If we can’t find intelligent life in our own solar system, it would be nice to find it in one of the nearby systems. Ideally, that would be Proxima Centauri, the small red dwarf star located 4.2465 light-years away from the Sun with two confirmed exoplanets, of which one — Proxima Centauri b – is in the star’s so-called habitable zone. Its suitability for life has been in question recently, but that discussion may be mute with news from the Breakthrough Listen project that a narrow beam of 980 MHz radio waves was detected coming from Proxima Centauri in April and May 2019 by the Parkes telescope in Australia. Even more interesting, the signal shifted while under observation. Is it time for an “It’s aliens!” yell?

“It is the first serious candidate for an alien communication since the ‘Wow! Signal.'”

That quote from an unnamed scientist at the Breakthrough Listen project was given to The Guardian which broke the big story. Of course, there’s no proof over 40 years after it was detected that the Wow! signal is from intelligent life. Scientific American picked up the ball and talked to other researchers, who pointed out that signal’s bandwidth is in a range humans lack the technology to transmit in.

“We don’t know of any natural way to compress electromagnetic energy into a single bin in frequency (like this one).”

Andrew Siemion from the University of California, Berkeley, theorizes it’s a technological signal generated by something not sent by humans or a human-created satellite or spacecraft. If it’s coming from Proxima Centauri, then Proxima Centauri b is the likely source … except a recent study concluded that its habitable zone is actually much closer to it than our Sun’s – probably closer than Mercury is to the Sun. That puts Proxima Centauri b in danger of deadly solar radiation on the one side of the planet that always faces its star. That doesn’t sound good.

“If it’s an ETI it must eventually be replicable, because it’s unlikely it would be a one-off,” says “If an independent team at an independent observatory can recover the same signal, then hell yes. I would bet money that they won’t, but I would love to be wrong.”

Shami Chatterjee, a radio astronomer from New York’s Cornell University, told Scientific American the key for him would be another signal in the same bandwidth from the same location. In the meantime, Sofia Sheikh, a researcher from Penn State University who led the } analysis of the signal and is lead author on the paper detailing it, says the project has given it a name — Breakthrough Listen Candidate 1 (BLC1) – and has not lost her enthusiasm.

“It’s the most exciting signal that we’ve found in the Breakthrough Listen project, because we haven’t had a signal jump through this many of our filters before.”

When the process of elimination eliminates all of the processes, is it time for the “It’s aliens!” yell?

Keep your megaphone handy.

ALL RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011

µ

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

According to the National UFO Reporting Center, UFO sightings across New York City are up 31% from last year and a whopping 283% from 2018. There have been a total of 46 reported sightings so far in 2020 – there were 35 alleged sightings in 2019 and a dozen in 2018.

As for the UFOs that have been witnessed this year, Brooklyn has had the most sightings with 12, while Manhattan is close behind with 11, Queens reported 10, Staten Island had 8 sightings, and the Bronx was less active with just 5 reports.

Two of the most interesting sightings occurred in the Bronx and on Staten Island this past summer. According to the Bronx witness, in the late hours of June 8^th, an individual saw 30 objects that were “flying in a perfect line, in perfect synchronicity” and that they “looked like a bunch of moving stars”. This observer made it clear that “I don’t drink, or take any drugs whatsoever. I’m not a UFO conspiracy theorist.”

As for the Staten Island sighting, in the early morning hours of July 21^st, an individual noticed an “oval” object in the sky that “looked and sounded like a helicopter”. However, the object then “sent a surge of heat/radiation through my body,” the witnessed claimed, adding that they “honestly thought it was the government putting something into the air with everything going on during these times…”

Another report included a person who looked “out the bathroom window of my 2nd floor home” and noticed “orange/metallic” orbs that were “standing still over the Canarsie/Jamaica Bay area,” on the night of September 15^th in Brooklyn.

And earlier this year, on February 21^st, an individual in Manhattan claimed to have seen six UFOs dancing around the Statue of Liberty.

In an interview with The Post, Peter Davenport who is the director at the National UFO Reporting Center, stated that while the reports are usually lacking quite a few details and the witnesses don’t normally give their names, he has no doubt that they’re telling the truth about their encounters. “I believe we are being visited routinely by these things we call UFOs,” he said. He even revealed that he has had “five sighting experiences”.

When The Post asked him why he thought aliens would want to visit our planet, he responded with, “You are going to have to talk to the aliens. I don’t know what these creatures are up to. What their objective might be in being here.”

I’m not sure why they would want to visit us during these crazy times. With everything going on in 2020, if the alien was smart, it would want to get as far away as possible from this planet.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

Watch SpaceX's Starship SN8 do a wild landing flip and then explode in this awesome video

Scientists think they've detected radio emissions from an alien world

Similar findings may tell scientists about magnetic fields around exoplanets.

Scientists may have detected radio emissions from a planet orbiting a star beyond our sun for the first time.

"We present one of the first hints of detecting an exoplanet in the radio realm," Jake Turner, an astronomer at Cornell University and lead author of the new research, said in a statement. "We make the case for an emission by the planet itself. From the strength and polarization of the radio signal and the planet's magnetic field, it is compatible with theoretical predictions."

• Related: 7 ways to discover alien planets

However, Turner and his colleagues aren't yet positive that the signal they detected really is coming from the planet, dubbed Tau Boötes b; the researchers called for additional observations of the system, which is about 51 light-years away from Earth in the constellation Boötes.

Then, the scientists consulted observations made in 2016 and 2017 by the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) in the Netherlands. In addition to the potential signal from Tau Boötes b, the researchers also report that they may have picked up a signal from the star Upsilon Andromedae or its planet, but that detection was even fainter than the one from Tau Boötes b.

The researchers are interested in detecting radio emission from planets because such information may help scientists decipher what's happening in the same worlds' magnetic fields. Those magnetic fields, in turn, influence conditions on the surface of the planet — Earth's magnetic field protects the atmosphere that makes the world one we can survive, for example. Such magnetic fields can also tell scientists about other qualities of a world, like its structure and history.

But so far, studying those magnetic fields directly has been difficult for scientists to manage, despite the fact that nearly every planet in our solar system has had one at some point in its history. Hence the interest in using radio emissions as an intermediate.

"We learned from our own Jupiter what this kind of detection looks like," Turner said. "We went searching for it and we found it."

But that's just the beginning of the story, not the end of it, he emphasized, since the radio emissions could still be coming from the stars or another source instead of the planet. "There remains some uncertainty that the detected radio signal is from the planet. The need for follow-up observations is critical."

• The research is described in a paper that will be published by the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics and is already available to read online.
• Email Meghan Bartels at mbartels@space.com or follow her on Twitter @meghanbartels. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

{ https://www.space.com/ }

Christmas star: Jupiter and Saturn set to align in the night sky

By Victoria Gill
Science correspondent, BBC News

{ https://www.bbc.com/ }

Alien hunters are investigating a mysterious radio signal from our neighbouring star Proxima Centauri - causing the biggest excitement since the 'Wow' signal in 1977

• A strange radio signal was first detected by the Parkes telescope in early 2019

• It was a 'short-lived' signal and astronomers can't identify the original source

• Astronomers are looking to see if any human-made source could be responsible 

• The star is 4.2 light years from the Earth and includes an Earth-like rocky planet 

By Ryan Morrison For Mailonline

A mysterious radio signal from our nearest stellar neighbour, Proxima Centauri, is being 'carefully investigated' by a team of alien-hunting astronomers.

Researchers from the Breakthrough Listen Project – a £70m initiative to find alien life through radio telescopes – have been studying the radio waves since April 2019.

Proxima Centauri is 4.2 light years from Earth and has two confirmed planets, a Jupiter-like gas giant and a rocky world called Proxima b in the habitable zone.

The signal was spotted by the Parkes radio telescope in Australia in April or May 2020, according to a report in The Guardian, and, unlike previous radio bursts hasn't been attributed to any Earth-based or near-Earth human-created source.

It is likely that this signal has a natural explanation, but that hasn't stopped alien-hunting astronomers from listening more closely than they normally would.

The team say this is one of the most exciting radio signals since the 'WOW!' signal in 1977 that led many to speculate it originated from a distant alien civilisation.  

Pictured, a not-to-scale representation of how far away Proxima B is from Earth compared to Voyager 1, the farthest man-made object which was launched in 1977 

Artist's rendering of Proxima Centauri system. Portrayed on the right, Proxima c orbits in about 5.2 years around its host star. The system also comprises the smaller Proxima b, on the left, discovered in 2016 that orbits in the 'habitable zone' closer than Mercury is to the Sun

Proxima b is an Earth-like rocky world that orbits within the 'habitable zone' of Proxima Centauri – that is an area where liquid water could flow on the surface of the planet.

However, as Proxima Centauri is a red dwarf, the habitable zone is very close to the star, meaning the planet is likely tidally locked and exposed to intense radiation, making it unlikely any civilisation has been able to form – at least on the surface. 

The radio signal was detected in the 980MHz range, and shifts in the frequency detected by the Parkes telescope are consistent with the movement of a planet.

This suggests it could be evidence of a third planet within the system, rather than signs of an alien civilisation, something researchers say would be 'very unlikely.' 

Pete Worden, director of Breakthrough Initiatives, said the signals are likely interference from Earth-based sources we can't yet explain.

However, he told The Guardian that it was important to wait and see what the project scientists conclude from their close examination of the signal. 

The beam being investigated hasn't been spotted since the first observation in April or May 2019, causing astronomers to speculate it is similar to the 'Wow! signal.

This was a short-lived radio signal detected from a distant star system by the Big Ear Radio Observatory in the US in 1977, and labelled with the word 'WOW!'.

Until now, that has been the best possible candidate astronomers have had to work with for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence - although like this new signal, very little is known about it or what unleashed the signal in the first place. 

In this image from the Hubble Space Telescope is our relative neighbour Proxima Centauri, a low mass star in the triple-star Alpha Centauri system. Proxima Centauri is not visible to the naked eye due to its small size - eight times smaller than the Sun

The team from Breakthrough Listen are currently preparing a research paper on the findings, although no date for publication has been set.

Breakthrough Listen involves listening out for 'technosignatures' within the range of signals coming from the universe and signatures from human-made objects.

Speaking to the Guardian, Lewis Dartnell, an astrobiologist from the University of Westminster, said it was incredibly unlikely this signal is from an alien civilisation.

'We've been looking for alien life for so long now and the idea that it could turn out to be on our front doorstep, in the very next star system, is piling improbabilities upon improbabilities,' he told The Guardian.

The professor of science communication said if there is intelligent life as close as Proxima Centauri then it is likely the galaxy is teeming with life.

'The chances of the only two civilisations in the entire galaxy happening to be neighbours, among 400bn stars, absolutely stretches the bounds of rationality,' he said. 

Proxima b is also likely to be constantly bathed in stellar radiation, making it unlikely liquid water and life 'as we know it' could have formed on the rocky world.

An earlier study by University of Sydney researchers found that Proxima Centauri has regular coronal mass ejections that hit the nearby rocky planet.

This discovery was based on a different radio signal that is thought to have been caused by a particularly large ejection or solar flare from the star.

These solar flares would kill all life on a planet too close - and Proxima b is within this danger zone, and so likely showered with sterilising particles on a regular basis.

The planet is also likely tidally locked - just like the Moon is with the Earth - due to its close proximity to the star, meaning one side is always day, the other night.

'It's hard to imagine how you can have a stable climatic system and all the things you need to get from bacteria, which are hardy, up to intelligent animal life forms, which certainly are not,' Dartnell told the Guardian. 

'But I'd love to be proved wrong,' he added.

It is possible there are other planets, slightly further from the star, that have yet to be discovered by astronomers, but they are likely too far away for liquid water to form.

KEY DISCOVERIES IN HUMANITY'S SEARCH FOR ALIEN LIFE

Discovery of pulsars

British astronomer Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell was the first person to discover a pulsar in 1967 when she spotted a radio pulsar.

Since then other types of pulsars that emit x-rays and gamma rays have also been spotted.

Pulsars are essentially rotating, highly magnatised neutron stars but when they were first discovered it was believed they could come from aliens.

'Wow!' radio signal

In 1977, an astronomer looking for alien life in the nigh sky above Ohio spotted a powerful radio signal so strong that he excitedly wrote 'Wow!' next to his data.

In 1977, an astronomer looking for alien life in the nigh sky above Ohio spotted a powerful radio signal so strong that he excitedly wrote 'Wow!' next to his data

The 72-second blast, spotted by Dr Jerry Ehman through a radio telescope, came from Sagittarius but matched no known celestial object.

Conspiracy theorists have since claimed that the 'Wow! signal', which was 30 times stronger than background radiation, was a message from intelligent extraterrestrials.

Fossilised martian microbes

In 1996 Nasa and the White House made the explosive announcement that the rock contained traces of Martian bugs.

The meteorite, catalogued as Allen Hills (ALH) 84001, crashed onto the frozen wastes of Antarctica 13,000 years ago and was recovered in 1984. 

Photographs were released showing elongated segmented objects that appeared strikingly lifelike.

Photographs were released showing elongated segmented objects that appeared strikingly lifelike (pictured)

However, the excitement did not last long. Other scientists questioned whether the meteorite samples were contaminated. 

They also argued that heat generated when the rock was blasted into space may have created mineral structures that could be mistaken for microfossils. 

Behaviour of Tabby's Star in 2005 

The star, otherwise known as KIC 8462852, is located 1,400 light years away and has baffled astonomers since being discovered in 2015.

It dims at a much faster rate than other stars, which some experts have suggested is a sign of aliens harnessing the energy of a star.

The star, otherwise known as KIC 8462852, is located 1,400 light years away and has baffled astonomers since being discovered in 2015 (artist's impression)

Recent studies have 'eliminated the possibility of an alien megastructure', and instead, suggests that a ring of dust could be causing the strange signals.

Exoplanets in the Goldilocks zone in 2015 

In February this year astronomers announced they had spotted a star system with planets that could support life just 39 light years away.

Seven Earth-like planets were discovered orbiting nearby dwarf star 'Trappist-1', and all of them could have water at their surface, one of the key components of life.

Three of the planets have such good conditions, that scientists say life may have already evolved on them. 

Researchers claim that they will know whether or not there is life on any of the planets within a decade, and said 'this is just the beginning.' 

Read more:

• Scientists looking for aliens investigate radio beam 'from nearby star' | Space | The Guardian

RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

‘I’ve seen 29!’: Discover Colorado’s UFO hotspot with more sightings per capita than any place else

Sure, you can go and see every star in the beautiful Colorado night sky, but that’s not the real draw of this place.

“You’ve had lots of people have an experience but they can’t talk about it.” Here, at Judy Messoline’s place. They can.

In Saguache County, Colorado – UFO Watchtower is a beacon that draws the curious from all over the world. There’s plenty of activity to investigate. “Cigar-shaped, narrow and really long,” Judy describes the closest sighting near UFO Watchtower. “It went zip like that!”

She says a dozen other people saw the same thing.

Messoline also describes another phenomenon on the property. She says there are two large vortexes out front full of an unexplained energy, according to multiple reports from psychics.

Head down to UFO Watchtower in San Luis Valley to discover where the aliens have landed.

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

While it may be a tempting invitation that could lead to lost treasures of Egypt, anyone who has ever seen a ‘mummy’ movie knows that following one can only lead to bad things, not riches. And riches are one of the things ancient Egypt is known for. It’s no mystery how many non-local riches like gold, ivory, rare woods, and unusual wild animals were obtained – Egypt conducted a thriving trade business with many lands. One of those was the lost land of Punt – referred to in writings as Ta netjer or the “Land of the God” because it was considered to be a holy land associated with the Sun God and thought by some to be the Egyptian ancestral homeland. Despite that, little is known about where the land of Punt was actually located. That changed recently when a group of researchers followed a mummy (you knew we’d get back to that) – but not a human one … a baboon mummy. Wait … what?

“The Red Sea was witness to important events during human history, including the first long steps in a trade network (the spice route) that would drive maritime technology and shape geopolitical fortunes for thousands of years. Punt was a pivotal early node in the rise of this enterprise, serving as an important emporium for luxury goods, including sacred baboons (Papio hamadryas), but its location is disputed.”

A study led by Nathaniel J. Dominy, the Charles Hansen Professor of Anthropology at Dartmouth College, and others, published recently in eLife, describes the historical importance of Punt to the ancient world as a trader of valuable commodities, and to the Egyptians as a supplier of sacred goods. Despite its significance, historians have never agreed on its location – various spots have included northeast Ethiopia, Sudan, Eritrea on the Red Sea coast, or Somalia on the horn of Africa, reachable by the Gulf or Aden and the Indian Ocean. Its importance to Egypt is apparent by the distance needed to traverse to get there and back by sea, showing Egypt’s nautical prowess on the waters as far back as 4500 years ago. That’s a long way to go for baboons.

“Baboons were central to this commerce, so determining the location of Punt is important. For over 150 years, Punt has been a geographic mystery. Our analysis is the first to show how mummified baboons can be used to inform this enduring debate.”

Archeologists have found references to baboons, especially as a manifestation of Thoth, the god of wisdom, dating to 3,000 BCE. That explains why they were mummified with extreme care – often in a seated position with its tail wrapped and curved to the right, just like paintings of Thoth depict. Since baboons have never been native to Egypt, tracing their origin seemed to Dominy and his team like a good way to find Punt.

The story is getting good.

The study focused on mummified baboons from the New Kingdom period (1550-1069 B.C.) stored in the British Museum and specimens from the Ptolemaic period (305-30 B.C.) available in the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology at University College London. For comparison, they examined tissues from 155 baboons from 77 locations, encompassing every hypothesized location for Punt. In particular, they measured strontium isotope compositions in teeth — strontium is unique to geographic locations and stored in tooth enamel as animals (and humans) drink water. Digging through the layers to get to early enamel, the researchers found strontium from when they were young in their birthplace. Two of the mummified baboons had strontium from somewhere other than Egypt.

“The area encompasses much of present-day Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Djibouti, and portions of Somalia and Yemen.”

Punt! Well, that’s still a big area but it’s a better answer than ever determined before. (Maps can be seen in the study.) Obviously, more research is necessary. The study also found that many of the mummified baboons had no non-Egyptian strontium isotopes at all, indicating that some Egyptians got tired of waiting for native baboons and bred them themselves.

It all adds up to the first story where something good happened to those who followed a mummy.

ALL RELATED IDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

Dark storm on Neptune wider than the Atlantic Ocean baffles astronomers after it reverses direction in never-before-seen phenomenon

• Dark spots were first seen on Neptune in images taken by the Voyager 2 probe

• Hubble captured other dark spots when it started observing the planet in 1993 

• This new dark spot is unusual as it didn't break up at the equator as expected

• Scientists believe this may be due to a smaller storm breaking away from it 

By RYAN MORRISON FOR MAILONLINE 

A dark storm 4,600 miles across on the distant ice giant Neptune has left astronomers confused after it changed direction, a phenomenon never seen before.

Storm vortices like Neptune's dark spot aren't unusual, but nobody had previously witnessed one turning back towards the poles after migrating to the equator.  

Using images from the Hubble space telescope, University of California, Berkeley astronomers said the change of direction was 'unexpected' and surprising.

The storm is wider than the Atlantic Ocean on Earth and was first discovered by Hubble in 2018 where it was born in the northern hemisphere of Neptune.

A year later fresh observations showed the same storm migrating towards the equator and computer simulations suggested that as it got closer to the 'equatorial kill zone' it would be destroyed.

However, the latest observations from August 2020 show it clearly moving back to the north towards the polar region, a phenomenon that baffled astronomers.

Some predict it may have been caused by the breaking away of a smaller storm, also spotted by Hubble in images from August that helped it avoid breaking up fully.

Storm vortices like Neptune's dark spot aren't unusual, but nobody had previously witnessed one turning back towards the poles after migrating to the equator

This massive storm wasn't alone, according to the UC team. Images captured by Hubble in January 2020 revealed a small, similar dark spot on Neptune.

It was short lived and may have been part of the large storm that 'broke off' and dissipated - as it wasn't visible in follow up observations from August. 

'We are excited about these observations because this smaller dark fragment is potentially part of the dark spot's disruption process,' said author Michael H. Wong.

'This is a process that's never been observed. We have seen some other dark spots fading away, and they're gone, but we've never seen anything disrupt, even though it's predicted in computer simulations.' 

The large storm is 4,600 miles across and is the fourth dark spot Hubble has observed on Neptune since the first observations of the ice giant in 1993.

Voyager 2 - the spaceship that is now outside the solar system in interstellar space - also observed two dark storms in 1989 when it flew by the distant world.

These 'dark vortices' are high-pressure systems that can form at mid-latitudes and could then eventually migrate towards the equator on the blue planet.

They start stable - due to the Coriolis forces which cause northern hemisphere storms to rotate clockwise - but as it drifts towards the equator this effect gets weaker and the storm begins to disintegrate.

Computer simulations predicted these storms would follow a relatively straight path to the equator until there is no Coriolis effect to hold them together.

However, observations by Hubble revealed this didn't happen, in fact, as the dark spot approached the equator it began to turn back towards the polar region.

'It was really exciting to see this one act like it's supposed to act and then all of a sudden it just stops and swings back,' Wong said. 'That was surprising.' 

This massive storm wasn't alone, according to the UC team. Images captured by Hubble in January 2020 revealed a small, similar dark spot on Neptune

The exact cause of the Dark Spot surviving the equatorial kill zone is unknown, but Wong believes it could be to do with the smaller dark spot seen in the images.

He dubbed it 'Dark Spot Jr' - it was about 3,900 miles across and near the side of the main spot that faces the equator - where simulations predicted it would fall apart.  

'When I first saw the small spot, I thought the bigger one was being disrupted,' Wong wrote in a blog post for NASA. 

'I didn't think another vortex was forming because the small one is farther towards the equator. So it's within this unstable region. But we can't prove the two are related. It remains a complete mystery.

'It was also in January that the dark vortex stopped its motion and started moving northward again,' Wong added. 

'Maybe by shedding that fragment, that was enough to stop it from moving towards the equator.'

Another unusual feature of this dark spot is the absence of a lighter set of bright companion clouds surrounding it - that were visible in the 2018 Hubble images.

The Voyager 2 spacecraft sent back images of dark spots on Neptune when it did a fly by of the ice giant in 1989

These clouds form when flow of air is perturbed and diverted upwards over the vortex and causing gasses to freeze into methane ice crystals.

Astronomers plan to study this phenomenon in more detail in the hope it could reveal information on how the dark spots first evolve. 

This doesn't solve the larger mystery of how these giant storms form on the ice giant, but this latest spot is the most closely studied so far thanks to Hubble.  

'We wouldn't know anything about these latest dark spots if it wasn't for Hubble,' Amy Simon of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center wrote.

 'We can now follow the large storm for years and watch its complete life cycle. If we didn't have Hubble, then we might think the Great Dark Spot seen by Voyager in 1989 is still there on Neptune, just like Jupiter's Great Red Spot. 

'And, we wouldn't have known about the four other spots Hubble discovered.' 

The team's research was presented at the 2020 Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union. 

NASAs Hubble Space Telescope is still working and has made more than 1.3 million observations since its mission began in 1990

The Hubble telescope was launched on April 24, 1990, via the space shuttle Discovery from Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.

It is named after famed astronomer Edwin Hubble who was born in Missouri in 1889.

He is arguably most famous for discovering that the universe is expanding and the rate at which is does so - now coined the Hubble constant. 

The Hubble telescope is named after famed astronomer Edwin Hubble who was born in Missouri in 1889 (pictured)

Hubble has made more than 1.3 million observations since its mission began in 1990 and helped publish more than 15,000 scientific papers.

It orbits Earth at a speed of about 17,000mph (27,300kph) in low Earth orbit at about 340 miles in altitude.

Hubble has the pointing accuracy of .007 arc seconds, which is like being able to shine a laser beam focused on Franklin D. Roosevelt's head on a dime roughly 200 miles (320km) away.

The Hubble telescope is named after Edwin Hubble who was responsible for coming up with the Hubble constant and is one of the greatest astronomers of all-time

Hubble's primary mirror is 2.4 meters (7 feet, 10.5 inches) across and in total is 13.3 meters (43.5 feet) long - the length of a large school bus.

Hubble's launch and deployment in April 1990 marked the most significant advance in astronomy since Galileo's telescope. 

Thanks to five servicing missions and more than 25 years of operation, our view of the universe and our place within it has never been the same. 

Read more:

• Dark Storm on Neptune Reverses Direction, Possibly Shedding a Fragment | NASA
• Abstract: Neptune's NDS-2018: The Dark Vortex That Would Not Die (AGU Fall Meeting 2020)

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

Move over Jupiter’s “Great Red Spot”, there’s another massive storm that’s making headlines. For the first time ever, astronomers have witnessed a storm completely reversing directions and it didn’t happen here on Earth. A gigantic storm that’s wider than Earth’s Atlantic Ocean is present on Neptune and its never-before-seen movements are completely baffling scientists.

Neptune’s dark storm, which measures about 4,600 miles across, has completely turned back around towards the north after traveling down to the equator. The storm was first observed by the Hubble Space Telescope back in 2018 in the Northern Hemisphere of Neptune and about a year later, it was seen moving towards the equator where it would more than likely die off based on computer simulations. The storms are high-pressure systems that are very stable as they travel towards the equator because the Coriolis forces make them rotate in a clockwise pattern. But as they get closer to the equator, they get weaker which causes them to disintegrate.

However, that didn’t happen. Based on observations taken in August of this year, the storm is moving back towards the Northern Hemisphere where it originated from. Some experts think that this strange movement was caused because a smaller storm broke apart from it. In fact, a smaller dark spot (but still very large at 3,900 miles across) was seen by the Hubble Space Telescope in January of this year that may have broken off of the larger storm, but that smaller one quickly died off as the images taken in August didn’t show it.

Author Michael H. Wong described what he thought of this mystery, “It was really exciting to see this one act like it’s supposed to act and then all of a sudden it just stops and swings back.” The fact that the larger storm survived the “equatorial kill zone” of the equator remains unknown but Wong suggested that by having the smaller storm break off of the bigger one, it may have stopped it from moving into that danger zone where it would have been destroyed. Their research was presented at the 2020 Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union.

This wasn’t the first storm discovered on Neptune as Hubble located three more in the past several years and Voyager 2 noticed two storms when it flew by the planet in 1989. More studies need to be conducted in order to better understand these giant storms, such as how they formed on the planet. Amy Simon from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center stated, “We wouldn’t know anything about these latest dark spots if it wasn’t for Hubble.” “We can now follow the large storm for years and watch its complete life cycle. If we didn’t have Hubble, then we might think the Great Dark Spot seen by Voyager in 1989 is still there on Neptune, just like Jupiter’s Great Red Spot.”

Several pictures of Neptune’s massive dark storm can be seen here.

{  https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

Just about everyone has heard of the Black Eyed Children. Even my dad has heard of them! But, what about Black Eyed adults? Granted, such reports are in the minority, but that’s not to say there aren’t such reports. There most assuredly are. As you will now find out. Tracie Austin is a long-time friend who I first met back in 1995. At the time, Tracie and I only lived about a 45-minute-drive from each other in central, rural England. As a result, we spent a lot of time traveling to UFO conferences in the U.K. and having a good time, very often with a mutual friend, Irene Bott, who used to run the Staffordshire UFO Group. Tracie moved to the United States a couple of years before me and now lives in Las Vegas, Nevada. She has done very well for herself and has her own TV show, which is broadcast out of the heart of the city.

One of the most fascinating things that Tracie has come across is that of the Black Eyed Adults (what we might call the BEAs). She says: “I have a friend named Dana; she works in timeshare, at a resort out here in Las Vegas, on the far end of the strip. She was working one day – this was in April 2016 – when she said this lady was sent over to her, with two kids: a young boy and a girl. The girl was about six or seven and the boy was about four or five. The woman was wearing dark brown pants and had long brown hair. And the reason why the woman was sent over was because Dana gave the gifting in the timeshare company. When you listen to a presentation, you’re given a gift. But, the woman said she didn’t want a gift and Dana said, ‘When she looked at me and said that, I saw that she had total black eyes. There were no whites whatsoever [italics mine]. And the kids were exactly the same. But, in every other sense they were completely normal; they weren’t wearing the hoodies.”

Hoodies and Horrors

Tracie continues: “Dana commented, ‘I wish I had said something, like how do you see with those eyes?’ When she said that, I thought you can’t really ask them something like that. Maybe you could say, ‘Wow, your eyes are beautiful.’ But, maybe that’s bringing attention to something they don’t want you to know about. But, they could wear sunglasses all the time and no-one would know. So, maybe they are testing our reactions, they want their eyes to be seen. The kids were quiet; they didn’t say anything to her. Dana asked the woman how long she was going to be staying at the resort. And she said just one night and then they left.

“Dana said to me, ‘I couldn’t believe it, Trace; I saw after that that you were going to be doing a show on the Black-Eyed Kids.’ She reached out to me on Facebook and said, ‘I had an encounter with a Black-Eyed Woman and Black-Eyed Kids.’ Then, a couple of months after encountering this woman, Dana asked me if there was some connection between seeing them and people dying, when they have an encounter with the Black-Eyed-People. Right around a month or two after her encounter, her parents – who were both in their seventies – died. They hadn’t been sick, weren’t ill. Her father had developed kidney failure, out of the blue, and then her mother developed pneumonia. She said to me: ‘Tracie, this is freaking me out, as I hear [the Black-Eyed Children] can be omens of death.’ I said I didn’t know, as I didn’t want to scare her.”

Tracie Austin

Tracie says, too: “I also have a friend who had an experience with a Black-Eyed Man; this was in a Wal-Mart in Michigan where she saw him. I was living in California at the time and this would have been about 2004, Christmas time. They were at the check-out and he insisted that he gave a gift to her son. It was a Spiderman clock. She said where he stood in line, there was someone in between her and this man. But, when he gave the gift, it was like his hand reached through the person between them; just passed right through the flesh of this person. And what freaked her out was that he had the pure black eyes [italics mine]. She didn’t want him to accept the clock, with him being a stranger. But, he insisted.”

Perhaps, in light of all the above, we should expand our horizons and keep our eyes out for the adult versions of those creepy kids.

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First Radio Signals From Planet Outside Solar System Could Have Been Received, Astronomers Say

 BY TYLER DURDEN

Authored by Douglas Braff via SaraACarter.com,

Perhaps the universe is trying to send Earth a message...

Astronomers might have received the first radio signals from a planet outside of our solar system, The Independent‘s Andrew Griffen reported Thursday.

{ https://www.zerohedge.com/ }

30,000 Quakes In 4 Months! Melting Antarctic Ice Heading To Planetary Disaster Of Epic Proportions! - Epic Economist Must Video

In a year devastated by natural disasters, the melting of Antarctic ice has been worrying the scientific community. NASA has recently discovered that under the continent of Antarctica, there is a mantle plume producing almost the same amount of heat as the Yellowstone supervolcano. Consequently, ice plates have been melting at an extraordinary pace and the results of it could generate an apocalyptic catastrophe all around the planet. That’s what we are going to discuss in this video. 

It’s no news that 2020 has been marked by tragedies. So far we have had a health crisis that fast spread around the globe, taking millions of lives and harming millions of others. Floods, droughts, and pests decimated crops and created a worldwide food shortage of grains, also contributing to the break of food supply chains. And now, a recent report has featured warnings of researchers of the University of Chile that revealed more than than 30,000 tremors have been registered in Antarctica since the end of August. 

Scientists stated that although the majority of the quakes had small proportions, some of them hit magnitude 6. The shakes were detected in the Bransfield Strait, and although the surroundings of the strait have numerous tectonic plates and microplates, the center’s experts say that such a staggering incidence of tremors in the area has been utterly unusual. 

Trembling episodes have become so recurrent the strait itself, which used to increase in width at a rate of roughly 7 or 8 mm – or 0.30 inch – a year, now has been expanding 15 cm – or 6 inches – a year, the center informed. “It’s a 20-fold increase, which suggests that right this minute the Shetland Islands are separating more quickly from the Antarctic peninsula,” described Sergio Barrientos, the center’s director. 

The peninsula is one of the fastest-warming places on the entire planet, and scientists have been carefully watching the impact of climate change on icebergs and glaciers. What is happening in Antarctica right now has become a very relevant and rather alarming discussion amongst experts. Especially because the melting of Antarctic ice could impact on the quick rise of sea levels and provoke cataclysmic accidents all around the world. 

Massive ice shelves have been melting from underneath for quite some time now. NASA has discovered a mantle plume almost as hot as the Yellowstone supervolcano that appears to be responsible for melting part of West Antarctica from beneath. Experts say the existence of an immense mantle plume could be the reason why this land is so unstable today, and why it collapsed so fast 11,000 years ago, at the end of the last Ice Age. 

Analysts the continent’s conditions are starting to become unsettling. If that’s the case we could soon be witnessing a scenario we have only seen before in dystopian movies. Live Science has reported that “half of Antarctica’s ice shelves could collapse in a flash”. In fact, the rise in sea level is a phenomenon that has been preoccupying academic circles for decades. Considering the average expansion of all the seas on the planet, the land is being gradually swallowed up by ocean water and the tendency is that this situation will only worsen. 

If you’re wondering what could happen if Antarctica’s ice melting process vastly accelerated and suddenly pushed sea levels up, National Geographic has published a projection on how the world would look like if all the ice melted, and their study uncovered that “the entire Atlantic seaboard would vanish, along with Florida and the Gulf Coast”. That is to say, every city that sits along the east coast of the United States would disappear. In California, San Francisco’s hills would become a cluster of islands and the Central Valley a giant bay. The Gulf of California would stretch north past the latitude of San Diego – not that there’d be a San Diego.

These changes are about to affect our lives in ways we could never have imagined. And no place on the planet will remain untouched by the calamities brought by environmental catastrophes. We are just at the start of a process that will alter the Earth’s landscape and all of our lives forever. That’s why experts say that if the ice in Antarctica starts to melt much more quickly, nothing will ever be the same. 

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• http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com

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The ‘Crazy Beast’ That Lived Among The Dinosaurs

Credit: © Andrey Atuchin

Adalatherium is an important piece in a very large puzzle on early mammalian evolution in the southern hemisphere, one in which most of the other pieces are still missing

The bizarre features of this mammal have scientists perplexed as to how it could have evolved; “it bends and even breaks a lot of rules”  

New research published today in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology describes a bizarre 66 million-year-old mammal that provides profound new insights into the evolutionary history of mammals from the southern supercontinent Gondwana – recognized today as Africa, South America, Australia, Antarctica, the Indian subcontinent, and the Arabian Peninsula.

Named Adalatherium, which, translated from the Malagasy and Greek languages means “crazy beast,” it is described based on a nearly complete, exquisitely preserved skeleton, the most complete for any mammal yet discovered in the southern hemisphere prior to the extinction of the dinosaurs.

The research, carried out over 20 years, demonstrates that Adalatherium was a “giant” relative to the mostly shrew- or mouse-sized mammals that lived during the Cretaceous period.

Its “bizarre” features include more trunk vertebrae than most other mammals, muscular hind limbs that were placed in a more sprawling position (similar to modern crocodiles) coupled with brawny sprinting front legs that were tucked underneath the body (as seen in most mammals today), front teeth like a rabbit and back teeth completely unlike those of any other known mammal, living or extinct, and a strange gap in the bones at the top of the snout.

A team of 14 international researchers led by Dr David Krause (Denver Museum of Nature & Science) and Dr Simone Hoffmann (New York Institute of Technology) published the comprehensive description and analysis of this opossum-sized mammal that lived among dinosaurs and massive crocodiles near the end of the Cretaceous period (145­–66 million years ago) on Madagascar.

The 234-page monographic treatment, consisting of seven separate chapters, is part of the prestigious Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (SVP) Memoir Series, a special yearly publication that provides a more in-depth treatment of the most significant vertebrate fossils. Initial announcement of the discovery was made in the journal Nature earlier this year.

Adalatherium, from Madagascar, belongs to an extinct group of mammals known as gondwanatherians, which were first discovered in the 1980s and, until recently, were only represented by a few isolated teeth and jaw fragments. But even those meager remains already indicated that gondwanatherians were very different from other contemporaneous mammals. So many mysteries had surrounded gondwanatherians that it was unclear how they fit into the mammalian family tree.

Now the research team presents the first skeleton for this mysterious group that once roamed much of South America, Africa, Madagascar, the Indian subcontinent, and even Antarctica.

The completeness and excellent preservation of the skeleton of Adalatherium opens new windows into what gondwanatherians looked like and how they lived, but the bizarre features still have the team perplexed.

“Knowing what we know about the skeletal anatomy of all living and extinct mammals, it is difficult to imagine that a mammal like Adalatherium could have evolved; it bends and even breaks a lot of rules,” Krause explains.

Although the life-like reconstruction of Adalatherium is superficially similar to a run-of-the-mill badger, its “normality” is only skin deep. Below the surface, its skeleton is nothing short of outlandish.

As Hoffmann puts it, “Adalatherium is simply odd. Trying to figure out how it moved, for instance, was challenging because its front end is telling us a completely different story than its back end.”

Adalatherium 

Credit Simone Hoffmann and Kathrine Pan

While its muscular hind legs and big claws on the back feet may indicate that Adalatherium was a powerful digger (like badgers), its front legs were less brawny and are more similar to those of living mammals that can run fast.

The limbs of Adalatherium also indicate that its posture was a hybrid between those of living mammals and more ancient relatives. Its forelimbs were tucked underneath the body (as seen in most mammals today) but its hind limbs were more sprawling (as in crocodiles and lizards).

This is not were the strangeness stops.

The teeth of Adalatherium, reconstructed by employing high-resolution micro-computed tomography and extensive digital modeling, are indicative of herbivory but are otherwise beyond bizarre.

Not only did Adalatherium have rabbit- or rodent-like ever-growing front teeth, but the back teeth are completely unlike those of any other known mammal, living or extinct. If just these teeth had been found, the mystery of what this animal was would likely not have been solved! Added to the seeming chaos is a hole in the top of the snout for which there is simply no parallel.

About the size of a Virginia opossum, the 3.1 kg Adalatherium was very large for its day. While not particularly large by today’s standards, it was a giant compared to the mostly shrew- and mouse-sized mammals living in the Cretaceous.

The geological history of Gondwana provides clues as to why Adalatherium is so bizarre.

Adalatherium was found in rocks dated to near the end of the Cretaceous, at roughly 66 million years ago. At this time Madagascar had already been an island separated from Africa for over 150 million years and from the Indian subcontinent for over 20 million years. “Islands are the stuff of weirdness,” says Krause, “and there was therefore ample time for Adalatherium to develop its many extraordinarily peculiar features in isolation.”

“Adalatherium is an important piece in a very large puzzle on early mammalian evolution in the southern hemisphere, one in which most of the other pieces are still missing,” adds Hoffmann.

More than anything, the discovery of Adalatherium underscores how much more remains to be learned from new finds of early mammals in Madagascar and other parts of the southern hemisphere.

The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology Memoir series represents one of the few print publishing platforms for monographic treatments like that completed for Adalatherium by Krause and Hoffmann. Particularly notable is that this work uses an extensive digital modeling (µCT) approach, with the data accessible to researchers via Morphosource (www.morphosource.org); phylogenetic information used in the comprehensive study is accessible via Morphobank (www.morphobank.org).

Funding used in support of the field and laboratory research was provided by the National Science Foundation and the National Geographic Society.

Contacts and sources: 

• Simon Wesson 
• Taylor and Francis Group

Publication: 

• Introduction to Adalatherium hui (Gondwanatheria, Mammalia) from the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar
• https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02724634.2020.1805455
•  http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02724634.2020.1805455 

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Thirty meter UFO in Area 51, still there! At Airport Hanger! Google Earth Map, UFO Sighting News.

I found this 30 meter UFO parked under a hanger about 12 years ago and wanted to check on it to see if its still there. It is still there. So thats good to know. The disk actually had a hanger being built all around it. Its clear that they wanted to hide it inside a structure from prying eyes, but the google satellite caught sight of it in 2006 and took this map photo of it. Super cool, but does take an understanding of how to use the history button. 

This is 100% proof that the USAF had UFOs way back in 2006. Talking about it is one thing...seeing satellite evidence is 100% proof. 

People can figure out every single thing on Facebook, poking you, hitting you with pillows, messaging you even spying on your life, yet something as easy as the year button in lower left to view history...bewilders people. 

Scott C. Waring - Taiwan

VIDEO BELOW HAS SHADOW ADDED TO SEE THE SURFACE AND DEPTH OF THE UFO BETTER. 

VIDEO BELOW IS NORMAL COLORS. 

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

The Milky Way’s galactic center, shown here in radio waves (red) and x-rays (green and blue), has a supermassive black hole that may have whittled away nearby red giants.

X-RAY: CXC/NASA, D. WANG ET AL./UMASS; RADIO: MEERKAT/SARAO

By Ken Croswell

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

{ https://www.sciencenews.org/ }

Jupiter and Saturn Will Form Rare "Christmas Star" on Winter Solstice

On December 21, Jupiter and Saturn will appear closer in Earth’s night sky than they have since 1226 A.D. You can watch the event live here, courtesy of Lowell Observatory.

On December 21, Jupiter and Saturn will get so close in the sky that they will almost appear to merge with one another. Such a conjunction has not occurred in December for some 800 years.

(Credit: Astronomy: Roen Kelly)

Humanity won’t have to wait quite as long to see the solar system’s two largest planets repeat this month's performance, though. Another Great Conjunction will occur in 2080. Of course, many of us alive today won’t be around then, so it would be wise to soak in this show while you can.

How to Find Jupiter and Saturn

Though not perfect, your hand (with your arm fully outstretched) is a great tool for estimating angles in the night sky.

(Credit: The Conversation)

For much of the year, Jupiter and Saturn have shared the same region of sky. The pair begin the month of December just 2 degrees apart, creating an already impressive sight. Now, you can find them both in the southwestern sky just after sunset, located some 20 degrees above the horizon at 6 P.M. local time.

By mid-month, they’ll be just one moon-width apart. On December 16, the moon will sit just 5 degrees away from the pair, offering a handy comparison. They’ll reach greatest conjunction on December 21. 

Conjunctions happen when two celestial objects appear to pass close to one another as seen from Earth. Of course, those objects aren’t necessarily physically close, they simply look that way because of their orbital alignment.

Conjunctions are extremely common, though. Throughout the year, the moon regularly appears alongside a number of planets and bright stars. And two or more planets come together relatively frequently. However, having two bright planets like Jupiter and Saturn pair up is extremely rare.

The last conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn happened in May 2000. That close approach in our sky occurred relatively near the sun, which made it hard to observe. A similar thing occurred in 1623 A.D., when Jupiter and Saturn brushed shoulders near the sun.

Jupiter and Saturn Conjunction 2020

On December 21, Jupiter and Saturn will have a "Great Conjunction" in Earth's night sky. The two planets will appear so close together that they'll almost look like one object.

(Credit: Roen Kelly/Astronomy)

We don’t have to worry about that this time. Throughout the month, the gas giants will be hard to miss. Jupiter shines brighter than any star in the sky at magnitude -2.0, while Saturn is dimmer at magnitude 0.6 — though the Ringed Planet is still quite bright.

So, you certainly won’t need binoculars or a telescope to see the Great Conjunction of 2020. But if you do have observing equipment, you’ll be able to zoom in and watch the dance of Jupiter's four moons — Europa, Io, Callisto and Ganymede.

Then, without moving the telescope, you can slightly shift your gaze to Saturn and its magnificent rings. Despite the significant size difference between the planets, Saturn’s massive rings mean the two worlds both appear to have about the same diameter when viewed through a telescope.

As the conjunction reaches its climax on December 21, scopes located in the Eastern United States will be able to catch Ganymede as it transits Jupiter for three and a half hours starting at 7:04 P.M. EST. Meanwhile, telescopic observers on the West Coast will see Ganymede’s shadow hovering over Jupiter’s cloud tops by 9:40 P.M. EST.

Mysterious UFO Orb Seen Near SpaceX Rocket Again Prior to Accident

With all of the successes SpaceX has had recently – even the recent explosion upon landing of a Starship SN8 was spun into a success — it’s easy to forget the company had a number of significant failures on the road to stardom. One of those was a SpaceX 9 Falcon rocket explosion during a prelaunch test in September 2016 – an event whose video showed a mysterious UFO near the rocket … a UFO that even CEO Elon Musk could not rule out as a possible cause. While the explosion was eventually traced to the rupture of a helium-filled pressure vessel, the UFO was never explained – leaving it open to conspiracy theories. Those conspiracies came back recently when a video taken the day before the SN8 explosion – on December 8 when the launch was delayed for a day – shows a glowing orb over the ill-fated rocket. Are these connectable dots? If so, who or what is monitoring SpaceX’s failures?

“UFO STOPS LAUNCH”

The video was first uploaded by the LabPadre YouTube channel which covers SpaceX’s Boca Chica, Texas, live launches and testing. However, the UFO seems to have been spotted first by YouTuber A.I. Food, who uploaded it on December 11 with the above comment. It needed quite a bit of zooming to see and that made it difficult to determine just how close the UFO was to the SN8. UFO Sightings Daily posted a longer video on December 17 which had the obligatory red circle around the UFO but still didn’t put it in perspective next to the rocket. Nonetheless, it was enough for the site’s Scott Waring to add his usual “This UFO is 100% aliens” analysis.

“Orb Over SpaceX Rocket Launch, Camera Guy Zooms In, Stops Launch!”

Interestingly, Waring thinks this shows that the “aliens” support Elon Musk, even though the same rocket exploded on landing the following day … just as the Falcon 9 exploded in 2016 with a UFO overhead. That certainly doesn’t sound like support. On the other hand, UFOs were also seen during the SpaceX launch on May 30 taking astronauts to the ISS – the historic first launch of NASA astronauts on a commercially built spacecraft. Show of support or just debris and fertile imaginations?

Although Waring denies the possibility, the most recent orb could certainly be one of the drones that are used to monitor SpaceX launches, seen at such a distance that the pixels can’t be formed into a discernible shape. That fact that this and the other UFO appeared within 24 hours of the rocket on the pad being lost could certainly suggest something more than coincidence. Could it be an ironic payback to SpaceX for causing so many false UFO sightings with its nighttime launches and those annoying trains of Starlink satellites?

Aliens expressing their approval or disproval? Space debris? Drones? SpaceX rivals spying? Whatever it is, it accomplishes the one thing Elon Musk craves … publicity.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

My previous article was titled “Taking a Look at Those Mysterious Ghost Lights.” In part, the article went like this went like this: “Over the years I’ve been asked for my thoughts on what have popularly become known as ‘Ghost Lights.’ Well, I can say for sure I’ve heard all sorts of theories for what they might really be. Those theories include some kind of intelligent ball of energy, the souls of the dead (people and animals), shapeshifting aliens, ball lightning, and entry points to other dimensions. Of course, there may be numerous other theories, too, but these are most definitely ones that I often hear about. I can’t say, at all, that I’m an expert in this field; however, I do have an interest in the subject.” I have to say I think at least some so-called Ghost Lights might actually be the creations of military agencies looking to use them on the battlefield. While such a thing might sound too way out for some people, bear with me.

There’s a distinct possibility some Ghost Lights are that rarely seen phenomenon called ball lightning. And what might that be? Read on. The following words are from the people at EarthSky: “Ball lightning is one of the best-known natural phenomena that few have seen. Until recent years, most scientists remained skeptical about ball lightning; it seemed more myth than reality. Nowadays, ball lightning’s street cred among scientists is stronger, but it’s still the case that most of the images you see online purporting to be ball lightning are just over-exposed images of ordinary lightning. In fact, no expert we asked could point us to an actual image of ball lightning in nature. What is ball lightning? Since the time of the early Greeks, there’ve been reports of small balls of bright plasma-like light moving over the ground and then vanishing. The explanation still eludes scientists for the most part, although various explanations have now been offered.”

Over the years, I have taken a deep interest in the matter of ball lightning. As my research has progressed, I have used the Freedom of Information Act and requested – from many of the ABC agencies within government – copies of any and all papers dealing with ball lightning. Some of the material that was released to me was highly intriguing. The long list included: Theory of the Lightning Ball and its Application to the Atmospheric Phenomenon Called ‘Flying Saucers’, that was put together by Carl Benadicks in 1954; Ball Lightning: A Survey, prepared by one J.R. McNally for the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tennessee [year unknown]; D.V. Ritchie’s Reds May Use Lightning as a Weapon, which popped up in the pages of Missiles and Rockets in August 1959; and An Experimental and Theoretical Program to Investigate the Feasibility of Confining Plasma in Free Space by Radar Beams, the latter being the work of a C.M. Haaland, in 1960, for the Armor Research Foundation, situated in the Illinois Institute of Technology.

One document really stood out: Survey of Kugelblitz Theories for Electromagnetic Incendiaries. It was the brainchild of W.B. Lyttle and C.E. Wilson. At the time, they were in the employ of Melpar, Inc., which is described as “an American government contractor in the 20^th century Cold War period. At a time when most employment in Washington, D.C. was directly by the U.S. federal government, Melpar became an early private sector contracting company training a high technology workforce in the area.” Lyttle and Wilson were assigned to the Edgewood Arsenal, and to what was intriguingly titled as a “New Concepts Division / Special Project”” operation. At the beginning of their 92-pages-long report, the two wrote: “The purpose of this study was to review the theory and experimental data on ball lightning, to compare the existing theory and experimental data to determine whether ball lightning is a high or low energy phenomenon, and if it is a high energy phenomenon define an effective theoretical and experimental program to develop a potential incendiary weapon [italics mine].”

The pair added: “Three major categories were established for the purpose of grouping the numerous theories on the subject. These categories are the classical plasma theories, the quantum plasma theories, and the non-plasma theories. A theoretical and experimental Kugelblitz program is recommended by which the most promising high energy theories could be developed so that a weapons application could be realized.” On the matter of what, exactly, ball lightning was, the pair had a few ideas. Those same ideas included a “plasma created by a lightning strike and maintained by electromagnetic standing waves;” a “non-plasma phenomenon;” and the “nuclear theory;” which was “based on the assumption that the content of the ball is radioactive carbon-14 created from atmospheric nitrogen by the action of thermal neutrons liberated by a lightning strike.” Wilson and Lyttle said that “since the high energy Kugelblitz is clearly the only type weapon of importance, we believe that the major effort should be expended along these lines.” The effort continued.

Keep one important thing in mind: the document I quoted from dates back from the mid-1960s. That makes me wonder just how much we might have advanced –  in relation to the utilization of ball lightning – since then?

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Ancient Aliens Bombshell! Lost Race of Biblical Giants Uncovered

Ancient Aliens: Lost Race of Biblical Giants Uncovered (Season 15) | History

“Ancient Aliens” explores the controversial theory that extraterrestrials have visited Earth for millions of years. HISTORY® is the leading destination for award-winning original series and specials that connect viewers with history in an informative, immersive, and entertaining manner across all platforms.

The network’s all-original programming slate features a roster of hit series, premium documentaries, and scripted event programming.

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Huge Face Found On Mars That Looks Human, Dec 20, 2020, Photos, UFO Sighting News.

Date of discovery: Dec 20, 2020
Location of discovery: Mars

Photo Source: 

• http://www.gigapan.com/galleries/13476/gigapans/196870

I found an interesting human-like face on the side of a hill on Mars in a Mars photo today. The face has features similar to us, forehead, eyes, nose, lips chin, neck. It's made from materials in the hill itself, much how humans have carved faces in Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. It measures about 4 meters tall and is looking out over Mars. Undeniable proof that aliens similar to humanity once walked the surface of Mars long, long ago. 

Scott C. Waring - Taiwan

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

The strange event happened near Le Bourg-Dun, Haute-Normandie in France when a photographer captured several colorful glowing discs in the night sky. 

The photographer was on a plain path with his photography equipment (Nikon D600 & Nikon 28mm F1.8 lens plus tripod and wired remote control) for a night landscape session. 

He arrived at the place near Le Bourg-Dun, Haute-Normandie at about 10.30 pm, took several pictures of the landscape when a bright colorful disc-shaped light appeared on the northwest horizon for a few seconds. 

A few seconds later, another similar light appeared, but much closer to its observation site, when it suddenly brightened to orange-red light as it floated for about seconds before disappearing. 

Then, a few seconds later, another colorful disc-shaped light appeared, but this time there were two of them, floating and visible for about 10 seconds. The entire observation of these lights took about 40 minutes. 

Later, while checking the internet for these strange anomalies in the night sky, he was surprised to learn that several other people in France had also seen them, but at different times of the night. 

Since the event took place a few days before New Years Eve on December 28, 2016, we may wonder whether these strange lights may have actually been fireworks. 

However, we may assume that the photographer should recognize fireworks, but he did not talk about it, indicating that he has seen something that is inexplicable to him. Mufon.

Take a look at the images...

  

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

UFOs filmed over Iztaccíhuatl Volcano in Mexico 9-Dec-2020

These bright unidentified flying objects were filmed in the sky above Iztaccíhuatl Volcano in Central Mexico. This happened on 9th December 2020! You can find more videos about UFO activity near volcanoes at this link: 

• https://www.latest-ufo-sightings.net/category/volcano-ufos

RELATED VIDEO, selected and posted by peter2011

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South Africa UFO sighting!

This daytime footage of a bright (solid?) UFO was filmed in the skies above Johannesburg in South Africa. This happened yesterday (on 19th December 2020).

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Flowers at the South Pole

Antarctica was once home to a diverse rainforest. The unearthing of traces of vegetation in 90-million-year-old sediments off the coast of West Antarctica shows just how radically different the planet was during the age of dinosaurs, with conifers, ferns and blooming flowers where an ice sheet sits today (SN: 4/1/20).

Roughly 90 million years ago, a diverse rainforest (shown in this artist’s reconstruction) flourished within about 1,000 kilometers of the South Pole.J. MCKAY/ALFRED WEGENER INSTITUTE (CC BY 4.0)

Life finds a way

Researchers are still identifying new species and cataloging the amazing diversity of life on Earth. This year saw the discovery that the sparkly “Elvis worm” of the deep sea is actually four different species (SN: 5/25/20). Other scientists found a bonanza of 10 new bird species and subspecies on remote Indonesian islands (SN: 1/9/20). And the first complete count of plant species on New Guinea revealed more than 13,600 species of vascular plants, the most of any island on Earth (SN: 8/18/20).

New Guinea’s impressive array of floral diversity includes this Syzygium plant, a member of the myrtle family. YEE WEN LOW, R. CÁMARA-LERET ET AL/NATURE 2020

Raining reptiles

During a cold snap in southern Florida, lizards started falling from trees, landing legs-up (SN: 10/30/20). The reptiles weren’t hurt, just so cold that they couldn’t move and lost their grip. Oddly, this may be good news for the six lizard species scientists examined. The ability to withstand temperatures down to about 5.5° Celsius may suggest some resilience to extreme weather caused by climate change.

This iguana fell out of a tree in Key Biscayne, Fla., after a cold snap in January. Scientists have learned that such lizards are more tolerant of the cold than previously thought. BRETT PIERCE

Super chill

Hot water can sometimes freeze more quickly than cold, a baffling phenomenon called the Mpemba effect. Scientists couldn’t explain it — and weren’t sure it was even real. Now researchers have demonstrated the bizarre effect for the first time in the laboratory by cooling glass beads as a proxy for the more complex freezing process of water. In some conditions, the researchers say, materials can take a cooling “shortcut” that allows warmer objects to cool faster than colder ones (SN: 8/7/20).

Edge of the map

Astronomers have found the edges of the Milky Way, for the first time showing its enormous span and potentially helping to gauge its heft. Our home galaxy stretches almost 2 million light-years across, more than 15 times as wide as the Milky Way’s spiral disk of stars and planets (SN: 3/23/20). Beyond that disk lies a broad stretch of gas surrounded by a vast halo of invisible dark matter.

The vastness of the Milky Way (shown in a gamma-ray image) seems almost immeasurable, but this year, astronomers put limits on our home galaxy’s bounds. FERMI LAT COLLABORATION/DOE AND NASA

Go fly a snake

Paradise tree snakes can fling themselves 10 meters or more through the air, and engineers have now figured out how they stay aloft. Once the snakes are in the air, they undulate both side to side and up and down, giving them the stability needed to glide (SN: 6/29/20).

Scientists captured the undulating motion of paradise tree snakes as they glide through the sky. A computer simulation based on high-speed video shows that the undulation is necessary for stable flight.

Floats our boat

Here was a chance to witness the seemingly impossible: tiny toy boats floating along both the top and bottom of a levitating liquid. Physicists made this magic happen by shaking a container of liquid, thus keeping a fluid layer aloft above a layer of air and allowing the inverted flotation (SN: 9/2/20).

Physicists knew it was possible to keep a layer of liquid levitated over a cushion of air by vigorously shaking the layers up and down in a container. But new lab experiments have revealed a surprising effect of that antigravity trick. Toy boats and other objects are able to float along the bottom surface of a levitated liquid as well as its top.

Will to survive

One inspiring creature just refused to accept being eaten. The Regimbartia attenuata water beetle is the first prey known to survive a trip through a frog’s entire digestive system, not just by taking a ride (like the fish eggs found this year to survive ducks’ digestive systems) but by actively escaping through the back door (SN: 8/3/20; SN: 6/29/20).

About two hours before this video begins, this pond frog (Pelophylax nigromaculatus) ate a water beetle (Regimbartia attenuata). After traversing the digestive tract, the beetle emerges from the back end of the amphibian, alive. It’s the first documented example of prey actively escaping a predator through the digestive system.

Everybody smile

From grins to grimaces, facial expressions may be universal across human cultures, and from ancient times to the modern day. Just by looking at the faces of sculptures crafted between 3,500 and 600 years ago, without the context of the rest of the sculpture, present-day people correctly interpreted expressions such as anger in depictions of combat and pain in sculptures of people being tortured (SN: 8/19/20).

This ancient sculpture of a beaming Maya woman holding a child was among the artworks included in a study of universal facial expressions PRINCETON UNIVERSITY ART MUSEUM 2003-26, GIFT OF G.G. GRIFFIN

Meet PigeonBot

A robotic bird made with real pigeon feathers can change the shape of its wings by fanning its feathers out or gathering them in, making for more birdlike flight. Using the robot, scientists discovered that a bird can steer into a turn by bending just one “finger” on one of its wings (SN: 1/16/20).

A robotic pigeon that can change its wing shape like a real bird paves the way for creating more agile aircraft, and offers a new way to study bird flight.

It’s alive!

Putting Rip Van Winkle to shame, microbes that had been buried in seafloor sediments for more than 100 million years revived and multiplied. All the microbes needed was food to pull them from their dormant state (SN: 7/28/20).

Seafloor sediment from beneath the Pacific Ocean contains still-living microbes (green in this microscopy image) that are more than 100 million years old. JAMSTEC

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

A version of this article appears in the December 19, 2020 issue of Science News.

{ https://www.sciencenews.org/ }

Was the Magi’s Mission History or Myth?

In just twelve short verses the Gospel of Matthew records the visit of the mysterious Magi to pay homage to the baby Jesus. The allure of mystical wizards from exotic lands captured the imagination of early Christians. Matthew’s short narrative was expanded and elaborated to the Christmas tale we hear today.

But did any such wise men exist, and if so, who were they and where did they come from? The predominant opinion among New Testament scholars is that the whole story is a fabrication—a fantastic myth devised to make the birth of Jesus extra special, but are they correct?

Making of the Magi Myth

The Magi story began to be elaborated along with the growth of Gnosticism and early Christianity. Extra Biblical writings about the mysterious Magi proliferated. The earliest apocryphal version of Jesus’ birth is a document called The Gospel of James or The Protoevangelium of James. The Protoevangelium tells the story of Mary’s birth and childhood, her betrothal to Joseph and the birth of Jesus. The account of Jesus’ birth follows Matthew and Luke’s account, but there are some extra details: Mary rides a donkey to Bethlehem, there is no mention of an inn as such, and the stable where Jesus is born is in a cave.

There is a midwife named Salome present, and as Jesus is born, a wonderful, mysterious light appears. In the Protoevangelium there are no shepherds, but the story of the Wise Men is told— obviously quoting from Matthew. Adding to Matthew, the Wise Men in the Protoevangelium say, the star was so bright on its appearing that all the other stars dimmed in its light.

Around the same time one of the earliest Christian writers, Ignatius of Antioch (d.108) in his epistle to the Ephesians, waxes eloquently about the star, “a star shone in the night brighter than all other stars. Its light was indescribable, and its strangeness produced wonder. And all the rest of the stars with the sun and the moon made a choir around that star which outshone them all.”  The exaggeration and glorification of the Magi story had already begun.

By the third century the idea that the Magi were kings was starting to get traction. Tertullian and Origen mused on the Old Testament prophecies that kings would come to worship the Messiah bearing gold and frankincense, and concluded that the Magi must have been kings.

• The Mysteries of the Three Kings: Who Were They and Where Did They Come From?
• What the Magi Had in Common with Scientists
• The Slaughter Of The Magi: How Ancient Persia Made Genocide an Annual Holiday

Journey of the Magi. (Eric Wilcox /

 CC BY-NC 2.0 )

It was also in the third century that the Magi story began to take the leap from legend to myth. The Legend of Aphroditianus is an apocryphal writing that originated in Syria, where there was a strong Persian influence. The tale begins with the account of a miracle in the temple of a pagan goddess in Persia at the time of Christ’s birth. According to the myth, the statues in the temple danced, sung and announced that the goddess Hera had been made pregnant by Zeus.

Suddenly a star appears above the statue of the goddess Hera. A voice from heaven is heard, and all the dancing statues fall on their faces. The wise men of the court take this to mean that a king is to be born in Judea. That evening the god Dionysus confirms their interpretation. Then the god sends the Magi to Judea with gifts, the star pointing them along their way. The story tells of the Magi’s journey to Bethlehem, and how they meet the Jewish leaders, and finally Mary and Jesus. They return to Persia bringing a portrait of Jesus and Mary, and subsequently put it in the temple, where the star first appeared.

Depiction of The Magi following the star in search of baby Jesus.

(Kevin Phillips / Public domain )

In another third century work, the opus imperfectum, a writer named Ephraim said the Magi saw a human image in the star. While the eighth century Chronicle of Zuqnin says there were twelve Magi, all of whom saw a different human image in the star. Clearly, the Magi story had found its wings and soared to mythical heights impossible to imagine by the simple storyteller Matthew.

Another bizarre apocryphal text is The Revelation of the Magi. This story pretends to be told by the Magi themselves. The Wise Men are residents of a mythical land called Shir in the Far East. They are the descendants of Seth, the third son of Adam and Eve , who passed on to them a prophecy from his father that one day a star of amazing brightness would appear to announce the birth of God in human form.

The story continues as every year the mystical Magi of Shir ascended their holy mountain where the Cave of Treasures is located. This cave contains the wisdom of Seth and the treasures of Adam, and it is there that the super bright star, brighter than the sun, appears to them as a tiny radiant human. The star child tells them to go on a long journey to Bethlehem. After long preparations they set off only to find that the star child accompanies them, removing all obstacles and miraculously providing them with food and protection.

Apart from being historical curiosities, these Gnostic texts have no value apart from being mildly entertaining. They are about as important to the search for Matthew’s Wise Men as Disney’s Sword in the Stone is to the search for the historical King Arthur .

The Medieval Myth

By the sixth century Christians may not have believed the wildly fantastic Magi stories of the Gnostics, but the idea that the Magi were wise men from Persia had taken root. So in the sixth century we find the Emperor Justinian commissioning the famous mosaic of the three Magi in Ravenna. Justinian’s mosaic actually named the Wise Men, and it is at the beginning of the sixth century that their names were first documented.

Mosaic of the Three Magi (young, middle aged & elderly) in Sant Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna.

( vvoe / Adobe stock)

The Excerpta Latina Barbari composed in Alexandria, calls them Bithisarea, Melichior and Gathaspa or as we now know them, Balthasar, Melchior and Caspar. In contrast, Syriac Christians named the Magi, Larvandad, Gushnasaph, and Hormisdas. Ethiopian Christians called them Hor, Karsudan, and Basanater, while the Armenians said they were named, Kagpha, Badadakharida and Badadilma.

The various ethnic names of the Magi also indicate a widening out of the Magi tradition from the assumption that they were Persian priests. The Syrian, Ethiopian and Armenian Christians were among the first to accept the Christian message, and their independent Magi traditions attests to both the antiquity of the Magi story and affirms St Augustine of Hippo’s (d. 430) suggestions that the Wise Men represented the whole of the Gentile (non-Jewish) world.

Some two hundred years after Justinian’s famous mosaics, an eighth century Irish manuscript Collectanea et Flores offers more details about the appearance of the Wise Men, explaining that they represent the three ages of man (youth, middle-age and old age). By this time, they were no longer Persian Magi. Instead the Wise Men assumed three different racial characteristics showing that they represented Europe, Africa and Asia - the three regions of the known world.  At the same time, the British historian, Venerable Bede mused that the international origins of the Three Wise Men could also signify the three sons of Noah who, as tradition had it, re-peopled the globe and were the source of humanity’s three basic racial groups. These accumulated traditions explain why, in Christian artwork, the Magi are shown to be young, middle-aged and elderly: African, Asian and European.

Detail of the Three Kings from The Adoration of the Magi (elderly, middle-aged, young / European, Asian, African).

(Edward Burne Jones / Public domain )

The legends about the Magi continued to develop, so that according to the 12th-century life of St Eustorgio , the bodies of the Three Kings were discovered in Persia in the early fourth century by St. Helena, the mother of the Emperor Constantine and eventually translated to the cathedral in Cologne.

In the fourteenth century the Venetian explorer Marco Polo recorded that he had visited the village in Persia where Helena had identified the tomb, and in the same century, the Carmelite monk John of Hildesheim wrote Historia trium regum, (History of the Three Kings). John of Hildesheim recounts how the star was first sighted in the forty second year of the Emperor Augustus from the summit of Mount Vaus in the East by a group of pagan astrologers who were aware of the Old Testament prophecy of Balaam.

Hildesheim says the star was as bright as the Sun, and that the Three Kings from their own lands set out to follow the star they had seen. Melchior travelled from Nubia and Arabia. Balthasar from Godolia and Saba, and Caspar from Tharsis and Egrisoulle. Each with a magnificent retinue, they followed the star for thirteen days and arrived at the same time in Jerusalem, where they were amazed to discover that they understood one another’s languages. After their audience with King Herod , and instructed by his scribes, they continued their journey to Bethlehem, again guided by the magical star.

The Magi before King Herod, on a 13th-century stained glass window in Chartres Cathedral, France.

(Lawrence OP / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 )

History or Mystery? A Quest for Investigation

Matthew’s simple story burgeoned into a fantastic tale as no other Biblical narrative had. But what if the wildly elaborated myth, like that of King Arthur, was rooted in historical circumstances and real individuals? What if it could be shown that there were circumstances and players in first century Judea who fit the story? Always wanting to stand orthodoxy on its head, I set out on a quest of my own. I began to investigate whether there might be a foundation of historical truth beneath the accumulated legends surrounding the Magi story. To do this, I had to strip away the accretions that encrusted Matthew’s simple story.

What I found was astounding. First, I discovered that because of their assumption that the Magi story was a fairy tale, very few scholars had taken the time to investigate thoroughly the possible identity of the Wise Men. My research brought me into contact with an almost forgotten ancient civilization and new technologies, which shed light on the subject. Some fresh archaeological findings and new understandings from the Dead Sea Scrolls also contributed to the quest.

Some of the Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran, Israel.

( byjeng / Adobe stock)

Matthew said the Wise Men were “from the East.” By the end of the first century, because of the destruction of Jerusalem, the center of Christianity shifted north and west to Asia Minor, Greece and Rome. If you lived in present-day Turkey or Greece “the East” is clearly Persia. The fact that Matthew used the word “Magi” was also a powerful pointer. There was indeed an ancient caste of shamans from Persia called ‘the Magi’. But like most mystery stories, the first and most obvious solution is rarely the correct one.

Christianity’s hub may have shifted north and west, but Matthew’s Gospel was written in Judea to the Jews of that area. “The East” for them was the Arabian Peninsula. Furthermore, in the Old Testament the “people of the East” are always the nomadic tribes of Arabia. The Persians come from the North. The earliest Christian witness outside the New Testament is Justin Martyr, who is also situated in Judea. He says that the Wise Men came from Arabia. I therefore began to search for possible candidates from Arabia.

Petra and the Nabateans

This led, of course, to the fabulously wealthy and mysterious kingdom of Nabatea with the ancient city of Petra as its capital. Suffice it to say that once I discovered the Nabateans, all the pieces of the puzzle fell into place. The politics, economics, religion and culture of the time all combined to make the Nabateans the obvious choice.

The Nabatean monastery ruins in Petra.

( carbo82 / Adobe stock)

Just two details will illustrate the wealth of evidence that combines to strengthen this theory. The finest gold in the ancient world was mined in Western Arabia, and the shrubs from which incense and myrrh are sourced only grow in Eastern Arabia and Northeast Africa, which is all territory controlled by the Nabateans. The gold, frankincense and myrrh were clearly diplomatic gifts (representative of the Nabtean kingdom) from King Aretas IV of Nabatea to honor a grandson or great grandson of his neighbor King Herod.

Secondly, new discoveries by archaeo-astronomers from Spain have shown that the Nabatean temples were aligned to the solstices and constellations, and the archaeological dig at the temple of Khirbet et Tannur, uncovered a stone carved zodiac proving that the Nabatean Magi were star gazers.

These are just two pieces of evidence that direct the quest for the identity of the Wise Men to Nabatea.  It is perfectly probable that there were wise men who had the motive, the means and the method to pay homage to Jesus Christ, just as Matthew recorded.

My findings not only stand the established academic orthodoxy on its head, but they should cause everyone interested in New Testament scholarship, ancient history and the historical veracity of the Gospels to think again.

Like the story of King Arthur, the tale of the Wise Men who visited Bethlehem was embroidered and embellished over many years. But beneath it all there is a foundation of historical truth, which is fascinating and compelling.

The simple facts of the Magi story undermine the assumptions that the nativity narratives are fairy tales made up to make Jesus more special. Instead my findings show that beneath all the mystery, there is history.

Dwight Longenecker’s book The Mystery of the Magi - The Quest for the True Identity of the Three Wise Men is published by Regnery Press. It is available on Amazon and from his website: dwightlongenecker.com

• Top image: The Magi with baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Source: Henry Siddons Mowbray / Public domain

By Fr Dwight Longenecker

{ https://www.ancient-origins.net/ }

UFO filmed in the sky above Brazil 17-Dec-2020

This new footage of a multiple unidentified flying objects was filmed in somewhere in Brazil on 17th December 2020.

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

Astronomers find two failed stars wandering the universe together

Astronomers have discovered an exotic binary system consisting of two brown dwarfs orbiting each other.

by Rob Lea

A team of researchers from the University of Bern has discovered a very different binary system 450 light-years from Earth. The system — CFHTWIR-Oph 98 or Oph 98 for short — has twin occupants that appeared at first sight to be exoplanets existing in a star-less system. A deeper examination has revealed that they are brown dwarfs — Oph 98 A and Oph 98 B respectively — astronomical objects that are similar to stars but smaller and cooler.

This artist’s illustration represents a couple of planetary-mass brown dwarfs Ophiuchus 98. As they are very young, they are still evolving in the molecular clouds that saw their birth. (University of Bern, Illustration: Thibaut Roger)

These brown dwarfs wander the galaxy together, orbiting each other at an incredibly large distance equivalent to 200 times the distance between Earth and the Sun.

The discovery of the curious Oph 98 system by the research team led by Clémence Fontanive from the Center for Space and Habitability (CSH) and National Centre of Competence in Research PlanetS (NCCR PlanetS) is documented in a paper published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Contents [hide]

• • 0.1 A Star that Failed
  • 0.2 Brown Dwarfs with a Weak Bond
  • 0.3 Hubble Shines Through Again
• 1 Original Research

A Star that Failed

The Oph 98 is a relativity new-born system in astrophysical terms, forming just 3 million years ago in the Ophiuchus stellar nursery (hence the ‘Oph’ element of its name). Its relative youth has some interesting consequences for the bodies that comprise it and led the team to properly identify its constituent bodies. 

The system has not existed for long enough for it to start forming planets. This means that Oph 98 A and B must have both formed via the same mechanisms that give rise to stars. This conclusion is also supported by the fact that Oph 98 B is roughly the right size to be a planet, but Oph A is too small to have the reservoir of material needed to form a planet so large. That means they must be brown dwarfs.

“This tells us that Oph 98 B, like its host, must have formed through the same mechanisms that produce stars and shows that the processes that create binary stars operate on scaled-down versions all the way down to these planetary masses,” says Fontanive.

In terms of mass brown dwarfs exist between planets and stars (NASA/ Caltech/ R. Hurt (IPAC).)

The fact that brown dwarfs form in ways that are similar to stars and share similar masses, but do not ignite with the nuclear processes that power stars, has often led to them being nicknamed ‘failed stars.’ It is extremely rare for star-forming processes to create worlds that go on to exist in a system such as this. 

The objects are rare examples of astronomical bodies similar to giant exoplanets that orbit each other without a parent star. Both are young brown dwarfs, with Oph 98 A being the larger of the two with a mass 15 times that of Jupiter. Its smaller companion — Oph 98 B — has a mass equivalent to 8 times that of the gas giant, which is the largest body other than the Sun in our solar system.

This isn’t the only thing that makes Oph 98 unique, however. 

Brown Dwarfs with a Weak Bond

Another thing that makes the Oph 98 system so remarkable is the fact that, like all binary systems, the bodies are gravitationally bound. These bonds are greater with objects of greater mass but follow an inverse square law — meaning the bond’s strength falls off quickly as separation distances increase. Because these objects have relatively small mass coupled with an extremely large separation, the gravitational bond between them is one of the weakest in terms of energy that astronomers have ever observed. 

Observing this system at all is no mean feat as brown dwarfs — especially low-mass ones — emit very little electromagnetic radiation and are thus, not easy to spot.

“Low-mass brown dwarfs are very cold and emit very little light, only through infrared thermal radiation,” explains Fontanive. “This heat glow is extremely faint and red, and brown dwarfs are hence only visible in infrared light.” 

The Ophiuchus cluster that is home to Oph 98 sits in a cloud of dust that makes it difficult to see. In this image it is pictured in X-rays by the Chandra X-Ray Observatory (Chandra X-Ray Observatory)

This visibility challenge was further compounded by the fact that Oph 98 and the Ophiuchus galaxy cluster itself is embedded in a dense cloud of dust that scatters visible light. “Infrared observations are the only way to see through this dust,” the researcher adds.

In fact, the team’s discovery was only made possible by the impressive power of the Hubble Space Telescope and the fact that it makes its observations from above Earth.

Hubble Shines Through Again

The Hubble Space Telescope is one of the only telescopes capable of observing objects as faint as the Oph 98 A and B and resolving the image of the brown dwarfs at such tight angles.

“Detecting a system like Oph 98 also requires a camera with a very high resolution, as the angle separating Oph 98 A and B is a thousand times smaller than the size of the moon in the sky,” Fontanive continues. 

The Hubble Space telescope’s vantage point above Earth’s atmosphere allows it to spot water vapor from brown dwarfs (ESA)

Hubble’s space-based vantage point is also crucial for the observation of such objects. This is because the infrared signatures that are used to observe brown dwarfs arise from water vapors that form in their upper atmospheres. As Earth’s atmosphere is full of water also producing this signal, the fainter trace from distant brown dwarfs is almost always obscured beyond detection for telescopes at the planet’s surface. 

“Both objects looked very red and showed clear signs of water molecules. This immediately confirmed that the faint source we saw next to Oph 98 A was very likely to also be a cold brown dwarf, rather than a random star that happened to be aligned with the brown dwarf in the sky,” says Fontanive.

The team also found Oph 98 in data collected by the CFHT (pictured) 14 years ago. (CFHT)

Interestingly, the team’s findings have helped confirm the fact that the Oph 98 system has actually been spotted before. The binary was also visible in data collected by the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT), located atop the summit of Mauna Kea, Hawaii, 14 years ago. This older data helped the team confirm how Oph 98 A and B move together across the galaxy as a pair.

“We observed the system again this summer from another Hawaiian observatory, the United Kingdom Infra-Red Telescope. Using these data, we were able to confirm that Oph 98 A and B are moving together across the sky over time, relative to other stars located behind them, which is evidence that they are bound to each other in a binary pair”, explains Fontanive. “We are really witnessing an incredibly rare output of stellar formation processes.”

Original Research

• Fontanive. C., et al, ‘A wide planetary-mass companion to a young low-mass brown dwarf in Ophiuchus,’ The Astrophysical Journal Letters, [2020], [https://arxiv.org/abs/2011.08871]

{ https://www.zmescience.com/ }

Crashed Flying Saucer Spotted In Antarctica

Humans have made contact with aliens but their existence has been kept secret at the behest of a Galactic Federation of extraterrestrials. The aliens have asked not to publish that they are here, humanity is not ready yet. 

In a scene reminiscent of the Eighties horror film The Thing, a huge crashed flying saucer has been seen half-buried in the Antarctic ice.

They have been waiting for humanity to evolve and reach a stage where we will generally understand what space and spaceships are.  There’s an agreement between the US government and the aliens. They signed a contract with us to do experiments here. They, too, are researching and trying to understand the whole fabric of the universe, and they want us as helpers.  Part of that unsettling pact, includes a secret underground base on Mars which is staffed by a team of ETs and Americans.  Remarkably, President Trump was on the verge of revealing, but the aliens in the Galactic Federation, which presumably governs intelligent species in the galaxy, are saying: Wait, let people calm down first. They don’t want to start mass hysteria. They want to first make us sane and und

{ https://verytopsecret.info/ }

CIA Operative Joins the Search for Answers to the Roswell Mystery

Laurence Fishburne and History's Greatest Mysteries hope to discover the secrets behind the Roswell UFO crash mystery.

By Alejandro Rojas

This intergalactic filament is 50 million-light-years long, the longest we've ever seen

The Truth About Aliens | The Day Before Disclosure!

RELATED VIDEO, selected and posted by peter2011

{ https://www.disclose.tv/ }

Cutaway illustration depicting subsurface lakes on Mars. Research suggests these underground lakes, or aquifers – formed by melting ice deep below the surface – would have been the best places for life to exist on a planet as cold as Mars. They might also help explain conflicting scenarios of a warm, wet early Mars versus the colder Mars we see today.

Image via ESA/ Medialab.

If there was ever life on Mars, where would it be? What would be the best place to look for evidence of Martian life, whether that’s ancient fossilized life or still-living microbes? As many scientists have suggested, the answer may be underground, where conditions are warmer and may be wetter. Now, a new study – announced by Rutgers University in New Jersey on December 2, 2020 – expands on that idea. It suggests the region most likely to hold such evidence is several miles below Mars’ surface, where geothermal heat (geothermal energy) could have melted subsurface ice sheets.

The new peer-reviewed paper was published in Science Advances on December 2, 2020.

From the paper:

In explaining extensive evidence for past liquid water, the debate on whether Mars was primarily warm and wet or cold and arid 4 billion years (Ga) ago has continued for decades. The sun’s luminosity was ~30% lower 4 Ga ago; thus, most Martian climate models struggle to elevate the mean surface temperature past the melting point of water. Basal melting of ice sheets may help resolve that paradox. We modeled the thermophysical evolution of ice and estimate the geothermal heat flux required to produce meltwater on a cold, arid Mars.

We then analyzed geophysical and geochemical data, showing that basal melting would have been feasible on Mars 4 Ga ago. If Mars were warm and wet 4 Ga ago, then the geothermal flux would have even sustained hydrothermal activity. Regardless of the actual nature of the ancient Martian climate, the subsurface would have been the most habitable region on Mars.

EarthSky 2021 lunar calendars now available! They make great gifts. Order now. Going fast!

Was early Mars always cold, with most of its water underground (left) or was it once warm and wet? The conflicting evidence for both still has not been resolved, but the new study may help to finally answer this long-standing question.

Image via NASA/ Goddard Space Flight Center/ The Weather Channel.

Schematic representation of warm and wet early Mars (left) and cold, arid early Mars (right).

Image via Ojha et al./ Science Advances.

The findings have direct implications for the possibility of life on Mars, past or present, and may also help scientists finally reconcile the two opposing scenarios of early Mars, whether it was warm and wet or colder and drier (or something in-between). As lead author Lujendra Ojha at Rutgers University-New Brunswick, stated:

Even if greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and water vapor are pumped into the early Martian atmosphere in computer simulations, climate models still struggle to support a long-term warm and wet Mars. I and my co-authors propose that the faint young sun paradox may be reconciled, at least partly, if Mars had high geothermal heat in its past.

We know Mars was much wetter in the past, with lakes and rivers, and maybe even an ocean. But most climate models still suggest the planet was colder and drier than that. If Mars had enough heat underground, that could help explain the paradox, even if the planet was cold on the surface due to a fainter sun at the time, about 4 billion years ago.

Current evidence suggests that Mars had abundant liquid water on its surface 4.1 billion to 3.7 billion years ago (the Noachian era). In this new scenario, water could have been produced by melting ice below the surface, due to radioactive decay. Elements like uranium, thorium, and potassium are known to do that on rocky planets, including Earth. Even if the surface was colder, there could still have been enough heat deep below to melt the ice.

Lujendra Ojha at Rutgers University-New Brunswick, lead author of the new study.

Image via Instagram.

This process would likely have been similar to subglacial lakes in areas of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, the Canadian Arctic, and Greenland. Lake Vostok in Antarctica is a good example of one of these lakes. Drilling expeditions by Russian scientists in the dark subsurface lake have found microscopic life in the ice layers close to the liquid water. Further analysis has shown that Lake Vostok contains a diverse set of microbes, as well as some multicellular organisms.

So, could such heating have actually been possible during the Noachian era on Mars? The researchers say yes, saying that the conditions needed would have been ubiquitous.

After Mars lost its magnetic field and most of its atmosphere, it would have become impossible for liquid water to remain on the surface. But it could easily have persisted below the surface, at increasingly greater depths. Ojha said:

At such depths, life could have been sustained by hydrothermal (heating) activity and rock-water reactions. So, the subsurface may represent the longest-lived habitable environment on Mars.

If microbes ever existed on Mars on the surface or in the near-surface, they likely would have retreated deeper underground where liquid water was still available. It makes sense, then, that any traces of that life might be far below the surface, where they are protected from the harsh ultraviolet radiation of the sun.

The possibility of life in underground niches where water was or is available takes on extra significance with the discovery of what appear to be subsurface lakes on Mars right now. The first one was discovered by the Mars Express orbiter in 2018, beneath the south polar cap, with three more reported near it last October. These lakes, similar to ones in polar regions on Earth, are cold and probably very salty, but could still potentially support some kinds of microorganisms. The finding of any liquid water on Mars today is exciting in terms of possible life, since the surface is now so inhospitable.

Radar image from Mars Express in 2018 showing the first detected largest lake beneath the south polar ice. Similar subsurface lakes, created by melting ice, would have been the best places for Martian life to exist, according to the new study.

Image via ESA/ NASA/ JPL/ ASI/ Univ. Rome/ R. Orosei et al. 2018.

The lakes beneath the south polar cap are probably kept liquid by salts, since there is little or no geothermal heat in this location. But could could there be others, perhaps in locations near volcanoes where there could still be some latent heat left over from when the planet was highly geologically active? And indeed, there is also now evidence for some volcanic activity still occurring below the Martian surface.

If any of these lakes are not too salty, they might be ideal habitats for microbes, just as the Rutgers researchers have hypothesized. Being able to sample them, however, is still far off in the future, unfortunately. But in the search for life, they might just be where future explorers strike biological gold.

• Bottom line: A new study suggests that the best place to look for evidence of life on Mars is miles underground, where geothermal heat melted subsurface ice.
• Source: Groundwater production from geothermal heating on early Mars and implication for early martian habitability
• Via Rutgers University

RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011

{ https://earthsky.org/ }

On December 4, Professor Haim Eshed generated worldwide headlines when in an interview published by the Israeli national newspaper, Yedioth Aharonot, he revealed the existence of a secret US agreement with extraterrestrials, the existence of a joint US alien base on Mars, and a Galactic Federation monitoring human affairs. Reactions to the Professor’s startling revelations varied from those taking the comments as a major breakthrough on disclosure of extraterrestrial life, to many claiming he either had lost his mind or his words were distorted during the translation process.

It’s important to point out that Eshed gave the interview to promote his recent book, published in Hebrew, titled The Universe Beyond the Horizon conversations with Professor Haim Eshed. This is where one controversy arises since he appeared to say much more in his interview than what he told in his book.

Here’s the crux of what the Professor had to say according to an extract of the interview, translated into English, that was published by The Jewish Press on December 5, which set off the worldwide controversy:

The UFOs have asked not to publish that they are here, humanity is not ready yet. Trump was on the verge of revealing, but the aliens in the Galactic Federation are saying: Wait, let people calm down first. They don’t want to start mass hysteria. They want to first make us sane and understanding. They have been waiting for humanity to evolve and reach a stage where we will generally understand what space and spaceships are.

There’s an agreement between the US government and the aliens. They signed a contract with us to do experiments here. They, too, are researching and trying to understand the whole fabric of the universe, and they want us as helpers.

There’s an underground base in the depths of Mars, where their representatives are, and also our American astronauts.

Anticipating that some would conclude that he had lost his mind in making such comments, the Professor, who is also a former Brigadier General in the Israel Defense Force (IDF),  added for good measure:

If I had come up with what I’m saying today five years ago, I would have been hospitalized. Wherever I’ve gone with this in academia, they’ve said: the man has lost his mind. Today they’re already talking differently.

I have nothing to lose. I’ve received my degrees and awards, I am respected in universities abroad, where the trend is also changing.

Support for Professor Eshed’s continued sanity comes from former colleagues such as the current head of the Israel Space Agency, Dr.  Isaac Ben-Israel (also a former IDF general), who says that Eshed “has been talking about aliens for decades, and it never compromised his academic integrity.”

Ben-Israel’s admission is vitally important since it shows that Eshed’s beliefs about alleged alien contacts and joint agreements with the US have evolved over decades during much of his professional life, and not a post-career flight of fancy as contended by some.

Other former colleagues such Dr. Dan Blumberg, the current head of the Earth and Planetary Image Facility at Ben Gurion University, says that the extraterrestrial topic is an important one that Eshed is more than qualified to cover authoritatively, but not as appears in the original Yedioth article:

I know Haim Eshed well, and have enormous respect for him. It’s a viable and legitimate discussion, but it has been taken to a completely bizarre place by the article.

Blumberg’s position is similar to many in that Eshed’s views were either mistranslated or embellished in the original December 4 article. But were they?

What’s important to keep in mind in finding an answer is that the Yedioth Aharonot interview follows the traditional question and answer format, interspersed with the interviewer’s commentary. The commentary sections involve the interviewer applying Eshed’s views to contemporary developments, which might raise the possibility of mistranslation or embellishment. However, these commentaries are followed by the professor’s own words in answering a succession of questions about UFOs, extraterrestrial life and secret agreements, all done in the Hebrew language.

I did a Google Translate of the Yedioth Aharonot interview into English and found Eshed’s responses to questions where he addressed the issues of US alien agreements, a US base on Mars, and a Galactic Federation monitoring human events. I was able to confirm that his responses, through Google Translate, closely matched what was written in the Jewish Press story, and other Israeli news outlets, such as The Jerusalem Post and The Times of Israel, in their English language articles.

While I’m not proficient in the Hebrew language, nor does Google Translate do justice to what Eshed is saying, there is nevertheless consistency in the quotes attributed to him, by these three independent Israeli news stories, with the translation of the Professor’s own words by Google Translate.

Each Israeli source discussed the radical implications of what was said rather than raise problems of embellishment or translation. Clearly, the writers for each Israeli source read the original Yedioth Aharonot interview to get the gist of what Eshed was saying in his own words.

What was subsequently published in Israeli news sources are therefore  accurate translations of what Professor Eshed actually said rather than embellishments or distortions as suggested by leading UFO researchers such as Britain’s Nick Pope. He told NBC News: “Either this is some sort of practical joke or publicity stunt to help sell his book, perhaps with something having been lost in translation, or someone in the know is breaking ranks”.  

Having eliminated translation or embellishment problems, then is Eshed “breaking ranks” and revealing long-held secrets as Pope suggests?

For an answer, we need to consider Eshed’s background, as revealed by Wikipedia and other sources. In 1969, Eshed was sent to the US by the Israel Defense Force’s (IDF) Intelligence Division to gain a Ph.D. in aeronautical engineering. Upon his return, he headed the IDF’s research and development department in the Intelligence Corps. By 1979, as Lt. Colonel in the IDF, he began to work on a detailed proposal for the establishment of a satellite program that could be used for space reconnaissance of the Middle East.

In 1981, Eshed retired from active military service and became a full-time professor at the Israel Institute of Technology, aka Technion, Israel’s oldest and top-ranked University. He subsequently played key roles in founding and leading the Israel Space Agency (1983) and the Technion’s (Asher) Space Research Institute (1984). Eshed managed Israel’s satellite projects, including its highly classified spy satellites responsible for monitoring the Middle East region for possible national security threats such as Iran’s secret construction of nuclear weapons facilities.

There are two phases during his military and civilian career that Eshed would have acquired access to information concerning extraterrestrial life and technology. The first phase involved his military service with the IDF, where Eshed worked with “Unit 81”, the secret technology unit of the Israeli Military Intelligence Directorate. It is the Israeli equivalent of the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the CIA’s Directorate of Science and Technology.

It’s highly likely that Eshed, at some time during US Israeli collaborations on breakthrough technologies, would have learned about multiple highly classified DARPA/CIA programs conducted during the 1970s. One of these very likely included a joint US extraterrestrial base on Mars reported by various insiders associated with the Montauk Project (1971-1983).

Decades later, Laura Eisenhower, the great granddaughter of President Eisenhower, says that she was subjected to a recruitment effort for a secret US base on Mars, but declined despite great pressure exerted on her.

Consequently, it is likely that it is through joint US Israeli collaboration on breakthrough technologies while he was associated with Unit 81 during his military service that Eshed first learned about a secret US base on Mars and extraterrestrial agreements.

During his subsequent “civilian career” (1981-2010), Eshed no doubt continued to work closely with his peers from DARPA and the CIA on breakthrough technologies, while he focused on space surveillance technologies for the IDF.

Up to his retirement in October 2010, Professor Eshed had been responsible for the launch of 20 Israeli satellites during his nearly 30-year career at the Space Research Institute and the Israel Space Agency.

During his command of Israel’s spy satellite program, he now worked closely with US peers from the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), which runs spy satellites and is jointly run by the Pentagon and the CIA. It’s during joint intelligence sharing between the NRO, CIA, and the Pentagon’s National Security Agency (NSA), with the IDF, Israel Space Agency, and the Space Research Institute that Eshed presumably learned a lot more about highly classified US programs concerning UFOs and extraterrestrial life that he first learned about while working for Unit 81.

According to Dan Sherman, a 12-year veteran with the US Air Force (1982-1994), the NSA ran an electronic communications program (“Project Preserve Destiny”) with extraterrestrials that relayed details about abducted humans that were returned to their pick-up locations unharmed and with memories wiped. Sherman’s testimony matches what Prof. Eshed and others have said about US extraterrestrial agreements and genetic experiments.

As for Eshed’s revelations about a Galactic Federation monitoring human affairs and deciding that humanity is not yet ready for open contact, this is clearly a highly controversial claim. There have been many claims of an extraterrestrial Federation, Confederation, or Alliance monitoring human affairs and regulating multiple alien visitors’ activities to our world.

The earliest reference goes back to 1952 when the famed contactee, George Van Tassel, claimed to be in communication with the “Ashtar Command,” which was deemed to be part of a wider Galactic Federation, that requested the US abandon research into thermonuclear weapons. The Galactic Federation/Ashtar Command was involved in a failed diplomatic outreach that occurred on February 20, 1954, when President Eisenhower met with its representatives at Edwards Air Force base to discuss thermonuclear weapons testing. The extraterrestrial representatives further warned Eisenhower about unscrupulous alien groups that would soon make contact to make deals.

There has been over the subsequent decades a steady succession of contactees, insiders and channelers that have spoken or written about a Galactic Federation regulating human affairs. Eshed’s reference to the Galactic Federation adds credence to the legitimacy of such claims. Indeed, the subject of Galactic Diplomacy, which is the title of my 2013 book, has been given a healthy shot of credibility.

In a December 10 interview published on YouTube, I spoke with Corey Goode, a secret space program insider, about Professor Eshed’s claims concerning a Galactic Federation. Goode elaborated upon the different federations that he was aware of or that he interacted with during his SSP service and off planet contact experiences.

As for his claim that the Galactic Federation asserts humanity is not yet ready for open contact due to our lack of technological development, there are a few ways to interpret this. One may be that our overall technological level of development needs to be closer to a Type 1 status civilization according to the Kardashev scale. This is where the majority of humanity’s energy needs come from planet-wide energy generating systems. This would require humanity moving away from non-renewable fossil fuel sources to electromagnetic or other planet-wide energy systems.

Another interpretation is that the current global situation by which advanced technology is controlled by the Deep State and withheld from the rest of humanity needs to be dealt with before open contact can occur. In other words, the power of the Deep State needs to be removed or significantly curtailed before humanity is ready for contact. After all, why would a benign Galactic Federation want to admit a planetary member that is schizophrenic and corrupted by a hidden Deep State that contemptuously manipulates the rest of humanity?

In conclusion, Professor Eshed’s revelations have brought to the mainstream media’s attention information drawn from highly classified extraterrestrial related projects that have been earlier revealed by many brave insiders, witnesses, and contactees who were widely ridiculed and debunked for their disclosure efforts. It’s hard to debunk someone with Professor Eshed’s background and stature when he raises such controversial topics.

While there may be controversy over Eshed’s startling comments, this is not due to erroneous translations, embellishments, or him losing his mind. Instead, humanity is being told to wake up to truths about extraterrestrial life and secret agreements with the visitors that have been ignored and widely ridiculed for decades.

Many scientists, academics, and space professionals are in deep denial that they could have been fooled about such monumental issues during their distinguished careers. Professor Eshed’s revelations are a big wake up call. He is asking if we personally and collectively are ready for open contact with extraterrestrial life and a Galactic Federation.

[Note: Audio version of this article is available on YouTube and Spotify]

© Michael E. Salla, Ph.D. Copyright Notice

Further Reading

• The Coming Solar Flash & the Galactic Federation – Q&A with Corey Goode 
• Navy Admiral describes Reverse Engineering program involving extraterrestrial spacecraft
• When Secrecy is Better than Official Disclosure of Extraterrestrial Life
• New Investigation Shows Disputed MJ-12 Document Exposing Extraterrestrial Contact is Authentic
• Military Insiders Confirm Thousands of Extraterrestrials Live Among Us
• Eisenhower threatened to invade Area 51 former US Congress members hear testimony

{ https://exopolitics.org/ }

Just four years after he left his post as CIA director and three years after the now-famous release of the Tic Tac UFO videos taken by US Navy pilots, John O. Brennan sat down for an interview to discuss these sightings, other unexplained sightings and, most interestingly, alien life forms. Brennan is promoting his new book, “Undaunted: My Fight Against America’s Enemies, At Home and Abroad” – a title which obviously does not include “enemies from outer space.” Brennan attempts to address those issues on the Marginal Revolution podcast hosted by Tyler Cowen. While Cowen is gracious enough to provide a transcript and both audio and video links to the podcast, Brennan’s comments on UFOs and aliens deserve special focus.

John O. Brennan

“I’ve seen some of those videos from Navy pilots, and I must tell you that they are quite eyebrow-raising when you look at them. You try to ensure that you have as much data as possible in terms of visuals and also different types of maybe technical collection of sensors that you have at the time. Also, I believe, it’s important to reach out into other environments and find out, were there any type of weather phenomena at that time that might have, in fact, created the appearance of the phenomenon that you’re looking at? Were there some things that were happening on the ground, or other types of phenomena that could help explain what seems to be quite a mystery as far as what is there?”

Eyebrow-raising? The reactions by the pilots, the ufology community, the media and the public to the Tic Tac videos and pilot testimonies seemed a little stronger than that. However, it’s important to keep in mind that Brennan spent 25 years in the Central Intelligence Agency, including stints as daily intelligence briefer for President Bill Clinton, deputy executive director and director of the newly created Terrorist Threat Integration Center under President George W. Bush, and director of the CIA during the final four years of the Obama administration. In other words, Brennan knows how to give briefings and his answer to Tyler’s question on how he would have handled the videos as director reflects that.

“Also, I believe, it’s important to reach out into other environments and find out, were there any type of weather phenomena at that time that might have, in fact, created the appearance of the phenomenon that you’re looking at? Were there some things that were happening on the ground, or other types of phenomena that could help explain what seems to be quite a mystery as far as what is there?”

It would have been beneficial to have had Brennan handling the disclosure of the Tic Tac videos since he’s asking questions that were not revealed when they were leaked nor after the government reluctantly confirmed their existence. Brennan assures Cowen that he would not have made up his mind in advance or discounted any unusual possibilities before analyzing all of the data. While he obviously no longer has access to that kind of data, he still offers his theory on what they might be.

“When people talk about it, is there other life besides what’s in the States, in the world, the globe? Life is defined in many different ways. I think it’s a bit presumptuous and arrogant for us to believe that there’s no other form of life anywhere in the entire universe. What that might be is subject to a lot of different views. But I think some of the phenomena we’re going to be seeing continues to be unexplained and might, in fact, be some type of phenomenon that is the result of something that we don’t yet understand and that could involve some type of activity that some might say constitutes a different form of life.”

In other words, he has not ruled out “It’s aliens!” and opens the possibility that we’re seeing a different life form that current technology is unable to recognize or interpret. He doesn’t dismiss the videos as examples of advanced Earth enemy technology (something the rest of his book shows he knows something about) or leaks of U.S. advanced technology that is being secretly tested on potentially unsuspecting military personnel. Instead, he draws a refreshing conclusion not often seen in the intelligence community.

“I just want to leave my mind open as to what something might be, but who knows what these things might be?”

For someone who spent 25 years in a job that required him to give the most powerful person in the world just the facts, no matter how distressing they may be, John O. Brennan sounds like a person who can be more open now since he no longer has the fate of the world hanging on his analysis. Unfortunately, that’s as far as he went on the subject of UFOs and aliens in this interview.

It sure would be nice to get him back into the secret files for one more look.

TRANSCRIPT

COWEN: Let’s say we take a concrete issue. The Navy has reported that a lot of its pilots have seen unidentified flying objects. If you’re tackling that, as a CIA director or someone who works there, what is it you would sift through and interpret? How would that go?

BRENNAN: I’ve seen some of those videos from Navy pilots, and I must tell you that they are quite eyebrow-raising when you look at them. You try to ensure that you have as much data as possible in terms of visuals and also different types of maybe technical collection of sensors that you have at the time.

Also, I believe, it’s important to reach out into other environments and find out, were there any type of weather phenomena at that time that might have, in fact, created the appearance of the phenomenon that you’re looking at? Were there some things that were happening on the ground, or other types of phenomena that could help explain what seems to be quite a mystery as far as what is there?

I think an important thing for analysts to do is not to go into this type of challenge either discounting certain types of possibilities or believing in advance that it is likely X, Y, or Z. You really have to approach it with an open mind, but get as much data as possible and get as much expertise as possible brought to bear.

COWEN: At the end of all that sifting and interpreting, what do you think is the most likely hypothesis?

BRENNAN: [laughs]I don’t know. When people talk about it, is there other life besides what’s in the States, in the world, the globe? Life is defined in many different ways. I think it’s a bit presumptuous and arrogant for us to believe that there’s no other form of life anywhere in the entire universe. What that might be is subject to a lot of different views.

But I think some of the phenomena we’re going to be seeing continues to be unexplained and might, in fact, be some type of phenomenon that is the result of something that we don’t yet understand and that could involve some type of activity that some might say constitutes a different form of life.

COWEN: Being an agnostic, you don’t think it’s something supernatural?

BRENNAN: Well, supernatural is in the eye of the holder. Again, I’m not going to discount them. That’s why I’m an agnostic as opposed to an atheist. I just want to leave my mind open as to what something might be, but who knows what these things might be?

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

Fireflies Near Sun Today, Also John Glen Tells About Seeing Them In Space 1962, UFO Sighting News.

Date of sighting: Dec 12, 2020
Location of sighting: Earths sun
Source: Helioviewer.org and US National Archives

 

Guys I found a sun photo with lots of these UFOs in it which I believe to be small living lifeforms. Lots of creatures live in water and space is very similar...so similar that astronauts train underwater inside their space suits. Astronaut John Glen made a live feed from space in Feb 1962 from his space capsule orbiting earth. He said he saw "white fireflies" following him slowly and landing on his capsule window and outer hull. He said they were most visible at sunset, but as the sun disappeared  the small fireflies also disappeared. Which tells us that the objects did not glow or light up, but they were only reflecting the light from the sun as they flew around the capsule. Amazing first hand sighting in my video below at the 3:30 mark, before that is my talk about discovery of the Helioview fireflies today. 100% proof that life, even though tiny, exists, thrives in space. 

Scott C. Waring - Taiwan 

 

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

A team of Cornell researchers detected radio bursts emanating from the sole exoplanet orbiting the Tau Boötes binary star system – making this the first radio emission received from a planet outside of our solar system.

All together now … with feeling:

“It’s aliens!”

OK, the team, led by Cornell postdoctoral researcher Jake D. Turner, Philippe Zarka of the Observatoire de Paris – Paris Sciences et Lettres University and Jean-Mathias Griessmeier of the Université d’Orléans, isn’t yelling that with feeling along with us, but it’s a great signal they’ve picked up using the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) radio telescope in the Netherlands. The exoplanet – a hot Jupiter gaseous giant named Tau Boötes b – is in a tight orbit around Tau Boötis, a binary system consisting of a yellow-white dwarf and a dim red dwarf that is 51 light years from Earth in the Boötis constellation. The radio bursts are almost certainly coming from the exoplanet, which has Turner’s postdoctoral advisor and astronomy professor Ray Jayawardhana pretty excited.

The real Jupiter

“If confirmed through follow-up observations, this radio detection opens up a new window on exoplanets, giving us a novel way to examine alien worlds that are tens of light-years away.”

According to the Cornell press release – the paper was published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics – Turner came up with the idea of studying the radio emissions of our own Jupiter as a way to detect other big gaseous planets outside the solar system. Using that data, they developed a signature for finding them in star systems between 40 and 100 light years away. The team’s “Eureka!” moment came quickly as they found candidates in the 55 Cancri system in the constellation Cancer and in the Upsilon Andromedae systems. However, neither were as significant as Tau Boötes b.

So … are aliens on Tau Boötes b trying to contact us … or anyone else listening?

“The signature, though, is weak. There remains some uncertainty that the detected radio signal is from the planet. The need for follow-up observations is critical.”

Like all good scientists, Turner wants certified proof that the signal is coming from Tau Boötes b. Also, the exoplanet is a hot Jupiter, not an Earth-like exoplanet with a magnetic field that contributes to possible habitability “by shielding their own atmospheres from solar wind and cosmic rays, and protecting the planet from atmospheric loss.” There’s not much chance our own Jupiter harbors life, let alone intelligent life with the ability to intentionally send out radio bursts.

Europa

Could the radio burst come from an exo-moon like Jupiter’s Europa, which has a salty ocean that could support life? Is anyone looking for Europa-like signatures or radio signals?

It’s times like this we mourn the demise of the Arecibo Observatory.

RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

There’s probably not a single one of us who hasn’t, at some point, wondered what it would be like to travel through time. Of course, we must first make a strong case demonstrating that such a thing is, at the very least, feasible. It’s all good and well to share sensational and exciting stories of time-surfing with one and all. The fact is, though, we need much more than that. And, with that said, let’s now look at the science behind time-travel. Today, I’m focusing on the phenomenon called “Wormholes.” Nola Taylor Redd says: “The wormhole theory postulates that a theoretical passage through space-time could create shortcuts for long journeys across the universe. Wormholes are predicted by the theory of general relativity. But be wary: wormholes bring with them the dangers of sudden collapse, high radiation and dangerous contact with exotic matter. Wormholes were first theorized in 1916, though that wasn’t what they were called at the time. While reviewing another physicist’s solution to the equations in Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity, Austrian physicist Ludwig Flamm realized another solution was possible. He described a ‘white hole,’ a theoretical time reversal of a black hole. Entrances to both black and white holes could be connected by a space-time conduit.”

Jillian Scharr is a staff writer for NBC. She, too has, carefully addressed the almost-mind-boggling issues of time-travel and wormholes: “The concept of a time machine typically conjures up images of an implausible plot device used in a few too many science-fiction storylines. But according to Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity, which explains how gravity operates in the universe, real-life time travel isn’t just a vague fantasy. Traveling forward in time is an uncontroversial possibility, according to Einstein’s theory. In fact, physicists have been able to send tiny particles called muons, which are similar to electrons, forward in time by manipulating the gravity around them. That’s not to say the technology for sending humans 100 years into the future will be available anytime soon, though.”

Now, let us ponder deeply on the words of Calla Cofield, who provides us the following: “In his 1994 publication Black Holes and Time Warps…[Kip] Thorne proposes a thought experiment: Say he obtains a small wormhole, which connects two points in space as if they were not separated by any distance at all. Thorne takes his wormhole and puts one end in his living room, and the other aboard a spaceship parked in his front yard. Thorne’s wife, Carolee, hops aboard the spaceship to prepare for a trip. The two don’t have to say goodbye, though, because no matter how far away Carolee travels, they can see each other through the wormhole. They can even hold hands, as if through an open doorway.” Fascinating? Indeed! We aren’t over yet, though.

Bill Andrews, of Discover magazine, most assuredly gives us something to think about – and deeply too: “The first problem for any explorer determined to survey a wormhole is simply finding one. While Einstein’s work says they can exist, we don’t currently know of any. They may actually be impossible after all, forbidden by some deeper physics that the universe obeys, but we haven’t discovered. The second issue is that, despite years of research, scientists still aren’t really sure how wormholes would work. Can any technology ever create and manipulate them, or are they simply a part of the universe? Do they stay open forever, or are they only traversable for a limited time? And perhaps most significantly, are they stable enough to allow for human travel? The answer to all of these: We just don’t know.”

Now, I’ll share with you the words of my colleague and friend here at the Mysterious Universe website, Paul Seaburn. In 2017, he elected to immerse himself into this strange and swirling world of wormholes: “In a recent post on his Forbes blog, Starts with a Bang, theoretical astrophysicist and science writer Ethan Siegel lays out the parts and the plans for traveling backwards in time. Siegel claims this ‘time machine’ abides by Einstein’s general theory of relativity and will not destroy the universe as we know it. Siegel proposes a sort of reverse wormhole. Instead of the conventional ‘travel 40 light years out at nearly the speed of light, come back and you’ve aged 2 years while everyone else is 82 years older,’ he proposes a wormhole with one fixed end and one that moves around at nearly the speed of light. The wormhole is created, you wait a year and then enter the end that has been in motion. When you come out at the fixed end, it’s 40 years prior. That means if you entered this wormhole today, you could travel back to 1978.”

It’s most important to note that all of those who have addressed the issue of wormholes are well-respected figures in their own, specific arenas. And, they have brought to the table significant material that suggests wormholes and time-travel are both a reality. Heading back into the past? Don’t bet against it!

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

Reptilian Aliens Documented In Ancient Times | Sumerian Tablets, The Anunnaki - Anton Parks

Reptilian Aliens Documented In Ancient Times | Sumerian Tablets, The Anunnaki – Anton Parks

Anton Parks believes 20,000 newly excavated Sumerian tablets can finally show the true location of the Garden of Eden. Modern experts hypothesise proof of ancient genetic tampering that irreversibly changed the course of human evolution.

Adam, the First Man – Does the ancient Sumerian word “Adam” hold clues to the relationship between early humans and the Sumerian gods? The Anunnaki? Did scholars make deliberate choices to omit certain sections of the Bible’s creation story..

{ https://beforeitsnews.com/ }

Unknown Bright Objects Swarm in ALL Directions Above Earth From ISS | Bright Aurora & Huge Fireball!

Unknown Bright Objects SWARM in ALL Directions Above Earth From ISS | Bright Aurora & HUGE Fireball!

WAY More Occurred During Today’s Total Eclipse Than Was Expected! *Shockwave/Radio Blackout* & more

We are living in very unique, changing times and during these times I have become more than intrigued by these changes and what is causing them. I’m referring to the earth changes, changes in our sun and how the earth’s atmosphere manages this what I believe to be a much different sunlight.

Over the last 10 years I have become very familiar with our planet, the mechanics of it and how it reacts to many different aspects of space weather and many other things as well. I monitor everything from the sea floor to the cosmos and everything in between. I am a full-time Watchman and as these uncertain times move forward I’ve got your back. When you really need to know…you’ll know.

{ https://beforeitsnews.com/ }

World's Scariest Alien Creatures Caught on Camera in United States, Canada and Russia

A strange apparitions tumbling to the ground and then soaring up again has been caught on a closed circuit television video in many countries. Mystics are claiming it to be an hybrid aliens.

The “aliens” appears for just a second but can be seen quite clearly. 

“Hybrid aliens” caught on camera? Video here:

{ https://beforeitsnews.com/ }

NEW Evidence NASA Rover Being Fixed On Mars! 100% Proof Of Humans On Mars Now! UFO Sighting News. 

Date of discovery: Dec 17, 2020
Location of discovery: Mars
Source photo: 

• https://mars.nasa.gov/mer/gallery/press/spirit/20060306a.html

Back in 2012 I found a photo of an astronaut shadow fixing the Mars rover. That photo has been deleted, but I found new evidence today that builds on it. Someone on Mars is repairing the NASA rover and they are doing a real redneck of a job. You know, like I might make using a garden hose to fix my radiator hose in my 4x4 truck. Well this guy used some pink sponge matting and its not even big enough to cover the whole area around the pipe. Then he tied it together with some plastic gold string and tied a knot. It's so poorly done that it looks like someone with zero experience with technology did the repair job. Anyways, you make up your own mind. I sure made up mine! 

 

This is 100% proof that NASA has someone on Mars fixing the rover. The person living on mars has to have others there too, so there is already a whole colony on Mars. The USA wants to remain a world power and keep other countries off of Mars. Thats why all the Russian probes sent to Mars have been destroyed with in minutes of getting there...except some died on the way. 

Scott C. Waring - Taiwan

 

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Since the UFO also called a fastwalker, flies past the drone at a short distance at such an enormous speed, it was only possible to frame some images of the object.

  

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