'Unusual Circumstances' Delay Pentagon UFO Program FOIAs

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Voorlaatste deel van mysterieuze Dode Zeerollen ontcijferd - HLN.be

Bron: BBC, Haaretz, IBT

De 900 rollen werden tussen 1947 en 1956 ontdekt in grotten in Qumran, de ruïnes van een dorpje op de Westelijke Jordaanoever binnen de Palestijnse Gebieden. Een jonge bedoeïenenherder die op zoek was naar verloren schapen zou de eerste ontdekking gedaan hebben.

Lees ook

Grot ontdekt met belangrijke info over duizenden jaren oude manuscripten

De rollen, die vermoedelijk tussen 335 voor Christus en 82 na Christus werden opgesteld, worden beschouwd als de oudst gekende versie van de Bijbel. Wie de auteurs van de oude schriften zijn, is niet met zekerheid geweten, al wijzen verscheidene wetenschappers in de richting van de Essenen, een dissidente ascetische woestijnsekte die zich terugtrok in Qumran en de omliggende omgeving om te ontsnappen aan vervolging door de overheid.

Dr. Eshbal Ratson en professor Jonathan Ben-Dov van de universiteit van Haifa puzzelden de verschillende fragmentjes van de rol bij elkaar. Eerder onderzoek had uitgewezen dat deze fragmenten deel uitmaakten van zes verschillende rollen, waardoor het moeilijk werd om ze in de juiste volgorde samen te stellen.

Ze waren geschreven in een codetaal en sommige stukjes perkament waren kleiner dan één vierkante centimeter. De codetaal had echter niet tot doel om informatie te verbergen. “Het was de gewoonte om te tonen dat de auteur de code kende, terwijl anderen dat niet deden,” aldus de onderzoekers.

De historische documenten handelen over feestdagen die gevierd werden door de oude joodse sekte, die volgens een unieke kalender van 364 dagen volgde. De vermelde feestdagen zijn ‘Nieuwe Tarwe’, ‘Nieuwe Wijn’ en ‘Nieuwe Olie’, die verband houden met het joodse festival Shavuot.

De onderzoekers ontdekten ook dat de sekte het woord ‘Tekufah’, wat in het moderne Hebreeuws “periode” betekent, gebruikte om vier keer per jaar de overgang tussen de seizoenen aan te duiden.

Tijdens het bestuderen van de rollen ontdekten de onderzoekers dat er notities gemaakt waren in de marges die weglatingen van de oorspronkelijke auteur verbeterden. “Wat fijn is aan deze commentaren is dat het hints waren die me hielpen om de puzzel te leggen. Ze toonden me hoe de rol moest samengesteld worden,” vertelde dr. Ratzon aan de krant Haaretz.

Momenteel is er nog één Dode Zeerol die ontcijferd dient te worden.

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OP VERSCHILLENDE PLAATSEN DACHT MEN DAT EEN BUITENAARDSE INVASIE WAS BEGONNEN ( VIDEO )

Met alle vreemde verschijnselen die zich de afgelopen weken voordeden in ons luchtruim is het niet zo vreemd dat men gaat denken aan een buitenaardse invasie. 

Dit was met name het geval op het eiland Kreta en Thailand, waar bewoners vol verbazing naar de lucht keken. 

Dat er iets bijzonders gaande is aan ons firmament, daar lijkt weinig twijfel over te bestaan. De meest voorkomende theorie is dat er zich een soort ruimteoorlog aan het ontwikkelen is, waarbij ook de aarde is betrokken.

Op 11 januari 2018 werden onderstaande foto's gemaakt in de plaats Rethimmon op het eiland Kreta. Uiteraard is de officiële lezing altijd dat het een bijzondere wolk is, maar inwoners die deze UFO wolk zagen dachten daar wel anders over.

In de loop der jaren hebben we talloze voorbeelden gezien hoe grote moederschepen zich vermommen in dit soort wolken en dat dit dan soms duidelijk wordt doordat er kleiner UFO's uit verschijnen. Wij mensen zijn vaak gewend niet verder te kijken dan onze neus lang is en wanneer wij een wolk zien, dan geloven wij dat dat precies is wat het lijkt. En van dat feit schijnen buitenaardsen graag gebruik te maken om hun grote moederschepen voor ons verborgen te houden.

Hoe dit werkt in de praktijk zie je bijvoorbeeld op de volgende foto die is genomen in België in augustus 2016 waarop je de kleinere UFO's kunt zien die het moederschip in de wolk hebben verlaten.

Op 14 januari 2018 werden de volgende foto's gemaakt in Thailand, waar ook uiteraard de verklaring voor kwam dat het een volkomen natuurlijk fenomeen zou zijn. 

De wolken in Thailand zagen er als volgt uit:

Om aan te tonen dat het wel degelijk mogelijk is dat dit soort wolken moederschepen verbergen, een deel uit een eerder artikel:

Het antwoord lijkt te zien in de volgende video die is gemaakt in de Atacama woestijn in de buurt van de Chileense stad Calama. 

Twee mijnarbeiders rijden in een auto en zien vreemde wolkformaties in de lucht. Eén van hen pakt zijn mobiele telefoon en begint te filmen.

Dan plotseling komt er uit deze wolk of wellicht moederschip een bij ons welbekende oranje-achtige bol tevoorschijn.

In de onderstaande video kun je duidelijk zien hoe deze bol tevoorschijn komt uit de wolk en vervolgens wegvliegt. 

Hebben we hier te maken met een zogenaamd cloaked moederschip dat zich verborgen houdt in deze kunstmatig aandoende wolken en die de bollen als een soort verkenners op pad stuurt? 

Het heeft er alle schijn van en daarmee is deze opname misschien wel het eerste stukje bewijs dat we in handen hebben wat laat zien waar deze oranje bollen vandaan komen. 

Uiteraard ontstaan er dan altijd weer discussies of deze opname wel of niet echt is. Tot nu is er, voor zover ons bekend, geen informatie over dat de opname niet echt zou zijn.

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Our Universe Could Be Littered With Alien Viruses—and We Should Be Looking for Them

Astrobiologists from the United States and Japan admitted that viruses should exist on other planets of the solar system and exoplanets, writes Gizmodo. The article is published in the journal Astrobiology.

It’s generally agreed that some kind of microbe will be the first form of life we discover on another planet, moon, or other space rock. But hardly anyone thinks we’ll find an alien virus, which is weird, given how prolific and successful these biological entities are on Earth. A new study seeks to correct this oversight, calling for an entirely new discipline known as “astrovirology.”

Viruses exist in massive numbers on Earth, and they date back to the very beginnings of life. More viruses exist on our planet than any other cellular organism—upwards of about 10 to 100 times more—so it’s a reasonable bet that viruses exist on other worlds. Yet scientists know surprisingly little about these “bags of genes” and how they work, with even less attention paid to the possibility of viruses existing elsewhere in the solar system and beyond. Problematically, NASA’s 2015 Astrobiology Strategy makes scarce mention of viruses, focusing primarily on the search for fully cellular alien microorganisms.

Artist’s depiction of the surface of TRAPPIST-1f, a recently discovered Earth-like planet in the TRAPPIST-1 system.

(Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

A new paper, now published in the science journal Astrobiology and led by Portland State University scientist Kenneth Stedman, argues that this is a missed opportunity, and that astrobiologists should explore the possibility that viruses exist en masse throughout the universe. To that end, Stedman proposes the field of “astrovirology,” and asks that scientists start developing strategies and tools required to detect viruses off-planet. He said his proposal isn’t about subdividing the field of astrobiology even further, but more of an attempt to integrate viruses into “mainstream” astrobiology.

Many of you are probably wondering how viruses are distinguished from other forms of microbial life, and why there’s even a need to distinguish between the two. Scientists struggle with this very question.

“Virus definitions are somewhat problematic,” Stedman told Gizmodo. “My favorite is the one we cited in the manuscript: ‘Viruses are entities whose genomes are elements of nucleic acid that replicate inside living cells using the cellular synthetic machinery and causing the synthesis of specialized elements that can transfer the viral genome to other cells.’”

Stedman admits this isn’t a very “reader friendly” definition, offering this simpler translation: “Viruses can get their genetic information inside cells and reprogram the cells to make more virus.” He calls them “information-transfer agents” capable of carrying the instructions to make more of themselves when in the right conditions. He said it’s true that all viruses need hosts, “but I like to think about ‘hosts’ as a particular environment—like soil and water for a seed— that a virus needs to replicate.”

Stedman should know a thing or two about viruses and the kinds of conditions they need to replicate. Back in 2012, he discovered a completely new group of viruses capable of living in acidic hot lakes (basically boiling acid)—a discovery that demonstrated the extreme conditions under which viruses can evolve, live, and even thrive. In this case, the new viral genome emerged after the combination of DNA and RNA from two apparently unrelated virus groups. So in addition to living in the harshest of environments, viruses can also find ways to continually adapt. Consequently, Stedman thinks they’re likely involved in some major evolutionary transitions on Earth.

“There is also considerable indirect evidence that viruses are incredibly ancient,” said Stedman, “but no direct evidence, so we have been working on virus fossilization/preservation in the fossil record.”

Our Universe Could Be Littered With Alien Viruses—and We Should Be Looking for Them

So the idea that viruses are strewn across the cosmos isn’t a completely outlandish idea. Sure, they’re likely to be different than the ones found on Earth, but they’d be viruses nonetheless. To further the case for astrovirology, Stedman is asking NASA and other space agencies to look for viruses in liquid samples taken from planets and moons in our Solar System (good bets include Enceladus and Europa), develop tools to find viruses in ancient deposits on Earth and Mars, and to figure out if viruses could survive in space.

“We need to further develop current tools, either put [an electron microscope] on a spacecraft or develop other microscopic technologies that can detect molecules, not just atoms at nanometer resolution,” he said.

Should we discover viruses living elsewhere in the Solar System, Stedman said there’s no reason to panic, and that viruses will likely be the first sign of life that NASA will likely find on other planets and moons.

“Viruses have a bad rap. If we find viruses on other planets it is an indication of life, not something to be scared of,” he said. “Viruses rock!”

[Astrobiology]

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THE MOST SHOCKING EVIDENCE THAT EARTH WAS VISITED BY ANCIENT ALIENS

The very words give me the chills: ancient aliens. In the early 1970s, when Erich von Däniken first released Chariots of the Gods, he called them “ancient astronauts”—a name that’s equally creepy. The Apollo missions were still going on, and the image of astronauts was fresh in everyone’s minds. Could ancient alien beings have arrived on Earth in the distant past? Would they have worn spacesuits, like our own astronauts?

If they truly visited our planet in millennia past: why were they here? What did the aliens do while they were on Earth?

Researchers have spent a lot of time looking into the question of whether we were visited so many millennia ago. The popular television show Ancient Aliens, although well-intentioned, has muddied the water in their search of show material—did we really need an episode asking whether aliens interfered with the American Civil War? (C’mon, guys. You’re off the reservation.)

Although we may not be ever know for sure that we had extraterrestrial visitors thousands of years in the past, perhaps if they did come, they might have left us modern people some clues. Let’s take a look at some of the most clear—and startling—evidence for the existence of ancient aliens on Earth.

ANCIENT ALIENS VISIT THE DOGON TRIBE?

African Tribe Possessed Knowledge Science Had Yet to Discover

The Dogon tribe and the Sirius Mystery are amazing enough that we’ve covered them elsewhere.

This African tribe (whose name is pronounced “DOE-gone”) has known all sorts of specifics about the star Sirius for thousands of years, passed down from holy man to holy man. We’re talking details here, like how Sirius has a companion star (“Sirius B”), and that it circles the main star (“Sirius A”) every 50 years. Here’s the thing: it is absolutely true—but modern scientists didn’t know these things about Sirius until the middle of the 19th century. The Dogon knew a thousand years ago. Heck, the Dogon also knew that Sirius has a second companion star, and scientists didn’t discover it (“Sirius C”) until the 1990s.

How did the Dogon get this scientific information about Sirius B? If you ask them, they’ll tell you that the tribe was visited by the Nommos, an amphibian-like race that came from the Sirius star system in a noisy “ark” that spun and whipped up wind while it landed. It was the Nommos, a race of ancient aliens, who told the Dogon about their homeworld and its star cluster.

Knee-jerk skeptics like to invent reasons why all this can’t be true. Westerners must have stopped by and told them about Sirius, one denier said. There’s no way, though: the Dogon have artifacts that are thousands of years old, depicting Sirius and its companions. No one should have known this stuff that long ago, but the Dogon did.

This short video does a good job explaining the ancient Dogon knowledge. (I have no idea why the narrator pronounces Sirius as “SIGH-ree-us”, but we can give him a pass on that.)

THE PROPHET EZEKIEL DESCRIBES HIS ENCOUNTER WITH ANCIENT UFOS—IN THE BIBLE

Holy Scriptures Contain Account of Alien Contact?

Ask Erich von Däniken, the guy who pioneered the search for ancient aliens, and he’ll tell you his favorite evidence is in the Old Testament. It’s the story of Ezekiel and his bizarre encounter with UFOs.

Ezekiel was a prophet living in exile with the rest of the Hebrews in the land they called Babylon. Being a prophet was a highfalutin job back then, but Ezekiel’s life got even stranger—stranger than just being a guy who received special messages from the creator of the universe.

The prophet Ezekiel encounters a UFO and aliens 2,500 years ago

I looked, and I saw a windstorm coming out of the north—an immense cloud with flashing lightning and surrounded by brilliant light. The center of the fire looked like glowing metal, and in the fire was what looked like four living creatures. In appearance their form was human, but each of them had four faces and four wings.

Ezekiel 1:1-6

Some people read this and think: the dude was taking drugs. Others (knee-jerk skeptics) say: oh, it’s just more Biblical mumbo-jumbo. Devout people may say that Ezekiel saw angels.

Maybe.

What if this was Ezekiel actually saw something, and he didn’t know what it was, or how to explain it? If he actually encountered ancient aliens, how would he describe them? We think he’d probably describe them just like he did.

Next Ezekiel describes the machine that the being had arrived in, the machine that landed in a rush of wind.

Ezekiel confronts the great wheels within wheels. Did he meet ancient aliens?

I saw a wheel on the ground beside each creature with its four faces. This was the appearance and structure of the wheels: They sparkled like topaz … each appeared to be made like a wheel intersecting a wheel. As they moved, they would go in any one of the four directions the creatures faced; the wheels did not change direction as the creatures went.

Ezekiel 1:15-19

Doesn’t that sound like a spacecraft to you? Why would a man living 500 years B.C. write a description that sounds so much like the landing and maneuvering of an alien ship? Surely this was not just random. Remember: Ezekiel was devoutly religious, and he would interpret amazing events as signs from God. If beings appeared, he would assume they were angels. But perhaps they were ancient aliens.

What about their technology? Ezekiel’s description was of an alien craft with advanced maneuverability.

This story of the machine that had wheels-within-wheels impressed NASA engineer Joe Blumrich a lot. A wheel that could move in any direction without having to turn—that sounded like something a planetary exploration vehicle could use. He went on to invent a wheel based on Ezekiel’s description, and called it the “omni wheel.” Joe received a US patent for it in 1972. Today, omni wheels are routinely used in robot vehicles. Blumrich also wrote a popular book, The Spaceships of Ezekiel, in which he explained that after starting out intending to disprove the idea, he’d become convinced that Ezekiel truly had been writing about an encounter with ancient aliens.

“THOSE WHO CAME FROM THE SKIES TO THE EARTH”

World’s Oldest Civilization Leaves Record of Alien Contact

The ancient Sumerians lived 5,000 years ago in what’s now the country of Iraq. They left behind humankind’s first writings, books older than the Bible and the Hindu Vedas.

The Sumerians wrote a lot about the Anunnaki, whose name means “those who came from the skies to Earth”. Modern scholars have assumed that the stories of the Annunaki were just myths about Sumerian gods—but the stories themselves sound more like tales of ancient aliens.

In the writings, the Annunaki came to Earth from a lost planet in our solar system—one with such a wide orbit that it rarely approaches us. They called the planet Nibiru.

The leaders of the ancient aliens were named Enki and Enlil. They were here for gold, a mineral they needed but did not have enough of. Mines were set up there in Sumer, but also in Africa as well. Vusamazulu Credo Mutwa, a Zulu elder and author of Zulu Shaman: Dreams, Prophecies, and Mysteries, says that ancient tribal traditions speak of “visitors from the stars” who mined for gold.

After mining for some time, the Anunnaki realized that the local humanoids—Homo Erectus, our ancestors—might make useful slaves if they could make them smarter. After improving the proto-humans, presumably with DNA modification, they managed to create a hybrid race: part Anunnaki, part early human. These new beings, called the Adamu, were the first real humans. They were also the new slaves who would work in the gold mines.

Ancient Sumerian cylindrical seal shows an accurate map of our solar system

Our hybrid ancestors didn’t stand for this situation for long, though, probably because these newly created beings were far too smart. Who wants to be a slave? They eventually rose up and rebelled, and eventually, a new Adamu society formed, one which maintained an uneasy truce with the Anunnaki.

The Sumerians recorded this history after first inventing writing. They also made engravings and art of the Anunnaki along with knowledge they had received from them—for instance, an ancient Sumerian seal depicts the Sumerian “gods” along with an accurate representation of our solar system, with 11 planets. The planets have correct proportions (Jupiter is the largest, then Saturn, and so on), and the depiction also includes the asteroid belt. Remember that modern science only discovered Uranus and Neptune in the past 150 years, and that scientists are only now saying that there is gravitational evidence for a “lost” planet with a weird, oblong orbit. Are there truly 11 planets? It may be so.

Sumerian artwork always depicts members of the Anunnaki as having wings. Did they actually have wings? It seems unlikely—many researchers believe the wings are meant to show that the Anunnaki had the ability to fly, as in ships. Other strange and telling things appear in the artwork: the goddess Ishtar’s symbol, which stood for the concept of “life”, bears a striking resemblance to the entwined double helix of DNA. Could that be more than a coincidence?

We’ve been kind of critical of the show Ancient Aliens, but this segment from an early episode explains all this pretty well (below). We also very much like this documentary about the Anunnaki and the planet Nibiru.

ANCIENT ALIENS FIGHT WARS IN THE SKIES OF ANCIENT INDIA

Hindu Holy Books Called The Vedas Describe Alien Encounters

There is strong evidence that ancient aliens visited other places around the Earth. In India, for example, the ancient holy books known as The Vedas tell of a space war between ships and fought in the skies. The descriptions of the ships are remarkable—translated, it is difficult to imagine that they were describing anything except spacecraft.

The Vedas state that “strong and durable must the body of the Vimana be made, like a great flying bird of light material. Inside one must put the mercury engine with its iron heating apparatus underneath. By means of the power latent in the mercury which sets the driving whirlwind in motion, a man sitting inside may travel a great distance in the sky. The movements of the Vimana are such that it can vertically ascend, vertically descend, move slanting forwards and backwards. With the help of the machines human beings can fly in the air and heavenly beings can come down to earth.”

Spacecraft as described in the ancient Hindu holy books called The Vedas

No, that’s not a spacecraft they’re describing. No way.

“Fifty years of researching this ancient works convinces me that there are living beings on other planets and that they visited Earth as far back as 4,000 BC. There is just a mass of fascinating information about flying machines, even fantastic science fiction weapons that can be found in translations of The Vedas, Indian epics and other ancient Sanskrit text.” That’s Dr. Vijaya Raghavan, speaking; he was head of the Sanskrit department of the University of Madras in India (now retired). His job, if it’s not obvious, was to study The Vedas; his conclusion was that they described real events in which aliens came to Earth.

In other parts of The Vedas, we get a description of something that can only be a nuclear explosion.

“Gurkha flying in his swift and powerful Vimana hurled against the three cities of the Vrishis and Andhakas a single projectile charged with all the power of the Universe. An incandescent column of smoke and fire, as brilliant as ten thousands suns, rose in all its splendor. It was the unknown weapon, the Iron Thunderbolt, a gigantic messenger of death which reduced to ashes the entire race of the Vrishnis and Andhakas.”

So what do we make of that? Just ancient imagination that happens to sound exactly like nuclear devastation? Sure, you deniers and skeptics, sure. You’re probably right. It’s ancient nonsense. Right?

Hungry for more?

Check out Google searches about the Nazca lines, and the Mayan king Pakal at the pyramid of Palenque. We could go on; there’s a lot of strange evidence on our Earth that is dismissed far too easily by mainstream science. Because the universe is mundane, and it has to be mundane—that is, if you’re a knee-jerk skeptic addicted to the idea that the universe is mundane.

Now, if you want to see the original film that inspired all this hysteria, it’s below: Chariots of the Gods, from the early 1970s. Yes, sure, it’s cheesy—it’s from the ’70s! But it’s still pretty cool, we think.

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Water: A Basic Building Block Of Life

It surrounds us through comprising extra than 2/3 of the Earth’s surface place. 70% of our frame weight is from the water. The simplicity of its effortlessly diagnosed symbol H2O, signifying its composition of two hydrogens and one oxygen atom, understates its essential importance to all existence on our planet. Yet it is believed that lots of Earth’s water had extraterrestrial origins; having traveled here via manner of comets and other celestial bodies. Regardless of its source, our planet would be barren without it. Being a primary building block of lifestyles, water is second most effective to our air in sustaining all living things, each animal, and vegetable

The portability of water has made it a common partner to walkers, joggers and thirsty human beings anywhere. We have grown to be conversant in carrying individual water bottles anywhere in recent times, to the factor wherein they have got almost changed the once ubiquitous water fountain or cooler; previously the gathering location for spreading workplace scuttlebutt. They are consumed on the price of 1500 according to 2nd in the U.S. In a try and quench our seemingly insatiable thirst. The reason for this is clean; our bodies crave it.

Water facts

You have probably been advised to drink a mean of eight 8 ounce glasses each and regular. This serves as a guideline and consumption should range in step with your degree of bodily interest and different elements. Of path no longer all our water is ate up in its purified shape, the average American drinks greater than six hundred bottled and canned beverages (frequently carbonated and sweetened tender liquids) every yr. While they will be nice in moderation, they may be no longer a great alternative for the real issue, sorry Coke.

So why is it so vital to us? Well, we could not continue to exist without it for a range of days. When we do not get enough we suffer from dehydration. But that doesn’t give an explanation for why it’s so crucial to the proper functioning of our bodies.

Well, water has numerous specific characteristics. Its capability to dissolve many substances has made it referred to as the normal solvent. In addition to other houses, this helps to cleanse the frame. Osmosis, a method accountable a plant’s roots ability to take in water from the soil, is defined as the movement of a solvent via a semi-permeable membrane. The cellular walls of the human frame are just such a membrane. Osmosis is regulated by using mechanisms within the body to keep the awareness of materials within the mobile at a balanced degree; do away with the water and the cell will soon die.

Water is contained in the lymphatic device which presents our immunity to the invasions of our bodies with the aid of toxins and overseas bodies. When we excrete water it removes a number of those overseas substances and pollutants, helping to keep the general health of the body. Just like the elimination of garbage maintains our environmental health, the frame has its very own device to eliminate its refuse. Water is a big part of that technique.

Other exciting traits of water are brotherly love and adhesion. Cohesion is created with the aid of the attraction of the water molecules because of the hydrogen bonds. When combined with adhesion the resulting capillary movement permits a plant to defy gravity and draw water up during its entire stem, accordingly nourishing each mobile of the plant shape.

Electromagnetic houses additionally play a function inside the features water plays in this captivating procedure. Substances called electrolytes serve to regulate the body’s many inner systems. Among those are sodium, potassium, chloride, and bicarbonate. The amount of water in our bodies is regulated by sodium, which is also vital for the technology of electrical indicators which are the method of communique for our mind and apprehensive system. Potassium regulates heartbeat and muscle function.

More exact facts can be discovered on numerous internet websites so as to offer the reader with a more appreciation for the brilliant structure that is the human body. MedicineNet.Com and eMedicineHealth.Com have supplied a number of the real statistics for this article and will serve as a place to begin your studies.

Our body also makes use of water to cool itself. When we perspire the sweat glands underneath our pores and skin excrete water bringing it to the floor. As the water evaporates it draws warmth from the frame. Without this device of cooling we’d be not able keep a secure frame temperature. Normal frame temperature varies within a narrow variety at some stage in the day, with the common body temperature being about ninety eight.6 stages.

One of the notable things about consuming water is not having to worry about calories; there aren’t any. This might not consist of a number of the new water merchandise being marketed in recent times, you would better take a look at the label. Some of those new merchandise even tout health benefits, claiming to incorporate nutrients and different essential nutrients. Be skeptical and seek advice from your health practitioner or different healthcare professional before allotting the more money for those merchandise. You’ll discover that maximum of the claims made, even though inside Federal recommendations, may be completely meaningless.

Maintaining the deliver of secure easy water is important to the continuing life of all living things. Though we’ve enjoyed a reasonably excessive general of water excellent inside the U.S. There are locations where sources have become too polluted for human consumption. Since 1948 Congress has declared it in the “country wide interest” to guarantee the high first-class of water all through the United States. Through The Clean Water Act of 1972, which remains one of the most debatable laws ever enacted, Congress created and empowered the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to alter the release of pollution into U.S. Waterways.

We have to all continue to be vigilant in protecting our water supply by way of getting to know how and in which to remove contaminants. And file any suspicious dumping of substances into lakes and streams. The task is just too important to depart as much as a central authority forms. And the next time you are feeling thirsty, attain for a tall, cool glass of the satisfactory liquid refreshment on this planet. Water: It’s what your frame wants!

Richard Quindry writes fiction and non-fiction on his internet site. He can be contacted through e-mail at the e-mail address shown below. He accepts unfastened lance assignments and enjoys learning topics of every sort. He is an avid reader of many other Blogs and loves to share thoughts with other writers.

It won’t be new news that what you can’t see for your ingesting water can harm you. But are you aware of the volume of the risks? Depending on where you live, different contaminants have an effect on the water excellent that during turn impacts your family’s health. Water quality requirements are sadly no longer assured by way of federal or kingdom organizations which are charged with overseeing them.

Drinking water filters, as well as whole residence water filtration, is no doubt your great guess for a preserving a healthy family. Bottled water isn’t an awesome alternative because of the rate as well as the pollution troubles resulting from the bottles. And you don’t have any concept where that water got here from. Often it comes right out of municipal water structures…Much like your faucet water!

If you live in a rural area with a properly, the dangers posed by way of agricultural runoff include micro organism from animal manure, heavy metals and chemical substances contained in fertilizers and insecticides. Even in suburban areas, many nicely proprietors face these same issues because of garden care and other gardening products that run off whilst it rains.

For people who stay in urban regions, commercial pollutants has lengthy been set up as a health problem. A high percent of the contaminants from industries which get into the water deliver are not even regulated. Chemicals and heavy metals frequently end up in your ingesting glass after which into your body. These contaminants are popping out of smoke stacks and being dumped as waste into streams and lakes.

A more recently disclosed threat of urban consuming water comes from pills which have been dumped down toilets and drains and found their manner into your kitchen sink. Even greater alarming, in step with an Associated Press investigation, principal drug makers in the U.S. Have legally launched as a minimum 271 million prescription drugs into waterways that provide consuming water to residents.

A huge range of medication encompass mood stabilizers (often containing lithium), antibiotics, intercourse hormones and anti-convulsants. Even even though this drug dumping poses a splendid danger, even extra of the contamination comes from the humans who eat them. The frame will excrete pills that are not absorbed, and unused pills get flushed. Opened boxes cannot be used in hospitals and nursing houses, and the last unused drugs also get flushed and emerge as within the water supply.

Consider the huge ranging cleansing merchandise that contain antibiotics. Hand soap, counter cleaner, lavatory cleaner and the list is going on and on. In addition to posing danger to ingesting water, we can be growing greater “tremendous insects” or bacteria that speedy adapt a resistance to the antibiotics, and motive life-threatening infections which can be from time to time not possible to triumph over.

Because authorities agencies are not stepping up in a well-timed way to cope with the concerns posed with the aid of environmental infection, it’s far as much as you to preserve your family safe. Fortunately this is feasible and requires distinctly little fee in assessment to the blessings you will gain. Water best checking out is the vital first step. Home water filtration systems are the second one step.

Based on what your water checking out effects display approximately the contaminants popping out of your faucets, you can find a wide variety of water clear out structures to easy your water supply. It might be a sort of charcoal filter out or even an entire house osmosis gadget that fits your needs. Whichever type you choose, you can be confident that your fitness is guarded from invisible chemical substances and bacteria that may be for your water.

Olivia Thoroughgood writes about the most critical investment of your lifestyles, your private home. She invites you to find out extra about the connection of clean water and your health. You can benefit from smooth water research and environmentally sound practices that help you, your family and the earth too.

{ https://shavitech.com/ }

Brain implant boosts memory for first time ever

New memory prosthesis could be a game-changer for dementia care.

by Kristin Houser, Futurism

Image: Brain activity

SCIEPRO / Getty Images

A BIONIC MEMORY BOOST

With everyone from Elon Musk to MIT to the U.S. Department of Defense researching brain implants, it seems only a matter of time before such devices are ready to help humans extend their natural capabilities. Now, a professor from the University of Southern California (USC) has demonstrated the use of a brain implant to improve the human memory, and the device could have major implications for the treatment of one of the U.S.’s deadliest diseases.

Dong Song is a research associate professor of biomedical engineering at USC, and he recently presented his findings on a “memory prosthesis” during a meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in Washington D.C. According to a New Scientist report, the device is the first to effectively improve the human memory.

To test his device, Song’s team enlisted the help of 20 volunteers who were having brain electrodes implanted for the treatment of epilepsy.

Once implanted in the volunteers, Song’s device could collect data on their brain activity during tests designed to stimulate either short-term memory or working memory. The researchers then determined the pattern associated with optimal memory performance and used the device’s electrodes to stimulate the brain following that pattern during later tests.

Related

Based on their research, such stimulation improved short-term memory by roughly 15 percent and working memory by about 25 percent. When the researchers stimulated the brain randomly, performance worsened.

As Song told New Scientist, “We are writing the neural code to enhance memory function. This has never been done before.”

A GROWING PROBLEM

While a better memory could be useful for students cramming for tests or those of us with trouble remembering names, it could be absolutely life-changing for people affected by dementia and Alzheimer’s.

As Bill Gates noted when announcing plans to invest $100 million of his own money into dementia and Alzheimer’s research, the disease is a multi-level problem that’s positioned to get even worse.

Age is the greatest risk factor for Alzheimer’s, according to the Alzheimer’s Association, with the vast majority of sufferers over the age of 65. With advances in medicine and healthcare continuously increasing how long we live, that segment of the population is growing dramatically, and by 2030, 20 percent of U.S. citizens are expected to be older than 65.

This increase in the number of potential dementia sufferers can be costly in both a financial and emotional sense. In 2016, the total cost of healthcare and long-term care for those suffering from dementia and Alzheimer’s disease was an estimated $236 billion, and according to the Alzheimer’s Association, the more severe a person’s cognitive impairment, the higher the rates of depression in their familial caregivers.

Of course, further testing is required before Song’s device could be approved as a treatment for dementia or Alzheimer’s, but if it is able to help those patients regain even part of their lost memory function, the impact would be felt not only by the patients themselves, but their families and even the economy at large.

A Robotics Set That Lets Kids Bring Their Lego Creations to Life

{ https://www.nbcnews.com/mach }

What Will Happen When Aliens Arrive 

THE world could be woefully unprepared for an alien invasion and because extraterrestrial technology would be far superior.

Governments around the globe remain tight-lipped on counter-invasion strategies, with the US claiming nothing is in place and it would have to react to what exactly is in front of them.

But what is clear is there would be no point in humans trying to fight them.

Any extra-terrestrial which can make its way across the universe would have technology that would make it look like our arsenal is a pile of rocks. 

Jill Tarter, a member of Search for Extra-Terrestrial Life (SETI) Institute and part of the management board for the Allen Telescope Array in California, said: “If they showed up on our doorstep, that means they have technologies that are considerably advanced with respect to ours.

“And because of that, they’re going to be the ones that set the rules.”

While there is no official plan, it is believed that the United Nations would take charge.

They group would be responsible for every country’s atomic weaponry and air strikes, as well as distributing, and probably rationing, food across the planet.

If ET has bad intentions for Earth, conscription may take place with many healthy men and women of fighting age being forced into battle – although it probably will not make much of a difference.Far more likely than aliens arriving on our doorstep would be they send a signal or a message to Earth.SETI is an agency which has been scanning the skies in search of alien activity since 1984.

The Rio Scale The ET hunters have laid out a set of guidelines and recommendations to follow if, or when, we make contact

Firstly, the people who detect the signal would have to make sure it is genuine, then once it is confirmed they would have to inform the the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams would be informed, who would inform professional observers across the globe and the United Nations Secretary General.There are then a few factors to take into consideration as to whether the public should be informed which is judged on the Rio Scale.According to Seth Shostak, senior astronomer for SETI: “A SETI detection could have important consequences for society.

The Rio Scale would help experts determine how much of a threat it is

“The Rio Scale runs from 0 (forget it) to 10 (this is definitely IT!). It’s composed of two multiplicative factors: a term Q that measures the importance of the discovery (for example, if a signal comes from within the solar system, it’s adjudged to be more important than one coming from the other side of the Galaxy), and a term δ that estimates the credibility of the claim (is there hard data, or only an anecdotal report?) The Rio index is imply Q times δ.”After that, a response would have to be calculated.

Stephen Hawking says we should ignore alien calls

Although it has always been denied, Director of UN Office for Outer Space Affairs would probably lead contact.Malaysian astrophysicist Mazlan Offman, who served from 2010 to 2014, was strongly tipped top be the person to go to if aliens come out with the classic “take us to your leader”, but she refuted this during her time in charge, saying “It sounds really cool but I have to deny it.”Simonetta Di Pippo took over Offman’s post and so she could be the point of contact.

Another likely candidate is Paul Davies – chairman of SETI’s post detection task force.

As any alien’s grasp of English, or any human language, will probably be non-existent, experts have devised other ways to show that we are intelligent, with the mathematical formula for Pie as good as anything to send back to show that we are not completely primitive.

However, others think, including Stephen Hawking, that we should not respond at all.

Professor Hawking said that it would be best to keep schtum as, judging by what has happened when humans have met other humans who they deem inferior, it could spell the end of us.

The theoretical physicist said: “One day we might receive a signal from a planet like Gliese 832c, but we should be wary of answering back.”

“Meeting an advanced civilisation could be like Native Americans encountering Columbus. 

“That didn’t turn out so well.”

Source www.express.co.uk

{ http://alien-ufo-sightings.com/ }

Un OVNI et ses occupants photographiés en Floride, USA

{  http://activite-paranormale.net/}

Bizarre: Former CIA Pilot Claims The Moon Has More Than 250 Million Citizens

What a totally absurd statement right? I mean who in their right mind can say that the moon—Earth’s desolate natural satellite—is inhabited by no less than 250 million citizens?

Come to think about it, a lot of weird things have been said about the moon, and all statements come from people with a solid background, being employed either by the military, government agencies or private corporations.

Now, despite the fact that the claims made by Former CIA pilot John Lear may be wrong, but we cannot overlook the sheer amount of information that has been leaked about the moon, where we can clearly see surface features that raise more questions than answers.

Condemnation without investigation is the height of ignorance

—Einstein

Are there really alien bases on the surface of Earth’s moon?

Do I believe there are 250 million inhabitants on the moon? , o I don’t. However, if you do the research independently of what you read here, you’ll notice that the moon has attracted all sorts of strange comments in the last couple of decades.

We can’t forget what Michael Vasin and Alexander Shcherbakov of the Soviet Academy of Sciences wrote about the moon in the 1970’s.

In July of 1970, two Russian scientists, Mikhail Vasin and Alexander Shcherbakov, published an article in the Soviet Journal Sputnik called “Is the Moon the Creation of Alien Intelligence?”

The theory proposed by the two experts offers arguments that would explain the countless enigmas surrounding the moon and its creation.

After they published the controversial article, they raised numerous question in the scientific community, which today—nearly half a decade after publishment—seem more reasonable than ever before.

The Russian scientific duo proposed a theory how our natural satellite is, in fact, a planetoid that was literally hollowed out eons ago in the far reaches of the universe by super advanced intelligent beings possessing a technology far superior to ours, even today.

In their article, Vasin and Shcherbakov write:

“Abandoning the traditional paths of ‘common sense,’ we have plunged into what may, at first sight, seem to be unbridled and irresponsible fantasy. But the more minutely we go into all the knowledge gathered by man about the Moon, the more we are convinced that there is not a single fact to rule out our hypothesis. Not only that, but many things so far considered to be lunar enigmas are explainable in the light of this new theory.”

Since the 1970’s we’ve made a number of odd discoveries on the Moon.

For example, Dr. John Brandenburg, the Deputy Manager of the Clementine Mission to the Moon, which discovered water at the Moon’s poles said:

“The Clementine Mission was a photo reconnaissance mission basically to check out if someone was building bases on the moon that we didn’t know about. Were they expanding they expanding them? Of all the pictures I’ve seen from the moon that show possible structures, the most impressive is a picture of a miles-wide recto-linear structure. This looked unmistakably artificial, and it shouldn’t be there. As somebody in the space defense community, I look on any such structure on the moon with great concern because it isn’t ours, there’s no way we could have built such a thing. It means someone else is up there.”

We’ve successfully identified a number of oddities on the Moon.

On the lunar surface, scientists have found PROCESSED METALSsuch as Brass, the elements of Uranium 236 and Neptunium 237. These elements have NEVER been found to occur naturally. Uranium 236 for example, is a radioactive nuclear waste which is found in spent nuclear and reprocessed Uranium.

Isaac Asimov wrote about the moon raising numerous questions as well:

“It’s simply too large to have been captured by the Earth. The chances of such a capture having been effected and the Moon then having taken up nearly circular orbit around our Earth are too small to make such an eventuality credible.”

Earth’s moon has more than 250 million citizens

John Lear who is an experienced pilot, who holds 17 world speed records, and a man who piloted a number of missions for the CIA and other government agencies.

Lear became very interested in the UFO phenomenon after having spoken to United States Air Force Personnel who had witnessed the UFO landing at Bentwaters AFB, England.

In the video you are about to see below, Lear offers ‘evidence’ of anomalous structures on the lunar surface and goes on to describe technologies and city structures which were not made by humans.

In line with what other scientists and ever former Astronauts have said, Lear’s statements raise numerous questions about the true nature of our moon.

What do you think about the moon, the statements made by Lear and other scientists, military personnel, and former astronauts?

Featured image credit: Shutterstock

{ https://www.ancient-code.com/ }

NASA SHOWS EINSTEIN WAS RIGHT: OUR SUN IS LOSING MASS—AND ITS GRIP ON OUR SOLAR SYSTEM

As our sun gets older, it's losing mass, and so its gravitational pull becomes weaker. As a result, the orbits of all the planets in our solar system are expanding, not unlike "the waistband of a couch potato in midlife," according to a new NASA press statement. 

A team of researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Maryland and the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center has shown that the aging sun is behaving according to Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity. The key to testing his theory? The planet Mercury.

NASA and MIT scientists analyzed subtle changes in Mercury’s motion to learn about the sun and how its dynamics influence the planet’s orbit.

NASA'S GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER

In 2015, NASA's MESSENGER probe crashed into Mercury (intentionally; this is just how NASA wraps things up a lot of the time) ending its planetary exploration mission. But the seven years' worth of data it gathered while still active provided the researchers with everything they needed to estimate the relevant parameters for both general relativity and the sun's own life cycle. A paper describing the research was published in the scientific journal Nature.

“Mercury is the perfect test object for these experiments because it is so sensitive to the gravitational effect and activity of the sun,” lead author Antonio Genova, an MIT researcher working at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, said in the press statement.

Einstein's famous theory accounts for the fact that the gravitational fields of huge objects—like the sun—warp the space-time continuum around them, according to Gizmodo. Because Mercury is the planet in our solar system closest to the sun, its orbit is the tightest.

“We’re addressing long-standing and very important questions both in fundamental physics and solar science by using a planetary-science approach,” Goddard geophysicist Erwan Mazarico said in the NASA statement. “By coming at these problems from a different perspective, we can gain more confidence in the numbers, and we can learn more about the interplay between the sun and the planets.”

View image on Twitter

NASA

✔@NASA

Like humans, our Sun loses mass as it ages, weakening its gravitational pull. To study the dynamics of our aging star, @NASASun researchers have enlisted Mercury, the smallest, innermost planet in the solar system. See how: http://go.nasa.gov/2DsuhTT 

2:34 AM - Jan 19, 2018

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That warping effect Einstein predicted slowly but steadily affects Mercury's orbit. In a few billion years, it might crash into the Earth, according to Space.com. The accuracy with which the researchers found general relativity has predicted Mercury's path has reaffirmed that Einstein was right. This may seem like a foregone conclusion to the average non-physicist who isn't really in a position to question Einstein, but it's important to remember that almost anything in science is open to questioning. 

“The study demonstrates how making measurements of planetary orbit changes throughout the solar system opens the possibility of future discoveries about the nature of the sun and planets, and indeed, about the basic workings of the universe,” co-author Maria Zuber, vice president for research at MIT, said in the NASA statement.

UFOs over Hessdalen, Norway 20-Jan-2018

I have just received this video. A person, who reported this, added: I’m no Speilberg, I tried to film with my Phone, sg3, 16 megPs,  and record from my Ipad, instead of screen shots, look to the right upper corner.

This was taken over UFO hotspot Hessdalen in Norway.

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

Here’s where the Super Blue Blood-Moon on January 31 will be best observed from

Prepare to look up at the night sky at the end of the month, as you might be able to witness an event that has not happened for 150 years. On January 31, millions of people around the globe will have the chance to witness a lunar eclipse, blue moon, and supermoon at the same time, or in other words, a Super Blue Blood-Moon.

The event is believed to have been last observed 152 years ago, to be exact in 1866.

So, if you are an astronomy lover, make sure to be in the right place to view this amazing and somewhat magical event.

The combination of events will make the moon appear much larger, brighter and with a different and unusual color in the sky,

In fact, the next full moon on January 31, will show off Earth’s natural satellite in such special conditions that they have not coincided in more than a century and a half.

It is the third in a series of ‘supermoons’ when the Moon is closest to Earth in its orbit, known as perigee, and Earth’s natural satellite will appear 14 percent brighter than usual, according to NASA.

Three ‘magical’ events are set to occur on January 31st, 2018.

Image Credit: Shutterstock

In fact, NASA scientists are calling it a magical event.

It’s a magical event and Dr. Noah Petro, a planetary geologist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center calls it a “collision of multiple lunar events. A lot of things are happening at once,” Petro said. “It’s a cool event.”

It also happens to coincide with the second full moon of the month, commonly known as “blue moon”.

In addition, the blue supermoon will pass through the shadow of the Earth to give viewers—located in the right place—a total lunar eclipse.

While the Moon is in the shadow of the Earth, it will take on a reddish hue, known as the “blood moon.”

However, once you break down everything that will occur on January 31 you’ll see we will be witnessing a Super Blue Blood Moon.

And despite the fact that the name of the event may sound somewhat catchy, the “blue” portion of the name of this event has more to do with the idea that there are two full moons in the same month and not much, or at all to do with the moon turning blue.

This map shows the areas of visibility for the upcoming “super blue blood moon” eclipse of Jan. 31, 2018.

Credit: NASA

For observers in North America, Alaska or Hawaii, the eclipse will be visible before dawn on January 31.

For those in the Middle East, Asia, Eastern Russia, Australia and New Zealand, the “supermoon of blue blood” can be seen during the moonrise on the morning of the 31st.

In Western Europe and most of Africa and South America, the phenomenon will be partial since these will be areas not affected by the eclipse.

Now that you know where the events will be best observed from, hope for good weather and clear skies.

Featured image credit: Shutterstock

{ https://www.ancient-code.com/ }

New Map Of Moon Titan Reveals It Has A Sea Level Similar To Earth

Titan, Saturn’s giant satellite, is more Earth-like than previously thought.

Previous observations have shown that Titan has a dense atmosphere and stable liquid on its surface.

Of course, its seas and lakes are not made of water, but methane and ethane.

Now, researchers have found a new way in which this distant alien satellite looks disturbingly like our planet: it has sea level, a constant average elevation in relation to gravitational attraction.

The new study, based on data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft and published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, finds that Titan’s seas are constantly rising relative to their gravitational pull, just like Earth’s oceans.

Ligeia Mare, a look at the second largest known body of liquid on the Surface of Saturn’s moon Titan.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

It seems that the smallest lakes on Titan appear at elevations several hundred meters higher than sea level.

On Earth, lakes are also commonly found at high altitudes.

The highest lake navigable by large ships, the Titicaca, located at more than 3,700 meters above sea level.

The new study suggests that elevation is important because Titan’s liquid bodies appear to be connected below the surface in something like an aquifer system on Earth.

The hydrocarbons seem to flow below the surface of the moon in a similar way as water flows through porous underground rock or gravel on our planet, which means that nearby lakes communicate with each other and share a common liquid level.

A rendered size-comparison sheet between the Planet Earth, the Moon, and Saturn’s Moon Titan.

Image Credit: Shutterstock.

“We’re measuring the elevation of a liquid surface on another body 10 astronomical units away from the sun to an accuracy of roughly 40 centimeters,” explains Alex Hayes, of Cornell University (New York).

“Because we have such amazing accuracy we were able to see that between these two seas the elevation varied smoothly about 11 meters, relative to the center of mass of Titan, consistent with the expected change in the gravitational potential. We are measuring Titan’s geoid. This is the shape that the surface would take under the influence of gravity and rotation alone, which is the same shape that dominates Earth’s oceans.”

Much of the study was based on the data obtained by the Cassini radar instrument.

A new topographic map published in Geophysical Research Letters offered new insight into Titan.

The map exposed several new features on Titan, including new mountains, none of more than 700 meters in elevation.

It also offered a global view of the highs and lows of its topography, which allowed scientists to confirm that two places in the equatorial region of Titan which are in fact depressions that could be ancient dry seas or cryovolcanic flows.

The map also revealed that Titan is a bit more flattened than previously known, suggesting that there is more variability in the thickness of its crust than previously thought.

Despite the fact that we have learned much about Titan in recent years, only 9 percent of Titan has been mapped in high-resolution, while around 30 percent was imaged in lower resolution.

Featured image credit: Shutterstock.

{ https://www.ancient-code.com/ }

Mindbending White And Green Balls Of Light Spotted Over Siberia Leaving Locals Terrified

Russia has been hit by a wave of reports of a giant UFO in the sky last night with spectacular pictures of an enormous glowing ball illuminating northern Siberia. Social media erupted with claims of 'aliens arriving' and locals in far flung parts of the country told of 'shivers down their spines'.

While the source of the light remains unclear, some have suggested that it was the the trace of a rocket launched by the Russian military that caused this extraordinary phenomenon in the night sky.Vasily Zubkov posted: 'I went out to smoke a cigarette and thought it was the end of the world.'
The extraordinary scenes were captured by leading Siberian photographer Sergey Anisimov in the town of Salekhard which straddles the Arctic Circle.
'I was taken aback for a few minutes, not understanding what was happening,' he said.’ The glowing ball rose from behind the trees and moved in my direction. My first thought was about the most powerful searchlight, but the speed of changing everything around changed the idea of what was happening. The ball began to turn into an arc and gradually dissipated.'
After the multi-coloured light show was over he went home to find local children as young as five in the yard babbling about 'aliens' and 'the portal to another dimension', he said.
Some 520 miles further east, another photographer Alexey Yakovlev admitted to feeling scared as he witnessed the UFO spectacle at Strezhevoi, in the north of Tomsk region, reported The Siberian Times.
'At first I thought - it is such a radiance of such an unusual form, round in shape. But gradually the ball began to expand, it became clear that this is not some radiance and it became scary. It's good that I was not alone....a group of people cannot hallucinate.' On social media, Anastasia Boldyreva posted simply: 'Aliens arrived.

'The were many similar messages. Nurgazy Taabaldiev claimed: 'It's a gap in the space-time continuum.

While the source of the light has not been confirmed, not all are convinced it was a Russian rocket test.
Some local experts suggest it may have been caused by the Northern lights.But the most common theory is that Russian strongman Vladimir Putin had chosen this moment to frighten the West with grandiose military exercises by his strategic nuclear forces.
Putin personally oversaw the launch of four nuclear-capable ballistic missiles as part of a training exercise for Russia's strategic nuclear forces, the Kremlin said on Friday, the Interfax news agency reported.
The test launches, conducted last night, involved land, air, and submarine-based ballistic missiles, Russia's defence ministry said in a separate statement.
The ministry said a Topol intercontinental ballistic missile had been test fired from the Plesetsk cosmodrome in northern Russia, hitting a target at the Kura military testing range on the Kamchatka Peninsula thousands of kilometres (miles) away.  

It was the likely the traces of one of these rockets - capable of carrying nuclear missiles - that caused this extraordinary phenomenon in the night sky, say the Russian media. As photographer Mr Yakovlev accurately guessed: 'It seems I accidentally shot the launch of a secret space rocket from Plesetsk'.
Nigel Watson, author of the UFO Manual, told MailOnline: 'This looks amazing and it is not surprising the sight of it caused witnesses to think of aliens and the opening of a portal to another dimension.

'These fantastic possibilities are shot down by the prosaic explanation that this strange light phenomena was caused by the testing of an intercontinental missile.
'This seems like a poor explanation for something so spectacular but other rocket launches have caused similar spectacles. 'In particular, in December 2009 a stunning spiralling light was seen over Norway, which was caused by a failed Russian missile test.
'They may not be of an alien origin but we can certainly admire their beauty, even if they are caused by weapons of mass destruction.' A similar light was seen in the skies over Norway in December 2009, which was caused by a failed missile launch.
Speaking to Barents Observer at the time, Dr Truls Lynne Hansen, a researcher at the Tromso Geophysical Observatory, said: 'The missile has probably come out of control and exploded.

'The peculiar spiral shaped light pattern comes from reflection of the sun in the leaking fuel.' 

Via Dailymail

{ http://www.thespaceacademy.org/ }

Dark UFO Over Crete, Does The World Need To Worry About Invasion? Jan 11, 2018, UFO Sighting News.

Date of sighting: January 11, 2018

Location of sighting: Rethymno, Crete

News source: 

http://china.greekreporter.com/希腊克里特岛惊现怪异飞碟云/

 

This UFO cloaked in a cloud was seen over Crete last week. You can see that its breaking through the clouds. Don't be fooled by these cloaked craft. Aliens are highly intelligent and often believe that human intelligence is incredibly inferior to them. Thus, humans will often assume the cloud is just a cloud. However, we at UFO Sightings Daily know different. Here it almost looks like an invasion. Very dark, almost sinister looking. 

Scott C. Waring

 

News states: 

Photographer Yiannis Gkikas snapped a rare scene on January 11 in Rethymno, Crete, Greece, when a huge cloud of disk-shaped aircraft appeared in the sky. The group's photos were subsequently posted on the Greek weather website Meteokrites.

{ 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/ }

Alien UFO Hidden In Cloud Moves Over Thailand Frightening Residents This Week, Jan 14, 2018, UFO Sighting News.

Date of sighting: January 14, 2018
Location of sighting: Mount Taishan, Thailand
News source: 

http://sd.dzwww.com/sdnews/201801/t20180114_16913600.htm

Captured over Thailand this week was a UFO cloaked as a cloud. Why would an alien race disguise their craft as a cloud? First they have rules, rules about intrumpting without the governments consent. Second they have no intention to frighten people, they instead want to get as close as possible to the ground so that they can scan the inhabitants and their daily routines. I think the cloud cloak is actually pure genius on their part. 
Scott C. Waring

News states: 
On the morning of the 14th, when many people are still asleep, the photographer Liu Guoqing of Thailand captured the wonderful scene in the sky. A cloud of similar UFO UFO, appeared in Mount Taishan, against the colorful sky under the glow. Dai top, many people also photographed this group "UFO cloud." 

It is understood that this god-like cloud of flying saucer, the scientific name pod cloud, is a natural phenomenon of weather, often when the humid air over the mountains appeared. If the temperature of the air drops over the mountains, the moisture in the air condenses into a pod cloud. 

{ http://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

150 Meter UFO Hovers Over Volcano Mouth In Mexico, Jan 15, 2018, Video, UFO Sighting News.

Date of sighting: January 15, 2018
Location of sighting: Popocatepetl, Mexico
Facebook video:

 https://www.facebook.com/diario.cambio1/videos/918076715018976/


A Facebook user reported that they witnessed a dark UFO disk hovering over a volcano called Popocatelpetl in Mexico this week. This particular volcano is notorious for its UFO sightings over the last decade. I have long believed that below this volcano sits an underground alien base. The base is about 4-5km below the surface.  This volcano has a mouth that is 600 meters across. Now compare the mouth area with the size of the UFO. You will see this UFO is about 25-30% the size of the volcano mouth. Therefore the UFO is 150 to 200 meters across. Thats one big craft. 

Now since this is Facebook, its not so easy to post a video right here for you, but please click the link above and watch it. It is fantastic!
Scott C. Waring

{ http://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

WAT GEBEURDE ER IN HEMELSNAAM BOVEN  MICHIGAN, USA? ( VIDEO )

Op 16 januari 2018, net na acht uur 's avonds, werden inwoners van de Amerikaanse staat Michigan opgeschrikt door een meteoriet die met een knal explodeerde. 

Vrijwel tegelijkertijd gebeurde er een aantal anders mysterieuze dingen zoals een lichtstraal uit de hemel en UFO's die werden gefilmd boven de bewuste locatie. 

Wat er afgelopen week gebeurde in de Amerikaanse staat Michigan is ronduit bizar te noemen. Een aantal gebeurtenissen die vrijwel tegelijk plaatsvinden en toch ogenschijnlijk niets met elkaar te maken hebben. 

Het begint net na acht uur op 16 januari 2018 wanneer duizenden mensen een vreemde lichtbol waarnemen boven de staat. Het bleek een meteoriet te zijn die met een flinke explosie uit elkaar barstte, volgens de autoriteiten. Eveneens zou deze meteoriet een aardbeving van 2.0 op de schaal van Richter hebben veroorzaakt, op ongeveer 40 kilometer afstand van Detroit.

 

Maar, dan begint het heel vreemd te worden, want ongeveer tegelijkertijd wordt een soort lichtstraal waargenomen boven de stad Taylor.

Een straal die niets te maken heeft met de meteoriet en die er als volgt uitziet.

Deze lichtstraal was te zien boven Taylor, een stad met ongeveer 65.000 inwoners. Net na dat de vreemde lichtstraal aan de hemel verscheen, brak er brand uit bij een woonhuis met garage in die plaats. 

De autoriteiten kwamen heel snel met de mededeling dat de brand niets te maken had met de meteoriet en over de vreemde lichtstraal werd al helemaal niets vermeld. Het zou allemaal veroorzaakt zijn door wat lekkende benzine uit een pick-up truck.

Echter, uit foto's die mensen ter plaatse maakten, lijkt het meer alsof er een bom is ingeslagen in het huis en garage.

Een tweede belangrijk punt is dat wetenschappers inmiddels hebben verklaard dat de aardbeving die werd gemeten niet veroorzaakt kan zijn door de meteoriet, omdat die in de lucht exploderen en geen aardschokken veroorzaken.

Een ander opvallend feit is dat het plaatsje Taylor in de laatste decennia is bezocht door drie verschillende presidenten: George W. Bush, Bill Clinton en Barack Obama. Dit geeft dan weer aanleiding om te denken dat er iets speciaals is op/in die plek, wat verder wordt bevestigd door het volgende: 

Een vrouw die in Taylor woont en het licht zag en het gerommel in de lucht hoorde, dacht in eerste instantie aan onweer, maar toen ze naar buiten keek begreep ze dat dit niet kon omdat het een vrij heldere koude nacht was. Ze besloot toen om de beelden van haar beveiligingscamera te bekijken en ze viel ze bijna van haar stoel want ze zag maar liefst vijf verschillende UFO's die heen en weer vlogen,  formaties aannamen en een en ander had niets met een meteoriet te maken.

De vrouw die de opname had gemaakt, besloot om deze te delen met de rest van de wereld en plaatste de beelden op haar YouTube-kanaal, Lucky Puppie, en normaal gesproken staan daar alleen beelden op van allerlei honden. 

De beelden van de UFO's stonden er ook niet lang, want de volgende dag waren ze plotsklaps verdwenen. Of ze dit zelf heeft gedaan of dat de video werd verbannen, is niet duidelijk.

Gelukkig had iemand een kopie gemaakt, zodat we ook zelf de bijzondere bewegende beelden kunnen zien. 



Duidelijk is dat er die bewuste dinsdagavond heel wat meer gebeurde dan "alleen maar" een meteoriet. Iets kwam uit de hemel en veroorzaakte een verwoest huis en garage op de grond. Iets dat heel sterk doet denken aan het soort laserstralen die werden waargenomen tijdens de recente branden in Californië. 

Daarnaast rijst de vraag waarom drie verschillende presidenten zo nodig naar Taylor moesten en eveneens of dit alles misschien verband houdt met de ruimte-oorlog waar we onlangs over schreven.

{ http://www.niburu.co/ }

The 2-mile-long Marree Man is the second largest geoglyph in the world but nobody knows who made it

Boban Docevski

The first thought that comes to mind when beholding it is that this enormous piece of land art was made by the ancients to serve as a sign for the gods, or as a mythical representation of some tribal hero. But this is not the case with the Marree Man, the second largest geoglyph in the world. It was discovered recently after a plane flew over it in 1998, and it was probably created recently as well. The only problem is, nobody knows who made it or why.

Although it was the 1990s and information about somebody doing something traveled fast, somehow an individual or a group of artists managed to get to this hardly accessible part of South Australia, on the plateau of Finnis Springs, just outside an Australian military base called Woomera Prohibited Area, and created this huge geoglyph with a perimeter of 17 miles. It was definitely a massive undertaking that demanded a lot of labor, and it is strange how nobody noticed–especially because it was close to a big military base.

On June 26, 1998, Trec Smith, a local pilot, flew from the nearby town of Marree to Cooper Pedy and noticed the drawing that was spread across the whole plateau. Later, a hotel in the area claimed that they received an anonymous fax with the coordinates of the geoglyph. Soon the Marree Man geoglyph became headline news across Australia. A big part of the fascination lay in the fact that nobody knew who actually made it. It seemed like some extraterrestrials came and did it in a few seconds.

Marree Man

So what is the Marree Man? Visually speaking, the Marree man is a depiction of a man who holds a boomerang (or a woomera–a throwing stick that was used to chase away birds). Upon examination, it was discovered that the lines of the Marree man were about 8 to 12 inches deep and 114 feet wide. The whole figure is an astonishing 2.6 miles long, and it takes up a perimeter of 17 miles.

The following year, the media was anonymously informed that a small plaque was buried just 16 feet south of Marree Man’s nose. The plaque turned out to be a little American flag with Olympic rings over it. The short text on the plaque reads:

“In honour of the land they once knew. His attainments in these pursuits are extraordinary; a constant source of wonderment and admiration.”

Research was done on this quote, and it was discovered that it comes from a 1946 book written by H. H. Finlayson called The Red Centre. The book is about the hunters of the Pitjantjatjara tribe–the tribe that lives around the Uluru rock formation. These particular words come from a chapter in which the author describes how wallabies were hunted with the use of throwing sticks. The section also describes the look of the hunters, who were naked and had initiation marks on their bodies.

The media received another anonymous message with the name of the artwork. Supposedly it was called “Stuart’s Giant,” after John McDouall Stuart, the famous explorer who led the first expedition across Australia.

Reception of the newly created geoglyph was mixed but mainly positive. A lot of people wanted it to stay. After all, it started bringing tourists to the area. One of the local newspapers, the Advertiser, wrote that the land drawing should be made permanent. Because of the weather conditions in the region, the Marree Man started to erode and disappear. By 2013 it was barely visible, so people demanded that the lines should be made deeper; down to the white chalk layer beneath the ground. Those that were against it, like Dorothy Kotz, the Minister for Environment and Heritage at the time, described the figure as “environmental vandalism.” David Ruthman, who was the Minister for Aboriginal affairs called it “graffiti.”

There are two main theories about the author of this modern geoglyph. According to some people, it was made by Aboriginal artist Bardius Goldberg, who died in 2002. He was the perfect suspect. He lived in Alice Springs and had often discussed his wish to create a piece of art that would be visible from space. One of his friends said that he received $10,000 during the time when the figure was discovered. Goldberg never confirmed nor denied this claims.

Another theory is that the geoglyph was made by a group from the United States. This is possible because of several facts. First of all, the description of the figure is written in feet instead of meters; also, the term Aboriginal “reservations” is mentioned, and this word is never used to describe the Aborigines. Another clue is a jar that was found buried near the Marree Man. In it, an American flag, together with a satellite picture of the geoglyph, was found. There was also a note in which the infamous Branch Davidian sect was mentioned. Despite all the clues, the creation of the Marree Man is still a mystery.

Related story from us: Archaeologists rediscover one of the oldest known Peruvian geoglyphs, that of a 2,000-year-old killer whale once worshiped as a deity

Mystery aside, this geoglyph is still an attraction. In 2016, its decaying lines were fixed with the help of a satellite-guided tool. Now it is visible again, and although the area is off-limits, those who want can take a flight over it and see it.

{ https://www.thevintagenews.com/ }

Amazing video of a UFO over Bangor, Ireland 20-Feb-2013

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

{ http://nationalufocenter.com/ }

Filer’s Files #3 – 2018 Abductions and Alien Contact - PART II

WHY NASA'S MARS PLANS ARE GETTING CONTROVERSIAL

If NASA is ever going to put boots on Mars (and possibly other alien worlds), it won’t happen by just deciding to blast a rocket off to the Red Planet one day. The question is whether a moon-orbiting space station is the right way to get one boot print closer.

With the ISS retiring in 2028, NASA needs a phase two, as NBC Machobserved. The space agency sees the Deep Space Gateway (DSG) in its future. Humans will fly beyond low-Earth orbit for the first time in 45 years to live on the DSG, where they will start building and testing the equipment and technology that will eventually launch Martian missions.

We can’t just land on Mars without hanging out far from Earth for any extended period of time. There is still too much that science doesn’t know about the long-term effects of deep space on physical and mental health—imagine spending a year on a floating space station with nowhere near the leg room of the ISS, a quarter million miles from Earth. But. It will be a launchpad for future missions we can now only imagine in sci-fi movies.

Exactly how necessary is all this? When a Nobel-winning theoretical physicist like Steven Weinberg insists that the ISS is nothing but space junk, you have to wonder.

"No important science has come out of it,” Weinberg told Space.com of the satellite that has been orbiting Earth since 1998, and thinks the same of the DSG though NASA begs to differ. “I could almost say no science has come out of it. And I would go beyond that and say that the whole manned spaceflight program, which is so enormously expensive, has produced nothing of scientific value."

Weinberg believes that only robotic missions like the Mars rovers have contributed anything useful to science. If humans actually walking on the moon (which he thinks of as more than a publicity stunt than anything else) made people gasp at their TV screens back in the ‘60s, it no longer has the same shock value. We’re exorbitantly expensive to keep alive out there, not to mention that we radiate too much heat and actually want to go home. Robots don’t come with those hangups.

Does NASA need to second-guess its priorities? There are obviously ethical implications to studying human survival in deep space when you’re exposing astronauts to more than just microgravity. There is no sunblock that can possibly guard against he harmful effects of high-energy cosmic rays and other kinds of killer radiation. Beaming help up from Earth would not be an option in a medical emergency. Any intervention from the home planet would take weeks to reach lunar orbit, and by then, things could happen that you might rather not want to think about.

 NASA's Space Launch System, seen in this artist's rendering, is billed as the world's most powerful rocket. NASA

So who do we listen to, the space agency or the super-physicist? Nobody is really sure, but one thing we can probably agree on for now is that NASA’s mentality of taking the Mars thing in stages is less scary than Elon Musk’s ambitions to make humans Martians even sooner. 

(via NBC Mach)

{ http://www.syfy.com/ }

Blue salt crystals on meteorites stoke conversation about extraterrestrial life

By Stephen Schmidt 

{ https://www.pri.org/ }

Future shock: Mysterious signal from a galaxy far, far away could just be an alien soap opera

Bill Bain

Bill Bain

THE ALIEN SIGNAL FROM A GALAXY FAR, FAR AWAY

A CACOPHONY of radio and television signals transmitted over the past 100 years have effectively turned Earth into an astral megaphone, violating the tranquility of infinity with incessant pulses of sound and vision. Our naked exhibitionism is certainly worthy of an interstellar Asbo, with each and every broadcast escaping into space to pollute the entire galaxy.

Scientists Detect ‘Alien Signals’ From Galaxy 3 BILLION Light Years Away

Theoretically, any reasonably advanced alien civilisation could easily tune into this cosmic UK Gold for a comprehensive insight into Earth’s last century. It’s estimated that our oldest transmissions – the first radio broadcasts – have already reached a few hundred “nearby” stars. Prepare for imminent attack when Piers Morgan’s voice finally reaches Alpha Centauri.

Astrophysicist Carl Sagan once wryly theorised that the first television broadcast with a signal powerful enough to reach extraterrestrials would have been Hitler’s Nuremberg rallies. If this had somehow failed to profoundly depress our cosmic neighbours, perhaps watching the actual Neighbours – and remember the same episode was often repeated twice a day – may have given them no other option than to declare war. Or at least relegate us to the lowest rung on the ladder of universal consciousness.

Yet transmissions work both ways. It’s no secret that even this primitive outpost has been picking up radio broadcasts from deep space for decades. Interpreting and explaining them is another matter, with scientists taking decades to figure out that the vast majority of interstellar radio signals naturally emanate from neutron stars called pulsars. Yet major anomalies persist – the most famous example being a mysterious transmission picked up by astronomers last year.

In August, the discovery of FRB 121102 was excitedly announced – the first-ever “fast radio burst” that actually repeated itself. This was an unprecedented and deeply unusual phenomenon. The insistency of the signal made it possible for the world’s most powerful telescopes to discover where it originated, which turned out to be a galaxy far, far away – three billion light years from Earth. All that existed on Earth when these signals were first sent was Kirk Douglas.

Furthering the mystery, this perplexing broadcast very recently went into overdrive, with unimaginable amounts of focused energy being manically hurled through space and time – like Thor’s hammer being attacked by a woodpecker. The only solid fact scientists can deduce is that it is fortunate we’re so far away – a single millisecond-long blast radiates the same energy as our sun does in a day. “If this was even on the distant side of our own galaxy, it would completely disrupt radio on Earth and saturate signals on smartphones,” said Shami Chatterjee, senior research associate in astronomy at Cornell University. “Whatever is happening is scary. We would not want to be there.”

The Alien Wow Signal, 72 sec, at 1420.4556 MHz, New View! Aug 1977, UFO Sighting News.

Speculation on the signal’s source focuses around new types of black hole, colliding stars, and, yes, the involvement of extraterrestrials. Not so far out a theory as it seems – these types of signal are exactly the type of universal emission scientists would expect from civilisations like our own. Andrew Siemion, director of the Berkeley SETI Research Centre, agrees. “We cannot rule out the ET hypothesis for FRBs,” he stressed.

With the FRB 121102 signal now three billion years old, any civilisation capable of transmitting it will be long gone, having either destroyed itself, being replaced by machines or incinerated by their dying sun. It’s certainly a sobering thought that we may soon meet a similar fate, and all to prove we ever existed might be an infinite loop of America’s Greatest Ever Police Chases 5 projected across the stars.

WE’LL ALL DOLITTLE IN THE FUTURE

L ET’S partake in a wee thought experiment. Most of us have casually swatted a fly at one time or another, but would you have beat it to death with a mallet had it been the size of a dog? If its blood spurted across your face with each blow, if you saw its wings twitch as it died and then had to dispose of its broken body – would you have regretted your actions?

Perhaps you’d admit you had been hoodwinked by a false perception, convinced of your larger physical form’s superiority, your prevailing intelligence, your privileged place in Elton John’s circle of life. In universal terms, all these factors are limited to human ego and ultimately meaningless.

Such flimsy, fascist excuses for casual brutality can perhaps be excused as an evolutionary hangover, where the desire to survive long enough to pass on DNA is married to an instinctive trait to destroy what is other. The wonder of human consciousness, it seems, evolved hand in hand with a desire to dominate. It’s a virus swimming in our collective psyche, responsible for most of our species’ shortcomings ... but perhaps it's impossible to drown.

Yet it seems a new dawn of compassion and empathy could soon be on the horizon. This is due to a technological breakthrough with the potential to burst our inflated egos once and for all. It seems the only way for all creatures great and small to earn our respect isn’t to increase their size … but to give them a voice.

The human desire to talk to animals like Dr Dolittle seems a whimsy long relegated to science-fiction, but Professor Con Slobodchikoff of Northern Arizona University not only believes such communication is possible – but also that he’s figured it out. He is currently busy putting the finishing touches to a sophisticated artificial intelligence program that allegedly translates the vocalisations and body language of various animals into English.

Slobodchikoff has spent 30 years researching how differing animal species communicate – in particular prairie dogs – and his startling conclusion is that most, if not all, biological creatures use sophisticated languages.

Now, he plans to break down the walls between Earth’s myriad species – starting with our pets. Slobodchikoff’s company, Zoolingua, has already started stockpiling thousands of clips of cats and dogs “communicating” and AI will then translate this information into words. Will cruelty to animals stop when, like Caesar in Planet Of The Apes, they can simply say “no”? Of course not, we’re irredeemable monsters, but even hamster banter may be a seismic step up from Alexa.

And it’s not just the good professor who is homing in on an inter-species communication device. Marine biologists recently developed a dolphin “translator” that identifies individual whistles by converting them into words.

The Cetacean Hearing and Telemetry (CHAT) device has been developed by the global Wild Dolphin Project to give everyone Aqua Man’s superpowers. Researchers testing a prototype device recently confirmed its first successful use in the wild, where a bottlenose dolphin was apparently recorded talking about seaweed. Or perhaps its words were misinterpreted and it was simply warning the divers it had relieved itself in their vicinity.

IKEA ADVERT TAKES THE P**S

THE days of doctors pushing the health benefits of ciggies in newspaper ads are long gone, but TV commercials starring fit folk with great teeth guzzling cans of sugar prove the advertising industry still enjoys taking the p**s.

And like a snake swallowing its own tail, one agency went full meta last month with a magazine advert which demanded readers urinate on it for a special offer.

Featured in the otherwise innocuous pages of Swedish women’s magazine Amelia, this Ikea ad, once peed on, revealed if you were pregnant – then magically displayed a discount code for wooden cots if the result was positive. Imaginative, you’ll agree. It’s also fortunate the deep shame of handing over a urine-soaked coupon will be dulled by the shock of finding out you’re with child.

“In order to make the interactive functions of this ad work in reality, we had to make several technical advancements,” ad agency Åkestam Holst admitted with a poker face. “The pregnancy test strip was used as a starting point, but technical advancements made during the campaign also have the wider potential to improve medical diagnostics.”

Historically, major scientific progress often occurs by accident. Incidentally, it turns out I’m not pregnant, but will now be refused entry at all WH Smith stores.

One place I am now welcome, however, is Coatbridge police station, where I have been invited to attend each morning for the next five years.

{ http://www.heraldscotland.com/ }

The Biggest Space Stories of the Week

The Week's Top Space Stories

1. Liftoff for missile-warning satellite

2. Safety panel concerned about SpaceX

3. Crowdsourcing project finds five planets!

4. Lawmakers want to know why Zuma failed

Photo Credit: T. Masterson

5. Meteor creates earthquake-like rumbles over Michigan

Photo Credit: Samantha Cristoforetti/ESA/NAS

6. New model offers complex hurricane answers

7. Blasting space-junk is a new debris solution

8. Lava tubes could allow astronauts to access water

9. Earth's solar system is weird

{ https://www.space.com/ }

DNA solves the mystery of how these mummies were related

The duo had the same mother, but different dads

BY BRUCE BOWER 

 

MAMMA’S BOYS  Ancient Egyptian mummies known as the Two Brothers, found in these coffins, had the same mother but different fathers, DNA evidence indicates.

MANCHESTER MUSEUM, UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER

A pair of ancient Egyptian mummies, known for more than a century as the Two Brothers, were actually half brothers, a new study of their DNA finds.

These two, high-ranking men shared a mother, but had different fathers, say archaeogeneticist Konstantina Drosou of the University of Manchester in England and her colleagues. That muted family tie came to light thanks to the successful retrieval of two types of DNA from the mummies’ teeth, the scientists report in the February Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. The finding highlights the importance ancient Egyptians placed on maternal lines of descent, Drosou’s group contends.

Questions have swirled about the biological backgrounds of the mummified men ever since they were found together in a tomb near the village of Rifeh in 1907. The tomb dates to ancient Egypt’s 12th Dynasty, between 1985 B.C. and 1773 B.C. Coffin inscriptions mention a female, Khnum-Aa, as the mother of both men. And both mummies are described as sons of an unnamed local governor. It has always been unclear if those inscriptions refer to the same man, but discoverers decided the mummies were full brothers, because the two were buried next to each other and had the same mother.

Over time, differences discovered in the men’s skull shapes and other skeletal features raised suspicions that the Two Brothers were not biologically related at all. And some researchers argued that the inscriptions indicating the men had the same mother were misleading.

Adding to those doubts, a 2014 paper reported differences between the two mummies’ mitochondrial DNA, suggesting one or both had no biological link to Khnum-Aa. Mitochondrial DNA typically gets inherited from the mother.

But that study extracted ancient DNA from liver and intestinal samples using a method susceptible to contamination with modern human and bacterial DNA, Drosou’s team argues. In the new work, researchers isolated and assembled short pieces of mitochondrial and Y-chromosome DNA from both mummies’ teeth using the latest methods. The Y chromosome determines male sex and gets passed from father to son. This approach minimizes potential contamination from modern sources (SN Online: 5/31/17).

That new DNA evidence “proves the hieroglyphic text [on the mummies’ coffins] to be accurate,” at least in saying the mummified men had the same mother, says Egyptologist and study coauthor Campbell Price, curator of the Egypt and Sudan collections at the Manchester Museum in England.

Unlike the deference given to Khnum-Aa as a named parent of both interred individuals, he says, the coffin inscriptions must refer to different fathers who were considered peripheral family members and thus left unnamed. “Power may have been transferred down the female line rather than simply by a son inheriting [high rank] from his father,” Price suggests. Khnum-Aa’s background, social standing and genetic makeup, however, remain a mystery.

Genetic evidence that two half brothers were buried in the same tomb and placed in coffins that name only their mother makes sense, says Egyptologist Joann Fletcher at the University of York in England. Many written sources from ancient Egypt show precedence to the maternal line, “from the official lists of Egypt’s early kings whose names are accompanied by those of their mothers to nonroyal individuals, who likewise cite only their mother’s name,” Fletcher explains.   

Dates of death on the mummies’ linen wrappings suggest that Khnum-Nakht died first, at around age 40, Price says. A few months later, Nakht-Ankh died at about age 60. The causes of their deaths are unknown.

Citations

• K. Drosou, C. Price and T. Brown.  The kinship of two 12th Dynasty mummies revealed by ancient DNA sequencing. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. Vol. 17, February 2018, p. 793. doi:10.1016/j.jasrep.2017.12.025.
• C. Matheson et al. Molecular confirmation of Schistosoma and family relationship in two ancient Egyptian mummies. In H. Gill-Frerking et al., editors, Yearbook of Mummy Studies Volume 2, p. 39.

Further Reading

• H. Thompson. Mummy DNA unveils the history of ancient Egyptian hookups. Science News Online, May 31, 2017.

{ https://www.sciencenews.org/ }

THIS IS THE MOST DANGEROUS TIME FOR OUR PLANET

This is the most dangerous time for our planet. We can’t go on ignoring inequality, because we have the means to destroy our world but not to escape it. 

Stephen Hawking

As a theoretical physicist based in Cambridge, I have lived my life in an extraordinarily privileged bubble. Cambridge is an unusual town, centred around one of the world’s great universities. Within that town, the scientific community that I became part of in my 20s is even more rarefied.

And within that scientific community, the small group of international theoretical physicists with whom I have spent my working life might sometimes be tempted to regard themselves as the pinnacle. In addition to this, with the celebrity that has come with my books, and the isolation imposed by my illness, I feel as though my ivory tower is getting taller.

So the recent apparent rejection of the elites in both America and Britain is surely aimed at me, as much as anyone. Whatever we might think about the decision by the British electorate to reject membership of the European Union and by the American public to embrace Donald Trump as their next president, there is no doubt in the minds of commentators that this was a cry of anger by people who felt they had been abandoned by their leaders.

It was, everyone seems to agree, the moment when the forgotten spoke, finding their voices to reject the advice and guidance of experts and the elite everywhere.

What matters now, far more than the victories by Brexit and Trump, is how the elites react
I am no exception to this rule. I warned before the Brexit vote that it would damage scientific research in Britain, that a vote to leave would be a step backward, and the electorate – or at least a sufficiently significant proportion of it – took no more notice of me than any of the other political leaders, trade unionists, artists, scientists, businessmen and celebrities who all gave the same unheeded advice to the rest of the country.

What matters now, far more than the choices made by these two electorates, is how the elites react. Should we, in turn, reject these votes as outpourings of crude populism that fail to take account of the facts, and attempt to circumvent or circumscribe the choices that they represent? I would argue that this would be a terrible mistake.

The concerns underlying these votes about the economic consequences of globalisation and accelerating technological change are absolutely understandable. The automation of factories has already decimated jobs in traditional manufacturing, and the rise of artificial intelligence is likely to extend this job destruction deep into the middle classes, with only the most caring, creative or supervisory roles remaining.

This in turn will accelerate the already widening economic inequality around the world. The internet and the platforms that it makes possible allow very small groups of individuals to make enormous profits while employing very few people. This is inevitable, it is progress, but it is also socially destructive.

We need to put this alongside the financial crash, which brought home to people that a very few individuals working in the financial sector can accrue huge rewards and that the rest of us underwrite that success and pick up the bill when their greed leads us astray. So taken together we are living in a world of widening, not diminishing, financial inequality, in which many people can see not just their standard of living, but their ability to earn a living at all, disappearing. It is no wonder then that they are searching for a new deal, which Trump and Brexit might have appeared to represent.

‘In sub-Saharan Africa there are more people with a telephone than access to clean water.’

Photograph: Andy Hall for the Observer

It is also the case that another unintended consequence of the global spread of the internet and social media is that the stark nature of these inequalities is far more apparent than it has been in the past. For me, the ability to use technology to communicate has been a liberating and positive experience. Without it, I would not have been able to continue working these many years past.

But it also means that the lives of the richest people in the most prosperous parts of the world are agonisingly visible to anyone, however poor, who has access to a phone. And since there are now more people with a telephone than access to clean water in sub-Saharan Africa, this will shortly mean nearly everyone on our increasingly crowded planet will not be able to escape the inequality.

The consequences of this are plain to see: the rural poor flock to cities, to shanty towns, driven by hope. And then often, finding that the Instagram nirvana is not available there, they seek it overseas, joining the ever greater numbers of economic migrants in search of a better life. These migrants in turn place new demands on the infrastructures and economies of the countries in which they arrive, undermining tolerance and further fuelling political populism.

For me, the really concerning aspect of this is that now, more than at any time in our history, our species needs to work together. We face awesome environmental challenges: climate change, food production, overpopulation, the decimation of other species, epidemic disease, acidification of the oceans.

Together, they are a reminder that we are at the most dangerous moment in the development of humanity. We now have the technology to destroy the planet on which we live, but have not yet developed the ability to escape it. Perhaps in a few hundred years, we will have established human colonies amid the stars, but right now we only have one planet, and we need to work together to protect it.

To do that, we need to break down, not build up, barriers within and between nations. If we are to stand a chance of doing that, the world’s leaders need to acknowledge that they have failed and are failing the many. With resources increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few, we are going to have to learn to share far more than at present.

With not only jobs but entire industries disappearing, we must help people to retrain for a new world and support them financially while they do so. If communities and economies cannot cope with current levels of migration, we must do more to encourage global development, as that is the only way that the migratory millions will be persuaded to seek their future at home.

We can do this, I am an enormous optimist for my species; but it will require the elites, from London to Harvard, from Cambridge to Hollywood, to learn the lessons of the past year. To learn above all a measure of humility.

• The writer launched www.unlimited.world earlier this year

{ https://www.theguardian.com/international }

NASA Should Start Looking For Viruses On Other Planets, Scientists Suggest

Forget about aliens, let’s start searching for viruses in our Solar System. Although scientists have been studying the infectious agents for decades, there’s still much to be learned about them and whether they exist in space or not. Now, a group of scientists are proposing we seek more answers.

“[Viruses] are believed to have played important roles in the origin and evolution of life,” biologists from Portland State University (PSU) wrote in a paper published in the journal Astrobiology. “However, there is yet very little focus on viruses in astrobiology.”

Related: Is It Time for a Universal Influenza Vaccine? The Virus Is Getting Deadlier

NASA scientists who study astrobiology explore three main questions, “How does life begin and evolve? Does life exist elsewhere in the Universe? What is the future of life on Earth and beyond?” according to the space agency’s 2015 Astrobiological Strategy. But, viruses are vaguely mentioned throughout the plan, therefore, PSU researchers have proposed we further explore “astrovirology.”

Keep up with this story and more by subscribing now

A crecent moon is seen near the planets Venus (C, bottom) and Jupiter (R) in this rare alignment December 1, 2008 from New York. 

Stan Honda/AFP/Getty Images

Study author Kenneth Stedman, a biology professor at PSU, and his colleagues recommend NASA and other space agencies start their search for viruses by examining liquid samples from Saturn and Jupiter’s moons.​ 

Related: Nine-Year-Old Found In Pool of Own Blood Dies From Tick-Borne Virus

Additionally, the team suggests that they develop tools to discover viruses in ancient deposits on Earth and Mars, and examine whether the particles could survive in space.

“We need to further develop current tools, either put [an electron microscope] on a spacecraft or develop other microscopic technologies that can detect molecules, not just atoms at nanometer resolution,” Stedman told Gizmodo.

Although “astrovirology” isn’t a widely recognized field, Stedman isn’t the first person to suggest that viruses exist in abundance in space. Back in 2013, Dale Griffin, a scientist at the U.S. Geological Survey, recommended scientists take a look at whether viruses exist behind our planet. But, he suggests proceeding with caution.

“We should be looking for viruses in our quest for extraterrestrial life, and it may be that viruses pose no risk to human planetary exploration,” Griffin wrote in an article published in Astrobiology. “However, the possibility of risk exists, and our potential contact with them should be treated accordingly.” 

{ http://www.puredailynews.com/ }

UFO like orb over Montgomery on January 2018

Source

mufoncms.com 

{ http://activite-paranormale.net/ }

WAS ANCIENT CHINA’S YELLOW EMPEROR AN EXTRATERRESTRIAL BEING FROM ALPHA LEONIS?

Ancient China’s Yellow Emperor is a legendary hero credited with many feats, such as introducing writing and medicine. But despite his contribution to founding the Chinese civilization, there are ancient texts that suggest he wasn’t even human at all, but an extraterrestrial being from a star system far away.

Throughout mankind’s history, the ruling class has done its best to create and maintain the illusion that kingship is a divine construct, established by the gods themselves. Dynasties of monarchs and majesties claimed the first of their name had been direct descendants of the “gods” and thus justified their own reign as demigods. The king-coming-down-from-heaven-to-assist-mankind-through-his-governance phenomenon is a a staple presence within many cultures, leading some of us to believe that it was a common occurrence for extraterrestrial beings to lend a hand and establish divine bloodlines.

The Yellow Emperor (Huang-Di) lived in the third millennium BC and his rule is traditionally said to have lsted for over 100 years. Many inventions are attributed to his genius, including the introduction of wooden houses, the bow and arrow, carts and boats, Chinese medicine and writing. He is also credited as being the first to mint coins and establish governmental institutions.

An epitome of wisdom and understanding, Huang-Di was a patron of the esoteric arts and considered a cosmic emperor. His rule was a golden age during which he envisioned a perfect kingdom where peaceful inhabitants would live a life of harmony. For someone from 5,000 BC, that’s quite progressive.

It is said he had vast astronomical knowledge and even possessed advanced technology, such as a “cauldron” that he would use to enlist the help of a dragon. Sometimes, this dragon is described as having metallic scales and the Yellow Emperor could summon it whenever he pointed the cauldron at a star known as Xuanyuan. Astronomers have identified this star as Alpha Leonis, located 79 light-years from us, in the constellation Leo.

According to ancient Chinese myths, the same cauldron could store various types of energy for long periods of time and would show moving images of other dragons flying through unfamiliar skies.

Another intriguing object belonging to the Yellow Emperor was his magical chariot, called Changhuan. He would use it to travel quickly to all corners of his empire, bot woe unto him who dared climb aboard without Huang-Di’s permission. When one of his advisers decided to take it for a spin, he returned the same day but being many years older than he had left. This sounds too much like the time dilation effect of faster than light travel to ignore.

Multiple sources claim that after his hundred-years reign ended, the Yellow Emperor simply summoned the metal ‘dragon’ and ascended to the heavens. This could be a metaphor for death or it could literally mean the extraterrestrial emperor climbed aboard his flying machine, waved goodbye to the subjects he had so graciously helped evolve, and went back to his own star system.

It is worth mentioning that Alpha Leonis, also known as Regulus, was seen as an important celestial body in ancient times. The Babylonians called it Sharru (The King) while in India it was called Maghā, meaning The Mighty. Millennia ago, ancient Persian astronomers saw Regulus as one of the four ‘royal stars’ of the monarchy and referred to it as Miyan – The Center.

Being the initiator of the Chinese civilization must have been hard work, so it makes sense for history to sing songs of praise to the Yellow Emperor, but was he human or not? He successfully introduced alien concepts that had never been heard of before him and allegedly owned and operated technological marvels that only an advanced, space-faring civilization could produce.

His birth is said to have been an actual descent from the Xuanyuan star, accompanied by a “thunderclap on a clear day in the skies.” The metallic dragon could have been a flying craft similar to the ones we see today, and we’re left wondering whether UFOs are responsible for the representation of the strongest, wisest mythical creature in Chinese lore.

The star Huang-Di allegedly came from was held in high regards by many ancient peoples. Could it have been the place of origin of many of mankind’s civilizing heroes, from Gilgamesh to Quetzalcoatl, and from Viracocha to Osiris?

{ https://ufoholic.com/ }

Since childhood, I’ve always been fascinated with the subject of cryptozoology. The term itself was coined by the late scientist Bernard Huevelmans, who offered it in reference to the search for biological organisms as-yet unrecognized by science, but which are nonetheless represented in various belief systems (often folk traditions among indigenous cultures, for instance).

While reports of things like “sea monsters” and mysterious “wild men” in the remote forests are often eye-grabbing, they also represent the most sensational kinds of stories offered in the broader discussion of cryptozoology. Because of this, over the years I’ve grown to be more careful in my approach to the subject, as with similarly “fringe” topics like unidentified flying objects, etc.

Of course, some stories about sea monsters or wild men might be capable of bearing fruit; however, most often this ends up being of the lowest-hanging variety. In other words, deep, explorative cultural and biological studies seldom form the basis for what is offered as evidence of these creatures. Instead, what makes its way into the pages of books is tantamount to modern folklore, borrowing from existing stories that are well known in the cryptozoological literature, or the incorporation of new ones that build onto an already well-worn mythos.

By contrast, if we really wanted to take time to examine the varieties of unknown species waiting to be discovered on this planet, we would need to look no further than limestone caves that flourish beneath states like Kentucky and Tennessee. By some estimates, there are as many as several hundreds of unexplored subterranean systems in this region of North America, each probably teeming with tiny–or even microscopic–new lifeforms. However, “microscopic” is much harder to sell, whether in books or on reality television shows.

The point I’m making here is that, as far as the search for undiscovered animals, there is plenty yet to be found, although the likelihood that many of those will be exceptionally large (let alone manlike) becomes increasingly rarer with every passing year, and the acquisition of new knowledge about our planet. We have scoured our world, and our oceans, in search of new organisms, and while many new discoveries do turn up on a frequent basis, we continue to see little vindication for the classic “monsters” that have haunted our imaginations since time immemorial.

At this point, I should offer a caveat since there are, from time to time, what I feel to be good cases that lend substance to the idea that one or two “mystery monsters” may be out there. One of my favorites takes us back to Halloween 1983, where a group of construction workers at Stinson Beach, California, observed what they described as being a “giant snake” swimming several meters off the coast for a period of several minutes. I had the opportunity to interview one of the primary witnesses, Marlene Martin, who adamantly maintained that the creature was large, dark colored, and by all observations resembled a massive aquatic snake (further details of this incident can be read about in my MU post from last year).

Of course, the Stinson Beach incident is a modern corollary for countless similar stories from earlier times; accounts of oceanic creatures of serpentine appearance have been a mainstay in America since its founding, with stories the likes of the Gloucester sea serpent of 1817, and an earlier series of sightings around Cape Ann, Massachusetts, that occurred as early as 1639.

North America is by no means the only region of the world with legends about large, mysterious creatures; nor are such reports confined to our oceans. Consider the fact that reports of primal creatures, which often are likened to being “wild men,” stem from a remarkably diverse collection of regions around the world. The following examples make reference to different varieties of cultural beliefs involving such creatures; the first comes to us from a 1978 Nature article titled, “Yeti or Wild Man in Siberia?” (Nature, 271:603, 1978):

Reports from Russia tell of a creature known locally as the “Chuchunaa” which is over 2 m tall, clad in deerskin, and unable to talk, although it does utter a piercing whistle. A man-eater, the Chuchunaa often steals food from settlements. Observers say that the creature has a protruding brow, long matted hair, a full beard, and walks with its hands hanging below its knees. Soviet scientists speculate that the Chuchunaa represents the last surviving remnant of the Siberian paleoasiatic aborigines that retreated to the upper reaches of the Yana and Indigirka rivers. The last reliable sightings were in the 1950s, and this animal may now be extinct.

The next, from China, denotes the creature known as Yeren in various parts of the country, as discussed in the New York Times article, ”It’s Tall, It Has Wavy Red Hair and Chinese Keep Hunting for It,” (NYT, p. 5, January 5, 1980). It reads:

“Spurred by reports of large (6 -feet tall) animals with wavy red hair walking on two legs, Chinese scientists have been combing the thick forests of Shennongjia, in Hubei Province. Many footprints 12-16 inches long as well as samples of hair and feces have been found. So far, though, no photos or specimens.”

The next instance is a most interesting excerpt, which appeared in 1982 in Myra Shackley’s “The Case for Neanderthal Survival: Fact, Fiction or Faction?” published in the journal Antiquity (56:31). It reads as follows:

All continents have their tales of wild men, abominable snowmen, sasquatch, etc. Most anthropologists give little credence to these stories. Shackley, however, has assembled considerable evidence for the reality of the so-called Almas (plural form: Almasti), primitive men who closely resemble Neanderthal Man, or at least what we think Neanderthal Man looked like. Abundant, internally consistent data come from an east-west band running from the Caucacus, across the Pamir Mountains, through the Altai Mountains, to Inner Mongolia. Even today, sightings of these creatures are rather common; and several scientists have seen them. One incident occurred in 1917, when the Reds were pursuing White Army forces through the Pamirs. The troops of Major General Mikail Stephanovitch Topilsky shot an Almas as he was emerging from a cave.

“The eyes were dark and the teeth were large and even and shaped like human teeth. The forehead was slanting and the eyebrows were very powerful. The protruding jawbones made the face resemble the Mongol type of face. The nose was very flat …the lower jaws were very massive”In some instances the Almasti have even associated with modern man; and cases of successful interbreeding have been reported. After reviewing the mountains of evidence, Shackley feels that the Almasti are very likely surviving Neanderthals, because the physical characteristics of the Almasti and reconstructed Neanderthals are basically identical. This long review article also discusses the many Chuchunaa sightings from northern Russia — perhaps another relict population of Neanderthals.

As can be seen from the preceding reports (and their publication dates), the notion that some small groups of “wild men” had remained undiscovered in remote areas of the world was once given at least some serious consideration. However, more recent genetic studies that have examined the scant physical evidence available leave us with far less to imagine: in every case, the genetic evidence points to bears, rather than mystery hominids, existing primally at the outermost skirts of the modern world.

How can we reconcile the richness of these cultural traditions from around the world, with the lacking physical evidence for the existence of such creatures? It is difficult to make sense of, on account of the demands of modern science, which require indisputable physical proof before any credible argument can proceed.

Yet eyewitness reports, anecdotal though they are, shouldn’t be ruled completely out of hand; especially those which contain what are, at times, a remarkable degree of detail. Arguably, my favorite from recent memory involves an observation made in the early 1990s by Russian scientist Arkady Tishkov, who watched a strange, upright-walking apelike creature in the Himalayan mountains for a period of two hours in September of 1991:

“About midday, on the top of a moraine ridge at a distance of about 400 feet (120 m), I noticed a human-like animal sitting by a boulder on the sunlit side. My position was lower on the slope, and at first I did not see the full silhouette. A little later, however, I observed the animal in full. It had the following characteristics: erect, bipedal posture; dark brown color; cone-shaped head; no visible neck; long forelimbs; and short and slightly flexed hind limbs. When first observed, the creature was squatting in what seemed an unnatural position for an animal, with its back touching the sun-warmed surface of the boulder.”

A lengthier presentation on the Tishkov encounter can be read here.

We could discuss reputable articles and reasonably constructed eyewitness reports all day, but ultimately there is no clear resolution here. Hence, many in the scientific community would feel most comfortable concluding that if so little evidence exists, then there are probably no such creatures. I have never felt that this is the most logical way to reconcile the two opposing elements to the ongoing cryptozoological mystery; still, at what point will the remarkable observations–many of which no doubt involve valid and real circumstances–be complemented by equally remarkable physical specimens, which will settle the debate once and for all?

Stories about cryptids truly are a cultural phenomenon, stemming from places all around the world. For my part, I do hold onto some hope that certain technological advancements of the coming years may help us settle the debate over the existence of some of these creatures. Whether small microbial lifeforms or larger beasts lurking beyond the regions known well to us in modern times, the field of cryptozoology does bear certain promise for the patient and persistent among us.

In a world that grows seemingly ever-smaller as science teaches us more, it is likely just a matter of time before the next big (or microscopic) discovery in the frontiers of biology.

{ http://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

Japan’s Jaw-Dropping Epsilon-3 Rocket Launch

Japan’s Epsilon-3 rocket launched from the Uchinoura Space Center in the southern prefecture of Kagoshima lit up the sky in a dazzling display.

Japan's space agency has successfully launched its Epsilon-3 small rocket on January 18, 2018 carrying an Earth observation satellite developed by Japanese electronics firm NEC.

The rocket has put the satellite into Earth orbit at an altitude of around 500 kilometers.

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

What Is the Biggest Thing in the Universe?

{ https://www.space.com/ }

Small Michigan Meteor Packed a Seismic Punch, Experts Say

NASA werkt aan nieuwe energiebron voor toekomstige ruimtereizen

Vivian Lammerse

En deze Kilopower-reactor gooit hoge ogen.

Stroom is een essentieel onderdeel voor de mensen die afreizen naar de ruimte. Denk maar aan het simpel aandoen van een lamp, maar ook bij het uitvoeren van experimenten. Het genereren van elektriciteit is daarnaast ook noodzakelijk om astronauten weer veilig te laten terugkeren naar de Aarde. En een betrouwbaar en efficiënt energiesysteem is daarom broodnodig.

MARSKOLONISTEN

Het lijkt een kwestie van tijd voor we naar Mars gaan. Zeker nu er wordt geëxperimenteerd met nieuwe energiebronnen. Maar… waar moet de eerste Marskolonisten eigenlijk landen?

Kilopower
Op dit moment is NASA aan het experimenteren met een Kilopower-reactor. Volgens NASA is deze nieuwe krachtbron veilig, efficiënt en kan het voldoende energie leveren voor toekomstige verkenningsmissies in de ruimte. Zo zou deze lichtgewicht generator tot tien kilowatt elektrisch vermogen kunnen leveren voor zeker tien onafgebroken jaren. Dat is genoeg om twee gemiddelde huishouders van stroom te voorzien. Voor de toekomstige Marskolonisten een fijne gedachte.

Rode planeet
Het grote voordeel van Kilopower is dat het overal energie kan bieden, waar mensen – of robots – ook naartoe gaan. “We willen een energiebron ontwikkelen die extreme omgevingen aankan,” zegt NASA-onderzoeker Lee Mason. “En met Kilopower strekt ons bereik uit over heel Mars, zelfs op de noordelijke breedtegraden waar zich water bevindt.” Wat dat betreft is Kilopower een stuk betrouwbaarder dan bijvoorbeeld zonnepanelen. Op Mars varieert namelijk de kracht van de zon in de loop van de seizoenen sterk. Zo kunnen er bijvoorbeeld voor maanden zandstormen over Mars razen.

Het prototype van de Kilopower-reactor.

Afbeelding: NASA

Maan
De onderzoekers denken ook dat de Kilopower-reactor goed zal gedijen op de maan. “Daar kan Kilopower worden ingezet om te helpen zoeken naar hulpbronnen in permanent beschaduwde kraters,” legt Mason uit. Ook zou de reactor tegen de enorm koude maannacht kunnen, die wel veertien dagen duurt.

In deze uitdagende omgevingen is de Kilopower-reactor volgens de Amerikaanse ruimtevaartorganisatie perfect voor de klus. Om hier zeker van te zijn, voeren de onderzoekers verschillende testen uit. Eind maart volgt het laatste en grootste experiment, waarbij de reactor voor 28 uur op vol vermogen zal draaien.

Bronmateriaal:

"Kilopower: What’s Next?" - NASA
Afbeelding bovenaan dit artikel: NASA

{

The video above shows a first-of-its-kind simulation – produced using the Blue Waters supercomputer – demonstrating that a black hole’s relativistic jets follow along with the precession of a black hole’s tilted accretion disk.

These scientists said:

At close to a billion computational cells, it is the highest resolution simulation of an accreting black hole ever achieved.

Relativistic jets – that is, jets containing particles that move near the speed of light – tend to be associated with the central, supermassive black holes of some active galaxies, radio galaxies and quasars. They tend to be located many billions of light-years away and may extend outward from supermassive black holes across millions of light-years of space.

Black hole accretion disks – while akin to earthly hurricanes and while theorized and discussed by scientists for decades – are also highly complex systems. Both the relativistic jets and the accretions disks of black holes are located so far away that it’s impossible to observe many details about them. That’s why scientists use computer simulations to study them.

Nearly all previous simulations assumed accretion disks and jets aligned with the spin of the black hole. But, in reality, most galaxies’ central supermassive black holes are thought to harbor tilted disks — meaning the disk rotates around a separate axis than the black hole itself.

The recent simulations by the Blue Waters supercomputer – located on the campus of the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana – are the first to show the jets aligned with the accretion disks and also to show the jets’ streams gradually changing direction in the sky, or precessing. The scientists who ran the simulations said this is:

… a result of space-time being dragged into the rotation of the black hole. This behavior aligns with Albert Einstein’s predictions about extreme gravity near rotating black holes, published in his famous theory of general relativity.

Physicist Alexander Tchekhovskoy at Northwestern is a co-author of the study, which was published in the peer-reviewedjournal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Tchekhovskoy said:

Understanding how rotating black holes drag the space-time around them and how this process affects what we see through the telescopes remains a crucial, difficult-to-crack puzzle. Fortunately, the breakthroughs in code development and leaps in supercomputer architecture are bringing us ever closer to finding the answers.

Read more about these computer simulations via Northwestern University

Artist’s concept of a black hole, via Northwestern Now.

Bottom line: Scientists used the Blue Waters supercomputer to show that a black hole’s relativistic jets follow along with the precession of its tilted accretion disk. In other words, both may be spinning around an axis separate from the hole itself.

Source: Formation of precessing jets by tilted black hole discs in 3D general relativistic MHD simulations

{ http://earthsky.org/ }

Fireball Finds! Meteorite Fragments from Dazzling Michigan Meteor Found on Ice

Saturn's Biggest Moon is Surprisingly Earth-Like — And Scary As Hell

By Rae Paoletta

Though NASA’s Cassini spacecraft was vaporized in Saturn’s atmosphere back in September (RIP), it’s still revealing fascinating insights about the planet and its moons from beyond the grave. Two new papers using data from the zombie orbiter has found that Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, has “sea level” just like Earth.

At face value, our planet and the Saturnian moon couldn’t be more different. Titan has a green, eerie glow and electric sand. Earth has cats and things that are nice/not mostly terrifying. But oddly enough, Titan is the only other world in the solar system that has stable liquid on its surface.

In December, researchers from Cornell University published two studies in the Geophysical Research Letters — one about Titan’s topography and the other about its bodies of liquid. In the latter, the team describes how they used Cassini data to find that Titan’s bodies of water “follow a constant elevation relative to Titan’s gravitational pull,” according to NASA.

Cassini measurements reveal that Titan’s three seas are somehow connected beneath the surface, and that hydrocarbons flow similarly to the way water does on subterranean Earth. Smaller lakes seem to crop up hundreds of meters above sea level on the alien moon, similar to some lakes on Earth, and there’s “common liquid level” that the researchers were able to find.

“We’re measuring the elevation of a liquid surface on another body 10 astronomical units away from the sun to an accuracy of roughly 40 centimeters,” the study’s lead author Alex Hayes, an assistant professor of astronomy at Cornell, says in a statement. “Because we have such amazing accuracy we were able to see that between these two seas the elevation varied smoothly about 11 meters, relative to the center of mass of Titan, consistent with the expected change in the gravitational potential. We are measuring Titan’s geoid. This is the shape that the surface would take under the influence of gravity and rotation alone, which is the same shape that dominates Earth’s oceans,” said Hayes.

So while none of us are ever actually going to Titan, it’s comforting to know that our planet has a pal out there that it’s a little similar to, even if Titan is kind of like Earth’s Waluigi.

Hi there. You’ve made it to the bottom of this story! Speaking of which… we’re giving away an epic $5,000 ski trip to Banff, Alberta. Click here to enter! ⛷

This is what it looks like to land on Saturn’s moon Titan.

Photos via NASA

Origin of 'cigar-shaped alien spaceship' that baffled Stephen Hawking is FINALLY revealed

THE origins of a strange cigar-shaped alien asteroid that sent UFO enthusiasts into a frenzy has been revealed.

By Joy Basu 

NASA/GETTY

BAFFLING: Scientists – including Stephen Hawking – had been baffled by it

The world was left stunned when the mysterious object entered our solar system last October.

Even scientists – including Stephen Hawking – had been baffled as rumours of a alien space ship visit grew stronger.

But the origin of the object, dubbed Oumuamua, has finally been explained by academic Fabo Feng at the University of Hertfordshire.

The Breakthrough Listen project announced in December it planned to conduct more tests on the strangely shaped space object after the initial investigation revealed no sign of alien life.

But now Mr Feng thinks he may have discovered the asteroid’s origins, reported Express.co.uk.

WIKIPEDIA

PATH: Trajectory of ʻOumuamua through the inner Solar System

Oumuamua, which is also described as an interstellar, may have come a nearby group of young stars, he said.

He added: “Reconstructing the object's motion, my research suggests it probably came from the nearby 'Pleiades moving group' of young stars, also known as the 'Local Association'.

“It was likely ejected from its home solar system and sent out to travel interstellar space.”

The mysterious rock is the first foreign object in the solar system to be spotted.

It’s still unknown how long it has been traveling for.

It was spotted by the Pan-STARRS1 telescope in Hawaii on October 19 and travelling at about 95,000 kilometres per hour.

Mr Feng added: “I simulated how it has probably travelled through the galaxy and compared this to the motions of nearby stars.

“I found the object passed 109 stars within a distance of 16 light years.

“It went by five of these stars from in the Local Association, a group of young stars likely to have formed together, at a very slow speed relative to their movement.”

Mr Feng went on to explain that the interstellar has a particularly slow speed compared with most objects in the galaxy.

He added that this suggested that it was of a very young age and hadn’t travelled far, as similar objects were likely to speed up with age.

Despite being the only interstellar spotted in the solar system, Mr Feng believes it is possible there were millions of similar objects that haven’t been seen yet.

He said: “My research suggests there are likely more than 46million similar interstellar objects crossing the solar system every year.

“Most of them will be too far away for us to see with our current telescopes.

“But new telescopes and surveys should soon be able to find these interstellar messengers, which may be sending us important information about how stars and planets formed.”

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{ https://www.dailystar.co.uk/ }

A huge asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs, but what danger do smaller ones pose?

Don’t panic…yet. 

Lwp Kommunikáció/Flickr, CC BY-SA

A small asteroid passed relatively close to Earth this month, having been discovered just six days earlier. This might sound scary, but it’s unusual that such an object would actually collide with the Earth.

Each year about 50,000 tonnes of extraterrestrial material (rocks and dust) hits our planet. This comes as tiny pieces – even if it all came at once, it would be only slightly larger than the “lorry-sized” asteroid that passed us in January.

But while scientists can readily spot fairly large asteroids greater than about a kilometre across, what risk do such smaller asteroids that may be more difficult to track pose? Should we worry?

It is widely believed the dinosaurs were wiped out 65m years ago by an asteroid impact. The environmental changes that it caused – a rapid rise in atmospheric temperature and global forest fires, followed by plummeting temperatures and acidified ocean waters – were a consequence of the size of the asteroid, probably about 10km across.

This is almost three orders of magnitude larger in diameter, and about 30m times heavier, than the year’s worth of asteroids that hit us today.

The Earth had a brush with an object estimated to be around 20 metres across almost five years ago over Chelyabinsk in Russia. Nobody saw it coming. Spectacular footage of the incoming fireball was recorded by commuters on their way to work, shocked to see the dark February morning lit by something originally thought to be a missile.

The rock exploded in the atmosphere, with many meteorite fragments scattered across the region. The largest piece, of about 600kg, was recovered several months later in an ice covered lake. Although many people were hurt when the object powered its way through the atmosphere, the injuries mostly came from window glass shattered by the atmospheric shock wave it caused.

The inhabitants of the Chelyabinsk region had a lucky escape – no crater was created by the asteroid because it burst into pieces about 30km up in the atmosphere. Luckily, this is the most likely situation for an object that size.

It is not until an asteroid is about 50 metres across that a crater is produced on impact. Even when it is two or three kilometres across – the size of Meteor Crater in Arizona – it is not near large enough to cause destruction on the global scale of the dinosaur extinction event. But it would certainly cause local problems if the impact was in an inhabited area. Imagine the asteroid that created the Meteor Crater – literally and figuratively – hitting central London, Washington or Mumbai.

Monitoring threat

There are several international observing programmes using automated telescopes specifically dedicated to mapping all “Near Earth Objects”. These are asteroids with a closest approach to the sun of less than 1.3 Astronomical Units – one such unit is the distance between the Earth and the sun. A special watch is kept for “potentially hazardous objects”, which are Near Earth Objects over 150 metres in diameter with orbits that cross that of the Earth.

Fortunately, practically all of these objects are in stable orbits, and are not designated hazardous. Asteroids with sizes down to about five metres across can now be observed. Although, as the Chelyabinsk event illustrated, there are still objects that evade the watchers. Part of the reason that the Chelyabinsk object went undetected, was because it came into the atmosphere at a very low angle from the direction of the sun. But the main reason was the sheer number of such objects, and the relatively short time (about a decade) that we have been actively tracking them.

It is salutary to look at the number of detections of Near Earth Objects. The Minor Planet Center maintains a database of observations, keeping a running total which, by the end of December 2017, stood at over 17,500. A further 28 have already been spotted this month. You can get an idea here where all these objects are relative to the Earth and the sun – I guarantee that you will be more than a little perturbed when you see how surrounded we are by these missiles.

One of the major problems that civilisation has is that while we are becoming incredibly efficient at spotting Near Earth Objects, we still cannot do anything about one that might be on a collision path with the Earth. NASA currently has a project, DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test), to redirect a threatening asteroid at the preliminary design phase. A spacecraft, about 1.5 metres across, will be aimed to crash into an asteroid (Didymos B) about 140 metres across. Didymos B orbits a primary body, Didymos A. The aim of the project is to change the orbit of Didymos B around its binary partner, while not altering the orbit of Didymos A around the sun.

DART is scheduled for launch in December 2020, intercepting Didymos in October 2022. So we have fewer than five years to wait before we find out whether we can protect our planet from its unruly neighbours.

For now, while small asteroids certainly can pose some danger, the threat is more regional than that posed by larger asteroids. So there is no need (yet) to start stockpiling baked beans and bottled water against our imminent demise by asteroid attack. The 50,000 tonnes of space material that hits Earth each year falls mainly as dust grains less than half a millimetre across. And given that we are all still here (at the time of writing…), it poses no threat to humanity.

{ https://theconversation.com/au }

Did Ancient Mars Host an Alien Civilization? US Congressman Asks NASA Panel (Video)

Is It Possible That Ancient Mars Was Host To An Alien Civilization?

This is exactly the question that Rep. Dana Rohrbacher, R-Calif., asked of a NASA panel of planetary scientists on July 18, 2017. To be clear, there is no official evidence that this is the case. Mars, as far as we know, did not host any alien civilization in the past.

Mars Was Very Different Billions of Years Ago

The Mars we know today is not the Mars of the past. Ancient Mars likely had rivers, lakes, and possibly oceans. It’s not an impossible scenario to believe that life, in some form, once existed there. That being said, the existence a full-blown intelligent civilization is another story. It took earth almost 3.8 billion years to develop intelligent life. Mars is only about 4.5 billion years old. Life would have had to begin very early in the planet’s history to have enough time to develop into something capable of meeting our definition of a ‘civilization’.

Ancient Martian Alien Civilization: Unlikely, But Not Impossible

As a rule of logic, it’s nearly impossible to disprove a negative. Though the panel of NASA scientists said it would be extremely unlikely, they didn’t quite say it was an impossibility. We understand a bit about Martian history, but our scope of research is obviously limited. If life on Mars had developed and then suffered some extinction event a few billion years ago, there would be very little evidence left today. There’s also the question as to whether humans would be able to recognize alien life at all.

What Convinced Congressman Rohrbacher to Ask This Question?

Judging from the reaction of the young man sitting behind the congressman when he finally asked the question, it’s likely that he was asking on his behalf. It’s no secret that Congressman Rohrbacher isn’t a scientist. He does, however, sit on the Committee on Science Space and Technology and has been consistently pro-NASA relative to his other Republican counterparts. He is also keen on having NASA send humans back to the moon.

The Video

You can see the congressman’s question in the video below as well as the response from NASA scientist Dr. Kenneth Farley. Farley is quick to correct Rohrbacher in that Mars was very different billions of years ago vs. thousands of years ago as the question was posed. A few billion years is a long time. If an alien civilization existed on Mars billions of years ago, the time has most likely wiped that slate clean.

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