China Builds Wild Gravity Machine

CHIEF

China has unveiled an extremely powerful “hypergravity machine” that can generate forces almost two thousand times stronger than Earth’s regular gravity.

The futuristic-looking machine, called CHIEF1900, was constructed at China’s Centrifugal Hypergravity and Interdisciplinary Experiment Facility (CHIEF) at Zheijang University in Eastern China, and allows researchers to study how extreme forces affect various materials, plants, cells, or other structures, as the South China Morning Post reports.

It can effectively compress space and time, allowing researchers to recreate the conditions during catastrophic events, from dam failures to earthquakes. For instance, it can analyze the structural stability of an almost 1,000-feet-tall dam by spinning a ten-foot model at 100 Gs, meaning 100 times the Earth’s regular gravity.

It could also be used to study the resonance frequencies of high-speed rail tracks, or how pollutants seep into soil over thousands of years.

China Debuts World's Mightiest Centrifuge, Unleashing Ultra-Intense GravityThe machine officially dethroned its predecessor, CHIEF1300, which became the world’s most powerful centrifuge a mere four months ago.

The previous record holder was the centrifuge at the Army Corps of Engineers in Vicksburg, Mississippi, which can generate 1,200 g-tonnes, a metric that combines gravitational acceleration (G) and a mass measured in tonnes (2,200 pounds), of force.

To generate these forces, CHIEF1900 spins a payload inside a beefy centrifuge, not unlike those being used by the US Air Force to simulate high G-forces during pilot training.

Except that the forces are orders of magnitude stronger. It can generate 1,900 g-tonnes of force, or 1,900 times the Earth’s gravity. To put that into perspective, a washing machine only reaches about two g-tonnes.

Engineers had to overcome some significant challenges in getting CHIEF1900 up to that mighty force. For one, spinning at such high speeds generates an enormous amount of heat. To dissipate all of it, the engineers came up with a vacuum-based temperature control system, as the SCMP reports, which uses coolant and forced-air ventilation to keep things cool enough.

“We aim to create experimental environments that span milliseconds to tens of thousands of years, and atomic to [kilometre] scales — under normal or extreme conditions of temperature and pressure,” Zhejiang University professor and CHIEF’s chief scientist Chen Yunmin told the SCMP.

“It gives us the chance to discover entirely new phenomena or theories,” he added.

More on centrifuges: 

• NASA Tests System to Fling Satellites Into Sky Using Huge Centrifuge

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Asteroid Behaving Strangely

{ https://futurism.com/category/space }

Prehistoric discoveries beneath a US lake found to be older than Egypt's Great Pyramid

• MORE:  The five unsolved mysteries of 2025 that captivated the world

By CHRIS MELORE, US ASSISTANT SCIENCE EDITOR

A new prehistoric discovery in a Wisconsin lake has revealed the existence of an advanced culture in America during the same time as the ancient Egyptians. 

Researchers unearthed six previously undiscovered canoes from Lake Mendota, including one that archeologists said was approximately 5,200 years old - older than the Great Pyramid of Giza, which is at least 4,500 years old.

Overall, 16 ancient 'dugout' boats have been found during excavations of the lake since 2021, all carved from individual tree trunks using fire and simple tools like stones and shells.

Testing the wood to see how much of a naturally radioactive element has decayed over time revealed that the canoes were built between 1300AD and 3000BC.

The discovery suggests a previously unknown civilization thriving in the area for thousands of years, engaging in trade, fishing and possibly spiritual journeys along a sophisticated travel network throughout the present-day Midwest.

Researchers from the Wisconsin Historical Society (WHS) said the new findings rewrite what we know about history in North America, revealing that humans on the continent lived and developed into organized communities much earlier than previously thought.

The canoes, found 30 feet below the surface, were found in clusters near natural paths, suggesting the lake was a busy spot for generations.

The oldest boat recovered from Lake Mendota places the ancient ancestors of a group known as the Ho-Chunk on the same timeline as some of the Egyptians in terms of showing how long ago human boat-making skills were developed worldwide. 

The boats in Lake Mendota are known as dugout canoes because each was constructed out of a single tree trunk

A new excavation of the Wisconsin lake discovered six previously unseen canoes, including one that is believed to be older than the Egyptian pyramids

So far, only two of the 16 canoes located in Lake Mendota have been taken out of the water and are nearing the end of a multi-year preservation process, including a 14-foot-long boat that's approximately 3,000 years old. 

These ancient dugout vessels were mostly made from tough hardwoods such as red and white oak, including the oldest, dating back to the time of the Egyptians, and were carved from the trunk of a red oak.

The WHS team noted that using oak was unusual because red oak typically absorbs water through the tree's open pores, which could make boats heavier or less buoyant.

However, it's believed their mysterious builders may have prepared trees to form natural blockages, called tyloses, in the wood that seal it against water, rot and improve floating.

Archaeologists suspected that the native people of the area selected stressed or damaged trees, or intentionally wounded them while growing, to produce these more resistant tree trunks. 

Maritime archaeologist Tamara Thomsen said: 'Archaeology is kind of like putting together pieces of a puzzle, and the more pieces you can find, the better you can start to form a picture of what was going on and why during a period of history.'

'We can't go back in time to get answers to our questions, but we can examine the available data alongside knowledge from First Nations and cultural history to form theories to answer our questions.'

The canoes were found with rocks meticulously placed on top, while below the surface, which experts speculated was done to ensure the boats did not warp during the winter months.

The discovery of ancient boats in Wisconsin has rewritten the timeline of sophisticated civilizations living in North America

Archeologists have pulled two of the 16 canoes from the lake and are working on preserving them for a future museum exhibition

Archaeologists have been investigating Lake Mendota since 2021 

Read More

• Discovery at Pompeii confirms long-lost secret that built the Roman Empire 

While the Ho-Chunk tribe once lived in the area surrounding Lake Mendota, the Paleo-Indian people were the earliest inhabitants, arriving around 12,000 years ago. 

The Ho-Chunk tribe migrated there no earlier than 800AD.

This discovery of ancient canoes in Lake Mendota has been deeply significant to the Ho-Chunk people because it proved their ancestors lived in this region for thousands of years, strengthening their ongoing cultural and spiritual connection to the waters and lands.

The Ho-Chunk view the nearby Lake Wingra, which this ancient community likely traveled across by canoe, as holding profound spiritual importance, with one of its springs seen as a sacred gateway to another realm.

Dr Amy Rosebrough, state archaeologist for WHS, said: 'One of its springs, with its white clay bottom, is viewed as a portal to the spirit world. For generations, the Ho-Chunk have honored this place through ceremonies of remembrance.' 

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{ The Queen Zone }

Hidden Geometry in Khufu’s Subterranean Chamber: What Was Its True Significance?

Niels Bjerre J…

Visitors descending into the depths beneath the Great Pyramid encounter what appears to be an abandoned, roughly-hewn cavern, dismissed by scholars as an unfinished burial chamber that ancient builders left behind. But what if this crude appearance was intentional? What if the so-called "subterranean chamber" holds the key to understanding the entire pyramid's purpose? New geometric analysis reveals that this neglected space, 30 meters below the desert surface, contains sophisticated mathematical proportions that connect the physical world to the divine - a stone testament to the earth god Geb and the first rung on King Khufu's ladder to the heavens. The ancient Egyptians, it seems, were far more deliberate in their designs than modern archaeology has given them credit for.

Pythagorean Pyramid

It is well-known that Pythagoras’ ancient Greek equation for right triangles:  a²+ b²= c² , is older than ancient Greece. We also know that in Khufu’s pyramid the height equals the radius of a circle that has the circumference of the sum of the pyramid’s four sides added. That is, if we use the value 22/7 for p (pi), usually ascribed to Archimedes.

The much neglected subterranean chamber in Khufu’s pyramid reveals more ancient geometry.

It is quite understandable why the subterranean chamber in Khufu’s pyramid was thought to be unfinished and abandoned as burial chamber. (John & Morton Edgar photo from: Great Pyramid Passages and Chambers, Vol. I, 1910.)

In the interpretation of this author, the subterranean “unfinished cave” was neither unfinished nor abandoned; on the contrary, it was designed to fit perfectly into a system in which the vertically arranged chambers are meant to be rungs of a ladder to the sky for the deceased King Khufu’s spirit.

Each chamber can be seen as representing, or honoring, one of the five famous nature element gods from nearby Heliopolis. Earth, ‘water’ (rain & mist), and air gods define the three known chambers. The subterranean chamber likely honors the earth god Geb and his most massive material - stone. Naturally it would be good to find evidence that points to this. 

In this respect, the chamber’s form, dimensions and connection with the upper chambers are truly fascinating to study. 

This old photo of the cleared chamber shows the flat elevated plateau in the west end and its sloping front. (John and Morton Edgar: Great Pyramid Passages and Chambers, Vol. I,1910.)

‘Earth’ in the Subterranean Chamber
The drawing below shows how a short square wooden pipe, placed vertically in the well, with water hoisted up and poured onto the chamber floor, would create a scenery matching what the Greek historian Herodotus was told when he visited Egypt two thousand years after Khufu lived: that the king lay buried under his pyramid, on an island surrounded by water coming from a canal. Suddenly it all gives meaning - the blind canal, the water well and the “island”. It was a staged symbolic tableau.

A short wooden pipe is all that is needed to turn the chamber into a burial chamber reflecting Herodotus’ description. (Author provided)

Square 
In later ages and cultures the quadrangle, especially the quadrat (square), and the number four have been earth element symbols. 
Since the Heliopolitan nature elements and the later Greek elements appear to be rather similar,  perhaps it is not impossible that the Egyptian Earth-god Geb’s element predates the later earth element in square/quadrat and number 4 symbolism. It is worth checking.

 

A hexagon inscribed in the Queen’s chamber – which I believe was Tefnut’s rain and mist (water) chamber, constructed with the depressed floor as a low basin for water. (Author provided)

Queen’s Chamber and “6” 
A hexagon can be inscribed vertically in the Queen’s chamber (likewise traditionally regarded as unfinished), the middle of which is exactly in 1/6 of the pyramid’s altitude. The side walls have six layers. Apparently they took that form and number serious. I refer to my earlier Ancient Origins article “A Watery Solution to the Enigmas of Khufu Pyramid’s Queen’s Chamber” for details.

The elevated – most ‘earth’ filled - part of the chamber is near-to quadratic.
This and following illustrations are based on Maragioglio & Rinaldi’s fine survey drawings.
(Maragioglio & Rinaldi: L’architettura delle  Piramidi Menfite, parte IV, tavole, 1965) (Author provided)

Quadrat
The Maragioglio & Rinaldi fine survey drawing (with my indication of a sarcophagus) depicts the most 
‘Earth filled’ – western part of the chamber as a square, just a little too short to the eastern side to be a perfect quadrat.  Photos like the ones in the start of this article reveal that the plateau’s side slopes slightly outwards-downwards, so its difficult to define bottom ‘edge’ must be a little longer to the east than the top edge. The whole mass of bedrock should be included in our 3D vision of the block of Earth in this chamber’s west end. It is all inside the quadrat.

Once you spot the square it is almost impossible to ignore it again, accurate quadrat or not. 

The Number 4
Maragioglio and Rinaldi measured the chamber width to be 8.36 m at the west wall. In the ancient Egyptian unit the royal cubit (=0.5236 meter) this distance is very close to 16 cubit = 8.3776 meter. Less than 2 centimeter difference. The Edgar brothers mentioned (1910) that the rough surfaces in this chamber made precise measuring difficult. 

Presuming 16 cubit was the intended size, you may reflect on that 16 is a square number (4x4). 4 is even a square number itself (2x2) as well as the number of sides in a square. 
Furthermore, in the vertical section 4x4 cubit squares – four of them – strongly indicate that the king’s built-in sarcophagus was placed on a flat plateau a quarter of the chamber width (4 cubit) below the ceiling.

In comparison to the nice quadrate 16 cubit width the Queen’s chamber measures precisely 10x11 cubit and the King’s chamber precisely 10x20 cubit. 

The length of the subterrber is close toanean cham 27 cubit (north and south walls measured to be 14.06 and 14.08 meter – c. 26¹⁷/₂₀ cubit).

In the vertical section squares 4x4 cubit seem to define the plateau’s level. (Author provided).

Diagonal: not ‘the divine proportion’, but a ‘half-divine’ one

Let us for a moment visualize this burial chamber split into two sections. The earth square part, and the rest.
The diagonally turned well may hint to an interesting explanation to the size of the chamber’s eastern part. Namely the diagonal understood with the symbolism we know from later ages. So perhaps this symbolism originated in ancient Egypt?

Left: An old tarot card showing how the compass is the architect’s tool for transforming heavenly circle-wisdom into square buildings. Jacques Viéville tarot deck, c. 1650 (By the way: notice the building has five floors!). Right: Square and compass freemason’s logo from the Copenhagen loge building.

Much later the Italian renaissance architect Andrea Palladio (1508-1580) listed in his Quattro Libri dell’ Archittura several especially beautiful proportions for rectangles - among them the rectangle with one side length the size of the square’s diagonal. This new side length is easily drawn on paper with the help of a compass. Or constructed on a building site with a rope. Thinking about why he found it beautiful, the circle was regarded heavenly and the quadrat material, so the combination symbolically expressed divine-human collaboration (which was to become an ideal for freemasonry, reflected in their square-compass logo).

Today the format is used in A-format paper: A1, A2, A3, A4…

A square with sides 5.93 m has a diagonal as long as the chamber’s north-south width. Notice the diagonally turned well that almost urges us to think in diagonals. The square that defines this eastern part of the chamber has side lengths that combines square/earth and circle/heaven – extremely well-planned If it was intended to be a symbolic platform for the king’s spirit to ascent from.

Now take the chamber width and turn it with the help of a compass to become diagonal of a smaller square. This new square is near to fittting the space between the chamber’s western part and the east wall. Not exactly, it is a little bit larger, but look at the drawing with two such squares to fill the A-format space and all diagonals drawn: the diagonals seem to rather precisely define the well’s sides. This can hardly be a coincidence. 

Might we then actually have a confirmation from the diagonally turned well that the ancient Egyptians saw the diagonal-defined square as a combination of both earth and sky, or earth and sun?

A symbolic explanation for the two different square formats combined in the subterranean chamber - quadrat in west, A-format in east - is that the chamber held two functions: 1) the west part containing the whole quarry-resembling mass of bedrock was meant to be caring for the king’s physical corpse, and 2) the east part had the purpose of servicing his spirit’s coming and going.

Here I have tried to separate the two square formats that seem to be intersecting a bit.

(Author provided).

The circle-section I have drawn shows how the 16 cubit long diagonal matches a quadrat width of 5.93 meter, or c. 11⅓ cubit (a quadrat’s diagonal is  = 1.4142 times bigger than its sides). 
It seems however that they planned the east part square with whole-digit measures, 11 cubit. If you look at the pyramid chambers from above in a transparent view, such a whole number quadrate drawn in the middle is near to coincide with the subterranean west-part quadrate’s east side, and it coincides exactly with the King’s chamber’s north wall and the Queen’s chamber’s south wall. Suddenly there is a visual connection between the waterfilled east part of the subterranean chamber and the likewise watercovered floor of the Queen’s chamber. They have the same 11 cubit length.
Somehow a whole-number 11 cubit quadrate seems to have been central for the planning of how the three chambers were distributed around the central well. 

What is the explanation for why the central quadrate does not have the exact size we had figured out? I do not know. Maybe, in Egyptian understanding, squares created with the help of heaverly circles does not even have to be exact A-formats. Or is it because they did not calculate in decimals but in fractions, and probably did not know square roots? 
The assumption seems right, however, that the eastern part of the subterranean chamber is central for helping the king’s spirit to move from one level to the next on his ascent to heaven and back.

 

The well is placed in the middle of the three known chambers. Notice how the Queens chamber (Tefnut’s watery chamber) has the same east-west length as the area in the subterranean chamber that was covered with water.

From Underworld to Sky
All in all it is satisfying that the search for earth square and number 4 symbolism in the subterranean chamber was succesfull. It even gave us the diagonal A-format in the eastern part, and the thereby defined square was apparently central for the layout of all the known chambers. 
This quadrate layout seems to have facilitated the king’s spirit’s ascent to the other chambers, and further to the sky. Perhaps the well was even seen as a portal to the sun barque’s nightly journey through the underworld. It is all connected!

• Top image: The Great Pyramid, Inset; The restored Subterranean Chamber.   
• Source: Ministry of Tourism & Antiquities (inset; Supreme Council of Antiquities)

By Niels Bjerre Jorgensen

{ 

Father of 'Ancient Astronaut Theory' Erich von Däniken Dies at 90

Gary Manners

Swiss author Erich von Däniken, whose groundbreaking 1968 book Chariots of the Gods? spawned the modern ancient astronaut movement and sold over 70 million copies worldwide, has died at age 90. His representatives announced his death on his website, stating that he passed away on Saturday, January 11, 2026, in a hospital in central Switzerland. Von Däniken's radical theories about extraterrestrial visitors shaping human civilization brought him both fame and fierce criticism, but his influence on popular culture remains undeniable.

Revolutionary Book Challenged Scientific Orthodoxy

Born in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, in 1935, von Däniken rose to prominence when he published Chariots of the Gods? while working as a hotel manager in Davos. The book posed a provocative question that would define his career: "Was God an astronaut?" According to The New York Times, von Däniken argued that ancient civilizations like the Maya and Egyptians were visited by alien astronauts who provided them with advanced technology to construct monumental structures. His theories suggested that the Egyptian pyramids could only have been built with extraterrestrial assistance, pointing to mathematical relationships and engineering feats that seemed beyond ancient capabilities.

The book arrived at a pivotal moment in 1968, when humanity was on the cusp of landing on the Moon and counterculture movements questioned established authority. Von Däniken's blend of biblical interpretation, ancient mythology, and speculative archaeology resonated with readers seeking alternative explanations for human history. He reinterpreted religious texts, suggesting that Ezekiel's vision of "fiery wheels in the sky" was actually a description of alien spacecraft, and argued that the Nazca Lines in Peru served as landing strips for extraterrestrial visitors.

• The Obsession with Ancient Astronauts
• Unexplained Mysteries: Ancient Alien Theories Proven?

Scientific Community's Fierce Opposition

Von Däniken's theories faced much criticism from the scientific establishment. Renowned astrophysicist Carl Sagan dismissed his work, stating that von Däniken attributed everything he couldn't understand to extraterrestrial intelligence”. Anthropologists and archaeologists accused him of misrepresenting evidence, selective quotation, and promoting pseudoarchaeology that undermined legitimate scholarship.

In 1991, von Däniken became the first recipient of the Ig Nobel Prize for literature "for raising the public awareness of science through questionable experiments or claims." When confronted with fabricated evidence in a British television documentary, he refused to recant, insisting that minor discrepancies aside, his fundamental theories remained sound. His critics pointed to his criminal past - he served time in prison twice for fraud and embezzlement related to falsifying hotel financial records - as evidence of a broader pattern of deception.

However, raise public awareness he did, of the fact that what you read in the mainstream academic accounts is far from the whole story in many areas.

• Scientists Propose Earth May Have Been Terraformed by Aliens
• The Enigmatic Nazca Lines of Peru

One of the geometrical geoglyphs at Nazca, Peru, one of the sites von Däniken claimed showed evidence of ancient alien visitation.

(Diego Delso/CC BY-SA 4.0)

Lasting Cultural Impact Despite Academic Rejection

Despite scholarly disdain, von Däniken's influence permeated popular culture. He published more than 40 books over five decades, translated into 32 languages, establishing himself as one of Switzerland's most widely read authors. His ancient astronaut hypothesis prompted a whole new area of investigation, opening people’s eyes to the possibility of alternatives to the mainstream theories that were largely accepted as difinitive.

His work inspired Marvel Comics' The Eternals series, influenced Ridley Scott's Prometheus, and provided conceptual foundations for the Indiana Jones franchise. Most significantly, his work directly led to the creation of the History Channel's long-running series Ancient Aliens, which debuted in 2009 and featured von Däniken as a frequent commentator.

According to the AP News report, von Däniken traveled over 100,000 miles annually at the peak of his fame, surveying archaeological sites worldwide and lecturing to devoted followers. In 2003, he opened Mystery Park near Interlaken, Switzerland, a theme park based on his theories featuring replica pyramids and exhibition spaces. The venture struggled financially and was later renamed JungfrauPark, symbolizing the complex relationship between von Däniken's popular appeal and commercial sustainability.

The Giza pyramid complex in Egypt, which von Däniken claimed could only have been built with alien assistance.

(Ricardo Liberato/CC BY-SA 2.0)

Controversial Legacy Shapes Modern Mystery Culture

A 2018 Chapman University poll revealed that more than 40 percent of Americans believed aliens visited Earth in prehistory, testament to von Däniken's enduring impact on public consciousness. While mainstream archaeologists and historians continue to reject his theories as scientifically baseless, his work fundamentally changed how millions of people think about ancient civilizations and humanity's place in the cosmos. He remained active into his final years, refusing to retire and expressing unwavering confidence in his beliefs.

In the foreword to the 50th anniversary edition of Chariots of the Gods?, von Däniken wrote:

"Today, I know definitively that Earth, our home, has been visited by extraterrestrials in the distant past. I also know that those visitors promised our forebears they will return to Earth."

Von Däniken is survived by his wife of 65 years, Elisabeth Skaja, his daughter Cornelia, and two grandchildren. His son Peter died in 1962 at age two.

Von Däniken's groundbreaking 1968 book that launched the ancient astronaut movement, available from Amazon.com

• Top image: Erich von Däniken at a conference. 
• Source: CC BY 3.0

By Gary Manners

References

• AP News. 2026. Erich von Däniken, Swiss writer who spawned alien archaeology, dies at 90. Available at: https://apnews.com/article/switzerland-obit-erich-von-daeniken-57a8a84b8976475791eee82461d53138
• The New York Times. 2026. Erich von Däniken, Who Claimed Aliens Visited Earth, Dies at 90. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/11/obituaries/erich-von-daniken-dead.html

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NASA has announced the date of the world’s first medical evacuation from the ISS. The Dragon spacecraft with the Crew-11 mission team will undock from the station on January 14.

Crew-11 mission members. Source: NASA

The medical issue aboard the ISS became known on January 7, when NASA canceled a spacewalk scheduled for the following day. Astronauts Mike Fincke and Zena Cardman were supposed to participate in the spacewalk.

Shortly thereafter, the aerospace administration announced that it would bring the Crew-11 mission team home early in order to better diagnose and treat this medical issue. NASA did not disclose which astronaut had fallen ill or what the problem was, citing privacy concerns. According to unofficial reports, it is 58-year-old Mike Fincke. This is his fourth flight into space and his third long-term assignment to the ISS.

At a subsequent press conference, NASA Chief Medical Officer James Polk declined to name the astronaut or disclose his diagnosis. However, he provided the following general description of the situation:

“This is not an operational issue. This was not an injury that occurred in the pursuit of operations,” Polk said. “It’s mostly having a medical issue in the difficult areas of microgravity, and with the suite of hardware that we have at our avail to complete a diagnosis.”

According to NASA’s plan, Crew-11 will leave the ISS on the evening of January 14. The next day, the spacecraft will splash down in the Pacific Ocean, where it will be picked up by the Shannon ship. Overloads during re-entry into the atmosphere can create additional risks for the astronaut — but NASA has well-developed scenarios for this case and instructions for ground crews.

After the departure of Crew-11, for the first time in many years, the ISS crew will be reduced to just three people. NASA astronaut Christopher Williams and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergei Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikayev will remain on board the station.

The launch of the next manned spacecraft to the ISS (Crew-12 mission) is currently scheduled for February 15. However, NASA is considering the possibility of postponing the date if possible.

• According to Space

• Posted in Launches, News

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If you find brushing your teeth an annoying chore but still want sparkling clean pearly whites, Japanese inventors might have the perfect solution.

The 'g.eN' is the world's first fully automatic robotic toothbrush that can scrub your teeth without any assistance.

While it might sound like something out of Wallace & Gromit, this very real quirky science project is now available for sale. 

And its creators say that the robotic device is even better for you than a manual toothbrush.

Developed using technology from the Waseda University Robotics Laboratory, the g.eN consists of 16 tiny brushes driven by a small but powerful motor.

Simply bite down on the mouthpiece and the machine automatically drives the brushes up, down, left, and right to brush your teeth completely in about a minute.

Its creators say that the device is the first oral care robot that can 'make tooth brushing less stressful and more reliable.'

However, that convenience doesn't come cheap, as the brushing machine currently costs £173 (¥36,520).

Japanese inventors have released an automatic toothbrushing machine that can scrub your teeth in less than a minute 

The machine uses eight pairs of brushes to clean your teeth from all sides simultaneously for the most even results 

Genics, the company behind the strange device, says that its goal is to combine over a decade of robotics research with dentistry.

Their robotic toothbrush claims to clean your teeth faster and more thoroughly than a conventional brush by cleaning both sides at once.

Pairs of brushes simultaneously scrub the inner and outer faces of the tooth in a process that, according to Genics, reduces uneven brushing. 

A study published in 2022 by the Japan Society of Healthcare Dentistry found that the g.eN achieved an average plaque retention of 22.4 per cent.

This meets industry-approved standards for 'good oral hygiene', and shows that the robot performs as well, if not better than, a standard brush.

Genics says that this is the first time a device has been shown to 'brush automatically and quickly without moving your hands'.

The latest version of g.eN is significantly lighter than previous versions, weighing just 220 grams, and features USB-C charging.

The device also includes four distinct brushing modes: Easy, Careful, Special Care, and Children. 

The 'g.eN' is the world's first fully automatic robotic toothbrush that can scrub your teeth without any assistance.

On social media, some tech fans welcomed the innovation, with one writing: 'I'm tired of brushing my teeth so I'll buy some right away.' 

'It might be good for busy mornings,' another commenter mused.

While another added: 'I don't think I can use it every day, but I'd like to use it occasionally when I'm feeling lazy.'

But not every social media user was convinced that the g.eN would be practical, and many were worried about the difficulty of replacing the brush heads.

One sceptical commenter wrote: 'It seems like cleaning this brush is harder than cleaning your teeth.'

While another complained that they would 'definitely vomit' if they tried to use the bulky brushing machine. 

Although Genics is now making the g.eN available to the public, the main audience for the toothbrushing machine isn't just people who are short on time.

The company believes that its devices will be particularly useful for people with disabilities and nurses working in social care. 

The company behind the brush says that its invention achieves results that are as good or better than a standard brush in a fraction of the time 

The company believes that its devices will be particularly useful for people with disabilities and nurses working in social care, as well as people who are just short on time in the mornings 

Genics claims that more than 200 'limited edition nursing care' brushing machines are already in daily use in care settings across Japan.

The company adds: 'The belief that "our robotics technology can be of greater use to society" is what is driving our technological development forward.'

However, this is not the first strange automatic hygiene device to emerge from Japan in recent months.

In December last year, a 'human washing machine' that can clean a person from head to toe went on sale to the public.

The £290,000 (¥60 million) device uses powerful jets of bubbles to blast the skin clean of dirt and grime.

According to Science Co., the company behind this bizarre contraption, the automatic spa can leave you clean and dry after just 15 minutes.

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Botched haircuts and dodgy fades might become a thing of the past, as a startup unveils its artificial intelligence (AI) powered clippers.

Unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, GLYDE claims to be the 'world's first smart hair clipper'.

The bizarre device uses an AI 'cutting coach' and 'auto fade' technology to let even the most inexperienced barber give a trim like a pro.

As long as you are willing to trust your hair to an algorithm, GLYDE says it can give a full cut in under 10 minutes.

To get a new haircut, users first select their chosen style from the app on their phone.

Then, someone can simply run the clippers over their head as the device automatically adjusts the depth of the cut.

The blades move automatically so that complex cuts like a fade can be done in a single pass, without any experience or skill.

GLYDE is so confident in its technology that it boasts the clippers can deliver a cut with 'zero mistakes', but would you trust AI to cut your hair?

A startup has unveiled the 'world's first smart clipper', named GLYDE, which uses an AI 'cutting coach' and 'auto fade' technology to let even the most inexperienced barber give a trim like a pro

According to GLYDE, the clipper features built-in sensors that track your motion and the angle of the blade.

Onboard motors compare this motion to the design for the haircut, and automatically shift the blades.

In theory, this means that your hair should end up at the exact right length, no matter how the clipper is held.

To prevent wonky cuts, the user first needs to put on a mask-like headband.

This 'fade band' provides a constant reference point for the clippers so that they know exactly where the fade should begin.

For nervous first-time barbers, the GLYDE also includes several features that should, in theory, make it impossible to mess up.

If you suddenly change the speed or angle of the cut, the blades will retract and prevent any further cutting.

Likewise, if GLYDE detects that you are holding it at the wrong angle or starting the cut from the wrong position, the blades won't deploy in the first place.

The AI-powered clipper automatically adjusts the blades as you cut, to deliver a smooth and consistent haircut without any skill or experience 

Users simply select a haircut from the app and follow the on-screen instructions, while the clipper automatically moves the blades to perform the cut

To make things even easier, the clippers themselves feature a screen that shows information like cutting zone and blade depth.

They also include a small spirit-level display, so that you can be sure to hold them straight and level.

Currently, users can only choose their trim from a library of pre-made styles, which GLYDE says have been 'tested across different head shapes'.

However, in the future, the company plans to allow users to upload their own templates and take inspiration from other users' results.

If you are particularly brave, GLYDE even says that it may add options for 'beard and body trimming' in a future update.

As reported by The Verge, the company also plans to add voice controls for the AI.

Eventually, the onboard AI will be able to recommend specific hairstyles to the users and send them straight to the clippers.

The company has not yet provided an official release date, but the GLYDE clippers are expected to start shipping in the summer this year and cost around £110 ($150).

Currently, users can only choose from a set of pre-made haircut options on the GLYDE app. However, in the future, the company will add options to upload your own templates

GLYDE have not yet responded to the Daily Mail's request for additional information.  

The clippers will be available directly from GLYDE's website or from selected online retailers.

However, AI-powered clippers weren't the only strange gadgets revealed at CES this year.

Beauty company L'Oreal unveiled a strange, flexible LED face mask that combats visible signs of ageing through 'targeted red light and near-infrared light'.

Meanwhile, the health startup Vivoo launched its hormone-sensing menstrual pads that can detect signs of fertility issues or conditions like polycystic ovary syndrome.

HALF OF CURRENT JOBS WILL BE LOST TO AI WITHIN 15 YEARS

Kai-Fu Lee, the author of AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order, told Dailymail.com the world of employments was facing a crisis 'akin to that faced by farmers during the industrial revolution.'

Half of current jobs will be taken over by AI within 15 years, one of China's leading AI experts has warned.

Kai-Fu Lee, the author of bestselling book AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order, told Dailymail.com the world of employments was facing a crisis 'akin to that faced by farmers during the industrial revolution.'

'People aren't really fully aware of the effect AI will have on their jobs,' he said.

Lee, who is a VC in China and once headed up Google in the region, has over 30 years of experience in AI.

He believes it is imperative to 'warn people there is displacement coming, and to tell them how they can start retraining.'

Luckily, he said all is not lost for humanity.

 'AI is powerful and adaptable, but it can't do everything that humans do.' 

Lee believe AI cannot create, conceptualize, or do complex strategic planning, or undertake complex work that requires precise hand-eye coordination.

He also says it is poor at dealing with unknown and unstructured spaces.

Crucially, he says AI cannot interact with humans 'exactly like humans', with empathy, human-human connection, and compassion.

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/index.html }

Strange cases are surfacing worldwide, reports of black-eyed children, mysterious phone calls from the dead, and transplant patients inheriting memories. Skeptics dismiss them as urban legends or coincidences, yet the stories refuse to disappear. 

So what’s really going on? 

Case 1 - Two children tap on a car window at night, asking for a ride home. Their eyes are solid black, no whites, no color. Witnesses say they cannot enter unless invited. Those who let them in rarely talk about what happened afterward. 

But those who encounter the Black-Eyed Children (BEK) describe pale, emotionless kids between 6 and 16 and report sudden terror, panic, and an overwhelming sense that something supernatural is at play. 

So what are they? Paranormal entities? Interdimensional beings? Or simply a myth. 

Meanwhile, researchers point to similar unexplained events that blur the line between science and the paranormal. 

For example: Other strange cases that make no logical sense. 

Case 2 — Phantom Phone Calls: A dead man’s mobile phone reportedly dialed rescuers 35 times over 12 hours, guiding them to his body. The battery should have been dead. The phone was never recovered. 

Case 3 — Transplant Memory Transfer: A heart transplant patient developed the donor’s cravings, handwriting, and even married the donor’s widow. Thirteen years later, he died the same way, in the same place, as the donor before him. 

Three cases and No scientific explanation that survives scrutiny. From the Black-Eyed Children phenomenon to phantom calls and organ memory, these cases raise a larger question: Are we looking at mere coincidence and internet fueled folklore, or at consciousness based models not yet recognized by science or could this be evidence of a genuine paranormal phenomenon involving unknown intelligences?

  

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

The 'universal language' that could let us speak to aliens: Researchers reveal the best way to communicate with extraterrestrial life

• READ MORE: Scientist reveals what our first contact with aliens will look like

By WILIAM HUNTER, SENIOR SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY REPORTER

A group of Australian scientists have revealed how we may be able to learn to speak with aliens, and the answer is found right here on Earth.

If we do make contact with extraterrestrial life, it will likely require sending messages across vast distances of interstellar space.

The question for astronomers looking out for distant civilisations is how this communication would even be possible if we don't share a language.

Now, scientists say we might be able to develop a 'universal language' with an unlikely inspiration: The humble honeybee.

With six legs, five eyes, and a radically different social structure, scientists say that bees are among the closest things we have to aliens here on Earth.

Although humans and bees have wildly different brains, we have both evolved complex methods of communication and cooperation.

More importantly, new research shows that bees also have another very important thing in common with humans, which is the ability to do maths.

Based on this surprising discovery, scientists believe that mathematics could be the basis of a universal language.

Scientists say we might learn how to communicate with aliens by studying the concepts that we share with honey bees 

One of the big problems for communicating with aliens is the enormous distances involved.

Given that the nearest star to the sun is 4.4 light-years away, it would take an absolute minimum of 10 years to send a message and get a reply.

This makes it impractical to try to learn an alien's language from scratch, like in the sci-fi movie Arrival.

Instead, scientists want to develop a universal language that can be understood by any species, regardless of how they communicate.

To find a solution to this puzzle, the researchers asked how we might communicate with one of the most alien-like species on Earth.

Co-author Dr Adrian Dyer, of Monash University, told the Daily Mail: 'Because bees and humans are separated by about 600 million years in evolutionary time, we developed very different physiology, brain size, culture.'

However, despite these enormous differences, both humans and bees seem to have a similar basic understanding of mathematics.

In previous studies, Dr Dyer and his co-authors found that bees have the ability to learn mathematical concepts.

Scientists have found that bees can learn to add and subtract in specialised tests, giving credence to the idea that mathematics might be a universal language 

The researchers set up experiments in which bees could participate in maths tests to receive a reward of sugar water.

During these trials, bees showed the ability to add and subtract, categorise quantities as odd or even, and even demonstrated an understanding of 'zero'.

Incredibly, bees even demonstrated an ability to link abstract symbols with numbers, in a very simple version of how humans learn the Arabic numerals.

The fact that such a different organism shares mathematical concepts with humans lends evidence to the theory that mathematics could be a universal language.

The idea that mathematics could be the basis of alien communication is not a new theory.

In fact, the covers of the Golden Records, which accompanied the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 space probes launched into deep space in 1977, were carved with mathematical and physical quantities.

Likewise, when researchers broadcast the Arecibo radio message into space in 1974, it contained 1,679 zeros and ones, ordered to communicate the numbers 1 to ten and the atomic numbers of the elements that make up DNA.

However, scientists weren't sure whether aliens would have similar enough mathematical concepts to understand these messages.

If bees can understand maths, then aliens might share those same universal concepts. That means attempts to communicate with mathematics, such as the cover of the golden disks on Voyager One and Two, could be successful 

In their new paper, the researchers argue that their evidence from bees suggests that maths really is universal.

Dr Dyer says: 'When we tested bees on mathematical type problems, and they could build an understanding to solve the questions we posed, it was very interesting, and convincing that an alien species could share similar capabilities.'

Read More

• Scientists discover 26 new bacterial species in NASA's cleanrooms - 'stop and re-check everything' 

'Now we know maths can be solved by bees, we have a solid basis to think about how to try to communicate with alien intelligence.'

As to what that language might look like, Dr Dyer says it may be very similar to the mathematics most of us use every day.

'Mathematics, which was first developed by philosophers to communicate complex problems more efficiently, is already a language we humans use every day.

'At a simple level, binary coded information would be a start, then, like we humans learn language through many "baby steps", we learn with another species to build a commonly understood language framework.'

How the Drake Equation is used to hunt aliens

The Drake Equation is a seven-variable way of finding the chance of active civilizations existing beyond Earth.

It takes into account factors like the rate of star formation, the amount of stars that could form planetary systems, the number potentially habitable planets in those systems.

The equation includes recent data from Nasa's Kepler satellite on the number of exoplanets that could harbor life.

Researchers also adapted the equation from being about the number of civilizations that exist now, to being about the probability of civilization being the only one that has ever existed.

Researchers found the odds of an advanced civilization developing need to be less than one in 10 billion trillion for humans to be the only intelligent life in the universe.

Unless the odds of advanced life evolving on a habitable planet are astonishingly low, then humankind is not the only advanced civilization to have lived. 

But Kepler data places those odds much higher, which means technologically advanced aliens are likely to have existed at some point.

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/index.html }

Humanity receives mysterious 10-second signal from unknown source in deep space

• MORE:  Stephen Hawking's chilling alien doomsday prediction spreads as scientist issues alarming warning

By CHRIS MELORE, US ASSISTANT SCIENCE EDITOR

A 10-second signal from one of the most distant points in the universe has been detected by humanity, and scientists are still trying to understand its origins.

Two Earth satellites have confirmed that the mysterious signal came from a point 13billion light-years away from Earth, likely coming from an exploding supernova when the universe was only 730million years old.

The farther away something is in space, the longer its light (or signal) takes to reach us, so when humans see a very distant explosion or star, we're actually looking at what happened there billions of years ago, like a time machine showing us the past.

In this case, scientists believe this high-energy gamma-ray burst, which they've named GRB 250314A, came from the earliest supernova ever recorded from the dawn of time.

Gamma rays are invisible and ultra-powerful forms of light. They are the most energetic source of radiation known in the universe, which is produced by massive stellar explosions, appearing as super-bright flashes from our planet.

Scientists are still unsure why this ancient supernova from the early universe looks almost exactly like the exploding stars seen in our nearby modern universe today. 

If this explosion is the true source of the signal, researchers from NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) expect early stars to be bigger, hotter, and produce much more volatile explosions than the mysterious signal suggested. 

Andrew Levan, lead author of a new study on the signal from Radboud University in the Netherlands, said: 'There are only a handful of gamma-ray bursts in the last 50 years that have been detected in the first billion years of the universe. This particular event is very rare and very exciting.'

A gamma-ray burst named GRB 250314A (Pictured) is believed to the be the source of a mysterious signal received from 13billion light-years away

An artist's impression of the supernova GRB 250314A as it was exploding during the first billion years after the Big Bang

The signal was first discovered on March 14, 2025, when the Space Variable Objects Monitor (SVOM) satellite picked it up as a sudden flash of high-energy light from deep space.

However, two studies on the possible source of this distant signal have just been released.

The probe is a joint project between scientists in France and China designed to spot these kinds of bursts throughout the cosmos.

The signal scientists recorded was a short, powerful burst of gamma rays, which are invisible waves of energy stronger than X-rays and capable of passing straight through the human body, damaging cells, DNA, and tissues.

Since this burst likely came from an exploding star 13billion light-years from Earth, however, the gamma rays that reached Earth were far too weak to pose any danger to people.

This burst lasted only about 10 seconds because gamma-ray bursts are like quick fireworks in space, releasing a huge amount of energy in a very short time before fading away.

Unlike random noise or background static in space, which is constant and weak, these gamma-ray bursts stand out as super-bright, focused beams with a unique pattern that human satellites have been built to recognize.

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) confirmed the discovery about three and a half months later, during the summer of 2025, by taking detailed pictures and measurements of the fading glow of the explosion, which could still be seen in space.

The 10-second signal was recorded in 2025 by the Space Variable Objects Monitor (SVOM) satellite, operated by France and China

'Only Webb could directly show that this light is from a supernova — a collapsing massive star,' Professor Levan added in a statement from NASA. 

Other sources of mysterious space noise like this might include solar flares or cosmic rays, but gamma-ray bursts are much rarer and come from massive events like star explosions that scientists are able to track down billions of years after they take place.

Levan added that JWST is so advanced that scientists believe it'll be able to find more signals from when the universe was only five percent of its current age, which is roughly 14billion years old now.

To this point, scientists know very little about the first billion years of the universe, what was happening in space during this time, or how stars behaved and died throughout the cosmos.

Until now, it was thought that following the Big Bang, the massive explosion believed to have kickstarted everything in existence, early stars lived much shorter lives and contained fewer elements than stars like our sun do today. 

However, in December 2025, the new studies published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics analyzed detailed observations from the Webb Telescope and found that this supernova from 730 million years after the Big Bang had the same brightness and radiation signature as exploding stars billions of years later.

Nial Tanvir, a professor at the University of Leicester in the UK, added: 'Webb showed that this supernova looks exactly like modern supernovae.'

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{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/index.html }

The raid that ended former Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro’s rule has been praised as a tightly coordinated display of modern military power: a predawn strike synchronized with electronic warfare, communications suddenly failing, and a head of state removed alive and flown to the United States to face charges.

Now, in the fog that follows any high-profile covert-style operation, a new claim has begun spreading across social media and tabloid headlines, that U.S. forces allegedly used a “sonic weapon” so powerful it made Venezuelan troops bleed from the nose and vomit blood.

In an era when anyone can post anything on social media—and misinformation often travels faster than facts—claims like these would normally be easy to dismiss. However, this one gained unusual visibility after White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt shared the purported eyewitness interview on X, urging followers to “stop what you are doing and read this.”

Though it came from her official government account, Leavitt’s repost is not equivalent to a formal statement from the White House or the Department of Defense (DoD), and it does not verify the accuracy of the account the witness provided. Nevertheless, when the White House’s public-facing spokesperson amplifies a story like this, it provides a veneer of legitimacy even as key details remain unverified.

The claim also taps into a real, fast-evolving corner of military technology—directed energy, electronic warfare, and “less-lethal” systems—where the line between science fact, classified capability, and science fiction can easily blur.

An  “intense sound wave” that dropped soldiers

The story apparently originates from a Spanish audio recording shared on WhatsApp, from a purported eyewitness and Venezuelan security guard loyal to Maduro.

​“We were on guard, but suddenly all our radar systems shut down without any explanation,” an English translation of the reported eyewitness reads. “The next thing we saw were drones, a lot of drones, flying over our positions. We didn’t know how to react.”

The alleged security guard goes on to describe U.S. forces deploying some type of sonic weapon that left the defenders suddenly incapacitated.

​“At one point, they launched something—I don’t know how to describe it… it was like a very intense sound wave,” the witness says. “Suddenly, I felt like my head was exploding from the inside. We all started bleeding from the nose. Some were vomiting blood. We fell to the ground, unable to move.”

Presently, the U.S. has not publicly confirmed the use of any acoustic or directed-energy weapon in the operation. Moreover, the claim seems to trace back to the same viral WhatsApp message rather than independently corroborated reporting.

Ultimately, while that doesn’t mean the claims are automatically false, it does mean the evidence supporting them is tenuous, at best.

Ultimately, while that doesn’t mean the claims are automatically false, it does mean the evidence supporting them is tenuous, at best.

What we know about the raid’s technology—without invoking a mystery weapon

Plenty is known about the U.S. operation to capture Maduro, including scale and the role of non-mysterious, well-documented capabilities.

However, the symptoms at the center of the Maduro-raid rumor—nosebleeds and “vomiting blood”—are where the physics and physiology begin throwing up red flags.

The plausibility gap: sound that injures vs. sound that makes you bleed

High-intensity sound can not only be debilitating, but at extreme levels, it can damage the ear. Biomedical literature also recognizes the presence of secondary “extra-auditory” effects, or responses within the body that aren’t limited to hearing.

​Noise can act as a nonspecific physiological stressor, with research describing downstream impacts on endocrine, cardiovascular, and neurologic function, especially with prolonged or intense exposure. And at very high sound pressure levels—particularly in the low-frequency and infrasonic ranges—sound can be felt as vibration, not just heard.

​The UK’s Advisory Group on Non-ionising Radiation noted that high levels of low-frequency noise and infrasound can produce vestibular excitation, though it emphasized that the levels required are well above typical hearing thresholds.

​Separate reviews of vestibular research also point to evidence that sufficiently intense noise exposure can affect peripheral and central vestibular structures—one reason loud environments can be associated with dizziness, imbalance, and other inner-ear symptoms.

There’s also published evidence—though often messy and context-dependent—linking intense acoustic exposure to changes in sensation and bodily function. Occupational and experimental reports have described shifts in vibrotactile sensitivity and reflex-like reactions; symptoms involving balance and nausea; and, in some settings, physiologic changes consistent with stress responses (including cardiovascular measures).

​A lot of the strongest, best-characterized non-auditory bioeffects in modern medicine come from ultrasound—but typically in coupled or focused contexts (through tissue or water/gel interfaces), where energy delivery is controlled and measurable. Reviews of ultrasound bioeffects indeed describe mechanical and thermal mechanisms and note that at sufficiently high intensities, ultrasound can affect sensitive organs and tissues.

​So the idea of an “organ-affecting” sonic weapon is theoretically possible. However, producing the kind of internal bleeding described by the alleged eyewitness—at a distance, and outdoors—would require an extraordinary amount of energy, because sound dissipates rapidly with distance and is strongly shaped by barriers, wind, and terrain.

​This is one reason why credible open literature has long treated sensational claims about “infrasound weapons” with skepticism, emphasizing how quickly the required power levels become impractical outside very specific conditions.

If the U.S. had indeed used a secret “sonic weapon” generating pressures sufficient to cause widespread bleeding and blood vomiting, you would expect a broader signature of blast-like trauma—severe ear injury, disorientation at minimum, and potential lung injury in extreme cases—along with unmistakable medical documentation.

Publicly, at least, we do not have that documentation, and the viral account alone doesn’t provide verifiable clinical details in support of this idea. 

A more mundane possibility for the “sound wave” described by the purported eyewitness could be explosions, flashbangs, concussion grenades, or even the sensory overload of a coordinated strike in which communications fail, and the environment becomes violently chaotic.

​Multiple reports describe the raid unfolding amid intense combat, with significant Venezuelan casualties—conditions that could easily produce severe traumatic injuries without invoking any novel weapon.

Directed-Energy Weapons: could this be something other than sound?

Some of the speculation around the viral claim argues that, instead of a “sonic weapon,” the U.S. used a secret “directed-energy weapon” (DEW). This is a broad umbrella term that can include everything from lasers to high-power microwaves to millimeter-wave systems.

Directed-energy weapons are indeed a major area of U.S. defense research and development right now. However, the overwhelming focus isn’t on weapons meant to target people. Rather, it is on countering hardware—shooting down drones, disabling sensors, degrading communications, or damaging equipment.

The U.S. has openly acknowledged the development of non-lethal directed-energy weapons, including “Active Denial System” capabilities. Also described as a “heat ray,” this technology uses millimeter waves to rapidly heat the skin’s surface, producing an intolerable burning sensation intended to drive people away.

“Active Denial Technology systems produce reversible effects at distances up to and beyond small arms range, providing U.S. forces with additional decision time and space to validate that a perceived hostile intent/act is, in fact, hostile,” a fact sheet published by the U.S. Joint Intermediate Force Capabilities Office (JIFCO) reads.

Significantly, ADS doesn’t match the viral rumor’s description. It’s built to push people back and clear an area—not to quietly drop troops in place or produce bleeding. The symptoms at the center of the allegation—nosebleeds and vomiting blood—don’t align with the system’s capabilities, which are designed around temporary, surface-level pain compliance.

High-power microwave theories often surface in these discussions because of the long-running “Havana Syndrome” controversy—an unresolved, politically charged debate that has included claims of directed-energy weapons being covertly used against U.S. personnel overseas.

Early on, some researchers floated the possibility that at least some Havana Syndrome cases could involve directed, pulsed radio-frequency energy. In a 2020 report, the National Academies said it was plausible that some type of radio-frequency weapon was used on U.S. government employees and their families overseas based on the symptom pattern.

However, subsequent U.S. intelligence assessments have pushed back on the idea that a foreign adversary deployed a secret microwave or “energy” weapon. A 2023 intelligence community assessment concluded that there was no credible evidence that a foreign adversary had a weapon or device causing the incidents, and judged adversary involvement “very unlikely.”

An updated unclassified assessment released in January 2025 maintained that position—while noting that a small minority of components left open a limited number of cases in which a foreign actor might have played a role.

None of that, of course, proves that some ultra-secret directed-energy capability couldn’t exist behind closed doors. Militaries routinely classify emerging systems, and history is full of programs that only became public many years later.

However, as of now, there’s no hard, independently verifiable evidence that a deployable DEW can produce the specific, dramatic injury patterns described in these stories under real-world conditions. Without this evidence, the claims run ahead of the publicly demonstrated technology and what the basic physics of projecting energy through open environments suggests is feasible.

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

"Keep watching the skies!" That's the last line uttered in "The Thing from Another World," a 1951 sci-fi classic. Released by RKO Radio Pictures, the movie is about an Unidentified Flying Object — or UFO — that turns out to be an alien spacecraft.

The Pentagon was not clear about whether the UFO program continues to exist within the vast universe of the US Defense establishment.

 (AP: Charles Pharapak)

Flying saucers were constantly making headlines in those days. During the late 1940s and early 1950s, postwar America went through a surge of reported UFO sightings. In response, the U.S. Air Force created a couple of short-lived programs called "Project SIGN" and "Project GRUDGE" to look into the phenomenon. These were followed up by "Project Blue Book," a large-scale government study that lasted from 1952 to 1969.

Ordered into existence by Major General Charles P. Cabell (a former director of intelligence at the Air Force), Project Blue Book painstakingly gathered 12,618 reports about UFOs. After it was determined that the overwhelming majority of these had natural explanations — and there wasn't enough data to evaluate the others properly — support for the effort dwindled.

Officially, Project Blue Book was terminated in December 1969. But did the U.S. government's interest in aerial aberrations die with it? Evidently not. Because we learned in mid-December 2017 that the Pentagon launched yet another UFO research program in the late 2000s.

The story was broken on Saturday, Dec. 14, 2017 by near-simultaneous reports that appeared in Politico magazine and The New York Times. According to unclassified documents obtained by the press, a total of almost $22 million was quietly spent over a four-year period on a project dubbed The Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program (AATIP).

Who was the major driving force behind its creation? That would be the now-retired Senator Harry Reid, a Democrat from Nevada. One of Reid's repeat campaign contributors was businessman Bob Bigelow, a fellow Nevadan who owns the Budget Suites of America hotel chain — as well as a startup called Bigelow Aerospace, which develops space station modules. He's also a huge UFO enthusiast. In a "60 Minutes" interview in May 2016, Bigelow said that he believes extraterrestrial visitors have maintained a "presence" on planet Earth.

Reid himself has a fascination with cosmic mysteries; according to one of his former spokeswomen, this fact is obvious to anyone who's ever talked to the retired senator "for [over] 60 seconds."

At some point in 2007, Bigelow was reportedly visited by a Defense Intelligence Agency official who expressed an interest in his UFO research. As an anonymous ex-congressional staffer told Politico, there was some concern at the time that the Chinese or Russians might be developing experimental new aircraft that could conceivably pose a threat to America's national security.

Bigelow later told Reid about the visit, prompting the senator to contact the DIA. When Reid learned the agency was interested in setting up a new, government-funded UFO program, he decided to lend a hand. To get the project started, Reid approached the late senators Daniel Inouye, a Democrat from Hawaii, and Ted Stevens, a Republican from Alaska. It was an easy sell; Stevens was particularly enthusiastic about the idea because he claimed to have once been tailed by some unrecognizable aircraft during his service as an Air Force pilot in World War II.

Using the Pentagon's classified programs budget, Reid, Inouye and Stevens secretly set some money aside for the upstart AATIP. The bulk of the cash went to Bigelow Aerospace, which used it to finance research and hire subcontractors on the government's behalf. With the company's guidance, a few buildings in Las Vegas were converted into storage facilities for objects with alleged ties to UFO-related incidents.

This infrared footage from the Mexican Air Force purportedly shows a close encounter with UFOs. 

(Reuters)

The job of heading AATIP fell to one Luiz Elizondo, an intelligence officer with the Department of Defense. Although many aspects of the program remain classified, we do know that its staffers and contractors put together an as-yet unreleased 490-page report chronicling several decades' worth of UFO sightings in the United States and elsewhere. What's more, the initiative rounded up "video and audio recordings" from supposed encounters between human onlookers and mysterious airborne objects.

AATIP started receiving taxpayer funds late in 2008. The following year, Senator Reid attempted to upgrade the program's level of security, but his efforts failed. Then, in 2012, the Pentagon cut off AATIP's cash supply altogether. According to Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White, "It was determined that there were other, higher priority issues that merited funding and it was in the best interest of the [Department of Defense] to make a change."

Yet some sources claim that the Pentagon is still quietly investigating new UFO reports made by those in the armed forces. If this is true, then AATIP may continue to exist in some form, despite its current lack of financial support.

For his part, Elizondo felt the initiative wasn't getting enough respect within the DOD. After 22 years of service, he resigned from the Pentagon in October 2017. Before he left, however, Elizondo persuaded his colleagues to release three formerly secret videos to the public. These were raw footage taken by cockpit cameras in U.S. fighter jets and appear to show strange objects traveling through the atmosphere at high rates of speed.

To Elizondo, the evidence suggests that, in his own words, "we may not be alone, whatever that means."

Meanwhile, a number of scientists have given more skeptical assessments. Astrophysicist Johnathan McDowell says the object in one of these newly released videos is probably some sort of reflection. Despite Elizondo's cryptic statements, Sara Seager of M.I.T. was quick to remind The New York Times that unidentified shapes in the sky aren't necessarily extraterrestrial vessels. And furthermore, astronomer Seth Shostak believes the decision to include Bigelow — someone with firm, pre-existing views on alien visitations — raises doubts about the program's objectivity.

Earlybirds along Australia's east coast were startled by a bright spiral moving across the sky in June, 2010. 

(Craig Boyce: User submitted)

Are we alone in the universe or not? Humanity doesn't have nearly enough data to answer that question. All we can do right now is keep our minds sharp and our eyes skyward.

A north Queensland man said he and his son watched these two points of light hover in the night sky above Cardwell for 15 minutes. 

(Audience submitted: Greg Smith)

This image shows an unidentified object above southern Tasmania in February, 2017.

 (Supplied)

Roswell, New Mexico is mainly associated with a UFO crash-landing that supposedly took place there in 1947. But did you know that this city was also the longtime home of legendary scientist Robert Hutchings Goddard, who had previously launched the world's first liquid-fueled rocket?

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{ https://science.howstuffworks.com/ }

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{ https://science.howstuffworks.com/ }

Among the more curious entries in alien lore, the tall whites stand out — literally.

These pale, lanky beings are said to be over 7 feet (2.1 meters) tall and were made famous by former military weather observer Charles James Hall, who detailed his alleged encounters during his time at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada.

According to Hall, he was initially terrified but gradually overcame fears during his two years of working near them. In his writings, he describes walking with the tall beings and adapting to their presence through a mix of caution and curiosity.

{ https://science.howstuffworks.com/ }

Astronomers witnessed a cosmic explosion that released energy equivalent to 400 billion suns. It was caused by a supermassive star being torn apart by a black hole.

Absorption of a star by a supermassive black hole (concept).
Source: Caltech/R. Hurt (IPAC)

The event, officially designated AT2024wpp (and informally named Whippet), was first discovered by astronomers as part of the Zwicky Transient Facility sky survey. It immediately attracted attention due to its similarity to the cosmic explosion AT 2018cow, which was 10–100 times brighter than an average supernova.

Whippet also resembled another class of objects called “Luminous Fast Blue Optical Transient” (LFBOT). This is an incredibly bright burst of light visible at distances of up to billions of light-years, which usually lasts for several days and emits high-energy radiation ranging from the blue end of the spectrum to ultraviolet and X-rays. Although several dozen such phenomena have been detected, LFBOTs remain poorly understood, although scientists associate them with the destruction of stars.

To solve the mystery of Whippet, researchers observed it using the Liverpool Telescope in the Canary Islands and the Swift spacecraft. They confirmed that its spectrum was shifted toward the blue end of the spectrum and that the object emitted X-rays, as expected from an LFBOT. This, combined with the fact that Whippet had an extremely high temperature, led to the conclusion that the event was caused by a black hole tearing apart a star with its gravity.

Further investigation by Whippet revealed a powerful shock wave propagating from the central source at about 20% of the speed of light, colliding with the surrounding gas. These shock waves dissipated in about six months when they reached the outer gas bubble left over from the destroyed star.

However, scientists have not yet fully understood all the circumstances surrounding Whippet. The team discovered helium moving away from the source at a speed of about 21 million km/h. This suggests that some densely bound structure survived tidal disruption and is moving at a speed of about 2% of the speed of light.

The team believes that this could be a stream of material ejected by the core of a doomed star when it was “spaghettified” by the black hole at the center of Whippet. Another possibility is that this stream of helium was generated by a third body in the system when it was exposed to particles and X-rays ejected by the black hole that had just “devoured” the star.

Earlier, we talked about how the black hole at the center of the Milky Way keeps its explosive past hidden.

• According to Space.com

• Posted in News, Science

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NASA’s Curiosity rover, which has been exploring the Red Planet for more than 13 years, has sent back a stunning new panorama. Taken from the summit of Mount Sharp, the image reveals a stark but breathtaking view of the landscape bathed in the rays of the setting sun.

NASA’s Curiosity rover photographed this panorama from the slopes of Mount Sharp inside Gale Crater, combining images taken on two different Martian days in November 2025 to highlight the change in light. Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Observation point

In November 2025, the rover’s navigation cameras captured black-and-white images over two Martian days (sols). Specialists combined them into a single composite panorama, using blue and yellow tones to highlight changes in lighting. This technique helps to better see the details of the terrain.

Curiosity took this image from the top of a ridge overlooking a unique area known as the Boxwork. This is a maze of mineral ridges created billions of years ago by underground waters flowing through cracks in the rock. Softer rocks eroded over time, leaving behind hard “veins.” Such structures are key evidence of Mars’ wet past.

Image taken by the Curiosity rover on July 25, 2025. Source: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

The rover recently drilled into this ridge to collect a rock sample for analysis. In the foreground of the panorama, you can see tracks from its wheels and traces of previous drilling. Curiosity’s goal is to study how the planet evolved from a wet environment, potentially suitable for microbial life, to a dry desert.

Maximum efficiency

Despite its age, the Mars rover has gained new autonomous capabilities thanks to software updates. This allows it to plan its research more effectively and collaborate with orbital spacecraft, optimizing the performance of its aging energy system.

The panorama from Mount Sharp is not only an impressive sight, but also a reminder of the persistent work of the research robot. Each new sample and photograph brings science closer to solving the main mystery: whether there was ever life on Mars.

Earlier, we reported on how the Perseverance and Curiosity rovers simultaneously faced severe challenges.

• According to Space

• Posted in News, Tech

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Deep-sea trenches are deep depressions at the bottom of the Earth’s oceans, which are unique features of our planet in the Solar System. They were formed as a result of the movement of tectonic plates and can reach depths of 10-11 km, creating one of the most amazing landscapes on our planet – the hadal zone.

What do you know about deep-sea trenches? Source: geographical.co.uk

Space at the bottom

There are places on our planet whose gloomy mystery can rival the darkness of space itself. Usually, these include Antarctic glaciers, where life is almost impossible, or the polar deserts on some islands of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, which are often compared to Mars.

However, there are places on Earth that are almost as inaccessible to humans as outer space, even though they are as far away from it as possible. These are deep-sea trenches – narrow and long depressions at the bottom of the world’s oceans, whose bottoms are never reached by sunlight. Their landscape resembles that of a celestial body, and their few inhabitants resemble aliens.

However, to truly understand the depth of the trenches, you need to observe what happens when you gradually walk along the seabed, going deeper and deeper.

Littoral zone. Source: Wikipedia

First, they determine the area between the highest point that gets underwater during high tide and the one that remains dry during low tide. This is called the littoral zone, and it is usually a narrow strip along the coast that sometimes gets a few kilometers wide. A great example of a littoral zone is a bunch of Ukrainian estuaries: looking at them, it is clear that the littoral zone is an area that makes any other part of the seabed seem deep.

Next comes the continental shelf – a section of the seabed where the depth slowly decreases to 200 m. The northern part of the Black Sea or the English Channel area, where the depth may not exceed hundreds of meters, tens of kilometers from the coast, are typical example. In essence, the shelf is part of the continental mass submerged by the ocean. Between the sedimentary rocks and basalt, as in much drier places, there is a layer of granite.

If you continue further, you will reach the continental slope, where the bottom descends at a much greater angle and quickly reaches a depth of 2-3 km. The continental slopes are particularly pronounced. For example, off the coast of North America.

The bottom of the World Ocean. Source: Wikipedia

Further down, the angle of the seabed decreases again, and abyssal plains stretch to depths of 4-5 km. These are huge depressions, comparable in size to entire countries, bounded by continental slopes. Sunlight rarely reaches their bottom, and despite the fact that bathyscaphes have repeatedly descended there, we still know less about these areas than we do about the surface of the Moon.

Deep-sea trenches are located even deeper than abyssal plains. The term “hadal zone” is used to describe the fauna of this landscape. There is no need to talk about flora, as it is practically non-existent at depths greater than 5 km. These are truly abysses, where the bottom slopes steeply downward and no light penetrates.

Formation of oceanic trenches

The fact that all the deepest areas of the ocean are shaped like narrow, elongated strips stretching along the coasts of continents or island arcs can be explained by the peculiarities of their formation. As is well known, the Earth’s crust consists of large blocks – tectonic plates. They move along the viscous, relatively plastic outer layer of our planet’s mantle, and it is this movement that causes earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

Formation of an oceanic trench

The crust of plates can be continental, i.e., contain the aforementioned layer of granite, or oceanic, i.e., consist only of basalt and sedimentary rocks. Some plates consist of both types, while others consist only of oceanic crust.

In most cases, the transition from the continental slope to the ocean depths involves the same tectonic plate. However, sometimes two different lithospheric blocks are encountered here: one with a continental crust and the other with an oceanic crust. In this case, the oceanic plate begins to subduct beneath the continental plate and partially melts. As a result, a deep depression is formed.

Its slopes are always gentler on the side of the subducting oceanic plate and steeper on the continental side. This is the structure we call a deep-sea oceanic trench. At the same time, the plate subducts very slowly, so from the outside it may seem like a completely calm place.

Pacific Ring of Fire. Source: Wikipedia

The way deep-sea trenches are formed determines their extremely uneven distribution across the surface of our planet. They are always located in tectonically active zones, mainly in the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, which surrounds the largest ocean on our planet.

Mariana Trench

In fact, all ten of the deepest ocean trenches are located in the Pacific Ocean. There are more than thirty of them in total. For comparison, there are only three large trenches in the Indian and Atlantic Oceans, and none at all in the Arctic Ocean.

However, the most famous of the Pacific trenches is the Mariana Trench, which is also considered the deepest in the world. Its depth is estimated differently, but usually the value of 11,022 m is given. It is located in the western part of the Pacific Ocean, near the islands of the same name. Its bottom is so inaccessible that humans first reached it only in 1960, just a year before they first set foot on the surface of the Moon. Until recently, the number of people who had visited the bottom of this trench was smaller than the number who had visited our natural satellite.

Mariana Trench. Source: Wikipedia

The water pressure at this depth is 108.6 MPa, which is 1,072 times greater than normal atmospheric pressure at sea level. However, microorganisms, crustaceans, and even fish have been found there. None of them is found anywhere else except this place, and they have never seen the light of the sun or stars. Their living conditions resemble those in space.

In addition, despite its inaccessibility, the Mariana Trench already bears the negative traces of human activity. Heavy toxic waste settles there and, together with river water, flows into the oceans.

Other trenches

Everyone knows about the Mariana Trench. However, the rest are no less amazing than it. Tonga, Philippine, Kermadec, Izu Ogasawara, Kuril-Kamchatka, North New Hebridean, Bougainville, and Japan – all of them are deep enough to completely submerge Mount Everest.

The landscape of the Puerto Rico Trench. Source: www.wired.com

Although the Mariana Trench is the deepest, the title of the longest on Earth belongs to another Pacific structure – the Peru-Chile Trench. It stretches along the coast of South America for 5,900 km, where the Nazca Plate dives under the South American Plate.

The deepest and largest trench in the Indian Ocean is the Sunda Trench, which stretches for 4-5 thousand km along the coast of Indonesia. Its maximum depth is 7,729 m near the island of Bali.

The ocean trenches of the Atlantic Ocean are generally relatively short in length, as they are formed by small tectonic plates. The deepest of these is the Puerto Rico Trench, with a maximum depth of 8,742 m. This is only slightly less than the height of Mount Everest.

It would seem that ocean trenches have nothing to do with astronomy. However, when considering the planets of the Solar System, among the unique phenomena available only on Earth, along with the biosphere, it is worth mentioning them. After all, nowhere else do lithospheric plates move, and even more so, there are no places where they collide under a layer of liquid.

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{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

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{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

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{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

After years of delays and debate, the United States Congress has passed a NASA budget that omits any plan to retrieve several rock and soil samples collected and stored by the Perseverance Rover, including Martian rocks that may contain signs of past or present extraterrestrial life on the Red Planet.

According to the new compromise spending bill for the current fiscal year, it appears Congress has given in to the White House’s demands that resources needed to complete the planned Mars Sample Return (MSR) program be explicitly excluded from any approved budget. While the bill still awaits a final vote in Congress and the President’s signature, NASA officials are sending signals that the MSR program is effectively dead.

“The agreement does not support the existing Mars Sample Return program,” the bill states.

Victoria Hamilton, a planetary scientist at the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) and chair of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group, described the death of MSR as “deeply disappointing” while also questioning the veracity of the current administration’s stated goals.

“When we’ve got memos coming out saying we want to be the dominant power in space, I wonder how we leave something this ambitious behind,” Hamilton said.

Escalating Cost of Retrieving Martian Rocks has Haunted the MSR Program

Before NASA launched Perseverance in July 2020, mission planners had struggled with the concept of retrieving the samples the rover was tasked with collecting through its mission. Since then, the interplanetary explorer has collected dozens of samples and stored them for the planned future return.

Artist’s concept of the Mars ascent rocket, one component of the effort to collect and send samples of Martian rock back to Earth

(NASA/Public Domain).

During that time, the cost for MSR has continued to rise, with 2024 estimates reaching $11 billion. Regardless of the potential scientific value, the extraordinarily large share of NASA’s science budget that the single mission was projected to consume left planetary scientists working on other stalled or underfunded projects wondering whether the MSR was worth the broader scientific cost.

Repeated threats from Congress to scrap the ambitious yet costly program altogether resulted in a new, stripped-down plan released in January 2025 that came closer to the original $7 billion estimate. Now, it appears even that plan was still too rich for the current administration’s taste, resulting in its explicit exclusion from the new bill.

Funding Could Aid Other Missions and Keep Hopes of MSR Alive

As advocates of the MSR program try to regroup and seek other alternatives to bring the Martian rocks back to Earth to study, NASA’s proposed $7.25 billion science budget offers some hope that a future mission may not be completely off the table.

For example, the bill, which cuts roughly 1% from the 2025 budget, allocates $110 million for a “Mars Future Missions” program to continue developing the key technologies needed for any future sample-return mission. These include further development of landing systems that can survive the thin atmosphere during descent, which has proven challenging and costly for previous missions.

Assuming the bill is signed into law, other missions that have waited patiently for MSR to run its course may see new signs of life. For example, recent discoveries on the moons of Jupiter and Saturn and in the atmosphere of Venus have led to plans for missions to further explore those tantalizing findings. These include plans to explore potential subsurface oceans on Enceladus and Europa for extraterrestrial life.

Is the Search for Extraterrestrial Life on Mars Dead?

Although the newly proposed NASA science budget adds hope to the search for life on other moons and planets, proponents of MSR note the tantalizing cache of samples already collected by the rover since its 2021 arrival.

In 2024, mission operators spotted a surface feature containing mineral deposits called “leopard spots” in a dry riverbed that leads to Jezero crater. NASA scientists note that on Earth, these types of leopard spots are often left by microbial organisms interacting with the rock, making the Chevaya Falls sample arguably the best candidate for containing signs of past life on Mars.

Bethany Ehlmann, a planetary scientist at the University of Colorado Boulder, said scientists eagerly await the opportunity to examine these samples in Earth labs equipped to determine if they do hold signs of extraterrestrial life. Elhman also pointed to the potential for other scientific discoveries that the dozens of samples gathered by Perseverance may hold.

“A rock with a potential biosignature is awaiting return now, and other rocks hold breakthrough discoveries,” the UC Boulder scientist explained.

Unless Congress has an unexpected last-minute change of heart, the new budget has left mission planners wondering about the fate of the samples, as the rover has nearly finished filling its collection tubes.

“We’d really like to hear from NASA sooner than later that they will work with the community on a plan to get these samples,” Hamilton said.

• 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.

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The object’s unique appearance offers astronomers a unique look at the evolution of galaxies early in their formation process and could provide new insights into the mysterious nature of nonluminous dark matter.

“A Tale of a Failed Galaxy”

The absence of stars within Cloud-9 served as a key observation, according to principal investigator Alejandro Benitez-Llambay of the Milano-Bicocca University in Milan, Italy.

“In science, we usually learn more from the failures than from the successes,” Benitez-Llambay said in a statement. “In this case, seeing no stars is what proves the theory right.”

Characterizing Cloud-9 as the cosmic remnant that conveys “a tale of a failed galaxy,” Benitez-Llambay said the discovery offers astronomers a rare glimpse of “a primordial building block of a galaxy that hasn’t formed.”

A Cosmic “RELHIC”

Cloud-9 represents a new class of objects known as Reionization-Limited H I Clouds (RELHICs), where “H I” represents neutral hydrogen. Combined, the term was devised by astronomers to convey the presence of a hydrogen cloud that formed early in the universe, and which had not yet produced any stars.

Like cosmic phantoms, these kinds of objects were long hypothesized, but had never been directly observed until now. Before the recent Hubble observations, astronomers may have mistaken Cloud-9 for a faint dwarf galaxy invisible to telescopes on Earth, as they lack the sensitivity required to detect any stars that might have been lurking in its gaseous body.

“With Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys, we’re able to nail down that there’s nothing there,” said Gagandeep Anand of STScI, the lead author of a new study detailing the discovery.

A Window to the Dark Side

“We know from theory that most of the mass in the universe is expected to be dark matter, but it’s difficult to detect this dark material because it doesn’t emit light,” according to Andrew Fox, a member of the discovery team with the European Space Agency’s Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy/Space Telescope Science Institute (AURA/STScI).

Comparing the cosmic relic to “a window into the dark universe,” Fox said that Cloud-9 has offered he and his international colleagues behind the discovery “a rare look at a dark-matter-dominated cloud.”

A New Theory Emerges

According to current theories, RELHICs may represent clouds composed of dark matter that have failed to accumulate the amount of gas required to form stars. Based on its presence alone, astronomers now hypothesize that Cloud-9 may be the first detection of a variety of small, dark matter-rich failed galaxies that are likely found throughout the universe.

These unique structures have likely evaded detection in the past because traditional observation methods make them very difficult to spot, as they are void of bright objects like stars.

Another unique feature about Cloud-9 is that the clouds it possesses are smaller and more uniform when compared to hydrogen cloud formations observed closer to the Milky Way. Cloud-9 is also closer to possessing a perfect spherical shape, which also contributes to its unique appearance.

With a neutral hydrogen core approximately 4,900 light-years in diameter, based on radio signals emanating from the object. This leads astronomers to conclude that Cloud-9 has a mass roughly one million times greater than that of our Sun. If this estimate is correct, that would mean that the dark matter the object possesses would be equivalent to five billion solar masses.

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

A staggering 250,000 kilometers per hour was the speed at which the comet had rushed through the inner solar system near the Sun–a reminder of how extreme velocities set interstellar visitors apart from homegrown comets. That velocity set the stage for NASA’s newly released close‑up views of 3I/ATLAS, captured by three spacecraft at Mars as the object swept just 18 million miles from the planet, a very unusually intimate pass for an object born around another star.

The sharpest imaging came from the HiRISE camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which resolved a compact coma appearing as a bright, pixelated sphere at about 19 miles per pixel. While modest in appearance, these data provided crucial constraints on both nucleus size and dust environment. MAVEN’s ultraviolet instrument added a layer of chemical insight to the campaign, as its design for probing tenuous atmospheric gases lent itself to detecting hydrogen signatures tied to water breakdown, thus providing an upper limit on the comet’s deuterium‑to‑hydrogen ratio, an important tracer of the comet’s formation region. Composition-sensitive ultraviolet data of this sort are extremely rare for interstellar objects.

This multi‑spacecraft campaign corresponds to an unprecedented solar system–wide effort. Per ESA, twelve NASA assets have imaged 3I/ATLAS since July, including heliophysics missions that could observe the comet near the Sun when Earth-based telescopes couldn’t track it through the intense glare. Those vantage points allowed for continuous monitoring as 3I/ATLAS passed behind the Sun, enabling high‑cadence studies of its evolving tail geometry. Newly processed images from SOHO and NASA’s PUNCH mission showed the dust tail in late September and early October, capturing distinct jets that intensified after perihelion in late October.

3I/ATLAS as seen from Mars.

Photo shared by NASA Photograph: (NASA)

The pace of the observations then quickened when the James Webb Space Telescope joined the campaign. Its infrared spectrograph measured an unexpected chemical signature: the coma contains nearly eight times as much CO₂ as water vapor. This inversion of the typical cometary ratio is unlike almost every well‑studied solar system comet. “I have never seen such a strong CO2 peak in a comet spectrum,” said Martin Cordiner of NASA Goddard. Because Earth’s atmosphere blocks the relevant infrared wavelengths, only Webb could uncover this composition, hinting that 3I/ATLAS may preserve ice chemistry inherited from a star-forming environment very different from the Sun’s.

• 3I/ATLAS: NASA Releases New Image Of Interstellar Visitor 3I/ATLAS | WION Originals

Such chemical fingerprints are complemented by orbital analyses that suggest great age. As NASA’s Tom Statler pointed out, the comet may have originated in a system older than the solar system itself: “gives me goose bumps to think about.” Its hyperbolic trajectory confirms that it is indeed an interstellar visitor, and integrations backward in time of its motion indicate it approached from the constellation Sagittarius with a heliocentric velocity in excess of 58 km/s. Investigations using the stellar data from the European Space Agency’s Gaia spacecraft demonstrate that the distribution of the velocity of the comet is indicative of objects that have been ejected from the Milky Way thin disk-a stellar population which contains long‑lived, moderately metal‑poor systems. These results support early theoretical predictions that 3I/ATLAS may have formed billions of years ago.

Amateur astronomers have seized the moment as the comet moves through the predawn sky. Observers say small telescopes can capture a faint, fuzzy glow-an accessible signpost of cosmic material that spent eons drifting between stars before its brief appearance near Earth. Indeed, as NASA’s acting astrophysics director Shawn Domagal‑Goldman put it, “Everyone that is in control of a telescope wants to look at it because it’s a fascinating and rare opportunity.”

Meanwhile, the scientific race goes on, as ESA’s Juice spacecraft conducts its own observations. The main antenna is now serving as a heat shield near the Sun, delaying data return until February, but its unusual geometry also means it will provide some of the highest‑quality post-perihelion measurements. When those data do arrive, they will be joining a rapidly growing archive of multi-wavelength studies and form the most complete portrait ever assembled of an interstellar comet during one solar system passage.

{ Modern Engineering Marvels }

Humans have always been fascinated with space. We frequently question whether we are alone in the universe. If not, what does intelligent life look like? And how would aliens communicate?

The possibility of extraterrestrial life is grounded in scientific evidence. But the distances involved in travel between the stars are vast. If we do contact aliens, it would likely be via long-distance communication, with our nearest neighboring star being 4.4 light years away. Even being optimistic, it would likely take more than 10 years for any round-trip communication.

How could that work when we have no shared language? Well, consider how we can engage with creatures here on Earth with minds quite alien to our own: bees.

Despite the vast differences in human and bee brains, both of us can do mathematics. As we argue in a new paper published in the journal Leonardo, our thought experiment lends weight to the idea that mathematics may form the basis for a "universal language," which might one day be used to communicate between the stars.

Mathematics as the language of science

The idea of mathematics as universal is not new. Writing in the 17th century, Galileo Galilei described the universe as a grand book "written in the language of mathematics."

Science fiction, too, has long explored the idea of mathematics as a universal language. In the 1985 novel and 1997 film Contact, extraterrestrials reach out to humans using a repeating sequence of prime numbers sent via radio signal.

In The Three-Body Problem, a novel by Liu Cixin adapted into a Netflix series, communication between aliens and humans to solve a mathematical problem occurs through a video game.

Mathematics also features in a 1998 novella by Ted Chiang called Story of Your Life, which was adapted into the 2016 film Arrival. It describes aliens with a non-linear experience of time and a correspondingly different formulation of mathematics.

Real scientific efforts at universal communication have also involved mathematics and numbers. The covers of the Golden Records, which accompanied the Voyager 1 and 2 space probes launched in 1977, are etched with mathematical and physical quantities to "communicate a story of our world to extraterrestrials."

The 1974 Arecibo radio message beamed out into space consisted of 1,679 zeros and ones, ordered to communicate the numbers one to ten and the atomic numbers of the elements that make up DNA. In 2022, researchers developed a binary language designed to introduce extraterrestrials to human mathematics, chemistry, and biology.

How do we test a universal language without aliens?

A creature with two antennae, six legs, and five eyes may sound like an alien, but it also describes a bee. (Science fiction has, of course, imagined "insectoid" aliens.)

The ancestors of bees and humans diverged over 600 million years ago, yet we both possess communication, sociality, and some mathematical ability. Since parting ways, both honeybees and humans have independently developed effective, but different, means of communication and cooperation within complex societies.

Humans have developed language. Honeybees evolved the waggle dance—which communicates the location of food sources, including distance, direction, angle from the sun, and quality of the resource.

Due to our vast evolutionary separation from bees, as well as the differences between our brain sizes and structures, bees could be considered an insectoid alien model that exists right here on Earth. At least for the purposes of our thought experiment.

Bees and mathematics

In a series of experiments between 2016 and 2024, we explored the ability of bees to learn mathematics. We worked with freely flying honeybees that chose to regularly visit and participate in our outdoor math tests to receive sugar water.

During the tests, bees showed evidence of solving simple addition and subtraction, categorizing quantities as odd or even, and ordering quantities of items, including an understanding of "zero." Bees even demonstrated the ability to link symbols with numbers, in a simple version of how humans learn Arabic and Roman numerals.

Bees have demonstrated the ability to learn simple arithmetic and can perform other numerical feats. 

Scarlett Howard

Despite the miniature brains of bees, they have demonstrated a rudimentary capacity to perform mathematics and learn to solve problems with quantities. Their mathematical ability involved learning to add and subtract one, which provides a launching pad to more abstract mathematics. The ability to add or subtract by one theoretically allows bees to represent all of the natural numbers.

If two species considered alien to each other—humans and honeybees—can perform mathematics, along with many other animals, then perhaps mathematics could form the basis of a universal language.

If there are extraterrestrial species, and they have sufficiently sophisticated brains, then our work suggests that they may have the capacity to do mathematics. A further question to be answered is whether different species will develop different approaches to mathematics, akin to dialects in language.

Such discoveries would also help to answer the question of whether mathematics is an entirely human construction, or if it is a consequence of intelligence and thus, universal.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

• Provided by The Conversation
• This story was originally published on Phys.org.

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Kawasaki Heavy Industries

Back in April, we came across a flashy and almost entirely CGI video of a bizarre concept for a rideable, four-legged robotic “horse.”

The video showed the mysterious concept, dubbed Corleo, roaming rocky terrain, leaping over icy crevasses, crossing snowy landscapes without losing its footing, and traversing a dark forest at night — all while carrying an adult rider on its back and being powered by a hydrogen power cell.

Kawasakiが提案する未来のオフロードパーソナルモビリティ「CORLEO」

While the company behind the idea, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, showed off a full-scale model at an exposition at the time, promising a production-ready device by the far-off date of 2050, we had a lot of trouble believing Corleo was little more than pure vaporware.

But the company has now announced that it’s started to work on turning its ambitious vision into a reality, and decades ahead of schedule. As New Atlas reports, Kawasaki is setting up a dedicated “Safe Adventure Business Development Team,” with the aim of showing off a functioning prototype at the Expo 2030 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

The company is hoping to put the unusual motorcycle on legs on sale by 2035, a lofty plan that still keeps the delivery way well in the future to avoid near-term embarrassment — we’re looking at you, Elon Musk!

According to a press release, Kawasaki is also developing a “riding simulator that enables riding experience of the four-legged mobility vehicle.”

Beyond targeting thrill seekers, the company also suggests that Corleo could be used to “eliminate mountain accidents and make mountainous regions safe and enjoyable for everyone.”

Sure, it may sound like a promising start — but there are plenty of reasons to remain skeptical. For one, achieving the kind of agility the company showed off in its original marketing video will likely remain an enormous engineering challenge.

What exactly a production-ready prototype will be able to do at the Expo 2030 — a mere four years from now — remains unclear as well.

On the other hand, we’ve seen the field of robotics make major leaps and bounds, with an onslaught of humanoid robots that can dance, kickbox, and even cook up an elaborate breakfast. Four-legged robots have similarly learned to effortlessly navigate rugged landscapes and even herd sheep.

In short, for now we’ll reserve judgment — but we’re nonetheless excited about the prospect of a robotic horse that we can ride into the sunset, not unlike Aloy, the protagonist of the popular video game series “Horizon.”

More on Corleo: 

• Kawasaki Shows Off Concept for Rideable Horse Robot
  

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Most People Have Never Heard of This Valley That Keeps Capturing UFOs! | Project Hessdalen

Overview

Nestled in the remote Hessdalen Valley of Norway, a persistent mystery has captivated scientists and enthusiasts for over four decades. Project Hessdalen, an internationally recognized research initiative, has dedicated itself to studying the unexplained light phenomena that continue to appear above this quiet landscape. Since the early 1980s, locals and visitors have regularly reported seeing strange orbs, luminous anomalies, and inexplicable lights dancing across the night sky.

These sightings often occur with startling consistency, sometimes as frequently as 20 to 30 times per week, highlighting the persistent and puzzling nature of the phenomena. Despite numerous investigations, camera recordings, and scientific studies, the true origin and nature of the lights remain elusive and unexplained. Researchers have considered numerous theories, ranging from natural atmospheric phenomena to experimental aircraft or even extraterrestrial activity, but no definitive explanations have been confirmed. The Hessdalen lights have attracted researchers from around the world, eager to understand their mysterious origin. The local community has been both intrigued and impacted by these ongoing sightings, with tourism increasing as visitors come hoping to witness the phenomenon firsthand. Overall, the Hessdalen lights continue to challenge our understanding of atmospheric and environmental science, inspiring ongoing scientific exploration and debate. This enduring mystery keeps Hessdalen at the forefront of paranormal and scientific research, fueling curiosity and investigation into one of the most intriguing natural phenomena in modern times.

The Origins of Project Hessdalen

The origins of Project Hessdalen can be traced back to the early 1980s, specifically to the years 1981 and 1982, when Norwegian media outlets first began reporting on the mysterious lights appearing in the Hessdalen Valley. At that time, the sightings were primarily considered a local curiosity—something intriguing yet unworthy of serious scientific inquiry. The reports consisted of vivid descriptions of glowing orbs and strange luminous phenomena that seemed to dance across the night sky, capturing the imagination of local residents and visitors alike. These reports sparked curiosity and interest among the residents and gave rise to a sense of wonder surrounding the Hessdalen lights.

- Photo taken by Kurt Anderssen in 1982. It is taken close to the main road in Hessdalen, towards a flashing light above the mountain Finnsåhøgda. Kurt used a camera standing on a tripod, equipped with a 2000 mm lens, which he had borrowed from Arne P.Thomassen. Kurt managed to take a picture just when the light got in the view of the camera.

As local reports grew more frequent and consistent, the phenomenon began to attract the attention of scientists and researchers, who saw an opportunity to investigate a genuinely unusual natural occurrence. Fred Palisen, who is now the CEO of Project Hessdalen, recalls a pivotal experience from 1983. He explains, “In 83, there were two cars—maybe like six people—who went up the mountain to observe. Just one hour after they had parked and set up camp, they saw something extraordinary: a powerful light moving back and forth, sometimes dipping below the horizon, emitting beams, then moving again.” The sighting was so compelling that it encouraged further investigation.

This first-hand account underscored the need for systematic study rather than dismissing the phenomenon as mere hallucination or urban legend. An observer at the time insisted, “We are scientists. We should study this.” That statement marked a turning point; it demonstrated a shift from casual observation to a scientific approach. Despite initial skepticism from some academics who questioned whether such unexplained lights could be scientifically studied, these early explorers persisted in their efforts, driven by curiosity and a desire to understand what they had witnessed.

The commitment to rigorous observation laid the foundation for the eventual establishment of an ongoing research project in Hessdalen. Over the years, scientists and engineers have deployed sophisticated equipment, including cameras, spectrometers, and radar systems, to monitor and analyze the phenomenon. The project has grown into a collaborative effort involving local residents, international researchers, and technology experts. Today, Project Hessdalen continues to document the lights, striving to find scientific explanations for their origins—whether natural, electrical, or something currently beyond our understanding.

In summary, the origin of Project Hessdalen is rooted in early media reports, local curiosity, and a committed group of investigators who recognized the importance of studying these mysterious geological phenomena. Their efforts have transformed what was once considered a local curiosity into a serious scientific investigation that continues to intrigue researchers worldwide.

Scientific Methods and Technology

Central to Project Hessdalen’s mission is its unwavering dedication to collecting measurable and verifiable data. Since its inception in 1998, the project has pioneered innovative technological solutions to monitor and study the mysterious phenomena observed in the Hessdalen Valley in Norway. One of its most significant advancements is the development and deployment of the "Blue Box," a state-of-the-art autonomous multi-sensor anomaly detection system. This device is regarded as the world's first of its kind, capable of continuously surveilling the sky above Hessdalen without human intervention.

The Blue Box integrates various sensors—such as electromagnetic detectors, spectrometers, and infrared cameras—to capture a comprehensive dataset across multiple spectrums. This continuous monitoring enables researchers to track unusual light sightings, analyze their characteristics, and distinguish between natural and artificial phenomena. The data collected are stored in real-time and can be analyzed later to identify patterns or recurring behaviors, providing vital insights into the bizarre lights that have baffled scientists for decades.

As Palisen, a key researcher involved with the project, explains, the overarching goal is to promote "open science" — where all collected data can be shared openly with scientists worldwide and made accessible to the public. This transparency encourages collaboration and transparency, fostering a global scientific community that can verify findings and explore hypotheses without proprietary restrictions.

The project's approach combines cutting-edge technology with collaborative, hands-on research efforts. In addition to the Blue Box, the team utilizes high-definition video cameras strategically positioned around the valley to capture the phenomena from multiple angles. These video recordings, synchronized with sensor data, allow for detailed analysis of the phenomena in real time and after the events occur.

Moreover, the project actively engages students and international research teams through organized fieldwork, such as science camps and collaborative expeditions. These initiatives not only help gather diverse insights but also promote educational outreach and inspire the next generation of scientists. Overall, the combination of innovative sensors, video monitoring, and a collaborative scientific ethos forms the backbone of Project Hessdalen’s efforts to uncover the truth behind these enigmatic lights.

Theories and Global Interest

The persistent and enigmatic light phenomena observed in Hessdalen have captivated researchers, scientists, and enthusiasts worldwide for decades. These luminous displays, which often appear as bright, rapidly moving or stationary lights in the night sky, have inspired a diverse array of hypotheses attempting to explain their origin. At the more scientifically grounded end, some experts propose that these lights are caused by natural plasma formations resulting from unique atmospheric conditions. Others suggest they may be due to unusual electromagnetic phenomena, possibly related to ionization events in the Earth's ionosphere or interactions between meteorological processes and mineral-rich terrains in the valley.

Additionally, some researchers have explored the possibility that these lights originate from natural atmospheric discharges, similar to ball lightning or other rare electrical phenomena. These ideas are supported by observations of the lights changing speed, shape, and color, sometimes correlating with local weather patterns or atmospheric changes. Conversely, more speculative theories propose extraterrestrial origins, suggesting that the lights could be manifestations of UFO activity or alien visitors observing Earth. These claims, though popular in sensational media, remain fringe within the scientific community, which emphasizes thorough investigation and empirical evidence.

Photo taken by Arne P. Thomassen the 25. September 1982 between 19.00 and 20.00. It is taken from the mountain Finnsåhøgda south, towards east. This photo shows the same phenomena as in this picture, but it was taken some minutes after.

Despite the variety of hypotheses, the researchers involved in the Hessdalen project emphasize a cautious, scientific approach. They are committed to understanding the phenomena through material evidence rather than sensationalism. The core of their work involves extensive observation, data collection, and analysis of the lights using a combination of high-resolution cameras, spectrometers, and sensor arrays. To foster international cooperation and enhance their understanding, the team regularly hosts workshops and conferences that attract experts from around the world. These gatherings provide a platform for sharing footage, sensor readings, and hypotheses, encouraging interdisciplinary collaboration among physicists, meteorologists, astrophysicists, and engineers.

Over the years, peer-reviewed studies have been published based on data collected in Hessdalen, establishing a scientific framework to describe the events, even though the phenomenon itself remains elusive and not fully understood. This ongoing research aims to uncover the underlying causes of the lights, bridging the gap between curiosity and scientific rigor, and maintaining Hessdalen’s reputation as a unique natural laboratory for studying unexplained atmospheric phenomena on a global scale.

Community and Continued Mystery

For Fred Palisen and many involved in Project Hessdalen, the initiative is as much about community engagement as it is about scientific research. He describes his own entry into the project as almost incidental—a joke during a workplace presentation about conspiracy theories led to an unexpected leadership role. Yet, despite the humorous beginnings, the dedication of those involved remains unwavering. The lights of Hessdalen, with their mesmerizing and sometimes haunting displays, continue to inspire both skepticism and wonder. Palisen recalls observing the lights firsthand: "This is a light that was so strong. So it was obviously not a star... It was moving sideways and up and down and sometimes stopping, and then you would have a beam coming down." Such accounts fuel ongoing curiosity about what exactly causes these mesmerizing displays.

Despite decades of observation and technological advancements, the true nature of the Hessdalen lights remains unresolved. Some scientists postulate natural explanations, while others keep an open mind toward extraterrestrial hypotheses. The ongoing efforts of Project Hessdalen exemplify the enduring value of open-minded scientific investigation—demonstrating how persistent curiosity and rigorous methodology can keep a mystery alive. Ultimately, Hessdalen stands as a testament to humanity’s fascination with the unknown and the importance of exploring phenomena that challenge conventional understanding.

In essence, Hessdalen’s unexplained lights serve as a reminder that, sometimes, nature still holds secrets waiting to be unlocked—and that scientific curiosity remains a vital tool in uncovering the truth behind inexplicable mysteries.

{ PETER2011 }

An artist’s illustration of the massive, fast-spinning asteroid 2025 MN45, discovered in the first data from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory. 

(Image credit: NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory/NOIRLab/SLAC/AURA/P. Marenfeld)

Scientists analyzing the first images from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory have discovered the fastest-spinning asteroid in its size class yet.

The record-breaking space rock, called 2025 MN45, is larger than most skyscrapers on Earth at about 2,300 feet (710 meters) wide. The massive rock completes a rotation in about 113 seconds — making it the fastest-spinning known asteroid over 1,640 feet (500 meters) in diameter.

The research, published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters Wednesday (Jan. 7), is part of an asteroid survey aimed at improving our understanding of how these small bodies formed and evolved.

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The study is the first peer-reviewed paper from the Rubin Observatory's LSST Camera — the largest digital camera in the world — which will repeatedly scan the Southern Hemisphere's night sky over 10 years to create an unprecedented time-lapse movie of the universe.

Rocks that roll

Asteroids are essentially large space rocks, and many are remnants of how our solar system appeared early in its 4.5 billion-year-old history, before the evolution of planets and moons. Therefore, by studying asteroids, scientists can figure out how our solar system changed over the eons.

Scientists found 2025 MN45 using the preliminary data release from the Rubin Observatory, which has already revealed thousands of previously unknown asteroids around the solar system after just seven nights of observations. (The 10-year LSST survey has yet to formally begin, but is expected to start in the next few months.)

The asteroid's remarkably fast spin excited the team, as it provides clues about the ancient rock’s composition.

"Clearly, this asteroid must be made of material that has very high strength in order to keep it in one piece," Sarah Greenstreet, an assistant astronomer at the National Science Foundation's National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory, said in a statement. "It would need a cohesive strength similar to that of solid rock."

"This is somewhat surprising," added Greenstreet, who also leads a Rubin working group about near-Earth objects and interstellar objects, "since most asteroids are believed to be what we call 'rubble pile' asteroids, which means they are made of many, many small pieces of rock and debris that coalesced under gravity during solar system formation or subsequent collisions."

Thousands more to come

In general, fast-spinning asteroids could have reached that state after a collision with another space rock, the study team said. It is also possible that 2025 MN45 is a remnant of a much larger asteroid that was shattered by a cosmic crash.

Most asteroids in the solar system are in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. But most fast-spinning asteroids that astronomers have observed are much closer to Earth, simply because they are easier to see, the study authors noted. 2025 MN45 is a main-belt object, where most asteroids (as they are loose piles of rubble) must take at least 2.2 hours to rotate in order to avoid fragmentation. Anything that rotates faster than that "must be structurally strong," they wrote.

That said, 2025 MN45 is not the only fast spinner in the main asteroid belt. In addition to 2025 MN45, Rubin's first dataset includes 16 "super-fast" rotators, each of which has a rotational period of between 13 minutes and 2.2 hours, as well as two "ultra-fast" rotators with spins of less than two minutes each. All of these asteroids are also longer than 100 yards (90 m), and all but one of the newfound asteroids lives in the main belt.

The commissioning data from Rubin, which was released last June, underwent a deeper look in the new paper, which was also discussed Wednesday at a news conference at the 247th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Phoenix.

The huge set of observations has about 1,900 never-before-seen asteroids, according to the statement. There will be many more to come when Rubin formally begins its 10-year survey of the sky in the coming months.

In particular, the initial results suggest that crashes may not be the only way asteroids reach extreme speeds, perhaps pressing astronomers to develop new explanations.

{ https://www.livescience.com/space }

{ https://scientias.nl/nieuws/astronomie-ruimtevaart/ }

The smell of space has been described as similar to the smell of something cooking on a charcoal grill. 

Rbkomar/Getty Images

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President Donald Trump has allegedly been 'fully briefed' on what the US government has been keeping secret about UFOs and alien life living among humans.

In a recent interview, whistleblower and retired US Air Force Major David Grusch claimed that Trump has received reports on crashed spacecraft and non-human remains retrieved by the US, the origins of these beings, and their intentions.

Grusch, a current advisor to Congress's UAP Task Force, said the president could soon become the 'most consequential leader in world history' by publicly disclosing what America has kept hidden about extraterrestrials.

'Members of this current administration are very well aware of this reality. Certainly, the current president is very knowledgeable on this subject,' Grusch told Fox News.

To this point, previous White Houses, the US military, and even NASA have all denied that humans have made contact with alien life or have ever recovered extraterrestrial technology from crashed UFOs.

No physical evidence has ever been presented publicly that would back up the stories by countless civilians, scientists, and military personnel over the decades, who claim to have seen or interacted with beings from another world.

However, Grusch said the US military has not only recovered UFOs and alien bodies, but he personally viewed intelligence reports, data, and even pictures of non-human bodies with his own eyes.

The whistleblower also allegedly told members of Congress that Trump was even briefed during his first term about the existence of multiple alien races and how one species has been crossbreeding with humans.

David Grusch (Pictured) recently revealed that President Trump has been briefed on the existence of aliens and the effort to recover crashed UFOs

President Trump (Pictured) expressed skepticism that reports of UFOs and alien encounters were real during a June 2024 interview with Logan Paul

Grusch spent 14 years in the Air Force before working as an intelligence officer for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), which builds and lunches surveillance satellites for the Pentagon.

From 2019 to 2021, he represented NRO on the UAP Task Force, but eventually became a whistleblower after allegedly learning that elements of the US government had prevented Congressional oversight on matters related to extraterrestrials.

In 2023, he testified before Congress, claiming that secret government departments had been running UFO retrieval and reverse-engineering programs for decades.

When asked if he would declassify the files about aliens on the Lex Fridman Podcast in September 2024, then-candidate Trump said: 'Sure, I’ll do that. I would do that. I’d love to do that. I have to do that.' 

Missouri congressman Eric Burlison previously echoed Grusch's statements, revealing the alleged existence of at least four alien species humans secretly know about.

Burlison added that Grusch had briefed the president on the existence of a race known as the 'Nordics,' which are generally human in appearance, with fair skin and blond hair, who have created alien-human hybrids.

'He [Grusch] said that the Nordic aliens are like a few hundred years more advanced than we are, but they're not super advanced,' Burlison said during an X space interview on June 27.

'He says that there are aliens that are crossbreeds living in the world,' the congressman added, noting that Grusch did not have an answer when asked how humans would be able to tell if someone was an alien hybrid.

In September, Congressman Eric Burlison of Missouri revealed video of a US military drone striking an orb-shaped UFO with a missile, which bounced off and did not stop the craft

Grusch described an alien race called 'the Greys' as being thousands of years more advanced than humans or other alien species humans know about (Stock Image)

Burlison, who appointed Grusch to the government's UAP committee, added that the Air Force veteran described another alien race called the Greys as being thousands of years more advanced than humans.

According to Grusch's reports, these aliens, who were shorter with grey skin and large black eyes, were responsible for sightings of craft that defied gravity and controlled technology using their minds.

As for whether these aliens were peaceful or coming to Earth with hostile intentions, Grusch revealed last month that the US has seen a 'mixed bag of activity.'

'We can't quite understand the intent of some of the sentients and why they're visiting. Could it be because we have interesting genetic material on Earth? We're a Jurassic Park tourist attraction for them. [It] could be a myriad of reasons,' he told Bret Baier of Fox News on November 21.

The UAP advisor added that the US was in a secret arms race with Russia and China, who have also captured and crashed alien spacecraft and have been working to reverse engineer the technology.

Although Grusch believed Trump may soon decide to release the classified reports on extraterrestrial programs and encounters, the president has previously said he was a skeptic when it comes to UFO conspiracies.

'People who are very smart and very solid have said they believe there is something out there, and you know it makes sense that there could be. I've never been convinced, even despite that, you know, I just for some reason it's not my thing,' Trump told the Impaulsive podcast in June 2024.

Despite the skepticism, Grusch claimed that the White House was motivated to 'do the right thing' in terms of disclosing all the whistleblower information Congress has been investigating regarding UFOs.

The Daily Mail has reached out to the White House for comment regarding the claims in Grusch's interview.

Grusch noted, however, that he and others have faced intimidation and threats of physical harm to stay quiet about the existence of alien life, but he did not name who has been behind the cover-up.

'I was physically threatened even before I sent in my intelligence community inspector general report under the previous administration,' the whistleblower alleged.

'I actually had to go and and seek legal protection that way because I was, you know, literally in fear both professionally and in my personal life.'

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/index.html }

CIA makes shocking statement about mysterious interstellar visitor that upends NASA's comet story

• MORE: The five unsolved mysteries of 2025 that captivated the world 

By CHRIS MELORE, US ASSISTANT SCIENCE EDITOR

A shocking admission by the CIA has just reopened the mystery surrounding 3I/ATLAS, the interstellar object speeding through our solar system.

Although NASA has claimed the object is an ordinary comet, an icy rock with a long tail of gas and dust, intelligence officials have refused to answer whether they investigated the possibility that 3I/ATLAS is an extraterrestrial craft. 

In response to a November 2025 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request regarding the supposed comet, the CIA said it could 'neither deny nor confirm the existence or nonexistence of records' regarding 3I/ATLAS.

The federal government had maintained that the object showed no signs of harboring alien life or that it was an artificially constructed spacecraft since it was detected in July 2025.

However, the CIA still decided to provide what is known as a 'Glomar response.' It's a way for the government to say, 'We're not going to tell you if we have information or not, because even admitting that could reveal sensitive secrets.' 

Harvard professor Avi Loeb has continued to challenge NASA's claims, highlighting that 3I/ATLAS has exhibited at least 12 strange behaviors that scientists have not been able to explain as natural occurrences.

Those anomalies include the object having a bright 'anti-tail' pointing in the opposite direction of a normal comet, course changes that defy the laws of gravity, and a nickel shell, which is a metal typically used by spacecraft to deflect heat.

'That this information is treated as sensitive enough to be classified by the CIA is surprising, given that NASA officials stated decisively at a press conference on November 19, 2025, that 3I/ATLAS is definitely a comet of natural origin,' Loeb said.

Amateur stargazers have taken clear images of the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS (Pictured) using common telescopes during its journey through the solar system

The CIA has released a statement neither confirming nor denying any investigations into 3I/ATLAS, complying with a November 2025 FOIA request

As 3I/ATLAS nears Jupiter on March 16, the Harvard physicist said the new revelations by the US intelligence community suggest the government has secretly investigated the possibility that the object is a hostile threat, as he theorized last year. 

The Daily Mail has requested comment from both the CIA and NASA and is awaiting a response.

The FOIA request was submitted by UFO and government conspiracy researcher John Greenewald Jr, who noted in a post on X that he was filing an appeal to get a clearer answer from the CIA.

Greenewald Jr added that he has filed the same request for information regarding 3I/ATLAS with NASA and other US agencies and is still waiting for them to reply.

FOIA requests are part of US law that lets anyone, including citizens, journalists, and researchers, ask government agencies for documents or records on a specific topic.

The agency must give a response, but it can withhold revealing details if the information is classified for national security reasons or falls under certain exemptions.

'Very interesting, apparently CIA [director John] Ratcliffe knows something,' one person on social media alleged. 

The new revelations have come months after NASA completely dismissed the possibility of 3I/ATLAS being extraterrestrial in origin, with space agency administrator Nicky Fox saying they've found nothing 'that would lead us to believe it was anything other than a comet.'

However, NASA's November announcement created more doubt about the object's origins than it solved, as the agency was widely mocked for the blurry images it released of 3I/ATLAS.

Many critics quickly pointed out that amateur astronomers with common telescopes had been taking much clearer photographs of the alleged comet as it approached Earth in December, despite being over 200million miles from the object.

In comparison, NASA Mars orbiters were less than 20million miles away from 3I/ATLAS in early October 2025, but still only returned heavily pixelated images of the visitor, which caused some to claim it was a cover-up.

'NASA officials were encouraged to deliver the likely scientific interpretation, while at the same time, the serious consideration of a black swan event by the CIA was hidden from public view to prevent panic from taking hold for no good reason,' Loeb speculated in a statement published Monday.

A black swan event is a rare, totally unexpected happening that's highly unlikely but could have huge, world-changing consequences for the Earth.

In the case of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, Loeb said if the tiny chance that the object was artificial alien technology turned out to be true, it would be a massive shock with enormous implications for humanity, including proving aliens exist.

The cryptic response from the CIA adds another layer to the eight-decade conspiracy theory UFO believers have had, claiming that the US government has been concealing what it knows about extraterrestrial life.

Just days after Greenewald Jr's FOIA request was submitted in November, the hit documentary 'The Age of Disclosure' was released, interviewing 34 US government, military, and intelligence officials about their knowledge of an alleged UFO cover-up.

Despite the speculation, the US military and federal government have said there has never been any physical proof that UFOs or beings from other planets exist.

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/index.html }

Psychic's terrifying 2026 prediction comes true just one week into the new year

• MORE: Wild theory claims the world actually ended in 2012

By CHRIS MELORE, US ASSISTANT SCIENCE EDITOR

An award-winning psychic's concerning prediction for 2026 appears to have already come true, as a series of large earthquakes have rattled the globe.

Jill M Jackson, a spiritual teacher and author from Mississippi, had warned of increased earthquakes this year, especially along the US West Coast and in Asia, with 'major water events' being strengthened by the quakes and causing larger floods.

In just the first seven days of 2026, nearly 100 earthquakes greater than 4.5 in magnitude have been recorded worldwide, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS).

Moreover, 10 large earthquakes over magnitude 5.0 have struck the Pacific Rim in the last two days, impacting Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Russia.

That wave of seismic activity included a major 6.4 magnitude quake that struck the Philippines just after 10pm ET Tuesday night.

Jackson warned Americans to get prepared now, including those living in states such as California, Oregon, and Washington, which could be impacted by several dangerous fault lines sitting along the West Coast.

'There's a lot of changes coming. There's a lot of earth changes coming. I see land shifting... And it's important for us to be in a place of preparation. Pay attention to water and things like that,' she revealed. 

One major earthquake has already struck North America in 2026. A magnitude 6.5 quake rocked southern Mexico on January 2, sending shockwaves all the way to Mexico City and forcing hundreds of residents to evacuate buildings.

The US Geological Survey has recorded 95 earthquakes greater than 4.5 in magnitude since the start of 2026, with most centered along the Pacific Rim

Jill M Jackson (Pictured) issued several predictions for 2026, including an economic downturn in the US that would cost many people their jobs

Jackson, who has been named 'Psychic of the Year' twice, added in a recent interview that Earth would see an 'amplification' in the intensity of earthquakes, including in Japan, Indonesia, and Thailand.

She predicted stronger flooding risks would emerge for islands in the Caribbean, the Indian Ocean, and the Pacific this year as well.

In November 2025, Jackson accurately predicted the major 7.6 magnitude quake striking off Japan's Aomori Prefecture on December 8, 2025, causing injuries, damage, and tsunami alerts.

Her newest predictions come after a year where Californians were repeatedly rattled by significant tremors along the state's coastline and swarms of minor quakes which lasted for days at a time. 

In November and December, more than 300 earthquakes rattled the same region in California, sparking fears among locals that the infamous 'Big One' could soon strike and devastate the West Coast.

San Ramon in the East Bay was the epicenter of this seismic activity, which sits on top of the Calaveras Fault, an active branch of the notorious San Andreas Fault system.

The Calaveras Fault is capable of producing a magnitude 6.7 earthquake, which would impact millions of people in the San Francisco Bay Area. USGS has previously estimated there is a 72 percent chance of this happening by 2043.

A rupture along the larger, 800-mile-long San Andreas fault would likely cause even more destruction, with the latest simulations of a magnitude 7.8 earthquake striking near Los Angeles predicting 1,800 deaths, 50,000 injuries, and $200 billion in damages, according to the Great California ShakeOut.

The Great California Shakeout predicted that a 7.8-magnitude earthquake could kill 1,800 people and cause $200 billion in damages in Southern California alone

Jackson (Pictured) has said she began seeing spirited at birth and was able to communicate with them since the age of 12

The psychic's forecast for the new year also included a plea for Americans to prepare for significant instability in the US economy, leading to many job losses.

'I do see a lot of polarity... A lot of ups and downs. It's going to feel like a roller coaster. Sadly, I do see a lot more people losing their jobs in 2026,' Jackson predicted during a December 26 interview on the Jeff Mara Podcast.

The psychic also ongoing wars, including the Russia-Ukraine conflict, would continue for several more years with no quick end in sight, although some conflicts like in Venezuela might 'fizzle out' by mid-2026.

While Jackson warned that many Americans could end up unemployed this year, the dramatic turn in the economy would actually benefit these workers, as she claimed the layoffs would force people to leave careers they were not spiritually aligned with.

'I do see a lot of people doing complete 180s and leaving jobs and careers that they have been in for years and years and starting over, starting something new. I also see a lot of new businesses being created, but it feels more local,' Jackson told the podcast.

'Once they go through that, they are going to have an opportunity to go within and realize that they were not on their soul's path anyway.'

Jackson added that these major shifts in the US will cause many to feel a sudden, unexplained urge to move away from homes they've lived in for 10, 15, or even 20 years.

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Astronomers spot record-breaking asteroid the size of seven football pitches - and it could be nudged towards Earth

• READ MORE:  NASA finds essential sugars on ancient asteroid Bennu

By XANTHA LEATHAM, EXECUTIVE SCIENCE EDITOR

Out in the depths of space, somewhere in between Mars and Jupiter, is a newly discovered asteroid that’s breaking records.

Astronomers have spotted a celestial rock the size of seven football pitches that is spinning faster than they’ve ever seen before.

The asteroid, named 2025 MN45, is 710 metres in diameter and completes a full rotation every 1.88 minutes.

The fact that it spins so rapidly has baffled experts, who say it must consist of solid rock in order to maintain its shape.

‘Clearly, this asteroid must be made of material that has very high strength in order to keep it in one piece as it spins so rapidly,’ Sarah Greenstreet, who leads the Rubin Observatory’s Solar System Science Collaboration’s Near-Earth Objects and Interstellar Objects working group, said.

‘We calculate that it would need a cohesive strength similar to that of solid rock.

‘This is somewhat surprising since most asteroids are believed to be what we call “rubble pile” asteroids, which means they are made of many, many small pieces of rock and debris that coalesced under gravity during Solar System formation or subsequent collisions.’

While it is currently out in the asteroid belt, hundreds of millions of kilometres away, asteroids and comets have previously been ‘nudged’ into Earth’s neighbourhood by the gravity of nearby planets.

This artist’s illustration depicts 2025 MN45 — the fastest-rotating asteroid with a diameter over 500 meters that scientists have ever found

The lightcurve of the asteroid - the y-axis shows the asteroid’s brightness, and the x-axis shows its phase, or where it is in its rotation

The sighting forms part of a much larger discovery, as scientists have detected 1,900 new asteroids cruising about our Solar System that have never been seen before.

Within this flurry are 19 super and ultra-fast rotating asteroids – with 2025 MN45 taking the new record for the fastest-spinning asteroid with a diameter over 500 meters that astronomers have found.

For their study, researchers collected data over the course of about 10 hours across seven nights in April and May of last year.

They used the Rubin Observatory’s LSST Camera – the largest digital camera in the world – to capture the night sky.

‘Discoveries like this exceptionally fast-rotating asteroid are a direct result of the observatory's unique capability to provide high-resolution, time-domain astronomical data, pushing the boundaries of what was previously observable,’ Regina Rameika, from the US Department of Energy, said.

As asteroids orbit the Sun, they also rotate at a wide range of speeds, the researchers explained.

These spin rates not only offer clues about the conditions of their formation billions of years ago but also tell us about their internal composition and evolution over their lifetimes.

In particular, an asteroid spinning quickly may have been sped up by a past collision with another asteroid, suggesting that it could be a fragment of an originally larger object.

Most asteroids can be found orbiting our Sun between Mars and Jupiter within the main asteroid belt

An illustration of the main asteroid belt, orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter, where asteroid 2025 MN45 can be found

This image, one of the first released by Rubin Observatory, exposes a Universe teeming with stars and galaxies — transforming seemingly empty, inky-black pockets of space into glittering tapestries for the first time

‘Fast rotation also requires an asteroid to have enough internal strength to not fly apart into many smaller pieces, called fragmentation,’ the team said in a release.

‘Most asteroids are ‘rubble piles’, which means they are made of many smaller pieces of rock held together by gravity, and thus have limits based on their densities as to how fast they can spin without breaking apart.

‘For objects in the main asteroid belt, the fast-rotation limit to avoid being fragmented is 2.2 hours; asteroids spinning faster than this must be structurally strong to remain intact.

‘The faster an asteroid spins above this limit, and the larger its size, the stronger the material it must be made from.’

Within the main asteroid belt are space rocks ranging in size from 530km (329 miles) to just 10 metres (33 feet) in diameter.

‘Sometimes, asteroids and comets are nudged into Earth’s neighbourhood by the gravity of nearby planets,’ NASA says.

However, they explained that it is ‘highly unlikely’ an asteroid large enough to cause widespread damage will impact Earth for the next 100 years or more.

The new findings were published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/index.html }

Hidden threat from secret military base discovered lurking deep below Greenland's ice sheet

By STACY LIBERATORE, US SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDITOR

Scientists are sounding urgent alarms over a hidden Cold War threat buried deep beneath Greenland's rapidly melting ice sheet. 

A long-abandoned US military base known as Camp Century was recently rediscovered under the ice after a NASA pilot conducting airborne radar tests captured images of its underground remains. 

The base, built in secret during the Cold War, lies about 118 feet below the surface and spreads across an area roughly 0.7 miles long and 0.3 miles wide. 

Once described as a self-contained underground town, Camp Century housed a hospital, theater, church and shop, and was powered by a small nuclear reactor. 

As Greenland's ice melts at accelerating rates, scientists have warned that hazardous waste left behind at the site could eventually be released into the environment. 

That waste includes chemical pollutants, biological sewage, diesel fuel, and radioactive material once thought to be safely sealed in ice forever. 

Researchers now say that assumption was deeply flawed. 'What climate change did was press the gas pedal to the floor,' said James White, a climate scientist at the University of Colorado Boulder.

Camp Century was constructed in the late 1950s with the knowledge of both the US and Danish governments under the 1951 Defense of Greenland Agreement. 

NASA scientists captured an image of an abandoned US military base that has been hiding under ice in the

Camp Century was constructed in the late 1950s with the knowledge of both the US and Danish governments under the 1951 Defense of Greenland Agreement

Danish officials participated in planning and environmental monitoring, and historical reports indicate Denmark approved the disposal of some radioactive waste directly into the ice. 

At the time, scientists and military planners believed Greenland's ice sheet would permanently entomb any contamination.

'That idea, that waste could be buried forever under ice, is unrealistic,' White said. 

'The question is whether it's going to come out in hundreds of years, thousands of years, or tens of thousands of years. Climate change just means it's going to happen much faster than anyone expected.'

The environmental risk posed by Camp Century has taken on new urgency as geopolitical tensions in the Arctic intensify. 

President Donald Trump renewed calls this week for US control of Greenland, citing national security concerns as Russian and Chinese activity in the region grows. 'It's so strategic,' Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday. 

'Right now, Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place. We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security.'

But scientists said the buried base represents a very different kind of security threat, one tied not to military rivals, but to pollution unleashed by a warming climate.

Once described as a self-contained underground town, Camp Century housed a hospital, theater, church and shop, and was powered by a small nuclear reactor

Pictured are US soldiers climbing up to an escape hatch to enter Camp Century

A team of international researchers led by the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at the University of Colorado Boulder estimated that Camp Century contains roughly 9,200 tons of physical waste, including abandoned buildings, tunnels, and rail infrastructure. 

The site also holds about 200,000 liters of diesel fuel and significant amounts of polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, toxic chemicals once widely used in paints and electrical equipment.

PCBs are especially concerning because they do not break down easily and are linked to cancer, immune system damage, and developmental problems. 

The Arctic's cold climate has trapped these chemicals for decades, effectively turning the region into a global storage site for pollution released elsewhere. 

As ice melts, however, scientists warned that glaciers could become a new source of toxic contamination.

Most former Arctic military sites have undergone cleanup efforts, but Camp Century is one of only five abandoned ice-sheet bases near Thule Air Base that have never been remediated, according to the 2016 study by the CIRES research team. 

Camp Century is a US military base built in 1959 that consists of a network of 21 tunnels but just below the surface of the ice sheet ice 

Pictured is the entrance to the base before it was decommissioned in 1967

At similar sites, PCB concentrations in some paints exceeded five percent by weight.

In addition to chemical and biological waste, Camp Century also contains radioactive material from the nuclear reactor's coolant system. 

When it was buried in the early 1960s, the waste had a radioactivity of about 1.2 billion becquerels, roughly equivalent to the radiation used in a single medical scan. 

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While small compared to major nuclear accidents, researchers cautioned that its presence adds another layer of risk if containment fails.

The base's tunnel system twists and branches beneath the ice, making it difficult to fully map. 

Airborne radar has detected strong reflections that align with known tunnel locations, but scientists say the technology cannot yet identify all buried waste. 

Diesel fuel, stored in underground tanks, may still be liquid today, though researchers believe the tanks may have ruptured.

Models suggest that ice flow and snow accumulation could bury solid waste as deep as 220 feet and liquid waste around 305 feet by 2090. 

While that means contamination may not surface for decades, scientists stressed that burial does not equal safety.

Camp Century was constructed in the late 1950s with the knowledge of both the US and Danish governments under the 1951 Defense of Greenland Agreement.

Beyond the environmental risks, Camp Century has become a source of political and legal uncertainty. 

Responsibility for the cleanup remains disputed between the US, Denmark, and Greenland. 

While the waste was left behind by the US, the original 1951 treaty did not account for climate change or Greenland's growing self-governance.

The agreement states that US property in Greenland may be removed or disposed of after consultation with Danish authorities. 

But it remains unclear whether Denmark was fully consulted during Camp Century's decommissioning, raising questions about whether the abandoned waste is still legally US property.

Researchers said Camp Century may represent one of the first real examples of climate change triggering an international dispute over long-forgotten pollution, a preview of conflicts likely to emerge worldwide as rising seas and melting ice expose hazardous waste once thought safely buried.

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/index.html }

NASA has just revealed that the crew of the International Space Station was being evacuated for the first time in history after one of the astronauts suffered a medical emergency.

NASA administrator Jared Isaacman said in a press conference Thursday that Crew-11 would not continue its mission until its scheduled return date in February, and that the steps for their safe return would be worked out over the next 48 hours.

'I've come to the decision that it's in the best interest of our astronauts to return Crew-11 ahead of their planned departure,' Isaacman revealed.

The announcement came less than a day after NASA cancelled a Thursday spacewalk due to the medical issue, with officials saying they were 'erring on the side of caution for the crew member'.

Crew-11 includes four astronauts: NASA's Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui, and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov.

The group was recently joined by Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata and NASA astronaut Chris Williams, who arrived at the station aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft in November 2025.

Isaacman said that Williams will remain on the station with the Soyuz crew to maintain America's presence in space.

While the astronaut who suffered the medical issue was not revealed, NASA's chief medical officer Dr James Polk said the astronaut was not in any immediate danger and they were being cared for by their fellow crewmates until their return.

Crew-11 before launching to the ISS. Pictured (L to R): Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov, NASA astronaut Mike Fincke, JAXA astronaut Kimiya Yui, and NASA's Zena Cardman

NASA cancelled a planned spacewalk on Thursday involving the crew of the International Space Station (Pictured) over an unspecified medical issue involving one of the astronauts

Dr Polk added that the medical issue the astronaut suffered had nothing to do with the upcoming spacewalk or any other operations on board the station.

'It's mostly having a medical issue in the difficult areas of microgravity,' Polk explained without going into specific medical details. 

NASA officials noted that no special precautions would need to be taken to keep the ailing astronaut safe until their return and called their condition 'stable' until the evacuation plan is finalized. 

NASA has never had to bring an astronaut home for medical reasons, but an evacuation plan has been built into every ISS mission, with crew return vehicles kept on standby.

'We are looking for the correct opportunity to use our existing landing sites,' Isaacman said when asked if NASA would be making an emergency landing to get Crew-11 home faster.

'I´m proud of the swift effort across the agency thus far to ensure the safety of our astronauts,' the NASA chief added. 

The NASA administrator did note that the space agency did consider this a 'serious medical condition' which forced officials to conclude that the first ever evacuation was necessary.

However, Dr Polk stressed that the astronaut was not in immediate danger which would force NASA to consider rushing the evacuation into an unsafe flight window.

NASA administrator Jared Isaacman (Left) and NASA chief medical officer Dr James Polk (Center) revealed on Thursday that Crew-11 would be returning as soon as possible 

JAXA astronaut Kimiya Yui (center) was helping NASA astronaut Zena Cardman (left) and Mike Fincke prepare for the spacewalk before it was postponed 

'The crew member is absolutely stable, so I don't foresee massive changes to the timeline or their activities,' Polk said.

Crew-11 arrived at the ISS on August 1, 2025, meaning their return date had been scheduled for late February.

The four astronauts were supposed to leave after Crew-12 arrived on a SpaceX Dragon capsule no earlier than February 15.

Isaacman said that any decision to potentially move up the launch of Crew-12 would not impact the upcoming Artemis II mission planned for February 2026.

He called the two launches 'totally separate campaigns,' meaning there should be no issue in launching Artemis on time. Artemis II will be the first manned spaceflight to orbit the moon since 1972.

Meanwhile, the ISS is required to have astronauts aboard at all times, as they are essential to carry out maintenance, repairs, operate complex experiments, manage life support and perform spacewalks, tasks that automation cannot fully handle, ensuring constant human oversight for safety and scientific output.

Until now, there had never been a crew evacuated ahead of their scheduled departure time from the ISS, however, two spacewalks were recently cancelled because of various health issues among the astronauts.

A mission was cancelled in 2021 when Mark Vande Hei experienced a pinched nerve and was unable to travel outside the ISS.

Another spacewalk in 2024 was called off at the last minute because an astronaut experienced 'spacesuit discomfort'.

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/index.html }

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

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

Story by Tibi Puiu

 

Scientists have discovered a mysterious hole on the surface of Mars, and they have no idea what lies inside it.

This pit, located in the Arsia Mons region — one of Mars’ giant volcanoes — could potentially be a skylight leading to a vast network of lava tubes.

Lava tubes are natural caverns formed by flowing lava. Here on Earth, they provide shelter for many life forms, and on Mars, they could offer human explorers much-needed protection from the harsh Martian environment.

So, is this hole the key to unlocking a potential Martian habitat?

A Mysterious Martian Pit — Leading to Where?

There’s no shortage of environmental hazards out to kill any astronaut bold enough to dare set foot on Mars. With Mars having only 0.7% of Earth’s sea-level pressure, humans would have to don a full pressure suit or live inside a specialized chamber. Without these precautions, oxygen wouldn’t circulate in the bloodstream, with potentially fatal consequences.

Radiation, however, remains the primary concern. Although Mars is farther from the Sun than Earth, the absence of a magnetic field and its thin atmosphere mean it’s exposed to much higher radiation levels than Earth. The Mars Odyssey probe has shown radiation levels on Mars are at least 2.5 times higher than what astronauts face on the International Space Station. Furthermore, besides regular exposure to cosmic rays and solar wind, it receives occasional, lethal radiation blasts due to solar flares.

The Photos NASA Sent To Aliens

Any attempt to colonize the Red Planet will require measures to ensure radiation exposure is kept to a minimum. Some of the proposed ideas thus far involve habitats built directly into the ground or even above-ground habitats using inflatable modules encased in ceramics.

However, a promising alternative lies in Mars’ natural landscape. The planet is scattered with deep pits, caves, and lava tube structures that can act as a shield against radiation.

Collapsed sections of these tubes, called skylights, could provide access to these subterranean refuges. This is what scientists believe this newly identified pit could be. It was recently imaged by the High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).

The Nature of Martian Pits

Two images of the pit in Arsia Mons. The one on the left was taken a couple of years ago. The one on the right is more recent and shows a side wall, which may mean the hole is not an entrance to a lava tube or cave.

(NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)© ZME Science

The newly examined pit measures only a few meters across and resides in the Tharsis region — a vast volcanic plain, thousands of kilometers across and elevated about 10 km above the planet’s mean elevation. This area was once very volcanically active, so scientists’ best guess is that the pit is a skylight to a lava tube.

However, that’s not the only option. In another image, you can see an illuminated sidewall, indicating it might just be a cylindrical pit. This raises the possibility that the hole may simply be a pit crater, similar to those found in Hawaii.

These craters form when cracks in volcanic rock widen and collapse, offering no access to underground chambers. In Hawaii, pit craters range from 6 to 186 meters deep and 8 to 1140 meters wide. The Arsia Mons pit is about 178 meters deep, Universe Today reports.

Lessons from the Moon

So, the big question now is: does this hole on Mars lead to a larger underground cavern? We don’t have a straight answer yet. But with time, scientists might be able to study and understand Martian pits as well as they do those on the Moon.

We understand lunar lava pits and tubes much better than those on Mars. Some lunar tubes are thermally stable and have boulder-covered floors. There are even plans for robots to explore these lunar caves, potentially housing astronauts in inflatable habitats.

Mars, with its weaker gravity, should support even larger lava tubes. This would provide extremely valuable shelter on a very unforgiving planet. Perhaps this is not all that different from how the first human explorers made bases in caves as they traveled across uncharted territory, colonizing the world.

However, unlike the Moon, we lack conclusive evidence of their existence on Mars. This intriguing pit on Arsia Mons is part of an ongoing search for Martian lava tubes. Future robotic missions designed to explore these potential underground worlds will be crucial in unlocking the secrets they hold.

Renewed Interest and New Discoveries

In November 2024, a breakthrough study on Earth provided some supporting evidence that Martian caves could act as time capsules. Researchers exploring lava tubes in Lanzarote, Spain, found that the tubes shielded minerals and organic compounds from weathering, effectively preserving “biosignatures” of past microbial life. This confirms that if life ever existed on Mars, a lava tube would be the most likely place to find its fossilized remains, protected from the harsh radiation on the surface.

Meanwhile, the region hosting the pit, Arsia Mons, received a stunning visual update in May 2025.

Arsia Mons, an ancient Martian volcano, was captured before dawn on May 2, 2025, by NASA’s 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter while the spacecraft was studying the Red Planet’s atmosphere, which appears here as a greenish haze.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU© ZME Science

NASA’s Mars Odyssey orbiter captured a rare panorama showing the volcano’s summit poking through a vast blanket of morning clouds. This image highlighted the extreme altitude of the Tharsis region (where the pit is located), reminding us that any habitat here would need to contend with not just radiation, but unique atmospheric weather patterns distinct from the rest of the planet.

But there could be other, even more interesting caves.

In late 2025, when scientists identified a potential new class of caves in the Hebrus Valles region. Unlike the volcanic tubes of Arsia Mons, these new candidates appear to be “karstic”—caves formed by the dissolution of bedrock by water. If confirmed, these wouldn’t just be shelters; they would be remnants of ancient aquifers, making them the ultimate “holy grail” for both human habitation and the search for alien life.

This article was originally published in 31 May, 2024, and has been reedited to include additional information.

This story originally appeared on ZME Science. Want to get smarter every day? Subscribe to our newsletter and stay ahead with the latest science news.

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Jupiter's moon Europa lacks the undersea activity needed to support life, study suggests

by Chris Woolston, Washington University  }in St. Louis

The giant planet Jupiter has nearly 100 known moons, yet none have captured the interest and imagination of astronomers and space scientists quite like Europa, an ice-shrouded world that is thought to possess a vast ocean of liquid salt water. For decades, scientists have wondered whether that ocean could harbor the right conditions for life, placing Europa near the top of the list of solar system bodies to explore.

Europa's geology and tidal forces explained

For Byrne, a planetary scientist, Europa's appeal extends well beyond the question of life. "I'm really interested to know what that seafloor looks like," he said. "For all of the talk about the ocean itself, there has been little discussion about the seafloor."

Without a submarine, Byrne and co-authors had to combine known facts about Europa with inferences drawn from the geology of Earth and other bodies, including our own moon.

The ice shell on Europa is thought to be 15 to 25 km thick, and the ocean covers the entire moon to a depth of up to 100 km. Even though Europa is slightly smaller than our own moon, it likely holds much more water than Earth.

Beneath that ice and water lies a rocky core analogous to Earth's. While Earth's core still burns hot, Byrne and co-authors calculated that any heat from Europa's core would have escaped billions of years ago.

The team also calculated the gravitational forces from Jupiter, a pull that can be strong enough to keep a moon geologically alive. On its innermost large moon, Io, Jupiter's gravity roils tides and heats the rocks beneath the icy surface. Io, in fact, is the most volcanically active body in the solar system.

The tides on Io are especially violent because the moon has an erratic orbit that periodically takes it closer to Jupiter, but Europa's orbit is relatively stable and distant, lessening the chance for substantial tidal forces, Byrne explained.

"Europa likely has some tidal heating, which is why it's not completely frozen," Byrne said. "And it may have had a lot more heating in the distant past. But we don't see any volcanoes shooting out of the ice today like we see on Io, and our calculations suggest that the tides aren't strong enough to drive any sort of significant geologic activity at the seafloor."

Future missions and scientific curiosity

Europa's quiet seafloor geology doesn't provide much support for any contemporary life beneath the ice, Byrne said. "The energy just doesn't seem to be there to support life, at least today."

Byrne is still excited about future chances to explore Europa, especially the Europa Clipper spacecraft that will fly by the moon in the spring of 2031. That mission—conceived and championed in part by Bill McKinnon, the Clark Way Harrison Distinguished Professor in Arts & Sciences and interim director of the McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences—will take close-up pictures of Europa's surface and provide more precise measurements of its ice cap and ocean.

"Those measurements should answer a lot of questions and give us more certainty," Byrne said.

Even if, eventually, modern Europa is found to be lifeless, Byrne won't be disappointed.

"I'm not upset if we don't find life on this particular moon," he said. "I'm confident that there is life out there somewhere, even if it's 100 light-years away. That's why we explore—to see what's out there."

• Provided by Washington University in St. Louis 

• Europa clipper captures Uranus with star tracker camera

{ https://phys.org/ }

British military ‘wanted to acquire UFO technology to protect Brits’

Luke Alsford

British military thought there was a ‘basis in fact’ to the UFO sightings (Picture: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The British military thought there was ‘basis in fact’ to UFO sightings and wanted to get their hands on the ‘extraterrestrial’ technology, previously secret files show.

Confidential memos from the Defence Intelligence Staff (DIS) within the Ministry of Defence warned that ‘unidentified aerial phenomena’ (UAP) were a ‘potential threat’ to the UK in the 1990s.

The documents – now in the National Archives in Kew – also reveal how Britain’s most well-known UFO sighting at Rendlesham Forest was ‘confirmed’ by US military personnel.

One internal correspondence from March 4, 1997 reads: ‘Logic would indicate that if significant numbers are reporting seeing strange objects in the sky then there may be a basis in fact.

‘It could be argued that UAPs pose a potential threat to the defence of the realm since we have no idea what they are!’

The report referenced reports in Belgium of low-flying back triangles (Picture: Getty Images)

Intelligence officers appeared particularly concerned about the reports of large, silent, low-flying black triangles which came out of Belgium in their thousands between November 1989 and April 1990.

The reports sparked calls for Britain to try get hold of the technology.

The document noted: ‘A supplementary issue is the possibility of technology acquisition.

‘UAPs do not appear to use conventional reaction propulsion.

‘The Belgian deltas (confirmed by the country’s MoD) hovered for long periods and accelerated quickly to supersonic speeds, outrunning F-16s.

‘If this represents real technology perhaps it should be acquired.’

Another briefing letter, marked ‘Secret UK Eyes B’, acknowledged that the British military did not have the ‘reported technology’.

It added: ‘No matter the origin, the determination of the technology, and possible acquisition, is a matter for Defence Intelligence Staff [DIS].’

The correspondence added that ‘some reports described objects in terms of manoeuvre, speed and shape which lie beyond our engineering knowledge and that which could be reasonably expected from hostile powers.’

The file also stressed that most UFO reports were tenuous, with only a small number that could not be explained immediately.

The documents jokingly dismissed the possibility of alien life as part of fringe conspiracy theories.

The file reads: ‘Mention of UAPs is guaranteed to generate mirth and Little Green Men jokes, possibly because of the fringe element of “crazies”.’

Rendlesham Forest UFO sightings ‘confirmed’

Rendlesham Forest was home to one of the world’s most famous UFO sightings (Picture: Shutterstock / RMC42)

A separate file from the British Military sheds new light on the Rendlesham Forest incident.

Dating back to December 1980, members of the US Air Force stationed at RAF Bentwaters and RAF Woodbridge in Suffolk, England, reported seeing unexplained lights and a craft in the forest.

Witnesses, including high-ranking officers, described seeing a glowing, metallic, triangular object hovering and emitting strange beams of light.

The document says that the Rendlesham Forest ‘landing’ was ‘confirmed by the US unit commander and others’.

It adds: ‘In both [Rendlesham Forest and Belgian] cases the UAP apparently did not use any conventional propulsion system and could hover as well as move at considerable speed.

‘The French have always had an interest in this topic … and I am aware that there is an informal intelligence grouping in the US.’

The sightings sparked front page news

The sighting has fuelled decades of speculation and conspiracy theories ranging from alien encounters to secret military tests.

One UFO expert, Philip Mantle, told Metro he is convinced something happened over those fateful nights in 1980 – but doesn’t necessarily think aliens were involved.

The former Director of Investigations for the British UFO Research Association speculated that soldiers could have come into contact with ‘strange plasma’ that caused ‘electromagnetic effects’.

The previously secret file also claimed to have a ‘Moscow report’ that suggested ‘two military scientists are responsible for UFOs’.

 { https://metro.co.uk/news/ }