( Credit U.S. NAVY )

Inhabiting the ocean waters of the North Atlantic and Northern Pacific, harbor seals are renowned for their prowess as swimmers and aquatic hunters. Now, according to Xudong Zheng, an associate professor in RIT’s Kate Gleason College of Engineering, a unique capability these ocean mammals possess is also serving as inspiration for the development of a new sensor array for the Navy that will possess “biological-level sensitivity, accuracy, and intelligence.”

The Navy says such an advanced underwater sensor system could be used to track anomalies, in addition to aiding scientific exploration of our oceans and advancing the robotic capabilities it uses during stealth operations at sea.

Zheng says the new system he and his team are building will be “the next stage of development of stronger sensors,” adding that early results already indicate that it could help facilitate new capabilities that will help to allow “more smart perceptions and better reasoning regarding the signal pattern and how it corresponds to flow patterns.”

Additionally, Zheng and his team say they hope to improve the way the Navy’s underwater sensors can be used to collect information on the three-dimensional aspects of objects, enabling better and more consistent recognition. The team also plans to leverage artificial intelligence in ways that will further enhance the sensor system’s capabilities when operating within a variety of marine environments.

To achieve this, Zheng’s team drew inspiration from one of nature’s best existing underwater sensor systems.

“We are trying to mimic seals’ highly sensitive sensors using the bio-inspired shape of their whisker array,” Zheng said in a statement, adding that these marine mammals have the ability to detect disturbances nearby at an astounding rate of 254 microns per second. This is made possible in part due to the lengths and placement of their whiskers, which allow the creatures to gauge everything from speed, distance, movement, and location with astounding speed and accuracy.

Although Zheng’s team isn’t the first researchers to draw inspiration from seal’s whiskers, existing systems that work on similar principles only provide individual measurements. By mimicking a harbor seal’s natural sensor capabilities, Zheng’s team hopes they consolidate each of these detection mechanisms into a single game-changing underwater sensor array.

Current sensors that are only capable of single measurements are greatly limited in the detection of spatial information, which involves the visualization of objects from several perspectives and provides information about their relationship to their surroundings.

Zheng says the integration of comprehensive spatial recognition, paired with artificial intelligence, will be two of the primary keys that will allow the new system he and his team are designing to improve sensor accuracy overall.

The new effort is an outgrowth of Zheng’s past work, which involved studies in biomechanics and flow physics in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Kate Gleason College.

Aided by his wife and research partner Qian Xue, also a Rochester Institute of Technology associate professor of mechanical engineering and an expert in flow-structure interaction, the duo says they are “designing very sensitive sensors that can be tightly packed into smaller spaces and that can extract spatial information,” which allows the sensors to “recognize the surrounding environment with an algorithm to accurately predict the shape of an object.”

“Based on this information, we can understand why this signal corresponds to certain types of bodies, or objects,” Zheng said in a statement, adding that their designs will implement additional technologies being undertaken at RIT to help broadly improve the capability and accuracy of the new sensors they are developing.

Zheng and the team’s current findings are outlined in the latest edition of the journal Frontiers in Robotics and AI.

• Micah Hanks is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of The Debrief. He can be reached by email at micah@thedebrief.org. Follow his work at micahhanks.com and on X: @MicahHanks.

 { https://thedebrief.org/category/science/ }

US Military Has Machine That Can Levitate UFO Metal, Confirms Stanford Top Scientist

In June 2022, Australian investigative journalist Ross Coulthart interviewed Dr. Nolan and learned from him shocking UAP information that the U.S. government had been investigating for the past few years. Dr. Nolan said that one thing he is sure about is that we do not know what UAPs are: “We do know that there is something here something that I think defies explanation but that something can be studied from a scientific Viewpoint.”

Although this interview was recorded in 2022, Dr. Nolan adheres to David Grusch’s statement that the U.S. government has been lying about UAPs for the last 60-70 years. He believes the reason behind this is that the U.S. government itself does not know what they are dealing with. “Absolutely, there is a cover-up,” says Dr. Nolan. “I mean, there has been both a cover-up and a disinformation campaign to make people appear as if they were crazy.”

Coutlhart questions the potential dangers of admitting one’s thoughts on these mysterious events, to which Dr. Nolan responds, “I think it’s dangerously necessary… ignoring the physics of what these things are capable of doing.” Coutlhart further asks, “Let’s talk about ‘It.’ What is it?”

Dr. Nolan replies, “You know, I wish I knew… Whatever it is appears to be so far advanced from us that it beggars understanding.” When pressed further by Coutlhart if he believes the phenomenon to be of human origin, Dr. Nolan decisively states, “I’m sure it’s not human..I think it’s whatever it is it’s been here a long time so and certainly it’s been here longer than we’ve been civilized so at the very least who really owns the planet who was here first uh I’m not sure it was.”

Dr. Nolan explained he studied the brains of pilots who claimed to have encountered the phenomena. After their UAP/ UFO encounters, they all got damaged or hurt such as buzz noises in their head, got sick, etc. Most of them have had similar kinds of bad things. He showed the MRIs of some people that revealed damage in the middle of the basal ganglia – an area responsible for motor control and other core brain functions, including intuition.

Dr. Nolan said the damage should have killed those people, yet they were alive. He obtained MRIs of some prior to their encounters and they had the damage, so they were most likely born with it. “These are all so-called high-functioning people. They’re pilots who are making split-second decisions, intelligence officers in the field, etc,” he said.

Alleged UFO material

Former Pentagon UFO official Lue Elizondo shared a truly eye-opening statement in his interview with James Iandoli of Engaging The Phenomenon on June 11, 2021. They discussed crash retrievals and materials related to unidentified flying objects (UFOs) or unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs). Elizondo acknowledged the sensitivity of the topic and the potential consequences of discussing it openly.

However, Elizondo expressed his belief that the US government does possess exotic materials but could not provide further details due to the lack of transparency from the government. He mentioned the three layers of analysis that can be conducted on a piece of material, namely physical, chemical, and atomic or nano-level research.

Coulthart asked the Stanford professor about this research on a peculiar material known as Bismuth magnesium. Dr. Nolan described it as a layered substance consisting primarily of bismuth, with traces of lead and magnesium. Despite his assessment of its isotope ratios showing nothing out of the ordinary, he expressed his intent to study a significantly larger sample in the future. This expanded sample size would allow him to conduct more comprehensive tests, potentially shedding light on its properties.

Terahertz Transmistter

Coulthart speculated on the material’s ability to levitate when exposed to a specific waveform. While Nolan acknowledged hearing about such claims, he had not personally witnessed or tested the phenomenon. When pressed by Coulthart about whether he had attempted any experiments, Nolan clarified that the required waveform for levitation would be “Terahertz Waves,” which he had not utilized.

Coulthart highlighted that the U.S. Army possessed the necessary terahertz transmitter for potential experiments with the Bismuth magnesium material. However, Dr. Nolan remained tight-lipped about the specifics, stating he could not discuss whether such research had been conducted.

Coulthart mentioned that Tom Delonge’s To the Stars Academy (TTSA) worked with the U.S. Army to study this material using the right equipment. Coulthart wondered why the U.S. government keeps such materials if stories about flying objects are just made up. Nolan thinks there is a lot of false information out there but believes there might be real materials that we should know about. He wants the government to tell us clearly if those special materials are real or not.

In 2019, Tom DeLonge claimed that his UFO research organization had acquired “potentially exotic materials featuring properties not from any known existing military or commercial application.” “The structure and composition of these materials are not from any known existing military or commercial application,” Steve Justice, TTSA’s COO and former head of Advanced Systems at Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works said in a statement. (Source)

According to the press release, some of these materials were in the possession of investigative journalist and UFO researcher Linda Moulton Howe, who, in 2004, gave a presentation at the Xcon Conference regarding these materials. In her lecture, a video of which has been on the Internet for years, she suggests that the material could become a “lifting body” with the right amount of electromagnetic static and certain RF frequency. These are undoubtedly the same materials mentioned by Tom DeLonge on his Joe Rogan interview where he stated, “if you hit it with enough terahertz, it’ll float.”

In this video, Dr. David Chester, a scientist from Quantum Gravity Research, makes several references to pulsed terahertz waves. Towards the end, he mentions that pulsed terahertz waves in a metamaterial can slow down the speed of light. He further explains that this is beneficial for anti-gravity engineering. According to him, due to the way everything couples together in the equations, a reduced speed of light requires less energy to achieve the desired anti gravitic effects.

This is some really interesting information on terahertz, thanks to Observing The Anomaly.

AAWSAP commissioned 37 scientific papers that are now public. Someone FOIA’d about UAP materials being studied and DIA responded with 5 of these papers. One paper was on spintronics and another on metamaterials. TTSA bought an alleged sample of Roswell crash material and gave it to the Army to study in 2019. According to Puthoff it appeared to be a metamaterial that acts as a waveguide at the terahertz frequency. The two papers on spintronics and metamaterials also touches on creating materials that operate at this frequency and specifically that such materials would be radiation resistant and ideal for long space travel.

Hal Puthoff also discusses the sample with UFO Joe. Notice the bolded statement below. (Source)

So the answer is, we don’t, yet, really know where it came from. And it’s true that ten years ago Linda Howe provided us with a sample. And we did a lot of tests. Got electron microscope pictures and irradiated it with various gigahertz frequencies, megahertz frequencies and so on. We couldn’t make anything out of it. So it kind of went on the shelf. And it was only after this paper on meta-materials was published, we said, “Oh my gosh. The claim here, that this could have some real utility as microscopic waveguides, would actually fit the structure, you know, that we see there.” Okay, well where do we go with that?

Well, the truth of the matter is, that piece is actually pretty mangled and what you’d really like to do is say, “Okay, well let’s have a nice, clean piece of this, and let’s irradiate with terahertz frequencies, first of all, to see if it really does act as a microscopic waveguide for terahertz frequencies. And then, if that works, we’ll iradiate it with other kinds of fields and see if there are any unexpected responses and so on.” So it is still, despite the fact it gets unbelievable publicity out there, it’s still an absolutely unknown. It does range all the way from…this was a fraud of junk material sent to us, to…no, this came off the wedge of an ET craft.

We don’t know the answer to that, and the only way we are going to get something of value is to determine its properties or maybe reproduce it under nice conditions and determine its properties. So, it is still a giant question mark out there. So even though it’s, you know, it’s like…a few percent of our effort at TTSA, it’s like 99% of our criticisms (laughs). That’s just what you get in this field. That’s the way it goes. Some of us have developed very hard skins. Another question?

Puthoff elaborates further in another interview: (Source)

Well, years later, decades later actually, finally our own science moves along. We move into an area called metamaterials, and it turns out exactly this combination of materials at exactly those dimensions turn out to be an excellent microscopic waveguide for very high frequency electromagnetic radiation terahertz frequencies. So, the wavelength is 60 microns, which is a pretty small size. But it turns out because of the metamaterial aspect of this material, those bismuth layers that act as waveguides can be one twentieth the size of the wavelength, and usually when you make a waveguide it’s gotta be about the size of the wavelength. So, in fact this turned out to be a material that would propagate sub-wavelength waveguide effects. Why somebody wants to do that we still don’t know the answer to that.

Dr. Nolan is said to have a good friendship with Jacques Vallée, Kit Green, Eric Davis, and Colm Kelleher. They all came to him to analyze the UAP materials after he had developed some wonderful instruments using mass spectrometry.

“Some of the objects are nondescript, and just lumps of metal. Mostly, there’s nothing unusual about them except that everywhere you look in the metal, the composition is different, which is odd. It’s what we call inhomogeneous. That’s a fancy way of saying ‘incompletely mixed.’ The common thing about all the materials that I’ve looked at so far, and there’s about a dozen, is that almost none of them are uniform. They’re all these hodgepodge mixtures. Each individual case will be composed of a similar set of elements, but they will be inhomogeneous,” he explained.

Dr. Nolan found out that some of the fragments from the so-called UFO crash in Brazil have extraordinarily altered isotope ratios of magnesium. He explained:

“It was interesting because another piece from the same event was analyzed in the same instrument at the same time. This is an extraordinarily sensitive instrument called a nanoSIMS – Secondary Ion Mass Spec. It had perfectly correct isotope ratios for what you would expect for magnesium found anywhere on Earth. Meanwhile, the other one was just way off. Like 30 percent off the ratios. The problem is there’s no good reason humans have for altering the isotope ratios of a simple metal like magnesium. There’s no different properties of the different isotopes, that anybody, at least in any of the literature that is public of the hundreds of thousands of papers published, that says this is why you would do that. Now you can do it. It’s a little expensive to do, but you’d have no reason for doing it.”

Dr. Vallée collected purported metal from the UFO cases dated back to 1947 and brought them to Stanford University for analysis. Dr. Gary Nolan, a Stanford microbiologist analyzed the 3-D atomic structure of the unknown metal with a state-of-the-art Multiparameter Ion Beam Imager (MIBI) capable of discerning the precise composition of matter at the level of its isotopes.

The result might be shocking for non-believers, as when he put the sample in the vacuum chamber of the machine, he found out that their composition was unlike any other known metal on Earth.

“If you’re talking about an advanced material from an advanced civilization you’re talking about something that I’ll just call it an ultra material right it’s something which has properties where somebody is putting it together again at the atomic scale so we’re building our world with 80 elements somebody else is building the world with 253 different isotopes,” Dr. Nolan said.

Could humans be altering the isotopes in these strange objects for unknown purposes? Dr. Nolan speculates that it is possible, but proving it requires getting down to the atomic level, possibly with a super quantum interference device (SQUID). However, neither his budget nor the budgets of the groups analyzing UFO/UAP encounters have that kind of funding yet.

{ https://www.howandwhys.com/ }

34 years later, we still don't know what really happened during the Belgian UFO wave

A months-long wave of reports culminated with two Belgian Air Force F-16s chasing mysterious objects through the skies

A little after 5:30 pm on the 29^th November 1989 in the town of Eupen, patrolling police would inform their switchboard operator, Albert Creutz, of a huge airborne object hovering over a field in front of them. According to their report, it was “so bright it was lighting up the field like a football stadium!” ^[1]

Creutz, given that it was almost Christmas, returned with a quip that “it might be St. Nick!” However, the on-site officers urged him to go to the top floor of the building and look out of the window to see it for himself. Realizing the report was not a prank by his colleagues he did as suggested. Once there, he could see the mammoth craft “looking like a boat floating in the sky!”

By the time Creutz was back in position at the switchboard, residents were swamping the system with calls of the strange, bright object. When police officer, Dieter Plumanns, and his partner made their report of visual contact with the craft, Creutz told him to follow it. They did so for several minutes before it came to a stop and hovered over a retirement home.

They too stopped their vehicle and watched the bizarre scene unfold in front of them. The object was a distinct triangle with three orange/brown lights in each corner. In the middle of the underside was a bright red light that flashed at regular intervals. As Plumanns and his partner looked on, a small drone-like object left the main craft, constantly flashing in unison with the middle light above. It surveyed the area, before rejoining the triangle, which then left with great alacrity.

Thirteen reports of sightings would come from police officers alone that evening. Over sixty more would come from citizens.

The video below is a news report from 1993.

But by the time the evening was over, at least 30 different groups and three separate pairs of police officers would allege to have seen the unidentified flying object. And they wouldn't be the last. Belgium's months-long "UFO wave" culminated 30 years ago today — on March 30, 1990 — in a physics-defying chase through the skies over Europe as two Belgian Air Force F-16s pursued mysterious objects on their radars that they couldn't even see.

The Petit-Rechain Photograph

But, okay okay, did aliens really visit Belgium? 

It certainly seems deeply, deeply unlikely. Yet three decades later, it's still hard to entirely dismiss the 2,000-odd sightings that took place in the country between November 1989 and April 1990. As Patrick Ferryn, the president of the Belgian committee for the study of space phenomena, SOBEPS, told The Telegraph, "You must know that most of these sightings will have the most banal explanation but there is a residue, which we simply can't explain. And of those, there may be two or three where we may have questions over where they came from."

Lots can be ruled out, though. For example, a classic photograph of the triangle-shaped aircraft, known as the "Petit-Rechain picture," is without a doubt a hoax — the forger admitted as much when he came forward in 2011. "We made the model with polystyrene, we painted it, and then we started sticking things to it, then we suspended it in the air ... then we took the photo," the prankster confessed to Reuters. Brian Dunning, the writer and producer of the podcast Skeptoid, also refutes a number of the sightings, arguing that the November apparitions were in fact a helicopter, and that the police officers were interviewed by a biased ufologist. Conflicting information, published by Reuters, claims instead that the lights over Eupen were from "a Soviet satellite breaking up."

Regardless, where things really start to get strange is in March 1990. At that point, there had been months of sporadic sightings throughout Belgium, including by an army colonel, André Amond, who claimed to have seen the lights while driving in his car with his wife in December. The Belgian military, needless to say, was well aware of the descriptions pouring in from across the country, and it had little in the way of answers.

Before we look at that, the video below features a recent interview with De Brouwers. He also discusses the aforementioned photograph, which we will look at next.

Then-Chief of Operations of the Air Staff, General Wilfried De Brouwer — who offered his account to investigative reporter Leslie Kean for her 2010 book UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go on the Record — said that his initial belief was that the American military must have been testing some sort of experimental aircraft over his country. He went as far as to file inquiries with the U.S. Embassy in Brussels, prompting the Americans to create a memo, dryly titled "Belgium and the UFO Issue," which confirmed that "no USAF stealth aircrafts were operating in the... area during the periods in question."

The reports were credible enough, though, that Belgium's Air Force, federal aviation authorities, and police devised a plan to try to catch one of the unidentified intruders in action by preparing F-16s to quickly take off if a sighting was ever reported by both the police and a radar station at the same time. Sure enough, as De Brouwer recounts in UFOs, that night came on March 30, when "several policemen" and "two military radar stations" spotted an unknown object. "Once aloft, the [Belgian] pilots tried to intercept the alleged crafts, and at one point recorded targets on their radar with unusual behavior, such as jumping huge distances in seconds and accelerating beyond human capacity," De Brouwer writes.

But frustratingly, the pilots never managed to see the object they were pursuing. After analysis of the aircraft's readings, "the Air Force's decision was that the evidence was insufficient to prove that there were real crafts in the air on that occasion," De Brouwer reports. Still, throughout 1990, the Air Force was asked — and could never specifically account for — the sightings, which, all told, numbered in the thousands by the time they quietly started going away again in April.

Three decades later, explanations are still in short supply, although some scientists now consider the event to be an example of mass hysteria. Dunning, quoting UFO skeptic Philip Klass, writes, "Once news coverage leads the public to believe that UFOs may be in the vicinity, there are numerous natural and man-made objects which, especially when seen at night, can take on unusual characteristics in the minds of hopeful viewers. Their UFO reports in turn add to the mass excitement, which encourages still more observers to watch for UFOs."

But De Brouwer still believes otherwise. "I can conclude with confidence that the observations during what is now known as the Belgian wave were not caused by mass hysteria," he says in UFOs. "The witnesses interviewed by investigators were sincere and honest. They did not previously know each other. Many were surprised by what they saw and today ... they are still prepared to confirm their unusual experience."

What we do know for certain is that there is a lot we don't yet understand about our universe. Even the U.S. Army has multiple stories of chasing strange, impossible objects through the sky. While the Belgian UFO wave likely wasn't a visitation by little green men, it remains without a satisfying answer even all these decades and technological advances later. "Today there is not yet any explanation!" Amond, the colonel who saw the lights with his wife, told Kean. "That is a pity, because I want to know before dying. Give me a correct explanation of my sighting; that is all I can ask."

The video below looks at the Belgian Wave in a little more detail.

LINK OTHER VIDEOS

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65SQPCAnw_I
• https://youtu.be/V-hGiVi7hJ0
• https://youtu.be/1OHAykM_IgY

{ https://theweek.com/ - https://www.youtube.com/ }

The Danger of UFOs Is Not What You Think

Our psychological response to the unfamiliar holds the real threat.

Lue Elizondo, who led the Pentagon UAP investigations until 2017 said that he wanted to alert Secretary of Defense Mattis to flight safety and potential military hazards of UAPs, but the “Praetorian guard” around the Secretary wouldn’t allow it. In frustration, Elizondo resigned to continue his investigations outside the government.

Elizondo and others who took UFOs seriously were not victims of a sinister coverup or conspiracy but a fundamental psychological need to believe we have control of our lives in the present and to predict what will happen to us in the future.

Research on the roots of emotional stress demonstrates that feeling out of control in the present and uncertain about the future are two of the biggest drivers of chronic stress.^1,2

As a result, we unconsciously adjust our perception of events to remain inside a low-stress comfort zone where we have at least the illusion of control and predictability of our fates.^3,4

Thus, when presented evidence of uncontrollable or unpredictable changes to our lives, we tend to discount (and even giggle at) looming disruptions like climate change, COVID-19, UFOs, and other circumstances far outside our normal experience.⁵

In this light, the Pentagon’s persistent UFO “giggle factor” is simply the deep-seated desire most of us have to remain inside our comfort zone. And social pressure reinforces our tendency to discount improbable looming events, as no one wants to be labeled the Boy Who Cried Wolf or Chicken Little.

Military Dangers of the Giggle Factor

Although UFOs may all turn out to be misidentifications of benign human activity (errant party balloons or drones), natural phenomena (e.g., ball lightning), or perceptual errors (optical illusions), credible reports, video, and radar information captured by the US Navy in 2004 and 2015³ suggest that something more exotic and unexplained is behind a few of the reports.

{ https://www.psychologytoday.com/us }

A team including University of Wyoming anthropologists works at the site of a circular plaza that was built around 4,750 years ago in the Cajamarca Basin of northern Peru.

CREDIT: Jason Toohey.

While no inscriptions describing the intended function of the ancient megalithic structure have been found at the site, the researchers say that they have retrieved many clues as to its purpose and origin.

“It was probably a gathering place and ceremonial location for some of the earliest people living in this part of the Cajamarca Valley,” explained Toohey. “These people were living a primarily hunting-and-gathering lifestyle and probably had only recently begun growing crops and domesticating animals.”

A biological anthropologist specializing in bioarchaeology who has been working in the area since 2003, Toohey was joined by fellow project leader Patricia Chirinos Ogata from the University of California-Santa Barbara as well as fellow UW staffer Professor Melissa Murphy. Together, the researchers have been working to reconstruct Peru’s ancient past while also collaborating with local authorities to preserve the history of the indigenous peoples.

University of Wyoming Associate Professor Jason Toohey stands at the Callacpuma archaeological site in the Andes.

CREDIT: Sarah Stagg

“As part of our community outreach, we collaborate and work with the residents of the towns on and adjacent to the site of Callacpuma about our findings and their importance,” Toohey says. “We highlight the importance of cultural heritage and, working together, we can continue the scientific investigations and help to preserve the site.”

A detailed accounting of the team’s findings and methods is published in the journal Science Advances under the title: ‘A monumental stone plaza at 4750 B.P. in the Cajamarca Valley of Peru.’

• Christopher Plain is a Science Fiction and Fantasy novelist and Head Science Writer at The Debrief. Follow and connect with him on X, learn about his books at plainfiction.com, or email him directly at christopher@thedebrief.org
  

Plan of the circular plaza and its construction.

Credit: Toohey et al., Science Advances (2024)

One of the entrances to the plaza.

Credit: Toohey et al., Science Advances (2024)

Detailed example of the stratigraphic layer from which the dated samples were collected.

Credit: Toohey et al., Science Advances (2024)

{ https://thedebrief.org/category/science/ }

Danny Sheehan: The Legal Force Behind UFO Disclosure and Alien Abduction Research

In the vast and mysterious world of Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP), few names are as pivotal as Daniel Sheehan. A Harvard-educated attorney renowned for his involvement in landmark cases such as the Pentagon Papers and Watergate, Sheehan’s legal journey took a turn towards the extraterrestrial when he represented Dr. John Mack, a Harvard psychologist and alien abduction researcher. This partnership not only thrust Sheehan into the heart of UAP advocacy but also positioned him as a key figure in the push for government transparency regarding extraterrestrial phenomena.

Dr. John Mack’s research into alien abduction phenomena, which involved detailed interviews with individuals claiming to have had direct encounters with extraterrestrial beings, drew significant scrutiny and controversy, particularly from Harvard University. In 1994, Mack enlisted Sheehan’s expertise to navigate the turbulent waters of institutional pushback. Sheehan, leveraging his legal acumen and deep understanding of the academic environment, embarked on a rigorous defense of Mack’s academic freedom and the legitimacy of his research.

Sheehan’s involvement in Mack’s case was not just a matter of legal representation; it was a deep dive into the world of UAP research. He engaged with key figures in the field, from Stanton Friedman to Steven Greer, and met firsthand with individuals who had reported extraordinary experiences. This comprehensive exposure not only fortified his legal strategy but also solidified his belief in the significance of the UAP issue as a matter of public policy.

One of Sheehan’s notable efforts was his attempt to organize a Grand Rounds at Harvard, financed by philanthropist Lawrence Rockefeller, to present Mack’s findings and evidence. Despite facing institutional resistance, Sheehan’s persistence highlighted the challenges faced by researchers in the field and the institutional barriers to exploring and acknowledging UAP phenomena.

VIDEO:

• Danny Sheehan: Dr John Mack’s UFO Defense Attorney Explains Alien Abduction Phenomena

• https://youtu.be/CplGRaBRoEU
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1kespVSrfY?si=qQ43wouxtA-42wsK

Throughout the legal battles, Sheehan encountered a web of secrecy and opposition from various quarters, including the legal and academic establishments. His experiences revealed a concerted effort to marginalize and discredit those seeking to explore and understand UAP-related encounters. Despite these challenges, Sheehan’s legal expertise and dedication to transparency and academic freedom helped to protect Mack’s research from being silenced.

Sheehan’s contributions to the UAP field extend beyond the courtroom. He played a crucial role in the Disclosure Project, advocating for the public release of classified information related to UAPs. His efforts have been instrumental in fostering a more open dialogue on the subject, encouraging researchers, witnesses, and government officials to come forward with their experiences and knowledge.

Moreover, Sheehan’s work has implications for the broader conversation about human experiences that defy conventional understanding. By defending the legitimacy of alien abduction research, Sheehan challenges the boundaries of accepted scientific inquiry and the societal mechanisms that govern the pursuit of knowledge. His advocacy for Dr. Mack’s work underscores the importance of an interdisciplinary approach to exploring the unknown, one that embraces rather than shuns the extraordinary.

In the end, Daniel Sheehan’s legacy in the field of UAP research is defined by his unwavering commitment to truth, transparency, and the defense of those who dare to explore the fringes of human understanding. Through his legal battles, public advocacy, and personal exploration of the phenomena, Sheehan has paved the way for a more open and inclusive examination of the mysteries that lie beyond our current grasp.

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

Verwoestende overstromingen zullen de aarde treffen: NASA kondigt het ergste aan

Verwoestende overstromingen zullen de aarde treffen: NASA kondigt het ergste aan

© Pixabay

Volgens een nieuw NASA-onderzoek, uitgevoerd in samenwerking met de Universiteit van Hawaï, zou een oscilatie in de baan van de maan verschrikkelijke gevolgen kunnen hebben over de hele wereld. Dat zou vervolgens NASA kunnen leiden tot nooit eerder geziene, verwoestende overstromingen.

Een trilling of oscillatie is een periodiek herhaalde omkering van de bewegingsrichting. Een trilling wordt vaak veroorzaakt door de verstoring van een stabiele evenwichtssituatie. 

Hoewel er een verandering in de baan van de maan wordt aangekondigd, zou het jaar 2030 catastrofaal kunnen zijn voor de wereldbevolking en vooral voor de kustbevolking. In een recent persbericht verklaarde NASA-onderzoeker en -beheerder Bill Nelson: “Gecombineerd met klimaatverandering zou dit maanfenomeen verwoestende overstromingen kunnen veroorzaken aan kusten in alle uithoeken van de wereld. De cumulatieve effecten van de zwaartekracht van de maan, de stijgende zee- en oceaanspiegels en de klimaatverandering zullen een toch al sterk gecompromitteerde huidige situatie nog erger maken. Zo bericht 7sur7.

De verandering in de maanbaan is een fenomeen dat elke 20 jaar voorkomt en natuurlijk is. De WordsSideKick.com-site wijst erop dat de oscillatie van de baan van de maan tijdens een regelmatige cyclus (18,6 jaar) de positie ten opzichte van de aarde zeer licht wijzigt. Volgens NASA “veroorzaakt het fenomeen gedurende de helft van deze cyclus zwakkere hoogwatertijden en sterkere laagwateren. Tijdens de andere helft van de cyclus worden de getijden versterkt, met sterker hoogwater en zwakker laagwater”, meldt 7sur7. Over een paar jaar zal de stijging van de zeespiegel significanter zijn en “dit effect, gecombineerd met andere, zou wel eens zelfs nog catastrofaler kunnen blijken voor de kustbevolking.”

• (Tagtik/Source: 7sur7/Illustration: Pixabay) 

{ https://www.msn.com/nl-be/ }

POSTED BY EVAN GOUGH

JWST Sees a Milky Way-Like Galaxy Coming Together in the Early Universe

The gigantic galaxies we see in the Universe today, including our own Milky Way galaxy, started out far smaller. Mergers throughout the Universe’s 13.7 billion years gradually assembled today’s massive galaxies. But they may have begun as mere star clusters.

In an effort to understand the earliest galaxies, the JWST has examined their ancient light for clues as to how they became so massive.

The JWST can effectively see back in time to when the Universe was only about 5% as old as it is now. In that distant past, structures that would eventually become as massive as the Milky Way, and even larger, were only about 1/10,000th as massive as they are now. What clues can the powerful infrared space telescope uncover that show us how galaxies grew so large?

A new paper presents JWST observations of a galaxy at redshift z~8.3. At that redshift, the light has been travelling for over 13 billion years and began its journey only 600 million years after the Big Bang. The galaxy, called the Firefly Sparkle, contains a network of massive star clusters that are evidence of how galaxies grow.

The paper is “The Firefly Sparkle: The Earliest Stages of the Assembly of A Milky Way-type Galaxy in a 600 Myr Old Universe.” The lead author is Lamiya Mowla, an observational astronomer and assistant professor of Physics and Astronomy at Wellesley College. The paper is in pre-print and hasn’t yet been peer-reviewed.

“The Firefly Sparkle provides an unprecedented case study of a Milky Way-like galaxy in the earliest stages of its assembly in only a 600 million-year-old Universe,”

From Mowla et al. 2024

Despite the JWST’s power, this distant, ancient galaxy is only visible through the gravitational lensing of a massive cluster of foreground galaxies. The lensing makes the Firefly Sparkle appear as an arc. Two other galaxies are also in the vicinity, called Firefly BF (Best Friend) and Firefly NBF (New Best Friend.)

This image shows the Firefly Sparkle galaxy and its two neighbours, BF and NBF. The Firefly Sparkle’s mass is concentrated in 10 clusters that contain up to 57% of its entire mass. Image Credit: Mowla et al. 2024.

“The Firefly Sparkle exhibits the hallmarks expected of a future Milky Way-type galaxy captured during its
earliest and most gas-rich stage of formation,” the authors write. The young galaxy’s mass is concentrated in 10 clusters, which range from about 200,000 solar masses to 630,000 solar masses. According to the authors, these clusters “straddle the boundary between low-mass galaxies and high-mass globular clusters.”

These clusters are significant because they’re clues to how the galaxy is growing. The researchers were able to gauge the ages of the clusters and their star formation histories. They found that they experienced a burst of star formation at around the same time. “The cluster ages suggest that they are gravitationally bound with star formation histories showing a recent starburst possibly triggered by the interaction with a companion galaxy at the same redshift at a projected distance of ~2 kpc away from the Firefly Sparkle.”

There are two candidates for the interacting galaxy: Firefly Best Friend (BF) and Firefly New Best Friend (NBF). But NBF is about 13 kpcs away, while BF is about two kpcs away, making BF the likely interactor. “Faint low-surface brightness features are visible at the corners of the arc close to the neighbour, hinting at a possible interaction between the two galaxies <FS and BF> which may have triggered a burst of star formation in both of them,” explain the researchers.

This figure from the study illustrates the star formation histories of each cluster, as well as each galaxy. In the top right, “The Firefly Sparkle and FF-BF both show a recent burst of star formation in the last ~ 50 Myr indicative of recent interactions,” the authors explain. Image Credit: Mowla et al. 2024.

The researchers paid special attention to the central cluster. They found that the temperature is extremely high at about 40,000 Kelvin (40,000 C; 72,000 F.) It also has a top-heavy initial mass function, a signal that it formed in a very metal-poor environment. These observations and other evidence show that Firefly Sparkle is very likely a progenitor of galaxies like ours. For these reasons, “… the Firefly Sparkle provides an unprecedented case study of a Milky Way-like galaxy in the earliest stages of its assembly in
only a 600 million-year-old Universe,” the authors write.

Fortunately, the researchers behind these results have a powerful supercomputer simulation to compare observations with. It’s called Illustris TNG. It’s a massive cosmological magnetohydrodynamical simulation based on a comprehensive physical model of the Universe. Illustris TNG has made three runs, called TNG50, TNG 100, and TNG 300. The researchers compared their results with TNG 50.

This figure compares Firefly Sparkle’s current mass with the TNG 50 simulations of galaxy growth and with the growth rate of the Milky Way, according to an upcoming paper. Image Credit: Mowla et al. 2024.

Finding these ancient star clusters is intriguing, but we can’t assume they’ll survive intact. There are tidal and evaporative forces at work. The authors examined the stability of the individual star clusters and how they’ll fare over time.

“Most of these star clusters are expected to survive to the present-day universe and will expand and then get ripped apart to form the stellar disk and the halo of the galaxy,” the authors explain. “The only way they survive is to get kicked out to large distances, away from the dense tidal field of the galaxy.” The ones that get kicked out may persist as globular clusters.

One of the JWST’s primary science goals is to study how galaxies formed and evolved in the early Universe. By finding one in which clusters are still forming, the space telescope is reaching its goal.

“The Firefly Sparkle represents one of JWST’s first spectrophotometric observations of an extremely lensed galaxy assembling at high redshifts, with clusters that are in the process of formation instead of seen at later epochs,” the authors conclude.

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

The Brightest Object Ever Seen in the Universe

As a general rule, astronomers gauge the growth rate of SMBHs based on the luminosity of their galaxy’s core region – the brighter the quasar, the faster the black hole is accreting matter. In this case, the SMBH at the core of J0529-4351 is growing by the equivalent of one Solar mass a day, making it the fastest-growing black hole yet observed. In the process, the accretion disk alone releases a radiative energy of 2 × 10⁴¹ Watts, more than 500 trillion times the luminous energy emitted by the Sun. Christian Wolf, an ANU astronomer and lead author of the study, characterized the discovery in a recent ESO press release:

“We have discovered the fastest-growing black hole known to date. It has a mass of 17 billion Suns, and eats just over a Sun per day. This makes it the most luminous object in the known Universe. Personally, I simply like the chase. For a few minutes a day, I get to feel like a child again, playing treasure hunt, and now I bring everything to the table that I have learned since.”

But what was most surprising was that this quasar was hiding in plain sight. “All this light comes from a hot accretion disc that measures seven light-years in diameter — this must be the largest accretion disc in the Universe,” said ANU Ph.D. student and co-author Samuel Lai. “It is a surprise that it has remained unknown until today, when we already know about a million less impressive quasars. It has literally been staring us in the face until now,” added co-author Christopher Onken, who is also an astronomer at ANU.

As Onken explained, J0529-4351 showed up in images taken by the ESO Schmidt Southern Sky Survey dating back to 1980. It was only in recent years that it was recognized as a quasar, thanks to improved instruments and measurements. Finding quasars requires precise observations from large areas of the sky, resulting in massive datasets that often require machine learning algorithms to analyze them. However, these models are somewhat limited because they are trained on existing data, meaning candidates are selected based on previously observed objects.

This image shows the region of the sky in which the record-breaking quasar J0529-4351 is situated. Credit: ESO/Digitized Sky Survey 2/Dark Energy Survey

Since J0529-4351 is so luminous, it was dismissed by the ESA’s Gaia Observatory as being too bright to be a quasar and was ruled to be a bright star. Last year, the ANU-led team identified it as a distant quasar based on observations using the 2.3-meter telescope at the Siding Spring Observatory in Australia. They then conducted follow-up observations using the X-shooter spectrograph on the ESO’s VLT telescope to confirm their results. The quasar is also an ideal target for the GRAVITY+ upgrade on ESO’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI), designed to accurately measure the mass of black holes.

In addition, astronomers look forward to making observations with next-generation telescopes like the ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT). This 39-meter telescope, currently under construction in the Atacama Desert in Chile, will make identifying and characterizing distant quasars easier. Studying these objects and their central black holes could reveal vital details about how SMBHs and galaxies co-evolved during the early Universe.

Further Reading: 

• ESO
• ESO Science Papers

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

‘Best UFO Footage Ever’ Is Confirmed As Authentic, According To ‘Ufologist’

KAY SMYTHE

You’ve probably already seen this viral footage of an alleged UFO zooming past a cockpit window. It was released in 2023, but now a ufologist is confirming the authenticity of this alien technology.

When the footage of this UFO was released by pilot Jorge Arteaga, it was described as the “best UFO footage ever.” It shows a strange object that looks like a flying saucer whizzing right past the window of Arteaga’s plane, which most people assumed was a birthday balloon gone astray, according to LadBible.

Jaime Maussan — best known for telling the world that two alien corpses were found in Mexico in 2023 — has decided to tell everyone that this clip is real. And, honestly, it’s kind of hard to argue with him after watching this video.

Arteaga took the video while flying above Antioquia, Colombia with a co-pilot. The video shows the UFO appearing through the clouds as a black mass before it rapidly approaches the cockpit. Arteaga was quick to grab out his cell and capture the strangely-shaped object, as it was initially stationary before zooming out toward Medellin and Santa Fe.

Arteaga then allegedly followed the UFO in the plane, but didn’t manage to track it down. He did say it didn’t move like a balloon, drone or plane, the outlet noted. 

• (RELATED: Video Appears To Show ‘UFO’ Flying By Air Force One At Los Angeles International Airport)

So, is this thing legit? My gut says this is either a very good computer-generated video or some type of government-developed technology that we’ll be introduced to in the coming years. Or, perhaps the little green men will come down in the next year or so to reveal themselves to us. Though at this point, I can’t imagine why any extraterrestrials would want to deal with our species. We are such a silly bunch.

{ https://dailycaller.com/ }

By PETER HESS FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

A Florida Congresswoman says she believes that some of the UFO sightings that have made headlines in recent years are 'of non-human origin' and possibly 'inter-dimensional beings.'

Rep Anna Paulina Luna is a member of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, which has been investigating claims about UFOs and carrying out historic hearings with military whistleblowers.

She revealed to The Grant Mitt Podcast this week that after a classified meeting with Air Force whistleblowers, she 'absolutely believes' that the aircrafts they and others have described are 'of non-human origin.'

Luna also claimed that at that same meeting she was 'men-in-blacked,' first by officials from the Pentagon who attempted to cancel the visit, and then by CIA agents who were inexplicably shadowing her meeting with the Air Force personnel.

Representatives Matt Gaetz (left), Tim Burchett (center), and Anna Paulina Luna (right) recently traveled to Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, Representative Luna said. There, they received classified information about UFOs from a whistleblower

Her phrase referred to the pop-culture conspiracy-theory image of government agents in black suits, who are sent to keep people quiet about UFO sightings. 

'Being a member of Oversight, we follow up with whistleblowers, and we also can conduct our own investigations,' she told Mitterlehner.

In the course of one of these investigations, she said, Luna and two other US representatives went to Eglin Air Force Base, on the Florida panhandle, where they met with one such whistleblower.

The other two representatives who came along on the visit were Tim Burchett of Tennessee, who is also a member of the Oversight and Accountability Committee, and Matt Gaetz of Florida, who is on the House Armed Services Committee and the House Judiciary Committee.

She came away from that visit with strong conclusions: 

'I can tell you, based on my investigations, not in a classified setting, that I absolutely believe that there is things that are advanced technologies not of human origin,' she told Mitterlehner. 

Luna claimed that the Pentagon tried to cancel her visit to Eglin Air Force Base, which she made as part of a delegation to investigate whistleblower claims that the Air Force was covering up information about UFOs

Her view is increasingly shared among lawmakers and the American public, as a series of high-profile disclosures and hearings in the last few years have brought UFOs out of the conspiracy theory realm and into the arena of political debate.

Luna, Gaetz, and others have pressed the Pentagon to declassify material related to UAP (unidentified aerial phenomena). 

Pilots at Eglin had come forward to Representative Gaetz's office to say that the Air Force was covering up UAP activity, and that Congress needed to look into it.

'We coordinated the meeting,' Luna said. 'The Pentagon tried to initially cancel the first one. We got it back on the books. We show up there, and we get in, and the base commander tried to basically tell us that we didn't have authorized clearance to look into and speak to some of the witnesses.

US Representative Anna Paulina Luna could not disclose classified details from her meeting with military officials at Eglin, but she told Grant Mitterlehner that she 'absolutely believes' the footage of UAPs are 'not of human origin.'

'You don't tell Congress that we don't have the authorized clearance,' she said, 'especially members of House Armed Services, Oversight, and Judiciary.'

David Grusch - a former high-ranking intelligence official - is one of three military whistleblowers who testified under oath that they know firsthand about secret programs involving technology far surpassing the US' capabilities

So she had it out with the base commander, Luna said. And in the middle of the meeting, he took off on leave, 'Which never happens with a delegation going to a military base,' she added.

There were also attendees at the meeting who Luna was 'pretty sure' were from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), an unusual occurrence.

'Why would a intelligence agency need to be there on a meeting for whistleblowers?' she asked.

Luna also spoke about the congressional hearing from July 2023, where whistleblower David Grusch outlined under oath how the US government has been aware of UFOs for nearly a century and has been misinforming the public about them. 

That hearing, which followed Luna's visit to Eglin, contained information she found 'particularly alarming,' because of the allegations that people may have been murdered to keep the UFO story secret.

'Have you received classified information?' Mitterlehner asked Luna.

'Yeah, but I can't talk about that,' she replied

When asked about whether she had believed in aliens before she became a member of congress, Luna corrected the record.

'I wouldn't call them aliens,' she said. 'I really like what Grusch calls them: He says that they're inter-dimensional beings, and he's very specific about that.'

This still image is from a previously released unclassified US government video taken by an Air Force pilot. Representative Luna said that pilots no longer feel as hesitant to speak up when they see unexplained phenomena in the sky

What this means, Luna clarified, was that 'they're not necessarily a biological entity from another planet per se.'

The case she alluded to was likely the one from last year, in which Gaetz had described seeing footage of 'an orb' hanging over the Gulf of Mexico, moving in a way that was 'not of any human capability.'

He saw the footage during a visit to Eglin AFB, where Air Force pilots described a diamond formation of aircrafts that they saw on radar.

 'One of the pilots goes to check out that diamond formation and sees a large, floating, what I can only describe as an orb,' he said at the time. 'Again, like I said, not of any human capability that I'm aware of.'

She talked, too, about what a huge change the country has experienced in recent years, away from the stigma that used to be attached to talking about extraterrestrial beings or UFOs.

• https://youtu.be/klP13AJz4_E

When I was stationed at Portland Air Guard unit a number of years ago, I remember there was a incident that occurred, and the pilots kind of back and I asked one of them what he thought it was, and he couldn't really talk about it,' she recounted. 'He didn't want to because the stigma that the military has is that you're crazy.

'But we're seeing that with, especially technology that we have, even your iPhone for example, you can record things and it's not going to be classified.'

'We hope that more people come forward,' she added.

Luna also noted how she is heartened by the bipartisan push for transparency on the topic, which makes it ironic that other government officials or offices seem to be blocking her and her colleagues' efforts to learn what is happening with UAPs.

'If congress is writing the bills to fund these programs, yet we don't have authorized access and oversight into it, then that's not necessarily something that happens in a free country, right?' she said. 'So we continue to push.'

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

Titan Most Likely Non-Habitable, Astrobiologists Say

Saturn’s moon Titan has an organic-rich atmosphere and surface with a subsurface ocean that may represent a habitable environment. In a new study, astrobiologists determined the amount of organic material that can be delivered from Titan’s surface to its ocean through impact cratering. Unless biologically available compounds can be sourced from Titan’s interior, or be delivered from the surface by other mechanisms, their calculations suggest that even the most organic-rich ocean world in the Solar System may not be able to support a large biosphere.

An artist’s rendering of the surface of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan.

Image credit: Benjamin de Bivort, debivort.org / CC BY-SA 3.0.

The identification of life in the outer Solar System is a significant area of interest for planetary scientists, astronomers and government space agencies like NASA, largely because many icy moons of the giant planets are thought to have large subsurface oceans of liquid water.

Titan, for example, is thought to have an ocean beneath its icy surface that is more than 12 times the volume of Earth’s oceans.

Life as we know it here on Earth needs water as a solvent, so planets and moons with lots of water are of interest when looking for extraterrestrial life,” said first author Professor Catherine Neish, an astrobiologist at the University of Western Ontario.

In the study, Professor Neish and her colleagues attempted to quantify the amount of organic molecules that could be transferred from Titan’s organic-rich surface to its subsurface ocean, using data from impact cratering.

Comets impacting Titan throughout its history have melted the surface of the icy moon, creating pools of liquid water that have mixed with the surface organics.

The resulting melt is denser than its icy crust, so the heavier water sinks through the ice, possibly all the way to Titan’s subsurface ocean.

Using the assumed rates of impacts on Titan’s surface, the researchers determined how many comets of different sizes would strike Titan each year over its history.

“Life as we know it here on Earth needs water as a solvent, so planets and moons with lots of water are of interest when looking for extraterrestrial life,” said first author Professor Catherine Neish, an astrobiologist at the University of Western Ontario.

In the study, Professor Neish and her colleagues attempted to quantify the amount of organic molecules that could be transferred from Titan’s organic-rich surface to its subsurface ocean, using data from impact cratering.

Comets impacting Titan throughout its history have melted the surface of the icy moon, creating pools of liquid water that have mixed with the surface organics.

The resulting melt is denser than its icy crust, so the heavier water sinks through the ice, possibly all the way to Titan’s subsurface ocean.

Using the assumed rates of impacts on Titan’s surface, the researchers determined how many comets of different sizes would strike Titan each year over its history.

This allowed them to predict the flow rate of water carrying organics that travel from Titan’s surface to its interior.

The authors found the weight of organics transferred in this way is quite small, no more than 7,500 kg/year of glycine, the simplest amino acid, which makes up proteins in life.

“One elephant per year of glycine into an ocean 12 times the volume of Earth’s oceans is not sufficient to sustain life,” Professor Neish said.

“In the past, people often assumed that water equals life, but they neglected the fact that life needs other elements, in particular carbon.”

Other icy worlds in the Solar System have almost no carbon on their surfaces, and it is unclear how much could be sourced from their interiors.

“This work shows that it is very hard to transfer the carbon on Titan’s surface to its subsurface ocean — basically, it’s hard to have both the water and carbon needed for life in the same place,” Professor Neish said.

• The team’s paper was published online this month in the journal Astrobiology.
• Catherine Neish et al. Organic Input to Titan’s Subsurface Ocean Through Impact Cratering. Astrobiology, published online February 2, 2024; doi: 10.1089/ast.2023.0055

{ https://www.sci.news/ }

Astronomers Spot Hundreds of Massive Gas Clouds Escaping Milky Way’s Center

Using new 21-cm radio observations made with NSF’s Green Bank Telescope, astronomers have discovered over 250 neutral gaseous clouds being blasted out of the center of our Milky Way Galaxy into interstellar space. These clouds are likely a product of the same phenomenon that created the Fermi Bubbles.

An artist’s conception of the clouds flowing out from the center of the Milky Way, entrained in a very hot wind that has accelerated them to velocities of many hundreds of km per second.

Image credit: NSF / GBO / P. Vosteen.

It has been known for some time that energetic processes in the center of the Milky Way have created fast, hot winds expanding into intergalactic space with temperatures of millions of degrees and velocities of thousands of km per second. Most large galaxies have winds like this.

The accidental discovery that some of this outflowing hot gas has entrained cold hydrogen clouds was made by the Australian ATCA telescope measuring the 21-cm radio emission emitted by interstellar hydrogen atoms.

This implied that there could be an undiscovered population of clouds carrying matter out of the nucleus of the Milky Way.

The hydrogen clouds are important on their own, but they also serve as probes of the hot wind.

It is difficult to measure conditions within the very hot wind, but the cool clouds can trace it in the same way that on Earth, a handful of leaves tossed upwards can show the direction and speed of the local wind.

The sensitivity of the Green Bank Telescope (GBT) make it the ideal instrument for detecting faint signals from interstellar hydrogen, but mapping these clouds, and realizing their true extent, was no easy feat.

“It took years using the GBT to systematically map hundreds of square degrees in search of faint hydrogen emission,” said Dr. Felix James ‘Jay’ Lockman, senior astronomer at the Green Bank Observatory.

“Once we identified some promising candidates, we could follow up with targeted observations at other telescopes to show us more.”

“The clouds must have been ripped from an area near the very center of the Milky Way and flung outward, either by a burst of star formation or activity of a black hole.”

Some of these clouds have the highest outflow velocity of any clouds ever observed in the Milky Way, and may escape the Galaxy.

In an unexpected twist, the new data from the APEX telescope revealed that some of the hydrogen clouds contain molecules and dense cold gas.

“No one would have expected that clouds violently ejected from the Milky Way could harbor relatively fragile molecular material, but there it is,” Dr. Lockman said.

Astronomers using the MeerKAT array recently mapped the hydrogen in a few clouds at high angular resolution, showing them evolving and being shredded as they flow into interstellar space.

“These new results open the door for more discoveries,” Dr. Lockman said.

“How the clouds remain stable as they are accelerated to more than 400 km per second is a mystery.”

“The chemical processes in these clouds are quite unusual and unexplored.”

Dr. Lockman and his colleague, Dr. Enrico Di Teodoro from the Università degli Studi di Firenze, presented the findings at AAS243, the 243rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society in New Orleans, Louisiana, the United States.

• Felix Lockman & Enrico Di Teodoro. 2024. A New Census of Neutral Clouds in the Milky Way’s Nuclear Wind. AAS243, abstract #2851

{ https://www.sci.news/ }

De Amerikaanse ruimtevaartorganisatie NASA zoekt kandidaten om uit te testen hoe het leven op Mars is. Maar de vereisten zijn zeer strikt: om te beginnen mogen enkel Amerikanen deelnemen aan de tests.

Nu de rakettechnologie steeds meer op punt staat, lijkt exploratie op Mars dichterbij te komen. De levensomstandigheden zijn echter heel anders dan op aarde. Vandaar dat er getest moet worden of het wel verstandig is om mensen te sturen.

In het nieuws: De simulatiemissie Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog (CHAPEA 2) moet NASA een beeld geven van het leven op Mars.

De details: De toelatingsvoorwaarden zijn niet min.

• Verder zijn ook nog minstens 1.000 vlieguren als piloot of twee jaar doctoraatswerk in een STEM-richting bepalende factoren.
• Geïnteresseerden kunnen zich aanmelden op de NASA-website en krijgen een indrukwekkende vragenlijst voorgeschoteld. “Ben je bereid om geen communicatie te hebben voor een jaar behalve met je crewleden, met een vertraging van maximaal 20 minuten?” en “Ben je bereid uitgebreide cognitieve, sportieve en gedragstests te ondergaan?” geven een beeld van wat je kan verwachten.

{ https://www.msn.com/nl-be/ }

UFO sighting video: Cigar-shaped UFO over Lucca, Italy 18-Feb-2024

On February 18, 2024, an intriguing video surfaced on the “Latest UFO Sightings” Facebook group, capturing the attention of UFO enthusiasts and skeptics alike. The footage, recorded during daylight hours, showcases a remarkable sighting above the historic city of Lucca, located in the heart of Tuscany, Italy. This video has ignited a flurry of discussions and analyses within the community, offering a fresh glimpse into the ever-evolving mystery of unidentified flying objects.

The object in question is described as a thin, long cylindrical UFO, distinguished by an unusual feature: a ring on either side of its body. This distinctive characteristic sets it apart from the more commonly reported shapes of UFOs, sparking curiosity and speculation about its origin and purpose. The clarity of the footage, combined with the object’s unique attributes, has made this sighting a significant point of interest.

Lucca, the backdrop of this extraordinary event, is a city revered for its rich history and cultural heritage. Nestled on the Serchio River in a fertile plain near the Ligurian Sea, Lucca boasts a population of about 89,000 residents. This “Città d’arte” (City of Art) is encircled by intact Renaissance-era city walls, a testament to its historical significance and enduring beauty. The city’s well-preserved historic center is home to architectural marvels such as the Piazza dell’Anfiteatro, the Guinigi Tower, and the Cathedral of San Martino, making it a treasure trove of Italian art and history.

Moreover, Lucca has been the birthplace of several world-renowned composers, including Giacomo Puccini, Alfredo Catalani, and Luigi Boccherini, further enriching its cultural landscape. The sighting of a UFO above such a historically and artistically significant city adds an intriguing layer to its already fascinating narrative.

As the video garners views and shares across social media, it raises numerous questions about the nature of the object and its origins. Could this be evidence of extraterrestrial technology, an experimental aircraft, or simply a misunderstood natural phenomenon? The clear daytime conditions under which the footage was captured provide a rare opportunity for detailed analysis, offering both believers and skeptics alike a chance to explore the possibilities.

The sighting in Lucca contributes to the global catalog of UFO encounters, reminding us of the vast, unexplored mysteries that lie beyond our current understanding. As investigations into the footage continue, this event stands as a captivating chapter in the ongoing quest to unravel the enigma of UFOs. Whether this sighting will eventually be explained or remain an enduring mystery, it undeniably adds to the allure and intrigue of Lucca’s rich tapestry of history and art.

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

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

Look at How Much the Sun Has Changed in Just Two Years

The slow rotation of the Sun and the slow but continuous winding up of the field lines means that sun spots become more and more numerous as the field gets more distorted. Observed over a period of years the spots seem to slowly migrate from the polar regions to the equatorial regions as the solar cycle progresses. 

To try and help understand this complex cycle and unlock other mysteries of the Sun, the European Space Agency launched its Solar Orbiter on 10 February 2020. Its mission to explore the Sun’s polar regions, understand what drives the 11 year solar cycle and what drives the heating of the corona, the outer layers of the Sun’s atmosphere. 

Images from Solar Orbiter have been released that show closeups of the Sun’s visible surface, the photosphere as it nears peak of solar activity. At the beginning of the cycle, at solar minimum in 2019, there was relatively little activity and only a few sunspots. Since then, things have been slowly increasing. The image from February 2021 showed a reasonably quiet Sun but an image taken in October last year shows that things are, dare I say, hotting up! The maximum of this cycle is expected to occur in 2025 which supports theories that the period of maximum activity could arrive a year earlier.

Understanding the cycle is not just of whimsical scientific interest, it is vital to ensure we minimise damage to ground based and orbiting systems but crucially understand impact on life on Earth. 

Source :

•  Sun’s surprising activity surge in Solar Orbiter snapshot

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

Stone Age Hunting Megastructure Discovered in Baltic Sea

 by Sergio Prostak

A team of archaeologists from Germany has discovered a submerged Stone Age megastructure in the Western Baltic Sea at a water depth of about 21 m. The structure was likely constructed by hunter-gatherer groups more than 10,000 years ago and ultimately drowned around 8,500 years ago; since then, it remained hidden at the seafloor, leading to a pristine preservation that will inspire research on the lifestyle and territorial development in the larger area.

An artist’s reconstruction of the Blinkerwall in the Bay of Mecklenburg, Germany.

Image credit: Michał Grabowski.

The Stone Age megastructure was discovered in the Bay of Mecklenburg, about 10 km northwest off Rerik, Germany.

The stonewall is made of 1,673 individual stones which are usually less than 1 m in height, placed side by side over a distance of 971 m in a way that argues against a natural origin by glacial transport or ice push ridges.

Dubbed Blinkerwall, it was built by hunter-gatherers that roamed the region after the retreat of the Weichselian Ice Sheet.

Enlarge / Morphology of the southwest–northeast trending ridge that hosts the Blinkerwall and the adjacent mound.

Running adjacent to the sunken shoreline of a paleolake (or bog), whose youngest phase was dated to 9,143 years ago, the structure was likely used for hunting the Eurasian reindeer (Rangifer tarandus).

“At the time, the entire population across northern Europe was likely below 5,000 people,” said Dr. Marcel Bradtmöller, a researcher at the University of Rostock.

“One of their main food sources were herds of reindeer, which migrated seasonally through the sparsely vegetated post-glacial landscape.”

“The wall was probably used to guide the reindeer into a bottleneck between the adjacent lakeshore and the wall, or even into the lake, where the Stone Age hunters could kill them more easily with their weapons.”

Morphology of the southwest-northeast trending ridge that hosts the Blinkerwall and the adjacent mound.

Image credit: Geersen et al., doi: 10.1073/pnas.2312008121.

The Blinkerwall represents one of the oldest documented man-made hunting structures on Earth, and ranges among the largest known Stone Age structure in Europe.

“Our investigations indicate that a natural origin of the underwater stonewall as well as a construction in modern times, for instance in connection with submarine cable laying or stone harvesting are not very likely,” said Dr. Jacob Geersen, also from the University of Rostock.

“The methodical arrangement of the many small stones that connect the large, non-moveable boulders, speaks against this.”

Using modern geophysical methods, the researchers created a detailed 3D model of the Blinkerwall and reconstructed the ancient landscape.

The site was also visited and inspected by a team of scientific divers from Rostock University and the State Authority for Culture and Monuments in Mecklenburg Western Pomerania on one occasion.

The dives primarily aimed at assessing the nature of the stonewall and to survey the surrounding seabed for the presence of possible archeological artifacts.

They concentrated on two locations, namely the western end of the structure and a large stone in the center where the Blinkerwall changes direction.

While neither artifacts or dateable organic material was found in the immediate vicinity of the two dive locations, a small timber sample was retrieved from the Holocene sediments about 10 m to the south of the structure.

3D model of a section of the Blinkerwall adjacent to the large boulder at the western end of the wall. Photographs were taken by Philipp Hoy, Rostock University. The scale bar at the top-right edge of the image is 50 cm.

Image credit: Geersen et al., doi: 10.1073/pnas.2312008121.

“Although numerous well-preserved archaeological sites from the Stone Age are known from the Bay of Wismar and along the coast of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, these are located in much shallower water depths and mostly date to the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods (7,000-2,500 BCE),” said Dr. Jens Auer, a researcher at the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern State Office for Culture and Monument Preservation.

“We have evidence for the existence of comparable stonewalls at other locations in the Mecklenburg Bight. These will be systematically investigated as well,” added Dr. Jens Schneider von Deimling, a researcher at Kiel University.

{ https://www.sci.news/ }

Multiple flights reported 'strange lights' in the sky over Quebec during one day in 2023

Early on Feb. 12, 2023, at least three different flights over Quebec reported(opens in a new tab) "seeing very strange lights in the sky, high above the flight paths" that were "moving in a rapid and irregular way."

"It looks like it's more than one and sort of circling," a crew member aboard a cargo flight from Chicago to Luxembourg told air traffic controllers in Canada, according to audio obtained by CTVNews.ca(opens in a new tab). "It's a bit weird."

•  Top science and technology headlines, all in one place(opens in a new tab)
•  The information you need to know, sent directly to you: Download the CTV News App(opens in a new tab)

CTVNews.ca has identified at least 17 reports like these from 2023 in an online aviation incident database(opens in a new tab) maintained by Transport Canada, the federal transportation department. Those reports come from across the country and involve pilots and crew with WestJet(opens in a new tab), Air France(opens in a new tab), British Airways(opens in a new tab) and more(opens in a new tab). You can read all of the reports in an exclusive interactive map(opens in a new tab).

Selected incidents from the Civil Aviation Daily Occurrence Reporting System (CADORS), 2023

Since 2000, Transport Canada's database has logged more than 315,000 reports of civil aviation incidents. The cases below represent unusual "laser interference" and "CIRVIS/UFO" reports from 2023.

Note: Incident details are based solely on information available in the hyperlinked CADORS reports, including event descriptions that are quoted therefrom. Locations of some incidents are approximate and map markers may be based primarily on the location of the reporting aerodrome. Incident time is expressed in Zulu time, or 24-hour Greenwich Mean Time. Transport Canada notes that "for the most part, CADORS reports contain preliminary, unconfirmed data which can be subject to change." Last updated Jan. 25, 2024.

Map: Charlie Buckley, CTV NewsSource: Transport Canada, Civil Aviation Daily Occurrence Reporting System (CADORS)Created with Datawrapper

"Just to let you know there was a flight from the south… they saw the same thing roughly a half-an-hour ago," an air traffic controller told the Luxembourg-bound cargo flight on Feb. 12.

"So I guess we're not just dreaming then, huh?" the aviator said.

"No, you're not the first one tonight."

Roughly 24 hours later, air traffic controllers received another report, this time from an Edmonton to Yellowknife flight(opens in a new tab) operated by Air Tindi that "reported observing a rotating light" at 30,000 feet over northern Alberta.

When something similar was spotted near Yellowknife late on Jan. 29(opens in a new tab), air traffic controllers sent a "vital intelligence sighting" report to Norad, the joint Canada-U.S. air defence group.

"We're looking at two lights dancing around here, to the east of your field," a crew member aboard a Canadian North flight from Fort McMurray said as they approached Yellowknife on Jan. 29, according to air traffic control audio previously published by CTVNews.ca(opens in a new tab). "We're not crazy."

Increasingly referred to as "unidentified anomalous phenomena," or UAP for short, UFOs and unidentified flying objects have become the focus of U.S. congressional hearings(opens in a new tab) and official reports from both NASA(opens in a new tab) and the Pentagon(opens in a new tab). In Canada, the federal government's top scientific advisor has also launched the Sky Canada Project(opens in a new tab), which plans to release a public UAP report in 2024(opens in a new tab).

•  Document reveals first known Canadian UFO study in nearly 30 years now underway(opens in a new tab)

Transport Canada's aviation incident database contains reports on everything from bird strikes(opens in a new tab) to unruly passengers(opens in a new tab). Known as CADORS, it is also peppered with nearly three decades of strange sightings from civilians(opens in a new tab), soldiers(opens in a new tab), police officers(opens in a new tab), air traffic controllers(opens in a new tab) and pilots on medical(opens in a new tab), military(opens in a new tab), cargo(opens in a new tab) and passenger(opens in a new tab) flights.

The most recent 2023 reports come from within an hour of each other, when an Atlas Air flight from Chicago to Frankfurt(opens in a new tab) and a Air France flight from Los Angeles to Paris(opens in a new tab) separately reported "an unidentified object" and "an object ahead and above with 6-7 lights" near Toronto early on Dec. 3.

Transport Canada routinely cautions that such "reports contain preliminary, unconfirmed data which can be subject to change."

"These reports have no potential for regulatory enforcement and often fall outside the department’s mandate," a Transport Canada spokesperson previously told CTVNews.ca(opens in a new tab). "Reports of unidentified objects can rarely be followed up on as they are as the title implies, unidentified."

'Vital intelligence sightings'

Robert Powell is a Texas-based engineer and founding board member of the Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies(opens in a new tab), an international think-tank dedicated to applying scientific principles to UAP research.

"I suspect that these reports represent a small fraction of what pilots are seeing," Powell told CTVNews.ca. "Not only does the stigma of making a UAP report still exist, but the reporting form and the way it is handled would make it clear to any pilot that his report was simply filed away."

Most reports are provided to federal transportation officials by Nav Canada, a private non-profit company that owns and operates Canada's civilian air traffic control infrastructure.

•  Here's how the Canadian government and military handle UFO reports(opens in a new tab)

The company's aviation guidelines(opens in a new tab) (opens in a new tab)direct pilots over Canada to immediately report "a vital intelligence sighting of any airborne and ground objects or activities that appear to be hostile, suspicious, unidentified or engaged in possible illegal smuggling activity." Known as "Communication Instructions for Reporting Vital Intelligence Sightings" or CIRVIS reports, Nav Canada even puts "unidentified flying objects" at the front of a list of examples that also includes foreign submarines and warships. When such reports are made, Nav Canada typically alerts Transport Canada and a Norad-affiliated Royal Canadian Air Force squadron in North Bay, Ont(opens in a new tab).

"Nav Canada's Aviation Occurrence Reporting Procedure is used to address instances of unauthorized or unknown aircraft in NAV CANADA managed airspace," a company spokesperson told CTVNews.ca. "Nav Canada provides all information that it receives on these incidents to the Canadian government."

But unless there is a clear safety or security concern(opens in a new tab), there tends to be little to no follow-up from Canadian authorities.

"The Canadian Armed Forces and the Royal Canadian Air Force do not typically investigate sightings of unknown or unexplained phenomena outside the context of investigating credible threats, potential threats, or potential distress in the case of search and rescue," a Canadian defence spokesperson previously told CTVNews.ca(opens in a new tab).

At least four incidents(opens in a new tab) appear to have met that criteria between 2016 and Feb. 2023, when a high-altitude Chinese balloon(opens in a new tab) and three unidentified objects(opens in a new tab) were shot down over North America.

•  Read 'Secret' memo for Trudeau on unidentified object shot down over Yukon(opens in a new tab)

A Jan. 31 Air Canada sighting of the balloon(opens in a new tab) over B.C. also appeared in Transport Canada's digital database(opens in a new tab).

'Unusual lights, moving erratically'

Some of the Canadian UAP cases from 2023 may have straightforward explanations, like a Jan. 6 Swoop fight from Abbotsford, B.C.(opens in a new tab) that "reported seeing a dozen or so white lights" near Hamilton, Ont., and a Feb. 17 report from a remote Northwest Territories airport(opens in a new tab) of "a string of lights about a mile long" – both possibly sightings of SpaceX Starlink satellites(opens in a new tab), which travel in lines of glowing dots. Other incidents involving flashing red and green lights could be drones with navigation lights, like reports filed in February(opens in a new tab) and March(opens in a new tab).

More than half of the unusual reports filed in 2023 were classified as "laser interference" incidents, while the rest were labelled as "CIRVIS/UFO" reports.

Examples of "laser interference" from 2023 include

• a Jan. 4 Aeromexico flight from Mexico City to Amsterdam(opens in a new tab) that reported "an unusual light pattern in the sky" above New Brunswick;
• a Feb. 7 cargo flight from Miami to Amsterdam(opens in a new tab) that "observed unusual lights, moving erratically" above them near Halifax;
• a Sept. 27 British Airways flight from Houston to London(opens in a new tab) that reported a flying "light above their flight level" off the coast of Nova Scotia;
• and an Oct. 24 WestJet flight from Edmonton to Halifax(opens in a new tab) that reported "an intense light seeming to come from the sun" over Quebec.

A Transport Canada spokesperson previously explained(opens in a new tab) that aviation reports are labelled "laser interference" when "an aircraft is targeted or reported seeing a laser beam or any other directed bright light source."

Powell, the UAP researcher, believes the "laser" label is being misapplied.

"The 'laser interference' explanation appears to be a catch-all category for pilot reports," Powell said. "Laser light sources would be below the aircraft and not above it."

CTVNews.ca has filed freedom of information requests to get more data on reports like these, which rarely feature more than a line or two of detail. For example, a publicly-available Jan. 11, 2023 report from an Exploits Valley Air Services flight(opens in a new tab) over the Gulf of Saint Lawrence simply describes "bright lights approximately 100 [nautical miles] from their position." An access to information request filed with Canada's Department of National Defence revealed a slightly longer report of "approx 4 bright lights moving around each other creating geometric shapes (triangle to hexagon)."

At least four flights have already reported unidentified objects and lights over Canada so far in 2024, including a Jan. 4 sighting from Porter Airlines(opens in a new tab), a Jan. 13 case involving a FedEx flight(opens in a new tab), and a Jan. 19 report from Flair Airlines and Air Canada(opens in a new tab). CTVNews.ca also previously documented 11 similar aviation cases from 2022(opens in a new tab).

From drones to balloons, satellites, meteorites, flares, paper lanterns and weather phenomena, many of the reports described in this article likely have ordinary and earthly explanations. But with little sign of official investigation or follow-up from Canadian officials, most cases remain unexplained. 

Donald "Spike" Kavalench is a retired Transport Canada surveillance pilot who also spent more than two decades flying for the Royal Canadian Air Force.

"Transport Canada, Nav Canada and the Department of National Defence need to work together to quickly and effectively respond to and investigate any UAP reports that could signify a potential threat to the flying public and potentially our national security," Kavalench told CTVNews.ca. "So far, that has not been done."

• Do you have an unusual document or observation to share? Email CTVNews.ca Writer Daniel Otis at daniel.otis@bellmedia.ca(opens in a new tab).

RELATED IMAGES

A plane is silhouetted as it takes off from Vancouver International Airport in Richmond, B.C., Monday, May 13, 2019.

(THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward)

{ https://www.ctvnews.ca/ }

Bizarre UFO Encounters in the Skies: A Pilot’s Perspective

The enigma of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) continues to spark curiosity and debate among people worldwide. Among the most credible reports of these mysterious sightings come from those who spend a significant amount of their careers in the skies: pilots. Both military and civilian aviators have reported encounters with objects that defy conventional explanation, fueling speculation and intrigue about what really lies beyond our understanding.

One of the earliest recorded pilot encounters with a UFO dates back to June 24, 1947, when Kenneth Arnold, a pilot flying near the Cascade Mountains in Washington State, reported seeing nine bright, saucer-like objects speeding across the sky. This encounter is notable not only for its detail but also for introducing the term “flying saucers” to the public lexicon.

The credibility of pilot reports stems from their extensive training, experience, and familiarity with aerial phenomena, making them unlikely to be easily mistaken or deceived by optical illusions or known aircraft. Despite this, many pilots have faced skepticism and ridicule, often deterring them from coming forward with their experiences.

One particularly compelling incident involved a group of P-51 Mustang pilots in 1948, led by Captain Thomas Mantell, who pursued a large, unidentified object flying at a high altitude. Mantell’s tragic crash during the pursuit added a layer of mystery and speculation regarding the nature of the object he was chasing. The official explanation, attributing the sighting to Venus, was met with skepticism, fueling theories of a cover-up and further embedding the UFO phenomenon in the realm of conspiracy and secrecy.

British pilots, too, have encountered unexplained aerial phenomena. Despite the tight-lipped approach of the British Air Ministry, stories of sightings by RAF pilots have leaked, revealing encounters with objects exhibiting capabilities beyond the technology of the time. One notable report came from a BOAC Captain in 1954, who described an encounter with multiple objects, including a large one that appeared to change shape, alongside his aircraft over the Atlantic.

The phenomena are not limited to visual sightings; radar operators have corroborated pilot reports, adding a technical layer of verification to these encounters. One of the most detailed cases occurred in New Zealand in 1978, involving multiple pilots and radar operators witnessing and tracking unexplained objects over the Kaikoura coastline. The incident was extensively documented, including film footage that fueled worldwide interest and debate.

Skeptics and researchers have offered various explanations for these sightings, ranging from atmospheric phenomena and optical illusions to misidentifications of planets or man-made objects. However, many encounters remain unexplained, with the objects’ advanced maneuverability and speeds suggesting technology far beyond our current capabilities.

VIDEO:

• Bizarre UFO Sightings Spotted By Pilots | Strange But True | Our Life

• https://youtu.be/q3VqhK7Iv6U

The persistence of these sightings, coupled with the high credibility of pilot witnesses, keeps the discussion about UFOs alive. While some sightings have been debunked or explained through natural or technological phenomena, others remain compelling mysteries, challenging our understanding of the world and perhaps, the universe. The pilots’ accounts contribute to a larger narrative that continues to intrigue and puzzle both the public and experts, keeping the door open to the possibilities of what might be out there, beyond the known boundaries of our skies.

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

Maanlander Odysseus stuurt eerste foto’s vanuit de ruimte naar huis

Image credit: Intuitive Machines via X

De Odysseus-maanlander van Intuitive Machines heeft met succes de eerste beelden vanuit de ruimte naar de aarde gestuurd. Het robotachtige ruimteschip is sinds 15 februari onderweg naar de maan. Kort na de lancering verstuurde de Falcon 9-raket, gebouwd door SpaceX, enkele selfies met de aarde op de achtergrond.

{ https://newsmonkey.be/ }

De Odysseus-maanlander van Intuitive Machines heeft met succes de eerste beelden vanuit de ruimte naar de aarde gestuurd. Het robotachtige ruimteschip is sinds 15 februari onderweg naar de maan. Kort na de lancering verstuurde de Falcon 9-raket, gebouwd door SpaceX, enkele selfies met de aarde op de achtergrond.

Deze mijlpaal werd aangekondigd door het Amerikaans bedrijf Intuitive Machines via een bericht op X, waarop vier foto’s werden gedeeld. Intuitive Machines met hoofdkantoor in Houston werd opgericht in 2013 door het drietal Stephen Altemus, Kam Ghaffarian en Tim Crain. Het bedrijf verwacht minstens één keer per dag missie-updates te blijven geven op X.

Eerste onbemande maanlanding

Odysseus zal de eerste onbemande Amerikaanse maanlanding zijn sinds de Apollo-missies tussen 1961 en 1972. Het ruimteschip verkeert in perfecte conditie en is op weg naar een geplande landingspoging op 22 februari.

Intuitive Machines gebruikt voor hun motor een combinatie van vloeibare methaan en vloeibare zuurstof. Die combinatie wordt ook gebruikt voor de Raptor-raketmotoren van SpaceX, die de Starship-raket aandrijven. Starship is het ambitieuze project van SpaceX om mensen naar de maan en Mars te brengen.

Doel

Het doel van het bedrijf is het bereiken van een baan om de maan, een zachte maanlanding en communicatie vanaf de maan mogelijk maken. Intuitive Machines heeft ook drie NASA-contracten om ladingen naar het maanoppervlak te transporteren.

Bekijk de beelden hier

The post Maanlander Odysseus stuurt eerste foto’s vanuit de ruimte naar huis appeared first on Newsmonkey.

{ https://www.msn.com/nl-be/  }

Nukes Attract Not Only UFOs but Something Bone-Chilling, Revealed By Ex-Worker At Nuclear Depot In Nevada Desert

There has been a rise in the number of reported UFO sightings across many places in the United States since 2020. Moreover, officials have expressed concerns regarding the repeated occurrence of UFO sightings over military bases. Is there any possibility that these UFOs are controlling military actions?

Not so long ago, former US Air Force Captain Robert Salas claimed that UFOs are real and interfere in the military’s nuclear program. Additionally, former head of AATIP Luis Elizondo revealed that the U.S. Military created environments to attract UFOs to study them. He noted that there was much data that showed UFOs are interested in nuclear activities and the latest weaponry systems.

The UFO activity over US army bases has been observed since 1948, with the majority of incidents occurring at Malmstrom, Minot, F.E. Warren, Ellsworth, Vandenberg, and Walker AFBs between 1963 and 1996. Other sources stationed at Wurtsmith and Loring AFBs, where B-52 nuclear bombers were based during the Cold War era, also reported incidents.

In 1967, Captain Salas was stationed at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana, when he received reports of a red glowing object hovering outside the front gate of the base. A security guard reported that the object had a saucer shape and was constantly hovering near the front gate.

At the same time, the missile system suffered a complete failure, with ten intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) going offline due to a “No-Go” (inoperable) condition, which caused several alarms to go off. After investigating the incident, a team of engineers from Boeing could not find any significant failures, engineering data, or findings that would explain how the missiles had been knocked off alert.

The cause of the failure remains unknown, but it was suggested that it could have been due to an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) sent from an unknown source. Despite the severity of the situation, Salas believed that the UFO did not have hostile intentions because it could have caused permanent damage to the weapons system if it wanted to.

The incident was reported by a UFO researcher Robert L. Hastings, who collected information from various army personnel, including Staff Sgt. Louis D. Kenneweg, Airman 1st Class David Hughes, Staff Sgt. Joseph M. Chassey, and Lt. Col. Robert Peisher (USAF Ret.) in his 30 years of investigation.

A similar attraction of UFOs toward nuclear bases was noticed in Canada as well. A report from Winnipeg reveals that over 200 years, there have been 2,000 UFO sightings reported in the Canadian province of Manitoba.

In the mid-1970s, there were numerous UFO sightings all along the US-Canadian border, with Manitoba being one of the places where a large number of sightings occurred. These sightings included a high number of cattle mutilations and were often seen over restricted areas where nuclear activities were conducted.

Chris A. Rutkowski, a Canadian UFO researcher, has studied UFO sightings in Canada for over 25 years and concluded that Manitoba has a long history of close encounters with aliens. His UFO research, which contains 30,000 reports, has been donated to the University of Manitoba.

In 2017, author Grant Cameron published a book entitled “Charlie Red Star: True Reports of One of North America’s Biggest UFO Sightings,” in which he described in detail the largest UFO sightings in history witnessed by Manitobans. The province was stunned by the object known as “Charlie’s Red Star,” which was seen almost every night in 1975.

Cameron claims that Manitoba UFO sightings have connections to nuclear weapons because 35 years later, he found out that the government secretly installed nuclear missiles and other weapons in restricted areas just south of the border. He believes that the sightings stopped after the missiles had been removed in November. The author thinks that the nuclear technology that humans possess could be created after extraterrestrial contact. (click here to read the full article

{ https://www.howandwhys.com/ }

{ https://scientias.nl/ }

“Traditionally, designers use the materials available to them to design a new device or a machine. The problem with that is that the range of available material properties is limited. Some properties that we would like to have just don’t exist in nature,” study co-author and professor of biomechanical engineering, Dr. Amir Zadpoor, explained in a press release by Delft University. 

“Our approach is: tell us what you want to have as properties and we engineer an appropriate material with those properties. What you will then get is not really a material but something in-between a structure and a material, a metamaterial.”

Metamaterials are materials engineered to have properties not found in naturally occurring substances. These engineered composites can defy conventional material properties by deriving their unique characteristics from a structure’s geometry rather than molecular composition. 

Metamaterials are currently employed in various industries, serving practical purposes such as improving antenna performance in telecommunications and controlling sound waves for noise reduction or focusing in acoustic engineering. Recent advancements include creating the world’s first genuine “one-way glass,” showcasing metamaterials, versatility, and potential for innovative applications.

In 2006, two research papers published in Science demonstrated that metamaterials could be used to manipulate the propagation and transmission of specified light frequencies and electromagnetic radiation to render an object invisible. 

Recent publications from Sandia National Laboratories, the U.S. Naval Institute, and Northrop Grumman have discussed the military potential of metamaterials, suggesting the possibility of creating real-life versions of the fictional “Klingon Cloaking Device” or “Harry Potter Invisibility Cloak.” However, despite ongoing research efforts, practical metamaterial cloaking technology has yet to be publicly demonstrated thus far.

This most significant challenge in developing novel metamaterials stems from solving the so-called “inverse problem” or calculating the specific geometry needed to produce desired properties.  

“Even when inverse problems were solved in the past, they have been limited by the simplifying assumption that small-scale geometry can be made from an infinite number of building blocks,” lead author Dr. Helda Pahlavani explained. “The problem with that assumption is that metamaterials are usually made by 3D printing and real 3D printers have a limited resolution, which limits the number of building blocks that fit within a given device.”

Enter Deep-DRAM: an AI-driven modular framework combining deep learning models, generative models, and finite element simulations to address these challenges head-on. 

Researchers say Deep-DRAM stands out by tackling the inverse design problem from a new angle, enabling the creation of materials with tailored properties such as double auxeticity (materials that expand in two directions when stretched) and high stiffness. 

Dr. Pahlavani underscored the importance of Deep-DRAM being able to overcome previous constraints, stating, “We can now simply ask: how many building blocks does your manufacturing technique allow you to accommodate in your device? The model then finds the geometry that gives you your desired properties for the number of building blocks that you can actually manufacture.”

In a paper published in the journal Advanced Materials, researchers detailed how the application of Deep-DRAM extends beyond theoretical advancements, showcasing real-world implications through extensive simulations and 3D-printed specimens.

Researchers note that the framework’s ability to generate microarchitectures resistant to fatigue and fracture highlights Deep-DRAM’s potential to produce metamaterials that are not only innovative but also durable and reliable for practical applications.

This focus on durability differs from most existing metamaterial designs, which often fail after repeated use. 

“So far, it has been only about what properties can be achieved,” Dr. Zadpoor described the current processes for developing metamaterials. “Our study considers durability and selects the most durable designs from a large pool of design candidates. This makes our designs really practical and not just theoretical adventures.”

Researchers say that one of the remarkable aspects of Deep-DRAM is its modular design, allowing for the integration of various computational models to solve complex design problems efficiently. This modular approach accelerates the design process and minimizes computational costs, making it an attractive option for a wide range of applications.

The implications of the innovative Deep-DRAM framework extend far beyond the laboratory, offering tangible solutions to real-world challenges. With the ability to tailor durable metamaterials to specific needs, industries ranging from healthcare to aerospace could benefit immensely from this recent marriage of Artificial intelligence and material science. 

Assistant Professor Dr. Mohammad J. Mirzaali, who also served as a corresponding author of the study, says the potential of metamaterials is limitless. However, because their optimal design has historically relied on intuition and trial and error, the metamaterials’ full potential has never been truly realized.  

Yet, researchers believe the AI-driven inverse design process of Deep-DRAM could revolutionize the development of metamaterials, opening avenues for applications such as orthopedic implants, surgical instruments, soft robots, adaptive mirrors, and exosuits.

“We think the step we have taken is revolutionary in the field of metamaterials,” said Dr. Mirzaali. “It could lead to all kinds of new applications.” 

• Tim McMillan is a retired law enforcement executive, investigative reporter and co-founder of The Debrief. His writing typically focuses on defense, national security, the Intelligence Community and topics related to psychology. You can follow Tim on Twitter: @LtTimMcMillan.  Tim can be reached by email: tim@thedebrief.org or through encrypted email: LtTimMcMillan@protonmail.com 

{ https://thedebrief.org/category/science/ }

Private Odysseus moon lander beams home 1st photos from space

A pioneering moon lander has beamed home its first photos from the final frontier.

Intuitive Machines’ Odysseus moon lander deploys from the second stage of its Falcon 9 rocket on Feb. 15, 2024.

(Image credit: NASA TV)© Provided by Space

Intuitive Machines' robotic Odysseus spacecraft snapped a few selfies with Earth in the background shortly after its Feb. 15 launch atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket — and we can all check them out.

"Intuitive Machines successfully transmitted its first IM-1 mission images to Earth on February 16, 2024. The images were captured shortly after separation from @SpaceX's second stage on Intuitive Machines' first journey to the moon under @NASA's CLPS initiative," the Houston-based company wrote Saturday (Feb. 17) in a post on X that shared four of the photos.

Related: 

• Missions to the moon: Past, present and future

CLPS is the Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, which puts agency science instruments on private robotic moon landers like Odysseus. These instruments are designed to collect data that will aid NASA's Artemis program, which aims to establish a crewed base near the lunar south pole by the end of the 2020s.

Odysseus is carrying six NASA experiments and technology demonstrations, along with six private payloads, on its current IM-1 mission.

IM-1 wasn't the first CLPS effort to get off the ground. That distinction goes to the debut flight of Peregrine, a moon lander built by Pittsburgh company Astrobotic, which launched last month atop a United Launch Alliance Vulcan Centaur rocket.

That launch went well, but Peregrine suffered a fuel leak shortly after separating from the rocket's upper stage. The lander couldn't reach the moon, so its handlers steered it to a controlled destruction in Earth's atmosphere on Jan. 18. 

Things have been going better for Odysseus. The lander is healthy and communicating with mission control as it heads toward the moon for a planned Feb. 22 touchdown attempt, Intuitive Machines has said.

Odysseus' various systems are performing normally, including its engine, which just aced a crucial checkout in deep space.

"Intuitive Machines flight controllers successfully fired the first liquid methane and liquid oxygen engine in space, completing the IM-1 mission engine commissioning. This engine firing included a full thrust mainstage engine burn and throttle down-profile necessary to land on the moon," the company said in an X post on Friday evening (Feb. 16).

Success on the upcoming landing try would be historic; no private spacecraft has ever touched down softly on the moon.

Odysseus' liquid methane-liquid oxygen combination, by the way, is also employed by SpaceX's Raptor engines, which power the company's giant new Starship rocket. Starship, which SpaceX is developing to get people to the moon and Mars, is being prepped for its third test flight, which could take place in the coming weeks.

{ https://www.space.com/ }

Engineers Design Habitats for the Moon Inspired by Terminite Mounds

Through the Artemis Program, NASA intends to send astronauts back to the Moon for the first time since the Apollo Era. But this time, they intend to stay and establish a lunar base and other infrastructure by the end of the decade that will allow for a “sustained program of lunar exploration and development.” To accomplish this, NASA is enlisting the help of fellow space agencies, commercial partners, and academic institutions to create the necessary mission elements – these range from the launch systems, spacecraft, and human landing systems to the delivery of payloads.

With NASA funding, a team of engineers from the University of Arizona College of Engineering (UA-CE) is developing autonomous robot networks to build sandbag shelters for NASA astronauts on the Moon. The designs are inspired by cathedral termite mounds, which are native to Africa and northern Australia’s desert regions. Their work was the subject of a paper presented at the American Astronautical Society Guidance, Navigation, and Control (AAS GNC) Conference, which took place from February 1st to 7th in Littleton and Breckinridge, Colorado.

The team was led by Associate Professor Jekan Thanga of the UA-CE Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, who is also the head of the Space and Terrestrial Robotic Exploration (SpaceTREx) Laboratory and the NASA-supported Asteroid Science, Technology and Exploration Research Organized by Inclusive eDucation Systems (ASTEROIDS) Laboratory. He and his team are partnering with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Canadian space robotics company MDA to create the LUNAR-BRIC consortium, which is developing the technology for the Artemis Program.

Illustration of NASA astronauts and the elements of the Lunar Base Camp around the Moon’s south pole. Credit: NASA

Per the Artemis Program, NASA will land astronauts around the lunar south pole with the Artemis III mission, currently scheduled for 2026/27. By the end of the decade, they plan to build the infrastructure for long-duration stays, like the Lunar Gateway and the Artemis Base Camp. The latter element consists of a Foundation Lunar Habitat (FLH), the Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV), and a Habitation Mobility Platform (HMB). However, they will also need semi-permanent safe shelters while they search for optimal locations to build permanent habitats.

Consistent with NASA’s vision for future space exploration, a key element in this plan is to leverage local resources for building materials and resources – a process known as In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU). For their concept, Thanga and his team investigated whether sandbags filled with lunar regolith could be used instead of traditional building materials to build lunar infrastructure. This includes housing, warehouses, control towers, robot facilities, landing pads, and blast walls to protect lunar buildings as spacecraft conduct takeoffs and landings.

Thanga was first inspired by a YouTube video showing the work of Iranian-born American architect Nader Khalili, best known for designing structures that incorporate unconventional building materials. This includes his development of SuperAdobe sandbag construction to create structures for the developing world and emergency situations. During the 1980s, the late architect proposed building sandbag structures on the Moon and other extraterrestrial locations. Thanga incorporated the concept of insect “skyscrapers” into Khalili’s ideas, specifically the tall-standing cathedral termite mounds.

These mounds are common in African and Australian deserts and are important in regulating the subterranean nest environment. As Thanga described in a UA College of Engineering News release:

“In the case of the termites, it’s very relevant to our off-world challenges. The extreme desert environments the termites face are analogous to lunar conditions. Importantly, this whole approach doesn’t rely on water. Most of the moon is bone-dry desert. Learning about that helped direct me toward distributed systems for construction.”

UA aerospace engineering students (from left) Min Seok Kang, Athip Thirupathi Raj, Chad Jordan Cantin, Sivaperuman Muniyasamy, and Korbin Aydin Hansen display a smart sandbag structure. Credit: University of Arizona College of Engineering

Thanga has long been interested in applying insect social systems to distributed robot networks where machines are organized by swarm intelligence to work cooperatively without human intervention. In their system, the robots embed sensors and electronics in sandbags, fill them with lunar regolith, and then use these to assemble the structures in place. Some sensors provide location data to help the robots place the sandbags, while others provide communication capabilities and environmental information to warn of potential dangers.

These include moonquakes, which result from heating and cooling during every lunar day and night (which last 14 days each). The temperature swings during this cycle are also a potential hazard, ranging from -183 to 107 °C (-298 to 224 °F) between day and night. Because the Moon is an airless environment, there’s also the threat of micro-meteors that bombard the surface at an average speed of 96,560 km/h (60,000 mph). The lack of an atmosphere (and a magnetosphere) also means the lunar surface is exposed to considerably more solar radiation and cosmic rays.

These buildings meet NASA’s requirements for the Artemis Program by reducing the amount of material that must be transported to the Moon while protecting the harsh lunar environment. NASA has granted Thanga and his team $500,000 for lunar surface projects through the agency’s Space Technology Artemis Research program (M-STAR), part of the Minority University Research and Education Project (MUREP). NASA has also provided $1 million annually for UA student research projects over the last five years through a MUREP Institutional Research Opportunity (MIRO). Said Thanga:

“The goal is to raise the participation of underrepresented groups in aerospace. And these are hands-on, student-centric projects. This lab offers me the exact environment – it’s startup culture. I’m leading a team and working with multidisciplinary people. I’m glad I’m here.”

Thanga and Sivaperuman Muniyasamy, an aerospace engineering doctoral student and first author on the paper describing the technology, presented their idea during a classified session of the AAS GNC. “By publishing the paper at the conference, we’re gaining feedback from other experts that really helps us move forward,” said Muniyasamy. “It’s no accident this team has an academic partner, a commercial partner, and a government agency,” Thanga added. “Given the challenges, part of the path is for us to collaborate.”

Artist’s impression of a lunar mining facility harvesting resources from the Moon’s surface. Credit: NASA/Pat Rawlings

Beyond the team’s plans for lunar habitats, the LUNAR-BRIC consortium plans to produce many concepts that will support the creation of a space economy. In addition to leading a team of eight undergraduate and master’s students working on lunar surface projects, Muniyasamy plans to launch a space mining company after completing his Ph.D. As he noted, NASA plans to build facilities for long-term habitation and industry within a few years of the successful landing of Artemis III that will enable (among other things) environmentally responsible lunar and asteroid mining

Thanga and his student team worked with the university commercialization arm (Tech Launch Arizona) to file patents on the robotic system and the distributed computer processing networks that link the proposed structures and robots.

Further Reading: 

• The University of Arizona

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

Even Eris and Makemake Could Have Geothermal Activity

Whether or not you agree that Pluto isn’t a planet, in many ways, Pluto is quite different from the classical planets. It’s smaller than the Moon, has an elliptical orbit that brings it closer to the Sun than Neptune at times, and is part of a collection of icy bodies on the edge of our solar system. It was also thought to be a cold dead world until the flyby of New Horizons proved otherwise. The plucky little spacecraft showed us that Pluto was geologically active, with a thin atmosphere and mountains that rise above icy plains. Geologically, Pluto is more similar to Earth than the Moon, a fact that has led some to reconsider Pluto’s designation as a dwarf planet.

Astronomers still aren’t sure how Pluto has remained geologically active. Perhaps the gravitational interactions with its moon Charon, or perhaps interior radioactive decay. But regardless of the cause, the general thought has been that Pluto is an exception, not a rule. Other outer worlds of similar size and composition are likely dead worlds. But a new study shows that isn’t the case for at least two dwarf planets, Eris and Makemake.

This new study doesn’t rely on high-resolution images like we have for Pluto. Our current observations of Eris and Makemake show them only as small, blurry dots. But we do have spectral observations of these worlds, which is where this study comes in.

The team looked at the spectral lines of molecules on the surface of these worlds, most specifically that of methane. Methane, or CH₄ has two important variants. One is composed of standard hydrogen atoms, while the other contains one or more atoms of a type of hydrogen known as deuterium. Deuterium has a nucleus containing a proton and neutron rather than just a proton, and this skews the spectrum of methane a bit. From the spectral observations, the team could measure the D/H ratio for methane on both worlds.

How D/H ratios compare to possible origins. Credit: Glein, et al

Thisratio is determined by the source of the methane. If Eris and Makemake are dead worlds, then the methane they have stems from their origin more than 4 billion years ago, and the D/H level should be on the higher end. On the other hand, if the surface methane was generated through an interior process and vented through active geological processes, then the D/H ratio should be lower. The team found that the ratio is most consistent with thermogenic and abiotic mechanisms, suggesting that both Eris and Makemake are active worlds, or at least were active in geologically recent times.

Eris is about the same size as Pluto, so it isn’t too surprising that it’s a geologically active world given what we now know about Pluto. But Makemake is much smaller, about 60% the size of Pluto. If Makemake is an active world, then it is likely that other dwarf planets such as Haumea are as well. If that’s the case, then most if not all dwarf planets are geologically active. As the authors suggest, it might be worth sending a probe or two to the outer worlds for more study.

Reference: 

• Glein, Christopher R., et al. “Moderate D/H ratios in methane ice on Eris and Makemake as evidence of hydrothermal or metamorphic processes in their interiors: Geochemical analysis.” Icarus (2024): 115999.

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

UFO Communication with an Eyewitness at Lake Superior

In the realm of unexplained phenomena, few topics capture the imagination quite like unidentified flying objects (UFOs). A particularly intriguing incident took place in June 2019 near the storied waters of Lake Superior, where an individual’s encounter with mysterious orbs not only challenged conventional explanations but also hinted at the possibility of communication between humans and these enigmatic entities.

The Encounter

Erik Rintamaki, known for his discovery of a unique type of rock called yooperlites, ventured out one evening in search of these stones. Armed with a specific type of blacklight to illuminate these rare finds, he unexpectedly became the witness to something far more unusual than fluorescent minerals. Glowing orbs appeared in the night sky, capturing his attention and setting the stage for an extraordinary experience. Unlike any typical aircraft or natural celestial body, these lights exhibited unusual behavior, moving in a synchronized fashion without making any sound.

Expert Analysis

The incident prompted a detailed examination by experts across various fields. Video forensic analysis confirmed the authenticity of the footage, ruling out digital manipulation or the use of computer-generated imagery. Astronomers and aviation analysts weighed in, considering and dismissing conventional explanations such as drones, which typically display different lighting patterns, or astronomical bodies like Venus, which could not account for the observed characteristics of the orbs.

One of the most compelling aspects of Rintamaki’s encounter was the apparent interaction between the eyewitness and the unidentified objects. As described by Alexis Brooks, an author familiar with UFO phenomena, instances where UFOs seem to respond to human observation are not unheard of. This encounter seemed to echo such instances, with the orbs appearing to move towards Rintamaki as if acknowledging his presence and possibly attempting communication.

Skepticism and Open Questions

Despite thorough analysis, skepticism remains. Some experts suggested optical illusions or misinterpretations of natural phenomena might explain the encounter. For instance, Marc D’Antonio, an astronomer and video effects designer, proposed that the orbs’ behavior could be attributed to the camera’s focus adjustments in low light conditions, a common issue that can create misleading effects.

VIDEO:

• UFO COMMUNICATES WITH AN EYEWITNESS (S2) | The Proof Is Out There | The UnXplained Zone
• https://youtu.be/VidgAwWcdqU

The Lake Superior UFO encounter stands as a testament to the enduring mystery of UFOs. While the exact nature of the orbs remains unidentified, the possibility of an attempted communication adds a fascinating layer to the narrative. This incident underscores the complex relationship between human perception, technology, and the unknown. Whether these orbs were natural phenomena, undisclosed human-made technology, or indeed something more extraordinary, they remind us of the vastness of our universe and the limits of our understanding.

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

Calling occupants...Can you guess which leading royal was fascinated with interplanetary craft? He was a regular subscriber to Flying Saucer Review!

By IAN LLOYD

Whether it was removing the back of a watch to see quite how the mechanism worked or haranguing a visiting bishop about the sermon he’d just preached, Prince Philip was famed for his enquiring mind.

What isn’t generally known is that among the Duke’s multifarious interests was a fascination with the paranormal, in particular, UFOs.

This stretched as far back as the beginning of the Queen's reign, when he became a regular subscriber to Flying Saucer Review.

Prince Philip looks up to the skies at King's College, Newcastle in 1951. Is he expecting aliens?

Winston Churchill, was moved to write an excitable memo to the Secretary of State for Air, Lord Cherwell: 'What does all this stuff about flying saucers amount to?

Earth versus the Flying Saucers! Prince Philip was keen to get to the bottom of it all

Philip's uncle, Earl Mountbatten, left, wrote to his eldest daughter Patricia that he was convinced UFO's 'come from another planet'. Philip listens intently

In the late 1940s and early 50s there was a spate of apparent UFO sightings mainly in the USA, that were widely reported in the press. 

The Air Ministry had 'a UFO Desk' to record reports of interplanetary craft. Even the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, was moved to write an excitable memo to the Secretary of State for Air, Lord Cherwell: 'What does all this stuff about flying saucers amount to? What can it mean? What is the truth? Let me have a report at your convenience. WSC 28 July 1952.' 

Churchill wasn't the only member of the establishment concerned with it. Philip's uncle, Earl Mountbatten, wrote to his eldest daughter Patricia that he was convinced UFO's ' come from another planet' and that they 'were not ‘aeroplanes’ with silly little almost human pilots but are themselves the actual inhabitants: Martians, Venusians, Jupiterians or what have you.' 

He even wrote a detailed report of an alleged sighting over his own Broadlands estate witnessed by a retired British Army Sergeant, Frederick Briggs, who was working as a bricklayer on the estate and who 'says he saw a large craft that looked like a child’s top hovering over a field. He says a column came down from the centre of the craft, and there appeared to be a humanoid figure descending with the pillar.' 

A swayed Mountbatten thought Briggs 'did not give the impression of being the sort of man who would be subject to hallucinations, or would in any way invent such a story.'

The other influence on Philip's extra-terrestrial quest was a member of his own household, Sir Peter Horsley, the Duke's equerry from 1949-56. 

Horsley had been a Deputy Commander-in-Chief of Strike Command during the war, someone whose honesty and integrity should have been in no doubt. 

Having said that he was a man who was subject to the odd paranormal encounter. After his Mosquito aircraft was shot down during a mission, the recovering Horsley believed he had received messages from several of his fellow officers who were, in fact, all dead.

The equerry clearly won Philip over to his point of view. The Duke asked him to follow up any credible reports of sightings and invited witnesses to Buckingham Palace to personally give their accounts. 

He even wrote to Timothy Good, a renowned Ufologist, pointing out 'there are many reasons to believe that they exist.'

It is unclear just how convinced the prince was about UFOs or whether it was another example of his ever-enquiring mind, keeping its options open.

Certainly Sir Peter Horsley drew the line at telling his boss about his meeting with what he claimed was a real-life alien at a flat in London. 

The extraterrestrial chap called himself 'Mr Janus' and said he could read minds. Horsley recalled in his memoirs “He didn't say he was a visitor from another planet – but I had that impression.

'I believe he was here to observe us. I never saw him again.'

During their meeting Mr Janus said he wanted to meet Prince Philip – who he described as 'a man of great vision, a person of world renown, and a leader in the realm of wildlife and the environment.

Is this what they look like? A 'UFO sighting' in Winona, Missouri in 1957

There was a supposed sighting at Broadlands, the family home of Mountbatten

Prince Philip watching equerry Sir Peter Horsley trying to load a camera

Prince Philip was a subscriber to Flying Saucer Review

He is a man who believes strongly in the proper relationship between man and nature which will prove of great importance in future galactic harmony.' 

(From the sounds of it, even the most cynical reader would have to admit that, if aliens do exist, they are pretty well clued up about the British royal family.)

Not all the establishment was as willing to consider Horsley's point of view as Prince Philip. 

When his memoirs were published in 1997, a senior official at the Ministry of Defence commented, 'How unfortunate that the public will learn that the man who had his finger on the button of Strike Command was seeing little green men.'

The late Queen was also made aware that there could be something out there. In March 2009 a UFO researcher in Victoria, Australia, sent a letter to Buckingham Palace addressed directly to 'Your Majesty Queen Elizabeth II'.

The message was equally direct: 'I am writing to you to inform you Madam that the British Government continues to refuse to reveal the truth behind their files and reports of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs). 

The writer informed the Queen that there was more to UFOs than 'weather balloons, airplanes, helicopters, lights, or natural phenomena' and said they had tried to contact various UK government departments, from the RAF, MoD and even MI5, to persuade them of the 'seriousness of this UFO security issue'. 

It continued: “As I am writing this letter to you Your Majesty, I contemplate whether or not you will see reason and if you will choose to act Madam?"

The letter ended by urging 'as a UFO researcher, I must highly recommend you act now Your Majesty. 

'You are capable of deciding your own destiny. The question is Your Majesty, which path will you choose?

Another possible UFO sighting, this time in San Francisco in 1956

Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip view the Apollo 14 module and Space Shuttle model during tour of the Rockwell International space facility in 1983

Prince Philip  meets a man in a space suit during a visit to the Lyndon B Johnson Space Center, in Houston, Texas,  1966

'I await your immediate action and response to this serious UFO issue. "I have the honour to be, Madam, Your Majesty's humble and obedient servant.'

The Queen’s Private Secretary replied on her behalf: 'Although this is not a matter in which Her Majesty would intervene, the letter has been passed to the Secretary of State for Defence, so that this approach to the Queen may be known and consideration given to the points raised in the letter.'

The MoD wrote to the researcher saying that although the Government took the defence of UK airspace very seriously, there was no evidence that UFOs were a threat to national security.

Whether the Queen did act, per instructions, and discuss the threat of a UFO invasion with the powers that be remains a mystery, but it would have been good to be a fly on the wall when she mentioned it to the Duke.

• Ian Lloyd is author of The Duke: 100 Chapters in the Life of Prince Philip, published by The History Press

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

Three UFOs Over Southern Florida Highway, Feb 14, 2024, Video, UFO Sighting News.

 

Date of sighting: Feb 14, 2024

Location of sighting: southern Florida, USA

 

Watch this video below, click to make it full screen. The three UFOs might actually be a single large UAP. If that is so, then it's a larger triangle craft of about 300 meters across! This is undeniable proof that aliens exist in Florida. 

Scott C. Waring

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

Nick Pope is a British journalist, media commentator, and former civil servant. He is best known for his work with the British Government’s Ministry of Defence (MoD), where he was involved in investigating reports of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) from 1991 to 1994. During his tenure at the MoD’s UFO desk, Pope’s responsibilities included researching and investigating UFO sightings and reports, evaluating their potential defense significance, and determining whether they could be attributed to known objects or phenomena.

After leaving the MoD, Nick Pope became a well-known figure in the UFO community, often speaking at conferences, writing books, and appearing on television programs related to UFOs and the unexplained. He has authored several books on UFOs and extraterrestrial phenomena, including “Open Skies, Closed Minds” and “The Uninvited.” His work has contributed to public discussions on the topic, and he is often sought after by the media for his expertise and insights into UFO sightings and investigations.

• https://youtu.be/urTN10ny3n4

Pope has positioned himself as an advocate for greater transparency and seriousness in the study of UFOs, urging governments and organizations to consider the implications of unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) seriously. His unique perspective as a former government insider who has also embraced the UFO research community has made him a notable and somewhat controversial figure within both the mainstream and the UFO enthusiast circles.

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

Gebruikt Poetin zijn kernwapens weldra in de ruimte?

Rapporten van Amerikaanse inlichtingendiensten duiden op een mogelijke inzet van een Russisch nucleair systeem in de ruimte.

De aard van dit Russische project is nog niet duidelijk, maar het vormt deze week alvast het onderwerp van een intens politiek debat in de Verenigde Staten. Op basis van de beschikbare informatie zou het een nucleair aangedreven of nucleair bewapend antisatellietsysteem van het Kremlin kunnen zijn.

En volgens The New York Times zou dit kernwapen in de ruimte worden gebruikt om civiele communicatie te vernietigen of om andere landen in de gaten te houden.

Het is onduidelijk of deze nieuwe waarschuwing verband houdt met de Russische lancering van de Sojoez-raket met geheime vracht van het Ministerie van Defensie op 9 februari.

Republikeinse en Democratische leiders van de Senaatsinlichtingencommissie onthulden dat ze deze informatie hadden gevolgd, maar dat het moeilijk zou zijn om de specifieke berichtgeving vrij te geven zonder gevoelige bronnen bloot te leggen.

• (FM/Source: The New York Times/Photo: Unsplash)

{ https://www.msn.com/nl-be/ }

3D-printer heeft communicerend hersenweefsel gemaakt

© Aangeboden door Business AM

Het is Amerikaanse onderzoekers gelukt om ge-3D-print hersenweefsel te laten communiceren en functioneren als een echt menselijk hersennetwerk.

Om beter te begrijpen wat er in de hersenen gebeurt van iemand met bijvoorbeeld de ziekte van Alzheimer of Parkinson, zijn driedimensionale hersenmodellen nodig. Zo’n model lijkt namelijk goed op natuurlijk menselijk weefsel – meer dan cellen in een petrischaaltje.

3D-printers worden al een aantal jaren gebruikt om menselijk weefsel in 3D na te maken, ook voor hersenen. Maar het blijkt nog knap lastig om de communicatie van de cellen in het weefsel te zien. Amerikaanse onderzoekers van de Wisconsin-Madison Universiteit zijn er met een paar aanpassingen eindelijk in geslaagd.

Dikke inkt

Een 3D-printer bouwt laagjes één voor één op elkaar. Dat kan in verschillende vormen en met verschillende materialen, afhankelijk van het doel. Voor het 3D-printen van hersenweefsel wordt een bio-inkt gebruikt. Dat is een natuurlijke gel waar stamcellen in zitten en die lijkt op menselijk hersenweefsel.

Voorheen maakten onderzoekers hersenweefsel na door de bio-inkt in laagjes op te stapelen in een verticale structuur. Na het 3D-printen voegden ze er voedingsstoffen en zuurstof aan toe. De stamcellen kunnen zich vervolgens ontwikkelen tot zenuwcellen en groeien naar elkaar toe, om een groot communicerend netwerk te vormen. Tenminste, dat is het idee. Tot nu toe is het nog niet gelukt om met deze methode ook echt functionerend hersenweefsel na te bootsen.

Hetgeen waar onderzoekers tegenaan lopen, is dat de gebruikte gel te dik is. De cellen blijven dan namelijk aan elkaar plakken, waardoor voedingstoffen zich minder makkelijk verspreiden en dat remt de groei van zenuwen. Er ontstaat dan ook geen functionele verbinding tussen de zenuwcellen, zoals in echt hersenweefsel, dus ook geen communicatie tussen deze lagen.

Horizontale structuur

De Amerikaanse onderzoekers hebben het nu anders aangepakt. Met de 3D-printer plaatsten ze het weefsel in een horizontale structuur naast elkaar – in plaats van een verticale. Dat zorgt voor meer stevigheid, waardoor een dikke gel niet meer nodig is.

Bio-inkt gemaakt van een dunnere gel maakt de structuur van het geprinte weefsel zacht, maar is nog steeds stevig genoeg om één geheel te blijven. De onderzoekers hebben met de nieuwe gel verschillende onderdelen van het hersenweefsel naar elkaar toe laten groeien om een hecht netwerk te vormen. Alleen op die manier kan er communicatie tussen de cellen plaatsvinden, en dat maakt het een belangrijke doorbraak. Dat vertelt Regina Luttge, microsysteemonderzoeker en groepsleider neuro-nanoscale engineering aan de Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, aan KIJK.

Parkinson en alzheimer

Met deze doorbraak kunnen wetenschappers beter onderzoeken hoe hersencellen met elkaar communiceren. Bijvoorbeeld bij hersenziekten zoals alzheimer en parkinson zit er een aanpassing in sommige hersencellen. Experts weten wat die aanpassing is, maar niet hoe de hersenen zich daarna gedragen. Met het ge-3d-printe hersenweefsel is dat binnenkort een stuk beter te onderzoeken.

Bron:

• Kijk Online

{ https://www.msn.com/nl-be/ }

Dina Sanichar: The Feral Boy Raised by Wolves and the Inspiration Behind Mowgli in The Jungle Book

When Dina came to the orphanage, everyone noticed that he acted like he was raised by wild animals. Missionaries immediately noticed that he could not stand straight or talk, and he preferred raw meat instead of cooked food. Reverend Erhardt Lewis, who was in charge of the orphanage, had a tough job trying to help Dina fit into regular society. Teaching him how to talk, wear clothes, and act like a regular person was very hard, and there were big challenges ahead.

Dina did not follow regular human rules. He did not like wearing clothes and preferred to move on all fours. People tried to teach him how to act in society, but he could only make sounds like an animal. Reverend Lewis, who was trying to understand Dina’s difficult childhood, called him an “imbecile.”

People tried to make Dina more like humans by teaching him to walk on two legs, wear clothes, and do other human things. But Dina did not like these changes and still preferred living like a wild animal. His unusual habits, like smoking tobacco, showed that he was trying to deal with his struggle between the wild and human ways of life.

Dina’s tale became more interesting when he became friends with some other wild children at the orphanage. Their friendship was special because they all had similar experiences and understood one another’s wild ways. This connection helped them find comfort during tough times in society. Reverend Lewis noticed this special bond between Dina and his feral friends, highlighting their shared understanding that went beyond the challenges of their unusual upbringing.

In 1895, Dina Sanichar passed away, but his story continued to be remembered, going beyond the orphanage where he lived. Even though he struggled to fit into human society, his life had a lasting impact on discussions about feral children and the balance between civilization and the wild.

Dina’s life is part of a bigger picture – the discovery of feral children in 19th-century India. The high number of such cases makes us question how society saw these children and the difficulties they faced when trying to adapt from the wild to human life. Dina’s experiences reflect the challenges that feral children in that era went through.

In 1894, Rudyard Kipling wrote “The Jungle Book,” drawing inspiration from India’s diverse culture. Although it is unclear if Dina directly influenced the character named Mowgli, many stories about feral children during Kipling’s time hint at a cultural background that might have shaped the fictional narrative. The jungle, both in real life and in stories, becomes a place where the line between wild and civilized blurs.

Dina Sanichar’s life is a bit of a mystery, and there are different stories about his early years. Some people wonder if he was left alone in the jungle because he had physical or mental problems. When we look at other cases of kids growing up in the wild, it is clear that it is both fascinating and tough for them to fit into human society.

Whether Dina is seen as a real-life Mowgli or just a unique wild child, his story makes us think about the thin line between civilization and the wild. His life was full of difficulties, but he showed strength in facing them, making us rethink what it means to be human. As we explore the mix of truth and tales about Dina, we are left thinking about the human spirit’s ability to adapt and the mysteries in our shared past. Dina’s life echoes as proof that our spirit can endure, even with an unusual upbringing.

Dina’s story is not only one from late 19th-century India. During that time, other wild children were found, each facing their challenges fitting into human society. Unfortunately, Dina’s mental growth was limited, and he died at 29, likely due to tuberculosis made worse by his addiction to tobacco.

Let us explore some stories of feral children beyond India. Among others, we have Marina Chapman, who survived with capuchin monkeys, Sidi Mohamed, who spent time with ostriches, and a touching tale of an Argentinian toddler raised by wild cats. These stories highlight how these children can adapt and stay strong. Each case shows that humans have a special ability to connect with different animals.

Marina Chapman – Raised by Monkeys

One remarkable case is of Marina Chapman, who was kidnapped at the age of five and abandoned in the Colombian jungle. Lucky enough to be adopted by a group of capuchin monkeys, Marina learned survival skills from them. In five years, she was rescued by hunters, sold to a brothel, and later escaped to establish a life in England. Despite skepticism, scientific studies and a documentary support her extraordinary story.

Ostrich Boy – Birds Cared for him

Sidi Mohamed, known as the “ostrich boy,” wandered off from his North African family at a young age and found refuge with ostriches. They nurtured him, teaching him survival skills. At the age of 12, he was reunited with his family by ostrich hunters.

Toddler Kept Alive by Cats

In 2008, Argentinian police discovered a one-year-old boy surrounded by eight wild cats. The cats had kept him alive during winter, showing surprising compassion by providing warmth and bringing him scraps of food. The boy, separated from his homeless father, was rescued, emphasizing the unexpected bond between feral cats and humans.

The Dog Boy from Chile

Abandoned by his mother at 10 or 11, the “Dog Boy” in Chile was adopted by a group of dogs. He lived with them, imitating their behavior, and scavenging for food together. When found by the police, he exhibited signs of intense depression and aggression, emphasizing the challenges of reintegrating feral children into human society.

Ng Chhaidy – 38 Years Living in the Jungle

Ng Chhaidy went missing in the jungle at the age of 4 and was rediscovered 38 years later in Myanmar. Remarkably, she exhibited human-like behavior, demonstrating the adaptability of the human psyche to life in the wild.

Ramachandra – The Human Amphibian

In India, around 1960, there was a sad story about a boy named Ramachandra. His life was similar to an amphibian, a creature that can live both in water and on land. People first heard about him in 1973, and he was “rescued” in 1979. Ramachandra lived near rivers infested with crocodiles, catching and eating raw fish, showing that he had partly adapted to a life different from humans.

He liked eating raw food and living by the river. But in 1982, something terrible happened. He approached a woman, probably not understanding human rules, and had a tragic end. The woman, feeling scared, poured boiling water on him, and he died.

Ramachandra’s life reminds us of the challenges that feral children face when trying to live in human society after growing up in the wild. His story shows how hard it is to fit into two very different worlds, and it ended sadly because of the tough experiences he had.

These stories show how strong and flexible people can be when they grow up in the wild. Even though the stories are amazing and sad, they highlight how hard it is for these individuals to fit back into human society. The age when they learn language and social skills is really important, and it shows that we need different ways to help kids who grew up in the wild have happy lives.

{ https://www.howandwhys.com/ }

The precise relationship between these two university-based initiatives hit me hard over the past few days as I took in the astonishing physics, movement, and luminosity of the observed craft and the chemical and atomic analyses of ejected UFO material, their obvious manufactured natures, and their anomalous isotopes. The same relationship became even clearer to me as I listened to the talk of Vallee for this conference event, “The UFO Phenomenon: A Genuine Scientific Problem.”

If I may paraphrase the talk, Jacques spoke of seven categories of strangeness. He explained to this audience that the sciences work on the first three, which involve physical material that can be analyzed and studied, as has been modeled here with such impressive success. Jacques cautioned us, however, that we err if we believe that this is the full UFO phenomenon. We essentially fall into a category error or confirmation bias, since we are looking at only what can be studied with our present scientific epistemologies and technologies. We are confusing what is there with what we can understand with our cognitive methods.

The UFO phenomenon is these first three categories, yes, but it also the remaining four, and it is precisely these that are often not talked about and not reported, much less studied, largely because of their inherent strangeness or anomalous relationship to our present way of thinking and being. If I may venture a guess here, it is not that they have not yet been studied scientifically. It is rather that they cannot be. Something else, an entirely new order of knowledge, is being called for.

It struck me listening to Jacques that the humanities at their bravest, and especially the study of religion at its furthest reaches, in fact specialize in studying exactly these, that is, the strangest stuff on the other end of the spectrum–categories 5, 6, and 7. This does not mean that the humanities as presently conceived and practiced are our answer; or that they are in any way sufficient. I do not believe that. But at least some of us try. And that, I realized, is the relationship of the two university-based initiatives. We can do the fundamental science and the public policy at Stanford–categories 1, 2, and 3. We can do the weird stuff at Rice–categories 5, 6, and 7. The inquiries are very different ones with vastly different materials and methods, but they are also very much related. They must be. That unity or shared quest is likely a part of the new order of knowledge that I hear Jacques Vallee calling for. If nothing else, it is a beginning.

So let me begin on that same shared spectrum of strangeness . . . .

*  *  *  *

I am grateful to speak to you all at this inaugural conference of the Sol Foundation. I hope I can add something helpful and hopeful here at the end–an accent, perhaps, or a caution, perhaps even a superhuman future.

I want to begin by defining my perspective, since it blinds me to some things (especially technological possibilities), even as it brings other things into sharp focus (especially religious or spiritual possibilities). One cannot see a star through a microscope. And one cannot see a cell through a telescope. The lenses through which we see are focusing and limiting at the same time. Put differently, both the telescope and the microscope possess lenses that are intentionally distorted so that we can see at a particular level for specific purposes. So too with our professional frameworks. They are distortions of the lenses, but these disciplinary foci are also very helpful, and in fact they are necessary to see anything at all.

What I will say today is a kind of massive hunch or overwhelming intuition–largely unconscious, but not entirely so–based on reading thousands of pages of books and archival materials and engaging in hundreds of hours of conversations with experiencers and researchers from the sciences, the social sciences, and the humanities. I come to this practice with almost four decades of teaching and writing the history of religions. We might define the latter intellectual-spiritual discipline as the comparative study of humanity’s religious experience from the prehistoric cave paintings of Europe to today’s near-death or abduction experience, with a special focus on altered states of consciousness. It is out of this historical, comparative, and altered perspective that I will write of what Peter Skafish calls “signs that are given off by the x” of the UFO.

X, indeed. Signs, indeed.

I have six things I wish to say.

1. SIGNS OF THE UFO: IT’S ABOUT SCALE

The first thing I want to say is that the signs of the UFO extend over immense ranges of space and time, certainly across the entire globe and throughout that tiny slice of memory that we call human history, and probably much further back. Any individual contact or abduction experience in the contemporary world is a mere moment in this larger hyperobject or super-presence. Precisely because of this immensity, the UFO cannot be fully fathomed in any of its recent manifestations. We can only intuit something of its hyper-presence from a much larger perspective that is at once comparative and historical.

A number of corollaries follow. One is that no single individual can possibly fathom this. It is going to take large teams, really entire disciplines over many generations. I continue to think that higher education is our best hope here, although these institutions have major limitations and fault lines that I do not want to deny. It is entirely possible that the UFO inquiry can only be done effectively outside social institutions like higher education, but such a necessity will guarantee the subject’s marginalization and require a constant re-invention of the wheel. It will also result in endless, and dysfunctional, levels of secrecy. I do not think we have time for that.

Another related corollary involves public policy: any nation-state that approaches the UFO as a potential “threat” to its present national security, much less conceives of a program whose very purpose is to “destroy” or “shoot down” the anomaly, may be perceiving something of the situation (since the UFO as physical object is not “ours” and may well represent a potential safety problem for aviators), but little or nothing at all of the potential meaning of the fuller superpresence, which does not appear to be restricted to any local politics or air space. Obviously, our arbitrary borders mean nothing to the UFO. It “violates” them at will, and effortlessly.

This rather obvious fact need not be bad news. It may in fact be very good news. This relegation of our present national identities to a secondary status, even a potential irrelevance is, after all, very much apiece with the UFO’s consistent concerns over ecological collapse, nuclear armament, and dystopian apocalypse. Still, public policies are as important as working political responses. What we desperately need is moral, scientific, and, frankly, spiritual leadership beyond our present borders and boundaries. The U.S. is poised to provide part of this leadership, but only if it can embrace its rich combinative legal logic, affirm its immigrant or “alien” nature, acknowledge and mourn its colonizing and enslaving pasts, and affirm again its historical refusal to bow to any religious absolute.

Such historical observations are not tangential, nor are they political “opinions.” They are historical facts of immense importance and implication. Indeed, the postcolonial reading of the UFO has been with us at least since Charles Fort observed in the second and third decades of the twentieth century that these “super-constructions in the sky,” as he called them, may have an eventual effect not unlike the strange ships that showed up in the harbors of the eastern seaboard of the “new world,” a series of events for which the indigenous populations simply lacked the categories to fathom, much less the technology to defend themselves against what was coming–settler colonialism and the endless violences and displacements that come in its wake.

I am also thinking of the ways that abductions might be read as a replication on a spectral plane of the earlier physical abduction by ships of the Atlantic slave trade. The alien abductions, in other words, take place within a deep historical context, and they are experienced radically differently by different racial, ethnic, and historical communities. That should tell us something important about the understandable anxieties around the topic, especially around the lack of moral agency in many of the encounters and contacts. They are not called “abductions” for nothing.

One can often detect something of the multi-faceted leadership I am imagining in the experiencers. I take it as significant, for example, that one of our most recent experiencers, Matthew Roberts–the U.S. Naval Service Member who was stationed on the U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt for the 2015 “Go Fast” radar video and later transferred to the Office of Naval Intelligence–understands the phenomenon to be fundamentally initiatory in its dynamics and spiritual in nature whose aim is a kind of unconditional love for all human beings, regardless of national politics, ethnicity, or religion. This is the sort of leadership I am talking about.

I fully understand that the vast majority of individuals are not ready for this type of “flip” into who they are before and beyond their constructed identities (there is an understatement). I understand that most people think that they are their psychological, national, and religious egos–their surface selves. This is probably the deepest provocation of the UFO–its utter disregard for our constructed local egos and the degree to which it abolishes or transcends them. There is immense potential here, but only if we are willing to surrender these righteous selves and create new public policy that constitutes a more humane and global worldview.

2. IT’S ABOUT TECHNOLOGY

The second thing I want to observe is that the UFO has taken on special urgency precisely because of our human technology. With new advances in radar, sonar, and satellite capabilities, we are seeing what was probably always there in the environment but was generally invisible. Put more bluntly, these things are not new, but our technological abilities to see them are.

It also needs to be said: many of our present global crises around ecological degradation and nuclear holocaust are precisely because of our sciences and technologies. I do not think it is an accident at all that the UFO shows such anxious interest in our warplanes (the famous “foo fighters” of World War II) and nuclear installations. So the statement “It’s about technology” is doubly meant.

Or triply. The total UFO event, after all, seems to possess both a material, technological, or physical and a mental, spiritual, or paranormal dimension. I do not want to be heard as denying that what we are dealing with here includes craft of some kind. I want to affirm that, but I also want to emphasize that the total UFO phenomenon (all seven degrees of its strangeness, to invoke Vallee’s model again) clearly violates our present ways of dividing reality up into “mind” and “matter,” into “subjectivity” and “objectivity.” I continue to think that this fundamental nonduality is the phenomenon’s ultimate power and provocation–the signs of its x.

Any discussion of “technology,” then, should take into account this fundamental both-and. It does not, of course. We continue to think in terms of our machines, our technology, our weapons. We hear about “back-engineering” and “craft.” We even hear of “biologics.” And then we slice off the spiritual or paranormal dimensions, pretending that they do not exist or do not matter. This is wrong. Diana Pasulka has been a clarion voice here, urging us to think of technology and the UFO in spiritual as well as material terms. Her voice, I think, has not been sufficiently heard or integrated, particularly by those who want to think only in terms of “now we have proof,” by which they mean, “now we have physical stuff.”

I should also add here that our present realizations around AI will likely have a major impact on our ability to understand the UFO itself, which has for decades included descriptions of the “robotic” ways that the beings are said to move or interact with humans (hey, I wouldn’t walk into a tribe of angry apes, either; I would send an expendable AI entity). Put a bit differently, AI gives us a new way of imagining and picturing what is going on, much as modern cosmology, hyperdimensional mathematics, and evolutionary biology have done so in other contexts. People do not go “up” into heaven now (we know there is no “up”). They move into “other dimensions” or “evolve” into other forms of consciousness. Science, or science fiction, has changed us.

The present case of the UFO, AI, evolution, and modern notions of space travel can be compared in some ways to the modern near-death experience, which is also heavily dependent on recent biomedical technology: people are now being “brought back” from much further into the death process. As a consequence, they are remembering more, and they are saying more. One result is a new genre of mystical literature–the near-death experience literature.

The UFO and near-death experience, then, are, in some sense, unintended but quite real consequences of modern technology. To be more precise, the two related phenomena cannot be reduced to or explained by the technologies involved, but they also cannot be experienced on a broad level without them. Of course, there were examples of both the “near-death experience” and the “UFO” before the biomedical, radar, sonar, and satellite technologies, but they were relatively rare. Not anymore.

The question of recovered bodies or “biologics” presses the case even more directly. This would indeed force our hand, as it were, make us lay our philosophical cards on the table (maybe even become more aware that we are playing such cards). Those cards assume an objectified and measurable physicalism or materialism (in which mind or consciousness is not really real), but also a type of anthropocentrism, or the idea that human beings are at the apex or center of the evolved cosmos and that our senses (and their sciences) should somehow be prioritized as uniquely corresponding to the natural world. Neither of these assumptions–the scientistic materialism nor the sense-based anthropocentrism–are adequate to the full complexity or “high strangeness” of what is actually going on.

{ https://thedebrief.org/category/science/ }

Diamond UFO was seen this week over Mesa, Arizona, Feb 14, 2024, UFO Sighting News.

Date of sighting: Feb 14, 2024
Location of sighting: Mesa, Arizona, USA
News source: 

• https://www.12news.com/article/news/local/valley/mesa-ufo-sighting-plane-advertisement-banner/75-ba6956f4-da4d-41e4-a04d-a9dcca770039

A dark diamond UFO was seen this week over Mesa, Arizona and its similar in shape to many seen over the years. UFOs are seen in areas where the population is more dense, like Mesa which has a population of 3,600. And compounded with the fact that a person passing by the eyewitness told him that aliens were coming soon. That really takes the cake. Thats an alien living there among them, not just telling him, but mentally re-programing him to look for a UFO and to record it for the public to see. Yes, aliens can do that to our simple minds. 

Scott C. Waring

News states: 

MESA, Ariz. — A viewer might have glimpsed something out of this world over Mesa last weekend. His photos were abducting our attention on Facebook so we just had to give it a stellar shout-out. Now we're not going to say 12News Weather Watcher Chad Chad photographed a UFO... Because he probably didn't. But some speculation in the comments section orbited around that possibility!

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

90 Meter UFO photo released by US Gov on UAP site, UFO Sighting News.

Date of sighting: 2022-2023 (date gov gave)
Location of sighting: Middle East
Source: 

• https://www.aaro.mil/

Look at this original photo below. It's not a passenger jet, it's a disk. It even was traveling so fast that the infrared camera caught the disk in four positions....three empty positions behind it. Thats fast! Now it's understandable that the US gov explains this away as something other than a UFO, because they want to keep their jobs. Whey you work for the US gov, they own you. Yes, they tell you that too when you join the military. So yeah, they will lie until their teeth fall out. This photo is clearly a 90 meter disk (they said air bus size) and it was only caught for one reason and one reason only.......They used an infrared camera. This camera can see light that the human eye cannot see. It can detect that light reflecting off objects which we don't know exists. This is 100% proof of a real UFO in the US recent release data. 

Scott C. Waring

Click the photo below to enlarge. 

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

A Deep Dive into Seven Unsolvable Alien Encounters

In the realm of the unexplained and the mysterious, few subjects captivate the imagination quite like the possibility of alien encounters. Throughout history, numerous reports of unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) have both intrigued and puzzled experts, enthusiasts, and skeptics alike. Among these, certain incidents stand out for their compelling evidence and the inability of conventional explanations to provide satisfactory answers. Here, we delve into seven of the most compelling alien encounters that remain undebunked, inviting us to question what lies beyond the known boundaries of our universe.

1. The USS Nimitz Encounter (2004)

In November 2004, off the coast of San Diego, the crew of the USS Nimitz encountered an unidentified Tic Tac-shaped object. This object exhibited extraordinary aerial maneuvers, defying known physics and leaving trained military personnel bewildered. Despite extensive analysis, the nature of the Tic Tac object remains a mystery, fueling debates about the capabilities of unacknowledged technologies or extraterrestrial visitation.

2. East Coast Go Fast Video (2015)

In 2015, a video captured by US Navy pilots off the East Coast showcased an object moving at speeds and patterns that puzzled observers. The “Go Fast” video, as it came to be known, presents a compelling piece of visual evidence that challenges our understanding of aircraft capabilities, remaining unexplained by conventional technology or natural phenomena.

3. The Gimbal Encounter (2015)

Another bewildering encounter by Navy pilots, the Gimbal video revealed an object performing impossible aerodynamics, without visible means of propulsion. Its rotation and acceleration characteristics continue to perplex analysts and contribute to the ongoing debate about the presence of advanced non-human or secret military technology in our skies.

4. O’Hare International Airport Saucer (2006)

Witnesses at O’Hare International Airport reported a saucer-shaped object hovering over the terminal in 2006. Despite multiple eyewitness accounts from credible sources, no conventional explanation has been provided for this sighting. The incident raises questions about our preparedness to deal with unexplained aerial phenomena in highly trafficked areas.

5. The Aguadilla Airport Incident (2013)

Near the Bermuda Triangle, a hotbed for mysterious disappearances and phenomena, the Aguadilla Airport incident involved an unidentified object skimming the ocean’s surface and seemingly splitting in two. Captured by thermal imaging, this incident adds to the collection of evidence suggesting the existence of advanced, unidentified objects operating in our airspace.

6. Theo Chesley’s Alaskan Encounter (2019)

Theo Chesley, an experienced pilot, reported a disc-like object in the skies over Alaska that exhibited extraordinary maneuverability and the ability to alter its appearance. This encounter, supported by photographic evidence, highlights the personal experiences of individuals who encounter unexplainable phenomena, further emphasizing the global nature of the UFO phenomenon.

7. The Lenticular Cloud UFO (2023)

In Turkey, a lenticular cloud formation sparked widespread speculation due to its uncanny resemblance to a classic UFO shape. While some argue it’s a natural atmospheric condition, others speculate about the possibility of UFOs using such clouds for concealment. This event underscores the fine line between natural phenomena and potential extraterrestrial activity.

VIDEO:

• Top 7 ALIEN Encounters That Can’t Be Debunked
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfTh1aW39OM

These seven encounters represent just a fraction of the unexplained sightings reported globally. They challenge our understanding of the world and push the boundaries of conventional science and technology. While skeptics may demand irrefutable evidence, the persistence of these unsolved cases invites us to keep an open mind about the possibilities of what might exist beyond our current knowledge. As we continue to explore these mysteries, we inch closer to potentially groundbreaking discoveries about our place in the cosmos and the existence of other intelligent life forms.

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

{ https://www.hln.be/ }

SpaceX Could Launch Intuitive Machines’ Moon Lander Tonight And Finally Make History

Intuitive Machines hopes its Nova-C lander, dubbed Odysseus, will launch to the Moon tonight aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

BY KIONA SMITH

 

Anadolu/Getty Images

WHEN WILL SPACEX LAUNCH INTUITIVE MACHINES’ MOON LANDER?

The IM-1 mission is scheduled to launch at 1:05 a.m. Eastern Time on February 15, which, in practical terms, means it’ll be blasting off extremely late tonight.

WHEN WILL ODYSSEUS LAND ON THE MOON?

The lander is scheduled to land on February 22, touching down in a small crater next door to Malapert Crater, near the Moon’s south pole. As long as SpaceX manages to launch by February 16, the lander can make it to the Moon on schedule. Otherwise, the crew will have to try for some time in March.

WHY WAS THE ODYSSEUS LANDER LAUNCH DELAYED?

Originally, the launch was scheduled for January 12, but bad weather in Florida forced SpaceX to push back the date to February 14 (which would have been early this morning). As technicians were loading the lander’s liquid methane propellant, however, they realized the methane was at an “off-nominal” temperature and called a halt. After taking a day to tackle the methane temperature issue, SpaceX plans to try again late tonight. The problem was with the lander’s propellant system; the Falcon 9’s rocket fuel seemed to be just fine.

The Nova-C lander, with an Intuitive Machines executive for scale.

HOUSTON CHRONICLE/HEARST NEWSPAPERS VIA GETTY IMAGES/HEARST NEWSPAPERS/GETTY IMAGES

WHAT’S ON BOARD THE NEW MOON LANDER?

Odysseus is carrying a handful of payloads for NASA as part of the agency’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program: there’s a set of various sensors and beacons to help test automatic landing technologies, along with a laser reflector to provide a very visible, very precise navigation landmark for future missions. Also aboard Odysseus is a very simple radio receiver to measure the background radio waves on the Moon; called ROLSES, it might eventually pave the way for full-scale radio telescopes on the Moon. Other instruments will monitor how space weather — the bombardment of micrometeorites, radiation, and charged particles from the Sun, and cosmic rays from deeper in space — affects the lunar surface. A set of tiny cameras will record how the lander’s exhaust plume stirs up the fine-grained regolith that covers the lunar surface.

Along with NASA’s instruments, the lander also carries a selection of historical documents and literary works stored on disks: a “Lunar Library” from the nonprofit Arch Mission Foundation (the same nonprofit organization whose illicit cargo of tardigrades spilled across the lunar surface when the Israeli Beresheet lander crashed in 2019). Odysseus is also carrying some insulating material being tested for Columbia Sportswear. There’s also a set of 125 tiny sculptures of the Moon in different phases by artist Jeff Koons (it’s also linked to an NFT project because, of course, it is).

WHY DOES THIS MISSION MATTER?

If it launches on time and lands successfully, IM-1 will be the first private lander on the Moon. Several other attempts, including rival Astrobotic’s recent Peregrine lander, have failed to reach the Moon or — like Beresheet — crashed into the lunar surface. IM-1 will also be the first U.S.-based lander on the Moon since Apollo 17 in 1972, and it’ll be the first successful delivery of a CLPS payload (assuming, of course, that it’s successful).

All of those distinctions would have belonged to Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander, which launched on January 8 and was scheduled to land on February 23. Peregrine carried NASA’s first CLPS payload; it just didn’t get to deliver it to the Moon as planned.

In early January, it looked like Odysseus stood a good chance of beating Peregrine to the Moon. Despite the fact that Odysseus would have launched a few days after Peregrine, the IM-1 mission planned a shorter route to the Moon and should have arrived within a week of launch; Astrobotic chose a slower but more fuel-efficient route for Peregrine. But then a wave of bad weather pummeled Florida, and SpaceX rescheduled the IM-1 launch, ceding the lead to Astrobotic and Peregrine.

When a propellant leak forced Astrobotic to cancel its plans to land Peregrine on the Moon, and bring the lander home to burn up in Earth’s atmosphere instead, Odysseus took the lead again. Keeping it depends on a successful launch tonight and a successful landing on February 22 — and if the last several months of Moon missions have proven anything, it’s that neither of those successes is guaranteed.

HOW TO WATCH THE IM-1 MOON MISSION LAUNCH

NASA will start live streaming coverage of the launch about 20 minutes after midnight (Eastern Time) tonight on the NASA website. (Pro tip: If you’re staying up late to watch rocket launches anyway, you may as well tune in early at 10:00 p.m. Eastern to watch a Progress resupply ship blast off to the International Space Station.)

{ https://www.inverse.com/ }

UFO Over Mexico City, Mexico On Feb 12, 2024, UFO Sighting News.

 

Date of sighting: Feb 12, 2024

Location of sighting: Mexico City, Mexico

 

The eyewitness was enjoying a dinner on the terrace when he and his friends noticed a strange UFO shaped cloud in the distance. Then a dark orb caught his attention. The orb looks just like the metallic orbs that the US gov released in videos earlier. The orb is what I call a cloud orb, or AI controlled alien drone for recording activity. The cloud is not a cloud, but a mothership that is cloaked as a cloud. See the patterns, link them, they are connected. Mexico City is a hotspot of UFO activity, most frequently seen around the volcanos in the area. 

Scott C. Waring

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

UFO Fleet over Chengdu, China on Feb 2024, UFO Sighting News.中國成都不明飛行物 

This UFO fleet is made up of long thin UFOs. The exact same UFOs that were recorded hovering over an airport in China for hours back in 2010, but this is from Feb 2024 in Chengdu, China. There were hundreds of eyewitnesses and this is the only leaked footage of them since the Chinese gov forbids such reports from its citizens. China has  the world's largest population over a billion people. It makes sense they will also have more UFO sightings than any other country in the world. 

Scott C. Waring 

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

Alien Abductions: The Ahrens Family Encounter

In the annals of unexplained phenomena, few stories capture the imagination as vividly as that of the Ahrens family (West Plains, Missouri), whose lives were irrevocably changed one autumn night in 1976. This narrative unfolds with Daniel W., Joyce, and their children, Heather and Daniel E., at the center of a bewildering experience that challenges the boundaries of belief and science.

The Beginning of a Mysterious Journey

The serene life of the Ahrens family was disrupted in 1976 when Daniel and Joyce Ahrens experienced something beyond the ordinary. One night, as they settled into bed, a sudden and inexplicable red light appeared, paralyzing them with fear. Unable to move or speak, they were engulfed in a sense of dread and confusion. This experience was not isolated to the parents; their children, though too young to understand, were also affected in ways that would only become clear years later.

Unraveling the Mystery

For years, the incident remained a perplexing memory, buried under the routines of daily life. It was not until the family encountered similar stories of abductions and saw the depiction of aliens in media that they began to piece together the possibility of their own extraterrestrial encounter. The most compelling evidence came from their own psychological explorations, including hypnosis sessions, which revealed harrowing details of their alleged alien abduction.

Shared Experiences and Independent Confirmations

Under hypnosis, the family members recounted remarkably consistent and detailed accounts of their experiences. Daniel and Joyce described being paralyzed, witnessing the presence of unfamiliar beings, and the sensation of being transported. Heather, too, recalled being taken by entities, subjected to strange interactions and telepathic communications.

The Ahrens’ son, initially skeptical, underwent hypnosis and discovered memories aligning with those of his family, including the presence of non-human entities and inexplicable marks on his body. These revelations added a layer of complexity to the family’s narrative, suggesting a shared experience that transcended mere coincidence or imagination.

A Legacy of Questions and Pursuit of Understanding

The Ahrens family’s encounter remains a compelling case within the study of unexplained phenomena. Skeptics and believers alike grapple with the implications of their story, which raises profound questions about the nature of reality and human experience. Researchers point to the consistency of abduction narratives and the presence of physical evidence, such as unexplained marks and the psychological impact on abductees, as areas warranting further investigation.

VIDEO:

• Daniel W., Joyce, Heather, Daniel E. Ahrens on their terrifying alien abduction experience from 1976
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPmypzHu7Jk
• https://youtu.be/XKzRI7DffWE
• https://youtu.be/IFkT0SK9o1s

The Ahrens family’s experience in 1976 opens a window into the mysterious and often dismissed realm of alien abduction narratives. While definitive answers remain elusive, their story contributes to a larger conversation about the unknown aspects of our world and the human psyche. Whether interpreted as an encounter with the extraterrestrial or a phenomenon yet to be explained by science, the Ahrens family’s journey through the unknown continues to fascinate and challenge our understanding of the possible and the real.

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

Over the past two thousand years, Christian theologians have been debating and speculating what the “Second Coming of Christ” described in the Gospels and the Book of Revelation truly signifies, and when it may occur. There have been no dearth of predictions regarding the date of the Second Coming, all of which, unfortunately, have missed the mark. Interestingly, the early Christians expected Jesus to return within a generation of his death, because there is a verse in the Gospel of Matthew in which Jesus tells his disciples:

Truly I tell you, this generation [Greek: genea] will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.?(Matthew 24:34–35)

The term “generation” is a translation of the Greek term “genea”, which, according to the Danish linguist, Iver Larsen, had a wider meaning than it has today, and the correct translation of genea in the context of the Second Coming is “kind of people”.

So, Jesus was essentially referring to the “kind of people” who live in the current age of lies and deceit, discord and strife, known in the esoteric doctrines as the Iron Age or Kali Yuga. In other words, the Second Coming of Christ refers to a series of momentous events that could occur after the end of the Kali Yuga. This dovetails with the prophecies of many ancient cultures in which a Savior or Avatar will return at the close of this World Age to kill the unrighteous people, cleanse and heal the world, and establish a society based on elevated moral and spiritual principles.

In my book Yuga Shift, I have proposed that the Kali Yuga ends in the year 2025, which will initiate a period of global turmoil and upheavals, and by the year 2040 the Kali Yuga structures and ideologies may be entirely obliterated. The years from 2025 to 2040 are the end-times described in the sacred texts of many cultures, when the prophecies will get fulfilled and our worldview will be dramatically altered. I have explored a number of eschatological doctrines, including the Second Coming of Christ, which describes the return of Christ from the heavens to judge the unrighteous, reward the faithful and set up his Kingdom on earth for a thousand years. 

As per the Gospels, a period of great distress will precede the second coming of Christ, when humanity will be at war, the minds of men will be consumed by deceit and hatred, and environmental calamities such as famines and earthquakes will bring untold suffering. The Gospel of Matthew tells us that when Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, and his disciples asked him, “what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”, Jesus replied:

Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains.(Matthew 24.4-8)

At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. (Matthew 24.10-13) 

For then there will be great tribulation, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again. (Matthew 24.21)

Looking at the state of our world today, with the burgeoning wars and hatred everywhere, acute food shortages in many places, and with quite a few earthquakes occurring in the past one year, it almost seems like we are living in the times of the fulfillment of these prophecies. Once we cross the 2025 threshold, however, things are likely to slide further downhill.

As per the Gospel of Matthew, the Second Coming of Christ will be clearly visible to everyone, and there will be no need to believe rumors, or to consult scientists, astrologers or priests, “for as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.” (Matthew 24.27). This tells us that the appearance of Christ during the end-times will occur in a rather dramatic fashion, and one should trust one’s own judgment regarding this. However, certain celestial events will precede the arrival of Christ, which will make people realize that the end-times are drawing near. 

Immediately after the distress (tribulation) of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken. Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other. (Matthew 24.29-31)

As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears, let them hear. (Matthew 13.40-43)

The celestial events described in these verses could be precipitated by the passage of the earth through a dense swarm of comets and meteors. The “darkening of the sun and the moon” can be caused by voluminous quantities of meteor dust, while the “stars falling from the sky” are quite likely to be references to “shooting stars” or meteors, blazing a trail through the night sky. The imagery of the “Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory”, could be a metaphor for a large, brilliant comet appearing in the skies during the end-times.

As to when this cometary apocalypse will come to pass, however, cannot be deduced from the descriptions in the Gospels. The early Christians used to believe that Jesus will return during their lifetime, but most Christian theologians have, since then, have advocated that the visible appearance of Christ may happen at any moment and that Christians should be ever ready for it. These beliefs were inspired by the Gospels for, as the Gospel of Matthew states:

“But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left. (Matthew 24.36 - 41)    

It is rather interesting how the Gospel accounts stress that the “angels” of God will save the righteous people before the tribulations of the end-times. This dovetails with the Hopi beliefs about the four previous Worlds, each of which ended with a cataclysm. The Hopi tell us that during the dissolution of the first two Worlds, some of the righteous people were guided to the subterranean homes of the “Ant People”, where they lived in comfort while the world above was destroyed and reconfigured by their god, Sotuknang. After the planet had been renewed, the Hopi were taken outside and given the necessary instructions of living in the new World.

The “Ant People” of the Hopi are similar to the race of dwarfs mentioned in the legends of many ancient cultures, where they are called gnomes, goblins, leprechauns, yakshas etc. In these accounts, the dwarfs were said to live in lavish comfort in subterranean caverns, which were lit up with precious jewels. They were said to be extremely proficient in mining and smithing and made various kinds of magical artifacts. In Celtic legends, the underground home of the dwarfs could be reached through hidden passages in hills and under water. In general, the dwarfs were said to exhibit a friendly and generous attitude towards humans, whom they sometimes conduct to their underground kingdom of riches.[1]

A Hopi petroglyph at McKee Springs, Utah, which, many think, may be depicting a Hopi person in the company of the Ant People. Source: Adobe Stock.

The dwarfs of the ancient traditions belong to an ensemble of magical beings who were collectively called the fairies or “faerie folk”. They were regarded as semi-divine beings, who possessed various supernatural abilities, including the powers of flying, invisibility, shape-shifting and clairvoyance. The faerie folk were depicted as human-like beings of extraordinary beauty, with wings and brilliant halos, similar to the manner in which the angels were depicted in Christian art. It appears from such accounts that survival during periods of transition between the World Ages is not a matter of luck and chance. Rather, it is a righteous few who are selected for survival by various inter-dimensional beings, and guided to safe locations. 

Even though the Gospels cannot give us a proper timeframe as to when the end-time tribulations might come to pass, some tantalizing clues can be found in the Book of Revelation composed by John of Patmos, who, many scholars believe, could be the Apostle John. As per the Revelation, a number of catastrophic events are due to occur before the final return of Christ from the heavens. Without going into too many details, I will focus on a specific part of the prophetic vision of John which describes what happened when the “Lamb of God” took a scroll from the hand of God and opened the seven seals. 

The opening of the first four seals released the “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse”, who created the conditions for the onset of a global war, accompanied by much hatred and bloodshed, as well as a famine that led to the death of many people. (Rev 6.2-8). This dovetails with the Gospels, which tell us that wars, famines and earthquakes will occur prior to the Second Coming.

When the seventh seal was opened, the Seven Angels who stand before God blew the seven trumpets. This triggered a number of catastrophic events, all of which appear to be related to meteor and comet impacts.

“The first angel sounded: And hail and fire followed, mingled with blood, and they were thrown to the earth. And a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up.” (Rev 8:7) This verse seems to describe a particularly intense meteor shower.

“Then the second angel sounded: And something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood. And a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.” (Rev 8:8-9) These verses probably describe an oceanic asteroid impact.

“Then the third angel sounded: And a great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many men died from the water, because it was made bitter.” (Rev 8:10-11) This section describes a comet impact, since comets were described as long-tailed stars, and they release harmful gases including cyanide.

“Then the fourth angel sounded: And a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them were darkened. A third of the day did not shine, and likewise the night.” (Rev 8:12-13) It is quite likely that the darkening of the sun, moon, and the stars was due to a dusting of the upper atmosphere by a meteor stream.

“Then the fifth angel sounded: And I saw a star fallen from heaven to the earth. To him was given the key to the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit, and smoke arose out of the pit like the smoke of a great furnace. So the sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke of the pit. Then out of the smoke locusts came upon the earth.” (Rev 9:1-3) These verses describe a volcanic eruption triggered by a comet impact. It is very common for volcanic explosions to occur after cometary bombardments.

“Then the sixth angel sounded: And I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.” So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released to kill a third of mankind. Now the number of the army of the horsemen was two hundred million; I heard the number of them. And thus I saw the horses in the vision: those who sat on them had breastplates of fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulfur yellow; and the heads of the horses were like the heads of lions; and out of their mouths came fire, smoke, and brimstone. By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed—by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which came out of their mouths. For their power is in their mouth and in their tails; for their tails are like serpents, having heads; and with them they do harm.” (Rev 9:-13-19) This section describes a swarm of comets, striking the earth with fiery projectiles, and setting everything on fire with their ion tails.

“Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!”...Then the temple of God was opened in heaven, and the ark of His covenant was seen in His temple. And there were lightnings, noises, thunderings, an earthquake, and great hail.” (Rev 11.15-19) These verses are describing the unveiling of the “heaven of the gods” which was known as Shambhala or Amaravati in the Hindu-Buddhist texts. This is the true meaning of apocalypse or unveiling, which will dispel the confusion and ignorance of the Kali Yuga and make us aware of a greater reality and of our role in the universal scheme of things.

There can be hardly any doubt that the catastrophic events described in the Revelation, following the opening of the seven seals, can only be precipitated by meteor dust, meteor showers, and devastating asteroid and comet impacts. In other words, our planet is due to experience a massive collision with a dense swarm of comets and asteroids sometime in the near future, which will pull down the curtains on our decadent and decaying civilization of the Kali Yuga. The question is, where is this comet swarm located, and when might this head-on collision occur? Have our astronomers found out anything? The answer is yes, and we shall get to it very soon.

As per the Revelation, Christ will arrive from the skies after these cataclysmic impact events have shaken humanity out of their stupor. The symbolisms associated with Christ are replete with cometary allusions. When John had seen the Son of Man in his vision for the first time, (before any of these catastrophic events had occurred), he said that,

“In his right hand he held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.” (Rev 1.16)

When he saw Christ again in his vision after the opening of the Seven Seals, he was riding a white horse, a sharp sword emerged from his mouth, and he was accompanied by an army of horse-riding angels, in a manner reminiscent of the Savior figures of other cultures viz. Kalki, Rudra Chakrin and Saoshyant.

“Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses. Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: King of Kings and Lord or Lords. (Rev 19: 11-16)

The imagery of Christ riding a horse, with a sword coming out of his mouth, and followed by an army of horse-riding angels is unmistakably that of a giant, two-tailed, “horse comet” followed by a swarm of smaller comets! Surprised? Let me explain.

What could be the horse that Christ rides through the heavens, following the catastrophic events precipitated by a swarm of comets, meteors and asteroids? It can be nothing other than a “horse comet”. The Roman philosopher Pliny had mentioned a class of comets called “hippeus” or “horse comets”[2], having plumes much like horses’ mane in rapid motion. Hephaistion of Thebes tells us that the hippeus comet foretold the quick fall of kings and tyrants.[3] The earliest known depiction of a “horse comet” is found on the bronze coins issued by Mithridates VI of Pontus, which show the unusually bright comet that appeared sometime around c.135 BCE, coinciding with the year of birth of Mithridates. The coins depict a ten-pointed star with a long tail that resembles a horse’s mane.

Comet McNaught, the Great Comet of 2007, over the Pacific Ocean as viewed from the ESO Paranal Observatory. The white dust tail of a comet can be imagined as the tail or mane of a horse in motion. Credit: ESO/Sebastian Deiries, CC BY 4 via Wikimedia Commons

And what about the sharp sword that comes out of the mouth of Christ? What might that represent? Once again, comets! That’s right. Many ancient writers described comets as “swords”, threatening nations with punishment. Tertullian (c.240 CE), the early Christian theologian, described comets as “God’s scythe using which he shears down the multitude of sinful creatures.” The 1st century CE historian, Josephus, was referring to a comet when he described a star, resembling a sword, which stood over the city of Jerusalem for an entire year, in 66 CE.[4] The Gond tribals, who live in the forests of Central India, believe that comets are, “the sword like weapon of the gods… the gods are protecting humans by cleaning up the mess created by bad events either by killing evil (when it is a sword) or by sweeping away the evil (when it is a broom).”[5]

I believe it is the long, straight, bluish, ion-tail of a comet, which has been described as a “sword” in the traditional beliefs of different cultures. Not only does the ion-tail actually resemble a sword, it is also filled with electrically charged particles, which can set the forests and grasslands ablaze if it sweeps over the surface of the earth.  

Evidently, the imagery of Christ in the Revelation and the Gospels bears an uncanny resemblance to a two-tailed “horse comet”, in which the white, curvy, dust tail has been visualized as a horse’s mane in motion, while the straight, bluish, ion tail has been imagined as a sword. The army of angels on horseback, who follow Christ, are a “swarm” of smaller horse comets. In other words, the Second Coming describes the arrival of an effulgent swarm of “horse comets” into the inner solar system resulting in a head-on collision with the earth. 

Comet NEOWISE, 2020. A two-tailed comet can be visualized as a celestial figure riding a horse and holding a sword. Credit: Benjamin Inouye, CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

It is no secret that most ancient cultures dreaded comets and referred to them as the “harbingers of doom”. Comets were believed to bring all sorts of miseries in their wake such as wars, revolutions, earthquakes, disasters, famines and pestilences. The deeply ingrained belief that comets were the “portents of impending disaster sent directly from heaven for the warning of mankind”, was carried into early Christianity. In The Popular Science Monthly (1885), Andrew Dickson White, the Late President of Cornell University, wrote about the Christian beliefs about comets:

“The belief that every comet is ball of fire, flung from the right hand of an angry God to warn the groveling dwellers of earth, was received into the early Church…The great Fathers of the Church committed themselves unreservedly to this doctrine. Tertullian declared that ‘comets portend revolutions of kingdoms, pestilence, war, winds, or heat.’ Origen insisted that they indicate “catastrophes and the downfall of empires and worlds.’”[6]

Thus, it would be in keeping with the ancient belief systems if an effulgent swarm of comets were to be responsible for destruction of evil at the end of the Kali Yuga. The giant “horse comet”, which has been represented as Christ in the Revelation is not Christ himself but should be properly understood as a “messenger of Christ”, which has been empowered to carry out the divine will of cleansing the earth of evil and renewing it.

This brings us to the final question: from where does this swarm of comets originate, and when might we expect to encounter it?

The clue to this mystery is also contained in the Revelation. When John saw the Son of Man for the first time in his vision, he said that, “In his right hand he held seven stars….” What could the “seven stars” be, if not the seven prominent stars of the Pleiades asterism?

Now, of all the meteor streams that the earth crosses in course of its annual orbit around the Sun, there is only one meteor stream whose radiant (i.e. the point in the sky from where the meteors appear to originate) is very close to the Pleiades: it is the Taurid meteor stream.

Which means, the cometary apocalypse described in the Christian eschatological texts describe a swarm of comets emanating from the Taurid meteor stream. But does the Taurid meteor stream contain the kind of gigantic, effulgent, civilization-ending comets and comet swarms that have been described in these texts? If yes, why don’t we see them today? 

This is where we need to get ourselves acquainted with some very interesting details about the Taurid meteor stream. We know that the earth experiences a number of meteor showers every year in the course of its annual orbit. The meteor showers occur when the earth passes though a meteor stream that intersects its orbits. The meteor streams are “rivers of debris” left behind by a comet with an Earth-crossing orbit, composed mainly of dust and pebbles.  

The Taurid meteor stream is the largest stream of cosmic debris in the inner solar system. The earth crosses the Taurid stream twice in course of its orbit around the sun, once in summer and once in late autumn.

The earth crosses the Taurid meteor stream twice a year, in course of its orbit around the sun. Credit: Bibhu Dev Misra

The first crossing of the Taurids takes place from June 5 – July 18, with peak activity on June 29. This is a daytime shower called the “Beta Taurids”. The next crossing of the Taurids occurs from Sep 10 – Nov 20, when the earth crosses the “Southern Taurids”, followed by the “Northern Taurids” from Oct 20 – Dec 10. These are two cross sections of the same meteor stream. The Southern Taurids peak on October 10, while the Northern Taurids peak on November 12. It is during a one-week time frame extending from November 5 through November 12 when the Taurids are most active. Since these meteor showers occur in late October and early November they are also called “Halloween fireballs”.

While most meteor streams contain small particles, not larger than a grain of sand or a pebble, the Taurid meteor stream contains some large chunks of rocks. The Beta Taurids, in particular, have been held responsible for generating Earth-impacting meteors in the recent past. Astronomers believe that the Beta Taurids, which have peak activity on June 29, probably caused the Tunguska event of June 30, 1908, when a large meteor exploded over Eastern Siberia with the force of a 1000 Hiroshima nuclear bombs and flattened over 2000 square kilometers of forest.[7] The meteor is believed to have been about 120 feet across and weighed a 100 million kilograms. 

British astronomers Victor Clube and Bill Napier had postulated that the progenitor of the Taurid stream was a giant comet, around 50 - 100 km in diameter, which entered the inner solar system at least 20,000 to 30,000 years ago. The comet was tossed into a short-term orbit around the sun, and disintegrated in stages, leaving behind the trail of debris known as the Taurid Complex.[8] The faint Comet Encke, which is the only visible comet that circulates within the Taurid stream today, is probably a recently reactivated fragment of the progenitor comet. Napier found that at least 19 of the largest NEO’s (Near-Earth Objects) have orbits significantly close to that of Comet Encke and are likely to be the remnants of the giant Taurid progenitor.[9]

What is even more interesting, and quite ominous to say the least, is that the giant progenitor comet of the Taurids still remains hidden in the center of the Taurid stream, moving within a “tightly packed swarm” consisting of several minor comets (formed by the fragmentation of the progenitor) and dozens of full-size asteroids up to 1 km wide. This dense cluster of comets and asteroids within the Taurid meteor stream is called the “Taurid Resonant Swarm”. 

The Taurid Resonant Swarm is in an orbit similar to Comet Encke’s. It goes round the sun in an Earth-crossing orbit once every 3.39 years. The comets within the Taurid Resonant Swarm are in a dormant state right now, which makes it very difficult to spot them, but they could be reactivated as bright, outgassing comets at any point in the future. Dormant comets are quite common within the solar system. For instance, the centaurs are a class of small bodies which revolve around the sun in slightly elliptical orbits, between the outer planets. Many centaurs – such as Chiron and 29P - occasionally outburst and develop a comet-like coma, which is why they have been classified both as asteroids and comets. 

Recently, astronomers Ignacio Ferrin and Vincenzo Orofino examined dozens of previously published papers and identified 88 new asteroids in the Taurid stream. Using the secular light curve technique, which looks for changes in each member’s brightness along its orbit, they found evidence of cometary activity in 67 percent of the 51 new Taurid members they had good data on. The orbital alignment of these 88 bodies with Comet Encke, and the signs of outgassing, indicate that they have cometary origin, most likely from the fragmentation of the Taurid progenitor.[10]

Clube and Napier believe that large chunks of rock from the Taurid Resonant Swarm have struck us many times within the historical timeframe when the earth passed through this dense swarm and will continue to do so with catastrophic consequences in future. In an article in the National Geographic, Australian astronomer Duncan Steel provided a specific estimate of the periodicity of impact events originating from the Taurid swarm:

“Every 2,500 to 3,000 years or so, the core of the Taurid stream passes near Earth and produces much more intense meteor showers for a few centuries, said Steel. A gap of a few centuries separates the era of intensity between Northern Taurids and Southern Taurids.”[11]

This is a stunning piece of statistic for it perfectly explains why civilizations across the world seem to collapse in a heap every 2700 years, followed by a period of cataclysmic earth-changes that extends for roughly 300 years. The Taurid Resonant Swarm clearly seems to be playing a central role in the periodic collapse and re-emergence of civilization on our planet!

Quite alarmingly, the earth is scheduled to pass through the center of the Taurid Resonant Swarm very soon, which could spell doom for our civilization. 

Victor Clube and David Asher had published a paper in the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society, in which they said that, as per their computations, the earth will pass directly through the center of the Taurid Resonant Swarm in the years 2032 and 2036.[12] These two head-on collisions with the Taurid Resonant Swarm - which is densely packed with a large number massive dormant comets and full-size asteroid fragments - could set off a chain of global catastrophes that could finally wind up the Kali Yuga.

I suspect that, sometime prior to or during the passage of the earth through the center of the Taurid Resonant Swarm in the years 2032 and 2036, the giant “horse comet”, which has been described in the Revelation as Christ on a horse with a sword coming out of his mouth, and a “swarm" of smaller comets, which has been envisioned in the Revelation as the army of angels on horseback, will be activated as effulgent, outgassing comets, stunning us with their dazzling splendor, and making it obvious to everyone living at that time that the prophecies are being fulfilled. 

Needless to say, the energy balance of the solar system is likely to undergo drastic shifts at this time, affecting us deeply at a psychological level. On one hand, it could propel humanity to a new level of consciousness by activating the subtle energy centers within our body known as the chakras, while on the other, it could exacerbate the warlike and violent tendencies in men, causing more conflicts on a global scale. These comets, which our ancestors believed are divinely empowered to carry out the will of the gods, will cleanse, purify and renew the earth, so that an entirely new civilization can be forged by the survivors, which is built on a bedrock of peace and harmony, truth and justice, and a veritable paradise is once again established on earth.

References

[1] Vernon J. Harward Jr., The Dwarfs of Arthurian Romance and Celtic Tradition, E. J. Brill, Leiden, 1958, pp. 6-20.
[2] Pliny, Natural History 2.22.
[3] M. R. Molnar, “New Numismatic Evidence about the Comets of Mithridates the Great of Pontus (134 and 119 BC)", Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, December 1997, Vol.29, p.1262.
[4] Flavius Josephus, The Wars of the Jews 6.5.3, https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2850/2850-h/2850-h.htm
[5] M N Vahia, Ganesh Halkare “Aspects of Gond Astronomy”, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, 2011, p. 17, https://www.tifr.res.in/~archaeo/papers/Prehistoric%20astronomy/Astronomical%20ideas%20of%20the%20Gonds.pdf
[6] Andrew Dickson White, “New Chapters in the Warfare of Science: The Doctrine of Comets”, The Popular Science Monthly, 1885, p. 723.
[7] John Roach, “Meteor Shower Promises Seven Shooting Stars an Hour”, National Geographic News, 7 November 2003, https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/11/1107_031107_taurids.html
[8] D.I. Steel, D.J. Asher, S.V.M Clube, “The Taurid Complex: Giant Comet Origin?” International Astronomical Union Colloquium, 1991, Vol. 126, pp. 327-330, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0252921100067063 
[9] W. M. Napier, “Palaeolithic extinctions and the Taurid Complex”, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol.405, No.3, July 2010, pp. 1901–1906, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2010.16579.x
[10] James Romero, "Swarm of Near-Earth Comets Linked to Recent Ice Giant Breakup", Discover Magazine, 30 Sep 2021, https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/swarm-of-near-earth-comets-linked-to-recent-ice-giant-breakup
[11] John Roach, “Meteor Shower Promises Seven Shooting Stars an Hour”, National Geographic News, 7 November 2003, https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/11/1107_031107_taurids.html
[12] D.J. Asher, S.V.M. Clube, “An Extraterrestrial Influence during the Current Glacial-Interglacial”,    Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society, 1993, Vol.34, No.4, pp. 481-511.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

Cosmic Dust Could Spread Life from World to World Across the Galaxy

But life may not have originated here. Researchers question if there was enough time for life to appear spontaneously in early Earth conditions.

New research examines the idea that cosmic dust could be responsible for spreading life throughout the galaxy by panspermia. Life arose elsewhere, and was delivered to the young Earth. This is not a new idea, but in this work, the author calculates how quickly it could happen.

The research is titled “The Possibility of Panspermia in the Deep Cosmos by Means of the Planetary Dust Grains.” The sole author is Z.N. Osmanov, from the School of Physics at the Free University of Tbilisi in the country Georgia. The paper is in pre-print and hasn’t been published yet.

No matter how much we ponder and investigate the origins of life, we don’t know how it starts. We have an idea about the type of environment that could spawn it, but even that is an idea obscured by billions of years. “It is clear that the main problem is the origin of life or abiogenesis, the details of which are still unknown to us,” Osmanov writes.

But it started somehow. Leaving life’s original appearance aside, for now, Osmanov moves on to how it could spread.

“By obtaining the assumption that planetary dust particles can escape from the gravitational attraction of a planet, we consider the possibility for the dust grains to leave the star’s system by means of the radiation pressure,” Osmanov writes.

The idea that life itself could travel through space on comets and asteroids is familiar to many people. When these objects crash into planets, the thinking goes, hitchhiking life is delivered, and if there’s a niche it can exploit, it will. But how could simple dust accomplish the same thing?

For dust to carry life, it must originate from a planet that hosts life. This can happen in specific circumstances. Research shows that dust particles from Earth in the planet’s high-altitude atmosphere can scatter against cosmic dust grains. A 2017 paper in the journal Astrobiology showed how hypervelocity space dust can interact with this Earth dust, creating powerful momentum flows. A small fraction of the planetary dust particles can be accelerated enough to escape the planet’s gravity.

Once free of its planet’s gravity, dust is then at the mercy of stellar radiation pressure. “If a similar scenario takes place in other systems, the planetary dust particles, being already free from the planet’s gravitational field, might escape from the star’s system by means of the radiation pressure and initial velocity, spreading life into the cosmos,” Osmanov explains.

Life would need to be very hardy to survive on a dust grain as it travels through interstellar space. It would have to avoid hazards like radiation and heat. If life itself couldn’t do it, maybe complex molecules that lead to life could. If we grant that it’s possible, the next question concerns how quickly it could spread.

“It has been shown that, during 5 billion years, the dust grains will reach 10⁵ stellar systems, and by taking the Drake equation into account, it has been shown that the whole galaxy will be full of planetary dust particles,” Osmanov explains.

Osmanov points to other research into panspermia and how it could happen in our neighbourhood of the galaxy. “In particular, it has been pointed out that, by means of the solar radiation pressure, small dust grains containing live organisms can travel to the nearest solar system, Alpha Centauri, in nine thousand years,” Osmanov writes. Our powerful rockets, like the Space Launch System and the Falcon Heavy, would take over 100,000 years to make the journey.

It’s an intriguing idea. Osmanov calculates that a significant number of dust grains will survive interstellar space with life or complex molecules intact. But his thinking hits a bit of a speed bump at one point. He takes a bold step beyond our current knowledge when he writes, “On the other hand, it is natural to assume that the number of planets with at least primitive life should be enormous.” It might be a natural assumption, but there’s little evidence that it’s true. It’s conjecture, stimulating conjecture, but conjecture nonetheless.

Working with a statistical approach to the Drake Equation, Osmanov writes that the number of planets that developed life is on “the order of 3×10⁷.

“This value is so huge that if dust particles can travel a distance of the order of several hundred light years, one can conclude that the MW, with a diameter of 100,000 light-years, should be full of complex molecules distributed throughout the whole galaxy,” Osmanov explains. “Even if we assume that life is destroyed during this time, the vast majority of complex molecules will remain intact.”

It’s very interesting work. But the frustrating thing about this entire topic is that we still don’t know how life appears or how often it appears. So, all of our thought experiments and calculations, including Osmanov’s, have a stubborn nugget of the unknown at the centre.

If we’re fortunate to find solid evidence of life on Mars, for instance, then this type of research and the conversations it spawns will take on a new lustre. But for now, Osmanov’s work and similar work by other researchers leaves us in a funny spot: we can imagine and calculate how life can spread and how far and how fast.

Osmanov claims that the number of planets with primitive life is enormous. We don’t know that. Planets are extraordinarily complex, and there are a bewildering number of variables. Even if there are an enormous number of planets with primitive life, many of them will be more massive than Earth. Will dust particles carrying life or complex organic molecules be able to escape the gravitational grasp of super-Earths, for example?

This research shows how life, or at least its building blocks, could escape from planets and survive the interstellar journey to another world. If it’s true, and panspermia can account for life appearing on Earth so soon after it formed and cooled, then it changes our understanding of our origins and even the rest of the Universe.

But we don’t know how true it is, and we still don’t know how it starts.

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Water Found on the Surface of an Asteroid

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