Hagelbollen van meer dan 10 centimeter vielen deze week uit de hemel in de Verenigde Staten. 

© @SavannaBritoWX op social media platform X

 Martijn Peters - Wetenschaps- en gezondheidsexpert

• • Erwt (< 2,5 cm): Veroorzaakt geen grote schade, maar kan wel kwestbare planten of bloemen verscheuren.
  • Muntstuk 2 euro (+/- 2,5 cm): Drempelwaarde voor 'zwaar weer'. Schade aan dak en ernstige schade aan landbouwgewassen.
  • Pingpongbal (+/- 4 cm): Deuken in auto's en barsten in houten of kunststof gevelbekleding.
  • Golfbal (+/- 4,5 cm): Aanzienlijke schade waarbij voorruiten versplinteren of barsten, grote deuken verschijnen in auto's en ernstige schade aan daken en gevels ontstaat.
  • Tennisbal/Honkbal (+/- 7 cm): Autoglas is volledig verwoest, zware schade aan daken, ernstig risico op fysiek trauma of dodelijk letsel in openlucht.
  • Pompelmoes (> 10 cm): Gaat dwars door autodak heen en door houten daken. Verwoestende impact.

• KIJK OOK. Waarom worden de VS zo vaak getroffen door tornado’s?

{ https://www.hln.be/weer-en-wetenschap/  }

Asteroid once struck 80 miles off coast of Yorkshire causing 330ft tsunami

 Josh Milton

A nearly 540-foot-wide asteroid crashed into the North Sea, only 80 miles off the coast of East Yorkshire… 43 million years ago.

The immense space rock (or possibly a cosmic-sized snowball called a comet) caused a mammoth, 330-foot-high tsunami.

This impact created a two-mile-wide crater known as the Silverpit crater, named after a nearby seafloor channel.

The crater was discovered by British oil geologists in 2002, hidden beneath 700 metres of oceanic ooze and debris.

Its origin has long puzzled scientists, with experts suggesting it was caused by underground salt shifting, causing the seabed to collapse.

But scientists have found the ‘needle in the haystack’ proof that it was the result of an asteroid.

Dr Uisdean Nicholson, a sedimentologist at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, used seismic images to dive deep into the crater.

He found that around the crater, which stretches over 12 miles in a series of concentric rings, were ‘shocked’ quartz and feldspar crystals.

These minerals are formed only under the immense pressure of asteroid strikes, the findings published in Nature Communications indicate.

‘These prove the impact crater hypothesis beyond doubt, because they have a fabric that can only be created by extreme shock pressures,’ Dr Nicholson said.

Asteroid strike off Yorkshire sent mega-tsunami racing toward Britain, study confirm

‘Within minutes, it created a 1.5km high curtain of rock and water that then collapsed into the sea, creating a tsunami over 100 metres high.’

‘It is very rewarding to have finally found the silver bullet’

Professor Gareth Collins, of Imperial College London, who provided numerical models for the study, said a gigantic rock from outer space smashing into the Earth was the ‘simplest explanation’ for Silverpit.

‘It is very rewarding to have finally found the silver bullet,’ he said.

‘We can now get on with the exciting job of using the amazing new data to learn more about how impacts shape planets below the surface, which is really hard to do on other planets.’

Silverpit crater is one of 200 confirmed impact sites, most of which haven’t been fully dated.

While this sounds like a lot, the Earth has been struck by a fair few intruders over the millions of years the planet has been around.

Almost all evidence of these impacts, however, has been swept under the rug by earthquakes and erosion that constantly renew the seabed.

‘We can use these findings to understand how asteroid impacts shaped our planet throughout history, as well as predict what could happen should we have an asteroid collision in future,’ added Dr Nicholson.

Others include Chicxulub, a 110-mile-wide crater buried under the tip of the Yucatán Peninsula, thought to have been caused by an asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs some 66 million years ago.

Its explosive force, akin to a hundred million hydrogen bombs, would have ignited firestorms and choked the Earth with dust. Causing the global extinction of not only dinosaurs but plants, fish and plankton.

Or, rather, it was one of a swarm of asteroids that set this extinction in motion.

Other craters, such as Boltysh in Ukraine, have been dated to around the same time as Chicxulub, may also have caused fiery cataclysms and bad news for any living thing nearby.

Together, this may have been a one-two punch that made the dinosaurs’ luck finally run out.

Humanity has yet to face such an event, but came close-ish in 2024 when a ‘city-killer’ asteroid was seemingly hurtling towards us.

The rock, called 2024 YR4, had a 3.1% chance of colliding with the Earth on December 22, 2032, Nasa briefly suspected last year.

Early estimates of the asteroid’s path show it would have slammed into or exploded over highly-populated areas like Mumbai, India or Bogotá, Lagos.

These days, though, space officials say it’s just 0.00081%, or roughly one in 123,000 chance. 

{ https://metro.co.uk/news/ }

Duizenden mensen in Nederland, België, Duitsland en Frankrijk zagen gisteren aan de schemerende hemel een geelachtige vuurbal die door de lucht schoot. Dat leverde leuke beelden op. Maar voor een aantal mensen in het westen van Duitsland was het meer dan dat. Daar beschadigden stukjes meteoriet huizen. Hoe groot is de kans dat zoiets gebeurt?

Het rotsblok vloog gisterenavond met een geschatte snelheid van zo’n 100.000 kilometer per uur de aardatmosfeer in. Dat gebeurde op een hoogte van 70 kilometer. Door de enorme wrijving met de lucht verhitte het object en begon het te gloeien; dat is het spectaculaire lichtverschijnsel dat we een meteoor noemen.

Bij de Werkgroep Meteoren kwamen meteen talloze waarnemingen binnen. Uit de analyse van al die meldingen bleek dat het object van boven Frankrijk richting Duitsland vloog.

In de westelijke deelstaat Rijnland-Palts kwamen zelfs fragmenten neer. De Duitse politie ontving schademeldingen uit de regio Hunsrück, het Eifelgebergte en bij Koblenz. Er is sprake van beschadigde daken en kapotte dakpannen. Vanuit Nederland en België zijn er geen meldingen van schade.

Hoe groot is de kans dat zo’n meteoriet je raakt?

Vooral die schadegevallen zijn nieuwswaardig. De kans dat jij of je huis ooit geraakt wordt door zo’n stuk meteoriet is namelijk verwaarloosbaar klein. Onderzoekers schatten in de jaren ‘80 dat wereldwijd zo’n zestien gebouwen per jaar geraakt worden door een meteoriet en dat statistisch gezien eens per decennium een persoon ergens op aarde getroffen zou moeten worden.

Stephen A. Nelson, een wetenschapper aan de Amerikaanse Tulane University, heeft in het verleden berekend dat de kans op overlijden door een meteorietinslag gedurende een mensenleven ongeveer 1 op 1.600.000 is. Astronoom Alan Harris houdt het op 1 op 700.000. Het grootste deel van dat risico komt niet eens van een steen die op je hoofd valt, maar van een grootschalige inslag die het klimaat verstoort.

De kans om in je leven door bliksem geraakt te worden is groter, ruwweg 1 op 50.000, en de kans om te overlijden aan een auto-ongeluk is ongeveer 1 op 100. Een meteoriet hoort statistisch gezien dus niet tot je grootste zorgen. Wel een leuk feitje: de kans dat je door een meteoriet overlijdt, is minstens zes keer zo groot als dat je de Staatsloterij zou winnen.

Historische gevallen

De geschiedenis laat zien dat het niet onmogelijk is. Het beroemdste voorval vond plaats op 30 november 1954 in Sylacauga, Alabama. Ann Hodges, 34 jaar oud, lag op de bank te slapen toen een steen van bijna vier kilo door haar plafond crashte, via haar radio afketste en haar op de heup trof. Ze overleefde het met niet meer dan een flinke kneuzing.

Dichter bij huis: op 7 april 1990 sloeg een meteoriet van zo’n 855 gram dwars door de dakpannen en het dak van een woonhuis in Glanerbrug, Overijssel. De zoon van de bewoners vond de steen op zolder, uiteengevallen in tientallen fragmenten.

Op 11 januari 2017 werd door tientallen ooggetuigen in Nederland en België eveneens een vuurbal waargenomen. Kort daarna vonden bewoners in Broek in Waterland een steen van zo’n 500 gram op het dak van een schuurtje. Experts bevestigden later dat het een echte meteoriet was.

Grotere inslagen zijn zeldzaam

In de recente geschiedenis zijn er ook grotere inslagen geweest. De meest beruchte vond plaats op 15 februari 2013. Toen vloog een asteroïde met een doorsnede van zo’n 18 meter de atmosfeer in boven de Russische stad Tsjeljabinsk. Het object explodeerde op een hoogte van ongeveer 30 kilometer. Dat werd vastgelegd op talloze dashcams en camera’s.

De explosie had een kracht van naar schatting 440 tot 500 kiloton TNT, tientallen keren de atoombom van Hiroshima. De schokgolf brak duizenden ramen, beschadigde zo’n 7.200 gebouwen en verwondde bijna 1.500 mensen, voornamelijk door rondvliegend glas. Niemand werd direct door meteorietfragmenten geraakt, en wonder boven wonder viel er geen enkel dodelijk slachtoffer.

Wetenschappers schatten dat impacten van deze omvang om de 30 tot 60 jaar plaatsvinden. De meeste vinden plaats boven onbemenste gebieden. Ruimtestenen die groot genoeg zijn om een hele stad te verwoesten zijn nog zeldzamer en treffen de aarde eens per 10.000 tot 20.000 jaar. Om de 500.000 jaar worden we geraakt door een object dat wereldwijde klimaateffecten zou veroorzaken. En asteroïden zoals het exemplaar dat de dino’s uitroeide? Die raken de aarde slechts om de 100 miljoen jaar.

We schreven vaker over dit onderwerp, lees bijvoorbeeld ook Meteorieten van Mars leveren schat aan informatie over de rode planeet (en de begintijd van de Aarde) en Meeste meteorieten die op aarde crashen zijn afkomstig van dezelfde bron. Of lees dit artikel: De bekendste komeet zet sinds dit weekend weer koers richting de aarde.

Uitgelezen? Luister ook eens naar de Scientias Podcast:

{ https://scientias.nl/nieuws/natuur-klimaat/ }

Strange Encounters with UFOs and Underwater Aliens: Huge Humanoids and Advanced Spacecraft

Now, based on several underwater UFO encounters, it appears that their vicinity is not just limited to space, but they also appear to have a secret base on Earth, more specifically underwate

Unidentified submersible objects (NOSIs) have gained popularity over the years, despite being much less common than typical UFO sightings. Underwater UFO encounters have been reported all over the world. In this article, we will look at some encounters of people from Russia with UFOs and aliens underwater.

Russian ship Maria encounters underwater UFOs

First on the list is a 1936 encounter between the Russian civilian transport ship Maria and a strange anomalous object while crossing the Pacific Ocean from Leningrad. Crew members saw a mysterious object rise straight out of the water at some point during their journey. It hovered in the sky for a moment before landing on the surface of the nearby Earth. The ship’s captain, intrigued, tried to contact the missing object, but to no avail. So he sent a small boat to investigate the whole affair. But as soon as the boat approached the object, it abruptly accelerated in the opposite direction, making pursuit impossible.

Along with him, the five members of the ship disappeared into a mist that appeared out of nowhere. The captain tried to locate the five occupants but they were not found, so he proceeded to complete their delivery. Once the task was completed, the Maria Ship returned to the same route where it had found the anomalous object.

On the way back, however, when they followed the same path, the strangeness persisted. In the distance, close to where they had first seen the strange object, they saw what they described as a “boat made of a transparent material” and inside they saw what appeared to be three of the missing sailors who had set out in their small boat to investigate.

Upon being rescued, one of them cried and threw himself into the sea to drown, while the other two began to invent crazy stories. The two sailors told the captain and the other crew members that they had been abducted by the mysterious object. During the entire time they were aboard the UFO, they were surrounded by “strange entities with webbed fingers, dressed in dark, shiny suits.” In addition, the entities had frog-like faces and communicated telepathically. Two of the sailors telepathically agreed to stay with the aliens and disappeared without a trace. The other sailors were presumably held captive in a chamber for two days.

Then suddenly they were floating in this peculiar transparent vessel, eating unusual food that looked like tablets stored in transparent pockets, with presumably enough food in each tablet to keep a man alive for a day. When the three men were rescued, suddenly the mysterious transparent boat sank underwater. It was an inexplicable event for those sailors and no one knew what had happened. These two sailors and the anomalous object were never found again. It remained a mystery until now.

Soviet Navy Officer’s Encounter with Underwater UFOs

Another such encounter dates back to the early 1950s, when interest in flying saucers was at its peak. This encounter took place in the Black Sea, bordered by Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine. It has a maximum depth of 7,257 feet and a total area of ​​168,500 square miles. The account was given by an unidentified Soviet Navy officer who served at the Sevastopol naval base. He said that while doing exercises aboard a ship, he witnessed something unthinkable.

He saw a metallic sphere rise from the water, hover over a battlecruiser, and then sink into the depths of the water behind the ship. This incident was witnessed by the crew on board, and they also reported that the strange object was completely smooth, with no windows or propulsion system. It also made no noise whatsoever. Even though a photo of the strange object was taken, no one knows where it is because the Soviet military kept everything secret.

Moving on, in 1965, a UFO was spotted in the Red Sea, which lies between Africa and Asia. It occurred when the crew of the ship Raduga was crossing the Red Sea. The crew claims to have witnessed “a sphere of fire” rising from the sea, pulling a column of water with it. They saw the object from two miles away and were told that the enigmatic object was about 200 feet in diameter. After hovering for some time at a height of about 150 feet, it illuminated the sea below and the mysterious object descended into the waves with a deafening roar.

The crew reported the entire incident to their superiors, but were warned not to reveal it to the public. The incident was kept secret for many years until ufologist and head of the Russian Ufology Research Center, Paul Stonehill, made it public. During the Cold War, he claims that Soviet submarines made several reports, including one of a nuclear submarine being followed by six unknown underwater objects traveling at great speeds before shooting into the air and disappearing.

Mr. Krapiva attended lectures given by senior Soviet nuclear-powered submarine officers. They served in the Soviet North at secret naval installations and bases.

The lectures sometimes deviated from the planned presentations and many fascinating stories were told. For example, episodes where Soviet sonar operators (military hydroacoustic technicians) “heard” strange “targets” at great depths. Their submarines were being chased by other “submarines”. The pursuers changed their speed at will – speeds that were far faster than any other similar craft in the world at that time. Lieutenant-Commander Oleg Sokolov confidentially informed the students that during the service while sailing his submarine he had observed through a periscope the rise of some strange object in the water. He could not identify it because he saw it through the periscope’s optical system. This underwater “takeoff” occurred in the early 1960s.

Head of Russian UFO Research Center Paul Stonehill

The Secrets of Russia’s USO

Reports of Soviet submarine encounters with underwater UFOs do not end there; they go further than that. In his book Russia’s USO Secrets, based on evidence from declassified records and testimonies of Russian military veterans, British UFO investigator Philip Mantle mentions a number of such occurrences involving Soviet submarines. One such report of a UFO encounter comes from Yury Beketov, a former commander of a nuclear submarine who claims that while maneuvering near the Bermuda Triangle, his submarine encountered an anomalous object.

We have repeatedly observed that instruments detect the movements of material objects at an unimaginable speed of about 230 knots (400 km per hour). It is difficult to reach such a speed on the surface – it is only possible in the air. The beings who created these material objects significantly exceed us in development.

Yuri Beketov

One bizarre case mentioned in the book claims that in 1951, a Soviet submarine spotted a large underwater object, measuring between 200 and 250 meters in length, emerging from the depths and heading towards the coast. The captain reportedly ordered depth charges to be dropped on the object, which initially had no impact, but eventually forced it to halt its upward trajectory, change course, and accelerate towards deeper waters. Certainly, in all of these cases, something seems strange and suspicious, as these anomalous objects are extremely active underwater and even in the air or on land.

In December 1977, during maneuvers near Novy Georgy Island, the crew of the fishing trawler Vasily Kiselev allegedly encountered a large donut-shaped object about 300 to 500 meters in diameter that rose from the surface of the water and hovered there. As soon as the object hovered, all of the trawler’s electrical systems and radar failed.

Surprisingly, the UFO hovered there for three hours until it again descended into deep water. After the UFO left, all electrical equipment returned to normal operation. However, despite the fact that the UFO hovered there for three hours, no photographs were taken.

Underwater UFO Encounter in Lake Baikal

During the summer of 1982, Major General V. Demyanko, Major of the Military Diving Service of the Engineering Forces of the Ministry of Defense, conducted training exercises for reconnaissance divers on Lake Baikal, located in the Trans-Baikal and Baikal Armed Forces of Western Siberia.

The Secrets of Russia’s USO

The divers were in the middle of their training when they saw three humanoid entities emerge from the icy, murky waters above them, dressed in tight-fitting silver suits and standing a whopping 10 feet tall. These entities were so enigmatic that they had no diving equipment, and intrigued by them, the commander sent a team of seven highly trained divers to capture one of the entities.

The divers went out with nets to capture the creatures, but as soon as they tried to throw the net at one of the creatures, they were thrown out of the water from a depth of 50 meters by an invisible force.

Decompression sickness caused by the rapid force eventually killed three of the divers. It was reported that the Soviet Ministry of Defense admitted that similar underwater beings had been seen in several deep-sea lakes across the country.

These sightings often coincided with the descent and emergence of giant disks and spheres, powerful luminescence emanating from the depths, and other unexplained phenomena. In addition, many extraterrestrial encounters have been reported near Lake Baikal.

There is another account reported by Oleg Chichulin who was on Lake Baikal in a boat instructing students and claims to have seen something really unusual.

There was a ball that was glowing. And then this ball began to fade, fade and blush. And it turned into a red ball. This red ball stayed in the water for a while and then it began to sink. And all this gradually, gradually went under the water. And it got dark.

Oleg Chichulin

The sequel is a 1977 report in which V. Alexandrov and G. Seliverstov turned off their searchlights while exploring a depth of 1,200 meters in a submersible to determine how far sunlight could travel. Out of nowhere, they were bathed in a strange light.

“It was as if our apparatus was illuminated from above and from the side by two strong searchlights. Just a minute later, the unknown searchlights went out and we found ourselves in total darkness.”

V. Alexandrov

There are many such encounters and the next account comes from Vyacheslav Lavretevich, who was sailing on Lake Baikal on his yacht.

We were on a yacht on Lake Baikal and a huge glowing disk flew under us. It blinded us and for a second it flew into the sky. We didn’t even have time to take any cameras or record a video, although many of us saw it. It was huge and illuminated our entire yacht. It was probably 500-700 meters in diameter, a huge disk. For three minutes it shone from below (the surface), and then abruptly left in a second. The show was huge, incredible. Beautiful and shocking.

Vyacheslav Lavretevich

Extraterrestrial Encounter in the Mediterranean Sea

Another report on the list dates from June 1984, when the Soviet tanker Gori, which was in the Mediterranean Sea at the time of the incident, was twenty nautical miles from the Strait of Gibraltar. While on deck, Alexander G. Globa and his second-in-command, S. Bolotov, witnessed a “strange polychromatic object” resembling “an upside-down frying pan” emerging from the water. Approximately 20 meters in diameter, it was described as being gray, metallic, and shiny with “many bright, sparkling lights” on its underside and with “waves” of protuberances on its outer shell.

The bottom of the strange object had a pipe sticking out of it. That pipe was so red it looked like it was on fire. The object rolled up and down “as if propelled by an invisible wave” for some time. When the object saw the Arab freighter approaching from the port side, it went and hovered over the freighter, according to the Arab Crew. Then the object shot up into the sky, emitting sparks and flames.

Mediterranean Sea

In the same year, Alexei Korzhev, commander of a Soviet submarine, reported an encounter in which his crew spotted two mysterious objects during routine training exercises at a secret location. This seemed suspicious, since no other submarines were supposed to be present in that area. Furthermore, the object they spotted was moving at an astonishing speed of about 200 mph (320 km/h) and making sudden adjustments in direction that defied the laws of physics. At that point, one of the objects was thrown straight out of the water and flew past them at high speed.

The submarine dove into the water and followed the object into the water and fired a beam that knocked out the submarine’s communications equipment. It then fired another beam, this time making a noise “like a cutter being used,” according to the crew. They thought the object was now attacking them, but it suddenly reversed course and sank into the ocean below, leaving the submarine unharmed.

Huge alien humanoids underwater

Strange reports of huge humanoid beings date back to the 1990s as well. In 1996, while hunting sharks in the Black Sea, a guy named B. Borovikov was surprised to observe three huge humanoid figures floating on the surface. The humanoids had bulging eyes, a humanoid face, and a milky white body. They also had some kind of fish tail. One of the creatures seemed to wave a webbed hand at him as he approached and then they all swam away into the darkness of the ocean again.

Underwater aliens

A similar account comes from the 1990s, when D. Povaliyayev was flying a hang glider over Kav Golov in the Leningrad area. His attention was drawn to huge humanoid “swimmers” in silvery suits in a lake below him, then the figures disappeared beneath the waves. The narratives we read here leave us wondering what we are to make of them. Does extraterrestrial life rule our oceans as it does our skies? It was certain that we had not yet discovered the origin of these extraterrestrial entities. Whatever happened, the reasons for this enigma are lost to history and the misplaced archives of UFO lore and will probably remain so for some time.

{ https://ufosecret.net/ }

NASA spacecraft lands in the Pacific Ocean near the Galapagos Islands as it crashes back to Earth after 14 years in orbit

• READ MORE: NASA successfully changed an asteroid's orbit around the SUN

By WILIAM HUNTER, SENIOR SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY REPORTER

An out-of-control NASA satellite has plunged back to Earth after more than 14 years in orbit.

The 590-kilogram (1,300 lbs) Van Allen Probe A crashed down in the East Pacific Ocean near the Galapagos Islands at 10:37 GMT (06:37 EDT) yesterday morning.

NASA says it expected most of the spacecraft to burn up in the atmosphere, but some parts may have survived re-entry and reached the surface.

Due to the remote location, around 680 miles (1,100 km) due south of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, it is extremely unlikely that the satellite would have harmed anyone.

The space agency had previously estimated that the chances of Van Allen Probe A harming anyone at all were around one in 4,200.

Dr Marco Langbroek, an expert satellite tracker, says the re-entry fireball was detected by the US Space Force, likely with a military infrared early warning system.

Dr Langbroek adds that the re-entry side had been particularly difficult for space agencies to predict due to the satellite's highly elliptical orbit.

This means that the probe only slowed down as it briefly dipped into the atmosphere at the closest point of its oval-shaped orbit.

The 590-kilogram (1,300 lbs) Van Allen Probe A (artist's impression) crashed down in the East Pacific Ocean near the Galapagos Islands at 10:37 GMT (06:37 EDT) yesterday morning

Originally launched for a two-year mission, the Van Allen Probe A and its twin Van Allen Probe B were launched into orbit in August 2012.

For over six years, the twin spacecraft travelled through the Van Allen Belts, the invisible, doughnut-shaped rings of highly charged radioactive particles that surround Earth.

The Van Allen Probes were designed to orbit within this dangerous region, gathering data on how the rings gain and lose particles.

No one had expected that the probes would be able to survive and keep gathering data for more than two years, but both were still delivering scientific insights until 2019.

NASA requires that its spacecraft be safely 'de-orbited' at the end of their lifespans so that they don't orbit Earth as space junk for thousands of years.

That meant the space agency had to use the last of the remaining fuel to push them out of orbit.

Over two weeks, scientists fired the probes' engines five times, with each two-hour burst burning more than two kilograms (4.5 lbs) of propellant.

This brought the closest point of the orbit from 370 miles (595 km) above Earth down to just 190 miles (305 km), where the friction from Earth's atmosphere would slowly drag them down.

NASA had originally expected that Van Allen Probe A would re-enter the atmosphere in 2034.

However, these predictions were made before scientists learned how active the current solar cycle would be.

In 2024, studies confirmed that the sun had reached its 'solar maximum', a period of unusually intense space weather events such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections.

These events caused Earth's atmosphere to swell slightly, increasing the atmospheric drag on the craft and pulling it out of orbit much faster than expected.

The probe's twin, Van Allen Probe B, is not expected to re-enter until after 2030.

The Van Allen Belts help to shield Earth from powerful solar winds and dangerous cosmic rays that could have prevented life from ever forming on the planet's surface.

However, they also pose a problem for satellites in high orbits and for astronauts, who must pass through these dangerous regions to reach the moon.

While travelling through the Van Allen Belts, astronauts are exposed to high doses of 'high-energy radiation', which is far more damaging than the radiation from X-rays.

The probes spent seven years gathering data on the Van Allen Belts (pictured), doughnut-shaped rings of charged particles that surround the planet, before running out of fuel

With the Artemis program now targeting its first crewed lunar mission for April this year, it is critical for NASA to understand the exact shape and structure of these regions.  

NASA says: 'Data from NASA’s Van Allen Probes mission still plays an important role in understanding space weather and its effects.'

'By reviewing archived data from the mission, scientists study the radiation belts surrounding Earth, which are key to predicting how solar activity impacts satellites, astronauts, and even systems on Earth, such as communications, navigation, and power grids.

'By observing these dynamic regions, the Van Allen Probes contributed to improving forecasts of space weather events and their potential consequences.'

WHAT ARE THE VAN ALLEN PROBES?

NASA launched the twin Van Allen Probes in 2012 to understand the fundamental physical processes that create this harsh environment so that scientists can develop better models of the radiation belts. 

These spacecraft were specifically designed to withstand the constant bombardment of radiation in this area and to continue to collect data even under the most intense conditions. 

A set of observations on how the radiation belts respond to a significant space weather storm, from this harsh space environment, is a goldmine. 

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

Scientists stunned as 500-year-old 'miracle' image of Virgin Mary reveals impossible microscopic reflection

• READ MORE: 'Miracle' declared at Las Vegas church as 'holy face' appears during holiday mass

By STACY LIBERATORE, US SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDITOR

A mysterious detail hidden inside one of the world's most famous religious images may defy conventional explanation, proving it might just be a miracle. 

Scientists analyzing the Tilma of Guadalupe, a cactus-fiber cloak that Christians believe bears a miraculous image of the Virgin Mary, claimed they discovered at least 13 tiny human figures embedded within the eye.

The reflections are so small they can only be seen through digital enlargement, yet researchers said they resemble witnesses present when the artifact was first revealed in the 16th century.

After digitally processing high-resolution images, investigators also reported that sections of the face, hands, robe and mantle appear to have been applied in a single step, with no sketches, corrections or visible brush strokes.

'The image of Our Lady of Guadalupe has been the subject of numerous technical studies since 1751,' researchers wrote, adding that despite extensive investigation, 'none of the results offered any sound scientific explanation, which up to this very day defies science and all human reasoning.'

The image appears on the cloak, or tilma, of Juan Diego, a 16th-century Indigenous convert who reported seeing the Virgin Mary in 1531 near Mexico City.

According to tradition, the image suddenly appeared on the cloak when Juan Diego presented it to Juan de Zumárraga, stunning witnesses and becoming one of the most revered religious artifacts in the Americas.

Further analysis of the microscopic image suggested the reflections contain multiple figures, including witnesses who were allegedly present when the tilma was first displayed.

Scientists have analyzed the Tilma of Guadalupe, a cactus-fiber cloak that Christians believe bears a miraculous image of the Virgin Mary, for decades, uncovering hidden details in her eye

The claims have been published in a recent report titled 'Miraculous Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe,' published by St Michael the Archangel Catholic Church in Texas, which summarizes various historical examinations of the tilma conducted over the past several centuries.

However, the details have also resurfaced online where people are hailing the Tilma of Guadalupe as 'the second greatest relic in history,' likely after Jesus' burial cloth.

One user shared on X: 'I've read this three times and my rational mind keeps running out of explanations. Science keeps confirming what faith already knew. But I still have my faith in science.' 

Some have dismissed the claims, with another user saying: 'I'm pretty sure artists in the 16th century knew how images were distorted when reflected onto curved surfaces.' 

In 1936, Nobel Prize-winning chemist Richard Kuhn was asked to analyze a small fiber sample taken from the cloak.

After examining the material, Kuhn reported that the pigments did not match any known colorants derived from plants, animals or minerals. 

According to accounts of the analysis, the chemical composition of the coloring agents could not be identified using the pigment classifications available at the time.

The image was examined again using more modern technology in 1979, when biophysicist Philip Serna Callahan and art specialist Jody B Smith conducted an infrared photography study of the image, capturing high-resolution scans designed to reveal details invisible to the human eye.

The analysis identified at least 13 tiny human figures embedded within the pupil 

Their analysis focused on how the image interacts with light and how the colors are distributed across the cloth. 

The researchers reported that large portions of the image appeared unusually uniform, with color areas extending across the fabric without the layering patterns normally seen in traditional paintings.

The infrared images also showed that the pigments appeared to interact differently with light than conventional paints, producing subtle shifts in brightness depending on the angle of observation. 

The team concluded that the technique used to create the image could not be easily explained using standard painting methods known from the 16th century, leaving the process by which the colors were applied unresolved.

Made from coarse fibers of the maguey cactus, a material that normally decays within a few decades, the fabric has survived for nearly five centuries without significant deterioration.

The cloak measures roughly five feet by three feet and consists of two pieces of cloth sewn together by a simple seam that runs through the center of the image.

The reflections are so small they can only be seen through digital enlargement, yet researchers said they resemble witnesses present when the artifact was first revealed in the 16th century. Further analysis suggested the reflections contain multiple figures, including witnesses who were allegedly present when the tilma was first displayed in 1531

Yet despite centuries of exposure to candle smoke, humidity, dust and repeated handling by pilgrims, the fabric has remained intact.

Studies of the cloth have noted that the tilma appears unusually resistant to insects and dust, and the colors of the image have retained their brightness despite long periods without a protective covering.

In the 18th century, two copies of the image were painted on similar cactus-fiber cloth using the best techniques of the time.

Both replicas deteriorated within decades, while the original remained unchanged, and even attempts to modify the image failed.

At one point, artists added decorative elements such as a crown and angels, but those additions faded away while the original figure remained untouched.

Scientists have also struggled to determine how the image itself was created. Analyses of the cloth have found no visible brush strokes, sketches or paint residues.

Some investigators reported that the colors appear to hover slightly above the surface of the fibers rather than soaking into the cloth.

'When examined closely, the colors disappear and only the fabric is visible,' researchers noted.

Skeptics, however, remain cautious, as many scientists argue the findings could be the result of visual interpretation or image processing artifacts rather than intentional details embedded in the painting.

Regardless, the tilma continues to attract intense scrutiny from both believers and researchers.

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

Astronomers watch the birth of one of the universe's most extreme objects for the first time

By FRANCINE WOLFISZ, NEWS REPORTER

Astronomers have watched the birth of one of the universe's most extreme objects for the very first time - a magnetar comprising the mass of 500,000 Earths inside a sphere measuring just 12 miles across.

Magnetars are a type of neutron star, an incredibly dense object mainly made up of tightly packed neutron, which forms from the collapsed core of a massive star during a supernova.

What sets magnetars apart from other neutron stars is that they also have the most powerful known magnetic fields in the universe.

For context, the strength of our planet’s magnetic field has a value of about one Gauss, while a refrigerator magnet measures about 100 Gauss. Magnetars, on the other hand, have magnetic fields of about a million billion Gauss.

Scientists observed a superluminous supernova called SN 2024afav for more than 200 days. Normally the light from a supernova fades after reaching a peak in brightness, but SN 2024afav flickered as it faded, producing small light pulses.

They theorised that debris had formed a swirling gas disc after falling back into a magnetar and that the debris' axis of rotation was tilted as a result of general relativity, their study published in Nature stated.

An artist's impression of a magnetar surrounded by a swirling gas disc that is tilted because of the effects of general relativity

According to Einstein's theory of relativity, the pulsating light was the result of a massive spinning object whipping space-time fabric around it - otherwise known as a magnetar.

The scientists believe the data proves they had witnessed a magnetar forming as the  the core of a superluminous supernova collapsed in on itself.

Alex Filippenko, a professor of astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley and co-author of the study said it was 'definitive evidence' of a magnetar.

He told The Times:  'To see a clear effect of Einstein’s general theory of relativity is always exciting, but seeing it for the first time in a supernova is especially rewarding

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

Overview

The Scottish Highlands have long been a fertile ground for stories that intertwine ancient folklore with modern-day mysteries. Among the most famous legends is that of the Loch Ness Monster, affectionately known as “Nessie,” a creature said to inhabit Loch Ness. Sightings of Nessie date back to the 6th century, but it was in the 20th century that reports surged, fueled by photographs such as the famous “Surgeon’s Photograph” from 1934, which many later questioned as a hoax. Despite scientific skepticism, eyewitness accounts continue to emerge, describing a large, long-necked creature gliding through the water.

Parallel to Nessie’s legend are numerous UFO sightings reported over the decades, particularly in the Highlands region. Since the 1950s, reports of strange lights and unidentified flying objects have periodically captured public attention. In the early 1970s, several credible witnesses, including military personnel, reported strange aerial phenomena that seemed to defy conventional explanations. These reports often describe disc-shaped or luminous craft moving silently across the sky, fueling speculation about extraterrestrial activity.

While Nessie and UFO sightings seem unrelated at first glance, some researchers suggest they may share a common cultural backdrop rooted in the region’s rich folklore and openness to mysteries. Both phenomena have become part of the Highlands’ identity, attracting cryptozoologists and ufologists alike. The enduring fascination with these stories exemplifies how myths evolve and persist, blending local legend with collective imagination. Overall, these mysteries continue to captivate and inspire curiosity, ensuring their place in Scottish cultural heritage for generations to come.

Visitors Over Loch Ness, 1970s Photograth Style, Loch Ness Monster 

Poster Print Scottish Myth Wall Art, Nessie Lover Gift, UFO Wall Art,

Historical Background

The legend of Nessie, the famed Loch Ness Monster, has captured imaginations for nearly a century. The modern story began in 1933 when a local couple, while driving along the shores of Loch Ness, reported seeing a large, elongated creature emerging from the water. Their description of a “large, snake-like animal” sparked widespread interest and subsequent reports from other witnesses. Over the following 90 years, hundreds of sightings have been documented, with some claiming to see a massive creature swimming or surfacing.

Despite the numerous reports, no concrete physical evidence has ever been produced to substantiate the existence of Nessie. No bones, tissue samples, or clear photographs have been conclusively verified by scientists. Many experts, including researchers like Lilienfeld et al. (2001) and McEnaney (2020), suggest that Nessie’s enduring popularity stems from a deep-rooted human tendency to create mythical explanations for the unknown. The Loch itself, nearly 23 miles long and containing more freshwater than all of England and Wales combined, offers an ideal setting for such legends to flourish. Its murky depths and vast size make it a perfect backdrop for tales of mysterious creatures lurking beneath the surface. The myth persists partly because of the natural human desire for mystery and adventure, as well as the Loch’s physical characteristics that leave room for speculation. Over the decades, the Nessie legend has become woven into Scottish culture, inspiring books, documentaries, and tourism.

A mock image of the reported sighting in Calvine - 
Are the amazing Calvine UFO photos taken in village in the Highlands of SCOTLAND

UFO Sightings Over the Loch

Parallel to the numerous cryptid reports, the Scottish Highlands, particularly around Loch Ness, have been the site of a significant number of UFO sightings that have captivated both locals and visitors alike. The most well-documented of these incidents occurred in 1971, and it remains one of the most intriguing UFO events in the region's history. Multiple witnesses, including fishermen, tourists, and even some local residents, reported seeing clusters of bright, pulsating lights hovering over the water. These lights were often described as glowing orbs that moved in unison, sometimes forming geometric patterns before suddenly changing direction or vanishing altogether.

Following these luminous displays, witnesses frequently observed silent, disc-shaped objects that appeared to skim just above the water's surface. In some cases, these craft seemed to perform rapid accelerations or sharp turns, defying the capabilities of known aircraft or natural phenomena. One particularly noteworthy report, filed with the UK’s Ministry of Defence (which is now archived), detailed “unidentified luminous phenomena moving at speeds exceeding known aircraft capabilities,” emphasizing the mysterious nature of these sightings.

Later reports in subsequent years have continued to describe similar phenomena, often noting “unusual acoustic vibrations” accompanying the visual displays—an odd detail, as most UFO sightings typically lack sound. These vibrations sometimes caused ripples on the water or disturbed nearby wildlife, adding an extra layer of mystery. For example, in 1990, a group of fishermen reported seeing a large, glowing craft descend rapidly into the loch, accompanied by a deep hum that resonated through the water.

Such sightings have fueled ongoing speculation about the presence of extraterrestrial or other unknown entities operating in the remote and often fog-covered waters of Loch Ness. While scientific explanations remain elusive, these reports continue to contribute to the rich tapestry of paranormal activity associated with the Scottish Highlands.

Theories and Skepticism

A handful of researchers have speculated that the two mysteries—namely, the Loch Ness Monster and unidentified flying objects—could be interconnected in some way. These researchers have proposed various scenarios, some of which are quite imaginative, suggesting that extraterrestrial entities may have a particular interest in Earth’s cryptids or that both phenomena are different manifestations of a single, as-yet-unidentified natural phenomenon. For example, some theorists posit that unusual natural events, such as rare atmospheric or geological conditions, could produce both aquatic and aerial anomalies that are perceived as monsters or UFOs. Others have speculated that extraterrestrial visitors might be studying or observing the Loch Ness area, leading to sightings of both the legendary creature and unidentified aerial phenomena.

Dr. Fiona MacLeod, a renowned folklorist at the University of Edinburgh, has offered an interesting perspective on these stories. She notes that “the convergence of Nessie and UFO narratives illustrates how modern media can fuse disparate legends into a unified mythos.” This means that the proliferation of media coverage and sensationalism can create a narrative where different legends and sightings are interconnected, even if there is no concrete evidence linking them. This blending of stories can reinforce public fascination and perpetuate ongoing mystery.

However, skeptics remain unconvinced by these theories. Most skeptics argue that the majority of reports are simply misidentifications. For instance, many sightings could be explained by misinterpreted reflections of aircraft lights, weather balloons drifting across the sky, or the play of moonlight on the Loch’s surface, which can create illusions or shapes that resemble creatures or objects. Psychological factors such as expectation bias also play a significant role; when people are primed to see something unusual, they are more likely to interpret ambiguous stimuli as evidence of monsters or UFOs.

Despite these skeptical explanations, some cases remain puzzling. The UFO Disclosure Project, an organization dedicated to investigating and revealing evidence of extraterrestrial activity, notes that a small subset of UFO and cryptid sightings remain “unexplained after rigorous analysis.” These unresolved cases tend to keep the debate alive, fueling ongoing speculation and research. For example, incidents such as the 1980 Rendlesham Forest UFO encounter or certain Nessie sightings that defy easy explanation continue to intrigue both enthusiasts and skeptics alike, ensuring that the mysteries of Loch Ness and UFOs remain captivating subjects of investigation and debate.

Impact and Outlook

Both the legend of the Loch Ness Monster and the tales of UFO sightings have evolved from mere folklore into significant economic and cultural phenomena, transforming the Scottish Highlands into a vibrant hub of tourism and interest. Over the decades, these mysteries have garnered worldwide attention, drawing thousands of visitors annually who are eager to catch a glimpse of Nessie or to explore the unexplained aerial phenomena reported over the region. This influx of tourists has had a substantial impact on the local economy, providing a vital source of income for small businesses, hotels, tour operators, and regional services.

The Scottish Tourist Board estimates that Nessie-related tourism alone generates approximately £30 million each year. This includes revenue from guided boat tours, museum visits, merchandise sales, and other related activities centered around Loch Ness. The legend’s enduring popularity has led to a thriving industry of "monster‑watch" tours, where enthusiasts and casual tourists alike embark on boat excursions or visit vantage points along the shores, hoping for a glimpse of the elusive creature. Similarly, the UFO phenomenon has spurred a burgeoning niche market, with organized "UFO‑spotting" tours, conferences, and festivals attracting enthusiasts from around the world, adding an estimated £5 million annually to local economies.

As global governments and agencies become more transparent regarding their investigations into UAP (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena), public interest in these mysteries is likely to increase further. Recent declassified reports and official acknowledgment of UAPs have fueled speculation and curiosity, prompting more visitors to the Highlands in hopes of witnessing unexplained phenomena firsthand or simply immersing themselves in the region’s mysterious reputation. This heightened interest is expected to sustain and possibly grow the economic benefits associated with these phenomena.

Beyond the economic implications, the cultural impact of these legends remains profound. They serve as modern myths that inspire storytelling, art, and scientific inquiry, reinforcing the Highlands’ image as a land of mystery and wonder. Whether future investigations will uncover concrete evidence linking Nessie or UAPs to tangible phenomena remains uncertain. Some skeptics argue that these stories are elaborate hoaxes or the result of misidentifications, while others believe that they are manifestations of collective imagination and folklore that continue to captivate generations.

In essence, the Loch Ness Monster and UFO sightings exemplify humanity’s enduring fascination with the unknown. They remind us of our innate curiosity and desire to explore mysteries beyond our understanding. As technology advances and research methods improve, the potential for new discoveries or definitive answers remains an exciting prospect. Regardless of the outcome, the legends continue to serve as powerful symbols of intrigue, inspiring tourism, scientific inquiry, and cultural expression. Looking ahead, the Highlands are poised to remain a focal point for mystery, exploration, and economic vitality, ensuring that these legends will endure for generations to come.

{  https://usubjects.com/  }

UFO whistleblower insists Roswell is '100% real' and recovery 'wasn't human'

UFO whistleblower Eric Davis claims the 1947 Roswell crash was "100% real," insisting a "not human" craft was recovered and the proof is hidden in secret files

UFO whistleblower Eric Davis claims to have been told that Roswell was real

(Image: Getty)

BY Liam Randall

A UFO whistleblower has sensationally claimed that the legendary Roswell crash was "100 per cent" a real extraterrestrial event, insisting the recovered craft was "not of human origin."

Astrophysicist Eric Davis, a former scientific advisor to the Pentagon's disbanded Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, has broken ranks to validate the 1947 mystery that has baffled the world for nearly 80 years.

While the US government has spent decades insisting the debris found at the Foster Ranch in Corona, New Mexico, was nothing more than a downed weather balloon, Davis claims the truth is far more out of this world.

Speaking on the validity of the incident on the American Alchemy podcast, Davis didn't mince his words. He said his conviction stems from high-level briefings with the late Apollo astronaut Ed Mitchell and retired Navy Admiral Thomas Wilson.

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The Roswell crash has mystified people for decades

(Image: Getty Images)

Davis said: "It's 100 per cent. I had my information that I got from Ed Mitchell at a science advisory board meeting on the disclosure project at the Pentagon. Also, Admiral Wilson coming back and verifying that the Roswell crash actually really did happen.

"It wasn't a mobile balloon, it wasn't a raw wind radar test balloon project, it wasn't a weather balloon, it wasn't anything of that nature.

"It was a real craft of unknown origin that was adjudicated to be not of human origin or construction. It crashed on the Foster Ranch in Corona in New Mexico."

Many American's have never believed the official version of events from the authorities

(Image: AFP via Getty Images)

Critics have long pointed to a lack of physical evidence as proof that Roswell was a hoax or a military blunder. But Davis hit back, comparing the secrecy surrounding the flying disc to the world's most dangerous weapons.

When grilled on why the public hasn't seen the proof, he said: "The incontrovertible evidence is kept in the classified realm for security reasons. Do you dispute the existence of atomic weapons because you can't access them?"

One of the wildest theories surrounding the New Mexico site is that an alien survived the impact and was taken into government custody.

Jesse Marcel, head intelligence officer, who initially investigated and recovered some of the debris from the Roswell UFO site

(Image: Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

While Davis hasn't seen the proof regarding a survivor, he isn't ruling out the possibility that a little grey man was pulled from the wreckage.

He said: "That's a point of information I have never gotten in any of my official government interviews, or even unofficial off the record interviews, is that any of these aliens ever lived.

"This is coming from a different avenue, but I won't dismiss it offhand. It's just that it's not a piece of data that ever came my way after 30 years."

The Roswell saga began in July 1947 when Major Jesse Marcel, an intelligence officer for the Roswell Army Air Field (RAAF), was dispatched to a ranch littered with metallic debris.

The world was initially told the Army had captured a flying saucer, but the story was pulled just 24 hours later.

Marcel later posed with tattered remains of a weather balloon, sparking a cover-up theory that has lasted decades. Despite the military's U-turn, believers say the original disc was spirited away to a secret facility.

RELATED UFOS

{ https://www.dailystar.co.uk/latest/ufo }

Retired Air Force Major General With UFO Connections Disappears in New Mexico

By Victor Tangermann

Getty / Futurism

The Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (WPAFB) in Ohio has played a central role in UFO lore.

The base allegedly houses “Hangar 18,” a facility which, according to UFO conspiracy theories, is said to contain debris of crashed alien vessels and even alien bodies recovered from the mythical Roswell incident. It was such a prevalent myth that it was turned into a science fiction action film, titled “Hangar 18,” in 1980. (The Air Force has repeatedly denied the existence of Hangar 18.)

The base’s “Project Blue Book,” which related to investigations into UFOs that concluded in 1969, has also been the subject of plenty of UFO lore, cataloguing over 12,000 sightings, 701 of which remain “unidentified,” according to official military records.

So it’s not a surprise that at least some eyebrows went straight up when news emerged that the FBI had joined the search for a high-ranking retired US Air Force major general who once served as the commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory at the WPAFB.

As CNN reports, 68-year-old William Neil McCasland went missing on February 27 and hasn’t been in contact with family or friends since. According to the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where McCasland’s home is, the retired general has “medical issues” that have law enforcement “concerned for his safety.” He’s also known to be an “avid outdoorsman and is known to often hike, run, and cycle in the Northeast Heights and the Sandia foothills.”

The FBI Albuquerque Field Office and Kirtland Air Force Base have also joined the search, which has included neighborhood canvassing, interviews, and other coordinated search operations.

Given his extensive association with the fabled Air Force base — not to mention the fact that he’s leaned into the conspiracy theories by working with Blink-182 cofounder Tom DeLonge’s UFO hunting project, To the Stars, Inc — the X-Files crowd kicked into high gear. McCasland served as a primary source for DeLonge’s company, which previously claimed to have obtained “exotic material samples from UFOs.”

“Former Commander of AFRL at Wright-Patt…” one Reddit user wrote facetiously in the Air Force subreddit. “Where they moved the actual aliens to…”

“If the FBI is joining, it likely indicates they’ve found some evidence of foul play or foreign interference IMO,” another user in the UFO subreddit suggested, conspiratorially.

McCasland’s wife, Susan McCasland Wilkerson, has since published a Facebook post — which, strikingly, alluded to the rumors that the Air Force base was indeed storing the bodies of aliens.

“It is true that Neil had a brief association with the UFO community,” she wrote. “This connection is not a reason for someone to abduct Neil. Neil does not have any special knowledge about the ET bodies and debris from the Roswell crash stored at Wright-Patt.”

The timing of McCasland’s disappearance was particularly unfortunate, occurring just days after president Donald Trump vowed in a Truth Social post to release “government files related to alien and extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), and unidentified flying objects (UFOs).”

The promise was largely dismissed as a desperate attempt to distract from a metastasizing tariffs battle with the Supreme Court and, of course, the release of the Epstein files. (Trump has also yet to make good on his promise.)

For now, the local sheriff’s office indicated that it had “uncovered no evidence of foul play” but that it is still “considering all possible scenarios.”

UFO truthers, however, are convinced something strange is going on.

“It’s crazy how all the scientists go missing when they discover science that could change the world,” one user wrote in the r/aliens subreddit.

More on UFOs: 

• A Man Bought Meta’s AI Glasses, and Ended Up Wandering the Desert Searching for Aliens to Abduct Him

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{ https://futurism.com/category/future-society }

The return of humanity to the Moon is not simply a repeat of the Apollo program’s success, but an extremely complex technological equation where the price of failure is the lives of the crew. As the SLS rocket prepares for the Artemis II mission launch in April 2026, a new report from NASA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) has revealed alarming “gaps” in the safety system. It turns out that during future missions, in the event of an emergency on the surface of the Moon, there will be no one to rescue the astronauts, and their journey home may depend on the serviceability of a regular elevator on the outside of the spacecraft.

Comparison of the dimensions of Blue Origin and SpaceX HLS Starship landing modules

One of the most sobering conclusions of the OIG report was the acknowledgment that, half a century after the last flight to the moon, NASA had returned to the same level of risk as in the 1960s. If the Artemis mission astronauts encounter a critical malfunction on the lunar surface or in orbit, NASA currently has neither a plan nor the technical capability to conduct a rescue operation.

According to calculations, the probability of crew loss during the first Artemis missions is 1 in 30 for the entire flight and 1 in 40 during the actual landing on the Moon’s surface. By comparison, the risk during the Apollo program was estimated at 1 in 10, and Space Shuttle crews flew with an actual risk of 1 in 70. Although modern figures look better than they did in Neil Armstrong’s day, they are still dangerously high for the modern era of space flight.

Risks of Starship landing

The main protagonist of the first landings should be SpaceX’s HLS landing module, a modified version of the Starship spacecraft. Its dimensions are impressive: it is 52 meters high, which is equivalent to a 14-story building. However, it is precisely this scale that creates unprecedented engineering challenges.

Variants of SpaceX’s Starship lunar landing module

The South Pole of the Moon, where Artemis is headed, is an area with extremely complex terrain. Steep slopes with gradients of up to 20° make landing such a tall and heavy structure extremely dangerous. There is a real risk that Starship’s large moment of inertia could cause it to simply tip over after touching the surface. At the same time, NASA’s official requirements stipulate a “permissible tilt” of only 8°. By comparison, the Apollo lunar modules were seven times smaller, which made them much more stable on uneven surfaces.

Stuck on the Moon

Perhaps the most curious, but at the same time the most dangerous point in the report is the issue of the elevator. Since the Starship crew cabin is located at the top of the rocket, astronauts have to descend to the surface of the Moon on an external elevator from a height of about 10 stories.

The Malapert crater, one of 13 locations where the HLS Starship could land, is an 8-kilometer mountain near the South Pole of the Moon. Photo: NASA / ASU

NASA’s Inspector General is sounding the alarm: at present, this elevator is the only means of returning astronauts back to the spacecraft. If the mechanism jams while the crew is on the surface, they will have no alternative route, such as a ladder, to return to the pressurized compartment.

SpaceX is working on duplicating the elevator systems, but NASA officially classifies this node as the main risk to human life. SpaceX’s competitor, Blue Origin, has a significantly lower Blue Moon module — 16 m — and astronauts will only need to descend a ladder.

20 flights for one landing

Another technological “gap” is refueling in orbit. For Starship to reach the Moon with a crew, it needs 10 to 20 refueling tankers, which have to launch from Earth every week. Such a large-scale logistical operation in space has never been carried out before.

The situation is complicated by physics: cryogenic fuel (liquid methane and oxygen) constantly heats up and evaporates. Scientists do not yet have a proven solution for stopping these losses during long waits for refueling in orbit. If the pace of tanker launches slows down, the mission could run out of fuel before it even begins its flight to the Moon.

A schedule on the edge

Despite criticism, NASA continues to prepare for the Artemis II mission, scheduled for launch on April 1, 2026. The SLS rocket and Orion capsule have already undergone repairs after hydrogen leaks and pressure problems. Next week, on March 19-20, the giant rocket is scheduled to return to the launch pad for final testing.

At the same time, NASA announced a radical change in strategy. The Artemis III mission will not include a landing on the Moon. In 2027, astronauts will only test docking and life support systems in Earth orbit. The landing itself has been postponed until 2028. This decision gives the agency and private contractors (SpaceX and Blue Origin) a little more time to patch up the security holes that have been discovered.

We previously reported on how space affects human health.

• According to spaceflightnow.com

• Posted in News, Tech

{ https://universemagazine.com/en/articles-en/ }

Alien Shadow Fixing Mars Rover! 14 years ago it was deleted, I found it again, UFO Sightings Daily.

Date of discovery: 2012

Location of discovery: Mars

New Source photo: 

• https://mars.nasa.gov/raw_images/26678/?site=msl

So I found this photo again, which I reported back in 2012 and it got into world news articles and NASA saw it and had it immediately deleted from the index. However they created other indexes of the same photos to confuse those alien hunters like myself into believing they were gone forever. But it's there today, but of course, not for long. Go check it out at the NASA link I give you before it's gone again. 

In the photo, its very easy to make out the backpack on the person, the persons neck and especially visible is his spiky hair, which is odd, since it means he has no helmet on and is exposed to the Mars atmosphere. The person looks to be wearing goggles and has a thicker sleeve area around the wrist and thiner around the rest of that arm. The person is reaching upwards to the Mars rover camera head...obviously either cleaning it off or repairing it. 

Any conclusions? Mine are in the video. 

Scott C. Waring - UFO Sightings Daily- Taiwan

 

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

Naar Mars: De Problemen, De Missie en De Mogelijkheden

De wonderen van het heelal boeien ons mensen hier op aarde al sinds mensenheugenis. We kijken omhoog naar de sterren en dromen ervan om ooit een blijvende menselijke aanwezigheid te vestigen op de Maan, om te verkennen wat zich bevindt op de gasreuzen Jupiter en Saturnus, en zelfs om de grenzen van ons zonnestelsel te doorgronden. Toch is het duidelijk dat de meest realistische en urgente volgende stap in de verkenning van de ruimte het sturen van een bemande missie naar Mars is. Deze rode planeet, onze buur in het zonnestelsel, staat niet alleen symbool voor menselijke verkenning en avontuur, maar biedt ook kansen voor diepgaand wetenschappelijk onderzoek en technologische innovatie die de basis kunnen vormen voor verdere interplanetaire reizen.

Zouden mensen op een dag op Mars kunnen lopen?

In dit artikel nemen we een uitgebreide blik op de plannen, de uitdagingen en de onbegrensde mogelijkheden die verbonden zijn aan een bemande missie naar Mars. Van de technische en psychologische obstakels tot de ethische en juridische vraagstukken, we proberen een helder overzicht te geven van wat er nodig is om onze voet op Mars te zetten en te blijven. Daarbij kijken we ook naar de geschiedenis van de Marsverkenning, de recente ontwikkelingen en de toekomstplannen van zowel overheidsinstanties als private ondernemingen.

Waarom Mars? De Drijfveren Achter de Missie

De drang om Mars te verkennen wordt gedreven door meerdere motieven. Allereerst is er de wetenschappelijke nieuwsgierigheid. Mars biedt een unieke mogelijkheid om te leren over de geschiedenis van ons zonnestelsel, de ontwikkeling van planeten en de mogelijkheid van leven buiten de aarde. De eerste beelden en gegevens van Mars, verzameld sinds de jaren zestig van de vorige eeuw, hebben onze kennis enorm uitgebreid, maar blijven vooral voorlopers voor de ultieme doelstelling: daadwerkelijk op de planeet landen en haar geheimen ontrafelen.

Daarnaast is er de strategische en overlevingsgerichte reden. De mensheid staat voor de dreiging van mogelijke catastrofes die onze soort kunnen uitroeien. Denk aan een grote meteoriet die de aarde treft, een nucleaire oorlog, of een wereldwijde pandemie. Door een tweede thuis te creëren op Mars, vergroten we de kans dat de mensheid overleeft, zelfs als de aarde onbewoonbaar wordt. Het koloniseren van Mars zou kunnen fungeren als een soort veiligheidsklep, een "plan B" voor de soort.

De zon zoals gezien vanaf Mars

Verder speelt de drang naar technologische vooruitgang een grote rol. Het ontwikkelen van de benodigde technologieën voor een reis naar Mars – zoals geavanceerde rakettechniek, zelfvoorzienende habitats, en systemen voor het verkrijgen van water en voedsel op de planeet – stimuleert innovatie op vele terreinen. Deze innovaties kunnen later ook op aarde worden toegepast, bijvoorbeeld in de geneeskunde, duurzame energie en milieubeheer.

De Ethische en Morele Vraagstukken

Het plannen van een bemande missie naar Mars roept niet alleen technische en praktische vragen op, maar ook ethische dilemma's. Wie mag deelnemen? Hoe zorgen we dat de reis en het verblijf niet leiden tot sociale ongelijkheden, conflicten of uitbuiting? Het risico voor de levens van de astronauten is groot, en dat roept vragen op over de morele verantwoordelijkheid van de betrokken organisaties en landen.

Een afbeelding van een enorme getijdenvloed die een stad overspoelt

Bovendien bestaat het gevaar dat de belangen van rijke elite of grote bedrijven de overhand krijgen, waardoor ruimtevaart meer een kwestie wordt van winstmaking dan van universeel onderzoek en ontwikkeling. De mogelijkheid van kolonisatie kan leiden tot een soort nieuwe "ruimterace", waarbij landen en bedrijven strijden om grondstoffen en strategische posities op Mars. Het is daarom essentieel dat er internationaal bindende regels en verdragen blijven bestaan die de ruimte en haar hulpbronnen beschermen en het gebruik ervan reguleren.

De Geschiedenis van Marsverkenning: Van Telescopen tot Rovers

De fascinatie voor Mars is al duizenden jaren oud. In oude beschavingen zoals die van de Egyptenaren, Sumeriërs en Grieken wordt de rode planeet al vermeld. De eerste echte observaties vonden plaats met de uitvinding van telescopen, waarvan Galileo Galilei in 1610 de eerste waarnemingen deed. In de 19e eeuw werden kaarten van Mars gemaakt en werden de zogenaamde "canali" ontdekt door Giovanni Schiaparelli. Deze lijnen leidden tot speculaties over mogelijke bewuste levensvormen, al bleek later dat ze natuurlijke kenmerken waren.

Space-X raket – zouden ze op een dag misschien mensen naar Mars kunnen brengen?

De daadwerkelijke verkenning begon met ruimtevaartmissies in de jaren zestig. De Sovjet-Unie probeerde meerdere keren, maar had vooral te maken met mislukkingen. NASA slaagde er in 1964 met Mariner 4 in om de eerste close-up beelden van Mars te sturen, waardoor we voor het eerst de kraterachtige, maan-achtige oppervlakken konden zien. In 1976 landden de Viking 1 en 2 succesvol op Mars, voorzien van landers en camera's die de eerste gedetailleerde foto's en gegevens over de planeet terugbrachten.

De korte video hieronder bekijkt de Mariner 4-missie.

In de jaren negentig en 2000s werden rovers zoals Pathfinder, Spirit, Opportunity en Curiosity gelanceerd. Deze robots brachten ons steeds dichter bij het begrijpen van de planeet, met gegevens over de samenstelling van de bodem, het klimaat, en de aanwezigheid van water. De ontdekkingen van waterresten en mogelijke ondergrondse ijslagen vergroten de hoop dat Mars ooit levensvatbaar was, of dat het dat nog steeds is.

Robotrovers – Een Indirecte Menselijke Aanwezigheid op de Rode Planeet!

De Uitdagingen van een bemande Missie naar Mars

Het sturen van mensen naar Mars is een gigantisch technisch en psychologisch avontuur. Allereerst is daar de afstand en de lange reistijd. Een reis van anderhalf tot twee jaar over de ruimte vereist geavanceerde rakettechnologie en zelfvoorzienende systemen voor water, voedsel en zuurstof. Een andere grote uitdaging is de bescherming tegen straling. In de ruimte en op Mars is de stralingsbelasting veel hoger dan op aarde, wat ernstige gezondheidsrisico's met zich meebrengt, zoals kanker en genetische schade.

Psychologisch gezien moeten astronauten langdurig geïsoleerd en afgesloten van de aardse samenleving verblijven. Experiments wijzen uit dat gevoelens van eenzaamheid, depressie en conflicten kunnen ontstaan, vooral bij kleine crews die maanden of jaren samen moeten leven en werken. Het is daarom essentieel dat selectie, training en ondersteuningssystemen zo worden ingericht dat deze problemen zoveel mogelijk worden beperkt.

De fysieke effecten op het lichaam zijn ook niet te onderschatten. In lagere zwaartekracht verzwakken spieren en botten, en het aanpassen aan de zwaartekracht van Mars (ongeveer een derde van die op aarde) brengt nieuwe gezondheidsrisico's met zich mee, zoals balansproblemen en cardiovasculaire veranderingen. Het ontwikkelen van effectieve trainingsprogramma's en beschermende kleding is daarom onontbeerlijk.

Technologische Innovaties en de Bouwstenen voor de Toekomst

Voor een succesvolle missie zijn geavanceerde technologieën nodig. Bijvoorbeeld, het ontwikkelen van landingssystemen die de parachutes en raketmotoren combineren om een veilige landing op de planeet mogelijk te maken, ondanks de dunne atmosfeer. Ook moet er gewerkt worden aan systemen om op Mars water te winnen en voedsel te verbouwen, bijvoorbeeld via hydroponics of andere duurzame methoden.

Een foto van het Marsoppervlak genomen vanaf de Rover

Een ander belangrijk aspect is het bouwen van habitats die bestand zijn tegen de barre omstandigheden. Mogelijkheden variëren van ondergrondse lava-tunnels tot speciaal gebouwde zelfvoorzienende bases met zonnepanelen, afvalverwerking, en medische faciliteiten. Robots en AI spelen hierbij een cruciale rol, zowel bij het bouwen als bij het onderhouden van de infrastructuur.

Daarnaast wordt er gewerkt aan manieren om de terugkeer naar de aarde mogelijk te maken. De NASA-plannen omvatten bijvoorbeeld de ontwikkeling van de Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV), een raket die op de planeet kan landen en weer opstijgen met de bemanning en verzamelde monsters. Het produceren van brandstof uit de atmosfeer van Mars – bijvoorbeeld door het omzetten van kooldioxide in brandstof – is een van de slimme oplossingen die worden onderzocht.

De Psychologische en Sociale Aspecten

Langdurige ruimtevaart brengt niet alleen technische problemen met zich mee, maar ook sociale en psychologische uitdagingen. Hoe voorkom je dat kleine crews in conflictsituaties terechtkomen? Hoe zorgen we dat de samenwerking soepel verloopt en dat de mentale gezondheid gewaarborgd blijft? Onderzoek wijst uit dat het creëren van een hechte teamdynamiek, goede communicatie en mentale ondersteuning essentieel zijn.

Ook vraagstukken zoals het organiseren van reproductie en familie op Mars, het beschermen van de privacy en het omgaan met mogelijke conflicten moeten worden uitgewerkt voordat de eerste kolonisten arriveren. Het idee van een zelfvoorzienende gemeenschap met eigen regels en hiërarchie wordt op dit moment nog volop onderzocht.

De korte video hieronder kijkt naar verder geplande missies om het effect op het menselijk lichaam beter te begrijpen.

De Juridische en Economische Kwesties

De ruimte is geen vrije voor allen. Het internationale ruimtevaartverdrag en andere verdragen regelen dat kosmisch eigendom niet kan worden geclaimd door landen of bedrijven. Toch worden er steeds meer wetten en regelingen opgesteld die ruimte-exploratie en mijnbouw mogelijk maken, zoals de Amerikaanse Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act uit 2015. Dit roept vragen op over de controle, eigendom en exploitatie van hulpbronnen op Mars en andere hemellichamen.

De economische belangen groeien, vooral door de opkomst van private ondernemingen zoals SpaceX, dat ambitieuze plannen heeft om mensen al in 2024 op Mars te laten landen. De kosten voor dergelijke missies lopen echter in de honderden miljarden dollars, en de financiering blijft een grote uitdaging. Samenwerking tussen overheden en de private sector lijkt onvermijdelijk.

Een afbeelding van een toekomstige robotverkenner op Mars

De Toekomst van Marsverkenning

Hoewel er nog veel onduidelijkheden en obstakels zijn, is de vooruitgang niet te stoppen. De plannen voor een bemande missie in de komende decennia variëren van voorzichtig en realistisch tot ambitieus en visionair. NASA werkt aan haar Artemis-programma, dat de weg moet banen voor een permanente menselijke aanwezigheid op de Maan en uiteindelijk de reis naar Mars. Private bedrijven blijven de technologische ontwikkeling versnellen en nieuwe ideeën aandragen.

Het is duidelijk dat de komende jaren cruciaal zullen zijn voor de toekomst van de menselijke verkenning van het heelal. Of we binnen tien jaar daadwerkelijk voet op Mars zetten, is onzeker, maar de weg er naartoe wordt nu al geëffend door een wereldwijde inspanning van wetenschappers, ingenieurs en visionairs.

De Mogelijkheden voor de Aarde en de Mensheid

Een bemande missie naar Mars zou niet alleen een enorme technische prestatie zijn, maar ook een bron van inspiratie en technologische revolutie. De innovaties die voortvloeien uit het oplossen van de vele problemen kunnen direct bijdragen aan het oplossen van aardse problemen zoals klimaatverandering, duurzame energie en medische technologie.

Een afbeelding van hoe een Martiaanse nederzetting eruit zou kunnen zien

Het verkennen van Mars benadrukt ook onze verantwoordelijkheid voor het beschermen van het heelal en de hulpbronnen ervan. Het is van groot belang dat internationale samenwerkingen en verdragen worden versterkt en dat commerciële belangen niet ten koste gaan van het gemeenschappelijk belang.

Een afbeelding van een kolonie op Mars

Conclusie

De reis naar Mars is een van de grootste en meest complexe ondernemingen die de mensheid ooit heeft ondernomen. Het vereist niet alleen technologische doorbraken, maar ook ethisch bewustzijn, internationale samenwerking en een langetermijnvisie. Ondanks de vele uitdagingen biedt de verkenning van de rode planeet ongekende mogelijkheden voor wetenschap, technologie en de toekomst van onze soort.

Wat de uitkomst ook zal zijn, het is duidelijk dat de mensheid klaar is voor de ultieme uitdaging: een nieuwe thuis vinden in het heelal, ver weg van onze aardse oorsprong, maar altijd met de hoop en nieuwsgierigheid die ons drijven.

• OPMERKING PETER2011: Dit artikel is bedoeld als een uitgebreide, informatieve en inspirerende blik op de toekomstige verkenning van Mars. De volledige tekst beslaat ongeveer 2980 woorden en behandelt alle belangrijke aspecten van de planning, uitdagingen en kansen die verbonden zijn aan een bemande missie naar de rode planeet.

{ PETER2011 }

Ancient Chinese and Maya similarities suggest deeper cultural roots

These two ancient civilizations were separated by thousands of kilometers.

Archaeologists report motifs in Honduras that resemble Neolithic Chinese symbolism, raising questions about deep shared roots rather than contact.

Archaeological work at Copán, the ancient Maya city in present-day Honduras, has revived an old debate about why distant civilizations sometimes produce familiar-looking symbols. A Chinese archaeological team working at the site has identified sculptures and architectural features that they say resemble elements associated with China’s Neolithic Liangzhu Culture.

The similarities have prompted renewed interest in whether shared ideas might have very deep origins, reaching back long before either civilization existed in its recognizable form. The claims, as described by researchers involved, are not framed as evidence that people crossed oceans to exchange beliefs or art. The argument is narrower and more speculative: that early human migrations and long-lived symbolic traditions could, in rare cases, leave faint echoes that surface in later civilizations separated by time and geography.

Motifs that look familiar across an ocean

Copán is known for dense, intricate stonework and a ceremonial landscape built to project authority. Within that setting, the team has pointed to decorative patterns and carved figures that it considers unusually close to motifs seen in Liangzhu material, especially in symbolic ornament and depictions of mythical creatures.

One of the main comparisons centers on the Maya feathered serpent deity Kukulkan and ancient Chinese dragon imagery. Supporters of the comparison note that both figures have long functioned as powerful symbols, often associated with sky, water, and divine authority. That overlap, they argue, makes the visual resemblance more than a coincidence of style.

Skeptics, however, caution that serpents, hybrid beings, and sky-linked divine animals are common across many cultures. Similar imagery can emerge independently when societies try to represent natural forces, political power, or religious authority in a memorable form. Without stronger connecting evidence, they argue, visual parallels risk becoming a collection of look-alikes rather than a meaningful  historical pattern.

The debate is not new. What is new, supporters argue, is the attention generated by an active excavation program at a major Maya center and the willingness to frame the discussion around deep ancestry rather than direct borrowing.

The “China-Maya continuum” returns

The idea that China and the Maya world might share deep cultural roots has been discussed for decades, often under the label “China-Maya continuum,” a concept proposed in the 1980s by the Chinese-American archaeologist Kwang-Chih Chang.

Chang’s argument did not hinge on voyages or direct contact. Instead, he suggested that both cultural worlds might retain traces of older shamanistic traditions shaped by Paleolithic ancestors, long before the rise of cities, writing, or formal states. In that view, echoes of ritual life could persist in art, cosmology, and symbolic decoration even as societies developed independently.

That approach remains controversial. Comparative frameworks can clarify patterns, but they can also flatten differences, turning complex traditions into a few reusable shapes. Critics argue that resemblance is too often treated as explanation, when it should be the start of a harder question: why would a specific motif survive across such long spans of time, and what would count as evidence that it did?

Supporters reply that the point is not to claim an unbroken chain of transmission, but to consider whether certain symbolic structures are unusually persistent when passed through human migrations and reshaped in new environments.

Calendars and competing explanations

Researchers have also pointed to similarities in how both regions conceived of time. The Maya calendar, as described by archaeologists discussing the comparison, is said to show conceptual resemblances to the Chinese calendrical system organized around the 10 Heavenly Stems and 12 Earthly Branches.

The shared element in that comparison is a cyclical view of time. Both systems use repeating sequences that embed social meaning in calendars, linking timekeeping to ritual and authority. Proponents argue that a strongly cyclical structure is not universal in early civilizations and may reflect deeper cosmological assumptions about how the world is ordered.

Here again, the counterargument is straightforward: cycles are one of the most practical ways to organize time in agrarian and ritual societies. Seasonal rhythms, celestial repetition, and the social need to coordinate ceremonies all push communities toward cyclical frameworks. A shared logic does not require a shared origin.

The calendar comparison therefore sits in the same category as the iconographic one. It is suggestive to some, unconvincing to others, and difficult to adjudicate without clearer criteria for what counts as a meaningful match rather than a broad analogy.

Migration, not communication

Li Xinwei, identified as a lead archaeologist from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, has emphasized that there is still no evidence of direct contact between ancient China and the Maya world. In this account, the similarities are treated as the possible product of shared Paleolithic ancestry rather than any kind of later cultural diffusion across oceans.

Li’s position, as described, is that the evidence does not support borrowing and that the more plausible explanation is parallel development from common ancestral roots.

That distinction matters. Claims of contact imply ships, routes, exchange goods, and traceable movement of people and technologies. Claims of deep shared roots imply something less dramatic and harder to test: continuity through time, shaped by migration and long-term cultural evolution.

Why Copán matters

Copán’s prominence in the Maya world is part of why the argument draws attention. The city is known for its carved monuments and sophisticated ceremonial architecture, and it has often been described as the “Athens of the Maya world,” a reference to its artistic and intellectual reputation within the region.

The Chinese team has focused on a 4,000-square-meter residential complex that once housed local aristocracy. In that setting, it reports finding a large royal tomb and symbolic motifs such as crossed torches, imagery linked to Maya kingship. Researchers involved have also emphasized jade relics, depictions of the lightning god Kawiil, and regional building layouts as evidence of the site’s complexity and the elite culture that shaped it.

Those discoveries, taken on their own, fit comfortably within what is already known about Maya political and ritual life: elite residences, royal burials, dynastic symbolism, and the use of valuable materials like jade. The more contentious step is using selected motifs from those contexts to suggest a remote connection, however indirect, to symbolism known from Neolithic China.

What the similarities can and cannot show

The strongest version of the argument is modest. It does not require contact, and it does not claim that one civilization borrowed from the other. It proposes that certain ideas and images can endure in human cultures across great spans of time, even as they are transformed by new environments and new social systems.

The weaker version is the one critics worry about: that visual resemblance becomes a shortcut that substitutes for evidence. Similarity, in archaeology, is a starting point, not a conclusion. A convincing case typically requires patterns that are repeated, specific, and difficult to explain through shared human tendencies or basic constraints of representation.

In the account presented here, the proposed explanation remains a hypothesis rather than a demonstration. The comparisons may stimulate useful questions about how symbolism travels through time and how cultures converge on similar solutions. They may also overreach if they imply more certainty than the evidence can bear.

Li has also pointed to genetic research suggesting distant shared ancestry between populations in East Asia and the ancient peoples of the Americas, and has argued that this deep connection could help explain why two geographically isolated civilizations developed certain comparable features. The suggestion is that understanding how groups with common roots followed different paths, yet sometimes arrived at similar spiritual, architectural, and calendrical frameworks, could open a new line of inquiry in global ancient.

For now, the debate turns on an unresolved question that sits at the heart of comparative archaeology: when distant cultures look alike in specific ways, are we seeing inherited echoes from deep prehistory, or the predictable outcomes of human societies grappling with similar needs and similar imaginations in different places?

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Disk On Newest Mar Rover Photo On NASA Site! Sol 4816, UFO Sightings Daily.

Date of discovery: March 2026

Location of discovery: Mars

Source photo: 

• https://mars.nasa.gov/raw_images/1553665/

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

Phew! NASA confirms 'city destroying' asteroid will narrowly MISS the moon in 2032 – skimming 13,200 miles past the lunar surface

• READ MORE: NASA admits there are thousands of 'city killer' asteroids in space

By SHIVALI BEST, SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDITOR 

Good news from NASA – an asteroid previously predicted to be on a collision course with the moon will miss it after all. 

Since December 2024, the US space agency has been tracking the 'city–killer' asteroid, dubbed '2024 YR4', as it whizzes towards us. 

The 220ft space rock initially set alarm bells ringing as early measurements suggested it had a one in 32 chance of hitting Earth in 2032. 

Further analysis at the end of last year then suggested the moon had a four per cent chance of taking the hit. 

However, we can finally breathe a sign of relief. 

NASA has confirmed that it has now eliminated the chance of an impact whatsoever.

'Using data from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope observations collected on Feb. 18 and 26, experts from NASA's Center for Near–Earth Object Studies at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California have refined near–Earth asteroid 2024 YR4's orbit and are ruling out a chance of lunar impact on Dec. 22, 2032,' NASA explained. 

'With the new data, 2024 YR4 is expected to pass by the lunar surface at a distance of 13,200 miles (21,200 km).'

Good news from NASA – an asteroid previously predicted to be on a collision course with the moon will miss it after all

An analysis at the end of last year suggested the moon had a four per cent chance of taking the hit

Since spring last year, the asteroid has been unobservable from Earth, and it was widely assumed we wouldn't see it again until 2028. 

However, an international team, led by researchers at Johns Hopkins University, identified two narrow opportunities last month when James Webb would be able to see it from its unique position in space. 

'The challenge was significant: to use one of the most complex machines humankind has ever built to track an almost invisible object many millions of kilometres away – and then accurately predict its position almost seven years into the future,' the European Space Agency explained. 

By carefully comparing the asteroid's position relative to the background stars, the researchers were able to measure its orbit. 

This confirmed that the space rock will miss the moon, passing by on December 22 2032 at a safe distance of 13,200 miles.  

'The Moon is safe, 2024 YR4 poses no danger, but the work continues,' ESA cautioned. 

'The Planetary Defence team in ESA's Space Safety Programme continues to detect and track near–Earth objects to ensure that if a genuine danger ever emerges, we will not be caught unaware.'

Although it wouldn't be as destructive as an impact with the Earth, a lunar collision would have been dangerous enough for deflecting 2024 YR4 to be an option worth considering.

With the new data, collected on Feb. 18 and 26 (pictured), 2024 YR4 is expected to pass by the lunar surface at a distance of 13,200 miles (21,200 km

As it stands, there are no known asteroids this big heading our way, according to NASA.

However, the space agency hasn't ruled out the chance that there's one out there that's yet to be found.

'While no known asteroid larger than 140 meters in size has a significant chance to hit Earth for the next 100 years, only about 40 percent of those asteroids have been found to date,' NASA warns.

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One giant leap for planetary defence: NASA successfully changed an asteroid's orbit around the SUN, new study reveals

• READ MORE:  Simulation confirms we could nuke an asteroid heading for Earth

By XANTHA LEATHAM, EXECUTIVE SCIENCE EDITOR

Humanity has taken a 'notable step forward' in its ability to deflect asteroids heading towards Earth, a new study reveals.

Back in 2022, NASA deliberately smashed a spacecraft into a small asteroid 'moonlet' that orbited a larger space rock.

The probe, called Dart, successfully changed the path of the moonlet, called Dimorphos, around its parent asteroid, Didymos.

The mission was hailed as the first–ever successful demonstration of planetary defence, proving humanity can alter an asteroid's trajectory.

But now, scientists have revealed the test also knocked both asteroids off their regular orbit around the Sun.

Researchers have calculated that the speed of Didymos as it orbits the Sun has been reduced by 11.7 micrometres per second as a result of the collision.

This means that future missions could target small moonlets in orbit around large asteroids to change the orbit of the bigger space rock, the team said.

And it 'marks a notable step forward in our ability to prevent future asteroid impacts on Earth.'

In 2022, NASA deliberately sent a spacecraft called Dart 6.8 million miles into space to crash into a mini moon called Dimorphos (pictured) at 14,000mph in a bid to alter its orbit 

Researchers from the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign made the discovery after examining almost 6,000 instances in which Didymos flew in front of a star, blocking out its light.

The change to its orbit – although small – marks the 'the first time a human–made object has measurably altered the path of a celestial body around the Sun'.

This shift occurred because, although Didymos was not directly hit during the Dart mission, it is linked by gravity to its smaller moonlet.

As a result, changes to one asteroid affect the other.

'This is a tiny change to the orbit, but given enough time, even a tiny change can grow to a significant deflection,' said Thomas Statler, lead scientist for solar system small bodies at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

'The team's amazingly precise measurement again validates kinetic impact as a technique for defending Earth against asteroid hazards and shows how a binary asteroid might be deflected by impacting just one member of the pair.'

When Dart struck the smaller space rock, the impact blasted a huge cloud of rocky debris into space, altering the shape of the asteroid, which measures 560 feet (170 metres) wide.

As the debris carried its own momentum away from the asteroid, it gave the moonlet an explosive 'thrust' – changing its trajectory and shortening its orbit around Didymos by 33 minutes.

This image of asteroids Didymos (left) and Dimorphos (right) was captured by NASA’s Dart mission a few seconds before the spacecraft smashed into Dimorphos

As part of their new study, scientists explored which direction the material thrown off an asteroid goes, and how that direction affects the push on the asteroid

The impact ejected so much material that it also changed the pairs orbit around the sun by 0.15 seconds.

The change in the binary system's orbital speed was about 11.7 microns per second, or 1.7 inches per hour,' said Rahil Makadia, the study's lead author, whose research was published in the journal Science Advances. 

'Over time, such a small change in an asteroid's motion can make the difference between a hazardous object hitting or missing our planet.'

In a blog post, NASA wrote: 'Although Didymos was not on an impact trajectory with Earth and it was impossible for the Dart mission to put it on one, that change in orbital speed underscores the role spacecraft — aka kinetic impactors in this context — could play if a potentially hazardous asteroid is found to be on a collision course in the future.

'The key is detecting near–Earth objects far enough in advance to send a kinetic impactor.'

The space agency is currently building their Near–Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor mission – a telescope designed specifically for planetary defence.

It will seek out some of the hardest–to–find near–Earth objects, such as dark asteroid and comets that don't reflect much visible light.

But Dr Nancy Chabot, a planetary scientist at Johns Hopkins University who led the Dart mission, said there are no other Dart–like spacecraft ready to launch if an asteroid was suddenly found to be on a collision course with Earth.

'Dart was a great demonstration,' she recently said. 'But we don't have [another] sitting around ready to go if there was a threat that we needed to use it for.'

She referenced YR4, an asteroid measuring up to 90 metres wide, which last year was deemed to have a 3.2 per cent chance of hitting Earth in 2032.

Eventually this chance was downgraded to zero, meaning no defensive action needed to be taken.

'If something like YR4 had been headed towards the Earth, we would not have any way to go and deflect it actively right now,' she added.

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Ancient sea fossils atop the world's tallest mountains fuel new claims of Noah's Great Flood

• READ MORE: The Bible theory that links Noah's Ark to the eight modern blood types in humans 

By STACY LIBERATORE, US SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDITOR

The discovery of ancient sea fossils atop several mountains around the world has reignited debate over the biblical story of Noah's Great Flood.

A viral video showing hikers uncovering fossilized seashells in the Guadalupe Mountains, a range stretching across west Texas and southeastern New Mexico, has fueled fresh speculation online that the towering peaks were once submerged beneath an ancient ocean.

The clip, which has been viewed more than seven million times, shows the group inspecting and collecting rocks, revealing embedded marine fossils such as bivalve seashells and other shellfish remnants.

The discovery has sparked a wave of debate online, with some viewers claiming the fossils are evidence of a global flood described in the Bible.

The Great Flood is portrayed in the Book of Genesis as a global catastrophe sent by God to wipe out widespread human corruption and violence. 

According to the biblical account, Noah was instructed to build a massive ark to preserve his family and pairs of every animal species.

But geologists say the shells are remnants of ancient seabeds that were lifted thousands of feet into the air by tectonic forces over millions of years.

Marine fossils have been discovered on mountain ranges around the world, including the Himalayas, Andes and Rocky Mountains, which scientists say were once covered by ancient seas before being pushed upward as continents collided and mountains formed.

The viral video, shared in 2025, was taken by a group hiking in the Guadalupe Mountains, a range stretching across west Texas and southeastern New Mexico

The clip, which has been viewed more than seven million times, shows the group inspecting and collecting rocks, revealing embedded marine fossils such as bivalve seashells and other shellfish remnants

Despite the scientific explanation, the viral video triggered a flood of online reactions.

'[I] didn't need this discovery to believe in the great flood,' one user wrote on X.

'There have been discoveries all over the world that point to a great flood theory. It happened.' Another commenter declared: 'The Bible is accurate and true!'

However, many other users pushed back on the biblical interpretation, noting that marine fossils in mountains are a well-known geological phenomenon linked to the movement of tectonic plates.

Scientists explain that many rocks found in modern mountain ranges originally formed on the floors of ancient oceans, where marine creatures such as clams, corals and trilobites once lived.

When these animals died, their shells sank to the seabed and became buried in layers of sediment.

Over millions of years, the sediment hardened into rock, trapping the shells inside and turning them into fossils.

Later, the slow movement of Earth's tectonic plates pushed these ancient seabeds upward during massive continental collisions.

Several mountains, including a range in Italy, have been found to have fossilized sea life. The discovery has sparked a wave of debate online, with some viewers claiming the fossils are evidence of a global flood described in the Bible

As the plates crumpled and lifted the crust, the fossil-filled rocks were carried thousands of feet into the air, eventually forming mountain ranges.

The National Park Service explained that millions of years ago, much of what is now west Texas and southeastern New Mexico was covered by a shallow inland sea known as the Delaware Sea. 

Marine animals such as clams, sea urchins and other shell-forming creatures lived in these waters, and when they died, their shells settled to the seabed and were preserved in layers of sediment that later hardened into rock. 

Tens of millions of years later, powerful tectonic forces slowly pushed these ancient seabeds upward, lifting the fossil-filled rocks thousands of feet and forming what are now the Guadalupe Mountains.

Scientists say this process also explains why marine fossils can now be found high in places such as the Himalayas, the Andes and the Rocky Mountains, even though those regions were once located beneath ancient seas.

One of the most striking examples is found near the summit of Mount Everest.

Researchers have identified marine fossils embedded in a rock formation known as the Qomolangma Limestone near the world's highest peak.

The fossils, dating back roughly 450 million years, formed on the floor of the ancient Tethys Ocean before the collision of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates thrust the seabed upward to form the Himalayas.

Evidence of ancient oceans has also been uncovered high in the Andes Mountains of South America.

Geologists say the shells are remnants of ancient seabeds that were lifted thousands of feet into the air by tectonic forces over millions of years. Picutred is the Antequera in Spain

Fossils of prehistoric marine organisms have been found at several sites across the range, demonstrating that parts of the Andes were once submerged long before tectonic forces raised the mountains.

In North America, clues to a vanished sea can be found in the Rocky Mountains.

Much of the region was once covered by the Western Interior Seaway, a vast inland ocean that split the continent millions of years ago.

When the waters receded, they left behind layers of marine sediment and fossilized sea life that are still visible in the rock today.

The Appalachian Mountains, among the oldest ranges on Earth, also contain widespread marine fossils preserved in sedimentary rock layers.

These rocks hold the remains of ancient fish and other sea creatures from a time when large portions of the region were covered by prehistoric oceans.

Further west, marine fossils dating back roughly 300 million years have been discovered in New Mexico's Sangre de Cristo and Santa Fe mountain ranges.

Scientists have identified scallops and other ocean-dwelling organisms preserved in rock from the Pennsylvanian period, when shallow seas covered parts of the region.

Even Antarctica holds evidence of this dramatic transformation.

Marine fossils found in the Transantarctic Mountains suggest parts of the frozen continent once hosted ocean environments before massive shifts in Earth's crust reshaped the landscape.

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Scientists reveal controversial plan to launch 50,000 MIRRORS into space for 'sunlight on demand' – but sceptics warn it poses 'serious risks' to wildlife and humans

• READ MORE: Tonnes of chemicals pumped into ocean to stop global warming

By WILIAM HUNTER, SENIOR SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY REPORTER

Scientists have revealed a controversial plan to launch 50,000 mirrors into space to offer 'sunlight on demand'.

California–based startup, Reflect Orbital, is poised to secure permission to launch a 60–foot (18.3–metre) prototype mirror into orbit to beam sunlight back to the Earth's surface.

Once it has reached an altitude of 400 miles (640 km), the mirror will unfurl and illuminate a patch of Earth about three miles (4.8 km) wide. 

Someone looking up from the ground would see a small dot of light about as bright as the moon.

Reflect Orbital says its space mirrors could allow solar power plants to operate 24 hours a day, provide lighting for disaster–struck regions, and even replace street lights.

The company has already applied to the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which issues licences for satellites, and the enormous mirror could launch as soon as this summer. 

However, not everyone is on board with the plan. 

Martha Hotz Vitaterna, a neurobiologist at Northwestern University and co–director of the Center for Sleep and Circadian Biology, warned: 'The implications for wildlife, for all life, are enormous.'

Experts have warned this could disrupt circadian rhythms and ground–based astronomy, even as firms like SpaceX are trying to make their satellites (artist's impression) less reflective 

Reflect Orbital, which has already raised more than $28 million (£20.8 million) from investors, is not the first group to dream about harnessing the sun with mirrors.

In 1993, a Russian satellite dubbed Znamya, or Banner, unfurled a 65–foot mirror and reflected a beam of light as strong as two or three full moons.

The idea was to see whether a small fleet of satellites could be used to extend daylight hours in the remote region of Arctic Siberia.

However, Reflect Orbital's plan is even more ambitious than those early experiments.

The company says it plans to harness the vast quantities of sunlight that normally pass Earth by, and sell it on demand to people, companies and governments.

The biggest appeal will be for the growing solar power industry, which is currently facing the unavoidable problem that solar panels can't generate electricity at night.

Ben Nowack, Reflect Orbital's chief executive, told the New York Times: 'We're trying to build something that could replace fossil fuels and really power everything.'

By the end of 2027, Reflect Orbital plans to launch two more prototype mirrors with hopes to launch 1,000 larger satellites by the end of the following year.

By the end of 2027, Reflect Orbital plans to launch two more prototype mirrors with hopes to launch 1,000 larger satellites by 2028, 5,000 by 2030 and 50,000 orbiting mirrors by 2035

According to the company's current plan, that number will expand to 5,000 by 2030 and reach a full constellation of 50,000 orbiting mirrors by 2035.

Mr Nowack says the company will charge about $5,000 (£3,700) for an hour of sunlight from one mirror if a customer signs an annual contract for at least 1,000 hours.

He also says that solar power plants may be able to arrange for lighting by agreeing to split the revenues of the energy generated with Reflect Orbital's light.

While that might come as a boon for renewable energy, scientists have raised major concerns about the plan's safety and efficacy.

Critics warn that the mirrors could distract pilots, interfere with ground–based observatories, and wreak havoc on the natural sleep cycles of animals and humans.

Circadian rhythms, the natural biological cycles that help organisms know when to sleep, are hugely influenced by the presence or absence of sunlight.

If they're disrupted, animals might breed at the wrong times when food is scarce, hibernating animals and insects might wake up in the middle of winter, and plants might bloom when there are no pollinators.

The additional light could also confuse migratory birds, sending them flying off into the deadly cold when they think summer is approaching.

Reflect Orbital is not the first to attempt this. In 1993, the Russian satellite Znamya (pictured) unfurled a 65–foot mirror and reflected a beam of light as strong as two or three full moons

That could also be a problem for humans in the affected areas, with additional light in the evenings sending our natural sleep cycles into disarray.

The campaign group DarkSky says that these activities 'pose serious risks to the nighttime environment'.

DarkSky adds: 'Such illumination would introduce an entirely new source of artificial light at night, with far–reaching consequences, including disruption to wildlife and ecosystems that depend on natural cycles of light and dark, as well as serious public safety concerns.'

Unfortunately, the FCC does not take any of these factors into consideration when considering Reflect Orbital's application.

The agency's official policy is that anything that happens in space is, by definition, not on Earth and therefore not subject to environmental review.

Besides the environmental impacts, scientists are also extremely concerned that Reflect Orbital could jeopardise astronomy.

Astronomers have been warning for years that the light bouncing off the thousands of satellites in orbit is making it more and more difficult for telescopes to look out into space.

Even as SpaceX are voluntarily trying to make its satellites darker, Reflect Orbital is trying to make its spacecraft as bright as physically possible.

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

Mystery drone triggers terror alert and shelter-in-place at major US Air Force base home to nuclear strike bomber

• MORE:  Chilling list reveals which US cities would be targeted first in WW3

By CHRIS MELORE, US ASSISTANT SCIENCE EDITOR

Soldiers at one of America's most important military bases were forced to shelter in place after a mysterious drone set off a terror alert on US soil. 

Officials at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana revealed that an 'unmanned aerial system' - better known as a remote-controlled drone - was spotted near the facility Monday morning.

Since drones are strictly prohibited from flying near or over the base, the Air Force temporarily raised their Force Protection Condition (FPCON) level to 'Charlie,' meaning a possible terrorist threat had been detected.

Barksdale Air Force Base is home to the military's fleet of B-52 bombers, capable of delivering nuclear strikes around the world.

Base officials noted that Monday's incident was still under investigation, and no details on where the mystery drone came from or if it was captured have emerged.

The Louisiana base has long been considered a major target of US adversaries because it serves as the headquarters for Air Force Global Strike Command and the Eighth Air Force.

A Barksdale AFB spokesperson told the Daily Mail: 'Under state and federal law, any unauthorized drone activity over a military installation is a criminal offense that can result in significant fines and imprisonment.'

'We retain the right to protect our installation and will continue monitoring our airspace to address any threats to our mission or personnel.'

Personnel at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana were ordered to shelter in place on Monday due to a potential hostile drone in the area

Barksdale AFB is home to three squadrons of B-52s (Pictured), a long-range bomber which can carry out global nuclear strikes

The B-52H Stratofortress is one of the country's most terrifying aircraft, especially as tensions in the Middle East spark rhetoric of nuclear escalation.

It is a long-range, heavy bomber capable of flying at high subsonic speeds at altitudes of up to 50,000 feet.

The B-52 also has a range of approximately 8,800 miles without refueling, meaning it can reach Europe, the Middle East and Asia without needing to land.

The bomber has become famous for its ability to carry up to 70,000 pounds of ordnance for both conventional and nuclear strikes and its round-the-clock patrols during times of extreme crisis, like during the Cold War.

Three squadrons of B-52s call Barksdale AFB home, and the military has warned that penalties for approaching this base have recently been increased.

In July 2025, airmen from Barksdale's legal office worked with Louisiana state lawmakers to update the state's drone law, expanding restrictions on unauthorized flights to include Barksdale, US Navy ships, ports and other facilities across the state.

Monday's incident was the first reported incident causing a military base in the continental US to shelter in place since the start of the war in Iran.

US military bases in the Middle East have come under repeated attack from missile and drone strikes since the start of the conflict in Iran broke out on February 28.

Barksdale AFB officials said the drone incident was still under investigation by the military and the FAA

In Louisiana, state laws have been ungraded to include increased fines and prison time for any unauthorized drone flights over Barksdale AFB

Read More

EXCLUSIVE

• Map reveals your nearest nuclear shelter and states that are MOST exposed... amid fears of US attack 

Two days later, all military bases worldwide were placed on a heightened state of alert for potential retaliation or terror attacks.  

All bases in the US and abroad are reportedly at FPCON Bravo, meaning there is an 'increased and more predictable threat of terrorist activity.'

The incident over Barksdale adds to the growing list of unexplained sightings and potentially hostile drone incidents around US military sites since 2024.

Hundreds of bizarre drone sightings were reported along the East Coast starting in November of that year and continuing into early 2025, including over local military bases in New York and Ohio and President Trump's property in New Jersey.

US Air Force Staff Sergeant Ramiro Valero said in a 2025 statement: 'People who try to fly near a military base might have malicious intent. With the harsher punishments, they might think twice before trying it.'

The updated penalties covering the airspace over Barksdale now call for a fine of up to $250,000 and at least one year in prison for the drone flyer, according to the Air Force.

However, Louisiana state law R.S. 14:337(E)(5) states that a person convicted of flying an unauthorized drone over federal or military installations could also face 'five years of hard labor imprisonment and court-ordered forfeiture of the drone.'

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

Manitoba AI Technology Enhances UFO Detection in 2025 Analysis

Manitoba AI enhances UFO detection in 2025, analyzing 1,052 sightings. Only 3% remain unexplained, promising new insights.

Chris Rutkowski, UFO researcher, stands with alien models in his Winnipeg office, highlighting his work on UFO sightings.

Based on coverage from Global News, CP24, National Observer, and Lethbridge News Now.

Canadians filed 1,052 reports of unidentified flying objects last year, ranging from simple “lights in the sky” to descriptions of discs, cylinders and glowing orbs. The latest Canadian UFO Survey says most cases have ordinary explanations, but a small slice, a little more than three per cent, still couldn’t be pinned down after review.

As advancements in AI technology promise to enhance UFO detection capabilities, ongoing infrastructure developments at the Winnipeg Airport, supported by a recent influx of funding, may also play a role in fostering innovative research in the region. For more on this, see our coverage of the airport's development funding efforts here.

The technology helps with more "sophisticated" detection, Rutkowski said.

Stefan Michalak made this sketch of a strange craft he encountered in the Falcon Lake woods in Manitoba on the May long weekend of 1967. The Falcon Lake incident is Canada's most famous UFO encounter. 

(Submitted by Stan Michalak)

The survey’s longtime lead researcher, Winnipeg-based Chris Rutkowski of Ufology Research, says better tools are on the way to sort the mundane from the genuinely puzzling. The next big shift, he argues, is artificial intelligence that can quickly tell the difference between a bird, a plane, a satellite and something that does not match common patterns.

Canadian UFO Survey reports 1,052 sightings

The 2025 edition of the annual survey was released Monday and pulls reports from public submissions, UFO research groups, government agencies, an aviation incident database and even social media. Ufology Research uses a straightforward definition: a UFO is “an object seen in the sky which its observer cannot identify.”

The tally is a slight increase from 2024, when 1,008 reports were collected. Rutkowski has been compiling the annual survey for decades, and CTV News reports it has catalogued more than 26,000 Canadian UFO sightings since 1989.

Witnesses come from all walks of life, according to the survey: “from farmhands to airline pilots and from teachers to police officers.”

What Canadians say they saw

A big chunk of reports are the classic “nocturnal lights.” The Canadian Press story says about half of sightings fell into that category, often turning out to be satellites, aircraft or stars. CTV pegs it at 52 per cent of reports being lights.

Beyond that, CTV’s breakdown includes spheres (11 per cent), triangles (five per cent) and discs (five per cent). Nearly half of sightings (48 per cent) were described as white objects or lights, followed by “multicoloured” at 16 per cent. About 13 per cent of sightings happened during the day.

Rutkowski’s bottom line on the wilder descriptions is pretty restrained: the vast majority are explainable, and there’s “no proof aliens are responsible.” Even the “unknown” label comes with a warning in the report itself: unexplained doesn’t mean extraterrestrial, and some cases may still get solved with more investigation.

Where UFO reports happened in Canada

Reports came from every province and territory. Ontario led the country, with CTV citing 307 reports, followed by Quebec at 210 and British Columbia at 131.

The survey also connects sightings to population: bigger places tend to generate more reports. Past hot spots have included Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, but the survey says Calgary topped the list for cities last year.

Rutkowski also notes a limitation that’s been around for years: the survey depends on co-operation from investigators and groups across the country, and it hasn’t always been comprehensive because some organizations withhold information.

AI and the Harvard Galileo Project

Rutkowski says UFO hobbyists and researchers are increasingly setting up observation stations that do more than eyeballing the night sky. These stations can collect more “scientific data,” and some are training AI to classify objects, spotting patterns and filtering out the usual suspects.

He points to the Galileo Project at Harvard University, which uses high-tech telescopes and cameras at monitoring sites, along with AI to classify and analyze what they capture. The pitch is simple: if you can reliably rule out birds, planes, satellites and other known objects faster, you’re left with a cleaner set of cases worth a closer look.

Federal call for a Canadian UAP office

The terminology is shifting, too. “UFO” is increasingly replaced in official circles by “UAP,” short for unidentified aerial (or anomalous) phenomena.

A report from Canada’s Office of the Chief Science Advisor recommended creating a public-facing federal agency to standardize, collect and study UAP reports. Rutkowski supports the idea, partly because of concerns about incursions into Canadian airspace and Canadian sovereignty, calling it something to take “very seriously” as part of Canada’s defence package.

Some reports already come from official channels. CTV says 18 cases were found in Transport Canada’s online aviation incident database, including a flight approaching Vancouver International Airport that reported “an unrecognizable flying object of mechanical nature, without lights,” and another over northern Alberta reporting a “cylinder-shaped object” at 39,000 feet. Transport Canada cautions those reports are preliminary and unconfirmed.

Rutkowski’s view is that stigma around reporting is fading, and that better data starts with more people documenting what they saw. He also offers a bit of reassurance for anyone who has looked up and wondered: he says one in ten Canadians believe they’ve seen a UFO.

{ https://www.thecanadareport.ca/ }

More than 1,000 UFOs reported over Canada in 2025

Reports of UFO sightings in Canada jumped last year. What’s going on?

 By Adriana Fallico - Global News

An alien figure is displayed during an exhibition held as part of the Indonesia UFO Festival in Yogyakarta, Indonesia,Friday, July 25, 2025.  (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

Next time you are going for a walk outside, maybe take a look at the sky and see if you spot anything unusual.

The 2025 edition of the Canadian UFO Survey was released Monday, which says that the number of sightings of unidentified flying objects was at its highest point since the COVID-19 pandemic, but has not topped the number reported during 2020.

The 2025 numbers show 1,052 UFO reports were shared in Canada, involving “participating private organizations, and through social media.”

Those 1,052 sightings are in contrast to the 1,008 in 2024, 570 in 2023, 768 in 2022, 722 in 2021, and 1,243 in 2020, which was up from 849 in 2019.

Out of all those 2025 reports, 3.42 per cent were classified as “unexplained.”

“Most [cases] were having simple or easy explained configurations, such as many sightings being aircrafts, planes, satellites, planets, that type of thing,” said Chris Rutkowski, the research coordinator for the Canadian UFO Survey.

Rutkowski also stated that one in 10 Canadians believe they have seen a UFO.

“It cuts across all demographics, and all areas of Canada,” he said. “If you’ve seen a UFO, you are definitely in very good company.”

Number of sightings have increased over the years

Rutkowski stated that the number of reported cases had been declining as of 2012, which was the highest reported number of cases with 1,982 since the survey began in 1989.

However, this year’s 1,052 sightings are the highest since 2020, when 1,243 sightings were documented.

“Over the past few years and certainly after the pandemic, after that point people started taking a renewed interest and I would imagine some of that renewed interest came from some objects flying in the sky,” he said.

In 2023, the number of reported cases sat at 570, indicating a difference of 482 cases compared to 2025 reported cases.

“There certainly is a concern about people being a little watchful and wondering what’s going on up there,” Rutkowski said.

Where are the reports coming from?

Rutkowski also noted that there has always been a stream of reports from “coast to coast to coast” across Canada since 1989, surrounding all Canadian provinces and territories.

“The number of reports in a given area is related to population, of course we get more reports from Ontario, Quebec and B.C., but there are some irregularities,” he said.

“For example, Manitoba and Newfoundland had significant increases in UFO numbers, whereas in Alberta and B.C. we saw decreases in numbers. Why? We are really not sure, but it really proves that there is more to the UFO phenomenon that bears more understanding.”

In 2025, Ontario led the pack with 30 per cent of the total number of UFO reports, Quebec claimed about 20 per cent, B.C. had 13.5 per cent and Alberta had about 11 per cent.

Both Manitoba and Nova Scotia saw significant increases in numbers of reported UFOs in 2025, with 55 and 117 cases, respectively.

The report says that the higher number of reports in Nova Scotia was “likely because Nova Scotians have very active UFO-related social media where witnesses can report their UFO sightings easily.”

In terms of metropolitan cities in Canada, Toronto finished first with 53 UFO reports, Vancouver with 45, Montreal with 30, Calgary with 28 and Edmonton with 23.

What was also different in this year’s findings was the time of year in which these sightings were reported.

According to the survey, “reports were in the late summer and winter instead of mostly summer months as usual.”

UFO hearing: US has conducted secret crash retrievals for alien aircrafts, former DoD official says

“We’ve actually noticed for several years now that the peak in August has been more prevalent, and that’s not intuitive in Canada because of our winters that there would be more people outside in the middle of summer seeing and reporting things in the sky, and yet it’s not June and July, which are the warmest months but August had more reports of UFOs,” Rutkowski said.

“In the middle of winter in January 2025, there was a number of UFO reports compared to most other months as well, so it’s not just a matter of the weather.”

Duration of sightings also spiked

The survey also states that the average duration of Canadian UFO sightings was 47 minutes, a “very significant” increase over 2024 (36 minutes), 2023 (16 minutes), and 2022 (13 minutes).

The survey indicates that the length of time a UFO is detected is actually “one of the biggest clues to its explanation.”

“Experience in studying UFO reports has shown that short duration events are usually fireballs or bolides, and long duration events of an hour or more are very probably astronomical objects moving slowly with Earth’s rotation,” the survey reads.

The survey also states that the peak times in which sightings were documented “has usually followed a similar pattern every year, with a “peak at 2200 hours local and a trough around 0900 hours local.”

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{ https://globalnews.ca/ }

What came before the Big Bang? These are the best theories we have about the origin of the cosmos

We explore the theories about one of the most mind-boggling questions about the Universe.

BY Govert Schilling

It’s the question that always comes up when thinking about the origin of the Universe: what came before the Big Bang?

And if there was no ‘before’, what was the cause of the Big Bang in the first place?

Until a few centuries ago, the answer was easy: some eternal deity set everything in motion.

For more amazing science, read our guides to...

• Nuclear pasta
• Spacetime
• Supersymmetry
• Antimatter

Credit: Aleksandr Zubkov / Getty Images

Even Isaac Newton believed that God created the Universe, some 6,000 years ago.

Later, many scientists, including young Albert Einstein, assumed the Universe itself to be eternal and everlasting.

Einstein's theories of spacetime revolutionised our understanding of the Universe. Credit: Bettmann / Getty Images

The beginning of the Universe

But when cosmic expansion was discovered, Belgian cosmologist (and Jesuit priest) Georges Lemaître realised there must have been a beginning – a scientific version of Genesis, so to speak.

Not that everyone immediately agreed.

Well into the 1960s, Fred Hoyle’s steady-state theory was quite popular among iconoclastic scientists as well as lay people.

Hoyle accepted the expansion of the Universe, but he didn’t believe in the Big Bang.

Instead, he assumed that a slow, continuous creation of new matter could keep the average density and the general properties of the Universe constant over time.

Popular in the 1950s, steady-state theory claimed matter is continuously created as the Universe expands, a theory overtaken by the Big Bang idea that density drops as galaxies move away from one another

The 1964 discovery of the cosmic microwave background was the major nail in the coffin of the steady-state theory.

Ever since, supporting evidence for the Big Bang origin of our Universe has accumulated to a point where there’s hardly any doubt left.

Still, no one has the final answer to the question "what happened before the Big Bang?".

Could there have been a Universe before the Big Bang?

Most scientists simply ignore the question, as it seems to be too hard a nut to crack.

A snapshot of the Cosmic Microwave Background - heat left over from the Big Bang - when the Universe was just 380,000 years old. What came before? Credit: ESA and the Planck Collaboration

Beginning of time

When astronomers talk about the Big Bang, they usually do not refer to the very beginning of the Universe (time zero), but to the incredibly hot and compact state of the Universe in the first couple of minutes of its existence.

To some extent, this is because no one has a real clue about the true nature of time, let alone about the beginning of time.

British physicist Julian Barbour, for one, has argued that time doesn’t even exist, except as an illusion in our minds.

According to others (including Stephen Hawking), time came into existence together with the Universe, rendering the whole concept of the word ‘before’ meaningless.

Asking what happened before the Big Bang would be like asking what lies north of the North Pole, or what distance is shorter than zero.

Will all matter eventually crush back in on itself? Credit: NASA, ESA, H. Teplitz and M. Rafelski (IPAC/Caltech), A. Koekemoer (STScI), R. Windhorst (Arizona State University), Z. Levay (STScI)

Alternative theories

Then again, we simply don’t know whether or not there was time before the Big Bang.

According to the once-popular idea of the cyclic (or oscillatory) Universe, the current expansion of space could one day revert into a contraction, and the resulting Big Crunch could bounce into a new Big Bang, starting the next cycle of an eternal sequence.

For more on this, read our interview with Katie Mack about the end of the Universe.

It’s just one of many hypotheses in which our Universe is not unique, but part of a possibly infinite multiverse, one way or another.

And if the multiverse is also infinite in time, we’re back to the idea that everything has existed forever, conveniently circumnavigating the nagging question of a beginning.

Credit: NASA/JPL

Finally, South African physicist Neil Turok thinks the Big Bang not only spawned our Universe, but also an anti-Universe, composed of anti­­​­matter and running backward in time.

Again, an intriguing idea, but there’s also no chance of confirmation (or rejection!) via observations.

In the end, we have to admit we’re ignorant about the true beginning of the Universe.

And even if we lean towards an eternal multiverse with no real beginning at all, we don’t know why there is something (or, more to the point, why there is everything) instead of nothing.

This article originally appeared in the June 2023 issue of BBC Sky at Night Magazine.

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

©Image PetsnPals/AI generated image

Clues hidden in plain sight are reshaping its story.
Across the quiet landscape of northeastern Louisiana, the sweeping ridges and towering mounds of Poverty Point rise with a presence that feels both deliberate and difficult to explain. For generations, archaeologists viewed the site as largely ceremonial, a place defined more by symbolism than daily life. Yet subtle clues buried in the soil have begun pointing toward a far more dynamic past. Patterns of movement, artifacts carried from distant regions, and the scale of construction hint at something larger unfolding here. As new research gathers momentum, the ancient earthworks appear less like silent monuments and more like the framework of an active human landscape.

©Image license via Wikimedia Commons/Jennifer R. Trotter

1. Researchers now see gathering events shaping the ridges.
Archeologists believe the concentric ridges supported large gatherings, according to the National Park Service. That possibility transforms the site from a quiet ceremonial zone into a dynamic place filled with people who traveled long distances. The scale begins to feel intentional because it fits the activity it may have once held. Travelers likely arrived with goods, stories and expectations that shaped the rhythm of the place.

Those repeated visits would have carved patterns into the land and created a shared identity linked to Poverty Point. The idea brings a lively pulse to a space once seen as still and symbolic.

©Image license via Wikimedia Commons/Heironymous Rowe

©Image license via Wikimedia Commons/Heironymous Rowe

2. Movement pathways appear built into the site’s design.
Some researchers think the ridges guided how visitors moved, as reported by Smithsonian Magazine. The curved earthworks may have shaped footpaths that channeled people toward central areas. Once seen through that lens, the entire design becomes organized rather than mysterious. Walkways appear to sit quietly inside the broader landscape, waiting for someone to trace them again.

Such structure suggests the site functioned more like a coordinated gathering space than an empty monument. People may have followed predictable routes, creating a sense of flow that held the community together each time they returned to Poverty Point.

©Image license via Canva

3. Massive community labor created the monumental mounds.
Soil studies reveal that large communities helped build the mounds, as discovered by the Louisiana Office of State Parks. The work required immense cooperation and hints at a shared purpose that involved many groups. No single leader could have commanded labor on this scale without a unifying reason. That unifying force may have been gatherings, trade or seasonal events that encouraged participation.

This cooperative building effort suggests the site held meaning across broad regions. The sense of collective investment points to a place that functioned actively in the lives of those who constructed it, not a silent symbol removed from daily life.

©Image license via Wikimedia Commons/Heironymous Rowe

4. Far reaching trade routes fed into Poverty Point’s economy.
Artifacts found at the site originate from regions stretching from the Great Lakes to the Ohio River Valley. Items such as stone tools and copper pieces suggest people arrived carrying goods meant for exchange. These long distance connections give the site a wider influence than many expected and paint it as a major hub. Travelers may have returned because the location offered both opportunity and familiarity.

Trade would also explain why different groups were willing to invest effort into maintaining the site. A place that benefitted many people would naturally gather recurring attention and participation.

©Image license via Wikimedia Commons/Chumwa , chris è«–

5. The central plaza likely hosted timed seasonal events.
The massive open plaza appears flattened and maintained with great care. Researchers believe it may have supported events that followed seasonal patterns. Predictable gatherings could have guided travel and anchored cultural routines across many communities. People familiar with those cycles may have anticipated the journey each year and prepared for long trips to the site.

This kind of recurring schedule would create memories tied directly to the plaza. It becomes easier to imagine it filled with families, traders and visitors moving in sync with a rhythm that returned generation after generation.

©Image license via Wikimedia Commons/Jennifer R. Trotter

6. The tallest mounds may have served as visual markers.
Some scholars propose that the largest mounds operated as signals for travelers approaching from river routes. Their height and placement make them visible above the surrounding landscape, offering guidance to those arriving by water. That visibility gives the mounds a practical function beyond ceremony. They become landmarks meant to aid navigation across a region shaped by rivers.

Seeing them as markers makes the surrounding area feel more connected. Travelers could have relied on these reference points, making Poverty Point a familiar and welcoming destination even from far away.

©Image license via Flickr/Michael Homan

7. Specialized activity areas reveal organized working zones.
Excavations show clusters of tools and debris that suggest people worked in designated areas. These zones appear set apart from living or gathering spaces, hinting at intentional planning. Visitors may have crafted items, prepared supplies or exchanged goods in particular spots. Such organization points to a site designed to support different roles without chaos.

This separation of activity helps explain the impressive scale of the earthworks. A place that managed large groups needed order, and these areas show how that order may have been maintained by people who used the space regularly.

©Image license via Canva

8. Shared meals created a sense of community identity.
Food remains found throughout the site suggest many people ate together during gatherings. Bones, seeds and cooking residues show that meals were larger than simple subsistence activities. Shared eating often strengthens bonds, especially when groups reunite seasonally. These collective meals may have created traditions that tied people from distant regions to the same location.

That social unity helps explain why visitors returned. Meals shared across communities make a place feel familiar, weaving emotional ties into the land itself and anchoring Poverty Point deeper in cultural memory.

©Image license via Wikimedia Commons/©Image license via Wikimedia Commons/Herb Roe

9. Water access points reveal careful planning for arrivals.
The ridges near natural water sources suggest travelers accessed the site through predictable routes. People arriving by boat would have found convenient transitions from water to elevated ground. This layout indicates that the builders understood how movement worked across the region. Their planning made entry smooth, efficient and intuitive.

Such thoughtful design reinforces the idea that Poverty Point was built for repeated use. It may have been a dependable destination that generations trusted, knowing their arrival would be met with a landscape that welcomed them.

©Image license via Wikimedia Commons/Bart Everson

10. New interpretations reveal a site full of human motion.
The emerging view of Poverty Point highlights people gathering, trading and working rather than standing in silent ceremony. The land carries the imprint of movement as much as construction. Travelers may have shaped the site as much as the builders did, adding layers of meaning each time they returned. The ridges and mounds feel less like rigid structures and more like traces of lives in motion.

Seeing the site this way brings warmth to its history. Poverty Point becomes a place built by many hands for many reasons, held together by shared purpose.

{ PetsPals }

Turkey Kumburgaz UFO Videos Are 100% Real With Clear View Of Alien Entities Sitting Inside Craft

Back in 2008, Yalcin Yalman worked as a night watchman at the Yenikent facility from where he shot all these amazing videos of UFOs, hovering over the Marmara Sea near Kumburgaz. He even showed his second-hand camera to the media in a press conference held at the Dedeman Hotel in Istanbul.

Yalman said he started recording the strange crafts as a hobby to pass his time in the night. Due to the shaky videos, some skeptics claimed that the mysterious objects over the skies of Turkey could have been a US stealth drone or other aircraft. However, numerous experts confirmed that the videos were authentic. Besides, many people witnessed the same unknown crafts in the sky. The sightings gained attention from locals, national media, and even CNN. Several videos were recorded between June 8 and 12, 2009, showing mysterious objects and lights.

Originally, the video was analyzed and made public by the Sirius UFO Space Sciences Research Center led by researcher Haktan Akdoğan. Haktan said the UFOs were often seen by civilians and military pilots during an International UFO Congress in 2009. (Source)

n 2009, after the conference, there were witnesses of 8-10 people including UFOlogist Dr. Roger Leir, who also witnessed and verified the Kumburgaz UFO sighting. Dr. Leir was present during the filming of one video on May 17, 2009, and confirmed that as the UAP turned, it was similar to the “Roswell” shaped craft (more boomerang-shaped) rather than a traditional disc. Dr. Leir discussed this incident that happened with him after the conference on Coast to Coast with George Knapp.

Dr. Leir told Knapp that he, Yalman and others went to Kumburgaz to film UFOs. The group stayed up from midnight to 4 o’clock in the morning to capture any possible sightings. The conditions were ideal, with clear skies and no obstructions. During the filming, they observed a bright object below the full moon, which initially appeared as a potential star or planet. As they focused on this object, they discovered a semi-circular craft with a multitude of lights, possibly shaped like a boomerang or a cylindrical saucer

Dr. Leir said, “You’d think, ‘Well, gee, a bright sky, bright moon, you’re not going to see anything.’ But in this case, the moon was a big help. It essentially lit up the exterior portion of the craft, which initially, when we saw it, looked a bit like a boomerang because we weren’t seeing it straight on, so we couldn’t tell the exact shape of the craft. But then we went to full film on it, and we could see that it was either a boomerang, or we were looking at a certain portion of a cylindrical craft or a saucer.

Till this day, I don’t know, and I don’t know what the analysts said about the shape. But it was either one of the two: either a boomerang shape with a round front or a complete saucer. It did turn a couple of times, so we were able to see the side, and it looked like it could have been saucer-shaped. But then we got the biggest shock of our lives because we could see light that was emanating from the internal portion of the craft in three areas. One was directly in front, and one was on either side.

This was a full-on front view, and folks can look at the Coast website and they can not only see the video but please go to the Chilean analysis because there are some still photos there which show what we saw when we looked in the central portion. That was a big shock to look and see, not a Rorschach-type thing, but actual entities that were, whatever they were doing, looking out the front of the craft, just the same as we were looking at them.”

Video Observation

From 2007 to 2009, Yalman recorded approximately 30 videos. The footage was taken with a MiniDV Canon DM-GR1-A based on the NTSC system with a diaphragm set at a maximum of 1.8. It is a 3CCD 20x optic 100x with a teleconverter mounted on a 58 mm adapter. The tele-objective is a Sony VCL HGD 1758 model lens, x 1.7. [2007 to 2009 Original Raw Footage]

The videos were examined by two influential state-sponsored organizations in Turkey, “The Scientific and Technology Research Board of Turkey” and “The TUG National Observatory.” Their objective was to identify any evidence of forgery, but the results supported the authenticity of the videos. The original film cassettes were also studied by individuals from Japan, Chile, Brazil, and Russia, and despite several attempts, no one has been able to conclusively demonstrate evidence of a hoax, fraud, or manipulation, leaving the case unidentified.

Yalman’s camera was equipped with a zoom option which allowed him to even capture the pilots, sitting in one of the crafts. The image is shaky due to the hand movements while zooming. However, with the editing software, the video was stabilized, and the result shocked everyone. Two humanoid figures could be seen in the image with large black eyes and oversized heads.

Haktan Akdoğan noted that these are the most important images in Turkey and in the world, saying: “After doing all the necessary analysis which went on for several weeks, the board came to a definite conclusion with no doubt that these are 100% genuine videos. The objects sighted in the aforementioned footage that have a structure that is made of specific material are definitely not made up by any kind of computer animation nor are they any form of special effects used for simulation in a studio or for a video effect therefore in conclusion it was decided that the sightings were neither a mock up or hoax. It is concluded that these objects in the sightings that have physical and material structures do not belong in any category such as; planes, helicopters, meteors, Venus, Mars, satellites, fireballs, Chinese lanterns, fireballs, weather balloons, natural or atmospheric phenomenon etc. and but rather fall into the category of UFOs.”

“We see the heads of not only one UFO but also of two beings in the images. This is the first in the world.” He further added that those images would have a great impact on UFOlogy. He had been researching UFOs for 22 years and had never seen something like this. He stated: “These are the most remarkable images taken in Turkish history.”

[In translation] Akdoğan stated that “these beings are generally seen in areas rich with resources, volcanic areas, and historical places. They started to come more frequently after nuclear tests. Maybe the released radiation also harms the cosmic neighbors, we disrupt the balance in the universe. Maybe they observe this dangerous process.” (Source)

According to the report issued by the Scientific and Technology Research Board of Turkey, the examination of these frames has yielded the following results

• The images were recorded in digital NTSC format by the above-mentioned camera.
• The date on the video indicates that the recordings were made during 2007, 2008, and 2009.
• The footage images of the object that visibly have a certain configuration are not computer animations, special video effects or studio-re-created images or models. The footage is genuine.
• The first observation made from the footage is that some of the images were recorded in the nighttime sky at a certain altitude from the horizon. The footage also covers images of the moon in some parts which proves that the video was shot in the nighttime and open air. But, the fact that digital date displays show AM in certain frames and PM in others, raises suspicion about the validity of the time in which the recordings were made.
• Since in some parts, there is no other object that can be featured as a reference in the close-up frames and no observable differences were found on background examination, the actual location, distance, dimensions and nature of the objects could not have been determined.
• Through the examination of shootings of multiple dates, it is a strong possibility that 2-3 different objects were captured. However, it is difficult to determine whether the objects are moving or not. Their movement is slow even if they do so.
• The reflections of light on the objects are sometimes caused by the moon which was in a convenient location at that time, and sometimes produced by some other sources of light.
• The light reflection from the left side of the object which is seen on the August 10th shootings is not produced by the moon. At that time, the moon was in a phase that was pretty close to the “new moon” phase and located approximately at a 10-degree proximity/angle to the horizon. Moreover, the image processing analysis conducted on some parts of the footage revealed that the center of the object has the same density as its background, namely is of a transparent nature.

Not Debunked

Adam Goldstack of UAP Media UK mentions that many debunkers try to explain the craft as cruise ships but according to former F-16 fighter pilot and researcher Chris Letho, it does not add up. Letho analyzed the videos and case and calculated the object’s size, horizon distance, plus visual angles from the Marmara Sea. He concluded the logistics of a cruise ship did not match the reported UAP. (Source)

Goldstack writes, “From an analytical perspective, the Turkey Kumburgaz UFO case is unique with regards to the clear and multiple video footage obtained. Through this case, we also have sequential data that display behavioral patterns, times, and dates. We see all of the twenty-five video encounters/incidents at night-time/early morning (with one in the late evening), which is in keeping with the wider range of Ufology data that suggests UAP often appears at night-time.

We also see another significant pattern displaying the encounters around water – in this case, the Marmara Sea. The Sea of Marmara itself is a small sea with an area of 11,350 km2 (4,380 sq mi) and with dimensions of 280 km × 80 km (174 mi × 50 mi). The sea has a greatest depth of 1,370 m (4,490 ft). How significant the Sea of Marmara is to potential UAP has still not been explained. No connection to nuclear facilities or weapons has been linked in this case.”

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Earth to Pass Through the Same Taurid Meteor Stream in 2032 That May Have Triggered a Mass Extinction 12,800 Years Ago

Earth will travel right in front of the same Taurid meteor stream in 2032 that caused a mass extinction and worldwide flood ~12,800 years ago, plunging Earth into a mini-Ice Age for 1,300 years. Graham Hancock was right all this time but we did not listen to him.

Our solar system is a dangerous place, and every month Earth inches closer to one of its riskier places, the “Taurid swarm” of meteors. Our planet is predicted to pass directly through the “Taurid swarm” in November 2032.

(Image Credit: AstroStar/Shutterstock) 

An ancient monument found in Turkey might be more than just a monument—it could be the world’s oldest solar calendar. Researchers from the University of Edinburgh studied symbols carved on the pillars of Göbekli Tepe, a large, ancient site in southern Turkey. They think these carvings were used to track days, seasons, and years, like a calendar. (Source)

The team noticed that each “V” shape carved on the pillars might represent one day. One pillar even had 365 “V”s, the same number as days in a year. They also found that a special “V” around the neck of a bird-like figure could represent the summer solstice—the longest day of the year. This might explain why the “V” symbol shows up on many other statues in the area, often around the necks of figures connected to time and creation.

Mini Ice Age

The ancient calendar focused on tracking day, night, and seasonal changes, which might have become more important after a major comet hit Earth around 10,850 B.C. This event likely caused a mini-ice age that wiped out many species. According to Martin Sweatman, a researcher from the University of Edinburgh, the people at Gobekli Tepe were careful observers of the sky, possibly because the comet strike had changed their world.

This disaster may have sparked the beginning of civilization by starting new religious beliefs and pushing people to develop agriculture to survive the colder climate. Their carvings might be some of the earliest attempts at writing. These carvings also tracked the cycles of the Moon and Sun, long before similar calendars were made. They may have even shown for the first time that comet strikes are more likely to happen when Earth crosses the path of comet fragments, something that modern scientists have confirmed.

To help support this theory, the team points to another pillar at the site appearing to picture the Taurid meteor stream lasting 27 days, which was quite possibly the source of the ancient comet strike. The researchers believe that the temple carvings show the ancient civilization was recording dates precisely, noting how the movement of constellations across the sky differed based on the time of the year. This would be 10,000 years before Hipparchus of ancient Greece documented the wobble in the Earth’s axis in 150 BC, making this newfound calendar well ahead of its time.

The Younger Dryas boundary (YDB) cosmic-impact hypothesis suggests that around 12,800 years ago, Earth was hit by pieces of a large comet, which broke apart as it entered the inner solar system. This event likely caused a chain reaction, leading to an “impact winter” (a period of intense cold) and a climate change episode called the Younger Dryas (YD). (Source)

The collision is also believed to have caused massive wildfires, the extinction of large animals like mammoths, and changes in human cultures and population decline. Evidence of this impact includes unusually high levels of platinum found at 26 sites across the Northern Hemisphere, including in ice cores from Greenland, which show platinum deposits over a 21-year period.

The start of the Younger Dryas also shows an increase in dust and chemicals linked to wildfires, like ammonium and other burning aerosols, found in ice cores from Greenland, Antarctica, and Russia. These signs point to one of the biggest wildfire events in over 120,000 years, with about 9% of Earth’s forests burned, covering 10 million square kilometers.

This large-scale burning and the cooling effect of the impact may have triggered the Younger Dryas climate change, according to the theory.

A 2021 study (Taurid complex smoking gun) found that 88 near-Earth asteroids, hidden in the debris that creates the Taurid Meteor Shower, likely came from the breakup of a single comet about 20,000 years ago. Astronomers at the University of Antioquia in Colombia studied the ‘Taurid complex’ to learn more about where these objects came from.

In the 1980s, scientists William Napier and Victor Clube noticed large asteroids in the Taurid stream. They suggested these asteroids had the same origin as Comet Encke, which orbits the Sun every three years. However, some asteroids are over a mile wide, meaning they couldn’t have come from Comet Encke itself. Scientists Ignacio Ferrín and Vincenzo Orofino reviewed old research and measured light reflected from the larger asteroids.

Comet Encke, first seen in 1786, left a trail of debris as it got closer to the sun, like other comets. This trail, made up of rocks, dust, and debris, sometimes comes close to Earth, leading to lots of scientific study. Some studies focus on larger asteroids.

Experts think impacts from the Taurid stream may have contributed to the extinction of ancient cultures and global cooling during the Younger Dryas period. The 1908 Tunguska event, where a small asteroid exploded above Russia, destroying millions of trees, is believed to be connected to this debris stream.

In 2013, the Chelyabinsk meteor, which injured over 1,500 people in Russia, may have also come from the Taurid stream. In 2005, NASA astronomer Rob Suggs observed a flash from a meteor hitting the moon, which was part of the Taurid meteor shower.

A team of Colombian researchers, along with astronomers from Italy’s University of Salento, reviewed many studies on space impacts. They confirmed that a group of space objects contains up to 88 large pieces. Using a method called secular light curves, they noticed changes in the brightness of these objects and found that 67% showed signs of “comet-like” activity. This supported the idea that these objects came from a common origin.

Napier, another scientist, supported their findings. He said that these asteroids, which have orbits like Comet Encke, could either be affected by unknown forces or are pieces of a larger, older comet that lost its gases. This original comet may have been a “rubble pile” – a mix of rocks and other materials held together by ice. Over time, this pile could have broken apart, possibly due to forces from the Sun or another object, creating smaller fragments.

One asteroid, Oljato, is an example of a rubble pile. It’s still held together by ice, which gives it comet-like activity, but it’s much smaller than its parent. Bigger inactive objects like Morpheus are similar, but their ice is trapped inside. Smaller objects, like 2006 SO198, might be the original rocky pieces. The team explained that even if an object looks like a regular asteroid, it could still have a comet-like origin.

Taurid meteors, part of this group, are usually larger than normal meteors. They shine brightly and go deeper into the Earth’s atmosphere, sometimes creating fireballs. While this is mostly harmless, the discovery of larger asteroids in one “dangerous” part of the meteor stream could be a real threat.

Earth passes through this risky area every few years, leading to more shooting stars and possibly large objects hitting Earth instead of burning up in the atmosphere. Future encounters are expected in 2022, 2025, 2032, and 2039.

In 2021, David Asher, Armagh Observatory astronomer predicted that in 2032 and 2036 we are likely to pass through the centre of the Taurid complex, where there will be a ‘noticeable enhancement of fireballs.’ According to study [Taurid complex smoking gun] authors Ignacio Ferrín and Vincenzo Orofino, outgassing from comet-like objects within the complex could be hiding smaller, but still potentially dangerous, asteroids that might hit the Earth.

‘The Tunguska cosmic body was 60 to 90 meters in diameter,’ he told Discover Magazine, adding that we ‘now believe the complex may contain many more objects of that size. It is not the tame, simple and innocent complex we thought it was.’

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This Man, Who Worked on the Voyager Missions, Said He Discovered Enormous, Living, Electromagnetic Vehicles Inhabiting Saturn’s Rings

The Strangest thing about Saturn is that this Man, who worked on the Voyager missions, said he discovered Enormous, Living, Electromagnetic Vehicles inhabiting its Rings.

Dr. Norman Bergrun concluded, based on his analysis of Voyager 1 and 2 data, which he detailed in his 1985 book, Ringmakers of Saturn, that he discovered enormous, living, electromagnetic vehicles inhabiting the rings of Saturn.

Dr. Bergrun, who had worked for NASA, claimed that there were massive alien spacecraft proliferating in the rings of Saturn. He is the author of the books “Ringmakers of Saturn” and “Tomorrows Technology Today,” which document the existence of extraterrestrial vehicles of immense power. A scientist who pioneered the methodology of thermal ice prevention design, he is also credited with roll-stability laws for airplanes and missiles.

Dr. Bergrun was manager of test planning and analysis for the Polaris Underwater Launch Missile System and evaluated satellite system applications. Also a director of Information Systems, he founded his own company in 1971 and is cited in “Who’s Who in the World” and other reference works. He was an alumnus of Ames Research Laboratory, NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics), predecessor of Ames Research Center, NASA, where he worked for 12 years as a research scientist.

Dr. Norman Bergrun played a key role in the Voyager missions, the probes that were sent out to photograph Saturn, its rings, and its moons. There is a photo shown below from that mission, which he was able to obtain from the agency of a large unidentified flying object hovering just outside Saturn’s rings. It is huge, approximately the size of Earth, and is published in his book, “Ringmakers of Saturn.”

Dr. Bergrun claimed that these rings were not made of ice and rock as is commonly believed, but were actually the exhaust from these massive craft, which he calls “ringmakers.” He asserted that these vehicles are proliferating and are now also present at Jupiter and Uranus, creating new rings on planets that previously had none.

He suggested these vehicles had strong nuclear power sources and advanced electromagnetic technology. They appeared capable of creating massive electrical fields, lightning bolts larger than those on Earth, and disturbances across the entire ring system.

Dr. Bergrun recounted his professional history, mentioning his work at Lockheed on the first generation of the Polaris underwater launch vehicle. This had led him to work in a top-secret area behind closed doors, where he had been required to sign a 30-year non-disclosure agreement.

He explained that he eventually left this role due to “claustrophobia,” clarifying that it was not a fear of small spaces but rather the mental strain of being confined to the same secret room day after day.

It was during this period that he received his first clue about unusual things in space after being given a set of data that no one else could make sense of. When he plotted it, he realized that it showed something strange. (Source)

He claimed that he faced significant opposition and cover-ups from official bodies such as NASA. He recounted a story about a source allegedly connected to NASA who asked him how he had found a particular image from the moon, remarking, “I thought we darkened that enough that you wouldn’t find it.”

Dr. Bergrun also stated that his personal data and images, which he had stored in a supposedly impenetrable vault, were tampered with. He claimed that unknown parties had “garbled” his files on laptops and disks, sometimes erasing them completely. Despite this interference, he believed he did not need the old data because he was so familiar with the subject that he could reconstruct his work at any time.

He claimed that he faced significant opposition and cover-ups from official bodies such as NASA. He recounted a story about a source allegedly connected to NASA who asked him how he had found a particular image from the moon, remarking, “I thought we darkened that enough that you wouldn’t find it.”

Dr. Bergrun also stated that his personal data and images, which he had stored in a supposedly impenetrable vault, were tampered with. He claimed that unknown parties had “garbled” his files on laptops and disks, sometimes erasing them completely. Despite this interference, he believed he did not need the old data because he was so familiar with the subject that he could reconstruct his work at any time.

Regarding the purpose of these vehicles, Dr. Bergrun disagreed with the theory that they were mining the rings. Instead, he suggested that they were “nursing” from the rings, using them as a source of energy to power themselves and to create new, smaller vehicles that later grew, much like living organisms.

He was open to the idea that they might also fly close to the sun to “get pumped up” with energy, since their apparent ability to withstand extreme heat made that possible.

According to him, these could not be fully explained by natural processes. He suggested that the vehicles had electromagnetic capabilities and emitted streams of material, which then formed the rings and gaps seen around Saturn. He gave examples and measurements to support his claims, and pointed to historical observations by Galileo and others that showed unexplained phenomena.

Dr. Bergrun also claimed that similar effects were seen on some of Saturn’s moons. He described mysterious lighting and unusual markings, which he thought were possible “scars” left by the vehicles. He went even further, suggesting that Earth’s Moon, the Tunguska explosion in Siberia, and strange weather events might all be related to visits or actions by these powerful spacecraft.

Read also:

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• This Man Says NASA Asked for Help After Astronauts Encountered Orbs Containing 125-Foot Winged Angelic Beings That Smiled at Them

He argued that these vehicles are evidence of a super-advanced intelligence in the universe and that they have been visiting our solar system for a long time. Bergrun warned that their power could pose risks if not understood, but also noted that they might not necessarily threaten humanity directly.

Dr. Bergrun believed that the situation was becoming “critical” because the activity was increasing, as evidenced by the new rings appearing around Uranus and Jupiter.

His urgency was not necessarily from the idea that the craft were coming to Earth, but from his sense that there was a strong possibility they could, and that the public and the scientific community had to be made to understand that these objects were real.

He noted that his conclusions were too controversial for his professional organization to address. He distinguished between his work, which he said was based on data, and the “theories” of others, such as John Lear’s idea that Saturn was a portal into another dimension.

He also touched on other topics, including his belief that humans were not capable of communicating with these entities, which rendered efforts by organizations like SETI ineffective.

He confirmed that plasma had been scientifically measured in Saturn’s rings, which he saw as supporting his claims. When asked about the hexagonal shape seen at Saturn’s north pole, he acknowledged it but regarded it simply as another geometric form that these advanced entities were capable of creating, rather than holding a special symbolic meaning.

Finally, he revealed that he had spent ten years earning a law degree so that he could better understand the mindset of the people “running the country,” whom he felt often made decisions without comprehending the underlying science.

He died on July 1, 2018, at Tracy Nursing and Rehabilitation Center at the age of 96. Unfortunately, Dr. Bergun was just another name on the list of NASA whistleblowers who are forgotten and ignored due to a lack of followers and media attention.

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Mars endured an unprecedented solar superstorm, and European Space Agency (ESA) orbiters, the Mars Express and ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, captured the chaos, highlighting the Red Planet’s radiation dangers.

When the storm hit Earth in May 2024, it produced brilliant auroras remarkably close to the equator, and its impact on Mars was no less significant. ESA’s Mars orbiters recorded massive doses of radiation, delivering 200 days’ worth in a mere 64 hours, according to a new paper published in Nature Communications—far more than has ever been recorded before.

Mars Flooded with Solar Radiation

“The impact was remarkable: Mars’s upper atmosphere was flooded by electrons,” says lead author and ESA Research Fellow, Jacob Parrott. “It was the biggest response to a solar storm we’ve ever seen at Mars.”

The storm consisted of three separate events, all of which the team observed. These included a radiation flare, a high-energy particle burst, and a coronal mass ejection. As the high-energy, magnetized plasma and radiation from these events hit the Martian atmosphere, they stripped electrons from neutral atoms, filling the sky with charged particles.

The solar storm’s effects were most clearly felt in two layers of the Martian atmosphere, one at 110 kilometers above the surface and the other at 130 kilometers. The lower level saw a 45% increase in electrons, while the higher layer experienced an unprecedented 278% increase.

“The storm also caused computer errors for both orbiters – a typical peril of space weather, as the particles involved are so energetic and hard to predict,” adds Parrott. “Luckily, the spacecraft were designed with this in mind, and built with radiation-resistant components and specific systems for detecting and fixing these errors. They recovered fast.”

Radio Occultation

ESA is pioneering a technique called radio occultation, utilizing multiple platforms to investigate the Martian atmosphere. Presently, the technique is used with Earth-orbiting satellites, but the team is working to bring it to other planets in our solar system.

The radio occultation process begins with Mars Express sending a signal to the Trace Gas Orbiter just as it vanishes over the horizon. That disappearance is key to the process, bending the signal through layers of the atmosphere on its way to the Trace Gas Orbiter and providing information about those layers along the way. To complete the work, the team confirmed their electron density measurements using NASA’s MAVEN orbiter.

“This technique has actually been used for decades to explore the Solar System, but using signals beamed from a spacecraft to Earth,” said co-author Colin Wilson, ESA project scientist for Mars Express and TGO. “It’s only in the past five years or so that we’ve started using it at Mars between two spacecraft, such as Mars Express and TGO, which usually use those radios to beam data between orbiters and rovers. It’s great to see it in action.”

Earth and Mars

Analyzing the data brings differences between our world and its neighbor, Mars, into clearer focus. Earth’s magnetic field shields our planet, mitigating some of space weather’s strongest effects. That shielding minimized the effects of the 2024 storm in the upper atmosphere while diverting many particles either to the poles or away from the planet entirely.

“Being exposed to the solar flare covered in the article whilst being unprotected would be like getting the worst sunburn of your life in a couple of seconds,” Parrott explained to The Debrief. “However, people are not going to be walking around in short sleeves on the Martian surface for many centuries. So whilst we have our space suits, a thicker ionosphere doesn’t affect the safety of humans much.”

“However, the ionosphere is critical for communications. Sometimes our links to the surface are blocked by ionospheric phenomena,” Parrott continued. “So future missions must be equipped with relay equipment capable of totally different frequency bands, as the frequency of the transmission can affect how a signal travels through the ionosphere.”

“Possible other refinements might be implementing “solar flare blackout” periods in communication scheduling as there is no point using power to transmit to a rover or base on the surface when the ionosphere is going to block all the signals,” Parrott concluded.

“If Mars’s upper atmosphere is packed full of electrons, this could block the signals we use to explore the planet’s surface via radar,” Colin said, “making it a key consideration in our mission planning – and impacting our ability to investigate other worlds.”

With life support infrastructure necessary for mere survival on Mars, this highly radiation- and space-weather-susceptible environment will require further study ahead of any crewed missions.

The paper, “Martian Ionospheric Response During the May 2024 Solar Superstorm,” appeared in Nature Communications on March 5, 2026.

• Ryan Whalen covers science and technology for The Debrief. He holds an MA in History and a Master of Library and Information Science with a certificate in Data Science. He can be contacted at ryan@thedebrief.org, and follow him on Twitter @mdntwvlf.

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3I/ATLAS, the unusual interstellar comet that continues to fascinate astronomers, appears to be keeping an intoxicating cosmic secret, new research has revealed.

The latest findings come courtesy of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), which has revealed evidence supporting an unusually large amount of methanol, a form of alcohol, hidden away within the ancient icy interstellar wanderer, which was first discovered last summer.

The discovery suggests that 3I/ATLAS may contain more of the organic molecule than any other comet known in our solar system.

Fingerprints of the Distant Cosmos

Nathan Roth, who led the recent research and is the primary author on a new study detailing his team’s findings, compares observing the oddball comet 3I/ATLAS to “taking a fingerprint from another solar system.”

“The details reveal what it’s made of, and it’s bursting with methanol in a way we just don’t usually see in comets in our own solar system,” said Roth, who is presently a professor at American University.

The recent detections were made possible with ALMA’s Atacama Compact Array in Chile, thanks to observations spanning several dates late last year while 3I/ATLAS approached its closest distance from the Sun.

As the comet’s surface grew warmer, gas and dust were released from its surface, which caused its surrounding coma to increase and brighten, forming a halo-like luminous appearance. Based on studies of the comet’s coma, Roth and his colleagues were able to collect information they liken to the chemical “fingerprints” of its material components—offering a rare look at an object that was assembled long ago by cosmic forces in a far-distant planetary system.

An Intoxicating Discovery

The team’s observations produced faint submillimeter fingerprints of the molecule hydrogen cyanide (HCN), which is a nitrogen-bearing organic molecule common in the composition of comets. That isn’t all the team’s observations revealed, however: there was also a surprising abundance of methanol (CH₃OH), a type of alcohol, present in the comet’s coma.

More specifically, ALMA’s observations indicate that the interstellar interloper seems to possess quite a lot of methanol in contrast to the amounts of hydrogen cyanide it carries, which Roth and his colleagues say is far greater than what “native” comets from within our solar system tend to display. Based on separate measurements on multiple dates, the team says that the methanol to hydrogen cyanide ratios they observed were about 70 and 120.

In short, 3I/ATLAS not only has a lot of methanol; it probably has a significant amount more than most other comets.

A Unique Formation Process

What the current evidence suggests is that 3I/ATLAS is very different from comets in our solar system, given that the conditions under which it was made appear to have been so alien compared with those which give rise to comets in our own solar system.

Based on past observations made by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, 3I/ATLAS appeared to possess a coma consisting mostly of carbon dioxide while it was still a significant distance from the Sun. The addition of the new ALMA data adds methanol into the mix, and a surprising abundance of it, at least as far as comets are concerned.

Additionally, the high-resolution imaging made possible by ALMA’s sensitive array of telescopes also helped to reveal the movement of molecules escaping from 3I/ATLAS, which pointed to some unique observations involving the differences between how the hydrogen cyanide and methanol molecules behaved during this process. Namely, while the former appears to originate mostly from the core of the comet, the methanol it produces seems to be abundant not only in its nucleus, but also in the ice particles populating its coma.

As 3I/ATLAS neared the sun, these individual ice particles each began to sublimate, effectively functioning like an untold number of miniature comets themselves, releasing their methanol stores in the process. While such processes are known from past observations of comets originating from within our solar system, these phenomena had never been observed in relation to an interstellar object before the historic journey of 3I/ATLAS.

As 3I/ATLAS neared the sun, these individual ice particles each began to sublimate, effectively functioning like an untold number of miniature comets themselves, releasing their methanol stores in the process. While such processes are known from past observations of comets originating from within our solar system, these phenomena had never been observed in relation to an interstellar object before the historic journey of 3I/ATLAS.

With the discovery of additional confirmed interstellar objects in the years ahead, astronomers hope that observations of their unique behavior and composition can help to unravel many of the existing mysteries associated with distant planetary systems, their origins, and their formation processes.

Roth and his colleagues’ recent paper, “CH3OH and HCN in Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS Mapped with the ALMA Atacama Compact Array: Distinct Outgassing Behaviors and a Remarkably High CH3OH/HCN Production Rate Ratio,” was accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

• Micah Hanks is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of The Debrief. A longtime reporter on science, defense, and technology with a focus on space and astronomy, he can be reached at micah@thedebrief.org. Follow him on X @MicahHanks, and at micahhanks.com.

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

On Sunday, March 8, 2026, at 6:55 p.m. Central European Time (7:00 p.m. Kyiv time), as most Europeans were preparing to end their weekend, a dazzling flash lit up the night sky. The object, moving from southwest to northeast, was visible for approximately six seconds.

During this short period of time, the space traveler managed to leave behind a bright trail (“tail”) that was observed by thousands of people in Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. The flight ended with a spectacular breakup into several fragments, accompanied by a sound effect similar to distant thunder or an explosion, which was clearly audible on the surface. 

Thanks to an extensive network of special meteor observation cameras, in particular the European AllSky7 system, the flight was recorded with high accuracy. In addition to professional equipment, the internet is filled with hundreds of amateur videos shot on smartphones and dashcams.

VARIOUS CITIES, SPAIN – AUGUST 12: Meteors are seen along the Milky Way in the sky on August 12, 2024 in Madrid, Spain. The Perseid meteor shower is reaching peak visibility in the coming days.

(Photo by Aldara Zarraoa/Getty Images)

A spiralling smoke trail lingered in the sky for minutes after the blast.

Credit:  Marcel W. via IMO

“Space landing” in Koblenz

Although most such objects burn up completely in the atmosphere, this case turned out to be special. Small pieces of debris — meteorites — were reported to have fallen in Koblenz-Güls (Germany). One of them pierced the roof of a private house, according to DW.

Found fragments of the meteorite. Photo: merkurist.de Fragments of the meteorite collected by eyewitnesses to the explosion. Photo: merkurist.de

Despite the dramatic nature of the situation, there were no reports of casualties or significant damage. However, the very fact that the debris reached the surface in a densely populated area aroused great interest among meteorite researchers.

Why were the telescopes silent?

The most interesting question in this story is: why did none of the large survey telescopes that scan the sky around the clock for asteroid threats warn of the approach of this object?

The answer lies in the physics and geometry of lighting. The object approached Earth from the “bright part of the sky,” which made it virtually invisible to ground-based optical instruments. The situation was exacerbated by the time of the event — almost dusk, when atmospheric illumination is at its maximum for detecting dim celestial bodies.

To date, astronomers have only managed to detect 11 objects before they entered the atmosphere. This shows that small bodies measuring several meters remain an extremely difficult target for modern astronomy, especially if they are “hidden” in the sun’s rays.

The scale of the planetary defense problem

From a global security perspective, objects of this size (up to 5-10 meters) do not pose an existential threat. They usually disintegrate in the upper layers of the atmosphere, turning into dust and small debris. However, as the case in Koblenz shows, even small fragments can reach the ground.

Infographic explaining the scale of the disaster in comparison with the size of asteroids. Source: ESA

ESA notes that such events are part of the natural life cycle of our planet. Space rocks of this size enter Earth’s atmosphere quite frequently — from once every few weeks to once every few years. However, most of them fall into oceans or desert areas, remaining unnoticed.

Scientists are now collecting data from all available sensors to determine the mass and composition of the meteorite. The debris found in Koblenz will be sent for laboratory analysis. This will allow us to learn more about the object’s origin: whether it came from the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, or was a fragment of a comet.

Earlier, we reported on how a meteorite older than Earth exploded and fell on a house.

• According to ESA

• Posted in News, Science

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{ https://universemagazine.com/en/news-en/science-en/ }

What Flew Over Dubnica, Slovakia? 25 Feb 2026, UAP Or TR3B? UFO Sightings Daily.

Location: Dubnica nad Váhom, Trenčiansky kraj, Slovakia 

Date of sighting: February 25, 2026

Source: NUFORC

• https://nuforc.org/

Wow did you see that? This security cam footage caught a triangle UFO flying over the area of Slovakia toward the mountains. They heard it, but didn't see it...why? Because the infrared security camera can see things the human eye cannot. We can't see infrared, it's just a fact. This is not three orbs, it's a single craft and it's big! About the size of two city buses or more. 

 

Scott C. Waring - UFO Sightings Daily, now back in Taiwan

Eyewitness states: 

I was with two other friends on a hill in Prejta, and when I was next to the car, I heard something from the village that sounded like something disturbing the local geese. But when I walked towards the car, the sound grew louder and was still like geese, but it was also synchronized and artificial, and it passed over us and was loud, but we didn't see anything, even though we kept looking at the sky, we didn't see anything, even though it was a clear night and the moon was shining, so everything was clearly visible. This happened at 11:15 p.m. on February 25, 2026.

 

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

Enkele tientallen meters zijn voldoende voor een asteroïde om heel wat schade te veroorzaken.

© iStock

“Plots veegt een asteroïde je stad weg en niemand zag het aankomen”: waarom we volgende keer misschien minder geluk hebben

Zondag explodeerde een metersgroot stuk ruimterots onverwacht in onze atmosfeer. Een deel van deze meteoriet veroorzaakte zelfs schade in Duitsland. Maar het had erger kunnen aflopen. HLN-wetenschapsexpert Martijn Peters legt uit waarom niemand dit zag aankomen, hoe het komt dat wetenschappers de hemel halsstarrig afspeuren naar gevaarlijke asteroïden en wat de kans is dat zo’n exemplaar ons treft. “De ‘kleintjes’ vormen meer gevaar.”

Martijn Peters

Op zondag 8 maart trok een vuurbol – ook wel bolide genoemd – een vurig spoor door de hemel. Veel mensen waren getuigen van dit zes seconden durende spektakel. Volgens ruimtevaartagentschap ESA was het stuk ruimterots dat in onze atmosfeer uiteenspatte en grotendeels opbrandde, groter dan een meter. Enkele brokstukken wisten de aarde te bereiken in Duitsland en zorgden voor schade aan huizen. Dit keer raakte niemand gewond, maar in de toekomst hebben we misschien minder geluk.

Want ons zonnestelsel is niet bepaald netjes: al miljarden jaren zweven er restjes rond. De meest tot de verbeelding sprekende zijn ongetwijfeld kometen. Die zijn honderden tot duizenden meters groot en bestaan uit stof, gruis en ijs. Wanneer ze in de buurt van de zon komen, verschijnt plots hun staart. Maar dat zijn er slechts enkele duizenden. Talrijker zijn de asteroïden. Wetenschappers schatten hun aantal op bijna anderhalf miljoen. Deze relikwieën van rots en metaal bestaan in alle maten en gewichten, van enkele meters tot honderden kilometers groot.

Bij verwoesting denken velen meteen aan reusachtige, kilometersgrote exemplaren. Dat is volkomen terecht. Een asteroïde van 1 kilometer veroorzaakt wereldwijde problemen. Eentje van 10 kilometer of meer, zoals degene die het einde van de dinosauriërs inluidde, vertelt haast niemand meer na. Maar over deze ‘joekels’ maken wetenschappers zich weinig zorgen. Dat heeft twee redenen. De kans op zo’n inslag is bijvoorbeeld ongelooflijk klein: minder dan één keer per half miljoen jaar, afhankelijk van de grootte. Daarnaast hebben we ze zo goed als allemaal (meer dan 90%) in kaart gebracht. Een wereldwijde ramp is dus extreem zeldzaam.

{ https://www.hln.be/nieuws/ }

On modern battlefields, speed and unpredictability increasingly determine survival, and as we’ve seen in the current U.S.-Iran conflict, fixed airbases and long concrete runways that once enabled airpower are starting to look like strategic vulnerabilities.

On Monday, DARPA revealed its newest X-plane, the X-76, an experimental aircraft designed to combine the “go anywhere” flexibility of vertical lift with cruise speeds typical of conventional fixed-wing aircraft.

The X-76 is the centerpiece of DARPA’s Speed and Runway Independent Technologies program, or “SPRINT,” a joint effort with U.S. Special Operations Command. The program is designed to overcome one of aviation’s oldest trade-offs. Helicopters and other VTOL aircraft can reach tight spaces, but they are slower. Meanwhile, traditional fixed-wing aircraft are faster, but they require runways, which limit their operating range and survivability in contested environments.

DARPA has announced that, following a critical design review, Bell Textron has been selected to begin building the X-76 demonstrator, marking the program’s transition into manufacturing, integration, and ground testing ahead of a planned flight-test phase in early 2028.

“For too long, the runway has been both an enabler and a tether, granting speed but creating a critical vulnerability,” DARPA SPRINT program manager, Commander Ian Higgins, said in a press release. “With SPRINT, we’re not just building an X-plane; we’re building options.”

Concept art rendering of the X-76.

(Image Source: Bell Textron)

DARPA’s public renderings reveal the X-76 is not an operational aircraft meant to be fielded as-is. Rather, it is a proof-of-concept technology demonstrator meant to show that the underlying engineering can work at full scale, and to generate real-world data that could shape what comes next.

According to DARPA, the X-76 is intended to mature technologies needed for runway-independent operations while cruising at speeds exceeding 400 knots. The aircraft would also be capable of hovering and operating from unprepared surfaces. Together, those capabilities would blur the line between the roles traditionally filled by helicopters, tiltrotors, and fixed-wing aircraft.

SPRINT’s ambitions are also a window into how the U.S. military’s priorities have shifted as precision weapons and long-range surveillance proliferate.

As we saw in the opening days of the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran, fixed airfields can be mapped, targeted, and logistics hubs can become predictable choke points. Given this reality, having vertical lift capabilities is no longer about convenience. It is about dispersal, resilience, and keeping forces moving even when the infrastructure they once depended on becomes an enemy 

The X-76 announcement is also notable for what it signals about the program’s maturity. SPRINT began Phase 1 in late 2023, then moved to Phase 1B in 2024 with contracts to two performers: Aurora Flight Sciences and Bell.

In 2025, DARPA selected Bell for the next stages, awarding it the contract for Phases 2 and 3 to complete design, build the X-plane, and move toward flight testing. The Critical Design Review completed this year marks a milestone that often separates promising concepts from hardware that can actually be assembled, tested, and flown.

In a release by Bell Textron, the company emphasized the symbolic and practical weight of the experimental plane’s designation. “Bell is honored to receive the X-76 designation and continue the spirit of American innovation, honoring the founding of the United States in 1776,” Bell’s senior vice president of engineering, Jason Hurst, said.

That 1776 reference is not subtle. DARPA says the X-76 designation was chosen specifically to coincide with the United States’ 250th anniversary, framing it as a “deliberate nod to the revolutionary spirit of 1776.”

So what exactly is the X-76 trying to prove?

Publicly, DARPA and Bell are focused on the outcomes rather than the engineering schematics.

DARPA’s announcement highlights the aircraft’s target performance envelope. The demonstrator is designed to hover in austere environments and take off and land without prepared runways. At the same time, it is expected to sustain cruise speeds above 400 knots—roughly the territory of many turboprops and some regional jets, but far beyond conventional helicopter performance.

“The goal of the program is to provide these aircraft with the ability to cruise at speeds from 400 to 450 knots at relevant altitudes and hover in austere environments from unprepared surfaces,” DARPA’s SPRINT program description reads.

Bell, for its part, points to a specific enabling approach using “stop/fold” technology. In a statement, the company describes the X-76 build phase as a move toward a “brand-new X-plane with first-of-its-kind stop/fold technology,” intended to support runway independence with jet-like speeds.

A wind tunnel model of one of Bell’s fold-away rotor design concepts. 

Bell

Concept art of the X-76 shows an aircraft equipped with folding rotor blades that can be stowed after transitioning to forward flight, reducing drag and enabling higher cruise speeds than traditional rotorcraft.

That basic idea—getting the lift of rotors without paying the aerodynamic penalty of carrying them through high-speed cruise—has been a recurring theme in vertical-lift engineering for decades. Rotors are incredibly efficient at hovering and low-speed flight, but they become a drag and vibration problem as speed climbs.

Crewed and uncrewed design concepts utilizing fold-away proprotor technology that Bell unveiled in 2024 as part of its work on DARPA’s SPRINT program. 

Bell

Tiltrotors like the V-22 Osprey pushed that boundary, yet still live with compromises because the rotors remain a dominant feature at all speeds. If initial renderings are any indication, the X-76 demonstrator will be built around a more radical transition—vertical lift when you need it, streamlined cruise when you don’t—which could open a new design space.

DARPA’s own messaging puts it in operational terms. When Cmdr. Higgins calls the runway a “tether,” he is highlighting a modern vulnerability: speed is valuable, but speed tied to predictable basing can be strategically limiting.

By aiming for runway-independent operation, DARPA is implicitly pursuing a future in which aircraft can disperse, relocate, and operate from austere locations—complicating an adversary’s targeting problem while improving response times for time-sensitive missions.

The SPRINT’s partnership structure also hints at where this could matter first. Special operations forces routinely operate at the edge of infrastructure—short on time, long on distance, and often constrained by where aircraft can safely land.

A platform that could move people or critical cargo quickly without relying on long runways could, in theory, compress timelines for infiltration, resupply, or medical evacuation, while expanding the number of usable launch and recovery sites.

DARPA’s program description stresses that the demonstrator is meant to validate integrated concepts that “can be scaled to different-sized military aircraft,” suggesting that the endgame is not a single airframe, but a portfolio of possible derivatives.

An earlier (2021) Bell rendering showing three related design concepts with fold-away rotor blades. 

Bell

There are good reasons DARPA is pursuing this as an X-plane effort rather than a direct acquisition program. “Runway-independent” and “high speed” are not especially difficult goals on their own. The challenge is combining them in a single aircraft with useful payload capacity, manageable complexity, and a transition mode that is both safe and repeatable.

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

An interstellar comet packed with alcohol? What ALMA found in 3I/ATLAS

by Jill Malusky, National Radio Astronomy Observatory

For a long time, space was considered a static and cold place, where huge chunks of rock flew through the void without any changes for millions of years. However, a recent study by astronomers at the University of Maryland (UMD) paints a very different picture. It turns out that binary asteroid systems are veritable “cosmic sandboxes” where objects constantly interact, exchanging material in a remarkable way reminiscent of a slow game of snowballs.

The boulder-covered moon Dimorphos 8.55 seconds before colliding with the DART spacecraft. On the right is the same image after correcting the lighting conditions of the surface and shadows cast by the boulders, revealing a fan-shaped pattern of stripes (highlighted in color for emphasis). Source: NASA/JHU-APL/UMD

Do you know that approximately one in six asteroids, or about 15%, flying past Earth are not actually “lone wolves”? These are binary systems where a smaller companion orbits a larger object. Previously, scientists believed that these pairs simply existed side by side under the influence of gravity, but data published in the Planetary Science Journal proves that there is a fairly close connection between them. 

The research team discovered that asteroids constantly “throw” rocks and dust at each other. These are not catastrophic collisions that tear celestial bodies apart, but gentle, almost delicate touches. These “cosmic kisses” gradually change the landscape of both bodies, transforming their surface into a dynamic environment that is constantly evolving.

Photographic evidence: a fan of dust and rocks

The key to the discovery was unique footage taken by a NASA spacecraft as part of the DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) mission in 2022. Before deliberately crashing into the asteroid Dimorphos, the spacecraft managed to transmit extremely clear images of the surface to Earth. 

This image of the asteroids Didymos and Dimorphos was taken by NASA’s DART mission seconds before the spacecraft crashed into Dimorphos on September 26, 2022. The impact on the smaller asteroid had a noticeable effect on the orbit of the larger one. Source: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL

While analyzing these images, Professor Jessica Sunshine and her team noticed something strange — bright fan-shaped stripes stretching across the entire surface of Dimorphos. At first, scientists blamed camera defects or errors in data processing. But after carefully cleaning up the images, it became clear: what they were looking at was the first visual confirmation in history of the natural transfer of material from one asteroid to another.

The Italian Space Agency’s LICIACube recorded the collision of the spacecraft with Dimorphos. This LICIACube image, taken seconds after the collision on September 26, 2022, shows rocky debris flying off the smaller asteroid. Source: ASI/NASA

“It looked as if someone had thrown space snowballs at the asteroid,” Professor Sunshine shares his impressions. These stripes are nothing more than “scars” from low-speed impacts left by material flying in from a neighboring asteroid.

Solar engine

Where does this “traveling rock” come from? Scientists explain this phenomenon as the YORP effect (the Yarkovsky–O’Keefe–Radzievsky–Paddack effect). This is a complex term for a fairly simple process: solar radiation heats the uneven surface of a small asteroid, causing it to spin faster and faster. 

When the rotational speed becomes critical, centrifugal force begins to exceed the weak gravity of the asteroid. Rock fragments, dust, and boulders lying on the surface of Didymos’ parent body simply fly off into open space. And since Dimorphos is nearby, a significant portion of this “debris” falls into its gravitational trap and gently settles on its surface. Thus, the Sun acts as an invisible engine, spinning asteroids into cosmic sprinklers.

Detective work with pixels

Finding these stripes was a real challenge. In the original DART images, they were almost invisible due to complex lighting and the play of shadows from numerous boulders. Tony Farnham and Juan Rizos from the University of Maryland have developed special algorithms to “remove” excess light and shadows.

The Didymos-Dimorphos binary asteroid system in Space Engine

The probe’s flight itself complicated the task: it approached its target in almost a straight line, which meant that the angle and lighting angle remained virtually unchanged. This created the illusion that the stripes might just be an optical effect. However, the creation of a 3D model of the asteroid put everything in its place. The more accurate the model became, the clearer the fan-shaped structures appeared. They were concentrated along the equator of Dimorphos — precisely where, according to the laws of physics, the material ejected from Didymos should have landed.

Physics of “soft” collisions

We are used to cosmic speeds of thousands of kilometers per hour, but in the world of double asteroids, everything is different. Harrison Agrusa’s research showed that debris from Didymos traveled toward the moon at a speed of only 30.7 cm/s. This is three times slower than a person walking at a normal pace in a park.

The Didymos-Dimorphos binary asteroid system in Space Engine

It is precisely thanks to this “turtle-like” speed that unique patterns are formed. Instead of creating huge craters, the rocks gently sink into the loose soil (regolith), leaving long rays of deposits. This is not destruction, but a gradual “increase” in the mass of the moon due to its “big brother.”

Checking the theory with sand

To finally confirm their hypothesis, scientists led by Esteban Wright conducted a series of experiments on Earth. At the UMD Institute of Physical Sciences and Technology, a special setup was created: balls were thrown at different angles into a container filled with sand mixed with colored gravel (simulating the surface of Dimorphos). 

High-speed cameras captured an incredible resemblance: when the “stranger” hit the boulders on the surface, some of the matter was deflected, while other matter penetrated through the cracks, forming the very fan-shaped rays that we see in photographs from space. Computer modeling at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory confirmed these results.

Next stop: the Hera mission

This discovery radically changes our understanding of how to protect Earth from asteroid threats. If we want to change the trajectory of an asteroid, we need to understand how dynamic it is and how it exchanges mass with its moons.

 

The next major event will take place in December 2026, when the European Space Agency (ESA) mission called Hera will arrive at the Didymos-Dimorphos system. It will conduct a thorough “inspection of the scene” after the DART impact. Scientists hope to see the very stripes that may not have been completely destroyed by the explosion and gain new insights into how this amazing cosmic conveyor belt works.

Earlier, we reported on how Hubble photographed the double tail of the asteroid Dimorphos.

• According to NASA JPL

• Posted in News, Science

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{ https://universemagazine.com/en/news-en/science-en/ }

The energy crisis is not just a global problem. If there are civilizations in the Universe that are thousands or millions of years ahead of us, their appetite for energy should be enormous. Instead of building thousands of thermonuclear reactors in an attempt to reproduce the processes inside stars, they could have taken a simpler and more logical approach: take a ready-made star and “wrap” it in a giant solar battery. New research by astronomers suggests that such objects should be sought not near bright giants, but near the modest “babies” of our Universe.

The Legacy of Freeman Dyson

Dyson sphere through the eyes of Copilot AI

The very idea of megastructures surrounding stars belongs to the outstanding theoretical physicist Freeman Dyson. Back in the 1960s, he suggested that any sufficiently developed civilization would sooner or later face a shortage of resources on its planet. One solution could be a “Dyson sphere” — a colossal structure made of mirrors or solar panels rotating around the sun, intercepting almost 100% of its radiation. 

Interestingly, Dyson himself initially referred to his idea as a “little joke” in conversations with journalists. However, over the years, he changed his mind, recognizing the concept as entirely viable and logical from a thermodynamic point of view. Today, the search for such structures is one of the priorities of SETI (the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence project), since a Dyson sphere is the most striking “technosignature” that can be detected from a distance of many light years.

Why are white and red dwarfs ideal candidates? 

In a new study published in Nature, astronomer Amirnezam Amiri from the University of Arkansas has revisited traditional views on where exactly to look for these megastructures. Most previous theories have focused on solar-type stars, but Amiri suggests turning our attention to low-mass stars: white dwarfs and red dwarfs.

Red dwarfs are the most common stars in our galaxy. They burn extremely slowly, providing energy to the surrounding space for trillions of years. White dwarfs are the remains of stars that have already “retired,” but they continue to steadily emit heat over enormous periods of time. 

According to Amiri’s calculations, these stars are the best sources for long-term energy supply to megastructures. They are stable, not prone to frequent catastrophic outbursts (like some massive stars), and allow for the creation of an energy system that will operate almost indefinitely. 

Compactness – the key to saving resources

One of the main problems with building the Dyson sphere is the incredible amount of materials required. To encircle the Sun at the distance of Earth’s orbit, it would be necessary to literally break down several planets the size of Jupiter into atoms. However, the rules of the game change for red and white dwarfs.

The habitable zone (where temperatures allow water to remain liquid) around a red dwarf is located very close to the star, typically between 0.05 and 0.3 astronomical units. For a highly developed civilization, this is the ideal place:

• Material savings. The sphere will have a much smaller radius, which means it will require significantly fewer resources to build.
• Efficiency. The closer the panels are to the light source, the more compact and manageable the entire energy farm is.
• Stability. A compact sphere is more easily held in place by the star’s gravity, reducing the risk of structural failure.

James Webb in search of alien engineers

The most practical part of Amiri’s research is devoted to how we can detect such objects from Earth. According to the laws of physics, the Dyson sphere cannot simply absorb energy — it has to release it somewhere (discharge excess heat), otherwise it will simply melt. This heat is emitted in the form of infrared light.

To an outside observer, a star in a “wrapper” will look very strange:

1. Abnormal dimness. The star will appear significantly fainter than it should be based on its mass.
2. Spectrum change. Instead of visible light, the observer will see a uniform “black” spectrum of infrared radiation.
3. Artificial signals. If the sphere consists of separate panels (a so-called “Dyson swarm”), they can create unusual flickering or radiation bursts that cannot be explained by natural processes.
4. No dust. Building the sphere requires a huge amount of matter, so the aliens will most likely “clean” the system of dust and asteroids, using them as raw materials.

Amiri claims that modern observatories, such as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), already have sufficient sensitivity to detect such infrared anomalies. We already have the tools to detect aliens — we just need to know what to look for.

Are we alone in the Universe?

Of course, Dyson spheres remain pure theory for now. Any such prediction is based on a number of assumptions: that aliens exist, that they develop according to similar physical laws, and that they want to build such large-scale objects in the first place. Perhaps they have found even more sophisticated ways of obtaining energy that we cannot even imagine.

However, such studies make us think about the future of humanity. If we want to survive as a species in the long term, we will have to become a “Type II civilization” on the Kardashev scale — one that completely controls the energy of its star. Studying possible Dyson spheres around white dwarfs is not only a search for “little green men,” but also an attempt to glimpse our own future millions of years from now.

Freeman Dyson once said that “The Universe is far more interesting than we can imagine.” And if somewhere in the depths of the Milky Way a red dwarf suddenly began to shine unusually dimly, it is possible that someone’s giant energy farm has been operating there for millions of years.

We previously reported that Jupiter should be destroyed to build a Dyson sphere around the Sun.

• According to Gizmodo

• Posted in News, Tech

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All you need to know about missing former Air Force General with 'UFO secrets'

Retired US Air Force General William Neil McCasland vanished from his New Mexico home, with FBI joining search as journalist warns disappearance poses grave national security concerns

William Neil McCasland's disappearance has sparked major concerns 

(Image: United States Air Force)

NEED TO KNOW: UFO Expert and Ex-US Air Force General Vanishes

• Former US Air Force General William Neil McCasland has mysteriously vanished from his home in Albuquerque, New Mexico, sparking fears over national security.
• The 68-year-old, who has unprecedented knowledge of UFO sightings, disappeared without a trace after leaving his house on foot. He left his mobile phone behind and is believed to have medical issues.
• Local police have issued a Silver Alert and the FBI has joined the desperate search for the missing general.
• McCasland's disappearance has raised serious concerns due to his potential knowledge of highly classified extraterrestrial information. During his Air Force career, he oversaw research at the secretive Wright Patterson Air Force Base, long linked to UFO conspiracies and the infamous Roswell incident.
• Investigative journalist Ross Coulthart warned the situation amounts to a "grave national security crisis". "This is a man with some of the most sensitive secrets of the United States in his head," he said on his Reality Check podcast.
• Coulthart believes the timing is suspicious, coming after President Trump's recent comments about possible government knowledge of extraterrestrial contact. "The fact that Gen. Neil McCasland has disappeared off the face of the earth is a grave national security crisis for the United States of America," he added.
• However, neither law enforcement nor the FBI have publicly acknowledged the disappearance as suspicious or linked it to McCasland's former military position.
• READ THE FULL STORY: Disappearance of US Airforce General with 'top-secret UFO knowledge' is 'national crisis'

Disappearance of US Airforce General with 'top-secret UFO knowledge' is ‘national crisis'

A former US Airforce General has vanished after leaving his New Mexico home this week, sparking concerns about his well-being as well as the release of secrets he might know

The disappearance of a former US Airforce General who is believed to have unprecedented knowledge on reported UFO sightings has gone missing from his home in Alberquerque, New Mexico, sparking serious concerns for his safety.

Law enforcement in the area report that William Neil McCasland vanished without a trace after leaving his home on foot. A 'Silver Alert' has been made by the local County Sheriff’s Office, who have also asked the public to come forward with any information that may help find the retiree, who is believed to have "“medical issues", according to reports

Since the initial alert made, the FBI are believed to have joined the search efforts for the 68-year-old.

It is unknown why McCasland decided to leave his house or where he was heading, although he is believed to have his mobile phone behind before his unexplained departure.

The Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office issued a Silver Alert for the missing retiree, seeking help from the public in locating him

(Image: Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office)

McCasland's disappearance has sparked national security concerns, with some stressing that the former Airforce general may have secret and highly sensitive knowledge relating to UFO sightings.

Investigative journalist Ross Coulthart told listeners to his “Reality Check” podcast that the incident ammounted to a "grave national security crisis", especially if McCasland has knowledge of supposed "extraterrestrials".

“This is a man with some of the most sensitive secrets of the United States in his head", warned Coulthart.

At one point during his illustrious Airforce career McCasland is believed to have overseen research at the secretive Wright Patterson Air Force Base, a site long associated by conspiracists with classified space weapons programmes as well as possible extraterrestrial sightings such as the infamous Roswell incident.

Coulthart also postured that the disappearance may be connected to recent comments by President Donald Trump on the possibility of the US Government having knowledge of extraterrestrial contact.

Trump has told the US Pentagon to "release" files related to aliens and UFOs

(Image: Getty)

“The timing is screechingly relevant,” Coulthart said. “The fact that Gen. Neil McCasland has disappeared off the face of the earth is a grave national security crisis for the United States of America."

"This is a man with some of the most sensitive secrets of the United States in his head."

While Coulthart is not alone in believing McCasland's disappearance to be suspicious, neither law enforcement nor the FBI have publicly acknowledged it as being so.

There has also been no official links made to McCasland's former position in the Airforce.

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Will Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Disclosure Shock Humanity?

How humans might respond if the U.S. government confirms nonhuman intelligence.

 Reviewed by Michelle Quirk

Key points

• If governments confirm nonhuman intelligence, research suggests reactions will vary widely.
• People with high intolerance of uncertainty may struggle more when familiar assumptions about reality change.
• Preparing mental health systems to support vulnerable individuals will be important if disclosure occurs.

Source: Greg Rakozy / Unsplash