Proof of alien life? TV host captures UFO image in the midst of storm

By Nirmal Narayanan

Figoni soon posted the images on his Facebook page, and it went viral in no time. In his post, Figoni assured that the strange object which he filmed was not a plane. The images soon reached the fingertips of conspiracy theorists and they strongly claimed that it is an alien UFO came from deep space. The object is bright, and it seems the extra-terrestrials have switched on the lights of the saucer to enhance vision during the storm.

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Fernando Figoni

op dinsdag

NO ERA UN AVION, NO ERA UNA BOLSA A ESA DISTANCIA, TRES FOTOS DISTINTAS EL MISMO OBJETO BRILLANTE SE VIO EN DISTINTOS BARRIOS

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After some hours, Figoni posted another image on his Facebook featuring a UFO, and he claimed that this photo was sent by one of his friends. The image features a UFO flying in front of a passenger plane. However, this image does not seem so authentic, and people suspect that CGI has been used to generate it.

UFO sightings are increasing all around the world post-2017. Some days back, a mysterious globe-like UFO was captured in a camera from an Arizona desert, and the YouTube channel which posted the video stated that it was filmed by police officials who were out for patrolling.

A similar UFO sighting happened in Thailand too, but later it was clarified that it was not a UFO but flying saucer-shaped pod clouds.

•  Book 'UFO Contacts in Italy' to reveal first ever photos of 'alien inside UFO'
•  Police officers spot mysterious spherical UFO in Arizona [VIDEO]
•  Former US Navy Pilot who witnessed UFO issues  warning to humanity

{ http://www.ibtimes.sg/ }

'WHAT is it?' TV star stunned after taking THIS eerie photo of 'UFO' in the eye of a storm

A TV and radio presenter took a photograph of dramatic clouds brewing in the distance and later spotted what internet users said was a UFO in the eye of the storm.

{https://www.express.co.uk/ }

New Zealand startup launches huge ‘disco ball’ into space. It’s now the brightest object in the night sky

BY TIBI PUIU

Rocket Lab founder and CEO Peter Beck next to the mirror-covered sphere his company sent into Earth’s orbit.

Credit: Rocket 

An up-and-coming aerospace company from New Zealand made history last week when it deployed what can only be classed as a giant disco ball, of all things, into Earth’s low orbit. The flashing strobe was launched with Electron — a two-stage orbital launch vehicle developed over the last decade by Rocket Lab — alongside a less artistic payload comprised of two commercial satellites.

Turning the planet into a huge planet

Rocket Lab says that the art project called Humanity Star, which was launched on January 21, should now be the brightest object in the night sky. Although it’s now visible between latitudes between 46° north and 46° south, people in mainland United States will eventually be able to see the cosmic disco ball with the naked eye. In time, the object’s orbit will tilt and, provided that the observer and the orbiting strobe are perfectly aligned, almost the entire world will be able to see Humanity Star at night and dawn. Such favorable conditions will occur from March onward.

“No matter where you are in the world, or what is happening in your life, everyone will be able to see the Humanity Star in the night sky,” Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck said in a statement. “For us to thrive and survive, we need to make big decisions in the context of humanity as a whole, not in the context of individuals, organizations or even nations. …We must come together as a species to solve the really big issues like climate change and resource shortages.”

The carbon-fiber geodesic sphere is a little over a meter (3.3 ft) in diameter and is covered in 65 highly reflective panels. Because of its 90-minute polar orbit, the satellite will also be visible to a lot of people.

Humanity Star is designed to be visible to everyone on Earth.

Credit: Rocket Lab.

The New Zealand engineers also took space junk into consideration. Instead of launching new litter into space, the team behind the iridium sphere were careful to set it on a nine-month orbit that will eventually return it to the atmosphere where the satellite will disintegrate. For the curious, there’s a tracking app on the Humanity Star website which you can use to make it easier to spot the sphere.

Of course, Humanity Star isn’t the only man-made object orbiting the Earth which is visible to the naked eye. A classic example is the International Space Station (ISS), which is the size of a football field and whose extended solar panels shine brightly in the sun. Humanity Star, however, flies at a far lower orbit and is essentially covered in mirrors, making it more visible than the ISS.

This was Rocket Lab’s debut orbital flight. Beyond launching a weird art project, Rocket Lab achieved some more practical milestones like performing the first liftoff in New Zealand or the Southern Hemisphere, for that matter.

Not everyone is excited about parading ‘art’ through Earth’s orbit, however. On Twitter, various astronomers expressed their disappointment and concerns. Some, people like Ian Griffin, an astrophotographer and the director of New Zealand’s Otago Museum, even went as far as calling it an “act of environmental vandalism”.

Whether this is merely a publicity stunt or a genuine art project meant to inspire people is entirely up to your own interpretation.

{ https://www.zmescience.com/ }

Two men and two women spent 200 days in a virtual Chinese moon base. Here’s what happened

BY MIHAI ANDREI

Four Chinese volunteers spent 200 days in a simulated space lab in Beijing, breaking the record for the longest stay in a self-sustaining cabin. They had no input from the outside world, grew their own food, and handled their own waste.

Four volunteers lived in the sealed lab to simulate a long-term space mission with no input from the outside world.

Image credits: China National Space Administration.

China’s lunar base plans are becoming more and more serious, but before they actually send astronauts there, they want to know how they can handle the rough conditions on the moon — so they set up a “virtual” base, here on Earth. They called it the Lunar Palace.

The Lunar Palace has two plant modules where pretend astronauts can grow and harvest their own food, as well as a living cabin with living facilities. The cabin is basically a 42 square meter area (450 square feet) containing four sleeping cubicles, a common room, a bathroom, a waste treatment, and even a room for growing animals.

The main focus of the experiment was to see how the Bioregenerative Life Support System (BLSS) functions over a longer period of time in a lunar-like environment. Within the BLSS, humans, animals, plants, and microorganisms are expected to co-exist together safely. Astronauts grow their own food in the form of experimental crops, and they also manage their own waste.

Of course, a secondary objective of the study was to see how the volunteers would withstand the psychological stress of being isolated in such a small cabin.

The four volunteers were biomedicine students from Beihang University, and they handled the situation quite well, the module’s chief designer Liu Hong told Xinhua. As if the entire experience wasn’t challenging enough, the lab hosting the experiment experienced unexpected blackouts. This “challenged the system as well as the psychological status of the volunteers, but they withstood the test,” Liu said.

Not much else has currently been disclosed about the experiments and the mental state of the participants.

It’s not the first time such an experiment was carried out at the Lunar Palace. A successful 105-day trial was carried out in 2014. However, this type of experiment has been going on for a long time, since the Soviets had three people spend 180 days in a similarly closed ecosystem in the early 1970s.

In recent years, China has spent tremendous sums to advance its space program, and the results are showing.

Ultimately, China wants to build its own moon base within a decade, potentially in a partnership with the European Union. The Chinese Space Program is one of the world’s most active, advanced, and successful. Aside from the moon base, they want to establish a crewed space station (much like the International Space Station), send an unmanned rover to Mars, and exploit the Earth-Moon space for industrial development — namely, developing space-based solar powered satellites that would beam energy back to Earth.

{ https://www.zmescience.com/ }

Two men and two women spent 200 days in a virtual Chinese moon base. Here’s what happened

BY MIHAI ANDREI

Four Chinese volunteers spent 200 days in a simulated space lab in Beijing, breaking the record for the longest stay in a self-sustaining cabin. They had no input from the outside world, grew their own food, and handled their own waste.

Four volunteers lived in the sealed lab to simulate a long-term space mission with no input from the outside world.

Image credits: China National Space Administration.

China’s lunar base plans are becoming more and more serious, but before they actually send astronauts there, they want to know how they can handle the rough conditions on the moon — so they set up a “virtual” base, here on Earth. They called it the Lunar Palace.

The Lunar Palace has two plant modules where pretend astronauts can grow and harvest their own food, as well as a living cabin with living facilities. The cabin is basically a 42 square meter area (450 square feet) containing four sleeping cubicles, a common room, a bathroom, a waste treatment, and even a room for growing animals.

The main focus of the experiment was to see how the Bioregenerative Life Support System (BLSS) functions over a longer period of time in a lunar-like environment. Within the BLSS, humans, animals, plants, and microorganisms are expected to co-exist together safely. Astronauts grow their own food in the form of experimental crops, and they also manage their own waste.

Of course, a secondary objective of the study was to see how the volunteers would withstand the psychological stress of being isolated in such a small cabin.

The four volunteers were biomedicine students from Beihang University, and they handled the situation quite well, the module’s chief designer Liu Hong told Xinhua. As if the entire experience wasn’t challenging enough, the lab hosting the experiment experienced unexpected blackouts. This “challenged the system as well as the psychological status of the volunteers, but they withstood the test,” Liu said.

Not much else has currently been disclosed about the experiments and the mental state of the participants.

It’s not the first time such an experiment was carried out at the Lunar Palace. A successful 105-day trial was carried out in 2014. However, this type of experiment has been going on for a long time, since the Soviets had three people spend 180 days in a similarly closed ecosystem in the early 1970s.

In recent years, China has spent tremendous sums to advance its space program, and the results are showing.

Ultimately, China wants to build its own moon base within a decade, potentially in a partnership with the European Union. The Chinese Space Program is one of the world’s most active, advanced, and successful. Aside from the moon base, they want to establish a crewed space station (much like the International Space Station), send an unmanned rover to Mars, and exploit the Earth-Moon space for industrial development — namely, developing space-based solar powered satellites that would beam energy back to Earth.

{ https://www.zmescience.com/ }

When someone says they plan to “break the vacuum,” this probably means they’re a parent about to attempt to clean a room normally occupied by a teenager … unless they’re a laser physicist. Then it means they’re getting ready to use a laser to rip a hole in empty space and pull out the matter/antimatter combo of electrons and positrons. Isn’t ripping holes in space the job of the Large Hadron Collider? Regardless of who is doing the ripping, is this a good idea?

As with many sci-fi-to-real-life stories these days (see “Cloning monkeys”), this news comes out of China, where physicist Ruxin Li is leading a team at the Shanghai Superintense Ultrafast Laser Facility (is “superintense ultrafast” redundant or scary or both?) in developing a laser that will create the world’s most powerful light pulses. How powerful? The team has already built a record-breaking laser that distills light into pulses measuring 5.3 million billion watts or petawatts. They’re nearing completion of a 10 petawatt laser that is 1,000 times more powerful than the world’s electrical grids … combined. And they’re just five years away from a machine with the doomsday-ish name of the Station of Extreme Light that will be capable of pulses reaching 100 petawatts.

What do they plan to point the Station of Extreme Light at? As usual, the researchers have a noble cause (also called a ‘cover story’) and a sinister one. The ‘good’ purpose of building a cylinder of sapphire coated with titanium capable of shooting a 100 petawatt laser that can create temperatures never seen on Earth is to help develop new medicines.

Once that’s done, the fun starts. Aiming the Station of Extreme Light at a space vacuum will ‘break the vacuum’ and prove Albert Einstein’s E=mc2 in the reverse direction by creating matter (in this case, electrons and their antimatter counterparts – positrons) from energy. Or, as Li puts it:

“It would mean you could generate something from nothing.”

What could possibly go wrong?

That probably depends on where you aim the Station of Extreme Light. China is working on lasers to put in orbit and disintegrate space junk, debris and perhaps dangerous asteroids. The U.S. Department of Energy is developing ground lasers to knock out drones. In its non-weapon form, the Station of Extreme Light is a particle accelerator that is, unlike the Large Hadron Collider, inexpensive, small and easy to build. That could put the LHC out of business … and potentially put that power in the hands of entities whose purposes may not be as noble as those of government – OK, that’s debatable but we’ve got to believe that someone will control this power. Remember, it’s just the opposite of nuclear power’s matter-to-energy side of Einstein’s theory … and we know how that worked out.

One last thing to think about. China is leading the research in these vacuum-ripping lasers and Russia is not far behind. The U.S. is.

“It would mean you could generate something from nothing.”

Is it time to stop dreaming of phasers and ripping holes and start working on harnessing the power of lasers for something other than a weapon?

{ http://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

Alien update: South Texas man films several UFOs hovering across the sky [VIDEO]

By Nirmal Narayanan

A screen grab from YouTube video

{ http://www.ibtimes.sg/ }

The Maury Island UFO Sighting: History or Hoax, or Does it Even Matter?

By Steve Dunkelberger

What has come down through history as the “Maury Island Incident” remains a matter of investigation, speculation and debate through the retelling of the story in pop culture, investigations and beer-fueled discussions.

The incident involved a reported sighting of flying saucers zooming in the skies off the shores of Commencement Bay’s Maury Island on June 21, 1947, and has fueled conspiracy theories, dives into government archives in search of lost evidence, provided the basis for a movie and is mentioned during walking tours around Tacoma largely because the story is just too juicy to not to be repeated.

“I talk about it all the time,” Tacoma Ghost Toursoperator Andrew Hansen said, noting that while some walking tour attendees sometimes know tidbits of the legend, he tries to tell just what is known rather than what is believed. “I try to stick with as many of the facts as I can.”

That can be a tough job since the conspiracy-filled tale makes for a great story that raises more questions than answers.

The most common retelling of the story has it that Howard Dahl was captaining a boat on the afternoon of June 21, 1947. He was searching the waters for floating logs that he could salvage from the water and sell to the local mills that lined Tacoma’s tideflats. It was an otherwise normal day, when he and his son spotted six flying discs in the sky. Two reportedly collided, damaging one of them. It began to sputter and emit smoke. Chunks of the craft fell from the sky, either splashing in the water or peppering the deck of his salvage boat. Dahl’s son Charles was burned by the falling bits of metal, and his dog was reportedly struck and killed. The mysterious aircraft then flew away and disappeared.

There were other local “sightings” of flying saucers that summer as well. A businessman and avid pilot Kenneth Arnold, for example, then told a story of his own saucer sighting. He reportedly saw nine saucers while flying around Mount Rainier. Stories of flying saucer sightings were in the news, both mainstream newspapers and pulp publications, all with varying degrees of conspiracy and coverup with little evidence to support their claims.

In the story of the sightings by Dahl and Arnold, federal investigators interviewed the two, collected samples of the “saucer slag” the damaged disc had dropped onto Dahl’s boat and left with a warning against telling their stories anymore. Their accounts were later retold in Gray Barker‘s book “They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers,” and gave rise to the term “men In black” in mainstream culture as a reference to secretive government agents setting out to hide evidence and coverup alien encounters because Dahl stated the investigators wore the standard “G-man” black suits.

“Paris in Orbit” was the theme of a rollerskating dance party in 1959 at the Tacoma Roller Bowl along South Tacoma Way.

Further fueling the fire of conspiracy was “the fact” that the investigators would later die in a plane crash while transporting the evidence for analysis at Hamilton Field in California. As fate would have it, the crash outside of Kelso was the first plane disaster of the newly formed Air Force, following its separation from the Army to be its own branch of military service.

Here’s where the story begins to fall apart, however. No damage to Dahl’s boat could be found. His son showed no sign of injuries. No evidence that a dog even existed was ever found. The fragments of the saucer that were reportedly recovered were traced back to the nearby copper smelter. The mysterious “men in black” could have easily been investigators calling the whole thing a hoax and warning against Crisman and Dahl retelling the story or face fraud charges for wasting their time. Cap that with the fact that the story wasn’t widely known until after the more famous “Roswell Incident” in New Mexico made national news a few weeks later.

To make the story even weirder, Crisman would later be questioned about him being one of the men on the “grassy knoll” at John F. Kennedy’s assassination. He would later reinvent himself as “Dr. Jon Gold,” an ultra-rightwing talk show host on KAYE Radio that aired in Tacoma in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

“We referred to it as radio hate,” former Tacoma Mayor and president of the Tacoma Historical Society Bill Baarsma said of Crisman’s style of radio commentary. “Everything was ‘fake news’ that promoted conspiracy theories about local government and secret deals that were based on secret sources and tips rather than facts and logic.”

What actually happened in 1947 remains a matter of speculation and research to this day. Facts are few and stories are plenty, but whatever the case the Maury Island proves to provide colorful characters, tales of missing evidence and a twist of fantasy wrapped around truth – all the making of a great mystery that will never be solved.

{ http://www.southsoundtalk.com/ }

Award-Winning UFO Sighting Movie Comes to Yelm

Triad Theater Will Screen ‘The Maury Island Incident’ About Mysterious Happenings Just North of Tacoma Above Puget Sound

By Nisqually Valley News

 

Book Review: UFO Contacts in Italy

Posted by: Brian Allan 

As an example of the fact that UFOs and ufology are a world-wide phenomenon, the redoubtable Philip Mantle and Flying Disk Press (one of the very few publishers still keeping the public informed about the history of ufology) takes us to what has to be the golden age of subject. This time the revelations come from Roberto Pinotti and the files of ‘Centro Ufologico Nazionale’ (CUN) the leading Italian society who still investigates the phenomenon. Translated from the Italian language, this book is volume one in a series that, in this case, covers the years from 1907 until 1978 and 1958 was especially productive.

The book, which is profusely illustrated with some remarkable images, is an absolute treasure trove of information and the reader can open it at any page and is guaranteed to find something of interest. That said, rather that outright examples of visitations from ETs, the vast majority of examples presented here appear to be ‘high strangeness’ encounters rather than anything else, which are of course still valid and perhaps even more interesting, but not proof of anything extraterrestrial. In fact the book takes a ‘no questions asked’ approach and a refreshingly literalist view of the subject and has obviously been compiled and written by a true believer.

Italian UFO Researcher and Author Robert Pinotti

The author was a friend of, and collaborated with the late Gordon Creighton who was the long time editor of the UK’s Flying Saucer Review (FSR) and his influence becomes clear as one reads the book. Some of the images are astonishing and there are a few of what is claimed to be the inside of a UFO (pages 96 & 97) which also show the pilot who is human looking and is wearing what look like wrap-round sunglasses. There is also a report of analysis carried out on metallic residue left at a landing site, and surprisingly the residue comprises only earthly constituents in various proportions. This is encouraging if, for no other reason, than it seems the elements in the periodic table are universal. There is no doubt that for the dedicated ufologist this book is an essential part of their library and deserved to be read and if anyone is interested the CUN website is:

The book is now available on Amazon in paperback and kindle. You can contact the author and the publisher via the FLYING DISK PRESS blog at:
http://flyingdiskpress.blogspot.co.uk/

{ http://www.openminds.tv/ }

Five UFOs Moving In Formation Above Basingstoke

Claims of UFOs surrounded Basingstoke after five mystery lights were recorded on video appearing to fly in formation above the town.

The unnamed man said that he and a colleague noticed the lights in the sky while at work.

In a witness report to MUFON, he said he went outside with a workmate to get something out of the van, and saw one light slowly moving around the back of a building.

Then another one became visible to them from behind the building at a constant distance. Seconds later, another three came to view as if they were already there but were not lit up.

The witness said that after around a minute, they started to swing around slowly and turned around 220 degrees.

After another around a minute, two lights got further away. One stopped, and one appeared to carry on barely being a visible light source.

At this point, he said, they seemed to swing around again in formation.

To get a better view, they decided to run back inside the building and get into the roof.

Unfortunately, they could not see anything because of the fog. They decided to run back down, but those mysterious objects were nowhere to be found.

He said they did not hear noise and see flashing lights, ruling out helicopters and civilian aircraft.

He also ruled out searchlights shining up from the ground as they could clearly see the surface area of the lights getting wider as it shone down, which could entail that the light source was in the sky.

The sighting reportedly lasted around 30 minutes, and the witness had managed to take roughly four minutes of video.

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

Doemdagklok weer minuut dichter bij Apocalyps: “Het is twee voor twaalf” - HLN.be

Bron: Washington Post, CBC

De klok, die in gebruik is sinds 1947, is een metafoor die aangeeft hoe dicht we staan bij de vernietiging van de aarde. Een groep wetenschappers en nucleaire experts die zich gezamenlijk het ‘Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ noemen, komen op regelmatige basis samen om de tijd op de Doemdagklok te bespreken.

Lees ook

Waarom het einde van de wereld echt nabij is, volgens deze wetenschapper

“Met grote bezorgdheid passen we de Doemdagklok vanaf vandaag aan,” zegt Rachel Bronson, voorzitter en CEO van het Bulletin: “Het is nu twee minuten voor middernacht”.

Nucleaire en klimaatbedreigingen

De organisatie doet de nieuwe aanpassing omdat “president Trump en andere wereldleiders er niet in slagen om de op de loer liggende bedreigingen van een nucleaire oorlog en de klimaatverandering aan te pakken,” luidt het.

“De wereld is nu niet alleen gevaarlijker dan een jaar geleden: het is van Wereldoorlog II geleden dat de situatie nog zo dreigend was,” schrijven Lawrence M. Krauss en Robert Rosner, twee medewerkers van het Bulletin in The Washington Post. “De Doemdagklok staat in feite even dicht bij middernacht als in 1953, toen de vrees om de Koude Oorlog mogelijk op haar hoogtepunt was.”

De oplopende spanningen tussen de VS en Noord-Korea dragen volgens de wetenschappers bij tot de aanpassing van de Doemdagklok. “Zeggen dat de nucleaire toestand van de wereld schrijnend is, is een onderschatting van het gevaar en de hoogdringendheid,” zeggen Kraus en Rosner.

Nog slechter dan een jaar geleden

Vorig jaar stelden de wetenschappers de klok nog met een halve minuut bij, van 23:57 naar 23:57:30. “De waarschijnlijkheid van een globale catastrofe is erg hoog en de acties die nodig zijn om de risico’s op een ramp te verkleinen moeten erg dringend genomen worden,” stelde het Bulletin toen.

De eerste keer dat de Doemdagklok werd bijgesteld na haar ingebruikname in 1947, was twee jaar later, nadat de Sovjet-Unie met succes haar eerste atoombom testte. Toen schoof de wijzer van de klok van 23:53 uur naar 23:57 uur.

Het gebeurde nog maar één keer dat het alarmpeil even hoog stond als vandaag: in 1953 gaf de klok aan dat het twee voor twaalf was nadat zowel de VS als de Sovjet-Unie succesvolle proeven met kernbommen hielden binnen een tijdsspanne van amper zes maanden.

In 1991 leek de wereld er het best voor te staan, toen stond de wijzer op 17 minuten voor middernacht.

Verkiezing van Trump

“Telkens wanneer de klok wordt aangepast, beantwoorden we twee vragen,” zei Rachel Bronson vorig jaar in een interview: “Is de wereld veiliger? Of loopt ze een groter risico dan een jaar geleden? En is het veiliger of een groter risico dan ooit eerder in de geschiedenis van de klok?”

Met de aanpassing vragen de wetenschappers aandacht voor wereldwijde crises die volgens hen het bestaan van de mensheid in gevaar brengen. Daarbij richten de wetenschappers de aandacht op de beschikbaarheid van kernwapens en de bereidheid van de wereld om ze te gebruiken. De laatste jaren brengen ze ook de dreigende klimaatverandering mee in rekening.

De organisatie haalde vorig jaar ook de verkiezing van Donald Trump aan als een belangrijke factor, “omdat hij beloofd heeft de vooruiting op beide fronten (kernwapens en klimaatverandering, red.) te verhinderen,” schreven twee leden van het Bulletin vorig jaar. “Nooit eerder heeft het Bulletin beslist om de klok vooruit te zetten voornamelijk omwille van de stellingen van slechts één persoon. Maar wanneer die persoon de nieuwe president is van de Verenigde Staten, dan doen zijn woorden ertoe.”

Symbolisch

Het Bulletin beklemtoont dat de klok symbolisch is en enkel dient als “dringende waarschuwing voor globaal gevaar”.

“We hopen dat de bijstelling van deze klok geïnterpreteerd zal worden zoals ze bedoeld is: als een dringende waarschuwing voor globaal gevaar. De tijd voor wereldleiders om het op de loer liggende nucleaire gevaar en de voortdurende opmars van de klimaatverandering aan te pakken, is al lang voorbij. Het is nu de tijd voor wereldburgers om dringende maatregelen te eisen. Het is tijd om de Doemdagklok terug te draaien,” stellen ze.

{ https://www.hln.be/ } 

In het geheim gelanceerde discobal schijnt als helderste ster aan de hemel -  HLN.be

BRON : The Guardian

Het nieuwe ruimtevaartbedrijf Rocket Lab breidde onze sterrenhemel vorige vrijdag een beetje uit. De start-up lanceerde toen in alle stilte een raket in een baan rond de aarde. Dat deed het vanop een schapenboerderij op het schiereiland Mahia in Nieuw-Zeeland.

De lancering zorgde voor veel gejubel en trots in Nieuw-Zeeland. Peter Black, oprichter en CEO van het opkomende Rocket Lab, sprak van een bijna ongeëvenaarde stap in de commerciële verkenning van de ruimte.

Discobal

Wat er zo spectaculair is aan de raket, is dat ze naast de klassieke conventionele raketten ook de ‘Humanity Star’ draagt. Die nagemaakte ster bestaat uit een drie meter brede bol en is gemaakt van koolstofvezel. Verder is ze uitgerust met 65 sterk reflecterende panelen en draagt ze daardoor de bijnaam ‘discobal’.

Volgens het bedrijf zal de bol de stralen van de zon naar de aarde weerspiegelen en een knipperlicht creëren dat overal ter wereld zichtbaar is. Er wordt zelfs verwacht dat hijvoor negen maanden lang het helderste object aan de sterrenhemel zal zijn en pas zijn helderheid zal verliezen wanneer hij opnieuw de aardse atmosfeer bereikt.

Volgens Rocket Lab moet de ster een herinnering zijn aan onze kwetsbare plek in het universum. Black voegt daar aan toe dat de bol harmonie en een gedeelde ervaring voor iedereen op de wereld zal creëren.

Lichtvervuiling

Toch blijkt de functie van de spectaculaire uitvinding niet geheel rozengeur en maneschijn. Omdat het hun onderzoek belemmert, vormt lichtvervuiling nu al een enorm probleem voor astronomen. De introductie van een glinsterende discobal in de ruimte wordt dan ook niet overal toegejuicht.

Over de hele wereld uiten astronomen zich op zowel gefundeerde als minder diplomatieke manieren over de Humanity Star. Zo vertelde professor Richard Easter aan The Guardian dat Rocket Lab onbedoeld zijn beroep bijzonder zwaar getroffen heeft en ook zijn collega’s winden er op Twitter geen doekjes om.

Wat er nu gaat gebeuren met de lichtgevende discobal in de ruimte en of hij al dan niet verwijderd zal worden, is nog niet duidelijk. Voor wie de bol nog zou willen waarnemen kan op een online map steeds contoleren waar de bol zich precies bevindt en in welke richting moet worden gekeken om hem goed waar te nemen.

View image on Twitter

Science Insider@SciInsider

For the next 9 months, the brightest object in the night sky will be a tiny, disco-ball-like satellite http://read.bi/2DIApYc 

7:33 PM - Jan 24, 2018

•  33 Replies
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Twitter Ads info and privacy

{ https://www.hln.be/ }

Flying Saucer becomes visible in the sky over Jamaica

A strange phenomenon appeared in the sky over St. Ann, Jamaica on January 25, 2018.

Stoney Vill, who has filmed the phenomenon, wonders what the strange ring of lights in the clouds could be.

The video shows sun rays shining from behind a cloud formation, but light from the sun seems to be bending around a disk at the top of the cloud

When zoomed in on the disk, it clearly shows the solid contours of a UFO, a cloaked flying saucer that became temporarily visible. (See video 0.06sec).

  

{ http://ufosightingshotspot.blogspot.com/

LSU professor debunks alien megastructure myth

• A professor from Spain says we’re not ready to meet extraterrestrial life
  
• Gabriel De la Torre surveyed 116 students from the US, Italy and Spain
• He found that many had a lack of knowledge in a number of areas
• They also had religious beliefs that would make finding ET a ‘big shock’
• We also focus too much on daily problems than bigger things like Earth
• He concludes we need to improve our ‘global consciousness’

Finding extraterrestrial signals has been dreamed about for decades.

But a researcher from the University of Cádiz in Spain says we shouldn’t be looking – because we’re not ready to meet aliens.

Gabriel De la Torre revealed to MailOnline how his survey of students showed the general level of ignorance and influence of religion would leave us shocked if we made first contact.

A study by Professor Gabriel De la Torre from the University of Cádiz in Spain claims that we’re not ready to make first contact. He claims we’re not prepared mentally or ethically to meet beings unlike ourselves and we should try to improve our ‘global consciousness’

Since 1984 the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (Seti) Institute has been looking for signs of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe.

To date nothing has been found, although the search continues unabated.

Members of the project are now going further by sending out messages from Earth (Active Seti) to try and contact other lifeforms.

But De la Torre, a professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Cádiz and participant in previous projects such as Esa’s Mars 500 (a simulated mission to Mars on Earth), has carried out a study that he claims indicates we are not ready to make contact.

In the study he sent a questionnaire to 116 students in Spain, the US and Italy.

De la Torre tells MailOnline he used students because they ‘will be the future politicians, scientists, the people in charge, so I wanted to know what their knowledge was.’

THE RESULTS AT A GLANCE

The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (Seti) Institute was established in 1984. Since then it has used a number of observatories around the world, like the Allen Telescope Array (pictured), to try and find alien signals from another world, but so far nothing has been found.

The questions were split into five sections: religious beliefs, the environment, space-related knowledge, their daily activities and their opinions on life issues.

‘In all those areas I defined a different type of question based on other studies that I think related to Seti research,’ De la Torre says.

These included questions such as how likely they thought life was to exist on other planets, what year man first walked on the moon and what the largest planet in the solar system is.

The results were somewhat disconcerting for De la Torre. For example only 82 per cent of the students knew the first moon landing was in 1969.

‘The conclusions were that scientific knowledge, especially the knowledge related to space among college students, is not good,’ he continues.

‘So I think space agencies should increase education efforts.’

On 16 November 1974 the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico (pictured) was used to send out a signal called the Arecibo message, a ‘calling card’ from Earth to potential alien races. However De la Torre says we shouldn’t perform ‘Active Seti’ like this as we aren’t ready to make contact

But ultimately it is our lack of appreciation for our own planet and our place in the universe that would be our downfall, he says.

‘We’re not ready to talk to extraterrestrials because global consciousness is not developed enough in the population,’ he concludes.

‘People have daily life problems and the government doesn’t pay attention to global issues like the planet and the environment.

‘That makes us a species too focused on daily life problems, we don’t have an awareness of our surroundings.

‘It’s like when a meteor falls in some place on the planet, it’s big news. But that’s a regular real possibility.

‘If we have a more global consciousness about our situation on the planet, how fragile the planet is, maybe that’s a step in the evolution of our consciousness as a species.

‘There could be other intelligent life out there and it could be really different from us physically, mentally, socially and even morally.

‘They could maybe not even be biological, they could be robots.

‘Right now I don’t think as a species we are ready.

‘Of course some people are ready, but as a species I think it would be a big shock.’

Source www.dailymail.co.uk

{http://alien-ufo-sightings.com/category/aliens/ }

NASA's Bold Plan to Save Earth From Killer Asteroids - Alien UFO Sightings

Just beyond Earth’s home in the solar system, about 94 million miles from the Sun, a coal-black asteroid slowly rotates as it orbits our star. It’s about 1,650 feet across, with a slight bulge around the middle, like a spinning top. Its low density means it’s not solid, but instead it’s likely a crumbly pile of carbon-rich rocks held together by gravity.

The asteroid is called Bennu, and every six years, its egg-shaped orbital path brings it just 185,000 miles from Earth — roughly 53,000 miles closer than our moon. In about 200 years, there’s a 1-in-2,700 chance it could sail close enough for Earth’s gravity to reel it in. That would be very bad.

The impact would excavate a crater nearly three miles wide and 1,500 feet deep. Locations three miles away would be buried under 50 feet of rock raining down. It would trigger a 6.7-magnitude earthquake. But the real damage would come from the air burst, caused by the meteor hurtling through the atmosphere, which could collapse buildings and tear down trees up to 30 miles away.

Luckily for us, asteroids the size of Bennu, and giant asteroids like the one that helped kill the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, don’t cross Earth’s path often. But smaller ones do all the time. They enter our atmosphere as meteors, where many blow up in mid-air; some make their way to the ground or sea. The good news is that we’re getting better at finding them — but we’re still unprepared if one does make its way to Earth.

Partly to help with this, a NASA spacecraft called OSIRIS-REx is on its way to Bennu, where it will collect several pounds of asteroid samples and return them to Earth. By baking those samples and melting them down, scientists will learn what the asteroid is like, how the solar system’s rocky worlds were made, and how to protect Earth from these errant rocks — whether by pushing them away, breaking them up, or using the sun’s warmth to nudge them a different direction.

In that way, Bennu may become the asteroid that saves us all.

NASA is on an asteroid binge these days. Earlier in January, the space agency announced it is planning two more missions to these solar system crumbs over the next few years. The Lucy spacecraft will fly to Jupiter and study its Trojan asteroids, which trail behind the giant planet. The Psyche mission will travel to an iron asteroid thought to be a leftover planetary core, whose mantle and crust were lost to time and fiery collisions.

These explorations will provide planetary scientists with a wealth of new information, says Bill Bottke, who studies asteroids at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio.

“Locked in asteroids are stories that are telling us what was going on when the planets formed, when the solar nebula was still around,” he says. What processes does it take to form a planet?”

Fortunately, asteroid studies also tell us what it takes to wreck a planet.

This artist’s rendering shows the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft collecting a sample from the asteroid Bennu using a mechanical arm to touch the asteroid’s surface.

NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Via AP

As Bennu whirls around its axis, its inky surface absorbs sunlight like asphalt on a hot day. As it rotates into the dark, that warmth radiates into space and it cools down again. This temperature change gives the asteroid a tiny nudge, called the Yarkovsky effect, which over time will change its orbit.

One of OSIRIS-REx’s main goals is to measure this phenomenon, says Daniel Scheeres, an astronomer at the University of Colorado who works on the project.

“After the mission, we should be able to update all these impact probabilities, and hopefully it will go down,” he says. “Just by testing the theory and validating it with more precise measurements, that can help all of our other predictions of the Yarkovsky effect for all other asteroids.”

Right now we know of about 723,367 asteroids in the solar system, and astronomers from universities and observatories around the world discover new ones almost every day. Based on statistical analysis and detailed searches, scientists think they’ve found more than 90 percent of asteroids about half a mile wide or larger, each of which would cause global extinctions if they impacted earth.

Dedicated searches have also found about 25 percent of the asteroids that measure at least 460 feet across, or roughly the size of a football stadium. But more than a million small asteroids — like one the size of a city bus that exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia, three years ago — are thought to be out there.

Last year, NASA consolidated its asteroid-hunting efforts under a new program called the Planetary Defense Coordination Office, which finds and tracks new objects and will issue warnings about possible impacts. Its budget for the current fiscal year includes $50 million for near-Earth asteroid observations and planetary defense, which is a tenfold increase since the beginning of the Obama administration.

But NASA isn’t the only one hunting asteroids. The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency has already brought back bits of one asteroid, and has another mission en route to a second. The privately funded B612 Foundation, named for the asteroid in the French children’s story “The Little Prince,” is still looking for a cash infusion of $450 million to send its telescope into space to look for near-Earth asteroids.

But all this work to find asteroids and to visit them won’t mean much if we can’t do anything about it. There are a few ways to save Earth from an asteroid. We could push it out of the way, essentially using celestial mechanics to ensure it won’t get pulled in by Earth’s gravity, or we could try to destroy the asteroid before it has a chance to destroy us.

The decision depends on how much time we have and what the asteroid is like, says Jason P. Dworkin, OSIRIS-REx project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Some asteroids might be easy to crumble into pieces; some could break apart into smaller stones that hit Earth in multiple places. Others might require a really big shove.

“If it was up to me, I would send a rocket with some titanium dioxide on it and paint it white, and have that Yarkovksy effect accelerate, and move it away from the Earth,” Dworkin says. Titanium dioxide is a common ingredient in sunscreen, and it looks chalky white. A spacecraft could fly to a dangerous asteroid, enter orbit around it, and spray-paint it.

“If you have something like 50 years, that could deflect it enough, and it might be a whole lot simpler than sending up nuclear weapons,” Dworkin says.

Radar images of the near-Earth asteroid Didymos and its moonlet from 2003. Didymos will be the target of AIDA’s test of a kinetic impact on a small asteroid. 

NASA

If that doesn’t work, a nudge might do the trick. NASA and ESA plan to study this with a mission called the Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment (AIDA), which will slam a satellite into an asteroid in 2020.

If we don’t have 50 years or a fast enough battering ram, we might need to break up an asteroid instead. Catherine Plesko of Los Alamos National Laboratory uses supercomputers to study how to break up asteroids using nuclear explosions and “kinetic impactors,” essentially giant space cannonballs.

“Cannonball technology is actually very good technology, because you’re intercepting the object at very high speed, so it ends up being more effective than conventional high explosives,” Plesko said at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in December. “If you really need a lot of energy, though, a nuclear burst is the way to get the largest amount of energy out to the object in the smallest possible container.”

Her simulations include equations that describe how fluids flow; the boiling and melting points of rocks depending on their densities; how light and energy propagates; and other physics. Then she can slip in a model for a given asteroid, and see how it responds to a cannonball.

If Earth decides to nuke it instead, the blast wouldn’t have to blow up the asteroid from within. The plan would entail launching a rocket with the bomb as its payload (a risky prospect, should it blow up on the launchpad) and aiming right for the asteroid. Exploding the bomb at the asteroid’s surface could disrupt its interior enough to break it apart, shifting its course and limiting the threat to Earth.

“For nuclear deflection, it really is the best idea to do an intensive load of these calculations before we even need to contemplate doing anything real,” Plesko says.

If we do need to do something real, it won’t happen overnight. It takes at least five years to design, build and launch a spacecraft that can deflect or destroy an asteroid or comet, according to astronomer Joseph Nuth of Goddard. He says humans would be wise to build a spacecraft now, and ideally two: an observer that could be quickly dispatched to learn more about the asteroid, and an interceptor that could deflect it.

“If we build it now on a normal schedule, and put that interceptor into storage, we can launch it in less than a year,” he explained at the AGU meeting. “This could mitigate the possibility of a sneaky asteroid coming in from a place that’s hard to observe, like toward the sun.” (The Chelyabinsk meteor was one such asteroid.)

No space agency has a deflector mission yet, but scientists know a lot more today than they did even 15 years ago, Bottke says.

“There was a time where we didn’t have a program to look for objects, and it was done privately. You had guys like [astronomer Eugene] Shoemaker driving out every month to Palomar Observatory to look for them,” Bottke says. “Now we have $50 million annually to look for them. Now we’re getting serious science missions to look at these.”

Bottke and others say the increased awareness of asteroid threats has also been a boon for science, and for the people who study asteroids not only as harbingers of doom, but as messengers from Earth’s creation.

“The probability that any large asteroid is going to hit is in the near future is pretty low,” Bottke says. “So I tend to focus on the more uplifting parts of asteroids.”

Source www.nbcnews.com

{http://alien-ufo-sightings.com/ }

ALIEN LIFE: WEIRD 'BIOSIGNATURES' HELP SCIENTISTS HUNT FOR EXTRATERRESTRIALS

"Mordor Under the Sea" Images Would Terrify Even Sauron

The submarine volcanic wasteland exists off the coast of Australia.

By Peter Hess

We all know Mordor, the volcano-peppered wasteland where Sauron dwells in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, is a fantasy land, right? … Right? Don’t be so sure. As fortune would have it, geologists have discovered a landscape that bears an uncanny resemblance to Mordor — under the ocean.

Using advanced imaging techniques, geologists at the University of Aberdeen in the UK and the University of Adelaide and the Australian Resources Research Centre, both in Australia, in Australia captured the very first 3D images of 26 different volcanic sites in the Bight Basin Igneous Complex off the southern coast of Australia. What they found, buried deep below the seafloor sediment, was an array of craggy, sharp, jagged volcanos ranging from about 200 to 2,050 feet in height — about half the height of Mordor’s Mount Doom, according to The Atlas of Middle-Earth. This wicked-looking landscape includes 26 lava flows as wide as nine miles and as long as 21 miles.

“By using data acquired as part of oil exploration efforts, we have been able to map these ancient lava flows in unprecedented detail, revealing a spectacular volcanic landscape that brings to mind illustrations from Lord of the Rings,” said University of Aberdeen geology lecturer Nick Schofield, Ph.D., one of the study’s co-authors, in a statement earlier in January.

The team published their findings in a paper in the American Geophysical Union journal Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems on November 10, 2017. The study’s authors couldn’t simply glimpse these volcanoes since they were covered in many feet of seafloor sediment. Or, to put it another way:

Advanced imaging was required. In the paper, the researchers describe how this 35 million-year-old landscape may have formed, especially as a result of magmatic intrusions controlling the flow of this undersea magma. The team’s research gives us an unprecedented look at submarine volcanoes, which, despite being incredibly abundant, are very hard to observe. By using seismic reflection to render 3D images of these volcanic regions, the researchers have introduced a powerful new tool to further the study of underwater volcanic activity.

“By using this technique, we have a unique insight into a landscape that has remained hidden for millions of years, highlighting the growing importance of seismic data in studying submarine volcanism,” said Schofield.

Abstract: 

Submarine lava flows are the most common surficial igneous rock on the Earth. However, they are inherently more difficult to study than their subaerial counterparts due to their inaccessibility. In this study, we use newly acquired 3-D (three-dimensional) seismic reflection data to document the distribution and morphology of 26 ancient, buried lava flows within the middle Eocene-aged Bight Basin Igneous Complex, offshore southern Australia. Many of these lava flows are associated with volcanoes that vary from 60 to 625 m in height and 0.3 to 10 km in diameter. Well data and seismic-stratigraphic relationships suggest that the lava flows and volcanoes were emplaced offshore in water depths of <300 m="" the="" lava="" flows="" range="" from="" 0="" 5="" to="" 34="" km="" in="" length="" and="" 1="" 15="" width="" are="" typified="" by="" tabular="" dendritic="" forms="" this="" morphological="" variation="" may="" result="" differing="" effusion="" rates="" or="" volumes="" of="" erupted="" we="" demonstrate="" that:="" contain="" complex="" distribution="" systems="" kipukas="" features="" never-before="" observed="" seismic="" data="" 2="" morphology="" was="" strongly="" controlled="" emplacement="" magmatic="" intrusion-induced="" forced="" folds="" suggests="" that="" intrusions="" play="" an="" important="" role="" controlling="" elsewhere="" our="" study="" highlights="" usefulness="" studying="" manifestation="" submarine="" volcanism="" provides="" quantitative="" on="" extent="" ancient="" volcanic="" province="" along="" southern="" australian="" margin="" span="">

{ https://www.inverse.com/ }

In some ways, the Voynich Manuscript is one of the most mysterious texts known to historians. The text is filled with fantastic, surreal imagery depicting plants, astronomical drawings, strange creatures, and a variety of dreamlike scenes. The origin of the text is unknown, but radiocarbon dating of the vellum it was written on puts its date of creation somewhere in the early 15th century. The book has changed hands numerous times throughout the centuries, passing from alchemists to rare booksellers and even to the King of Hungary. Today the Voynich manuscript resides in Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. The 240-page manuscript is written in an unknown language and script and has so far proven undecipherable even by the world’s most skilled cryptographers.

The manuscript is also full of these strange scenes of “nymphs.”

Every year or two, however, someone claims to have deciphered at least part of the manuscript, with most of the clues suggesting it was some type of pharmacopoeia or botany manual. Of course, one could surmise as much just by looking at the pictures. Just this week, however, a pair of Canadian artificial intelligence researchers claims to have developed an AI algorithm capable of deciphering the entire manuscript. Has the mystery of the Voynich manuscript finally been solved?

Curiously, many of the plants depicted in the manuscript resemble no known plants or flowers. Known on Earth, anyway.

Well, not exactly. But we might be getting close. The University of Alberta’s Greg Kondrak and Bradley Hauer claim to have developed an AI algorithm capable of deducing the language a text was written in with 97% accuracy. According to their algorithm, the Voynich manuscript was likely written in Hebrew and then encrypted using a substitution cipher in which letters are shifted, and the vowels have been removed from words. Kondrak and Hauer’s algorithm found that the first sentence of the text translates as “She made recommendations to the priest, man of the house and me and people.” In its analysis of the first 72 words of the manuscript, the algorithm has identified “farmer,” “light,” “air” and “fire” as the four most common words, with “covfefe” coming in a close fifth.

I knows gobbledygook when I sees it.

While this development is being hailed as a breakthrough in the quest to decipher the Voynich manuscript, the researchers themselves note that their work is far from complete and that hours and hours of human research are still needed to interpret the syntax and meaning behind the words. Will we ever really decipher the Voynich manuscript? What if it was written in gibberish and filled with curious images as a hoax or practical joke? Personally, I find that to be the most likely of all scenarios. And how hilarious would that be, writing a book of nonsense that gets pored over by learned men for centuries? If that’s the case, the author was a comic genius.

{ http://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

It allegedly happened over 60 years ago and at least one government official was a witness to extraterrestrials and their spaceship, which was visited and photographed by two other people. No, this isn’t about the event you’re thinking of … and not that other one you’re thinking of either. According to a new book about UFOs set to be published next month, this occurred in Italy in October 1957 and, while known in that country, has photos that have never been revealed outside of Italy until now. Do you want to believe?

“These rare and extraordinary photographs, as well as two photographs of the alleged extraterrestrial pilot… have been published here for the first time.”

The book is called “UFO Contacts In Italy: Volume One : 1907 – 1978” and it’s described as “a limited selection of some of the most impressive and interesting events from over 12,000 UFO Italian cases CUN has in its files and occurred in Italy during the 20th century.” CUN is Centro Uufologico Nazionale, the National UFO Center of Italy. A nonprofit founded in 1966 to collect information on UFO and alien encounters. The book devotes chapters to specific incidents (“1936: Italian Air Force idroplane formation intercepts a UFO over the Thyrrenian Sea”; “1951: A CE3 with six UFO entities near Ferrara”), time periods (The early Sixties: 1961-1964”; 1957-1958 Strange Sightings) and similar groups (“WWII UFOs”). In addition to detailed reports, the book includes a number of cases that have photographic evidence.

The author of “UFO Contacts In Italy: Volume One : 1907 – 1978” is Dr. Robert Pinotti, the founder of the National UFO Center (CUN) who is considered to be a leading expert in European UFO sightings. In that capacity, he has acted as a UFO consultant for the Italian government and claims to have seen secret documents on encounters from the Italian Department of Defense.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. What about the photos of aliens and the inside of their ship?

Pinotti claims the photographs (seen here) were taken in October 1957 in Francavillia, where humanoid aliens began making periodic visits and interacting with the local residents starting in 1956. The pictures were allegedly taken by two men who boarded the 24-meter (79-ft) spacecraft at the invitation of one of the humanlike ETs, who wore sunglasses as he (it appears to be a he) showed them around the 10-meter (31-ft) cabin and allowed a picture of him wearing sunglasses to protect his eyes. Pinotti claims the photos first appeared in 1958 in a book called “Sono Extraterrestri” by Alberto Perego and have never been seen outside of Italy.

Some ufology experts will recognize this story as the so-called “Friendship case,” a decades-long series of alien encounters in and around Pescara, Italy, from 1956 through the 1970s that was covered in a 2009 documentary, “The Friendship Case,” which contained photographs (although apparently not the ones in the book) and interviews with some of the alleged hundreds of witnesses, many of whom were said to belong to Italian high society and some in government positions.

It appears that Dr. Pinotti is promoting the release of “UFO Contacts In Italy: Volume One : 1907 – 1978” to various media outlets and they have picked up on this particular story and its grainy photo of an alleged alien. However, the rest of the book looks like it will be pretty interesting and promises at least a second volume with additional sightings from 1978 to the present.

It may not be time to believe just yet, but it’s definitely time to read.

UBR- UFO Report 89: Photos of ET and Interior of Craft

{ http://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

Talk Radio with James Gilliland NEW

20th January 2018 – James has been at the forefront of the UFO Community and Conscious Contact for over three decades. Owner of the ECETI Ranch on Mt Adams – where UFOs are spotted on an ongoing basis – James continues to raise the Disclosure conversation to the Highest Vibration. James tells it like it is – uncontrolled, uncensored.

Topics include:

* The Real “Disclosure”

* An Uncensored, Uncontrolled Narrative

* Update on the Transdimensional War

* End of Tyranny

* The Deep State

* State of Denial and Ignorance

UFOs seen and recorded over Santiago, Chile – January 2018

These multiple UFO lights were seen and recorded in the sky above Santiago in Chile recently (in January 2018).

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

Falcon Heavy: Big SpaceX rocket lights 27 engines

SpaceX

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First static fire test of Falcon Heavy complete—one step closer to first test flight!

7:44 PM - Jan 24, 2018

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The Falcon Heavy is essentially three of SpaceX's workhorse Falcon 9 vehicles strapped together.

But the triple-booster configuration has demanded a number of specific alterations, including a strengthening of the central core booster.

The 27 Merlin engines at the base of the rocket should be capable of generating almost 23,000 kilonewtons of thrust - slightly more than double that of the world's current most powerful rocket, the Delta IV Heavy, which is operated by US competitor United Launch Alliance.

Several strange phenomena have led some to believe that the eternal companion of the Earth; the Moon is, in fact, some sort of a huge spaceship. Crazy theory? Well, here’s why.

A curious video taken from a backyard telescope, which showed an alleged UFO fleet over the moon, caused a stir worldwide. This makes us wonder about what could possibly hide in that celestial body. Is it possible that there are civilizations living there if so what is their purpose? and what is its real origin of the moon?

Those who believe in the Alien Moon theory state that the moon had to be created by a highly developed civilization, much more than ours. Under this unusual logic, our artificial satellite would have to be hollow inside so that, within it, the aliens could place fuel for machinery, materials and accessories that would be used to repair working instruments, navigational instruments, observation equipment and all kinds of machinery, but most importantly, it could actually be used as a gigantic underground base or even as a giant spaceship.

If to all of the above we add the fact that there are some astronauts, those who went on NASA’s missions such as the “Apollo”,the now retired astronauts, have publicly said they have had contact with UFO’s and aliens, and that are even extraterrestrial beings living there having that said, for some, this does not sound so crazy after all.

Google Moon Photographs used in the Sea of Muscovy ( were several mysteries have been spotted) come from the Japanese probe Kaguya, also known as SELENE (selenological and Engineering Explorer), which for nearly two years was analyzing various aspects of our satellite, the distribution of elements on its surface, the magnetic and gravitational field, etc. The interest in this particular area is very big, ugolofists claim that this specifica area is very attractive when looking for anomalies thus it is a very interesting part of the moon that holds the answer for several questions that have been postulated throughout the years.

Recently triangular objects have been spotted on the surface of the moon, leading ufologists to speculate about the purpose of the odd objects but sceptics argue that the mysterious objects are actually simple pixels that do not appear in the original image. In addition, they argue that if you look closely you can see a set of other points “scattered” by other areas of the Moon.

The answer to this is that Google stores multiple image frames in various resolutions, using filters that create noise  along the boundaries between light and dark regions, creating curios spots that some might interpret as out-of-place-objects. But the pixel theory does not explain geometrical patterns in these objects, if you take in count the pixelation theory, then you would expect the pixels to create random dots not connected, but the objects that have been identified on the moon follow specific geometrical patterns; like triangles and rectangles. Here are some interesting images that can debunk the pixel theory about the lunar bases/objects.

Science might one day provide conclusive evidence of alien beings on the moon, bases, vehicles etc. But the truth is all of us can only wonder and propose theories at this point. Skeptics that debunk the alien moon base theories do not have the slight idea what is going on up there, or why human beings have not traveled to the moon even though it is a point of interest for us not only because of its proximity but also because of the exploitable natural resources present on the moon.

The truth is that the mystery of UFO’s continues, reports of anomalies appear again and again and will probably continue to do so. We can only form our own opinion about these mysterious objects and their origin and purpose.

{ http://alien-ufo-sightings.com/ }

Scientists Explain What Would Happen If The Earth Was Really Flat

What Would Happen If The Earth Was Really Flat?

Despite the fact there is ample evidence by which we know our planet is in fact round, there are many people who argue against these facts.

The Flat Earth Society, for example, contends that our planet is, in fact, flat and that the images and videos made available through NASA, ESA, Roscosmos and other space agencies are the results of Computer Generated Images (CGI).

In fact, more than 2,300 years ago, ancient Greek philosophers and Geographers managed to calculate the circumference of our planet and conclude the Earth was round. Eratosthenes of Cyrene, a Greek mathematician, geographer, poet, astronomer, and music theorist, and the chief librarian at the Library of Alexandria calculated the circumference of the Earth.

Eratosthenes was visiting Syene (now Aswan), he observed a phenomenon that caught his attention: at midday, on the summer solstice, no vertical shadows were being cast down. This happened because the Sun was directly overhead.

Upon returning to his city, Alexandria, the mathematician tried to prove if the same thing happened there. He stuck a stick in the ground to see if, at noon, it generated shadows or not.

And of course, there was a shadow, of 7 degrees to be precise. The conclusion that Eratosthenes drew from this phenomenon was the right one: The Earth must be spherical.

Now, scientists from the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, from Columbia University explain how a Flat Earth simply can’t exist.

Despite the fact there is evidence which proves our planet is round, many people claim it’s not, and that we live on a Flat Earth.

Image Credit: Shutterstock.

That’s great but… what would happen if the Earth was in fact FLAT?

The belief in a flat Earth refuses to disappear from the curious mind of ‘flat-earthers.’

However, and despite the beliefs of the Flat Earth Society, a revealing blog from the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University explains what would happen if our planet was flat.

First, a ‘flat Earth’ as the one that the Flat Earth Society defends may not have gravity. It is not clear how gravity would work or be created in such a world, says Lamont Doherty geophysicist James Davis.

This is a huge problem since gravity explains a wide range of terrestrial and cosmic observations.

The same measurable force that causes an apple to fall from a tree also causes the moon to orbit the Earth and all the planets orbit around the sun.

People who believe in a flat Earth assume that gravity acts directly, but there is no evidence to suggest that it works that way.

What we know about gravity indicates that it would pull toward the center of the disk that forms the so-called flat Earth.

That means that it would only pull down at a point in the center of the disk.

As it moved further and further away from the center, gravity would pull more and more horizontally.

This would have some strange impacts, such as sucking up all the water towards the center of the world and causing the trees and plants to grow diagonally, as they develop in the opposite direction to the pull of gravity.

The Sun

Then we have our mighty and beautiful Sun.

In the scientifically supported model of the solar system, the Earth revolves around the sun because the latter is much more massive and has more gravity.

However, the Earth does not move towards to the Sun because it travels in an orbit.

In other words, the sun’s gravity is not acting alone.

The planet is also traveling in a direction perpendicular to the gravitational pull of the star; if it were possible to deactivate that gravity, the Earth would shoot in a straight line and speed out of the solar system.

Gravitation on Flat planet Earth.

Image Credit: Shutterstock

In contrast, the linear pulse and the sun’s gravity combined, result in a circular orbit around the sun.

The Flat Earth theory places our planet at the center of the universe but does not suggest that the Sun orbits the Earth.

On the contrary, the sun rotates on the upper side of the world like a carousel, emitting light and heat downwards like a desk lamp.

Without the linear and perpendicular impulse that helps generate an orbit, it is not clear what force would prevent the Sun and the Moon from hovering above the Earth, says Davis, instead of impacting it.

Satellites: A no go for a Flat Earth

Furthermore, if our planet was, in fact, flat, artificial satellites would probably not be possible.

How would you orbit a plane?

“There is a series of satellite missions that society depends on that simply would not work,” says Davis.

For this reason, he says: “I can not think how GPS would work on a flat Earth.”

If the Sun and Moon simply revolve around one side of a flat Earth, there is likely to be a procession of days and nights.

But it would not explain the seasons, the eclipses and many other phenomena.

A Flat Earth surrounded by a Massive wall made of Ice, according to the Flat Earth Society.

Image Credit: Wiki Commons

The Sun should also, presumably, be smaller than Earth as to not burn up or crash into our planet or the Moon.

We know that the Sun is more than 100 times the diameter of the Earth.

Deep beneath our planet, the solid core of the Earth generates the magnetic field of the planet.

But on a flat planet, that would have to be replaced by something else.

Maybe a sheet of liquid metal.

That, however, would not rotate in a way that would create a magnetic field.

Without a magnetic field, charged particles from the sun would fry the planet.

This means we would not have an atmosphere, as it occurred on Mars after our neighboring planet lost its magnetic field, causing the air and oceans to escape into space.

Contrary to popular belief, and what is written all over the internet, it is a mistake to think that many societies and educated people believed in the theory of the flat Earth.

“With few extraordinary exceptions, no one educated in the history of Western civilization since the third century of our era believed that the Earth was flat,” noted historian Jeffrey Burton Russell in 1997.

“A round Earth appears at least since the VI century before Christ with Pythagoras, who was followed by Aristotle, Euclid, and Aristarchus, among others, observing that the earth was a sphere,” explained Davis.

Featured image credit: Shutterstock.

{ https://www.ancient-code.com/ }

Study Finds TRAPPIST-1 Star System Contains Two Potentially Habitable Planets

An extraordinary discovery has been made by scientists in the Trappist-1 solar system. Astronomers say that two of the planets orbiting the TRAPPIST-1 star may have ideal conditions for life as we know it to flourish on their surface.

Astronomers have identified that two exoplanets in the TRAPPIST-1 system are more likely to be habitable, according to the eccentricity of their orbits and the consequent tidal heating.

The TRAPPIST-1 system has been of great interest to planetary observers and scientists because it seems to contain seven planets that are approximately the size of Earth.

Amy Barr, a researcher from the Planetary Science Institute, and co-authors Vera Dobos and Laszlo L. Kiss have examined the implications of internal structures and tidal warming on these planets, in a study published in Astronomy & Astrophysics.

The TRAPPIST-1 system.

“Because the TRAPPIST-1 star is very old and dark, the surfaces of the planets have relatively cold temperatures according to planetary standards, ranging from 400 degrees Kelvin, which is colder than Venus, to 167 degrees Kelvin, which is colder than the poles of the Earth,” Barr said in a statement.

“The planets also orbit very close to the star, with orbital periods of a few days, since most of their orbits are eccentric, not entirely circular, these planets could experience tidal heating as well as the moons of Jupiter and Saturn.”

“Assuming that the planets are composed of water ice, rock and iron, we can determine how much of each element could be present, and how thick the different layers could be, because the masses and radii of the planets are not very well restricted, it shows the entire range of possible interior structures and interior compositions,” said Barr.

This graphic compares the distance of planets from the host star in the TRAPPIST-1 system and the solar system.

The team’s results have shown that improved estimates of the masses of each planet can help determine if each of the planets has a significant amount of water.

The planets studied are named by letter, planets b to h, in order of distance from the star.

The analyzes carried out by co-author Vera Dobos show that planets D and E are the most susceptible to being habitable due to their moderate surface temperature, moderate amounts of tidal heating and because their heat fluxes are low enough to avoid entering a state of greenhouse runaway.

A plot of diameter versus the amount of sunlight hitting the planets in the TRAPPIST-1 system, scaled by the size of the Earth and the amount of sunlight hitting the Earth. F. Marchis, H. Marchis

An ocean of global water probably covers the TRAPPIST D.

The team calculated the balance between tidal warming and convective heat transport in the mantles of each planet.

The results show that planets b and c probably have partially melted rock layers.

The document also shows that planet C probably has a solid rock surface, and could have eruptions of silicate magmas on its surface driven by tidal warming, similar to Jupiter’s moon Io. 

{ https://www.ancient-code.com/ }

Alien wearing sunglasses to protect his eyes visited Earth in 1957, UFO expert claims

The figure appears to be wearing shades. Picture: FLYING DISK PRESS

It was a fine October 1957 night in Francavilla on Italy's Adriatic coast - but something extraordinary of the otherworldly kind was about to happen. 

At least according to an aerospace expert and sociologist who claims an alien wearing dark shades to cover his eyes when it landed its UFO and let two villagers on board.

Dr Roberto Pinotti, 73, said the human-like beings actually visited often and even posed for pictures. They just wanted to be “friends,” he said.

And in a series of chilling but grainy pictures published in his new book, UFO Contacts In Italy, the author claims to reveal photos of the interior of an alien spacecraft and an extra-terrestrial being.

Picture: A control panel inside the space craft 

(FLYING DISK PRESS)

Picture: The alien let two people inside the UFO and even let them take photos, it is claimed

 (FLYING DISK PRESS)

The UFO was 24 metres in diameter and the control cabin was 10 meters, claims Dr Pinotti, who is also the founder of Italy’s National UFO Centre.

He said in a statement: 

These rare and extraordinary photographs, as well as two photographs of the alleged extraterrestrial pilot… have been published here for the first time.

He added that you can see inside the “cockpit with seating,control panel and other objects.”

Picture: Author Robert Pinotti 

(FLYING DISK PRESS)

Speaking to indy100, former director of investigations for the British UFO Association Philip Mantle said that we should keep an open mind but also remain sceptical about UFO claims like this. He said:

It is the easiest thing to do to shout 'fake' or 'hoax' without ever doing any investigation in the first place.

As I have not personally investigated these photos I therefore remain open mind although somewhat sceptical.

I believe the best way to get to the bottom of these photos is to get them into the public domain which is exactly what we have done.

Once you do that then others may come forward with more information that can either support the authenticity of such photos or offer evidence that shows them to be fake. 

Mr Mantle added that these photos are very unique as whether fake or real, they show the interior of a UFO. There are many photos that claim to show extraterrestrial spacecraft but not many from the inside.

---

More: All the UFO sightings in America in one map

 ​

Baby macaques are the first primates to be cloned like Dolly the Sheep

Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua result from decades of trying to make somatic cell nuclear transfer work in monkeys

BY 

DAN GARISTO 

 

DOUBLE TROUBLE  Cloned macaque sisters Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua, the first primates successfully cloned via somatic cell nuclear transfer, are just 8 and 7 weeks old, respectively.

QIANG SUN, MU-MING POO/CHINESE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

Meet Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua, the first primates cloned by reprogramming adult cells.

Two decades after Dolly the Sheep was successfully cloned(SN: 3/1/97, p. 132), Chinese researchers have used the same technique — somatic cell nuclear transfer — to clone two healthy baby macaque monkeys. The results, reported January 24 in Cell, could lead to more efficient cloning and a better way to study genetic diseases in primates.

“This could be it — the next step in cloning,” says Jose Cibelli, a geneticist at Michigan State University in East Lansing not involved with the study.

Over 20 species of mammals have been cloned via somatic cell nuclear transfer — including cats, dogs, rats and even a camel (SN: 3/23/02, p. 189). This cloning technology has improved since Dolly’s birth in 1996. Back then, she was the only sheep born from 277 attempts. By 2014, the cloning technique had an 80 percent success rate in pigs. Despite these gradual advances (SN: 3/8/14, p. 7), cloning of nonhuman primates has long eluded researchers.

A rhesus monkey “clone” was created through embryo splitting, a technique that divides a single embryo into genetically identical embryos, in 1999. But this type of cloning has little in common with somatic cell nuclear transfer.

In somatic cell nuclear transfer, a nucleus from a mature body cell is transplanted into an egg cell without a nucleus. The egg cell must then reprogram the nucleus’s DNA, basically stripping the body cell of its identity and returning it to an embryonic state. With no set identity, it can become any kind of cell in the body.  

TWICE THE FUN Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua, the first primates successfully cloned via somatic cell nuclear transfer, are healthy, playful and, so far, completely normal for baby macaques. The sisters will spend the next few months in an incubator together.

Previous failures in reprogramming primate cells probably happened because the egg ran into roadblocks — portions of the body cell’s DNA known as reprogramming-resistant regions, say study coauthor Mu-ming Poo, director of the Institute of Neuroscience at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shanghai, and his colleagues. In these regions, DNA is so tightly wrapped around proteins called histones that the egg can’t reprogram those bits. So the researchers added two molecules aimed at loosening the DNA’s packaging.

The team tried this method with two types of body cells: ovarian cells from an adult and connective tissue cells from a fetus. Although 22 out of 42 monkeys became pregnant with embryos cloned from ovarian cells, only two babies were born and neither survived long past birth. Efforts with embryos made with the fetal cells resulted in six pregnancies among 21 surrogate monkey moms and two healthy babies.

 “After 20 years of trying from the most talented groups, and nothing working, finally this works,” Cibelli says. “This research is going to help cloning of all species.”

Cloned primates could help researchers better understand diseases in humans. Macaques are close genetic relatives to humans, making the monkeys better analogs than other lab animals. And clones make it easier to weed out the complications of different genetics when studying diseases or testing drugs.

The sisters are just a few weeks old, but they hold a lifetime of promise for researchers. Poo says the scientists will watch for any abnormalities as Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua grow and play.

“The monkeys are in good health and very active,” he says. “There are no signs they are unhealthy.”

Citations

• Z. Liu et al. Cloning of macaque monkeys by somatic cell nuclear transfer. Cell. Vol. 172, January 24, 2018, p. 1. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2018.01.020.

Further Reading

• T.H. Saey. Bones show Dolly’s arthritis was normal for a sheep her age. Science News Online, November 23, 2017.
• T.H. Saey. Monkeys born with edited genes. Science News. Vol. 185, March 8, 2014, p. 7.
• J. Travis. Clones face uncertain future. Science News. Vol. 161, March 23, 2002, p. 189.
• Science News Staff. Ewe again? Cloning from adult DNA. Science News. Vol. 151, March 1, 1997, p. 132.

{ https://www.sciencenews.org/ }

Lasers trace a new way to create hovering hologram-like images

Unlike 3-D images of old, these high-res pictures are visible from almost any direction

BY 

MARIA TEMMING 

SCI-FI GRAPHICS GET REAL  A new laser system renders 3-D images in thin air, and could pave the way for futuristic displays akin to the iconic Princess Leia scene in Star Wars. Here, the system displays a researcher imitating the scene.

D.E. SMALLEY ET AL/NATURE 201

The 3-D displays seen in such sci-fi movies as Star Wars may not be so far, far away.

A new laser system renders full-color 3-D images in thin air, researchers report in the Jan. 25 Nature. This technology could someday make futuristic, free-floating visuals for everything from air traffic control to surgical planning.

With this new technology, “you really can, in principle, achieve what everyone hopes to achieve, which is the image of Princess Leia in that scene in Star Wars,” says Curtis Broadbent, a physicist at the University of Rochester in New York who was not involved in the work.

Whereas holograms are images on flat surfaces that only appear three-dimensional because of how the light bounces off the material, the newly created images actually take up 3-D space (SN: 12/4/10, p. 8). Two-dimensional images of virtual performers can also be made to appear 3-D through stage tricks that involve carefully placed projectors and reflective surfaces. But like holograms, these seemingly 3-D images can only be viewed from certain angles. The new technique creates 3-D images that can be seen from almost any direction.

Using a nearly invisible laser, researchers can steer a tiny glowing particle through a path in 3-D space to create images that can be seen from almost any angle. Here, the team draws a butterfly (left), a portrait of Princess Leia (middle) and a squiggle (right).

This system works by trapping a cellulose particle that’s mere micrometers across in a beam of nearly invisible laser light. That laser repeatedly moves the particle along a specific path through the air, for example, in the shape of a corkscrew or the outline of a butterfly. At each point on the particle’s path, other lasers illuminate it with red, green or blue light, which the particle scatters in all directions. This creates a single image pixel that can be viewed from all sides.

Because the particle whizzes through the air so quickly and loops through the same path over and over again, all these pixels blur together — like the tip of a sparkler waved so fast that it seemingly smears into a solid line. This creates what appears to be a still image floating in the air.

Daniel Smalley, an electrical engineer at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, and his colleagues used this method to produce graphics about the size of a postage stamp. Because the technology draws a picture with a single particle, the researchers could create only small images, including a high-resolution picture of Earth about one centimeter in diameter.

“Scaling that up to even something about the size of a computer monitor would be pretty challenging,” Broadbent says. Researchers would have to refine their prototype to make pictures using many particles.

Smalley says he is already imagining a system that manipulates 100 or even 1,000 particles at once. With those improvements, “the sky becomes the limit,” he says.

PARTICLE PAINTING Researchers created a one-centimeter-wide image of Earth (photographed hovering above a fingertip) by using a nearly invisible laser to drag a glowing 10-micrometer particle back and forth.

D.E. SMALLEY ET AL/NATURE 2018

Free-floating images could help doctors practice surgery before the patient goes under the knife, says physicist Barry Blundell, of the University of Derby in England, whose commentary appears in the same issue of Nature. This technology could also be used for physical therapy or improving athletic performance. People could record themselves performing various activities, like swinging a golf club, and then view the footage on 3-D displays to carefully study their bodily motion, explains Blundell. And if the images can be continually updated with real-time data, such 3-D visuals could provide air traffic controllers with dynamic maps of planes in the air, or help researchers track satellites to ensure they don’t collide.

The possibilities for advertising, education and entertainment systems are endless, Broadbent says. The world may someday be full of pop-up images like those imagined in the film Jurassic World, where museum patrons walk through a hall where a projected dinosaur image stands on display, or like the free-standing visuals used by the character Tony Stark in designing his metal suits in the Iron Man films. And unlike virtual reality systems, these new laser-drawn pictures can be seen with the naked eye: No headgear required. (SN: 3/18/17, p. 24)

Large Sized 3D Holographic Projection at Medical Conference

7D Holographic Technology - A once not considered advertiser friendly video

Amazing Hologram Technology Is Transforming Our World ''Virtueel Zoo''

{ https://www.sciencenews.org/ }

The Prambanan Temple Compound: The 240 Ancient Rocket-Like Hindu Structures

Prambanan is a set of more than 200 Hindu temples built in the distant past and dedicated to the Trímurti, the expression of God as the Creator (Brahma), the Preserver (Vishnu) and the Destroyer (Shivá).

This magnificent ancient site is located about 18 km east of Yogyakarta.

The temples are believed to have been built during the 9th century under the Sanjaya dynasty of the first Kingdom of Mataram in the Central Java region.

An inscription dated in the year 856 marks what is possibly its founding stone.

Prambanan is considered the most significant Hindu temple site in Indonesia, and one of the biggest in Southeast Asia.

The stunning rocket-like structures are characterized by its tall and pointed architecture style, which, according to historians, are typical of Hindu architecture and by a towering 47-meter-high central building inside a large complex of individual temples. Scholars note that the design of Prambanan temple follows the typical Hindu architecture traditions based on Vastu Shastra— a traditional Hindu system of architecture which translates to “science of architecture.

Prambanan, built in honor to Shiva

According to the Shivagrha inscription of 856 CE, the Prambanan Temple Compound was built to honor Lord Shiva. Scholars argue that its original name was either Shiva-grha (the House of Shiva) or Shiva-laya (the Realm of Shiva).

Its architecture is unlike anything I’ve ever come across.

According to historical reference, there were originally 240 temples standing in Prambanan.

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#prambanan #yogyakarta

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The Prambanan Temple Compound consists of:

• 3 Trimurti temples: The three main temples dedicated to Shiva, Visnu, and Brahma.
• 3 Vahana temples: three temples in front of Trimurti temples dedicated to the vahana of each gods; Nandi, Garuda, and Hamsa.
• 2 Apit temples: two temples located between the rows of Trimurti and Vahana temples on north and south side.
• 4 Kelir temples: four small shrines located on 4 cardinal directions right beyond the 4 main gates of inner zone.
• 4 Patok temples: four small shrines located on 4 corners of the inner zone.
• 224 Pervara temples: hundreds of temples arranged in 4 concentric square rows; numbers of temples from inner row to outer row are: 44, 52, 60, and 68.

As noted by Lonely Planet, the temple compound suffered extensive damage in the 2006 earthquake. Although the temples survived, hundreds of stone blocks collapsed to the ground and cracked (479 in the Shiva temple alone).

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Wetenschappers zijn erin geslaagd apen te klonen. Zijn mensen volgende stap? - HLN.be

Bron: Reuters, ANP, belga

De wetenschappers creëerden twee identieke langstaart makaken, Zhong Zhong en Hua Hua, die acht en zes weken geleden ter wereld kwamen in een wetenschappelijk instituut voor neurologie in Shanghai. De apen werden geboren via therapeutisch klonen, waarbij de celkern uit een eicel wordt gehaald en vervangen door de celkern van een ander dier. De wetenschappers denken dat zij hiermee belangrijk werk hebben geleverd voor medisch onderzoek. 

Lees ook

Ethisch onverantwoord? Chinese wetenschappers klonen bewust zieke honden

Sinds de geboorte van het schaap Dolly in 19996 in Schotland hebben wetenschappers meer dan 20 andere soorten gekloond, zoals koeien, varkens en honden. Primaten bleken echter moeilijker te klonen dan andere zoogdieren. Toch zijn de aapjes niet de eerste die gekloond werden. Het is wel voor het eerst dat dat gebeurt uit een niet-embryonale cel.

De aanpak zou de deur kunnen openzetten naar het klonen van mensen. Voorlopig zijn er echter geen plannen in die richting. “Er zijn nu geen hindernissen meer voor het klonen van primaatsoorten, en dus komt het klonen van mensen wat dichter bij de realiteit. Maar we hebben absoluut niet die intentie. De maatschappij zal ook niet toestaan dat dit werk wordt uitgebreid naar mensen”, aldus de supervisor van het project, Muming Poo. 

{ https://www.hln.be/ }

Studie: “Stukje Australië was ooit deel van Canada” - HLN.be

Bron: National Geographic

Twee miljard jaar geleden bestond er een gigantisch supercontinent, Columbia. Simpel gezegd hing de landmassa van de hele wereld toen nog aan elkaar. Daarna dreven verscheidene continenten, zoals Laurentia, uit elkaar. Laurentia is de geologische kern van het Noord-Amerikaanse continent. Laurentia reisde zowat de hele wereld af en weekte zich los van verschillende continenten om zich uiteindelijk definitief te vestigen op de plaats van wat nu Noord-Amerika is. Op haar traject liet ze segmenten achter in het noorden van Australië. 

Restanten ervan zijn nu ook gevonden in Georgetown in Noord-Queensland, een dorpje met amper 250 inwoners, zo’n 400 km ten westen van Cairns. De onderzochte gesteenten vertonen geen gelijkenissen met ander gesteente in Australië maar wel met die in Laurentia uit het eon Proterozoïcum, nu Canada.

Volgens de wetenschappers groeide er 1,66 miljard jaar geleden een kloof tussen de getuigenheuvel Georgetown en Laurentia. In die periode was supercontinent Columbia al aan het verbrokkelen. Een stuk van Laurentia volgde de grotere massa niet en bleef achter om later te botsen met Georgetown.

“Ons onderzoek toont aan dat ongeveer 1,7 miljard jaar geleden Georgetown-gesteenten in een ondiepe zee werden afgezet toen de streek deel uitmaakte van Noord-Amerika”, zegt Adam Nordsvan van de Curtin University. “Georgetown brak vervolgens af van Noord-Amerika en botste ongeveer 100 miljoen jaar later met de regio Mount Isa in het noorden van Australië.” Nordsvan legt uit dat de getuigenheuvel van Georgetown een soort van “continentale strook” is, een “stuk continentale korst, losgetrokken van een kraton”, in dit geval Laurentia. Een modern voorbeeld daarvan is Nieuw-Zeeland. 

{ https://www.hln.be/ }

China bouwt aan duikboot die ons glimp moet geven van diepste punt oceaan - HLN.be

Bron: Wenhui Daily, Tech Times, Daily Mail

De trog heeft de vorm van een halve maan en ligt ten oosten van de Filipijnen. Hij is ongeveer 2.500 kilometer lang en gemiddeld 70 kilometer breed. De druk op de bodem is meer dan 1.000 keer zo hoog als de druk aan de oppervlakte van het water. Niet evident dus om er te geraken. (lees hieronder verder)

Lees ook

Vlaamse bedrijven smeken op blote knietjes om ingenieurs

Chinese wetenschappers van de Jiaotong-universiteit in Shanghai hopen met een nieuwe onbemande duikboot dieper te komen dan iemand ooit is gelukt. Het vaartuig kan tot op 11.000 meter en daar zou ook het diepste punt van de oceaan te vinden moeten zijn: in de Challengerdiepte, een van de plaatsen op aarde waar we nog het minste over weten. Het is onderdeel van een diepzeeprogramma dat van China een maritieme wereldspeler moet maken.

De duikboot moet tegen 2020 klaar zijn. “Hij moet in staat zijn om precieze meetgegevens door te geven en obstakels te vermijden”, aldus professor Ge Tong, die het project leidt. “Alles wat hij ziet, ruikt en voelt, moet hij kunnen omzetten in data en kilometers naar boven doorseinen.”

Duikboot

Het is niet de eerste duikboot die Tong maakt voor de Chinese overheid sinds het diepzeeprogramma in 2011 van start ging. Het diepste punt waarop China al raakte is 10.767 meter (in 2016). Het diepste punt waar een bemande duikboot uit China al raakte is 7.000 meter. (lees hieronder verder)

Hoewel er al bijna 1.000 mensen op de top van de Mount Everest geraakten – het hoogste punt ter wereld – raakten nog maar enkelen in de buurt van het diepste punt. De Amerikaanse legerluitenant Don Walsh en zijn Zwitserse collega Jacques Piccard raakten op 10.790 meter in 1960. Veel zagen ze echter niet door opdwarrelend zand op de zeebodem, alleen enkele scholen bot en garnalen. En de Canadese regisseur James Cameron bereikte 10.898 meter diepte op een solo-expeditie in 2012.

Onderzoekers

Het diepterecord staat momenteel op naam van een Japanse onbemande diepzeesonde, die in 1995 tot een diepte van 10.911 meter daalde. Japan is overigens bezig met de bouw van een bemande duikboot die 12.000 meter diepte kan halen, maar die zou pas over een tiental jaar klaar zijn. De zes onderzoekers die aan boord zouden kunnen gaan, zouden de zeebodem diepgaand kunnen onderzoeken.   

{ https://www.hln.be/ }

Alien Tech In USAF Hands At Secret Base In Palm Beach, Florida, Photos + Video's , UFO Sighting News.

Date of discovery: Jan 3, 2018

Location of discovery: Palm beach, Florida

Google coordinates: 26°55'42.64"N 80°20'23.97"W

Source: Google Earth Free Map

This is alien tech in the US militaries hands. This spacecraft, located at a top secret airport, was found on Google Earth and shows a diamond stealth craft built for high speed flight. Although this craft has some similarities to an X-47B, it is clearly a whole new evolution of that craft. As you can see, the shape is almost the same, however the back 30% is totally different. Awesome discovery by Secureteam10 of Youtube. 

Scott C. Waring

{  http://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

Solid White Diamond UFO Near Space Station On Live Cam, Jan 2018, Video, UFO Sighting News.

Date of sighting: January 2018

Location of sighting: International Space Station

 

This diamond UFO was flashing as it passed by the international space station this week. Its white, much like the space station and when it lights up, its very visible in the background. The shape is like a diamond and it seems to be watching the space station, orbiting it if you will. This is a fantastic video made by Streetcap1 of Youtube. 100% evidence that aliens do exist. 

Scott C. Waring

{  http://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

UFO Lights Appear During ISS Live Stream On January 10th, 2018, Video, UFO Sighting News.

Date of sighting: January 10, 2018
Location of sighting: Space Station live cam

This UFO was recorded by the Youtube user Of Sound Mind and Body. It shows a beautiful glowing UFO in the distance near the space station caught on live cam. The UFO changes colors every few seconds and appears to have two sections. A larger sphere and a smaller one. They seem very intrigued by the space station, as if its a tourist destination for aliens. Strange, but probably true. 
Scott C. Waring

{ http://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

UFO Breaks Through Clouds Landing Somewhere Behind Sydney, Australia, Jan 2018, Video, UFO Sighting News.

Date of sighting: January 15, 2018

Location of sighting: Sydney, Australia

 

This UFO entering earths atmosphere was caught by Youtube user UFO Sydney. The UFO was caught using an infrared camera, which sees infrared, a light that the human eye cannot see. Here a UFO breaks through the clouds and has a trail behind it, probably from the clouds not the UFO. The UFO is traveling at about 10X the speed of a fighter jet, so its not a plane or rocket. Fantastic video. Proof that ET's are alive and well in Sydney. 

Scott C. Waring

{ http://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

Two UFOs In Airport Flight Path Over Memphis, Tennessee On Dec 2017, Video, UFO Sighting News.

 

Date of sighting: December 24, 2017

Location of sighting: Memphis, Tennessee, USA

 

The UFO video was reported by TheSkyUFO of Youtube. We see two glowing UFOs rising up into some clouds, until a plane passes. Then they move out and another aircraft passes close to them. In comparison to the aircraft, the UFOs look like they are about the size of cars. Remarkable evidence. 

Scott C. Waring

Witness report:

 I saw two objects in the sky which seemed to be orbs floating in sky I was headed back home after Christmas celebrations with my brother. It was a beautiful day and a beautiful sunset. I grabbed my phone and took a few pictures. I decided to get closer to get better pics. I was headed West on I40 when i got to the Sycamore View exit is when I saw these two objects. Turned on video on phone and headed toward these things. Found a safe space to pull over and began recording. These glowing orbs would set real still when a plane would pass and after plane was past them they seemed to move close to each other and what seemed to me tried to communicate with each other. You can see on video that one hides behind a cloud as a plane passes. The clouds seemed not to be moving. I was thrilled to see these things because I kept my wits this time.(saw the UFO ya’ll did a show on from a UFO that was seen in Memphis back in 77 and i freaked out and was scared because I was only 17 which I would love to tell about also cause i was less than 500 yards from that UFO even seeing the top of that UFO). I finally lost sight when I tried to readjust my camera.

{ http://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

Long Glowing UFO Seen Over City In Santos, Brazil In Jan 2018, Video, UFO Sighting News.

Date of sighting: January 2018
Location of sighting: Santos, Brazil

This UFO was reported by SecureTeam10 of Youtube. A UFO moves across the night sky. Five bright center lights glowing all the while and some smaller lights along its sides. The video was taken long ways on the phone instead of sideways. Thats another sign thats its real. The way it shoots off is a rare thing to see on video. Most UFO reports only show the craft hovering, but here we see it moving from left to right and then shots off right again. 

This is an important video that shows how a UFO moves so easily, so perfectly, without making rounded turns. Tell us your thoughts on this video in the comments below please. 
Scott C. Waring

{ http://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

A rare video of a UFO turns into a plasma state from the 1950s

Watch the video until the end and do not rush in the verdict, there is a surprise at the end of the video. This is one of the oldest UFOs that was filmed in the 1950s.

The UFO appears in the video similar to the plane plates that were photographed by Billy Meyer and vibrates in the same way.

After analyzing Billy Meier's videos it was found that the cause of the vibration of the UFOs is to equivalent the magnetic field of the earth and then the UFO becomes completely stable and can floats on the magnetic field of the earth and leave and whether we could make a space craft equivalent to the magnetic field of the Earth and float in the air in the 1950s?

Well how about making a space craft that can switch from the situation solid to the plasma state to travel at the speed of light in the 1950s.

  

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

The idea that an alien spacecraft might have exploded in the sky above Tunguska, Russia on June 30, 1908 is certainly provocative and intriguing. There is, however, one issue that some proponents of this particular theory are not at all keen to highlight. Namely, that its origins can be found not within the worlds of science or high-level government secrecy, but firmly within the realm of sci-fi. It was in 1946 that Russian author Alexander Petrovich Kazantsev wrote a story that was directly inspired by a personal trip he had made during the previous year to see the atomic devastation and destruction that was wrought at the Japanese city of Hiroshima.

David Darling notes: “Kazantsev developed the idea that a nuclear-powered spacecraft from Mars on a visit to collect fresh water from Lake Baikal, had exploded, showering the area in radioactivity.” There’s very little doubt at all that Kazantsev’s novel “helped” to nurture the idea that something of an extraterrestrial nature came to grief over Tunguska on that fateful day.

Similarly, in his debut novel of 1951 titled The Astronauts, sci-fi author Stanislaw Lem utilized the specific scenario of an alien spacecraft exploding over Tunguska as its central, overriding theme. Nearly a decade later, The Astronauts was adapted into a movie titled First Spaceship on Venus. In the big-screen version of the story, Russian scientists stumble upon a “magnetic recording device” at the site of the Tunguska blast. They soon determine that the object which exploded was nothing less than a reconnaissance vessel from the planet Venus. A translation of the recording device reveals that the vessel contained the entire Venusian population, who were coming to Earth with the specific intent of occupying our world. Their goal – and their entire race, too – is brought to an abrupt end, however, with the disastrous destruction of their huge craft.

And the fact that Tunguska continues to play a major role in the world of sci-fi only ensures that the fine line between fact and fiction becomes even more blurry and indistinct. For example, Donald R. Bensen’s 1978 novel And Having Writ used the Tunguska story as a springboard for an amusing tale about stranded aliens who are forced to manipulate the technology of early 20th Century Earth, as part of an attempt to rebuild their stricken craft. And the novels just keep on coming.

Chekhov’s Journey, written by Ian Watson in 1983, presents a scenario in which the playwright Anton Chekhov has personal knowledge of the Tunguska event – which turns out to have been caused by futuristic Russian time-travelers. Two years later, Bruce Sterling and Rudy Rucker’s story Storming the Cosmos depicted a top secret Soviet reconnaissance mission journeying to Tunguska and finding advanced technology that is then incorporated into the Soviet space program.

In the world of sci-fi themed comic-books the situation is much the same, too: in the Marvel Comics spin-off of the 1987 movie Predator that starred Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Tunguska explosion is shrouded in mystery, but is attributed to either an attempt by the Predators to hide their existence from the Human Race by vaporizing their malfunctioning craft high in the atmosphere; or by the military and governments of either Russian or America who are firmly determined to prevent the infinitely advanced technology falling into the hands of the scientific elite of each other’s respective nations.

And perhaps inevitably, even The X-Files got into the act, too, with a two-part story (titled “Tunguska” and “Terma”), in which Mulder and his long-time arch-foe, Alex Krycek, are forced to work together. They journey to Tunguska, where they learn that materials recovered at the crash-site contain a deadly substance known as “Black Oil” that contains a microbial life form capable of infecting, and controlling, any and all living creatures on Earth.

All of this is good entertainment for those who like sci-fi (a subject that, ironically, I have no interest in; I much prefer violent horror movies and whodunnits). But, for those who hang on to the idea (the hope, perhaps…?) that aliens met their deaths over Russia in 1908, we should not forget how those early days of sci-fi most assuredly had a bearing on what people thought about the still-controversial affair.

{ http://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

If You Find Aliens, Who Do You Call?

Truth about the 'unexplainable' footage of 'UFO taking off from the Moon'

MIND BOGGLING footage that appears to show a mysterious UFO "blast off" from the surface of the Moon is going viral online.

PEOPLE THINK NASA CUT THEIR ISS STREAM AFTER A GIGANTIC GOLDEN UFO CAME INTO VIEW

They're watching us, man.

by Tommy Gimler

Why it has taken so long for conspiracy theorists to get their panties in a bunch and once again make claims that the government is heavily involved in an alien cover-up is anybody’s guess, but they think that the object is hundreds of miles in length and is either a floating city or golden UFO orbiting the planet.

Others aren’t as convinced and say it is simply a “reflection of sunlight through the clouds.”

Personally, I don’t think NASA would have cut the feed just seconds after a reflection of sunlight came into view, and that’s why I will begin drinking heavily for the rest of the day.

Aliens, man. Aliens! UFO: Does This Newly Released Fighter Jet Video Prove Aliens Are Real After All?

{ http://www.craveonline.com/ }

Taken from Cape Hillsborough, on the beach no less, a Moura woman reached for her camera just in time for a “once in a lifetime” shot.

Betty Seeney said she’s heard stories before about UFOs and certainly believes they’re out there as reported by the Daily Mercury.

“You never know...”

“(But) It just looked like a shooting star to start with then it just got longer, bigger and brighter and I said to my husband ‘this is no shooting star’,” she said.

She was visiting Mackay on an astrophotography workshop on Friday when she witnessed the “20 second exposure”.

“I screamed out ‘look at this’ and they turned around and couldn’t believe it,” she said. “It was just beautiful. It was a real green teal colour the light and it just disappeared into the ocean... (My husband) could hear it hissing and frizzing coming down.”

Mrs Seeney was originally reaching for the camera to capture the milky way around 8.30pm but was glad she got more than she bargained for.

“I take some night time photos but I’ve never seen anything like that,” she said. She’s not sure how far away it was, but thought it appeared closer than what it probably was.

{ http://www.cairnspost.com.au/ }

European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in the Atacama Desert, Chile. 

Photo courtesy ESO/Y Beletsky

The ethics of ET

The discovery of independent life beyond Earth would have deep philosophical implications for us, and our ideas of morality

Suppose we woke up tomorrow to learn that extraterrestrial life had been discovered. What difference would that make? Set aside the extreme scenarios of popular fiction. The truth will probably be more mundane – not massive spaceships suddenly filling the sky but, instead, microorganisms found deep inside an ice-covered Moon, a non-random radio signal from a distant star system, or the ruins of a long-dead alien civilisation. What difference might those discoveries make? Would they strengthen or weaken our faith in God, or science, or humanity? Would they force us to re-evaluate the importance of our own lives, values and projects? 

In academic philosophy today, an interest in extraterrestrial life is regarded with some suspicion. This is a historical anomaly. In Ancient Greece, Epicureans argued that every possible form of life must recur infinitely many times in an infinite universe. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, as modern astronomy demonstrated that our Earth is just another planet and our Sun just another star, the default hypothesis among informed observers was that the Universe is filled with habitable planets and intelligent life. One principal argument for this ‘pluralism’ was philosophical or theological: God (or Nature) does nothing in vain, and therefore such a vast cosmos could not be home to only one small race of rational beings.

My goal here is to explore some unexpected implications of the discovery of extraterrestrial life, and my conclusions are very speculative: extraterrestrial life would lend non-decisive support to several interesting and controversial philosophical positions. The discovery of life elsewhere would teach us that, while the Universe does have a purpose, human beings are irrelevant to that purpose. Aliens might well worship a God who is indifferent to us.

We know that life has emerged once. Why should it be so momentous to learn that it has emerged twice? The reason is that finding life elsewhere would radically change our picture of the Universe. At any point in time, humans will have explored only a tiny fraction of our galaxy, let alone the whole Universe. If life has emerged only once in that small sample, then it is possible that life on Earth is unique. (We might then use anthropic reasoningto explain why we inhabit the Universe’s only inhabited planet: where else could observers find themselves?) But suppose we discover that life has emerged twice within our tiny sample – once on Earth, then again somewhere else. It would follow that life must have emerged a vast number of times across the galaxy. The discovery of independently emerging life would thus teach us that life is ubiquitous. And that discovery could have very significant implications. (The restriction to ‘independently emerging’ life is necessary because life found on meteors, asteroids, Mars or the Moon might have the same origin as life on Earth.)

One perennial set of philosophical questions concerns the nature of values, norms and reasons. Are they objective, universal, mind-independent realities, or merely subjective, relative, mind-dependent human constructions? Normative non-naturalists claim that there are universal, objective, mind-independent facts about value, reason and morality that are not specific to any particular human culture, nor even to human nature in general. Any suitably sophisticated moral agent would perceive the same moral facts and be motivated by them. This strong objectivism is a minority position in contemporary ethics, but one that is gaining respectability – thanks in particular to recent work by the philosophers Thomas Nagel, T M Scanlon and the late Derek Parfit.

Normative non-naturalism combines several distinct claims. Moral statements assert facts; those facts are not reducible to the natural facts discovered by science; and some moral statements are true. When I say that murder is wrong, I claim that murder has the non-natural property of wrongness. If murder is wrong, then it does possess that property.

The normative non-naturalist position is anomalous within a purely naturalist worldview that recognises only the natural facts and properties postulated by science. Secular non-naturalists argue that normative non-naturalism is not as anomalous as it seems, because we already need non-natural facts to explain logic, mathematics or the normativity inherent in good scientific practice itself. Theists argue instead that normative non-naturalism makes much more sense if we already acknowledge a God who transcends the natural world. Either God creates the moral facts along with everything else, or God creates the Universe in response to independently existing normative facts. We will return to the link between theism and non-naturalism.

My central claim is that the discovery that life is ubiquitous would support normative non-naturalism. This is because, if life is ubiquitous, then we need non-naturalism to explain an otherwise puzzling fact. Given the vast number of potentially inhabited planets in the Universe, we would expect at least one extraterrestrial species to have either visited us or transformed the galaxy in ways that were clearly visible. Yet we see no one. Where is everybody? This is the Fermi Paradox, named for the physicist Enrico Fermi who posed the question in 1950.

In his book If the Universe Is Teeming with Aliens … Where Is Everybody?(2002), the science writer Stephen Webb lists 75 answers to Fermi’s question. Some are jokes or variations on a theme. But most are distinct solutions that are not obviously crazy. I group those into four categories:

•  Rarity of life: the specific conditions that make life on Earth possible are very rare.
•  Rarity of intelligence: even if life is relatively common, the evolution of intelligent tool-making species requires very specific conditions that are extremely rare.
•  Cantian (from can’t): even if intelligent tool-making species are relatively common, a feasibility barrier prevents the emergence of starfaring civilisations. Promising species inevitably destroy themselves or encounter resource constraints before they can conquer the stars.
•  Wontian (from won’t): even if intelligent tool-making species are relatively common, a motivational barrier prevents the emergence of starfaring civilisations. Every intelligent species who could conquer the stars chooses not to.

Drawing on anecdotal evidence, Webb suggests that physicists, impressed by the vastness of the Universe, typically assume that life is ubiquitous, and therefore favour Cantian or Wontian solutions; meanwhile, biological scientists, impressed by the complexity of life, typically prefer solutions based on the rarity of life or intelligence.

The discovery that life is ubiquitous would obviously rule out any explanation based on the rarity of life. And if we found evidence of intelligent life elsewhere, we would be forced to conclude that intelligence was not rare either. Of course, if we discovered life elsewhere, then in one sense the Fermi Paradox would simply be dissolved; there is no need to explain why we see no evidence of life elsewhere once we do see it! But the deeper puzzle would remain: if life is ubiquitous, why don’t we see much more evidence of alien civilisations? We must still explain what the astrophysicist and science fiction writer David Brin in 1983 called ‘the Great Silence’.

By ruling out rarity-based solutions, the discovery that life is ubiquitous thereby raises the probability of other credible solutions, especially Cantianism and Wontianism. In so doing, it also supports normative non-naturalism.

Even if some species eschew visibility, why should we expect every intelligent species to do so? 

Why would intelligent species choose not to make themselves visible? Webb lists 25 distinct Wontian solutions that have been seriously defended. Here are some of them: advanced extraterrestrials keep us isolated in an intergalactic zoo, as subjects of laboratory experiments, or because any inhabited planet is a non-renewable source of information; extraterrestrial environmentalists are either not interested in colonising or transforming the galaxy, or else they believe that this would be wrong; cautious aliens are hiding because they fear that the Universe is silent because some genocidal species destroys anyone who becomes visible; extraterrestrials are postbiological machines with no interest in stars, planets, biological life or communicating with us; aliens have passed through the ‘Singularity’ and disappeared into black holes, transcended to a higher dimension, created a new universe, or migrated to a virtual reality; advanced aliens congregate around black holes where energy is most abundant, or in the cold outer reaches of the galaxy where computational processing is most efficient; and so on.

Any Wontian solution faces one obvious objection. One non-Wontian species – or even one maverick group or individual – could do things that would be clearly visible for a very long time. To solve the Fermi Paradox, Wontian motivations must be universal, not merely very widespread. But surely that degree of uniformity is simply implausible. Even if some species or individuals eschew visibility, why should we expect every intelligent species to do so? Wontians are open to an accusation of anthropomorphism or parochialism – projecting their own individual preferences onto all intelligent beings.

Of course, Cantianism faces a parallel objection. Even if most intelligent, tool-using species face a feasibility constraint, why should we believe they all do? Cantians must defend a universal feasibility barrier. And that naturaluniversality seems as suspect as the Wontian’s motivational one. Isn’t it more likely that, sooner or later, one lucky species will have sufficient time and resources to escape the feasibility constraint? If Wontians can dissolve theirparochialism objection, that will give them a significant advantage over Cantians.

Wontians need universal motivations that are not specific to species or individuals. This is where normative non-naturalism comes in. Armed with non-naturalism, Wontians can argue as follows. Objective values are built into the fabric of the Universe; the discovery of those values is essential if one is to understand the Universe sufficiently well enough to manipulate it successfully on a large and lasting scale; and that discovery transforms any rational being’s motivations. Aliens smart enough to conquer the stars will inevitably abandon their previous plans and follow those universal values.

I call this solution to the Fermi Paradox Kantian Wontianism, because the idea that knowledge of universal values is intrinsically motivating for all rational beings is associated with the 19th-century Prussian philosopher Immanuel Kant. (One can be a Kantian in this sense without endorsing any other details of Kant’s philosophy. In particular, Kant himself was not a normative non-naturalist.) Although it is very controversial, this strange view might be our best solution to the Fermi Paradox, especially if we discover life elsewhere.

Wontians need normative facts that reliably motivate all suitably intelligent beings – whatever their biological species. This rules out normative naturalism, where normative facts are reducible to natural facts, and human ethics is derived from our specific evolved human nature. Alien species might have very different natures, and therefore their moral facts would be quite different from ours. Wontians cannot limit their ontology to natural facts. They need non-natural normative facts that transcend biological differences. In the contemporary intellectual landscape, this is controversial but not absurd. While naturalism is the dominant worldview in analytic philosophy, non-naturalism is becoming increasingly philosophically respectable.

Kantian philosophers claim only that the motivations of rational agents should converge insofar as they behave rationally. They admit that actual agents invariably fall short. Wontians must therefore go beyond Kant and argue that, beyond a certain threshold of knowledge or understanding, all rational agents reliably will behave rationally. This might seem simply absurd. Humanmotivations obviously do not converge. And beings no more sophisticated than ourselves, armed with current technologies such as radio waves or nuclear weapons, surely could attract the attention of very distant observers. Doesn’t our own existence refute the Kantian Wontian claim that all beings who could become visible will reliably respond to non-natural normative facts?

In reply, Kantian Wontians would say that fleeting visibility is not enough to disturb the Great Silence. Even if short-lived alien civilisations were common, the age and size of the Universe are so great that observers in any particular place and time would almost certainly see nothing. The Fermi Paradox arises because we assume that, if there really are vast numbers of aliens out there, then sooner or later one of them will have built a civilisation that lasts. We expect to see that lasting civilisation, and we are puzzled by its absence.

This offers a strange vision of aliens with radically different evolutionary histories converging on values that humans reject

Kantian Wontians can then argue that maintaining a lasting visible civilisation demands a level of understanding of the nature of the Universe that inevitably delivers knowledge of objective and intrinsically motivating values. This is not absurd if one is already sympathetic to normative non-naturalism. If objective values are built into the fabric of the Universe, then perhaps agents can understand that Universe well enough to manipulate it successfully on a large and lasting scale only if they also find those values intrinsically motivating.

But Kantianism alone is not sufficient to save Wontianism. Many possible values would encourage the creation of a visible galactic civilisation. Consider total utilitarianism, which seeks to maximise the welfare of sentient beings. Aliens who recognised this value would seek to transform the galaxy by creating as many happy beings as possible. We would notice if someone had done that!

Kantian Wontians must defend very different values. As we saw earlier, one possibility is environmentalist non-interference – a quietist desire to contemplate the Universe without imposing one’s will on it. Other possibilities include maximising complexity by living unobserved at the edge of a black hole, transcending to a higher dimension, or even a nihilist conviction that nothing is worth doing. These are minority values in contemporary culture, of course, but they are not unintelligible. Kantian Wontians can remain agnostic about the precise content of non-natural values. Anything that rules out lasting visibility will do.

The Kantian Wontian solution to the Fermi Paradox offers a strange vision, where aliens with radically different evolutionary histories converge on values that many actual humans reject. If we are already committed to expansionist values such as welfare maximisation, then we might struggle to take these Wontian values seriously.

The philosopher Robert Nozick suggested in 1981, in a different context, that ‘someone who proposes a non-strange answer shows that he did not understand this question’. (Nozick’s question was: why is there something rather than nothing?) Philosophical questions often call for strange or disturbing answers. Once we discover life elsewhere, Wontianism could be the least strange explanation left on the table. How else can we solve the Fermi Paradox or explain the Great Silence?

If we discovered that life was ubiquitous, then Kantian Wontianism would be the least unsatisfactory solution to the Fermi Paradox, and normative non-naturalism is essential to any successful Kantian Wontian story. Once we grant these conclusions, it then follows that the discovery of independently originating life supports normative non-naturalism – in the modest sense that this new information raises the probability that normative non-naturalism is true. Philosophical claims can be supported by empirical facts in surprising ways.

Normative non-naturalism and Kantianism both seem very anomalous against the background of an otherwise purely naturalist metaphysic. They are much less anomalous if we instead endorse a theist metaphysic. Kantian Wontian theists can argue as follows. Physicists seek a physical ‘theory of everything’ to explain, not only how the Universe works, but why it exists. For all anyone knows, future (or alien) scientists who complete the theory of everything might need to posit God, cosmic purpose or cosmic value. Belief in divine values is exactly the sort of thing that would reliably transform one’s motivations. Aliens who discover why the Universe exists will abandon their previous inclinations, and embrace the purposes of God.

Theism and Kantian non-naturalism are mutually supporting. Both are independently plausible, and each supports the other. If there is a God, then knowledge of God’s purposes might be enough to transform the motivations of all rational beings. Conversely, many arguments for the existence of God implicitly rely on evaluative claims that cannot be reduced to natural facts about this particular Universe. For instance, many theists argue that we must posit a creator God because the existence of this Universe cries out for explanation. This argument is much more compelling if theists can argue that, out of all the possible universes, this one is strikingly valuable. If there is nothing independently special about this Universe, then why not accept its existence as merely a cosmic brute fact? But comparing the value of possible universes makes sense only if we presume non-natural values that transcend those physical universes.

A theme of contemporary philosophy of religion is that our Universe is religiously ambiguous. It can reasonably be interpreted in radically different ways: realist or idealist, naturalist or non-naturalist, theist or atheist. Our currently available evidence radically underdetermines our metaphysics. Religious ambiguity itself might be peculiar to our present human condition. We inevitably and reasonably disagree, but perhaps everyone capable of establishing a galactic supercivilisation will agree. In our present state of religious ambiguity, we have no idea what they will agree about. Atheists take it for granted that space-faring aliens will have outgrown religion. But the Great Silence points in another direction. Kantian Wontian solutions work best if all sufficiently advanced aliens converge on belief in God.

Theism supports Kantianism. By supporting Kantian Wontianism, the discovery that life is ubiquitous thus indirectly supports theism. But what kind of theism? What sort of universe would a Kantian Wontian God create? Could the God of traditional theism create a universe where life was ubiquitous?

Many theist religions stress the cosmic uniqueness of human beings – or even particular events in human history. This suggests that theists must insist that we are alone in the Universe. But another perennial strand of theist thinking points in the opposite direction. If we are alone, then this cannot be the best possible world. If humanity is valuable, then a possible world containing many other rational God-loving species would be better. If life is good, won’t God create a Universe teeming with every possible kind of life? Leibniz thought so, and argued that this best of all possible worlds isinfinitely filled with life. (He supported this claim by citing the world of microscopic organisms revealed by the recently discovered microscope.)

If the Universe teems with life, then there are other candidates for the cosmically decisive role previously held only by humans

If life turns out to be ubiquitous, then theists must obviously re-evaluate humanity’s place in the divine plan. But many theists, throughout the centuries, have been confident that this challenge can be met. After all, theists already believe that God has infinite love for every individual creature, and that this does nothing to diminish God’s love for me. Why should it matter that God’s love also extends to innumerably many alien individuals as well?

The discovery of extraterrestrial life would thus support theism in two ways. We saw earlier that independently originating life would raise the probability of two other hypotheses that support theism, namely Kantianism and normative non-naturalism. We now see that ubiquitous life would also allow theists to agree with Leibniz that God has, indeed, created the best of all possible worlds.

However, ubiquitous life would also create new and unexpected problems for theism, by undermining some traditional arguments for divine benevolence and thus making it harder to believe that God cares about us. Theists argue that the best explanation for the existence of this Universe is that it was created by a benevolent God. One prima facie counter-example is offered by widespread, apparently gratuitous evil. This suggests instead a creator who is indifferent to the fate of individual human beings. Theists reply that, unless we suppose that God cares about rationality, knowledge or intelligibility, we cannot explain why this Universe is governed by regular intelligible mathematical laws. The Universe appears to be designed to be understood by its own inhabitants. So far as we know, we are the only inhabitants who could possibly understand it. So we must be essential to God’s plan.

The discovery that life is ubiquitous weakens this argument. If the Universe is teeming with life, then there are many other candidates for the cosmically decisive role previously occupiable only by human beings. Perhaps God cares that there be some rational beings, but is indifferent to their species, identity or numbers. Or perhaps God cares only for creatures who reach some threshold of wisdom or intellect that humans could never attain. God cares for beings who are sufficiently rational, intelligent, free or lovable. But it is human arrogance to assume that we are among them!

The intelligibility of the Universe is prima facie evidence that God cares for us. Human suffering is prima facie evidence that God does not. The discovery of ubiquitous life tips the balance against divine benevolence, by opening up alternative explanations for intelligibility.

In my book Purpose in the Universe (2015), I defend a new alternative to both atheism and (traditional) theism. Ananthropocentric purposivism (AP) holds that the Universe has a purpose and that humans are irrelevant to that purpose. If there is a God, then God cares about what matters, but we do not matter to God. Western theism has always combined both God-centred and human-centred elements. While we are created in God’s image, there is a vast distance between our feeble human concerns and God’s incomprehensible divine plan. AP pushes God-centred theism to extremes, abandoning divine benevolence altogether.

If aliens converge on a metaphysical view, it could be something like ananthropocentric purposivism. Perhaps all advanced civilisations are Wontians because they are simply indifferent to anything we care about, including communication with beings such as us. If life is ubiquitous, this might be the best solution to the Fermi Paradox. But it paints a very unsettling picture of our place in the cosmos.

{ https://aeon.co/ }

ALIENS ARE OUT THERE, WORLD-RENOWNED SCIENTIST NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON SAYS

WE are probably not alone in the universe and aliens likely do exist, according to one of the most famous and well respected astrophysicists.

World famous Neil deGrasse Tyson says that the chances of us being alone in the universe is small as the ingredients for life are relatively common over a seemingly infinite cosmos.

Speaking on C-SPAN’s In Depth, the 58-year old spoke of how life is not as unique as we believe.

Dr Tyson said: “We are not likely alone in the universe if you look at how common the ingredients of life is.

“Hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, carbon; we’re made of this stuff, it’s the foundations of organic chemistry, carbon-based life.

Dr Tyson doesn’t expect them to look like this, however

“This stuff is everywhere we look in the universe.

“Whatever happened on Earth, it’s not likely to be rare or unique. 

“The universe has been around 14 billion years – plenty of time to evolve all manners of creatures”

“Because carbon chemistry, on which life is based, is the most fertile kind of chemistry there is. And carbon is abundant across the universe.”However, he added that microorganisms, rather than advanced aliens, is probably the best bet for finding aliens.

Dr Tyson continued: “The universe has been around 14 billion years – plenty of time to evolve all manners of creatures out there, particularly microorganisms.

“We have no reason to not think of microorganisms as aliens. They don’t need to have built a spaceship, they’re just alien life on another planet.

With that in mind, the astrophysicist says that he does not believe any testimonies which allude to aliens visiting Earth.

Dr Tyson: “What the UFO community puts forth as evidence is weak on a level that, in any scientific circle, would be kicked out of the lab room.”

Neil deGrasse Tyson on Aliens, Mars & Why an Asteroid Might Flatten Earth [Full Interview]

Source www.express.co.uk

{ http://alien-ufo-sightings.com/ }