Our tiny brains can't even comprehend the true scale of these astronomical giants.

This Video About The Scale of Black Holes Will Crush Your Poor, Tiny Brain

Black holes are vast, matter-annihilating objects that seem to defy physics by their very existence. They're so weird, that when Albert Einstein's equations first predicted the existence of these beasts, he didn't believe they could actually be real.

{ https://www.thespaceacademy.org/ }

Titan is the farthest world where a man-made machine has landed. And sent back some amazing images and videos of the surface.

Ever since man ventured into space, he has sent his technology to many corners of the solar system. Before the end of the 20th century, our probes had already touched the surfaces of Mars and Venus, but it would not be until 2005 that a spacecraft would land on the most distant world to date: Titan, Saturn's largest moon.

The protagonist of the feat was the Huygens probe, designed by the European Space Agency (ESA) and launched into space on October 15, 1997, as part of the Cassini-Huygens mission (orbiter and landing probe, respectively).

The objective of this joint project with NASA and the Italian Space Agency (ASA) was to get to know Saturn in depth: its rings, climates, geology and dozens of moons. But the Huygens instrument pointed to the most gigantic Saturnian satellite of all.

Why is this distant body in the outer solar system still so interesting today?

An amazing moon

Titan is a special world for astronomers not only because it is the second largest moon in the solar system after Ganymede, on Jupiter; but because of its very similar conditions to the primitive Earth.

Similar to the blue planet, Titan has a 600 kilometer thick atmosphere that is made up of nitrogen (95%) and methane (5%). It is also the only other place in the solar system where a rain cycle similar to Earth's has also been seen, with the exception that it is based on methane instead of water.

Images taken by Cassini show the changing surface of Titan.

Photo: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

Continuous precipitation—which varies depending on the seasons on the planet, also tilted like Earth—makes Titan's surface changeable. Mainly at its south pole, there are liquid reserves (lakes and seas) and hard ice rocks due to the extreme cold of -180 ºC.

Astronomers believe that in 6 billion years, when the Sun becomes a red giant star and its size brings it closer to the outer solar system, conditions on Titan may be favorable for stable oceans.

All these characteristics make Titan one of the best candidates for have harbored (or harbor) extraterrestrial microbial life that depends on methane instead of water.

Landing on titan

Seven years after the launch of the Cassini-Huygens mission, the Cassini module was inserted into the orbit of Saturn. Then, in December 2004, it ejected the Huygens probe, its traveling companion who had been 'asleep' for all those years, towards Titan.

The violent entry into Titan's atmosphere in January 2005 took almost two and a half hours. Once on the surface, its useful life was very short but valuable: for one hour and ten minutes it worked automatically and captured 350 photographs of the terrain before losing communication with Cassini, which moved away from the landing point and followed its orbit.

The computer and postal data of the impressive descent to Titan were recorded for history and, years later, could be recreated in an ESA video.

The images show rocks similar to boulders, so it is believed that there was a fluid that ran through there and eroded them.

But the interest in this giant satellite has not ended.

Dragonfly, the dragonfly that will fly over Titan

Continuing the legacy of Cassini-Huygens, in 2026 NASA will send the Dragonfly mission to Titan to study the satellite's atmosphere, its prebiotic chemical processes and its subsurface ocean reserves.

NASA's Dragonfly rover will arrive on Titan in 2034 to study its atmosphere and pre-life chemical processes.

Photo: NASA

This flying instrument - similar to the Ingenuity on Mars - will land in 2034 in Shangri-La , a region with dunes similar to those of Namibia in southern Africa.

From then on, Dragonfly will make long jumps of up to 8 kilometers in different locations and, in each one of them, will stay one Titan day (16 Earth days). Your ultimate goal will be Selk Crater , a region where evidence of ancient liquid water exists.

“Visiting this mysterious marine world could revolutionize what we know about life in the universe. This state-of-the-art mission would have been unthinkable even a few years ago, but now we are ready," former NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said in astatement.

Dragonfly is part of NASA's ambitious News Frontier program, which includes other missions such as News Horizon to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt, Juno to Jupiter, and OSIRIS-REX to asteroid Bennu.

RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011

{ https://www.thespaceacademy.org/ }

‘Spaghettified’ star wrapped around a black hole spotted for the first time

A black hole enjoyed one stellar spaghetti dinner and astronomers were able to witness the event from 215 million light-years away in a spiral galaxy in the Eridanus constellation.

Astronomers saw the light from a star being devoured and ripped apart by a supermassive black hole using telescopes at the European Southern Observatory in Chile. Although it sounds incredibly far away, this event was the closest flaring death throes of a star astronomers have seen to date.

And apparently, what the astronomers witnessed was the "spaghettificaton" of the star.

"When an unlucky star wanders too close to a supermassive black hole in the center of a galaxy, the extreme gravitational pull of the black hole shreds the star into thin streams of material," said Thomas Wevers, study coauthor and an ESO fellow in Santiago, Chile, in a statement. Wevers was at the University of Cambridge's Institute of Astronomy as he worked on this research.

When these thin strands of the star's material fall into the black hole, they release a bright energetic flare that can be detected by astronomers.

Spaghettification events are much more rare to observe and harder to study. But the researchers had the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope and New Technology Telescope aimed in the right place after spying a new flash of light last year that was located close to a supermassive black hole.

"The idea of a black hole 'sucking in' a nearby star sounds like science fiction. But this is exactly what happens in a tidal disruption event," said Matt Nicholl, lead study author and a lecturer and Royal Astronomical Society research fellow at the University of Birmingham in the UK, in a statement.

The study published Monday in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Although the light from the star was incredibly bright, it was still difficult for the astronomers to study because dust and debris created by the event helped to obscure it from view. Energy released during the black hole's mealtime actually pushed out the star's debris in a type of curtain.

"We found that, when a black hole devours a star, it can launch a powerful blast of material outwards that obstructs our view," said Samantha Oates, study coauthor and researcher at the University of Birmingham, in a statement.

Astronomers began observing the event shortly after the star was ripped apart and continued to use different telescopes and instruments to study it in detail over six months as the light from the star initially grew and then faded.

"Because we caught it early, we could actually see the curtain of dust and debris being drawn up as the black hole launched a powerful outflow of material with velocities up to 10,000 km/s," said Kate Alexander, study coauthor and NASA Einstein fellow at Northwestern University, in a statement. "This unique 'peek behind the curtain' provided the first opportunity to pinpoint the origin of the obscuring material and follow in real time how it engulfs the black hole."

Observations were taken in multiple wavelengths of light, including optical, X-ray, ultraviolet and radio light. These different wavelengths revealed a direct link between the bright flare witnessed as the star was consumed by the black hole and the material flowing out from the star.

"The observations showed that the star had roughly the same mass as our own Sun, and that it lost about half of that to the monster black hole, which is over a million times more massive," Nicholl said.

The study furthers how astronomers understand black holes and this particular event, dubbed AT2019qiz, could be used as a "Rosetta stone" for similar events in the future.

{ https://www.thespaceacademy.org/ }

Triangular UFOs: New Historical Cases and Validated Insights -David Marler

NOTE ANDRE SKONDRAS

Do you want to hear some "common sense" in terms of critical rational thinking about UFOs? Then pay close attention to researcher and archivist David Marler's most recent presentation on Triangular UFOs throughout history. He factually refutes the UFO debunking claims in this presentation. Well-done job, David!

Description video

For over 20 years, David Marler has been investigating a particular subset of the UFO phenomenon – triangular UFOs. In his 2013 groundbreaking book, Triangular UFOs – An Estimate of the Situation, he established a working profile of these anomalous aerial objects by highlighting their repeatedly-reported characteristics and flight dynamics. Those conclusions were derived from his vast historical UFO materials and research at the time.

Since then, The David Marler Historical UFO Archive Collection has grown by leaps and bounds. Of particular note was the receipt of the world’s largest historical UFO case file collection in November of 2020. This consists of hundreds (if not thousands) of case files from: Civilian Saucer Intelligence of New York (CSI-NY), The National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP), and The Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS). In addition, it includes the personal Air Force Project Blue Book files of Dr. J. Allen Hynek.

In reviewing this vast treasure trove of historical UFO case files dating back to the late 1940s, David noted there were triangular UFO case reports that had never been seen by the general public. When reading these accounts, they served as the best outside validation for what David outlined in his book. Namely, the reported details and characteristics matched what other witnesses had described in reference to these triangular UFOs. However, the vast majority of these accounts date back from the 1950s, 60s, and 70s.

This presentation will share with the public, for the first time, historical UFO case files and audio recordings relating to triangular UFO reports that pre-date stealth technology and the modern period of UFO reporting. Enjoy this journey back to the early years of the UFO phenomenon where we see that the past was indeed prologue for the future of triangular UFO reports.

Presentation from the 2022 Ozark Mountain UFO Conference.

RELATED VIDEOS  ( peter2011 )

{ https://www.youtube.com/ }

Narcissus: An Ancient Tragic Story with Many Modern Parallels

The Greek tale of the self-absorbed yet staggeringly handsome Narcissus is a famous and ancient one. Despite its age, the myth remains famous to this day and provides a moral warning against becoming selfish and uncaring towards others.

The Narcissus story is so influential, in fact, that his name has been given to the mental condition narcissism which is characterized by an inflated sense of self-importance and a lack of empathy for others. Narcissus’ life has also influenced popular culture for centuries and even provided the inspiration for the name of the Harry Potter character Narcissa Malfoy.

Whilst the most popular and well-known versions of the myth contain nymphs, warnings from the Gods and blind seers, the integral moral of the story remains influential. The story also acts as an explanation for the origin of the Narcissus flower (daffodil) and for the origin of echoes.

Primary Sources Give Some Info About Narcissus’ Life

There are a couple of surviving stories about Narcissus’ life, all of which differ somewhat but have the same central story with the same moral teachings.

The main primary source of the myth is Ovid’s Metamorphoses where the story is told in Book III. Ovid was a Roman poet who was born in the city around 43 BC and died in 16 or 17 AD. He traveled throughout his life to a number of Greek territories like Asia Minor and Athens.

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In 2 AD he began his Metamorphoses which is considered his magnum opus comprising 11,995 lines, 15 books and over 250 myths. This colossal poem chronicles the history of the world from its beginning until the deification of Julius Caesar. It also contains the longest version of the myth.

Another earlier but less complete source for the story of Narcissus is a version composed in 50 BC and thought to be the work of the poet Partenius of Nicaea. This work was discovered in 2004 by Dr Benjamin Henry within the Oxyrhynchus papyri at Oxford. The only difference between this telling and Ovid’s is the ending.

A third source for the tale of Narcissus’ life was composed by Conon who was a Greek grammarian and mythographer. His ending is similar to that of Partenius. The tale is also told by the Greek traveler and geographer Pausanias in Book IX of his Description of Greece .

Echo and Narcissus in painting from 1627 by Nicolas Poussin.

(Nicolas Poussin / Public domain )

Narcissus in Ovid’s Metamorphoses

Ovid’s telling of Narcissus’ life is perhaps the most well know version today. It begins with the birth of Narcissus. His parents were the God of the River, Cephissus, and the nymph Liriope. Ovid claims that Cephissus was not a nice man and had forced Liriope into his bed, and consequently the nymph became pregnant.

Narcissus, from his birth and throughout his life was incredibly handsome . When Liriope consulted a seer (named Tiresias) after his birth and asked if her son would live a long life, the seer stated that Narcissus would live a long life if he did not look at himself.

Narcissus managed to live his early life and not discover himself. His beauty became known, and men and women alike were said to be throwing themselves at him. However, Narcissus was not fazed by any of them and ignored all of their advances.

One day he was walking in the woods when an Oread (a mountain nymph) named Echo spotted him. Echo, like so many women before her, instantly fell deeply in love with the handsome Narcissus. She proceeded to follow him through the wood.

However, she was hesitant to speak to this beautiful man because, according to Ovid, the nymph suffered from a speech impediment that was a result of a curse by Juno (or Hera), the wife of Zeus. It was known that Zeus had a particular fondness for nymphs, and this had made Juno extremely jealous. It was said that every time Juno would almost catch Zeus with a nymph Echo would distract the unknowing wife.

When Juno eventually found out she punished Echo by removing her ability to communicate properly so she could only say the last few words that were spoken to her. She could therefore not talk to Narcissus first and instead had to wait for him to talk to her.

Another version of the hopeless heartbreak “bubble” Echo lived in because Narcissus was more interested in himself, from a painting by Francesco Xanto Avelli from 1535.

(Francesco Xanto Avelli / CC BY-SA 2.0 )

After some time, Narcissus heard Echo following him through the wood and he called out “Who’s there?” Echo repeated his questions and was eventually convinced by Narcissus to reveal herself.

Echo then immediately attempted to embrace Narcissus, however, he refused and stepped away from the nymph.

“Away with these encircling hands! May I die before what’s mine is yours. She answers,
“What’s mine is yours!” 

(Metamorphoses, Book III)

The heartbroken Echo spent the rest of her life in misery, she lived alone in the glens until nothing remained of her but an echo.

Narcissus continues to break the hearts of numerous lovers. One even went as far as to curse him that he may suffer as he has caused others to suffer. The Goddess of Revenge, Nemesis, eventually heard of this tale and noticed Narcissus’ behavior. She decided to punish the selfish man. During the summer when Narcissus became thirsty, she lured him to a pool and when he leaned down to the water he gazed upon his own reflection. Not realizing it was his own reflection, Narcissus fell deeply in love with himself, believing it was someone else.

• Temple of Nemesis Found Under A Greek Theater. And Here is Why
• Roman Mythology of the Ages of Man, Metamorphoses and the Founding of Rome

He was unable to remove himself from looking at his own reflection but soon realized that his love could not be reciprocated when he attempted to kiss or hold the reflection. However, his confusion is amplified when the image in the pool reciprocated his winks and waves. Narcissus could not understand why he could not secure what he so desperately desired.

Narcissus was tormented by this and by the time he realized it was his reflection it was too late, and he had already fallen in love with himself. Because he now knew he could never obtain what he truly wanted his body melted away from the passion he felt burning inside him.

When Echo returns to the place where Narcissus had been staring into his own eyes to recover his body for the funeral, she found in his place a gold and white flower. This flower would become known as the Narcissus flower, or the daffodil.

Ameinias spurned lover of Narcissus, who committed suicide as his love turned to madness, sculpted by Malcolm Lidbury for the 2016 Cornwall LGBT History project.

(Pinkpasty / CC BY 4.0 )

Narcissus According to Other Stories about Him

Parthenius tells much of the same story, however, rather than slowly decaying because of his yearning, Narcissus lost his will to live and committed suicide.

Canon’s version of the story was written at roughly the same time as Ovid’s however, this also differs slightly. First of all, rather than a nymph named Echo, a young man by the name of Ameinias falls in love with Narcissus after the latter had already turned away many male suitors.

Like those before him, Narcissus rejects Ameinias and gives him a sword. As a result of this rejection, Ameinias commits suicide on Narcissus’ doorstep. Ameinias had prayed to the gods to give the selfish Narcissus a lesson and make him learn from all the pain he had caused.

Narcissus then walked to a pool of water and decided to have a drink. As he bent down, he gazed upon his own reflection and fell in love. When he realized this love was futile, he killed himself because he could not obtain what he desired most.

In his work, Pausanias summarized Ovid’s story. Pausanias did not believe that a man old enough to fall in love would be stupid enough to not realize it was his own reflection upon which he was staring. So, Pausanias changed the story slightly, to make it more believable. Rather than falling in love with a nymph named Echo or a man named Ameinias, Narcissus was actually mourning the death of his beloved twin sister and was gazing at his own reflection to recall her features. In this telling, the spring in front of which Narcissus wastes away is located on a mountain top and is part of the river Lamus in a place called Donacon.

What all the versions share, however, is the inherent negative link between Narcissus and the act of gazing upon his reflection. It is possible that this was derived from the ancient Greek superstition that it was unlucky and sometimes even fatal to see your own reflection.

A fine Narcissus fresco from Pompeii showing the pool reflection he was in love with.

( CC0)

Narcissus’ Legacy

The myth of Narcissus has had a lasting effect on humans. He was a very popular subject in Roman art and appears prominently in 50 paintings from Pompeii alone. His name has been given, in Freudian psychiatry and psychoanalysis, to the mental condition that leaves one with an “inflated sense of their own importance, a deep need for excessive attention and admiration, troubled relationships and a lack of empathy for others.” The myth also had a huge influence on Dante and Shakespeare.

After losing influence after the Renaissance, it came back and inspired more creatives. The myth appears in a number of 20th-century works of art and music and provides a warning against self-obsession which was particularly influential during the age of individualism.

The Origins of Narcissus’ Story

Because there is a lack of stories based on Narcissus and Echo, many scholars today believe that the myth may have originated with Ovid. According to Ingo Gildenhard and Andrew Zissos, this story actually interrupted the poetic pattern of Metamorphoses suggesting that the story may have been an afterthought and placed in the work to verify the validity of the prophet Tiresias (the seer). Ovid’s version, nevertheless, was then retold by later poets and has become not only an explanation for where the flower originated but also why echoes exist.

W. S. Anderson has argued that the language used in Ovid’s tale is formed in a way to discourage the audience from feeling any kind of sympathy for Narcissus. The poet stresses that he deserved everything that happened to him because of the horrible way he treated those who fell in love with him, particularly Echo.

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• An Outstanding Narcissus Painting is Found in Pompeii… Would it Have Pleased Him?

In Pausanias’ telling, however, the author takes a different stance. By rationalizing the story, Pausanias expresses his belief that Ovid’s version is foolish. Here, Echo and the will of the Gods are omitted. He even argues that the flower had existed long before Narcissus and his story. He effectively warped the story from one which explained the origins of the flower and of echoes into one purely for entertainment.

Despite this, and as already mentioned, both stories end with Narcissus’ death as a result of gazing into the pool and at his own reflection. Because of this he dies completely alone with no awareness of his surroundings. Both authors are conveying the same moral message that it is not good to be self-absorbed. The story warns that being so will only end in loneliness.

• Top image: Echo and Narcissus in a painting by John William Waterhouse, and one senses that Narcissus has already fallen in love with himself for all time.                       
• Source: John William Waterhouse / Public domain

By Molly Dowdeswell

{ https://www.ancient-origins.net/ }

Earth’s Magnetic Field Almost Completely Collapsed 550 Million Years Ago

More than half a billion years ago, Earth experienced an almost-complete collapse of its magnetic field. It began in the early Cambrian period. Then, after a period of about 15 million years, the field began to grow again. The cause of that collapse and the bounceback of the field was a mystery. Then, a group of geologists studied rocks from Oklahoma that were created during that time. Magnetic markers in the rocks’ minerals pointed toward an event that began some 550 million years ago. That was before the introduction of multicellular life on our planet.

Look Deep into the Core

To understand what happened, look at our planet’s structure. Most of us learn in school that Earth is composed of layers. There’s the crust, where you’re sitting reading this right now. Underneath that is the mantle, Earth’s thickest layer. It lies over the molten outer core, which surrounds the solid inner core. That inner core has two parts—an outermost inner core and an innermost inner core. The core region lies some 2900 kilometers beneath the surface. The swirling action of liquid iron in the outer core is what generates our magnetic field. If it weren’t for that activity, we wouldn’t have a protective shield against the solar wind. In fact, without it, our planet might be more like Mars today.

So, what happened in the core? Why did our magnetic field fade to almost 10 percent of its strength and then regenerate again? According to John Tarduno, a professor of geophysics at the University of Rochester in New York, the cause was the formation of Earth’s solid inner core.

“The inner core is tremendously important,” he said. “Right before the inner core started to grow, the magnetic field was at the point of collapse, but as soon as the inner core started to grow, the field was regenerated.”

Paleomagnetism Reveals Changes in Our Magnetic Field

In a recent paper, Tarduno and a team of researchers cited crucial dates in the inner core’s history. They also gave a precise age estimate for the collapse and regeneration. Since they can’t reach down into the core and directly observe it, how did they figure out when these events happened? The team turned to paleomagnetism to find an answer. That’s the study of magnetic markers in rocks that were created when the rocks formed. Geologists often use this to trace the records of other changes in Earth’s magnetic field, such as pole-flipping.

Earth’s magnetic field stretches out from the core through the mantle and crust and out into space. It’s impossible to measure the magnetic field inside Earth directly. That’s due to the location and extreme temperatures of materials in the core. So, geologists thought of a better way. They looked for paleomagnetic markers in rocks and minerals that rose to the surface. Those markers are like tiny needles that lock in the direction and intensity of the magnetic field that existed when the minerals cooled after forming.

Tarduno and his team wanted to pinpoint the age and growth of Earth’s inner core using paleomagnetism to measure those particles. So, they used a CO2 laser and a superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) magnetometer to analyze feldspar crystals from the rock anorthosite and study their perfect magnetic markers.

Dating Rocks Using Magnetism For the Win

By studying the magnetism locked in those ancient crystals, the researchers determined two new important dates. The first was when the magnetic field began to strengthen after nearly collapsing 15 million years earlier. That rapid regrowth was due to the formation of a solid inner core. It actually recharged the molten outer core and restored the magnetic field’s strength.

Another interesting thing happened about 450 million years ago. That’s when the growing inner core’s structure changed. The result was a boundary between the innermost and outermost inner core. Far above the core, changes to the mantle took place due to plate tectonics on the surface.

Paleomagnetism made this new understanding of Earth’s core possible, according to Tarduno. “Because we constrained the inner core’s age more accurately, we could explore the fact that the present-day inner core is actually composed of two parts,” he said. “Plate tectonic movements on Earth’s surface indirectly affected the inner core, and the history of these movements is imprinted deep within Earth in the inner core’s structure.”

What about Magnetic Fields Elsewhere?

The team’s research into paleomagnetic clues to Earth’s interior evolution provides clues about the history and evolution of our planet. It also offers insight into how it became habitable. Finally, their work has implications for understanding the evolution of other planets in the solar system. Things could well be very different if they had no magnetic fields. For example, Mars once had a magnetic field, but it dissipated more than 4 billion years ago. That left the planet vulnerable to the solar wind and likely played a role in the loss of Martian oceans.

It’s not clear if Earth would have suffered the same fate if its magnetic field hadn’t regenerated. Tarduno said that our planet would have lost a lot of its water if the magnetic field had not come back. “The planet would be much drier and very different than the planet today,” he pointed out. “This research really highlights the need to have something like a growing inner core that sustains a magnetic field over the entire lifetime—many billions of years—of a planet.”

For More Information

• How did Earth avoid a Mars-like fate? Ancient rocks hold clues
• Early Cambrian renewal of the geodynamo and the origin of inner core structure

The post Earth’s Magnetic Field Almost Completely Collapsed 550 Million Years Ago appeared first on Universe Today.

Source: 

• https://www.universetoday.com/156969/earths-magnetic-field-almost-completely-collapsed-550-million-years-ago/

{ https://beforeitsnews.com/ }

The first findings of the James Webb telescope might revolutionize the views of the formation of galaxies

The first preliminary findings of the James Webb telescope, the successor of the Hubble telescope, are in conflict with the standard view of the formation of galaxies. The YouTube video (see this) “James Webb Found Galaxies That Sort of Break Modern Theories” gives a good summary of these findings. The findings are also summarized in an article in Nature (see this) with the title “Four revelations from the Webb telescope about distant galaxies”.

The official story of the formation of galaxies goes roughly as follows.

1. Around 3 minutes of cosmic time, the cosmic microwave background emerged as the first atoms formed and radiation decoupled from matter.
2. When the age of the Universe was more than about .1 billion years, the first stars were formed. They lived their life and exploded as supernovas and yielded interstellar hydrogen gas. Galaxies started to form. One can see this process as a gravitational condensation. What is essential is that this process went from long to short scales, just as the formation of stars in the earlier phase.
3. The model gives a stringent upper bound for the age of the galaxies. They should be younger than the oldest observed stars. This limit gives an upper bound for the distance of the galaxy, that is for its redshift.

The first, preliminary, observations of the James Webb telescope were galaxies with redshifts up to 16. Even redsshift extending to 20 have been speculated in arXiv papers. Redshift 16 would correspond to the age of 250 million years and redshift of 20 to the age of 200 million years. They are too far to fit into the official picture. To get some perspective, note that the estimate for the age of the Universe is 13.8 billion years.

The ages of these galaxies were few hundred million years and of the same order as the estimated ages of about 100 million years of the hypothetical population III stars (see this), which are thought to be the oldest stars but have not not (yet?) detected. The criterion for the age of the star is its metal content: the first stars should have contained only hydrogen and Helium and “metal” here means anything heavier than Helium. The suggestive conclusion is that there was a significant population of star forming galaxies in the early universe. This challenges the standard view stating that stars came first and led to the formation of galaxies.

TGD proposes an unofficial view of the formation of galaxies (see this, this and this).

1. In the very beginning the Universe was dominated by cosmic strings, which were space-time surfaces in H=M⁴× CP₂ having 2-dimensional M⁴ projection. They were not “Einsteinian” space-time surfaces with 4-D M⁴ projection and have no counterpart in general relativity.
2. Cosmic strings were unstable against thickening of the M⁴ projection to 4-D one. Phase transitions thickening the cosmic strings occurred and increased their thickness and reduced string tension so that part of their energy transformed to ordinary matter. This is the TGD counterpart for inflation.

This process led to radiation dominated Universe and the local description of the Universe as an Einsteinian 4-surface became a good approximation and is used in standard cosmology based on the standard model as a QFT limit of TGD.

At this moment the thickness of the thickened strings would be around 100 micrometers, which corresponds to a length scale around large neuron size. Water blob with this size has mass of order Planck mass. The connection with biology is suggestive cite{btart/penrose,watermorpho,waterbridge}.

• The liberated dark energy (and possible dark matter, dark in the TGD sense) assignable to cosmic strings produced quasars, which in the TGD framework are identified as time reversals of the ordinary galactic blackholes. They did not extract matter from the environment but feeded darl energy as matter to the environment as jets. Jets are observed and explained in terms of the magnetic field due to the rotation of the galaxy.

The jets are somewhat problematic in the GRT based cosmology since the simplest, non-rotating Schwarzschild blackholes do not allow them. The rotating blackholes identifiable as Kerr-Newman blackholes accompanied by magnetic fields, also have some interpretational problems. For instance, the arrow of time can be said to be different in the nearby and faraway regions and closed time-like geodesics are possible. In TGD, this could have an interpretation in terms of zero energy ontology (ZEO). The matter from the jets would have eventually led to the formation of atoms, stars, and galaxies.

• What is essential is that the formation of galaxies proceeds from short to long scales rather than vice versa as in the standard cosmology. A second essential point is that the dark energy (and possible dark matter) concentrated at cosmic strings was added to the ordinary matter predicted by the standard model to be present in the radiation dominated cosmology. This led to the formation of galaxies. Therefore this picture is consistent with the standard story as far as the formation of atoms and emergence of CMB is considered. The possibility considered in the TGD framework (see this, this and this) is that quasars are time reversed black-holes (this property can be formulated precisely in zero energy ontology (ZEO), which forms the basis of TGD based quantum measurement theory) (see this, this and this). Note that the time reversal property would hold true in long time scales at the magnetic body (MB) defined by the monopole flux tubes produced by the thickening of the cosmic strings. For ordinary matter, the scale for the time spent with a given arrow of time is very short but MB with a large gravitational Planck constant can force ordinary matter to effectively behave like its time reversed version.

There is indeed quite recent support for the proposal that quasars are time reversals of blackhole-like objects identified in the TGD framework as monopole flux tube tangles. The Hubble telescope detected a dwarf galaxy at a distance of 30 million light years for which the number of stars is about 10 per cent for that in the Milky Way. Its center contains a blackhole-like object (see this), which did not extract matter from the environment but did just the opposite by jets, which gave rise to a formation of stars.

The observations challenging the basic dogma of blackhole physics are not new and during the writing of an article about galactic jets I got the impression that one of the basic challenges is to explain why some blackholes do just the opposite of what they should do.

See the chapter TGD View of the Engine Powering Jets from Active Galactic Nuclei or the article with the same title.

For a summary of earlier postings see Latest progress in TGD.

• Articles related to TGD

Source:

•  http://matpitka.blogspot.com/2022/07/the-first-findings-of-james-webb.html

{ https://beforeitsnews.com/ }

Red Lights Over Huntington Beach, California July 30, 2022, UFO Sighting News.

 

Date of sighting: July 30, 2022
Location of sighting: Huntington Beach, California, USA

 

An eyewitness in California caught sight of four glowing red spheres yesterday. The glowing objects are moving very fast and unusual. The area was at Lake Stevens, which makes me wonder if it came from below the water or not. UFOs travel in our atmosphere, space and underwater, but probably more. 

Scott C. Waring - Taiwan 

 

Eyewitness states: 

Waiting at lundeen park here in lake stevens I was laying down on the dock waiting for the firework show to start when I seen the string of 4 lights then a minute or so later the second string came. Watching the starlight video it could have been that but the lights were spectated by several hundred feet possibly more moving at a higher than normal rate of speed I have one two clips one I was following them and the other has a stationary star in the view I would say satellite but I’ve been watching them for years and never seen them move at the speed I seen these move. If I was to give a height I’d have to say just below or just above the earth’s atmosphere. Hopefully you can help me out.  I Walt have my eyes to the sky. And hopefully the videos show up I took it on an IPhone 11.

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

The mysterious peeing tree of Taiwan 🇹🇼, video, breaking world news.

I was at a BNB near the beach in Taiwan and two birds landed on my shoulders and stayed on me for 25 min, until I walked back to the BNB area and looked at the mysterious peeing tree. The birds seemed to like it and finally left landing on the tree. This tree got into Two TV News stations here in Taiwan so even they find it unique. On vacation....in Taiwan. 

 Scott C. Waring

 

 

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

Beach in Taiwan, Two Birds Landed On Me, July 30, 2022, Taiwan Breaking News

I was at a BNB yesterday and decided to take a walk on the beach looking for fossils and sapphires, when suddenly a bird landed on my shoulder and then another on the other shoulder. I looked up and found two beautiful love birds panting hard from the 100F heat here. I let them ride me while I searched then I decided to carry them back to the BNB area where our neighbor BNB owns the birds, then I visited the mysterious peeing tree which just started this week. There the birds flew onto the tree after riding me 25 min. 

 

Funny thing, one of the birds kept at my necklace until it had unlatched three latches that locked it, before it fell off. I caught it and hid it in my pocket, but then they went for my watch...they love shiny news things. LOL, very playful and curious animals. I fed them back at the BNB and gave them some cold water. 

Scott C. Waring - Taiwan

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

Found a fossil on the beach in Taiwan just like searching NASA photos for similar things. UFO Sighting News.

Hey all, I found this fossil when I went to a BNB along the southern east side of Taiwan. I was looking for fossils. Its something I enjoy doing in hopes of making a find worthy to give to the local museum. This interesting to me. Paleontology and archeology are to passions I have. This is a fossil of stringray teeth. Stringrays have about 5-8 rows of teeth. This particular fossil seems to be about 150-200,000,000 years old. I determined this from other fossils I have seen, held and studied. But this is the first stingray teeth I have found. I was actually intently searching for fossil shark teeth, but its rare in Taiwan. Never heard of anyone finding any, but so is this fossil of stingray teeth. Was going to take a video, but was too hot and two love birds landed on my shoulder for 25 minutes making this awkward. 

Searching for fossils is just like searching in NASA photos for similar ancient artifacts. The only difference is I'm not there in person doing it...which by the way...I would love doing. So...link the similarities...this is what I do. 

I see here in Taiwan that people are worried about China invading. Chinese war ships and jets are having a military exercise, but Taiwanese think its a possible invasion in progress...due to US Nancy Pelosi visiting us in Taiwan. Not sure what will happen if China invades, but I will do my best to keep updating you on this situations if they do. 

Scott C. Waring - Taiwan 

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

2 UFOs filmed in Atlanta during severe electrical storm YESTERDAY

This strange UFO aerial phenomenon was filmed over Atlanta, Georgia yesterday.

Witness report:

I filmed this in Atlanta early this morning 7/30/2022.

A severe electrical storm rolled through the neighborhood so I decided to see if I could get some cool lightning videos. As soon as I walked on my patio, a bolt of lightning struck the parking lot 30 feet away. I quickly propped up my phone and retreated inside. Upon reviewing the footage this morning with my wife, I noticed some orbs I could see on my phone screen. Only when the video was cast to my huge flat screen did I notice the lights. Two orbs appeared directly after the flash, and remained there bobbing. One disappears a few times and returns. Keep in mind, the sky was 100% overcast, these lights were below the clouds. They are dancing/bobbing in a weird way. You can see the tree in the foreground not moving the same as the orbs.

KillerBlueWaffles @ Reddit

RELATED VIDEOS

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

UFO filmed over Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

This UFO video was filmed back in 2018 but it was just now submitted to MUFON’s website. It happened over Philadelphia, PA.

Witness report: 

Observed a kidney-bean or peanut shaped dark black object moving around the Philadelphia skyline on July 3, 2018. The object seemed to have a direction and moved at a steady pace from the NE to SW direction before we lost sight of it.

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

They Prepare The World For Contact With Aliens

Not so long ago top US astronomers gathered in front of Congress to let them know that extraterrestrial life exists – without question.

They cited the sheer size of the universe as their most important proof, emphasizing that there are trillions of stars out there, with one in every five most likely harboring an Earth-like planet (though it is important to keep in mind that planets do not have to be “Earth-like” in order to harbor life).

“The number of habitable worlds in our galaxy is certainly in the tens of billions, minimum, and we haven’t even talked about the moons. And the number of galaxies we can see, other than our own, is about 100 billion.” – Seth Shostak, Senior Astronomer at California’s SETI Institute.

This time, NASA and the Library of Congress have teamed up to bring together scientists, theologians, philosophers and historians from around the globe for a two day symposium in order to discuss how to prepare the world for extraterrestrial contact, whether it be microbial organisms or intelligent beings.

One of the theologians present was Brother Guy Consolmagno, who is the new president of the Vatican Observatory Foundation. This is what he had to say:

“I believe [alien life exists], but I have no evidence. I would be really excited and it would make my understanding of my religion deeper and richer in ways that I can’t even predict yet, which is why it would be so exciting.”

He is urging the public not to be surprised when extraterrestrial life is discovered, because it is inevitably going to happen. He even said that he would be happy to baptize them, if it’s intelligent extraterrestrial life that’s discovered.

The Vatican has been very open to the idea of intelligent extraterrestrial life, and they’ve expressed these views for a very long time.

Earth is not the center of the universe, it’s not flat, and it’s looking very likely that the next major, paradigm-shifting revelation will be the fact that we are not alone in the universe.

It’s great to see the mainstream world gather, discuss, and prepare for this possibility and ultimate reality, and it’s a great segue to create more awareness about the world of secrecy, the world’s within our world that deal with projects the human race knows nothing about.

Lets not forget the main argument was the size of the universe, emphasizing that there are trillions of stars out there, with one in every five most likely harboring an Earth-like planet.

“In the last 50 years, evidence has steadily mounted that the components and conditions we believe necessary for life are common and perhaps ubiquitous in our galaxy. The possibility that life has arisen elsewhere, and perhaps evolved intelligence, is plausible and warrants scientific inquiry.

“If you extrapolate on the planets they discovered, there are a trillion planets in the galaxy. That’s a lot of places for life. We know the majority of stars have planets, but what fraction of stars have planets that are more like the earth? It might be one in five.” 

Dan Shostak

Scientists are discovering billions of Earth-like planets on our Milky Way galaxy alone. I’d also like to mention that planets do not have to be Earth-like in order to harbor life, that’s just what we think and assume.

Who knows what type of conditions life on other planets can thrive in? Or the biological make up of an extraterrestrial life form?

Believe it or not, accept it or not, but the planet is being groomed for disclosure.

RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011

{ https://anomalien.com/ }

Astrophysicist warns: “aliens plan an invasion of Earth”

ITV Central Weekend Live Clip [UFOs & Aliens] (Sept 1998)

Tim Matthews puts Nick Pope on the spot.

Ministry of Defence

Pope worked as a civil servant for the Ministry of Defence from 1985 to 2006. From 1991 to 1994, he worked in Secretariat (Air Staff) Sec (AS) 2a more commonly known as the "UFO desk", where his duties included investigating reports of UFO sightings, to see if they had any defence significance. At the time, while the Ministry of Defence stated that it "remains totally open-minded about the existence or otherwise of extraterrestrial lifeforms", it also stated that there was no evidence to suggest that any UFO sightings posed any threat to the UK or that they were extraterrestrial in origin.^[4] It is clear from material that Pope wrote whilst still at the MoD that he did not share the MoD's view that conventional explanations could be found for all UFO sightings.^[5]

Pope's final posting in the MoD was to the Directorate of Defence Security. In 2009, MoD announced that UFO sightings would no longer be investigated.^[6][7][8]

Media work

In November 2006, Mr. Pope stated that the government's "X-Files have been closed down".^[9] He continues his research and investigation in a private capacity and now works as a freelance journalist and media commentator, covering subjects that include the unexplained, conspiracy theories, space, science fiction and fringe science.^[10]

He does work for a number of film companies and PR agencies, promoting the release of science fiction films.^[11]

On 24 June 2013, he appeared on IGN's comedy show Up at Noon promoting the game The Bureau: XCOM Declassified.^[12]

In 2015, he appeared in multiple episodes of UFOs Declassified, airing on Canada's History Television, the UK's Yesterday, and Smithsonian Channel in the US.^[13] Since 2019, he has often appeared on the New York Post UFO YouTube series The Basement Office alongside journalist Steven Greenstreet.^[14]

Books

Open Skies, Closed Minds is Pope's autobiographical account of his interest in ufology. It provides an overview of the UFO phenomenon, with the emphasis on Pope's three-year tour of duty at the Ministry of Defence where his responsibilities included investigating UFO sightings and any impact they might have on UK national defense.^[15] Pope also discusses the politics surrounding the way in which those within government and the military view UFO-phenomena. In 1997, he released a second book on similar themes entitled The Uninvited. His book Encounter in Rendlesham Forest: The Inside Story of the World's Best-Documented UFO Incident, written with John Burroughs, USAF, Ret., and Jim Penniston, USAF, Ret., was published by Thomas Dunne Books in April 2014.

Pope has also written two science fiction novels, Operation Thunder Child and its sequel Operation Lightning Strike.^[16] In 2018, Pope published the political thriller Blood Brothers.^[17]

Journalism

Pope also writes for online alternative news site Neon Nettle^[18] in which he talks about current topics and news as well as UFO based material on the site fortnightly column.

References

{ https://www.youtube.com/ }

New Planet Where A Year Only Lasts Five Days On Earth Discovered By Scientists

Scientists have discovered a new planet in our closest neighboring planetary system where a year only lasts five Earth days.

I'm sure there are lot of people on Earth who would have loved certain years to have only actually lasted five days — your most awkward teenage years, perhaps, or the disaster that was 2020 — but while we're stuck with our regular 365, a new alien world named Proxima d is rapidly knocking the years out.

Proxima d is the third planet to have been discovered in the neighboring system and is currently one of the lightest exoplanets ever discovered, with a mass that of just a quarter of the Earth.

It is located just four light-years away and orbits around Proxima Centauri, the closest star to our own Sun, which also hosts exoplanets Proxima b and Proxima c.

While Proxima b has a temperature suitable for liquid water and a rocky surface, potentially making it habitable, Proxima d orbits between Proxima Centauri and the habitable area, making it too close to have liquid water and close enough to its star that a year on the planet equates to only five days on Earth.

João Faria, a researcher at the Instituto de Astrofísica e Ciências do Espaço, Portugal, has suggested Proxima d may not be the last planet discovered by scientists in the neighboring system.

Per The Independent, he commented, 'The discovery shows that our closest stellar neighbor seems to be packed with interesting new worlds, within reach of further study and future exploration.'

Researchers were able to determine the size of Proxima d using the 'radial velocity technique', which monitors tiny movements in stars caused by the gravity of the planets. The newly-discovered world is the smallest to have been measured using this technique, with scientists using the ESPRESSO instrument on the Very Large Telescope to watch how the planet only moved the star about 40 centimeters per hour.

Commenting on the information learned about Proxima d, Pedro Figueira, ESPRESSO instrument scientist at ESO in Chile said, 'This achievement is extremely important. It shows that the radial velocity technique has the potential to unveil a population of light planets, like our own, that are expected to be the most abundant in our galaxy and that can potentially host life as we know it.'

The first planet in the neighboring system, Proxima b, was discovered in 2016.

{ https://www.thespaceacademy.org/ }

“They waved back!” Father William B. Gill on witnessing a UFO with beings in Papua New Guinea, 1959

June 26 & 27, 1959. Boiani, Papua New Guinea.

{ https://www.youtube.com/ }

British UFO Expert Claims Aliens Are Advanced Form Of Humans, Hiding Under Ocean

 Vicky Verma

NASA is planning to send an army of mini swimming robots to find the aliens in the oceans of other planets. Such a plan could be used to detect signs of alien life beneath the miles-thick icy shell of Jupiter’s moon Europa or Saturn’s moon Enceladus. But what about our home planet? Does NASA have any plan to explore our oceans? Have they already found everything about the only Blue planet in the Solar system? Or is something stopping them to do it? Interestingly, UFO expert Anna Whitty came forward with a strange theory that says “Aliens have been living under Earth’s ocean for protection and have always been here on the planet.”

Anna Whitty, an author of the book “UFO: A Fundamental Truth,” made the claim on the official statement of Dr. Shirley Wright, who interviewed aliens found at the Roswell crash site in 1947. Whitty stated that aliens are actually just humans – but an advanced form.

In a recently aired two-hour documentary on the UFO crash called “Roswell 75: The Final Evidence,” Anna Whitty was featured alongside expert Philip Mantle, director and producer Spyros Melaris, and Dr. David Hall.

The documentary also featured an interview where Dr. Shirley Wright, a former colleague of Albert Einstein stated that the aliens inquired about human exploration inside the ocean, they asked: “how far into the ocean” the humans traveled.

Whitty did an interviewer with the Daily Star, elaborating more on her claim, she said that if whatever Wright had documented through her interview is correct, then it is more believable for the aliens to come from under the sea rather than from another planet.

Read also:

• Ret. US Army Major Showed Deleted UFO Photos Captured By Apollo Astronauts On Moon
• Ret. US Army SGT: US Govt. Has Over 50 Species Of Aliens Cataloged, Wanted To Testify Before Congress
• Ex-NASA Employee Saw Hi-res UFO/Alien Craft Photos, Ready To Testify Before Congress
• FBI Chilling UFO Reports: Recovered 3 UFOs With Alien Bodies In New Mexico & 27,000 Mph Craft

“If what Shirley said is right, it is more likely that aliens come from somewhere under the sea or caves or something like that, rather than another planet, it makes sense because there’s a lot of evidence on the planet that there has been a massive cataclysm every few thousand years,” Whitty said.

“If humans on the surface are being reset to the Stone Age every several thousands of years, and these people are somewhere where they are more protected because they are underground, then perhaps their development in technology and intelligence is continuing on an upwards trajectory whereas we’re reset. It’s also possible that maybe they aren’t beings at all, but they can make you think you’re seeing what you’re not seeing,” she added.

The documentary dives deep into the incident, examining the eyewitness accounts, the involvement of the space propaganda by the major powers, as well as several secret projects that were assumed to be covered up with the help of this incident.

Whitty’s theory of aliens being “underwater entities” could have some meaning as after all, there are videos of UFOs diving into the water. Below is the footage filmed in the CIC (Combat Information Center) of the USS Omaha on July 15, 2019, in a warning area off San Diego. This footage depicts a UAP event series that reached the culmination with one of the unknown targets entering the water. No wreckage was found, and none of the unknown craft was recovered.

Retired US Air Force Lt. Col. Richard French had erved in the US army for more than 27 years. He was an alleged lead investigator of the Project Blue Book in the 1950s, his job was to shoot down false reports of UFOs. In Newfoundland, Canadian Province, he saw two aliens repairing their ship submerged underwater.

French testified about his work on UFOs in 1952, in front of 6 former members of Congress at the Citizen Hearing in 2013. He recalled seeing two alien crafts below the water surface, 6 meters from the shoreline. He also saw two extraterrestrials near the ships. He remembered the water was clear, so he could see those beings doing something at the bottom of the craft.

“The water was fairly clear and I could see without any trouble. They weren’t down at the bottom of the [seabed] — they were about halfway down,” French said. He believed the aliens were repairing the ships and tested them before leaving. Whatever happened in Newfoundland is the classic UFO story ever given by the army official. Even though he was chosen to debunk UFO stories, he undoubtedly said that it was a UFO and there were extraterrestrials.

The idea that the ocean is inhabited by extraterrestrials can be backed by these incidents.

An incredible account of spotting underwater UFOs, or Underwater Submerged Objects (USOs), was shared by former Gunner’s Mate John Baughman, who served in the U.S. Navy from 2008 to 2013. He was stationed on the United States Navy’s third Nimitz-class supercarrier “The USS Carl Vinson” in 2010 when he first saw Tic Tac UFO underwater.

He said: “I was staring into the water from above when a large, flat, white ’Tic Tac’ object, approximately twenty feet in length, suddenly appeared in my view below me, moving right and darted into the depths as fast as it appeared. I couldn’t really comprehend what I saw. It was definitely a solid object, but when it descended, its forward end rapidly collapsed in on itself and disappeared.”

Another USO encounter occurred with the crew of the Soviet Submarine in the south of the Pacific ocean. At the depth of 260 meters, the six disc-like objects were moving toward the submarine at the speed of 426 km per hour. The crew could not escape their pursuit, and the commander ordered the crew to rise to the surface. The crew saw through the periscope that the objects came out of the water and took off at an absurdly fast speed.

There are classic alien abduction cases where the witnesses recalled being taken to secret underwater bases. The abduction of Betty Andreasson Luca is considered to be one of the most documented cases in the history of Ufology. The woman from Massachusetts experienced multiple abductions, and her case is widely studied by UFO researchers. (Click here to read the story of Betty Luca)

During one of her hypnotic regression sessions, Betty remembered one of the early abductions that occurred to her in her childhood. It took place in 1950, when she was taken from her home into a spacecraft as usual. But this time, the craft was flying toward an ocean or sea. She was terrified that the craft would crash into the water. But the ship submerged into the water and entered into a kind of tunnel. Betty could see everything underwater, as the place was filled with light.

Next is “Filiberto Cardenas Encounter,” where he claimed to have been taken to a secret underwater hangar, and interestingly, his abduction was witnessed by his friend’s family.

He remembered being taken to some unknown beach where he saw deep blue water. He said one of the aliens got out of the object and opened a secret tunnel, from where a similar craft came and flew away. The craft which he was in also went into the tunnel with great speed underwater. Soon, he was at the secret “large hangar” under the sea.

RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011

{ https://www.howandwhys.com/ }

Max Laughlin and his controversial theory: CERN sent us to a parallel universe?

Zack White

Max Laughlin has amazed the world for a few years now with his incredible intellect.

Max Laughlin is considered the smartest young man in the world.

The young man has made several statements that compromise the scientific community, but the most shocking is related to CERN and how it could have destroyed our universe.

Regarded as a genius child and listed as the “most intelligent young man in the world”, Max Laughlin surprised the world with his great intellectual abilities .

With only 13 years old he could develop from scratch its own device for energy access. A system that is capable of providing all the necessary energy without the need for oil, coal or solar energy.

Max Laughlin’s theory

Many people compare him to Nikola Tesla , calling him, even considering him his reincarnation. Obviously, this is nothing more than a parallel to the genius who may once have changed the world.

However, when you hear one of the most controversial theories given by this little genius, doubts assail us …

This little intellectual eminence has suggested that the European Organization for Nuclear Research, better known as CERN , has destroyed our Universe and we currently live in a parallel Universe.

Recall that it is not the first time that CERN, that giant tunnel based in Switzerland, was used by scientists to break up subatomic particles in an attempt to recreate the Big Bang .

Is it possible that CERN has destroyed our Universe?

As a result of all these experiments, it is possible that our reality , the Universe itself, has been destroyed. As a result of this, all of us are currently in a parallel Universe.

Hostility towards the genius boy?

This is not the first theory that Máx Laughlin surprises locals and strangers and that, in addition, has generated discomfort in the scientific community.

In the video you can see how the boy explains in detail to much older people, and using only a napkin, everything related to the infinite confined space and the alternative and parallel universes.

Although it may sound crazy, even coming from a young prodigy, the data-filled explanation shows us a hypothesis that, after all, may be very likely .

In fact, it is based on the principle that physicist Thomas Kuhn describes in his book “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.”

It is for this reason that Max has begun to generate great hostility and resistance within the scientific community.

Could this be the reason why so many “mistakes” happen in our world? The so-called “glitches in the Matrix”, which have been appearing on more than one occasion, such as the famous “Mandela Effect.” It is difficult to get a coherent explanation for all these events, in the same way that it is difficult to believe Max Laughlin’s theory.

{ https://mysteriousociety.com/ }

Earth is spinning FASTER now than it was 50 years ago - and if it continues speeding up scientists may have to deduct a second from the atomic clock

• The Earth rotates on its axis more than 365 times in a single orbit of the Sun

• This is significantly less than the 420 times it rotated millions of years ago

• Even in 100 years the rotation has slowed further, with a day milliseconds shorter

• This has required leap seconds to be added to atomic clocks every few years

• No new leap seconds have been added since 2016 and there are signs the rotation of the Earth has begun to speed up again, requiring a second removed 

By RYAN MORRISON FOR MAILONLINE 

Earth is spinning faster than it was half a century ago, and if it continues speeding up scientists say they may have to remove a second from the atomic clock. 

The speed our planet rotates on its axis has varied throughout history.

In fact, Earth rotated 420 times per year millions of years ago, but now does so 365 times.

However, sometimes the speed of rotation varies slightly, affecting the global timekeeper - the atomic clock - requiring leap seconds to be added when the world runs slightly faster. 

Now, UK National Physical Laboratory scientist, Peter Whibberley, has warned that if the rotation rate increases further, a negative leap second may be needed.  

Earth is spinning faster than it was half a century ago, and if it continues speeding up scientists say they may have to remove a second from the atomic clock

THE EARTH ROTATES ON ITS AXIS OVER 365 TIMES EACH TIME IT ORBITS THE SUN

Each day on Earth contains 86,400 seconds, but the rotation isn't uniform, which means over the course of a year, each day has a fraction of a second more or less. 

This is caused by the movement of the Earth's core, its oceans and atmosphere, as well as the pull of the Moon.

The atomic clock is extremely precise, and measures time by the movement of electrons in atoms that have been cooled to absolute zero.

So, to keep the atomic clock in line with the number of seconds in the rotation of the Earth, leap seconds have been added every 18 months or so since 1972.

There has never been a negative leap second - the removal of a second from the atomic clock - and a system designed to make that work have never been tested. 

The idea came up last year, when the rotation began to speed up, but this has since slowed down again, with the average day in 2021 0.39 milliseconds less than 2020.

'As time goes on, there is a gradual divergence between the time of atomic clocks and the time measured by astronomy,' Judah Levine from the National Institute of Standards and Technology told Discover Magazine.

'In order to keep that divergence from getting too big, in 1972, the decision was made to periodically add leap seconds to atomic clocks.'

The International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service is responsible for tracking how quickly the Earth spins, and does so by sending laser beams to satellites and using that to measure their movement. 

When this is out of line with atomic clocks, scientists coordinate to stop their clocks for one second to bring them back into line.   

'The rotation rate of Earth is a complicated business. It has to do with exchange of angular momentum between Earth and the atmosphere and the effects of the ocean and the effect of the moon,' Levine explained. 

'You're not able to predict what's going to happen very far in the future.'

Each day on Earth contains 86,400 seconds, but the rotation isn't uniform, which means over the course of a year, each day has a fraction of a second more or less

There hasn't been a leap second added to the atomic clock since 2016, and while the Earth has been speeding up again, this began to slow again in 2021. 

'This lack of the need for leap seconds was not predicted,' Levine said.

He added that it was assumed Earth would continue to slow down, 'so this effect,' he said 'is very surprising.' 

How long the speed and slowing trend continues might require scientists to take further action, but it is yet unclear what that might be. 

'There is this concern at the moment that if Earth's rotation rate increases further that we might need to have what's called a negative leap second,' Whibberley told Discover Magazine. 

'In other words, instead of inserting an extra second to allow Earth to catch up, we have to take out a second from the atomic timescale to bring it back into state with Earth.' 

While they know how they could make it work, the scientists aren't clear whether their systems would work in reality, or what impact they'd have.

The internet relies on the steady flow of time, measured through atomic clocks, and different web firms use different processes to whether leap seconds.

For example, Google uses a system that spreads the extra time out throughout the year, to every other second in a year.

'The primary backbone of the internet is that time is continuous,' Levine explained.

He added that when there is no steady time, the continuous feed of information falls apart. 

Levine says leap seconds - added or removed - may not be worth the hassle, as in total they'd only add up to about a minute over 100 years. 

WHAT IS THE ATOMIC CLOCK? 

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

The Earth Just Started Spinning Faster Than Ever

Planet Earth has recorded its shortest day since scientists began using atomic clocks to measure the speed of its rotation. 

Earth’s time systems can prove fairly baffling for anyone who doesn’t have a PhD in Horology, as we learnt the hard way trying to figure out why the clocks were going forward as a child – only understanding that we were being dragged out of bed for school an hour earlier than the week before. 

But the plot thickens further still, as Earth is actually spinning faster than it used to and recently recorded a time that was the fastest scientists had ever seen. 

On 29 June 2022, Earth completed one spin in 1.59 milliseconds less than its usual 24-hour rotation, in turn setting the record for the shortest day – and the latest in a series of speed records for our planet since 2020. 

It's possible that melting of glaciers put less weight on rock at the poles, which therefore rebound upwards and makes the planet rounder. The effect of that could make it spin more quickly and could even slightly change its tilt.

And it came pretty close again more recently, having completed the spin in 1.5 milliseconds shorter than 24 hours. 

How fast is Earth rotating?

However, in the last few years the atomic clocks have shown that Earth rotation is now speeding up. In fact, we could be beginning a 50 year period of shorter days.

In 2020 scientists recorded the 28 shortest days since 1960. Last year that trend did not continue, with the shortest day in 2021 being longer than in the previous year.

However, on June 29, 2022 our planet completed its quickest-ever spin, followed quickly by a day that lasted 1.50 milliseconds less on July 26, 2022.

The previous record for the shortest rotation was July 19, 2020, when the Earth’s rotation took 1.4602 milliseconds less than 24 hours.

As reported by Time and Date, the current downward trend in the length of the shortest day could be linked to Earth’s ‘inner or outer layers, oceans, tides, or even climate’, but scientists remain unsure. 

At the forthcoming annual meeting of the Asia Oceania Geosciences Society, which takes place next week, Leonid Zotov and colleagues Christian Bizouard and Nikolay Sidorenkov will argue that the decrease may be related to the ‘Chandler wobble’, the term given to a small and irregular movement of the geographical poles across the surface of the globe. 

Reference(s): 

• Time and Date

RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011

{ https://www.thespaceacademy.org/ }

DALL-E AI, developed by OpenAI, is a new system that can produce full images when fed natural language descriptions and TikToker Robot Overlords simply asked it to 'show the last selfie ever taken.' 

It produced chilling scenes of bombs dropping and catastrophic weather, along with cities burning and even zombies. Each image shows a person holding a phone in front of their face and behind them is the world coming to an end, reports Dailymail.

Asking an AI to show the last selfie ever taken 

Here are a few more eerie images.

Asking an AI to show the last selfie ever taken in the apocalypse 

Asking AI how it will take over the world 

Asking an AI how the End of the universe will look like 

Credit images: Robot Overlords.

• Watch Robot Overlords video and learn more about DALL-E-AI here. 

• See more weird videos of Robot Overlords at his TikTok page here.

RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011

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

{ https://www.hln.be/ }

Baffled scientists discover 'perfectly aligned' holes punched into the ground 1.7 miles below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean that look like human-made excavations

• Explorers with the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration found some unexplained holes on seabed 1.7 miles below the Atlantic Ocean's surface 
• 'These holes have been previously reported from the region, but their origin remains a mystery' scientists said in a Facebook post asking users for help
• Users said the holes could be from a mechanical rover, a crab, aliens or simply a natural result of sediment and water moving through the seabed
• The Mid-Atlantic Range spans the north-south length of the Atlantic Ocean and stretches for 10,000 miles, making it the longest mountain range in the world

By CHRISTOPHER CARBONE U.S. SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY EDITOR FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

Scientists discovered some unexplained, mysterious holes in the seabed 1.7 miles below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean - and asked Facebook users to help them identify the unique indentations that form a straight line.

'Okay Facebookers, time to get out those scientist hats!' they wrote on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Ocean Exploration Facebook page. 

'On Saturday's #Okeanos dive, we observed several of these sublinear sets of holes in the sediment. These holes have been previously reported from the region, but their origin remains a mystery. While they look almost human made, the little piles of sediment around the holes make them seem like they were excavated by...something.' 

Scroll down for video 

'On Saturday's #Okeanos dive, we observed several of these sublinear sets of holes in the sediment. These holes have been previously reported from the region, but their origin remains a mystery,' NOAA scientists wrote on Facebook

The explorers are part of NOAA's Voyage to the Ridge 2022, a series of three ocean explorations that include mapping and a remotely-operated vehicle to gain a better understanding of deepwater areas around the Mid-Atlantic Ridge

'What's YOUR hypothesis?' they asked users, regarding the holes found near the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, prompting a very wide range of responses

The explorers are part of NOAA's Voyage to the Ridge 2022, a series of three ocean explorations that include mapping and a remotely-operated vehicle to gain a better understanding of deepwater areas around the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, Azores Plateau and Charlie-Gibbs Fracture Zone.

'What's YOUR hypothesis?' they asked users, regarding the holes found near the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.

Over 60 Facebook users commented and provided a range of different theories for what could have made the prominent, rather uniform-looking indentations in the ocean's floor.

'I wonder if some company may be conducting sea floor samples,' one user wrote. 'That might explain the straight lines and the spacing of the holes. Especially if you have seen others in the region. Only thing is, everything else around it doesn't seem like it's been disturbed.' 

'I wonder if some company may be conducting sea floor samples,' one Facebook user wrote. 'That might explain the straight lines and the spacing of the holes.' Pictured above isa fogbow over the fantail of NOAA's Okeanos Explorer ship

Pictured above: Remotely operated vehicle Deep Discoverer traverses over the seafloor of the volcano explored during the fourth dive of the Voyage to the Ridge 2022 expedition

'Upwelling! Freshwater from a land source bubbling up? As if there's a rock under there allowing the flowing water to break through in that linear manner.' a second user commented.

Another used suggested, 'Some type of crab maybe' 

A user shared a meme saying: I'm not saying it was the aliens...but it was the aliens'

One commenter offered a less supernatural explanation: 'This to me looks like the sediment is falling through, or water flowing up from a crack in a geological shelf or cave roof. 

'I suspect either ancient coral or some sedimentary rock structure underneath has a void for which material is being washed out further away. I would start to see if there was any caves or deformation in the seabed.' 

The Mid-Atlantic Range spans the north-south length of the Atlantic Ocean and stretches for 10,000 miles, making it the longest mountain range in the world and one of Earth's most impressive geological features. 

Since most of it sits underwater, it remains largely unexplored. 

It's also the site of frequent earthquakes and home to eye-catching hydrothermal vents that can form where magma provides heat as it rises to the seafloor. 

The Mid-Atlantic Range spans the north-south length of the Atlantic Ocean and stretches for 10,000 miles, making it the longest mountain range in the world and one of Earth's most impressive geological features. Pictured above is NOAA's Okeanos Explorer ship 

Pictured above is the anticipated track of Okeanos Explorer during the second Voyage to the Ridge 2022 expedition. This series of expeditions will provide high-resolution information about seafloor features and an opportunity to engage in exploration of this largely unknown area in real time

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

Weird Holes on Ocean Floor Found During Deep Sea Voyage, Social Media Cries 'Aliens'

Stunning NASA image reveals mysterious ice mountain on the dwarf planet Ceres that scientists say is like 'nothing humanity has ever seen before'

• Mountain, Ahuna Mons, is ‘the largest mountain on the largest known asteroid in our solar system,’ NASA says

• Experts suspect it may be evidence of mud bubble from deep inside planet that froze after breaching surface

• The image shared this week on NASA's Astronomy Pictured of the Day was made using detailed surface maps

By CHEYENNE MACDONALD FOR DAILYMAIL.COM 

A stunning new image constructed from surface maps has revealed a close-up look at the otherworldly features on the surface of Ceres.

NASA’s now-retired Dawn spacecraft reached the dwarf planet in 2015, making it the first to visit an object of this kind.

And, it uncovered many peculiarities.

The strange looking mountain in the latest image featured on NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day highlights one such oddity; while it’s unclear what exactly spurred its formation, experts suspect it may be evidence of a mud bubble from deep inside the planet that froze over after breaching the surface.

Scroll down for video 

A stunning new image constructed from surface maps has revealed a close-up look at the otherworldly features on the surface of Ceres. According to the space agency, the unusual mountain is ‘like nothing that humanity has ever seen before.’ The image was created using detailed surface maps

Ceres has garnered much intrigue after the Dawn mission snapped images of mysterious bright spots on its surface. But, detailed observations from the spacecraft revealed these aren’t its only treasures.

The image shared this week was created using surface maps taken during 2016.

The mountain, called Ahuna Mons, is ‘the largest mountain on the largest known asteroid in our solar system,’ NASA says.

Ceres sits in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

According to the space agency, the unusual mountain is ‘like nothing that humanity has ever seen before.’

‘The new hypothesis, based on numerous gravity measurements, holds that a bubble of mud rose from deep within the dwarf planet and pushed through the icy surface at a weak point rich in reflective salt -- and then froze,’ NASA says.

‘The bright streaks are thought to be similar to other recently surfaced material such as visible in Ceres' famous bright spots.’

Ceres has garnered much intrigue after the Dawn mission snapped images of mysterious bright spots on its surface, as seen in the image above

Since its discovery, scientists have speculated on the possibility that Ceres may be able to support life.

An analysis published in 2018 based on data from the Dawn spacecraft suggests previously-identified patches of organic material on the surface may contain much higher abundance of carbon-based compounds than initially estimated.

NASA’s now-retired Dawn spacecraft reached the dwarf planet in 2015, making it the first to visit an object of this kind

While it doesn’t mean life exists on the dwarf planet, the discovery adds new clues to the question of Ceres’ potential habitability.

Scientists first announced the discovery of organic material – a necessary component for the existence of life – in 2017.

Organics can be produced through non-biological processes as well. Just how they arrived on Ceres, however, remains a mystery.

As the planet is also known to contain an abundance of water ice, scientists say the possibility of more widespread organic material is worth investigating.

According to the researchers, there are two likely explanations for Ceres’ organic material: production on the planet itself and later exposed to the surface, or import from an impact by a comet.

RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

DEZE MYSTERIEUZE BERG OP DWERGPLANEET CERES IS HOGER DAN DE MONT BLANC

Tim Kraaijvanger

Ook dwergplaneten hebben hoge bergen. In 2015 arriveerde de Dawn-ruimtesonde bij dwergplaneet Ceres en fotografeerde daar deze reus: Ahuna Mons.

Het zonnestelsel telt naast acht planeten ook nog vijf dwergplaneten. Dit zijn Pluto, Eris, Makemake, Haumea en Ceres. Ceres is de enige dwergplaneet in de planetoïdengordel tussen Mars en Jupiter. De andere dwergplaneten bevinden zich in de Kuipergordel achter de baan van Neptunus.

De meeste planetoïden in de hoofdgordel hebben een onregelmatige vorm. Ceres is met een diameter van 950 kilometer best groot en heeft daardoor een bolle vorm, net zoals alle planeten en veel manen. Tot 2015 was er nog weinig bekend over de dwergplaneet, maar dankzij de Dawn-missie zijn wetenschappers veel meer te weten gekomen over dit bijzondere hemellichaam.

Zo heeft Ceres een berg. Dat is best bijzonder, want verder is Ceres zo goed als vlak. In eerste instantie was onduidelijk hoe de vier kilometer hoge berg was ontstaan. “Niemand verwachtte een berg op Ceres en zeker geen berg zoals Ahuna Mons,” vertelt onderzoeker Chris Russell. Later kwamen wetenschappers erachter dat de berg door cryovulkanisme is ontstaan.

Als je de onderstaande foto ziet van Ahuna Mons lijkt het net alsof iemand een gat heeft gegraven op Ceres en de hoop ernaast niet heeft opgeruimd.

Een bewerkte foto van Ahuna Mons op Ceres.

Heldere vlekken op Ceres
Ruimtesonde Dawn heeft nog meer bijzondere structuren gespot. Zo trof het ruimtevaartuig mysterieuze heldere vlekken aan op het oppervlak van de dwergplaneet. “We kunnen concluderen dat de intense helderheid van deze vlekken te wijten is aan de reflectie van zonlicht door zeer reflecterend materiaal op het oppervlak, mogelijk ijs,” vertelt onderzoeker Christopher Russell. De witte vlekken zijn rijk aan natriumcarbonaat. Dit natriumcarbonaat komt uit de zoute ondergrondse waterreservoirs van Ceres. Daarmee lijkt Ceres een beetje op sommige manen van Jupiter en Saturnus, die ook waterrijke werelden zijn.

In 2018 viel het doek voor Dawn. Het ruimtevaartuig was na een reis van elf jaar door zijn brandstof heen. De sonde cirkelt momenteel ‘levensloos’ rond de dwergplaneet en zal de komende decennia niet neerstorten op Ceres. Zo blijft het oppervlak onaangetast.

Hoewel Dawn zelf met pensioen is, laat de ruimtesonde een berg aan gegevens achter waar onderzoekers de komende tijd nog wel even zoet mee zijn. “De datasets van Dawn zullen nauwkeurig doorgespit worden om te onderzoeken waar en wanneer leven in ons zonnestelsel zich zou kunnen hebben gevormd,” zegt onderzoeksleider Carol Raymond.

De laatste blik van Dawn op dwergplaneet Ceres voordat het doek voor de ruimtesonde viel.

Afbeelding: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA

• De afgelopen decennia hebben ruimtetelescopen en satellieten prachtige foto’s gemaakt van nevels, sterrenstelsels, stellaire kraamkamers en planeten. Ieder weekend halen we één of meerdere indrukwekkende ruimtefoto uit het archief. Genieten van alle foto’s? Bekijk ze op deze pagina.

Bronmateriaal:

• Archief Scientias.nl

{ https://www.scientias.nl/ }

NASA Will Inspire World When It Returns Mars Samples to Earth in 2033

This illustration shows a concept for multiple robots that would team up to ferry to Earth samples collected from the Mars surface by NASA's Mars Perseverance rover.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA has finished the system requirements review for its Mars Sample Return Program, which is nearing completion of the conceptual design phase. During this phase, the program team evaluated and refined the architecture to return the scientifically selected samples, which are currently in the collection process by NASA’s Perseverance rover in the Red Planet’s Jezero Crater.

The architecture for the campaign, which includes contributions from the European Space Agency (ESA), is expected to reduce the complexity of future missions and increase probability of success.

“The conceptual design phase is when every facet of a mission plan gets put under a microscope,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for science at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “There are some significant and advantageous changes to the plan, which can be directly attributed to Perseverance’s recent successes at Jezero and the amazing performance of our Mars helicopter.”

This advanced mission architecture takes into consideration a recently updated analysis of Perseverance’s expected longevity. Perseverance will be the primary means of transporting samples to NASA’s Sample Retrieval Lander carrying the Mars Ascent Vehicle and ESA’s Sample Transfer Arm.

As such, the Mars Sample Return campaign will no longer include the Sample Fetch Rover or its associated second lander. The Sample Retrieval Lander will include two sample recovery helicopters, based on the design of the Ingenuity helicopter, which has performed 29 flights at Mars and survived over a year beyond its original planned lifetime. The helicopters will provide a secondary capability to retrieve samples cached on the surface of Mars.

The ESA Earth Return Orbiter and its NASA-provided Capture, Containment, and Return System remain vital elements of the program architecture.

With planned launch dates for the Earth Return Orbiter and Sample Retrieval Lander in fall 2027 and summer 2028, respectively, the samples are expected to arrive on Earth in 2033.

With its architecture solidified during this conceptual design phase, the program is expected to move into its preliminary design phase this October. In this phase, expected to last about 12 months, the program will complete technology development and create engineering prototypes of the major mission components.

This refined concept for the Mars Sample Return campaign was presented to the delegates from the 22 participating states of Europe’s space exploration program, Terrae Novae, in May. At their next meeting in September, the states will consider the discontinuation of the development of the Sample Fetch Rover.

“ESA is continuing at full speed the development of both the Earth Return Orbiter that will make the historic round-trip from Earth to Mars and back again; and the Sample Transfer Arm that will robotically place the sample tubes aboard the Orbiting Sample Container before its launch from the surface of the Red Planet,” said David Parker, ESA director of Human and Robotic Exploration.

The respective contributions to the campaign are contingent upon available funding from the U.S. and ESA participating states. More formalized agreements between the two agencies will be established in the next year.

 “Working together on historic endeavors like Mars Sample Return not only provides invaluable data about our place in the universe but brings us closer together right here on Earth,” said Zurbuchen.

The first step in the Mars Sample Return Campaign is already in progress. Since it landed at Jezero Crater Feb. 18, 2021, the Perseverance rover has collected 11 scientifically-compelling rock core samples and one atmospheric sample.

Bringing Mars samples to Earth would allow scientists across the world to examine the specimens using sophisticated instruments too large and too complex to send to Mars and would enable future generations to study them. Curating the samples on Earth would also allow the science community to test new theories and models as they are developed, much as the Apollo samples returned from the Moon have done for decades. This strategic NASA and ESA partnership will fulfill a solar system exploration goal, a high priority since the 1970s and in the last three National Academy of Sciences Planetary Science Decadal Surveys.

Learn more about the Mars Sample Return Program:

• https://mars.nasa.gov/msr/

-end-

{ https://www.nasa.gov/ }

Meet NASA’s Orion Spacecraft

On NASA’s Artemis missions, a unique spacecraft will take flight. Orion, NASA’s newest spacecraft built for humans, is developed to be capable of sending astronauts to the Moon and is a key part of eventually sending them on to Mars.

An uncrewed Orion will be tested on Artemis I and travel 40,000 miles past the Moon, farther than any spacecraft built for humans has gone before. This mission will prepare  for a crewed Artemis II mission and subsequent missions that will deliver astronauts to the surface of the Moon and to the lunar Gateway.

Orion’s crew and service module will carry astronauts to deep space. The launch abort system, positioned at the top of the spacecraft, is only used to pull the crew module and the astronauts inside it safely away from the rocket in the event of an emergency, and will be jettisoned after a successful launch and ascent atop the Space Launch System rocket.

Crew Module

Orion’s crew module, sometimes referred to as the capsule, capitalizes on more than 60 years of NASA space exploration experience. Built by main contractor Lockheed Martin, it can provide living space on missions for four astronauts for up to 21 days without docking to another spacecraft. Advances in technology for deep space travel such as life support, avionics, power systems, and state-of-the-art thermal protection will support the crew during launch, landing, and recovery.

Pressure vessel

The underlying structure of the crew module is called the pressure vessel. The pressure vessel consists of seven large aluminum alloy pieces that are joined together using friction-stir welding at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. The process produces a strong, yet lightweight, airtight capsule.

Backshell

Covering the pressure vessel is the protective cover on the cone-shaped sides of the crew module known as the backshell, made up of 1,300 thermal protection system tiles. The tiles are made of a silica fiber material similar to those used for more than 30 years on the space shuttle, and will protect the spacecraft from both the cold of space and the extreme heat of re-entry.

Heat shield

The bottom of the capsule, which will experience the hottest temperatures as Orion returns to Earth, is covered by the world’s largest ablative heat shield, measuring 16.5 feet in diameter. The heat shield will protect Orion as it enters Earth’s atmosphere initially travelling about 25,000 mph and endure temperatures of nearly 5,000°F — about half as hot as the Sun.

The outer surface of the heat shield is made of blocks of a material called Avcoat, a reformulated version of the material used on the Apollo capsules. During descent, the Avcoat ablates, or burns off in a controlled fashion, transporting heat away from Orion.

Forward Bay Cover

The forward bay cover at the top of the crew module protects the top portion of the capsule and Orion’s parachutes during launch, orbital flight, and re-entry. It is covered with the same thermal protection tiles as the backshell. After the spacecraft re-enters Earth’s atmosphere, it is jettisoned at an altitude of approximately 23,000 feet to allow for deployment of the parachute system.

Reaction Control System Thrusters

The crew module has a propulsion system composed of 12 small engines called reaction control system thrusters. When the crew module separates from the service module for re-entry, the 12 thrusters are used to guide the crew module, ensure that it’s properly oriented with the heat shield facing downward, and keep the spacecraft stable during its descent.

Interior

Inside Orion, an aluminum structure of crisscrossing beams called the backbone assembly provides the floor structure where the crew seats will be attached and is where the crew stowage lockers will be located. Most of the equipment the crew will need to live in space on future missions will be stored here.

The four seats in the crew module are designed to accommodate nearly 99% of the human population. The seats are adjustable to ensure that astronauts can reach all the controls while in their pressure suits.

Crew Accommodations

A number of accommodations will help astronauts feel at home. Tanks and a dispenser provide drinking water and a simple way to rehydrate and warm food. Orion’s hygiene bay will have a new compact toilet, with a design that makes use in space easier for both men and women. A built-in exercise device provides both aerobic and strength training for astronauts. In case of a radiation event, such as a solar flare, crew members will shelter themselves in two large stowage lockers on the floor of the capsule, using the dense materials on board as shielding.

Displays and Controls

Astronauts will operate Orion using a sophisticated display and control system that uses advanced software to aid the crew. The crew will be able to command the spacecraft using just three display screens, about 60 physical switches, two rotational hand controllers, two translational hand controllers, and two cursor control devices. Electronic procedures are also programmed into the system to aid the crew in daily and emergency processes, saving the crew time and space and making large paper manuals of system operations obsolete.

Environmental Control and Life Support Systems

Environmental control and life support systems will make the crew module a habitable place for astronauts. A new regenerable system removes carbon dioxide and humidity and keeps the cabin air clean. The system also maintains the spacecraft’s temperature and pressure and detects if the internal environment becomes unsafe. Orion’s Crew Survival System spacesuits interface with life support to keep astronauts alive for up to six days to allow them to return home in the event of cabin depressurization.

Parachutes

The crew module houses Orion’s parachute system. The parachutes ensure a safe landing for astronauts returning to Earth at high speeds in the spacecraft. Earth’s atmosphere acting as a brake on Orion will initially slow the spacecraft down from about 25,000 mph to 325 mph. Then, the system of 11 parachutes must deploy in precise sequence to slow Orion to a relatively gentle 20 mph for splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.

Components of the Orion spacecraft.

European Service Module

Below the crew module is Orion’s European Service Module, provided by ESA (European Space Agency) and built by lead contrac­tor Airbus. The service module is the spacecraft’s powerhouse: supplying it with electricity, propulsion, thermal control, air, and water.

Propulsion

Orion’s service module provides propulsion capabilities that enable Orion to go around the Moon and back on its missions. The service module has 33 engines of various sizes. The main engine will provide major maneuvering capabilities while in space, including inserting Orion into distant retrograde orbit and leaving the orbit to return to Earth. The 24 reaction control thrusters are used to steer and control Orion while in orbit. Eight auxiliary engines are also used for translational maneuvers, essentially acting as a backup to the main engine. The propulsion system also has the ability to bring the crew home in a variety of emergency situations, including abort scenarios after the launch abort system has already been jettisoned.

Power

The service module’s electrical power system provides power for the entire Orion spacecraft. The system manages the power generated by the module’s four solar array wings, which provide enough electricity to power two three-bedroom homes. A total of 15,000 solar cells on the four arrays are used to convert light into electricity, and the arrays can turn to remain aligned with the Sun for maximum power.

Thermal Control

The thermal control system includes radiators and heat exchangers to keep the astronauts and equipment at a comfortable temperature. The thermal control system includes an active portion, which transfers the heat of the entire spacecraft to the service module radiators, and a passive portion, which protects the service module from internal and external thermal environments.

Consumable Storage

The consumable storage system of the service module provides potable water, nitrogen, and oxygen to the crew module, stored in tanks. Potable water is provided by the water delivery system, covering usable water needs of the crew for the duration of the mission. Oxygen and nitrogen are provided by the gas delivery system, with the amount of gases in each tank adjustable based on the mission profile.

Orion’s crew module will separate from the service module shortly before re-entering Earth’s atmosphere. The crew module is the only portion of Orion that will return to Earth at the end of each mission. On early flights, high-value crew module components such as avionics, and environmental control and life support systems will be reused, with plans to reuse more components on later missions.

Through Artemis missions, NASA will land the first woman and the first person of color on the Moon, paving the way for a long-term, sustainable lunar presence and serving as a steppingstone for future astronaut missions to Mars.

Learn more about the Orion spacecraft at:

• https://www.nasa.gov/orion/

{ https://www.nasa.gov/ }

Entering the Decade of Results: International Space Station Benefits for Humanity Publication Released

The 2022 edition of the International Space Station Benefits for Humanity publication is now available. This updated edition is packed with numerous benefits of the microgravity laboratory highlighting groundbreaking discoveries helping society, technologies tested for future space exploration, new scientific breakthroughs, and contributions to the growing low-Earth orbit (LEO) economy.

Over more than two decades, the International Space Station has evolved into an advanced microgravity laboratory for human space operations and science. The space station offers researchers worldwide the opportunity to utilize the unique environmental conditions of LEO, supporting hundreds of experiments across every major scientific field at any given time. With over 20 years of research and 3,300 experiments hosted aboard the station, now more than ever discoveries and developments are taking shape. The station’s ability to foster research has aided in the growing commercial space economy allowing new players to enter the space marketplace and launching flourishing businesses back on Earth.

“This edition focuses on new areas of scientific study that are resulting from the last two decades of ISS research, future technologies for the exploration of the Moon and Mars, lifesaving discoveries, and the companies and economic benefits enabled by this research.” said Dr. Kirt Costello, chief scientist for the space station at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Some of the benefits featured in this edition include how:

• Advances in X-ray technologies that were developed to create NICER, a space station telescope, are helping unravel the mysteries of our universe while improving medical devices on Earth.
• Drugs, cancer treatment strategies, and artificial blood developed from protein crystal growth studies aboard station are improving human and animal health.
• Data from NASA’s ECOSTRESS payload has been employed in efforts to reduce heat absorbed by city surfaces, reduce fire risk, and help farmers efficiently water their fields.
• Station is inspiring the next generation of scientists by providing opportunities to conduct meaningful studies on topics such as DNA sequencing, robotics, and satellites in orbit.
• The orbiting laboratory is advancing the field of in-space manufacturing, from 3D printed human tissue to optical fibers for communication.

In addition to the print publication, this year’s release includes videos, podcasts, and digital features that dive deeper into some of the issue’s stories.

The ISS Benefits for Humanity 2022 is a product of the International Space Station Program Science Forum (PSF), which includes the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Canadian Space Agency (CSA), European Space Agency (ESA), Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), State Space Corporation ROSCOSMOS (ROSCOSMOS), and the Italian Space Agency (ASI). Although each of the International Space Station partners have individual research goals, the partnership strides together to propel humanity forward through scientific inquiry and investigation.

“The research done on the International Space Station advances scientific understanding of our planet, improves human health, develops cutting-edge technologies, and inspires and educates the leaders of tomorrow through its successful international partnerships; a truly exciting mission and part of a legacy that will be felt for decades to come,” said Costello.

View the full Benefits for Humanity 2022 publication here:

• Feature articles, videos, podcasts: www.nasa.gov/stationbenefits

• Full digital book in PDF format

• Kindle readers: MOBI format (coming soon)

• All other eBook readers: EPUB format (coming soon)

Additional information:

• Find more information about the space station’s benefits for humanity here.
• View the International Space Station Annual Research Highlights report for info on the latest station results.
• Follow updates about the science conducted aboard the space station on Twitter @ISS_Research.
• Keep up to date with the latest in station science news by signing up for our newsletter.
• For more information about conducting research in microgravity, visit: www.nasa.gov/iss-science
• To learn about opportunities for sending your project ideas to space station, visit: www.nasa.gov/stationopportunities

• ISS Benefits for Humanity 2022 Digital Book

{ https://www.nasa.gov/ }

Ex-Pentagon UFO Official Luis Elizondo Is Contractor For The US Space Force: Is Alien Threat Real?

President Reagan And Alien Threats

It is funny that some people believe that the delta symbol in the USSF seal is inspired by the Star Trek fictitious symbol. The reality is that the science-fiction TV series has borrowed so much of its iconic rank symbols from the U.S. military and NASA. But many seek the answer to the query if there is any Star Trek-like alien threat in reality.

What would happen if aliens attacked the Earth? Most probably, all the world powers would unite to fight against them. That is what Ronald Reagan said to Mikhail Gorbachev privately during the 1985 Geneva Summit. President Reagan is fairly known for his UFO sightings and incredible remarks on extraterrestrials. There are several occasions where he tried to tell the world that aliens exist.

Read also:

• Ret. US Army Major Showed Deleted UFO Photos Captured By Apollo Astronauts On Moon
• Ret. US Army SGT: US Govt. Has Over 50 Species Of Aliens Cataloged, Wanted To Testify Before Congress
• British UFO Expert Claims Aliens Are Advanced Form Of Humans, Hiding Under Ocean
• FBI Chilling UFO Reports: Recovered 3 UFOs With Alien Bodies In New Mexico & 27,000 Mph Craft

President Reagan made several remarks about the “alien threat” in his speeches from 1985 to 1988. In one of his speeches to the UN, he said: “What if all of us in the world were threatened by an outer power, from outer space, from another planet? We would all of a sudden find out that we didn’t have any differences at all.” None of the presidential aides, speechwriters, and handlers liked what he said. Besides, it never appeared in original drafts. Despite it, Reagan continued adding it subtly. (Click here to read the full story)

Interestingly, during a special screening of “ET: The Extra-Terrestrial” at the White House in 1982, Reagan whispered to Steven Spielberg that everything shown in the movie was real. It was confirmed by Spielberg while giving an interview to Quint (aka Eric Vespe). Spielberg said: “No, he wasn’t ushered out of the room. He was the President of the United States! Nobody could usher Ronald Reagan out of the room! It was in the White House screening room and Reagan got up to thank me for bringing the film to show the President, the First Lady, and all of their guests, which included Sandra Day O’Connor in her first week as a Justice of the Supreme Court, and it included some astronauts… I think Neil Armstrong was there, I’m not 100% certain, but it was an amazing, amazing evening.”

In December 2020, the former head of the Israeli space security program and retired general, Haim Eshed claimed that a sort of agreement had been made between aliens and the US government to keep silent on their experiments on Earth and secret bases on Mars.

In an interview with Yediot Aharonot (Israel daily newspaper), the 87-year-old professor said that the aliens and “Galactic federation” do exist and have been working with the US and the Israel government for years, but they keep it a secret to avoid mass hysteria.

Haim Eshed is considered to be the “father of Israel’s satellite program.” He got his bachelor’s degree from the Technion, a master’s degree in performance research, and a doctorate in aeronautical engineering. In 1981, he became the head of Israeli satellite projects in the Defence Ministry, where 20 satellites were launched under his guidance. He retired from the Defence Ministry in 2011. (Click here to read the full story)

{ https://www.howandwhys.com/ }

Baptist Minister Gave Last Rites To 3 Aliens That Died In 1941 UFO Crash In Missouri

Huffman agreed and arrived at the crash site. The place was full of police officers, FBI agents, firefighters, military men, doctors, and there were debris of some kind of aircraft.

First of all, Huffman was surprised to see the wreckage of the plane because it was totally different from the usual airplane. He knew it from his experience of traveling in both military & passenger airplanes.

Huffman had never seen anything like that.

The object was metallic and shaped like a giant saucer. There were no seams or joints visible on it. Huffman tried looking inside the destroyed object through the huge hole that was at the outer surface of the object. He saw there a small metal chair, some instruments and consoles with dials, and also many other things that he had never seen before, which it would be very difficult for him to describe.

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Some unknown man gave Huffman a photograph of the incident

At some point, Huffman saw some strange inscriptions that resembled Egyptian hieroglyphs.

Huffman went to the three dead bodies lying on the ground near the object to give them last rites. When he saw the bodies closely, he was shocked because they were dead aliens the size of a small child.

He guessed that those aliens had probably been the pilots of the crashed object. He noticed that the two of the bodies were lying next to each other, but the third one was at some distance.

He thought that the third one had not died in the crash immediately and managed to go away some steps further from the spacecraft.

According to the pastor, the creatures had tiny mouths with indistinguishable noses and no ears at all. They were wearing tight suits that looked like chewed aluminum foil.

When Huffman finished his prayers, several military men approached him and told him to keep his mouth shut about that incident. Therefore, for all those years, he had not told anyone about it, but he shared everything with his wife and sons.

In 1984, Mrs. Huffman, dying of cancer, told her granddaughter Charlette Mann about everything. She also said that her husband somehow managed to secretly take a photo of one of the dead aliens from an unknown man.

According to Mann, at some point, she had also seen that photo but does not know why one day, it disappeared. She contacted ufologist Leonard Stringfield, who wrote about the incident in one of his books.

When Stringfield heard this story, he began to dig for other possible witnesses who may have still been alive. He found the sheriff of Cape Girardeau that served at the time of the incident, and he confessed to him that everything Huffman’s family said was true. He also managed to track down the alleged photograph, which Mann revealed.

Ufologists Ryan Wood and Stan Friedman also investigated the case.

{ https://www.howandwhys.com/ }

1.5 Million-Year-Old Alien Spaceship Found On Moon With Alien Bodies During Apollo 19 & 20 Missions

Vicky Verma

Alien Spaceship Found On Moon

Official history tells us that 17 missions were launched between 1961 and 1975, of which 11 were manned (Apollo 7 through Apollo 17). During this time, 6 successful landings on the lunar surface were made. The Apollo 18, 19, and 20 flights were canceled due to the lack of new scientific value at the huge expense of the state budget and taxpayers. However, in 2007, Italian freelance journalist Luca Scantamburlo took a written interview with William Rutledge, who claims to be a member of the secret Apollo 20 mission.

According to him, he was an employee of Bell Laboratories and served in the US Air Force. Rutledge attracted public attention by starting to distribute photographs and videos of the Apollo 20 mission online in 2007 which captured the same spaceship and its pilots.

Alien Spaceship Found On Moon With Alien Bodies

What is the essence of the information from Rutledge? He claimed that during the Apollo 15 mission to the moon, an unidentified man-made object was discovered and photographed on its surface.

Read also:

• Project Stargate: CIA Top Secret Program To Track UFOs & Explore Mars
• Former CIA Director Believes In UFOs & His Friend’s Aircraft Stopped At 40,000 Feet In The Air
• Aliens From Andromeda Told US Army Personnel That Humans Are Composite of 22 different E.T. races
• Bizarre UFO Encounter Of US Farmer: Three Aliens Gave Him Pancakes

During missions 16 and 17, several more photographs were taken and reconnaissance of the terrain from orbit was carried out. The task of missions 18 and 19 (which was no longer officially) is not really clear: Rutledge only says that during these missions, a number of problems occurred, as a result of which research data was lost. It was originally planned to land next to an alien ship and study it using rovers.

Humanoid body found on the moon during Apollo 19&20

In 1976, the Apollo 20 mission was launched, which included: William Rutledge, Aleksei Leonov, and Leona Snyder. They managed to land by the ship, get inside, and inspect the interior of the ship, and the bodies of the pilots. One of the sources said that they not only examined the bodies but also took the head of one of the bodies with them.

The dimensions of the ship were 3370 x 510 meters; the age is estimated at 1.5 million years; inside, there are many signs of biological life: remnants of vegetation in the engine compartment of the ship, stones of a triangular shape that exude a yellow liquid that has some medical properties, the remains of small bodies (about 10 cm) that lived in a network of “glass” pipes piercing the whole ship.

Alien Spaceship

They found a humanoid, female, 1.65 meters. She had genitals, hair, six fingers (we assume the math is based on a dozen). She was a pilot, there was an aerobatics device connected to her fingers and eyes, the body had no clothes, and they had to cut two cables connected to the nose without nostrils. Leonov detached the device from the eyes. Blood clots or bio-fluids burst and froze in the mouth, nose, eyes, and parts of the body. Some parts of the body were in unusually good condition, hair and skin were protected by a thin transparent layer of protection. The condition seemed neither dead nor alive. The booth was full of inscriptions and formed from long, hollow hexagonal tubes.

Apollo 19 & 20 missions

On the other hand, one can only guess that this was the ship of the Anunnaki, about which Sitchin or some other guys wrote.

Doubts are caused by the number of fingers, these humanoids have 12 of them (6 on each hand), and we know that the Anunnaki used the hexadecimal numbering system and on all the frescoes, they have 5-fingered palms.

We also know that the Anunnaki had a parallel mission in low-Earth orbit: one part of them worked on Earth, the other part remained on the mother ship. It may well be that they used the moon and one of the ships remained there. Another interesting fact is that the team of engineers who actually implemented the Apollo project was headed by Wernher von Braun, who during Nazi Germany worked for the benefit of the Third Reich, creating for them the famous V-2 rockets.

Braun came to America along with many other German scientists removed from Germany as part of Operation Paperclip in 1945. And the colossal technological breakthrough of the engineers of the Third Reich happened due to cooperation with the occult societies of Ahnenerbe and Vril, who obtained information from the ancient egregors of the Gods related to our civilization.

Braun had an interesting chain of events: German occult societies -> moving to the USA -> working on a space program -> detecting an alien spacecraft, possibly the very same Gods who advised the Nazis. He survived until 1977 and saw the launch of Apollo 20 and, moreover, according to Rutledge, was personally present at the launch.

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{ https://www.howandwhys.com/ }

NASA adds 2 helicopters to mission to bring Mars samples back to Earth

By Clyde Hughes

A NASA illustration shows a concept for multiple robots that would team up to ferry samples collected from the surface of Mars by the Perseverance rover back to Earth.

Photo by NASA/JPL-Caltech

July 28 (UPI) -- NASA officials have changed the agency's plans for its daring and complicated effort to bring actual samples of Mars back to Earth by adding two helicopters and ditching the idea of landing a "fetch rover."

In a joint project with the European Space Agency, NASA has a goal of returning Martian samples back to Earth by 2033. The rover Perseverance is already on the Red Planet with the charge of collecting the samples.

Scientists have been encouraged by the performance of the rover and the current Martian helicopter Ingenuity, which arrived with Perseverance last year.

Perseverance will be tasked with bringing the samples to a Mars ascent vehicle with the two helicopters, modeled after Ingenuity, serving as a Plan B.

NASA's Mars rover Perseverance acquired this image in March 2021 using its onboard Left Navigation Camera. The camera is located high on the rover's mast and aids in driving. The rover has been collecting samples that NASA announced this week will be returned to Earth in 2033.

File Photo by NASA | License Photo

RELATED

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"The conceptual design phase is when every facet of a mission plan gets put under a microscope," said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for science at NASA headquarters in Washington, said Wednesday in a statement.

"There are some significant and advantageous changes to the plan, which can be directly attributed to Perseverance's recent successes at Jezero [Crater on Mars] and the amazing performance of our Mars helicopter."

If Perseverance fails to retrieve the samples, the helicopter will be sent out to capture the sample and place them within reach of the ESA's ascent vehicle, eliminating the need for a second rover.

NASA's Perseverance rover touched down on Mars on February 18, 2021. The rover has since been exploring the planet and collecting samples that the agency announced on Wednesday will be retrieved and brought back to Earth in 2033.

File Photo by NASA/UPI | License Photo

RELATED

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"ESA is continuing at full speed the development of both the Earth Return Orbiter that will make the historic round-trip from Earth to Mars and back again; and the Sample Transfer Arm that will robotically place sample tubes aboard the Orbiting Sample Container before its launch from the surface of the Red Planet," said David Parker, ESA's director of human and robotic exploration.

Dispatches from Mars: Perseverance rover sends images

NASA's Perseverance Mars rover, using its Mastcam-Z camera system, captured this view of the Martian sunset on November 9, 2021, the 257th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. Martian sunsets typically stand out for their distinctive blue color as fine dust in the atmosphere permits blue light to penetrate the atmosphere more efficiently than colors with longer wavelengths. But this sunset looks different: Less dust in the atmosphere resulted in a more muted color than average. The color has been calibrated and white-balanced to remove camera artifacts.

Photo courtesy of NASA | License Photo

RELATED

• NASA's InSight Mars lander to conduct science until it runs out of power

NASA's Perseverance Mars rover took a selfie with the Ingenuity helicopter on April 6, 2021, using the WATSON camera located at the end of the rover's long robotic arm.

File Photo by NASA/UPI | License Photo

 

In addition to the Perseverance rover, NASA has been flying a small helicopter on Mars, acquiring images and helping plot paths for the rover. The agency announced this week that a mission to Mars to retrieve samples collected on the planet's surface will include two new helicopters.

File Photo by NASA/UPI | License Photo

NASA and the European Space Agency announced their plans to bring samples back from Mars.

NASA

The plan is to have two helicopters back up the NASA Perseverance Rover.

NASA

The NASA Perseverance Rover landed on Mars over a year ago.

NASA via Getty Images

NASA and the ESA changed their plans after witnessing the Perseverance’s success.

NASA via Getty Images

{ https://www.upi.com/ }

Nessie, is that you? Fossil discovery in freshwater river bed suggests Loch Ness Monster COULD have existed - but only 66 million years ago

• Fossils reveal plesiosaurs may have lived in freshwater 100 million years ago

• Plesiosaurs were prehistoric reptiles with small heads and long necks

• First found in 1823, they inspired reconstructions of the Loch Ness Monster

• Discovery suggests Loch Ness Monster could have been a plesiosaur

By SOPHIE CURTIS FOR MAILONLINE

The Loch Ness Monster's existence is 'plausible', according to scientists, after fossils revealed that plesiosaurs may have lived in fresh water.

Nessie enthusiasts have long believed that the creature of Scottish folklore, which is often depicted with a long neck and small head, could be a prehistoric reptile.

However, cynics argue that even if plesiosaurs had survived the asteroid strike that wiped out the dinosaurs, the creatures could not have lived in Loch Ness because they needed a saltwater environment.

Now researchers from the University of Bath, University of Portsmouth, and Université Hassan II in Morocco, have discovered fossils of small plesiosaurs in a 100-million year old river system in the Sahara Desert.

The discovery suggests that some species of plesiosaur did live in freshwater - lending credibility to the Loch Ness Monster legend. 

Plesiosaurs (right) and spinosaurus (left) may have both inhabited freshwater rivers 100 million years ago

Among the most famous claimed sightings of the Loch Ness Monster is a photograph taken in 1934 by Colonel Robert Kenneth Wilson which was published in the Daily Mail. However, the researchers point out that the last plesiosaurs died out 66 million years ago

The fossils, discovered in the Kem Kem beds of Morocco, which date back to the Late Cretaceous period, include bones and teeth from three-metre (10ft) long adults and an arm bone from a 1.5 metre (5ft) long baby. 

'The bones and teeth were found scattered and in different localities, not as a skeleton. So each bone and each tooth is a different animal,' said Dr. Nick Longrich from the University of Bath's Milner Centre for Evolution.

'It's scrappy stuff, but isolated bones actually tell us a lot about ancient ecosystems and animals in them. They're so much more common than skeletons, they give you more information to work with.'

The discovery hints that the creatures routinely lived and fed in freshwater, alongside frogs, crocodiles, turtles, fish, and the huge aquatic dinosaur Spinosaurus. 

The plesiosaurs' teeth show heavy wear, like those of Spinosaurus, implying they were eating the same food - chipping their teeth on the armoured fish that lived in the river. 

'What amazes me is that the ancient Moroccan river contained so many carnivores all living alongside each other,' said David Martill from the University of Portsmouth.

'This was no place to go for a swim.' 

Marine animals like whales and dolphins are known to wander up rivers, either to feed or because they are lost, but the researchers do not believe this explains the large number of plesiosaur fossils in the Kem Kem beds.

A more likely possibility is that the plesiosaurs were able to tolerate fresh and salt water, like some whales, such as the beluga whale.

It is even possible that the plesiosaurs were permanent residents of the river, like modern river dolphins, according to the researchers. 

The fossils, discovered in the Kem Kem beds of Morocco, which date back to the Late Cretaceous period, include bones and teeth from three-metre (10ft) long adults and an arm bone from a 1.5 metre (5ft) long baby. 

Left: A leptocleidid plesiosaur back vertebra. The big openings for the arteries on the bottom are typical of plesiosaurs. Right: Arm bone from a leptocleidid plesiosaur, mid- Cretaceous (Cenomanian) Kem Kem beds of Morocco

The plesiosaurs' small size would have let them hunt in shallow rivers, and the fossil beds indicate there were plenty of fish around. 

'It's a bit controversial, but who's to say that because we paleontologists have always called them "marine reptiles", they had to live in the sea?' said Dr Longrich.

'Lots of marine lineages invaded freshwater.' 

Plesiosaurs were a diverse and adaptable group, and were around for more than 100 million years. 

Based on what they've found in Morocco – and what other scientists have found elsewhere – the authors suggest they might have repeatedly invaded freshwater to different degrees.

'This is another sensational discovery that adds to the many discoveries we have made in the Kem Kem over the past fifteen years of work in this region of Morocco,' said Samir Zouhri from the Universite Hassan II in Morocco.

'Kem Kem was truly an incredible biodiversity hotspot in the Cretaceous.'

A leptocleidid plesiosaur tooth from the Kem Kem beds of Morocco

The plesiosaurs belong to the family Leptocleididae - a family of small plesiosaurs often found in brackish or freshwater elsewhere in England, Africa, and Australia. Other plesiosaurs, including the long-necked elasmosaurs, have also been found in brackish or fresh waters in North America and China.

Veterinary student Arthur Grant was the first person to link the plesiosaur with the Loch Ness Monster in 1934, after he claimed to have nearly hit the creature on his motorcycle. He drew a sketch that resembled the ancient marine reptile. 

A few months later, the Daily Mail published a photograph taken by gynaecologist Robert Kenneth Wilson that appeared to show a creature with a long neck and small head moving through the water. The image was later exposed as a hoax. 

A press release from the University of Bath stated the new discovery showed that the Loch Ness Monster was 'on one level, plausible'.

'Plesiosaurs weren't confined to the seas, they did inhabit freshwater. But the fossil record also suggests that after almost a hundred and fifty million years, the last plesiosaurs finally died out at the same time as the dinosaurs, 66 million years ago.'

The study has been published in the journal Cretaceous Research.

What IS the Loch Ness Monster?

Rumours of a strange creature living in the waters of Loch Ness have abounded over the decades, yet scant evidence has been found to back up these claims.

One of the first sightings, believed to have fuelled modern Nessie fever, came in May 2, 1933.  

On this date the Inverness Courier carried a story about a local couple who claim to have seen 'an enormous animal rolling and plunging on the surface'.

Another famous claimed sighting is a photograph taken in 1934 by Colonel Robert Kenneth Wilson.

It was later exposed as a hoax by one of the participants, Chris Spurling, who, on his deathbed, revealed that the pictures were staged.

Other sightings James Gray's picture from 2001 when he and friend Peter Levings were out fishing on the Loch, while namesake Hugh Gray's blurred photo of what appears to be a large sea creature was published in the Daily Express in 1933.

Robert Kenneth Wilson, a London physician, captured arguably the most famous image of the Loch Ness Monster. The surgeon’s photograph was published in the Daily Mail on April 21, 1934

The first reported sighting of the monster is said to have been made in AD565 by the Irish missionary St Columba when he came across a giant beast in the River Ness.

But no one has ever come up with a satisfactory explanation for the sightings - although in 2019, 'Nessie expert' Steve Feltham, who has spent 24 years watching the Loch, said he thought it was actually a giant Wels Catfish, native to waters near the Baltic and Caspian seas in Europe.

An online register lists more than 1,000 total Nessie sightings, created by Mr Campbell, the man behind the Official Loch Ness Monster Fan Club and is available at www.lochnesssightings.com. 

So what could explain these mysterious sightings? 

Many Nessie witnesses have mentioned large, crocodile-like scutes sitting atop the spine of the creature, leading some to believe an escaped amphibian may be to blame.

Native fish sturgeons can also weigh several hundred pounds and have ridged backs, which make them look almost reptilian.

Some believe Nessie is a long-necked plesiosaur - like an elasmosaur - that survived somehow when all the other dinosaurs were wiped out.

Others say the sightings are down to Scottish pines dying and flopping into the loch, before quickly becoming water-logged and sinking.

While submerged, botanical chemicals start trapping tiny bubbles of air.

Eventually, enough of these are gathered to propel the log upward as deep pressures begin altering its shape, giving the appearance of an animal coming up for air.

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

Iowa Might Be The Biggest UFO Hotspot In America

Shutterstock/IowaAliens/StockImage

Citizens of Iowa reported seeing more than 1,100 unidentified flying objects, according to the National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC).

While the state doesn’t rank quite as high as California, Washington, Florida or Texas for overall reportage, the reports listed on the NUFORC for the Hawkeye State are something to behold. There were more than 200 instances of “triangle” shaped objects spotted in the sky, along with multiple instances of a “green ring” light.

A number of similar reports were made at the same locations, on the same days. For example, on Dec. 23, 2020, multiple people reported a huge number of lights, triangular-shaped objects and very fast-moving white lights.

Around a dozen UFO sightings have been reported in 2022 thus far, Axios noted. Axios also explained away some of the reports, such as one about “sounds” that echoed over Des Moines. It turned out that they were fighter jets, the outlet reported. (RELATED: Watch This Footage Of A Suspected UFO ‘Above The Clouds’ In The UK)

Most of the reports are yet to be explained.

“I was washing my car and taking pictures of it. When I looked back at the pictures I noticed a black circle in the sky in the picture,” one person from Pleasantville reported on the site, attaching an image of an alleged flying saucer.

To date, NUFORC has collected more than 150,000 UFO sighting reports, according to their homepage. Between May and June 2022, the site collected more than 700 new reports.

{ https://dailycaller.com/ }

Senate Intelligence Committee Raises Eyebrows With Push To Investigate UFOs That Are ‘Not Man-Made’.

BY DOUGLAS CHARLES

ISTOCKPHOTO

The Senate Intelligence Committee raised more than a few eyebrows recently when they requested that Pentagon UFO investigators focus more on those that are specifically “not man-made.”

Ever since United States Congress held its first hearing on UFOs in more than 50 years, members of the U.S. Senate have been complaining about the slow pace with which the Pentagon has been setting up its UFO investigation arm.

One of the few notable moves so far by the Pentagon appears to be the fact that it changed the name of the organization from Airborne Object Identification and Management Group (AOIMSG) to the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO).

Sen. Mark Warner recently wrote in a report, “At a time when cross-domain transmedium threats to United States national security are expanding exponentially, the Committee is disappointed with the slow pace of DoD-led efforts to establish the office to address those threats. The Committee was hopeful that the new office [AARO] would address many of the structural issues hindering progress.”

The same report asked for “the formal DoD and Intelligence Community definition of the terms used by the office … be updated to include space and undersea, and the scope of the Office shall be inclusive of those additional domains with [a] focus on addressing technology surprise and ‘unknown unknowns.”

The Senate Intel Committee wants investigators to focus on UFOs that are ‘not man-made’

The committee also asked that “temporary nonattributed objects, or those that are positively identified as man-made after analysis, will be passed to appropriate offices and should not be considered under the definition as unidentified aerospace-undersea phenomena.”

The Senate Intelligence Committee asking investigators with the new organization to specifically focus on UFOs, or as the government like to refer to them, Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP), that are not identified as “man-made” certainly opens the door to speculation as to what exactly would not qualify, i.e. what UAPs are the Committee aware of that are not man-made?

Of course, the party line is that no one in government has ever been witness to such a thing… at least officially.

{ https://brobible.com/ }

New DNA Research Shows Egyptian Pharaoh Could Be An Alien Hybrid

A new genetic study suggests a lineage of Egyptian pharaohs were subjected to willful genetic manipulation by a technologically advanced civilization.

Some would call this definitive proof that the builders of the pyramids had a strong connection with beings that originated elsewhere in the universe.

Stuart Fleischmann, Assistant Professor of Comparative Genomics at the Swiss University in Cairo and his team have recently published the results of a 7-year study that mapped the genomes of 9 ancient Egyptian Pharaohs. If proven correct, their findings could potentially change the world’s history books.

Fleischmann and his team subjected the precious samples of ancient DNA to a process called Polymerse Chain Reaction (PCR). In the field of molecular biology this technique is often used to replicate and amplify a single copy of a piece of DNA, giving researchers a clear picture of someone’s genetic fingerprint.

Eight out of nine samples returned interesting but typical results. The ninth sample belonged to Akhenaten, the enigmatic 14th century BC pharaoh and father of Tutankhamun.

A small fragment of desiccated brain tissue had been the source of the DNA sample and the test was repeated using bone tissue but the same results were obtained.

One of the culprits was a gene called CXPAC-5, which is responsible for cortex growth. The anomaly is visible in the image below.

It appears this increased activity in Akhenaten’s genome would suggest he had a higher cranial capacity because of the need to house a larger cortex. But what mutation would have caused a human brain to grow? We have yet to discover such a technique despite years of breakthroughs in genetics. Could this 3,300 year-old evidence point out ancient genetic manipulation? Was it the work of advanced extraterrestrial beings?

Is the mythology of ancient Egypt more than a collection of allegoric tales? Prof. Fleischmann explains:

“Telomerase [a genetic enzyme] is only expended by two processes: extreme aging and extreme mutation. Genetic and archaeological data suggests Amenhotep IV/Akhenaten lived to about 45 years of age. That is not nearly enough to consume all the chromosomal telomerase, leaving behind one inconvenient but possible explanation.

“This hypothesis is also backed up by the fact that electron microscope analysis revealed signs of nucleotidic cicatrix, which is a telltale sign of the DNA helix healing after being exposed to strong mutagens.”

Does this suggest that Akhenaten, one of ancient Egypt’s most mysterious pharaohs, was subjected to genetic modification during his life? If anything, this allegation supports the theory that ancient aliens once visited the civilization that lived along the banks of the Nile.

Another interesting piece of evidence provides backing to this hypothesis. The image below shows two microscope photographs of osseous tissue sampled from the skull of Akhenaten and that of a different mummy of the same age.

The bone tissue on the left is far denser and fundamentally different at a nanoscopic scale. Could this increase in strength of the skull bones be an indicator of increased brain development?

“This is an exciting finding, to say the least,” Fleischmann told press. “My team and I have submitted the papers for peer review and we’ve done and redone the tests enough times that we’re confident they’re accurate.

“I don’t know the full implication of our findings but I certainly believe they should at least point the scientific community in a direction that would have been immediately dismissed just a few decades ago.”

If this study is correct, it could trigger an unprecedented paradigm shift. If aliens were actively involved in the life of the most powerful individuals thousands of years ago, does that mean they’ll return? Perhaps they never left at all.

But the most important aspect would be the existence of individuals, direct descendants of ancient Egypt’s royal lineage, that still posses the alien genes implanted in their ancestors’ genomes.

Sources: 

• stillnessinthestorm.com, 
• medicalalumni.org

RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011

{ https://anomalien.com/ }

Cigar-shaped UFO and 3 entities witnessed by Joyce Bowles and Ted Pratt, Winchester, England, 1976

"We realised that three figures were watching us from a window in the cigar," said Mrs Bowles. "Then one of the figures materialised by the Mini. He peeped through my window at the dashboard controls and walked to the back of the car. Then he and the cigar-shaped craft simply vanished."

Winchester, England. November 14, 1976.

{ https://www.youtube.com/ }

In 1974 we sent a message to space, and we received a reply in 2001

Zack White

In 1974, scientists sent a message containing the location of the Earth in the solar system, our DNA structure, and other relevant details in space. In 2001, we received a response that has gone unnoticed by everyone.

In an effort to discover intelligent alien life, Carl Sagan sent a transmission known as the ‘Arecibo’ message into space via radio waves.

The message addressed to intelligent extraterrestrial beings was the most powerful radio transmission ever transmitted to space by humanity.

By comparison, the signal sent into space was a million times stronger than a typical television broadcast.

Aimed at a group of stars located more than 25,000 light years away, the pictorial message was sent in the hope that one day we would receive a similar response from another civilization.

The radio signal included the location of our planet Earth within our star system, the basics of mathematics and science, and the type of antenna that was used to relay the signal – all characteristics that an intelligent alien civilization should understand. .

The message prepared by Carl Sagan and his colleagues also included information about our species, our music, even our physical appearance was included in the radio message, as well as in our DNA codes.

A few years after the signal was sent, people forgot about it. Then, 27 years later, already in 2001, a ” Crop Circle ” that is, a crop circle appeared shaking the scientific community.

A pattern appeared in a farm field, right next to the UK’s largest telescope and observatory, the Chilbolton, where the world’s largest fully addressable weather radar is located, and the surprise was that it looked like a response to the transmission sent. way back in 1974.

It was considered by many to be one of the most impressive and important crop circles ever to appear on our planet, as this circle, unlike others, carried a message direct from space.

While many dismissed the crop circle near Chilbolton as yet another hoax, analysis showed that it carried a message, or rather a response from another civilization.

Describing a different solar system in the universe, the emitter image, non-human DNA, and some microwave antennae, the Chilbolton Crop Circle was the final answer we had always hoped for.

Incredibly, just a year before the extraterrestrial message was discovered, in the year 2000 a circle of unknown shape appeared alongside Chilbolton.

A year later, the puzzle was put together, and we could see that the crop circle that appeared in 2000 was, in fact, a representation of the microwave telescope used to transmit the signal to us.

In 2001, three days after the mysterious answer appeared alongside Chilbolton; another crop circle was found depicting what appeared to be an alien face.

According to the librarypleyades.net portal, the decimal equivalents of the binary code were not modified with respect to the original ‘Arecibo’. But the atomic numbers of the elements that make up the basis of life had been altered:

Silicon, an element with an atomic number of 14, was added in precisely the correct sequence: between oxygen (atomic number 8) and phosphorus (atomic number 15).

In 1969, the late Ben Volcani, a renowned microbiologist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, discovered the crucial role of silicon in carbon-based life.

His work and that of his colleagues (such as Charles Mehard, also at Scripps, and Edith Carlisle in the 1970s at UCLA) demonstrated that the presence of silicon is critical in a variety of terrestrial life forms, as well as in the structure of human cells: example, in the union of cartilage and mineral aspects of bones.

It remains to be debated whether the crop circle that appeared alongside Chilbolton was, in fact, an extraterrestrial response.

However, many people are firmly convinced that not only is the 2001 Chilbolton an actual message from another intelligent alien civilization in the universe, but we receive similar messages almost every day.

RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011

{ https://mysteriousociety.com/ }

Humans Originated On Another Planet – Where They Eventually Evolved, Before Being Taken To Earth In The Very Distant Past

A researcher argues that humans evolved on a different planet and were eventually brought to Earth in the very distant past.

What if we are the aliens we’ve been searching for all along? Despite the progress made in various science branches like biology, chemistry, and astrophysics, we are still unable to say for certain how life started on Earth.

Was this a unique event across the universe? Or is it possible that there are out there planets eerily similar to Earth, which harbor life, even if it is just primitive?

The truth is that we have theorized about the origins of life ever since the human mind was capable of thinking.

Did life come from space? Did life originate on the planet, without ‘extraterrestrial’ (Comets, Asteroids, etc.) influence?
What’s the science behind human origins?

If amino acids arrived with comet impacts, it would suggest, as some experts argue, that life may be widespread in our solar system.

But what if things are not so simple? What if the origins of life are anything but rational?

What if humans are NOT from Earth?

That’s a controversial subject touched by the book written by American ecologist Dr. Ellis Silver.
Humans Are Not From Earth
His book, titled ‘Humans are not from Earth: a scientific evaluation of the evidence,’ suggests that our species is not native to Earth and may have come from elsewhere.

Dr. Silver provides arguments based on various subjects like human psychology, arguing that humankind did not evolve alongside other life forms on Earth. Instead, the researcher indicates that humans came into existence on a different planet, and we were ‘brought to Earth’ in the very distant past.

The book offers five distinctive points:

The researcher explained that his book is based on the scientific differences between humans and other animals on Earth.

The Earth approximately meets our needs as a species, but perhaps not as strongly as whoever brought us here initially thought,” explained Dr. Silver in an interview.

The researcher points towards chronic diseases that affect the human race, like back pain, indicating it could be a sign that proves our species formed on another world, with much less gravity.

Dr. Silver also mentions other uniquely human traits: humans have 223 extra genes, not found in any other species.

The American researcher further suggests the human race has several ‘serious flaws’ that point to the possibility we are not from this planet.

“We are all chronically ill,” Dr. Silver explains.

“Indeed, if you can find a single person who is 100% fit and healthy and not suffering from some (perhaps hidden or unstated) condition or disorder (there’s an extensive list in the book), I would be amazed – I have not been able to find anyone.”
“I believe that many of our problems stem from the simple fact that our internal body clocks have evolved to expect a 25-hour day (sleep researchers have proved this), but the Earth’s day is only 24 hours. This is not a modern condition – the same factors can be traced all the way back through humankind’s history on Earth.”

{ https://icestech.info/ }

USAF pilot Milton Torres was ordered to shoot down a UFO 'the size of an aircraft carrier', 1957

"U.S. pilot was ordered to shoot down UFO"

• https://www.reuters.com/article/us-br...

Credit: Edit International, Ron Laytner. Video by Richard Bradley Jr. Go to Editinternational.com for the full story and video.

• https://www.youtube.com/user/richbrad...

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Milton Torres chased a gigantic UFO with orders to shoot missiles at it... 50 years later commcercial pilots are seeing similar size objects.

See:

• http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=C1A9CAt... -

{ https://www.youtube.com/ }

UFO Spotted Draining Plasma From The Sun Again

Could it be a solar eruption or a refueling UFO spaceship?

by 6th Sense

The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory has captured once again a composite of images depicting a shadowy object around the sun, appearing to be at the end of a tendril extending into the sun. The latest images depicting the unknown planet-sized object were taken on April 19th, 2022, ten years after the first footage depicting the exactly same object was taken. In the image sequence, the dark object is surrounded by a burst of brightly lit material that can be seen erupting from the sun’s surface. The orb then separates from the sun and rockets into space.

Many are suspecting it to be a refueling UFO spaceship. However, according to NASA scientists, the feature is actually little-understood, but frequently observed. It’s a type of solar activity called a “prominence” – a phenomenon caused by cooler, denser plasma interacting with highly charged coronal plasma. In other words, it could be an optical illusion created by the plasma.

Related: 

• Why Ancient Sumerians May Have Built Advanced Spaceports, Launched Spaceships and Traveled in Space

In the image series from 2012 and 2022, there is a burst of activity around the prominence, and then it and the filament channel shoot out into space immediately afterwards. According to Joseph Gurman, a project scientist in the Solar Physics Laboratory at NASA Goddard, the first event was probably an outburst of the sun’s magnetic field called a coronal mass ejection.

“It’s generally accepted, though still not conclusively proven, that prominence eruptions occur when the overlying magnetic field that contains the prominence material is disrupted,”

The inconsistencies with the official claims by NASA scientists

Our question is, if it’s an outburst of the sun’s magnetic field, why doesn’t the prominence appear to move along with the sun as it rotates, but remains stationary? Also, while observing the footage, one couldn’t help but notice how it is situated in the exact same location as it was in the footage from 2012. How could a coronal mass ejection happen in the exact same spot creating the exact same illusion it did ten years ago?

Does it look like a solar eruption or a refueling UFO spaceship? You may take a look at the footage below.

 

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{ https://6th-sense.tuzlanskarepublika.net/ }

{ https://www.hln.be/ }

Lava tubes on Mars and the Moon are up to 1,000 times bigger than those on Earth and are so wide they could be used to host planetary bases for future space exploration, study shows

• Researchers used lava tubes on the Earth to determine their size on other worlds 

• Those on the Moon are the largest and reach up to 100ft wide and 25 miles long 

• They are in the subsurface of the worlds and provide a constant temperature 

By RYAN MORRISON FOR MAILONLINE 

Lava tubes under the surface of the Moon and Mars are so large they could host entire planetary bases for future space exploration, planetary scientists claim.

Researchers at the Universities of Bologna and Padua studied the subsurface cavities that lava created billions of years ago under the surface of Mars and the Moon. 

These cavities can shield from cosmic radiations, according to the team, who found the celestial bodies held lava tubes up to 1,000 times larger than those on Earth. 

Similar tubes found on Earth were measured by the team and used to estimate the size of the ones thought to exist underneath the surface of the other worlds.    

The largest of the tubes are found on the Moon and are up to 100ft wide and more than 25 miles long, enough for a base the size of a small town, the team said.

This is an artistic rendering of a possible lava tube. These cavities can shield from cosmic radiation and the Moon holds lava tubes up to 1,000 times larger than those on Earth

The team used data from various interplanetary probes to determine the size and scale of the lava tubes on the Moon and Mars

Tubes found on the Moon are larger than those on Earth or Mars due to the much lower gravity and the impact it had on lava flows in its early development.

Francesco Sauro, of the European Space Agency and Riccardo Pozzobon, a planetary geologist at the University of Padua estimated their scale.

'We can find lava tubes on planet Earth, but also on the subsurface of the Moon and Mars according to the high-resolution pictures of lava tubes' skylights taken by interplanetary probes,' said Sauro.

'Evidence of lava tubes was often inferred by observing linear cavities and sinuous collapse chains where the galleries cracked.'   

The way these lava tubes appear on the surface of the Moon and Mars is similar to ones found on the Earth - particularly in Hawaii, Canary Islands and Australia.

These images show the different ways lava tubes are produced on the Earth, Moon and Mars

These tubes have been extensively studied on Earth and the findings have been used to estimate their size, shape and scale on other celestial bodies. 

'We measured the size and gathered the morphology of lunar and Martian collapse chains (collapsed lava tubes), using digital terrain models,' said Pozzobon 

These were taken from satellite images and laser altimetry devices carried by various interplanetary probes over the years. 

'We then compared these data to topographic studies about similar collapse chains on the Earth's surface and to laser scans of the inside of lava tubes in Lanzarote and the Galapagos,' he said. 

'These data allowed to establish a restriction to the relationship between collapse chains and subsurface cavities that are still intact'.

Researchers found that Martian and lunar tubes are respectively 100 and 1,000 times wider than those on Earth, which typically have a diameter of up to 98ft.

Lower gravity and its effect on early volcanism helped explain why the tubes on the Moon and Mars are so much larger than on the Earth, the team explained. 

Riccardo Pozzobon said tubes this wide can be longer than 25 miles going under the subsurface of the Moon - making it an 'extraordinary target for subsurface exploration and potential settlement'.

These tubes have a wide, protected and stable environment and are big enough that they could contain the entirety of a small town. 

'What is most important is that, despite the impressive dimension of the lunar tubes, they remain well within the roof stability threshold because of a lower gravitational attraction', explains Matteo Massironi, from the University of Padua. 

'This means that the majority of lava tubes underneath the maria smooth plains are intact,' the planetary geologist explained. 

The team used various techniques including 3D modelling to track the path of the lava tubes on the celestial bodies

The authors found that on the Moon the tubes are up to 100ft wide with a length of 25 miles

'The collapse chains we observed might have been caused by asteroids piercing the tube walls. This is what the collapse chains in Marius Hills seem to suggest. From the latter, we can get access to these huge underground cavities'.

Sauro explained that they would provide stable shields from cosmic and solar radiation as well as micrometeorite impacts that happen often on planetary bodies.

A number of projects and design challenges have been happening across the world to create potentially safe designs to help in the colonising of other worlds.

They have used everything from 3D printed materials made from lunar regolith, to beehive like lattice structures design to block meteorites and radiation.

The benefit of the lava tubes, assuming the estimates of their size prove to be correct, would be similar to the human made structures - without the need to build.

They would also have great potential for providing an environment in which temperatures do not vary from day- to night-time. 

Researchers examined lava tubes found on Earth to estimate the size and scale of those on the Moon and on Mars

Tubes were found on Mars and the Moon by orbiting satellites and are seen as circles or dents in the surface

'Space agencies are now interested in planetary caves and lava tubes, as they represent a first step towards future explorations of the lunar surface,' said Sauro. 

Researchers also point out how this study opens up to a completely new perspective in planetary exploration, which is focusing on the subsurface of Mars and the Moon.

'In autumn 2019, ESA called up universities and industries with a campaign seeking ideas for developing technologies for lunar caves exploration,' said Unibo professor Jo Da Waele, an author of the study.

'They are specifically looking for systems that would land on the lunar surface to operate missions exploring lunar tubes', De Waele explained. 

Since 2012, in collaboration with some European universities including Bologna and Padua, ESA has been carrying out two training programmes for astronauts focusing on the exploration of underground systems and planetary geology. 

These programmes include lava tubes on the island of Lanzarote and 36 astronauts from five space agencies have received training in cave hiking. 

The study was published in the journal Earth-Science Reviews.

NASA plans to send a manned mission to Mars in the 2030s after first landing on the Moon

Mars has become the next giant leap for mankind's exploration of space.

But before humans get to the red planet, astronauts will take a series of small steps by returning to the moon for a year-long mission.

Details of a the mission in lunar orbit have been unveiled as part of a timeline of events leading to missions to Mars in the 2030s.

Nasa has outlined its four stage plan (pictured) which it hopes will one day allow humans to visit Mars at he Humans to Mars Summit held in Washington DC yesterday. This will entail multiple missions to the moon over coming decades

In May 2017, Greg Williams, deputy associate administrator for policy and plans at Nasa, outlined the space agency's four stage plan that it hopes will one day allow humans to visit Mars, as well as its expected time-frame.

Phase one and two will involve multiple trips to lunar space, to allow for construction of a habitat which will provide a staging area for the journey.

The last piece of delivered hardware would be the actual Deep Space Transport vehicle that would later be used to carry a crew to Mars. 

And a year-long simulation of life on Mars will be conducted in 2027. 

Phase three and and four will begin after 2030 and will involve sustained crew expeditions to the Martian system and surface of Mars.

Read more:

• Lava tubes on Earth, Moon and Mars: A review on their size and morphology revealed by comparative planetology - ScienceDirect

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

Lava Tubes on the Moon Maintain Comfortable Room Temperatures Inside

Searching for a comfortable place to set up a research station on the Moon? Look no further than the interior parts of lunar pits and caves. While lack of air will be an issue, new research indicates these underground sanctuaries have steady temperatures that hover around 17 Celsius, or 63 Fahrenheit, even though the Moon’s surface heats up to about 127 C (260 F) during the day and cool to minus 173 C (minus 280 F) at night.

Lunar pits, or lava tubes were discovered in 2009 by the Lunar Reconnaissance Obiter and Japan’s Kaguya spacecraft. These are deep holes on the moon that could open into vast underground tunnels. They likely could serve as a safe shielding from cosmic rays, solar radiation and micrometeorites for future human lunar explorers. But now we know they could provide thermally stable sites for lunar exploration.

These long, winding lava tubes are like structures we have on Earth. They are created when the top of a stream of molten rock solidifies and the lava inside drains away, leaving a hollow tube of rock. For years before their existence was confirmed, scientists thought there were hints that the Moon had lava tubes based on observations of long, winding depressions carved into the lunar surface by the flow of lava, called sinuous rilles.

So far, about 200 lunar pits have been found and at least 16 of these are probably collapsed lava tubes, with the potential for ‘livable’ space, said Tyler Horvath, a UCLA doctoral student in planetary science, who led the new research. Two of the most prominent pits have visible overhangs that clearly lead to some sort of cave or void, and there is strong evidence that another’s overhang may also lead to a large cave.

Horvath processed images from the Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment — a thermal camera and one of six instruments on LRO — to find out if the temperature within the pits diverged from those on the surface. Diviner is designed to measure surface temperatures on the Moon, and Horvath’s team had to focus in on extremely small areas to get their data.

They focused on a pit found in the Sea of Tranquility (Mare Tranquillitatis). This image, below, was taken as the Sun was almost straight overhead, illuminating the region. By comparing this image with previous images that have different lighting, scientists can estimate the depth of the pit. They believe it to be over 100 meters.

The researchers used computer modeling to analyze the thermal properties of the rock and lunar dust and to chart the pit’s temperatures over a period of time. Their research, recently published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, revealed that temperatures within the permanently shadowed reaches of the pit fluctuate only slightly throughout the lunar day, remaining at around 17 C (63 F). If a cave extends from the bottom of the pit, as images taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera suggest, it too would have this relatively comfortable temperature. The researchers think the overhang is responsible for the steady temperature, limiting how hot things get during the day and preventing heat from radiating away at night.

However, if this particular pit was to be used as a habitat or research station, there would likely be a heat problem just inside the pit. The sunbaked part of the pit floor not protected by the overhang hits daytime temperatures close to 150 C (300 F), which is even hotter than the Moon’s surface.

“Because the Tranquillitatis pit is the closest to the lunar equator, the illuminated floor at noon is probably the hottest place on the entire moon,” said Horvath.

Since a day on the Moon lasts nearly 15 Earth days, the lunar surface is constantly bombarded by sunlight and is frequently hot enough to boil water. Conversely, the equally long lunar nights (also 15 Earth days long) reach incredibly cold temperatures. Any habitat or base would mean inventing heating and cooling equipment that can operate under these conditions, as well as ways to produce enough energy to power it nonstop. This could prove to be an insurmountable barrier to lunar exploration or habitation.

However, the researchers say that building bases in the shadowed parts of these pits allows scientists to focus on other challenges, like growing food, providing oxygen for astronauts, gathering resources for experiments and expanding the base.

“Humans evolved living in caves, and to caves we might return when we live on the moon,” said UCLA professor of planetary science David Paige, who leads the Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment and participated in the research.

Further reading:

• Press releases from UCLA and NASA, and the team’s research paper

The post Lava Tubes on the Moon Maintain Comfortable Room Temperatures Inside appeared first on Universe Today.

Source: 

• https://www.universetoday.com/156932/lava-tubes-on-the-moon-maintain-comfortable-room-temperatures-inside/

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{ https://beforeitsnews.com/ }

A Fast-Moving Star is Colliding With Interstellar gas, Creating a Spectacular bow Shock

Zeta Ophiuchi has had an interesting life. It began as a typical large star about twenty times more massive than the Sun. It spent its days happily orbiting a large companion star until its companion exploded as a supernova about a million years ago. The explosion ejected Zeta Ophiuchi, so now it is speeding away through interstellar space. Of course, the supernova also expelled the outer layers of the companion star, so rather than empty space, our plucky star is speeding through the remnant gas as well. As they say on Facebook, it’s complicated. And that’s great news for astronomers, as a recent study shows.

Zeta Ophiuchi is most famous for beautiful images such as the one above. By plowing through interstellar gas, the star has created heated shock waves that glow in everything from infrared to x-rays. The physics of these shock waves is tremendously complex. It is governed by a set of mathematical equations known as magnetohydrodynamics, which describes the behavior of fluid gases and their surrounding magnetic fields. Modeling these equations is bad enough, but when you have turbulent motion such as shock waves, things get even worse. That’s why Zeta Ophiuchi is so important. Since we have such a great view of its shock wave, we can compare our observations with computer simulations.

In this latest study, the team created computer models simulating the shock wave near Zeta Ophiuchi. They then compared these models to observations in infrared, visible, and x-rays. Their goal is to determine which simulations are the most accurate so that the models can be further refined. Of their three models, two of them predicted that the brightest region of x-ray emissions should be at the edge of the shock wave closest to the star, and this is what we observe. But all three models also predicted that x-ray emissions should be fainter than we observe, so none of the models are fully accurate. But these models are difficult to do well, and this work is a good first start.

The difference in x-ray brightness is likely due to turbulent motion within the shock wave. The team plans on including some of this turbulent motion in future models. Through multiple iterations, they should be able to create a simulation that closely models this interstellar shock wave.

Magnetohydrodynamics is a central part of many astrophysical processes, ranging from solar flares to the formation of planets, to the powerful black hole engines of quasars. Most of these interactions are hidden by distance or dust, so it’s great that Zeta Ophiuchi can give astronomers a shocking view of this complex physics.

Reference: 

• Green, S., et al. “Thermal emission from bow shocks II: 3D magnetohydrodynamic models of Zeta Ophiuchi.” arXiv preprint arXiv:2203.06331 (2022).

The post A Fast-Moving Star is Colliding With Interstellar gas, Creating a Spectacular bow Shock appeared first on Universe Today.

Source: 

• https://www.universetoday.com/156933/a-fast-moving-star-is-colliding-with-interstellar-gas-creating-a-spectacular-bow-shock/

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On November 8,1978, Mrs. Cathy Wilfong and her sister Mrs. Cindy Bridges viewed a UFO near Greenfield, Indiana. 

You could say they had very good proof that they did see something unidentified by the large imprint, about 140 feet long, that was left in their soybean field in the back of their home. 

It was around 9:00 PM when Cindy went out to get some firewood, when she noticed a big fiery light coming down towards the soybean field. When she went to investigate what the object was, she became frightened and started screaming for Cathy to come out and look at this thing that was coming down towards the field. 

Cathy knew something was wrong when she heard the screaming and her dog, Babe, barking wildly. When she saw the object coming down she couldn't believe it. Although frightened, Cathy ran to the garage to get her camera. When she couldn't find her camera she ran into the house petrified. 

At this time Cindy was in the camper watching the object from the inside. She stayed in the camper for an estimated time of 4 minutes. When she noticed Cathy running into the house she decided she had better go into the house too. 

After calling the Sheriff's Department, Cathy then called her mother who lives 6 miles away from the Wilfong residence; she came immediately and saw the lights of the UFO as it departed. (She watched these lights as she drove towards their house, and first saw them from 4 to 5 miles away as she approached on state road 209.) The Wilfong's live 8 miles from the Sheriffs office, but it took them at least 30 minutes to get to the house from the time Cathy called. 

Upon the Deputy's arrival they informed Cathy that what they had seen was a "helicopter." This so-called "helicopter" made no sound whatsoever, had no propeller so it just naturally threw no propwash, did not have any night flying navigational beacon as required by FAA regulations, and was 120 to 140 feet long. 

As described by the witnesses, the UFO was oblong, very, very huge with a kind of greenish-dray color. (See sketch.) It had three lights, one red and two white. The UFO did not have any sound, and it moved flying sideways behind the barn and then took off flying front ways. 

Cathy stated, "the thing moved like it was in slow motion. It was very huge with three lights. There was some kind of circle in the middle of the bottom or underneath side. The whole time we watched this object, we could only see the bottom side." The estimated time they viewed the object was 40 minutes. 

This UFO incident attracted the attention of the Center for UFO Studies in Evanston, Illinois. They sent out one of their investigators, Allan Hendry, who is the top field investigator for the Center. Hendry stated, "This sighting was one of the two most significant sightings the Center has examined in 1978. 

Due to the fact that this sighting was at such a close range by two credible witnesses and also due to the physical evidence the UFO left, which was the impression in their soybean field." Hendry went on to state, "The impression left in the field is similar to 'Saucer Nests' found and reported in Australia and elsewhere in the World, also indicated the UFO never did touch the ground." The stems in the bean field were not uprooted at all, and the stems were intertwined and matted together. 

The case also was investigated by MUFON Field Investigator, Arthur Morros of Zionsville, Indiana."

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