew beer, but after the Transiting Planets and Planetesimals Small Telescope used to detect it. TRAPPIST-1 consists of at least seven planets the size of Earth orbiting around one ultra-cool star (which is not my opinion of how neat it is but rather a characterization of effective temperature). This discovery is of particular importance because three of the planets are undoubtedly located in the habitable zone—an area around parent stars where the conditions are right for rocky planets (opposed to gaseous ones) to contain liquid water.
At forty light years away in the constellation Aquarius, it’s difficult for scientists to immediately answer questions regarding the existence of water and life within this solar system. Although TRAPPIST-1 is relatively close to us, due to limitations in technology scientists currently rely on space-based telescopes to remotely investigate it. The discovery was made by astronomers using the Spitzer Space Telescope—an infrared space telescope that explores the universe in distinct wavelengths of light. The system’s exoplanets (planets that orbit a star other than our Sun) were detected using the transit technique, meaning that planets must pass between their star and Earth in order to be “visible” to us.
This artist’s concept shows what each of the TRAPPIST-1 planets may look like, based on available data about their sizes, masses and orbital distances.
Advanced technology is on the horizon, however. NASA’s James Webb Telescope, launching in 2018, will be able to detect the chemical composition of the components of a planet’s atmosphere. This technology is crucial for scientists as they will be able to tell if any of the seven planets even have an atmosphere at all—and if so, if water vapor or gases attributed to living organisms are present.
Atmospheres are especially essential for these exoplanets to sustain life as this particular dwarf star appears to have one flare every week, and a more significant one every six months. An atmosphere and accompanying magnetic field (to protect from stellar winds) could limit the impact of these disruptions on the exoplanets.
Although NASA does not rule out the possibility of atmospheres and liquid water—and thus the potential for life as we understand it—they see the discovery as an opportunity to evaluate what we consider habitable environments. “This discovery could be a significant piece in the puzzle of finding habitable environments, places that are conducive to life,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington, DC. “Answering the question ‘are we alone?’ is a top science priority and finding so many planets like these for the first time in the habitable zone is a remarkable step forward toward that goal.”
The potential to find life within TRAPPIST- 1 is remarkably enticing. Perhaps just as exciting is the opportunity to one day visit these planets. NASA released beautiful artistic interpretations of what standing on the planets of TRAPPIST-1 may look like, including an advertisement for futuristic interplanetary tourism. While this historic discovery provides a chance to plan your descendants’ vacations, it’s also an opportunity to ask once more the question humanity has been contemplating for centuries: How will we respond to extra-terrestrial life? The answer to that question and many others may still be a very long way away—forty light years to be exact.
For the most comprehensive updates, including the release of new data in March, check out NASA’s webpage dedicated to TRAPPIST-1.
Meredith Thompson is the Development Assistant at the American Humanist Association.
{https://thehumanist.com/news/ }
Thomas Pesquet's selfie from space answers conspiracy theorists; here are a few mesmerising photos that the French astronaut tweeted from ISS [PHOTOS]
Thomas Pesquet indeed minds when conspiracy theorists don't seem to take his work seriously. He even says that pessimists will even go to the extent of calling his photos fake.
NASA, ISS slammed for allegedly covering-up UFO sightings AGAIN! [VIDEOS]
On Thursday, Pesquet took a selfie outside International Space Station (ISS), which shows the 38-year-old French astronaut conducting a space walk, to directly address the conspiracy theorists. He also highlighted that conspiracy theorists will still consider the photo as another fake.
RELATED
ISS is a habitable artificial satellite in low Earth orbit which serves as a microgravity and space environment research laboratory for astronauts to conduct experiments in human biology, physics, astronomy and meteorology.
Sleeping & washing are as essential on @Space_Station as on Earth, the practicalities are just not the same: #bloghttp://blogs.esa.int/thomas-pesquet/2017/02/24/diary-entry-7-sleep-and-hygiene/ …
But according to conspiracy theorists, the ISS is a hoax. They have nicknamed it as 'International Fake Station.' Some theorists even say that ISS does exist, but is an empty orbiting tin can with space walks faked on Earth inside a swimming pool.
In November 2016, astronaut Andrey Borisenko, who was a part of RT's Space 360 project, was also accused of fooling people that Earth is flat when he told viewers: "You can see from here that the Earth is round – no elephants or whales holding it up."
Apart from the photo as an answer to beliefs of conspiracy theorists, Pesquet, who is in ISS since November 2016, has been active on Twitter with his mesmerising photos of Earth from space.
Here are a few of them.
Icy Canada looks like marble seen from space! https://flic.kr/p/QFgZZp #natureart #proxima
The city of #Mumbai in #India, with an airport shaped like the letter "X", a clear landmark. #CitiesFromSpace #CitiesAtNight
Porto, City of the Bridges, facing the Atlantic #CitiesAtNight
https://flic.kr/p/S4abiS #Proxima
The Aswan dam: a site that is practically… pharaonic ;)
/
Le barrage d’Assouan: un chantier proprement… pharaonique ;)
The robotic arm spotted a beautiful island in the Caribbean. I’m sure he’d appreciate vacations, but there’s work to be done! #FridayIsland
Filipijnen in de ban van enorme aangespoelde ‘zeemonsters’
Een ‘zeemonster’ dat is aangespoeld op een Filipijns eiland trekt veel bekijks. Op sociale media duiken allerlei theorieën op over het harige wezen.
Inwoners van Cagdianao in de provincie Dinagat Islands trekken massaal naar het strand om een glimp op te vangen van het mysterieuze zeedier.
Het betreft een 4,5 meter lange witte massa. Het lijkt erop alsof het dier allerlei tentakels heeft, maar het kunnen ook stukken vlees zijn.
Na een krachtige aardbeving afgelopen week spoelden er eerder ook al harige massa’s aan op eilanden.
Dat doet vermoeden dat de wezens aardbevingen kunnen voorspellen of opsporen.
De afgelopen weken spoelden er meerdere mysterieuze zeemonsters aan op de Filipijnse stranden. Op Mindanao ontdekte men een negen meter lange riemvis.
Sommigen denken dat het zeemonster op Cagdianao een grote walvis is. Biologen denken aan een zeekoe, maar die komen rond het eiland niet voor.
De lokale bevolking ziet in de dieren een aankondiging van onheil. In veel culturen gelden dergelijke zeemonsters namelijk als brengers van slecht nieuws.
[HLN]Filipijnen in de ban van enorme aangespoelde ‘zeemonsters’Een ‘zeemonster’ dat is aangespoeld op een Filipijns eiland trekt veel bekijks. Op sociale media duiken allerlei theorieën op over het harige wezen.
Inwoners van Cagdianao in de provincie Dinagat Islands trekken massaal naar het strand om een glimp op te vangen van het mysterieuze zeedier.
Het betreft een 4,5 meter lange witte massa. Het lijkt erop alsof het dier allerlei tentakels heeft, maar het kunnen ook stukken vlees zijn.
Na een krachtige aardbeving afgelopen week spoelden er eerder ook al harige massa’s aan op eilanden.
Dat doet vermoeden dat de wezens aardbevingen kunnen voorspellen of opsporen.
De afgelopen weken spoelden er meerdere mysterieuze zeemonsters aan op de Filipijnse stranden. Op Mindanao ontdekte men een negen meter lange riemvis.
Sommigen denken dat het zeemonster op Cagdianao een grote walvis is. Biologen denken aan een zeekoe, maar die komen rond het eiland niet voor.
De lokale bevolking ziet in de dieren een aankondiging van onheil. In veel culturen gelden dergelijke zeemonsters namelijk als brengers van slecht nieuws.
[HLN]Filipijnen in de ban van enorme aangespoelde ‘zeemonsters’Een ‘zeemonster’ dat is aangespoeld op een Filipijns eiland trekt veel bekijks. Op sociale media duiken allerlei theorieën op over het harige wezen.
Inwoners van Cagdianao in de provincie Dinagat Islands trekken massaal naar het strand om een glimp op te vangen van het mysterieuze zeedier.
Het betreft een 4,5 meter lange witte massa. Het lijkt erop alsof het dier allerlei tentakels heeft, maar het kunnen ook stukken vlees zijn.
Na een krachtige aardbeving afgelopen week spoelden er eerder ook al harige massa’s aan op eilanden.
Dat doet vermoeden dat de wezens aardbevingen kunnen voorspellen of opsporen.
De afgelopen weken spoelden er meerdere mysterieuze zeemonsters aan op de Filipijnse stranden. Op Mindanao ontdekte men een negen meter lange riemvis.
Sommigen denken dat het zeemonster op Cagdianao een grote walvis is. Biologen denken aan een zeekoe, maar die komen rond het eiland niet voor.
De lokale bevolking ziet in de dieren een aankondiging van onheil. In veel culturen gelden dergelijke zeemonsters namelijk als brengers van slecht nieuws.
[HLN]VOORBEREIDINGEN ALIEN INVASIE IN VOLLE GANG ( VIDEO )
VOORBEREIDINGEN ALIEN INVASIE IN VOLLE GANG ( VIDEO )
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NASA ontdekt opeens allemaal “aardes” en de geheime ruimtevloot van de Bilderbergers vliegt open en bloot rond in Nevada. Niets gebeurt bij toeval en zeker niet bij instanties zoals NASA die als geen ander weten hoe ze het publiek zand in de ogen dienen te strooien. Wij schrijven al langere tijd dat de bevolking nu in sneltreinvaart wordt voorbereid op de komst van het mini zonnestelsel Nibiru, zodat wanneer er eenmaal een tweede zon voor iedereen zichtbaar is, dit verklaard kan worden zonder dat de bevolking onmiddellijk in paniek raakt, want NASA heeft dit toch al vaker gedaan, vreemde planeten ontdekt? Het is dan ook niet voor niets dat je het aantal van 7 planeten tegenkomt die dan draaien om een dwergster. Dit is ongeveer dezelfde situatie met het Nibiru zonnestelsel, waarbij er dan ook een aantal planeten en manen (in totaal ongeveer 7) om de dwergster Nemesis draaien. Zoals wij schreven in een eerder artikel: Volgens Masters bestaat het minizonnestelsel uit vier planeten zoals weergegeven op het volgende plaatje:
De grootste in het plaatje is Nemesis, de planeet die je de donkere tweelingplaneet van onze zon kunt noemen. Naast de twee andere planeten die hij Helion en Arboda noemt, schijnen er ook nog een aantal manen rondom die planeten te cirkelen. Ook een voormalig directeur van Lockheed, Ben Rich, gaf op zijn sterfbed het volgende toe: “Het Amerikaanse leger kan naar de sterren reizen en buitenaardse bezoekers bestaan echt”. “We beschikken al over de middelen om naar de sterren te kunnen reizen, maar deze technologieën zitten opgesloten in zwarte projecten en er zou een handeling van God voor nodig zijn om hier ooit voordeel voor de gewone mensen uit te halen. Alles wat je je maar voor kunt stellen, kunnen we nu al doen”. Wij hebben enkele jaren allemaal het verhaal van de Engelse hacker Gary McKinnon kunnen lezen: In 2002 werd Gary gearresteerd voor het inbreken in talloze NASA en Pentagon computers. Hij heeft dit toegegeven, maar ook gezegd dat de enige reden dat hij dit deed was omdat hij op zoek was naar bewijsmateriaal over Ufo’s. Ook ontdekte hij de geheimen van operatie Solar Warden. Een uiterst geheim project wat een ruimtevloot onder haar beheer heeft, gebaseerd op antizwaartekracht technologie. Vier jaar voordat McKinnon zijn ontdekking deed, werd er op het Open Mind Forum al gesproken over Solar Warden en ook dat de Bilderbergers eigenaar zouden zijn van die bewuste ruimtevloot. Een technicus uit Area 51, Bill Uhouse, claimde dat hij al vroeg in de jaren '60 samengewerkt heeft met een Grey Alien in vliegende schotel simulators waarin piloten leerden vliegen met deze objecten. En als er één plek is waar activiteiten van deze geheime ruimtevloot plaatsvinden dan is het wel Nellis Airforce Base in Nevada, vlak in de buurt van de bekende gokstad Las Vegas. |
40 Foot Hairy Sea Creature Found On Coastal Shores Of Philippines, Video, UFO Sighting News.
25,000 Year Old Bosnian Pyramids, Scientist Has found Tesla’s ‘TORSION FIELDS’ at the Bosnian Pyramids! UFO Sighting News.
Giant UFO Caught Over Indonesia Highway On Feb 7, 2017, Video, UFO Sighting News.
Travis Walton Says "Aliens Accidentally Killed me but Took my Corpse onto UFO to Save my Life." Video, UFO Sighting News.
Newly discovered solar system off the Gerrymeter charts
This artist's concept of the TRAPPIST-1 star, an ultra-cool dwarf, has seven Earth-size planets orbiting it. Any of these planets could have liquid water on them.
Picture: NASA
Science journal Nature this weekpublished the startling news NASA has found seven Earth-sized exoplanets around a single star, Trappist-1.
Three of those planets fall in the “habitable zone”, neither too hot nor too cold to hold liquid water.
“I think that we’ve made a crucial step towards finding if there is life out there,” University of Cambridge astronomer Amaury Triaud said.
NASA chief scientist Thomas Zurbuchen said the revelation meant “finding a second Earth is not just a matter of if, but when”.
The discovery ranks five Gerrys — the highest possible score on the Gerrymeter, the metric used by the NT News to gauge the credibility of extraterrestrial-related news.
RELATED: HOW THE GERRYMETER UFO SIGHTING CREDIBILITY SCALE WORKS
UFO Reseach spokesman Doug Moffett said it was a thrilling discovery.
“Anything that points to life being more abundant in the universe points to the possibility of other civilisations or intelligent life being there as well,” he said.
He said the odds of a civilisation advanced enough to have mastered faster than light travel were strong, given the size and age of the universe.
“I don’t think anyone could mount the argument these days that we’re alone in the universe. It’s impossible,” he said.
The newly discovered solar system is just 39 light years from Earth, meaning it would take about 44 million years to travel there from Darwin Airport on the Jetstar red-eye.
“In space terms, that’s not very far away. That’s almost like a neighbouring suburb,” Mr Moffett said.
Mr Moffett estimated up to 1500 reports of UFO sightings were made to Australian UFO organisations each year.
The truth is up there ... Gerry Wood, the Independent MLA for Nelson, reckons the presence of the US Marines in Darwin may have frightened UFOs away from the Top End since sightings reached their peak in 2010.
Picture: Dhanji Kabir
Hot spots included the NT’s Wycliffe Well. He speculated the extraterrestrial visitors to remote areas were attempting a kind of “drip feed learning” of humankind.
“Maybe they think (a mass reveal of their existence) is going to be too much for humans,” he said.
Closer to home, independent MLA Gerry Wood on Wednesday claimed to have spotted a strange light in the sky near Coolalinga. It’s the first UFO Mr Wood has spotted in at least five years.
He theorised the presence of United States marines in Darwin had frightened them away since sightings reached their peak in 2010.
Americans Are 300× More Likely to Report UFO Sightings Than the Rest of the World
Somebody call Mulder and Scully—UFO sightings are at an all-time high.
Sam Monfort, a PhD student at George Mason University, has created an online heatmap of data from the National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC), which has cataloged over 100,000 sightings of unidentified flying objects since 1905. The visualization shows that the number of reported UFO observations has increased dramatically since 1990.
Is something out there? Sam Monfort
This rise in sightings is partly explained by the increased use of computers—today witnesses simply fill out an online form describing the incident, whereas data from before the internet age is only available retroactively from historical documents.
Americans Are 300× More Likely to Report UFO Sightings Than the Rest of the WorldAmericans Are 300× More Likely to Report UFO Sightings Than the Rest of the WorldNorth Carolina witness unsure: UFO or drone? (VIDEO)
A North Carolina witness at Wake Forest is considering he may have simply shot video of a drone, but was unable to positively identify the object captured last spring, according to testimony in Case 82061 from the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) witness reporting database.
Cropped and enlarged frame from the witness video.
(Credit: MUFON)
The witness shot video from his cell phone from the front of his home on a bright, sunny afternoon, about 4:30 p.m. on April 2, 2016.
“I’m near a lake and river, so I’m used to seeing large birds, like herons,” the witness stated.“Unless the distance was greater than I thought, I don’t think this was a bird.”
Cropped and enlarged frame from the witness video.
(Credit: MUFON)
The witness noticed this object moving from his right to left, northeast to north, at a slow, but steady speed.
“It made no noise that carried to my position. My first thought was that it was a drone, due to the spherical shape, slow rate of horizontal travel, etc. There also appears to be either some spinning upon its own access or fluttering (perhaps bird wing flapping) motion. The object was 200 – 400 feet above the horizon, and perhaps one-half to three-quarter mile from my vantage point. I’ve never been unable to determine to which basic, real-world category an observed object belongs, which is why I thought it might be a drone.”
Cropped and enlarged frame from the witness video.
(Credit: MUFON)
The witness has no drone background.
“I’ve never seen a drone in flight, in person, from a distance. I don’t think it’s anything other than something mundane, but would like to know your opinion.”
North Carolina MUFON Field Investigator Linda Larson is investigating. Two video clips were uploaded with the case, which was filed on February 13, 2017. 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 Guide to Oregon’s Extraterrestrial Past and Present!
If you’re craving more UFO goodness, view our slide show of baffling photos taken by fellow Oregonians over the years.
LONG BEFORE OREGON became a magnet for the creative class, East Coast refugees, and retiring 20-somethings, our state was attracting visitors of a different kind: the alien kind. Not only was the term “flying saucer” coined here in 1947—unleashing a nationwide UFO frenzy—but two of the first-ever photographs of UFOs were taken just down Highway 99, at the Trent farm near McMinnville, in 1950.
This month, thousands of curious onlookers, diehards, and experts will converge on McMinnville for the 13th annual UFO Festival—the second-most popular such celebration in the world, after Roswell, New Mexico’s—to commemorate the famous (and still controversial) photos.
But the Trent case merely scratches the surface of Oregon’s rich UFO history. By one estimate, Oregon has recorded more than 1,500 reported UFO sightings, making it third on the list of sightings per capita, close behind neighbors in Washington and Montana. We interviewed UFO investigators, debunkers, and historians to learn more about Oregon’s penchant for attracting the otherworldly. What we found just might surprise you.
When you see something wrong in the sky, Oregon’s chapter of the Mutual UFO Network uses science to solve the mystery.
This image, said to have been taken along Wagner Creek Road near Medford in the 1960s, was submitted to MUFON field investigator William Puckett in 2008. The lack of additional evidence or information precluded any further investigation." data-image-selection="{"x1":0,"y1":0,"x2":423,"y2":600,"width":423,"height":600}">
This image, said to have been taken along Wagner Creek Road near Medford in the 1960s, was submitted to MUFON field investigator William Puckett in 2008. The lack of additional evidence or information precluded any further investigation.
IMAGE: WILLIAM PUCKETT
ON AN EARLY FALL morning last October, Mercedes Corbin (note: not her real name) was driving west on Highway 26 when she spotted a tiny white light ahead of her hanging in the sky over North Plains. Still groggy from an early-morning flight, Corbin slowed to less than 40 miles per hour. The object grew larger and brighter until it hovered—soundless and wingless with flashing red and green lights—above a field just a few hundred feet away.
Heart pounding, Corbin took the next exit and circled back to the spot. But the strange object—which she described as a kind of Washington Monument on its side—had disappeared.
“I was not the only one who saw this,” she later wrote, noting that other trucks and cars had slowed down to watch it. “I am not crazy.”
Disturbed by the incident, Corbin began searching the Internet to find evidence of others who had seen the same thing. Instead, she found the Oregon chapter of the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON). The national organization was founded in 1969 for the purpose of cataloging and investigating UFO reports. MUFON is—to borrow a phrase from Ghostbusters—who you’re gonna call when you see something unexplainable in the sky.
With the government, NASA, and even the SETI Institute (which takes its name from the search for extraterrestrial intelligence) officially not interested, MUFON fielded some 100 reports of UFOs last year alone. But these guys aren’t some goofy Big Gulp–fueled pack of X-Files-ites, pointing to every passing satellite as proof of extraterrestrials. In fact, MUFON classified fewer than half of those 100 reports as “unidentified” (including Corbin’s flashing object), ruling everything else out as hoaxes, airplanes, weather balloons, or simply lacking enough evidence for thorough investigation. And, according to the Oregon MUFON chapter director, Tom Bowden, even those “unidentified” flying objects don’t necessarily mean we need to put together a welcoming committee.
“It means there’s something flying around that is not one of our aircraft, and somebody saw it,” says Bowden, a computer programmer for a financial firm who has been studying UFOs since his college years in Illinois in the 1960s. “It means that there’s a problem that has not been solved, and in order to solve it we need more data.”
I was not the only one who saw this. I am not crazy.
Bowden’s pragmatism might seem somewhat surprising in a group that includes its fair share of eccentrics. (Some members believe UFOs come from another dimension.) But logic and science are at the core of MUFON’s beliefs. Like Bowden, many of MUFON’s top members have scientific or technical backgrounds: Keith Rowell, the group’s assistant director (and resident human encyclopedia), is a retired technical writer. William Puckett, an investigator, is a former EPA and National Weather Service meteorologist. And Bowden was an investigator from 1976 to 1988 for the now-defunct Aerial Phenomena Research Organization, a group of sober-minded scientists hailed by the air force scientific adviser on UFOs, J. Allen Hynek, as one of the country’s best civilian UFO groups.
“What we’re trying to do is study UFOs in a scholarly way—as academics would if they bothered to look into it,” says Rowell, who hopes to donate his personal library of 1,500 UFO-related books to a university after his death.
To that end, MUFON has developed an elaborate protocol for investigating UFO reports, all of it laid out in a 250-page investigator’s manual. When a report is filed, MUFON investigators interview witnesses, collect any photographic evidence (employing a strict, police-department-style chain of custody), and document even the most innocuous information they can about the sighting, from wind speeds to light levels. Then, the investigation begins in earnest. Drawing on astronomy, weather reports, and FAA flight logs, all possible earthly explanations are tested and discarded until they land on one that fits: planets, military aircraft, birds, atmospheric effects, flyovers of the International Space Station. If, in the end, nothing makes sense, the case is declared a UFO.
“Photographs by themselves are useless,” Bowden says. “They don’t have any evidentiary value. It’s just whatever someone says it is. We have to get to the original source of the photograph in order for it to be considered evidence.”
What we’re trying to do is study UFOs in a scholarly way—as academics would if they bothered to look into it.
MUFON’s academic approach follows a long lineage of scientific exploration of UFOs dating back to the US Air Force’s Project Blue Book, a group of soldiers and scientists who began tracking and investigating “flying saucers” in 1952. When the military terminated the group in 1969, its work was left to volunteer groups like MUFON, which have become exceptionally image-conscious as a result of media and other groups painting them as kooks.
To wit: Monthly meetings are open to the public, but recording and photographs are typically prohibited. Case files are available online, but the names of witnesses and investigators are changed to pseudonyms. Interviews with members are granted, but only with reassurances that the purpose is not to poke fun—or worse. In an e-mail, prior to our interview, Bowden noted his concern: “They [the CIA] have operatives placed in many news organizations for the dual purpose of intercepting specific news items and for introducing propaganda.”
Some think this insularity has had a negative effect. “There’s not a lot of collaboration between groups,” says Puckett, who runs his own reporting website, ufosnw.com, though he has worked with Oregon MUFON on a number of investigations. “That’s a major problem.”
Indeed, methods of investigation, proof, and tracking vary widely across organizations and individuals. Without a centralized database or rigorous international standards of investigation, winning over a dubious public to the global UFO “phenomenon” remains a gargantuan task.
“I say look at the data,” says Puckett, who in 15 years of study has never seen a UFO himself. “You only need one case to be real, and there are thousands out there. Everybody can’t be crazy.”
Four accounts from our extraterrestrial past
Photo: Courtesy Robert Sheaffer
Date: June 1947
Location: Oregon and Washington
Rescue pilot Kenneth Arnold (left), was flying east from Mount Rainier when he spotted nine silvery objects flying in an echelon formation at supersonic speed ahead of him. The objects moved in an “eerie” side-to-side fashion for about two minutes before jetting out of view, Arnold said. When he landed, Arnold recounted his tale in exceptional detail, noting the angle of the objects’ trajectory, their speed, and estimated size. The crafts, according to Arnold, were more triangular than circular—like curved wings. However, in his discussion with a reporter from the East Oregonian, he described the crafts as moving like saucers “skipping across water.” The paper ran a story about “flying saucers,” and the term was born. Arnold’s sighting may have been the first of its kind, but a veritable deluge of UFO reports across the country followed. The infamous Roswell “crash” occurred only one month after Arnold’s tale was published, and in 1947 and 1948 the military received hundreds of similar reports.
Photo: Courtesy Robert Sheaffer
Date: May 1950
Location: McMinnville, Oregon
On a cool May evening, Evelyn Trent was feeding chickens on her McMinnville-area farm when she saw something unusual in the sky and called for her husband, Paul, to grab the camera. The two black-and-white snapshots the Trents took—the first photos of a UFO in the US—are grainy and dark, but the disc-like object hanging in the center of both images is crystal clear. Every grain of the Trents’ two black-and-white photos has been examined, analyzed, and reanalyzed over the past 62 years. Debunkers have argued that the Trents must have hung an object from the power line near the top of the photo, but UFOlogists have concluded the pictures are real. Despite the publicity storm that followed them, the Trents lived out their next 40 years (they passed away in the ’90s) quietly: they never sought to monetize their fame, never asked for their negatives back, and never reported anything similar again.
Photo: Courtesy Keith Rowell
Date: October 1990
Location: Vancouver, Washington
Between June and October, Richard Fazio, owner of New Columbia Garden Farms on the banks of the Columbia River, found five of his cattle dead and scattered across three different pastures. Many cows’ organs and parts had been carefully removed —eyes, ear, tongue, rectum, udder, genitals, belly skin. Oregon State University analyzed tissue samples and determined the wounds were consistent with “electrosurgical excision” and “heat-induced injury,” possibly from laser. None of the injuries matched the typical explanations for cattle deaths (disease, weather, or predators). Two neighbors testified they had heard unusual sounds in the night before the carcasses were discovered. One of them said she had been startled by a “little man” carrying a “flashlight” in one of the pastures. The Clark County Sheriff’s Office quickly closed the case—without ever charging a suspect in the crime.
Photo: Courtesy Keith Rowell
Date: July 1998
Location: Hubbard, Oregon
On his approach into Hubbard’s Lenhardt Airport, a pilot saw an intricate pattern of circles, lines, and arcs in the wheat fields below. Farmer Doug Aamodt claimed to not know anything about the design on his land, igniting a media frenzy and sending dozens of UFO experts to the site. After analyzing the formation’s measurements (about 250 feet long and 170 feet wide), soil samples, and swirls, researchers determined that it was consistent with other crop circles, but they remained uncertain about how it got there. No official explanation was ever found, but at least one witness claimed to have seen an unusually bright object in the area at night, just before the circles were discovered. Since then two similar crop circles have been reported in the same field. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the field had a history of crop circles as early as the 1920s, well before UFOs became part of popular culture.
A look at local UFO sightings over the past 10 years*
30 Unusual lights
12 Flying orbs
4 Disc-shaped objects
4 Triangle-shaped objects
3 Cigar-shaped objects
40 Other objects
MOST RECENT
WHEN: March 9, 2012
WHERE: Southeast Portland
WHAT HAPPENED: Eleven orbs—glowing orange, red, and white—fly east to west across the night sky before abruptly veering north and vanishing one by one.
16 Other objects
8 Unusual lights
2 Flying orbs
2 Triangle-shaped objects
1 Disc-shaped object
MOST RECENT
WHEN: February 11, 2012
WHERE: Downtown Vancouver
WHAT HAPPENED: A witness sees a large, glowing orange orb hovering in the air in the distance. It appears to be ascending the north face of Mount Hood.
11 Unusual lights
2 Cigar-shaped objects
1 Triangle-shaped object
1 Flying orb
4 Other objects
MOST RECENT
WHEN: February 15, 2012
WHERE: Unspecified
WHAT HAPPENED: A bright light moving east to west zigzags, pauses, then shoots out of sight on an arcing path.
GRESHAM 11
HILLSBORO 8
MILWAUKIE 8
OREGON CITY 8
TUALATIN 4
CANBY 4
CORNELIUS/NORTH PLAINS 3
TROUTDALE 3
CLACKAMAS 3
ALOHA 2
TIGARD 2
SHERWOOD 2
WILSONVILLE 2
LAKE OSWEGO 2
WEST LINN 2
CAMAS 2
BEAVERCREEK 1
ESTACADA 1
CARVER 1
SANDY 1
WOOD VILLAGE 1
*Drawn from MUFON’s database of reported sightings
Oregon’s UFO History in Brief
MAY 1949 A fishing party on the Rogue River spies an unusual hovering object through binoculars. The description of the saucer-shaped craft given by two of the men is very similar to the one in the McMinnville case a year later.
SEPTEMBER 1959 A policeman and FAA employee at the Redmond Airport see a bright, reddish object hovering 200 feet off the ground. It registers on multiple nearby radar screens before rising out of sight with a “long yellow and red flame from lower side.”
JANUARY 1973 A veteran and his family driving south along the coast encounter three “yellowish glowing objects” near Coos Bay. The man gets out to inspect them and finds a large object made of a sparkling, gemlike material.
MARCH 1981 A man listening to police radio frequencies on his CB captures a 30-minute audio recording of sounds coming from a 30-foot-wide orange light hovering above the Columbia River near St. Helens, lighting up both banks.
FEBRUARY 1984 A 16-year-old driving home with her boyfriend around 11 p.m. near Fern Ridge comes across a black, triangular object hovering over a marshy area by the side of the road. Other drivers pull over to observe it and then speed off, frightened.
1985 A flight attendant on a trip to Portland serves a passenger with “very piercing eyes and an unusual forehead” traveling without any luggage. The passenger inquires about the mass and velocity of the plane but doesn’t know the names of everyday objects.
SUMMER 1989 Ranchers in La Pine report 35 cattle found slaughtered and mutilated over the course of a few weeks. The Deschutes County DA heads up a task force whose report remains secret to this day.
JULY 1992 Nine witnesses at Glenwood Park in Southeast Portland see a “very bright” and “intense” light hovering silently above the area for almost 30 minutes. An out-of-focus VHS recording shows a glowing red dot against the night sky.
MARCH 1996 Two witnesses capture a video of six glowing spheres hovering in the afternoon sky above Lake Grove. The unidentified orbs are gold, blue, and pink and appear sporadically over the next two hours.
DECEMBER 2004 A Springfield man photographs a “very, very bright” bluish circle with a red rim in the night sky—which he believes to be the under-side of a UFO. Investigators initially believe it could be a planet, but none should have been visible that night.
JULY 2005 A Eugene couple photographs a “bright reflective” saucer moving across the sky. The FAA won’t provide radar data to investigators, but witnesses report that three military jets show up minutes later and tail the object until all are out of sight.
AUGUST 2005 In Eugene, several independent witnesses report “unusual” bright lights in the midnight sky, close to the ground and moving erratically. A grainy picture from one of the witnesses shows a red circular object, glowing yellow on the edges.
The country’s leading UFO debunker, Robert Sheaffer, tells us why he doesn’t think Oregon’s famous Trent UFO photos are real.
GRAY SKIES The Trents’ photos show an overcast sky, but the Weather Bureau recorded clear skies for the entire day the Trents reported taking them.
SHADOWS The Trents claimed to have taken the pictures at sunset—but the angle of shadows on objects in the foreground suggests the sun was in the east.
SAUCER PLACEMENT If the object in the Trent photos were far away and moving, it should appear different in size and location in each of the images, which were taken roughly 10 feet apart. But when the two photos are compared, the UFO object remains in the same place and roughly the same size in relation to other objects in the photo (like the power lines above it).
SO … WHAT ELSE COULD IT BE? If you look at the picture long enough, Sheaffer says, the UFO starts to resemble a 1940s truck side mirror.
Visit TRAPPIST-1e! NASA Travel Poster Advertises Exoplanet Discovery
If you're looking for an ultra-long vacation to an ultra-small dwarf star, a new NASA travel poster has just the trip for you: a star trek to TRAPPIST-1e!
NASA unveiled the retro TRAPPIST-1e exoplanet travel poster Wednesday (Feb. 22) to commemorate the discovery of seven Earth-size alien worlds around the dwarf star TRAPPIST-1. The image is the latest in a series of awesome NASA space travel posters to promote exoplanet science.
"Planet Hop From TRAPPIST-1e," the NASA poster proclaims, showing what appears to be two children marveling at a view of the system's six other planet in the sky. "Voted Best 'Hab Zone' Vacation Within 12 Parsecs of Earth." TRAPPIST-1e is one of three planets (the others are TRAPPIST-1f and TRAPPIST-1g) in the TRAPPIST-1 system located within the cool dwarf star's habitable zone, that "Goldilocks zone" where liquid water could exist. [How Long Would It Take to Fly to TRAPPIST-1?]
The system is just over 39 light-years from Earth. That's about 235 trillion miles, or as you've read above, about 12 parsecs.
Twelve parsecs! Han Solo's Millennium Falcon from "Star Wars" could easily make the trip. After all, it's the ship that made the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs.
You can download in high-resolution here — even a print-out poster size! — from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow him @tariqjmalik and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
WATCH: UFO hunter vows to find 'alien base entrance' in hill where he films every night
Steven Barone, who runs YouTube channel UFOs In THE USA, is convinced he is filming alien activity or even top secret US Airforce test craft leaving the Blue Diamond Hills, which is near the Nellis US Airforce base in Nevada.
But, as Express.co.uk reported this week, sceptics have claimed they are just the headlights of vehicles coming down the hillside that he is recording.
In a bid to prove the critics wrong, Mr Barone filmed himself trying to climb the remote hillside to prove that no vehicles drive on it, and to also see if he could find a secret entrance to the base.
In a video, uploaded to YouTube, he said: "Too many people believe that the lights on this hill are off-road vehicles.
"There is no way that is possible. The land on this small mountain is under BLM control.
"It is also very close to National Conservation land.
"Riding any motorised vehicles is strictly forbidden and carries a huge fine if caught.
YouTube*GETTY
Steven barone hopes to find the entrance to a secret alien or military base in Nevada.
"Whatever these lights are they are extremely strange.
"I have videos of the same objects lining up in the air - as many as 12 or 13 of them - in a perfectly horizontal row which would be impossible if they were on the ground.
"I have checked and double checked and no clubs, businesses or anybody else has been riding up there.
"The only legal place to drive off-road vehicles is about 30 miles from here."
He and his wife Sue set out to try to climb the hill in the video, but were left scratching their heads at the bottom.
He added: "My wife, me and our dog attempted to climb it a couple weeks ago so I could prove the soil up there was undisturbed but we couldn't find any way to get up there.
"Everything is fenced in, there is construction going on, but we cannot find a way to get in here, everything is blocked off."
Mr Barone has been filming the area for three years and has scores of videos on his YouTube channel, that he suggests are alien UFOs or top secret US space vehicles hovering over the Nellis Air Force Base.
The base, like top-secret Area 51 in the Nevada desert, is alleged by conspiracy theorists to be where the US authorities hide the remains of crashed flying saucers and dead aliens, and where secretive technology is developed and tested.
Some even claim that visiting aliens have been allowed to use the bases to keep them from public view.
Fellow UFO conspiracy theorist Scott C Waring also believes there is an alien base on the hillside.
He blogged on ufosightingsdaily.com about Mr Barone's video.
He said: "This is the location of the UFOs appearing from the hill top.
"The hill is completely surrounded by a fence and getting in looks difficult, but not impossible.
"Steven's on his way to finding a way to the top, which is an entrance to an underground base area.
"If he focuses his thoughts downward in a open and relaxed way, he may establish mental contact with the aliens and they may come up or take him down for a meet and greet session."
UFOs filmed forming bizarre ‘triangle formation’ over remote farm
MUFON
MUFON is investigating claims of a triangle UFO formation.The case is being investigated by the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), a US-based organisation dedicated to UFO and alien research.
It also keeps an online database of UFO sightings, to which witnesses can send accounts pictures and videos.
The witness was walking through fields at 7.20am on January 16 “assessing tide flats for duck hunting” when the incident occurred.
The event was reported to MUFON this week.
In a report, the unnamed witness said: "I observed three white, blinking lights in triangle formation to the south.
"I presumed them to be aircraft, but was not 100 per cent sure.
“I expected them to break formation, but they seemed to stay in formation longer than commercial aircraft would.”
The witness took photos and two short video clips and submitted his report to MUFON on February 20.
I expected them to break formation, but they seemed to stay in formation longer than commercial aircraft would.
Washington MUFON state section director Tim Ward is now investigating the case.
Roger Marsh, MUFON communications director, said: "Please remember that most UFO sightings can be explained as something natural or man-made."
Scott Brando, runs hoax-busting website ufoofinterest.org, and forensically investigates alleged UFO sightings.
He said planes circling and waiting to land can sometimes appear to have made a formation.
Five on Friday: 5 unusual natural world sightings in Singapore
By
Was it a UFO? A sign from the heavens, perhaps?
Most people, however, just marvelled at a unique optical phenomenon known as a circumhorizontal arc, or - to the layman - a “fire rainbow”.
Looking suspiciously like a Tycho album cover (it would have been nice had it appeared during Laneway), people gave it all sorts of names from Paddle Pop rainbow to the Southern Lights.
Oh, the wit.
Speaking of optical phenomena, here are examples of the opposite: Sightings that are becoming familiar mainstays in various parts of the island to the point of boredom.
Rats (Bukit Batok), wild boars (Punggol), otters (Bishan, Marina Bay) and monitor lizards (no fixed abode) hardly elicit a second glance these days.
With that in mind, we thought we would go to the other end of the spectrum and showcase five rare natural world sightings that got us all in a tizzy.
1. DOUBLE RAINBOW DELIGHT
Two for the price of one. It is a bargain few Singaporeans can resist. Which is why when a double rainbow appeared last September, many whipped out their phones and set social media alight.
The science: A double rainbow occurs when the light is reflected twice in a raindrop - leading to two different reflections, coming from different angles.
Believed by some cultures to be a sign of good fortune, double rainbows are not altogether once-in-a-blue-moon rare.
There was one in July 2015 and also during the auspicious Chinese New Year period this year. But still, rare enough to cause a stir.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong called on his Facebook fans to share their pics of the unique event during Chinese New Year festivities.
2.WELCOME BACK MALAYAN TAPIR
“If that’s a wild boar, why is it wearing diapers?” the driver asked, squinting.
“Erm, I dunno dear … maybe it has a weak bladder,” said her husband. “Taking precautions I guess. It’s so hard to find a loo around here.”
We will never know for sure if such a conversation took place along Changi Coastal Road on a balmy June night last year.
But one imagines it cannot be far from the incredulous chatter that would have occurred upon the sighting of a Malayan tapir - one that looked as if it was on a late-night mosey after a particularly heavy supper. Hey, we have all been there!
The Malayan tapir's biggest claim to fame in Singapore is that it is among the first animals you will see upon entering the zoo in Mandai (on the left, after the gift shop). And as for a sighting in the wild? Well, you would have to go back all the way to 1986 - on Pulau Ubin.
Forget the double rainbow, or even unicorns - this is a rare sighting. Goodness only knows when the last wild Malayan tapir made it to our mainland. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has said there are anywhere between 1,500 and 2,000 left in Malaysia.
And then after a fleeting glimpse, the Changi Malayan tapir vanished. Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (ACRES) said it most likely swam back to Malaysia.
Well, till next time then. Jumpa lagi.
3. WATERSPOUTING ABOUT
Do not be fooled by its innocent sounding name. Waterspouts can do some real damage and the video above can attest to its might.
Thankfully not much mayhem (apart from getting people all uber-excited) was caused when a larger-than-usual version turned up off East Coast Park in August 2016.
According to the National Environment Agency, there is an average of three waterspout occurrences reported over Singapore waters every year.
Singapore’s thunderstorm-prone climate makes it all the more susceptible to waterspouts, but one as massive as this is extremely rare.
Still, if you are hanging about Bedok Jetty chasing fish and you see something similar heading your way, you best be on your skates sharpish.
4. DOLPHINS, SWIMMING WILD
An Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin spotted off St John's Island in August 2015.
Dolphins in captivity have been in the spotlight in recent years in Singapore, with questions asked about their living conditions.
So when footage or photos appear of dolphins freewheeling with joy off Singapore’s shores, it definitely calls for beers all round.
The Wild Singapore site has, over the years, blogged about dolphin sightings in the vicinity of the Southern Islands. Wild dolphins were sighted off Raffles Lighthouse in 2006, and off St John’s Island and off Sisters Island in 2007. Dolphins were also seen near Singapore’s landfill island Pulau Semakau in 2009.
The most recent sighting of wild dolphins was in August 2015 when four Indo-Pacific humpback pink dolphins were seen off St John’s Island. Joseph Chng, who spotted the dolphins while out at sea, said he had to perform an emergency stop to prevent his boat from running down the cute things.
5. SUPERMOON
Nov 14, 2016: A date that will live long in infamy. That was when the moon was at its closest to Earth in nearly 70 years.
Why infamy? Well, because the supermoon was a damp squib for many of us. Although the moon was 35,400km closer, cloud cover that night meant there was very little big lunar action to be had.
Yet, from photos that did emerge, we know that there were plenty who lucked out and managed to snag photos of the swollen moon - except that it was early the next morning.
Most of us were still in bed. I was quite exhausted after spending most of the previous evening like a demented maniac, opening my bedroom window, peering out and then shutting it again every 10 minutes or so.
Skygazers will not be able to see the moon this big again until Nov 25, 2034. At least there is some breathing space before we are all left disappointed again.
- CNA/rw
Depuis presque 60 ans la France détient un OVNI
source image : http://paranormal-esotemyst.forumactif.com/
Churchill reportedly quashed UFO sighting to avoid panicEditor, the Tribune: Many thanks to Rudi Keller for his excellent articles on Winston Churchill’s essay on space, alien life, atomic bombs and several other matters of great scientific importance.
An online search regarding the essay included a New York Times article titled “Winston Churchill Wrote of Alien Life in a Lost Essay,” which described Churchill’s deep concern regarding UFOs. The article notes that Churchill was so enthralled with the likelihood of life on other planets “that he even ordered a suspected sighting of an unidentified flying object by the Royal Air Force to be kept secret for 50 years to avoid ‘mass panic.’”
Interestingly, an Aug. 5, 2010, BBC News report quoted Nick Pope, a former UFO investigator for Britain’s Ministry of Defence, as saying, “What happened is that a scientist whose grandfather was one of his (Churchill’s) bodyguards said look, Churchill and Eisenhower got together to cover up this phenomenal UFO sighting that was witnessed by an RAF crew on their way back from a bombing raid. The reason apparently was because Churchill believed it would cause mass panic and it would shatter people’s religious views.”
From the 1950s to 2009, the British Ministry of Defence collected more than 5,000 pages of UFO reports and related documents. The ministry’s UFO inquiry desk was closed in 2009, and the files were made available on the British National Archives Website.
Bill Wickersham,
Columbia
Local experts discuss astronomical discovery of Earth-like planets
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – It’s a story of cosmic proportions that’s throwing the astronomy community into orbit. On Wednesday, NASA announced the discovery of 7 Earth-sized planets orbiting a dwarf star 40 light years away, in a system they're calling TRAPPIST-1.
Astronomy experts say 3 of those 7 planets are orbiting in the habitable zone, where conditions are optimum for liquid water to exist.
“That star seems to have a Goldilocks Zone or a habitable zone,” says Dave DeBruyn, astronomy specialist at the Grand Rapids Public Museum. “Which is quite large too by comparison to a lot of other stars that have been investigated.”
They are all orbiting a red dwarf star much smaller than the star we orbit.
“It’s 8% as massive as our sun. That’s as small as stars can go,” says Lawrence Molnar, astronomy professor, Calvin College. “It might be quite common to have large groups of planets around these small stars and these small stars are one of the most common stars around.”
And since dwarf stars burn dimmer, their life span is infinitely longer.
“Stars this small, live so long that no one has ever died,” says Molnar.
Many scientists are hopeful to one day find the existence of life on other worlds like the newly discovered planets.
The truth is out there, and science may now know just where to look.
"They of course have been looking for other worlds out there similar to ours and they keep on finding them. It becomes more evident every day that there could be something out there," says Bill Konkolesky with the Michigan Chapter of the Mutual UFO Network.
"It's a subject that's fascinated me since I was a little kid and here I am 76 years old and still doing it," said DeBruyn.
FILED IN: NEWS
Weird Lights Over Korean City Have People Talking About Aliens
Strange columns of yellow light disrupted the peaceful night sky. Over the last week, hundreds of residents complained about the light’s appearance. For three nights, the illumination settled over Busan, South Korea. With over 3.6 million people, the second largest city in the country always has people staring at the sky. Video footage of the phenomenon has led to claims about UFOs, black holes, and squid.
Most of the internet’s interest in the occurrence relates to the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). The organization operates the Large Hadron Collider. The collider is the largest and most powerful machine on the planet. Its purpose is to slam particles together, just below light speed, in order to learn more about physics. However, opponents claim that by conducting these experiments, CERN places everyone on Earth in jeopardy. The main fear is that the powerful magnets along the 16-mile long track could inadvertently create a black hole. That hole would quickly swallow the Earth. These same advocates who oppose CERN claim the lights above Busan result from the start of the world-ending black hole.
Alternatively, others believe that the lights are UFOs observing the tensions between North and South Korea. Some researchers believe the presence of aliens in the area indicates that Korea will be the site of the apocalypse. Additionally, a subset of this group believes the lights are actually god-like entities that travel through space without ships. Based on calls fielded by police in Busan, many adherents to the CERN and UFO theories live in the city.
However, there is a more pedestrian explanation for the lights that does not involve aliens or the end of the world. Rather, these backers claim that fishing boats are the reason for the moving lights in the sky. Busan is South Korea’s busiest port. This also happens to be one of the busiest squid fishing times of the year. According to a representative from the Busan Regional Weather Bureau, lights from the squid boats reflected off ice crystals in the air to form “light poles.” Additionally, he said such anomalies are common on the country’s eastern coast. Nevertheless, skepticism remains for many due to the synchronized movement of the lights. These movements do not match the movements of the fishing vessels.
(source) (image source)
Interview: Reginald Buck, Mutual UFO Network state director
JONAS BENGTSSON (CREATIVE COMMONS)
REAL MEN IN BLACK FILMED IN A HOTEL AFTER A REPORTED UFO SIGHTINGThis was a real incident: Those two guys, dressed in black suits wearing black hats with no eyebrows, entered a hotel after a UFO Sighting was reported to the police. Watch the whole story in the video.
“Tesla’s torsievelden ontdekt boven Bosnische piramides”
Piramides zijn energieversterkers die informatie versturen via de zon. Dat schrijft dr. Sam Osmanagich in de krant Sarajevo Times.
Volgens hem zijn Tesla’s torsievelden ontdekt boven de top van de Bosnische Zonnepiramide.
Dergelijke velden zouden sneller dan het licht reizen en wijzen op het bestaan van een kosmisch internet dat kan worden gebruikt voor supersnelle intergalactische communicatie.
De scalaire of staande golven die in torsievelden ontstaan reizen sneller dan het licht, aldus Osmanagich. “Tot wel 10 miljard keer sneller.”
De torsievelden kunnen volgens hem ieder hemellichaam passeren zonder energie te verspillen.
Ze kunnen dus grote afstanden afleggen zonder dat er informatie verloren gaat of beschadigt raakt.
“De zon geeft ons niet alleen warmte en energie, maar ook informatie,” zei hij. “Ze reageert op ons DNA en zuivert ons.”
In termen van energie is de piramide de meest krachtige geometrische vorm, merkte hij op. “Boven een krachtige energieplek wordt de piramide een energieversterker.”
Tijdens opgravingen werden rond de Zonnepiramide grote hoeveelheden kwarts gevonden. “Het is bekend dat kwarts energieën opvangt en versterkt,” zei Osmanagich.
Hij merkte op dat natuurkundigen, antropologen en geluidsdeskundigen al sinds 2010 onderzoek doen naar de Bosnische piramides.
“Diverse teams hebben onder meer een energiestraal boven de Bosnische Zonnepiramide ontdekt met een frequentie van 28 kHz,” zei hij.
Uit onderzoek is volgens hem gebleken dat de straal gericht is op de zon.
De definitie van de kosmos is in zijn ogen aan herziening toe. “We leven in een elektrisch universum waarin alles is gebaseerd op geladen deeltjes,” zei Osmanagich, die niet gelooft in de oerknaltheorie.
“De kosmos is onbeperkt en onderdeel van een eindeloos aantal andere universa,” besloot hij. “We zijn allemaal onderdeel van het kosmische internet.”
[Sarajevo Times]Russian soldiers zapped by aliens after shooting down UFO, declassified CIA report claims
The shocking report, which includes claims that 23 soldiers were turned into stone by the aliens in the UFO after they transformed into a ball of light, was buried among thousands of declassified files published online by the US intelligence agency.
The report in question, created on March 27 1993, is a translation by the CIA of a report from the Ukrainian newspaper Ternopil vechirniy.
The newspaper report said that after Mikhail Gorbachev lost power in 1991, many KGB files made their way to the CIA, including an alleged 250-page dossier on the bizarre UFO attack, which included pictures and witness testimonies.
The report suggested that a low flying flying saucer had appeared over a military unit in training in Siberia, before one of the soldiers fired a surface to air missile, bringing it down.
GETTY
The UFO was said to have been shot down by Russian soldiers.
CIA
The now declassified CIA report with the extraordinary claims.
It said: "Five short humanoids with large heads and large black eyes got out.”
Two soldiers are said to have survived, who described how, after emerging from the debris, the five beings merged into a brilliant white spherical ball of light that buzzed and hissed.
It then exploded, and as it did 23 soldiers who stood watching were turned into stone, the report claimed.
The two survivors had been in a shaded area, it said.
Five short humanoids with large heads and large black eyes got out.
The report said: "The KGB report goes on to say that the remains of the 'petrified soldiers' were transferred to a secret research institution near Moscow.
"Specialists assume that a source of energy still unknown to Earthlings instantly changed the structure of the soldiers living organisms, having transformed it into a substance whose molecular structure was no different to limestone.
"A CIA representative stated: 'if the KGB file corresponds to reality, this is an extremely menacing case.
"The aliens possess such weapons and technology that go beyond all our assumptions'."
It is not explained in the document why the CIA held a translation of the Ukrainian newspaper report on file.
However, the translated newspaper report contained in the declassified CIA file said the source of the information had come from the Canadian Weekly World News, which was known at the time for publishing outlandish and fictional news headlines.
According to UFO website anf YouTube channel Lionsground, "you have to be careful about what the CIA publishes online, as it could be misinformation."
CIA-document: Russische soldaten ‘veranderd in steen’ nadat ze vliegende schotel neerschoten
In een vrijgegeven CIA-document valt te lezen dat Russische soldaten die een UFO neerschoten ‘in steen werden veranderd door aliens’.
In het geopenbaarde document wordt gesteld dat 23 soldaten werden gedood door vijf aliens die in een vliegende schotel zaten die in 1993 boven Siberië uit de lucht werd geschoten.
Het stuk, dat op de officiële website van de CIA kan worden gevonden, is een vertaling van een artikel uit een Oekraïense krant.
Volgens de krant beschikte de KGB over een 250 pagina’s tellend dossier over de aanval, dat onder meer afbeeldingen en getuigenverklaringen bevat, onthult de Daily Express.
De vliegende schotel zou zijn verschenen op het moment dat een militaire eenheid in Siberië was voor een oefening.
Eén van de soldaten zou het object met een luchtdoelraket hebben neergehaald. “Vijf kleine humanoïden met grote hoofden en grote zwarte ogen stapten uit,” schreef de krant.
Naar verluidt overleefden slechts twee soldaten het incident.
De vijf wezens kwamen volgens de krant uit het gecrashte toestel en vuurden een lichtbol af waarna 23 soldaten ‘in steen’ veranderden.
Het rapport van de KGB vermeldt dat de resten van de soldaten werden overgebracht naar een geheim onderzoeksinstituut nabij Moskou.
“Experts nemen aan dat de structuur van het lichaam van de soldaten werd veranderd door een energiebron die voor ons nog onbekend is,” klinkt het.
De CIA merkte in een voetnoot op: “Als het rapport van de KGB strookt met de werkelijkheid, is dit een extreem bedreigend voorval.”
In het document wordt niet uitgelegd waarom de CIA een vertaling van een Oekraïens krantenartikel bewaarde.
[Express]WAT ALS JE VOOR EEN DEEL BUITENAARDS BENT? ( VIDEO )
WAT ALS JE VOOR EEN DEEL BUITENAARDS BENT? ( VIDEO )
Er zijn mensen die zich hier op aarde niet thuis voelen en die ergens diep van binnen weten dat ze geen “normale” mensen zijn.
Zo iemand is de Canadese Lisa die niet alleen dat gevoel heeft, maar er ook van overtuigd is dat ze een mengsel is tussen mens deel, en buitenaards, een zogenaamde menselijke hybride.
Vaak worden met hybrides kinderen bedoeld van mensen die ontvoerd zijn geweest door buitenaardsen en door deze zijn bevrucht, waardoor er een menselijke hybride ontstaat.
De menselijke eigenschappen voeren vaak de boventoon en de buitenaardse zijn meer “slapend” aanwezig. De hybriden zelf voelen meestal zelf haarfijn dat ze anders zijn en dat ze eigenlijk niet thuis horen op deze aarde.
Vaak kun je het aan de ogen zien en wanneer deze hybriden je aankijken heb je het gevoel alsof ze in het diepst van je ziel kunnen kijken. Vaak hebben de hybriden uittredingen, waarbij ze de ruimte in gaan en contact hebben met hun buitenaardse oorsprong.
Hybriden hebben ook een ongekende intuïtie en zijn dikwijls in staat om telepathisch te communiceren vanwege hun buitenaardse eigenschappen en kunnen dan ook gedachten lezen van mensen zonder dat er een woord tegen wordt gesproken.
Lisa vertoont al deze eigenschappen en voor haar is het eigenlijk vanzelfsprekend dat ze voor een deel buitenaards is.
Lisa heeft er voor het eerst in toegestemd om voor een camera te komen om te spreken over haar ervaringen. Dit interview staat hieronder en aangezien ze alleen Frans spreekt, worden haar woorden vertaald door de UFO onderzoeker Luigi Vendittelli die afkomstig is uit Montreal in Canada.
Het verhaal begint al voor de geboorte van Lisa toen haar moeder ’s middags even ging liggen omdat ze moe was toen ze acht maanden zwanger was.
Nauwelijks was ze op bed gaan liggen, of ze was volledig verlamd en kon helemaal niets meer. Door de muur van de kamer zag ze een soort object de kamer in komen vliegen en even later zag ze twee kleine grijze zogenaamde Gray Aliens aan haar bed staan.
Ze wist wat ze zeiden ook al spraken ze niet woordelijk. Ze hadden een discussie of zij (de moeder van Lisa) nu wel of niet klaar was. De moeder smeekte hen om niets met haar te doen en weg te gaan, wat ze uiteindelijk ook deden.
De moeder had tijdens haar zwangerschap de normale onderzoeken gehad en men wist dus dat ze één kind zou baren, hetgeen dan ook prompt een maand later gebeurde toen ze een jongen kreeg.
De dokter had de kraamkamer alweer verlaten toen hij met spoed werd teruggeroepen omdat er nog een baby was. Tot op de dag van vandaag is dit volgens de artsen onmogelijk omdat bij eerdere scans duidelijk was gebleken dat er maar één baby was.
En zo werd Lisa geboren.
Lisa heeft heel duidelijk het gevoel dat ze hier op aarde is voor een bepaalde reden. Dat er iets is dat ze moet gaan doen. Dat er dingen moeten veranderen en dat dit geen gemakkelijk proces gaat worden.
Een variatie van het verhaal van Lisa is dat van Bridget. Over deze vrouw schreven wij vorig jaar een artikel en ook zij is moeder van hybride kinderen, met dit verschil dat haar kinderen niet op aarde wonen, maar bij buitenaardsen.
Hierbij nogmaals een deel van dat eerdere artikel:
Degene die daar antwoorden op heeft, is Bridget Nielsen. Zij zegt dat buitenaardsen in het verleden uiteraard hetzelfde soort fouten hebben gemaakt als de mensen nu doen en daardoor in allerlei problemen terecht zijn gekomen.
Problemen waardoor ze moeite hebben met onder andere voortplanting en daarom naar de aarde zijn gekomen om materiaal af te nemen van een ras dat dit nog wel kan, de mens.
De buitenaardsen waar Bridget dan over spreekt zijn de Gray Aliens, afkomstig van het sterrenbeeld Zeta Reticuli.
Ook zijzelf is vanaf de leeftijd van drie jaar meegenomen naar de buitenaardse schepen en zegt dat ze het altijd een spannend avontuur vond. Het schijnt dat de Grays gebruikmaken van mensen uit bepaalde families. Hierdoor kan het bijvoorbeeld voorkomen dat oma is meegenomen, haar kind en vervolgens haar kleinkind. Dit zou als reden hebben dat bepaalde families genetisch gezien heel geschikt zijn voor wat de Grays willen.
Wat Bridget zegt, is dat de ontvoerden tegenwoordig veel beter worden behandeld door de Grays dan vroeger. Waar het op neerkomt, is dat het voor beide partijen een soort leerproces is, waar uiteindelijk iedereen beter van wordt.
Dan word het fascinerend want klaarblijkelijk nemen de Grays eicellen van vrouwen waarmee ze dan kinderen gaan "bouwen".
Bridget is dan ook moeder van diverse door de Grays gemaakte kinderen die ze dan in haar dromen of tijdens trips naar de ruimteschepen ontmoet.
Op de volgende foto zie je Bridget met de tekeningen van enkele van haar kinderen.
Er zijn inmiddels zo’n vijf verschillende hybriderassen gemaakt, maar de bedoeling van deze buitenaardse kinderen is dat ze naar de aarde zullen komen om zicht te vermengen met normale aardse kinderen waardoor dan het zesde hybrideras zal ontstaan.
Tot die tijd verblijven de kinderen die “freelancers” worden genoemd op de grote buitenaardse schepen in de buurt.
Volgens Bridget waren de beroemde Phoenix Lights een voorbeeld van het passeren van één van die grote schepen.
Dit alles en nog veel meer vertelt Bridget in het navolgende interview. Wie meer wil weten over de hybride kinderen verwijzen wij naar de website van Bridget, de Hybrid Children Community.
INDIASE BOEING 777 VERLIEST CONTACT MET VERKEERSLEIDING DOO UFO ( VIDEO )
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INDIASE BOEING 777 VERLIEST CONTACT MET VERKEERSLEIDING DOO UFO ( VIDEO )
Enkele dagen geleden is een Boeing 777 met meer dan 300 passagiers onderweg van India naar Engeland als boven Duitsland alle contact met de verkeersleiding wegvalt. Voor passagiers in een groot verkeerstoestel ergens hoog boven de wolken is het niet bepaald een geruststellende gedachte dat alle communicatie van de bemanning met de verkeersleiding wegvalt. En dat is precies wat er enkele dagen geleden gebeurde boven Duitsland met het volgende toestel van JET Airways uit India.
Het vliegtuig was onderweg van Mumbai naar Londen Heathrow toen er boven Duitsland gedurende een periode van 33 minuten alle communicatie met de verkeersleiding plotsklaps wegviel.
Wat er daarna gebeurde, werd gefilmd vanuit een ander passagierstoestel wat iets achter en wat hoger vloog dan de Indiase Boeing. Naar verluidt betreft het hier een toestel van British Airways.
De maatschappij JET Airways gaf de volgende verklaring:
Het contact was verloren voor iets meer dan een paar minuten en zoals gebruikelijk krijgt de bemanning de schuld. Er wordt gesuggereerd dat ze een verkeerde frequentie geselecteerd zouden hebben. |
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The search for extraterrestrial life in the water worlds close to home
The search for extraterrestrial life in the water worlds close to home
The discovery of seven exoplanets around a star 40 light years from our Sun has raised the possibility that they could harbour life.
Why? Because the astronomers who made the discovery believe some of the planets may have liquid water. And on Earth, wherever there is liquid water, there is life.
But we believe we can look much closer to Earth for potential candidates for evidence of extraterrestrial life, as we state this month in the International Journal of Astrobiology.
Recent discoveries by the NASA Voyager and Cassini space missions infer the presence of liquid oceans beneath a sea ice crust on some of the moons of Jupiter and Saturn.
These provide the most likely sites for finding extraterrestial life in our solar system.
The independent scientist James Lovelock, best known for developing the Gaia hypothesis, was contracted to NASA in the 1960s to develop atmospheric and planetary sensors for the Viking probes subsequently deployed to Mars in 1975.
Following a precursory Earth-based assessment, Lovelock theorised that the red planet was likely devoid of life because of atmospheric chemical equilibrium. In contrast, Earth’s atmosphere is in dynamic flux due to the biological activity that takes place on the surface.
Notwithstanding the continued ambiguity as to whether or not life is, or ever has been, present on Mars, Lovelock set a powerful precedent for the emerging field of astrobiology – the comparative approach with Earth in the search for extra-terrestrial life.
In our endeavour to answer the question of whether we are alone in the Universe, we have a solitary clue: “follow the energy”.
Earth is our only point of reference, and life on Earth requires energy – thermal energy for melting water and chemical energy for maintaining life. That’s it. Just two forms of energy define the cosmic imperative for life as we know it.
But ironically, we do not know when, where or how life originated on Earth.
What we do know is that the oldest and most abundant life forms on the planet are microorganisms. Biological adaptation is not restricted by structural simplicity, because microbes occupy every conceivable ecological niche on Earth.
If we accept the simple prokaryotic cell as being life’s universal blueprint, then ET is either an amalgamation of microbes or is still a microbe.
The mandate to “follow the energy” is synonymous with “follow the water”. The recent discovery of evidence of liquid water on the surface of Mars is therefore intriguing, but there is a lot more of it on Jupiter’s Europa and Saturn’s Enceladus.
These moons are compelling targets for astrobiology because of the inferred presence of oceans beneath a sea ice crust that have persisted over geological time scales.
A new interpretation of data collected by the Cassini spacecraft suggests that the ocean beneath the ice on Enceladus is not just confined to the south polar region. Like Europa, it is global.
An artist’s rendering of Saturn’s moon Enceladus shows possible hydrothermal activity that may take place on and under the seafloor of the moon’s subsurface ocean. NASA/JPL-Caltech
It now also appears that Europa’s ice shell comprises a mobile, plate tectonic-like system that overlies warm convecting ice and a salty seawater reservoir that is 30-35 times the volume of Earth’s ocean.
Should more water equate to more life? Not necessarily. There are many biological constraints on habitability in extreme environments.
Life as we know it appears to be absent on the surface of Europa and Enceladus because of ionising radiation and extremely low temperatures. Photosynthesis as we know it is also very unlikely to occur under ice that is kilometres thick.
Hydrothermal vents, a habitat for deep-sea ecosystems on Earth, may or may not exist on the moons.
So is this the end of comparison with Earth and end of story? Actually no, because it’s feasible that microorganisms that currently inhabit sea ice on Earth could also inhabit the ice water-interface and ice fissures on Europa or Enceladus.
The molecular basis for adaptation is not completely understood, but extremophiles (organisms that live in extreme conditions) must tolerate steep gradients in temperature, salinity, acidity and inorganic nutrients, as well as dissolved gas and light signatures.
Stress-related fissures in the ice shells of Europa and Enceladus are complex, and our understanding of their topography is based on theoretical modelling. But fissures appear to actively exchange liquid from the subsurface oceans to the ice exteriors.
The physiological demands on any microbial organisms would be exceptional, but these features could harbour small-scale, biologically permissive domains. Even brief periods of photosynthesis might be possible.
Extremophiles are relevant reference organisms because they adapt to multiple stressors in ways we don’t completely understand.
Life on these moons may be possible, but how likely is it? The comparative approach calls for an understanding of how these microbes respond to multiple stressors and the limits to which they can be pushed.
But the search for extra-terrestrial life is impeded because we lack a framework linking the capacity for adaptation with environmental variability. Future research and exploration to these moons will benefit from experimental work that defines life’s limits in the sea ice ecosystem.
Ultimately, we need to characterise theoretical biological limits that are distinct from the limits imposed on Earth-based analogues.
Why have the number of UFO sightings reached an all-time high?
In the search for life beyond our planet, more people are reporting sightings of spaceships and UFOs than ever before.
Exactly 104,947 UFO sightings have been reported since the first sign of aliens was spotted in 1905, according to data from the National UFO Reporting Centre.
And since the 1990s, the number of other-worldly sightings has shot up from 10,000 to 45,000 a year.
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The number of people spotting spaceships and UFOs has reached an all-time high, according to data from the National UFO Reporting Centre in Washington
The National UFO Reporting Centre, which is based in Washington, is a site dedicated to keeping track of UFO sightings from across the world.
Data from the site has shown that people living in the UK, the US and Australia are most likely to report seeing an alien spaceship, while countries such as Russia, China and Greenland rarely catch a glimpse of extraterrestrial activity.
An analysis of its data by statistician Sam Monfort, a PhD student at George Mason University in Virginia, has revealed that while the number of overall sightings is on the rise, the number of flying saucers being spotted has actually fallen.
'One of the first recorded UFO sightings comes from Portland in 1905 (of course, seeing UFOs before it was cool), where a 'buzzing,' sphere-shaped UFO descended from the clouds,' he wrote on his website, Visualise This.
'Other shapes began cropping up later, with Saucers dominating the scene until the 1990s, when mysterious lights became the most popular.'
Yearly UFO sightings spiked after the 1990s, with the number of other-worldly shooting up from 10,000 to 45,000 a year
Mr Monfort said the sharp increase of UFO sightings coincides with the rise of the internet in the late 1980s.
He said: 'Why lights instead of tangible shapes?
'Maybe claiming to see "lights" is less likely to make your friends and family react sceptically than claiming you saw an actual UFO up-close, especially now that everyone walks around with a handy picture-taking device in their pocket.'
Flying saucing sightings have dropped since the 1990s. On January 25, alien enthusiasts claimed they have spotted ET's ship, circled, hidden in a cave in the South Pole
He also pointed out that the number of UFO sightings in the US jumps up on July 4th every year.
He said: 'Maybe the mysterious lights are actually fireworks.
'Sightings of UFOs spike in the USA on July 4th! Strangely though, this "July 4th effect" only gets huge starting in 2008.'
Mysterious lights have become the most common type of UFO to be reported. On August 3, 2016, a bizarre ball of light appeared over a field in Siberia, Russia
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