Ancient skull from China may rewrite the origins of our species

By Colin Barras

The origins of our species might need a rethink. An analysis of an ancient skull from China suggests it is eerily similar to the earliest known fossils of our species –found in Morocco, some 10,000 kilometres to the west. The skull hints that modern humans aren’t solely descended from African ancestors, as is generally thought.

Most anthropologists believe, based on fossil evidence, that our species arose in Africa around 200,000 years ago. What’s more, genetic studies of modern humans indicate that we are all descended from a single population that left Africa within the last 120,000 years and spread around the world. This African group is the source of all modern human genes, barring a few gained by interbreeding with other species like Neanderthals.

However, the Dali skull may not fit this story. Discovered in China’s Shaanxi

{ https://www.newscientist.com/ }

Black Budget Anti-Gravity Craft You Not Supposed to Know About!

In this world of cloak-and dagger behind the scenes activity, the “Black Budget” has grown exponentially. Having little congressional oversight, and virtually no public scrutiny, programs developed within this black world enjoy almost unlimited access to financial backing regardless of their probability of success.

However, what specific details on the black budget can be gleamed from publically available sources?

In addition, can some of these programs be declassified without representing any threat to the national security of the United States?

According to Ben Rich (Lockheed Skunk Works director 1975-1991), keeping programs secret can add anywhere from 10 to 15% to the overall cost. This includes the construction of fortified buildings, extra guards, security clearance logistics, and shuttling works to and from classified facilities.

Ben Rich: “Inside the Skunk Works (Lockheed’s secret research and development entity), we were a small, intensely cohesive group consisting of about fifty veteran engineers and designers and a hundred or so expert machinists and shop workers. Our forte was building a small number of very technologically advanced airplanes for highly secret missions.”

“We already have the means to travel among the stars, but these technologies are locked up in black projects. Anything you can imagine, we already know how to do and we have know have the technology to take ET home."

Strangely, some programs are so secret that even our top military Generals may not know what “mystery aircraft” might be lurking inside dimly lighted hangars at Area 51, Edwards North base, or the Tonopah Test Range.

Even they may not know that the US Military have their own secret and hidden Space Fleet called “Solar Warden” which is said to be made up from U.S. aerospace Black Projects contractors and operates under the US Naval Network and Space Operations Command (NNSOC) (formerly Naval Space Command).

Read also: The NASA / Government UFO Cover-Up

Within the murky world of secret defense projects there are three main categories: SAP’s (Special Access Program), USAP (Unacknowledged Special Access Program), and so called “Waived SAPS”.

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

Alien spaceship circling Earth for thousands of years 'FOUND’ in NASA Moon photos

A MYSTERIOUS alien satellite conspiracy theorists claim has orbited Earth for 13,000 years has been filmed circling the Moon, UFO researchers claim.

By Anders Anglesey

YOUTUBE

BIZARRE: The YouTuber is studying the images

Ufologist Streetcap1 posted NASA Apollo 16 snaps on his YouTube channel – claiming to show the ship.

The expert said: “I have been browsing a lot of photographs tonight and I discovered this on a moon photograph.

“It is on the edge of the picture, that is as close in as I can get. It appears on quite a few photos, not all of them. It is some sort of structure and it is just sitting orbiting the Moon.

“You can see its structure when I get up close up to it. To me it looks like some sort of structure.“

YOUTUBE

MYSTRY: The YouTuber thinks aliens could be orbiting the Moon

“It is some sort of structure and it is just sitting orbiting the Moon”

Streetcap1

Viewers were stunned by the images and said the mysterious satellite could be a “Dark Knight”

The conspiracy theory claims the black spacecraft has orbited the Earth for thousands of years.

It first developed in 1963 when NASA astronaut Gordon Cooper was reported as saying he had seen the Black Knight Satellite while in space, but there was a media blackout upon his return and the US space agency allegedly put it down to cosmic hallucinations.

Tracy Hill posted under the video: “Looks kind of like a Dark Knight.”

Valle Janes later added: “Someone commented it looks like the Black Knight…I agree.”

GETTY

YOUTUBE: The channel investigates signs of life in Space

{ https://www.dailystar.co.uk/ }

Is This Proof Of Aliens And UFOs? Bright Meteor Light Seen Across Phoenix Sky

A fireball was seen streaking across the sky of Phoenix on Tuesday night, fueling conspiracy theories that this could be evidence of aliens and UFOs. What do astronomers say? Pictured is a meteor streaking across the night sky.  

( Pixabay )

A fireball that blazed a trail over Phoenix on Tuesday night, Nov. 14, fueled conspiracy theories and jokes about aliens and UFOs. Arizona residents captured the bright light with their cameras, and many shared videos of the celestial event online.

Large Glowing Bulb Of Light

In one of the videos posted on Twitter, a large glowing bulb appeared in the top-right frame of the footage and then faded out in three seconds. A smaller light is seen in the lower portion of the frame off in the horizon.

Phenomena such as this get some people into thinking about extraterrestrial entities.

"I just saw a meteor or star or alien or something in the sky in Phoenix," @ShawnBTweetin posted on Twitter.

Phoenix Lights

Arizonians in particular may be more suspicious about the strange light than usual since their state just celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Phoenix Lights.

In March 1997, several witnesses claimed to have witnessed a strange V-shaped collection of lights that moved in the sky. The local air force base claimed that the orbs were flares, but skeptics think that those were spacecraft of aliens.

Former Arizona governor Fife Symington even supported the idea that the lights were from an alien spacecraft.

"I'm a pilot and I know just about every machine that flies," Symington said in 2007. "It was bigger than anything that I've ever seen. It remains a great mystery. Other people saw it, responsible people."

Not An Evidence Of Aliens Or UFOs

Astronomers, however, said that the bright light spotted over Phoenix at 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday is not likely an evidence of aliens or UFOs from an extraterrestrial civilization.

Arizona State University's Center for Meteorite Studies curator Laurence Garvie said that the speed and everything about the event suggest it was almost certainly a meteor that lit up the sky and not a piece of space junk.

The American Meteor Society said that the meteor behind the phenomenon was a bolide, a type of fireball that explodes in bright terminal flash.

Astronomer Nick Moskovitz, from the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, said that the meteor was relatively small despite the immense glow. He said that the space rock was likely larger than a marble but smaller than a human. It was around the size of a football.

"This thing wasn't huge. I'm going to guess about 5 feet across. It broke up quite quickly," Garvie said.

{ http://www.techtimes.com/ }

WAS IT ALIENS? Shock as US Air Force scrambled to mystery UFO in skies near Area 51

US Air Force jets were scrambled to investigate a strange UFO detected in the skies near a military base before the aircraft mysteriously vanished.

NEW PHOENIX LIGHTS? Bright flashing UFO caught on CCTV renews claims city is alien hotbed

SECURITY cameras in Phoenix, Arizona, recorded a strange flashing UFO, reigniting claims the US city is a hot bed for arriving aliens.

If you want to remember what’s inside of a box, you write a list of the contents on the outside. This comes in handy when looking for stuff in the attic, frozen food in the freezer and remains of religious leaders. Wait, what?

“The monks Yunjiang and Zhiming of the Lotus School, who belonged to the Mañjuśrī Temple of the Longxing Monastery in Jingzhou Prefecture, gathered more than 2,000 pieces of śarīra, as well as the Buddha’s teeth and bones, and buried them in the Mañjuśrī Hall of this temple.”

The “śarīra” are the cremated ashes of the Buddha, so this message found on a box in 2012 by locals in Gongchi Village, Jingchuan County, China, is describing an effort by two monks to preserve them, along with 260 Buddhist statues buried in the same location. The full excavation was led by Hong Wu, a research fellow at the Gansu Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, who published two articles about the discovery in the journal Chinese Cultural Relics. The articles were revealed this week by LiveScience. (pictures on the Chinese Cultural Relics Facebook page)

Are these the actual ashes of Gautama Buddha? What little is known about the death of the 80-year-old Buddha sometime around 483 BCE is that his cremated remains were divided among the 8 royal families and eventually divided into smaller portions and distributed to 84,000 stupas (shrines). A container of alleged ashes and a skull fragment were found last year and identified, in a similar manner to the recent discovery, by a note on the vessel. That may be enough evidence for religious leaders and true believers, but it’s not solid proof for archeologists

Unfortunately, the newest find doesn’t have much either besides the writing on the box. There’s no way to do a DNA test on the ashes nor the teeth and bone fragments found with them. The 260 statues of Buddha and others were no help. Ranging in size from 13 inches to 6.5 feet (2 meters) in height, only one had writing on it and the date May 26, 571. It’s not certain if the statues were buried at the same time the box was interred by the monks. The report also revealed that other artifacts found at the site may be pieces of the lost Mañjuśrī Hall temple.

Other than the note on the box, there appears to be no other historical evidence of the existence of the monks, Yunjiang and Zhiming, or their quest to collect all things Buddha, including his remains. There’s also no way to positively identify the ashes or bones. Nonetheless, it’s an interesting find and worthy of additional study.

And a good example of the importance of labeling.

{http://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

A bold project in Mexico has brought archaeologists, biologists, underwater photographers and cave divers to the Yucatán Peninsula to study the network of sinkholes known as cenotes that make up the Mayan Aquifer. These natural openings formed by the collapse of the underlying limestone bedrock led the ancient Mayans to what became their primary sources of water, since the peninsula has few lakes and rivers.

As a result, it’s no surprise that they were used for sacred ceremonies and sacrificial offerings and became starting points for the building of temples. A cenote was detected in 2015 underneath the El Castillo (The Castle) pyramid, also known as the Temple of Kukulkán at the Chichen Itzá archeological site using the round-penetrating electrical resistance survey technique. Those 3-D images and further underground exploration led the Great Mayan Aquifer (GAM) team to a never-before-seen blocked passageway from the Chichén Itzá ossuary (bone vault) to the Kukulkán temple … a passageway they believe was sealed by the ancient Mayans and has never been opened.

“We will enter again and, this time, we will try to open it to see if the passageway leads us to the entrance of the cenote beneath the Castle.”

El Universal reports that team leader Guillermo de Anda is ready to break the seal and open the passageway to the temple’s cenote, despite the legends that these sinkholes were gateways to the underworld of the afterlife and the fact that these were places where human sacrifices were made to the rain god Chaac – the GAM team has already found hundreds of human bones in the Sacred Cenote (Well of Sacrifice) at Chichén Itzá.

The underworld of Chichén Itzá is not the only area that’s well-protected by both ancient seals and the government. A tourist recently got into trouble for shooting some fantastic photos of the pyramid using a drone without permission and outside normal hours. While some archeologists and protectors of the site would prefer to send a message by tossing the drone (but not the owner – they not barbarians) into the Sacred Cenote, he’ll probably end up getting a 10,227 pesos ($536) fine.

A cenote near Chichén Itzá (not sacrificial)

While the Great Mayan Aquifer team has all of the proper paperwork to break into the passageway to avoid a fine, will they find something far more painful or terrifying?

{ http://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

Less often, there are reported incidents involving witnesses from multiple sources, such as commercial airliners, military aircraft, and even involvement by the likes of NORAD. Add to the mix the fact that the observed “mystery aircraft” in question has no active transponder, and couldn’t be detected on radar, and you have a genuine mystery.

This rare criteria for a “good” unidentified aircraft report is precisely what has surfaced, in relation to an incident that occurred back in October over the California/Oregon border. The story, which first appeared on Reddit, might have been dismissed as largely speculative or hearsay, had it not been for the fact that Tyler Rogoway, writer for The Drive, had heard about the incident previously from associates of his in the aviation industry; obviously, the story had already created a buzz, and rather than just appearing on an unsubstantiated Reddit thread, it seemed the existing talk over the incident was leaking there, too.

The story, according to the initial Reddit thread, goes like this:

“Just landed in Seattle coming from the bay area. Beginning over Southern Oregon we kept overhearing Seattle Center attempting to track an airplane with no transponder who wasn’t talking. A handful of crews were able to track it visually, best they could tell it was between FL350-370 [35,000-37,000 feet], northbound. Nobody close enough to see the type.

Last we heard it was over the Willamette valley northbound and some fighters, perhaps out of PDX [Portland International Airport], were scrambled to go take a peek. Center had trouble tracking it on primary radar.

Strange! My theory is they were running drugs to Canada. No news yet, not that I could find.

**Update 0500z. Called SEA ARTCC. The gentleman I spoke with said that they initially got alerted to the aircraft from Oakland Center who was painting it on primary [illuminating it with radar, but without transponder information]. For whatever reason they couldn’t track it themselves on primary, and that’s when I overheard them using airline aircraft to track it visually. The last airplane to see it had to descend into Portland and lost sight of it. The fighters were scrambled out of PDX but flew around for a while and did not find it. And that’s that.”

The report above gives few details about the aircraft itself, and due to the fact that craft was unresponsive via radio and radar systems, the pilots had been communicating with the pilots and crew of other commercial aircraft in the vicinity to try and obtain visual confirmation.

Few details about its appearance were related, apart from the fact that it was a “white airplane,” and appeared to be flying the same speed, or slightly faster, than other aircraft in the vicinity. However, one description of the aircraft’s flight behavior did describe a sharp turn that it made, which seemed to be outside the range of maneuverability of conventional aircraft. If true, this detail might support the notion of it having a military origin.

Recordings of the communication between commercial aircraft in the area and Seattle ATC has been made available here, which detail the confused pilots as they attempted to track the mystery aircraft.

Tyler Rogoway contacted the 142nd Fighter Wing based at Portland International Airport, the FAA, and the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) on behalf of The Drivein order to try and obtain confirmation of the incident. As Rogoway notes, “NORAD’s reply was quick and clear. An incident involving multiple airline crews, air traffic control, and F-15Cs from the 142nd Fighter Wing based out of Portland did occur.”

NORAD further commented that, “airliner pilots were asked by FAA air traffic controllers to help track and possibly identify a ‘white aircraft’ traveling in the flightlevels nearby—roughly between 35,000 and 40,000 feet based on the radio recordings,” as evidenced by the recordings that were later released. Perhaps most compelling of all, however, had been the group of F-15s that were scrambled out of Portland, which presumably had been sent to intercept the mystery aircraft.

The FAA and 142nd Fighter Wing were less responsive following the incident, and primary details obtained are based on recordings of flight communications, and the NORAD statement.

On an interesting note, one Reddit poster, claiming to be an air traffic control operator, shared this interesting story:

“[O]ur QA department was working on this today, and got a call from the commander of the 142FW at PDX and was basically told to knock it off, and we know nothing.”

This statement cannot be verified, of course, but if true, might further suggest a military origin for the aircraft.

At present, and with so few details on hand, it is difficult to assess just what the nature of this incident entails, and whether the “mystery plane” was anything out of the ordinary. Current theories range from a possible drug smuggling operation (which seems unlikely, considering that the incident began at around 4:30 PM local time, thus having occurred in broad daylight), to a possible military test craft. Whatever it may have been, the incident represents one of those rare cases where corroborative data between multiple sources, both civilian and military, do at least confirm the incident, and the general description of the mystery plane in question.

For details on a similar incident, as reported to the Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS), see my earlier article on a bizarre “flying egg” that was observed several years ago near Minneapolis, Minnesota. In the meantime, anyone with further details on the October 2017 incident related here, or with similar stories or observations about unrelated incidents, can reach me via email here.

{ http://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

Alabama residents don’t need anything more (no pun intended) to worry about right now and they certainly don’t need any more (see previous note) unwanted publicity, but they’re demanding answers from NASA, the military, local officials and anyone else who will listen to their reports of a mysterious loud boom that thousands heard on November 14th, 2017. Should they be worried? Praying? Digging a bunker? Moving?

“Birmingham area law enforcement agencies said they’ve received reports, and so has St. Clair County EMA. The areas that experienced whatever it was include Arab, Oxford, Anniston, Hayden, Kimberly, Center Point, Jasper and Gardendale just to name a few.”

Al.com reported that the boom occurred around 2:39 p.m. EST (1:39 CST – the rest of you can figure out what time that was in your area) and social media was immediately flooded with “What was that? #WhatWasThat #LoudBoom” comments and speculations. St. Clair County and Birmingham are heavily populated areas near the center of the state. Reports from government organizations soon followed. The National Weather Service seemed to be first with a statement that:

“loud boom heard: we do not see anything indicating large fire/smoke on radar or satellite; nothing on USGS indicating an earthquake. We don’t have an answer, and can only hypothesize with you. 1) sonic boom from aircraft; 2) meteorite w/ current Leonid shower?”

The US Geological Survey soon updated that report, saying seismic data from its Lakeview Retreat near Centreville, Ala., showed “a fairly loud boom occurring on or before 1:39 p.m. CST.” That report was confirmed by the Elginfield Infrasound Array at the University of Western Ontario which picked up the infrasound signal at 3:02 p.m. and observed it for 10 minutes.

Sound graph from the U.S. Geological Survey near Centreville, Ala.

(NASA)

Covering all the bases, NASA said it was either a bolide (exploding meteor), larger supersonic aircraft or a ground explosion. However, it downplayed pointing fingers at the recent Leonid meteor shower because those meteors are too small to produce audible sounds. Many eyewitnesses reported seeing at least one vapor trail, but there’s been no word of responsibility from the military and no further meteor reports.

That leaves … a good reason to hold an annual festival! The small town of Fyffe in the northeast corner of Alabama has been holding a yearly UFO (Unforgettable Family Outing) Festival every August to remember a series of unexplained UFO sightings on February 11–12, 1989, by over 50 people.

If there’s any state that needs something to celebrate right now, it’s Alabama. Maybe it’s time to call off the search, hire some bands, bring in the food trucks and hold a “Bama Boom, Brews and Burgers Bash.”

Where were you when the Big Boom of 2017 hit?

{ http://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

Some insane people think this weird triangle is a crashed alien ship on Mars

Mike Wehner @MikeWehner

Mars is one of the most studied and scrutinized of all the planets in our Solar System, and space agencies have sent probes, orbiters, and rovers to investigate it in unprecedented detail in recent years. Mankind has never found anything suggesting that life was once present on its surface, or that alien beings lived or even visited the martian surface at any point in the past, but that’s not stopping some independent alien sleuths from believing that something is still waiting to be discovered.

The latest example is a big ol’ triangle that, if you buy into the opinion of some amateur astronomers, is actually a crashed alien spaceship tucked away in a crater on Mars. The as-of-yet-unexplained shape is being hailed as proof that aliens exist, and that they’ve visited or perhaps even lived on the red planet in the distant past.

First widely reported by a popular YouTuber known as Secureteam, the “object” was found using Google Mars, which is a remarkably detailed map of the planet’s surface. You can view the map in infrared or visible light modes, as well as an elevation map, but it’s in the infrared image that the fringe of the UFO community believes the evidence lies. The image does appear to show something vaguely triangular, potentially buried under the sand and dust that has accumulated over millions or perhaps even billions of years.

Triangles are a big deal in UFO circles, as many of the more widely believed alien encounter stories have suggested that triangular crafts are being used by extraterrestrials. In that regard, the infrared image is pretty interesting, but it’s hardly proof, and the whole theory really starts to fall apart when you check out the elevation map.

When viewed like this, it quickly becomes clear that the “object” isn’t actually a solid flat triangle but rather a collection of smaller peaks and rocky formations, arranged in a way that roughly resembles two corners of a triangle and little more.

If you spend more than about five minutes on Google Mars you’ll surely find plenty of odd formations that you could argue are evidence of an alien ship, building, or something totally unexplained. Unfortunately, the randomness of nature tends to fool us into seeing something that’s not actually there.

• Aliens, 
• Mars, 
• UFO

{ http://bgr.com/ }

Another proof of alien life? Mysterious UFO spotted on German skies

By Nirmal Narayanan

A mysterious UFO has been spotted flying across the town of Hochen, West Germany, and it has baffled alien buffs all around the world. Local Police have revealed that they cannot explain the origin of the flying object, and they believe that it could be a celestial body.

As the video of the incident has now gone viral on social media sites, conspiracy theorists are claiming that this is a solid evidence of the presence of alien life.

According to reports, the UFO sightings were also visible in Italy and Switzerland too.

A perfect evidence of alien life?

Initially, the UFO was seen as a small white fireball, and later it grew larger, finally emerging as a blue glow. After some minutes, the strength of the light faded and started emerging as a white ball.

Soon after the incident, the local police received numerous calls from residents, and some of them were reportedly panicked due to fear of a possible alien invasion. As the local police too failed to give a convincing answer to the origin of UFO, people suspected that the end is near, but the night passed off uneventfully.

Christian Hoppe, the spokesperson of German Air Traffic Control said that the object is not certainly an aircraft.

On the other hand, a section of space buffs believes that this sighting is nothing but a part of Leonid meteor shower. If the UFO is a meteor, then it could have fallen somewhere, but police have received no clue of any damage. Sometimes, the meteor could have burned out entirely in the sky, leaving no traces to prove the fall.

{ http://www.ibtimes.sg/ }

SCIENTISTS HAVE SENT MESSAGES TO ADVANCED ALIEN CIVILIZATIONS—AND ARE HOPING FOR A REPLY IN 25 YEARS

BY HANNAH OSBORNE

Updated | A small group of scientists has unilaterally decided to send messages to any advanced alien civilization living in a star system 12.4 light years away (over 70 trillion miles). The message, which includes pieces of music, math and technology, was transmitted to the GJ273 system over three days in October and includes instructions about how they should reply to us on a day 25 years from now.

The decision to actively send messages to aliens is controversial. There are two main avenues of thinking—the first, known as SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) is that we should actively look for alien life by listening out for signals, the second that we should be sending out messages so any advanced lifeform out there would be able to find us.

The latter—which has become known Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence (METI)—has some fierce opponents, including renowned physicist Stephen Hawking. He says alerting aliens to our presence could be a fatal error:  "If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn't turn out well for the Native Americans," he warned.

Another problem is deciding what we should say in a message to aliens. How can one small group of people be responsible for deciding how the whole of Earth is represented in a single message?

Artist impression of GJ 273b.

DANIELLE FUTSELAAR/METI

Despite these concerns, they forged ahead and it was announced the messages had been sent at Sónar, a festival of music, creativity and technology held in Barcelona, Spain. Sónar initially came up with the idea for the project, and asked METI and the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC) to collaborate on it.

They sent out messages to GJ273—or Luyten’s Star—a red dwarf with a potentially habitable exoplanet called GJ273b. The message was beamed towards the system on October 16, 17, and 18. It took 11 minutes each day, with the total transmission lasting 33 minutes.

The message starts with basic principles then builds up to more complicated concepts. It also makes a direct link between the type of radio signal sent and the scientific content included, providing clues so the aliens can interpret the messages accurately. Repeating the message three times should mean the extraterrestrials can correct for any errors introduced over the messages' long journey through space.

Another feature of the message is a “cosmic clock” that shows the passage of time. Each of the three messages sent over three days has a slightly different clock indicating how a specific period of time has passed since the last was sent.

The next phase of the project—named Sonar Calling GJ273b—will see an expanded message sent to the same star. Included in this message to any alien lifeforms listening is the date when astronomers will be listening out for a reply: June 21, 2043.

The GJ273 system.

SÓNAR INTERNATIONAL

In an email interview, Douglas Vakoch, president of METI, tells Newsweek about the initiative and why they went ahead.

There is an argument against sending messages—do you think your announcement will upset some people within the SETI community?

Everyone engaged in SETI is already endorsing transmissions to extraterrestrials through their actions. If we detect a signal from aliens through a SETI program, there’s no way to prevent a cacophony of responses from Earth. And these wouldn’t be responses to a possibly habitable exoplanet, but to a star system where we know there is intelligent life. There’s no way to enforce the SETI protocols that call for consultation before replying. Once the news gets out that we’ve detected extraterrestrials, anyone with a transmitter can say whatever they want.

Do you think some people (non scientists) will be worried we've sent messages to aliens?

When we’re not clear how risky an activity is, we rely on the most vivid images that come to mind to help us decide. Cognitive psychologists call it the availability heuristic. We rely on the images that are most available to us—the vivid ones—and take that as the truth. What could be more vivid than the image of an alien invasion? But once we step back, take a breath, and analyze the situation, we realize there’s no added danger of an alien attack if we let them know we’re interested in having an interstellar conversation. When people learn more about the project, they’ll realize we have nothing to fear.

So why shouldn’t we be worried?

{ http://www.newsweek.com/ }

Airliners And F-15s Involved In Bizarre Encounter With Mystery Aircraft Over Oregon

The FAA, the USAF, and air traffic control recordings all confirm the bizarre event did indeed occur last October.

Scientists just sent a message to a possible alien civilization, and it could have disastrous consequences

Humans, generally speaking, are incredibly interested in the potential existence of intelligent alien life. The idea that an alien civilization exists somewhere in the cosmos has always fascinated us, but we’v yet to find any evidence that our dreams are more than fantasy. Now, scientists have taken a big step towards contacting extraterrestrials, sending a message to a nearby star system that may well host an advanced civilization, but not everyone thinks that was such a good idea.

A group of scientists hungry for evidence of aliens took it upon themselves to send a message to the system called GJ273, which resides approximately 12.4 light-years away from Earth. That’s a pretty sizable distance, but the signal will eventually get there, and if ET is listening they’ll most certainly know it’s not an accident.

The message, which reportedly included samples of music, language, and math, also included a request that anyone who gets it should attempt to respond. If the scientists strike gold, a message would likely be headed back our direction by around 2042, and astronomers will be listening closely for any sign of it.

However, many scientists have voiced their displeasure at the idea that mankind might proactively contact an alien civilization, especially one that has mastered spaceflight. Without having any idea of whether or not our needle-in-a-haystack signal is retrieved by a peaceful alien race or a hostile one, many fear that we could be setting the stage for the ultimate destruction of mankind and perhaps Earth as we know it.

One of the more vocal opponents of the effort is world-famous physicist Stephen Hawking, who has suggested that yelling into the void may bring dire results. Likening the arrival of an alien race to Earth to that of Europeans arriving in America, Hawking warns that a more advanced species could do whatever they wanted to our planet with little regard for mankind’s fate.

The signals, which were sent in mid-Otober, should arrive at their destination many years from now, and if we indeed to hear back, it will be a momentous occasion. Let’s just hope we don’t annoy them if they’re having a bad day.

Watch interviews and in-depth news coverage from "Daily Vice" on go90." data-reactid="32" style="text-align: justify; padding-left: 30px;">Watch interviews and in-depth news coverage from "Daily Vice" on go90.

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See the original version of this article on BGR.com

{ https://www.yahoo.com/ }

NASA scientists say we’ll find Alien life within 20 years

The US space agency has revealed that we will find aliens sooner than we think.

Despite the fact that there are millions of people around the globe who are convinced we are being visited by beings not from Earth, and that thousands of years ago, ancient civilization had contact with beings from elsewhere in the cosmos, officially speaking, aliens are an enigma for the human race.

However, according to NASA, we may confirm aliens are real as soon as 20 years time.

As noted by Anthony Del Genio, a member of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies:

“Before we search for alien life, we’re trying to understand what types of planets could have a climate that’s favorable to life. We’re utilizing the identical climate models that we use to predict 21st-century climate change on Earth to do simulations of specific exoplanets that have been found and possible ones.”

In a recently published video—How to Find a Living Planet—NASA explains that the discovery of water on distant alien worlds may be a key to finding alien life.

The Space Agency explains in the video that: “No matter where we look, whether it’s a desert or Antarctica or the deepest parts of the ocean or the deepest parts of Earth’s crust that we’ve explored, as long as there’s a tiny speck of liquid water, there’s life.

“And because of that, it’s been central to NASA’s search for habitable environments elsewhere. It’s why experts get excited about water spewing up from the icy moons of Europa and Enceladus in our outer solar system. Not only could they have water, they could have global oceans like the ones we have here on Earth.”

According to Del Genio, our civilization will confirm aliens are real in as soon as 20 years: “I think that in 20 years we will have found one candidate that might be it.”

But NASA notes it’s not only looking for water on alien worlds.

It’s imperative that we identify certain atmospheric gasses as well notes NASA.

In particular, scientists will focus on identifying alien environments that show traces of both oxygen and methane. As noted by scientists, when you spot these two gases in the same atmosphere, ‘you’ve got something special.’

‘There are methods to build up oxygen and methane in a planetary atmosphere, but the only way you could have both in the same atmosphere at the same time is if you produce them both super rapidly,’ said Shawn Domagal-Goldman, of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Scientists say that the best ‘current’ bet for finding traces of alien life is within our solar system, with experts setting their sights on Enceladus and Europa, Saturn and Jupiter’s moons respectively.

Featured image credit: Shutterstock

{ https://www.ancient-code.com/ }

Mystery of Pluto's Super-Cold Weather Solved

Haze keeps Pluto cool by kicking heat out to space

The dwarf planet may be the only place in the solar system to have its temperature regulated by solids, not gases

BY LISA GROSSMAN 

 

HEAT SHIELD  Layers of haze in Pluto’s atmosphere, shown here in an image from the New Horizons spacecraft, could radiate heat away from the dwarf planet and cool it down.

SWRI/JHUAPL/NASA

Blame Pluto’s haze for the dwarf planet’s unexpected chilliness. Clusters of hydrocarbons in the atmosphere radiate heat back into space, keeping the dwarf planet cool, a new study suggests. Pluto may be the only world in the solar system whose atmospheric temperature is controlled by solid particles, rather than gas, researchers report in the Nov. 16 Nature.

Most planets’ temperatures are set by the gas content of their atmospheres, since certain gases trap heat from the sun more efficiently than others (SN Online: 6/8/15). Based on the nitrogen, methane and carbon monoxide in Pluto’s atmosphere, scientists predicted the dwarf planet’s upper atmosphere would be a brisk –173° Celsius.

But when the New Horizons spacecraft flew past Pluto in 2015, the probe found temperatures closer to –203° — with no obvious explanation.

The spacecraft found another surprising feature: Pluto’s atmosphere is separated into about 20 distinct haze layers. Solid hydrocarbon particles tens of nanometers wide clump together in the atmosphere to form the haze before eventually settling onto Pluto’s surface (SN: 4/15/17, p. 14).

This haze could be what’s keeping the atmosphere cool, Xi Zhang of the University of California, Santa Cruz and his colleagues say. The team calculated that those hydrocarbon clumps could absorb heat from the sun as well as from gases in the atmosphere and radiate it back into space. Ultimately, the haze would cool the atmosphere instead of warming it.

That makes Pluto unique in the solar system, the researchers say. Other hazy worlds, like Saturn’s moon Titan, still have temperatures that are mostly determined by gas.

“On Pluto, almost the whole game is haze,” says planetary scientist Robert West of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., who wrote a commentary on the new work, also published in the Nov. 16 Nature. “That was a real surprise.”

West thinks Zhang and colleagues’ argument “sounds convincing.” But he’s reserving judgement until the James Webb Space Telescope, due to launch in 2019, can see if Pluto glows brighter than expected in infrared wavelengths, a sign that the planet is wrapped in a radiating haze. “That will make it a closed case.”

Citations

X. Zhang, D.F. Strobel and H. Imanaka. Haze heats Pluto’s atmosphere yet explains its cold temperature. Nature. Vol. 551, November 16, 2017, p. 352. doi: 10.1038/nature24465.

R. West. Haze cools Pluto’s atmosphere. Nature. Vol. 551, November 16, 2017, p. 302.   

Further Reading

A. Yeager. How Pluto’s haze could explain its red spots. Science News. Vol. 191, April 15, 2017, p. 14.

C. Crockett. Get your Pluto trivia down cold. Science News Online, March 17, 2016.

{ https://www.sciencenews.org/ }

A ‘Second Earth’ found 11 light years away could be our best bet for Alien life

Could this be our galaxy’s best bet for extraterrestrial life? Astronomers have recently spotted an alien world the same size and temperature as our own, a mere ’11 light years away’ and claim it may be the ‘closest known home for alien life’.

Astronomers from the University of Grenoble in France have discovered an alien world named Ross 128b, orbiting a red dwarf star, some 11 light years away. According to experts, this not-so-distant planet may be our best bet yet, for finding alien life.

The recently discovered planet is believed to be the same size as Earth, and also an eerily similar surface temperature. Scientists believe this planet may the ‘the closest known comfortable abode for possible life,’ according to a new study.

Despite the fact that it would take us nearly 141,000 years to travel to the planet using our current spaceships, the planet is located relatively close in cosmic terms, only 11 light years away, which makes it the second closest Earth-like planet in our close proximity.

The red dwarf star Ross 128 sits in the constellation Virgo, the virgin. Image Credit: Sky Survey 2.

Experts have said that despite the fact that its located 11 light years away from us, the planet is actually moving towards us and is expected to become our closest cosmic neighbor in around 79,000 years.

The planet was spotted by astronomers collaborating with the European Southern Observatory’s High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) instrument, located at the La Silla Observatory in Chile.

Astronomers report that the low-mass exoplanet orbits its star, a weak red dwarf every 9.9 days.

The planet which has already been dubbed as ‘the second Earth’ is believed to be temperate and have a surface temperature very close to Earth.

Ross128 is considered the quietest nearby star to host such a planet.

This discovery is based on more than a decade of HARPS intensive monitoring together with state-of-the-art data reduction and analysis techniques. Only HARPS has demonstrated such a precision and it remains the best planet hunter of its kind, 15 years after it began operations,’ said Study co-author Dr. Nicola Astudillo-Defru, of the University of Geneva in Switzerland.

Image Credit: Daily Mail

Lead author Dr. Xavier Bonfils, of Université Grenoble in France, said in an interview with National Geographic: “There wasn’t a ‘eureka’ moment here where we were able to suddenly say, wow, we have a planet. We accumulated data over many years, and only gradually the signal built up and became significant.”

The discovery of Ross128 raises hopes that mankind will soon discover whether or not we are alone in the universe.

The discovery of Ross128 comes after NASA researchers have claimed that mankind will most likely find alien life within the next 20 years.

In a recently published video—How to Find a Living Planet—NASA explains that the discovery of water on distant alien worlds may be a key to finding alien life.

The Space Agency explains in the video that: “No matter where we look, whether it’s a desert or Antarctica or the deepest parts of the ocean or the deepest parts of Earth’s crust that we’ve explored, as long as there’s a tiny speck of liquid water, there’s life.

Interestingly, astronomers are now working to find out whether or not Rss128b is located within its stars habitable zone. The habitable zone of a star is a region in space within which a planetary surface can support liquid water given sufficient atmospheric pressure.

Source: New Earth-Size Planet Found Around Nearby Star

Reference: The galaxy’s best bet for alien life? 

Featured image credit: Shutterstock

{ https://www.ancient-code.com/ }

Layers of hydrocarbon haze could explain why Pluto’s so super-cold

 BY TIBI PUIU

Plutonian landscapes in twilight, under a hazy sky.

Credit: NASA/JHU APL/SwR.

Orbiting the sun over 40 times farther away than the Earth, it’s no wonder that Pluto is so incredibly cold. But when New Horizon made its historic flyby of the dwarf planet, NASA scientists were dumbfounded to find Pluto was even colder than expected — about 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) colder. A new hypothesis suggests that a haze of solid hydrocarbons might be regulating Pluto’s temperature. If this hypothesis is confirmed, it would signify a new regime of planetary climate; something that’s never been witnessed before.

Pluto might not be a planet but at least it’s still cool

Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, led by planetary scientist Xi Zhang, believe they’ve found the culprit for Pluto’s anonymously cold atmosphere. The New Horizons spacecraft revealed that the dwarf planet is surrounded by 20 or so layers of haze arranged like the skin of an onion. The haze is made of soot-like solid particles.

Scientists had known for decades that Pluto has an atmosphere and that it might be hazy, but it wasn’t until recently that they began to comprehend this stunningly complex atmospheric mechanism.

Zhang and colleagues devised a mathematical model that investigated whether or not the nanoparticles could be influencing Pluto’s atmospheric temperature. Indeed they can, the model suggested, whose results were almost a perfect match with New Horizon’s empirical observations.

The particles are no bigger than 150 nanometers in diameter and are thought to consist of hydrogen cyanide, acetylene, and other organic compounds, similar to the ones found around Saturn’s moon Titan. These particles might have a significant cooling effect on Pluto by absorbing infrared radiation, thereby reducing atmospheric temperature.

 “Basically, we needed a strong coolant to explain why Pluto is so cold,” Zhang toldNew Scientist. “We found that the abundant haze particles can strongly cool the atmosphere by re-emitting infrared radiation to space, a process not considered in previous theories.”

“In the infrared range of radiation, a slightly larger amount of energy is radiated back to space by the haze particles, cooling the atmosphere overall,” he added.

From six billion miles away, Earth-based detectors aren’t sensitive enough to identify Pluto’s near-infrared radiation, which could be one of the reasons why the haze wasn’t discovered sooner. Fortunately, the James Webb Space Telescope, which is scheduled to launch in 2019, will be equipped with the proper tools to investigate Pluto’s infrared radiation.

If the researchers’ hypothesis holds water, this would make Pluto the only solar system planetary body whose temperature isn’t principally controlled by gases.

Scientific reference: 

X Zhang, D F Strobel and H Imanaka, Nature, 2017, DOI: 10.1038/nature24465.

{ https://www.zmescience.com/ }

NASA releases atmospheric simulation of this year’s hurricane season

BY ALEXANDRU MICU

A gorgeous new animation published by NASA depicts sea salt, dust, and smoke movements in the atmosphere during this year’s hurricane season.

Because air is so hard to see, NASA uses aerosol particles to track movements in the atmosphere. By combining raw satellite data with mathematical models of atmospheric phenomena, NASA researchers can see how smoke, dust, and sea salt are transported across the globe — allowing the agency a glimpse into weather patterns that would otherwise remain hidden to our view.

For example, tracking how sea salt (blue-white) evaporates from oceans will showcase the evolution of all of 2017’s hurricanes. The animation also captures the massive wildfires in the Pacific Northwest on the smoke layer of the simulation (gray). Particles released in these fires made it all the way from Oregon to Washington, though the south, eventually reaching the UK (in early September).

Dust (brown) also makes an appearance, most notably piggybacking on storm systems out of the Sahara and towards the Americas. Unlike sea salt, however, it doesn’t last too long in the eye of the storm. Here, dust particles are captured by cloud droplets and rain down on the ocean.

Advances in computing speed allow scientists to include more details of these physical processes in their simulations than ever before. So in time, they’re only going to become more complex and will more closely reflect reality.

{ https://www.zmescience.com/ }

Four Major Fireballs within Ten Hours

Vincent Perlerin 

Germany, France, Ohio and Arizona

It was a busy night for the AMS and IMO (International Meteor Organization) that started early around 16:50 Universal Time (UT) with a fireball in the skies over Germany. Over 1180 witnesses reported to the AMS/IMO database within the first few hours of the event. Les than five hours later, near the weastern shores of France witness reported another significant fireball at 21:30 UT.

While excited fireball observers in Germany, France, Switzerland, Lichtenstein, Luxembourg and Italy were filling out their forms, two significant fireballs fell over the United States during the hours of 01:40 and 03:30 UTC. The first over Arizona and the second over Ohio.

In total the AMS/IMO collected, grouped and analyzed over 1320 witness reports spanning these 4 fireballs in the 10 hours that followed the events.

Taurid or not Taurid: that is the question

Are the events related or simply coincidence. Could these events be part of the Taurid meteor shower which peaked this past Saturday? Associated with the comet Encke, the Taurids are actually two separate showers, with a Southern and a Northern component. Both branches of the Taurids are most notable for colorful fireballs and are often responsible for an increased number of fireball reports from September through November.

The first analysis conducted by former IMO president Dr. Juergen Rendtel of the Leibniz-Institut für Astrophysik Potsdam from the raw data shows that the events that occurred over Arizona and France cannot be linked to the Taurids: the Arizona event was moving from North-West to South-East while the French event was moving from North-East to South-West. However, the events over Germany and Ohio fit the Taurids direction (East->West) and the low inclination angle at the time of the sightings! Note that the East-West direction is related to the Taurids only because the fireball occurred in the local evening. Later in the night or towards the morning the direction is different, of course.

Nov 14^th 16:48 UT – Blue Fireball over Germany

The fireball that flew over Germany on Nov 14^th around 16:48 UT is the most reported fireball event from Europe since the AMS and the IMO launched the international version of the AMS fireball form. Translated in 31 languages, this form potentially allows the whole population of the globe to report such events. So far, we received over 820 reports about this event from at least 7 different versions of the form: not only from the AMS and the IMO versions but also from the forms we customized for local organizations such as the French Networks Reforme and Vigie-Ciel, the Swiss organization Fachgruppe Meteorastronomie, the german organization Arbeitskreis Meteore e.V. and even from the Italian Network PRISMA.

Below is the 3D trajectory of the event (available in KML format from the Event#4299-2017 page):

This event has been caught on several dash cams:

Nov 14^th 21:32 UT over France

The French event occurred over the city of Bordeaux (West of France) and it has been reported so far from about 20 witnesses. This event has been caught on cam by the french camera network FRIPON that is a member of the citizen science project Vigie-Ciel and by the French allsky amateur network BOAM.

We should receive more details about this event anytime soon. As stated above, this event doesn’t seem like being part of the Taurid Meteor Shower. The event has been caught by 10 cameras of the French Network (Toulouse, Angers, Talence, Sabres, Carcassonne, Aurillac, Hendaye, Saint Bonnet Vert, Coulounieix-Chamiers and Mauroux).

Event#4312-2017 – Allsky Cam photo from BOAM (thank you to Tioga Gulon)

Nov 15^th 03:28 UT over Arizona

The AMS received 85 reports so far about this event that occurred over Arizona. We didn’t receive reports only from Arizona but also from California, Nevada, Utah and New Mexico.

This event has been caught on at least two dash cams shared via the AMS Fireball report:

As stated above, the first estimated 3D trajectory doesn’t make this fireball a good candidate for the Taurid Meteor Shower. Traveling from North-West to South-East, the visible path of the fireball ended somewhere east of Happy Jack, AZ.

Nov 15^th 01:49 UT over Ohio

We received 34 reports so far about this event that occurred over Ohio but was also reported from Michiga, Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee. Just like the German event, this fireball was travelling East to West. The first estimation of the 3D trajectory shows that the visible path of the fireball ended somewhere over Greenfield, OH.

Unfortunately, we didn’t receive any photo or video of this event yet. If you witnessed one of this event and/or if you have a video or a photo, please

Submit an Official Fireball Report.

{ http://www.amsmeteors.org/ }

Has Britain's most baffling alien abduction UFO case involving police man been solved?

EXCLUSIVE: It was on a cold morning in November 1980 that PC Alan Godfrey, now 70, came face-to-face with a UFO.

DE MEEST SPECTACULAIRE UFO FOTO'S OOIT GENOMEN OP EEN BEKENDE UFO HOTSPOT

{ http://niburu.co/ }

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

Koen Van De Sype 

Bron: Newsweek, Tech Insider

 METI

Dat gebeurde op 16, 17 en 18 oktober. De wetenschappers gebruikten radiogolven en lieten de berichten op negen verschillende momenten horen, om de kans te vergroten dat ze worden opgepikt. In totaal werd er elke dag voor 11 minuten uitgezonden.

Lees ook

Nieuwe planeet dicht bij aarde ontdekt met “mogelijk beste kans op leven ooit”

Muziekstukken

De boodschap zelf bestaat onder meer uit 18 muziekstukken van 10 seconden, voorbeelden van wiskunde en technologie én uitleg over de manier waarop we de tijd bijhouden. Aan de hand daarvan legden de wetenschappers ook uit wanneer we zouden luisteren voor een mogelijk antwoord.

Het bericht werd niet zomaar lukraak gestuurd, maar naar een nabijgelegen exoplaneet GJ273b. Die draait rond de Ster van Luyten – een rode dwerg – en wordt door astronomen ook wel omschreven als een ‘superaarde’. De massa is iets groter dan die van onze planeet en hij bevindt zich op een afstand van zijn ster die leven er mogelijk kan maken.

Controversieel

Het is de allereerste keer dat de mensheid een boodschap verstuurt die gericht is op een antwoord op een specifiek moment. Het uitsturen van boodschappen naar mogelijk buitenaards leven zodat het ons kan vinden, is overigens controversieel. Onder meer de vermaarde wetenschapper Stephen Hawking waarschuwde al voor de gevaren daarvan. “Als dergelijk buitenaards leven ons bezoekt, dan zal het er ongeveer aan toe gaan zoals toen Columbus in Amerika landde. En we weten allemaal hoe dat afliep voor de oorspronkelijke bevolking”, zei hij al. (lees hieronder verder)

RVDouglas Vakoch van METI.

Douglas Vakoch van METI relativeert. “Als er een buitenaardse beschaving bestond die in staat was om naar de aarde te reizen met het doel ons kwaad te doen, zou die al veel eerder al onze radio- en tv-signalen opgepikt hebben en naar hier gekomen zijn. Onze atmosfeer geeft overigens al 2,5 miljard jaar bewijs af van leven door de zuurstof in de lucht.”

SETI

METI is de tegenhanger van SETI – Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence – dat ook vindt dat we actief moeten zoeken naar buitenaards leven, maar dan door te proberen boodschappen van anderen op te vangen in plaats van ze zelf te versturen. Voor het project werkte METi samen met het Instituut voor Ruimtestudies van Catalonië (IEEC) en het Spaanse muziekfestival Sónar.

“Hopelijk krijgen we antwoord”, aldus Vakoch. “Maar de kans bestaat dat we het experiment nog een aantal keer zullen moeten herhalen in de richting van andere planeten voor we geluk hebben. Ik zie het eerder op langere termijn. We moeten daarbij een systeem ontwikkelen waarmee we niet één maar vele tientallen, duizenden of zelfs miljoenen planeten tegelijk proberen te bereiken. Alleen zo kunnen we onze kansen vergroten om ooit een respons te ontvangen.” 

{ https://www.hln.be/ }

After all of the recent predictions of a collision between Planet X/Nibiru and Earth have come and gone, a little announcement from a credible source sneaks in with actual sightings of a real exoplanet that’s not only near to Earth but may support life and it and its star may be on a collision course with Earth and the Sun. Should we celebrate, panic or both?

The announcement comes from the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics which published a report from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) whose scientists used ten years of data from the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) in Chile on Ross 128, a small red dwarf in the constellation Virgo (named for American astronomer Frank Elmore Ross) that’s a mere 10.89 light years from our solar system. That data showed a wobble in Ross 128 indicating that something is speedily orbiting it every 10 days. That something is an exoplanet with some special characteristics.

“The new world has the designation Ross 128 b and is now the second-closest temperate planet to be detected after Proxima b. It is also the closest planet to be discovered orbiting an inactive red dwarf star, which may increase the likelihood that this planet could potentially sustain life.”

The High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher

(HARPS)

Ross 128 b is about the same size as Earth and, despite being 20 times closer to its star, has an Earth-ish surface temperature raging between –60°C and 20°C (–78°F and 68°F). Couple that with the fact that its dim red sun can’t fry it with radiation either and Roth 128 b becomes a better candidate for life than Proxima b orbiting Proxima Centauri. ESO astronomers will know more in 2025 when they’re able to look for oxygen biomarkers using the new Extremely Large Telescope.

2025? What about the collision? Will we still exist by then?

“Although it is currently 11 light-years from Earth, Ross 128 is moving towards us and is expected to become our nearest stellar neighbour in just 79 000 years — a blink of the eye in cosmic terms. Ross 128 b will by then take the crown from Proxima b and become the closest exoplanet to Earth!”

That’s disappointing news to Planet X fans but hugely exciting for astronomers, since 79,000 years is a blink of an eye for them, especially when you consider this is the time it will take for Ross 128 and Ross 128 b to travel seven light years – from 11 light years to less than Proxima b’s 4.2 light years away.

So Ross 128 b is not Planet X, but it does prove that a star and its planet(s) could be moving quite fast through the galaxy … giving a tiny bit of credence to the theory that Planet X is orbiting the Sun’s binary sibling and they’re on a fast path to collision. Then again, if astronomers can see Ross 128 and Ross 128 b at 11 billion light years away, shouldn’t they already be able to see Planet X and its star?

Anyone?

{ http://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

The subject of UFO research is filled with cases that positively reek of high strangeness. And they don’t get much stranger than a very weird incident which occurred in August 1955, in the vicinity of Kelly and Hopkinsville, Kentucky. Depending on whose version of events you accept as the truth, either aliens landed or a band of marauding circus monkeys – painted silver, no less – were on the loose! Kelly was, and still is, a small, rural town which is situated just short of ten miles from Hopkinsville. It was the night of August 15 when absolute chaos broke out. It all went down at the farmhouse of the Sutton family, who had visitors in from Pennsylvania: Billy Ray Taylor and his wife. Around 7.00 p.m. Billy Ray left the farmhouse to fetch water from the family’s well. And what a big mistake that was.

In mere minutes, Billy Ray was back, minus the water. Terrified Billy Ray told the Suttons and his wife that as he headed towards the well he saw a significantly sized, illuminated, circular-shaped object come to rest in a nearby gully. As the group tried to figure out what on earth (or off it…) was going on, they mused upon the possibilities of shooting stars, meteorites, and good old leg-pulling. By all accounts, it was none of those. In just a few minutes, the Sutton’s dog began to bark, growl, and snarl in aggressive, uncontrollable fashion – after which it raced for cover underneath the porch. Clearly, something strange was going down. Exactly how strange, soon became very apparent.

Intent on making sure they were in control of the situation, Elmer Sutton and Billy Ray Taylor armed themselves with a shotgun and headed out into the darkness. In no time, they were confronted by something terrifying: a small, silvery, creature – in the region of three feet tall – that was scurrying towards them with its long, ape-like, arms held high in the air. Sutton did what most folk might do when confronted by a strange, dwarfish thing after sunset: he blasted the beast with his shotgun. To the consternation of both men, the gun had no effect, aside from causing the creature to do a quick, impressive back-flip, after which it disappeared into the darkness – for a while.

Rather wisely, Elmer and Billy Ray raced for the safety of the farmhouse and locked the doors behind them. In mere moments, the same creature – or, at least, a very similar one – was seen peering through one of the windows. Elmer’s son, J.C., took a shot at it. The only damage was to the window. The small beast scurried away at lightning speed. Elmer Sutton and Billy Ray took a tentative walk outside to see if they could see the creature – or creatures. That was a very bad move: as they prowled around the property, a clawed hand came down from the roof and seized Billy Ray’s hair and head.

Terrified Billy Ray pulled away, screaming, to see the creature charge across the roof. To their horror, a second creature was staring at them from the branch of a nearby tree. A second shoot-out achieved nothing, aside from the remarkably weird sight of the creatures floating – rather than leaping or falling – to the ground and then racing into the darkness. The tumultuous events continued throughout the night, with guns firing, and the creepy little beasts seemingly doing their very best to create as much havoc and mayhem as was conceivably possible.

Realizing that the situation might very well go on all night, the group decided there was only one option available to them: they had to flee the farmhouse, which they did in two cars, making their speedy way to the sheriff’s office in nearby Hopkinsville. The sheer, collective state of fear into which the Suttons and the Taylors had been plunged, pretty much immediately convinced the sheriff that whatever had happened, it was no drunken prank.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on one’s perspective), by the time the sheriff and the family arrived back at the farmhouse, the creatures were gone – they did, however, put in a reappearance in the early hours, and conveniently after the police had left. In no time at all, the media got onto the story, as did the U.S. Air Force – the latter coming up with a very bizarre explanation as its staff sought to lay matters to rest.

Before we get to the matter of that explanation, it’s important to have a full understanding of the physical appearance of the creatures, drawn from the memories and recollections of the players: the Suttons and the Taylors. All of the strange entities were near-identical: long arms, skinny legs, large ears, and yellow eyes. As for their gait, they moved in a strange, pivoting fashion. And, there was the fact that they were all silver in color. Cue the Air Force’s best estimate of what really happened.

With absolutely nothing solid – at all – to back up its claims, the Air Force suggested the culprits were monkeys, painted silver, and which had escaped from a traveling circus! As cryptozoologist Ken Gerhard notes, it’s “a theory more ridiculous than the notion of invading aliens.” Nevertheless, the Air Force stuck to its guns, with Major John E. Albert being the major proponent of the circus escapee/painted monkeys theory.

Ufologists did not just accept this theory without question. One of the most respected of all UFO researchers was Dr. J. Allen Hynek. He said (in The Hynek UFO Report), of his investigation of the Air Force’s claim: “I did make an attempt to find out whether there had been any traveling circuses in the area from which some monkeys could have escaped. The monkey hypothesis fails, however, if the basic testimony of the witnesses can be accepted. Under a barrage of gunfire from Kentuckians, over a somewhat extended period, it is unthinkable that at least one cadaver would not have been found. Furthermore, monkeys do not float down from trees: they either jump or fall. And, anyway, I was unable to find any trace of a traveling circus!”

The 1955 Kelly-Hopkinsville saga remains unresolved to this day. The fact that the incident began with the sighting of what may well have been a UFO, has led flying saucer sleuths to conclude a mini-alien invasion briefly broke out in rural Kentucky. On the other hand, is it possible that the Air Force was, at least, partly on the right track? Could the creatures have been monkeys, after all? They are questions that, decades later, still endure.

{ http://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

Fireballs in the sky over the US and Europe all captured on November 14, 2017

Several meteors lit the sky over the United States and Europe on Tuesday night.

Fireballs were captured over Phoenix, over Southern Ohio and later in the night two meteors crossed over France and the other over Germany which was seen as far away as Italy and Switserland.

Although it seems that these fireballs were at least somewhat related with the Tuarids and with the comet Encke, the fireballs that occurred in Arizona and France are not related to the Tuarids due to their origin and direction, the fireballs over Ohio and Germany were probably Tuarids.

Below videos show the fireball that flew across the Phoenix sky and captured by the Phoenix city Cam and the fireball over Southern Ohio uploaded by J. Verrico on the American Meteor Society Website.

The American Meteor Society has noted before that there has been a dramatic increase in fireball /meteor activity since the last two years.

  

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

UFO Secrets

Coast To Coast AM – November 10, 2017 UFO Secrets & Open Lines with Jimmy Church

Author Peter Levenda joined Jimmy Church (Fade To Black) to discuss his collaboration with Tom DeLonge, and his work speaking with officials who hold secrets to some of the most intriguing questions about UFOs and our universe. Open Lines followed in the latter half of program.

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

'We can only say that it was not an aircraft': Mysterious 'fireball' spotted in the sky in Germany leaves citizens worried and police clueless

• German citizens left concerned after 'fireball' spotted in the sky
• The flash of light was spotted as far away as Switzerland and Italy
• Local police say they cannot explain the origins of the UFO 

By Karen Gilchrist For Mailonline

A mysterious 'fireball' has been spotted speeding through the sky above Germany.

The UFO was seen as far away as Italy and Switzerland and has prompted German police to speculate that it was a 'celestial body'. 

A video shows the glowing object flying across the town of Hochen in the west of Germany.

It is seen initially as a small white light before growing larger and changing to a blue-green glow.

The light then appears to decrease and fade to a white as it drops and once again is obscured.  

A police spokesman told German newspaper Stuttgarter-Zeitung that they received a number of calls about the fireball.

The video shows a moving light, seen on the far right. Initially the 'fireball' is small and white

However, they could not explain its origins.

German air traffic control spokesman Christian Hoppe added: 'We can only say that it was not an aircraft.' 

The majority of the UFO sightings came from the German states of Saarland, Baden-Wuerttemberg and the southern part of Hesse, but it was also spotted in Switzerland and on the other side of the Alps at Italy's Lake Garda.

As the light moves across the sky, it changes colour to a blue-green and grows in size and brightness

Eventually the glow of the light begins to fade out as it returns to a white colour and drops through the sky

The sighting comes at the height of the Leonid meteor shower, which peaks in mid-November. 

If the object was a meteor, it is unclear whether it crashed somewhere or burned out in the sky.

The police said they had received no reports of damage.

{ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

Do YOU live in an alien hotspot? Interactive UFO sighting map of America revealed

• The map uses data from Kaggle UFO Sightings to compile reports dating back to 1995 all around the US
• It shows that areas such as the New York metropolitan area have a high conentration of sightings
• It also shows UFO sightings tend to occur in the summer months, with nighttime in July being popular 

By Cheyenne Macdonald For Dailymail.com

‘A stable bright light, larger than anything practical shined into my room on the second floor, not making any noise; it disappeared.’

It’s one of nearly 60,000 unsettling stories revealed in a new map of the contiguous United States, compiling UFO sightings from every state, dating back to 1995.

While these mysterious encounters may largely have slipped out of the public eye after the Cold War-era UFO craze died down, the map shows reports have steadily grown in the last two decades, hitting a mid-summer peak each year.

Scroll down to try the interactive map

The map shows these reports are concentrated in major cities and dense population hubs, making places like New York and the surrounding metropolitan area hotspots for UFO sightings, along with southern and central California. The Great Lakes region also had a high concentration of UFO sightings

The new map of reported UFO sightings in the US was created by Data Solutions Engineer Adam Crahen of the Data Duo, using data from Kaggle UFO sightings.

There's little doubt that the internet has played a role in the growth of UFO reports in recent years, though most can be explained by natural or human-caused phenomena.

The image of UFOs in America is often associated with sparsely populated rural settings; a mysterious object hovering over a field of crops, or crashing in a remote expanse of desert land, likely fueled by the famous 1947 Roswell crash in New Mexico.

But, the map shows these reports are actually concentrated in major cities and dense population hubs, making places such as New York and the surrounding metropolitan area hotspots for UFO sightings, along with southern and central California.

The map was created by Data Solutions Engineer Adam Crahen of the Data Duo , using data from Kaggle UFO sightings. Click each green circle to see the details of the report, including a description of the sighting and the shape of the UFO

One account, from Fresno, claims: ‘Brilliant flashing light giving off a star affect traveling at an incredible rate of speed, from north to south.’ 

Another report, from September 2, 1995, says: ‘Two males leaving a concert in Central Park witness strange moving light close to E. horizon. Moved very precisely, turned, vanished.’

The Great Lakes region also had a high concentration of UFO sightings.

In one report from Ohio, a worker even claimed he could not account for half an hour of his night after a bizarre encounter.

The map also organizes the sightings by month, year, and day, showing when the reports were most frequent.

Most sightings appear to occur in the summer months, with night-time in July being the most popular.

But, these unusual reports have occurred all over the country, and at all different times of the year.

The image of UFOs in America is often associated with sparsely populated rural settings. But the map shows they often occur in major cities.

Stock image 

‘I saw a large fireball pass over my house at about 1000 feet – no noise, traveling about 15 mph’,’ one person, from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, claimed on December 25.

Another, from Tillamook Oregon, said they saw ‘One mother ship with four smaller destinct [sic] satellite objects moving randomly,’ on January 18, 2009.

There are countless practical explanations for strange lights appearing in the sky or even in photos captured in space.

Weather is often to blame, or phenomena such as meteor showers and aircraft tests.

And, often, it’s just a trick of the light.

Of bizarre UFO sightings spotted around the International Space Station, for example, a NASA spokesperson explained in the past, 'Reflections from station windows, the spacecraft structure itself or lights from Earth commonly appear as artifacts in photos and videos from the orbiting laboratory.' 

{ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

‘It’s no aircraft’: UFO over western Germany baffles Twitter (VIDEO)

© Dado Ruvic / Reuters

View image on Twitter

IMO Meteor Org. @IMOmeteors

Huge fireball over Western Germany observed tonight (Nov 14, ~16h50 UT) from Germany, Eastern France, Italy and Switzerland. More than 200 reports received in 3 hours! If you observed, recorded, or photographed it, please report! Thanks in advance!http://fireballs.imo.net/members/imo_view/event/2017/4299?org=imo …

9:45 PM - Nov 14, 2017

•  33 Replies
•  104104 Retweets
•  7474 likes

Twitter Ads info and privacy

The International Meteor Organization (IMO) received around 1,450 reports of sightings of the unidentified flying object from the public, with the most vivid coming over the German provinces of Bayern and Baden-Württemberg and the French region of Grand Est. Those who spotted the fireball from the ground posted pictures to social media using the hashtag #Sternschnuppe, meaning “shooting star.”

An analysis of the object by former IMO president Dr Jürgen Rendtel of the Leibniz-Institute for Astrophysics in Potsdam linked the event to the forthcoming Taurid Meteor Shower, which occurs every three years. The shower brings remnants of the comets Concke and 2004 TG10 into the Earth’s atmosphere, where they can burn up in bright streaks.

A spokesman for German air traffic control told Stuttgarter-Zeitung: “We can only say that it was not an aircraft.”

READ MORE: Fly by night: Fireball streaks across Phoenix sky (VIDEO)

Other fireballs have been spotted over Bordeaux in France and the US state of Arizona but they have been ruled as unrelated to the Taurid event due to their steep trajectory. Video of the Arizona event has, too, been posted online.

{ https://www.rt.com/news/ }

Dramatic 'fireball' in the sky prompts anxious Germans to call POLICE during mysterious UFO alert

A crashing Chinese space station, a meteor or an alien spacecraft were among the possibilities put forward

By Dave Burke

A dramatic 'fireball' seen speeding through the sky above Germany has sparked alarm.

The UFO was seen by worried citizens as far away as Italy and Switzerland, prompting German police to speculate that it was a 'celestial body'.

Mysterious video shows the bright object speeding above the town of Hoechen, sparking questions about what it shows.

It seems to get brighter and gives out blue and green light before fading into the distance.

A police spokesman told Stuttgarter-Zeitung that the force received a number of calls about the fireball, but said: "We could not tell you what the bright light was."

READ MORE

• NASA finally launches rocket to supply the International Space Station after plane got in the way

And German air traffic control spokesman Christian Hoppe told the newspaper: "We can only say that it was not an aircraft."

Anxious witnesses took to Twitter to share their theories on what they had seen.

A crashing Chinese space station, a meteor or an alien spacecraft were among the possibilities put forward.

Most sightings of the UFO came from the German states of Saarland, Baden-Wuerttemberg and the southern part of Hesse, although it was also spotted in Switzerland  and even the other side of the Alps at Italy's Lake Garda.

The latest sighting comes at the height of the Leonid meteor shower, which peaks in mid-November.

The Leonids get their name from the location in the constellation of Leo from which they seem to appear.

If the object was indeed a meteor, it is not known if it crashed somewhere or burned out completely in the sky.

Police say there were no reports of any damage from a meteorite impact.

{ http://www.mirror.co.uk/ }

Qu’est ce que le TR3B ?

New documentary takes look at Mothman legend

By DAVE LAVENDER

{ http://www.herald-dispatch.com/news/ }

Fireball streaks across Phoenix sky

Blaine McCormick and Anne Ryman, The Republic | azcentral.com

FIREBALL LIGHTS UP PHOENIX SKY ON NOV. 14Fireball streaks across Phoenix skyline | 0:28

Video from Phoenix City Hall shows a bright light flashing across the Phoenix skyline. Video credit: City of Phoenix

Did you catch that bright light that streaked across the night sky Tuesday over the Phoenix area?

The city of Phoenix captured the illumination on one of its observation cameras and posted it to Twitter.

In the video, a large, glowing bulb appears in the top-right frame then fades out in three seconds. A smaller light can also be seen in the lower portion of the frame, off in the horizon. 

It happened around 8:30 p.m.

The American Meteor Society received 120 fireball reports from Arizona, California, New Mexico, Nevada and Utah on Nov. 14.

What people saw was almost certainly a meteor, said Laurence Garvie, curator of Arizona State University's Center for Meteorite Studies.

Specifically, the meteor was a "bolide" — a type of fireball that explodes in a bright terminal flash, according to the American Meteor Society.

"I’m going to guess about 5 feet across. It broke up quite quickly," Garvie said. 

It's unclear yet whether the meteor left debris on the ground, he said. 

Garvie said the meteor isn't related to the Leonids meteor shower, an annual event that peaks this year on Friday night.

"It's just coincidental," he said, adding that meteors spotted during showers are tiny by comparison, the size of a grain of sand. 

A moonless sky on Friday should make for good viewing of the meteor shower this year. But it's not an especially plentiful meteor shower. NASA predicts no more than 10 meteors an hour, and some of these will be faint, so you won't be able to see them all. 

Some viewing tips from astronomers at Arizona State and the University of Arizona:

• Meteors occur throughout the sky, so you don't need to focus your eyes on one specific area. 
• Shower activity is the greatest after midnight.
• Get away from city lights, if you can. If you can't leave the city, find the darkest spot in your yard away from the glare of street and house lights.  
• You don't need binoculars or a telescope. Using these devices can actually reduce the number of meteors you see because they focus on only part of the sky.  
• Be patient. Plan to spend at least an hour outside if you want to spot meteors. 

Did you spot the fireball last night? Send us your video to: anne.ryman@arizonarepublic.com.

Check back with azcentral.com for updates.

READ MORE:

• Beautiful photos of Arizona night skies
• Photo of Earth, moon from UA's OSIRIS-REx took months to plan

{ https://www.azcentral.com/local/ }

Top 25 cities for UFO sightings: Is your city on the list? [VIDEO]

By Samhati Bhattacharjya

In recent times, a number of UFO sightings have really created frenzy among people as they are still looking out for those interesting objects every day. Day by day, people are becoming more curious to know about these mysterious objects that can actually lead to a new box of life and they are interested to know about the top UFO hot spots in the world.

According to "UFO Sightings Desk Reference: United States of America 2001-2015," written by Cheryl and Linda Miller Costa, there is a list of cities which are known for its UFO phenomena in the United States. Published in March 2017, the book compiles "data and analysis for 100,000+ sightings of unidentified flying objects reported by individuals during the first 15 years of the 21st century."

So, as the UFO fever becomes contagious, IBTimes Singapore brings you the list of top 25 cities that will probably give you a chance to witness one of those mysterious objects soon and if you live in any of these cities, it might be closer than you think.

Here is the complete list of 25 most sightings across US cities.

1. Phoenix (929 sightings)
2. Las Vegas (639 sightings)
3. Seattle (616 sightings)
4. Chicago (562 sightings)
5. Portland (528 sightings)
6. Los Angeles (525 sightings)
7. Tucson (480 sightings)
8. San Diego (477 sightings)
9. Houston (466 sightings)
10. Denver (429 sightings)
11. Austin (426 sightings)
12. New York City [Manhattan] (418 sightings)
13. Orlando (390 sightings)
14. Springfield (380 sightings)
15. Albuquerque (376 sightings)
16. Miami (375 sightings)
17. Philadelphia (338 sightings)
18. San Antonio (334 sightings)
19. Columbus (327 sightings)
20. Jacksonville (326 sightings)
21. Sacramento (316 sightings)
22. San Francisco (310 sightings)
23. San Jose (308 sightings)
24. Myrtle Beach (305 sightings)
25. Dallas and Kansas City (294 sightings each)

{ http://www.ibtimes.sg/ }

Photo of UFO over Columbia sets social media abuzz

s / Robert Neil Moore Photos taken Robert Neil Moore show an object flying above his home in Big Hill off Quail Mine Road between about 4:55 p.m. and 5 p.m. on Saturday. The photos have caused a stir on social media because the object doesn't look like a plane. (Courtesy photo) 6885158

View larger image

{ http://www.uniondemocrat.com/localnews/ }

Making a Moon Base With 'Artemis' Author Andy Weir

A map of the moon base Artemis from Andy Weir's new novel of the same name shows the five main domes, each with their own purpose: "Armstrong is industry, Aldrin is the tourist center with casinos and hotels and stuff, Conrad is where the blue-collar folks live, the low-income people. Bean is sort of like suburban life; it's middle-income folks. And then Shepard is where the really rich people live," Weir said at a New York Comic Con event.

Credit: Crown Publishers

In Andy Weir's "Artemis" (Crown, 2017), the lead character is drawn into a crime caper on a lunar city. Weir is known for "The Martian" (Crown, 2014) which described in realistic detail how someone would survive being stranded on Mars. In "Artemis," Weir brings a similar realism to the moon as the ultimate tourist destination.

"Artemis" was released today (Nov. 14) as a novel and audiobook featuring Rosario Dawson.

Space.com talked with Weir about the world of "Artemis"; creating its lead character, Jazz; and how "the moon is basically made of moon bases, with some assembly required." [How Moon Bases and Lunar Colonies Work (Infographic)]

"Artemis" (Crown, 2017) by Andy Weir.

Credit: Crown Publishers

Space.com: Can you talk about how the idea for "Artemis" first developed?

Andy Weir: I wanted to design a city on the moon. I wanted to come up with a city on the moon and a reason for there to be a city on the moon. I came up with the city and how it was built and what its economic foundation was and everything long before I came up with the story or characters to take place in it. I guess that's kind of — world-building and making settings is fun. The actual writing part is no fun. That's kind of where the original idea came from.

Space.com: What kinds of stories did you try to set in that city before you finally settled on one?

Weir: I went through a few revisions. "Artemis," as it is right now, was kind of my third attempt at a story, and that's the one that stuck. The first two revisions just weren't very good. I may steal elements of them someday, so I'm not really telling people what they are. But in the first revision, Jazz — who is the main character in "Artemis" — Jazz was a very minor, tertiary character. I just needed a comedy smuggler type, and so I invented her for that. And I didn't like the plot that had developed, and in the next revision of story, Jazz was much more prominent, but still not the main character, and then I realized, well, the fun part here is Jazz anyway, so why not write a story about her? So that's how I landed on the current plot.

Space.com: What drew you to writing about Jazz in particular?

Weir: In every version and as it went forward, she was the one who got all the funny lines. She's the smart-ass. Shes kind of the lovable rogue archetype. I really like that type of character, and so I had fun writing her.

Space.com: How did you come up with the technology that made a moon base possible?

Weir: The cool thing is, everything in "Artemis" is actually technology that already exists. Really, it was more research than developing technology, although trying to figure out the most efficient way to build a city on the moon was kind of cool. Like, how do you build a city on the moon when you want to absolutely minimize the amount of mass you send to the moon. Well, cities are big, and they weigh a lot, so you're going to want to make the city with materials that are present, not ship it over in its entirety. That's why they would smelt the anorthite [the material the lunar highlands are made of] into aluminum, and that also gives you oxygen.

A smelter lets the denizens of the moon base Artemis smelt raw materials on the moon into aluminum, oxygen, silicon and calcium.

Credit: Crown Publishers

It's really cool, actually — the moon is basically made of moon bases, with some assembly required. In the lunar highlands, which is the part of the moon that is not smooth — if you look at the moon, you see the smooth parts and the bumpy bits. The lunar highlands are the bumpy bits — 85 percent of the rocks just lying around on the ground are anorthite, which is a mineral, and you can smelt that into aluminum, oxygen, silicon and calcium. That gives you aluminum to make your moon city out of and oxygen to fill it. And by the way, if you want glass or windows, it also gives you silicon, and there's a bunch of oxygen still. Silicon and oxygen makes glass, and — yeah. It's really cool. It's like it's just there, just waiting for us. If we could just get there.

And so, the conceit of the story is that the commercial space industry has driven the price of low-Earth orbit down to the point that middle class people can afford to go to space. And Artemis' economy is based on tourism. For me, one thing is when I'm reading a book I get hung up on the economy of fictional environments. I'm like, wait a minute, why does this city exist? Why would people live there? Why wouldn't they go somewhere else? Stuff like that. For a lunar city, the thing I came up with was tourism. If middle class people can afford to go to the moon, even if they had to get a second mortgage to afford it, I think a lot of people would.

Space.com: And you calculated exactly how much it would cost, given those conditions, to transport objects and people to the moon, and therefore developed what the society there would be like.

Andy Weir, author of "Artemis" and "The Martian."

Credit: Crown Publishers

Weir: I came up with this whole economic thing — I actually wrote a paper on it, and we're going to try to get that out there via an outlet later. 

I don't describe any of that in the book; that's what I came up with in advance. What we learned from "The Phantom Menace" — don't start a science fiction story with a description of supply-side economics. But it's important to me that that work out.

Space.com: Would you rather live on the moon or Mars, assuming both of them had equivalent infrastructure?

Weir: I'd rather live on Earth, all things considered. I write about brave people. I'm not one of them. If I had to choose between the moon or Mars, I would choose the moon, even if they had the same infrastructure, if they both had cities and stuff. Just on the grounds that the moon is still safer, because if things go really, really bad, you can leave and go to Earth. On Mars, if things go bad, you're on your own.

To put it in perspective of how much further away Mars is than the moon, imagine you're on a football field, and you're at one goal line and Mars is at the other goal line. The moon would be about 4 inches [10 centimeters] in front of you. [Dazzling 'Museum of the Moon' Exhibit Celebrates 'Artemis' in NYC]

Space.com: How was the experience of writing a different lead character and voice than "The Martian"?

Weir: Well, I still got to use the first person, smart-ass narrative style, so it wasn't that big a change. I guess the real change was — first off, I did my best at writing a female lead, but in the end, I'm not a woman, so I'm sure there's lots of places where she ends up sounding like a guy. I ran it by as many women as I could, in my inner circle, people I can trust with a manuscript before it releases, and got feedback from all the women, and gave it my best shot.

And also, Jazz is a much more nuanced and flawed character than Mark Watney. Mark Watney — you can't help but like him, he's just this guy that's in a terrible situation that's not really his fault, whereas Jazz's problems are mostly self-inflicted. She's made a lot of bad decisions, and makes additional bad decisions during the book. The way I like to say it is, Mark Watney is based on the idealized version of me. He's everything I wish I were. He has the qualities of myself that I like and none of my many flaws, and he doesn't have any of my neuroses. Jazz is a little bit more like the real me. Flawed, has bad decisions in her past, makes mistakes. Smart, but doesn't always apply that correctly. Jazz is actually a lot more like the real me, so it's always kind of sad when I read a review that says, "Oh, I didn't like Jazz much." I'm like, "Awww."

The moon base Artemis is located near its smelter and reactors, 40 km away from the Apollo 11 landing site and tourist visitor center.

Credit: Crown Publishers

Space.com: I also wanted to talk about those crazy "hamster balls" visitors can use to tour the Apollo 11 landing site.

Weir: It'd be fun, wouldn't it?

Space.com: How did you think of those?

Weir: I was trying to think about, how could you have a completely untrained person do an EVA [extravehicular activity, or spacewalk]. And then I came up with the hamster ball idea and said on your backpack is a thing that manages the air inside the ball. And there's a little bit of fictionalization in there in that I'm not sure what that ball is made of, but it can hold in a fifth of an atmosphere, and it's clear, and it's flexible. 

Tourists can explore the Apollo 11 landing site from (sort of) up close in hamster-ball-like spacewalking gear — but they can always just look from inside the visitor center.

Credit: Crown Publishers

But you've got to get into it and seal it somehow. It just seems like that would be an awesome thing, because you have the freedom of movement. Basically, I don't think that an untrained person, like a tourist or something, could handle being in an EVA suit. First off, it's really clunky, and it takes astronauts months and months of training to learn how to move at all in them, and it's like, you can't scratch your face. It's really inconvenient. But here, they'd have the freedom of motion of their own human body, and then they can do whatever they like in the ball. [Evolution of the Spacesuit in Pictures (Space Tech Gallery)]

Space.com: Assuming you were already on the moon, would you go out in one of those?

Weir: Yeah … I guess if I was already there. I'd be like, eh, you know…

Space.com: How does world-building and plot fit together when you're writing something like "Artemis"?

Weir: I started with the world-building and said, "OK, this is the world it takes place in, and I'm not really willing to change the world to save the plot, except for if I can come up with something incredibly awesome. For the most part, I'm just like, well, here's the problem, and here's what they're doing, and here's the setting. Now what?

Ultimately, [the city] Artemis … lends itself to all this interesting stuff, [and that's] actually not because it's on the moon, but because it's so far away from everything else. You could have similar plots just take place on an isolated island in the Pacific or something like that, where basically help is too far away, and there's really no infrastructure in place for strong authorities.

I think that's one of the main reasons Artemis ends up with these avenues of excitement. Human civilization is all about getting rid of those. OK, in order to prevent our entire city from being destroyed, we're going to make fire departments, police departments — so we do. But frontier towns don't have that luxury, so that's where the interesting stuff happens.

This interview was edited for length. You can buy "Artemis" and its audiobookon Amazon.com.

Email Sarah Lewin at slewin@space.com or follow her @SarahExplains. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com. 

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• NASA Probe Sees Apollo 11 Moon Landing Site from Space (Video)
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5 ‘controversial’ ancient Books that could shatter the foundations of history

Throughout the years, archaeologists have come across incredible discoveries. Some of these discoveries are ancient manuscripts which have been found to portray history from a different point of view. A controversial point of view.

Nemours ancient books tell a different side of history. A different side of human origins, and a different side of human capabilities. These ancient texts, usually considered mythological in nature oppose nearly everything set forth by mainstream scholars and modern history.

Some of them are partially accepted, while some of their pages have been dubbed as a myth because they shake the very foundation of what we know about our civilization.

Regrettably, while these books are real and part of history, the history we’ve been taught throughout the years has ignored them entirely.

This is why in this article, I’ll take you on a journey and introduce you to five ancient books that are both controversial and fascinating, and could shake the very understanding of human history.

I find them beyond fascinating.

1. book of Thoth

One of my favorite books is the so-called book of Thoth. It is a sacred book that according to ancient Egyptian beliefs, not only offers unlimited knowledge, but legend says that anyone who reads the contents can contain the means to decipher the secrets and master the earth, the sea, the air and the celestial bodies. Historical records tell us that the book was a collection of ancient Egyptian texts which were written by Thoth—the ancient Egyptian god of writing and Knowledge.

The Book of Thoth appears fragmented in various papyri, the majority pertaining to the second century of the Ptolemaic period.

2. The Kolbrin Bible

The Kolbrin Bible is another fascinating ancient book believed to have been written around 3,600 years ago.

This ancient book is referred to as the first Judaic/Christian document which spells out understanding of human evolution, creationism, and intelligent design. Some scholars argue that this ancient book was penned down at the same time as the Old Testament.

Various authors participated in its creation, and the Kolbrin Bible is composed of two main parts which make up a total of 11 ancient books.

3. The Book of Enoch

The Book of Enoch is another book which many authors have placed into the dubious or controversial category. The Book of Enoch is an ancient Jewish religious manuscript which is traced back to Enoch, the great-grandfather of Noah.

The Book of Enoch is considered by many as one of the most influential non-canonical apocryphal writings.

Furthermore, this book is believed to have significantly influenced Christian beliefs.

4. The Book of Giants

The so-called Book of Giants is believed to have been composed around 2,000 years ago. It was found in the Qumran Caves where researchers came across the Dead Sea Scrolls. Specifically, the Book of Giants speaks about creatures that inhabited our planet in the distant past and how they were destroyed. According to the ancient text, the Giants —The Nephilim—became aware that due to their violent ways, they face an imminent destruction. They asked Enoch to speak on their behalf to God.

5. The Ars Notoria

The Ars Notoria is one of the most controversial and mysterious books ever created.

According to legend, this ancient book is a mixture of mystical, historical and sensational content that promises to teach superhuman abilities to those who follow that which is written. The Ars Notoria belongs to the Lesser Key of Solomon. It is an anonymous grimoire (or spellbook) on demonology. Its one-hundred-forty-four spells were authored in the mid-17th century, mostly from materials centuries older. The Ars Notoria contains a set of prayers and which were written in several languages, including Hebrew, Greek, and Latin.

Featured image credit: Shutterstock

{ https://www.ancient-code.com/ }