“A messenger from afar arriving first.”

While “What the heck is THAT?” might have been the first name considered for it, the first known interstellar object to be identified has now officially been named ‘Oumuamua, a Hawaiian word meaning “a messenger from afar arriving first.” While that seems to be more appropriate at first glance, at second glance “Mysterious spinning cigar from parts unknown” might be more appropriate.

New data released by the European Southern Observatory this week in the journal Nature sheds more light on the dark object discovered on October 19 by Rob Weryk, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy, using the Pan-STARRS1 telescope.

“I’d never expected to find something like this.”

On October 26th, Weryk and his fellow astronomers announced the discovery of A/2017 U1, along with the astonishing news that its behavior appeared to prove it was from outside of our solar system. While it was first believed to be a comet, subsequent analysis by the European Southern Observatory shows it’s behavior and composition to be more asteroidal.

Asteroidal, yes, but its shape says cigar-ish. (ESO photo here)

“Light-curve observations indicate that the object has an extreme oblong shape, with a 10:1 axis ratio and a mean radius of 102±4 m, assuming an albedo of 0.04. Very few objects in our Solar System have such an extreme light curve.”

For those unfamiliar with cigars

‘Oumuamua measures about 400 meters (1,300ft) long and 40 meters (130ft) wide, and spins rapidly like a spiraling football (American), making a complete rotation every seven hours. That shape and spin, along with its deep reddish color and carbon-based composition, make ‘Oumuamua one of the darkest space objects ever seen, absorbing 96% of the light that hits it.

That lack of reflective light may be the reason why it’s the first interstellar object to be discovered. However, it’s probably not the only one. Another study, led by David Jewitt at the University of California Los Angeles, estimated there may be up to 10,000 of them just between Neptune and the Sun, making their way through to … where?

Who knows? It might help if we knew where ‘Oumuamua came from, but all the announcement said was that it appeared to travel from the direction of the star Vega. The ESO shoots down that silly notion in a diplomatic and astronomical way:

“However, even travelling at a breakneck speed of about 95 000 kilometres/hour, it took so long for the interstellar object to make the journey to our Solar System that Vega was not near that position when the asteroid was there about 300 000 years ago. `Oumuamua may well have been wandering through the Milky Way, unattached to any star system, for hundreds of millions of years before its chance encounter with the Solar System.”

An unattached happy wanderer. Sounds like ‘Oumuamua is living the good life … spearing through space from star to star with no cares or responsibilities. Too bad we couldn’t have spent more time with it. In an interview in The Atlantic, Andy Rivkin, a planetary astronomer at Johns Hopkins University, puts it best:

“Don’t be sad that it’s over. Be happy that you saw it. Because it is really amazing that we saw it.”

In other words, val da ri.

{ http://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

NASA’s Golden Voyager Record gets first vinyl release

BY MILES BOWE

{ http://www.factmag.com/ }

WATCH: UFO hurtles through sky above HEATHROW AIRPORT

THIS IS the astonishing moment a mysterious bright object hurtled through the sky above Heathrow Airport.

By David Rivers 

The stunning footage films the sky above the London airport before the flash of light whizzes past.

It came just seconds before a large jet landing at the airport comes into view, and it has not yet been determined what the mystery sighting is.

But it is believed the object is either a meteor or another form of space debris.

AIRLIVE

UFO: A mysterious object was spotting hurtling above Heathrow Airport

Airlive, the aviation website that shared the footage, said: "Look at that amazing shooting star our cam just caught in the sky of Heathrow Airport."

Space debris expert Clemens Rumpf told Mail Online: "My hunch is that this was a large meteor about one metre in diameter.

"These events occur harmlessly multiple times a year but can be spectacular when caught on camera.

"There was probably no immediate danger for any passenger aircraft as these objects tend to burn up, as seen in the footage, at altitudes of 20 to 45 miles (30 to 70 km), well above the flight level of planes.

"Larger objects are a concern for public safety as they release enough energy to cause damage on the ground, as with the Chelyabinsk meteor in 2013."

Daily Star Online today revealed how alien hunters have been sent into a frenzy after a raft of UFO sightings were spotted over two days.

• Aliens 'may already be on Earth following SPACE COLLISIONS'
• Loch Ness Monster FOUND: Sea beast 'pokes out of water' in NINTH sighting this year
• Is alien life here? Extraterrestrial hunters report raft of UFO sightings over two days

{ https://www.dailystar.co.uk/ }

Is alien life here? Extraterrestrial hunters report raft of UFO sightings over two days

ALIEN hunters have been sent into a frenzy after a raft of UFO sightings were reported over two days.

By Tom Towers 

Witnesses have supposedly spotted 25 orbs in the sky, a “flying bus”, and a triangle UFO trailed by military helicopters.

Events started in Texas this weekend, according to the US-based Mutual UFO Network (MUFON).

An unnamed witness filed a report about two high-speed bright lights.

They wrote: “They caught my eye because they were both travelling north at a high rate of speed.

GETTY

CAPTIVATING: Witnesses have spotted orbs in the sky and a 'flying bus'

“They had a good distance apart, but were going the exact same speed.

“They were way too high to be aeroplanes and were going too fast. As they passed over they both started to dim and I lost sight.”

There were six further sightings reports to MUFON on Sunday, Express.co.uk reports.

A witness said she and a friend saw two bright orbs over Plum City, Wisconsin.

GETTY

SIGHTING FRENZY: The craze kicked off this weekend in the US

Two people also reported a bizarre spectacle of 25 bubble-like orbs with wings that were in a formation together.

The report said: “Plain as day and clear as a bell we saw 25 orbs in a frenzy and all working the same area.

“These objects or orbs were kind of clear to blue in colour.

“They initially looked to be big bubbles and then my friend and I both noticed that these orbs had small wedge-like wings on them.

GETTY

RELENTLESS: The country is experiencing a raft of UFO reports

“Kin of like a bubble with sharp V-shaped wings attached to the centre of the orbs.”

They apparently went to film the objects but they quickly faded away.

Another couple in Mississippi claimed to have a seen a “rectangular black box” flying across the sky.

Their report read: “There were who appeared to be four orange-yellow lights on both sides, all spaced apart in a straight line.

“We both dismissed it as some secret military aircraft probably headed to Memphis, TN, or some other airport.”

More remarkable footage was uploaded to YouTube by conspiracy theory channel Suspect Sky yesterday.

The strange white object hovers on the long thin cloud for a few seconds before appearing to slowly disperse them.

As the camera zooms in shakily on the object – which looks similar to a star – the sky starts to clear up mysteriously.

The one-minute film shot in October is on its way to going viral.

• Alien PROOF? Mysterious 'ET structure' spotted on Google Maps
• REVEALED: Meaning behind mysterious ‘gates of hell’ discovered in middle of desert
• Loch Ness Monster FOUND: Sea beast 'pokes out of water' in NINTH sighting this year

{ https://www.dailystar.co.uk/ }

THE LAWS OF ROBOTICS

{ https://futurism.com/ }

This Humanoid Robot May be Your Next Assistant

 

Toyota

{ https://futurism.com/ }

{ http://nationalufocenter.com/ }

Filer’s Files #47 – 2017 Happy Thanksgiving - PART II

{ http://nationalufocenter.com/ }

ALIEN LIFE? Former NASA engineer's shock revelations on space UFO sightings

A FORMER Nasa engineer spent years investigating alleged UFO sightings in space, and his verdict will send shockwaves through the alien believer community.

{ http://www.sciencealert.com/ }

8,000 years old rock art in Saudi Arabia documents the earliest known use of dog leashes

BY ALEXANDRU MICU

Two ancient sites in Saudi Arabia have revealed an unexpected surprise, a new paper reports — the oldest known recording of dogs put on a leash. The 8,000-year-old images are etched into rock and depict humans and dogs working together in hunts before the widespread emergence of agriculture.

The carvings were discovered by Maria Guagnin, an archaeologist at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, at two rock-art sites in northwestern Saudi Arabia, Shuwaymis and Jubbah. The images, estimated to be around 8,000 years old, depict humans and dogs hunting side by side, and suggest that the two species were already ‘friends’ before farming took hold.

The locations of Shuwaymis (bottom left) and Jubbah (bottom right).
Image credits Guagnin, M. et al., 2017, Journal of Anthropological Archaeology.

The two sites “contain the best and oldest examples of Neolithic rock art,” Saudi-Archaeology claims, adding that the region used to be rich “with people, flora, and wildlife” in the past. Those people left behind thousands of panels of rock-art showcasing their lives, society, and hunts, which Guagnin was documenting when she stumbled upon the unusual scenes.

Overall, she counted 156 depictions of dogs at Shuwaymis and 193 at Jubbah. The animals resemble today’s Canaan breed in appearance, Guagnin adds, with pricked ears, curled tails, and short snouts. They’re most often depicted helping bow-wielding human hunters take down prey including lions, ibexes, gazelles, or horses. The animals are clearly distinct from the hyenas and wolves depicted in other panels, Guagnin and her co-authors write.

Image credits Guagnin, M. et al., 2017, Journal of Anthropological Archaeology.

Comparison between the Canaan breed and the dogs on the rock art panels.

Image credits Guagnin, M. et al., 2017, Journal of Anthropological Archaeology.

From what we know so far, dogs were domesticated from an ancestor of today’s gray wolf between 40,000 and 15,000 years ago. There’s still a lot of unknowns (and thus, room for debate) about how and where this domestication process took place, and how early humans and dogs interacted and co-existed. The panels described by Guagnin’s team will help to guide these discussions in the future. The images haven’t been directly dated so far, but the team estimates they date back between 8,000 and 9,000 years ago, to the pre-Neolothic era, before farming took root in the region.

The most interesting find, however, was that some of the hunting dogs taking seem to be leashed. The art depicts these dogs as tethered to the waist of hunters, quite the smart hack when you need two free hands to shoot arrows. It hasn’t been established why these dogs were leashed, but the team speculates that they may have been young dogs still undergoing training, old ones that could be injured in the thick of the hunt, or scent dogs that were too valuable to risk.

Image credits Guagnin, M. et al., 2017, Journal of Anthropological Archaeology.

“This suggests not only are some human populations controlling their hunting dogs by the Pre-Neolithic, but that some dogs may perform different hunting tasks than others,” the paper explains.

“Some may be used only to track prey scents, while others are used to corral and attack prey, protect human hunters, or help haul meat back to camp.”

The hunting scenes represent the earliest known evidence of dog leashes in the archaeological record worldwide, the study claims. Furthermore, they push back the presence of domesticated dogs on the Arabian Peninsula to much earlier than we’d believed. Previously, the oldest dog remains found on the whole peninsula hailed from the 4th millennium B.C. in today’s Yemen, some 2-3 thousand years younger that the estimated age of the Shuwaymis and Jubbah panels.

The paper, “Pre-Neolithic evidence for dog-assisted hunting strategies in Arabia” has been published in the Journal of Anthropological Archaeology.

{ https://www.zmescience.com/ }

Scientists ‘reclone’ world’s first cloned dog

BY TIBI PUIU

Ever since scientists cloned the first animal, a sheep named Dolly, one important question on everyone’s mind was whether or not a clone can expect a poorer health. This is still an open question, one that South Korean researchers hope to settle in time. They’ve essentially cloned a clone, using cells from the world’s first cloned dog, an Afghan hound named Snuppy.

The three surviving reclones of ‘Snuppy’ at 2 months of age.

Credit: Scientific Reports.

Theoretically, a clone is a carbon copy of the original organism, with the two sharing identical genes. The science of cloning, however, is still in its infancy and there are many loose ends that we might be missing. There is a possibility that the cloned individual might carry certain abnormalities, and may have a shorter life expectancy. Another concern is that cloned individuals might retain the age of the donor’s gene, seeing how genes change with age. 

Clones of clones

Dolly the sheep died at age six, which raised concerns that cloned individuals might not be entirely healthy. The sheep appeared to age faster than normal and suffered from osteoarthritis in her knees and hips at an early age. But a follow-up study of 13 cloned sheep — including four derived from the same DNA strand as Dolly– concluded that there didn’t seem to be any evidence that indicates cloning has any long-term health effects. “They’re old ladies,” said Kevin Sinclair, a developmental biologist and lead author of the study of the 2016 study published in Nature Communications. “They’re very healthy for their age,” he added.

Scientists at the Seoul National University, South Korea, are now also investigating the health of ‘clones of clones’, this time in dogs. Snuppy, became the world’s first cloned dog in April 2005. He was cloned from the cells belonging to an Afghan hound called Tai who lived to be 12 years old and died of cancer. Snuppy lived 10 years and also died of cancer but a different kind. Afghan hounds live to be 11.9 years on average and dogs commonly die of cancer so there’s really nothing unusual about either dogs, donor or clone.

The team led by Min Jung Kim used stem cells collected from Snuppy when the dog was five years old. The scientists then employed somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) to insert Snuppy’s cells into eggs collected from female dogs whose nuclei were removed. A total of 94 embryos were created which were then implanted into surrogate mothers. The success rate was 4.3 percent leading to four live births of ‘reclones’. That might seem really low but take a minute to consider that during the time Snuppy was first born (let’s call him ‘Snuppy Mark 1’), the success rate was only 0.2%.

One of the four reclones died within a few days from birth due to diarrhea while the other three grew to be nine months old when the Kim and colleagues drafter their paper, now published in Scientific Reports. They’re still alive and well, seemingly healthy. The dogs will be closely monitored in the years to come.

“With the data from Tai and Snuppy in hand, we are excited to follow the long-term health and aging processes of these second generation of clones and work with them to contribute to a new era of studying longevity of cloned canines and given the history of both Tai and Snuppy they may also provide potential insights into the development of cancer,” the authors concluded.

{ https://www.zmescience.com/ }

2,000-Year-Old Water Is Locked in the Ocean's 'Shadow Zone, Say Scientists

This ancient layer hasn't moved for centuries.

By Yasmin Tayag

Thousands of feet below the crashing surface of the North Pacific ocean, there’s a dark place where the water stands still. Scientists call it the Shadow Zone, and they’re not just being dramatic. In a recent Nature article, an Australian team of researchers point out that this lightless region of the abyssal ocean has trapped the same water for 2,000 years.

The reason, they report in their paper, can be found even deeper in the sea.

For a long time, scientists had been aware of the existence of the ancient water, but it was never clear why and how it managed to stay still for so long while the ocean above it rolls around so violently.

“Carbon-14 dating had already told us the most ancient water lies in the deep North Pacific,” said lead author and University of New South Wales oceanographer, Casimir de Lavergne, Ph.D., in a statement. “But until now we had struggled to understand why the very oldest waters huddle around the depth of 2 km.”

They realize now, after an analysis of the ocean topography in that area, that the Shadow Zone’s specific depth and location are determined by the slopes and crags of the sea floor below it. According to the scientists, the Shadow Zone is a roughly rectangular patch of especially deep ocean stretching 3,700 miles from east to west and 1,200 miles north to south — making its surface area slightly larger than Europe’s — and the floor beneath it is especially rough.

This uneven floor, coupled with the way that shallower wind-driven currents running above the Shadow Zone move, has sandwiched the ancient water in its stratified position for at least 1,500 years, the researchers write. The shape of the floor prevents water at the very bottom of the sea from rising any further than 1.5 miles below the surface, effectively creating another watery floor. All the water above that layer is largely undisturbed — it’s far enough from the geothermal heat vents that promote mixing — leading to the eerily still Shadow Zone.

It isn’t just water that’s in the Shadow Zone, the researchers point out, noting that the trapped molecules could have major effects on the ocean and even global climate when it eventually does escape.

“When this isolated shadow zone traps millennia old ocean water it also traps nutrients and carbon which have a direct impact on the capacity of the ocean to modify climate over centennial time scales,” read a statement from Stockholm University co-author Fabien Roquet, Ph.D.

If you liked this article, check out this video about underwater drones for exploring ocean life.

Photos via Flickr / NASA Goddard Photo and Video,

Credit: Fabien Roquet and Casimir de Lavergne, Flickr / marfis75

Waking up in the middle of the night to find your body frozen and pinned down by an invisible weight is the stuff that ghost stories are made of. Sure enough, a range of cultures have folded sleep paralysis into their horror lore — Americans did so recently in the 2016 horror film Dead Awake — suggesting that this recurring nightmare isn’t specific to any one time or place. Scientists studying the terrifying phenomenon think that it’s actually a neurologically driven process — rather, one that goes awry, suggesting there’s no escaping it unless we intervene directly in our heads.

Until science illuminated the origin of this disturbing nightmare, humans assumed it had a supernatural source. In places as varied as Scandinavia, Newfoundland, Korea, the American South, and Turkey, folklore blames the experience on some kind of evil spirit, witch, or creature that sits on a person’s chest or holds them down while they sleep. Now we know that what people have blamed on the Night Hag for so many centuries is actually the result of the sleep cycle going wrong (sorry, Night Hag).

You probably don’t realize it, but you’re actually physically paralyzed while you sleep for a big chunk of the night, which scientists in the Journal of Neuroscienceblamed on the tandem work of the neurotransmitters GABA and glycine in 2011. This state is known as “muscle atonia,” and it only happens during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep — the deepest part of the sleep cycle that produces the most vivid dreams. It’s thought that we evolved this temporary paralysis because otherwise we might act out our dreams more than we already do, which could be very dangerous. During REM sleep, which happens in periods lasting 90 to 120 minutes, your breathing also becomes faster and highly irregular. It’s not a great part of the sleep cycle to interrupt.

Unfortunately, poor sleep habits, exhaustion, shift work, and jet lag can shake you awake during REM sleep, according to researchers at the Anomalistic PsychologyResearch Unit, Goldsmiths, at the University of London. When you’re in the groggy, half-awake state — quickly waking up from REM sleep is notoriously difficult — breathing feels laborious because it’s been happening at an irregular pace, and you’re keenly aware that you can’t move. As panic sets in, it only exacerbates the feeling that you can’t breathe.

To make matters worse, studies have shown that hallucinations often accompany the physical terror. In 2011 in the journal Sleep Medicine Reviews, researchers combed through 35 studies on sleep paralysis from the past 50 years and grouped the hallucinations into three horrific types: “The presence of an intruder, pressure on the chest sometimes accompanied by physical and/or sexual assault experiences and levitation or out-of-body experiences.” Researchers think these hallucinations are a remnant of the dream state, though it’s not clear why these three types are the most common.

Luckily, the sensation passes as you ease out of the dream state, and it’s not thought to cause any long-term harm, at least physically. Psychologically, though, sleep paralysis can mess with your head long after you get out of bed. In 2013, a study in Clinical Psychological Science looked at the types of distress people experienced after having an episode and found that that the effects include sensing unseen presences, feeling like death is imminent, having a heightened fear of threat or assault, and generally ruminating on the episode, though the type of distress that ensues depends on the details of the experience. People who had particularly sense-based experiences — like straight-up seeing and feeling a demon crouched on your chest — tended to have more physical distress later. The effects are bad enough that the researchers say sleep paralysis could “make a significant contribution to the billions of dollars, worldwide, in costs associated with accidents, illnesses, and lost productivity associated with sleep disturbances.

Even if you’re one of the 92 percent of the general population that doesn’t experience sleep paralysis, you’ll never fully escape their influence. The word “nightmare” was actually first coined to describe sleep paralysis, folding in the Old English word mare — which refers to the mythological incubi, demonic sleep-molesters that were more than willing to crush a dreamer’s lungs.

Here's What a Volcano on Mars Looked Like to Mariner 9 in 1971

Oumuamua : nouvelles données

Sur spaceweather.com

Peu à peu les données sur l'objet 1I/2017 U1 s'affinent. Le JPL publiait hier une nouvelle page remarquable :

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=7006

L'objet a une forme de cigare et mesure dans les 400 m. La forme est très allongée, avec un ratio L/l de 10 à 1, des proportionsjamais observées à ce jour pour un astéroïde. Il serait rocheux mais aussi en partie métallique. Il tourne sur son axe en 7 h et sa brillance varie d'un facteur 10, phénomène jamais constaté non plus auparavant pour des objets célestes naturels. Il est de couleur rougeâtre, peut-être due à une longue irradiation par les rayons cosmiques.
Il se confirme que l'origine de son voyage n'est pas la région de Véga, celle-ci s'étant trouvée dans une position très éloignée lorsque l'objet se trouvait dans ses environs (actuels) il y a 300 000 ans. Il est aussi confirmé qu'il a été accéléré par effet de fronde (slingshotted) au voisinage immédiat du Soleil, passant de 26.4 à 87.3 km/s (314 000 km/h).
Paul Chodas, du JPL, traduisant en cela l'immense surprise de la Communauté astronomique, le décrit comme "un étrange visiteur venu d'un lointain système stellaire, ne ressemblant à rien de ce qu'on ait jamais vu au voisinage du nôtre".

Ainsi, les caractéristiques de 1I/2017 U1 font de lui un objet extraordinairement singulier. Il est clair qu'on peut imaginer n'importe quoi quant à sa véritable nature. En tout état de cause, il ne s'y serait pas pris autrement s'il avait délibérément visé le Soleil pour l'utiliser comme un tremplin gravitationnel ou, qui sait, comme une source d'énergie. Nous ne le saurons probablement jamais. On ne peut malgré tout se retenir d'un clin d'oeil, "les Raméens font tout par trois".

{  spaceweather.com }

First Interstellar Visitor From another Solar System Dazzles Astronomers

It is the first observed Alien object from another solar system, according to a study in the journal Nature. Preliminary calculations suggest that the alien visitor came from the approximate direction of the bright star Vega, located in the northern parts of the constellation of Lyra.

A recent study has identified the shape of the first alien visitor that astronomers say, has come from another solar system.

Spotted for the first time on October 19 by the University of Hawaii’s Pan-STARRS1 telescope, funded by NASA’s Near-Earth Object Observations (NEOO) Program, the asteroid named Oumuamua—which is Hawaiian for “a messenger from afar arriving first”—is around 400 meters long and is extremely elongated, making it look like a giant cigar.

This makes the object even more mysterious as astronomers revealed its aspect ratios is much greater than that of any other asteroid or comet that has been observed in our solar system.

In other words, it’s unlike anything we’ve ever spotted.

Astronomers note that its extremely elongated shape (which is surprising) may help provide new clues as to how other solar systems in our galaxy formed.

According to a study published in Nature, the alien visitor has been wandering through the Milky Way Galaxy for hundreds of millions of years.

“For decades we’ve theorized that such interstellar objects are out there, and now – for the first time – we have direct evidence they exist,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

“This history-making discovery is opening a new window to study the formation of solar systems beyond our own.”

Immediately after the comet was spotted, many observatories on Earth turned towards Oumuamua to study it.

Combined images from the FORS instrument on the ESO telescope found that Oumuamua varies in brightness by a factor of ten as it spins on its axis every 7.3 hours.

And this is rather odd. Astronomers note how no other known asteroid or comet in our solar system varies so widely in brightness, having such a large ration between its length and width.

“This unusually big variation in brightness means that the object is highly elongated: about ten times as long as it is wide, with a complex, convoluted shape,” said Karen Meech of the Institute for Astronomy in Hawaii. “We also found that it had a reddish color, similar to objects in the outer solar system, and confirmed that it is completely inert, without the faintest hint of dust around it.”

Preliminary calculations suggest that the alien visitor came from the approximate direction of the bright star Vega, located in the northern parts of the constellation of Lyra.

However, astronomers note that it so extremely long for Oumuamua to make the journey that Vega was nowhere near that position when the asteroid was there some 300,000 years ago.

Furthermore, the object which was originally classified as a comet isn’t one after observations from ESO and elsewhere revealed no signs of cometary activity after it slingshotted past the Sun on Sept. 9 at a blistering speed of 196,000 miles per hour (87.3 kilometers per second), notes NASA.

The object was reclassified as interstellar asteroid 1I/2017 U1 by the International Astronomical Union (IAU),

“What a fascinating discovery this is!” said Paul Chodas, manager of the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. “It’s a strange visitor from a faraway star system, shaped like nothing we’ve ever seen in our own solar system neighborhood.”

{ https://www.ancient-code.com/ }

NASA STUDY REVEALS OUR SOLAR SYSTEM IS SURROUNDED BY A MASSIVE SPHERICAL ‘SHIELD’

Data from NASA’s Cassini, Voyager and IBEX missions suggest that the solar system is surrounded by a MASSIVE, SPHERICAL shaped magnetic field. In the past, experts thought that the heliosphere was in fact a comet-shaped structure, with a rounded head and an extended tail. But new data covering an entire 11-year cycle of solar activity shows that this may not be the case.

According to scientists, our Sun releases a constant flux of magnetic solar material—called solar wind—that fills the inner solar system, and extends beyond the orbit of Neptune.

Shown in a Hubble Space Telescope image, the “astrosphere” around the star L.L. Orionis approximates the heliosphere around our solar system.

IMAGE COURTESY ESA/NASA

This wind creates something that can be explained as a bubble, some 37 million kilometers wide, called the heliosphere. Our entire solar system, including the H, moves through interstellar space. Just as Earth orbits the Sun, our Sun orbits the galactic center –which from our vantage point is located around 25,00 light years— in an elliptic orbit. It completes a revolution every 225 million years approximately—called a Galactic year.
Anyway, getting back on track, this new discovery calls into question the alternate view of the solar magnetic fields trailing behind the sun in the shape of a long comet tail—almost like a kite. 

Until now, scientists thought that the heliosphere was in fact a comet-shaped structure, with a rounded head and an extended tail. But new data covering an entire 11-year cycle of solar activity shows that this may not be the case: the heliosphere is most likely rounded at both ends, making its shape almost spherical. An article featuring the results of the study was published in Nature Astronomy.

“Instead of a prolonged, comet-like tail, this rough bubble-shape of the heliosphere is due to the strong interstellar magnetic field—much stronger than what was anticipated in the past—combined with the fact that the ratio between particle pressure and magnetic pressure inside the heliosheath is high,” says Kostas Dialynas of the Academy of Athens in Greece, lead author of the study. Interestingly, Cassini—which has explored Saturn for over a decade—using its Magnetospheric Imaging Instrument discovered surprising new data about the shape of the heliosphere’s trailing end, the heliotail.

“Our Cassini instrument was designed to image the ions that are trapped in the magnetosphere of Saturn,” says coauthor Tom Krimigis, of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, an instrument lead on the Cassini and Voyager missions. “We never thought that we would see what we’re seeing and be able to image the boundaries of the heliosphere.”

Since these particles move only at a small fraction of the speed of light, their trip from the sun to the edge of the heliosphere and back takes quite a lot. Now, when the number of particles coming from the sun changes, it takes years before that is reflected in the amount of natural atoms shooting back into the solar system. As Cassini was orbiting Saturn, its instruments measured the neutral atoms revealed surprising details—the particles coming from the ‘tail’ of our solar system’s heliosphere reflect the changes in the solar cycle almost exactly as fast as those coming from the nose of the heliosphere.

“If the heliosphere’s ‘tail’ is stretched out like a comet, we’d expect that the patterns of the solar cycle would show up much later in the measured neutral atoms,” said Krimigis.

What does this mean? Well, since patterns of solar activity show just as quickly on one side of the heliosphere as the other, it implies that the tail of the heliosphere is around the same distance from us as the nose. In other words, the comet-like tail that scientists thought existed previously may not be there at all, as the heliosphere that wraps the solar system is nearly round. 
Scientists note that a spherical heliosphere may exist due to a number of reasons. First of all, data gathered by the voyager 1 probe shows that the interstellar magnetic field beyond the heliosphere is much stronger than scientists had expected.

“This data that Voyager 1 and 2, Cassini and IBEX provide to the scientific community is a windfall for studying the far reaches of the solar wind,” says Arik Posner, NASA’s Voyager and IBEX program scientist. “As we continue to gather data from the edges of the heliosphere, this data will help us better understand the interstellar boundary that the heliosphere, this data will help us better understand the interstellar boundary that helps shield the Earth environment from harmful cosmic rays.”

{ http://www.sci-techuniverse.com/ }

Major earthquakes predicted for 2018 due to changes in the Earth’s rotation

According to scientists, the number of severe Earthquakes is likely to rise exponentially in 2018, due to a slowing down of Earth’s rotation. Minimal variations in Earth’s rotation speed could trigger intense seismic activity in 2018, especially in densely populated tropical regions, warn experts.

Although such variations in the rotation of our planet are small, changing the length of the day by one millisecond, these changes could set off a release of large amounts of underground energy.

The connection between Earth’s rotation and seismic activity is displayed in a study by Roger Bilham of the University of Colorado at Boulder and Rebecca Bendick of the University of Montana at Missoula, presented in October during the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America.

“The relationship between Earth’s rotation and earthquake activity is strong and suggests there is going to be an increase in numbers of violent earthquakes next year,” Bilham told the Observer in an interview.

In the study presented by Bilham and, the two argue that by looking at earthquakes of magnitude 7 and greater that had occurred since 1900. “Major earthquakes have been well recorded for more than a century, and that gives us a good record to study,” explains Bilham.

The two researchers discovered five periods in which there were a significantly greater number of large earthquakes compared to other times.

“During these periods, there were between 25 and 30 intense earthquakes a year,” adds Bilham.

“The rest of the time, the average number was about 15 large earthquakes per year.”

Image Credit: Shutterstock

The researchers sought to find correlations between these periods of intense seismic activity and other factors and discovered that when the Earth’s rotation decreased slightly, it was followed by periods of increase in the number of intense earthquakes.

“The rotation of the Earth changes slightly – in a millisecond per day sometimes – and that can be measured very accurately by atomic clocks.”

Bilham and Bendick discovered that there were periods of about five years when the rotation of the Earth was reduced by that amount several times over the last century and a half.

Fundamentally, these time lapses were followed by periods in which the number of intense earthquakes increased.

“It’s simple,” says Bilham. “The Earth is offering us a five-year warning about future earthquakes.”

This link is particularly important because the rotation of the Earth began one of its periodic decreases more than four years ago.

“The inference is clear,” concludes the researcher.

“Next year we should see a significant increase in the number of severe earthquakes. We have had it easy this year. So far, we have only had about six severe earthquakes. We could easily have 20 per year starting in 2018.”

It is not clear exactly why the decreases in the length of the day should be related to earthquakes, although scientists suspect that small changes in the behavior of the Earth’s core could be causing both effects.

Regrettably, it is difficult to predict where these additional earthquakes will occur, although Bilham said they discovered that most of the intense earthquakes responding to changes in day length seemed to occur near the equator.

Around one billion people live in the tropical regions of the Earth.

Featured image credit: Shutterstock

{ https://www.ancient-code.com/ }

New study published in ‘the Journal Astrobiology’ says life on Earth may have come from ‘elsewhere’

The building blocks of life on Earth may be launching into space, perhaps seeding other worlds, according to a new study published in the journal Astrobiology and available in pre-print on arXiv.

Scientists from the University of Edinburgh (United Kingdom) have published a study in the journal Astrobiology in which they have proposed a hypothesis according to which life on planet Earth could have come from other planets in the cosmos.

According to calculations, the great flow of space dust that falls on the planet, in an amount of 105 kilograms per day and at speeds of 10 to 70 kilometers per second, is enough to boost, in the upper layers of the atmosphere, small living beings towards space.

This implies that life could be transferred from Earth to other places and that the same thing could happen, or have happened, in the opposite direction.

It is observed that hypervelocity space dust, which is continuously bombarding the Earth, creates immense momentum flows in the atmosphere. Some of this fast space dust inevitably will interact with the atmospheric system, transferring energy and moving particles around, with various possible consequences

“The hypervelocity space dust forms an immense and sustained flow in the atmosphere,” wrote the authors of the study, led by Arjun Berera. “For particles that form the thermosphere or above or reach there from the ground, if they collide with this space dust, they can be displaced, altered in form or carried off by incoming space dust.”

Berera believes that our planet’s organic material could have traveled as much as 30,000 light-years over the past few billion years, which is enough time to reach most parts of the galaxy.

Tardigrades may survive the journey through space.

According to Berera, this can have many consequences for the weather and the wind.

But, what is more interesting, in the opinion of the researcher at the University of Edinburgh, “is the possibility that this type of collision can give the particles of the atmosphere the escape velocity needed to escape from Earth’s gravity.”

In this way, the flow of small particles from space, whose masses range from one gram to one trillionth of a gram, would be like a space shuttle for living beings.

This means that resistant and extremely small organisms, such as bacteria, viruses, or tardigrades, could cross the space between solar systems or even beyond, thanks to the thrust of space dust, and perhaps survive their journey.

What if life on Earth was ‘seeded’ from elsewhere?

Image credit: Shutterstock

It also means that the impact of asteroids and comets would not be the only mechanism capable of transferring life between planets, as Svante August Arrhenius theory of panspermia indicates.

Experts note how “Hypervelocity space dust is a unique entity in planetary systems like our Solar System, which is able to go past and enter the atmosphere of planets, collect samples of those planets and deposit samples of other planets. The entire system of fast space dust in a planetary system thus contains the atoms, molecules and possibly even microbial life, from all the planets and provides a means to mix them up amongst the different planets.”

“The proposal that space dust collisions could propel organisms at enormous distances between planets opens some interesting perspectives on how life and the atmospheres of planets originated,” Berera said in a statement.

“The currents of space dust present in planetary systems could be a common factor in the proliferation of life.”

The next decades of space exploration through powerful telescopes will perhaps clarify numerous questions and whether or not, hypervelocity space dust may have acted as a transport system for microbial life spreading across space.

Source:  Space dust collisions as a planetary escape mechanism

{

Massive Black Holes Lurking Close to Milky Way

By: Nidhi Goyal 

Image by NASA Goddard on Youtube

{ http://www.industrytap.com/ }

Watch NASA’s mesmerizing new visualization of the 2017 hurricane season

Supercomputers and advanced physics made the stunning new simulation possible

BY 

CAROLYN GRAMLING 

 

BLOWIN’ IN THE WIND  Hurricane Ophelia (its core appears here as a white dot at the lower right) dragged in dust from the Sahara and smoke from wildfires in Portugal as the storm spun northeast toward Ireland in October 2017.

NASA GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER

How do you observe the invisible currents of the atmosphere? By studying the swirling, billowing loads of sand, sea salt and smoke that winds carry. A new simulation created by scientists at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., reveals just how far around the globe such aerosol particles can fly on the wind.

The complex new simulation , powered by supercomputers, uses advanced physics and a state-of-the-art climate algorithm known as FV3 to represent in high resolution the physical interactions of aerosols with storms or other weather patterns on a global scale (SN Online: 9/21/17). Using data collected from NASA’s Earth-observing satellites, the simulation tracked how air currents swept aerosols around the planet from August 1, 2017, through November 1, 2017.

In the animation, sea salt (in blue) snagged by winds sweeping across the ocean’s surface becomes entrained in hurricanes Harvey, Irma, Jose and Maria, revealing their deadly paths. Wisps of smoke (in gray) from fires in the U.S. Pacific Northwest drift toward the eastern United States, while Saharan dust (in brown) billows westward across the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico. And the visualization shows how Hurricane Ophelia formed off the coast of Africa, pulling in both Saharan dust and smoke from Portugal’s wildfires and transporting the particles to Ireland and the United Kingdom. 

CURRENTS GALORE Smoke, sand and sea salt interact with hurricanes and other weather patterns from August to November 2017 in this supercomputer-powered visualization of atmospheric currents.

Citations

M.R. Radcliff et al. 2017 hurricanes and aerosols simulation. NASA. Posted online November 13, 2017.

Further Reading

C. Gramling. Intense storms provide the first test of powerful new hurricane forecast tools. Science News Online, September 21, 2017.

T. Sumner. Central American fires may intensify U.S. tornadoes. Science News Online, January 28, 2015.

J. Raloff. Salt clouds relieve some Arctic warming. Science News Online, April 22, 2011.

{ https://www.sciencenews.org/  }

BLACK PROJECT? Bizarre 'TR-3B triangle UFO' seen tailed by 'three military helicopters'

A STRANGE-LOOKING triangle UFO was followed by US military helicopters, it has astonishingly been claimed.

WAS HET WEL EEN METEOOR DIE ITALIAANSE ASTRONAUT FILMDE ( VIDEO )

Een astronaut in het ruimtestation ISS is erin geslaagd om een meteoriet die richting aarde gaat vast te leggen op beeld. 

Was het echter wel een meteoor wat de Italiaanse astronaut Paolo Nespoli zag of was het iets heel anders? 

Iets dat zelden of nooit gebeurd, is dat nu wel. Een Italiaanse astronaut in het ISS ruimtevaartstation is erin geslaagd een meteoor die onderweg is naar de aarde vast te leggen op beeld.

Het voorval gebeurde op 5 november jongstleden en de autoriteiten waren heel snel met het vrijgeven van de zogenaamde timelapse opname waarop te zien is hoe een meteoor door de lucht schiet richting aarde.

Hier volgen de beelden:

 
Was het echter wel een meteoor of misschien iets heel anders.

Tyler van Secureteam heeft de tijd genomen om de beelden uitgebreid te bestuderen en hij komt tot de conclusie dat er hier wel eens sprake kan zijn van heel iets anders.

Wat hij vreemd vindt, is dat ruimteorganisatie ESA zo snel is met het vrijgeven van beelden in de trant van: als wij als eerste dit verhaal brengen en vertellen wat het is, zal niemand verdere vragen stellen.

De enige andere keer dat men erin slaagde een opname te maken van een meteoor vanuit het ISS was in 2011 en toen zag het beeld er zo uit:

Wanneer je beiden naast elkaar zet dan ziet de recente opname er heel anders uit en lijkt het in de verste verte niet op die uit 2011.

Wanneer je het recente object verder uitvergroot, ziet het er zo uit.

Er wordt gezegd dat deze meteoor met een snelheid gevlogen zou hebben van ongeveer 150.000 kilometer per uur, maar volgens Tyler klopt die berekening niet omdat er sprake is van een timelapse opname (aaneengesloten reeks van beelden waar telkens een kleine pauze tussen zit) en zou het object in werkelijkheid veel langzamer hebben gevlogen.

Heeft hij gelijk? Of is het toch gewoon een meteoor. Kijk en oordeel zelf. 

{ http://www.niburu.co/ }

Nibiru heeft ons wéér niet geraakt: “Logisch, Planeet X bestáát gewoon niet” - HLN.be

Bron: Science Alert

 AFP

De vraag is ditmaal wél naar Morrison geluisterd zal worden, nu hij nog maar eens in een podcast heeft uitgeschreeuwd dat Planeet X een verzinsel is. “U vraagt mij een logische verklaring voor een compleet onlogisch idee”, zei Morrison als reactie op de derde aankondiging van het einde van de wereld in evenveel maanden. “Er is zo geen planeet, die is er ook nooit geweest, en waarschijnlijk zal die er ook nooit zijn, maar toch blijft die telkens opnieuw opduiken”, verklaarde hij stellig.

De frustratie bij Morrison is hoorbaar. Nibiru zou ons volgens de ‘believers’ al in 2003 moeten verwoest hebben. Daarna in 2012, en vervolgens op 23 september, dan op 15 oktober en... gisteren. Terwijl we dit schrijven, is de aarde er nog.

Al in 2008 schreef Morrison: “Ik ging ervan uit dat Nibiru het soort internetgerucht was dat snel zou passeren”. Mis dus. Ook toen kreeg Morrison dagelijks bezorgde vragen van mensen - vaak kinderen - die in paniek waren. Vandaag is dat nog altijd zo. “Ik kreeg onlangs nog een telefoontje”, zei Morrison in de podcast. “De wereld zou zaterdag vergaan. De man vroeg mij: ‘Zou ik gaan werken of beter bij mijn gezin blijven?’”

Nog één keertje dan. Mocht Planeet X wél bestaan, dan zouden astronomen ze al lang gespot hebben. Een planeet als Nibiru zou de positie van alle planeten verstoren en zelfs de “maan uit de baan van de aarde ejecteren”. Bovendien kwam er tot nu toe nooit iets in huis van de voorspellingen over de komst van Nibiru.

{ https://www.hln.be/ }

Uniek: rotsblok van buiten ons zonnestelsel bereikt ons na reis van 300.000 jaar - HLN.be

Jules van der Leeuw 

Bron: AD.nl

 AFP

Het rotsblok heeft de naam ‘Oumuamua’ gekregen. Dat is Hawaïaans voor ‘boodschapper van ver die als eerste aankomt’, omdat een telescoop op Hawaï hem als eerste zag.

De onderzoekers denken dat de asteroïde al honderden miljoenen jaren door de Melkweg zwerft, niet gebonden aan een ster. Waarschijnlijk heeft hij er 300.000 jaar over gedaan om de oversteek te maken van de ster Vega naar ons zonnestelsel. “Tientallen jaren hebben we gedacht dat zulke objecten er zijn en nu hebben we voor het eerst direct bewijs van hun bestaan”, aldus de Amerikaanse ruimtevaartorganisatie NASA.

Doordat de asteroïde in de buurt is, hebben Europese en Amerikaanse wetenschappers hem goed kunnen bestuderen. De uitkomsten daarvan staan maandag in het wetenschapsblad Nature. ‘Oumuamua’ is roodkleurig en heeft de vorm van een sigaar. Hij is ongeveer veertig meter breed en vierhonderd meter lang. Dat is opvallend, omdat de asteroïdes en kometen in ons zonnestelsel veel minder uitgerekt zijn.

APVia dit observatorium op Hawaii werd 'Oumuamua' ontdekt.

Lees ook

We hebben net boodschap verstuurd naar mogelijk buitenaardse leven op ‘superaarde’ en over 26 jaar kunnen we al antwoord hebben

‘Rotsen en metalen’

Het rotsblok draait in iets meer dan zeven uur om zijn as. Er hangt geen stofwolk omheen, wat betekent dat hij waarschijnlijk uit rotsen en metalen bestaat en geen water of ijs heeft.

Oumuamua bevindt zich nu op ongeveer 200 miljoen kilometer van de aarde, tussen de planeten Mars en Jupiter. Hij vliegt met een snelheid van 138.000 kilometer per uur van ons weg en dat maakt het steeds moeilijker om hem te bekijken. Rond de jaarwisseling wordt hij waarschijnlijk te vaag om nog te zien. In mei 2018 vliegt hij langs Jupiter, in januari 2019 passeert hij Saturnus. Daarna zal hij ons zonnestelsel langzaam achter zich laten, op weg naar het sterrenbeeld Pegasus.

Wetenschappers sluiten niet uit dat er meer asteroïdes van buiten ons zonnestelsel langsvliegen, maar tot nu toe waren ze te klein en te vaag om te zien.

{ https://www.hln.be/ }

Panspermia – the theory that life came to Earth on a comet or asteroid from another world – comes from the Greek words ‘pan’ (all) and ‘sperma’ (seed). That makes sense because the hypothesis suggests that the life form riding bareback on a space rock was microscopic, like the tardigrades which we already know can survive in space and that some panspermians propose may have indeed traveled here from abroad. Now a new theory proposes that not only were the microorganisms tiny, but so were their means of transit — space dust particles. Could it be true that all we are is space dust in the cosmic wind?

In a paper published in a recent edition of Astrobiology, Professor Arjun Berera of the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Edinburgh looks at “hypervelocity space dust” – the sneeze-worthy massive cloud of particles that are constantly blowing into our atmosphere and quite possibly blowing right back out again with some passengers from Earth. The escape velocity is achieved by a sort of billiard ball effect of incoming particles slamming around the atmospheric table and knocking others in all directions – down, up and corner pocket.

This effect is nothing like the cloud you kick up when blowing the dust off of your tables before your parents visit. Berera and his researchers determined that space dust travels at 70 km a second (156,585.5mph). Assuming that tardigrades or other microorganisms could be carried by conventional winds or the cosmic billiard ball effect to a height of 70 km (43 miles) and that they can hang on to dust particles with their tiny feet or whatever appendages they have, they could be knocked out of the Earth ballpark and catch a ride on a cosmic wind shuttle to another planet, solar system or even a galaxy … assuming they can survive the trip. Based on how well bacteria survives on the outside of the International Space Station, don’t put it past them.

If you buy Professor Berera’s idea of hypervelocity space dust bearing gifts of life to Earth billions of years ago, then it’s safe to assume that it’s also happening right now. That big inhalation before blowing out your birthday candles could have started a colony of aliens deep in your lungs. You may not feel older but you may soon feel something worse than any flu congestion you’ve ever coughed up.

“The proposition that space dust collisions could propel organisms over enormous distances between planets raises some exciting prospects of how life and the atmospheres of planets originated. The streaming of fast space dust is found throughout planetary systems and could be a common factor in proliferating life.”

While Professor Berera buys into this dustpan-spermia theory, there are both scientific and religious doubters. There’s only one way to find out. Get our your microscope, kick up some dust and eliminate everything that doesn’t look familiar.

{ http://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

Strange cigar-shaped ‘Asteroid’ is first interstellar visitor to our solar system!

Last month, the Pan-STARRS 1 telescope in Hawai'i picked up a very strange object moving across the sky. It was originally believed that the object was a comet but astronomers quickly realized it was something entirely different.

Above image shows an impression of cigar-shaped asteroid Oumuamua - European Southern Observatory / M. Kornmesser and a cigar-shaped UFO on the backside of the Moon. 

Observations with ESO's Very Large Telescope and others have shown that the object is a rocky cigar-shaped asteroid and it has been confirmed as the first ever interstellar object to enter our solar system.

The object has been dubbed ‘Oumuamua’ by the International Astronomical Union. The name means “a messenger from a far arriving first” in the language of the Central Pacific Island.

According to a European Southern Observatory (ESO) Oumuamua is like nothing seen before. It is red, made of dense rock or metal, and is shaped roughly like a giant cigar measuring up to 400 meters long and around 40 meters wide.

Oumuamua varies dramatically in brightness by a factor of ten as it spins on its axis every 7.3 hours. This unusually large variation in brightness means that the object with its complex, convolute shape, is highly elongated and may well have been wandering through the Milky Way, unattached to any star system, for hundreds of millions of years before its chance encounter with the Solar System, reports RT.

It seems to come from the direction of the star Vega. However, Vega itself moves and was not in the area when Oumuamua was last there about 300,000 years ago.

As quickly confirmed by the astronomers the object is an asteroid which became the first ever interstellar object to enter our solar system; but given the very strange shape of the object it reminds me another huge cigar-shaped ‘UFO’ object on the backside of the Moon photographed by the crew of Apollo 15 which is very similar to the cigar-shaped ‘Messenger From A Far Arriving First’!

Cigar-shaped UFO Moon - Original Apollo

Image Atlas link: https://www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/apollo/frame/?AS15-P-9625

This animation (annotated) shows the path of the interstellar asteroid 1I/2017 (`Oumuamua) through the Solar System. Observations with ESO's Very Large Telescope and others have shown that this unique object is dark, reddish in color and highly elongated.

  

{ http://ufosightingshotspot.blogspot.com/ }

CCTV Records Bright Flashing UFO Over Phoenix

A strange flashing UFO appears in security cameras in Phoenix, Arizona, reigniting claims the city is a hotspot for visiting beings from another world.

Many people believe it could be an alien spacecraft as it also reportedly observed from New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, and California.

Experts said it was likely an object from outer space burnt up in the atmosphere or a meteor.

Phoenix is one of the most famous US cities when it comes to alien and UFO sighting after the notorious Phoenix Lights incident that became a phenomenon from March 13, 1997. The infamous incident involved massive sightings of huge triangular UFOs drifting above Arizona and the city of Phoenix.

Thousands of people saw five lights in a formation for over three hours from 7:30 pm to 10:30 pm.

The military blamed the infamous event to flares set off during an exercise at the time, but UFO enthusiasts were not convinced of the official explanation.

The new footage was recorded with a Nest security camera.

The object in question appears above the city as a small orb of light.

It then blooms into a large flash and lights up clouds in the dark sky.

One witness Debora Lee Soltez said on Twitter that they noticed the sky light up not far from Flagstaff. She added that they were driving north, so they did not see the meteor, just the sky lightens up then the flash bright enough to see the trees along the road.

Another Twitter user said that they first thought someone shot a firework, but it got very bright and never popped.

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

Unknown lights over Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 16-Nov-2017

This footage was filmed over Rio de Janeiro in Brazil on 16th November 2017.

Witness report: 

UFO fleet hovering at sky.
A friend made two videos with a IPhone 7 showing an #UFO fleet hovering at Engenho Novo, Rio de Janeiro city, Brazil.
He described as pulsating changing colors lights from blue, green to red yellow and in formation of three, mostly.
They came from nothing and disappeared to nothing with five minutes approximate of duration.

Source: MUFON

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

Contact With The Pleiadians

Television Producer, Researcher and Experiencer Bob Schultz digs into his personal archives and presents a never before seen one-on-one interview with the legendary UFO Contact researcher Wendelle Stevens. Topics include Wendelle’s personal history with extensive commentary on maintaining and flying WWII military aircraft and a rare 1994 presentation by Wendelle detailing his investigation of the historic Billy Meier/Pleiadian Contactee case. Recorded at the Minnesota Chapter of the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) Saturday, July 8, 2017.

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

New scientific theory about life on Earth involves alien bugs hitching a ride on space dust

Previously, scientists have considered the possibility of asteroids and comets bringing life to our planet.

Space dust may have transported alien bugs to Earth – or terrestrial microbes to other planets, research suggests.

The theory comes from British scientists who have studied powerful flows of interplanetary dust that can travel through space at up to 43.75 miles per second.

They calculated that small bio-particles floating high in the atmosphere at an altitude of 93 miles or more could be knocked free of the Earth’s gravity by incoming space dust.

Eventually the tiny organisms could reach other planets in the solar system.

Some bacteria, plants and even hardy micro-animals called tardigrades are known to be capable of surviving in space.

The same process could occur in reverse, bringing extraterrestrial bugs to Earth and possibly helping to seed life on the planet, the scientists believe.

Study leader Professor Arjun Berera, from the University of Edinburgh’s School of Physics and Astronomy, said: “The proposition that space dust collisions could propel organisms over enormous distances between planets raises some exciting prospects of how life and the atmospheres of planets originated.

“The streaming of fast space dust is found throughout planetary systems and could be a common factor in proliferating life.”

Previously scientists have considered the possibility of impacting asteroids and comets importing life, or the raw ingredients of life, to Earth.

The new research, published in the journal Astrobiology, was part-funded by the Science and Technology Facilities Council.

{ http://home.bt.com/news }

Earth Organisms May Already Live On Other Planets, Thanks To Space Transportation

Earth Organisms May Already Live On Other Planets, Thanks To Space Transportation

UFO SIGHTINGS: IS THE GOVERNMENT WITHHOLDING AN INTEREST IN ALIEN LIFE?

Alien bugs may have been transported to Earth, scientists say

Some organisms from Earth, like tardigrades, are known to be able to survive in space 

Shutterstock

Aliens might have been carried to Earth on space dust, according to new research.

Bugs might have flown across the universe and onto our own planet, scientists have said. And bugs from our own planet might have made the same journey, flying off of Earth and onto other planets elsewhere in the galaxy.

The theory could even help explain how life began here, suggesting that it was carried from elsewhere in space then flourished in Earth.

That's according to British scientists who have studied powerful flows of interplanetary dust that can travel through space at up to 70 km (43.75 mph) per second.

They calculated that small bio-particles floating high in the atmosphere at an altitude of 93 miles (150 km) or more could be knocked free of the Earth's gravity by incoming space dust.

• READ MORE
• Cosmic rays coming from space must have 'exotic' origin

Eventually the tiny organisms could reach other planets in the solar system.

Some bacteria, plants and even hardy micro-animals called tardigrades are known to be capable of surviving in space.

The same process could occur in reverse, bringing extraterrestrial bugs to Earth and possibly helping to seed life on the planet, the scientists believe.

Study leader Professor Arjun Berera, from the University of Edinburgh's School of Physics and Astronomy, said: "The proposition that space dust collisions could propel organisms over enormous distances between planets raises some exciting prospects of how life and the atmospheres of planets originated.

"The streaming of fast space dust is found throughout planetary systems and could be a common factor in proliferating life."

Previously scientists have considered the possibility of impacting asteroids and comets importing life, or the raw ingredients of life, to Earth.

The new research, published in the journal Astrobiology, was part-funded by the Science and Technology Facilities Council.

{ http://www.independent.co.uk/ }

Black triangle UFO spotted above Munibung Hill in the 1990s

Damon Cronshaw

A collection of black triangle UFOs and military aircraft. Some fake, some real.

Big black triangle UFO above Munibung Hill

Standing in their Edgeworth front yard one night in the late 1990s, Geoff and Maree Masters saw a massive black triangle-shaped UFO.

“It was around midnight. We were seeing off some visitors, when a huge black triangle seemed to float from north to south very low,” Geoff said.

The story follows a Topics report on Tuesday about a flying saucer that landed in Lambton Park in the 1950s.

Lambton’s Phil Mahoney said his neighbour George Bunn saw the silver craft land in the park and leave behind a circular burn mark, 40 metres in diameter.

Geoff said the black triangle craft that he and his wife spotted was “no more than 700 metres high, but the area it covered was immense”.

“The base of the triangle was the leading edge, with about four or five white lights across it and one white light at the apex – which was the rear of the UFO.

“It was so slow that it took nearly 15 minutes to travel from our first view of it, until it got close to Munibung Hill and turned east and headed out towards the direction of the ocean.

“It made no sound at all and if you missed seeing the lights, there would be a big possibility you would not see it all.”

Geoff said the sighting was “very similar to the Phoenix Lights that were filmed in the USA”.

This case involved several UFOs, including black triangles, spotted by residents of Phoenix in Arizona. 

So, was the craft that Geoff and Maree spotted aliens or a mysterious military plane, like the mythical Aurora – a black triangle-shaped aircraft that many believe was flown under a secret US government military program?

Maree reckons aliens.

“It wasn’t something from our world,” she said.

“It didn’t frighten me, but it makes you realise we’re not the only people in the universe.”

Geoff has seen several UFOs over the years.

“It’s a matter of luck and looking in the right direction at the right time,” he said.

Telemarketer Troubles

Picture this: You’ve had a long hard day at work. You sit down and crack a beer or a bottle of wine. You can smell dinner cooking in the oven.

Jazz is playing in the background at just the right volume and you’re starting to relax.

Then the phone rings. It’s a telemarketer from overseas.

You’ve registered your number with the federal government’s Do Not Call Register, but it doesn’t seem to be working.

How do you respond?

Reader Pat goes with this: “Hello, hello, hello, hello”, acting like she can’t hear the other person on the line.

We’ve also heard this one: “Hi, I’m having dinner right now, can you give me your home number and I’ll call you back during your dinnertime”.

How about this: When the caller asks how you are today, say: “I’m glad you asked. No one these days seems to care. I have all these problems and my arthritis is acting up ...”

Or this: “Okay, I’ll listen to you. But I should probably tell you, I’m not wearing any clothes”.

A telemarketer once wrote that the best way to stop the calls was to say: “Please put me on your do not call list”. 

It’s worth a try, but we like the others.

Send your suggested responses to telemarketers to topics@theherald.com.au.

The Phoenix Lights.

{ http://www.theherald.com.au/ }

JAW-DROPPING: Clear footage of fleet of 'pulsating UFOs in formation' filmed just days ago

INVESTIGATORS have been sent staggering footage of a suspected formation of "pulsating UFOs" said to have been filmed just days ago.

2,500 AMAZING MARS PHOTOS RELEASED BY NASA

NASA has revealed 2,540 stunning photos of Mars. Mars is a place of quietness solitude and mysterious beauty with the nickname of the Red Planet.

While this might lead to people believing that it is just red, this is far from the truth and the HiRISE camera that is located onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter of NASA.

NEVER BEFORE SEEN PHOTOS RELEASED: MARS ALMOST LOOKS LIKE A 'LIVING PLANET' TODAY

The cameras have been able to transform many subtle differences of the soil found on Mars and turn it into all colors of the rainbow.

Now NASA has revealed 2,540 stunning never before seen photos. 

The HiRISE camera has captured images of Mars that are very valuable scientifically, not to mention stunning to see. The photos captured by the camera are in fact so detailed that the scientists are able to examine the features of the planet at a scale of only a few feet. One of the features is the recent crash site when the Schiaparelli Mars lander of Europe crashed.

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While we are not able to show all 2,054 photos here we are able to show you some of the most stunning photos out of the collection that were released during August through to October of this year.

HERE IS A COLLECTION OF THE BEST IMAGES RELEASED:  

Debris apron edges with cliff material er

Ridges that cross the region of Nepenthes Mensae, which is also known as the river delta, due to its striking pattern.

The Buzzel, the seasonal dunes of Mars

The two-tones of Mars in all its glory

Sand blowing and eating through older crater rims

A recent small crater left by an impact

Minerals shown bright speckles which stand out on the Galle Crater

Utopia Planitia, the large plain of Mars

Martian buttes in layers that is located in the West Arabia

Crater found on Arcadia Planitia, which is a flat region located on Mars

Certain minerals in false colors that give Syria Planum the inky blue coloring speckled with gold.

North Sinus Meridiani texturing

Ceraunious Foassae and the large cracks and volcanic flows

Martian equator terrain

Possible landing for the Mars 2020 mission

Fans created around the dunes help scientists to understand the seasonal changes

Dunes found within the Martian crater

Slope on the Eastern Noctis Labyrinthus

Iridescent glacial terrain

A Gully on Mars

Gully that NASA watches for small landlines resulting in water melting to form dark mud

Cerberus Palus with its sediments in layers

Eruptions of dust spiders

Mars impact crater

Carbon dioxide carving out strange shapes

North Pole dune called Kolhar after fictional world of Frank Herbet

A large chasm

Rust dunes in the Russel Crater

You can find all 2,500 images here:

• https://www.uahirise.org/releases/aug2016/
• https://www.uahirise.org/releases/sept2016/
• https://www.uahirise.org/releases/oct2016/

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ELF: THE ALIEN-HUNTING TELESCOPE THAT CAN SEE 120 TRILLION MILES INTO SPACE

The ELF telescope has been designed from the ground up, and it is going to be the only one that can capture images of continents, oceans and even aliens living on planets close-by. It is a brand new way of building large-scale telescopes that are affordable specifically designed for exoplanetary research.

ELF COULD DETECT SIGNATURES OF LIFE IN ATMOSPHERE  

The ELF would be capable of seeing exoplanets that are as far away as 120 trillion miles, which equates to 24 light years from Earth. It would be able to detect signatures of life of chemical fingerprints that are in the atmosphere from water, methane, oxygen, and ozone or which are found on the surface having come from photosynthetic bio-pigments.

The name ELF stands for ExoLife Finder, and at the moment the project for it has been put up on Kickstarter. Providing the telescope gets funding when it is constructed it would start to look over the cosmos, and it would have one single goal in mind, to find alien life, no matter how big or small it might be.

ELF WOULD EXPLORE PROXIMA CENTAURI SYSTEM FIRST

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To do this, it would begin by exploring the Proxima Centauri system as its first target, which is also called Proxima B, an alien world that is thought to orbit the host star in its habitable zone. The huge alien hunting telescope is going to be made up of a total of 16 5-meter mirrors that is based around printing mirror technology said reports that have come from the Planets Foundation.

When the telescope is finished, it is thought that it will be a width of 25 meters and it will have a location in Chile in the Atacama Desert. Initial reports have suggested that the ELF telescope is going to be able to search for and find distant, possible alien worlds that are up to 25 light years away. Perhaps more exciting is the fact that it is going to be able to explore the Alpha Centauri System. This is a system that astronomers have found great interest in.  

TELESCOPE WOULD LOOK FOR SIGNS OF LIFE OUTSIDE OF SOLAR SYSTEM

stronomers have also said that the telescope could find photosynthetic organisms along with thermal waste traces on the planet’s surface from advanced civilizations. Dr. Svetlana Berdyugina who is the director of the Kipenheuer Institute of Solar Physics and Planets Foundation, along with being the co-founder, said that they wanted to find alien life on planets that were close-by that were outside of the solar system, which is generally called exoplanets. He went on to say that they had designed a telescope that was revolutionary using metamaterials and this made the mirrors very light and brought down the cost of making telescopes by a factor of 10. He went on to say that the ELF, ExoLife Finder would be the first to image continents, oceans, and life on exoplanets.

So far the team has managed to raise $17,000 towards the ELF telescope, and they have an initial goal of $35,000. The total cost to build the telescope would be $130 million, and it would take around 60 months to build.

Originally published by:

http://ewao.com/2017/09/21/meet-elf-a-telescope-capable-of-seeing-120-trillion-miles-into-space-and-finding-aliens/

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BIOHACKERS START TO HACK THEIR OWN DNA USING CRISPR AND THEY CAN'T BE STOPPED

Biohackers attempt to modify his genes using cutting-edge medical treatment.

Pharmaceutical companies all over the world are currently locked in a race to be the first to perfect the process of gene editing to cure diseases. CRISPR is considered to be a cheap and easy technique which can make precise changes to a person’s DNA which could be potentially revolutionary in the field of medical science. 

Already, scientists have created a leukemia treatment using this technology, and it is hoped that more therapies will come in the future. However, the use of CRISPR is not exclusively limited to pharmaceutical laboratories according to Josiah Zayner, a biochemist and former NASA scientist, who has begun treating himself to CRISPR and hoped that others will follow suit.

CRISPR EDITING DNA IN REAL TIME  

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He caused quite a storm recently during a lecture on human genetic engineering and biohacking which Zayner streamed live on when he pulled out a syringe of edited DNA and injected himself on camera. He explained that the experiment was intended to increase his capacity for physical strength by removing the gene for myostatin which regulates muscle growth. This kind of gene editing has proven to work in dogs whose genomes were edited at the embryotic stage, but it is believed that Zayner was the first person to attempt it on an adult human.

“Will allowing broad access to CRISPR risk creating a group of ‘superhumans’ with enhanced abilities?”

The experiment has not been entirely successful. Indeed, Zayner claims that since he has begun injecting himself in this way he has not seen any considerable change in the bulk of his muscles. This is probably because myostatin levels are believed to manifest themselves and become static while an organism is developing.

CRISPR DO-IT-YOURSELF BIOHACKING KIT  

However, the failure of the experiment is not of huge concern to Zayner who claims that he is simply trying to prove a point. He believes that biohacking technology such as CRISPR should be available to people outside of formal laboratories. If people are allowed to modify their body through methods such as plastic surgery, tattoos, and piercings, why should they not be allowed to edit their own DNA, he wonders. “I want to live in a world where people get drunk, and instead of giving themselves tattoos, they’re like, ‘I’m drunk, I’m going to CRISPR myself, ’” said Zayner, “It sounds crazy, but I think that would be a pretty interesting world to live in for sure.”  

THE $140 MAIL-ORDER CRISPR KIT: IS UNREGULATED BIOHACKING THE FUTURE OF SCIENCE?

According to some experts, Zayner’s views are a little more than crazy. Robin Lovell-Badge, a leading CRISPR researcher, based at the Francis Crick Institute in London, Zayner’s experiments are ‘foolish’ and potentially dangerous. He said that they could lead to tissue damage, cell death or an exaggerated immune response which could cause devastating damage to the human body.

These fears are shared to some extent by another CRISPR researcher, Dana Carroll. While Carroll is not overly concerned that the genes will actually be edited by Zayner’s rudimentary technology, he does point out that routine injections in a non-sterile environment could lead to infection or a dangerous inflammatory response. “There are aspects of what he’s doing that people need to be really, really careful about, ” Carroll said.

While Zayner himself has not suffered any ill-effects because of his experiments, there are concerns that other people could fall ill if they following his lead. While it is likely that he would not face legal action if someone copied him and endured a negative bodily response, his example does raise serious ethical questions, “Even if you are not liable by legal terms, how responsible are you?” asks Eleonore Pauwels, a researcher in genomics and artificial intelligence at the Woodrow Wilson Center, think tank. “How do you define that in today’s bioengineering and democratized technology setting?”

For Zayner, these concerns are largely irrelevant. He asks whether CRISPR should really be considered more harmful than other socially acceptable things which can permanently damage genes such as smoking, sunbathing and even chemotherapy treatment. “We should be able to do whatever we want, ” he said. “There are a lot of things we do that occur during the normal day that does a lot more damage, probably, than things like CRISPR.”

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“This is the first time in the history of the Earth that humans are no longer slaves to the genetics they are born with.”

With that bit of bravado, a biochemist recently became the first person known to have hacked their own DNA using CRISPR. He recently hacked his DNA a second time and has since been joined by others and is making the building blocks of CRISPR available to all by selling do-it-yourself kits. What could possibly go wrong?

According to Josiah Zayner, not much. The former NASA fellow cut his gene-editing teeth in the Synthetic Biology program where he engineered bacteria that could one day terraform Mars. and biochemist He is also the creator of the Chromochord — the world’s first musical instrument based on engineered protein nanotechnology.

However, he now puts that Ph.D. in Molecular Biophysics from the University of Chicago to work at The ODIN – the biohacking company he founded. To demonstrate the effectiveness and safety of the process, he injected himself with a CRISPR tool programmed to attack his myostatin gene which regulates muscle growth. Without it, muscles grow uncontrolled and become bodybuilder-worthy without exercise. This has already been done in animals and now, in a human arm.

“I’m hoping to see localized muscle growth in my forearm. That’s what I would hope because it was a localized injection to a specific area.”

Zayner describes the complete process in great but easy-to-understand detail on his blog. He bought the myostatin DNA online (ODIN now sells it) and grew and purified it himself before injecting it. He reported mild tenderness and proceeded to measure his forearm regularly, both relaxed and flexed. Does he now have what it takes to be the next Mr. Bicep?

“The way to test to see how many cells were modified would require some “deep sequencing” i.e. I would need to do a muscle tissue biopsy and would need to sequence the myostatin gene in thousands of my muscle cells. I have contacted some companies for quotes.”

Well, at least it didn’t kill him or turn him into a mutant. Just to be on the safe side, the DNA ODIN sells on the same sitewhere it offers a complete Genetic Engineering Home Lab Kit ($1,549.00 – a great Christmas gift for the guy who has everything but a massive forearm) is not injectable. However, Zayner gives instructions on how to obtain it online. He also gives some encouragement to fellow biohackers.

“And as far as I know, in animals or in non single celled organisms, spontaneous formation of tumours or cancers never happened using CRISPR.”

While it’s not known if an ODIN kit was used, Gizmodo reportsthat a man with HIV recently attempted to stop its progress by injecting himself with a gene biohacked by Ascendance Biomedical.

Will DIY biohacking using CRISPR one day replace doctors and hospitals? Or will it one day replace normal but slightly flawed humans with dangerous genetic mutants? Keep your eye on the arm of Josiah Zayner.

{ http://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

According to a batch of files that the U.K.’s National Archive declassified a number of years ago, Dame Rebecca West, MBE, was inadvertently plunged into a very strange puzzle in early 1966. Incredibly, she asserted, some sort of unusual aerial object, had landed in the grounds of her home – Ibstone House. For its part, the files reveal, the Ministry of Defense (MoD) suggested that West had simply misidentified a helicopter seen under poor conditions (which may well have been the case). Whatever the truth of the matter, West’s odd experience became the subject of a fifteen-page file that attracted the attention of the MoD’s Defense Intelligence Staff.

Born in 1892, Rebecca West (the adopted name of Cicily Isabel Fairfield) was the daughter of Charles Fairfield, who was renowned in London society. West took on the name of Rebecca at the age of nineteen after Ibsen’s heroine in Rosmersholm. She trained briefly for the stage in London, before becoming a noted feminist and journalist. As her career blossomed, West wrote for The Freewoman, The Clarion and The New Freewoman, and many of her writings from that time were re-printed as The Young Rebecca in 1932.

Her first novel, The Return of the Soldier, was published in 1918 and was followed by The Judge, The Strange Necessity, and Harriet June. In 1930 West married Henry Maxwell Andrews, a banker, who was to accompany her on the journey that ultimately led to the publication of her two-volume study of the Yugoslav nation, The Black Lamb and Grey Falcon.

West was present at the Nuremburg trials and her 1949 book, The Meaning of Treason, largely grew out of articles commissioned by The New Yorker. In 1965, only one year before her curious UFO encounter occurred, West’s The Meaning of Treason was updated with added accounts of what were then more recent scandals (including those of John Vassall, a spy in the Admiralty sentenced to eighteen years imprisonment, and Stephen Ward, a player in the Profumo case). But how did Dame Rebecca West become embroiled in the UFO controversy? As the old documentation at the U.K.’s National Archives reveals, it was 2.45 p.m. on 7 January 1966 and West was out walking in the grounds of her home when…

“As I was going down the steep hill to the farm buildings I noticed a man walking on my property at some distance to the right of the path I was following,” she wrote to the MoD. “Presently, he reached a point when the wood stopped and there is a hedge which runs down to the valley along a sharp ridge. There is a gap in the hedge and the man stopped just past this and turned around, facing in the reverse direction, and stood still.”

Expressing concern about “what he was going to do,” West watched in amazement as what she described as “an aerial construction” appeared out of nowhere. “One moment it was not there, the next it was,” Rebecca West explained. “It seemed to come down quite rapidly, on the other side of the hedge from the man, but very close to it.” And what, precisely, was it that Dame Rebecca West saw? Her description was curious, to say the least.

Stressing to the MoD that the object was “strangely shaped,” she stated: “It consisted of something like a metal band, grey-blue in color, flattened at one point so as to seem almost leaf-like, crossed with a sort of herringbone system of metal strips.” She elaborated further: “There was also somehow attached to these an odd object like a bag with an opening that had points, made of yellowish material. As I looked the whole thing collapsed toward the ground.

“I saw it crumpling downwards, but crumpling is not quite the word. The metal band seemed to cut backwards and disappear while the curious bag looked as if someone were squeezing the air out of the lower portion of it, so that all the points stood up, and then fell back. Comparing the height of the object with the height of the man, I should put it as something [between] fifteen and twenty.”

Also playing on West’s mind was the identity of the mystery man. Stressing that his behavior was “very odd,” she continued that “he seemed to be watching the thing come down, and the minute it was down, he turned round and followed the hedge track down to the valley. Once or twice he looked to his left as if he were scrutinizing the valley, and he did not seem to see me. But at the bottom of the track he stopped again and looked all round the slope on which I was standing, and this time he seemed to see me. We stood and looked at each other for quite a long time, and I had an uncomfortable feeling and went home.”

The key question centered on the identity of the strange object. In her letter to the Ministry of Defense, West wrote that a farm laborer had informed her that he had seen a helicopter flying in the vicinity earlier on that same day. West, meanwhile, ventured the possibility that it was “some gadget sent out by the Meteorological Office.” Rebecca West signed off: “I feel most apologetic for burdening you with such an improbable story. But I did not like to report it to the local police, as I think you will agree that an elderly woman who went to the local police with a story of having seen the equivalent of a flying saucer would be adding considerably to the difficulties of her life.”

On arrival at the MoD, West’s letter (and accompanying drawing) was forwarded to a particular office known to have been involved in the collation of UFO data in the 1960s and referred to as s4f (Air). As the records show, however, one L.W. Akhurst of that office then dispatched all of the relevant data to a Flight Lieutenant Mercer of the Defense Intelligence Staff. For his part, Mercer was inclined to accept that, “Dame Rebecca West saw a helicopter, possibly of the Bell 47 or similar type, which in conditions of poor visibility appeared to have some unusual characteristics.”

West was far from convinced by the MoD’s explanation and fired a letter back to Ackhurst. “To have appeared where I saw it a helicopter would have had to fly twenty or thirty yards with its lower half deeply embedded in the earth.” She also maintained that: “There was at this time complete silence,” and that “visibility seemed to me not poor at all, for I spotted several birds at a considerable distance. I do not expect an answer to this letter.”

West concluded: “I reported the incident partly because I feared the object might be a parachute or some such construction which was being used to drop something or somebody for criminal purposes, and partly because the construction I saw or thought I saw puzzled me, as I could not conceive how it could be got into the air, could stay in the air, or be brought down out of the air.”

Akhurst’s response was short and to the point. “No further evidence has become available concerning this particular sighting, so there is nothing further I can add.” The case was closed. For its part, the Ministry of Defense seemed satisfied with the explanation that the object was simply a helicopter – and its staff did indeed make a good case for the craft being a helicopter. However, West’s letters clearly demonstrate that she had dismissed the notion that the object was a helicopter (“I have seen many in my time, and I can’t imagine how I could have seen a helicopter from any angle which would have made it present such an appearance,” she stated). She had also given much consideration to the idea that the object was some form of man-made “gadget.” Yet, she was equally well aware of the fact that her report seemed to fall squarely into the Flying Saucer category too. And there was also the glaring observation on her part that the object had been flying in total silence.

Dame Rebecca West continued to write with vigor almost until the time of her death at the age of ninety in 1983, and her contribution to British literature is more than well recognized. It seems that more than half a century on, however, this particularly curious aspect of her notable life will remain forever unresolved.

{ http://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

ALIEN MADNESS? USA sees spate of crazy UFO sightings over past 48 hours

ALIEN investigators have been inundated with a spate of bizarre UFO sightings said to have happened in the past two days across the US.