moon rover 

{ https://futurism.com/the-byte }

{ https://futurism.com/the-byte }

Top secret TR-3B supersonic craft caught SPYING on France? Frenzy over triangular UFO

FOOTAGE has emerged that proves the US Air Force is running a secret government project to spy on other countries, according to wild claims online.

By Callum Hoare

The video was captured above the French overseas port town of Saint-Pierre in Reunion Island on May 14, as a group of friends took a walk on the beach.

They noticed something bizarre in the sky and began to film.

BIZARRE: Could this be a spy plane?

(Image: MUFON)

The post read: "Every night we admire the view of the coast which is very visible from where we live.

"But tonight three lights appeared – two white and one red with a strong intensity in the form of a triangle.

"Having never seen this on the area I took my camera to take photos and film.

"The object remained on the spot for about four minutes and began to move in a straight line at a fairly high speed at low altitude."

The video was later uploaded to popular YouTube conspiracy channel The Hidden Underbelly, where viewers gave their own opinions on what was captured.

One comment read: "I've seen this triangle-shaped UFO before."

Before another speculated: "That is definitely the TR-3B."

The TR-3 Black Manta is the name of a surveillance aircraft of the United States Air Force, speculated to be developed under a black project.

It is said to be a supersonic stealth spy plane with a flying wing design.

Believers in the theory say it was used during the Gulf War to provide laser designation for Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk bombers.

And it is not the first time it has reportedly been spotted.

Just yesterday, conspiracists believed they had captured it watching Russia.

And before that, we saw similar scenes in Los Angeles.

other sightings of triangular UFOs - peter2011

{ https://www.dailystar.co.uk/ }

Two stars that have begun to randomly dim prompt scientists to examine if aliens are responsible

• New readings from the Kepler Telescope show dimming star in Libra system
• A distant star was recorded dimming 28 times in 87 days
• Researchers have said dimming might be caused by 'alien megastructures'

By MICHAEL THOMSEN FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

Light from a distant star system has begun to dim, prompting some scientists to examine whether it might be a sign of alien life.

The star system in question, HD 139139, lies some 350 million light years from Earth, in the Libra constellation.

Scientists believe the system is home to a pair of stars that are bound to one another, given the joint nickname 'Random Transiter,' which have been observed frequently dimming over the last several months.

Scroll down for video 

Stars that have been observed to frequently dim have been hypothetically linked to possible alien activity

The Kepler Space Telescope recorded 28 instances of random dimming over an 87-day period suggesting that something potentially interesting is happening. 

There can be many different causes for stars dimming, according to a SFGate report, including debris floating in front of the star, or one of the 28 planets that orbit Random Transiter passing by.

Another possibility is that aliens have constructed some sort of technology that regularly interferes with the light emitted by the stars.

That option is perhaps the least likely, but it can't be definitely ruled out.

In 2017, scientists wondered whether the rapid dimming of Tabby's Star (pictured above) was being caused by alien megastructures

In a forthcoming paper, researchers at UC Berkeley point to all the unusual activity coming from HD 139139 as a reason to make it a focus of study.

'The mystery behind the origin of these events makes this system an interesting target for technosignature searches,' the group says in the paper, to be published in Research Notes of the American.

In the past, a number of other instances of star dimming have been linked to the potential existence of alien life.

In 2017, researchers investigated where the rapid dimming of Tabby's star might have been caused by an 'alien megastructure.'

In the end, they determined it was likely caused by microscopic fine dust that scattered the starlight.

Last year, a team of researchers from Harvard and Yale went so far as to suggest the idea of trying to dim our own home star, the sun, as a way of fighting climate change.

Using a technique called stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI), researchers would deliver sulfates into the atmosphere with balloons and high altitude planes.

The sulfates would theoretically disperse the light from the sun. 

The idea was strictly hypothetical, with an estimated starting cost of $3.5 billion. 

As with a first encounter with alien life, scientists were unsure whether the longterm outcome would be better or worse.

A view of Tabby's Star taken from the Kepler Space Telescope

WHAT IS A DYSON SPHERE? 

A suggested method for harnessing the power of an entire star is known as a Dyson sphere.

First proposed by theoretical physicist Freeman Dyson in 1960, this would be a swarm of satellites that surrounds a star.

They could be an enclosed shell, or spacecraft spread out to gather its energy - known as a Dyson swarm.

If such structures do exist, they would emit huge amounts of noticeable infrared radiation back on Earth.

But as of yet, such a structure has not been detected.

Source: All About Space magazine 

The Dyson Ring, left, is the simplest form of Dyson structure. Creating a Dyson bubble would be an incredible engineering challenge but it is considered to be far more feasible than surrounding a star in a rigid sphere

Read more:

• New weirdest stars in the galaxy checked for aliens - SFGate

{https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

An Asteroid-Smashing Star Ground a Giant Rock to Bits and Covered Itself in the Remains

An artist's illustration shows an asteroid cracking to pieces.

(Image: © JPL-Caltech)

"When the debris are on our line of sight to the star, it would make the star dim," he told Live Science. "However, the [individual pieces of] debris cover only a small fraction of the sky, so the chance of being on the line of sight is small." 

However, although individual pieces of debris are small and each cover only a tiny patch of sky, the whole cloud is large — much larger than the star. Under normal conditions, only photons that fly out of the star directly at Earth reach human telescopes. But the cloud changes that. Beams of light aimed in all sorts of directions strike the cloud of the debris, heating it up and causing the bits of asteroid to emit MIR light. That light reaches Earth too, even though the beams of light that caused it normally wouldn't have. The result is a bigger glowing region of the sky that our telescopes register as a spike in light, Wang said.

Imagine a faint flashlight in the distance on a clear night. If it's pointed right at you, you might notice it as a thin dot of light. But if you shine the flashlight through the billowing steam of a fog machine, there's a much bigger, bright object to catch your eye — even if the power of the light source stays the same.

Astronomers have seen clouds of debris like this before in space, said Malena Rice, an expert in the astronomy of debris disks around distant stars and doctoral student in the Yale University Department of Astronomy. And they've seen evidence of nonspherical objects, likely asteroids orbiting objects outside our solar system — possibly  another white dwarf. But this may be the first time astronomers have spotted an asteroid disintegrating into a debris cloud around a star.

"This process has been theorized for over a decade," Rice, who wasn't involved in the research, told Live Science. "But we've never had a chance to study the full disruption process in action until now."

So, what could have ripped the asteroid to bits? Wang and his colleagues concluded that it was likely a gravitational effect called tidal disruption.

"A white dwarf is a very compact star," Wang said. "As such, close to the star, the gradient of the gravitational field can be very large," meaning gravity can change sharply over a short space.

Imagine you were floating in space, orbiting a star with your feet pointed toward it. The gravity on your feet would be greater than the gravity on your shoulders. If you're standing on Earth right now, you're experiencing the same effect, though the difference — the gradient — is so minimal that you don't notice it.

In the steep gravitational fields close to white dwarfs, Wang said, gradients can become so intense that they overwhelm forces holding an object together. Large asteroids are glued together with their own gravity, but that gravity isn't as strong as the gradients close to white dwarfs. When asteroids pass through those tidal regions, astronomers believe, they shatter, smearing across space as a cloud.

This is related to the reason some planets are surrounded by rings of dust, and not just moons, Rice said. The weaker tidal forces of large planets can keep the matter in their rings from clumping together into balls.

The astronomers are certain the debris wasn't from a comet in this case, Wang said, because comets move so fast that the debris would quickly leave the immediate warm neighborhood around the star and cool down. It's possible that a rocky planet blew up, he said, but the researchers believe a smaller, asteroid-sized object is more likely. (The precise distinction between a large asteroid and a small planet can be a bit vague. But when it comes to other star systems astronomers usually use "exoasteroid" to refer to smaller, jagged metal and rock objects and "exoplanet" to refer to objects large enough that their gravity has formed them into spheres.

Right now, the debris cloud is still circling the star, which goes by the name WD 0145+234. Over time, though, that cloud is likely to fall onto the stellar surface, Wang said. That infalling debris, made of metal and perhaps some warm gas, could  explain how many white dwarfs end up with evidence of significant metal pollution in their starlight.

The research has not yet been peer reviewed and was published online Oct. 10 in the preprint journal arXiv.

• 11 Fascinating Facts About Our Milky Way Galaxy
• Big Bang to Civilization: 10 Amazing Origin Events
• Spaced Out! 101 Astronomy Photos That Will Blow Your Mind
• Originally published on Live Science.

{ https://www.livescience.com/ }

Not Only Is China’s 'UFO' Not Unidentified, It Probably Won't and Canada in the 1960s.

By Tim McMillan 

IMAGE: CHINESE STATE MEDIA

Not long ago, we shared the news of two Romanian inventors who claim to have built a working prototype of what could be the world’s first fully functional hypersonic flying saucer. This week, military aviation site Alert-5 caused quite a buzz among UFO and aviation enthusiasts when it shared several images of a curiously shaped craft it labeled a “Chinese UFO.” The following day, state-run Chinese media outlet Global Times wrote that the attack chopper has a name: the “Super Great White Shark.”

Cutaway schematic of the 'Super Great White Shark' found on Chinese internet

©  Chinese internet

Described as a “sci-fi like aircraft “ by Chinese media, designers say the Super Great White Shark’s “high-speed and stealth capabilities could give the weapon an edge on the battlefield.” But aerospace engineers and aviation historians say that the aircraft’s design isn’t new, and that it’s unlikely it’ll ever actually get very far off the ground.

Making its big debut at last week’s China Helicopter Exposition in Tianjin, a nearby information placard described the rotorcraft as an “armed helicopter” featuring “a composite wing-body fusion high-speed helicopter configuration designed for the future digital information battlefield.” Also dubbed “Super Jaws” by Chinese media, designers say the craft “refers to the international excellent and mature helicopter design technologies” and specifically names the US’s AH-64 Apache and CH-53 Sea Stallion, along with Russia’s Ka-52 and Mi-26. It’s unknown how these other traditional rotorwing designs compare with the “The Great White Shark,” As two of the listed models are attack helicopters, and the others are heavy transport aircraft.

English translations from an accompanying schematic say the"Super Great White Shark" will capable of traveling a little over 400 mph with a maximum ceiling of almost 20,000 feet. The concept rotorcraft has “two turbojet engines that could provide huge horizontal thrust for high speed movement”and the “fuselage is coated with stealth materials,” claims Chinese media

While designers describe the craft as making use of “internationally popular wing-body fusion design’ to create “a new type of high-speed helicopter,” at present, the Super Great White Shark doesn’t appear to show many differences from ducted-fan aircraft designs attempted and later abandoned by the United States military over 60 years ago.

SCHEMATIC DIAGRAM OF THE CRAFT

Using the same general concept to achieve lift and thrust as conventional rotor based aircraft, instead of mounting propellers on the outside, ducted-fan vehicles contain internal propellers within a larger housing. Throughout the late 1950s and early 1960s, the Army and NASA experimented with several aircraft with ducted-fan based propulsion systems. It was relatively quickly determined that, in comparison to conventional airplanes and helicopters, there were no real advantages to a ducted-fan based aircraft.

Notably, the Super Great White Shark bears a striking resemblance to the U.S. Air Force, and later Army’s, most famous attempt at creating a saucer-shaped aircraft and the Avro Canada VZ-9 Avrocar. Not technically based on ducted-fan propulsion, the Avrocar attempted to use the so-called Coanda effect by using three jet blowing exhausts through the craft’s circular rim to achieve lift and thrust. When initial Air Force visions of a Mach 3.5 fighter called the “Y-2” were deemed dangerously unrealistic, the Army envisioned a tempered version of the flying saucer design—the Avrocar—as being a single replacement for both the jeep and helicopter. After three years of development, the Avrocar program was cancelled, with the saucer shaped craft never traveling more than 35mph and 3 feet off the ground.

THE AVROCAR.

IMAGE: US AIR FORCE NATIONAL MUSEUM

Even with one of the more recent promising flying saucer designs, the All Directions Flying Object or ADIFO, designers admit their novel approach of using vectored jet-propulsion is merely a prototype and presently is little more than a remote control drone.

Admittedly still a prototype itself, China hasn’t explained exactly how Super Great White Shark will succeed where all others have failed.

Nevertheless, developers say it will be ready to take its maiden flight at the 2020 Airshow China, in the South China Guangdong Province town of Zhuhai.

{ https://www.vice.com/en_us }

 ALIENS BESPIONEREN ONS MOGELIJK VANAF QUASI-SATELLIETEN

Caroline Kraaijvanger

{ https://www.scientias.nl/ }

A new and very mysterious organism has found a new home in a large tank at the Paris Zoological Park. Nicknamed the “blob” after a 1958 horror movie, its official scientific name is Physarum polycephalum or “many-headed slime”. The yellow-colored slime is a unicellular living being that looks similar to a fungus but reacts like an animal.

This organism has been on Earth for approximately 500 million years longer than humans and has many mysterious features like the fact that it has almost 720 genders. Another amazing feature is that after being cut in half, it can heal itself in just two minutes. Additionally, it has no eyes, no mouth, and no stomach; however, it knows how to detect food and can digest it. It can also procreate on its own.

The organism’s scientific name translates to “many-headed slime”.

Although it appears to stay in one spot, it does move approximately one centimeter (or 0.4 inches) every hour looking for prey (mushroom spores, bacteria, and more microbes). The organism is normally found on leaves that are decaying, as well as tree trunks in the woods where the air is cool and moist.

Bruno David, who is the director of the French National Museum of Natural History in Paris, stated, “The blob is a living being which belongs to one of nature’s mysteries,” adding, “It surprises us because it has no brain but is able to learn and if you merge two blobs, the one that has learned will transmit its knowledge to the other.”

Researchers conducted an experiment in 2016 that found the mold could in fact learn things. They taught the mold to move across a bridge that had been lined with salt. Prior to this experiment, the mold wouldn’t go near salt. What’s even more incredible is that when they put the mold together with another mold that was not taught to cross the bridge, the first organism passed on what it learned to the other. Scientists believe that a type of “vein” that is created when the two organisms combine together is what allows the first mold to pass on its knowledge to the other one.

The blob can learn things and pass its knowledge on to other organisms.

Another incredible fact about the blob is that it’s extremely hard to kill. When it feels as if it’s in danger, it dries itself out in a type of hibernation and after receiving just a few drops of water, it immediately comes back to life. And it can grow to incredible sizes, as one lab grew a blob that was 33 feet in width.

“The blob is really one of the most extraordinary things that live on Earth today,” expressed David, who went on to say, “It has been here for millions of years, and we still do not really know what it is. We don’t really know if it’s an animal, if it’s a fungus or if it’s something between the two.” (A picture of the “blob” can be seen here.)

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

David Bowie sang about it. Ray Bradbury wrote about it. Elon Musk dreams about it being him. The possibility of life existing on Mars has intrigued humans ever since the red dot in the sky was called a planet and given a name. But no one – that includes robotic rovers – has ever proven without a doubt that there is life on Mars. Now, an ex-NASA scientist who worked on the Viking 1 and Viking 2 missions to the Red Planet in the mid 1970s is claiming that life – or something that looked an awful lot like it – was discovered by the Viking landers but NASA dismissed all of the positive signs when it couldn’t duplicate them in an Earth laboratory. Now he wants the agency to send life detection equipment to Mars again. Wait a minute … you mean in 43 years NASA has NEVER sent life-detection instruments back to Mars? Is this a cover-up?

“NASA concluded that the LR had found a substance mimicking life, but not life. Inexplicably, over the 43 years since Viking, none of NASA’s subsequent Mars landers has carried a life detection instrument to follow up on these exciting results.”

In an article published in Scientific American, Gilbert V. Levin — an engineer and inventor and the principal investigator for the Labeled Release life detection experiment on NASA’s Viking missions to Mars – claims that what the landers found in two locations 4,000 miles apart couldn’t be anything BUT life forms, yet NASA pays lip service to a life-detection mission but has no plans for one, even after the Curiosity rover last year found organic matter in 3-billion-year-old mudstone and recently found evidence of salty lakes where organisms could live. Levin explains his frustration.

“Life on Mars seemed a long shot. On the other hand, it would take a near miracle for Mars to be sterile. NASA scientist Chris McKay once said that Mars and Earth have been “swapping spit” for billions of years, meaning that, when either planet is hit by comets or large meteorites, some ejecta shoot into space. A tiny fraction of this material eventually lands on the other planet, perhaps infecting it with microbiological hitch-hikers. That some Earth microbial species could survive the Martian environment has been demonstrated in many laboratories. There are even reports of the survival of microorganisms exposed to naked space outside the International Space Station (ISS).”

Swapping spit? That gives me an idea!

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, in many scientific writings, Gilbert V. Levin has presented evidence which proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Viking LR experiments detected living organisms metabolizing in a solution known to reliably detect life. Furthermore, subsequent missions have found methane, surface water, formaldehyde, ammonia and other substances needed for life as well as physical formations that indicate life. In fact, as he states in his article:

“No factor inimical to life has been found on Mars.”
(Inimical: hostile or adverse.)

In conclusion, Gilbert V. Levin sees no other way to rule but:

“… the Viking LR did find life.”

Is he right? Why has NASA continued to look on Mars for evidence of past life, but not present life? The instruments are available and ready to go. What are they waiting for?

Even if Martians are just Earth spit, we have a right to know.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

Egg Shaped UFO Hovering Over Homes In Iceland! UFO Sighting News.

Date of sighting: Oct 2019
Location of sighting: Reykjavik, Iceland
Source: 

• https://grapevine.is/news/2019/10/16/mysterious-cloud-hovering-of-reykjavik-yesterday-morning-actually-common-phenomenon/
  
  

These two UFOs disguised as clouds were seen over Iceland this week. The closest UFO...which is egg shaped is hovering over some old houses. This makes me highly suspicious that the UFOs are scanning the inhabitants in order to learn more about human activity. They may even be abducting some people and then returning them all in a few minutes whiteout them ever knowing it happened. Although such a phenomenon is known as "missing time," it can happen so fast that no such time is missing at all. The chances that the egg shaped craft is abducting someone is extraordinarily high. 

I made one photo into a negative format above in order to see more detail of the UFOs. 
Scott C. Waring

Please donate to help my UFO research at https://paypal.me/ScottWaring?locale.x=en_US

{ https://www.etdatabase.com/ }

UFO Recorded On Video By Drone Over Argentina! UFO Sighting News.

Date of sighing: Buenos Aires, Argentina

Location of sighting: Oct 12, 2019

 

This UFO was caught by a high tech drone this week. As the drone is panning out, turning ever so slowly, an unknown object shoots past at incredible speed from the horizon and heading directly toward the drone, passing it in seconds. Alien drones are known for investigating planes and drones...probably to learn about the latest technology and software in it so that they can better asses human technological abilities. 

Scott C. Waring

Please donate to help my UFO research at https://paypal.me/ScottWaring?locale.x=en_US

{ https://www.etdatabase.com/ }

Thanks to Scott Waring - ET Data Base who states: This UFO was caught over Russia last week. The eyewitness mistakenly identified it as ball lightning. However ball lightning is not this big, nor can it change speeds like this does.

Also this UFO seems to change speed as it gets closer to the eyewitness. The UFO speeds up, slows down dramatically, then speeds up again. Only an intelligently controlled device could have some control over its speed.

This is also not a plane because it has no wings, and its speed is too fast. This can't be a meteor because its not being pulled down by gravity, but flying horizontal across the sky.

  

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

Fingerprints of Earth's Original Building Blocks Discovered in Diamond-Bearing Rocks

U of A geochemist Graham Pearson was part of an international research team that analyzed modern rock formed from magma and discovered chemical clues to how Earth formed.

Credit: John Ulan

Scientists have detected primordial chemical signatures preserved within modern kimberlites, according to new research by a multi-national team involving a University of Alberta scientist. The results provide critical insight for understanding the formation of Earth.

“Knowing the chemical signature of Earth’s original building blocks is the holy grail of geochemistry,” said Graham Pearson, author on the study. “This knowledge can help us understand the formation of the planets in the solar system as well as their relationship to each other.”

Credit: Subarcticmike / Wikimedia Commons

Kimberlite sample from the Cumberland Peninsula on Baffin Island, Nunavut, Canada.

The research team analyzed kimberlites–a type of rock formed by cooling magma that sometimes carries diamonds–from around the world, including many from Canada.

“We found that kimberlites’ chemical signatures are remarkably uniform and very like the chondritic building blocks thought to have formed the Earth 4.55 billion years ago,” added Pearson, professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Henry Marshall Tory Chair, and Canada Excellence Research Chair Laureate. “We think this is the cleanest signal of this primordial signature found in any group of rocks on Earth.”

Credit: Black Tusk / Wikimedia Commons

Never-ending cycle

The interior of our planet is constantly cycling, as minerals at Earth’s surface are continually returned to great depths through movement of the tectonic plates. “This mixing makes it very difficult to detect the starting ingredients–a bit like trying to detect the brand of flour that was used by tasting an over-cooked cake,” explain

ed Pearson. “The final twist is that in the last 200 million years, these signatures became more scarce, likely due to events associated with the breakup of the supercontinent, Pangaea.”

The discovery of these ancient, primordial signatures suggest that reflect the melting of deep, isolated regions of pristine material within the Earth that have remained untouched by billions of years of tectonic plate recycling–revealing a glimpse of the holy grail that will shed new light on how Earth, and planets like it, formed.

Contacts and sources:

• Katie Willis
• University of Alberta

Citation:

• “Kimberlites reveal 2.5-billion-year evolution of a deep, isolated mantle reservoir,” was published in Nature (doi: 10.1038/s41586-019-1574-8).

Source: 

• http://www.ineffableisland.com/2019/10/fingerprints-of-earths-original.html

{ https://beforeitsnews.com/ }

For many months now, an incident involving pilots who attempted to intercept a strange, oblong-shaped white aircraft while part of a training mission with the U.S.S. Nimitz carrier group in 2004 has been at the center of the modern UFO discussion. The incident has received even more attention in recent weeks, following an appearance by Commander Dave Fravor, one of the principal witnesses, on the popular Joe Rogan Experience podcast.

No one who takes the UFO subject seriously would dispute that the incident is noteworthy. However, many with long-held interests in the subject will also recognize that it is only one of many similar instances where such an object has been observed. In fact, some accounts from the historic record detail sightings of remarkably similar things dating at least as far back as the 1940s.

Loren Gross was among the handful of historically-minded UFO chroniclers who, for many decades, collected and self-published annual UFO commentaries. Beginning in the late 19th century with the famous reports of “mystery airships” and proceeding up until around 1960, Gross’s historical record-keeping on the UFO topic had been noteworthy for its lack of sensational details (unlike the majority of the UFO writing of both then, and now).

One unique report from the early days of UFOs (that is, prior to Kenneth Arnold’s famous sighting) occurred in September 1944, near Oak Ridge, Tennessee; a site that would be notable for other UFO sightings over the years, which some commentators find unsurprising due to the area’s proximity to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory

(Public Domain).

The report states that at about dusk on a September evening in 1944, a witness identified only as “Mr. Nelson,” who had been “in the company of two other Oak Ridge workers, A.C. Butler and Albert Profitt, were driving from Oliver Springs into Oak Ridge,” the report states. As the drivers reached a point about two miles outside of Oliver, they said: “a strange object showed up about 50 feet in front of the car ended about the height of the windshield.”

The report says that Nelson, the primary observer, described it as “glossy white in color, and the reflected light had a dimension of about 30 feet long and 4 feet wide.”

“When Nelson eased the car up to the object, it moved slowly away, and when he stopped the car, it also stopped. Nelson claims that he called people out from a house to the roadside to see what they were observing and they were as dumbfounded at the site as the three men were.”

This unusual cat-and-mouse game between the drivers and the strange object continued for several minutes, as Mr. Nelson moved the vehicle back and forth toward the object, watching as it appeared to mimic their movements, moving away as they approached, or following when they backed away.

“Finally, after Nelson had moved forward and stop again several times, the light rose high into the air and disappeared over Black Oak Ridge,” the report states.

Afterward, the incident was reported to several local authorities, along with the FBI’s Knoxville Field Office. According to Mr. Nelson (who had presumably been the one who made the report to the Bureau), “Nelson said that at first the FBI was very interested in the report but then they seemed to lose interest in it completely. He assumed that they found out that the object was some sort of secret weapon being developed at Oak Ridge and so it was no longer of any interest to them.” Whether or not this had actually been the reason for the FBI’s waning attention or not remains unclear.

Certain aspects of the craft observed–particularly the glossy white color and the oblong shape–are notable for their similarity to the now-famous “tictac” UFO observed during the equally well known U.S.S. Nimitz UFO incident of 2004 (Commander Dave Fravor, one of the witnesses to this incident, can be heard describing the object in his interview with Joe Rogan here).

Whether or not this truly indicates any continuity between the two object sightings, observed more than half a century apart, can’t be determined from their descriptions alone. The descriptions of their appearance could very likely be superficial, and the possibility that either or both cases might have been experimental aircraft tests cannot be ruled out.

However, it does appear to show that certain aspects of the UFO phenomenon–whatever it ultimately represents–that have been widely discussed in recent months are not particularly new… although that certainly isn’t news to the many of us who have studied this subject for years, if not decades.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

It was on December 2, 1952 that the CIA’s Assistant Director H. Marshall Chadwell stated the following to agency personnel: “Sightings of unexplained objects at great altitudes and traveling at high speeds in the vicinity of major U.S. defense installations are of such nature that they are not attributable to natural phenomena or known types of aerial vehicles.” Chadwell did more than that; he prepared the following guidelines for the National Security Council: “The Director of Central Intelligence shall formulate and carry out a program of intelligence and research activities as required to solve the problem of instant positive identification of unidentified flying objects. Upon call of the Director of Central Intelligence, Government departments and agencies shall provide assistance in this program of intelligence and research to the extent of their capacity provided, however, that the DCI shall avoid duplication of activities presently directed toward the solution of this problem. This effort shall be coordinated with the military services and the Research and Development Board of the Department of Defense, with the Psychological Board and other Governmental agencies as appropriate. The Director of Central Intelligence shall disseminate information concerning the program of intelligence and research activities in this field to the various departments and agencies which have authorized interest therein.”

Two days later, the Intelligence Advisory Committee agreed with Chadwell’s plans and made a recommendation that “the services of selected scientists to review and appraise the available evidence in the light of pertinent scientific theories” should be employed. It was as a direct outcome of this development that what became known as the Robertson Panel was created; a group headed by Howard Percy Robertson, who was a highly respected consultant to the Agency. He was also a noted physicist, and the director of the Defense Department Weapons Evaluation Group. It was Chadwell’s job to select a group of individuals who were deemed to be the right people to tackle the UFO problem – which included anxieties concerning Russian propaganda. The group included Luis Alvarez, physicist, radar expert (and later, a Nobel Prize recipient); Frederick C. Durant, CIA officer, secretary to the panel and missile expert; Samuel Abraham Goudsmit, Brookhaven National Laboratories nuclear physicist; and Thornton Page, astrophysicist, radar expert, and deputy director of Johns Hopkins Operations Research Office. In rapid time they plunged into the heart of the mystery.

There have been longstanding rumors in the field of Ufology that the CIA knows all about the truth of the UFO enigma, of the Roswell incident of 1947, and of what really goes down at Area 51. The Robertson Panel’s conclusions, however, suggested that UFOs did not have a direct, significant impact on the United States’ national security. Rather, the major worry of the panel was how the public mindset could, in theory, be affected by bogus tales of UFO encounters – and created and weaved by the Reds. On this very matter, the Robertson Panel recorded these words: “Although evidence of any direct threat from these sightings was wholly lacking, related dangers might well exist resulting from: A. Misidentification of actual enemy artifacts by defense personnel. B. Overloading of emergency reporting channels with ‘false’ information. C. Subjectivity of public to mass hysteria and greater vulnerability to possible enemy psychological warfare [italics mine].”

Clearly, when it came to UFOs, it was those matters concerning “mass hysteria” and “false information” that dominated the thinking of the Robertson Panel. The possible presence of real aliens in the United States seemed to be very much in the background for the CIA. There was also a recommendation that a number of the public UFO investigative groups which existed in the United States at the time should be “watched” carefully due to “the apparent irresponsibility and the possible use of such groups for subversive purposes.” For the CIA, “subversive purposes” meant the actions of the Soviets, or, worse, of home-grown-and-groomed communists. Maybe, both. It’s entirely possible that at least some reports of fear-filled encounters with the so-called “Men in Black” in that era may have been provoked by such surveillance. Particularly so if UFO researchers were threatened by fedora-sporting and trench-coat-wearing government agents late at night – which typifies the appearances and actions of the MIB.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

Mysterious Flashing Lights in Ayrshire Skyline Spook Glasgow Couple

Adam Devlin and Maxine Steel spotted the bright white lights spinning in the clouds while traveling on the A77 near Galston at around 9 pm.

The Ayrshire couple were left baffled after seeing the strange lights. Adam,29, said they had no idea as to what it was. He added that it was one of the most unusual things he had ever seen.

The mysterious lights totally freaked them out, according to Adam. He was confident it wasn’t a helicopter or a plane. He thought it could have been a UFO.

Now residents in Glasgow, the couple were driving down visiting family when the strange lights caught their attention reflecting on their windscreen. At first, Adam did not think anything of it, but then they stopped the car, and there was nothing else around. They heard no sound from the lights.

Adam said the lights were up in the clouds spinning around in a circular motion. Maxine added that they were freaking out, and they did not and still don’t have a clue about the unusual lights.

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

Duikers bezoeken wrak van oorlogsschip, maar ontdekken iets erg zeldzaam op terugweg

 Bron: REV OCEAN, CATERS NEWS

Het zou volgens de onderzoekers om pijlstaartinktvissen gaan, de groep zeeweekdieren waarvan de reuzeninktvis en de kolossale inktvis deel uitmaken. Het is onduidelijk hoe groot de ouders van deze ‘baby’s’ waren toen ze de eierzak aan de oceaan toevertrouwden.

Pijlstaartinktvissen worden doorgaans niet groter dan zestig centimeter, maar van hun grotere neefje de reuzeninktvis zijn al exemplaren tot twintig meter waargenomen.

Aliens or Something Else - Whatever They Are They Are Coming to Earth

This is a terrific interview that covers everything from close encounters to strange beings. It avoids the temptation to endorse any hypothesis regarding the nature and origin of extraterrestrials, focusing instead on interactions between humans and an unknown reality with which we are not prepared to cope. Philip Mantle, a seasoned and respected UFO investigator has drawn on his extensive real world UFO research experience to bring us this amazing insight.

from a facebookfriend Philip Mantle

{ https://www.youtube.com/ }

The Army and a UFO Group Are Investigating Mysterious Technology

 By Kyle Mizokami

ULLSTEIN BILD DTL.GETTY IMAGES

• The U.S. Army has joined To The Stars Academy of Arts and Science, a UFO research group, to investigate UFO technology.
• To The Stars is the same group that released the UFO videos that the Navy confirmed were real.
• We have questions. Lots of 'em.

---

The U.S. Army and a prominent UFO research group are teaming up to investigate mysterious technology, but won’t come out and say where the tech comes from.

To The Stars Academy of Arts and Science, the organization led by former Blink-182 member Tom DeLonge, will work with the Army to “characterize” technology under the organization’s control, and then use the tech to improve military vehicles. We have a lot of questions about this bizarre partnership, starting with the most important: Where did the technology come from?

To The Stars, which released the infamous Navy-confirmed UFO videos, made the announcement today on its website, saying it has entered into a “Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command to advance TTSA’s materiel and technology innovations in order to develop enhanced capabilities for Army ground vehicles.”

CRADAs are a form of joint research agreement between an agency of the federal government and research organizations, particularly academia, in which the feds provide “laboratories ... personnel, facilities, equipment or other resources with or without reimbursement.”

According to multiple definitions of CRADAs on federal websites, the transfer of federal funding is prohibited.

TTSA describes its contribution to the agreement as “technology solutions” that include “material science, space-time metric engineering, quantum physics, beamed energy propulsion, and active camouflage.”

In 1966, a 13-year-old boy was walking his dog and reportedly took this photo of a flying saucer in Wall Township, New Jersey. He showed it to the Army, but no comment was made by the military.

BETTMANNGETTY IMAGES

The Army will provide “laboratories, expertise, support, and resources to help characterize the technologies and its applications.”

“Our partnership with TTSA serves as an exciting, non-traditional source for novel materials and transformational technologies to enhance our military ground system capabilities,” said Dr. Joseph Cannon of Army Futures Command in the press release.
“At the Army's Ground Vehicle Systems Center, we look forward to this partnership and the potential technical innovations forthcoming.”

THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE

• The Complete History of UFO Sightings

• What We Know About The Navy’s UFOs

• Why Are Senators Suddenly Being Briefed on UFOs?

Where did TTSA’s impressive list of technology come from? The implicit answer is: UFOs, also known as Unexplained Aerial Phenomena (UAPs).

UFO/UAP traditionally means anything we spot in the sky that's unusual. But here's the thing: Swamp gas and Venus sightings don't leave behind technology that's so advanced, it needs to be "characterized" by the federal government.

Whatever this technology is, and even To The Stars apparently isn't quite sure, it comes from what we commonly call flying saucers.

According to The New York Times, the Pentagon spent $22 million between 2008 and 2011 on the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), an organization tasked with looking into UFOs. The program reportedly stored “metal alloys and other materials" that Luis Elizondo, then the director of the AATIP and now the director of global security and special programs at To The Stars, said had been "recovered from unidentified aerial phenomena."

In July, we reported that TTSA acquired “several pieces of metamaterials” sourced from “an advanced aerospace vehicle of unknown origin.” The organization claims it can track ownership of the materials all the way back to the mid-1990s. Exactly where the materials came from is anyone's guess.

Lights in the morning sky over Coast Guard Air Station Salem, Salem, Massachusetts, July 16, 1952. The lights, speculated to be UFOs, were photographed by US Coast Guardsman Shell R. Alpert and witnessed by fellow Coast Guardsman Thomas E. Flaherty.

TIME LIFE PICTURESGETTY IMAGES

It’s hard to know what to make of all this. The Army obviously thinks there's something worth sticking its reputation out for, but there isn't any evidence available to the public to justify its association with a UFO research group.

Funding research into UFOs is one thing, and the U.S. government has done it multiple times over the past 70 years. Expecting actual technology samples from UFOs is another thing. Agreeing to do research and development work on them is something else entirely.

If—and it’s a big if—this technology could be ported over to the military, could it give U.S. troops an advantage on the battlefield? Yes, although at best, that advantage might be no better than giving a caveman’s spear a titanium shaft.

At worst, the technology could prove unreplicable by our modern standards. If you went back in time and gave Benjamin Franklin an iPhone, he would certainly find it fascinating, but be completely unable to duplicate it—and that’s with a time difference of just over 200 years. UFOs, if they are indeed from another world, could be thousands of years ahead of us.

Could To The Stars technology list benefit the Army? Theoretically, yes. “Material science” could lead to tougher, lighter materials able to better resist enemy fire. “Beamed energy propulsion,” which sounds like the use of microwaves or lasers to transfer energy, could enable drones to fly longer. “Active camouflage” sounds like a mimetic camouflage system such as that used by squid or even the Predator.

But does TTAS actually have this technology? Well, we’re just going to have to wait and see.

{ https://www.popularmechanics.com/ }

Michael Sheen claims his sleepy Welsh hometown is the ‘Little Chef of the Galaxy’ after he and his family spotted UFOs near their home in Port Talbot

• Michael Sheen claims his hometown of Port Talbot a 'hub' for extraterrestrial life
• The 50-year-old actor has nicknamed the area the 'Little Chef of the galaxy'
• Then joked it was 'entirely possible' people 'hadn't seen a helicopter before'

By AMIE GORDON FOR MAILONLINE

Michael Sheen claims Port Talbot is a 'hub' for extraterrestrial life after spotting UFOs flying in the Welsh town.

The actor, 50, grew up in the Welsh community before finding fame in films including The Damned United, The Queen and Frost/Nixon. 

Speaking on Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre podcast today, Sheen said his hometown was a 'stop-off' for alien life, like the 'Little Chef of the galaxy'. 

Michael Sheen joked Port Talbot was a 'hub' for extraterrestrial life after spotting UFOs flying in the Welsh town

Port Talbot: The Welsh town is the epicentre of UFO activity in the UK according to the Hollywood star 

Herring described Sheen as 'the fantastic UFOologist' as he joked about his extraterrestrial experiences growing up. 

Sheen said: 'I think Port Talbot, where I come from, is on some weird alien map. It's like some sort of stop off, it's like a lay-by. It's like the Little Chef of the Galaxy. 

'The lady who lived next door - who was a very respectable lady and someone who wouldn't make up stories - told us that one morning she was in the kitchen which overlooked the back garden.

'She said she was standing there making a coffee and a flying saucer came down and hovered over her back garden and then went.

'Of course, you think that's nonsense but she was a very serious lady.'

Sheen continued by saying both he and his father had had similar close encounters.

He said: 'One day I was coming home from school. I got off the school bus and I was walking up my street.

'I was just about to turn up the path to my house and coming round the mountain [near his house] was a formation of lights.

'I stood there looking at it thinking, 'this is going to be some sort of weird reflection'.

'There was a formation of some things coming round and going out across the sea then disappearing.'

Sheen said of Port Talbot (pictured): 'It's like some sort of stop off, it's like a lay-by. It's like the Little Chef of the Galaxy'

He continued: 'And then years later on New Year's Eve - not that long ago, about five years ago - my dad, who had not had a drink that night, went up to bed.

'He said he saw a light in the sky. My dad is a character but is not someone who would make this up.

'He said he saw a thing in the sky with lights going around it - it was there for ages then it shot off. 

'I think Port Talbot is some kind of hub.'

Host Richard Herring then quipped: 'People in Port Talbot maybe haven't seen a helicopter before - could it be that?

To which Sheen replied: 'That is entirely possible.'

Port Talbot is located seven miles to the east of Swansea and has a population of around 37,000. 

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

How Can a Star Be Older Than the Universe?

By David Crookes - All About Space magazine 

Space Mysteries: If the universe is 13.8 billion years old, how can a star be more than 14 billion years old?

This Digitized Sky Survey image shows the oldest star with a well-determined age in our galaxy. Called the Methuselah star, HD 140283 is 190.1 light-years away. Astronomers refined the star's age to about 14.3 billion years (which is older than the universe), plus or minus 800 million years. Image released March 7, 2013. 

(Image: © Digitized Sky Survey (DSS), STScI/AURA, Palomar/Caltech, and UKSTU/AAO)

For more than 100 years, astronomers have been observing a curious star located some 190 light years away from Earth in the constellation Libra. It rapidly journeys across the sky at 800,000 mph (1.3 million kilometers per hour). But more interesting than that, HD 140283 — or Methuselah as it's commonly known — is also one of the universe's oldest known stars.

In 2000, scientists sought to date the star using observations via the European Space Agency's (ESA) Hipparcos satellite, which estimated an age of 16 billion years old. Such a figure was rather mind-blowing and also pretty baffling. As astronomer Howard Bond of Pennsylvania State University pointed out, the age of the universe — determined from observations of the cosmic microwave background — is 13.8 billion years old. "It was a serious discrepancy," he said.

• Related: The Methuselah Star: Oldest Known Star Revealed (Gallery)

Taken at face value, the star's predicted age raised a major problem. How could a star be older than the universe? Or, conversely, how could the universe be younger? It was certainly clear that Methuselah — named in reference to a biblical patriarch who is said to have died aged 969, making him the longest lived of all the figures in the Bible — was old, since the metal-poor subgiant is predominantly made of hydrogen and helium and contains very little iron. It's composition meant the star must have come into being before iron became commonplace. 

But more than two billion years older than its environment? Surely that is just not possible.

Taking a closer look at the age of Methuselah

Bond and his colleagues set themselves to the task of figuring out whether or not that initial figure of 16 billion was accurate. They pored over 11 sets of observations that had been recorded between 2003 and 2011 by the Fine Guidance Sensors of the Hubble Space Telescope, which make a note of the positions, distances and energy output of stars. In acquiring parallax, spectroscopy and photometry measurements, a better sense of age could be determined.

"One of the uncertainties with the age of HD 140283 was the precise distance of the star," Bond told All About Space. "It was important to get this right because we can better determine its luminosity, and from that its age — the brighter the intrinsic luminosity, the younger the star. We were looking for the parallax effect, which meant we were viewing the star six months apart to look for the shift in its position due to the orbital motion of the Earth, which tells us the distance."

There were also uncertainties in the theoretical modelling of the stars, such as the exact rates of nuclear reactions in the core and the importance of elements diffusing downwards in the outer layers, he said. They worked on the idea that leftover helium diffuses deeper into the core, leaving less hydrogen to burn via nuclear fusion. With fuel used faster, the age is lowered.

This is a backyard view of the sky surrounding the ancient Methuselah star, cataloged as HD 140283. Image released March 7, 2013.

(Image credit: A. Fujii and Z. Levay (STScI))

"Another factor that was important was, of all things, the amount of oxygen in the star," Bond said. HD 140283 had a higher than predicted oxygen-to-iron ratio and, since oxygen was not abundant in the universe for a few million years, it pointed again to a lower age for the star. 

Bond and his collaborators estimated HD 140283's age to be 14.46 billion years — a significant reduction on the 16 billion previously claimed. That was, however, still more than the age of the universe itself, but the scientists posed a residual uncertainty of 800 million years, which Bond said made the star's age compatible with the age of the universe, even though it wasn't entirely perfect.

• Related: Star Quiz: Test Your Stellar Smarts

"Like all measured estimates, it is subject to both random and systematic error," said physicist Robert Matthews of Aston University in Birmingham, UK, who was not involved in the study. "The overlap in the error bars gives some indication of the probability of a clash with cosmological age determinations," Matthews said. "In other words, the best supported age of the star is in conflict with that for the derived age of the universe [as determined by the cosmic microwave background], and the conflict can only be resolved by pushing the error bars to their extreme limits."

Further refinements saw the age of HD 140283 fall a bit more. A 2014 follow-up study updated the star's age to 14.27 billion years. "The conclusion reached was that the age is about 14 billion years and, again, if one includes all sources of uncertainty — both in the observational measurements and the theoretical modelling — the error is about 700 or 800 million years, so there is no conflict because 13.8 billion years lies within the star's error bar," Bond said.

This graphic shows a timeline of the universe based on the Big Bang theory and inflation models.

(Image credit: NASA/WMAP)

Taking a closer look at the age of the universe

For Bond, the similarities between the age of the universe and that of this old nearby star — both of which have been determined by different methods of analysis — is "an amazing scientific achievement which provides very strong evidence for the Big Bang picture of the universe". He said the problem with the age of the oldest stars is far less severe than it was in the 1990s when the stellar ages were approaching 18 billion years or, in one case, 20 billion years. "With the uncertainties of the determinations, the ages are now agreeing," Bond said.

Yet Matthews believes the problem has not yet been resolved. Astronomers at an international conference of top cosmologists at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics in Santa Barbara, California, in July 2019 were puzzling over studies that suggested different ages for the universe. They were looking at measurements of galaxies that are relatively nearby which suggest the universe is younger by hundreds of millions of years compared to the age determined by the cosmic microwave background.

• Related: 7 Surprising Things About the Universe

In fact, far from being 13.8 billion years old, as estimated by the European Planck space telescope's detailed measurements of cosmic radiation in 2013, the universe may be as young as 11.4 billion years. One of those behind the studies is Nobel laureate Adam Riess of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland.

The conclusions are based on the idea of an expanding universe, as shown in 1929 by Edwin Hubble. This is fundamental to the Big Bang — the understanding that there was once a state of hot denseness that exploded out, stretching space. It indicates a starting point that should be measurable, but fresh findings are suggesting that the expansion rate is actually around 10% higher than the one suggested by Planck.

Indeed, the Planck team determined that the expansion rate was 67.4 km per second per megaparsec, but more recent measurements taken of the expansion rate of the universe point to values of 73 or 74. That means there is a difference between the measurement of how fast the universe is expanding today and the predictions of how fast it should be expanding based on the physics of the early universe, Riess said. It's leading to a reassessment of accepted theories while also showing there is still much to learn about dark matter and dark energy, which are thought to be behind this conundrum.

• Related: Big Bang Theory: 5 Weird Facts About Seeing the Universe's Birth

A higher value for the Hubble Constant indicates a shorter age for the universe. A constant of 67.74 km per second per megaparsec would lead to an age of 13.8 billion years, whereas one of 73, or even as high as 77 as some studies have shown, would indicate a universe age no greater than 12.7 billion years. It's a mismatch that suggests, once again, that HD 140283 is older than the universe. It has also since been superseded by a 2019 study published in the journal Science that proposed a Hubble Constant of 82.4 — suggesting that the universe's age is only 11.4 billion years.

Matthews believes the answers lie in greater cosmological refinement. "I suspect that the observational cosmologists have missed something that creates this paradox, rather than the stellar astrophysicists," he said, pointing to the measurements of the stars being perhaps more accurate. "That's not because the cosmologists are in any way sloppier, but because age determination of the universe is subject to more and arguably trickier observational and theoretical uncertainties than that of stars."

A visualization of the formation of the first stars. 

(Image credit: Wise, Abel, Kaehler (KIPAC/SLAC))

So, how will scientists figure this out?  

But what could be making the universe potentially appear younger than this particular star? 

"There are two options, and the history of science suggests that in such cases the reality is a mix of both," Matthews said. "In this case that would be sources of observational error that haven't been fully understood, plus some gaps in the theory of the dynamics of the universe, such as the strength of dark energy, which has been the prime driver of the cosmic expansion for many billions of years now."

• Related: Dark Matter and Dark Energy: The Mystery Explained (Infographic)

He suggests the possibility that the current "age paradox" reflects time variation in dark energy, and thus a change in the rate of acceleration — a possibility theorists have found might be compatible with ideas about the fundamental nature of gravity, such as so-called causal set theory. New research into gravitational waves could help to resolve the paradox, Matthews said. 

To do this, scientists would look at the ripples in the fabric of space and time created by pairs of dead stars, rather than relying on the cosmic microwave background or the monitoring of nearby objects such as Cepheid variables and supernovae to measure the Hubble Constant — the former resulting in the speed of 67 km per second per megaparsec and the latter in 73.

Trouble is, measuring gravitational waves is no easy task, given they were only directly detected for the first time in 2015. But according to Stephen Feeney, an astrophysicist at the Flatiron Institute in New York, a breakthrough could be made over the course of the next decade. The idea is to collect data from collisions between pairs of neutron stars using the visible light these events emit to figure out the speed they are moving relative to Earth. It also entails analyzing the resulting gravitational waves for an idea of distance — both of which can combine to give a measurement of the Hubble Constant that should be the most accurate yet.

The mystery of the age of HD 140283 is leading to something bigger and more scientifically complex, altering the understanding of how the universe works. 

"The most likely explanations for the paradox are some overlooked observational effect and/or something big missing from our understanding of the dynamics of the cosmic expansion," Matthews said. Precisely what that "something" is, is sure to keep astronomers challenged for some time.

Additional resources: 

• How Many Stars Are In The Universe?
• How Many Stars Are in the Milky Way? 
• The Brightest Stars in the Sky: A Starry Countdown

{ https://www.space.com/ }

Geen dier en ook geen plant maar wel 720 geslachten en helende krachten: dierentuin in Parijs stelt fascinerend organisme tentoon - HLN.be

Bron: Reuters

De ‘blob’ is een slijmerig, eencellig organisme dat de wetenschappelijke benaming ‘Phusarum polycephalum’ kreeg. Nogal moeilijk om uit te spreken, dus kreeg het organisme een bijnaam: kortweg blob, naar de sciencefictionfilm waarbij een onbekend wezen in een stadje terechtkomt en daar alles en iedereen wil verslinden.

Lees ook

Biologen breken zich het hoofd over bultrug die dood werd aangetroffen in de jungle

Geen schrik: ontsnappen en een stad vernietigen zal dit organisme niet snel doen. Maar als je heel veel geduld hebt, zie je het organisme misschien alsnog bewegen met een snelheid van één centimeter per uur. “Vier centimeter als hij sprint”, aldus Zoo de Paris. 

Onbekende vorm van intelligentie 

De (onschuldige) blob in Parijs behoort tot de slijmzwammen en telt bijna 720 geslachten. Daarnaast kan het organisme zichzelf genezen nadat het bijvoorbeeld in tweeën werd gesneden. De blob doet qua uiterlijk wat denken aan een schimmel, maar is toch een klasse apart. “Het is een van de grootste mysteries van de natuur”, aldus Bruno David, directeur van het Museum of Natural History in Parijs. 

Zo is de blob ‘intelligent’ genoeg om zijn weg uit een doolhof te vinden. “Het is verrassend hoe het geen brein heeft, en toch in staat is om te leren. Als je twee blobs bijvoorbeeld samenvoegt, zal de ene zijn verworven kennis overdragen aan de andere.” Dat betekent dat de blob informatie kan vergaren, maar ook verzenden: “Verrassend gedrag voor iets dat op een paddenstoel lijkt”.

Geen wonder dat biologen zo’n fascinatie koesteren voor het mysterieuze organisme. Tot op heden wordt Phusarum polycephalum nog steeds beschouwd als een onbekende vorm van intelligentie.

 AFP

{ https://www.hln.be/ }

New weirdest stars in the galaxy checked for aliens

There's a bunch of stuff zipping in front of a distant pair of stars, making it a good place to look for E.T.

An archaeologist from the University of Arizona recently found over two dozen previously unknown Mayan sites all while sitting at his desk. Takeshi Inomata found a free lidar (light detection and ranging) map online and that’s what he used to make the huge discovery.

The lidar technology provides scientists with a way of scanning archaeological sites using airborne lasers. They can even see through dense forests and pick out shapes of old buildings and settlements that once stood at the location.

The free map that Dr. Inomata studied was originally published by Mexico’s National Institute of Statistics and Geography in 2011 and covered a total of 4,440 square miles in Tabasco and Chiapas, Mexico. While the map’s resolution was low, he was still able to find the ruins of 27 previously unknown Maya ceremonial centers. What’s even more incredible is that the ruins were constructed in a way that has never been seen before by archaeologists. Some of the large rectangular platforms that were very low to the ground measured as long as two-thirds of a mile and are believed to be as old as 1000 B.C. to 700 B.C.

Ancient Mayan temple

Dr. Inomata and his wife Daniela Triadan are currently leading excavations at the biggest ceremonial center (they named it Aguada Fenix) that was recently discovered in hopes of learning more about the Mayan culture’s rituals.

In 2005, he and his wife started excavating the ancient city of Ceibal which is located in the Petén rainforest in Guatemala. They uncovered several of the earliest known buildings in the Mayan culture with the ceremonial center being as old as 950 B.C.

“The stuff he is finding is crucial for our understanding of how Maya civilization developed,” stated Arlen Chase who is an archaeologist at Pomona College. For many years, Dr. Inomata has been interested in finding out how the Maya culture began between 1000 B.C. and 400 B.C. and his work is providing important information in figuring that out.

Charles Golden, who is an anthropology professor at Brandeis University, also took a look at some lidar maps and discovered numerous ancient settlements close to the Usumacinta River which borders Mexico and Guatemala.

In other news, a new study suggests that Mayans could have unintentionally caused their own demise by changing the climate. Researchers found evidence in Belize that indicates the Mayans created canals and wetlands to accommodate their rising population, as well as often performing “burn events” while they worked on their farms which created more carbon dioxide and methane in the air that they breathed.

Ancient Mayan temple

In a statement, the study’s lead author Tim Beach said, “We now are beginning to understand the full human imprint of the Anthropocene in tropical forests,” adding, “These large and complex wetland networks may have changed climate long before industrialization and these may be the answer to the long-standing question of how a great rainforest civilization fed itself.”

Takeshi Inomata identified this ancient Maya site, dubbed La Carmelita, using LiDAR maps, seen here in both low and high resolution.

Image courtesy of the Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía/Nacional Center for Airborne Laser Mapping.

Takeshi Inomata identified this ancient Maya site, dubbed La Carmelita, using LiDAR. But the structures are difficult to see with the naked eye.

Photo by Takeshi Inomata.

According to their study, the Birds of Paradise wetland was “five times larger than previously discovered”. Additionally, they discovered another wetland field in Belize that was even larger. “These perennial wetlands were very attractive during the severe Maya droughts, but the Maya also had to be careful with water quality to maintain productivity and human health,” explained Sheryl Luzzadder-Beach who was the study’s co-author.

The increase in methane in the atmosphere is believed to have happened between 1,800 and 1,000 years ago which coincides with the growing number of Maya wetlands. “Even these small changes may have warmed the planet, which provides a sobering perspective for the order of magnitude greater changes over the last century that are accelerating into the future,” Beach stated. Their research can be read in full here.

How Lasers Are Utterly Transforming Our Understanding of the Ancient Maya, Bringing Their Whole Civilization Back to Light

A LiDAR scan can reveal ancient Maya ruins that might never be found by archaeologists on the ground

The ancient Mayan city of Tikal was one of the best-mapped regions of the Mayan world, but the PACUNAM Lidar Initiative quintupled the amount of mapping done in 50 years in a single summer.

Photo courtesy of Tikal Park.

A newly discovered ancient Maya site north of Tikal as detected by LiDAR.

Image courtesy of Luke Auld/Thomas Garrison/Pacunam.

An aerial view of Tikal.

Photo courtesy of Marcello Canuto.

The Pacunam LiDAR Initiative scanned the Maya Biosphere Reserve in northern Guatemala, finding tens of thousands of previously unknown ancient structures. 61,000 Maya Structures in One Day.

Image courtesy of Francisco Estrada-Belli/Pacunam.

A LiDAR scan of the ancient Maya city of Tikal.

Image courtesy of Marcello Canuto/PACUNAM.

A topographical map of ancient Maya cities in northern Guatemala created with LiDAR scanning of the jungle.

Image courtesy of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

Archaeologists announced Sunday that they had discovered the remains of a massive bronze age settlement in northern Israel that could “change forever what we know about emergence of urbanization in entire area.” The site was discovered in Israel’s newest city, Harish, during excavations in preparation for a new highway interchange, which seems to be how about half of all recent history changing discoveries are made.

The 5,000-year old megalopolis covers 160 acres and is the largest Bronze Age settlement ever discovered in Israel. In addition, the Times of Israel reports that archaeologists found remains of an even earlier, 7,000-year old Chalcolithic settlement beneath the 5,000 year old buildings. That’s a pretty good find.  Dr. Yitzhak Paz, co-director of the excavation, says:

“It is much larger than any known site in the land of Israel — and outside the land of Israel — in the region of Jordan, Lebanon, southern Syria.”

Overhead view of the Bronze Age megalopolis discovered in Harish.

(Credit: Israel Antiquities Authority)

The site is filled with artifacts and that tell a story of a bustling Bronze age metropolis. The city was home to at least 6,000 people and traded with cultures all across the Mediterranean, and according to the archaeologists, the city was very carefully and thoughtfully planned. Excavation directors Itai Elad, Yitzhak Paz and Dina Shalem say in an IAA statement:

“This is a huge city – a megalopolis in relation to the Early Bronze Age, where thousands of inhabitants, who made their living from agriculture, lived and traded with different regions and even with different cultures and kingdoms in the area… This is the Early Bronze Age New York of our region; a cosmopolitan and planned city.”

Excavation directors (right to left) Itai Elad, Dr. Dina Shalem, and Dr. Yitzhak Paz, walk in a 5,000-year-old alley at the Early Bronze Age excavation site near modern Harish.

(Yoli Schwartz, Israel Antiquities Authority)

Thousands of youth and volunteers participated in the excavation at the Early Bronze Age excavation site near modern Harish.

(Yaniv Berman, Israel Antiquities Authority)

Archaeologists found remains of public and private buildings, streets and alleys, and a fortification wall surrounding the site. The site is in a fertile part of Israel and central to many trade routes, making it the perfect place for a large city. Two large cities, in fact. Dina Salem says in a IAA video:

“The excavation at this site revealed two main settlements. The earliest one is about 7,000 years old. It’s a very large agricultural settlement. Two thousand years later, another settlement became one of the first cities known in this area of the world.”

One of the buildings archaeologists discovered at the site is a temple that may shed some light on the spiritual practices of the Canaanites who lived in the city. The temple has a basin in the courtyard that archaeologists assume was used for ritualistic purposes, and a collection of burnt animal bones possibly used for sacrifices were found inside the temple.

Collection of figurines discovered at the ancient settlement.

(Credit: Israel Antiquities Authority)

Also found were tools, a mysterious cylindrical stamp of a man with his hands in the air, and several figurines of people and animals and tools imported from Egypt.

According to Yitzhak Paz, once it is fully researched and investigated, this site will rewrite history. He says:

“The study of this site will change forever what we know about the emergence [and] rise of urbanization in the land of Israel and in the whole region. And it means that what we know now will change what is written today in the traditional books when people read about the archaeology of Israel.”

And as far as the planned highway interchange goes, they decided to just build it higher up as to not destroy the settlement.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

George Adamski

It’s worth noting that George Adamski was, in fact, watched closely by several intelligence agencies in 1959 – and, in part, in relation to the matter of Russia and communism. Adamski’s trip to New Zealand took him to Wellington and Auckland. Notably, this lecture-tour was of interest to the world of government, and Adamski’s presentations were clandestinely scrutinized by various government operatives. A Foreign Service Dispatch of February 1959 was sent from the American Embassy in New Zealand to the Department of State in Washington, D.C., that summarized Adamski’s activities in New Zealand. Also forwarded to the FBI, the CIA, the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Navy, the report was titled “‘Flying Saucer’ Expert Lecturing In New Zealand” and recorded the following, amusing information:

“Mr. George Adamski, the Californian ‘flying saucer expert’ and author of the book Flying Saucers Have Landed and others, has been visiting New Zealand for the last two weeks. He has given well-attended public lectures in Auckland and Wellington as well as meetings with smaller groups of ‘saucer’ enthusiasts. In Wellington his lecture filled the 2,200 seats in the Town Hall. He was not permitted to charge for admission as the meeting was held on a Sunday night, but a ‘silver coin’ collection was taken up and this would more than recoup his expenses.”

The document continues in equally amusing fashion: “Adamski’s lectures appear to cover the usual mass of sighting reports, pseudo-scientific arguments in support of his theories and his previously well-publicized ‘contacts’ with saucers and men from Venus. He is repeating his contention that men from other planets are living anonymously on the earth and, according to the press, said in Auckland that there may be as many as 40,000,000 of these in total. He is also making references to security restrictions and saying that the U.S. authorities know a lot more than they will tell.  The report of Adamski’s lecture in Wellington in The Dominion was flanked by an article by Dr. I.L. THOMPSON, Director of the Carter Observatory, vigorously refuting Adamski on a number of scientific points. However, the news report of the lecture called it ‘the best Sunday night’s entertainment Wellington has seen for quite a time.'”

Moving on, there is this from the authorities who had Adamski under surveillance: “Interest in flying saucers in New Zealand seems to be roughly comparable to that in the United States. There is a small but active organization which enthusiasts have supported for some years. This organization publishes a small paper and receives and circulates stories of sightings. At the Adamski lecture in Wellington, approximately 40 members of the ‘Adamski Corresponding Society’ wore blue ribbons and sat in reserved seats in the front row. Press reports suggest that Adamski probably is making no new converts to saucer credence in his current tour. His audiences have given forth with a certain amount of ‘incredulous murmuring’ and are said to be totally unimpressed with his pictures of saucers.”

In late 1959, Adamski was the topic of FBI interest when an American citizen (whose name is deleted from the FBI records) offered an opinion that Adamski was using the UFO controversy as a means to promote communism and the Russian way of life. In a report on the affair, the FBI recorded the following: “[Censored] said that in recent weeks she and her husband had begun to wonder if Adamski is subtly spreading Russian propaganda. She said that, according to Adamski, the ‘space people’ are much better people than those on earth; that they have told him the earth is in extreme danger from nuclear tests and that they must be stopped; that they have found peace under a system in which churches, schools, individual governments, money, and private property were abolished in favor of a central governing council, and nationalism and patriotism have been done away with; that the ‘space people’ want nuclear tests stopped immediately and that never should people on earth fight; if attacked, they should lay down their arms and welcome their attackers.”

“[Censored] said the particular thing that first made her and her husband wonder about Adamski was a letter they received from him dated 10/12/59, in which it was hinted that the Russians receive help in their outer space programs from the ‘space people,’ and that the ‘space people’ will not help any nation unless such nation has peaceful intent. It occurred to them that the desires and recommendations of the ‘space people’ whom Adamski quotes are quite similar to Russia’s approach, particularly as to the ending of nuclear testing, and it was for this reason she decided to call the FBI.”

Finally, there’s more to come on all of this. It’s something that will help to resolve some of the early “Men in Black” encounters in 1950s-era New Zealand. Stay tuned.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/}

One report of a UFO sighting is interesting. A report of a UFO over a refinery is intriguing. Multiple reports of UFOs over the same refinery in a town known for UFO sightings demands attention … and possibly a government or military investigation. Welcome to Ciudad Madero, a Mexican coastal city in southeast Tamaulipas on the Gulf of Mexico where a UFO was seen and recorded by many people, reported by multiple media sites and raised questions about why UFOs seem to be attracted to refineries and mineral mines, especially in Mexico and Central and South America.

“Photographs of an alleged unidentified flying object (UFO) flying over the facilities of the “ Francisco I. Madero ” Refinery in Pemex , in Ciudad Madero , Tamaulipas , have begun to circulate through social networks.

These facts were reported by public transport operators, in addition to the same workers of the parastatal, who recognize that this type of sightings is not something new.”

El Heraldo de Mexico reports that the UFO sighting occurred on October 12 between 6:50 and 7:00 am and was witnessed by numerous workers. Along with photos of the ring of lights above the refinery (see them here), El Heraldo reminds readers of the “urban legend” of an extraterrestrial ship located just offshore of the city that many believe is there to protect it from hurricanes and tropical storms. The El Rrun Rrun blog shows more photos of the sightings and says that the state’s Direccion de Proteccion Civil (Civil Defense) has received over 50 reports of UFOs in Tamaulipas since October 22, 2008.

“Since the terrible catastrophe caused by Hurricane Hilda in 1955, Tampico seems to be immune to natural disasters. A popular belief says that about 800 meters deep at Miramar Beach, located in Ciudad Madero, an extraterrestrial base was established that protects the coast. It is not uncommon to hear tampiqueños talk about strange lights coming out of the sea or flying saucers guarding the city. The belief in extraterrestrial beings has taken so much strength that on that coast the Martian Day is celebrated on the last Tuesday of each month. On one of these Tuesdays, the municipality of Ciudad Madero unveiled a monument to aliens which, unfortunately, was the victim of robbery within a few weeks.”

In 2015, Vice.com interviewed three of the many UFO witnesses in Ciudad Madero who believe the “urban legend” and the BBC talked to members of Tampico UFO Scientific Research Association, including Eduardo Anguiano Ortiz, author of “On UFOs, Ghosts and Other Extraordinary Events” who claimed to have talked to over 100 other UFO witnesses and concluded:

“To doubt the existence of UFOs is to have no intelligence.”

Many people like Guillermo H. Sosa Tovar, who shared the images on Facebook, agree. So do local authorities according to the 2015 BBC article.

“The last time a hurricane that was heading towards the Tampico area was diverted was in 2013. That year, local authorities placed the bust of a Martian in Playa Miramar (which was stolen shortly afterwards) and declared that the Martian’s Day would be celebrated on the last Tuesday of October.”

Guillermo H. Sosa Tovar

12 oktober om 13:54 · 

Ovnis en Cd. Madero, Tamaulipas (Fotos tomadas en este frente frio por unas mujeres maderences cercas de la Refinería)

Juzguen ustedes mismos, existe la creencia que hay una base alienígena a unos kilómetros de la Escollera de Playa Miramar

Vertaling bekijken

Ufologists have long speculated that sightings over refineries, mines and volcanoes – all common in Mexico – could be extraterrestrial ships refueling or getting parts. Skeptics point out that gasoline is a poor fuel for long-distance travel and believe Martian Day is just a way to attract tourists to this poor city. (Did they see how well this worked out on Storm Area 51 weekend?)

Which way to Martian Day?

“I have many friends who have told me about ships leaving the sea. Even other fishermen have told me that when they go out at night or at dawn, they see very large, very powerful lights that follow them on their routes. Many serious people they told me about things that happened to them. I think it was a ship, they visit us.”

A fisherman named Guadalupe told Vice.com why he believes. Did these same visitors hover their craft over the Pemex refinery in Ciudad Madero on October 12? There appears to have been no interviews with the workers and no official explanation given, leaving locals to draw their own conclusions.

“To doubt the existence of UFOs is to have no intelligence.”

What do you think they believe?

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/}

Ancient Black Orb Seen Hovering Over Mars Surface Recorded By NASA Rover, UFO Sighting News.

Location of discovery: Mt. Sharp, Mars 
NASA photo: 

• http://mars.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/deepzoom/PIA19397/ 
  

This is ancient technology and its still floating above the surface today. No one knows how old it is, but we do know that it came from a very technologically advanced species. It has the ultimate battery. Something NASA doesn't want to investigate, or at least, doesn't want you to find out about. You can tell it is hovering, because its lit top is more in focus that the things in the background. This is 100% real. This floating orb was found by th late great Streetcap1 and Paranormal Crucible of Youtube and is very extraordinary. It casts a shadow below it and is hovering about 1-2 feet off the ground. The orb itself looks to be two feet across!
Scott C. Waring 

{ https://www.etdatabase.com/ }

UFO Comes Out Of Storm Over City In Russia, Oct 2019, Video, UFO Sighting News.

 

Date of sighting: Oct 8, 2019

Location of sighting: Russia

 

This UFO was caught over Russia last week. The eyewitness mistakenly identified it as ball lightning. However ball lightning is not this big, nor can it change speeds like this does. Ball lighting has a size between that of a pea to two meters across. This UFO is huge, about 20-30 meters across! No ball lighting has ever been recorded that big before. Also this UFO seems to change speed as it gets closer to the eyewitness. The UFO speeds up, slows down dramatically, then speeds up again. Only an intelligently controlled device could have some control over its speed. This is also not a plane because it has no wings, and its speed is too fast. This can't be a meteor because its not being pulled down by gravity, but flying horizontal across the sky! This is absolute an alien craft over Russia. There is not a doubt in my mind about this craft. Its 100% alien. 

Scott C. Waring

{ https://www.etdatabase.com/ }

Planet X Anunnaki Mystery of Serpent Mythology Decoded

This was originally the symbol for the Anunnaki-Sirian creator god, EA, or EN.KI (who has become an Archetype), was the chief of the magicians, “the one who knows,” and infamous for being the serpent of the Garden of Eden who created lifeforms in test tubes half a million years ago with his half-sister Ninharsag, at the suggestion of his son, Marduk, to create humans to be the workers for the gods. (The symbol is also based upon the symbol of the royal Anunnaki family.)

All around the globe, there are intriguing pieces of a massive puzzle that seems to indicate a civilisation known as the Anunnaki were on Earth. From the Middle East and South America, clues to a mysterious episode in history are evident.

The Egyptians, Mayans, and other civilisations whose gods and goddesses looked nearly the same and carried the same bags. The evidence for Anunnaki in various locations increases as historians and archaeologists uncover more information.

{ https://beforeitsnews.com/ }

{ https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/ }

Opinion: Here’s a believable explanation of those UFO videos released by the Navy

The Stars Academy of Arts & Science

A frame from the U.S. Navy’s video of an unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), confirmed in September.

By JURICA DUJMOVIC

COLUMNIST

Cue “The X-Files” music and put on your tinfoil hats. We’re going for a ride.

Last month the U.S. Navy confirmed that three videos of unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) taken by airplane pilots a few years ago are indeed authentic. (Notice we’re not saying “unidentified flying object,” or UFO.) This means the videos went through the U.S. military, so it can be assumed they have not been computer-generated or altered.

Three clips dubbed “FLIR1,” “Gimbal” and “Go Fast” show two encounters between Navy aircraft and UAP. The object was tracked by the aircraft’s Raytheon RTN, +0.48%  AN/ASQ-228 Advanced Targeting Forward-Looking Infrared (ATFLIR) Pod, and in all three videos, it performed maneuvers that cannot be executed using current aviation technology.

Commander David Fravor, who flew one of the fighters in the video (“Gimbal”), describes the object as “Tic Tac”-shaped, 40-feet long, with no wings, exhaust or discernible propulsion. After some maneuvering, the object ended up hovering above the water. Moments later, it rapidly ascended to 12,000 feet and finally accelerated away at a speed the commander suggested was “well above supersonic.”

Unsustainable G-forces

When asked if a human pilot could survive such an acceleration in a modern aircraft, Fravor responded with a resounding “no.” Acceleration of that magnitude would wreak havoc on the human body: broken bones, shifting of organs, burst blood vessels and even death would occur as the body was crushed with G-forces it could not withstand.

But let’s consider for a second that the mysterious object in question was manned by a human pilot. In that case, the vehicle would have to be equipped with the technology capable of reducing the inertial mass of the object by generating gravity waves to reduce G-forces during acceleration.

Navy patent

Perhaps this could be achieved if the outer shell of the craft were turned into a cavity wall filled with gas, which would vibrate thanks to microwave emitters. This description was taken from a patent the U.S. Navy applied for in 2016, which says such a peculiar craft could move with great ease through air, space or water by being enclosed in a vacuum plasma bubble or sheath.

That could be the UAP that Fravor saw during his documented flight. Gravity manipulating tech at play could explain how the craft was able to effortlessly perform certain maneuvers such as suddenly turning sideways without losing altitude (aka knife-edge flight) in the FLIR1 video, or rapidly changing in-flight direction without visible inertia.

While the patent for the mysterious craft was approved last year, there is no indication that it was built or tested. Then again, it’s hard to imagine that a military aircraft equipped with this kind of technology would get any publicity.

Accidental release

If it indeed was this craft in the video, it was built and tested prior to the patent application. However, it could be that the cat got out of the bag. That could be why the Navy reluctantly acknowledged the authenticity of the footage, while also outlining that it wasn’t cleared for public release.

So far, the pieces of the puzzle seem to be falling into place. Then again, at about the 1:17 mark in the video above, one pilot says: “There’s a whole fleet of them. Look on the ASA.” ASA is most likely AESA, the APG-79 radar’s “search while track” feature that enables it to follow multiple targets without degradation to its search capability. Having one experimental craft exposed during a mission is a likely event, but what about a whole fleet?

Two explanations

We have two possibilities: First, there was more than one mysterious aircraft at the location, but it’s unlikely any of them was our patented vehicle.

Another explanation could be that because of the vacuum sheath or another type of stealth technology surrounding the UAP, radar erroneously reported multiple bogies, where in fact there was only one.

That would also explain why the pilot had a hard time locking on to the target in “FLIR1” and “Go Fast” videos. The speed must have played a role as well. Clinicians have a saying: Common things are common. If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.

So what do you think is more likely? A Navy experimental aircraft, inadvertently uncovered by pilots, or an alien UFO? My bet is on the latest Navy patent, but I’m open to suggestions. Please share them in the comment section below. You can take your tinfoil hat off now.

• Jurica Dujmovic is a MarketWatch columnist.

{ https://www.marketwatch.com/ }

Humans Will Never Live on Another Planet, Nobel Laureate Says. Here's Why.

By Yasemin Saplakoglu - Staff Writer 

(Image: © Shutterstock)

Here's the reality: We're messing up the Earth and any far-out ideas of colonizing another orb when we're done with our own are wishful thinking. That's according to Michel Mayor, an astrophysicist who was a co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in physics this year for discovering the first planet orbiting a sun-like star outside of our solar system.

"If we are talking about exoplanets, things should be clear: We will not migrate there," he told Agence France-Presse (AFP). He said he felt the need to "kill all the statements that say, 'OK, we will go to a livable planet if one day life is not possible on Earth.'"

All of the known exoplanets, or planets outside of our solar system, are too far away to feasibly travel to, he said. "Even in the very optimistic case of a livable planet that is not too far, say a few dozen light years, which is not a lot, it's in the neighbourhood, the time to go there is considerable," he added.

• Related: 8 Ways Global Warming Is Already Changing the World

Mayor shared half of the Nobel Prize this year along with Didier Queloz for discovering the first exoplanet in October 1995. Using novel instruments at the Haute-Provence Observatory in southern France, they detected a gas giant similar to Jupiter, which they named 51 Pegasi b. (The other half of the prize was awarded to James Peebles of Princeton University for his work in dark matter and dark energy).

Since then, over 4,000 other exoplanets have been found in the Milky Way, but apparently, none of them can be feasibly reached. 

Stephen Kane, a professor of planetary astrophysics at the University of California in Riverside, agrees with Mayor. "The sad reality is that, at this point in human history, all stars are effectively at a distance of infinity," Kane told Live Science. "We struggle very hard as a species to reach the Earth's moon."

We might be able to send people to Mars in the next 50 years, but "I would be very surprised if humanity made it to the orbit of Jupiter within the next few centuries," he said. Since the distance to the nearest star outside of our solar system is about 70,000 times greater than the distance to Jupiter, "all stars are effectively out of reach."

Well, you might say, plenty of things seemed out of reach until we reached them, such as sending aircraft on intercontinental flights. But "in this case, the required physics to reach the stars, if it exists, is not known to us and it would require a fundamental change in our understanding of the relationship between mass, acceleration and energy."

"So that's where we stand, firmly on the Earth, and unlikely to change for a very, very long time," he said. 

Mayor told the AFP: "We must take care of our planet, it is very beautiful and still absolutely livable."

Andrew Fraknoi, emeritus chair of the astronomy department at Foothill College in California agreed that we won't be able to travel to these stars in the near future. But "I would never say we can never reach the stars and possible habitable planets," he said. "Who knows how our technology will evolve after another million years of evolution."

• Top 10 Ways to Destroy Earth
• 10 Ways Earth Changed Forever in 2018
• 10 Ways You Can Improve Earth's Health

Originally published on Live Science.

{ https://www.livescience.com/ }

China toont eerste foto van Marsverkenner die weg moet effenen voor “zoektocht naar buitenaards leven” - HLN.be

Op de foto, die het Chinese staatsmedium China Global Television Network (CGTN) verspreidde, is een omkapseld ruimtetuig te zien. Dat ruimtetuig zou een orbiter, lander en rover omvatten. 

Lees ook

NASA zoekt komische astronaut om de sfeer erin te houden tijdens missie naar Mars

De Marsrover moet uiteindelijk op de rode planeet landen om er stalen te vergaren. Daar is het Amerikaanse ruimtevaartagentschap NASA alvast mee bezig met zijn Marsrover Insight. In 2030 moeten de stalen uiteindelijk terugkeren naar de aarde. 

Buitenaards leven 

Als de missie naar Mars goed verloopt, gaat China nog een stapje verder. “Wanneer de omstandigheden het toelaten, zullen gerelateerde projecten worden opgezet die draaien om de grote wetenschappelijke vraagstukken zoals de oorsprong en evolutie van het zonnestelsel en de zoektocht naar buitenaards leven,” stond vorig jaar in het document te lezen dat werd vrijgegeven door de Chinese overheid. 

{ https://www.hln.be/}

SpaceX wil niet 12.000 maar 42.000 satellieten voor snel internet -HLN.be 

Bron: belga

De Amerikaanse Telecomautoriteit FCC heeft op 7 oktober bij de Internationale Telecommunicatie Unie (ITU) in Genève twintig aanvragen ingediend voor telkens 1.500 satellieten, zo bevestigde Alexandre Vallet als hoofd ruimtevaartdiensten bij de organisatie aan het Franse persbureau AFP.

Lees ook

Zelfs Elon Musk weet niet of buitenaards leven bestaat: “Ik heb nog geen enkel teken gezien”

De ITU coördineert wereldwijd het spectrum van radiofrequenties en de banen van satellieten. Op zijn website zijn er twintig technische aanvragen voor SpaxeX in te kijken. Een woordvoerder van SpaceX bevestigde niet rechtstreeks het aantal satellieten dat Starlink uiteindelijk zou omvatten, maar hij zei dat het bedrijf “maatregelen neemt om de totale capaciteit en datadensiteit van het Starlink-netwerk te ontwikkelen, om te beantwoorden aan de geanticipeerde groei van de noden van de consumenten”.

Ongerustheid

SpaceX wil vanuit de ruimte een breedbandinternetwerk lanceren, in concurrentie met bijvoorbeeld de start-up OneWeb of het Kuiper-project van Amazon. De elk 227 kilo wegende kunstmaantjes draaien een relatief lage baan. SpaceX heeft in mei de eerste zestig stuks gelanceerd. Vijf procent daarvan was al een maand na lancering buiten dienst.

Momenteel wentelen er meer dan 2.100 actieve satellieten rondom onze planeet op ongeveer 23.000 objecten in totaal, zoals ook rakettrappen en afgedankte satellieten. Dat het aantal nog kan verdubbelen wekt dubbele ongerustheid op: overbevolking in lage banen met risico op botsingen en verstoring van sterrenkundige waarnemingen.

SpaceX zegt dispositieven te hebben om uitgevallen kunstmanen uit hun baan te halen en botsingen te kunnen voorkomen. 

{ https://www.hln.be/}

Nasa tests 'impossible' engine that could carry passengers to the moon in just four hours...and may even travel faster than the speed of light

• System works by bouncing microwaves around in a closed container
• Sun's energy provides electricity for microwaves, so no fuel is needed
• Researchers previously said this wouldn't work in the vacuum of space
• Engineers quietly revealed results of test to show otherwise on a forum

By ELLIE ZOLFAGHARIFARD FOR DAILYMAIL.COM 

Nasa is believed to have been quietly testing a revolutionary new method of space travel that could one day allow humans to travel at speeds faster than light.

Researchers say the new 'impossible' drive could carry passengers and their equipment to the moon in as little as four hours.

A trip to Alpha Centauri, which would take tens of thousands of years now, could be reached in just 100 years.

The system is based on electromagnetic drive, or EMDrive, which converts electrical energy into thrust without the need for rocket fuel. 

The concept of an EmDrive engine is relatively simple. It provides thrust to a spacecraft by bouncing microwaves around in a closed container. Pictured is the first device created by Roger Sawyer

According to classical physics, this should be impossible because it violates the law of conservation of momentum.

The law states that the momentum of a system is constant if there are no external forces acting on the system – which is why propellant is required in traditional rockets.

Researchers from the US, UK and China have demonstrated EMDrive over the past few decades, but their results have been controversial as no one has been exactly sure how it works.

Now, Nasa has built an EMDrive that works in conditions like those in space, according to users on forum NasaSpaceFlight.com.

A number of those discussing the plan on the technical forum claim to be Nasa engineers who are involved in the project.

The concept of an EmDrive engine is relatively simple. It provides thrust to a spacecraft by bouncing microwaves around in a closed container.

Solar energy provides the electricity to power the microwaves, which means that no propellant is needed.

The implications for this could be huge. For instance, current satellites could be half the size they are today without the need to carry fuel.

Humans could also travel further into space, generating their own propulsion on the way.

When London-based Roger Sawyer came up with concept in 2000, the only team that took him seriously was a group of Chinese scientists.

In 2009, the team allegedly produced 720 millinewton (or 72g) of thrust, enough to build a satellite thruster. But still, nobody believed they had achieved this.

Last year, Pennsylvania-based scientist Guido Fetta and his team at Nasa Eagleworks published a paper that demonstrates that a similar engine works on the same principles.

Their model, dubbed Cannae Drive, produces much less thrust at 30 to 50 micronewtons - less than a thousandth of the output of some relatively low-powered ion thrusters used today.

On the NasaSpaceFlight.com, those allegedly involved in the project claim that the reason previous EmDrive models were criticised were that none of the tests had been carried out in a vacuum.

Solar energy provides the electricity to power the microwaves, which means that no propellant is needed.The implications for this could be huge. For instance, current satellites could be half the size they are today without the need to carry fuel

Physics says particles in the quantum vacuum cannot be ionised, so therefore you cannot push against it. But Nasa's latest test is claimed to have shown otherwise.

'Nasa has successfully tested their EmDrive in a hard vacuum – the first time any organisation has reported such a successful test,' the researchers wrote.

'To this end, Nasa Eagleworks has now nullified the prevailing hypothesis that thrust measurements were due to thermal convection.'

However, Nasa's official site says that: 'There are many 'absurd' theories that have become reality over the years of scientific research.

'But for the near future, warp drive remains a dream,' in a post updated last month.

The Nasa test has yet to be peer-reviewed and the space agency did not immediately respond to DailyMail.com for comment.

Read more:

• EM Drive Developments - related to space flight applications - Thread 2

NEW:

• NASA Engineer Claims Helical Engine Concept Could Reach The Speed of Light

{https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

NASA engineer's 'helical engine' may violate the laws of physics

For every action, there is a reaction: that is the principle on which all space rockets operate, blasting propellant in one direction to travel in the other. But one NASA engineer believes he could take us to the stars without any propellant at all.

Designed by David Burns at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama, the “helical engine” exploits mass-altering effects known to occur at near-light speed. Burns has posted a paper describing the concept to NASA’s technical reports server.

It has been met with scepticism from some quarters, but Burns believes his concept is worth pursuing. “I’m comfortable with throwing it out there,” he says. “If someone says it doesn’t work, I’ll be the first to say, it was worth a shot.”

To get to grips with the principle of Burns’s engine, picture a box on a frictionless surface. Inside that box is a rod, along which a ring can slide. If a spring inside the box gives the ring a push, the ring will slide along the rod one way while the box will recoil in the other. When the ring reaches the end of the box, it will bounce backwards, and the box’s recoil direction will switch too. This is action-reaction – also known as Newton’s third law of motion – and in normal circumstances, it restricts the box to wiggling back and forth (see video below).

Helical engine with relativistic masses

This mass changing isn’t prohibited by physics. Einstein’s theory of special relativity says that objects gain mass as they are driven towards the speed of light, an effect that must be accounted for in particle accelerators. In fact, a simplistic implementation of Burns’s concept would be to replace the ring with a circular particle accelerator, in which ions are swiftly accelerated to relativistic speed during one stroke, and decelerated during the other.

But Burns thinks it would make more sense to ditch the box and rod and employ the particle accelerator for the lateral as well as the circular movement – in which case, the accelerator would need to be shaped like a helix.

Frictionless space

It would also need to be big – some 200 metres long and 12 metres in diameter – and powerful, requiring 165 megawatts of power to generate just 1 newton of thrust, which is about the same force you use to type on a keyboard. For that reason, the engine would only be able to reach meaningful speeds in the frictionless environment of space. “The engine itself would be able to get to 99 per cent the speed of light if you had enough time and power,” says Burns.

Propellant-less proposals aren’t new. In the late 1970s, Robert Cook, a US inventor, patented an engine that supposedly converted centrifugal force into linear motion. Then, in the early 2000s, British inventor Roger Shawyer proposed the EM drive, which he claimed could convert trapped microwaves into thrust. Neither concept has been successfully demonstrated and both are widely assumed to be impossible, due to violation of the conservation of momentum, a core physical law.

Martin Tajmar at the Dresden University of Technology in Germany, who has performed tests on the EM Drive, believes the helical engine will probably suffer the same problem. “All inertial propulsion systems – to my knowledge – never worked in a friction-free environment,” he says. This machine makes use of special relativity, unlike the others, which complicates the picture, he says, but “unfortunately there is always action-reaction”.

Burns has worked on his design in private, without any sponsorship from NASA, and he admits his concept is massively inefficient. However, he says there is potential to harvest much of the energy that the accelerator loses in heat and radiation. He also suggests ways that momentum could be conserved, such as in the spin of the accelerated ions.

“I know that it risks being right up there with the EM drive and cold fusion,” he says. “But you have to be prepared to be embarrassed. It is very difficult to invent something that is new under the sun and actually works.”

{ https://www.newscientist.com/section/news/ }

Let’s get the obvious out of the way right up front – the Violent Blinking Black Holes would make a GREAT name for a metal band.

On the other hand, it doesn’t sound like something you want to find in your galaxy. Guess what, fellow Milky Wayans – a low mass X-ray binary black hole in our home galaxy a mere 10,000 light years away has been discovered sending out intense blinking beams of visible and X-ray light that are described as “violent,” “crackling” and “flaring.” Is this hyperbole or a true description of what black holes are really capable of?

“The HiPERCAM and NICER instruments however let the researchers record ‘movies’ of the changing light from the system at over three hundred frames per second, capturing violent ‘crackling’ and ‘flaring’ of visible and X-ray light.”

NICER (NASA)

HiPERCAM and NICER are unintentionally cutesy names for the tools used by John Paice, an artist and graduate student at the University of Southampton and the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy & Astrophysics in India, to create a realistic movie of MAXI J1820+070, a black hole in the Milky Way with the mass of about seven of our Suns in a small area the size of a large city, eating its companion star with such intensity that the flares rapidly belching out of it are brighter than the star itself, with some that are “the output of a hundred Suns and more being emitted in the blink of an eye!” An obviously excited Paice describes the discovery in a new study published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society and summarized in a press release by the Royal Astronomical Society.

“An animation of the black hole system MAXI J1820+070, based upon observed characteristics during a rapid accretion episode in March 2018. Purple denotes X-ray radiation seen by the NICER instrument on the ISS, and the rest of the colours show visible light seen by HiPERCAM in La Palma. The video is shown at roughly 1/10th of the true speed.”

Fortunately for us, John Paice is a unique combination of artist and astronomer, so the real gift he’s given the world is not the study but an animation of MAXI J1820+070’s “rapid accretion episode” (watch the animation here). NICER is the Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer on the International Space Station which looks at rotation-resolved spectroscopy of the thermal and non-thermal emissions of neutron stars in the soft (0.2–12 keV) X-ray band. HiPERCAM is the high-speed, multicolour camera, capable of taking more than 1,000 images per second, installed on the island of La Palma in the Canary Islands. NICER and HiPERCAM produced images at over three hundred frames per second, which Paice “slowed down to 1/10th of actual speed to allow the most rapid flares to be discerned by the human eye” – flares that lasted only a few milliseconds yet were brighter than “the output of a hundred Suns and more.”

But wait … there’s more!

The fastest visible flashes of light occurred a fraction of a second after the X-ray flares, and the rise and fall of intensities alternated between the two. This is an indicator of the presence of distinct plasma caused by electrons being stripped from atoms – a process which occurs deep inside the black hole and is too small to see. Is this a big deal? Dr. Poshak Gandhi of University of Southampton and a co-author of the study thinks so.

The fact that we now see this in three systems strengthens the idea that it is a unifying characteristic of such growing black holes. If true, this must be telling us something fundamental about how plasma flows around black holes operate. Our best ideas invoke a deep connection between inspiralling and outflowing bits of the plasma. But these are extreme physical conditions that we cannot replicate in Earth laboratories, and we don’t understand how nature manages this. Such data will be crucial for homing in on the correct theory.”

OK, it’s a big deal to astronomers and astrophysicists like Gandhi and Paice. It’s also a big deal to the developers of new telescopes and cameras like HiPERCAM and NICER. It should be a big deal to the rest of us because the more we understand about our universe, the better we can comprehend where we came from and where we’re going.

Unfortunately, it may be down the throat of a violent blinking black hole.

Violent Blinking Black Hole would make a great name for a beer too!

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

One of the more intriguing, but unfortunately lesser known, of the 1950s-era Contactees was Sonja Lyubicin. She was a woman who had a background and a full life filled with mystery, adventure, fun and intrigue. In 1956, she claimed to have been taken on a trip to Saturn by the Space Brothers. To her eternal delight, Lyubicin found that the people of the huge, ringed planet were highly “sexually active” and particularly liked hosting swinging parties. That’s a far and welcome cry from the grim encounters that people report with today’s small, black-eyed “Grey” aliens! Sonja also had a connection to the ultimate Contactee, George Adamski. The whispered word on the galactic grapevine was that during a wild orgy in Australia, Sonja got nailed by none other than the legendary extratererstrial Orthon himself!

A close encounter or several of the sexual kind? To be sure! If we are to take Sonja’s at her word, that is. Lyubicin also claimed deep contacts within the very heart of the U.S. government, even maintaining that she had spent time attending top secret meetings on UFOs at the White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico. How much of Sonja’s story was true is anyone’s guess. It’s notable, though, that the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO) decided to open a file on her. In part, that dossier provides these words from the ASIO: “A member of the [Queensland Flying Saucer Research] Bureau who was extremely active during the visit of George Adamski was a Sonja Ljubicin [sic], a naturalized Australian of Yugoslav origin, who previously resided at…Ann Street, Valley. This person was carried away to the extent that she believed she had traveled in space craft to other planets. On the 16^th July 1959 she left her employment and traveling on an Australian passport No. K235116 issued on the 29^th June 1959 at Brisbane traveled by Qantas Flight EM. 742 from Sydney on the 21^st July 1959 to the United States of America to join George Adamski.”

UFO investigator Hakan Blomqvist, said of Lyubicin that she, “…continued living in California and on July 12, 1979 married William Paul Appleton. She then changed her name to Sonya Appleton. They eventually settled in Honolulu, Hawaii where the marriage ended. Sonya died in Honolulu, just before her 63rd birthday, July 2, 1989.” It should be noted that the primary reason why the ASIO had Lyubicin in their sights – and kept abreast of her activities – was because of her background. Namely, that she was born and, until the age of twenty, lived in Yugoslavia, that in 1946 became the communist Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia. While Lyubicin and her family fled Yugoslavia in 1947, there were some agents of the ASIO who pondered on the possibility that she might have had Communist leanings. This was, of course, during the Cold War. It was a period when just about anyone who had what was perceived by old suit-and-tie-wearing geezers in government as an “alternative lifestyle,” might have had a file opened on them.

Whether or not this was a case of the ASIO reaching just a bit too far, we’ll likely never know. But, it’s an undeniable fact that Australian intelligence agents ensured that they knew where and when Sonja went – and why. How deeply, exactly, did the surveillance go? Well, put it like this: we can see from the now-available ASIO material on Sonja that the ASIO knew all about her plans to fly to the United States and hang out with Adamski. They had the names of the relevant airlines. They even knew the flight-numbers and had her Australian passport number on file. Whatever the truth behind Sonja Lyubicin’s controversial claims about flying saucers, they were certainly enough to make the ASIO sit up and take notice. And that’s exactly what its agents did – and for a number of years.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

It seems that there are some places in this world that just seem to draw UFOs to them. For reasons not yet understood these locations are positively overflowing with such unexplained phenomena, and in many cases they have gone on to become noted hot spots of UFO sightings. One such area lies in the country of Scotland, and it is an area steeped in tales of UFOs, alien encounters, and high strangeness.

What has come to be known as the “Falkirk Triangle” is an amorphously defined area in central Scotland generally accepted as stretching from the the small, quaint town of Bonnybridge, going off east to Fife, and then spanning back west to Stirling, although the borders are rather malleable and are often also seen as enveloping some of the surrounding towns and villages as well. The area itself is mostly rural farmland, rolling hills, moors, and mining villages, not really much to see typically, but the area is know as an absolute hotbed of UFO activity, and ground zero for this seems to be the little village of Bonnybridge itself, which lies not so far from Edinburgh and is often called “The UFO Capital of Scotland.”

Bonnybridge, Scotland

It certainly earns its nickname, as there are allegedly around 300 UFO reports a year from this one little town, with 1 in 3 town residents claiming to have seen something odd in the sky at one point or other, and this phenomenon can be traced back to at least the 1980s, when some high profile sightings put Bonnybridge on the map. One of the earlier big reports came from a fire crew who were fighting a blaze in 1989 when a red glowing orb of light allegedly flew right up to one of the fire trucks before shooting off into the sky, after which a second UFO, this one an intense white light, came down to float over the nearby Loch Ellrig. The objects were witnessed by numerous people who all described the exact same thing.

A perhaps even more well-known account from the town came in 1992, when local businessman James Walker was driving between Falkirk to Bonnybridge on his way home from work and noticed some strange lights in the sky. Walker stopped his car to watch these enigmatic lights move about in the sky, wondering what they could possibly be. He then continued on his way but the lights then allegedly formed a larger, star-shaped object that descended to ominously hover over the lonely road leading off before him, and he stopped his car to look on in puzzlement. As he sat there wondering what to do, the mysterious object then shot off into the night at exhilarating, amazing speed, remaining completely silent the entire time. This report really seemed to open up the floodgates on UFO sightings in the area, and sighting reports began to pour in at an incredible rate. People began to see UFOs prowling the roads outside of town, buzzing cars, hovering in the skies above, and even one reported as landing on a golf course, and suddenly Bonnybridge was getting a reputation as being a UFO magnet.

Another notable case from here supposedly happened in March of 1992, when the Sloggett family was out on a walk in the early morning hours. As they walked along they noticed some strange lights in a ring formation over the moor not too far away, which was enough to spook them into heading back to their home nearby. They would claim that a bright blue light shaped like a football would then pursue them to block their path, and a craft about the size of a house would land right in front of them, after which a door on the craft slid open and from within issued what sounded like a deep roar or growl. The family ran as fast as they could away from this unearthly sight and when they looked back the lights were gone.

Over the next five years, from 1992 to 1997, there would be hundreds of UFO reports in and around Bonnybridge, and there were numerous videos taken of these objects as evidence, with one resident named Craig Malcolm claiming to have taken over 18 hours of video footage of strange lights in the area. Another piece of strange footage was taken by a Mrs. Bonnetti, who filmed a bizarre black triangle flying above her neighbor’s house. The UFO activity became so intense that Cllr. William Buchanan of Falkirk District Council began writing letters to the Prime Minister and the Ministry of Defense expressing his concerns and seeking advice about what to do. It is perhaps no surprise that these pleas fell on deaf ears, and Buchanan would lament, “I have tried to get an answer for the people and have been ridiculed for it.” In the meantime, media attention was fully focused on the little town of Bonnybridge, and UFO talk was all the rage. However, the strangeness was not just confined to this one town, but rather seemed to extend to the surrounding areas as well, and this is where the Falkirk Triangle would begin to come into focus, and it seems that the phenomena even predated the Bonnybridge incidents.

One of the most well-documented and strangest UFO cases in Scottish history came from this area even before all of these encounters began in the area of Livingston, West Lothian. In 1979, a forester named Robert Taylor was at a place called Dechmont Woods, near the M8 motorway, when a “flying dome” appeared over the tree line, so close that Taylor would be able to make out that it was made of a metallic black material. He would then allegedly smell a burning odor, after which two smaller objects dropped from the main craft. At this point the two smaller objects fired a pair of metal rods at him, which attached to his hips, after which Taylor was overcome with the unsettling sensation that he was being pulled towards the strange object.

Shortly after this he awoke on the forest floor and the menacing objects were gone. Disoriented and not knowing whether he had dreamed it all or not, he was soon convinced that something was very wrong when he noticed that his clothes were torn and that he was covered with bruises, as if he had been attacked by someone, but he could not remember anything after that pulling sensation he had felt. He would find that his car would not start, and so he was forced to walk all the way back home, where he would tell of what happened and claim that a UFO had attacked him. Police would go to investigate the scene, and although they did not find any further evidence the torn clothes and Taylor’s general standing as an honest person and reliable witness have made sure that his story has been discussed and debated up to this day, with many holding it up as a genuine case of alien abduction, and the West Lothian area has been a hot spot of UFO activity ever since.

One place within the triangle that would prove to be very odd is the motorway called A70 road, which runs a route between Edinburgh and Ayr, passing right through the Falkirk Triangle. In August of 1992, witnesses Garry Wood and Colin Wright were driving along a stretch of A70 through West Lothian when they had a rather bizarre and terrifying experience near the Harperrig reservoir. It started when they experienced 2 hours of missing time which neither of them could account for, leaving them puzzled as to what had happened. They underwent hypnosis, upon which it was revealed that during that 2 hours they had been taken aboard an alien craft and then brought to some sort of underground base lined with people frozen in glass jars, where they were experimented upon and then released. Weird stuff, indeed.

There is also the nearby mining village of Gorebridge, also mostly considered to lie within the confines of the Falkirk Triangle, and possessing its own tales of strangeness. Here there is an old coal mine called the Blinkbonny Mine, from which some strange reports have come in, such as that of two people hunting for Christmas trees who claimed to have been chased by a “luminous, floating, green eye” coming from the mine. Throughout the 1990s there were numerous reports of UFOs plaguing the residents of Gorebridge, most of it centered around that mine, and it was widely featured in the media at the time. The town was also the origin of several compelling pieces of UFO footage, such as three glowing orbs over a field and another buzzing a 737 jet on its way into Edinburgh Airport, the incident apparently reported by the pilots as well.

Another area of the Falkirk Triangle is the town of Grangemouth, just 3 miles east of Falkirk. In 1991 two photographers at the BP chemicals plant in Grangemouth saw flashing lights circling the Kincardine Bridge, which they at first took to be a helicopter. The object drifted over to the nearby Grangemouth Stadium, where it hovered for several minutes before suddenly dropping with astonishing speed to come rushing right over to hover 300 feet above the witnesses, emitting a pulsing hum before shooting off. This was obviously no helicopter. In 1994, there was also an entire team of cleaners at the Grangemouth oil refinery who would report having seen flashing lights cavorting about in the sky above them.

Other areas of the Falkirk Triangle with numerous weird reports of UFO activity are the town of Larbert near Bonnybridge, the Rosslyn Chapel, and a place called “Newton of Falkland,” near Falkland in Fife, from where there was a truly outlandish 1996 report of a field full of ant-like aliens commanded by taller white entities, the whole scene overshadowed by a massive black triangle covered in twinkling lights, apparently some sort of bizarre mass landing. Interestingly, despite all of this alarming UFO activity in and around the Falkirk Triangle, the government has long been rather nonchalant and uninterested about it all, and indeed in 2009 the Ministry of Defence closed its file on UFO investigations altogether, with one briefing prepared for Defence Minister Bob Ainsworth reading:

[The MoD] should seek to reduce very significantly the UFO task which is consuming increasing resource, but produces no valuable defence output. In more than 50 years no UFO sighting reported to [the MoD] has ever revealed anything to suggest an extra-terrestrial presence or military threat to the UK [and] there is no defence benefit in [MoD] recording, collating, analysing or investigating UFO sightings. Investigations into UFO sightings, even from more reliable sources, serve no useful purpose and merely divert air defence specialists from their primary tasks. Accordingly, no further investigations should be carried out into UFO reports received from any source.

It seems that whatever is going on in the Falkirk Triangle is either being ignored or covered up by the Ministry, and yet enough sightings and encounters come in from the region that it has continually incited discussion as to why this area should have so much such phenomena gravitate towards it. One idea is that the area, for reasons not full understood, serves as some sort of portal through which these beings and their craft can easily travel through from place to place, perhaps even allowing inter-dimensional interlopers to come through the veil into our reality. It could also be that there is some mystical property to the land itself, steeped in history and legend as it is, full of tales of imps, fairies, and other supernatural entities, making this all perhaps more of a paranormal phenomenon dressed up and morphed by our own modern sensibilities and the popularity of UFOs. Andrew Hennessey of Stargate Edinburgh Tours has mused on this, saying:

Is there some ancient connection between history and mythology, between land use of the Falkirk Triangle to the alien-looking events that are unfolding before our very eyes here today, on the ground, under it and in the skies? Is there some sort of timeless pageant or battle being waged between beings of Light and beings of Darkness within this same mysterious Falkirk Triangle?

Of course there are the more mundane explanations. The area is home to several military bases, as well as two busy airports in Edinburgh and Glasgow, so perhaps it is just misidentified aircraft or even experimental craft being tested by the military. The area also has several large oil and chemical plants, the flames of which could perhaps be at the root of some of the reports. Some have even suggested that it is a trick of atmospheric phenomena combined with traffic on the motorways that meander through or even just hallucinations. None of these really fully explain these reports, though. Whatever the case may be, the Falkirk Triangle has remained an intense center of UFO activity in the UK, and continues to stir debate and the imagination.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

The Ancient Civilization so Advanced, it Has Confounded All the Experts

{ https://beforeitsnews.com/ }

UFO Moves Silently Over City In China, Awesome Raw Footage! UFO Sighting News.

Date of sighting: Oct 13, 2019

Location of sighting: Guangzhou, China

 

This UFO was recorded by 开水君, Kaishui Jun who lives in Guangzhou, China. The UFO was recorded Oct 13, 2019 and was seen passing over the rooftops of the buildings on an overcast night. The smog is thick and gives the UFO a great hiding place, however it is white and when close enough to the buildings, it looks lit up, but I don't believe it to be lit up. Its just the shiny metallic surface of the UFO reflecting the lights from the buildings below. Absolutely amazing footage. It looks like aliens are watching over China. But then again, could it be a top secret Chinese disk that has alien propulsion? The Chinese answer to the USAF TR3B? I guess its a possibility that needs to be considered.

Scott Waring-Taiwan

{ https://www.etdatabase.com/ }