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Maandag 27 januari 2020

Operation High Jump: “The Untold UFO War in Antarctica” and the “Hollow Earth Theory” – ADMIRAL RICHARD E. BYRD - part II

Operation High Jump: “The Untold UFO War in Antarctica” and the “Hollow Earth Theory” – ADMIRAL RICHARD E. BYRD - part II

These are must watch Video’s. Amazing story that all research says is 100% true.
All documented in the Government and Public Domain.

In 1946/1947 the US Government launched Operation: High Jump.

It was in the following year after the above lines were supposedly written, that Admiral Richard E. Byrd died at the age of sixty-nine or seventy. The cause of his death is unknown to me at this time. Prior to his death in 1957, I have also read that he participated in a similar expedition to Antarctica, where his team also penetrated deep into the South Polar region.

The previous account concerning Admiral Byrd’s North Pole expedition is not the only information which has been usedto support the Hollow Earth Theory. During this past century, various other polar expenditions have also been launched, the primary goal of which was to reach the true geographical North Pole over land. To understand this, allow me to explain the following. As some of you are aware, there are actually what we might refer to as two North Poles.
First, there is the true geographical North Pole, which is situated at ninety degrees north latitude. This is because, being a sphere, the entire Earth is divided into three hundred and sixty degrees, both for latitude as well as for longitude. Thus, half of the Earth’s sphere would be divided into one hundred and eighty degrees. From the Equator to the geographical North Pole is ninety degrees; and from the Equator to the geographical South Pole is another ninety degrees.

Aside from the true geographical poles, there are also the magnetic North Pole, and the magnetic South Pole, which is where the Earth’s magnetic field is said to be the most intense. According to one science book I referred to, the magnetic North Pole is actually located about one thousand
six hundred and seventy kilometers south of the true geographical North Pole, in the vicinity of the ninety degree longitudinal line near Bathurst Island in northern Canada. In fact, some have suggested that there are actually as many as three magnetic North Poles which more or less ‘float’ around a particular area of the Arctic Circle. In other words, the magnetic poles are not stationary like the geographical poles. In the Southern Hemisphere, the magnetic South Pole is said to be located some two thousand six hundred and seventy kilometers north of the geographical South Pole, along the one hundred and forty degrees longitudinal line, near the coast of Antarctica. I am not sure if the same claims are made regarding the South Pole having as many as three magnetic poles.

According to certain statements supposedly extracted from the journals of some of the other polar explorers, there are similar observations and experiences which Hollow Earth Theory adherents claim have been purposely suppressed and kept from the knowledge of the general public. Just like Admiral Byrd’s description in his purported diary, these experiences are related to unusual natural phenomena which should not be occurring at such a northerly latitude.
Obviously, the further north one travels away from the Equator and the shorter rays of the sun, the colder it becomes. As a result of this, with each passing day, the Arctic Ocean becomes more impassable due to the sub-zero temperatures causing the surface water to freeze into large fields of ice. Because of the unstable nature of these ice fields, one never knows when a particular field might suddenly break up presenting a dangerous situation for thoseexploring these remote regions of the world. Between these natural dangers, the degree of human endurance, the limitation on how much supplies a team can carry with it, etc., polar exploration can indeed be quite a challenge, particularly decades ago when our current technology did not exist.

All of these other difficulties aside, as was stated in Byrd’s purported diary, the most serious challenge comes as one approaches closer and closer to the magnetic North Pole.
Quite simply, due to the strong magnetic field present at these latitudes, one’s instruments begins to fluctuate wildly, until one cannot even rely upon their accuracy in order to determine or maintain his bearings. At this point, other methods of navigation must be used. This magnetic interference and directional confusion has been such, that some polar explorers have become completely disoriented; and instead of veering truly north, they have gone off in some other direction.

According to some of these journals, if we accept them as being authentic, despite these difficulties, some of these arctic explorers were able to continue northward to varying degrees; however, to their great surprise, similar to the Byrd account, they began to encounter things which seemed to defy logic. For example, what had once been an ice-congested and impassable sea, became an easily navigable waterway above the seventy-five or eighty degree latitudinal line. In addition, instead of the sub-zero temperatures continuing todrop, they did the exact opposite to where they actuallybecame balmy. Even more astounding is that they began to experience a warm wind blowing down from the north. Finally, they began to notice fresh bits of twigs and leaves in the water, large flocks of birds and migrations of butterflies where there should have been no such thing, and other odd phenomena which seemed to indicate that they were travelling southward and not northward.

One clear example of a purported penetration into the Inner Earth which was not planned, is found in a biographical book written by Willis George Emerson entitled ‘The Smokey God’.
In this book, Emerson relates the tale of a father and son Norwegian fishing team whose small vessel is driven by a fierce oceanic storm until they find themselves sailing over the lip of the northern polar opening; what scientists refer to as the Polar Basin. The son, Olaf Jansen, claimed that this occurred in April of 1829. For the next two years, Olaf Jansen claimed that he and his father lived with the kind, courteous inhabitants of the Inner Earth, who measured some twelve feet in height. After this time, Jansen claimed that they exited the Inner Earth via the South Pole opening. The book derives its name from the fact that Olaf described the mini-sun as being smokey in appearance.

In accordance with the story of Norwegian Olaf Jansen, the adherents of the Hollow Earth Theory agree that an entrance to the Inner Earth exists at the South Pole as well. Similar to the Byrd account which describes the inhabitants of the Inner Earth speaking English with a Germanic accent, some New Agers claim that these underworlders are actually the descendants of the Nazis, who with their technology, escaped to the Inner Earth via the South Pole following their defeat at the close of World War II. It is said that part of this technology included the first prototype flying disks, and that current UFO sightings are modern versions of the same which follow flight corridors across South America leading from the South Pole. It is because of tales like these that some people are convinced that there is a greater reason for the presence of foreign governments on Antarctica than what has actually been stated publicly.

To add credence to these thoughts, Hollow Earth theorists point to a few disturbing facts. For example, when British camera crews for the BBC arranged for a visit to Antarctica, they were confronted with several unanticipated problems.
While their original itinerary, which was planned well in advance, included a direct flight from South Africa to Antarctica, which would have included an overflight of the so-called ‘Area Of Inaccessibility’, their plans were somehow bungled; and they were forced to travel first to South America. Upon arriving there, they discovered that the only commercial flight available to the subcontinent was operated by an American company, which ferried some twenty to thirty people at a time to the American base of McMurdo Station. These flights were only available during the summer months. Not only that, but when they finally did arrive at their destination, the Britons were treated with a degree of hostility by the Americans.

Another point worthy of note, is that it was discovered that due to the lack of any satellites flying over Antarctica, all weather reports originated on the ground from McMurdo Station itself. Hollow Earth theorists conclude that this is a direct step taken by the Americans to prevent the release of any satellite images of the South Pole which might show the polar opening. Another recent development which has also been viewed as a part of the overall conspiracy to hide the truth from the world, is that in recent years, an agreement was signed by various nations which would prohibit oil and mineral exploration on Antarctica for the next fifty years.
The last piece of purported evidence used by Hollow Earth theorists, is the claim that the ‘Ozone Hole’ over Antarctica is directly above the so-called South Polar opening. As you will see shortly, this may have deeper implications, that what at first may be apparent to the untrained individual.

Hollow Earth theorists point to other unusual signs as well in order to prove that something strange exists at both the extremes of Planet Earth. One of these signs is that of mammoth tusks which have been continually found on some of the islands situated within the Arctic Circle north of Russia. If this story is true, what is odd about this is the fact that it is claimed that for at least the past several hundred years, traders have gathered and sold these tusks; yet more continue to accumulate there. These mammoth tusks are directly related to another strange phenomenon; and that is that for a number of years now, the carcases of wooly mammoths have been found frozen in ice in Siberia and other regions of the Arctic Circle. I remember reading years ago that some of these even had fresh grass in their mouths.
While I believe that these well-preserved carcases are the result of a sudden worldwide catastrophe of thousands of years ago referred to as Noah’s Flood, which quickly froze many species of animals which existed at the time, Hollow Earth theorists claim that these carcases point to the fact that wooly mammoths still thrive within the Inner Earth.

It has been a long-held belief within certain Asian cultures and now within New Age thought as well, that rather than being comprised of a solid area of dense bedrock known as the mantle, the interior of the Earth is more akin to Swiss Cheese, in that it is permeated with a vast interconnecting system of underground caves and subterranean tunnels. In certain places, this global system is said to lead down to the Inner Earth. From the research I did, these sites are quite often said to be situated in or near deep mining operations and volcanic peaks located in various countries throughout the world, as well as in the Himalayan mountain range and the Gobi Desert. Fourteen thousand foot Mount Shasta, an extinct volcano located in northern California, U.S.A., is also claimed to be one such site. The true believers are convinced that this snow-capped mountain is actually the home of a large multi-tiered subterranean city known as Telos. There are often groups of New Age shamans and their followers camping out on the slopes of this mountain, hoping that they will be ‘blessed’ either with a unique spiritual encounter, or with a UFO sighting, or perhaps even with locating one of these fabled entrances to the famed five-level subterranean city.

Another story related to this concerns the San Andreas Fault located in the state of California, U.S.A. While geologists point to the Tectonic Plate Theory and claim that this fault line is a result of the Pacific plate pushing against the continental plate, some Hollow Earth theorists interpret the matter quite differently. According to them, and I musta admit that I have heard this same thing for the past several decades, since the 1950’s, the American Government has sent nuclear-powered submarines to explore the underwater topography of the western coast of the United States of America. It is claimed that while mapping this area, they were surprised to discover that the continental shelf is pocketed with many huge caverns and passageways; some of which are large enough to easily allow a submarine to navigate through them.

The horror came when after years of carefully andmeticulously mapping this submarine world, they realized that some of these caverns and tunnels extended as far back as the states of Utah and Nevada! In fact, one story claims that a certain American submarine, which was supposedly lost at open sea, was actually lost while exploring one of these hidden caverns. However, the most shocking thing they are said to have discovered, is the fact that the state of California is basically hanging over the ocean; that is, it is for the most part floating on top of the ocean, being supported by a series of submarine limestone pillars. While most people believe that the many earthquakes which have been experienced in California are due to shifts in these various tectonic plates, some Hollow Earth theorists propose that they are actually caused by the collapse of some of these larger submarine caverns. In fact, they suggest that this is the real nature of the San Andreas Fault; that is, it is either a submarine tunnel, or a series of large caverns, which have simply collapsed, creating the depression which is seen above ground.

If the above is indeed true, then the end result is quite obvious; even to one who doesn’t have a degree in geology.
If and when enough of those caverns and pillars collapse, most of California will break off and simply fall into the ocean. As tragic and as widespread as the loss of life would be, if this were to truly happen, I would personally view it as a severe judgment of the Lord due to the great degree of evil and deception which originates in, and which is also propagated from that state. Everyone knows that California is the haven for New Age thought, pay-per-minute psychics, homosexual and lesbian rights groups, and a plethora of other negative influences which have plagued America for literally decades, such as the violent and antichrist television and film industry. Not only that, but it is the center for the very technology which may someday soon be used to enslave mankind; that is, the computer industry.
While we computer-literate Christians view our machines as a blessing and a valuable tool for spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we are also fully aware that there is a dark side to this age of electronic wonders as well. May I suggest that you read my article ‘Mondex And The Mark Of The Beast’.

This is not the only information which is used to support the Hollow Earth Theory. One piece of evidence to which the believers point as proof of the existence of a Hollow Earth, has absolutely nothing to do with the Earth itself. This concerns certain photographs which have been taken of some of the other bodies in our planetary system. Due in part to certain deep craters and dark spots found at the polar regions and other surface areas of some of these celestial bodies, the proponents of the Hollow Earth Theory have come to the conclusion that they must also be hollow spheres, and that these craters or dark spots are likewise openings to these inner worlds. Furthermore, it has been suggested that some of these spheres might possibly be artificial in nature. At this point, the tales take some very unusual turns in the direction of soon-coming hostile alien invasions of the Earth and other such stories.

However on the serious side, if the information is to be believed, the planet Mars may offer some convincing evidence of the Hollow Earth Theory due some strange occurences which are said to have been observed at its poles. Due to various factors, such as its distance from the Sun, the Martian year is almost twice as long as an Earth year, being six hundred and eighty-seven days. During half of this period, one Martian ice cap will expand in size while the other will do the exact opposite. This expansion can be anywhere from ten to twenty times its smallest size, which has been estimated at around four hundred miles in diameter. It is also noteworthy that the Martian polar ice caps always maintain a definite circular shape. At any rate, during the final half of the year, the expanded ice cap will rapidly shrink, while the opposite one will grow in size. Where the excitement comes for Hollow Earth theorists is in the fact that on some occasions, the ice caps have shrunk to slightly less than their normal minimum diameter. It is claimed that it is at these times that astronomers have observed a black area, or perimeter, surrounding the ice caps. While astronomers have tried to dismiss this fact, some Hollow Earth theorists are convinced that this is nothing less that the outer edge of the polar opening leading into the inner world of Mars.

According to one theorist, the temperature and climate inside other hollow planets such as Mars may be very similar to that found inside the Hollow Earth; in other words, it is quite tropical in nature. If this is true, then it would result in the natural formation of a huge cloud mass at the polar entrances where the warm moist air from the interior of the planet rises to collide with the cold polar air on the outside of the planet. This temperature variation would be even greater during the Martian winter season, and thus would readily explain the sudden expansion and reduction of the cloud masses during each half of the Martian year. What has also elated Hollow Earth theorists, and added more weight to their theory, was the announcement that ‘ice,cliffs’ composed of actual water, and not of carbon dioxide, have been discovered at the Martian polar regions.

But this is not the only mystery which has been revealed on the planet Mars. In their on-going attempt to reinforce their argument with even more scientific validity, it has been pointed out by some of the more serious-minded Hollow Earth theorists, that on certain occasions, scientists and
astronomers have detected odd brilliant flashes of light originating at the poles of some of these celestial orbs, such as on the Moon and Mars. What do these sporadic flashes have to do with the Hollow Earth Theory? This brings us back down to Earth, and to a natural phenomenon known in the Northern Hemisphere as the Aurora Borealis, and in the Southern Hemisphere as the Aurora Australis; that is, the Northern and the Southern Lights. Scientists claim that these spectacular nocturnal light shows are the result of electrically charged particles from the sun striking the magnetic field which surrounds the Earth. The Lights are said to be most prominent during periods of high solar activity, that is, when sunspots are at their peak.

However, Hollow Earth theorists propose a completely different explanation for these awe-inspiring nocturnal light shows. They claim that every so often, the mini-sun within the core of the Earth will be perfectly aligned with one of the polar openings. These openings are said to be
some one thousand and four hundred miles in diameter. When these alignments occur, some of the light from the mini-sun flashes outward into the atmosphere, thus creating the beautiful Northern and Southern Lights. As proof of this,they point to the flashes of light observed by astronomers on the Moon, Mars, and possibly elsewhere.

As you can see, I have gone to great lengths to give you a basic idea of what the Hollow Earth Theory is all about. Of course, this article does not by any means include every single aspect of the theory, as there are simply too many ramifications which have been made from this central theme.
While I have expressed doubt in the theory, I have also tried to be fair by presenting as much evidence as I can to explain why some people are convinced that the Hollow Earth is not fiction, but actual fact. So exactly what is my personal opinion regarding this unusual theory?

{ https://truedemocracyparty.net/ }

Geschreven door peter om 22:46 Stuur door

Maandag 27 januari 2020

Unknown spacecraft and ancient triangle UFO discovered in Antarctica

Unknown spacecraft and ancient triangle UFO discovered in Antarctica

Two space vehicles have been discovered in Antarctica. The first object is an ancient triangle UFO that has been crashed a long time ago. The second unknown object looks like a shuttle-like spacecraft.

Antarctica-crashed-ufo-space%2Bshuttle%2B%25281%2529.jpg

The shuttle-like spacecraft in particular is interesting.
Where did it come from?
Is it extraterrestrial or is it a craft that belongs to the secret space fleet?
And what could be reason that it crashed or landed in Antarctica?

Triangle UFO - Size: 42 x 42 meters Coordinates: 74°18'52.37"S 9°27'18.32"W
Spacecraft: - Size: 45 meters. Coordinates: 74°47'54.86"S 110°33'38.27"W

Antarctica-crashed-ufo-space%2Bshuttle%2B%25282%2529.jpg

Antarctica-crashed-ufo-space%2Bshuttle%2B%25283%2529.jpg

Antarctica-crashed-ufo-space%2Bshuttle%2B%25284%2529.jpg

Antarctica-crashed-ufo-space%2Bshuttle%2B%25285%2529.jpg

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

Geschreven door peter om 21:10 Stuur door

Maandag 27 januari 2020

Navy admits it still has never before released video of infamous USS Nimitz ‘Tic Tac’ UFO encounter

Navy admits it still has never before released video of infamous USS Nimitz ‘Tic Tac’ UFO encounter

LOTTIE TIPLADY-BISHOP

THE US Navy has admitted it has top secret footage from a UFO sighting - but say it can't be released as it would cause "grave damage" to national security.

Some footage from the USS Nimitz "Tic Tac" UFO incident in 2004, where a Navy Commander spotted a floating object that looked like "a 40ft Tic Tac", was released in 2017, but officials say there is more being held back for security reasons.

The incident, pictured, was never explained

Chad Underwood, pictured, who shot the now infamous footageCredit: Chad Underwood

Crew aboard the Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser USS Princeton had been spending the past two weeks tracking mysterious aircraft on and off.

The incident unfolded during carrier group exercises in the Pacific, off the coast of Mexico.

It was spotted by six pilots in total.

One baffled pilot who spotted the UFO said: "It would go from like 50 feet off the ground, which when you’re out in the open ocean, you know, off the coast of San Diego, it looked like it was just hovering over the water.

“But there was no method of propulsion that was keeping it airborne: no wings, no heat, keeping it airborne or aloft.”

Video of the 2004 encounter was revealed to public in 2017 and the Navy finally admitted the videos were real last November.

The discovery was made by researcher Christian Lambright who enquired with a Freedom of Information Request.

In a letter to the researcher, Coordinator Camille V’Estres, wrote: "Our review of our records and systems reveal that ONI has no releasable records related to your request.

"ONI has searched our records for responsive documents.

"We have discovered certain briefing slides that are classified TOP SECRET.

"A review of these materials indicates that are currently and appropriate Marked and Classified TOP SECRET under Executive Order 13526, and the Original Classification Authority has determined that the release of these materials would cause exceptionally grave damage to the National Security of the United States".

The spooky encounters have been the subject of many interviews - but have never been explained.

The discovery was made by researcher, Christian Lambright Credit: Cascade News { https://www.thesun.co.uk/ }

Geschreven door peter om 16:24 Stuur door

Maandag 27 januari 2020

UFO Stories Are Becoming More Mainstream

UFO Stories Are Becoming More Mainstream

ufo-superbowl

After the Pentagon admitted UFOs are real, Hollywood is making a flurry of films and television shows on how we should look at them.

Talking about UFOs is no longer weird, with former Blink-182 singer getting the American military to admit that it has UFO sighting videos.

Movies such as Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Arrival, and even Avengers are depicting UFOs with aliens who have come to Earth, which have had viewers from different parts of the world discussing more on the existence of extraterrestrials. However, today, there’s an increased focus on UFO researchers in Hollywood.

According to media critic and author Robbie Graham, the resurgence in popularity in aliens and UFOs is a direct result of the Pentagon revelations in 2017, which captured the attention of the press like there’s no UFO story in decades. Graham explained that the Pentagon UFO revelations helped legitimize UFOs as a topic of mainstream debate and opened up fresh political and scientific lines of inquiry for TV producers who are always searching for new approaches to this increasingly popular subject.

Irish actor Aiden Gillen, best known as Littlefinger in HBO’s Game of Thrones, said that people are more open to considering UFO sightings as a real event as opposed to just psychology. Gillen, who currently plays Dr. J. Allen Hynek in History Channel’s Project Blue Book, said that humans are naturally curious about UFOs and what’s up there. He added that talking about UFOs is no longer taboo and UFO topics are selling like never before as they are hot property on TV and everybody wants to stake a claim.

Geschreven door peter om 16:18 Stuur door

Maandag 27 januari 2020

Could salt-loving microbes explain Mars’ methane?

Could salt-loving microbes explain Mars’ methane?

Posted by Paul Scott Anderson in SPACE

New laboratory studies – simulating conditions on the planet Mars and using salt-loving microbes – suggest that similar organisms could be producing Mars’ mysterious methane.

Ancient lake sediments in Gale Crater on Mars. The Curiosity rover has detected methane in this region, and this is the kind of environment where methanogenic archaea-type microorganisms might still survive today, with soils containing salts and clays.

Image via NASA/ JPL-Caltech.

Since it was first detected earlier in this century, methane in Mars’ thin air has been one of the most intriguing mysteries of the red planet. Record high levels of methane – reported in Mars’ atmosphere last June – was one of 2019’s biggest science stories. Is Mars’ methane created by geological processes? Or could it be a sign of life? That debate has raged more intensely in the past few years. Now a new study by researchers at Technical University Berlin (TU Berlin) outlines a possible mechanism where microbial life could indeed explain the findings.

The research was discussed in an article by Dirk Schulze-Makuch in Air & Space on January 9, 2020, and the peer-reviewed paper was published on January 8 in Scientific Reports. The findings were also presented on September 4, 2019, at the 19th EANA Astrobiology Conference in Orleans, France.

The study, led by Debbie Maus from TU Berlin, focused on how microbes can survive on water obtained only through deliquescence, where salts absorb tiny amounts of water directly from the air and then dissolve in the absorbed moisture. This would be essential on Mars, where there is no liquid water known on the dry, cold surface. Extremophile microorganisms on Earth can survive this way, however, making use of whatever tiny amounts of moisture are present. Could the same be true for Mars?

Some earthly microbes that employ deliquescence also release methane. And it’s known that Martian soil contains salts. So could deliquescence on Mars explain the methane in the air? While the current study doesn’t prove it does, the study does suggest that this explanation is plausible.

The 2020 lunar calendars are nearly sold out! Order yours before they’re gone. Makes a great gift!

Smooth gray cylinders in a cluster with black background.

A cluster of halobacteria, a type of archaea microorganism on Earth. Similar microbes may possibly explain the presence of methane on Mars.

Image via Wikipedia.

This Dec. 2, 2016 image taken by NASA's Curiosity rover shows rocky ground on the lower flank of Mount Sharp, a mountain on Mars. Curiosity landed on the red planet in 2012 and uncovered geologic evidence of an ancient environment.

How did Maus and her team reach these conclusions?

They used three different versions of simulated Martian soil, including the salts. These were contained in a special chamber that recreated conditions on the Martian surface. The researchers wanted to see if certain types of microbes would use the salts to obtain moisture through deliquescence in these simulated hostile conditions with very thin atmosphere, bitter cold and no liquid water.

The researchers tested three types of methanogenic archaea (methanogens), single-celled microorganisms similar to bacteria that, on Earth, live in environments with very low oxygen levels, much like Mars. All three types produce methane as a by-product of their metabolism.

Two out of the three types of microbes did produce methane in the simulated Martian conditions. Noteworthy is that this was particularly true when the tests used salts and soils similar to those found in ancient lakebeds on Mars, which have high clay content. This is just the kind of terrain that the Curiosity rover is in right now in Gale Crater – which used to be a lake or series of lakes a few billion years ago – and Curiosity has confirmed methane on more than one occasion now. Curiosity is currently examining clay-rich soil on the lower slopes of Mount Sharp in the middle of the crater.

The new study provides a plausible mechanism for the release of methane into the Martian atmosphere, although it still isn’t known for sure whether the methane is the result of biology or geology. On Earth, the vast majority of methane is produced by organisms, and the same could be true for Mars as well, but that is by no means certain at this point.

Cross section of subsurface below a volcano with text annotations.

Illustration depicting what processes could create and destroy methane on Mars. The methane may originate from below the surface and be released into the atmosphere through subsurface cracks.

Image via ESA.

The researchers found that even if the microbes were desiccated – dried out – and dormant, they could be revived by deliquescence and release methane. From the paper:

Our results show, for the first time, that rehydration of MRAs [Martian regolith analogs] through deliquescence can reactivate the metabolism of desiccated methanogenic archaea. The design of the CDS provided deliquescence-driven water transport into the incubation chamber, but only when a hygroscopic salt was present. Our data also showed that methane production depends greatly on the methanogenic species, the incubation temperature, and the type of MRA and salt used in the experiments.

With the custom-designed Closed Deliquescence System (CDS), we have simulated the in vitro process of deliquescence and demonstrated that Methanosarcina soligelidi and Methanosarcina barkeri can survive desiccation in the presence of 30 wt% sodium chloride in a phyllosilicate-containing Martian Regolith Analog, and furthermore become metabolically active after water is provided by deliquescence.

Thus, we conclude that methanogenic archaea can live in environments with transient water availability and cope with varying salt concentrations. Consequently, salt-rich near subsurface environments on Mars subject to periodic wetting, such as proposed for RSLs [recurring slope lineae], can be considered potential habitats for certain halotolerant methanogenic archaea and could potentially be a biological source of methane in the Martian atmosphere.

The RSLs or recurring slope lineae are another feature on Mars that contain hydrated salts. These dark streaks on steep slopes may be the result of brief flows of briny water, but there is still much debate as to their actual cause. If there is moisture involved, they may be ideal locations for such salt-loving microbes to exist. There are even some RSLs on Mount Sharp in the middle of Gale Crater. The Curiosity rover could drive closer, but its controllers at NASA decided against it; there was a risk of contamination by the rover, which could still have some stray earthly microbes of its own on board.

Diagram of Mars with text identifying spacecraft, dates and amounts.

A history of key methane measurements on Mars from 1999 to 2018.

Image via ESA.

Curiosity found evidence that the methane, at least near its location, is seasonal in its variation. That could be the result perhaps of clathrate ices or soils periodically releasing some trapped methane during warmer periods, other geological processes, or even a function of biology.

In a previous study, scientists found that the methane detected by Curiosity exhibits daily variations as well as seasonal ones. As John Moores at York University in Canada explained:

This most recent work suggests that the methane concentration changes over the course of each day. We were able – for the first time – to calculate a single number for the rate of seepage of methane at Gale Crater on Mars that is equivalent to an average of 2.8 kg [.7 gallons] per Martian day.

Another previous study also showed that wind erosion of rocks was unlikely to account for the variations in methane seen by Curiosity.

Methane was first found in the Martian atmosphere in 1999 by ground-based telescopes. The origin, however, is still a mystery despite the gas also being detected many times since then with various orbiters and the Curiosity rover. Curiosity also recently detected unusual seasonal variations in the amount of oxygen in Gale Crater, but further testing is needed to determine if there is any connection to the methane variations.

Rough rocky terrain with dark streaks running downhill.

An example of Recurring Slope Lineae (RSL) on the walls of Newton Crater, as seen by Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on May 30, 2011. They contain salts and possibly water.

Image via NASA/ JPL-Caltech/ University of Arizona.

So far, the search for life on Mars – past or present – has focused on the follow the water scenario.

Curiosity Rover
✔@MarsCuriosity

The game is afoot.

I'm continuing to investigate the Martian methane mystery. A follow-on investigation shows that this past week's methane levels have sharply decreased. http://go.nasa.gov/2ZC0xvc

2,558

1:00 AM - Jun 25, 2019

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But if this new research is any indication, and as noted at the EANA Astrobiology Conference, maybe it’s time to modify that approach:

While our results emphasize the importance of the substrate, archaeal species, salt, and temperature used, we show – more importantly – for the first time that water provided through deliquescence alone is sufficient to rehydrate methanogenic archaea and to reactivate their metabolism under conditions roughly analogous to the near-subsurface Martian environment.

Thus, we suggest that a more important mantra for the search of life on Mars is ‘follow the salt’ rather than ‘follow the water.’ Future space missions, including life detection missions, should explore salt-rich regions on Mars as prime targets for astrobiology.

Mars Rover

Bottom line: New laboratory studies from researchers at Technical University Berlin suggest that microbes similar to methanogenic archaea on Earth could be producing Mars’ mysterious methane.
Source: Methanogenic Archaea Can Produce Methane in Deliquescence-Driven Mars Analog Environments
Source: The Process of Deliquescence Might Allow Methanogenic Archaea to Metabolize on Mars

{ https://earthsky.org/ }

Geschreven door peter om 01:20 Stuur door

Zondag 26 januari 2020

Phosphorus, a key ingredient of life, has been found in a newborn star system

Phosphorus, a key ingredient of life, has been found in a newborn star system

Astronomers trace molecular phosphorus from still-forming star to comet in our solar system

young star jet

In a distant region of space, a young star shoots out jets of energy (inset), generating simple phosphorus-bearing molecules in the gas and dust of its surroundings.

ALMA/ESO, NAOJ, NRAO; V.M. RIVILLA ET AL; MARIO WEIGAND/WWW.SKYTRIP.DE

By Adam Mann

For the first time, phosphorus, a key ingredient of life, has been pinpointed in a cloud of gas and dust surrounding a newborn star.

Astronomers spotted a bright infant star shooting powerful jets of energy that created cavities in the gas and dust cocoon from which it formed. Different types of molecules in the cloud, including two simple phosphorus-bearing ones — phosphorus monoxide and phosphorus mononitride — were detected along the cavities’ walls, researchers report in the February Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Ultraviolet radiation from the newborn star helped form these molecules, the team suspects.

“Essentially, the young star is digging away at its natal cloud,” says Maria Drozdovskaya, an astrochemist at the University of Bern in Switzerland. Though phosphorus has been spotted around young stars before, its exact location had never been pinpointed, Drozdovskaya says. Her team showed that phosphorus monoxide dominated the dust regions closest to the infant star.

Molecules of phosphorus monoxide were also detected in a comet in our solar system, the team reports, helping link faraway star-forming regions where the molecules are created all the way to our part of the galaxy.

The findings add to evidence that comets may have helped deliver phosphorus, which is essential to DNA and many key organic chemicals, to the early Earth.

Observations of the young star were made using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, or ALMA, an enormous collection of radio dishes in Chile’s Atacama Desert. With its high-resolution instruments, ALMA was able to look in detail at the star, found in a star-forming region known as AFGL 5142 located about 7,000 light-years away from Earth.

Finding phosphorus in the earliest phases of a star’s life doesn’t necessarily mean it sticks around for long enough to become incorporated into planets. So the researchers turned to evidence closer to home, taking a second look at data from the European Space Agency’s now-defunct Rosetta spacecraft, which studied the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko from 2014 to 2016 (SN: 8/6/14).

Comets are thought to be pristine relics from the solar system’s past. Rosetta had already detected phosphorus as well as the simplest amino acid glycine in the atmosphere of comet 67P (SN: 5/27/16). But clued in by the presence of phosphorus monoxide in the protostellar cloud, the spacecraft’s scientists looked at their data again and found that phosphorus monoxide was the main form of phosphorus in the icy body.

“It’s clearly telling us that comets contain the ingredients of life in their most basic form,” Drozdovskaya says.

Though essential for life, most of the phosphorus on Earth is locked up in minerals in its crust. Organisms tend to get the amount they need through their diet. Phosphorus monoxide, however, has the advantage of being soluble in water, making it far more biologically available than phosphorus locked in minerals, says study coauthor Víctor Rivilla of the Arcetri Astrophysical Observatory in Florence. If comets delivered phosphorus to the young Earth in the form of phosphorus monoxide, perhaps that helps explain how early life was able to access the element.

It’s still unclear exactly how the phosphorus molecules were created or if comets actually delivered them to Earth. “As much as we’re making enormous progress — and this paper is an example of that — there are still these giant gaps,” says George Cody, a geochemist at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C., who was not involved in the work.

A sample return mission that collects ice from a comet and brings it to terrestrial laboratories would allow scientists to do much more detailed analyses of such simple molecules and perhaps start to fill in a few details, he says. While missions are under way to retrieve samples from asteroids (SN: 1/15/19), NASA’s most recent comet sample–retrieval proposal, the Comet Astrobiology Exploration Sample Return (CAESAR), was not selected in the agency’s last round of funding.

Questions or comments on this article? E-mail us at feedback@sciencenews.org

CITATIONS

V.M. Rivilla et al. ALMA and ROSINA detections of phosphorus-bearing molecules: the interstellar thread between star-forming regions and comets. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Vol. 492, February 2020, p. 1180. doi: 10.1093/mnras/stz3336.

{ https://www.sciencenews.org/ }

ALIEN LIFE, UFO- CRASHES, ABDUCTIONS, MEN IN BLACK, ed ( FR. , NL; E )

Geschreven door peter om 23:50 Stuur door

Zondag 26 januari 2020

Alien Sex won’t be like you suppose’: Evolutionary biologist explains how extraterrestrials might reproduce

Alien Sex won’t be like you suppose’: Evolutionary biologist explains how extraterrestrials might reproduce

No-one knows, because people haven’t yet caught beings from outer space within the act of physical affection.

However now a top evolutionary biologist has decided to shed some light on how aliens may make love.

Dr. Sarah Otto, director of the biodiversity analysis centre at the University of British Columbia’s Zoology division, told Mirror On-line that people would have to ditch their earthbound preconceptions if they wish to understand what sex may look like on one other planet.

If aliens exist, would they have sex?

“I have never thought about aliens before,” she mentioned.

“However it’s an interesting thought experiment.

“What do we know about 4 billion years of evolution on Earth and what would we predict if it occurred all over again on another planet?”

Males are from Mars…

Earlier this month, an American lady referred to as Niara Terela Isley claimed reptilian aliens regularly raped her at their base on the dark side of the moon.

However aliens would in all probability find it very difficult to get jiggy with people, as a result of our bits and bobs are likely to be completely different shapes.

In addition to this, it is unclear whether or not the familiar gender binary of female and male would be replicated in an alien species.

Alien eroticism would probably be completely different, having developed alongside its own evolutionary lines.

Dr Otto mentioned the 2 gender approach was unlikely to be discovered on one other planet, because it does not always exist on Earth.

“The separate female and male sexes is not even universal rule on this earth, let alone others,” she continued.

Sexed up: All slugs are hermaphrodites, which means they’re able to breed quickly

(Photo: Wyevale Garden Centres/Rain Communications)

Aliens could be hermaphrodites, Dr Otto advised, which means they can basically have sex with themselves, however this would rely upon what kind of beastie ET turned out to be.

This could be useful, as a result of it means ET would not have to find a partner and then speak them into bed.

“Organisms that can move and find different mates usually tend to have separate genders,” she mentioned.

“Those that are stationery tend to have female and male organs on the same individual.”

Intruigingly, Dr Otto advised being that can’t move would not essentially be any less clever than one that can run about, raising the prospect that alien lifeforms could look more like trees than people.

Just watch out for these wandering branches.

In Star Wars, the well-known Storm Troopers were mentioned to be exact copies – or clones – of the bounty hunter Jango Fett.

However in a real galaxy far, far away, aliens are unlikely to clone themselves, as a result of reproducing your exact genetic make up could leave a species at risk of being wiped out by one single disease.

If a creature cloned itself, the species wouldn’t be able to benefit from the combinations and mutations which occur when women and men merge their genetic code throughout reproduction.

“Clonal species do not tend to do well in the long run,” Dr Otto added.

Not every species on our own planet relies on sex which takes place exclusively between 2 genders.

“Rather than female and male, some species have categories like A, B, C, D and E,” Dr Otto added.

“But regardless of truth they may have a number of mating varieties, it is solely two that are likely to take part in mating.”

This means aliens would unlikely to get involved in orgies, as a result of when it comes to producing the subsequent generation, more than two parents is certainly a crowd.

Pleasure seekers

It’s usually stated that people are unique because we enjoy having sex.

Of course, each species is hardwired to reproduce – otherwise they would not last very long.

“It isn’t shock that evolution has linked sex to pleasure centres of our brain,” Dr Otto mentioned.

This would mean aliens would probably feel a an urge to get down and dirty, whether they loved it or not.

Sound familiar?

Brave New World

In his famous novel, Aldous Huxley imagined a future the place intercourse was purely for enjoyable and infants have been produced in factories.

We asked Otto if this was unlikely to be the best way aliens produced their offspring.

“I sure hope not,” she replied.

“In factories and manufacturing industries, you are attempting to do things the same way again and again.

“Evolution does not work that way.”

Just like earthly creatures, aliens are likely to have benefited from the flukes caused by combining their genes over the courses of many tens of millions of generations.

“Evolution stops if replication is done perfectly,” Dr Otto concluded.

{ https://wholesecrets.com/ }

Geschreven door peter om 23:26 Stuur door

Zondag 26 januari 2020

Witnesses Say USS Nimitz “Tic-Tac” Had Incredible Flight Capabilities, But That’s Not All

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Witnesses Say USS Nimitz “Tic-Tac” Had Incredible Flight Capabilities, But That’s Not All

Micah Hanks

“Up, left, down, forward… any way it wanted to go, at any speed it wanted to go. Which was hard for your brain to kinda wrap around at first.”

This was how Gary Voorhis, former Petty Officer 3rd Class Fire Controlman aboard the USS Princeton, described the behavior of an unidentified flying object that was tracked and observed across multiple systems during a 2004 Naval incident off the coast of California. The events described here, commonly known today as the USS Nimitz UFO incident, have become one of the most widely-discussed instances involving unexplained aerial phenomena of the modern era.

A number of key factors have contributed to the attention this incident has gained, which include the involvement of multiple witnesses, and more fundamentally, that it had been a military encounter with obvious national defense implications. Also contributing to the interest it has received had been footage obtained with the help of the Raytheon ATFLIR targeting pod systems employed by the Navy, as well as observations by radar operators and other technicians in the Navy’s Strike Carrier Group-11. All of these sources provided information about the operational capabilities of the craft, which has since been popularly likened to a bus-sized, flying “tic-tac”.

Gary Voorhis and Ryan Weigelt, both of whom served with the Carrier Group-11 at the time of the incident, related a number of unique details to me during a recent interview I conducted with them about the incident. Voorhis, as described earlier, had been a Petty Officer 3rd Class Fire Controlman aboard the USS Princeton, and was one of the system technicians for the Cooperative Engagement Capability and AEGIS Combat systems, which included the AN/SPY-1 Bravo radar. Weigelt, a former Leading Petty Officer, had been the power plant specialist of the SH-60B Seahawk helicopter at the same time.

One of the key elements that both men shared with me in our interview had been their recollection of seeing the now-famous intercept attempt led by Commander David Fravor, a former commanding officer of Strike Fighter Squadron 41 (and, notably, the officer to first compare the object or aircraft’s shape to a “tic-tac”). Fravor was accompanied at the time of the intercept by his weapon systems officer and two other pilots.

“When I started watching this film to begin with,” Voorhis recalled, “they had already started the intercept. The object was moving around, and it was moving in conjunction with the pilot. It would move out of the frame, but then the pilot would adjust, and it would come back into the frame.

“And then it would move sharp to the right, sharp to the left, up, down, any particular direction it wanted to go. It had no rudders, no props, no jet plume. You couldn’t tell which side was the front and which side was the back, except that you’d just assume that which way is going forward is front. But you can’t even assume that, because it would just move sideways.

“You’re waiting for it to move,” Voorhis said. “Then it just moves.”

Voorhis also said that the objects were tracked more than once on radar over the course of several weeks and that, on a few occasions when such radar detections occurred, he attempted to observe the objects with binoculars from the top deck of the U.S.S. Princeton. Voorhis described seeing what appeared to be movement of phosphorescent, albeit ambiguous objects along the horizon in the direction indicated by radar.

And yet, perhaps the Nimitz object’s otherworldly maneuverability isn’t the only impressive thing about its capabilities. Shortly after the initial phase of the intercept, Fravor and the others were alerted via radio that the object reappeared, this time at a designated “cap point”, as indicated in interviews about the incident.

Video footage obtained by pilot Chad Underwood shortly after the initial intercept during the 2004 incident.

“We were at least 40 miles away, and in less than a minute this thing was already at our cap point,” Fravor told the New York Times in 2017. Although the unidentified object at no time displayed any offensive capabilities or other indications of hostile intent, the fact that it (or rather, its operators) had obvious knowledge of the Combat Air Patrol coordinates seems to indicate one of two possibilities:

1) That in addition to highly advanced maneuverability, the “tic-tac” also had the ability to decode the highly encrypted communications systems employed by the Strike Group at that time, or
2) The operators of the UAP technology may have somehow had foreknowledge or other means of access to this information.

The implications of either scenario are significant, and may even be fundamental to understanding the nature of the technology in question.

The various accounts of this object and its capabilities, observed at close-range by Fravor and his company during the intercept, as well as on radar by Voorhis, Day, and others, indicates something that is well beyond the capabilities of any known technologies possessed today by the United States; the same can be said of any other world superpower. This should not necessarily be alarming, as there was no indication of overt offensive capabilities displayed by the object. However, any object or aircraft with such highly advanced performance should not be ruled out as a concern.

It could be decades (at least) before any further information is released that will give the public a clear idea as to what the 2004 Nimitz incident really entailed. That, however, relies heavily on whether the U.S. government–or that of any nation–actually possesses any significant further information in the first place.

Geschreven door peter om 22:37 Stuur door

Zondag 26 januari 2020

Mushrooms Date Back to the First Plant Life on Earth

Mushrooms Date Back to the First Plant Life on Earth

Paul Seaburn

You’ve got to love mushrooms. They’re good to eat (well, most of them), they have psychedelic and healing powers, they come in a wide array of beautiful shapes and colors, they play a part in many folklore tales … we could go on and on about ‘shrooms. And now, there’s another great reason to love them – a new study finds that mushrooms are 300 million years older than first thought, dating back 810 million years to a time when they joined the first plants as the only living things on the dry surface of Earth. Yes, this is indeed a “This changes everything!” moment, brought to you by your favorite fungi – mushrooms.

“This is a major discovery, and one that prompts us to reconsider our timeline of the evolution of organisms on Earth.”

Where is everybody?

In a study led by Steeve Bonneville, professor at the Université libre de Bruxelles (a French-speaking private research university in Brussels, Belgium), researchers found fossilized remains of mycelium – microscopic strands of fungi — in ancient rocks from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. These 715 and 810 million-year-old rocks were at the Africa Museum in Tervuren, Belgium and had been determined to have been from a lagoon or coastal lake. The age and location makes these fungi-filled rocks historically special to Bonneville.

“The presence of fungi in this transitional area between water and land leads us to believe that these microscopic mushrooms were important partners of the first plants that colonized the Earth’s surface around 500 million years ago.”

Using non-destructive microscopic molecular analysis techniques such as synchrotron radiation spectroscopy, μ-Raman confocal microscopy, fluorescence microscopy and electron microscopy, Bonneville and his colleagues were able to study the organic remains in the rocks without damaging them. This allowed them to find traces of chitin, a very tough compound found in the cell walls of fungi, and determine that the cells had a nucleus, making them eukaryotic organisms … and the world’s oldest mushrooms.

We know what you’re thinking … are these the first magic mushrooms? Did the researchers eat them and experience 800-million-year-old visions? There’s nothing in the press release or the study, published in Science Advances, that would suggest they tried this, let alone even considered it. For that, you’ll have to visit the Democratic Republic of the Congo and find your own 800 million-year-old fungi-filled rocks to lick.

Now THAT would change everything.

Geschreven door peter om 22:07 Stuur door

Zondag 26 januari 2020

A Policeman’s Bizarre UFO Encounter in New Mexico

A Policeman’s Bizarre UFO Encounter in New Mexico

Brent Swancer

The outskirts of Socorro, New Mexico blend right into desert badlands that stretch off into the horizon, a seemingly unforgiving, hostile place of parched earth and spiny plants. On April 24, 1964, at about 5:50 p.m., a plume of dust kicked up over this moonscape, originating from the patrol car of police officer Lonnie Zamora. He had been in a high speed chase moments before, when a strange roaring sound had filled his ears and he had witnessed a bluish, orange flame soaring through the sky some distance away. It was all odd enough that he had broken off from the chase and was now barreling down a rural road towards where he estimated the flame had originated from to investigate. At this point he was not thinking of UFOs or the world of the weird. His best guess was that a car had overturned or a dynamite shack in the vicinity had blown up, but as he navigated the winding, rough and remote road he saw something sitting out in that desert that he at first assumed to be a white car overturned on the road with what looked like two people standing nearby. At this point he thought that his instincts were correct, and that there had been an accident, but as he rushed forward to offer assistance he would soon realize that this was no car. And thus would begin one of the most well-documented and discussed UFO encounters there is.

As Zamora approached, he could see that rather than an overturned vehicle, the object seemed to be a whitish, “O” or egg shaped vehicle with no discernible windows or doors and a shiny sheen like aluminum, as well as what looked like a set of four thin legs underneath it propping it up, and the figures standing nearby were about the size of small adults, with somewhat large heads and wearing what looked like coveralls and possibly some sort of headgear. Even at this point he wasn’t struck by anything particularly outlandish, although it was starting to give him the odd feeling that something was “off.” The object had some sort of red insignia on it, although he could not tell what exactly it depicted or what it meant, and he says that one of the figures seemed to jump in surprise when it realized he was approaching, after which both of them seemed to disappear within the object. In the meantime Zamora had radioed in the incident and it was then that he would be truly shocked when the object in question began to lift up straight into the air. He explains of what happened next:

Hardly turned around from car, when heard roar (was not exactly a blast), very loud roar — at that close was real loud. Not like a jet — know what jets sound like. Started low frequency quickly, then roar rose in frequency (higher tone) and in loudness — from loud to very loud. At same time as roar saw flame. Flame was under the object. Object was starting to go straight up — slowly up. Object slowly rose straight up. Flame was light blue and at bottom was sort of orange color. From this angle, saw the side of object (not end, as first noted). Difficult to describe flame. Thought, from roar, it might blow up. Flame might have come from underside of object, at middle, possibly a four feet area — very rough guess. Cannot describe flame further except blue and orange. No smoke, except dust in immediate area.

After fell by car and glasses fell off, kept running to north, with car between me and object. Glanced back couple of times. Noted object to rise to about level of car, about 20 to 25 feet guess — took I guess about six seconds when object started to rise and I glanced back. I ran I guess about halfway to where I ducked down — about fifty feet from the car is where I ducked down, just over edge of hill. I guess I had run about 25 feet when I glanced back and saw the object level with the car and it appeared about directly over the place where it rose from.

I was still running and I jumped just over the hill — I stopped because I did not hear the roar. I was scared of the roar, and I had planned to continue running down the hill. I turned around toward the object and at same time put my head toward ground, covering my face with my arms. Being that there was no roar, I looked up, and I saw the object going away from me. It did not come any closer to me. It appeared to go in straight line and at same height — possibly 10 to 15 feet from ground, and it cleared the dynamite shack by about three feet. Shack about eight feet high. Object was travelling very fast. It seemed to rise up, and take off immediately across country.

He would claim that after this spectacular takeoff the craft ceased to make any noise or flame, and proceeded to silently shoot off into the distance over a mountain. As he stood there in shock and we at what he had just witnessed backup arrived, in the form of a Sergeant Chavez. Zamora excitedly told Chavez about what had happened, and the two searched the area to allegedly find strange indentations and scorch marks upon the earth. Other officers who would arrive claimed that some of the vegetation and the ground were still hot to the touch, with some of it even described as still smoldering, as if just hit by a massive heat. Not long after this, word got out about this outlandish incident and reporters were coming in droves, with headlines splashed all over the news talking of aliens and UFOs in the desert.

This quickly got the attention of the government, including the FBI and the U.S. Air Force, in particular the study it had initiated into UFO sightings, called Project Blue Book. Investigators would intensively question Zamora about the incident and deem him to be a reliable witness, a respected police officer who seemed to be telling the truth and had no reason to lie. The FBI would say Zamora was “well regarded as a sober, industrious, and conscientious officer and not given to fantasy.” When Zamora then brought them out to the alleged landing sight, they found wrecked, charred brush and the indentations he spoke of, as well as what looked like some sort of metal scrapings on a rock, and it was all rather baffling indeed.

Investigators were also able to track down other people who had possibly witnessed the same exact event. It turned out that several independent witnesses had also reported seeing an egg-shaped unidentified object trailing a blueish flame at approximately the same time as Zamora’s encounter. One witness in particular gave a dramatic report of some sort of silvery craft emerging from a bank of black smoke, of which he said, “a round, saucer or egg-shaped object ascended vertically from the black smoke… After climbing vertically out of the smoke, the object leveled off and moved in a southwest direction.” There were other witnesses as well, including those who had seen the object visually and those who had heard a strange roar echo out across the desolate landscape, as ell as those who had seen merely a bright flash from the region, but it is all intriguing as many of these reports came in before Zamora’s tale even hit the news. In the end, the case had experts and investigators stumped, and Major Hector Quintanilla, the Air Force Chief of Project Blue Book at the time, would call it a genuinely puzzling case, and he would write in his report on the matter:

There is no doubt that Lonnie Zamora saw an object which left quite an impression on him. There is also no question about Zamora’s reliability. He is a serious police officer, a pillar of his church, and a man well versed in recognizing airborne vehicles in his area. He is puzzled by what he saw, and frankly, so are we. This is the best-documented case on record, and still we have been unable, in spite of thorough investigation, to find the vehicle or other stimulus that scared Zamora to the point of panic.

This is particularly odd, as it was in an era in which Project Blue Book was on a crusade to debunk sightings as much as possible, the days of weather balloons, misidentified aircraft, and of course Venus, and rarely admitted to or covered up those that were genuinely unexplained. Adding to the weirdness of it all was a discovery allegedly made in 1968, when a a University of New Mexico doctoral student in radiation biology by the name of Mary G. Mayes claimed to have gone out to the site of the landing to do a study on the “plant material” of the area, and had found that not only were the plants around the site unusually dried out, but that there seemed to be an area of fused sand in the middle of all of this, which looked as if “a hot jet had hit it.” She would claim that after these discoveries the Air Force had moved in to acquire all of her research, data, and samples and that was the last she heard of it.

In later years, the Zamora incident would gain a lot of traction in the UFO community, as it was extremely well-documented and considered a truly unclassifiable event made by a reliable witness, and Zamora would continue to stand by his story. Of course, the main problem is that there is only one person who ever saw the landed craft and around which all of this revolves, and that is Zamora himself. As such, there has been much debate as to how much any of it holds up, and so there have been a lot of theories proposed on what might have gone on out there along that remote road. It has often been suggested that this was all a hoax, not necessarily implemented by Zamora, but perhaps a prank played on him by some enterprising individuals, but if that is the case then they did a good job of fooling everyone involved, including the FBI and Air Force. There is also of course the notion that Zamora set this all himself, as part of a scheme in order to raise tourism to the area.

Other ideas have really run the range, including ball lightning, dust devils, mirages, and top secret military aircraft, even an experimental lunar surveyor being tested out of the nearby White Sands Missile Range. Then of course there is the idea that this was an actual encounter with otherworldly forces, and that this was a genuine alien encounter. It is hard to say, as Zamora is no longer with us, having taken what he saw to the grave with him, and the case has mostly been dropped officially, merely an unexplained little hiccup listed simply as “unknown” and not worthy of follow-up. Whatever it is Zamora encountered out there, it has remained one of the most well-documented and oft discussed UFO encounters out there, and without any definitive answers we will probaby never know exactly what transpired.

Geschreven door peter om 21:17 Stuur door

Zondag 26 januari 2020

Alien Craft Recorded By Pilot Over Utah, Video, UFO Sighting News.

Alien Craft Recorded By Pilot Over Utah, Video, UFO Sighting News.

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Date of sighting: Sept 2019

Location of sighting: Utah, USA

Source: MUFON #105762

A professional pilot recorded this at 40,000 feet. This is just absolutly amazing. This is great raw footage of an actual UFO. Most UFOs appear white and orb shaped...but this disk is unique. This is an important video because not only does it tell us the size, shape and color of the object, but it tells us how smoothly and easily this craft moves through the sky.

Scott C. Waring - Taiwan

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{ https://www.etdatabase.com/ }

Geschreven door peter om 20:03 Stuur door

Zondag 26 januari 2020

UFO Armada Over Ocean Seen From Space Station, Video, UFO Sighting News.

UFO Armada Over Ocean Seen From Space Station, Video, UFO Sighting News.

Date of sighting: Jan 26, 2020

Location of sighting: Earths orbit a ISS

Source: ISS live NASA cam

This is some cool footage of three UFOs rising up out of the ocean. Each UFO is about 1.5 km long...and one of them is still half under water. UFOs have been reported by pilots that size, so its not unusual at all. The UFO on the far left is the the leader of the fleet. You can see the UFO on the far left is about 75% out of the water, the center UFO is 45% and the UFO on the far right is only about 20% out of the water. Once the UFOs have left the water, they must wait in position for a few minutes until most water has fallen off the ship, because the water can cause hull damage when heating up fast and freezing fast exiting our atmosphere...but when they go light speed...a little water can really send them off track by a long ways.

Scott C. Waring - Taiwan

ovni%252C%2Bomni%252C%2B%2BMUFON%252C%2B%2BUFO%252C%2BUFOs%252C%2Bsighting%252C%2Bsightings%252C%2Balien%252C%2Baliens%252C%2BET%252C%2Banomaly%252C%2Banomalies%252C%2Bastrobiology%252C%2Bpaleontology%252C%2Bwaarneming%252C%2Bvreemdelinge%252C%2B%2B.png

2018

2017

{ https://www.etdatabase.com/ }

Geschreven door peter om 19:51 Stuur door

Zondag 26 januari 2020

Giant metallic disc with portholes seen in the sky over Tulsa, Oklahoma

Giant metallic disc with portholes seen in the sky over Tulsa, Oklahoma

Shannon was walking with her son to school when she saw a huge metallic disc with portholes in the sky over Tulsa, Oklahoma on January 20, 2020. The sun was reflecting off of it and although it scared her what she saw, she took a photo of the UFO with her phone.

metallic-disc-portholes-tulsa%252C%2Boklahoma.jpg

Shannon states: I can tell you, first of all there was a humming noise that I heard that was not heard by anyone else all the night before.

It was huge, I'd say, maybe 3 football fields wide. It was surrounded by clouds that we're all different colors. It was very low and the top part of it was completely enveloped.

After I dropped my son off at school I came back out and stood amazed, I couldn't believe no one else reported it.

Remarkable; a similar UFO with portholes has been photographed by Daniela in Germany. (See image above).

In the following video Mrmbb333 talks about these two UFOs.

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

Geschreven door peter om 19:19 Stuur door

Zondag 26 januari 2020

Time-Traveling Humans From the Future Might Be Piloting UFOs

Time-Traveling Humans From the Future Might Be Piloting UFOs

Gary Wilcox UFO

Over the decades, many people have fascinated with unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and aliens. However, visiting extraterrestrials may be products of time rather than the universe.

UFO pilots could be our future progeny that have understood well the landscape of time and space. Montana Tech University professor Michael Masters recently claimed that the ET spacecraft or commonly called as UFOs that people previously observed, could have contained humans from the future rather than aliens.

Dr. Masters said that humans would utilize contraptions to travel back in time for them to understand their evolutionary past.

He is focusing on human evolution study and says his theory is consistent with reams of UFO sightings. He believes that time travelers from the future are anthropologists much like himself with so many claims of alien abductions and medical examinations.

Those who claimed to have been abducted described humanoid aliens with incredible technology. Scientists experimented with the arrow of time reversal for a split second to simulate the possibility of time travel using quantum particles named qubits. If this experiment gives even a slight chance, it will support the theory of Dr. Masters.

The professor believes that UFOs are time machines from the future.

He described the extra-tempestrial as being bi-lateral symmetry, having five fingers on each foot and hand, upright-walking, bipedal, having two eyes, a mouth, a nose and having the ability to communicate with us in our languages.

The proof that led the professor to this bizarre theory is when most people who reported close encounters with aliens always seem to describe them in the same way. He stated that he took a multidisciplinary approach to understand the oddities of this phenomenon. However, he remains vigilant in his skepticism and does not have a staunch unwavering devotion to this notion. He believes that going back in time to study ancient humans would be the holy grail of paleontology.

Anthropologists do not discount the possibility that humans of the future will crack the secrets of time travel, considering the fast pace of scientific and technological advancement over the past century

Geschreven door peter om 18:50 Stuur door

Zondag 26 januari 2020

Rippling ice and storms at Mars’ north pole

Stormy activity at Mars’ icy north pole

Rippling ice and storms at Mars’ north pole

ESA’s Mars Express has captured beautiful images of the icy cap sitting at Mars’ north pole, complete with bright swathes of ice, dark troughs and depressions, and signs of strong winds and stormy activity.

The poles of Mars are covered in stacked layers of ice that subtly shift in extent and composition throughout the year.

During summer, the pole is permanently covered by thick layers of mostly water ice; during winter, temperatures plummet below -125 degrees Celsius and carbon dioxide begins to precipitate and build up as ice, creating a thinner additional layer a couple of metres thick. Winter also brings carbon dioxide clouds, which can obscure the polar features below and make it difficult to see clearly from orbit.

Mars’ north pole in context

This view from Mars Express’ High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) suffers from very little such cloud cover, and shows the northern polar cap during the summer of 2006.

The landscape is a rippled mix of colour, from the bright whites of water ice to the dark reds and browns of martian dust, and displays a number of interesting phenomena.

Dark red and ochre-hued troughs appear to cut through the ice cap. These form part of a wider system of depressions that spiral outwards from the very centre of the pole. When viewed on a larger scale, as in the context map, this pattern becomes evident: the rippling troughs curve and bend and slice outwards in an anti-clockwise orientation, wrapping around the pole and creating a pattern akin to zebra stripes.

These spiralling features are thought to have formed via a mix of processes, the most significant one being wind erosion. It is thought that winds circle radially away from the centre of the north pole, moving outwards cyclically to create the spiral pattern we see.

Mars’ north polar ice cap in 3D

These winds, known as katabatic winds, move cold, dry air downslope under the force of gravity, often originating in areas of higher elevation (such as glaciers or snow-covered plateaus) and flowing down into lower, warmer areas such as valleys and depressions. They are acted upon by the Coriolis force as they move, which causes them to deviate from a straight path and form the aforementioned spiral pattern we see.

Visible to the left of the frame are a few extended streams of clouds, aligned perpendicularly to a couple of the troughs. These are thought to be caused by small local storms that kick up dust into the martian atmosphere, eroding scarps and slopes as they do so and slowly changing the appearance of the troughs over time.

The poles, and any active processes taking place in these regions, are particularly interesting areas of Mars. These layers of ice hold information about Mars’ past, particularly concerning how its climate has evolved and changed in the last few millions of years: ice mixes with layers of surface dust and settles at the north and south poles, capturing a snapshot of the planet’s characteristics during that period of history.

A key goal of HRSC is to explore the various phenomena occurring in the martian atmosphere, such as winds and storms, and the many intriguing geological processes that take place across – and below – the Red Planet’s surface.

The camera has been returning impressively detailed views of Mars for many years. Mars Express arrived at the Red Planet in late 2003, and has revealed much about the planet and its history – including mapping its surface at resolutions of 10 m/pixel or greater, exploring how wet and humid early Mars may have been, characterising its amazing volcanoes and bizarre surface features and geography, and probing deeper to determine the structure and components of its sub-surface.

This aim of characterising the entirety of the planet and its history will be continued and furthered by the ESA-Roscosmos ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, which arrived at Mars in 2016, and the ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover and its accompanying surface science platform, which will arrive next year.

This image is published to coincide with the Seventh International Conference on Mars Polar Science and Exploration, which is taking place in Argentina from 13 to 17 January 2020. This is the latest in a series of international and interdisciplinary conferences to share knowledge about the intriguing polar regions of the Red Planet.

{ http://www.esa.int/ }

Geschreven door peter om 01:47 Stuur door

Zondag 26 januari 2020

The problems with modern physics

The problems with modern physics

By Paul Sutter

Physicists have certainly achieved a lot, but many mysteries about the universe remain.

The galaxy cluster Abell 1689 is famous for the way it bends light in a phenomenon called gravitational lensing. Study of the cluster has revealed secrets about how dark energy shapes the universe.

(Image: © NASA, ESA, E. Jullo (JPL/LAM), P. Natarajan (Yale) and J-P. Kneib (LAM))

Paul M. Sutter is an astrophysicist at Stony Brook University and the Flatiron Institute, host of Ask a Spaceman and Space Radio, and author of "Your Place in the Universe." Sutter contributed this article to Space.com's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

Modern physics has many achievements to be proud of. A quantum understanding of three of the forces of nature. A beautiful, elegant description of gravity though the bending of space-time. An understanding of the history of our universe stretching back billions of years.

Physicists should rightly pat themselves on the back for such a bang-up job. This is isn't easy stuff.

And yet, mysteries abound, and sometimes we feel more in the dark than we did 100 years ago. Let's explore some of the major issues that modern physics is still trying to understand.

Related: The History & Structure of the Universe (Infographic)

Bring everyone together

The early 1900s was such a simple time. We had our theory of electromagnetism, which elegantly and simply unified our understanding of electricity, magnetism and radiation. It was awesome. And we also had Newton's laws, which provided a solid framework for understanding motion. These two pillars propped up our physical world. It was great.

Then folks like Albert Einstein had to come and smash it all. With special relativity, we had to completely rewrite our notions of time, space, distance and speed. And with quantum mechanics, we had to sit down and have a serious rethink about … well, basically all of fundamental reality.

And so physicists undertook a massive program of unification, trying to put all physics laws under a single roof. And they were largely successful: special relativity married to gravity gave us general relativity. Special relativity combined with quantum mechanics led to the quantum field theories, which went on to enhance our understanding of the electromagnetic force, and once they were discovered, the strong and weak nuclear forces.

We didn't stop the train there. Experiments and theory in the 1950s revealed that the electromagnetic and weak nuclear forces were actually two sides of the same "electroweak" coin — these forces merged into one entity at high energies. Not to be outdone, so-called Grand Unified Theories put forward attempts to fold in the strong nuclear force as well.

The last force standing independently is gravity. And still today, decades later, we have no quantum description of gravity. And we've worked really hard on the problem, but every time we try to apply quantum techniques to Einstein's force, the math goes haywire and we can't make predictions.

Why? Who knows.

What can we do to fix it? Who knows.

Related: 8 Baffling Astronomy Mysteries

But why this universe?

Certain physics constants rule our everyday experience. The speed of light. The charge on the electron. The strength of the weak nuclear force. All in all, about 18 individual numbers need to be plugged into the Standard Model — our quantum framework for three of the four forces of nature and all the particles that make up the building blocks of our world — to make it work.

The Standard Model simply can't explain why we have the forces of nature that we do, why we have the families of particles that we do, why those forces and particles act the way they do and basically any other question that starts with the word "why."

In fact, the way the creaky mathematical machinery behind the Standard Model works, those constants must be measured experimentally and plugged into a few key places in the equations; otherwise all the calculations blow up. It's a slightly uncomfortable sensation to know that our math wouldn't be able to make predictions without these constants plugged in.

The strengths of the forces are particularly troublesome, especially gravity. Gravity is so embarrassingly weak: it's billions upon billions of times weaker than the weak nuclear force. Let that sink in: gravity is even weaker than the force with "weak" literally in its name.

Why? This is called the hierarchy problem. We don't have a solution, just a name for the problem.

Seeing in the dark

Our troubles aren't limited to theoretical pursuits to unify the forces, questionable mathematics and puzzling particle collider results. Starting a few decades, astronomers decided that we didn't have enough problems and tossed in a brand-new ingredient to the universe: dark matter.

We know that dark matter exists: we see evidence for it everywhere from the motion of stars inside galaxies to the background light left over from the earliest days of the universe. And while we understand a lot about what dark matter must act like, we haven't nailed down the culprit. We can only detect it through its gravitational effects, and astronomers suspect that it's a new kind of particle, hitherto unknown to the Standard Model, that floods the universe but does not interact through the electromagnetic force, making it completely invisible.

And then there's dark energy.

In the late 1990s, astronomers discovered — and we've backed this up since then with a host of independent observations — that the expansion of our universe is accelerating.

We have absolutely no idea what's causing this.

Our best guess is that it has something to do with the energy locked in the vacuum of space-time itself, but our simplest, most naïve calculations estimate a strength of dark energy that's about 10,120 orders of magnitude too high.

Whoops.

So that's a big mystery. As far as we can tell, we're not misunderstanding something about the way gravity works at the largest scales, so whatever is causing dark energy must be a new ingredient character operating in the cosmos.

As to more details in the pursuit of pinning down this strange acceleration, we're at a loss.

But at least we have some job security.

Learn more by listening to the episode "Is String Theory Worth It? (Part 1: Unify This!)" on the Ask A Spaceman podcast, available on iTunes and on the Web at http://www.askaspaceman.com. Thanks to John C., Zachary H., @edit_room, Matthew Y., Christopher L., Krizna W., Sayan P., Neha S., Zachary H., Joyce S., Mauricio M., @shrenicshah, Panos T., Dhruv R., Maria A., Ter B., oiSnowy, Evan T., Dan M., Jon T., @twblanchard, Aurie, Christopher M., @unplugged_wire, Giacomo S., Gully F. for the questions that led to this piece! Ask your own question on Twitter using #AskASpaceman or by following Paul @PaulMattSutter and facebook.com/PaulMattSutter.

Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.

{ https://www.space.com/ }

Read about how this video was made

Geschreven door peter om 01:33 Stuur door

Zondag 26 januari 2020

Crab Nebula: Visualize an exploded star

Crab Nebula: Visualize an exploded star

Posted by Eleanor Imster and Deborah Byrd in SPACE

A new NASA video combines visible, infrared and X-ray views of the famous Crab Nebula, a star that exploded into view in our sky 1,000 years ago.

NASA released the video above on January 5, 2020, saying it was created by astronomers and visualization specialists from its Universe of Learning program. These experts combined visible, infrared and X-ray vision of the famous Crab Nebula, the remains of a star that exploded into view in Earth’s sky in the year 1054. The video shows images from the Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes. It shows the pulsar at the heart of the Crab Nebula – the rapidly spinning, super-dense crushed core of the exploded star – which sends high-energy jets in either direction into the nebula, and which serve as what NASA calls the powerhouse “engine” of the entire system.

In a statement, NASA said:

The tiny dynamo [the pulsar] is blasting out blistering pulses of radiation 30 times a second with unbelievable clockwork precision.

The visualization was produced by a team at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland; the Caltech/IPAC in Pasadena, California; and the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA) in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It debuted earlier this month at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii.

EarthSky 2020 lunar calendars are available! Only a few left. Order now!

Electric blue blob on a black background with jet coming out of oval center.

X-ray view of the Crab Nebula from Chandra X-Ray Observatory.

Image via NASA/ CfA/ J. DePasquale.

STScI’s visualization scientist Frank Summers led the team that developed the video. He said:

Seeing two-dimensional images of an object, especially of a complex structure like the Crab Nebula, doesn’t give you a good idea of its three-dimensional nature. With this scientific interpretation, we want to help people understand the Crab Nebula’s nested and interconnected geometry. The interplay of the multiwavelength observations illuminate all of these structures. Without combining X-ray, infrared, and visible light, you don’t get the full picture.

NASA described the video this way:

The movie begins by showing the Crab Nebula in context, pinpointing its location in the constellation Taurus. This view zooms in to present the Hubble, Spitzer, and Chandra images of the Crab Nebula, each highlighting one of the nested structures in the system. The video then begins a slow buildup of the three-dimensional X-ray structure, showing the pulsar and a ringed disk of energized material, and adding jets of particles firing off from opposite sides of the energetic dynamo.

Appearing next is a rotating infrared view of a cloud enveloping the pulsar system, and glowing from synchrotron radiation. This distinctive form of radiation occurs when streams of charged particles spiral around magnetic field lines. There is also infrared emission from dust and gas.

The visible-light outer shell of the Crab Nebula appears next. Looking like a cage around the entire system, this shell of glowing gas consists of tentacle-shaped filaments of ionized oxygen (oxygen missing one or more electrons). The tsunami of particles unleashed by the pulsar is pushing on this expanding debris cloud like an animal rattling its cage.

The X-ray, infrared, and visible-light models are combined at the end of the movie to reveal both a rotating three-dimensional multiwavelength view and the corresponding two-dimensional multiwavelength image of the Crab Nebula.

Summers commented:

The three-dimensional views of each nested structure give you an idea of its true dimensions. To enable viewers to develop a complete mental model, we wanted to show each structure separately, from the ringed disk and jets in stark relief, to the synchrotron radiation as a cloud around that, and then the visible light as a cage structure surrounding the entire system.

These nested structures are peculiar to the Crab Nebula. They reveal that the nebula is not a classic supernova remnant as once commonly thought. Instead, the system is better classified as a pulsar wind nebula. NASA explained:

A traditional supernova remnant consists of a blast wave and debris from the supernova that has been heated to millions of degrees. In a pulsar wind nebula, the system’s inner region consists of lower-temperature gas that is heated up to thousands of degrees by the high-energy synchrotron radiation.

Bright yellow lines, bright pink blob against a black background.

Isn’t this a cool image? It’s the famous Crab Nebula – the remnant of a star that exploded 1,000 years ago – as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope. Superimposed on the visible light image from Hubble is an X-ray image from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory (in lavender), revealing the nebula’s high-energy heart.

Image via NASA/ ESA/ J. DePasquale (STScI)/ R. Hurt (Caltech/IPAC).

Bottom line: A new NASA video combines visible, infrared and X-ray views of the famous Crab Nebula, a star that exploded into view in our sky 1,000 years ago.
Via HubbleSite

{ https://earthsky.org/ }

Geschreven door peter om 01:02 Stuur door

Zondag 26 januari 2020

Ex Navy boss stumped by UFOs

Ex Navy boss stumped by UFOs

Milestone: This is De Void’s first UFO story to make the Herald-Tribune’s print edition. Please note the direct style, as well as the paucity of adverbs and meaningless tangents.

SARASOTA – America’s former Chief of Naval Operations stated on Thursday that the unidentified flying objects that appeared to have outperformed Navy fighter pilots on videos recorded in 2004 and 2015 remain a mystery.

“I’ve seen the videos and, at least in my time, most of the assessments were inconclusive as to what it was,” said retired Admiral Gary Roughead, following a speaking engagement in Sarasota. “But the whole issue of defense against autonomous vehicles is one that the Department is taking pretty darned seriously.”

Three sets of gun-camera videos – one taken from an F-18 assigned to the USS Nimitz operating off southern California in November 2004, and two more from Super Hornets attached to the USS Roosevelt during maneuvers off Jacksonville in January 2015 – were authenticated as official government footage by the Defense Department last year.

Former Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Gary Roughead takes questions from a Sarasota Institute of Lifetime Learning audience

CREDIT: Billy Cox

The target of the 2004 footage, dubbed the “Tic Tac” for its oblong shape, reportedly plunged from 80,000 feet to 20,000 feet in less than a second, a speed that would have easily destroyed a conventional aircraft. The New York Times broke the story in 2017 and, last summer, in an unprecedented move, the Navy publicly announced it had issued new guidelines for its pilots to report “unidentified aircraft.”

Roughead commanded both the Atlantic and Pacific Fleets before serving as CNO from 2007 through 2011. Booked for a Sarasota Institute of Lifetime Learning lecture on China’s 21st century military strategy, the Admiral said “there weren’t that many” such events on his watch, but that developing “unmanned autonomous aircraft” remains a priority.

“I think we’re going to continue to see new technology in the form of unmanned systems that will begin to interfere with military capability. And we’re not alone. There’s no question that China and Russia want to plan.

“Without knowing what they may be — are they phenomena or are they vehicles that someone was able to get into place? — I think one of the great challenges that more people looked at is, where would these have come from? And quite frankly, I haven’t spent a lot of time on that issue.”

Retired Navy Cmdr. David Fravor, who chased the Tic Tac UFO and recounted that experience for The Times, also reported a related mystery occurring simultaneously underwater, beneath the Tic Tac. Roughead said underwater weapons systems pose the next great evolutionary hurdle.

“I remember there was one (UFO), and it may have been after I retired, that seemed to go under water,” he said. “If in fact it was a real vehicle, how did it launch and recover? Because as you know, it’s not an easy thing to get something that can perform extraordinarily well in the air and dive into the water and become something else. What that phenomenon was, I can’t help you out there.”

In fact, Roughead recalled how, in public speeches to defense contractors, he announced the next “game-changing” breakthrough will be submersible military assets, whose power-sourcing could be “more transformative than the autonomous stuff in the air.” He compared the scale of such ambitions to the Apollo moon shots, which will demand “a triad of business, government, and academia coming together.

“The aerodynamics and the hydrodynamics and the strength that’s required to be able to fly and operate at depths, and the power you need to move at high speeds in the air, then how do you convert that power to something under the water – those are huge technological challenges,” he said. “There’s no question in my mind that in the future of warfare, probably long after I’m gone, we’ll see that type of thing beginning to occur.”

Imagine, Roughead said, being able to park military technology at the bottom of the ocean, virtually undetected, at a strategic location, “tell it to go to sleep” indefinitely, and then activate it when needed.

But with a little foresight, he added, investigations into such mind-bending scenarios could be used to build bridges with rivals like China.

“We have to look for opportunities, we have to look for venues where we can bring caring people together to say, OK, there’s a technological issue here, how do we bring the bright minds together,” Roughead said.

“How do we protect our legitimate national security technologies and intellectual property, but still get after some of the hard problems? I think that’s a way for closing some of the gaps down the road and bringing trust between the two.

“The first step for me is, how do you define what it is that we can work on together (to) remove some of the sensitivities and suspicions? Until you have that discussion, you’re not going to make any progress. The journey begins with the first step.”

{ http://devoid.blogs.heraldtribune.com/ }

Geschreven door peter om 00:41 Stuur door

Zondag 26 januari 2020

Jupiter may not have caused our solar system's 'Great Divide' after all

Jupiter may not have caused our solar system's 'Great Divide' after all

By Mike Wall

Pressure peaks in the protoplanetary disk may be responsible.

An ALMA image of the young star HL Tau and the disk of gas and dust surrounding it. Rings in such protoplanetary disks indicate regions of pressure maxima, which could establish boundaries that help shape the developing planetary system

(Image: © ALMA (NRAO/ESO/NAOJ); C. Brogan, B. Saxton (NRAO/AUI/NSF))

One of our solar system's fundamental boundaries may have existed since the very beginning, a new study reports.

That demarcation, which lies just beyond Jupiter's orbit, is a dramatic one. The planets, asteroids and other objects sunward from the invisible line are lacking in carbon-containing organic compounds, whereas the stuff farther out is rich in organics.

Jupiter's hefty gravitational presence has been widely invoked to explain this "Great Divide." But computer simulations indicate that the gas giant was never big enough early in its history to keep the carbon-rich rocks and pebbles from spiraling into the inner solar system with the observed effectiveness, the new study found.

Related: How Did the Solar System Form?

"We banged our head against the wall," lead author Ramon Brasser, a researcher at the Earth-Life Science Institute, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan, said in a statement. "If Jupiter wasn't the agent responsible for creating and maintaining that compositional dichotomy, what else could be?"

Brasser and co-author Stephen Mojzsis, a professor of geological sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder, found inspiration, and a possible solution, in newly forming exoplanetary systems.

Images captured by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile have revealed intricate ring structures in the disks of dust and gas that surround newborn stars. The material in these disks is what planets are made of — and those rings serve as a sort of blueprint for the future planetary system, Brasser and Mojzsis determined.

A ring indicates that there is a band of maximum pressure in the protoplanetary disk, according to the two researchers. And such pressure peaks could explain our solar system's Great Divide.

"One or multiple such — potentially mobile — long-lived pressure maxima almost completely prevented pebbles from the Jovian region [from] reaching the terrestrial zone, maintaining a compositional partition between the two regions," the researchers wrote in the new study, which was published online today (Jan. 13) in the journal Nature Astronomy.

"We thus suggest that our young solar system's protoplanetary disk developed at least one and probably multiple rings, which potentially triggered the formation of the giant planets," they added.

The "almost" in the above statement is an important qualifier, however. Dribs and drabs of material from the outer system did sneak through the pressure net long ago, and some of it rained down on the young Earth, luckily for us.

“Those materials that might go to the Earth would be those volatile, carbon-rich materials," Mojzsis said in the same statement. “And that gives you water. It gives you organics."

Mike Wall's book about the search for alien life, "Out There" (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), is out now.

Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall.

Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.

{ https://www.space.com/ }

Geschreven door peter om 00:27 Stuur door

Zaterdag 25 januari 2020

Scientists Say We Travel To Parallel Universes When We Dream

Scientists Say We Travel To Parallel Universes When We Dream

Every night, humans have an average of 6-10 dreams. A few minutes after being awoken, these dreams are usually forgotten. However, what if there's actual meaning to dreams that would make them more lucrative to remember?

Modern science, as well as Native American tribes and Mexican nations, believe that we, or at least our brains visit a "parallel universe" when we dream. This would explain why humans can dream in color, and can senses with all five feelings what's happening within the dream. If you've ever dreamed of eating your grandmother's signature apple pie per se, have you ever realized that it feels like you can taste and smell the delicious pie in front of you? Or maybe you've dreamed of riding a roller coaster and felt the thrill of riding it as it climbs up the steep hills and rushes down the ramps.

The True Science Of Parallel Universes

Mystics also believe that there are places where dreaming takes place, but have related it to supernatural beings such as ghosts and spirits. However, since 1920 scientists have been trying to avoid such questionable beings, and in their quest to find the ideal place of nuclear particles to host dreams, they realized that such a formation would be impossible on Earth. Thus they shifted the argument away from the supernatural, and into an arguably more confusing field of physics.

An example of the scientist's theory of parallel universes would be to think of two worlds: one in which you are born, and one in which you aren't. Logically, you can never be in such a "dual" state within one dimension, and thus the need for multiple parallel dimensions arises. Think about it: in another world, there could be a copy of yourself who does things slightly differently, and as a result may have a better life than you. In another world, there could be a person like you who didn't forget his lines at the corporate meeting. In another world, there could be another version of you who understands what is going on with our dreams--and maybe by then, we'll know if the scientists or the mystics win out on this debate.

{ https://www.disclose.tv/ }

Geschreven door peter om 23:50 Stuur door

Zaterdag 25 januari 2020

Watch Latest UFO Footage – Is This Real Or Not?

Watch Latest UFO Footage – Is This Real Or Not

The most recent UFO sightings are often not investigated by those who claim to have seen the UFO. Of course, the majority of UFO sightings can be accounted for by the lens of the human mind, so it is a fact that many people see UFOs. However, many of these people have no knowledge of how to spot a UFO and are open to misinformation when they do.

Many people are very skeptical when it comes to seeing what they believe to be UFOs because they are unfamiliar with the actual evidence. Sometimes, they simply have no clue what they are looking at. So, how can you spot a UFO? Here are some things to consider.

One thing to consider is the overall aura of the film; in other words, does the footage seem real or does it look like a fake? This is important because the UFO is often perceived in a similar way. Is the film realistic and does it appear to be real?

Does the movie have a real sense of creepiness? If so, then the footage you are seeing may not be as genuine as you thought. It may just be a group of teenagers messing around with a camera, or someone trying to shoot a UFO with their very own camera.

Another thing to consider is the artistic license Jimmy Semper used with his shots. Have you ever noticed that many of the UFO’s shot in these movies seem to mimic real UFO’s? It is easy to see how this is possible, but it can be annoying.

You will also want to be careful about those comments that Jimmy Semper left on his website. Are they true or false? I don’t care about this, but you should decide if you believe Jimmy Semper’s statements.

These are just a few things you will want to think about before you decide to watch a YouTube video. Of course, the world is filled with UFO videos, so you are bound to see many others. That is why it is a good idea to check out more recent UFO footage, so you can learn how to spot a UFO and enjoy the best of the newest UFO footage that is available to watch.

Source:

http://footageofufos.com/2020/01/watch-latest-ufo-footage-is-this-real-or-not/

{ https://beforeitsnews.com/ }

SF-snufjes }, Robotics and A.I. Artificiel Intelligence ( E, F en NL )

Geschreven door peter om 22:58 Stuur door

Zaterdag 25 januari 2020

These Are the First Living Robots: Machines Made from Frog Stem Cells

These Are the First Living Robots: Machines Made from Frog Stem Cells

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a new kind of life.

By Courtney Linder

Scientists from Tufts University, the University of Vermont, and the Wyss Institute at Harvard have developed tiny, living organisms that can be programmed. Called "xenobots," these robots were made with frog stem cells.
The research, published in the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is meant to aid development of soft robots that can repair themselves when damaged.
Ultimately, the hope is these xenobots will be useful in cleaning up microplastics, digesting toxic materials, or even delivering drugs inside our bodies.

What happens when you cross stem cells from a frog heart and frog skin? Not much—that is, until you program those cells to move. In that case, you've created a xenobot, a new type of organism that's part robot, part living thing.

And we've never seen anything like it before.

Researchers from Tufts University, the University of Vermont, and Harvard University have created the first xenobots from frog embryos after designing them with computer algorithms and physically shaping them with surgical precision. The skin-heart embryos are just one millimeter in size, but can accomplish some remarkable things for what they are, like physically squirming toward targets.

"These are novel living machines," Joshua Bongard, a computer scientist and robotics expert at the University of Vermont who co-led the new research, said in a press statement. "They're neither a traditional robot nor a known species of animal. It's a new class of artifact: a living, programmable organism."

By studying these curious organisms, researchers hope to learn more about the mysterious world of cellular communication. Plus, these kinds of robo-organisms could possibly be the key to drug delivery in the body or greener environmental cleanup techniques.

"Most technologies are made from steel, concrete, chemicals, and plastics, which degrade over time and can produce harmful ecological and health side effects," the authors note in a research paper published in the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "It would thus be useful to build technologies using self-renewing and biocompatible materials, of which the ideal candidates are living systems themselves."

Building Xenobots

Xenobots borrow their name from Xenopus laevis, the scientific name for the African clawed frog from which the researchers harvested the stem cells. To create the little organisms, which scoot around a petri dish a bit like water bears—those tiny microorganisms that are pretty much impossible to kill—the researchers scraped living stem cells from frog embryos. These were separated into single cells and left to incubate.

They differentiated the stem cells into two different kinds: heart and skin cells. The heart cells are capable of expanding and contracting, which ultimately aids the xenobot in locomotion, and the skin cells provide structure. Next, using tiny forceps and an even smaller electrode, the scientists cut the cells and joined them together under a microscope in designs that were specified by a computer algorithm.

Interestingly, the two different kinds of cells did merge together well and created xenobots that could explore their watery environment for days or weeks. When flipped like a turtle on its shell, though, they could no longer move.

Other tests showed whole groups of xenobots are capable of moving in circles and pushing small items to a central location all on their own, without intervention. Some were built with holes in the center to reduce drag and the researchers even tried using the hole as a pouch to let the xenobots carry objects. Bongard said it's a step in the right direction for computer-designed organisms that can intelligently deliver drugs in the body.

Evolutionary Algorithms

On the left, the anatomical blueprint for a computer-designed organism, discovered on a UVM supercomputer. On the right, the living organism, built entirely from frog skin (green) and heart muscle (red) cells. The background displays traces carved by a swarm of these new-to-nature organisms as they move through a field of particulate matter.

SAM KRIEGMAN, UVM

While these xenobots are capable of some spontaneous movement, they can't accomplish any coordinated efforts without the help of computers. Really, xenobots couldn't fundamentally exist without designs created through evolutionary algorithms.

Just as natural selection dictates which members of a species live and which die off—based on certain favorable or unfavorable attributes and ultimately influencing the species' characteristics—evolutionary algorithms can help find beneficial structures for the xenobots.

A team of computer scientists created a virtual world for the xenobots and then ran evolutionary algorithms to see which potential designs for the xenobots could help them move or accomplish some other goal. The algorithm looked for xenobots that performed well at those particular tasks while in a given configuration, and then bred those microorganisms with other xenobots that were considered "fit" enough to survive this simulated natural selection.

In the video above, for example, you can see a simulated version of the xenobot, which is capable of forward movement. The final organism takes on a similar shape to this design and is capable of (slowly) getting around. The red and green squares at the bottom of the structure are active cells, in this case the heart stem cells, while the blueish squares represent the passive skin stem cells.

DOUGLAS BLACKISTON

All of this design work was completed over the course of a few months on the Deep Green supercomputer cluster at the University of Vermont. After a few hundred runs of the evolutionary algorithm, the researchers filtered out the most promising designs. Then, biologists at Tufts University assembled the real xenobots in vitro.

What's the Controversy?

Anything dealing with stem cells is bound to meet at least some flack because detractors take issue with the entire premise of using stem cells, which are harvested from developing embryos.

That's compounded with other practical ethics questions, especially relating to safety and testing. For instance, should the organisms have protections similar to animals or humans when we experiment on them? Could we, ourselves, eventually require protection from the artificially produced creatures?

"When you’re creating life, you don’t have a good sense of what direction it’s going to take," Nita Farahany, who studies the ethical ramifications of new technologies at Duke University and was not involved in the study, told Smithsonian Magazine. "Any time we try to harness life … [we should] recognize its potential to go really poorly."

Michael Levin, a biophysicist and co-author of the study from Tufts University, said that fear of the unknown in this case is not reasonable:

"When we start to mess around with complex systems that we don't understand, we're going to get unintended consequences," he said in a press statement. "If humanity is going to survive into the future, we need to better understand how complex properties, somehow, emerge from simple rules."

At its heart, the study is a "direct contribution to getting a handle on what people are afraid of, which is unintended consequences," Levin said.

Source: The University of Vermont

{ https://www.popularmechanics.com/ }

Geschreven door peter om 18:50 Stuur door

Zaterdag 25 januari 2020

MOXIE - MARS 2020 Mission

MOXIE - MARS 2020 Mission

The Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment is better known as MOXIE. NASA is preparing for human exploration of Mars, and MOXIE will demonstrate a way that future explorers might produce oxygen from the Martian atmosphere for propellant and for breathing.

Tech Specs

Main Job	To produce oxygen from the Martian carbon-dioxide atmosphere
Power	300 watts
Volume	9.4 x 9.4 x 12.2 inches (23.9 x 23.9 x 30.9 centimeters)
Oxygen Production Rate	About 10 grams per hour (About 0.022 pounds per hour)
Operation Time	Approximately two hours of oxygen (O2) production per experiment, which will be scheduled intermittently over the duration of the mission

"When we send humans to Mars, we will want them to return safely, and to do that they need a rocket to lift off the planet. Liquid oxygen propellant is something we could make there and not have to bring with us. One idea would be to bring an empty oxygen tank and fill it up on Mars."
- Michael Hecht, Principal Investigator

5 Things to Know

1. MOXIE Makes Oxygen on Mars

Carbon dioxide makes up ~96% of the gas in Mars' atmosphere. Oxygen is only 0.13%, compared to 21% in Earth's atmosphere.

2. MOXIE Is a Test Model

MOXIE is the size of a car battery. Future oxygen generators that support human missions on Mars must be about 100 times larger.

3. MOXIE Helps Future Explorers

To launch off of Mars, human explorers need about 33 to 50 tons (30 to 45 metric tons) of fuel, about the weight of a Space Shuttle.

4. MOXIE Breathes like a Tree

MOXIE makes oxygen like a tree does. It inhales carbon dioxide and exhales oxygen.

5. Homemade on Mars

Homemade liquid oxygen on Mars could supply more than ¾ of the propellant humans need for exploration on the Red Planet.

Where Is MOXIE Located?

MOXIE highlighted on the Mars 2020 Rover

Michael Hecht

Principal Investigator

Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Cambridge, Massachusetts

Meet the MOXIE Team ›

Did You Know?

Oxygen produced on Mars could help support the breathing air supply for human explorers.

For Scientists

NASA is preparing for human exploration of Mars, and the MOXIE investigation on the Mars 2020 mission aims to address key knowledge gaps.µ
Read More ›

The Story Behind the Name

MOXIE is a short, snappy name for a tool that helps lead to human footprints on Mars. It helps humans explore Mars by making OXygen. It works "In situ" (in place) on the Red Planet, and is an Experiment."

"Moxie" can also be a personality trait. Someone with moxie is considered bold and adventurous, hardy and spirited! No one is sure, but the word may trace back to Native American place names for "dark water." In the late 1800s, people drank "Moxie," a tonic and later a soft drink. Because the drink claimed health benefits, people began using moxie to mean vitality and endurance. It surely endures in American vocabulary today! You can still drink Moxie in some old-time, nostalgic soda-pop shops today.

{ https://nasa.gov/ }

Geschreven door peter om 18:19 Stuur door

Zaterdag 25 januari 2020

US Space Force logo looks like one from Star Trek

US Space Force logo looks like one from Star Trek

US Space Force logo on left and the Star Trek emblem on right

US HANDOUTImage caption

US Space Force logo on left and the Star Trek emblem on right

The newly unveiled logo for US Space Force appears to have boldly gone where Star Trek went before.

Twitter users noted that the emblem, revealed by President Donald Trump, bears an uncanny likeness to the insignia from the cult sci-fi TV series.

The striking resemblance left many critics as stunned as though they had been zapped by Captain Kirk's phaser.

But others online insisted the logo was really based on the US Air Force One.

The intergalactic controversy comes after mockery erupted last week when it emerged Space Force troops would wear woodland camouflage uniforms.

Unveiling the insignia on Friday, Mr Trump tweeted: "After consultation with our Great Military Leaders, designers, and others, I am pleased to present the new logo for the United States Space Force, the Sixth Branch of our Magnificent Military!"

George Takei, star of the original 1960s Star Trek TV series, tweeted archly in response.

Another Twitter user joked that the Space Force had copied Star Trek's "homework".

But others pointed out that the new logo seemed to bear equal likeness to another, suborbital branch of the US military.

Space Force: Trump 2020 asks supporters to vote on logo

10 August 2018
Space Force: Trump officially launches new US military service

21 December 2019

{ https://www.bbc.com/ }

Geschreven door peter om 17:31 Stuur door

Zaterdag 25 januari 2020

Bizarre Encounters with the Demons That Come at Night

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Bizarre Encounters with the Demons That Come at Night

Brent Swancer

Of all of the times in our life, we are at our most vulnerable and helpless when we are asleep. There is nothing we can really do about this, as all lifeforms that we know of must do this, but it is a rather awkward time for us. We lie there, unaware of our surroundings, paralyzed by our own bodies, surrounded by darkness. It seems unsurprising that many spooky tales and strange phenomena have come to gravitate towards the evening hours and our nightly vacation from the physical world, when we surrender ourselves to the night. It seems that this is a time when there are things that can come to us, which step out of the gloom and seem to be no mere nightmare. These are the seemingly demonic entities that descend upon us in the comfort of our own bedrooms, and are worse than any bad dream.

One frightening report comes from the site The Paranormal Society, with a witness who claims this all began when he developed an intense interest in the occult, and spent hours feverishly reading about it. He claims that one day the atmosphere of his room started to change, the air feeling heavier by the day, the room imbued with an unnatural cold and darkness, even in the summer, and he would experience a strange sense of being watched that grew in intensity with each passing day. This apparently went on for around a year before it would graduate to the truly frightening. The witness began to notice at night a strange, circular shadow in the corner of the ceiling of his bedroom. At first he thought nothing of this anomaly, but night after night it seemed to grow larger, ever blooming out across that ceiling in an inexorable crawl outward and possessing an inky unnatural black. No matter how much he moved the furniture around the shadow was always there, and he could not figure out what could be casting this strange shadow. He would still try to rationalize it as having a mundane explanation, but then a terrifying experience would prove him wrong. The witness says of what happened:

It seemed to get a bit bigger. Confused, I moved some things around in my room, figuring again something in there was casting a shadow, to no avail. The shadow stayed the same, and although I was a bit disturbed by it, I figured there was a scientific reason for it — something outside was casting the shadow — and I would go to sleep like normal. Then, one night as I turned out the light and went to bed as usually, I noticed the shadow seemed bigger than normal. I repeat, this was a very strange shadow. It seemed to be “thicker” than a normal shadow, almost like a puddle of black coffee.

As I lay there, trying to fall asleep, but feeling very uncomfortable for some reason, I began to notice that with each opening and closing of my eyes, the shadow would loom larger and appear to be seeping toward me. I was frightened, of course, yet intrigued. It seemed the longer I kept my eyes closed, the quicker it would move toward me, but it would always stop right where it was whenever I opened my eyes.

At one point, the thing was at the foot of my bed. I opened my eyes to look at it, expecting it to pause there. At this point, I was becoming increasingly frightened. Instead of pausing, it began to “pour” toward me, and I felt the most unnatural empty, cold, hungry, evil I’ve ever felt in my life come from it. It was then and there I knew for sure in my heart it was a demon, and I knew that it had relation to the junk I was studying. I pulled the blanket over my head, switched on the Christian music station, and prayed like crazy.

This seems to have worked, as the demon departed, and it encouraged him to give up his pursuit of the occult as a result, after which he says the entity then left him alone and did not come back. He remains convinced that what he saw was an actual demon, that came for him as a result of his dabbling in the arcane. Another bedroom encounter that is just as frightening was experienced by a commenter “RhythmSnail” on Your Ghost Stories. He claims this happened in Perth, Western Australia, when he was living with his mother in a home that had apparently had a rather violent history, although his mother would never tell him what exactly that was or what it entailed. Over time he became convinced that he was constantly being watched by something from the shadows, and would occasionally catch fleeting glimpses of something moving or skulking about in the periphery of his vision, never seen head on. This happened for some time before one night he had an experience he would never forget, which began with him waking in the middle of the night to a room far more frigid than it should have been. The witness says:

I noticed that my door was wide open, and I didn’t remember leaving it that way because I don’t usually do that. My mum was fast asleep and my sister was staying at her dad’s place for the night. To my horror, I saw a small figure watching me from the entrance of my room. It looked like a “dense” shadow. I’m not quite sure how else to explain it. Slightly propping myself up on one elbow, I spoke out my little sister’s name thinking it was probably her (I thought maybe she had changed her mind and had been dropped off during the night). Then suddenly, the being rushed up to my bedside in the blink of an eye and moved alarmingly close to my face.

Terrified, I found myself staring into a face with no discernible nose or eyes, and a gaping wide mouth. Where its eyes were meant to be, were dark holes from what I can remember, anyway. I’m not too sure. My body froze in horror. Moments passed with just that creature and me in the room, “gazes” transfixed on each other’s faces. Eventually, I was able to snap out of the frozen state my body had taken on in fright and I flailed and kicked at the thing until it suddenly dissipated with a blood-curdling sound that reminded me of an anguished scream of some sort. I heard it out loud and deep within my head, if that makes sense. It made my hair stand on end and my heart beat alarmingly fast.

To this day, I have no idea what it was. A demon of some sort? I don’t know what it wanted. It was terrifying and every so often I catch glimpses of shadow-like people/creatures from my peripheral vision. Many times I’ve awoken from sleep from someone calling my name, and it is usually a man or someone who sounds a lot like me. Even when I’m not asleep, I sometimes hear whoever it is calling my name. And occasionally, I can feel something touching me that I can’t see.

These sorts of frightening cases often seem to happen to witnesses who have just woken up to a completely alert state without any discernible cause, and that same can be said of our next account, which comes from a Reddit user called “P3rspective.” He says he woke up suddenly and without warning in the middle of the night to see something there with him in the room. He explains of the strange encounter:

I was lying in my bed and remember sitting up and seeing 3 figures standing in my room with a dim lit blue light coming from somewhere that illuminated them. I don’t remember what exactly they said, or rather, he said, cause the one in the middle was speaking directly to me. I remember his mouth opening in a very inhuman way, with the jaw extending further than it should be able to. Their mouth, and eyes, were black, not like, solid back, but a smoky type of black, so sorta grey, but you could still recognize teeth and such.

I remember them saying something about them coming in a few days for something, I don’t remember what it was exactly. I then remember passing back out, and waking up, actually waking up, and seeing some dark form dart across the room and hover directly over my bed (my bed is in a corner, so it was sitting/hovering between the wall and I, about 4-inch gap at the time). I then felt a very, VERY intense sense of dread and heaviness throughout my entire fiber and being, and remember feeling this for a few minutes while it was just sitting there, my back turned to it.

We also have the case of Reddit user JllFucherina, who says this happened one Christmas Eve when she was only 12 years old. She similarly woke suddenly with a start, already in a state of readiness and without any grogginess or sleepiness. She says of her unsettling experience:

I woke up suddenly and fully alert. I was laying on my back and when I opened my eyes they met another set of eyes. Outside sitting in the tree beyond the fence was what I can only describe as a demon, it’s fully fixed on me and not moving. The eyes reminded me of a cat’s, huge with elongated pupils, yellow and very iridescent. The body was not large, pretty lean, and dark scaly skin. It was sitting with its legs pulled up to its chest, kind of crouched. This visual has stayed with me so vividly for my entire life. Over twenty years have passed and I can still see it like it was right in front of me.

I felt scared and threatened inside of myself. We maintained eye contact for what felt like a very long time, and I don’t remember breaking eye contact, saying anything, or seeing it move. It seemed like I just fell back to sleep at some point but kind of doubt that’s how it really went. I wonder if I was hypnotized sometimes. I woke up the next day and remembered it immediately. I knew, just knew that it wasn’t a dream, it was far too real.”

To make this particular case even scarier, she claims that she now passes out every Christmas Eve at approximately the same time as she had this terrifying encounter. Why? Who knows? It is interesting to note how many cases like this have happened to people who were children or very young at the time and remember it so vividly well into adulthood, as if children have minds that are more malleable and susceptible to perceiving these outlandish entities. Another case involving a younger witness happened to a commenter on Ghost Village, who says she was only around 8 or 9 years old when this happened, and she explains:

I was sleeping in my grandma’s bed, when I woke up in the middle of the night cold. I look out the bedroom door into the kitchen and saw this manly figure. I assumed it was my dad, but then I saw what I thought was long hair. It was like a shadow, black, but like outlined in a glowing white, and it had red eyes. I was scared to death, and afraid it would see me (it was looking the other direction, straight on as if looking at or for something) I went under the covers and tried to fall asleep. The next morning my sister told me that that same night she felt an uncomfortable presence in the house and then I told her about what I saw. My dad being a skeptic said I was dreaming and tired, but man, I was WIDE awake. and my mom’s side of the family has had numerous paranormal experiences so she believed me.

There are countless other similar cases like these, far too many to cover all of them here, and they all leave us struggling to understand just what could possibly be going on here. The seemingly most rational explanation is that these people are experiencing what is known as “sleep paralysis,” also called the more ominous sounding “Old Hag Syndrome.” It is basically a condition in which the sleeper wakes in a half-dream state, with the mind active and awake yet the body still under the influence of sleep and the body’s chemicals that keep us immobile while sleeping. It is caused by an interrupted or dysfunctional REM cycle, the period of sleep in which we dream, and the result is that we experience a state between wakeful lucidity and a nightmare, compounded by the fact that it is often accompanied by being utterly helpless and unable to move. This is not some rare disorder, as it is estimated that between 25 to 50 percent of the population will experience this at least once in their lives, and the results can sometimes be extremely vivid and horrifying. One commenter on Thought Catalog says of his frightening experiences with sleep paralysis:

I have a few different “sleep paralysis demons.” The demon ones are the usual shadowy figure standing over me or by my bedroom door. The worst one was while I was lying on my side with my back to the door and it felt like someone got into bed behind me. Under the covers and put their arm round my waist. Then it felt like they were cuddling into me and I could feel breath on my neck. It felt like they cuddled me for about half an hour. All this time I’m trying not to show that I’m panicking because it feels like I’m getting cuddled by a skeleton with claws. It was only about the second, maybe third time I’d had sleep paralysis, so I nearly had a heart attack when this thing feels like its moving in closer to kiss me behind the ear. Worst of all it whispered “Not yet. You’re not ready yet. I’ll come back when you are.” To me it sounded disappointed and excited. It felt like it was silently telling me it meant that it was coming back when I was about to die. Scared the fucking shit out of me.

It reads very much like the other reports of these supposed demons, and this is somewhat usual for sleep paralysis cases. Yet, many people who have experienced these terrifying demonic night visitations insist that they were fully awake at the time and able to move, even getting up to walk around. Even people who suffer sleep paralysis and know what that is will have experiences that they are sure are different, such as a witness on Reddit called “JackmanB,” who says:

I swore it was wearing like a hood even though it was shadowy and it’s shape was ominous (but obviously humanoid). I couldn’t tell much else about its appearance because it was dark and because my reaction to fear like that is not to stare intently at what I’m looking at. I watched as the shadow figure slowly skirted the outside of the room before it cut inside to be standing right alongside my bed, in front of my face. Here’s what it did: It opened the door to my room and then shut it, and then it kind of hung out near the door at the edge of the room for a hot minute. At that point I started breathing loudly and unevenly (which was the only thing I could do) to try and scare it away.—Just some background, I get sleep paralysis semi-often, usually attached to naps, but never before have I experienced anything resembling this.

While some cases like this might be attributable to sleep paralysis, can they all be so easily dismissed? If some of these cases are not sleep paralysis then what could they be? There are many ideas on this. One is that they are actually demons, coming to us when we are at our most susceptible, in that borderline between sleep and wakefulness. Another idea is that they are some sort of interdimensional interlopers, invading the sanctity of our most vulnerable time for purposes we may never understand and perhaps are never meant to. They could also be aliens, Shadow People, ghosts, or even just flat out tall tales, but this is a widespread enough phenomenon that it seems to deserve some consideration and discussion.

Geschreven door peter om 16:54 Stuur door

Zaterdag 25 januari 2020

What On Earth Was This Mysterious Light In The Sky Above The West Coast Last Night?

What On Earth Was This Mysterious Light In The Sky Above The West Coast Last Night?

Last night a mysterious light lit up the skies over California, leaving people as far east as Louisiana perplexed. What was that weird blue glow in the sky? Naturally, there was some speculation that perhaps the light was a UFO or even a meteor - but in reality it was the launch of a Trident II (D5) missile by the U.S. Navy.

The unarmed missile launched from the Kentucky, an Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine that sits off the coast of Southern California in the Pacific Test Range. The test was pre-planned although not announced or confirmed until a few hours after the launch. These types of launches are routine, although rarely announced ahead of time, and help ensure the reliability of Naval systems.

According to the San Diego Times, Cmdr. Ryan Perry with the Navy’s Third Fleet said, “The test was part of a scheduled, on-going system evaluation test. Each test activity provides valuable information about our systems, thus contributing to assurance in our capabilities.”

The Navy frequently uses a test range just northwest of Los Angeles to test fire standard cruise and Tomahawk missiles from submarines and other ships. The airspace over the test range has been activated and all nighttime flights to and from Los Angeles International Airport have been diverted away from that area for the coming week. Neither the military nor the FAA have disclosed what activities will be taking place near the country’s second-busiest airport over the next six nights.

Since there was no advance warning of the test fire, witnesses across the state and several states over speculated that the object streaking across the sky could be part of the annual Taurid meteor shower, which is currently reaching itspeak and is known to produce fireballs. According to astronomer Phil Plait, “this was moving far too slowly to be a meteor, and the behavior was all wrong.”

Brian Keating, an astrophysicist at UC San Diego told the Times, “The Taurid meteors would be coming from the east — and this light came from the west. We'd also be more likely to see meteors about midnight, and the flash came near sunset.”

Since the launch occurred at sunset, it made for a spectacular show. The missile’s exhaust reflected sunlight as it soared through the sky, producing a stunning view. You may remember earlier this year when an Atlas V launched from Florida’s Cape Canaveral and produced similar striking views. An expanding halo can be seen in most of the pictures and that is most likely due to a staging event. The missile has three stages and as one is shut down and ejected, the next stage ignites via a small explosion known as an ordnance. If the staging event occurred when the missile was high enough in the atmosphere, it would produce a bright flash and a halo of gas.

Who knows what else we may witness over the next week as the test range remains active.

2018

2017

2015

{ https://www.iflscience.com/ }

Geschreven door peter om 16:09 Stuur door

Zaterdag 25 januari 2020

Mysterious Lights in Sky Over Bethel, Ohio, Still Unexplained a Week Later

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Mysterious Lights in Sky Over Bethel, Ohio, Still Unexplained a Week Later

Paul Seaburn

“Anybody else see this tonight? The sky was flashing pink and purple – super bright. Thought it might be lightning, but it’s fairly cold (40 degrees), and there was no thunder.”

Well, that certainly sounds strange and the witness has a video from his doorbell camera – the 2020’s replacement for the dash cam, Google Maps and security cameras for capturing strange phenomena. (Watch it here.) One would think that giving it broad media coverage would quickly identify the source of these flashing lights in the sky over Bethel, Ohio. Weather anomaly? Fireworks? Transformer explosions? Meteor? Military? Aliens? Yet it’s been over a week and no one has solved the mystery of the flashing lights of Bethel.

“The first thing that came to mind was what just happened with Iran, and I thought it might be a nuclear explosion. It was that bright and that powerful. I was in the Army and it reminded me of phosphorescent flares we used that light up the whole sky.”

Tim Walker and his daughter Carolyn Walker saw the flashes on the evening of January 12. Walker got the video from Ring.com and posted it on Facebook, where it was picked up by multiple media sites. Over a week later, the comments on the video are still speculative with no confirmed cause. Another witness, Charles Rogers, sent his video to local station FOX19 NOW, which contacted all of the usual suspects and experts.

“We contacted Clermont County Emergency Management. They have no explanation but did hear from plenty of people reporting the flash. Bethel Police had the same response. We also reached out to Duke Energy. According to them, 584 customers lost power for two minutes just before 7 p.m. Sunday. Crews drove that line Monday and found no issues. We also asked an astronomer if this could be a meteor. He says no because a meteor would flash above the clouds rather than below. As for lightning, the nearest strike was hundreds of miles away.”

That was the latest from them as of January 14. On January 20, the Lexington Herald-Leader picked up a story by Mark Price of the Charlotte Observer, who asked Walker if the flashes had been identified. Walker said they hadn’t. Other witnesses have posted on his Facebook page, but no confirmed explanations. Price had no answers either.

“I’ve done a lot of reporting on UFOs and other strange phenomenon, and this is really the strangest light show I’ve ever seen caught on video.”

It’s too bad David Letterman is no longer doing his show with the popular segment, “Is this anything?” Bandleader Paul Schaefer always had interesting, speculative comments on the strange things Dave would show him. That seems to be better than asking government agencies or local authorities these days, as the fine folks in Colorado, Nebraska and Wyoming are finding out with the mysterious drone formations they’ve received no answers on despite their presence in the night sky since before Christmas.

Which brings us back to Tim Walker’s first reaction when he saw the lights over Bethel, a small village east of Cincinnati near the Kentucky border.

“The first thing that came to mind was what just happened with Iran.”

There’s no doubt Walker was in the majority in having that first reaction … one that the people in Colorado have while watching their own mysterious things in the sky.

Perhaps it’s time to accept the obvious … getting no answer is now the new norm.

Geschreven door peter om 15:40 Stuur door

Zaterdag 25 januari 2020

UFO Hunter Claims Responsibility for Mysterious Colorado Drones

UFO Hunter Claims Responsibility for Mysterious Colorado Drones

Paul Seaburn

The mysterious giant drones that have been flying in formation over parts of Colorado, Nebraska and Wyoming just got a possible explanation … and it may create more mysteries than it solves … if it solves any. A member of a group of amateur UFO trackers claims they’ve been flying drones in formation over Colorado in an organized search for the “unidentified aerial phenomenon” that has become known as the Tic Tac UFOs. Yes, the ones seen by USS Nimitz pilots in 2004 on the east coast. What are they doing in Colorado, you ask? Let’s find out.

“If there was any interference with any other aircraft, that absolutely was not ours.”

In what appears to be an exclusive report by the Sterling Journal-Advocate (Sterling is in far northeastern Colorado where many of the drone sightings have occurred), Michael Spicer of Durango (a long way from Sterling in far southwest Colorado) takes an obviously defensive position as he talks the drone formations he and his group have been flying in and around Sterling. Spicer says the group is known as ArchAngleRECON and they’re headquartered in Wichita, Kansas – almost 500 miles from Sterling. He admits the group has been flying groups of 6 to 12 drones along longitude and latitude lines in northeast Colorado – the “grid pattern” many witnesses have described. Of course, he didn’t think they were doing anything wrong. Until …

“Spicer said the group was unaware of the stir caused by drones until he was contacted recently by the Federal Aviation Administration. He said he was interviewed by special Agent Michael Bumberger of the FAA’s Investigations and Law Enforcement Assistance Program. He said none of ArchAngelRECON’s drones were ever flown anywhere near any airport, and they did not encounter any other civilian aircraft.”

That was probably as part of the multi-government-agency investigation that ended recently with the “no harm, no foul” conclusion that they still don’t know whose drones they are, but they’re not illegal, so go back to what you were doing and forget about them. Despite that, Spicer seemed shaken by the contact and was probably questioned about reports that a drone may have interfered with a hospital helicopter and others were seen over Sterling Municipal Airport – an obvious FAA violation.

Before you ask, there’s not much info about ArchAngelRECON. There’s a 75th ArchAngel Recon “Multi game clan” with some videos on YouTube, but they’re related to gaming, not drones or UFOs. As usual these days, Spicer claims the group is tracking the new technology aircraft which is what the infamous Tic Tac UFOs from the 2004 incident are suspected by many of being. However, he’s quick to point out that not all of the drones seen recently belong to his group. He doesn’t say how many are and the report is pretty empty of any additional investigative evidence. Spicer also gives no information on whether they saw any of the drones/Tic Tacs.

It’s almost as if “looking for Tic Tac UFOs” is the new cover for any nefarious activities, and heading to Colorado to hunt the drones is becoming this year’s “Storm Area 51.” Will ‘Storm Sterling’ solve the mystery or end up in a failed rock concert too?

“That absolutely was not ours.”

OK, Michael Spicer, we’re not blaming you for that. In fact, you’re not the first to connect the drones to the Tic Tac. That honor belongs unofficially to Mike Turber, the investigative journalist and cybersecurity expert who made the link earlier this week.

So, despite the government’s plea to “move along, nothing to see here,” the Colorado/Nebraska/Wyoming/??? Drone mystery isn’t going away.

Geschreven door peter om 15:26 Stuur door

Zaterdag 25 januari 2020

Bizzare Particles From Under Antarctica Defy Physics

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Bizzare Particles From Under Antarctica Defy Physics

Sequoyah Kennedy

The final nail in the coffin for the Standard Model of particle physics might be coming from under the Antarctic ice. While a series of new discoveries have challenged our understanding of physics, recently astrophysicists revealed they had detected ; according to the researchers, any possible explanation of these particles defies the Standard Model of astrophysics.

The Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA) floats above Antarctica on a NASA balloon and detects cosmic particles that manage to pass through the Earth. Since 2016, three bursts of particles caught the ANITA researchers by surprise. They all looked like ultra-high-energy neutrinos, but they couldn’t be. While low-energy neutrinos can pass through the Earth with ease, ultra-high-energy neutrinos shouldn’t be able to—according to our current understanding of physics.

A balloon launch at ANITA.

According to a new paper, the last remaining Standard Model explanation for these mysterious articles has some serious flaws. The explanation revolves around cosmic neutrino accelerators: big, violent cosmic objects like the stars at the centers of galaxies that could accelerate neutrinos and other particles fast enough to push them through our planet. According to Anastasia Barbano, a University of Geneva physicist, either the mysterious particles are coming from cosmic accelerators, or from some unknown source here on Earth. The problem is, however, that if there were a big group of neutrino guns blasting particles through Antarctica, they wouldn’t only be shooting ultra-high-energy neutrinos. There should be a whole bunch of other particles along with them. But they’re not there.

According to the recent paper, the team looked at seven years of data and attempted to find cosmic accelerator sources that matched the angle and length of the mysterious particles detected in Antarctica. No potential cosmic accelerators matching those parameters were found.

We’ve always known there was something weird under Antarctica.

The results don’t completely exclude the cosmic accelerator explanation, but they do “severely constrain” it. Right now the data the researchers have is very limited, and they’re not sure which way they should go with it. With many of the plausible explanations seemingly rendered impossible (along with many of the less plausible ones too), all remaining explanations are “revolutionary”—they just don’t know which revolutionary explanation is the right one.

Anastasia Barbano, a University of Geneva physicist, says that what they’re trying to say is that, whatever it is, it’s a big deal:

“The message we want to convey to the public is that a Standard Model astrophysical explanation does not work no matter how you slice it.”

According to Barbano, the team will have to wait until the next generation of neutrino detectors are online before they can attempt to unravel the mystery any further. So yeah, our physics is all broken. We just don’t know how yet.

other videos, peter2011

Geschreven door peter om 15:04 Stuur door

Zaterdag 25 januari 2020

NASA Abruptly Cuts Live Feed ISS After This Appears Over The U.S.

NASA Abruptly Cuts Live Feed ISS After This Appears Over The U.S.

Jujubee’s Adams had just turned on his ISS app to take a look when some kind of object appeared on the live feed, so Adams took some photos and a video of the strange anomaly, just before NASA abruptly cuts the live broadcast.

And it is not the first time NASA cuts the live feed from the International Space Station. At the moment alien objects appear on camera, they switch over to the well known screen and text that there is a sudden loss of signal between the station and the communications network.

The following video recorded by Adams on January 22, 2020 is a clear example of how NASA is trying to disguise the existence of UFOs and other unknown advanced objects in space.

https://ufosightingshotspot.blogspot.com/

{ https://beforeitsnews.com/ }

Geschreven door peter om 14:14 Stuur door

Zaterdag 25 januari 2020

Watch: The UFO Footage That American Navy Admits Is Genuine

Watch: The UFO Footage That American Navy Admits Is Genuine

ufo-dod

The US Navy has revealed that the three videos showing leaked military footage of UFOs are real. The clips show several UFOs travelling through the air at incredible speed while the military tracked them. One video was from 2004, and the other two were from 2015 that feature audio from US fighter pilots expressing doubt at what they just saw whether the objects were drones or something else.

To the Stars Academy of Arts & Science, a team co-founded by Blink 182 singer Tom DeLonge to research UFOs, originally published them in December 2017 and March 2018. The US Navy has confirmed recently that the leaked footage is real and the UFOs have been classified as unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP).

Spokesman Joseph Gradisher said that these three videos show incursions by unidentified aerial phenomena into their military training ranges. The Navy has characterised the mysterious events as unidentified.

Tom DeLonge’s group had claimed the clips went through a declassification review process and were approved for release.

You can find more info about this UFO event in newly released kindle book Top 10 UFO Sightings: Best Cases.

Geschreven door peter om 12:51 Stuur door

Zaterdag 25 januari 2020

China releases eerie images of the far side of the moon from its pioneering Chang'e-4 mission to mark one year anniversary of its launch

China releases eerie images of the far side of the moon from its pioneering Chang'e-4 mission to mark one year anniversary of its launch

China recently published data collected by its pioneering Chang'e-4 mission to the far side of the moon
It recently completed a full year in operation and a vast amount of data was beamed back to Earth
The data dump of around 10GB includes several images of the mission including of the lander and the rover
Images were processed professionally by a NASA camera expert to reveal their true colouration

By JOE PINKSTONE FOR MAILONLINE

China's space agency has released a huge batch of stunning images from the far side of the moon, revealing the beauty of the mysterious terrain.

The high-resolution images were released on the agency's dedicated website and were enhanced by a NASA expert.

Doug Ellison, who heads up the engineering camera team for the Curiosity Mars Rover at NASA, processed the images and posted them on Twitter.

One image of the Chang'e-4 lunar lander with the immaculate tracks of the Yutu-2 rover was brought to life in colour using sophisticated computer software.

Scroll down for video

Some of the images include a look at the Von Karmer crater in which the mission landed and reveals the criss-crossing tracks of the rover (pictured)

Pictured: Tracks of the lunar rover Yutu-2, which translates directly as Jade rabbit, are shown etched into the powdery surface of the moon

Detailed images of the surface of the far side of the moon were released by the Chinese space agency as the rover and lander continue their scientific missions to learn more about the geology and history of the moon

Pictured: the ridge of the Von karmer crater in which the Chinese mission landed and is now exploring. The panoramic images taken from the Yutu 2 rover's on-board camera capture the bleak landscape

The images were taken by Chang'e-4 lander's terrain camera and the panoramic camera on the Yutu-2 rover.

The data dump measured more than 10GB and includes images taken over the course of its first year in operation.

Mr Ellison tweeted 'Oh - this is so pretty' after successfully debayering the photos.

Debayering is a technique that uses computer software to reveal the true colour of a photo.

The images were taken by Chang'e-4 lander's terrain camera and the panoramic camera on the Yutu-2 rover

Mr Ellison debayered the images to reveal their true colour

‹ SLIDE ME ›

Doug Ellison, who heads up the engineering camera team for the Curiosity Mars Rover at NASA, processed the images and posted them on Twitter. He debayered the images to reveal their true colour

The data dump measured more than 10GB and includes images of more than a year in operation. It includes images of the moon's pockmarked surface (pictured, a small crater imaged by Yutu)

The images were sent back in what appears to be black and white but it is actually an incomplete colour image. Computer programmes can be set up to extract the true colouration (pictured)

WHY IS THE FAR SIDE OF THE MOON KNOWN AS THE 'DARK SIDE'?

The far side of the moon - colloquially known as the dark side - actually gets as much light as the near side but always faces away from Earth.

Less than a fifth of the opposite half of the moon is ever visible and it wasn't until 1959 until we received images of what it looked like when the Soviet Luna 3 spacecraft returned snapped the mysterious region.

In 1968, astronauts aboard the Apollo 8 spacecraft were the first humans to set eyes on the far side in person as they orbited the moon.

Since then, several missions by NASA and other space agencies have imaged the lunar far side.

That includes NASA’s Deep Impact spacecraft, which imaged the far side from a distance of 31 million miles (49m km) in 2008.

This relatively unexplored region is mountainous and rugged, making a successful landing much harder to achieve.

Professor of astrophysics at the University of Nottingham, Christopher Conselice, said the far side is much more rugged and has less volcanic activity than the side we see from Earth.The images were sent back in what appears to be black and white, but they are actually incomplete colour images.

Computer programmes can be used to extract the true colouration.

Some of the images feature views of the Von Karmer crater in which the mission landed.

It is the largest impact crater in the entire solar system at eight miles (13 km) deep and 1,600 miles (2,500 km) in diameter.

The far side of the moon - colloquially known as the dark side - actually gets as much light as the near side but always faces away from Earth.

This is because the moon is tidally locked to Earth, rotating at the same rate that it orbits our planet, so the far side - or the 'dark side' - is never visible from our planet.

Days on the moon last for 14 Earth days thanks to its orbit around Earth and it can only operate during the lunar day when it is warmer.

Chang'e-4 and Yutu-2 are entering their 14th lunar day in operation.

The Chang'e-4 lunar probe mission - named after the moon goddess in Chinese mythology - launched last December from the southwestern Xichang launch centre.

It is the second Chinese probe to land on the moon, following the Yutu rover mission in 2013.

The remarkable images are a secondary perk to the vital data that it is beaming back to Earth via its own dedicated relay satellite named Queqiao.

It is permanently stationed in operational orbit about 40,000 miles beyond the moon and is used to bounce images from the far side of the moon back to Earth.

The tasks of the Chang'e-4 include astronomical observation, surveying the moon's terrain, landform and mineral composition, and measuring the neutron radiation and neutral atoms to study the environment on the far side of the moon.

China's Chang'-4 mission was the first from any nation to land on the far side of the moon. It followed the success of Chang'e-3 and is laying the foundations for future missions

Jade Rabbit 2 - the direct translation for Yutu-2 - weighs 308lbs (139kg) and has six individually powered wheels so it can continue to operate even if one wheel fails. It rolled on to the lunar surface from the lander via two ramps in January 2019

Yutu-2 has a host of instruments and is powered by solar panels. This includes a spectrometer which analyses the bizarre terrain on the far side of the moon

The Lunar explorer touched down at 10.26am local time (2.26am GMT) January 4 2019. Chang'e-4 landed in the Aitken basin, the largest impact crater in the entire solar system at eight miles (13 km) deep and 1,600 miles (2,500 km) in diameter

Recently, it was revealed how an on-board biosphere was used to grow a plant on the moon.

Xie Gengxin of Chongqing University devised a cylindrical garden capsule to try and bring gardening deeper into outer space.

The capsule stood around 8 inches tall with a 6.5 inch diameter and had a rectangular seed bed that was loaded with cotton, potato, rape seeds, a variety of weed called Arabidopsis, and fruit fly eggs.

Arabidopsisis a plant used widely by scientists in experiments and is used ot model how many plants will respond to various stimuli.

WHAT DO THE NAMES OF CHINA'S MOON MISSION MEAN?

Chang'e-4

Chang'e is the moon goddess and wife of god Houyi in Ancient Chinese mythology.

Houyi is one of the most powerful mythological figures in China.

It is said that he shot down nine Suns to make Earth a liveable habitat for human beings.

The number four in the name is a more modern-day nod to the space programme.

This spacecraft is the fourth of the Chang'e missions.

Yutu-2

Yutu (jade rabbit) is the companion of Chang'e in the mythological stories.

This is fittingly also the name of the rover on-board Chang'e-4.

Yutu-2 is so labelled because it is the successor to Yutu-1 which was deployed from the Chang'e-3 mission earlier this decade.

Queqiao

Queqiao is the relay satellite and translates to Magpie Bridge.

This name also stems from Ancient Chinese mythology.

Queqiao, or the Magpie Bridge, is a legendary bridge which appears once a year to connect Niu Lang and Zhi Nv.

Niu Lang is a cattle herder on Earth while Zhi Nv, or the Weaving Maid, is a goddess in heaven.

The couple met and fell in love when Zhi Nv snuck to the 'human world' in secret to play. Their union enraged the chief goddess, Queen Mother of the West.

The couple got banished to live at different sides of the Milky Way.

Every year on the seventh day of the seventh month on the Lunar Calendar, thousands of magpies that are moved by the couples' love story will form the Magpie Bridge, or Queqiao, so that Niu Lang and Zhi Nv can meet each other.

This relay satellite will allow communication between the moon probe and Earth.

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

Geschreven door peter om 01:55 Stuur door

Zaterdag 25 januari 2020

Fancy a ride on a space plane? Maybe AstroClipper will be what you're looking for.

Fancy a ride on a space plane? Maybe AstroClipper will be what you're looking for.

By Elizabeth Howell

An artist's depiction of the Exodus Space Corp.'s AstroClipper space plane separating after launch.

(Image: © Exodus Space)

Startup Exodus Space Corp. plans to build a space plane to ferry cargo around Earth. Eventually, that cargo could include people, if the spacecraft is deemed safe enough.

The spaceship — called AstroClipper — will take off from a runaway, make a flight into space and then land again, plane-style. A heft booster at the space plane's back end will help it get into orbit by giving AstroClipper the speed it requires to break out of Earth's atmosphere.

Exodus is new and still raising money, but its team includes deep experience across the space industry. Principals at the company have worked at SpaceX, Lockheed Martin and NASA, among others.

Related: Space Planes: Evolution of the Winged Spaceship (Infographic)
In Photos: SpaceX Launches X-37B Space Plane, Lands Falcon 9 Rocket

The company's first step is a technology demonstrator in 2022 that would remain within Earth's atmosphere but eventually lead to suborbital and orbital spacecraft. The eventual dream, in the 2030s, would be carrying passengers if Exodus can get the necessary human-rating regulations achieved.

"This has been a very private project that was in the works for the last 10 years," Exodus CEO Miguel Alaya told Space.com. "It was not all full-time, but just an ongoing process. Since last year, we have put together a strong leadership team to commercialize this intellectual property."

He added that the focus on human passengers will come only after Exodus feels confident it can launch reliably and regularly. "Once our concept is well understood and we have a strong track record of success, we will start focusing on human-related applications," he said.

Exodus has filed for patents and the company is now asking for an undisclosed amount of money. The first test vehicle, called AstroClipper Pico, will launch a drone-size craft to 6 miles (10 kilometers) in altitude to make sure the technology works. If all the funding and development goes to plan, Pico should fly in about 2022.

An artist's depiction of the Exodus Space Corp.'s AstroClipper space plane. (Image credit: Exodus Space)

After that vehicle, Exodus may raise more funds to get ready for its first suborbital flights, which the company hopes to achieve in 2024. It will do so using a Cessna-size spacecraft, called AstroClipper Nano, that will be designed to launch up to 220 pounds (100 kilograms) of cargo to roughly 60 miles (100 km) in altitude.

"With that suborbital vehicle, we are targeting at least three markets," Alaya said. Exodus is looking at suborbital research and development, hypersonic research (relating to vehicles moving five times the speed of sound or faster, a field of research that is popular with the U.S. government) and also faster point-to-point transport for the government and for commercial clients.

Exodus plans to follow Nano with two more models of AstroClipper that could eventually carry about 2,650 pounds (1,200 kg) of cargo into space by 2030. The company's current final target is dubbed AstroClipper Max and would fly up to 20 passengers sometime in the 2030s, should the vehicle be approved to carry humans.

Alaya acknowledged that the AstroClipper series of vehicles are in an early stage of development right now, but maintained that the company's leadership has the expertise to help see the work through. "Looking at the market for the last 10 years, we have a strong understanding of what things we can work or not, and in addition we are not new to the space or the aerospace industry," he said.

"We've worked on vehicles, spacecraft and aircraft. We're a very experienced leadership team. We also have an extended team of around 40 people that helps us with different aspects of our technology … [so] we do have a big team we're going to draw from. Once we get funded, we have the people in line to start getting to the work."

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

{ https://www.space.com/ }

Geschreven door peter om 01:32 Stuur door

Zaterdag 25 januari 2020

Linda Moulton Howe: Alaska Underground Dark Pyramid Is Real.. Incredible Discovery Beyond Comprehension

Linda Moulton Howe: Alaska Underground Dark Pyramid Is Real... Incredible Discovery Beyond Comprehension

This is a truly huge discovery, in many ways. This pyramid is 4 times bigger than the great pyramid. Who built this pyramid in Alaska and is it an energy source?

Linda Moulton Howe is a graduate of Stanford University with a Masters Degree in Communication. She has devoted her documentary film, television, radio, writing and reporting career to productions concerning science, medicine and the environment. Ms. Howe has received local, national and international awards, including three regional Emmys, a national Emmy nomination and a Station Peabody award for medical programming.

Linda’s documentaries have included A Strange Harvest and Strange Harvests 1993, which explored the worldwide animal mutilation mystery. Another film, A Prairie Dawn, focused on astronaut training in Denver. She has also produced documentaries in Ethiopia and Mexico for UNICEF about child survival efforts and for Turner Broadcasting in Atlanta about environmental challenges.

Other videos, by peter2011

{ https://beforeitsnews.com/ }

Geschreven door peter om 01:16 Stuur door

Zaterdag 25 januari 2020

Amazing nightvision UFO footage – Florida, 2020

Amazing nightvision UFO footage – Florida, 2020

florida-ufos

This footage was recorded in the sky above Florida a few days ago.

Witness report:

UFO, ORB’s and Anomalies.Best in HD. First UFO catch of 2020, First up is a bat then a small fleet of UFO’s do a fly-by.

Geschreven door peter om 00:50 Stuur door

Vrijdag 24 januari 2020

Antarctica shock: Scientists' groundbreaking discovery 400ft below ice revealed

Antarctica shock: Scientists' groundbreaking discovery 400ft below ice revealed

ANTARCTICA scientists were stunned by the results of a 400-foot drill into the ice sheet, perhaps revealing a glimpse into the Earth’s future.

By CALLUM HOARE

Antarctica is the planet's southernmost continent where the geographic South Pole is located and is home to some 1,000 scientists attempting to understand more about the history of Earth and the effects of climate change. However, one programme, known as the Antarctica Drilling Project (ANDRILL), took things one step further by drilling more than 400 feet into the ice sheet, exposing a shocking past. Their experiment was shown during NOVA’s “The Secrets of Antarctica” documentary, in which they hoped to uncover more about past periods of global warming and cooling.

The narrator revealed in 2015: “Unlike drilling through sea ice which is just 26 feet thick the ice shelf here is 400 feet at least.

“But that’s only the beginning, no one has ever drilled through an ice shelf and it presents a challenge because they float up and down with the tide so you’ve got to deal with vertical and sideways change.

“Eventually the drill pipe will get bent, to you need to drill through a thick layer of ice that is constantly moving without breaking.

“To confront this unique challenge, the ANDRILL team invents a new tool, a hot-water drill, this marvel of engineering is a moving ring of heat that blasts jets of steaming water to melt a wide hole so the drill can operate freely through 400 feet of shifting ice.

Antarctica scientists made a stunning discovery

Antarctica scientists made a stunning discovery

(Image: GETTY/NOVA)

The drill went more than 400 feet below the ice

The drill went more than 400 feet below the ice

(Image: NOVA)

It contains microfossils of single-celled animals known as forams

Secrets of Antarctica

“Once again, time is so precious that the team must work around the clock, not only retrieving cores but also analysing them.”

The narrator went on to reveal the groundbreaking discovery made thanks to the revolutionary drill.

He added: “An 80 feet core dates back about three million years and is closely examined.

“It contains microfossils of single-celled animals known as forams.

“They are from the crucial warm period called the Pliocene and these tiny shells are precise indicators of ocean temperature.”

READ MORE: How Antarctica doubled in size following 'major transformation'

Scientists worked around the clock

(Image: NOVA)

Dr Gavin Dunbar, from the Antarctic Research Centre, explained how the sample of forams may reveal a shock to Earth’s path.

He said in 2015: “These guys are about the size of a grain of sand and because the same species lived through time we can use the chemistry and molecule examples to calibrate the ancient examples.

“We can measure two metals, magnesium and calcium that are in the ocean that get incorporated into their shells.

“That process depends on the temperature of the ocean, so if we know those levels, we can determine the temperature of the ocean at the time that foram lived.

“What this is telling us is that temperatures were three to four, maybe even five degrees above present.”

DON'T MISS

Small molecules were discovered in the core samples

Small molecules were discovered in the core samples

(Image: NOVA)

Scientists are still studying the results

Scientists are still studying the results

(Image: NOVA)

Shockingly, the find may mean that Earth once suffered global warming levels considerably worse than what we see today.

However, more research needs to be done to confirm the results.

The ANDRILL project involves scientists from Germany, Italy, New Zealand, and the United States and is based at the McMurdo Station.

The $30million (£23million) programme has since achieved its operational goal of retrieving a core record of the last 17 million years, filling crucial gaps left by previous drilling projects.

It is now up to scientists to study each sample and come up for a future hypothesis.

{ https://www.express.co.uk/ }

Geschreven door peter om 18:21 Stuur door

Vrijdag 24 januari 2020

“I SEE DEAD COWS” – TOWARD A MUTILATED VISION OF REALITY

“I SEE DEAD COWS” – TOWARD A MUTILATED VISION OF REALITY

by Scott Corrales

By Alejandro Agostinelli – Factor 302.4

They return every so often, especially when the weather grows cold and the media runs out of stuff to talk about, or the story runs afoul of a hungry editor starving for a juicy ration of paranormal ghoulishness.

The flaps of “cow mutilations” or cases involving “cattle mutilations” represent a branch phenomenon of popular ufology or the urge to find evidence of extraterrestrial activity on Earth. It is also kept alive, however, by other media-created mysteries, such as the Chupacabras, or it receives a dose of crafty explanations such as those built by conspiracy theorists (which should not be cast aside, despite their minimal diffusion, as these are often turned into successful sci-fi scripts).

On August 25 of this year, the La Nación newspaper published another news item. Last year another appeared in Tucumán, and if we keep searching, or google back even further, there isn’t a year that does not include a report on this mystery that proves hard to extinguish. Likewise, we find a more intensive presence in provinces such as Entre Rios, where local UFO groups – highly interested in the matter – publicize accounts that would otherwise go unnoticed.

In 2002, this phenomenon manifested itself in Argentina with unprecedented strength. Personally, its importance was such that a chapter based on the matter displaced another on the mysteries of Capilla del Monte in my book Invasores: Historias Reales de Extraterrestres en Argentina (Sudamericana, 2009).

De bronafbeelding bekijken

The following is an abbreviated version of the most theoretical part of the chapter included in Invasores:

12 years ago, Argentina experienced its first ufological cow-icide. I started in April and reached its climax in June 2002, particularly in the province of Buenos Aires and the Pampean region. Farmhands, cattlemen and local residents woke up to find dead cows of all breeds and ages all over the place. Dozens of bovine carcasses rested near circles of flattened grass, near empty water tanks – drained by who knows what and for which reason – and others in unusual circumstances.

All of the animals presented as “proof” of the flap bore similar injuries: their edges were irregular, as though cauterized. According to farmhands and cattlemen, these incisions appeared to have a purpose. Their carcasses had been despoiled of their soft tissue (tongue, eyes, ears, nipples, genitals, udders) and sometimes they appeared exsanguinated. Locals would sink their knives into them and the blade would emerge dry, as if they had been plunged into a piece of pound cake.

The discovery of over two hundred mutilated animal carcasses was reported in less than three months, a ruthless and doubtful notion, but giving the impression that an intelligence had been at work and the deaths were not due to natural causes, such as the onset of the cold of winter or seasonal diseases followed by the instinct of certain predators looking for nourishment. Agreement between cattlemen, journalists, policemen and ufologists was overwhelming: the incisions looked artificial. These animals filled the ranks of the bizarre while predator activity was dismissed by some veterinarians in their homilies. The cult of the mutilated cow was confected by all of them, with or without an awareness of the subject.

The flap ended almost if by decree. On July 1, 2002, the National Food Safety and Quality Service (SENASA) blamed the weather and carrion animals. Presto: a mystery cauterized.

The official body stated that rodents belonging to the Oxymycterus rufus genus – among other vermin – had devoured the cattle in fine gourmet style while other victims lay dead as a result of ice storms, disease or natural causes. Bernardo Cané, the head of the organization, stated: “We are dismissing Martians, the Pombero and other rural Argentinean beliefs.” (1) The sentence would have been less odious if Cané had not ascribed the mutilations to “esoteric practices” a week earlier. (2) Forty-five days later he was dismissed from his position under suspicion of underhanded dealings. (3)

Other experts were also caught on the hop. Veterinarian Alejandro Martínez suspected “some sort of techno-cattle rustling” wielding the thermocauterizer (a pistol that fires darts) to underscore that the mysterious incisions could be caused by “any agency”. Pathologist Ernesto Odriozola supported “the actions of some madman”. Even the most experienced forensic pathologists stoked the mystery. Days later, SENASA disclosed the results of a necropsy performed on twenty animals collected from fifteen farms in different sections of Buenos Aires province. Cané presented his conclusions in a press conference: the cattle died “due to pneumonia, malnutrition, metabolic or infectious diseases that are highly prevalent during the winter season.” Thus, the mystery was halved: the mutilated cows…were already dead. The enigmatic incisions had been subsequently caused by various carrion animals, the red-muzzled mouse among them.

“Extraterrestrials Laugh at SENASA” proclaimed one of the screens of the Crónica TV channel. The mouse’s humorous moniker prompted the notion that it had all been a gag. It was around that time that I phoned Dr. Alejandro Soraci, one of the parties involved in the study conducted by Universidad Nacional del Centro (UNICEN). “Could you photocopy the report, and I’ll send for it?” But there was nothing to photocopy. The only material available, he explained, was the press release and the video of the mouse in action. SENASA results were simply two hastily drafted pages. The investigation could hardly be taken seriously with such apathy. “Why were mutilated cows found in places where the Oxymycterus isn’t found? And if it was the mouse, why didn’t SENASA undertake a campaign to control it?” wondered ufologist Quique Mario. To him, and to many other ufologist, the media oasis was deceitful. “Matters remain the same: nothing has changed. Two animals were found mutilated last Saturday, thirty kilometers from here. Last week there were five and seventeen down south, around Cuchillo Có,” he told me in mid-2003.

What factors were at play in unleashing the epidemic? Why now, and not before?

This is how SENASA – spokesman for official explanations – has belittled the human dimension of these experiences. Not everyone is willing to believe that cows are abducted by UFOs, or that a clandestine operation was set in motion to decimate the bovine population and attack those who came too close to the truth. It is also unfair that aliens should mock SENASA. The fact that the initial speculations of its experts should contradict the formal verdict speaks volumes about the fantasies that the mystery creates in all of them, scientists included. On the other hand, it doesn’t say as much about the quality of the study, which does not exempt SENASA from the mistake of making a pronouncement before the results were in hand.

The red-muzzled mouse’s leading role gave the matter an almost humorous cast: The scene-stealing and headline-grabbing mouse obscured the investigation’s credibility. It is possible that the media stressed the rodent’s involvement because there can be nothing better than a Supermouse to displace a Chupacabras. The irregular, serrated tooth marks of the Oxymycterus rufus appeared on the skin and bones of the analyzed animals. Those marks explained the origin of the strange incisions, some of them described as perfect circles. “Ever since Tom and Jerry, we know that a [mouse hole] has a circular opening. Rodents stand up and work from top to bottom,” explained Fernando Kravetz, full professor of Ecology in the School of Exact and Natural Sciences of the University of Buenos Aires. “The rodent population grew with the increase in the availability of dead animals due to classic diseases, changes in vegetation and pastures deteriorated by the ice storms. Crops are harvested in March and the weather changed abruptly in April.” (4)

The quantity and dispersion of dead animals did not startle the professor, considered the main expert in rural ecology. “If three hundred mutilations were reported, the existence of a total of two thousand carcasses could be estimated. A congruent number for that time of year.” SENASA also mentioned less photogenic predators, such as the Pampas fox, seagulls and armadillos. But the red-muzzled mouse was on the cover, because the cow mutilation wave resulted in the casual discovery of an unexpected mutation in it dietary habits. Up to 2002, it was believed to be an insectivore, but it feasted on beef when given the chance. Kravitz measured the marks appearing on the cattle’s toughest tissue (such as the base of the tongue) and found the same patterns as in “cattle mutilations”.

Nor was SENASA the only agency to reach a prosaic conclusion. The Animal Health Group of the National Livestock Technology Institute (INTA Balcarce) studied ten cases. “The incisions and absence of internal organs, ears and nipples are due to action by predators found in the region.” The causes behind these animal deaths – when they could be ascertained – were not mysterious either (intestinal parasites, mineral deficiencies, metabolic diseases, malnutrition) as well as the cold and ice storms that blanketed the southeastern region (5).

What SENASA neglected to do – never mind other official agencies that were unresponsive to the mystery – was to find a hypothesis able to answer a question that can be stated in three ways: Why did men experienced in cattle activities feel certain that those incisions were qualitatively different from those caused by other predators? How can the belief about the phenomenon’s novelty be justified? What changed so that some more or less ordinary deaths should turn into an epidemic? Perhaps the answers would offer no consolation to cattlemen and others impressed by direct experience, but it is better to try to answer tough questions that feel the breath of the Chupacabras on the nape of one’s neck again.

The cattle mutilation wave did not occur at just any moment in time. The harsh reality suggested that attention given to these “strange events” responded to the infinity of existing social concerns. The mystery, therefore, could be considered an outgrowth of the crisis. According to the theory’s most newfangled variant, the phenomenon had been deliberately inflated to distract the population from the nation’s state of malaise. But more than a smokescreen, the exaggerated diffusion of such news looked like another symptom of the same illness.

On December 19, 2001, a crowd of Argentineans took the streets, banging on cooking pots, to protest against a government asleep in the midst of the most brutal crisis of recent history. Ferocious reprisals followed the protests, resulting in thirty-nine dead at the hands of the police. Bank freezes, the uncontrolled dollar and high rates of unemployment added to the sad national ordeal. The ashes were still hot in 2002. Shortly before the wave of alien cattle rustling, the emblem of creole opulence had been prey to minor “depredations”. It is still hard to forget the image broadcast by a news program, when a truck with beef cattle overturned on the outskirts of Rosario, Santa Fe, in 2001 and a crowd surged to butcher the animals on the roadside. Other factors – frivolous to some, but serious in their psycho-social impact – fostered the dejected popular mood: around the same time, the Argentinean football team had been eliminated from the world cup in the first round.

For once, a modern expression of the supernatural drew the interest of two specialists in myth and legends. Martha Blache and Silvia Balzano, researchers with CONICET, put forth an explanatory model for the events. They suggested the possible interconnection between Chupacabras reports, the penetration of genetically-modified sorghum and the use of new herbicides whose preparation is controlled by American laboratories. They wondered, for example, if the phenomenon might not be a warning against the uncertainty created by these changes and the perceived lack of control evinced by cattlemen. Globalization may be related to the role played by a country that “benefits from our raw materials and natural resources, removing them in an efficient yet imperceptible manner,” without leaving traces. News about cattle mutilations, they write, seemed to condense a wider metaphor reflecting a country in a state of crisis that is trying to identify the culprits. Who is attacking the cows, tame and apathetic representative of Argentine heritage? Is our blood being sucked by international agencies or domestic carrion animals?” The popular imagination, they conclude, “could sublimate the conflicting demands of the IMF with regard to the foreign debt.” (6)

In proposing their model, Blache and Balzano did not conduct a survey on the political trends or the technical-scientific concerns of cattlemen. Implementing a sort of psycho-cultural analysis using press clippings is always risky. But the authors are the first to say that their hypothesis rests only on journalistic sources. At least they didn’t keep quiet.

The authors also noticed the similarity in the conclusions reached by Kenneth M. Rommel when the FBI assigned him to study the bovine massacre in the United States in 1980 and those of SENASA in 2002. In his study of twenty-seven cattle mutilations, Rommel ascribed the phenomenon to the combined effect of the media, the social influence of “experts” and the action of various predators in the genesis, formation and extension of the wave. (7) Both in the United States and Argentina, the mutilated carcasses were found according to pre-defined patterns. What the authors have termed “the media transmission chain” supposes the participation of narrators who contribute to disseminating a legend regardless of their posture toward it.
This consensual version of the reality to be defined arises from an “identikit”, and these strangeness patterns configure, in turn a “selection criteria”. Thus, in order for the animal to belong to the category of “mutilated cattle”, it must meet a number of symptoms and even common scenarios. In order to build a “classic cattle mutilation scenario”, the animal must be found without its organs or soft tissue. The edges of its skin must be “clean, circular or with sharp angles” and the body must be as dry as possible, “as though exsanguinated”. Rommel did not find this “ideal case” in any of the one hundred seventeen mutilations he researched between 1975 and 1979, especially because – as in the Argentinean case – “surgical precision” vanished under the microscope and the exsanguination was only apparent. “Blood always pools in the lower parts of the carcass.” The missing parts – soft tissue organs – are the parts appealing to a carnivorous predator. He also discovered that the areas under the carcasses’ weight was also intact. An “intelligent mutilator” would have turned it over to devour the hidden parts. This was never the case.

[…]

In the United States, sociologist J.R. Stewart found that the number of cattle mutilation incidents was directly related to the volume of news devoted to the subject in the media. He also interviewed eight hundred adults and determined that the police, having no experience in elucidating the causes of cattle deaths, and certain local vets, more accustomed to treating live animals, were inclined to accept the farmers’ eyewitness accounts (9). A similar study was not performed in Argentina, but the phenomenon came to an end when the media moved on to other subjects.
Application of the “pitted windshield theory” can lead one to think of a case of selective perception molded by the stereotype provided by the media. I must stress that I am not a sociologist who can reduce the phenomenon to a case of mass hysteria. Even so, this theory seems more convincing to me than finding explanations in the incursions of a bloodthirsty Chupacabras, aliens hankering to throw some creole spareribs on the grill or a gang of lunatic scientists injecting strange potions into our cows.

For the moment, we know that the media is accustomed to broadcasting mutilated images of reality, and we cannot ask cows for their opinion. They can’t even moo. The red muzzled mouse – Professor Kravetz told me – swallowed their tongues.

Sources

“El Senasa dictaminó que las vacas mutiladas murieron ‘por causas naturales’” (01-07-02), in diario La Nación , Buenos Aires. “Vacas muertas: eran mutiladas por ratones de campo y zorros”, in diario Clarín, Buenos Aires (2-07-2002).
“Las vacas podrían haber sido mutiladas”, in diario Clarín (22-06-2002) y “El enigma de las vacas mutiladas, reportado por dos investigadoras en Internet”, in diario Clarín (24-06-2002).
“La salida de Cané del Senasa fue por una disputa política” (23/8/2003). In diario Río Negro.
Agostinelli, Alejandro (2002); “Vague de mutilations animales en Argentine”. In VSD Hors Série N° 5, pp. 56-61. Ed. GS Presse Com., Francia.
Balmaceda, Oscar (2002); “El INTA dice que las vacas mutiladas murieron por causas naturales” (29-06-02), in Diario La Nación, Buenos Aires. “Observaciones sobre supuestas mutilaciones en bovinos en el sudeste de Buenos Aires. Grupo de Sanidad Animal” INTA EEA Balcarce.
Balzano, Silvia; Blache, Martha (2004); “La leyenda del Chupacabras en el área pampeana. Una posible interpretación” In Folklore Latinoamericano, Tomo V, pp. 41-53, Buenos Aires, Instituto Universitario Nacional del Arte. Also see: Balzano, Silvia; Blache, Martha (2003-2004); “La cadena de transmisión mediacional en una leyenda contemporánea: El caso de las vacas mutiladas como metáfora de la crisis argentina actual”. In Estudos de Literatura Oral, No. 9-10, 39-55, Universidade do Algarve, Portugal.
Rommel, Kenneth (1980); Operation Animal Mutilation Project.
Stewart, James R. (1980); “Collective Delusion. A comparison of believers and skeptics” en Midwest Sociological Society, Milwaukee, Winsconsin, Estados Unidos.

[Translation (c) 2014 Scott Corrales, Institute of Hispanic Ufology (IHU)]

{ https://www.ufodigest.com/ }

Geschreven door peter om 17:59 Stuur door

Vrijdag 24 januari 2020

Several Ancient Viruses Have Been Discovered in 15,000-Year-Old Glacial Ice

main article image

Several Ancient Viruses Have Been Discovered in 15,000-Year-Old Glacial Ice

KRISTIN HAUSER, FUTURISM

In 2015, a team of scientists from the United States and China traveled to Tibet to gather samples of Earth's oldest glacial ice.

Earlier this month, they published a paper on the pre-print server bioRxiv detailing their discovery of 28 new virus groups in the 15,000-year-old ice - and warning that climate change could free the ancient viruses into the modern world.

The team drilled 50 meters (164 feet) down into the glacier to obtain two ice cores, which then underwent a three-step decontamination protocol.

After that, the researchers used microbiology techniques to identify microbes in the samples.

Those techniques revealed 33 virus groups - including, notably, 28 ancient viruses that scientists had never seen before.

"This study establishes ultra-clean microbial and viral sampling procedures for glacier ice, which complements prior in silico decontamination methods and expands, for the first time, the clean procedures to viruses," the team wrote.

As the team pointed out in their paper, climate change now threatens both our ability to exhaustively catalogue those tiny lifeforms - as well as our ability to stay safe from dangerous ones.

"At a minimum, [ice melt] could lead to the loss of microbial and viral archives that could be diagnostic and informative of past Earth climate regimes," they wrote.

"However, in a worst-case scenario, this ice melt could release pathogens into the environment."

READ MORE: Ancient never-before-seen viruses discovered locked up in Tibetan glacier [Live Science]
More on ice melt: The Melting Arctic Is Releasing Poison, Disease and Nuclear Waste

Local health officials in China confirmed that an unknown viral pneumonia has been affecting people in the central city of Wuhan.

Pixabay

{ https://futurism.com/the-byte }

Geschreven door peter om 17:14 Stuur door

Vrijdag 24 januari 2020

Ancient Plants Revive After Being Trapped in Ice for 400 Years

Ancient Plants Revive After Being Trapped in Ice for 400 Years

Scientists visiting Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic discovered something remarkable and fascinating .

Led by Catherine LaFarge, a geologist from the University of Alberta in Edmonton (Canada), they were exploring an area called the Sverdrup Pass, which until just recently had been covered by ice. The Teardrop Glacier had spread all across Ellesmere Island during the Little Ice Age, a global cold spell that affected weather and climate conditions in the Northern Hemisphere between 1550 and 1850.

While trudging across newly exposed ground, the scientists found clumps of moss that were mostly browned or blackened. But in among this dead plant life were some spots of green, indicating that a process of regeneration and regrowth had started to occur.

This was remarkable, because LaFarge and the other scientists knew they were not looking at moss that had grown recently. What they’d discovered had originally lived and died several hundred years ago, and it had been trapped beneath the ice for several centuries. Incredibly, moss that had been buried and frozen solid beneath the Teardrop Glacier had begun to regenerate, as if it hadn’t been affected by its centuries-long entombment at all.

LaFarge was able to identify these moss samples as bryophytes, which are extremely resilient plants that have been on Earth for millenia. They are vital contributors to the health and vitality of polar ecosystems, playing a role in their creation and maintenance. They’d been hardy enough to survive in the harsh Arctic climate in the first place, and now that warming trends had exposed them to the open air they had sprung to life once again. They had likely been exposed to the open air for about two years by the time they’d been discovered by the Canadian scientists.

The scientists took samples of the bryophytes back to their laboratory for further study and experimentation. Radiocarbon dating methods confirmed that the moss was approximately 400 years old, yet its ability to produce new life had not been extinguished by the trauma it had experienced.

To test its potency, LaFarge and her team sliced the moss into sections and placing them in controlled environments where light, temperatures and nutrition were ideal for growing. Eventually, seven out of 24 samples sprouted new plants, which to all appearances were perfectly healthy and vibrant.

As LaFarge explained, new moss doesn’t grow from seeds or spores, but from individual plant cells that can create copies of themselves directly. This unique quality may contribute to moss’s ability to regenerate quickly and robustly, even after being placed in suspended frozen animation underneath a glacier for more than four centuries.

More Moss Miracles

This important discovery forced biologists to revise their ideas about the ability of life to survive frozen conditions. But as remarkable as this finding was, scientists affiliated with the British Antarctic Survey and Reading University did their Canadian counterparts one better .

In 2014, just one year after the Ellesmere Island discovery, the British scientists retrieved moss samples from deep inside a frozen moss bank found on the Antarctic tundra. Using radiocarbon dating, they discovered the moss was approximately 1,500 years old. But despite its tremendous antiquity, when the plants were sliced into sections and placed inside an incubator, after a few weeks they, too, began to regenerate.

Even after suffering through the deepest of deep freezes in the coldest continent on our planet, these moss samples had not lost their capacity to regenerate when given enough light, water and nutrition.

“This experiment shows that multi-cellular organisms, plants in this case, can survive over far longer timescales than previously thought,” said Professor Peter Convey, one of the lead scientists involved in this study. “These mosses, a key part of the ecosystem, could survive century to millennial periods of ice advance.”

“If they can survive in this way,” he continued,” then recolonisation following an Ice Age, once ice retreats, would be a lot easier than migrating trans-oceanic distances from warmer regions. It also maintains diversity in an area that would otherwise be wiped clean of life by the ice advance.”

And while the idea may seem farfetched, Convey mentions another possibility that has probably occurred to everyone who has heard this story.

“Although it would be a big jump from the current finding, this does raise the possibility of complex lifeforms surviving even longer periods once encased in permafrost or ice.”

Convey doesn’t specify what he means by “complex lifeforms.” But it boggles the mind to think about what might be buried under the glaciers that cover the polar realms. One thing we know for sure is that thanks to global warming, much of the land that is currently ice covered above the Arctic Circle and near the South Pole may eventually be exposed.

Could Rampaging Viruses —or Vegetable Men —Be Next?

There are many science fiction movies that feature the reanimation of living creatures frozen solid in ice. In 1951’s “The Thing from Another World,” a man-eating, six-foot tall vegetable from another planet, originally encased in a block of ice, terrorizes the occupants of an Arctic research station after accidentally being thawed out by an electric blanket. In 1967’s “The Frozen Dead,” a mad scientist thaws and resuscitates Nazi soldiers he’s kept stored on his English country estate, unaware that they’ve been converted into bloodthirsty zombies.

Far-out storylines like this might appear to have no connection to defrosted and revived moss. But just because moss is benign, that doesn’t mean there aren’t dangers inherent in thawing out lifeforms that lived in others epoch. Some of these lifeforms could very well represent a threat to the health and safety of humanity, and scientists should think carefully about the possible ramifications before opening Pandora’s box and reviving everything they can find.

In the real world, the concern is not so much about frozen animals, Neanderthals, or aliens from crashed spaceships. The real fear is that scientists might mistakenly activate long-dormant viruses or bacteria that we would have no capacity to resist. As human activity continues to heat the planet, the thawing of the tundra in Siberia and the retreat of the glaciers inside the Arctic Circle and in Antarctica could release and reactivate hidden and potentially lethal microorganisms. If such a scenario were to be realized, we could be exposed to hazards that might be even more deadly than Nazi zombies or alien vegetable-men.

The possibility of such an event is not strictly theoretical. In 2014, a group of French scientists revived an ancient virus found frozen in a soil sample taken from 30 metres below the icy tundra of eastern Siberia. Dubbed Pithovirus Sibericum , this gigantic virus was far larger and more complex than the viruses we see today, and is believed to evolved entirely separately from modern infectious agents.

Fortunately, this virus was found to be harmless to humans. But the next one or the next one after that could be lethal, and if humans are unwittingly exposed to it because of thawing tundra there is no telling how much damage it might do.

Top image: Regenerating moss. Credit: mllevphoto / Adobe Stock

By Nathan Falde

{ https://www.ancient-origins.net/ }

Geschreven door peter om 16:43 Stuur door

Vrijdag 24 januari 2020

Ancient Mystery Viruses Discovered Sealed Within Tibetan Glacier For 15,000 Years

Ancient Mystery Viruses Discovered Sealed Within Tibetan Glacier For 15,000 Years

Scientists have found 28 new groups of ancient viruses buried deep within a cold slumber. The viruses were discovered inside the cores of a 15,000-year-old Guliya ice cap on the Tibetan Plateau.

In their paper available on bioRxiv, researchers explain that contaminating such samples of viruses is not difficult. Hence, scientists employed a new method to study microbes preserved within the ice for ultraclean microbial and viral sampling, according to LiveScience.

They employed their techniques to study two ice core samples of the Tibetan glaciers which were collected and stored previously without special care against contamination. So, the exteriors were contaminated but the insides of the samples were still in mint condition.

SEE ALSO: China Quarantines Wuhan City After Coronavirus Outbreak

The team was able to access the samples by gradually getting rid of the outer layers of ice by various methods. In a cold room maintained at -5°C, researchers used a sterilized band to cut a layer of ice, followed by ethanol to melt another layer of ice and then washed with sterile water to remove another layer. A total of 1.5 centimetres of ice was removed to reach an uncontaminated layer. The researchers found 33 groups of virus genera of which, 28 were previously unknown. The microbes found in each ice core differed from the others, indicating that they were stored at different periods of climate conditions.

While these microbes were studied by researchers in controlled conditions, it is possible that the ice melt due to global warming might cause such ancient microbes to be released into the environment. The researchers in their paper explained, “At a minimum, this could lead to the loss of microbial and viral archives that could be diagnostic and informative of past Earth climate regimes; however, in a worst-case scenario, this ice melt could release pathogens into the environment.”

SEE ALSO: NASA Has Plans To Build Homes On Moon And Mars Made Of Fungi

*image for representation purpose only.

{ https://in.mashable.com/}

Geschreven door peter om 16:31 Stuur door

Vrijdag 24 januari 2020

New models reveal inner complexity of Saturn moon

New models reveal inner complexity of Saturn moon

by Southwest Research Institute

New SwRI models reveal inner complexity of Saturn moon

Using new geochemical models, SwRI scientists found that CO₂ in Enceladus' ocean may be controlled by chemical reactions at the seafloor. Integrating this finding with previous discoveries of H₂ and silica suggests geochemically diverse environments in the rocky core. This diversity has the potential to create energy sources that could support life. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

A Southwest Research Institute team developed a new geochemical model that reveals that carbon dioxide (CO₂) from within Enceladus, an ocean-harboring moon of Saturn, may be controlled by chemical reactions at its seafloor. Studying the plume of gases and frozen sea spray released through cracks in the moon's icy surface suggests an interior more complex than previously thought.

"By understanding the composition of the plume, we can learn about what the ocean is like, how it got to be this way and whether it provides environments where life as we know it could survive," said SwRI's Dr. Christopher Glein, lead author of a paper in Geophysical Research Letters outlining the research. "We came up with a new technique for analyzing the plume composition to estimate the concentration of dissolved CO₂ in the ocean. This enabled modeling to probe deeper interior processes."

Analysis of mass spectrometry data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft indicates that the abundance of CO₂ is best explained by geochemical reactions between the moon's rocky core and liquid water from its subsurface ocean. Integrating this information with previous discoveries of silica and molecular hydrogen (H₂) points to a more complex, geochemically diverse core.

"Based on our findings, Enceladus appears to demonstrate a massive carbon sequestration experiment," Glein said. "On Earth, climate scientists are exploring whether a similar process can be utilized to mitigate industrial emissions of CO₂. Using two different data sets, we derived CO₂ concentration ranges that are intriguingly similar to what would be expected from the dissolution and formation of certain mixtures of silicon- and carbon-bearing minerals at the seafloor."

Another phenomenon that contributes to this complexity is the likely presence of hydrothermal vents inside Enceladus. At Earth's ocean floor, hydrothermal vents emit hot, energy-rich, mineral-laden fluids that allow unique ecosystems teeming with unusual creatures to thrive.

"The dynamic interface of a complex core and seawater could potentially create energy sources that might support life," said SwRI's Dr. Hunter Waite, principal investigator of Cassini's Ion Neutral Mass Spectrometer (INMS). "While we have not found evidence of the presence of microbial life in the ocean of Enceladus, the growing evidence for chemical disequilibrium offers a tantalizing hint that habitable conditions could exist beneath the moon's icy crust."

The scientific community continues reaping the benefits of Cassini's close flyby of Enceladus on Oct. 28, 2015, prior to the end of the mission. INMS detected H₂ as the spacecraft flew through the plume, and a different instrument had earlier detected tiny particles of silica, two chemicals that are considered to be markers for hydrothermal processes.

"Distinct sources of observed CO₂, silica and H₂ imply mineralogically and thermally diverse environments in a heterogeneous rocky core," Glein said. "We suggest that the core is composed of a carbonated upper layer and a serpentinized interior." Carbonates commonly occur as sedimentary rocks such as limestone on Earth, while serpentine minerals are formed from igneous seafloor rocks that are rich in magnesium and iron.

It is proposed that hydrothermal oxidation of reduced iron deep in the core creates H₂, while hydrothermal activity intersecting quartz-bearing carbonated rocks produces silica-rich fluids. Such rocks also have potential to influence the CO₂ chemistry of the ocean via low-temperature reactions involving silicates and carbonates at the seafloor.

"The implications for possible life enabled by a heterogeneous core structure are intriguing," said Glein. "This model could explain how planetary differentiation and alteration processes create chemical (energy) gradients needed by subsurface life."

Explore further

Scientists find evidence of complex organic molecules from Enceladus

{ https://www.swri.org/ }

Geschreven door peter om 12:34 Stuur door

Vrijdag 24 januari 2020

OUDSTE INSLAG OP AARDE SUGGEREERT DAT EEN METEORIET DE IJZIGE AARDE LIET ONTDOOIEN

OUDSTE INSLAG OP AARDE SUGGEREERT DAT EEN METEORIET DE IJZIGE AARDE LIET ONTDOOIEN

Vivian Lammerse

Door de immense klap kwam er veel waterdamp vrij, wat een einde maakte aan de bevroren staat van onze aarde.

Onderzoekers hebben zich in een nieuwe studie gepubliceerd in het toonaangevende tijdschrift Nature Communications gebogen over de Yarrabubba-krater. Deze krater is te vinden in het binnenland van West-Australië en is ontstaan door een inslag van een meteoriet. De bevindingen zijn zeer interessant. Want niet alleen hebben de onderzoekers de leeftijd van de krater weten te achterhalen, het is ook gelukt om de gevolgen van de impact bloot te leggen.

Leeftijd
Het team besloot allereerst de precieze leeftijd van de krater te bepalen. “Yarrabubba was al vele jaren erkend als inslagkrater,” zegt onderzoeker Chris Kirkland. “Maar tot nu toe wist men nog niet hoe oud deze eigenlijk was.” Na een grondige analyse van de aangetroffen mineralen zirkoon en monaziet, zijn de onderzoekers erachter gekomen dat de Yarrabubba-krater een slordige 2.229 miljard jaar oud is. En dat is bijzonder oud. Sterker nog, het betekent dat deze krater de oudste op aarde is. De Yarrabubba-krater blijkt daarnaast zo’n 200 miljoen jaar ouder dan de eerstvolgende inslagkrater

Het mineraal zirkoon dat werd onderzocht om de Yarrabubba-krater te dateren.

Afbeelding: Curtin University

Bovendien lukte het de onderzoekers om een beeld van de meteoriet-inslag te schetsen. Waarschijnlijk stortte de meteoriet neer in een met ijs bedekt landschap. Hierdoor verdampte een grote hoeveelheid ijs dat vervolgens naar de atmosfeer werd getransporteerd. De inslag vormde bovendien een enorme krater met een diameter van wel 70 kilometer.

Sneeuwbalaarde
Door verschillende gegevens en informatie over onze aarde naast elkaar te leggen, kwamen de onderzoekers erachter dat de inslag een grote klimaatverandering teweeg heeft gebracht. En dat is interessant. Waarschijnlijk heeft de meteoriet-inslag er namelijk voor gezorgd dat de eens bevroren aarde begon te ontdooien. “De Yarrabubba-krater ontstond aan het einde van wat ook wel de sneeuwbalaarde wordt genoemd,” legt Kirkland uit. In die tijd was de aarde volledig bedekt met ijs en herbergde bevroren oceanen. Maar op een bepaald moment werden oceanen zuurstofrijker en verdween het ijs. En het zou best weleens kunnen dat de meteorietinslag in de Yarrabubba-krater daarvoor het startschot gaf. “De leeftijd van de inslagkrater komt overeen met de ondergang van een reeks oude ijstijden,” legt onderzoeker Nicholas Timms uit. “Na de inslag zien we in de data 400 miljoen jaar lang geen ijsafzettingen. Deze speling van het lot suggereert dat de grote meteorietinslag invloed kan hebben gehad op het wereldwijde klimaat.”

Waterdamp
Om daar een goed beeld van te krijgen, besloten de onderzoekers er wat modellen op los te laten. “Berekeningen gaven aan dat een dergelijke inslag op een met ijs bedekt continent een half biljoen ton waterdamp – een belangrijk broeikasgas – de atmosfeer in stuurde,” zegt Timms. En het zou heel goed kunnen dat dit een einde heeft gemaakt aan de bevroren staat van onze planeet.

De bevindingen hebben belangrijke implicaties voor toekomstige ontdekkingen van inslagkraters. “De resultaten benadrukken dat het belangrijk is om de precieze leeftijd van kraters te achterhalen,” zegt onderzoeker Aaron Cavosie. “Het bestaan van de Yarrabubba-krater was al zeker twee decennia bekend, maar nu pas weten we hoe oud hij is.” En dankzij deze informatie krijgen wetenschappers een steeds beter beeld van de geschiedenis van de aarde. De vraag is nu of de Yarrabubba-krater de oudste zal blijven, of dat onderzoekers op nóg oudere inslagkraters gaan stuiten. “Het roept de vraag op of alle oudere inslagkraters zijn geërodeerd, of dat ze nog steeds wachten om ontdekt te worden,” besluit Cavosie.

Bronmateriaal:

"New research finds Earth’s oldest asteroid strike linked to ‘big thaw’" - Curtin University
Afbeelding bovenaan dit artikel: Родион Журавлёв via Pixabay

{ https://www.scientias.nl/ }

Geschreven door peter om 12:21 Stuur door

Vrijdag 24 januari 2020

Is a mini ICE AGE on the way? Scientists warn the sun will 'go to sleep' in 2030 and could cause temperatures to plummet

Is a mini ICE AGE on the way? Scientists warn the sun will 'go to sleep' in 2030 and could cause temperatures to plummet

New study claims to have cracked predicting solar cycles
Says that between 2030 and 2040 solar cycles will cancel each other out
Could lead to 'Maunder minimum' effect that saw River Thames freeze over

By MARK PRIGG FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

The Earth could be headed for a 'mini ice age' researchers have warned.

A new study claims to have cracked predicting solar cycles - and says that between 2020 and 2030 solar cycles will cancel each other out.

This, they say, will lead to a phenomenon known as the 'Maunder minimum' - which has previously been known as a mini ice age when it hit between 1646 and 1715, even causing London's River Thames to freeze over.

Scroll down for video

A silent sun: In 2011 this image was captured showing an almost clear sun - which experts say could happen for almost a decade from 2030.

THE SOLAR CYCLE

Conventional wisdom holds that solar activity swings back and forth like a simple pendulum.

At one end of the cycle, there is a quiet time with few sunspots and flares.

At the other end, solar max brings high sunspot numbers and frequent solar storms.

It's a regular rhythm that repeats every 11 years.

Reality is more complicated.

Astronomers have been counting sunspots for centuries, and they have seen that the solar cycle is not perfectly regular.

The new model of the Sun's solar cycle is producing unprecedentedly accurate predictions of irregularities within the Sun's 11-year heartbeat.

It draws on dynamo effects in two layers of the Sun, one close to the surface and one deep within its convection zone.

Predictions from the model suggest that solar activity will fall by 60 per cent during the 2030s to conditions last seen during the 'mini ice age' that began in 1645, according to the results presented by Prof Valentina Zharkova at the National Astronomy Meeting in Llandudno.

The model predicts that the pair of waves become increasingly offset during Cycle 25, which peaks in 2022.

During Cycle 26, which covers the decade from 2030-2040, the two waves will become exactly out of synch and this will cause a significant reduction in solar activity.

'In cycle 26, the two waves exactly mirror each other – peaking at the same time but in opposite hemispheres of the Sun,' said Zharkova.

'Their interaction will be disruptive, or they will nearly cancel each other.

'We predict that this will lead to the properties of a 'Maunder minimum''

'Effectively, when the waves are approximately in phase, they can show strong interaction, or resonance, and we have strong solar activity.

'When they are out of phase, we have solar minimums.

'When there is full phase separation, we have the conditions last seen during the Maunder minimum, 370 years ago.'

THE MAUNDER MINIMUM

The Maunder Minimum (also known as the prolonged sunspot minimum) is the name used for the period starting in about 1645 and continuing to about 1715 when sunspots became exceedingly rare, as noted by solar observers of the time.

It caused London's River Thames to freeze over, and 'frost fairs' became popular.

This period of solar inactivity also corresponds to a climatic period called the 'Little Ice Age' when rivers that are normally ice-free froze and snow fields remained year-round at lower altitudes.

There is evidence that the Sun has had similar periods of inactivity in the more distant past, Nasa says.

The connection between solar activity and terrestrial climate is an area of on-going research.

Some scientists hypothesize that the dense wood used in Stradivarius instruments was caused by slow tree growth during the cooler period.

Instrument maker Antonio Stradivari was born a year before the start of the Maunder Minimum.

Maunder Minimum (also known as the prolonged sunspot minimum) is the name used for the period starting in about 1645 and continuing to about 1715 when sunspots became exceedingly rare, as noted by solar observers of the time

It is 172 years since a scientist first spotted that the Sun's activity varies over a cycle lasting around 10 to 12 years.

But every cycle is a little different and none of the models of causes to date have fully explained fluctuations.

The Frozen Thames, 1677 - an oil painting by Abraham Hondius shows the old London Bridge during the Maunder Minimum

Many solar physicists have put the cause of the solar cycle down to a dynamo caused by convecting fluid deep within the Sun.

Now, Zharkova and her colleagues have found that adding a second dynamo, close to the surface, completes the picture with surprising accuracy.

'We found magnetic wave components appearing in pairs, originating in two different layers in the Sun's interior,' she said.

'They both have a frequency of approximately 11 years, although this frequency is slightly different, and they are offset in time.

'Over the cycle, the waves fluctuate between the northern and southern hemispheres of the Sun. Combining both waves together and comparing to real data for the current solar cycle, we found that our predictions showed an accuracy of 97%,' said Zharkova.

Montage of images of solar activity between August 1991 and September 2001 taken by the Yohkoh Soft X-ray Telecope, showing variation in solar activity during a sunspot cycle.

Zharkova and her colleagues derived their model using a technique called 'principal component analysis' of the magnetic field observations from the Wilcox Solar Observatory in California.

They examined three solar cycles-worth of magnetic field activity, covering the period from 1976-2008.

In addition, they compared their predictions to average sunspot numbers, another strong marker of solar activity.

All the predictions and observations were closely matched.

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

Geschreven door peter om 12:11 Stuur door

Vrijdag 24 januari 2020

VAN WIEG TOT GRAF: ZO ZIET HET LEVEN VAN EEN STER ERUIT

VAN WIEG TOT GRAF: ZO ZIET HET LEVEN VAN EEN STER ERUIT

Jurjen de Jong

Als je ze ziet twinkelen aan de hemel zou je het niet zeggen. Maar al deze sterren worden mede mogelijk gemaakt door catastrofale explosies. En velen ervan komen door zo’n zelfde explosie aan hun einde.

Je hebt vast wel eens naar de hemel gestaard en je misschien afgevraagd wat al deze lichtpuntjes die wij sterren noemen nu werkelijk zijn en hoe het leven van een ster, zoals onze zon, begint en verdergaat. Na het lezen van dit artikel heb je antwoorden op al deze vragen.

Geboorte
Sterren ontstaan door het samentrekken van gaswolken (nevels) die wel enkele lichtjaren – de afstand die licht aflegt in een jaar tijd – breed kunnen zijn. De ineenstorting ontstaat onder de invloed van zijn eigen gewicht en de zwaartekracht. Dit proces kan enkele honderdduizenden jaren duren. Het grootste deel van zo’n gaswolk bestaat uit de lichtste elementen van ons universum: waterstof en helium. De rest zijn zwaardere elementen. Dit zijn overblijfselen van oudere sterren die aan hun einde gekomen zijn door middel van een supernova explosie. Hier komen we later op terug.
Zodra zo’n gaswolk begint ineen te storten, zal ook de temperatuur stijgen. Niet al het materiaal beweegt zich naar één punt, maar een gaswolk splitst zich op in meerdere subgaswolken. In de kern van zo’n subgaswolk komt materiaal samen en begint steeds sneller rond te draaien. Als gevolg daarvan wordt er een compact lichaam gevormd dat we een protoster noemen. De hoeveelheid van het beschikbare materiaal bepaalt hoe heet en groot de ster wordt. Ook komt het regelmatig voor dat er een dubbelstersysteem of soms zelfs een meervoudig sterysteem ontstaat, waarbij er dus meerdere sterren gravitationeel aan elkaar gebonden zijn.

Niet al het materiaal van een subgaswolk vormt een protoster. Dit betekent dat een ander deel rond de protoster in banen blijft draaien. Dit wordt de protoplanetaire schijf genoemd, waaruit later planeten kunnen ontstaan. Ondertussen stopt langzaam de ineenstorting van het materiaal van de protoster, doordat er ook een uitwaartse stralingsdruk is vanuit de kern. Zodra de zwaartekracht en de stralingsdruk in balans zijn, is de protoster stabiel en wordt dan een ster genoemd. De temperatuur is door de samendrukking van de atomen hoog genoeg geworden om kernfusie op gang te laten komen. Je kunt dan ook wel zeggen dat een ster eigenlijk een natuurlijke kernfusiereactor is.

Kernfusie
Als eerste worden waterstofatomen door kernfusiereacties gefuseerd tot heliumatomen. Vier waterstofatomen zijn gelijk aan één heliumatoom plus een resterende massa. Deze overgebleven hoeveelheid massa wordt door de welbekende formule van Einstein 𝐸 = 𝑚𝑐2 omgezet in energie. Deze energie zorgt voor extra weerstand tegen ineenstorting.
Over het volledig omzetten van een waterstofkern naar helium doet een gemiddelde ster ongeveer 90% van zijn leven (een ster leeft miljarden jaren). Zodra de ster zijn waterstof volledig ‘opgebrand’ heeft in de kern, stoppen de kernfusies en heb je een heliumkern. Omdat de temperatuur nog niet hoog genoeg is om helium te gaan fuseren, begint de kern weer in elkaar te krimpen en de temperatuur te stijgen. Aan de buitenrand van de kern zit nog waterstof en deze temperatuur stijgt ook, totdat het hier warm genoeg is voor de fusie van waterstof. De kern krimpt in de tussentijd, waardoor de temperatuur steeds meer toeneemt en de waterstoffusie in de buitenrand van de kern versnelt. Uiteindelijk is de temperatuur in de kern hoog genoeg geworden om helium te gaan fuseren tot koolstof en zuurstof.

Kernfusie. Links tijdens waterstoffusie, rechts tijdens heliumfusie in de kern en waterstoffusie in een schil er omheen.

Rode reus
Als er buiten de kern een fusieproces plaatsvindt, gaat de ster plotseling veel meer energie opwekken en begint op te zwellen. Doordat de oppervlakte toeneemt, neemt de oppervlaktetemperatuur af en verandert de ster van kleur. In dit stadium wordt de ster een ‘rode reus’ genoemd. Dit is een vrij instabiele periode in het leven van een ster. De ster is aan het opzwellen en inkrimpen. Als een ster lichter is dan 2,2 maal de massa van de zon en de temperatuur opgelopen is tot 100-200 miljoen, ontstaat er een plotselinge heliumflits. Tijdens zo’n heliumflits komt er net zoveel energie vrij als alle sterren in de Melkweg in dezelfde periode opwekken. Bij zwaardere sterren gaat de kernfusie van helium naar koolstof en zuurstof een stuk geleidelijker, waardoor er geen plotselinge heliumflits ontstaat.

Laatste levensfases
Wat er volgt in het leven van een ster is sterk afhankelijk van de grootte van de ster. Je zou misschien verwachten dat een kleinere ster een korter leven heeft. Dit is niet zo. Hoe groter, hoe korter het leven, omdat de kernfusies langzamer gaan in kleinere sterren. Zo kan de lengte van het leven van een ster variëren tussen de 1 miljoen en 100 miljard jaar.
Sterren met een massa tussen de 0,08 en 0,5 maal de massa van de zon, worden ‘rode dwergen’ genoemd. Over hun laatste levensfases is weinig bekend, omdat ons universum nog te jong is om dit type ster de tijd te geven om op een natuurlijke manier aan zijn einde te komen.
Voor sterren die lichter zijn dan achtmaal de massa van onze zon, is er geen volgende stap nadat het helium in de kern uitgefuseerd is, omdat er geen temperatuur behaald kan worden die zorgt voor fusie van koolstof. Uiteindelijk zal de kern samendrukken totdat er geen samenpersing meer mogelijk is. Op dit moment heet de ster een ‘witte dwerg’. De witte dwerg kan zijn buitenste lagen niet meer vasthouden en deze worden afgestoten en vormen een planetaire nevel (dit heeft overigens niks met planeten te maken). Dit lot staat onze zon dus ook te wachten. Maar geen paniek: het duurt nog 5 miljard jaar voordat onze zon door zijn waterstofvoorraad heen zal zijn.

“BEDENK DAT BIJNA AL HET MATERIAAL DAT JE IN HET DAGELIJKS LEVEN OM JE HEEN ZIET, OF HET IJZER DAT IN JE BLOED ZIT, UITEINDELIJK GROTENDEELS GEPRODUCEERD IS IN ZWARE STERREN”

Voor sterren die grofweg zwaarder zijn dan achtmaal de massa van onze zon is het wel mogelijk om een temperatuur te bereiken waarbij koolstof gefuseerd kan worden tot neon. Verder vindt nog, in verschillende lagen rond de kern, fusie van de lichtere elementen (waterstof, helium en koolstof) plaats. Hoe dichter bij de kern, hoe warmer en hoe zwaarder de elementen zijn die gefuseerd worden. De kernfusies van steeds zwaardere elementen gaan door totdat ijzer in de kern ontstaat. Dit element wordt niet gefuseerd tot zwaardere elementen, omdat de fusie in plaats van energie oplevert, juist energie kost. Als gevolg valt de druk vanuit de kern weg en stort de ster in onder zijn eigen zwaartekracht. Dit resulteert in een heftige explosie, welke ook wel bekend staat als een supernova. Voor sterren met een kern lichter dan driemaal de massa van de zon, blijft de kern over als een neutronster. Dit is een ster met een enorme grote dichtheid. Het kan zijn dat zo’n ster misschien maar een diameter van 10 km heeft, terwijl het gelijk is aan de massa van de zon. Als de ster zwaarder is, dan zal de kern imploderen en veranderen in het welbekende – maar toch mysterieuze – zwarte gat. Dit is een extreem compacte ‘massa’, die de ruimtetijd heftig vervormt. Hieraan kan niks ontsnappen, zelfs licht niet.

De elementen die door een supernova uitgestoten worden, zijn de zware elementen die weer in andere gaswolken terechtkomen. De explosie van zo’n supernova kan ook een gaswolk weer triggeren om ineen te storten. Op deze manier ontstaan er weer nieuwe sterren en begint het hele verhaal weer van voor af aan…

Over de auteur
Jurjen de Jong (1993) heeft een bachelor wiskunde en bachelor natuurkunde behaald in Utrecht en een master wiskundige natuur-en sterrenkunde in Gent afgerond. Onlangs rondde hij de master-na-master in Space Studies in Leuven af met een stage bij de ESA en momenteel werkt hij als data scientist. Jurjen leest graag over de verschillende ontdekkingen en ontwikkelingen op wetenschapsgebied en door er over te schrijven hoopt hij zijn kennis te delen met een groter publiek. Zijn artikelen verschijnen niet alleen op Scientias.nl, maar ook op een blog die hij recent lanceerde: Asbronomers.com. Eerder verscheen van Jurjens hand al dit interessante artikel waarin hij uitzoekt of het nodig is dat ook de ruimtevaart groener wordt. Ook zocht hij voor Scientias.nl uit of de ruimtelift werkelijk toekomst heeft. Recent publiceerde hij ook artikelen over ruimtemijnbouw en de slimme stad.

Bronmateriaal:

S. G. Ryan., A.J. Norton (2010). “Stellar Evolution and Nucleosynthesis”. Cambridge University Press

NASA. “The Life Cycles of Stars: How Supernovae Are Formed”,

{ https://www.scientias.nl/ }

Geschreven door peter om 12:09 Stuur door

Vrijdag 24 januari 2020

ZIJN WE ONLANGS - ZONDER HET TE BESEFFEN - EEN NIEUWE ZONNECYCLUS INGEROLD?

ZIJN WE ONLANGS - ZONDER HET TE BESEFFEN - EEN NIEUWE ZONNECYCLUS INGEROLD?

Caroline Kraaijvanger

Het zou zomaar kunnen nu er recent – na een lange periode van afwezigheid – weer zonnevlekken op onze moederster zijn gespot.

De dag voor kerst zagen astronomen twee groepen zonnevlekken op onze moederster. Nu hoor ik je denken: zo bijzonder is dat toch niet? Nou, de astronomen keken er toch even van op. Want de zon was al sinds 14 november 2019 vrij van zonnevlekken. De laatste keer dat de zon zo’n lange periode zonnevlekvrij was, was in 1996.

Cyclus
Die inactiviteit is te herleiden naar de cyclus van de zon. Onze moederster doorloopt namelijk een grofweg 11 jaar durende cyclus die gekenmerkt wordt door een zonneminimum – een periode waarin de zon heel rustig is en weinig zonnevlekken en zonnevlammen genereert – en een zonnemaximum, waarin de ster juist veel actiever is. Het zonnemaximum vond in 2014 plaats. Sindsdien neemt de activiteit op de zon af en is het wachten op het zonneminimum dat tevens het einde van deze zonnecyclus en het begin van een nieuwe markeert. Onderzoekers voorspelden eerder dat het zonneminimum zich rond april 2020 aan zou dienen. Maar dat kon ook zes maanden later of zes maanden eerder worden; de ervaring leert dat de zon het niet zo nauw neemt met de tijd.

Nu er na een lange periode van rust weer zonnevlekken op de zon opduiken, is de grote vraag of dit dan het zonneminimum was en daarmee dus een nieuwe zonnecyclus is aangebroken. Wetenschappers hebben meer data nodig om met zekerheid te kunnen zeggen dat deze zonnevlekken daadwerkelijk een nieuwe zonnecyclus inluiden, maar dat een nieuwe cyclus aanstaande is, staat vast en wordt door de komst van de zonnevlekken duidelijk onderschreven.

Wat brengt het ons?
Wat die nieuwe zonnecyclus ons brengt, is altijd enigszins koffiedik kijken. De ene cyclus is namelijk de andere niet. Soms verloopt zo’n cyclus – zoals het exemplaar waar we nu nog net (of net niet meer) inzitten – vrij gemoedelijk en is de zon zelfs tijdens het zonnemaximum nog relatief rustig. Maar er zijn ook cycli geweest waarin het zonnemaximum gekenmerkt werd door een hoop onrust op de zon. Die onrust komt tot uiting in veel zonnevlekken, zonnevlammen, en meerdere zogenoemde coronale massa-ejecties per dag. Met name die coronale massa-ejecties kunnen nog weleens venijnig zijn; tijdens deze uitbarstingen op de zon worden energierijke deeltjes en magnetische velden de ruimte ingeslingerd. Deze kunnen behalve een fraai poollicht genereren, ook schade aanrichten aan satellieten in een baan rond de aarde en – in uitzonderlijke gevallen – zelfs voor problemen zorgen op aarde (zie kader).

Onze aarde wordt omringd door een magnetisch veld dat ons onder meer beschermt tegen de grillen van de zon. Maar heel soms schiet dat aardmagnetisch veld tekort. Dat kan gebeuren als er sprake is van een samenloop van omstandigheden die leidt tot een extreme, op de aarde gerichte, uitbarsting op de zon. Dat gebeurde bijvoorbeeld in 1859. Een coronale massa-ejectie raakte toen de aardse magnetosfeer – de invloedssfeer van het magnetisch veld dat de aarde zelf genereert – waardoor deze verstoord raakte. Het leidde tot het uitvallen van de telegraafverbinding tussen Europa en Amerika. En in 1989 zorgde de zon er zo voor dat een elektriciteitsnetwerk in Canada werd uitgeschakeld en zo’n zes miljoen mensen meer dan negen uur zonder stroom zaten.

Gezien de impact die een actieve zon op de aarde en omgeving kan hebben, is er onderzoekers veel aan gelegen om te kunnen voorspellen wat een zonnecyclus gaat brengen. Maar dat is zo gemakkelijk nog niet. Want nog steeds weten we niet precies hoe onze ster met name diep van binnen werkt. Toch wagen sommige onderzoekers zich wel aan een voorspelling. En die is enigszins geruststellend. Naar verwachting wordt de volgende zonnecyclus net als de cyclus waar we nu in zitten (of net uit zijn gerold) vrij rustig. Sterker nog: NASA voorspelde vorig jaar dat het wel eens de zwakste zonnecyclus in 200 jaar tijd zou kunnen worden, waarbij de intensiteit van het zonnemaximum – gemeten in het aantal zonnevlekken – 30 tot 50% lager ligt dan in de meest recente zonnecyclus. Het zou goed nieuws zijn voor de plannen van NASA, die in 2024 – dus rondom het zonnemaximum – mensen naar de maan wil sturen en daar geen gevaarlijk ruimteweer bij kan gebruiken.

Bronmateriaal:

"Two sunspot groups from the new solar cycle" - Solar-Terrestrial Centre of Excellence
Afbeelding bovenaan dit artikel: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

{ https://www.scientias.nl/ }

Geschreven door peter om 11:35 Stuur door

Vrijdag 24 januari 2020

NASA abruptly cuts live feed ISS after THIS appears over the U.S.

NASA abruptly cuts live feed ISS after THIS appears over the U.S.

The ISS live feed was interrupted by NASA at the moment a weird UFO-like anomaly appears in front of the the camera.

Jujubee's Adams had just turned on his ISS app to take a look when some kind of object appeared on the live feed, so Adams took some photos and a video of the strange anomaly, just before NASA abruptly cuts the live broadcast.

And it is not the first time NASA cuts the live feed from the International Space Station. At the moment alien objects appear on camera, they switch over to the well known screen and text that there is a sudden loss of signal between the station and the communications network.

The following video recorded by Adams on January 22, 2020 is a clear example of how NASA is trying to disguise the existence of UFOs and other unknown advanced objects in space.

It's not the first time... other videos selected by peter2011

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

Geschreven door peter om 10:47 Stuur door

Vrijdag 24 januari 2020

Pilot captures unusual cigar-shaped object soaring over Utah from cockpit

Pilot captures unusual cigar-shaped object soaring over Utah from cockpit

A plane pilot appears to have captured a cigar-shaped UFO at 40,000ft soaring through the air above Utah.

The footage – taken over Zion National Park in the US state – shows the strange white object making its way across the sky.

Its shape appears much like a cigar or even a tic-tac – matching dozens of similar sightings over the past few months.

Given the altitude of the craft, it is difficult to see how fast it is travelling.

The clip was taken back in September 2019, but the footage only surfaced yesterday after being posted by YouTube channel Tales From Out There.

In the video description, the uploader said: “Video recording is taken from a cockpit at 40,000ft of an object flying at a lower altitude over the terrain.

UFO hunters 'chasing tic-tac craft' claim responsibility for Colorado drones

Ominous black ring-shaped ‘cloud’ spotted hovering in skies terrifies residents

“Not sure what it is.” He added in the title he believed it could be a “flying disc”.

Viewers soon flooded in to voice their thoughts, with one writing: “That’s an alien ship.”

“Nice proof,” another said, believing the extraterrestrial explanation.

Another wrote: “Where is the flying disc? I only see a white stripe.”

Others were less convinced, though. One sceptic suggested the distance and angle meant it “could easily be another plane”.

Snake-like UFOs

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A second claimed it was nothing more than a “smudge on a window” while a third believed it was a “weather balloon”.

The footage comes days after footage emerged of a mysterious tube-shaped object hovering in the skies above Massachusetts.

Cameraman John Baglio told Daily Star Online the craft had “two big lights” at the front and was “the size of a bus”.

Source: Read Full Article

{ https://wstale.com/ }

Geschreven door peter om 10:26 Stuur door

Vrijdag 24 januari 2020

Pilot captures UAP hovering over Zion National Park, Utah

Pilot captures UAP hovering over Zion National Park, Utah

Aprofessional pilot has filed a report which contains clear video of an unidentified object flying in close formation below his aircraft.

The video was recorded while flying at approximately 40,000 feet over Zion National Park Utah in September of 2019 and submitted to Mufon.

Witness report:

Video recording is taken from cockpit at 40000 ft of an object flying at a lower altitude over the terrain. Not sure what it is.

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

Geschreven door peter om 10:13 Stuur door

Donderdag 23 januari 2020

Goldilocks stars best for alien life?

Goldilocks stars best for alien life?

Posted by Paul Scott Anderson in SPACE

A new research study suggests that K-type dwarf stars (smaller and cooler than our sun) are the best place to search for alien life. These stars are not too hot, not too cool, and not too violent for life to evolve.

Yellow, orange, and red spheres on black background.

Size comparison of G dwarfs (sunlike) stars, K dwarfs and M dwarfs.

Image via Sankalan Baidya/ Facts Legend.

Astronomers use the term Goldilocks zone to describe a star’s habitable zone, where temperatures can allow liquid water to exist on a rocky planet. This zone around a star is generally thought to be the best place to search for life beyond our solar system. Now, scientists are also speaking of Goldilocks stars that are not too hot, too cool, or too violent for life to evolve on any suitable planets. This emerging scenario is based on three decades of observations of exoplanets and their stars.

The newest results regarding this research were presented earlier this month at the 235th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Honolulu, Hawaii. The meeting ran from January 4-8, 2020.

The new program, called the GoldiloKs Project, is being led by Edward Guinan and Scott Engle of Villanova University in Pennsylvania. The project involves undergraduate students measuring the age, rotation rate, and X-ray and far-ultraviolet radiation in a sampling of mostly cool G dwarf (sunlike yellow dwarfs) and K dwarf (orange dwarf) stars. Data was obtained from various telescopes and satellites, including Hubble Space Telescope, Chandra X-ray Observatory, and XMM-Newton. Hubble in particular is valuable for this research, these astronomers said; Hubble is sensitive to radiation from hydrogen, and it has measured hydrogen radiation from 20 different K-type dwarf stars.

A few EarthSky 2020 lunar calendars are still available. Order now. Going fast!

Different kinds of stars various widths of habitable zones, with text annotations.

Comparison of M, K and G stars in terms of habitable zone, X-ray irradiance, relative abundance, and longevity. New research supports the idea that K stars are the most friendly for habitable planets.

Image via NASA/ ESA/ Z. Levy/ Hubblesite.

The research suggests that these types of stars are the most likely to have habitable planets. They are slightly smaller and cooler than our sun, which is a G dwarf star. It’s easy to think, of course, that sunlike stars would be the most ideal, but that might not be the case, after all. As Guinan explained in a statement:

K dwarf stars are in the ‘sweet spot,’ with properties intermediate between the rarer, more luminous, but shorter-lived solar-type stars (G stars) and the more numerous red dwarf stars (M stars). The K stars, especially the warmer ones, have the best of all worlds. If you are looking for planets with habitability, the abundance of K stars pumps up your chances of finding life.

This is encouraging news for those hoping to find extraterrestrial life, since there are about three times as many K dwarf stars in our galaxy as there are sunlike stars. Some of them are fairly close by, as well, with about 1,000 of them within 100 light-years. That’s close enough for any planets orbiting them to be studied by telescopes.

These stars also live a lot longer than our sun will, from 15 billion to 45 billion years. That provides a much longer time period for evolution, as compared to our sun, which is already halfway through its lifetime of 10 billion years. Guinan said:

Solar-type stars limit how long a planet’s atmosphere can remain stable.

Artist’s concept of a habitable planet orbiting an orange K dwarf star.

Image via NASA Ames/ JPL-Caltech/ Tim Pyle/ NASA Ames.

What about red dwarfs? They are the most abundant type of stars, and have even longer lifetimes, but they are very violent places for planets. The X-ray and ultraviolet (UV) radiation from red dwarfs, or M dwarfs, can be up to hundreds of thousands of times more intense than what Earth receives from its sun. Even planets in the habitable zone could have their atmospheres stripped away. Needless to say, not the most ideal location for life to evolve, at least advanced forms of life, as Guinan noted:

We’re not so optimistic anymore about the chances of finding advanced life around many M stars.

K dwarfs, on the other hand, are much less active and hostile, with lower levels of radiation. During the same period of time as the lifetime of our sun, about 10 billion years, they only increase in brightness from about 10-15%. This, with their already longer lifetimes, gives evolution much more time to evolve into higher lifeforms.

Three of the K dwarf stars included in the observations were Kepler-442, Tau Ceti, and Epsilon Eridani. Guinan said:

Kepler-442 is noteworthy in that this star (spectral classification, K5) hosts what is considered one of the best Goldilocks planets, Kepler-442b, a rocky planet that is a little more than twice Earth’s mass. So the Kepler-442 system is a Goldilocks planet hosted by a Goldilocks star!

Icy landscape with red star and planets in sky.

Artist’s concept of the view from one of the seven known planets in the TRAPPIST-1 red dwarf star system . Red dwarfs are very common, but hostile to planets orbiting them.

Image via ESO/ Slate.

Tau Ceti and Epsilon Eridani were also targets for Project Ozma in 1960, the first attempt to detect radio signals coming from advanced alien civilizations. That search came up empty, but based on the new research and what we have learned about these kinds of stars since then, these stars may yet turn out to have habitable planets.

An earlier study from last year by researchers at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center had also come to the conclusion that K dwarf stars would be the most likely to have habitable planets. According to Giada Arney at Goddard:

I like to think that K stars are in a ‘sweet spot’ between Sun-analog stars and M stars. I find that certain nearby K stars like 61 Cyg A/B, Epsilon Indi, Groombridge 1618, and HD 156026 [part of the 36 Ophiuchi system] may be particularly good targets for future biosignature searches.

Edward Guinan of Villanova University, who led the new project.

Image via ExpertFile.

Over 4,000 exoplanets have been confirmed so far orbiting distant stars, and some of those are in K dwarf star systems. With K dwarfs being so abundant, and with the ever-increasing numbers of Earth-sized worlds being found, including in habitable zones, it would seem to be only a matter of time before a truly habitable planet is discovered. And perhaps, not only habitable, but actually home to some form of life, whether it be intelligent aliens or microbes.

Bottom line: New research shows that Goldilocks stars – K dwarfs, or orange dwarfs – are the most likely to have planets that can support life.
Via Hubblesite

{ https://earthsky.org/ }