Tour of the Moon in 4K

Take a virtual tour of the Moon in all-new 4K resolution, thanks to data provided by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft. As the visualization moves around the near side, far side, north and south poles, we highlight interesting features, sites, and information gathered on the lunar terrain.

Music Provided By Killer Tracks: "Never Looking Back" - Frederick Wiedmann. "Flying over Turmoil" - Benjamin Krause & Scott Goodman.

This video is public domain and along with other supporting visualizations can be downloaded from the Scientific Visualization Studio at: http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4619

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/David Ladd & Ernie Wright

• Ernie Wright (USRA): Lead Visualizer – Scientific Visualization Studio
• David Ladd (USRA): Lead Producer, Editor, Narrator
• Noah Petro (NASA/GSFC): Lead Scientist

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We Could Go to Venus with Today's Technology, Scientists Say

An artist's depiction of the VERITAS mission concept, designed to explore Venus.

(Image: © NASA/JPL-Caltech)

"The Mars program has 'followed the water' and continued to look for evidence of life, but Mars only had liquid water present on its surface for a few hundred million years, [about] three billion years ago," said Darby Dyar, who made the VEXAG presentation and who is chair of astronomy at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts, in an email to Space.com. 

"Moreover, the Mars program has long united around a single goal," Dyar added, "which is to bring samples back from Mars. NASA Headquarters is supporting that goal with planning now. So my feeling is that although many outstanding science questions about Mars remain, they are second order compared to the dire state of knowledge about Venus."

So VEXAG hopes that NASA's current call for smaller Discovery missions will bear some fruit. The announcement of opportunity, which closed July 1, includes at least three Venus proposals. The Step-1 selections should be announced around January 2020. 

The Venus proposals include DAVINCI (Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging) to measure the chemical composition of Venus during a descent; the VERITAS (Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography, and Spectroscopy) orbiter to examine the surface of Venus in high resolution; and Hyperspectral Observer for Venus Reconnaissance (HOVER) to examine Venus' clouds, chemistry, dynamics and surface to better understand its climate.

A pressing question for the Venus community involves finding out how similar the planet may have been to Earth in the planets' early histories. Venus' size is similar to Earth's and its distance to the sun would have put the planet in the "habitable zone" — the location where liquid water could exist on the surface — when the sun was younger and dimmer. Although Venus is now a raging inferno, the story for life billions of years ago could be more optimistic.

Venus scientists want to know whether (as some suspect) the planet had liquid water for 3 billion years, what kind of surface geology and rock types it has, the nature of its dormant plate tectonics (which might be key to sustaining life) and how similar Venus might be to rocky exoplanets very close to their parent stars.

Tech advancements

Temperatures at the surface of Venus can melt lead under normal circumstances and would cook a lander in moments. Highly shielded Soviet Venera spacecraft made it to the surface in the 1970s and 1980s, generally lasting anywhere from a few minutes to around an hour. But advancements in technology, the VEXAG group said, make it possible for a reasonably priced mission to survive longer today.

VEXAG's 15th meeting in 2017, for example, pointed to NASA's High Operating Temperature Technology (HOTTech) program, which aims to create components in environments that are roughly 900 degrees Fahrenheit (500 degrees Celsius) or higher. A call for proposals cited at that time (in 2017) funded research in technology for solar cells, power generation, electronics (which can be quite sensitive to temperature fluctuations) and batteries. The individual projects were expected to complete their current phase of funding between 2018 and 2020, so results are still being analyzed in some cases.

Some other technologies are close to maturity, such as NASA's Heatshield for Extreme Entry Environment Technology (HEEET) project, which is designed for environments including Venus. It includes a high-density, all-carbon layer for the entry interface and a lower-density insulating layer to protect delicate spacecraft components. HEEET was testedat NASA's Ames Research Center and is listed at technology readiness level (TRL) 6. (A component reaches TRL 7 when it is tested in space, and TRL 8 following tests on the ground and in space.)

Another team at NASA's Glenn Research Center is working on high-temperature electronics designed for Venusian temperatures. These are based on silicon-carbide semiconductors that could last up to 4,000 hours on the surface. In 2016, engineers tested some of the circuits in the Glenn Extreme Environments Rig (GEER), which simulates the conditions of Venus, for nearly 22 days. (The test was ended at that time only for scheduling reasons, according to NASA; similar oscillator circuits have worked for thousands of hours.)

VEXAG's recent technology road map (released along with a technology plan) indicates that the community could respond to a variety of different NASA opportunities today with viable missions, ranging from orbiters to small satellites to atmospheric entry probes and skimmers. Another possible option could be a short-lived surface platform or some sort of an aerial platform floating in a more temperate climate on Venus, which is to be found at an altitude of 34 miles (55 km). Longer-lived surface platforms could be ready in the medium term, before 2032, the community suggested. 

Many ideas, few opportunities

But VEXAG must also be responsive to available funding, which happens when NASA makes calls for proposals for cheaper Discovery missions, more expensive New Frontiers missions, and ride-along or international opportunities. In its report, the community recommends responding to the predicted proposal cadence before 2022 with orbiters or an atmospheric entry probe. And between 2023 and 2032, VEXAG recommended adding surface platforms (long- and short-lived) and aerial platforms to the wish list.

NASA's last Discovery call for proposals was in 2014, which generated five finalists — including two Venus missions: DAVINCI and VERITAS. According to Dyar, neither Venus mission was selected "for unclear reasons," although both were deemed selectable — meaning that they could have flown immediately. The proposals lost out to Psyche and Lucy, two missions that will study asteroids.

The last New Frontiers opportunity was in 2016, and the community submitted a Venus mission called VOX (Venus Origins Explorer), which would focus on high-resolution topography or altitude maps of the surface. While VOX was deemed selectable, NASA did not choose it as a finalist; the winner of that opportunity is Dragonfly, which will fly on the surface of Saturn's moon Titan.

NASA's last dedicated mission to Venus was Magellan, which entered orbit in October 1990 and was deorbited four years later. The agency has flown by the planet since with Galileo, Cassini and MESSENGER en route to other planets. Meanwhile, the European Space Agency operated Venus Express at Venus between 2006 and 2014, and Japan's Akatsuki mission successfully entered orbit there in 2015 on its second attempt. Akatsuki is the only operational mission at Venus right now.

• Should We Land on Venus Again? Scientists Are Trying to Decide
• Life on Venus? Why It's Not an Absurd Thought
• Can Venus Teach Us to Take Climate Change Seriously?

Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook. 

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Japan Sets Sights on Moon with NASA and India

By Meghan Bartels

Japan has its eyes on the moon, with two new partnerships designed to advance the country's lunar goals.

(Image: © JAXA)

WASHINGTON — Japan has its eyes on the moon, with two new partnerships designed to advance the country's lunar goals.

The nation signed on as a partner to NASA's Artemis program, although the details of that partnership have not yet been specified. A representative of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) also spoke yesterday (Oct. 22) at the International Astronautical Congress held here about a potential partnership with India's space agency on another lunar mission.

"It's not easy to succeed in our mission," Ryo Hirasawa of JAXA said during a presentation. "We decided to go together with ISRO," he added, referring to the agency's Indian counterpart. The two space agencies are embarking on a Phase A study of such a mission's feasibility.

• Related: Tiny Satellites Launch From Space Station (Photos)

But right now, the pair would aim for a launch around 2023. Japan would provide the rocket and rover, Hirasawa said, while India would provide the lander. The mission would last for about six months and target a constantly sunlit region near the moon's south pole. There, the mission would investigate water, preparing for later missions in which JAXA would like to use ice as rocket fuel.

In particular, the rover would be equipped with a drill that could reach about 5 feet (1.5 meters) into the lunar rock. After drilling, the rover would heat up that material, and by measuring changes in the sample's mass, identify volatiles found in the rock.

Hirasawa also touched on a cubesat lander dubbed OMOTENASHI, which JAXA hopes to launch with NASA's first Artemis mission, according to a full paper submitted to the congress. The cubesat, which would fly in 2020, would be Japan's first lunar lander.

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PM Abe: At long last, Japan too will turn over a new page leading to lunar and space exploration.

Today, we decided on a policy of participating in the U.S’s challenging new venture, as an ally connected to the U.S. by strong bonds.

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The OMOTENASHI project likely makes up part of the cooperation with NASA that the Japanese prime minister's office announced on Twitter on Oct. 18. "The program aims at maintaining a space station orbiting the moon, manned [sic] exploration of the lunar surface and other undertakings, and Mars and other destinations are also in our sights," the minister's office wrote.

The "space station orbiting the moon" is a reference to NASA's planned Gateway, a maneuverable spacecraft in long-term orbit around the moon that would serve as a way station for science experiments and human explorers. (The artist's depiction accompanying the prime minister's office's tweet also references Gateway.)

NASA has been openly recruiting international partners for the Gateway in particular. Canada signed on to provide a robotically operated arm, Canadarm3, that will be the successor of the International Space Station's robotic arm.

In the paper supporting Hirasawa's presentation, he and his co-authors included a graphic for JAXA's vision of international cooperation at the moon. In that diagram, in which only a handful of components include country labels, JAXA is listed as a provider of human landing services that would ferry astronauts from the Gateway to the surface of the moon.

• International Space Station at 20: A Photo Tour
• NASA's Artemis Moon Program Just Photobombed a Spacewalk (Photo)
• Building the International Space Station (Photos)

Email Meghan Bartels at mbartels@space.com or follow her @meghanbartels. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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Russian Space Probe Captures Images of a UFO & Then Disappears Forever

What’s really going on in space? What have ‘the global elite’ tried to do in space? The truth is many people are starting to realize that we live in a very sheltered world, inside a bubble that people are now trying to desperately pop. We’ve been fed a lot of disinformation about discoveries that would change the way we view the very nature of our reality and what it means to be human. Discoveries that would have us ask the deep questions about life, our purpose, why we are here, and where we come from. Discoveries that would literally change human consciousness forever.

We knew that the Earth was flat, we knew that we were the center of the universe, and we knew that a man-made heavier than air piece of machinery could not take flight. Through all stages of human history, intellectual authorities have pronounced their supremacy by ridiculing or suppressing elements of reality that simply didn’t fit within the framework of accepted knowledge. Are we really any different today? Have we really changed our acceptance towards things that won’g fit the frame? Maybe there are concepts of our reality we have yet to understand, and if we open our eyes, maybe we will see that something significant has been overlooked.

– Terje Toftenes (source)

This ‘something’ significant is the fact that we are not alone.  Whether it be a former Chairman of the Royal Navy telling us that “there is a serious possibility that we are being visited, and have been visited by people from outer space,” or an Apollo 14 astronaut saying that “there have been crashed craft, and bodies recovered,” we have no shortage of high-ranking insiders attesting to the reality that some UFOs may be extraterrestrial. There have been some very interesting leaks over the years that suggest the same thing.

General Carlos Cavero told the world in 1979, “everything” has been “in a process of investigation both in the United States and in Spain, as well as the rest of the world.” On a global scale, “the nations of the world are currently working together in the investigation of the UFO phenomenon” and there is “an international exchange of data.” (source)

Phobos

Phobos II was the last space probe designed by the Soviet Union to explore the moons of Mars. Unexpectedly, we lost communication with it, and multiple insiders have said we weren’t told the truth about what really happened. In a new segment of the CE show, a platform we created to combat the demonetization and censorship we are experiencing as a result of presenting the information we present, founder Joe Martino and I go deeper into the Phobos topic, which you can watch below. The CE Show airs multiple times per week on CETV. Membership proceeds from CETV go towards supporting our journalism and future broadcasts. You can start a free 7 day trial here.  If you do that you’ll be able to access the full episode. 

A Bit More About UFOs

Today, UFOs are no longer taboo. For years, we’ve experienced, as I’ve said many times before, an “official campaign of ridicule and secrecy” (Ex-CIA Director Roscoe Hillenkoetter) of the phenomenon. The establishment in many ways was responsible for the foolish articles that would constantly appear in mainstream media publications, absolutely ridiculing a topic that is actually very real.

But the tables have now turned. One of the biggest mouthpieces for “the establishment,”  The New York Times, admitted something that the establishment, or facets of it, have been concealing for years: UFOs are real. A former high-ranking federal government employee, Christopher Mellon, also wrote a Washington post article that detailed a number of UFO encounters with the military with extreme credibility. But again, this isn’t new information. In the 1950s, President Harry Truman went on national television announcing to the world that UFOs are real, and that they discuss the topic at every conference that they have with the military, that “there’s always things like that going on, flying saucers and they’ve had other things.” (source)

Official pictures and videos have also been released, for example, a photo taken by two Royal Canadian Air Force pilots on August 27th, 1956 in McCleod, Alberta, Canada is a great example. (“Physical Evidence Related To UFO Reports” – The Sturrock Panel Report – Electromagnetic Effects) (source) (source) You can see that picture here.

In this case, the pilots were flying in a formation of four F86 Sabre jet aircraft. One of the pilots described the phenomenon as a “bright light which was sharply defined as disk-shaped” that looked like “a shiny silver dollar sitting horizontal.” Another pilot managed to photograph the object, as you can see above.

The US Navy has acknowledged footage showing multiple UFOs that was released a couple of years ago by To The Stars Academy via The Pentagon, and they’ve recently confirmed that the videos are indeed real.

A Word About ‘Mainstream’ UFO Disclosure

There are millions of pages of documents to go through, and thousands of statements from high ranking people that have been attesting to the UFO/extraterrestrial phenomenon for a very long time. That being said, the topic is going ‘mainstream’ and it’s always important to note that the establishment, and media outlets like the New York Times, CNN etc have been intelligence agency mouthpieces. They have fed the world a lot of disinformation and the type of controlled disclosure we are seeing on this subject is probably no different.

There is much more going on than what we get from the mainstream–they always try to control the narrative for their own selfish purposes. It’s always important to keep that in mind for anybody who delves deep into this subject. Are they trying to control the narrative and spread more disinformation? Are they trying to present a threat narrative in order to justify certain measures? Similar to how ‘terrorism’ was used and financed by the west to justify the infiltration and takeover of other countries in order to bring them ‘democracy?’

These are important questions to ask ourselves as this topic gains more popularity. What is presented by the mainstream is far from the available truth that’s already out there.

{ https://www.collective-evolution.com/ }

On December 26th, the day after Christmas or Boxing Day, a star will appear in the heavens that many will see as a sign. A sign of what? That a potentially hazardous asteroid will have passed dangerously close to Earth, hopefully avoiding contact on its latest trip through the solar system. Sorry Rudolph and wise men (if there are any left).

“Potentially Hazardous Asteroids are currently defined based on parameters that measure the asteroid’s potential to make threatening close approaches to the Earth. Specifically, all asteroids with a minimum orbit intersection distance of 0.05 astronomical units or less and an absolute magnitude of 22.0 or less are considered PHAs.”

By NASA’s definition of ‘potentially hazardous asteroids’, 310442 (2000 CH59) – discovered in 2000 – is definitely one of them. Traveling at 27,447 miles per hour, 310442 (2000 CH59) measures 620 meters by 200 meters (2034 feet by 656 feet) and will intersect Earth’s orbit at 0.04874 astronomical units. How potentially hazardous is it? The Chelyabinsk meteor that hit Russia in 2013 was estimated to have a diameter of 17–20 meters (55.5-65.6 feet) and its shock wave alone caused $32 million in damages.

310442 (2000 CH59) is ranked as a rare Aten asteroid – a Near Earth Object (NEO) whose orbit crosses Earth’s orbit but spends most of its time inside Earth orbit. Only about 1490 (as of 2017) of the more than 20,000 known near-Earth asteroids are of the Aten class — the other two are Amor class (these never cross Earth’s orbit) and Apollo class (these cross Earth’s orbit but stay primarily outside of it). Atens are often considered the most dangerous because almost all have eccentric orbits which cross Earth’s and their primary locations inside that orbit makes them difficult to track. In 2004, Aten asteroid 99942 Apophis (2004 MN4) was predicted to be highly likely to impact Earth in 2029 or 2036 but later observations ruled out the possibility.

However … asteroid C0PPEV1 surprised everyone on Halloween when this NEO passed over southern Africa at an altitude of just 3,852 miles after it was discovered just hours earlier by the Catalina Sky Survey 7:45am PT. Yikes!

Yeah, yeah, yeah … what about 310442 (2000 CH59)? Should we plan to celebrate Boxing Day a day early? What stores are open on December 25th for emergency returns? Good news, Earthlings. On December 26th at 3:54 a.m. EDT, 310442 (2000 CH59) will be at its closest point — 0.04874 astronomical units or about 4.5 million miles away. While that still makes it a “Potentially Hazardous Asteroid,” NASA puts its chances of impact at zero … this time. That also means it won’t be visible to the naked eye, so wise men (or wise women – isn’t it time?) will have to look elsewhere for a sign.

Merry Christmas!

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

Exclusive Interview: The Black Vault Founder John Greenewald Talks About TTSA, UFOs, and Existence of Aliens

This week, Jazz Shaw sat down for an interview with The Black Vault founder John Greenewald. The Black Vault is a site containing an archive of several government military documents collected from Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. John digs into every dark corner of government activity involving UFOs and aliens.

Like many UFO and alien enthusiasts, Greenewald has been keenly interested in the recent military revelations about unknown aircraft in the U.S. airspace and activities of To The Stars Academy (TTSA) founded by Tom DeLonge. However, as usual, Greenewald has gone a few steps further than most people who just get their information from the mainstream media.

He has been beating up the military and the Department of Defense with FOIA requests from the day the story of the military encountering UFOs first broke in 2017. And Greenewald has really turned up some exciting discoveries.

In a recent interview with Greenewald, he also talks about the difficulties in trying to get reliable information out of the government when it comes to UFO and alien topics. See the interview.

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

The Black Knight Satellite: A Hodgepodge of Alien Conspiracy Theories

By David Crookes - Staff Writer, All About Space magazine - Search For Life 

Space Mysteries: For decades different discoveries have been linked to a single possible spacecraft of extraterrestrial origin.

An artist's impression of the Black Knight satellite. The spacecraft has sparked a long-lived conspiracy theory.

(Image: © Future/Adrian Mann)

Sometimes the introduction of a news report will stop you in your tracks, forcing you to reread in fear you didn't quite grasp its point the first time. That was certainly the case when Mail Online published a story on Mar. 21, 2017: "An alien satellite set up more than 12,000 years ago to spy on humans has been shot down by elite soldiers from the illuminati, UFO hunters claim." 

And with that, the conspiracy surrounding the so-called "Black Knight" satellite appeared to be very much alive.

Related: 9 Strange, Scientific Excuses for Why Humans Haven't Found Aliens Yet

It's been 120 years since conspiracists believed the existence of the Black Knight was recorded. Those who subscribe to the theory lay claim of an extraterrestrial spacecraft in near-polar orbit of the Earth, although they draw upon evidence so disparate that it's not entirely clear why people link them. What they amount to, however, is an intriguing set of ingredients that, taken together, cause people to scream loud about potential cover-ups by NASA and the government. In that sense, it is a legend that refuses to go away.

The photo evidence that isn't evidence

A lot of the earliest discoveries that have come to be linked to the Black Knight satellite theory relate to radio signals. But a series of images from 1998 emerged that really threw the celestial cat among the pigeons. They were taken during STS-88, which was the first Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS). 

There, for all to see, were images released by NASA that showed a black object hovering above the Earth in low orbit. And it wasn't long after the images were thrust in front of a hopeful public before people were performing some conspiratorial sums and sharing them with the wider world.

Related: Expedition 58: The International Space Station Mission in Pictures

By way of explanation, astronaut Jerry Ross pointed out that the ISS was in the midst of being constructed when the images were taken. The U.S. team, he said, was on its way to attach the American module to the one created by the Russians and, as part of that work, they had taken four trunnion pin thermal covers with them. The task was to wrap these around four bare trunnion pins, these being rods that attached the module to the shuttle while it was being transported. This would act to prevent heat loss from the exposed metal.

The photo snapped by astronauts during Space Shuttle mission STS-88 in 1998. 

(Image credit: NASA)

Unfortunately, during one of the extravehicular activities (EVA) things went a little bit wrong and one of the covers came loose from its tether, causing it to float away along with some other items. "Jerry, one of the thermal covers got away from you," said commander Robert Cabana, and it soon became apparent that they wouldn't be getting it back. 

Subsequently captured on camera, this black object was given the object number 025570 by NASA, and a few days later the object fell from orbit and burned up. Far from being an extraterrestrial object, the black item floating in space was nothing more than a blanket.

Related: The Most Extreme Human Spaceflight Records

Much of this has been placed on the record. Former NASA space engineer James Oberg, who personally knows Ross and the person who took the photos, Sergei Krikalev, has gone to great lengths to show that these supposed images of the Black Knight have less fanciful origins.

The International Space Station (ISS) was in the process of being constructed when astronauts spotted the Black Knight.

(Image credit: NASA)

"Before leaving NASA I led the trajectory design team that produced the mission profile," Oberg told All About Space. "Every step of the way there is consistency with what I learned as a lifelong spaceflight operations specialist: why the blankets were needed, why one of them came loose, why it floated off the way it did. The difference is, for the general public all these features are unearthly to folks who are only familiar with Earthside principles of heating, working, motion and dozens of other never-before-encountered-in-history aspects of outer space." 

Given Oberg's debunking you'd think the matter would have drawn to a close. But no. Since the images were shared far and wide, conspiracy theories have continued. 

"They are probably some of the weirdest-looking 70 mm photos to ever come out of the space shuttle program," Oberg said. “And apparently a NASA website update made the original links inoperative, sparking concerns over a cover-up. All normal journalistic practices — determining the timeline, asking witnesses, searching for the wider context — were skipped."

The Black Knight is likely to be debris left over from extravehicular activity (EVA). 

(Image credit: Future/Adrian Mann)

Historical evidence that also isn't evidence

By absorbing the images into a growing body of "evidence," they were seen as definite proof that the Black Knight alien satellite really was out there. Reaching that conclusion, however, has required greats leaps of faith, and has also needed past discoveries to be forced into the overall story. Firm believers have had no problems going right back to 1899 in pursuit of such "truth" but, just like the photographic records, each piece of supposed evidence brought to the table so far has been explained away without falling back on the Black Knight myth.-

So what happened in 1899? That year Nikola Tesla began to record some very odd signals, seemingly from outer space. The accomplished Serbian-American electrical engineer had a passion for wireless technology, and he was in the early throes of an experimental wireless transmission station called Wardenclyffe Tower in Shoreham, New York. While in his barn-like laboratory in Colorado Springs, he noted the unusual signals and speculated they had come from another planet, a claim greeted with disbelief and scepticism. 

• Related: Fermi Paradox: Where Are the Aliens? 

"The very first source of non-terrestrial radio waves was discovered in the 1930s, and that was from the centre of our galaxy, which is the most powerful radio source in the sky at many frequencies," NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientist Varoujan Gorjian explained. "It wasn’t until the 1960s that the technology evolved to detect the first pulsars. If what Tesla detected was a real signal and not an artefact of his instrument, it most likely came from Earth."

So why does talk of the Black Knight persist?

People continued to use Tesla's findings to bolster claims for the Black Knight. They also took on board the work of a Norwegian engineer called Jørgen Hals, who found that radio signals he transmitted were being echoed back to him a few seconds later. We now know these as long delayed echoes, and Hals was the first person to observe them. 

The fact that we don't have a confirmed explanation of their cause, however, has been seized upon: In 1973, Duncan Lunan wrote an article in Spaceflight magazine suggesting those studying long delayed echoes had overlooked the possibility they were sent by an alien space probe.

• Related: 13 Ways to Hunt Intelligent Aliens

Lunan still has faith in an extraterrestrial explanation for the recordings. "The changes in the long distance echo patterns in apparent response to changes in the outgoing signals from Earth really do look like the responses of a Bracewell probe, and there is still no satisfactory natural explanation for the phenomenon," Lunan said. If the long distance echoes were deliberately produced by a probe, there's a problem in that they stopped in 1975.

"If a probe was monitoring Earth, rather than trying to attract attention, perhaps it belatedly discovered from the 1973 to 1974 publicity that it had given away its presence in the 1920s and pulled out in 1975," Lunan said. "That's the only explanation I can see for its apparent departure." 

And yet, for all of that, Lunan said his research has nothing to do with the "Black Knight nonsense." If there is a link between his theory and the Black Knight, it is not one that is being made by him.

Additional resources: 

• Why Is the Pentagon Interested in UFOs?
• Could Elon Musk's Starship Threaten Alien Life?
• New Conspiracy Theory: Children Kidnapped for Mars Slave Colony

{ https://www.space.com/ }

Do these Google Maps images really show 'China's Area 51'? Conspiracy theorists claim Stonehenge-like structure spotted in the Gobi desert is a 'secret military base'

• The circular formation was spotted on Google maps located between Kathmandu in Nepal and Mongolia
• The site has been dubbed 'China's Area 51' by some conspiracy theorists, while others claim it's a military base
• It is not the first time a Google Maps satellite has spotted bizarre structures during a sweep of the vast desert

By PHOEBE WESTON FOR MAILONLINE

Sharp-eyed conspiracy theorists claim to have spotted a secret 'military base' in the middle of the Gobi desert.

The circular formation of buildings, which has been likened to the shape of Stonehenge, was spotted between Kathmandu in Nepal and Mongolia on Google Maps.

The site has been branded 'China's Area 51' by some wayward conspiracy theorists, while others have speculated it could be a huge circular array of solar panels or a secretive military base.

The site is less than 100 miles (160km) from Jiuquan, where China's space programme headquarters and launch pads can be found, suggesting may have a military purpose. 

MailOnline has contacted military experts to find out if they know the function of the structure.

This is not the first time a Google Maps satellite has photographed such structures during a sweep of the vast desert, which have subsequently sparked a number of strange theories around what they could be.

Scroll down for video

Sharp-eyed conspiracy theorists claim to have spotted a secret 'military base' in the middle of the the Gobi desert. The strange circular formation, which has been likened to the Stonehenge, was spotted between Kathmandu in Nepal and Mongolia using Google Maps

Conspiracy theorists Blake and Brett Cousins, who run the popular YouTube channel 'thirdphaseofthemoon', believe the circular site is a 'runway for extraterrestrials'.

According to the video creators, three aircrafts are clearly stationed in the middle of the circular base, with trucks and control towers also stationed around the site. 

'Three airlines within the circular formation of rocks and buildings, I'm not entirely sure what I'm looking at,' the Cousins brothers wrote. 'It almost looks like Stonehenge from this aerial view'.

The Cousins brothers also suggested it could be 'an area 51 for China'.

Readers flooded the controversial post with their own opinions about exactly what caused the formation.

'Maybe it's a huge solar panel for under ground living,' wrote YouTube user 'Jolene N'.

A user called 'Steve' said that it 'looks like a old military base'.

'Stop with the hype, it's a test rang for reconnaissance aircraft, their cameras and targeting equipment,' wrote another YouTube user who comments under the name 'joshreynolds72'. (sic)  

WHAT MAKES SOMEONE BELIEVE IN CONSPIRACY THEORIES?

This is not the first time strange formations have been spotted in the Gobi desert.

Previously, a set of strange shapes were spotted in a similar area on the borders of Gansu province and Xinjiang in northwestern China.

The internet was buzzing with theories about what their purpose was, with suggestions ranging from giant QR readers to practise targets for military satellites.  

Unidentified: One bizarre structure (pictured) was spotted by a Google Maps satellite on the borders of Gansu province and Xinjiang. The internet was buzzing with theories about what their purpose was, with suggestions ranging from giant QR readers to practise targets for military satellites

Some internet users have been trying to overlay one of the strange structures on to various U.S. city maps, worried that there may be a sinister military purpose behind them.

Others have pointed out that if China wanted to attack a US city, it doesn't need a practise map in the desert.

It is also difficult to tell what the structures are made of – whether they are painted on or dug into the landscape. 

Speculation: Some internet users have been overlaying the strange structures over maps of US cities while a closer view shows burnt out vehicles (right) which have raised questions about whether the desert has been used for military purposes

Close-up: Experts say that the most likely explanation is that the clearest of the symbols are used as 'calibration' for spy satellites - a common practice for superpowers such as China

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

Area 51: China’s own top-secret military base discovered using Google Maps -shock claim

CONSPIRACY theorists believe they have found the equivalent of China’s Area 51 coupled with a “black stealth aircraft” by using Google Maps.

Wikileaks Document Exposes a “Secret US Base on the Moon”

 Published By Arjun Walia

The Assange arrest is scandalous in several respects, and one of them is the effort of governments, and it’s not just the US government… The efforts to silence a journalist who was producing materials that people in power didn’t want the rascal multitude to know about… That’s basically what happened. Wikileaks was producing things that people ought to know about those in power, people in power don’t like that. So therefore we have to silence it.

– Noam Chomsky (source)

• *Note from author: I recently published an article that goes into detail about what Julian Assange’s arrest tells us about our world.

The idea that something strange may be happening on the Moon is not far fetched at all. In fact, given all of the information that’s now available within the public domain on the subject, it’s hard to see how it’s not a fact. We’ll get to some of that information later in this article; but first, let’s draw our attention to a strange Wikileaks document titled, “Report That UR Destroyed Secret Moon Base.”

Unfortunately, the document is not an electronic document, therefore access to its full contents is not available online. For anybody truly interested in reading the entire thing, a Freedom of Information Act Request (FOIA) may be in order.

Without speculating here, we can conclude that this is what it says it is, a report regarding possible space wars that are taking place in the classified world. The document title alone not only exposes the reality of these alleged wars, but the possibility of a “Secret Moon Base” belonging to the United States that apparently was in operation until it was destroyed by “UR.” (Soviet Union)

You can view it in the Wikileaks archive here.

So, what other information exists, besides this document, showing that something strange is and has been happening on the Moon? There’s a lot of information, so it’s hard to know where to begin.

First of all, the idea of bases on the Moon have been an open discussion within the government for a long time, although the information isn’t easy to find, but it’s definitely out there. A document from the government’s own publishing office is a great example. It clearly shows one of the goals of the United States government is to build a base on the Moon, and this is as far back as 1966. (source)

A portion of the document reads, with reference to presidents Kennedy and Johnson in a statement by HON. George P. Miller:

I also believe that we can and will achieve the goal set by Presidents Kennedy and Johnson: a manned landing on the moon before 1970. My own confidence in our rapidly advancing science and technology is such that I can visualize many more dramatic achievements ahead, although I will fix no timetable for them. 1. The exploration of the lunar surface, and possibly the establishment of one or more permanent bases there.

Furthermore, decades old documents have been declassified discussing this topic, showing just how serious and far possible advancements with these intentions have gone.

Take a look at the screen shot below, taken from the CIA electronic reading room in the form of a memorandum that was addressed to the CIA director regarding “Military Thought (Top Secret)” by Lieutenant General Korenevskiy.

Dear John, Because the War in Space race is heating up, I felt you should be aware of several factors as you and I schedule our Skype talk. Remember, our nonviolent ETI from the contiguous universe are helping us bring zero point energy to Earth. They will not tolerate any forms of military violence on Earth or in space. The following information in italics was shared with me by my colleague Carol Rosin, who worked closely for several years with Wernher von Braun before his death. Carol and I have worked on the Treaty on the Prevention of the Placement of Weapons in Outer Space, attached for your convenience.

A declassified report by the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center from June 1959 shows just how seriously they considered a plan called Project A119. In general, they wanted to investigate the capability of weapons in space as well as gain further insight into the space environment and the detonation of nuclear devices within it.

Interesting to say the least, but it’s important to recognize the intentions behind the letter, and that is the recognition that humans have brought and will continue to bring their destructive ways into space by weaponizing it or attempting to weaponize it.

With all of this documentation, it’s also interesting to look into witness testimonies from credible sources.

In the 1950s, Colonel Ross Dedrickson was responsible for maintaining the inventory of the nuclear weapon stockpile for the AEC, and for accompanying security teams testing the security of the weapons, among many other duties. When it comes to weaponizing space, which is clearly outlined within multiple documents linked above, this is what he had to say:

“I also learned about incidents involving nuclear weapons, and among these incidents were a couple of nuclear weapons sent into space that were destroyed by the extraterrestrials… At the very end of the 70s and the early 80s, we attempted to put a nuclear weapon on the Moon and explode it for scientific measurements and other things, which was not acceptable to the extraterrestrials. They destroyed the weapon before it got to the Moon.” (source)

Dedrickson is one of hundreds of whistleblowers with verified, credible and impressive backgrounds to speak up about an extraterrestrial presence. In that same interview, he went on to state that:

A spacecraft went to the rescue of Apollo 13, and they accompanied Apollo 13 on their voyage around the Moon back to Earth. And on two occasions they thought they might have to transfer the crew to their spacecraft, but they saw them safely back to Earth.

This may explain why several astronauts have also been quite outspoken about an extraterrestrial presence, like Edgar Mitchell, Brian O’Leary, Story Musgrave, Gordon Cooper and many others.

Another document from 1965 regarding the CIA keeping tabs on Soviet space plans reads as follows:

Keep in mind, this was more than 50 years ago.

Below is an interesting quote from Carl Sagan:

It is not out of the question that artifacts of these visits still exist, or even that some kind of base is maintained (possibly automatically) within the solar system to provide continuity for successive expeditions. Because of weathering and the possibility of detection and interference by the inhabitants of the Earth, it would be preferable not to erect such a base on the Earth’s surface. The Moon seems one reasonable alternative. Forthcoming high resolution photographic reconnaissance of the Moon from space vehicles – particularly of the back side – might bear these possibilities in mind. (source)

George Leonard’s 1976 book, Somebody Else is on the Moon, and Fred Steckling’s 1981 book, We Discovered Alien Bases on The Moon, also come to mind when discussing this subject.

Members of the Society For Planetary SETI Research (SPSR) recently published a paper in the Journal of Space Exploration about certain features on the far side of the Moon that appear in the crater Paracelsus C. Titled “Image Analysis of Unusual Structures on the Far Side of the Moon in the Crater Paracelsus C,” it argues that these features might be artificial in origin.

The study makes a great point when it comes to the extraterrestrial hypothesis:

A decidedly conservative mainstream scientific establishment often rejects anomalies based on subject matter alone, i.e., there cannot be alien artifacts on the moon because there are no alien artifacts on the moon (or other planets). Such a view is an example of circular reasoning, based on the belief that extraterrestrials do not exist, or if they do exist that they could not have traveled to our solar system.

The truth is, “there is abundant evidence that we are being contacted, that civilizations have been visiting us for a very long time.” – Dr. Brian O’Leary, former NASA astronaut and Princeton Physics Professor (source)

When it comes to the Moon, man-made bases may not be the only ones there.

As far as our own bases are concerned, Karl Wolfe, who was a precision electronics photograph technician at Langley Air Force Base, became well-known when he provided his testimony at National Press Club in Washington, D.C. as part of Dr. Steven Greer’s disclosure project.(source)

Wolfe’s testimony revealed that he was taken into a dark room where images from NASA’s Lunar Orbiter were being developed and stitched together into composite images called “mosaics.”

“They were doing 35 mm strips of film at the time which were then assembled into 18 ½ x 11 mosaics. Those strips were from successive passes around the Moon and they would build up a photograph ,” Wolfe said.(source)

“We walked over to one side of the lab and he said, ‘By the way, we’ve discovered a base on the backside of the moon.’”

Dr. John Brandenburg, the Deputy Manager of the Clementine Mission to the Moon, which was part of a joint space project between the Ballistic Missile Defence Organization (BMDO) and NASA, has also made some fascinating revelations. The mission discovered water at the Moon’s poles in 1994 (Source: page 16 of 18)(source)(source). But, according to Dr. Brandenburg, the Clementine Mission had an ulterior agenda:

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

Related Articles

There are other strange facts about our Moon that’ve been pointed out by some very credible sources. I go into more detail regarding the actual structure of the Moon and what it is as well as the evidence suggesting it could be artificially made in the article linked below:

• Multiple Scientists Publish Papers Suggesting The Moon Is Hollow & Artificially Made

Welcome To The World of Secrecy

A Michigan State University economist teamed up with multiple researchers, including Catherine Austin Fitts, former assistant secretary of Housing and Urban Development. They found trillions of unaccounted for dollars missing from housing & D.O.D and going towards black budget programs. You can read more about that here.

We are talking about Special Access Programs (SAP). We have unacknowledged and waived SAPs. These programs do not exist publicly, but they do indeed exist. They are better known as ‘deep black programs.’ A 1997 US Senate report described them as “so sensitive that they are exempt from standard reporting requirements to the Congress.” (source)

I am mentioning this stuff because, whatever is happening with regards to the Moon, you can bet that it’s being funded by trillions of dollars from within these deep black budget programs. These are our tax dollars hard at work.

We don’t really hear about black budget programs, or about people who have actually looked into them.  However, the topic was discussed in 2010 by Washington Post journalists Dana Priest and William Arkin. Their investigation lasted approximately two years and concluded that America’s classified world has:

Become so large, so unwieldy and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs, how many programs exist within it or exactly how many agencies do the same work. (source)

CE founder Joe Martino recently went deep into this subject on an episode of CETV, it will be airing soon!

The Takeaway

Our world is not how it’s been presented. Many subjects once and that still are deemed as a “conspiracy” are clearly not a conspiracy. Strange things happening on the moon and UFOs, for example, are one of several great examples.

It’s OK to explore these things, but it’s vital that we examine good sources and present good sources when we do so.

{ https://www.collective-evolution.com/ }

Haunted houses and cemeteries aren’t the only places to see ghosts these days. It’s autumn in the Northern Hemisphere and that means we’re coming to the close of crop circle season in England, France, rural America and other farmlands where these strange, artistic patterns appear in fields of wheat and other grain crops capable of being compressed/stomped into circles filled with intricate and mysterious patterns. Make note of this year’s crop circle locales because they may become homes to next year’s ghost crop circles. Ghost what?

“This is absolutely breathtaking. May I inquire how the depressed image is green while the rest of the crops are yellow/brown? Its sooo amazing and beautiful!”

Earthfiles.com, the website of the wonderful Linda Moulton Howe, posted that query this week, along with an aerial view of a ghost crop circle. (Watch the video here.) Linda helpfully explains that the stunning green design in an otherwise brown field is “an exact pattern that had been in the field the summer before,” which is why it’s called a ghost crop circle. The video was made by Stonehenge Dronescapes, the company owned by Nick Bull, a “keen photographer based in Wiltshire who loves to capture beautiful landscapes with my drones and DSLR camera.” Wiltshire is the home of the Stonehenge and Avebury stone circles and is in close proximity to a majority of England’s annual crop circle locations, so it’s ideal for filming the mysterious spring ghost circles as well. However, this one was recorded on October 23rd on Rodfield Lane in Hampshire – the county adjacent to and west of Wiltshire. Puzzled? This fall ghost circle intrigued Linda as well.

Deep inside a crop circle

For those who believe that crop circles are not manmade, one explanation for ghost crop circles is that the ‘force’ which created them affected the soil, which then ‘remembers’ the pattern the following year and enables the seeds planted in that area to germinate faster than the rest, creating a green version of last year’s circle. For those who believe crop circles are the result of human stomping, there are explanations for both spring and fall ghost circles as well as the equally mysterious “snow circles.” Wait … what?

The popular time to stomp crop circles is when the grain crop, most often wheat, is at its highest. That’s obviously before the crop is harvested, which means the stompers are crushing seeds back into the soil, in effect replanting them and starting their growth cycle all over again. After the harvest, those circle seeds create shoots which recreate the pattern, resulting in a fall circle. This type of ghost circle depends on when the circle is stomped and when the field is harvested, so it can also be the cause of springtime green ghost circles.

On the other hand, the seeds may begin to germinate but too late to sprout. However, that process sucks the nutrients out of the soil. When the farmer plants and fertilizes again in the spring, that soil may not have enough nutrients and will stay barren or stunt the growth of the seeds, resulting in a depressed ghost crop circle.

Hey, what about those snow circles?

Thanks for the reminder. Some farmers upset with the loss of crops due to the stompers (one of the main reasons why many areas have laws against it) will double-fertilized the crushed area with nutrients or manure. That will cause an intense composting effect in those areas. Anyone who has turned over a compost pile or a pile of rotting leaves in cold weather will have seen steam rise or felt some warmth. That same composting heat can melt the snow in a field enough to recreate the crop circle in a winter ghost pattern.

Or it could be aliens.

Thanks again to Linda Moulton Howe for sharing the great view of a fall ghost crop circle from Stonehenge Dronescapes.

Circles in the river - peter2011

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

Old Man Statue Proof Of Human Like Species On Mars, UFO Sighting News.

Date of discovery: Nov 1, 2019
Location of discovery: Mars
Source photo: 

• http://www.gigapan.com/galleries/13635/gigapans/210291
  
  

I found an old mans face today in a Mars photo. The mans wrinkled skin and large nose, bushy mustache and long beard really makes me think I'm looking at a statue here on Earth. This person looks human...at least his face does. This is 100% proof that human like intelligent species once lived on Mars. 
Scott C. Waring

{ https://www.etdatabase.com/ }

UFO Shoots Exits Volcano On Live Cam And Shoots Away, Video, UFO Sighting News.

Date of sighting: Oct 22, 2019, 5:54AM

Location of sighting: Volcano Popocateptl, Mexico

 

This UFO was caught on live cam and just appeared out of nowhere directly above the mouth of the volcano and then began to shoot away at high speed.  The UFO seems to have been transported from below the volcano where an underground base site at 5-6km below the base of the volcano. The UFO was then materialized above the volcano, where they began to leave. Its not often we see a UFO leaving the volcano mouth, but this is our lucky day. As you can see in the screenshot above upper left side, I added some shadows to better see its disk shape. 

Scott C. Waring-Taiwan

{ https://www.etdatabase.com/ }

Half Mile UFO Hover Over Small Religious College Town, Video, UFO Sighting News.

Date of sighting: Oct 14, 2019

Location of sighting: Idaho, USA

 

This UFO was seen over the small town of Rexburg, Idaho last month. The UFO is perfectly proportioned and is flying very low...below the overcast sky. The UFO appears to be a half a mile across. Note that Rexburg is a Mormon religious city that is based around thousands of students going to school at Ricks College. The religious beliefs may be what the aliens came to study. By scanning the thoughts of the locals and students, they can better understand the motivations and aspirations of humans. 

Scott C. Waring-Taiwan

{ https://www.etdatabase.com/ }

Large UFO Hovers Over Mountain In Indonesia, Video, UFO Sighting News.

Date of sighting: Oct 29, 2019
Location of sighting: Indonesia

This UFO was caught moving  toward a mountain in Indonesia a few days ago. I can easily see the round disk shape with the huge lower dome on it. Since its moving toward the mountain top, its logical to assume that there is a alien base below this mountain at a depth of about 5-6km. Aliens often chose base locations based on the difficulty for other species to access their location. Often making bases in the depths of the ocean, below volcanos and mountains. This way aliens reduce the chances of encountering humans. 
Scott C. Waring-Taiwan

{ https://www.etdatabase.com/ }

Mysterious tunnels have been discovered on the Moon near the Apollo missions. These two tunnels of 1 km. and 1.7 km long and 5 meters wide, a few meters from the station 6 of the Apollo 17 mission, were discovered by the Argentine researcher Marcelo Irazusta,

However, as seen in the video, some versions of Google Moon, have removed these pictures.

What could be the reason that they have put a white layer over that area covering these tunnels? What are they trying to hide?

Luckily, Marcelo Irazusta preserved the original images and makes them available to everyone through this video.

The images are from NASA published by Google Moon. If someone wants to verify them you can see these coordinates: 20°18'17.13"N 30°47'28.68"E

  

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

Have you seen a triangle UFO lately? If so, you’re not alone … well, not in the “we are not alone because the aliens are here” sense, but because those triangular crafts have been seen everywhere. Now, the US Air Force may finally have to admit that it’s to blame for at least some of those sightings. A new report in Aviation Week reveals that the RQ-180 spy drone, a mini-me of a stealth bomber, has been flying out of Beale Air Force Base in northern California and other bases for nine years! While the Air Force has declined to comment, Aviation Week stands by its strong evidence that Northrup Grumman’s RQ-180 is up and flying. What should triangle spotters be looking for to determine if they’re seeing a UFO or an RQ-180 – other than the lack of an image on their radar screen?

“Although Aviation Week commissioned an artists’ impression of the aircraft incorporating a cranked-kite wing configuration when it broke the RQ-180 story, industry sources have since said the aircraft differs in detail from the published concept. Additional evidence now suggests the final configuration may be closer to the company’s more familiar flying-wing designs, with a simpler trailing edge similar to that seen in the Air Force’s official rendering of the B-21 Raider. Northrop Grumman originally crafted the same basic trailing edge configuration for the B-2 under the Advanced Tactical Bomber program but changed it to the stronger load-carrying sawtooth design when the Air Force added the low-level penetration role.”

That first artist’s rendition (shown on the cover of the December 9, 2013 issue of Aviation Week shown here) is much cooler and more modern than the Northrup Grumman’s X-47B drone combined with the trailing edge of the B-21 Raider stealth bomber it’s said to be based on. (See an artist’s rendition of the RQ-180 here.)

Artist rendering of the rumored B-21 Stealth Bomber

X-47B demonstrator

Fortunately for the secretive Air Force, no confirmed photographs of the RQ-180 have surfaced yet, despite the fact that it’s big (10 meters (33 feet) long with a wingspan of 40 meters (131 feet)) and has apparently been flying since 2010, starting with tests at the Groom Lake testing facility at Area 51 and secretly moving to other bases like Edwards AFB in southern California before ending up at Beale, with secondary operations at Nellis AFB in Nevada and Andersen AFB in Guam and possibly other locations. Now you can see why triangle UFOs have been seen in so many places. During that time, Aviation Week claims to have evidence of secret tests code-named Project Magellan at extremely high latitudes over the geographic North Pole.

Beale AFB is a logical choice for the RQ-180 since it is home to U-2 spy planes (a few are still in operation) and the SR-71 Blackbird (retired in 1999) it was designed to replace. And yet, despite all of the evidence Aviation Week has collected from open sources and insider information that the RQ-180 is housed in Beale hangars, there’s not a confirmed single picture of one anywhere.

You know what that means. Get your cell phones and head on down to Marysville, California, the North Pole, Guam or one of the other places the RQ-180 may be flying and be the first to capture a photo or video.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

Asteroid Impacts Might Wipe Out Alien Life Around Dwarf Stars

By Rafi Letzter - Staff Writer - Space 

What's the recipe for a living planet? A new paper suggests that the right number of impacts is a key ingredient.

A NASA illustration shows an asteroid striking a planet.

(Image: © NASA/Don Davis)

What's the recipe for a living planet? Astronomers aren't sure — we haven't found any other than Earth yet. 

But we have some educated guesses: Life probably needs water, carbon, and enough light and heat to power a world without burning it to a crisp. The gravity shouldn't be too high, and an atmosphere wouldn't hurt either. But a new study proposes another essential ingredient: major asteroid and comet impacts, in just the right amounts.

When a large object strikes a planet, two things happen: The material from the object gets added to the planet's mass, and some of the atmosphere around the impact zone gets kicked off into space, said Mark Wyatt, a University of Cambridge astronomer and lead author of the new paper. In truly giant impacts, like the one that formed Earth's moon, some atmosphere gets booted off the far side of the planet as well, which means a bit more gets lost. But that doesn't mean a wannabe home world should skip the impacts entirely. If a planet is to develop the conditions thought necessary for life, it's best to belong to a middle category of planets that absorb plenty of major impacts — but not so many that they lose their atmospheres.

• Related: 9 Strange, Scientific Excuses for Why Humans Haven't Found Aliens Yet

That's because planets almost certainly need "volatiles" in their atmospheres in order to sprout life, Wyatt told Live Science. Volatiles are chemicals, like water and carbon dioxide, that can boil at low temperatures. All life that we know of relies on water and carbon to sustain itself at a basic chemical level, and scientists believe that the properties of those chemicals make them necessary for life to arise anywhere in the universe.

But not all planets start off with the necessary concentrations of volatiles. Early in a star's lifetime, it's much brighter. And that extra shine is hot enough to bake all the loose dust in the region that will become the star's habitable zone — the not-too-hot, not-too-cold area — later on. Those hot early temperatures likely strip water and other volatiles from the dust that will eventually become habitable planets. So after planets form and the star cools down, these rocky orbs need to acquire their volatiles from somewhere else in the solar system. In other words, they've got to smash into a bunch of big stray objects.

The researchers found that the best candidates for delivering volatiles while not stripping the planet's atmosphere and sterilizing it are medium-size objects. Impacts from 60-foot-wide (20 meters) to 3,300-foot-wide (1 kilometer) asteroids and comets are very efficient at delivering volatiles and will tend to add more to the atmosphere than they subtract, the authors found. Bigger asteroids, between about 1 and 12 miles (2 and 20 km) across, will tend to strip more atmosphere than they add.

Giant impacts like the one that formed Earth's moon, the authors found, don't mess with that story as much as you might expect. Such events are pretty rare, and while they can change the composition of an atmosphere, they won't completely remove it.

One of the important lessons from this paper is that small "M class" stars — the most common category of stars, too dim to see with the naked eye, many of them red dwarfs — are likely bad candidates for life, the authors wrote. That's significant, because a great many potentially habitable exoplanets have turned up around those sorts of stars.

"For M stars, their low luminosity means that the habitable zone is much closer to the star than for a star like the sun," Wyatt said.

To get enough light, an Earth-like planet circling an M-class star might have to be as close to that star as Mercury is to our sun.

And it gets worse. Right up next to a small, low-mass star, asteroids and comets fly around at much higher speeds and crash more dramatically into planets.

"Higher-velocity impacts are much more efficient at stripping an atmosphere," Wyatt said.

That's bad news for life on M worlds. And it's not the only factor that makes M-world life unlikely.

"There are a number of reasons why habitable planets orbiting M dwarfs might not have an atmosphere, including stripping from stellar winds and the planets being much closer in to their host star," said Sarah Rugheimer, an expert in exoplanet atmospheres at the University of Oxford, who was not involved in this research.

So is there any hope for life on M worlds?

"I think, ultimately, we will answer this question observationally with [the James Webb Space Telescope] soon after it launches: Do habitable planets orbiting M dwarfs have atmospheres?" Rugheimer said. "We know that slightly hotter and bigger planets orbiting M dwarfs do have thick atmospheres. But this question still remains for habitable planets: Can they retain a thin enough atmosphere, something like Earth rather than Venus?"

The authors emphasized in the paper that many of their conclusions are based on uncertainties: Where does life form? How much do other star systems out there resemble our solar system?

Edwin Bergin, an expert in planet formation and water at the University of Michigan who was not involved in this research, agreed with the authors that there are what he called "significant complications" in the calculations behind this paper.

"But the general trends they present are quite interesting and could be important," he said.

He pointed to his own work, which has suggested that Earth started out with a thicker, nitrogen-rich atmosphere but lost much of it to impacts. The authors of this new paper suggested in their model that impacts from comets and asteroids might have shaped the atmospheres of Earth, Mars and Venus.

Down the road, the researchers said, there's more to learn about how this work can explain our own solar system, particularly the role of giant impacts here. This paper has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal and is available on the preprint server arXiv.

• Fallen Stars: A Gallery of Famous Meteorites
• The 12 Strangest Objects in the Universe
• Top 10 Ways to Destroy Earth

Originally published on Live Science.

{ https://www.livescience.com/ }

Bronze Age monument discovered in Forest of Dean using airborne laser scanning could have been ritual BURIAL ground, archaeologist claims

• Dating back to 2,000 BC the ritual ring was found during a LiDAR laser scan 
• Archaeologist Jon Hoyle discovered site, near Tidenham, Gloucestershire
•  The 'very significant' Bronze Age monument was hidden in the Forest of Dean

By MILLY VINCENT FOR MAILONLINE

A 'very significant' discovery of a Bronze Age monument has been uncovered after being hidden under foliage in the Forest of Dean.

Dating back to about 2,000 BC the circular ritual ring was found during a LiDAR laser scan of the area.

The findings, known as a ring cairn, consist of a circular bank with limestone standing stones.

Archaeologist Jon Hoyle discovered the site, near the village of Tidenham, Gloucestershire, which he first believed could be a World War Two gun emplacement due to its 'extremely circular' nature. 

Archaeologist Jon Hoyle said nobody knows precisely what ring cairns were used for. An artists impression of the 2,000 BC the circular ritual ring

Dating back to about 2,000 BC the circular ritual ring was found during a LiDAR laser scan of the area

This is the only Bronze Age monument of its type to be discovered in Gloucestershire, however the cairns are common in Derbyshire, Northumberland and Wales, said Mr Hoyle.

Mr Hoyle told the BBC: 'It was very exciting. I was expecting to find quite a lot of new sites with the LiDAR, but nothing as interesting as this.'

Adding: 'Nobody knows precisely what they were used for. 

'Some have been found in association with burials, and often there appear to be residues of charcoal in places like this, suggesting rituals that involved fire.' 

This is the only Bronze Age monument of its type to be discovered in Gloucestershire, however the cairns are common in Derbyshire, Northumberland and Wales

Archaeologist Jon Hoyle discovered the site, near the village of Tidenham, Gloucestershire

The large ring is about 80ft wide and contains a circular bank formed with rubble that is 16ft wide.  

White limestone standing stones were found on top of the bank, about 3ft high each.'

LiDAR (light detection and ranging) can be used to expose structures hidden by folliage or other structures by bouncing light off a target to measure distances and build a 3D map.

The archaeologist first believed the ring could be a World War Two gun emplacement due to its 'extremely circular' nature

Read more:

• Bronze Age monument discovered in Forest of Dean - BBC News

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

Scientists Just Found a 'Needle in the Haystack' Black Hole Once Hidden From View

By Chelsea Gohd - Science & Astronomy 

Finding this hidden black hole could lead to more discoveries.

An artist's impression of a black hole. In a new study, scientists identify a black hole in a non-interacting binary with a star, a discovery that could support future black hole findings.

(Image: © Shutterstock)

Researchers have discovered a strange black hole-star pair, a finding that could open our eyes to millions of new black holes that, until now, have been hidden in the cosmos.

For years, scientists have assumed that there are millions of black holes in our galaxy. However, researchers can often only spot black holes that are in binary pairs with stars in which the black hole orbits and siphons matter from the star. This is because, when black holes accrete matter from their partner star, they emit bright, easy-to-spot X-rays.

But many black holes in these pairings don't orbit their star close enough to accrete mass and emit this bright signal, so they go undetected. 

However, in a new study, scientists demonstrated how dimmer black holes can be spotted in the night sky.

• Related: Dying Star Robbed of Its Stellar Mass by Covert Companion

A labeled still from the animation details different parts of a black hole's anatomy.

(Image credit: Jeremy Schnittman/NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center)

In the study, scientists looked at a binary star system made up of the giant star 2MASS J05215658+4359220 and a companion, which, through a unique approach, they found is likely a low-mass black hole, lead author Todd Thompson, a professor in the Department of Astronomy at The Ohio State University, told Space.com.

Black hole in a haystack

To spot this dim, low-mass black hole, the research team "had to develop a new type of search," Thompson said. Spotting the elusive black hole was a "needle-in-the-haystack kind of search," he added. 

To find the hidden black hole, the team began by poring through data from APOGEE, a survey that uses spectroscopy data to scour the sky for stars. After observing over 100,000 stars, the team identified which stars had significant doppler shift, or redshift and blueshift. Redshift occurs when the wavelengths of light coming from objects moving away from Earth get longer, and the object appears red; blueshift occurs when the wavelengths of light coming from objects moving closer shorten, and the object appears blue. 

The team combined data on stars exhibiting doppler shift with data from the All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae (ASAS-SN) project, in which robotic telescopes worldwide monitor the night sky and collect data on millions of stars. With this data, scientists can see the brightness of stars over time. 

The researchers whittled down the list of stars to those "that showed the most extreme doppler shift, Thompson said. They then looked at the stars' light curves, or how the brightness of those stars changed over time in the ASAS-SN data.

The "combination of those two factors led us to this one particular star, this giant star in the outer galaxy," Thompson said about 2MASS J05215658+4359220.

The star's brightness kept changing, brightening and dimming back and forth. The team assumed, and later confirmed, that the brightness variations were in line with the orbital period of an object orbiting the star, Thompson said. 

When they studied the system further, the researchers determined that the object must have a mass of around 3.3 solar masses (though they did give a fairly wide margin of error, from 2.6 to 6.1 solar masses). This mass is consistent with a low-mass black hole. 

Uncovering the unseen

Identifying this black hole which, because it doesn't emit bright X-rays, had previously escaped detection by astronomers, is an important step forward in allowing researchers to more easily identify these "hidden" black holes, Thompson said. 

This black hole is approximately 3.3 times the mass of the sun. That makes it much less massive than black holes in bright, X-ray-emitting systems, which are usually five to six solar masses. It's also less massive than black holes that merge across the universe in gravitational waves, which are often 20 to 30 solar masses, Thompson said. "There are very few or possibly no systems that contain a black hole of around 3 or 3.3 [solar masses] … This is a very-low-mass system for a black hole," he said.

What's more, if this object is found to have the lowest mass deemed possible in its margin or error, it could turn out to be a neutron star — the collapsed core of a giant, dead star — at its maximum mass, Thompson said. Alternatively, if this object is closer to the upper range of its estimated mass, it would add to the definition of what qualifies as a black hole. 

If 3.3 solar masses holds up, it's going to be "quite important," Thompson said, adding that it "will show us that these types of black holes are out there." 

In other words, if the black hole is, in fact, 3.3 solar masses as these researchers think it likely is, it will provide evidence for the assumption that there are possibly plenty of black holes in the cosmos that don't emit X-rays. 

"This was our first candidate," Thompson said, adding that the team is "working on trying to find new candidates using the same search method."

The work was published today (Oct. 31) in the journal Science. 

• Black Hole Quiz: How Well Do You Know Nature's Weirdest Creations?
• The Strangest Black Holes in the Universe
• Stephen Hawking's Most Far-Out Ideas About Black Holes

Follow Chelsea Gohd on Twitter @chelsea_gohd. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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Among Anglos, no name reminds them more of Mexico than Montezuma, the first Aztec to encounter Europeans and whose death during the Spanish conquest led by Hernán Cortés spawned the legendary curse of diarrhea on gringo travelers to Mexico to avenge the slaughter and enslavement of the Aztec people by Cortés. What’s less known is that this was Montezuma II. Montezuma I (also known as Moctezuma I and Moteuczomatzin Ilhuicamina) was the second Aztec emperor and the fifth king of Tenochtitlan (Montezuma II was the ninth king) and his name popped up in the news again this week, nearly 500 years after his death in 1520. Archaeologists have discovered a secret Aztec tunnel world believed to have been built by Montezuma I in honor of Tlaloc, the Aztec god of water and fertility. What mysteries does this pre-Hispanic tunnel hold?

Montezuma I

“The most surprising thing is that we found a wooden hatch, which is a unique find in all that are the levee systems of the basin of Mexico, because in general, these types of elements are hardly preserved.”

Raúl García Chávez, coordinator of the archaeological salvage and enhancement project for the Mexican Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), told Turquesa News that the tunnel found underneath the city of Ecatepec de Morelos, north of and second in size to Mexico City, was densely decorated with inscriptions, carvings and paintings as well as this well-preserved wooden hatch which indicated that the tunnel was used to control the waters of the nearby lakes of Zumpango and Xaltocan, a task associated with the god of water, who was also blamed for floods and storms. (Photos of the excavation can be seen here.)

La presencia de los glifos y estucados se debe a que habitantes de los pueblos prehispánicos de Ecatepec y Chiconautla participaron para erigir el dique.

Foto: INAH

En el conjunto de petroglifos se distinguen las tallas de un chimalli o escudo de guerra, la cabeza de un ave de rapiña y una punta de pedernal.

Foto: Especial, INAH

Se han encontrado materiales de relleno como vidrio, porcelana, mayólica, un metate seccionado, una escultura sedente decapitada y la base de una efigie humana.

Foto: INAH

According to García Chávez, the excavation project has been going on for fifteen years – far longer than it took the people of the 15th century to build the tunnel, which he estimated to be eight months to dig this 4 km (2.5 mile) structure. It’s not clear if the decorations and artifacts were completed in the same timeframe. Those include petroglyphs depicting a chimalli (war shield), the head of a bird of prey and a flint point. The wall carvings show a temple and raindrops that “indicates that the size and the temple it represents, have a link with Tlaloc.”

The west end of the tunnel was the access point to the waterways and there the excavators found four iron nails, two wooden beams 6.50 meters long and organic material that may be a decomposed gate attached to the dike holding back the waters.

The wall coverings and stuccos are more interesting to archeologists. García Chávez believes they show that inhabitants of the pre-Hispanic towns of Ecatepec and Chiconautla worked together on the project with indigenous people in the region to build the dike – cooperation that was unheard of in those times.

Areas conquered by Aztec rulers.

The discovery of this tunnel is important to archeologists because it will help discover more of the unwritten history of the pre-Hispanic era, whose history has been inaccurately rewritten by the post-Hispanics. It’s also important to modern Mexicans because they’re struggling with water shortages, pollution and flooding – problems which their ancestors worked together to solve.

Can today’s Mexicans cooperate to solve their current water problems like their ancestors did? If that happened, both Montezumas would be pleased.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

Legendary nuclear physicist and UFO researcher, Stanton Friedman, will now have his UFO files catalogued. The well-known scientist passed away earlier this year on May 13^th at 84 years of age.

Throughout his career as a UFO researcher, he gave lectures at more than 600 colleges and over 100 groups in 50 U.S. states as well as in 19 different countries. He had at least 80 papers published on UFO phenomena, wrote numerous books, and appeared on several radio shows and television documentaries.

Stanton Friedman

Friedman studied the UFO phenomena for approximately 60 years; so needless to say, he has a lot of material that needs to be catalogued. In fact, it is said that he has the largest single collection of UFO files in the entire world. Prior to his passing, officials at the Provincial Archives in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada, were already in the process of preserving his files so that someday the public can view all of his work. They predict that it could take up to ten years to catalogue all of his files.

Joanna Aiton Kerr, who is the manager of the Provincial Archives, told Motherboard that archivists contacted Friedman after they found out that he was retiring to ask him if they could preserve his collection of UFO files. After he agreed, it took them five cargo vans in order to collect all of his work.

The archivists’ biggest task will be going through all of his files as they are extremely disorganized. “We can find a single page of a letter or document in one pile, another page somewhere across the room, another page tucked into a book, and so on,” Kerr explained. She went on say that so far they have gone through and processed around 25 boxes of Friedman’s work that is now accessible to visitors of the Provincial Archives, however, it’s not yet available for viewers to read online.

Stanton Friedman

One of the most interesting aspects of going through his work is reading through the letters he received from people all over the world describing their UFO encounters. “People wrote him from all over the world. People phoned him – he recorded many of these calls and we have tapes too. It’s fascinating stuff,” Kerr said.

Whether it takes just a few years or closer to a decade to get through all of Friedman’s files, it will definitely be worth it in the end when his years of dedicated UFO research will be available for everyone to read.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

Many Alien Bases In Craters On Earths Moon, Top Secret, UFO Sighting News.

Date of discovery: Oct 29, 2019
Location of discovery: Earths Moon
Source: NASA Link To be released in 1 week

These are just a few of the alien structures I have found. I will post them periodically off and on. They are from a NASA source, but I will hold that back till I am finished with my reporting...since discoveries can be stolen and not credited if I release it early. 
Scott C. Waring 

{ https://www.etdatabase.com/ }

Ancient Alien Bases In Craters On Earths Moon, UFO Sighting News.

Date of discovery: Oct 28, 2019
Location of discovery: Earths moon
Source: NASA Source released in one week. 

I made a video below of five artificial craters on earths moon in a NASA photo. In each crater is an actual alien structure. Each is unique in design and color. All of which are extraordinary examples of alien bases that NASA tries to hide from the public. 

I am not releasing the NASA URL until I have made more videos of these alien bases. I will release the link in about one week. Often other Youtubers follow my info and I want to prevent my discoveries from being stolen. I make no money from Youtube or blogging. I only want to teach the world the truth. 
Scott C. Waring

{ https://www.etdatabase.com/ }

NASA news: Hubble snaps galaxy 'like a portal to another dimension straight out of sci-fi'

NASA’S Hubble Space Telescope took this incredible picture of a galaxy that looks like a “gaping portal to another dimension”.

Rock-breathing aliens? NASA researcher says we must think beyond anything we know

Here's How NASA Might Bring Home Pieces of Mars (In a Darth Vader Helmet)

By Meghan Bartels - Spaceflight 

An artist's depiction of a Mars sample-return mission.

(Image: © NASA/JPL)

WASHINGTON — Scientists studying Mars have wanted pieces of the Red Planet here on Earth for decades, and they are finally getting their shot at designing a mission to acquire such souvenirs.

The Apollo program's legacy of carefully collected moon rocks here on Earth reshaped the science of the moon and Earth alike. A Mars sample-return mission could offer the same sort of potential, but the Red Planet is a more daunting target than the moon. More daunting but well worth the effort, Brian Muirhead, who is leading the effort to develop a Mars sample-return mission at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, said in a presentation here at the 70th International Astronautical Congress.

"It's the consensus of science community today," Muirhead said, "that if we're going to answer the hardest questions about Mars — like, for example, whether life showed up on Mars — we're going to need to bring material from Mars to our terrestrial laboratories."

• Related: In Photos: NASA's Mars 2020 Rover Mission to the Red Planet

Arranging a mission to bring the samples back is a challenge, one that NASA intends to tackle in a partnership with the European Space Agency. "This process is remarkably interrelated, everything is connected to everything else in some way," Muirhead said. There are a host of spacecraft components: NASA's Mars 2020 rover to select the samples, a "fetch rover" to pick up those samples, a rocket to launch them off the Red Planet, a capsule to bring them back to Earth.

Mars 2020 will depart next summer and head toward Jezero crater for a February 2021 landing. It will be conducting its own investigations and stashing away intriguing rocks for its successor to bring home.

That mission could launch in 2026, Muirhead said. The mission's early days would be fairly typical for any Red Planet mission. One of the first key challenges of the mission is for spacecraft engineers to land much more weight on Mars than previous missions have done. That will stretch out the anxiety-inducing landing process that haunts Mars spacecraft personnel, as the vehicle risks crashing into the surface.

"Once at Mars, we're going to do entry, descent and landing, our famous seven minutes of terror," Muirhead said. "We're going to make that probably about eight or nine minutes of terror." But he said the team has found a way to deliver significantly more bulk to the surface safely than the techniques that NASA will use to land the Mars 2020 mission.

Once that spacecraft lands, it will deploy the fetch rover, which will drive out to collect the sample containers Mars 2020 has so carefully prepared. The fetch rover will be smaller than that machine and Curiosity — more like the size of Spirit and Opportunity, Muirhead said.

The fetch rover is inspired by the Rosalind Franklin rover that the European Space Agency is sending to Mars on a similar timeline to Mars 2020, but it will end up looking very different from its older sibling. "ExoMars is a serious science rover; this is a speedster," Muirhead said. "That's a fast-moving, highly autonomous rover," he said of its planned travel stats.

Next on the task list is to pack up the samples for the long journey to Earth. Scientists are designing a return capsule that can safely carry as many as 30 rock samples and two air samples. "All of that fits into Darth Vader's helmet," Muirhead said, referring to the shape of the container, which will then itself be packed into a capsule for the long voyage. At around this point of the mission, the sample container will be sealed and sterilized to make sure no loose Martian material sneaks free on Earth.

While plenty of spacecraft have journeyed out to the Red Planet, none have ever retraced their steps. "To fly to Mars, that one-way trip is fairly traditional," Muirhead said. "It's the return trip that's particularly challenging." The vehicle will rely on electric propulsion to make its way to Earth, where it will eject the sample assembly in 2031.

The team doesn't want to use parachutes, which Muirhead called "notoriously tricky"; instead, the capsule will navigate its own way through Earth's atmosphere. That means the vehicle will need to carefully slow down enough not to splatter on the surface, but not slow down so much that atmospheric friction burns it.

At the end of his presentation, Muirhead tackled several questions from the audience quibbling with specific aspects of the mission design under discussion. One audience member expressed dismay that the return capability would not test the sorts of vehicles that could bring humans home. Another thought the mission could be cheaper if it ignored the risk of letting Martian material loose in Earth's biosphere.

In both cases, Muirhead emphasized that a Mars sample-return mission would be about the scientific secrets held in those samples. "This mission is about bringing samples back," he said with regards to planetary protection. "From an architecture point of view and from ensuring the integrity of the science samples, I'm not sure there's a much simpler solution than the one we're considering."

• Ancient Mars Could Have Supported Life (Photos)
• 1st Drilling on Mars by NASA's Curiosity Rover (Photos)
• NASA Puts Mars 2020 Rover's Space Ride to the Test (Photo)

Email Meghan Bartels at mbartels@space.com or follow her @meghanbartels. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

{ https://www.space.com/news }