First AI with Imagination Could Mean ‘End of Reality As We Know It’

Brett Tingley

It seems like each week there’s some new development in artificial intelligence that causes everyone to freak out and proclaim the end of human superiority. Well, this is another one of those weeks. AI researchers at computing hardware manufacturer Nvidia have designed what is being billed as one of the first artificial intelligence networks with a working imagination. The system can create realistic (if not real) looking videos of fictional events using simple inputs, similar to how the human mind can imagine abstract or fictional scenarios based on a thought. Should we be frightened? How frightened?

Examples of the AI “imagination” showing how the system can change the weather in pre-recorded video clips without being fed clips of the target weather.

So far, not that frightened. The technology is still in its infancy, and has only been used in what researchers call “image-to-image translation,” or altering video clips and photos in small ways such as changing the setting from night to day, changing human subjects’ hair color, or switching a dog to one of another breed. Still, that’s pretty impressive if you think about it. Nvidia’s Ming-Yu Liu says that their system is the first to be able to do so simply by ‘imagining’ the new image or scene, as opposed prior similar systems which faced the problem of having to compile massive sets of data based on prior examples and extrapolating from those data:

We are among the first to tackle the problem, [and] there are many applications. For example, it rarely rains in California, but we’d like our self-driving cars to operate properly when it rains. We can use our method to translate sunny California driving sequences to rainy ones to train our self-driving cars.

The potential applications of this technology have lead some to wonder if similar AI networks might mean the “end of reality as we know it.” Whatever that means. Unless the whole universe spontaneously blinks out of existence, reality’s not going to end anytime soon. But I see what they mean; if completely real-looking video and audio can be generated by these AI networks, and those could be fed into, say, an advanced augmented reality setup or even some of the more Matrix-like brain-computer interfaces being developed, we could soon see the lines between virtual reality and physical reality start to get more difficult to distinguish. Until you take your headset off, that is. But what about if when these experiences can be transmitted directly into your brain’s sensory centers?

The system can take a photo of a dog and change it into another dog. And here I thought reality-killing AI would be much scarier.

While it’s unlikely we’ll see the end of any reality, we might see the creation of fully-fledged alternate realities. Without a doubt, this technology will someday be used to distort or obfuscate the truth here in our own reality. What is reality other than what we make of it, anyway? Recent events have shown us that it’s getting more and more difficult to discern truth from fiction in mass media; what will happen once completely real-looking video can be conjured up from the twisted imaginations of rogue AI systems? Of course, the same fears arose over the invention of moving pictures. Is this just the latest advancement in graphic and animation software, or could something more nefarious be brewing? 

{ http://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

HUGE, MYSTERIOUS OBJECT FLYING PAST EARTH MIGHT BE AN ALIEN SPACECRAFT, SCIENTISTS SAY

The long, thin body is very strange indeed

ANDREW GRIFFIN

A huge object that flew past Earth might be an alien spacecraft, scientists have said.

Scientists had originally thought that the cigar-shaped object was a very strange passing asteroid. But a number of things have led scientists engaged in the search for alien life to wonder whether it might actually be an "artifact" from an alien civilisation.

Researchers involved in the Seti – Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence – project are now preparing to point a powerful telescope at the bizarre object and find where it came from.

The mysterious object, which has been named Oumuamua, is our first visitor from another part of the galaxy to make it into our solar system. It flew past in October when it was spotted by astronomers from the University of Hawaii.

Scientists initially presumed that it was an asteroid. But a number of strange characteristics have led them to wonder whether it might have been intentionally formed.

• READ MORE

Nasa to hold major announcement after planet-hunting breakthrough

It is long and cigar-shaped, for instance. While it is hundreds of metres long, it's only one tenth as wide – and it is very unusual for asteroids to come in such non-round forms.

Some researchers have suggested this long needle shape would be useful for a long-distance spacecraft, since it would minimise the chance of being hit by interstellar gas and dust as it travelled through the universe.

The body is travelling quickly through the universe, at up to 196,000mph, and looks as if it will not get wrapped up in our sun's gravity but fly right through and out of the solar system.

A statement from the 100 million dollar (£75 million) Seti project Breakthrough Listen, launched by Russian digital tech mogul Yuri Milner in 2015, said: "Researchers working on long-distance space transportation have previously suggested that a cigar or needle shape is the most likely architecture for an interstellar spacecraft, since this would minimise friction and damage from interstellar gas and dust.

"While a natural origin is more likely, there is currently no consensus on what that origin might have been, and Breakthrough Listen is well positioned to explore the possibility that Oumuamua could be an artifact."

The Breakthrough Listen team is using the Green Bank radio telescope in West Virginia, US, to study Oumuamua, which is named after the Hawaian term for "scout" or "messenger".

From 8pm UK time on December 12, the giant dish - the largest fully steerable radio telescope in the world - will "listen" to the object across four radio frequency bands spanning one to 12 gigahertz.

Lead scientist Dr Andrew Siemion, director of the Berkeley Seti Research Centre in California, said: "Oumuamua's presence within our solar system affords Breakthrough Listen an opportunity to reach unprecedented sensitivities to possible artificial transmitters and demonstrate our ability to track nearby, fast-moving objects.

"Whether this object turns out to be artificial or natural, it's a great target for Listen."

The object is currently about two astronomical units (AU) from Earth, or twice the distance between the Earth and sun.

At this distance it would take less than a minute for the Green Bank telescope to detect an omnidirectional transmitter with the power of a mobile phone.

Even if no evidence of extraterrestrial technology is found, the search could provide important information about gases surrounding Oumuamua or the presence or absence of water, say the researchers.

Breakthrough Listen aims to survey a million nearby stars and 100 nearby galaxies looking for alien signals.

Since the 1960s there have been more than 98 Seti projects around the world, none of which have turned up any convincing evidence of extraterrestrial civilisations.

Additional reporting by agencies

More about: 

• Oumuamua

{  http://www.independent.co.uk/ }

Living on thin air: microbe mystery solved

DEBORAH SMITH

A discovery that microbes in Antarctica can scavenge hydrogen, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide from the air to stay alive in such extreme conditions has implications for the search for life on other planets.

Robinson Ridge, one of the two sites in Antarctica where microbes were collected.

UNSW-Sydney led scientists have discovered that microbes in Antarctica have a previously unknown ability to scavenge hydrogen, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide from the air to stay alive in the extreme conditions.

The find has implications for the search for life on other planets, suggesting extra-terrestrial microbes could also rely on trace atmospheric gases for survival.

“Antarctica is one of the most extreme environments on Earth. Yet the cold, dark and dry desert regions are home to a surprisingly rich diversity of microbial communities,” says study senior author and UNSW scientist Associate Professor Belinda Ferrari.

“The big question has been how the microbes can survive when there is little water, the soils are very low in organic carbon and there is very little capacity to produce energy from the sun via photosynthesis during the winter darkness.

“We found that the Antarctic microbes have evolved mechanisms to live on air instead, and they can get most of the energy and carbon they need by scavenging trace atmospheric gases, including hydrogen and carbon monoxide,” she says.

The Australasian-based study, by researchers at UNSW, Monash University, the Australian Centre for Ecogenomics at the University of Queensland, GNS Science in New Zealand, and the Australian Antarctic Division, is published in the journal Nature.

Soil samples were collected from two coastal ice-free sites in different regions of eastern Antarctica. One was Robinson Ridge, 10 kilometres from Casey Station, in Wilkes Land. The other was Adams Flat, 242 kilometres from Davis Station in Princes Elizabeth Land.

Adams Flat, one of two sites in Antarctica where microbes were collected.

Photo: Phil O'Brien

“Both areas are pristine polar deserts devoid of any vascular plants,” says Associate Professor Ferrari, of the UNSW School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences.

The researchers studied the microbial DNA in the surface soil from both sites and reconstructed the genomes of 23 of the microbes that lived there, including some of the first genomes of two groups of previously unknown bacteria called WPS-2 and AD3.

They found the dominant species in the soils had genes which gave them a high affinity for hydrogen and carbon monoxide, allowing them to remove the trace gases from the air at a high enough rate to sustain their predicted energy needs and support primary production.

“This new understanding about how life can still exist in physically extreme and nutrient-starved environments like Antarctica opens up the possibility of atmospheric gases supporting life on other planets,” says Associate Professor Ferrari.

Most organisms use energy from the sun or the earth to grow. More research is needed to see if this novel use of atmospheric gases as an alternative energy source is more widespread in Antarctica and elsewhere, the scientists say.

{ https://unsw.edu.au/ }

ZO ZAL DE MENSHEID DE BUITENAARDSEN  BEGROETEN

Wanneer de machthebbers op aarde de keuze hebben tussen het vriendschappelijk benaderen van ons bezoekende buitenaardsen of het ontketenen van een oorlog, zullen ze altijd voor het laatste kiezen. 

Wat dat betreft is er helemaal niets veranderd sinds de tijd van het Wilde Westen, waar men eerst schoot en pas later vragen stelde. 

Er zijn inmiddels talloze films en boeken verschenen over buitenaardse invasies en het is een onderwerp dat de meeste mensen ook niet onbekend zal voor komen. Daarnaast is er natuurlijk de elite en hun plannen om de mensheid te dwingen tot de New World Order door het kunstmatig creëren van een dergelijke invasie, waardoor de mensheid een gemeenschappelijke vijand heeft. Dit is het beruchte Project Blue Beam.

Naast dat alles zijn er ook nog de echte buitenaardsen en ondanks dat ze hier altijd al hebben rondgelopen, doen we net alsof ze niet bestaan.

Maar, hoe zouden de mensen op deze aarde werkelijk reageren als er een vloot buitenaardse schepen zou worden waargenomen die linea recta richting aarde koersen? Zouden wij ze met open armen ontvangen of bombarderen met kernwapens?

Als we de Engelse voormalige leger UFO specialist Nick Pope mogen geloven, het laatste.

Zo vertelt Nick Pope in een recent interview dat een invasie van buitenaardsen helemaal niet denkbeeldig is en dat wij er goed aan zouden doen om ons daaop voor te bereiden. Dat niet alleen, maar dat we er ook maar beter van uit kunnen gaan dat ze kwade bedoelingen hebben.

Gebaseerd op zijn ervaringen in het Engelse leger en de manier waarop men daar denkt, heeft hij een scenario gemaakt van wat hij denkt dat er zou gebeuren als er een vloot buitenaardse ruimteschepen waargenomen zou worden.

Zo denkt Nick dat buitenaardsen hier zouden komen om ons tot slaaf te maken of misschien dat ze ons beschouwen als een soort ongedierte of als interessante objecten in een dierentuin. Dat is de reden dat hij van mening is dat wij ons als aarde moeten voorbereiden op het ergste scenario en dat ze hier dus niet komen voor een vriendelijk bezoek.

Wat daarnaast een belangrijke rol zal spelen, is dat ze technologisch waarschijnlijk veel verder gevorderd zullen zijn dan wij, wat het nog een stuk lastiger, zo niet onmogelijk, maakt om een dergelijke vijand te bestrijden.

Hieronder is een nagemaakt officieel document, met daarop alle stappen die in dit geval de Engelse overheid zou ondernemen volgens Nick Pope.

Nick Pope ziet geen positief scenario wanneer buitenaardsen ons zouden bezoeken en gaat bij voorbaat uit van kwade bedoelingen. De vraag is natuurlijk als die buitenaardsen werkelijk kwaadgezind zouden zijn en beschikken over vergevorderde technologie, wat de aarde dan in 's hemelsnaam tegen een dergelijke vloot zou kunnen uitrichten?

Het is alsof een wilde uit het oerwoud met pijl en boog een Apache gevechtshelikopter tegemoet treedt. 

Een andere mogelijkheid is natuurlijk dat Nick Pope nooit werkelijk het leger heeft verlaten, maar de opdracht heeft gekregen om de bevolking voor te bereiden op een nep buitenaardse invasie die uiteraard kwaadgezind moet zijn omdat we een vijand nodig hebben.

De werkelijkheid is dat wij mensen niet eens merken dat er buitenaardsen of half buitenaardsen in ons midden lopen. De werkelijkheid is dat wanneer buitenaardsen echt kwaad in de zin zouden hebben gehad wij dit allang gemerkt zouden hebben.

De enigen die gegarandeerd kwaad in de zin hebben, zijn de "menselijke" machthebbers op deze wereld.

{ http://www.niburu.co/ }

HEBBEN WIJ PER ONGELUK DE BINNENKANT VAN DE AARDE KAPOT GRMAAKT...

Zoals zo vaak staan wetenschappers voor raadsels wanneer er dingen gebeuren die niet in de handboeken staan. 

Men heeft geen flauw idee waardoor het vreemde gebrom dat diep vanuit de aarde lijkt te komen, wordt veroorzaakt, maar is er misschien een reden waar niemand aan heeft gedacht?

In recente nieuwsberichten werd melding gemaakt van het feit dat wetenschappers voor een raadsel staan aangaande een vreemd gebrom dat diep vanuit de aarde lijkt te komen. 

Het gebrom is niet nieuw, want ze zijn al sinds 1959 hiermee bezig en nu zijn ze er eindelijk in geslaagd om het geluid vast te leggen met behulp van seismische instrumenten op de bodem van de zee. Wij mensen kunnen dit geluid niet horen omdat de frequentie te laag is.

Ondanks dat men geprobeerd heeft een logische verklaring voor die geluiden te vinden, is er tot nu toe niet één die het kan verklaren. Het wordt niet veroorzaakt door atmosferische storingen of door golven, maar door wat dan wel?

Kenmerkend is dat het over de gehele wereld voor komt, het niet aan een bepaalde locatie gebonden is en het permanent/constant aanwezig is.

Stel dat dit geluid wordt veroorzaakt door iets wat wij als mens hebben gedaan en waar waarschijnlijk nog nooit iemand over heeft nagedacht? Grote problemen zijn wel vaker opgelost door een totaal andere invalshoek of denkwijze dan gebruikelijk.

In eerste instantie wordt iemand vaak voor knettergek verklaard, zoals ons ook nogal eens overkomt, en later blijkt het dan toch te kloppen. Een beetje in diezelfde trant zijn de gedachten welke door een lezer aan ons werden gestuurd (dank!), met een bijzonder suggestie.

Op het eerste gezicht denk je misschien: dat bestaat niet, maar het is wel een verklaring en dat is meer dan waar wetenschappers tot nu toe mee komen. Volgens deze lezer zit het antwoord misschien wel in petroleum.

Waarbij we petroleum dan moeten lezen in de grotere definitie van het woord:

In de bredere zin is petroleum een synoniem voor ruwe olie of aardolie.

Het volgende is wat de lezer schrijft:

Zoals jullie ondertussen wel weten, denk ik teveel na.

Petroleum komt zogezegd van planten en dieren die miljoenen jaren geleden gestorven zijn. Als dat zo is, waarom word er nu door de natuur/aarde geen petroleum gemaakt van dode planten en dieren die gestorven zijn?

Wat ik me dan ook afvraag, als al die planten en dieren na al die miljoenen jaren, kilometers onder de grond zitten als petroleum, hoe kan het dan, dat er zoveel dino skeletten en plantenfossielen aan de oppervlakte gevonden worden? Zouden die ook niet kilometers diep moeten zitten?

Wetenschappers breken er momenteel hun hoofd over, waar het geluid vandaan komt dat ze opvangen uit de aarde.

Ik heb jullie dit al eens gezegd, wat als petroleum dient om de binnenmantel soepel te doen draaien, rond de buitenmantel, of omgekeerd?

Dus dan zou het geluid dat wetenschappers nu horen, het resultaat kunnen zijn van het wegpompen van een beschermlaag,zoals olie uit een motor verwijderen. Of de lucht uit je banden laten lopen, op je velgen rondrijden klinkt ook niet echt goed.

Vergezocht en onmogelijk? Misschien, maar toch zeker de moeite waard om eens over dit soort dingen na te denken. Want wij hebben werkelijk geen flauw benul wat voor schade wij ondergronds aanrichten door het permanent wegpompen van olie. En ook weten we niet hoe de aarde eruit ziet, hoe deze is gemaakt, hoe deze ronddraait/of deze ronddraait. Wij denken dat te weten omdat ons dat op school wordt geleerd en omdat "experts" ons dat vertellen, maar werkelijk en hard bewijs daarvoor is echt moeilijk te vinden.

Tot dusver klinkt de verklaring van de lezer een stuk beter dan wat vaag gewauwel over atmosferische storingen. Nadenken kunnen ze wel onze lezers en dat is iets om trots op te zijn.

{ http://www.niburu.co/ }

Bacteria discovery in Antarctica prompts rethink of humanity’s search for alien life

PLANETS that were once not even considered candidates to host alien life might be reanalysed to find habitable regions after the discovery of unique bacteria.

Nick Whigham@NWWHIGHAM

Using maths to find alien life

BACTERIA discovered in the icy continent of Antarctica is set to change the way humanity looks for alien life on other planets.

To date, our search for habitable worlds which could host alien life has been guided by what we know about life-conducive conditions on Earth. But in a new breakthrough, researchers have discovered a bacterium in Antarctica that can survive solely off chemicals in the air.

The microscopic organisms can survive just of hydrogen, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide — opening up new possibilities about the existence of extraterrestrial life forms living in harsh conditions.

Antarctica is among the most extreme environments on our planet and it was previously thought the stresses of freezing temperatures, limited carbon, nitrogen and water availability along with strong UV radiation restricted life.

But new research reported in the journal Nature has shown the desert soils of Antarctica harbour surprisingly rich microbial communities.

“Here we provide evidence that atmospheric trace gases are the primary energy sources of two Antarctic surface soil communities,” researchers wrote.

“We propose that atmospheric H2, CO2 and CO provide dependable sources of energy and carbon to support these communities, which suggests that atmospheric energy sources can provide an alternative basis for ecosystem function to solar or geological energy sources.”

Essentially, the bacteria can survive with little sunlight, no geothermal energy and extremely limited nutrients.

The discovery was the result of DNA sequencing and analysis of soil samples collected from the icy continent.

“Although more extensive sampling is required to verify whether this process is widespread in terrestrial Antarctica and other oligotrophic habitats, our results provide new understanding of the minimal nutritional requirements for life and open the possibility that atmospheric gases support life on other planets,” researchers said.

Astronomers have historically sought out the potential presence of water when looking for planets which could support life but the bacteria findings show it’s not the only indicator  }for life.

Exoplanets that were once not even considered to be candidates to hold life might be reanalysed to find habitable regions, said lead researcher Dr Belinda Ferrari.

“This new understanding about how life can still exist in physically extreme and nutrient-starved environments like Antarctica opens up the possibility of atmospheric gases supporting life on other planets,” she said.

{ http://www.news.com.au/ }

Has an alien probe entered our solar system? Mystery object to be scanned for alien tech

Is it possible that we’ve missed welcoming an alien visitor into our solar system?

According to experts, it’s possible that an alien probe from a distant solar system may have entered our solar system, disguised as a ‘comet’.

The mystery comet dubbed as Oumuamua is currently being investigated by astronomers for signs of extraterrestrial technology, as there are doubts among experts that the cigar-shaped comet isn’t just a comet.

Now, alien-hunting scientists led by Russian billionaire Yuri Milner are set to scan the enigmatic object before it sails beyond Earth’s telescopes. They are looking for signs of advanced, or alien, technology.

Oumuamua is the first interstellar object to have entered our solar system.

An artist’s rendering of the asteroid.

Photo credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser

Alien-hunting scientists say they are looking for ‘radio singles’ claiming that the mystery visitor from another solar system could, in fact, be an alien probe, exploring the cosmos.

Yuri Milner is the tycoon behind the project Breakthrough Listen—a $100 million (£75m) search for intelligent extraterrestrial life.

According to reports from the Atlantic, Mr. Milner received last week an email from one of his chief scientists, where he mentioned the enigmatic object sailing through our solar system.

“The more I study this object, the more unusual it appears, making me wonder whether it might be an artificially made probe which was sent by an alien civilization,” Professor Avi Loeb, the chair of Harvard’s astronomy department and one of Milner’s advisers on Breakthrough Listen, wrote in the email.

According to Professor Loeb, the mysterious elongated shape of the comet is odd for a space rock but perfect for a space probe traveling between solar systems.

Now, the Breakthrough Listen project has announced it will scan ‘Oumuamua this week for signs of radio signals.

‘Researchers working on long-distance space transportation have previously suggested that a cigar or needle shape is the most likely architecture for an interstellar spacecraft since this would minimize friction and damage from interstellar gas and dust,’ the research firm said in a statement.

‘While a natural origin is more likely, there is currently no consensus on what that origin might have been, and Breakthrough Listen is well positioned to explore the possibility that ‘Oumuamua could be an artifact.’

To search Oumuamua for alien technology, scientists will use the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia.

Despite the fact that the enigmatic object is now located at twice the distance between our planet and the Sun, the Green Bank Telescope can pick up the slightest signal, if of course there is anything to pick up.

Researchers from the Breakthrough Listen project want to gather as much info as they can about the object before it leaves our solar system. In 2018, the mystery object will fly past Jupiter and will arrive at Pluto by the 2020s.

“‘Oumuamua’s presence within our solar system affords Breakthrough Listen an opportunity to reach unprecedented sensitivities to possible artificial transmitters and demonstrate our ability to track nearby, fast-moving objects,” said Listen’s Andrew Siemion, Director of Berkeley SETI Research Center. “Whether this object turns out to be artificial or natural, it’s a great target for Listen.”

Experts at Breakthrough Listen have also made it clear that even if no signal or other evidence of extraterrestrial technology is heard, Listen observations will cover portions of the radio spectrum in which the object has not yet been observed, and could provide important information about the possibility of water/ice, or the chemistry of a coma (gaseous envelope), neither of which have yet been identified.

Source: BREAKTHROUGH LISTEN TO OBSERVE INTERSTELLAR OBJECT OUMUAMUA

{ https://www.ancient-code.com/ }

Earlier this year, our solar system got a visitor the likes of which it has never seen. Astronomers first spotted the object on October 18th using the PanSTARRS 1 telescope in Maui. At first, the visitor appeared to be a the first known comet to originate from outside our solar system, but further observations revealed it to be much stranger. Nevertheless, it was clear that the speeding visitor came from interstellar space, so the object was given the name ‘Oumuamua from the Hawaiian meaning “a messenger from afar arriving first.” Further analysis by the European Southern Observatory found the object to be perhaps not quite a comet, not quite an asteroid, and cigar-shaped. Based on the light bouncing off of it (or lack thereof), astronomers estimate the object to be among the darkest objects ever observed in space, absorbing 96% of the light that touches its surface.

Telescopic imagery of ‘Oumuamua (dot in center) passing through our solar system.

Given the strange nature of the object, it wasn’t long before speculation ran wild that we might have just encountered our first extraterrestrial spacecraft. Avi Loeb, the chair of Harvard’s astronomy department, writes “the more I study this object, the more unusual it appears, making me wonder whether it might be an artificially made probe which was sent by an alien civilization.” In particular, scientists are struck by the long cylindrical shape of the object; ‘Oumuamua is estimated to be between 100 and 400 meters long with much smaller diameter. Such cylinder shapes are perfect for aerospace applications – just look at our own space shuttles and rockets – but are seldom seen in naturally occurring space objects like comets or asteroids which tend to be more spheroid.

But who knows how many types of weird asteroids we’ve yet to discover? There’s no telling what ‘Oumuamua could be.

With so much weirdness surrounding ‘Oumuamua, the Breakthrough Listen initiative has decided the object could be its best bet for discovering proof of an alien intelligence. Breakthrough Listen hails itself as “the largest ever scientific research program aimed at finding evidence of civilizations beyond Earth” and shares facilities and researchers with SETI. In a press release issued this morning, Breakthrough Listen announced that even if the possibility of ‘Oumuamua being an alien ‘artifact’ is low, it’s worth checking out:

Researchers working on long-distance space transportation have previously suggested that a cigar or needle shape is the most likely architecture for an interstellar spacecraft, since this would minimize friction and damage from interstellar gas and dust. While a natural origin is more likely, there is currently no consensus on what that origin might have been, and Breakthrough Listen is well positioned to explore the possibility that ‘Oumuamua could be an artifact.

Even if the chances that ‘Oumuamua could be an alien craft are tiny, any possibility greater than 0% is exciting. Could this be it? Are we finally be close to getting a glimpse of a civilization far more advanced than our own? I sure hope so. If this festering dung heap of a civilization is the best the Universe has got, maybe it’s best that we’re all alone out here. Breakthrough Listen’s observations of ‘Oumuamua begin tomorrow at the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia. Fingers crossed.

{ http://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

'Prepare for invasion' Ex-MoD UFO chief drafts WAR PLAN for future ALIEN assault

A FORMER investigator for the Ministry of Defence has drafted a war plan reflecting how he believes the UK and US should respond to being attacked by aliens.

C-17 Globemaster IIIs.

(skeeze/Pixabay)

Flashing lights seen across the country this weekend prompted people to send videos and messages to local media asking if there were UFOs in the sky may be explained.

Joint Base Charleston told Charleston-based WLTX  that those lights were a group of C-17 cargo jets that were flying in formation from Charleston to Nevada on Saturday and Sunday.

A spokesman for the base told WLTX that a group of 17 jets from the 437th Airlift Wing took off from their base around 7 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 9, and were joined on the way by other air military installations and groups, including the 82nd Airborne.

In all, there were more than 40 C-17s from 10 bases and more than 20 C-130s from three bases that partook in a training exercise involving HALO drops, or high-altitude military parachuting.

The exercise was a final training exercise for the U.S. Air Force Weapons School located at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, a representative said, to allow mobility Air Force students to apply what they’ve learned over the last five months.

Witnesses called and wrote into Denver TV station KUSA to say they saw a string of slow-moving lights that appeared to be flying at a low altitude.

They asked if they were UFOs, or—one of the more creative explanations— if they were Santa’s scout elves on their way back to the North Pole.“Much more creative solutions for what the answer turned out to be,” KUSA reporter Jacob Rodriguez wrote.

A video of the lights, uploaded to YouTube by Denver’s South Metro fire’s representative, has since been removed. The video was taken from his home in Littleton, Colorado, KUSA reported.

From NTD.tv

{ https://www.theepochtimes.com/ }

Relativity's Video of a 3D-Printed Rocket Engine Feels Like the Future

"Time to freak out, people," says the project's financial backer.

By Eileen Guo

Rocket engine start-up Relativity Space shared a video of its 3D-printed rocket engine this week that’s stunning, for what it represents for the future of manufacturing and space travel.

The engine, named the Aeon 1, goes from ignition to full thrust in milliseconds. The entire video (embedded below) only last 10 seconds. While Elon Musk is working on the BFR, Relativity’s 3D printed engine is still a BFD for the future of space.

Relativity claims that the Aeon 1 engine takes far less time to create than a traditional rocket because it’s 3D printed — around one month instead of six for production, according to this chart that they shared — and has far less individual parts per engine. “Our process reduces the number of component interfaces, making full robotic automation of engine production possible,” the company says.

Relativity was founded in December 2015 by Tim Ellis and Jordan Noone, aerospace engineers and veterans of space companies Blue Origin and SpaceX, respectively. It first graduated from startup accelerator Y Combinator, before raising eight figures of funding – more than $10 million – led by Social Capital, the Palo Alto, California-based venture capital firm.

Relativity aims to decrease the price of rocket launches from $100 million to $10 million in four years, 3D print the first rocket — a 90-foot-tall, 7-foot-wide, able to carry 2,000 pounds into orbit — by 2020, and to launch that rocket into space by 2021.

“The 3D printing and automation of rockets is inevitable,” Ellis told Bloomberg in October.

Current 3D printing technology is actually slower than traditional welding, so his “inevitability” may take some time to be realized. To get there, Relativity first had to develop its own 3D printer. Enter Stargate, a giant machine with 18-foot long arms, specifically designed with Relativity’s rockets in mind. Relativity says that it is the world’s largest 3D printer to work with metal.

If the technology continues to develop, Ellis and Noone hope to cut down the development time of a rocket from the many months – and hundreds of workers – currently required to just one month, and with minimal labor.

They’re still some way off from that goal, but that’s why the first video of their test at NASA Stennis was so exciting. Exclaimed Chamath Palihapitiya, the CEO of Social Capital: “Time to freak out, people.”

If you liked this article, check out this video: "SpaceX Falcon 9 Blooper Landing"

Photos via Relativity Space

Gulf Breeze UFO phenomenon: 30 years later, sightings still divide public

Three decades after a Gulf Breeze building contractor released eerie photos of circular UFOs to local media and set off a year-long skywatching phenomenon, the so-called "Gulf Breeze Sightings" have become part of American lore.

Ed Walters claimed he shot the photos from his yard on Nov. 11, 1987. And now, even 30 years later, people are still divided on what really happened in Gulf Breeze in late 1987 through 1988.

Even the nation's most legendary UFOlogist, fictional FBI Special Agent Fox Mulder from the 1990s hit series "X Files" weighed in on the Gulf Breeze sightings when it was revealed the character investigated the Panhandle sightings and wrote an essay on the phenomenon for Omni magazine.

“I really don't have a good opinion on whether they're faked or not. There was so much controversy about it and MUFON went back and forth about it for years.”

George Williams, state section director of the Florida Mutual UFO Network

"When I first saw the Gulf Breeze photos, I knew they were a hoax,'' Mulder said in a classic 1994 episode "E.B.E."

And Mulder was a person who famously always wanted to believe.

More: Moon: 30 years after Gulf Breeze UFO sightings, is the truth still out there?

But he's not alone in concluding the controversial Walters photographs were a hoax, an opinion that became more widespread after Walters moved from his home and in 1990, the new owner found a model of a "flying saucer" wrapped in old drafting paper in the attic. The model was made out of foam pie plates, cardboard, paper and tinted plastic gel.

Walters claimed the model was planted, but most thought — and still think — Walters' photos were a hoax. (There were witnesses who alleged knowledge of the staged UFO.) News Journal reporters and photographers later used the model to stage their own UFO models that seemed identical to the ones taken by Walters. 

Using the model that was found a Pensacola News Journal photographer fabricated this UFO photo. 

(Photo: News Journal file photo)

Craig Myers was the lead reporter on the story for the Pensacola News Journal during the Gulf Breeze sightings and subsequent controversy. He wrote a dozen stories on the sightings — and specifically Walters' claims — and later wrote a book on the Gulf Breeze sightings. Today, he works as an editorial assistant for Middle Tennessee State University, where he still gives the occasional lecture on the Gulf Breeze sightings.

Myers is confident the photographs were faked by Walters, who was known as a prankster, according to news reports from the time.

Former Pensacola News Journal reporter Craig Myers wrote a book about the Gulf Breeze UFO sightings titled "War of the Worlds: The True but Strange Story of the Gulf Breeze UFO."

 (Photo: Courtesy of Craig Myers)

"Maybe it started as a fun prank,'' Myers said. "But then it just took off and snowballed. "He's probably the smartest guy in the room in most of the rooms he walks into."

(Walters could not be reached for comment, but has always maintained the photographs he took were authentic. He also wrote a book on the topic titled "Gulf Breeze Sightings.")

And even now, there are those who believe Walters' story — and the validity of his photographs — including noted UFO researcher and physicist Bruce Maccabee, who has written numerous research papers and technical papers on the Gulf Breeze sightings.

Ed and Frances Walters wrote a book entitled "The Gulf Breeze Sightings." 

(Photo: Special to the News Journal)

"I think they're real,'' he said of Walters' photographs, dismissing the model found later. "I think the model is a hoax. Hoax squared."

Even if you dismiss Walters' photographs, Maccabee said, there were too many other witnesses who claimed to see UFOs in the Gulf Breeze area, and not all of them can be ignored.

"You had politicians reporting seeing objects,'' he said. "There were so many sightings that you have to account for, unless you believe there was massive collusion on the part of the residents of Gulf Breeze and Pensacola."

On Feb. 20, 1990, Gulf Breeze City Councilwoman Brenda Pollak holds a photograph she took at night of a bright red light hovering over Gulf Breeze near the Gulf Breeze United Methodist Church.

 (Photo: News Journal file photo)

Danise Boone was living in Gulf Breeze at the time with her daughters, who were then 6 and 8 years old.

"My daughters and I saw something spinning just barely above the trees at dusk,'' she recalled. "We were on Central Drive off Highway 98 looking west toward the Sound side. They saw it first and came inside to get me. I couldn't believe what I was seeing, but I know I saw something in the sky that rotated. It wasn't a plane or copter. "

There are countless stories like that. Hundreds of people began watching the skies over Gulf Breeze, most congregating at watch parties at Shoreline Park. Dozens reported sightings, but no one came close to matching the clarity and proximity of Walters' photographs.

"I really don't have a good opinion on whether they're faked or not,'' said George Williams, state section director of the Florida Mutual UFO Network in Tallahassee and the field investigator who has investigated the Gulf Breeze sightings extensively. "There was so much controversy about it and MUFON went back and forth about it for years. ... But he made a model and buried it in the installation? That just doesn't sound right, but I don't know."

But no matter Walters' photos, Williams said Gulf Breeze and Pensacola remain a "UFO hotspot." 

"We still get reports of interesting stuff in the area,'' he said. "And in 1987, you had hundreds of people besides Walters reporting sightings. It's always been an interesting area."

Gulf Breeze UFO Incident: Hoax or Cover-Up?

Troy Moon can be reached at tmoon@pnj.com and 850-435-8541.

Man says he captured UFO on camera on NW Side of San Antonio

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New Optical Illusion Discovered by Japanese Scientist Is Totally Baffling

Don't worry, your brain's not broken.

By Peter Hess

The internet loves an optical illusion, and it seems like people are always on the lookout for new ones. For all you people who like having your mind bent a little bit, you’re in luck: Kohske Takahashi, a psychologist at Chukyo University, Japan, has a new illusion for you. It’s called “curvature blindness,” and it may not be obvious at first.

In this illusion, which he described and explained in the journal i-Perception in November, pairs of wavy lines span the image. These waves, which have consistent peaks and valleys like sine waves, are divided into segments of dark gray and light gray and are laid over a black, white, and gray background.

Some pairs look curvy, while others look more like zig-zags, especially over the gray background. But here’s the thing: They’re all curvy. Take a look for yourself.

In the paper, Takahashi explains the principle behind this illusion: The lines that appear to zig-zag are the ones in which the color changes occur at the peaks and valleys. The abrupt corner created by the cutoff between the dark gray and light gray makes it so the viewer perceives the curve as a sharp angle. This perception competes with the more accurate perception of a gentle curve. He notes that this is somewhat different from a situation in which perception is incorrect, because people really do see it.

“It is notable that observers exactly ‘see’ an illusory zigzag line against a physically wavy line, rather than have an impaired perception,” he writes. “We propose that the underlying mechanisms for the gentle curve perception and those of obtuse corner perception are competing with each other in an imbalanced way and the percepts of corner might be dominant in the visual system.”

In other words, your brain might tend more toward seeing a corner when there’s confusion about whether it’s seeing a corner or a curve.

As we’ve seen with other optical illusions, these phenomena bug us out because we assume the way we see the world is pretty much the way it is. When we find out the way we’re seeing the world is wrong — or at least a little different from the way others see it — it unsettles us with the idea that there’s no actual consensus about reality. While this optical illusion won’t be the next dress illusion, it still makes your eyes cross with perceptual confusion.

{ https://www.inverse.com/ }

Martian atmosphere is not threatened by solar wind

BY TIBI PUIU

Atmospheric pressure on Mars is just 1% that found on Earth.

Credit: YouTube.

In many respects, Mars is but a shell of its former self. About 3-4 billion years ago, it boasted a hot climate that could sustain an active hydrological cycle. There were heavy rains, rivers of flowing waters, even vast oceans. All of these require a thick atmosphere. Today, however, the atmosphere is roughly 100 times less dense than Earth’s, and the Red Planet is still continuously losing gas — expending about 100 grams of its atmosphere into outer space every second.

Solar wind is regarded as an important factor that can explain this atmospheric loss. However, a grad student at Luleå University of Technology, Sweden, has come to results that say otherwise. According to Robin Ramstad, who studied for his Master of Science degree in Engineering Physics at the university, Mars’ atmosphere is adequately protected from the effects of solar wind despite lacking an Earth-like magnetic dipole.

Thin air

Here on Earth, the motion of molten iron alloys in the planet’s outer core acts like a geodynamo which generates a massive magnetic field. Scientists call our planet’s magnetic field the magnetosphere. It extends for several tens of thousands of kilometers into space, well above the atmosphere, sheltering the planet from the charged particles of solar winds and cosmic rays that would otherwise strip away the upper atmosphere, including the ozone layer that protects the Earth from harmful ultraviolet radiation.

Earth isn’t unique in this respect. Jupiter has masses of liquid metallic hydrogen in its outer mantle, creating the largest planetary magnetic field in the solar system. Uranus generates a global magnetosphere closer to the surface, which leads to some very strange quadrupole field effects —  rather than just a north and a south, there are another two poles lurking in a quadrupole field. Mars also used to have a magnetic field but lost it half a billion years after its formation.

Artist impression of Mars covered in a primitive ocean.

Credit: NASA/GSFC.

Solar wind is a stream of charged particles released from the upper atmosphere of the Sun. First described as a phenomenon in 1859, it has been observed only in the 1960s. According to one mainstream theory, it’s also responsible for the erosion of the early Martian atmosphere, which caused the greenhouse effect to collapse on the planet. At the same time, solar wind interacts with the ionized upper atmosphere, called the ionosphere, and induces a magnetosphere.

“It has long been thought that this induced magnetosphere is insufficient to protect the Martian atmosphere,” says Robin Ramstad. “However our measurements show something different.”

Left: Charged particles from the sun (the solar wind) form an induced magnetosphere round Mars, which unlike the sun does not have its own intrinsic magnetic field (artwork: Anastasia Grigoryeva) Larger file
Right: Robin Ramstad points out the position of the Swedish instrument ASPERA-3 on a model of the Mars Express spacecraft (photo: Anastasia Grigoryeva)

Ramstad studied data beamed back to Earth by the Mars Express orbiter. The spacecraft has an ion mass analyzer mounted that measured ion escape from Mars since 2004.

The researcher combined and compared measurements of the ion escape under varying solar wind conditions and levels of ionizing solar radiation. His results suggest that solar wind has an effect on the ion escape rate, but it’s rather negligible. Instead, the ion escape rate is more dependent on EUV (extreme ultraviolet) radiation which has a large effect on the total amount of escaped atmosphere.

{ https://www.zmescience.com/ }

Time Travel: Theories, Paradoxes & Possibilities

Alternate time travel theories

While Einstein's theories appear to make time travel difficult, some groups have proposed alternate solutions to jump back and forth in time.

Infinite cylinder

Astronomer Frank Tipler proposed a mechanism (sometimes known as a Tipler Cylinder) where one would take matter that is 10 times the sun's mass, then roll it into very long but very dense cylinder.

After spinning this up a few billion revolutions per minute, a spaceship nearby — following a very precise spiral around this cylinder — could get itself on a "closed, time-like curve", according to the Anderson Institute. There are limitations with this method, however, including the fact that the cylinder needs to be infinitely long for this to work.

An artist's impression of a black hole like the one weighed in this work, sitting in the core of a disk galaxy. The black-hole in NGC4526 weighs 450,000,000 times more than our own Sun.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Black holes

Another possibility would be to move a ship rapidly around a black hole, or to artificially create that condition with a huge, rotating structure.

"Around and around they'd go, experiencing just half the time of everyone far away from the black hole. The ship and its crew would be traveling through time," physicist Stephen Hawking wrote in the Daily Mail in 2010.

"Imagine they circled the black hole for five of their years. Ten years would pass elsewhere. When they got home, everyone on Earth would have aged five years more than they had."

However, he added, the crew would need to travel around the speed of light for this to work. Physicist Amos Iron at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel pointed out another limitation if one used a machine: it might fall apart before being able to rotate that quickly.

Cosmic strings

Another theory for potential time travelers involves something called cosmic strings — narrow tubes of energy stretched across the entire length of the ever-expanding universe. These thin regions, left over from the early cosmos, are predicted to contain huge amounts of mass and therefore could warp the space-time around them.

Cosmic strings are either infinite or they’re in loops, with no ends, scientists say. The approach of two such strings parallel to each other would bend space-time so vigorously and in such a particular configuration that might make time travel possible, in theory.

Time machines

It is generally understood that traveling forward or back in time would require a device — a time machine — to take you there. Time machine research often involves bending space-time so far that time lines turn back on themselves to form a loop, technically known as a "closed time-like curve."

The Doctor's time machine is the TARDIS, which stands for Time and Relative Dimensions in Space.

Credit: BBCAmerica

To accomplish this, time machines often are thought to need an exotic form of matter with so-called "negative energy density." Such exotic matter has bizarre properties, including moving in the opposite direction of normal matter when pushed. Such matter could theoretically exist, but if it did, it might be present only in quantities too small for the construction of a time machine.

However, time-travel research suggests time machines are possible without exotic matter. The work begins with a doughnut-shaped hole enveloped within a sphere of normal matter. Inside this doughnut-shaped vacuum, space-time could get bent upon itself using focused gravitational fields to form a closed time-like curve. To go back in time, a traveler would race around inside the doughnut, going further back into the past with each lap. This theory has a number of obstacles, however. The gravitational fields required to make such a closed time-like curve would have to be very strong, and manipulating them would have to be very precise. [Related: Warp Speed, Scotty? Star Trek's FTL Drive May Actually Work]

Grandfather paradox

Besides the physics problems, time travel may also come with some unique situations. A classic example is the grandfather paradox, in which a time traveler goes back and kills his parents or his grandfather — the major plot line in the "Terminator" movies — or otherwise interferes in their relationship — think "Back to the Future" — so that he is never born or his life is forever altered.

If that were to happen, some physicists say, you would be not be born in one parallel universe but still born in another. Others say that the photons that make up light prefer self-consistency in timelines, which would interfere with your evil, suicidal plan.

Some scientists disagree with the options mentioned above and say time travel is impossible no matter what your method. The faster-than-light one in particular drew derision from American Museum of Natural History astrophysicist Charles Lu.

That "simply, mathematically, doesn't work," he said in a past interview with sister site LiveScience.

Also, humans may not be able to withstand time travel at all. Traveling nearly the speed of light would only take a centrifuge, but that would be lethal, said Jeff Tollaksen, a professor of physics at Chapman University, in 2012.

Using gravity would also be deadly. To experience time dilation, one could stand on a neutron star, but the forces a person would experience would rip you apart first.

Time travel in fiction

Two 2015 articles by Space.com described different ways in which time travel works in fiction, and the best time-travel machines ever. Some methods used in fiction include:

One-way travel to the future: 

The traveler leaves home, but the people he or she left behind might age or be dead by the time the traveler returns. Examples: "Interstellar" (2014), "Ikarie XB-1" (1963)

Time travel by moving through higher dimensions:

 In "Interstellar" (2014), there are "tesseracts" available in which astronauts can travel because the vessel represents time as a dimension of space. A similar concept is expressed in Madeleine L'Engle's "A Wrinkle In Time" (2018, based on the book series that started in 1963), where time is folded by means of a tesseract. The book, however, uses supernatural beings to make the travel possible.

Travelling the space-time vortex: 

The famous "Doctor Who" (1963-present) TARDIS ("Time And Relative Dimension In Space") uses an extra-dimensional vortex to go through time, while the travelers inside feel time passing normally.

Instantaneous time jumping: 

Examples include "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time" (2006), the DeLorean from "Back To The Future" (1985), and the Mr. Peabody's WABAC machine from "The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show" (1959-64).

Time travelling while standing still: 

Both the "Time Machine" (1895 book) and Hermione Granger's Time-Turner from "Harry Potter" keep the traveler still while they move through time.

Slow time travel: 

In "Primer" (2004), a traveler stays in a box while time traveling. For each minute they want to go back in time, they need to stay in the box for a minute. If they want to go back a day in time, they have to stay there for 24 hours.

Traveling faster than light: 

In "Superman: The Movie" (1979), Superman flies faster than light to go back in time and rescue Lois Lane before she is killed. The concept was also used in the 1980 novel "Timescape" by Gregory Benford, in which the protagonist sends (hypothetical) faster-than-light tachyon particles back to Earth in 1962 to warn of disaster. In several "Star Trek" episodes and movies, the Enterprise travels through time by going faster than light. In the comic book and TV series "The Flash," the super-speedster uses a cosmic treadmill to travel through time.

Difficult methods to categorize: 

There's a rocket sled in "Timecop" (1994) that pops in and out of view when it's being used, which has led to much speculation about what's going on. There's also the Time Displacement Equipment in "The Terminator" movie series, which shows off how to fight a war in four dimensions (including time).

So is time travel possible?

While time travel does not appear possible — at least, possible in the sense that the humans would survive it — with the physics that we use today, the field is constantly changing. Advances in quantum theories could perhaps provide some understanding of how to overcome time travel paradoxes.

One possibility, although it would not necessarily lead to time travel, is solving the mystery of how certain particles can communicate instantaneously with each other faster than the speed of light.

In the meantime, however, interested time travelers can at least experience it vicariously through movies, television and books.

Watch a Brilliant Fireball Light Up the Sky in This NJ Police Dash-Cam Video

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Action Dynamics of the Local Supercluster
by Daniel Pomarede
on Sketchfab

If you click play on the interactive above, you’ll see the motions of galaxies in our local supercluster, from 13 billion years ago to the present day.

Where’s our home galaxy, the Milky Way, in this interactive? Look below at the still graphic, for the yellow letters marked MW. Our Milky Way is part of what’s called the Local Group, which spans about 10 million light-years and contains several dozen galaxies. The Local Group, in turn, is part of the Virgo Supercluster, which spans just over 100 million light-years and is thought to contain at least 100 galaxy groups and clusters. The interactive above is part of a study by a team of astronomers from Maryland, Hawaii, Israel, and France. They say it’s the most detailed map ever of the orbits of galaxies in our extended local neighborhood. It shows the past motions of some 1,400 galaxies within 100 million light-years of our Milky Way.

The study called Action Dynamics of the Local Supercluster. It’s published in the December 4, 2017 issue of the peer-reviewed Astrophysical Journal.

Our home Milky Way galaxy (MW, yellow) and our companion Andromeda galaxy (M31, red) are participating in a downward flow away from a vast underdense region called the Local Void and toward the Virgo Cluster, represented by the large purple dot in this image. Most galaxies between us and the Virgo Cluster will eventually fall into the cluster but we lie slightly beyond the capture zone.

Image via R. Brent Tully/ Institute for Astronomy.

In the interactive, you’ll notice the galaxies are moving toward something, a gravitational attractor represented by the big red dot more or less in the center of the mapped area (and in purple in the still graphic just above). This attractor is the Virgo Cluster, a large cluster of galaxies at the heart of the Virgo Supercluster (all located in the direction to the constellation Virgo in our sky; hence their names).

The Virgo Cluster alone – which is about 50 million light-years from us, or in the midst of the Virgo Supercluster’s 100 million light-years – has 600 trillion times the mass of our sun. These astronomers explained in their statement that the Virgo Cluster is pulling other galaxies toward itself, and absorbing them:

Over a thousand galaxies have already fallen into the Virgo Cluster, while in the future all galaxies that are currently within 40 million light-years of the cluster will be captured. Our Milky Way galaxy lies just outside this capture zone. However the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies, each with 2 trillion times the mass of the sun, are destined to collide and merge [with each other] in 5 billion years.

The study – and the interactive at top – are based on the measurement of 18,000 galaxy distances.

The astronomers’ statement explained the interactive this way:

With the interactive model, a viewer can pan, zoom, rotate, and pause/activate the time evolution of movement along orbits. The orbits are shown in a reference frame that removes the overall expansion of the universe.

So be sure to click on it, and play around with it!

Here’s an artist’s concept of the Virgo Supercluster, via Wikimedia Commons. Look toward the center to find our Local Group.

The lead author of this study is Ed Shaya of the University of Maryland in collaboration with Brent Tully of University of Hawaii, Yehuda Hoffman of Hebrew University in Israel, and Daniel Pomarede of University of Paris-Saclay in France. These scientists used what they said is a novel method for determining galaxy orbits, which they called numerical action.

Brent Tully said:

For the first time, we are not only visualizing the detailed structure of our Local Supercluster of galaxies but we are seeing how the structure developed over the history of the universe. An analogy is the study of the current geography of the Earth from the movement of plate tectonics.

The astronomers’ statement also explained:

These dramatic merger events are only part of a larger show. There are two overarching flow patterns within this volume of the universe. All galaxies in one hemisphere of the region – including our own Milky Way – are streaming toward a single flat sheet. In addition, essentially every galaxy over the whole volume is flowing, as a leaf would in a river, toward gravitational attractors at far greater distances …

Representations of the orbits in the Virgo Supercluster can also be seen in the video below:

Bottom line: A team of astronomers has made the most detailed map ever of the orbits of galaxies in our local supercluster. It shows the past motions of some 1,400 galaxies within 100 million light-years of our Milky Way.

Source: Action Dynamics of the Local Supercluster

Via University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy

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Sharing the Mystery – Mass Hallucinations

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A glacier is seen from NASA's Operation IceBridge research aircraft on Oct. 31, 2017.

Mario Tama / Getty Images file

An Alien Object Was Recently Detected in Our Solar System

{ https://www.nbcnews.com/mach }

Amateur Astronomers spots ‘massive cigar-shaped UFO’ near the Orion Nebula

An Amateur astronomer snapped a few extremely interesting images from the Orion nebula, and UFO hunters are turning towards his images as proof as massive, interstellar alien spaceships.

The Amateur Astronomer from North Carolina was exploring the Orion Nebula when he spotted a strange cigar-shaped UFO. Further analysis of the footage revealed a few mystery objects.

While the astronomer was focusing on his Newtonian telescope, he observed a massive cylinder-shaped UFO that popped up on the screen of his laptop, capturing the enigmatic event in a single frame that lasted for 30 seconds.

Notice the Cigar-shaped object to the center-right of the image.

Image Credit MUFON 

Immediately after noticing the object that ‘should not have been captured’ near the Orion Nebula, the amateur astronomer turned to MUFON for explanations.

The amateur astronomer wrote the following report to MUFON:

“I was out collecting data on M42 Orion nebula, as I was fine focusing my 8 in astrograph / Newtonian Telescope this appeared on my laptop screen after the 1st I ran 5 frames @ 30.2-second sequence and it shows the movement of the objects at the bottom of the frames. The single cigar-shaped object was captured in a single 30.2-second frame and the 5-frame sequence followed because I’d thought the thrill was over Not the case. It had backup right behind it in the sequence. It’s not the 1st and surely not the last as I search the night sky for galaxies, nebulae and the truth that’s out there.”

More objects were allegedly spotted, and are visible at the bottom of the image.

Image Credit: MUFON

Are these cigar-shaped object really UFO’s, or is there another explanation?

Image Credit: MUFON

Furthermore, after observing the UFO, the amateur astronomer noticed that the UFO sighting was not over as he identified several ‘other’ cigar-shaped objects which he also captured in a sequence of 5 frames at 30.2 seconds, and they clearly show the movement of objects at the bottom of the frames.

However, Facebook page UFO of Interest takes a closer look at the alleged UFOs, and offers a possible explanation proposed by Dave Greg and Jerry Bell from the Facebook group “dazzathecameraman”:

Here are the images of the mystery objects spotted by the amateur astronomer:

Pictures from MUFON:
www.mufoncms.com/fil…/88566_submitter_file1__Capture0001.png
www.mufoncms.com/fil…/88566_submitter_file2__Capture0002.png
www.mufoncms.com/fil…/88566_submitter_file3__Capture0003.png
www.mufoncms.com/files_jeud8…/88566_submitter_file4__uf

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NASA to make major announcement after Google’s AI makes alien planet-hunting discovery

NASA is set to hold a ‘major, press conference after its planet-hunting telescope, working together with state-of-the-art Artificial Intelligence from Google, made a major breakthrough.

The agency wrote on their website: NASA will host a media teleconference at 1 p.m. EST Thursday, Dec. 14, to announce the latest discovery made by its planet-hunting Kepler space telescope. 

NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope is one of the most respected planet-hunting tools used by astronomers in search for alien life and Earth-like worlds.

The Kepler Space Telescope was launched into space in 2009 when astronomers were unaware of the number of exoplanets that exist elsewhere in the cosmos. To the surprise of many, in almost nine years, it has shown that planets are very common in the universe and that each star may at least have ONE planet orbiting it.

According to Astronomers, our universe is teeming with exoplanets.

Recently, NASA has made a new breakthrough, one that is significant enough to deserve a major press conference.

Despite the fact that very little information has been offered to the press about the nature of the discovery, scientists believe it is most likely related to exoplanet—Alien worlds orbiting distant stars, and one of our best chances of finding Earth-like planets.

“The discovery was made by researchers using machine learning from Google. Machine learning is an approach to artificial intelligence, and demonstrates new ways of analyzing Kepler data,” wrote NASA officials in a recently released press release.

According to NASA, the discovery was made in collaboration with Google’s Artificial Intelligence, which has been sued by experts to analyze the information gathered by different telescopes.

NASA hopes that by using Artificial Intelligence, it can comb through different discoveries and identify possible exoplanets more swiftly, and hopefully find another planet elsewhere in the universe which can support life as we know it.

According to NASA, four engineers and scientists will take part in the press conference, including Paul Hertz, who leads Nasa’s astrophysics division, a senior Google software engineer, and two scientists.

Recently, the telescope has started working on its new project called K2, whose main goal is to search for exoplanets while also searching and analyzing different cosmic phenomena.

This means that a huge amount of information needs to be processed by astronomers, who have discovered that our universe is teeming with planets that could—at least theoretically—support alien life.

Many similar groundbreaking discoveries have been announced in similar press conferences held by NASA in the past.

This is why many people expect that NASA’s latest discovery will be of great importance.

Despite the fact that many expect the press conference to make an announcement related to exoplanets, many believe that NASA may announce the discovery of Alien life.

This, however, is highly unlikely.

Teleconference audio and visuals will stream live at https://www.nasa.gov/live

Featured image: Shutterstock

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A Dangerous asteroid capable of destroying a city skims past Earth without being detected by NASA

A massive Asteroid recently flew dangerously-close to Earth. Despite the fact that the asteroid—which could have destroyed a city the size of New York—missed us, NASA didn’t see the space rock coming.

An asteroid skimmed barely past Earth recently.  If it had crashed into Earth, it could have ‘erased’ a city the size of New York.

The city-killer asteroid flew past Earth at speeds close to 9 kilometers per second. NASA astronomers only detected it a day later.

If it had crashed into Earth, it could have ‘erased’ a city the size of New York.

Image Credit: Shutterstock

The space rock, called 2017 VL2, is the size of a blue whale it skimmed past Earth at a distance of only 117,480 kilometers- a third of the distance between Earth and the Moon.

The space threat was first observed by the Mauna Loa observatory in Hawaii at 11:24 UTC on November 10.

However, this was too late, as the asteroid had already passed near Earth at that time, having achieved its closest approach at 9:50 on November 9.

Had it impacted a city on Earth, the asteroid would have left a 6 km crater and wreaked havoc.

“The space rock measures between 16 and 32 meters in diameter, and belongs to the group of Apollo asteroids,” explains The Watchers site. It will not pass near Earth again until the year 2125.

Currently, astronomers have identified more than 8,000 Apollo-type asteroids.

According to reports, around 1,500 Apollo asteroids are large enough and may get extremely close to Earth to be considered as potentially dangerous asteroids that could impact our planet.

Astronomers say that in theory, all NEOs or Near Earth Asteroids, are considered by NASA in order to predict potential impacts.

NASA says that all NEOs that are greater than 100 meters in diameter and pass within 4.6 million miles are classified as PHAs or potentially hazardous asteroids.

However, another eery encounter is set to occur just before Christmas when a massive asteroid dubbed as 3200 Phaethon is due to pass near Earth on December 17, Russian astronomers have revealed.

It is this asteroid which is believed to be responsible for the Geminids meteor shower which occurs between December 13 and December 14, resulting in hundreds of bright meteors to illuminate the sky as they are consumed by Earth’s atmosphere.

However, despite the fact it offers a stunning night sky view, the massive space rock is considered as a potentially hazardous asteroid whose path misses Earth’s orbit by only 2 million miles– which is small in galactic terms.

Featured image credit: Shutterstock

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Researchers find that Earth’s inner ocean is much larger than previously thought

Scientists have found a massive volume of water 1,000km inside of our planet, around a third way to Earth’s core: “This water is much deeper than ever found before, at a third of the way to the edge of Earth’s core.”

A research published by scientists at the French University Jean Monnet has shown what for many years only appeared in science fiction books: oceans of water to unimaginable depths in the interior of the Earth, reports New Scientist.

For Steve Jacobsen, one of the members of the team of researchers, the discovery shows the existence of a reservoir of water much larger than previously believed located inside of our planet.

The Diamond found in Juína, Brazil. 

Mederic Palot

In addition, it is the deepest aquatic deposit ever found, since it is located a third of the distance between the outer layer of our planet and its core, a thousand kilometers deep.

This amazing discovery was made possible thanks to a strange diamond expelled by a volcano more than 90 million years ago and found near the São Luiz River in the municipality of Juína, in Brazil.

The rock has an imperfection in its structure produced in the first moments of its formation. This natural defect shows an unusual accumulation of “sealed” minerals inside the diamond, which contain hydroxyl ions, a functional group that comes from water.

In addition, the presence of minerals characteristic of the lower terrestrial mantle has allowed scientists to determine the depth of the water deposit.

An illustration of the internal composition of our planet.

Image Credit: Shutterstock.

Scientists believe that this finding will allow us to understand why our planet has tectonic plates and what has been the role of water in its formation and conservation.

“If it were not there [the water], we would probably all be submerged,” believes Jacobsen, who also believes that this type of discovery will help understand how the oceans and Earth’s atmosphere formed.

According to Jacobsen, this study may help us better understand why Earth is the only planet we know to have plate tectonics.

“If there were no water inside the Earth, the convection of the Earth’s mantle would be inefficient and eventually cease,” explains the researcher.

“The expression on the surface of the convection of the mantle is the movement of plates, the process by which volcanoes are created; and volcanoes have a fundamental role in generating the crust in which we live. Ergo, if the volcanic activity stops, then so will the formation of the crust, generating a chain reaction that would end all planetary activities. ”

Source:

• High-pressure phase of brucite stable at Earth’s mantle transition zone and lower mantle conditions
• https://www.ualberta.ca/

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The enigmatic ancient ‘city’ of Midas, built by the Phrygians almost 3,000 years ago

It’s an ancient—3,000-year-old city—that isn’t a city. It is said to be the eternal resting place of King Midas, the mythical character remembered in Greek mythology for his ability to turn everything he touched into gold.

Located in the Turkish province of Eskisehir there is an archaeological site dubbed as Yazilikaya—which literally means engraved rock. However, it is also referred to as the City of Midas.

It is believed that the Phrygians built it sometime between the 8th and 7th centuries BC, although archaeologists suspect that it may be much older.

The most curious thing is that, although it is called a city, there were never houses there.

Rather, it was an ancient religious center of the time.

The so-called Ancient city of Midas.

Image Credit: Shutterstock

Looking back in history

The Phrygians were an ancient Indo-European people who, according to Herodotus, inhabited the south of the Balkans.

In the 8th century, they emigrated to Anatolia, where they founded their capital at Gordio (in which centuries later the famous episode of the cut of the Gordian knot by Alexander the Great took place).

The oldest mythical king of the Phrygians was Midas, a character from whom there is no archaeological evidence, but who appears in later Greek myths as the man who everything he touched, turned to gold.

However, there are references to a king that ‘fits his descriptions’ in Assyrian sources from the eighth century BC, which portray him as an ally of Sargon II in 709 BC.

Interestingly, successive Phrygian kings were called Midas or Gordias, which may indicate that Midas may have been a title, and not a name.

Around the same time, the Phrygians built their capital in Gordio they installed their religious center in Yazilikaya.

It is not known for sure if when they arrived, the caves, galleries, and stairways were already there.

Scholars are unable to verify it was already a sacred place when the Phrygians got there, or if that aspect was given by the new inhabitants.

The fact is that they turned it into a kind of sanctuary and began to adorn it with new constructions, excavating and inscribing new elements into the surrounding rocks.

Phrygia Yazilikaya and the cave houses in ancient Midas City, Eskisehir, Turkey.

Image Credit: Shutterstock

The Tomb of ‘Midas’

One of the best-known monuments of the site is the so-called Tomb of Midas.

It is a monument, which has never been proven to be a tomb, and is composed by a facade dug in the rock 20 meters high by 16 wide.

It features a false door, today partially destroyed by looters, who must have thought that something had to be behind it, and an inscription on the upper part, perfectly legible and consisting of a dedication.

Written in ancient Phrygian, the inscription says; “by Ates, son of Arkias, to Midas.”

On the walls of the lower niche, there is also a small inscription that says Matar (mother) and probably refers to the goddess Cibeles, whose image may have once stood there.

Just a legend?

What the world Midas refers to remains a mystery today.

If we pay attention to the sources, Midas was buried under a massive tumulus near Gordio.

Interestingly, excavations carried out in the 1990s did not find a single trace of burials there, nor in any other place in the area for that matter.

However, one of the most fascinating, and weird things is that, if you ascend all the way to the highest point of the city, you’ll see hundreds of stairs dug into the surrounding rocks, leading to dead ends or simply disappearing under the ground.

Archaeologists have found a number of scattered altars and stepped thrones.

Many scholars believe these are ceremonial paths, which played an important role in the religious cult of the area.

The stairways that were crafted leading literally into the ground point towards tunnels and underground chambers, interconnected among themselves, which some archaeologists consider were used as ‘cisterns’ to store water, although several authors believe they had a different, more profound reason.

Most of these passageways are blocked by land and rocks which have accumulated over the centuries and have never been excavated.

Underground cities?

The ancient ‘tunnels’ which lead to the underground.

Image Credit: Shutterstock

Despite the fact that there are numerous authors who believe there may be some kind of connection to the numerous underground cities found in Turkey in recent decades, let us not forget that the Phrygians—like many other ancient cultures—believed that their gods lived inside the mountains, or inside of the Earth, and the tunnels leading inside were passages to the divine underworld.

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Mankind before Religion: what was society like before we started believing in the supernatural?

Have you ever wondered about what society—early society—was like before religion appeared?

The Family Tree of the ancient Anunnaki—those who came down from heaven

Thanks to many discoveries made in the past few decades, we have come to understand that mankind has existed on earth much sooner than written history—and religion for that matter—tells us.

So, before humanity started dividing and worshiping different Gods, what where we really like?

We must distinguish the historical origins of religion from its psychological or sociological roots.

The first religious behavior that appears in the course of human evolution is likely to be relatively recent—researchers say the Middle Paleolithic—and constitutes an aspect of behavioral modernity that it seems surely at the same time as the origin of the language.

Many researchers note how evidence of religious behavior in the first humans pre-Homo sapiens is irrefutable.

Scholars point to intentional burials, particularly those that include a series of artifacts buried together with an individual, which can be considered as one of the first detectable forms of religious practice, since, it may illustrate a “concern for the deceased that transcends daily life.”

What was society like before religion appeared on Earth?

Image Credit: Shutterstock

Evidence suggests that the Neandertals were the first hominids to intentionally bury the dead.

Examples of this are the Shanidar in Iraq, the Kebara Cave in Israel and Krapina in Croatia.

Some scholars claim, however, that these bodies may have been manipulated for secular reasons, despite the fact, there is no evidence whatsoever to support this claim.

Archaeologists propose that Middle Palaeolithic societies, such as Neanderthal societies, may have practiced a form of totemism or zoolatry, apart from their burials, which many believe were religious in nature.

However, scientists note that while religious behavior varies widely among different cultures around the globe, in a broad sense, religion is a universal cultural identity found in all human populations.

But, where did it all start?

Image Credit: Simon E. Davies.

Oxford Study: mankind is ‘hardwired’ to be religious, and the cause of this is EVOLUTION

A study by Oxford University experts suggests that mankind is ‘hardwired’ to be religious, and the cause of this is EVOLUTION. As noted by Dominic Johnson, an expert in evolutionary biology and in international relations from Oxford University fear of gods could have helped shape mankind into what we are today. This means that Religion could very well be the result of evolution.

Storytelling, myths, and bonding, as foundations to complex religions?

A new—fresh insight—is offered by experts from the UK, who suppose that the exchange of traditional tales among ancient peoples served as a “universal” instrument for the establishment of relations between different tribes.

They call it ‘the diplomacy of prehistory.’

Anthropologists at University College London reveal that the stories and myths of ancient peoples served as a means of uniting the population, according to a study published in the journal Nature Communications.

Many anthropologists accept the theory that religions appeared with the objective of maintaining social order and strengthening the links between members.

However, according to a new study, the ancient peoples had other ways to establish relationships, since the first religions appeared some 13,000-15,000 years ago.

One of the co-authors of the study of the British university, Andrea Migliano, looked into the life of an indigenous tribe of the Philippines, the Agta: they are hunters and gatherers and live oblivious to new technologies, and modern society.

The research explored the impact of storytelling on hunter-gatherer cooperative behavior and the individual-level fitness benefits to being a skilled storyteller.

In order to understand the behavior of society and religion, researchers from the UK asked the Agta to tell them stories and traditional fables of their tribe and noticed that most of the stories centered around the value of cooperation, the importance of social norms, gender equality and the prohibition of the use of violence as an instrument for the solution of conflicts.

Furthermore, the best narrators of stories, both men, and women, have advantages within their tribe.

The other members respect them especially and have on average 0.5 children more than the others.

Also, scientists estimate that the tradition of storytelling served as a prototype to the religions that would appear later.

The researchers concluded how “skilled storytellers are preferred social partners and have greater reproductive success, providing a pathway by which group-beneficial behaviors, such as storytelling, can evolve via individual-level selection.”

The study has been published in the journal Nature Communications.

Featured image credit: Shutterstock

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Newly found Antarctic ‘air-eating’ bacteria could change the way we search for aliens

Scientists have made yet another bizarre discovery in Antarctica as they have discovered a new type of bacterium that can survive solely off the chemicals in the air. The discovery is important because it could completely revolutionize the way we think about alien organisms living on different planets in the cosmos.

The newly found organisms are able to survive on a basic diet of hydrogen, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide, which allows them to survive under the most extreme conditions where other sources of energy and food are scarce, or nonexistent.

This discovery raises a number of questions related to the search for alien life in the universe. Is it possible that low-level lifeforms on other distant planets and moons are able to survive on a diet of scarce gasses available in the atmosphere?

This is a new possibility we should consider according to a team of scientists from the University of New South Wales in Australia.

“Antarctica is one of the most extreme habitats on Earth,” says lead researcher Belinda Ferrari. “Yet the cold, dark and dry desert regions are home to a surprisingly rich diversity of microbial communities.”

dubbed WPS-2 and AD3, the new types of bacteria can stay alive in extreme conditions.

Image Credit: Shutterstock

“The big question has been how the microbes can stay alive when there is little water, the soils are very low in organic carbon and there is a very little capacity to generate energy from the Sun via photosynthesis during the winter darkness.”

The fact is that there are places which are home to extreme, freezing temperatures, offer very little or no water at all. These places also remain in darkness for months, or are exposed to extremely strong ultraviolet radiation, in addition to the weathering of freeze and thaw cycles. All of these facts make it hard for life—as we know it—to exist.

However, studies have demonstrated that nonetheless, life finds a way to thrive in such extreme environments.

This raised an important question among scientists: How can different organisms stay alive without energy sources, like carbon being turned into sugar via photosynthesis?

To answer this question, scientists took soil samples from two ice-free parts in Antarctica.

Researchers reconstructed the genomes of 23 microbes by studying the soil’s microbial DNA with a shotgun sequencing method. Scientists used small sections of DNA to recreate the whole, and were able to identify two groups of previously unknown bacteria they dubbed WPS-2 and AD3.

WPS-2 and AD3 have no issue whatsoever to stay alive with little sunlight, no geothermal energy, and few nutrients.

It’s a revolutionary find as it is the first air-eating life form we’ve encountered yet.

“This new understanding about how life can still exist in physically extreme and nutrient-starved environments like Antarctica opens up the possibility of atmospheric gases supporting life on other planets,” says Ferrari.

The findings have been published in Nature.

Reference: Living on thin air: microbe mystery solved

Featured image: Shutterstock

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UFO Encounter Created Strange Light Phenomenom In Michigan

A post on Reddit was brought to the attention of Christopher Connelly on January 12, 2017, and it talked about a guy who was having a drink with his boss, who proceeded to tell him a story about a UFO incident.

This incident came to be known as the North Michigan strange light phenomenon.

Large Bright Lights Appeared In Sky Over Glen Arbor

At first, the guy thought that his boss was joking around, but then he got serious and began to tell him a very strange story. He said that when he had been driving along in his car some 20 years back in north Michigan close to Glen Arbor at around 2.30am his entire car had suddenly lit up even though he was in the middle of nowhere.

He said that the light was insanely bright and there was a shrieking type noise that actually hurt his ears. The many had been out taking photographs of the region as he was a keen photographer and his camera was in the passenger seat of the car. At this point, he described getting out of the vehicle and seeing a strange craft that was hovering above him and it remained there for what seemed to be a very long time. He then reached into his car and grabbed his camera and began to take photographs.

Man Captured Photographs Of The Strange Lights

At this point, the man went over to a filing cabinet and started rustling around in some folders. He then showed his friend the photos and at this point, the hairs rose on the back of his neck and his jaw just dropped open as he realized that his friend was not joking.

The photographs seem to have come from a camera that is an older model than the ones on the market today. The only images that were available for investigation were photographs that had been taken of the original photographs and of course this was not the best for analyzing.

The photographs had been taken at night time and they showed snow on the ground, so the temperature would have been cold. The photographs did not reveal if there were clouds around or if there were any other types of meteorological formation. However, they do show that the ground is very heavily illuminated and this created almost complete coverage of the region. The light formations look like pillars that are rising up from the center of the area that is illuminated. The light seems to have a bluish tinge to it and no animals, vehicles or humans can be seen in the pictures.

There does seem to be a signpost in the lower right-hand side of the photo, which is seen on the opposite side of the road and this could indicate that there is a side road leading off the main one. The strange lights do seem to be behind trees but the distance cannot be judged from the person taking the photograph.

An anonymous user had posted the photos on Reddit, who was said to be the co-worker of the person who witnessed the event. The date of the actual event is unknown but it was said to have taken place some twenty years previously.

Analysis Of Photos Was Unclear

The photograph was analyzed and no craft was seen in the picture. What can be seen is that there appears to be a valley and this is where the lights are coming from. The lights also seem to be hitting a small cloud or fog that is low lying. It is possible that the site may be a construction or fracking site or it could be a city. The lights do seem to look like the light that a site or small town might make.

The pillars of light could be explained away by ice crystals or maybe light pillars. Light pillars are an atmospheric optical phenomenon that seems to extend below or above the light source. The effect comes from the reflection of the light from many small ice crystals that are suspended in the clouds or the atmosphere. The light might come from the Sun if it is close to the horizon or below it. It is also possible that it might come from streetlights or the Moon. Light pillars are commonly found in colder climates, including in Michigan, where the photo was taken.

The Original Reddit post

“Was having a drink with my boss in his office today. I’m a conspiracy theorist and he picks at me from time to time regarding some of the stuff I share with him. So he goes “did I ever tell you my ufo story?”

I was like hahahahaha ok thanks for making fun of me, his face got serious and he goes “listen to this story…”

So he said “20 or so years ago I was driving in northern Michigan near Glen Arbor (sic) at 2:30am in the middle of nowhere and all of a sudden my entire car lit up”.

He described this insane light and shrieking noise that hurt his ears… and he’s going on and on and im waiting for him to laugh and be all like gotcha!!

He had been taking pictures of northern Michigan cuz photography is his hobby, so he had a camera on the passenger seat of his car.

He said he got out and this craft was hovering over him for what seemed like a very long time, he was afraid. Then he remembers he had his camera, so he took it out and said he took pictures.

Still I’m waiting for him to laugh. I gave him a “ya ok” look…then he rolled his chair over to his file cabinet and started rustling around folders…

See the photos attached to this post…the hairs stood up on the back of my neck and my arms. My jaw dropped.

https://www.reddit.com/r/UFOs/comments/7gsrl7/what_i_thought_was_a_pran…

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Kazakhstan Lines - Were The Gods Supposed To Land Here?

Most people know about the Nazca lines in Peru. These are a series of large ancient geoglyphs in the Nazca Desert, in southern Peru. These pictures of animals and abstract figures are only visible from high altitude. Their only function seems to be to be visible from the sky, probably by their godlike observers.

Did you know that these signs were also made in Kazakhstan? Someone made the effort of creating a certain design of these ground paintings, but it’s not clear what their real purpose was.

Remember, these signs were created in an age where humans were only supposed to hunt animals for food. Their only occupation was to make sure there was enough food for the tribe to make it to the next day. However, archaeologists assume that pre-modern people made these sightings for religious beliefs…

The real question in these cases remains the same, why were people in the stone age period obsessed with visitors from the sky?

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UFO SENSATION: Were lights from alien flying saucer which beamed to Earth caught on film?

THIS image that some people believe shows lights beaming down from an alien UFO has sparked a huge online debate about whether it is genuine.

How does a near-death experience change you? Brain surgeon DR EBEN ALEXANDER heard heavenly music and saw waterfalls flowing into crystal pools

By Dr Eben Alexander for the Daily Mail

Caroline Cook was 16 years old when she attempted suicide. Traumatised by her parents’ divorce and struggling to cope with her mother’s mental illness, she swallowed an overdose of sleeping pills.

After spending three days in hospital in a coma, she awoke to a shockingly vivid memory that has never faded.

Now aged 63, Caroline says: ‘I suddenly found myself standing in a beautiful, lush, green forest, looking out over pastures filled with flowers with snow-capped mountains in the distance, all beneath a brilliant blue sky.

I was taken to the hospital where I worked as a neurosurgeon. The doctors discovered I’d contracted a type of meningitis, and very soon the part of the brain that controls thought and emotion shut down as the bacteria ate away at my brain.

Pictured: Dr Eben Alexander 

‘The colours were vivid, yet everything was bathed in a white light, even the sky. I felt joyful and happy to be there.’

An old man appeared beside her, with white robes and a white beard. He, too, was bathed in white light.

‘You cannot stay here,’ he told Caroline. ‘It is not your time yet. Go back and finish living your life.’

Another woman, Alison Leigh Sugg, had an experience that was both similar and surprisingly different.

During a difficult labour with her second baby, in 1999, she suffered a severe haemorrhage. Bleeding profusely, she lost consciousness. Her heart rate slowed and then flatlined.

The emergency doctor in charge was Dr Margaret Christensen. Alison lay dying on the operating table, but she could not be operated on until enough blood had been pumped back into her veins to let the heart start beating again. Unable to begin surgery, Dr Christensen decided to lead the medical team in a short prayer instead.

‘Please guide us to heal Alison’s body,’ she prayed. ‘Please guide her spirit back into her body.’

Caroline, who had a near-death experience, says: ‘I suddenly found myself standing in a beautiful, lush, green forest, looking out over pastures filled with flowers with snow-capped mountains in the distance, all beneath a brilliant blue sky'

Alison was unconscious, but still somehow aware that her vital energy was leaving her body through two areas simultaneously: her nose, mouth and throat; and the point between her eyebrows.

This energy seemed to flow together at a point above her body, until she was looking back down at herself, with both indifference and compassion.

Other energy seemed to swirl around her, in a spiral of light that propelled her up and away. She drifted into inky blackness, before what she described as ‘a wondrous being of light and sound’ appeared in front of her, emanating profound love.

She had no language for what she was experiencing. The ‘being’ communicated with her, seeming to project a thought: ‘You have a choice.’ Realising that it would be a mistake to turn away from this overwhelming sense of serenity, Alison knew what she must choose. She had to return to her body. Her children needed her.

Both these women confided their deeply personal stories after reading my 2012 book Proof Of Heaven, in which I detailed my own near-death experience.

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What happened to me was different — but just as vividly recollected. I’d woken up at 4.30am with a splitting headache. As my then wife frantically tried to massage away the pain, it spread to my back. Within 15 minutes, the agony was so bad I could barely take a step.

I was taken to the hospital where I worked as a neurosurgeon. The doctors discovered I’d contracted a type of meningitis, and very soon the part of the brain that controls thought and emotion shut down as the bacteria ate away at my brain.

After being placed on a ventilator, a light came slowly down from above, throwing off marvellous filaments of living silver and golden effulgence.

It was a circular entity, emitting heavenly music that I called the Spinning Melody. The light opened up like a rip, and I felt myself going through the rip, up into a valley full of lush and fertile greenery, where waterfalls flowed into crystal pools.

There were clouds, like marshmallow puffs of pink and white. Behind them, the sky was a rich blue-black, with trees, fields, animals and people. There was water, too, flowing in rivers or descending as rain. Mists rose from the pulsing surfaces of these waters, and fish glided beneath them.

More than half of people who have near-death experiences are astonished by their highly intense perceptions. It is as if reality has become more real, and yet none of it is as truly real as their memories of the afterlife

Sceptics would say that, because of the many differences in our accounts, we must all be wrong. But as a scientist, a neurosurgeon and an academic who taught brain science at Harvard Medical School, I am fascinated to know how we all perceived these versions of the hereafter — so vivid in the memory but so difficult to describe.

The evidence for near-death experiences is overwhelming. But the evidence for how they occur is virtually non-existent.

How were our minds conscious when our bodies were effectively dead and, in my case at least, the brain had ceased to function? And where are these bright, unfading memories stored?

To explore these questions takes courage and a thirst for knowledge. In the nine years since I first awoke from my coma, my mantra has been ‘believe in it all, at least for now’.

My advice to you, dear reader, is to do the same: suspend disbelief for now, and open your mind as broadly as possible.

I was in a coma for a week, suffering from meningoencephalitis — a brain infection — of such severity that my odds of survival were estimated at 2 per cent. After a week, my doctors gravely told my family that it was time to let me die. Hearing this, my ten-year-old son ran into the room, pulled open my eyelids and started pleading with me.

‘Daddy,’ he cried, over and over again, ‘you’re gonna be OK.’

Across the vast reaches of the spiritual realm, I felt his presence very clearly . . . and began to wake.

Physicist Albert Einstein would sometimes drift in a small sailing boat, staring into the sky as his imagination wandered, and new possibilities for explaining reality came to him. Pictured: The light at the end of the tunnel 

In the early weeks of recovery after my coma, I experienced a constant crackling energy, a hyper-sense of life itself — a sizzling body sensation.

Just two days after I came round, my older son, who was majoring in neuroscience at college, saw me and was struck by this intense energy.

‘You are so clear, so focused, so much more present than ever before,’ he said. ‘It is as if there is a light shining within you.’

Bizarre phenomena happened all around me. Street lights would blink as I walked beneath them. My laptop seemed prone to crashing. I went through three wristwatches before I found one that would work. And I had great difficulty sleeping, though this turned out to be a blessing because it granted me the time I needed to read, study and reflect on what had happened.

The shift in my perceptions brought difficulties, too. Studies show around 80 per cent of marriages break up after one partner has a near-death experience. For my then wife and me, it became clear that our life together was not meant to last for ever.

Our marriage had been struggling in the years before my coma, and my significant change brought us to an amicable parting.

My newly awakened energy sometimes seemed out of control, though it also never harmed me. While I was writing Proof Of Heaven, a massive branch tore itself away from the oak tree outside my study window and landed parallel to one outside wall.

No sooner had my sons and I sawed it up for firewood, baffled as to why a healthy tree should lose a limb, than another giant branch fell — this time along the adjoining wall of the house, at a 90-degree angle to the first.

That alarmed me so much that I called a tree surgeon . . . only to be told the tree was in fine condition, with no rot or insect damage.

There was no good reason why those branches fell. It was as if some giant hand had snapped them off. But one thing was certain: if either one had hit the house, it would have smashed down to the foundations.

Little wonder that, around this time, one friend told me: ‘You are sitting on a maelstrom of energy!’

Just as my senses were heightened, so were my memories — at least those rooted in my near-death experience.

This is common: more than half of people who have near-death experiences are astonished by their highly intense perceptions. It is as if reality has become more real, and yet none of it is as truly real as their memories of the afterlife.

In order to bring this whirling energy under control, I began to explore other ways to understand the brain than the merely medical.

In the Eighties, I discovered, the Dalai Lama — the Buddhist spiritual leader and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize — began working with Western doctors to combine everything that science, mysticism and religion can teach us about the mind. He calls this ‘contemplative neuroscience’.

For me, one of the most effective Buddhist practices is a form of meditation called mindfulness.

I find I can accomplish it by placing all my attention on whatever activity is taking place, whether it is walking, sitting quietly or just drinking a cup of coffee.

Mindfulness involves the constant awareness of the breath and the body, to move the mind’s attention away from negative or distressing thoughts.

As my attention remains focused only on the present moment, my mind eventually becomes free of all other distractions.

Looking back, I realise I did this instinctively when I was practising neurosurgery. I saw the operating theatre as a sanctuary where I could focus exclusively on my task. Time appeared to contract in this state, and a procedure that lasted hours might seem to be over in a matter of minutes.

By getting the brain ‘out of the way’, we can explore the world of universal consciousness.

Many of the world’s greatest geniuses have understood this, and achieved it in individual ways.

Physicist Albert Einstein would sometimes drift in a small sailing boat, staring into the sky as his imagination wandered, and new possibilities for explaining reality came to him.

Inventor Thomas Edison learned to work for days on little sleep. He would sit, with weights in his hands, and when he began to nod off, the weights would fall . . . waking him up. At these moments, between sleep and wake, some of his most brilliant ideas would come to him, and he would be ready to write them down.

The novelist Robert Louis Stevenson used another technique, travelling to the edge of dreams to harvest ideas for his stories.

All of these men were active participants in the pursuit of inspiration through free-form daydreaming, a level of awareness known as hypnagogia — the borderline of sleep.

Meditators, prophets and mystics have done this since the dawn of time. Perhaps this receptive state of being is the ultimate foundation of all our great religions. After reading my book Proof Of Heaven, the Dalai Lama invited me to join him to discuss modern scientific views on reincarnation.

He said there were three sorts of phenomena. The first was the most obvious — events that we perceive with our ordinary five senses.

The second was more subtle: hidden phenomena which go unobserved but which can be deduced from other evidence.

The third was the most tantalising — hidden phenomena, which can only be experienced personally, such as a dream, a secret wish, or a near-death experience.

These can be told but they might not be believed.

Unless you’ve had such an experience yourself, you can’t know with certainty that it took place, and so cannot investigate it using conventional scientific methods.

But first-hand experiences are vital to our understanding. We have to trust the experiences of others while cultivating our own, so that we can compare them.

And that’s what I, as a scientist, am most interested in. Mysteries are around every corner — we just need to learn to pay attention.

• Adapted from Living In A Mindful Universe by Dr Eben Alexander and Karen Newell, published by Piatkus Books at £14.99. To order a copy for £11.99 (20 pc discount, valid until December 16), go to www.mail shop.co.uk/books or call 0844 571 0640. P&p free on orders over £15  

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The U.S. Government has been covering up evidence of extraterrestrial visits for more than 50 years an array of 20 retired Air Force, F.A.A. and intelligence officers said…

The 20 witnesses were a fraction of the 400 who are willing to testify under oath and under congressional immunity…

Image: Moon UFO - Anomaly.

Credit: TheRealJimmyRoberts1

December 2017; nothing has changed, the U.S. Government and NASA still cover-up evidence of the existence of interstellar alien spacecraft in our solar system and extraterrestrial visits to our planet.

Image: Moon UFO - Anomaly.

Credit: TheRealJimmyRoberts1.

Even the Cassini probe made clear images of Saturn’s moons, like Promethius, Atlas, Pan, Daphnes and a Trojan follower of Thethys. Moons that may not be moons at all but huge extraterrestrial space craft cloaked as moons, like the Martian moon Phobos which is probably also a cloaked alien satellite.

Image: Saturn's Moon Promethius.

Credit: TheRealJimmyRoberts1.

Image: Saturn's Moon Atlas.

Credit: TheRealJimmyRoberts1.

Image: Saturn's Moon Pan.

Credit: TheRealJimmyRoberts1.

More and more individuals are no longer accepting the UFO and alien cover-up!

TheRealJimmyRoberts1 is one of the persons who not accept any longer the silence of the U.S. Government and NASA and has started his own investigation to bring out the truth.

Image: Saturn's Moon Daphnes.

Credit: TheRealJimmyRoberts1.

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

They Are Here: Huge Alien Craft In Our Solar System

Strong pictorial evidence of alien spacecraft from the 1972 Apollo16 Mission to the moon as well as from the Cassini probe images of Saturn’s moons.

Bright Red UFO Moves Erratically Over Gloucester

The skies over Gloucester became the centre of attention after a bright red object was observed moving erratically last week.

Luke Kane spotted a moving object in the sky over Gloucester Quays around 6:30 pm on November 28. He saw the bright red object moving in different directions in a strange movement that he has never seen before. The UFO also would pulsate, according to Kane.

Kane believed that he could not have been the only person to witness the strange bright red.

No official explanation to the mystery at the moment and there is a big possibility it would remain an unsolved case forever.

Some experts in drone say that the flying object seems familiar to them. They say it could be a drone taking excellent photos of the city. They explain that the erratic movements could be due to the operator losing control of the drone after maybe the battery suddenly died.

They say that people in Gloucester have nothing to be afraid as Martians are not coming just yet. The UFO could be a drone taking amazing photos of Gloucester from above.

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

The Week's Most Amazing Stories from Space!

Photo Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Photo Credit: ESO/MUSE HUDF Collaboration

Photo Credit: Bill Ingalls/NASA

Photo Credit: Missile Defense Agency/U.S. Department of Defense

Photo Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum)

Photo Credit: NASA

5. Ready? Set? Build a Martian habitat!

Registration has opened to enter Phase 3 of the space agency's 3D Printed Habitat Challenge, in which participants will develop ways to build shelters on Mars and the moon using materials likely found on those celestial bodies.

[Full Story: NASA Launches New Phase of 3D Habitat Challenge with $2 Million Prize]

Photo Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

Photo Credit: China Academy of Sciences

Photo Credit: Roscosmos

Photo Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Advancements in AI Are Rewriting Our Entire Economy

 

Getty Images

{ https://futurism.com/ }

Welcome to the Age of Digital Warfare

by Abby Norman

 Getty Images

{ https://futurism.com/ }

The Exoplanet Most Likely to Support Alien Life Might Not Be Habitable After All

{ https://www.space.com/ }

NASA to Unveil Exoplanet Discovery Thursday

How Area 51 became the center of alien conspiracy theories

Corey Protin and Matthew Stuart

Area 51 has been the focal point of alien conspiracy theories in America for decades. The remote military base in the Nevada desert has a lot of history, and has been associated with aliens almost since its inception. Here's why. Following is a transcript of the video:

In the early 1950s, US planes were conducting low-flying recon missions over the USSR. But there were constant worries of them being spotted and shot down.

So … in 1954, President Eisenhower authorized the development of a top secret, high-altitude recon aircraft Dubbed Project Aquatone. The program required a remote location that wasn't easily accessible to civilians or spies. Area 51 fit the bill perfectly.

It was in the Nevada desert near a salt flat called Groom Lake. No one knows exactly why it's called Area 51, but one theory suggests it came from its proximity to the Nevada Nuclear Test Sites. The Nevada Test Site was divided into number-designated areas by the Atomic Energy Commission. The location was already familiar territory for the military, as it had served as a World War II aerial gunnery range.

In the summer of 1955, sightings of "unidentified flying objects" were reported around Area 51. That's because the Air Force had begun its testing of the U-2 aircraft. The U-2 can fly higher than 60,000 feet. At the time, normal airliners were flying in the 10,000 to 20,000 feet range. While military aircraft topped out around 40,000 feet. So if a pilot spotted the tiny speck that was the U-2 high above it, they would have no idea what it was. And they would usually let air traffic control know someone was out there. Which is what led to the increase of UFO sightings in the area. While Air Force officials knew the UFO sightings were U-2 tests, they couldn’t really tell the public. So they explained the aircraft sightings by saying they were "natural phenomena" and "high-altitude weather research."

The testing of the U-2 ended in the late 1950s; but, Area 51 has continued to serve as the testing ground for many aircraft, including the F-117A, A-12, and TACIT BLUE.

No one knows for sure what Area 51 is up to these days. The government never even publicly acknowledged the existence of the base until 2013, with the release of declassified CIA reports. But if you’re ever at the Las Vegas airport, keep an eye out for some small, unmarked, passenger planes in a fenced-off area. They're how Area 51 employees get to work from their homes in Vegas.

This first video was first published on July 13, 2017.

{ http://uk.businessinsider.com/ }

Boeing Vs. Elon: How Dennis Muilenburg Could Actually Beat Musk to Mars

Boeing might have one huge advantage over SpaceX.

By Alasdair Wilkins

SpaceX founder Elon Musk threw down the gantlet Thursday on the race to Mars. He took to Twitter to issue a simple “Do it” in response to Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg’s assertion that the first person on Mars would get there on one of his company’s rockets.

While Musk’s much-publicized Mars dreams have dominated the conversation around human exploration of the red planet, could Muilenburg actually be right? Does Boeing have what it takes to pull ahead of SpaceX and take the first humans to Mars? To answer that, it’s useful to understand just where each company currently stands and where they are hoping to go.

While there still remain plenty of unanswered questions about the specifics of the companies’ Mars plans, it does appear there’s a key difference in how SpaceX and Boeing view themselves in relation to NASA, and that distinction could shape their eventual paths to the red planet.

Musk’s Mars plans see SpaceX as the main driver. The work SpaceX does in low Earth orbit — both right now as a NASA contractor with its Falcon 9 rocket and in the future with its planned successor, the BFR — are about bringing in the funds and resources necessary so that SpaceX can pay for its own Mars plans. Plans can obviously change a lot between now and 2022, when Musk says the first uncrewed BFR will make the journey to Mars, but for now he has consistently described it as an entirely private venture.

Boeing, on the other hand, generally describes itself more as a collaborator with NASA. It is developing the Space Launch System in partnership with the space agency. The SLS is the equivalent of SpaceX’s BFR, in that its primary goal is to carry human beyond low Earth orbit for the first time since Apollo 17, with a trip to Mars very much parts of its long-term goal. But whereas SpaceX would presumably have sole discretion over how the BFR is used, Boeing is developing the SLS for NASA’s eventual use.

This is where it’s worth paying attention to Muilenburg’s specific phrasing in his comments to CNBC’s Jim Cramer: “Eventually we’re going to go to Mars and I firmly believe the first person that sets foot on Mars will get there on a Boeing rocket.”

A Boeing rocket, but not necessarily a Boeing mission — based on its current trajectory, it’s more plausible that a Boeing-built SLS rocket would be used on a NASA mission to Mars. And while NASA has experienced plenty of uncertainty and budgetary cutbacks over the past decade in its efforts to get humans back to the moon or go to Mars, it still remains the only organization, public or private, to ever take humans beyond low Earth orbit, and it has all the budgetary resources of the United States government.

Elon Musk and SpaceX might have the most single-minded commitment to getting humans to Mars, but Boeing’s closer partnership could — emphasis on could — end up giving them an advantage.

Right now, it’s safe to say that SpaceX is quite a ways ahead of Boeing in actually demonstrating what it can do as a commercial spaceflight company. While Musk’s Mars ambitions still have a ways to go before they are realized, SpaceX has established that it’s damn good at launching and recovering uncrewed rockets that can take satellites into orbit and deliver payloads to the International Space Station. Its Falcon 9 rocket has gone 16 for 16 in launches this year, with the long-awaited Falcon Heavy set for its maiden flight in January.

Boeing, on the other hand, has eschewed uncrewed rockets in favor of the development of the CST-100 Starliner, aa capsule designed to carry astronauts to the International Space Station. It’s working on that project as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Development program, which is the space agency’s ongoing effort to support private companies as they develop spacecraft capable of carrying crewed missions to Earth’s orbit.

SpaceX is also involved in that program as it works to redevelop its Dragon capsule to carry people. Boeing and SpaceX are by far the biggest recipients of NASA funding for this project, with Boeing receiving $4.8 billion and SpaceX $3.1 billion of the total $8.3 billion the space agency has invested. And while both companies have pushed the initial deadlines for when their crewed capsules would make their first flights, 2018 is shaping up as a big year for both.

The current plan calls for SpaceX’s Dragon V2.0 to make an uncrewed test flight in February, with a first crewed flight to the ISS provisionally scheduled for June or later. The uncrewed Boeing test is set for June, with a crewed test flight in August and a maiden flight to the ISS in December.

Once one or both of these companies demonstrate they can actually take people into space, we can officially start talking a lot more seriously about who can make it to Mars first. For now, this is mostly speculative, and for all we know it’s entirely possible that it could be NASA and SpaceX, not Boeing, that end up working together to get the first humans to Mars. If nothing else, the next year at least gets us a step closer to taking the companies’ rivalries off of Twitter and onto the launchpad.

Hello! You've made it to the end of the article. Nice. Here's a related video you might like: "SpaceX Falcon 9 Blooper Landing"

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Humanity would welcome the discovery of ET despite fears of an alien invasion, predict psychologists

• Psychologists believe we would be positive about finding out aliens were real
• Scientists looked at responses to five 'alien' announcements in the last 50 years  
• Nasa believes there are dozens of worlds that could harbour alien life
• The space agency believes alien life will be found in the next few decades 

By Phoebe Weston For Mailonline

From ET to Spock, we've always toyed with the idea of extra-terrestrial life -  but how would humans react if it actually turned out to be true?

Psychologists believe we would be positive about finding out we were not alone, according to a study that looked at people's responses to five key 'alien' announcements since 1967 - and they appeared to be largely positive. 

This is despite warnings from scientists such as Stephen Hawking who say we should 'be wary' about answering alien signals.

Research released last week found there are dozens of likely worlds - including Pluto (pictured) and its moons - that could harbour alien life. Researchers at Arizona State University are trying to anticipate how humans would react if a discovery such as this came back positive

WILL WE FIND ALIEN LIFE?

Nasa scientists have claimed alien life could be found within the next few decades.

Experts say the search is heavily guided by characteristics of our own planet, helping scientists to weed out inhospitable worlds from those that may have promise for life, such as the icy moons Enceladus and Europa.

Nasa scientists are looking for environments that contain both oxygen and methane.

When these two gases are found in the same atmosphere, 'you've got something special,' the space agency says.

'There are ways 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.

Michael Varnum, a psychologist at Arizona State University is trying to anticipate how humans would react if a discovery like this came back positive.

'One of the initial questions [of the initiative] that we're curious about is how might we respond if we discover evidence of extraterrestrial life', he told Washington Post.

Published online on a preprint server, the paper looks at the psychological reactions to extraterrestrial life in a 'systematic, careful way'.

In the first experiment Dr Varnum and his colleagues looked at five key events; the discovery of pulsars in 1967; the detection of the 'Wow!' radio signal in 1977; the announcement of fossilised microbes on a Martian meteorite in 1996; the behaviour of Tabby's Star in 2005 and the discovery of exoplanets within the Goldilocks zone in 2015.

In astronomy and astrobiology, the habitable zone is the range of orbits around a star in which a planet can support liquid water.

Since the concept was first presented in 1953, many stars have been shown to have a Goldilocks area, and some of them have one or several planets in this zone, like 'Kepler-186f', discovered in 2014.

Psychologists looked at fifteen articles using a program that scans for positive or negative words. 

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British astronomer Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell was the first person to discover a pulsar in 1967 when she spotted a radio pulsar (artist's impression) which was thought could be alien life

'The reaction seemed to be much more positive than negative,' found Dr Varnum.

Researchers also got 500 people to describe how they would feel if aliens were discovered and how they thought people more generally would react.

Participants said they themselves would feel positive but felt most people would not be so excited about the discovery.

SIGNS OF ALIEN LIFE? 

Discovery of pulsars

British astronomer Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell was the first person to discover a pulsar in 1967 when she spotted a radio pulsar.

Since then other types of pulsars that emit x-rays and gamma rays have also been spotted.

Pulsars are essentially rotating, highly magnatised neutron stars but when they were first discovered it was believed they could come from aliens.

'Wow!' radio signal

In 1977, an astronomer looking for alien life in the nigh sky above Ohio spotted a powerful radio signal so strong that he excitedly wrote 'Wow!' next to his data.

1. In 1977, an astronomer looking for alien life in the nigh sky above Ohio spotted a powerful radio signal so strong that he excitedly wrote 'Wow!' next to his data

The 72-second blast, spotted by Dr Jerry Ehman through a radio telescope, came from Sagittarius but matched no known celestial object.

Conspiracy theorists have since claimed that the 'Wow! signal', which was 30 times stronger than background radiation, was a message from intelligent extraterrestrials.

Fossilised martian microbes

In 1996 Nasa and the White House made the explosive announcement that the rock contained traces of Martian bugs.

The meteorite, catalogued as Allen Hills (ALH) 84001, crashed onto the frozen wastes of Antarctica 13,000 years ago and was recovered in 1984. 

Photographs were released showing elongated segmented objects that appeared strikingly lifelike.

Photographs were released showing elongated segmented objects that appeared strikingly lifelike (pictured)

However, the excitement did not last long. Other scientists questioned whether the meteorite samples were contaminated. 

They also argued that heat generated when the rock was blasted into space may have created mineral structures that could be mistaken for microfossils. 

Behaviour of Tabby's Star in 2005 

The star, otherwise known as KIC 8462852, is located 1,400 light years away and has baffled astonomers since being discovered in 2015.

It dims at a much faster rate than other stars, which some experts have suggested is a sign of aliens harnessing the energy of a star.

The star, otherwise known as KIC 8462852, is located 1,400 light years away and has baffled astonomers since being discovered in 2015 (artist's impression)

Recent studies have 'eliminated the possibility of an alien megastructure', and instead, suggests that a ring of dust could be causing the strange signals.

Exoplanets in the Goldilocks zone in 2015 

In February this year astronomers announced they had spotted a star system with planets that could support life just 39 light years away.

Seven Earth-like planets were discovered orbiting nearby dwarf star 'Trappist-1', and all of them could have water at their surface, one of the key components of life.

Three of the planets have such good conditions, that scientists say life may have already evolved on them. 

Researchers claim that they will know whether or not there is life on any of the planets within a decade, and said 'this is just the beginning.' 

This could be because 'most Americans tend to think, on any desirable trait or ability, that they're better than the average person,' Dr Varnum said.

In the third part of the experiment researchers presented a 1996 article reporting bacteria on a Martian meteorite.

The consensus is now that they were just mineral deposits but those participating in the experiment were left to believe they were forms of life.

They still described their reactions positively, leading Gordon Pennycook, a Yale University psychologist who was not involved in the experiment to say he was 'pretty confident' humans would be pleased if aliens were discovered.

Dr Varnum warned these results were based on American publications and it is possible the rest of the world would respond differently.

Physicist Stephen Hawking has previously warned we we should 'be wary' about answering alien signals, and suggests an advanced civilization could attempt to colonise Earth.

Hawking said if we were to really meet an advanced civilisation, it could be similar to when the Native Americans first encountered Christopher Columbus – and ‘that didn't turn out so well’.

SHOULD WE BE WARY? 

If there are any intelligent alien life forms out there, Stephen Hawking thinks we're playing a dangerous game by trying to contact them.

The physicist believes if aliens discovered Earth, they are likely to want to conquer and colonise our planet.

'If aliens visit us, the outcome could be much like when Columbus landed in America, which didn't turn out well for the Native Americans,' he said in an interview.

But co-founder and former director of the Seti Institute, Jill Tarter, doesn't think this will be the case.

She argues any aliens who have managed to travel across the universe will be sophisticated enough to be friendly and peaceful.

'The idea of a civilisation which has managed to survive far longer than we have...and the fact that that technology remains an aggressive one, to me, doesn't make sense,' she said.

Seven Earth-like planets were discovered orbiting nearby dwarf star 'Trappist-1', and all of them could have water at their surface, one of the key components of life (artist's impression)

Last month Nasa scientists claimed alien life could be found within the next few decades.

Experts say the search is heavily guided by characteristics of our own planet, helping scientists to weed out inhospitable worlds from those that may have promise for life, such as the icy moons Enceladus and Europa.

Nasa scientists are looking for environments that contain both oxygen and methane.

When these two gases are found in the same atmosphere, 'you've got something special,' the space agency says.

'There are ways 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.

Video playing bottom right...

 

 

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