Melkweg bevat gigantische deeltjesversneller - HLN.be

Bron: Belga

De Melkweg. © thinkstock.

WETENSCHAP In onze Melkweg lijkt er een gigantische deeltjesversneller te zitten, wellicht in de vorm van een enorme ster. Dat zegt astronoom en astrofysicus Stijn Buitink van de Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). Zijn publicatie verschijnt morgen in het wetenschappelijke vakblad Nature.

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03-03-2016 om 11:18 geschreven door peter  

"Astronautentweeling brengt missie naar Mars dichterbij" - HLN.be

Bron: AD.nl

NASA: "Het is weer een stap op weg naar Mars.’’

De Amerikaanse astronaut maakte tijdens zijn jaar in de ruimte regelmatig selfies. © ap.

Astronaut Scott Kelly landt woensdagochtend om vijf uur na een jaar in de ruimte weer op aarde. Tijdens zijn verblijf in het International Space Station kletste de Amerikaan niet alleen met president Obama, maar was het vooral belangrijk om veel data te verzamelen. Kelly (48) en zijn identieke tweelingbroer Mark (die heeft een snorretje) vormen namelijk samen de prestigieuze NASA Twin Study.

Dunnere botten

Scott Kelly gaf zichzelf de griepprik. © ap.

Smolders: "Als je een tijd in de ruimte bent, verslappen je spieren fors.'' Je botten worden ook steeds dunner. Elke maand in de ruimte verlies je 1,5 procent aan botmassa. "Door veel te trainen, kan je dat wel een beetje tegengaan, maar de eerste uren op aarde ben je nog niet in staat om op je eigen benen te staan. Dat zie je ook altijd bij een astronaut die landt: die wordt in Kazachstan opgevangen door een groep mensen, op een soort strandbed gelegd en weggedragen.'' 

Maar op Mars staat er niemand om astronauten op te vangen. Daar moeten ze op eigen kracht aan de slag gaan. "De zwaartekracht op Mars is ongeveer de helft van die op aarde. Met kunstmatige zwaartekracht kunnen de astronauten er lichamelijk wel op worden voorbereid, maar het blijft een ingewikkelde kwestie'', vertelt Smolders.

Propagand

Kelly en de bloem die hij tot bloei liet komen in de ruimte. © ap.

Toch zijn er ook sceptici. Ruimtevaartdeskundige Luc van den Abeelen bijvoorbeeld, denkt dat NASA de reis van de tweeling vooral gebruikt als propaganda. "Als je puur wetenschappelijk kijkt, is een onderzoek met slechts twee proefpersonen natuurlijk niet zo best.'' En er zijn wel wat meer wetenschappelijke wenkbrauwen gefronst: Zo eet aardbewoner Mark bijvoorbeeld geen astronautenvoer, zoals zijn zwevende broer. 

Van den Abeelen vermoedt dat het NASA hoogstwaarschijnlijk meer om geld te doen is. "Ze zijn de Amerikanen en de toekomstige president aan het opwarmen om meer budget vrij te maken voor hun onderzoeken. Dat vind ik prima hoor, maar om nou te zeggen dat dit een grote stap in de richting van Mars is...'' 

Maar toch... zo'n ruimtereis en alle tweets, foto's en filmpjes die Scott Kelly naar aarde stuurt, blijft iets magisch om te volgen, vinden beide mannen. Van den Abeelen: "Ondanks mijn scepsis blijf ik groot fan. Het is bovendien toch fantastisch als je bedenkt dat de eerste man of vrouw die straks in 2030 op Mars nu al op aarde loopt, of kruipt.''

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03-03-2016 om 11:13 geschreven door peter  

Back on Earth: Astronaut Scott Kelly Faces Gravity After 1-Year Mission

Scott Kelly returns to Earth after nearly a year in space

https://youtu.be/KKjUia6e6_g

After zipping around Earth for nearly a year, NASA astronaut Scott Kelly must now get used to living on the planet's surface again.

Kelly and cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko returned to Earth with a landing on the steppes of Kazakhstan late Tuesday (March 1), ending their unprecedented 340-day stay aboard the International Space Station. 

Shortly after landing, both spaceflyers — along with cosmonaut Sergey Volkov, who also came home, but after the typical, 5.5-month station mission — were taken out of their Soyuz spacecraft, placed in chairs near the landing site and taken into a medical tent for an hour-long "field test" to assess their general condition. [Welcome Home! Landing Photos for 1-Year Astronaut Scott Kelly]

That test consists of a variety of experiments, Kelly said late last month in his final conversation from the space station with reporters.

"Some are physical — kind of like even an obstacle course, where you run around obstacles and stand up from a sitting position, and jump and stand," he said.

The spaceflyers then went their separate ways, with Kornienko and Volkov headed to Moscow and Kelly to Houston, where NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC) is located.

NASA astronauts just back from an ISS mission undergo several hours of medical tests at JSC, Kelly said. They then generally complete a 45-day "reconditioning period," to build up bone mass and muscle strength lost in the microgravity environment of space, said Stevan Gilmore, the lead flight surgeon for Kelly's one-year mission.

"There are daily workouts and exercises to make sure that we return the crewmember back to the same kind of functioning that they had before the mission started," Gilmore said last month during a NASA TV interview with NASA spokesman Dan Huot.

Even though Kelly stayed aboard the International Space Station for twice as long as crewmembers usually do, the current plan is to put him through the standard 45-day reconditioning program, Gilmore added.

"We do have the latitude, in the case that a little bit more time is required for the rehab process — we can extend that if necessary," Gilmore said. "But I anticipate that it'll look in many ways similar to the six-month experiences that most of the station astronauts have."

The main goal of Kelly and Kornienko's mission — a joint effort involving the United States and Russia —is to better understand how astronauts cope physiologically and psychologically with long-duration spaceflight. This information should help mission planners map out future crewed journeys to Mars, NASA officials have said. (The space agency aims to get astronauts to the vicinity of the Red Planet in the 2030s.)

Kelly and Kornienko are participating in 17 different experiments related to the one-year mission, said John Charles, the chief scientist of NASA's Human Research Program. And those experiments aren't over just because the spaceflyers have landed.

Indeed, Charles said, many of the duo's blood samples won't even come down to Earth until next month, when the samples are scheduled to land aboard SpaceX's robotic Dragon cargo capsule. Furthermore, researchers will be tracking Kelly and Kornienko's progress for a while even after that happens.

"There's months and months of post-flight data collection," Charles told NASA spokesman Gary Jordan during an interview on NASA TV last month.

"In some cases, up to nine months after landing, we're still acquiring samples of the astronauts — perhaps even longer, as they return to their normal duties and we acquire data from their annual physicals and so forth," Charles added. "And then the data analysis really begins."

Some of this analysis involves comparing Scott Kelly to his identical twin brother, Mark, himself a former NASA astronaut. Mark stayed on the ground during the yearlong mission and serves as a control, to help researchers identify any genetic changes spaceflight induced in Scott.

Space Station Live: Research Results During One Year Mission

https://youtu.be/leYseS988Gg

Scott Kelly said during his last in-space news conference that he has been experiencing some issues with his vision, a common occurrence among astronauts. However, while scientists will ultimately have the last word on how the 340-day mission affected Kelly, the astronaut said he's doing all right.

"Physically, I feel pretty good," Kelly said.

The nearly yearlong mission, while unprecedented for the ISS, did not set the record for most time spent in space continuously. Cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov earned that distinction, living aboard Russia's Mir space station for more than 437 days, in 1994-95. 

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.

EDITOR'S RECOMMENDATIONS

• Astronaut Scott Kelly Back On Earth - Landing Site Video
• The Human Body in Space: 6 Weird Facts
• One-Year Space Station Mission Huge Step To Mars | Video
• Stunning On-Orbit Time-Lapses Captured By NASA's One-Year Astronaut | Video

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03-03-2016 om 01:31 geschreven door peter  

photo credit: Geostationary satellites orbit at about 35,000 kilometers (22,000 miles). Johan Swanepoel/Shutterstock

First things first: There’s no cause for alarm. Asteroid TX68 poses no threat to Earth at the moment. But this asteroid, due to fly past Earth on March 8, is rather interesting.

That’s because, while there is huge uncertainty in how close it will fly past, it might come as close as 24,000 kilometers (15,000 miles). This would be within the orbit of geostationary satellites, which orbit at 35,000 kilometers (22,000 miles).

As mentioned, there is a large amount of uncertainty, though. While that’s the closest approach, it may pass anywhere between there and several million kilometers. NASA'slatest estimate suggests it will fly past at 5 million kilometers (3 million miles). We won’t know for certain until after the asteroid has passed, if we get a chance to observe it.

“2013 TX68 is estimated to be about 100 feet [30 meters] in diameter,” said Cornell University Ph.D. student Sean Marshall, who works on observations of near-Earth asteroids, in a statement. “Its closest approach could be within Earth’s ‘ring’ of geostationary satellites, or it could be 40 times the distance to the Moon – or anywhere in between.”

The chances of the asteroid actually hitting anything are slim to none, though. Space is vast, so don’t expect any satellites to get knocked out any time soon. Nonetheless, it’s a pretty neat event. This isn’t the first time an asteroid has come this close – without actually hitting us, of course – but with more modern telescopes, we should hopefully get a good chance to take a look at the asteroid.

“Should this asteroid come closer than the geostationary satellites, it would be a rare occurrence – that only happens about once per decade for large asteroids,” added Marshall. “What we know for sure is that it will not collide with Earth this month, so do not panic.”

The asteroid will fly past us again on September 28, 2017, with a one in 250 million chance of hitting us. Further flybys in 2046 and 2097 have similarly low probabilities. But while these are low, they do highlight the importance of tracking asteroids to ensure we won’t be hit, something that will be highlighted by the upcoming Asteroid Day on June 30, 2016.

{ http://www.iflscience.com/ }

03-03-2016 om 01:06 geschreven door peter  

photo credit: Artist’s concept of the antimatter driven sail. Steven Howe/Hbar Technologies, LLC

The dream of interstellar travel could be closer than we think, or at least, that's the claim of physicists Gerald Jackson and Steven Howe, who have been working on an antimatterpropulsion system for over a decade now, as reported by Forbes.

Their proposal is for an antimatter-driven sail that could deliver a 10-kilogram (22-pound) probe to the next closest star system, Alpha Centauri, in just 40 years using 17 grams (0.6 ounces) of antihydrogen. The large 100-kilogram (220 pounds) sail would be five meters (16 feet) in diameter, made of carbon, and coated with depleted uranium.

Propulsion would be driven by antimatter stored by the probe. When the antihydrogen hits the sail, the uranium atoms undergo fission. The main product of this fission is two similar sized atoms with high and opposite speeds. One will hit the sail, propelling it forward, and the other will be lost in space. Via this method, the researchers say the probe could reach speeds up to 10 percent the speed of light, reaching the edge of the Solar System in just 10 years.

One of the main issues that need to be addressed, though, is how to store the antimatter. Antimatter is a mirror version of normal matter, which we are made of. Antimatter particles, like the positron and the antiproton, have the same mass of their ordinary matter counterparts but have an opposite charge. When matter and antimatter come into contact they annihilate, turning into pure energy. It is still not clear why the universe is made of matter instead of antimatter.

The idea was first proposed in 2003, at the Particle Accelerator Conference, but it was not pursued due to lack of funding. So, Jackson and Howe, via their company Hbar Technologies, are planning to launch a Kickstarter campaign next month that would allow them to construct a proof-of-concept design and a device to measure the thrust of such system. They hope to raise $200,000, which will provide funding for the next phase of the research.

“Crowdfunding may be a good way to show interest in the project when it comes time to find bigger investors or governmental support,” Jackson told Forbes.

“We will then need funding on the order of $100 million to actually build small prototype propulsion and power systems.”

[H/T: Forbes] 

{ http://www.iflscience.com/ }

03-03-2016 om 01:01 geschreven door peter  

photo credit: An aerial view of Arecibo where the FRB was observed. H. Schweiker/WIYN and NOAO/AURA/NSF

We thought we were finally getting a basic understanding of Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) as rare and one-off events, and then Mother Nature decides to throw us a curve ball and hit us with the first repeating FRB.

The source, FRB 121102, was discovered first in 2012. Last year, an international team of researchers used the Arecibo Observatory radio telescope to look at the same region and they were surprised to find 10 additional bursts. As cataclysmic events don’t repeat themselves, the team believes that these bursts were produced by a highly magnetized, extragalactic neutron star.

FRBs were only discovered about a decade ago, and there are only a handful of known examples. These phenomena are isolated and rare, making it very difficult for scientists to understand their causes. The emission regions are estimated to be just a few hundred kilometers across, and it is thought that these signals are from another galaxy. These two qualities indicate that whatever is behind these events must be very bright.

Hypernovae and colliding binary neutron stars, or even black holes, have all been proposed as potential explanations. These events are all incredibly powerful but they would be a one-off occurrence, not a multiple-burst event like the one observed.

"Not only did these bursts repeat, but their brightness and spectra also differ from those of other FRBs," notes Laura Spitler, first author of the new paper, in a statement.

The research, published in Nature, comes in a big week for FRBs. Last week it was announced that scientists had pinpointed the location of an FRB for the first time, but now that claim is being questioned. Being able to pinpoint the exact location is paramount to understanding better these astrophysical events. To find the exact location of this unusual burst event, scientists will need to study the source in more detail.

"Once we have precisely localized the repeater's position on the sky, we will be able to compare observations from optical and X-ray telescopes and see if there is a galaxy there," says Jason Hessels, associate professor at the University of Amsterdam and the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy. "Finding the host galaxy of this source is critical to understanding its properties."

{ http://www.iflscience.com/ }

03-03-2016 om 00:58 geschreven door peter  

IN BRIEF

NASA and Lockheed Martin are working to create the design for supersonic passenger jets that are quieter, and more sustainable, than traditional aircraft.

NASA has awarded a contract to Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company for the preliminary design of a “low boom” flight demonstration aircraft. This is the first in a series of “X-planes” in NASA’s New Aviation Horizons initiative, introduced in the agency’s 2017 budget.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden announced the award at an event Monday at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Virginia.

“NASA is working hard to make flight greener, safer and quieter – all while developing aircraftthat travel faster, and building an aviation system that operates more efficiently,” said Bolden. “To that end, it’s worth noting that it’s been almost 70 years since Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in the Bell X-1 as part of our predecessor agency’s high speed research. Now we’re continuing that supersonic X-plane legacy with this preliminary design award for a quieter supersonic jet with an aim toward passenger flight.”

Supersonic Heartbeat

NASA’s Commercial Supersonic Technology Project spent years conducting feasibility studies and working to better understand acceptable sound levels across the country. They then asked industry teams to submit design concepts for a piloted test aircraft that can fly at supersonic speeds, creating a supersonic “heartbeat.”

This “soft thump” would be less disruptive than the boom currently associated with supersonic flight.

“Developing, building and flight testing a quiet supersonic X-plane is the next logical step in our path to enabling the industry’s decision to open supersonic travel for the flying public,” said Jaiwon Shin, associate administrator for NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission. 

NASA’s pick, Lockheed Martin, will complete a preliminary design for Quiet Supersonic Technology (QueSST). The work will be conducted under a task order against the Basic and Applied Aerospace Research and Technology (BAART) contract at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. 

Lockheed Martin will develop baseline aircraft requirements and a preliminary design. NASA is also looking for supporting documentation for concept formulation and planning.

Sustainability and Flight

NASA’s 10-year New Aviation Horizons initiative is all about sustainability. The project has the ambitious goals of reducing fuel use, emissions, and noise through innovations in aircraft design that departs from the conventional tube-and-wing aircraft shape.

Funding is the one of the biggest factors affecting timeline. Most likely though, we won’t see the New Aviation Horizons X-planes fly until 2020.

Source: Phys Org

{ http://futurism.com/ }

03-03-2016 om 00:54 geschreven door peter  

03-03-2016 om 00:48 geschreven door peter  

RESTANTEN OUDE KERK OF TEMPEL ONTDEKT OP MARS

Je kunt natuurlijk proberen veel dingen op Mars te verklaren met “natuurlijk gevormd”, maar natuurlijk gevormde kruizen zijn zeldzaam, ongeacht op welke planeet je ze aantreft. 

Het is een Fransman die een bijzondere ontdekking heeft gedaan op Mars van een rechtopstaand kruis in het landschap met daarnaast brokstukken van een ruïne. 

Overal ter wereld houden mensen zich bezig met het bestuderen van foto’s die door NASA zijn vrijgegeven. Zoals bijvoorbeeld op Mars. 

Dit keer is het de Fransman Christian Mace die een bijzondere ontdekking heeft gedaan, niet alleen van een rechtopstaand kruis, maar ook van iets dat lijkt op de restanten van een kerk of een tempel dicht in de buurt. 

De onderkant van het kruis is enigszins verborgen door een rots, maar als je dezelfde foto van de andere kant zou nemen, is te zien dat je hier met een fors kruis te maken hebt.

Vlakbij dit kruis is nog een object ontdekt wat lijkt op een bewerkt dak van een gebouw dat in elkaar is gestort. 

Ook dit lijkt niet iets dat op een natuurlijke manier is ontstaan, maar meer op de overblijfselen van een soort tempel of iets dergelijks. 

Antwoorden over wat zich daar ooit op Mars bevond, hebben we niet. Maar, naarmate er meer wordt ontdekt, worden er wel steeds meer vragen opgeroepen. 

Vragen waar voorlopig nog geen antwoorden op lijken te komen. 

Wie zelf de originele NASA foto wil bestuderen, kan dat hier doen.

{ http://www.niburu.co/ }

02-03-2016 om 23:43 geschreven door peter  

Strange UFO coin from 1680 puzzles the experts, March 2016, UFO Sighting News

I've been looking for one of these off and on for a few weeks. It looks really amazing and is absolute proof that in the 1600s the French witnessed enough UFO sightings to decide to put some what they saw on coins. 

This is a French jeton minted in somewhere between 1856 to 1680, a coin-like educational tool that was commonly used to help people count money, or sometimes used as a money substitute for playing games. It is about the size of a U.S. quarter-dollar and similar to thousands of other jetons with different religious and educational designs that were produced and used in Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries. It appears to commemorate a UFO sighting of a wheel like object. Some researchers feel it represents the Biblical Ezekiel's wheel. The Latin inscription 'OPPORTUNUS ADEST' translates as 'It is here at an opportune time". 

If you are lucky you can find one on Ebay (Click Here)  for anywhere between $20 US to $500 depending on the sellers asking price and condition of the coin. I heard from a guy who won a similar coin that he got for $45, because it was just listed for a few hours when he hit the buy it now button, so timing and luck are everything. Happy hunting. 
Scott C. Waring

www.ufosightingsdaily.com 

{ http://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

02-03-2016 om 23:35 geschreven door peter  

Remembering Edgar Mitchell: UFO/ET Disclosure Advocate

 

Apollo astronaut Edgar Mitchell in front of a graphic of the mission patch.

Credits: NASA

Former NASA astronaut Edgar Mitchell, who walked on the moon in 1971, died Feb. 4 at the age of 85 in West Palm Beach, Fla., just one day before the 45th anniversary of his historic Apollo 14 lunar landing. Mitchell’s mission was the Apollo program’s fourth and was the first after Apollo 13’s failed attempt to land because of a pre-landing oxygen tank explosion.

Mitchell was accompanied to the moon’s surface by U.S. Navy Capt. Alan Shepard. The two collected 94 pounds of moon rock for scientific research back on Earth. During their 33 hours of work, they completed the longest moonwalk in history.

Bill Wickersham

Mitchell was born Sept. 17, 1930, in Hereford, Texas, to a ranching family that moved to the town of Artesia, N.M. He graduated from Artesia High School in 1948 and received a bachelor’s degree in industrial management from the Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1952. Shortly thereafter, he joined the U.S. Navy and completed basic training at the San Diego Recruit Depot. While on active duty, he completed a bachelor’s degree in aeronautical engineering from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School in 1961 and a doctorate in aeronautics and astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1964.

In 1954, Mitchell completed naval flight training at Hutchinson, Kan., and was designated a “naval aviator” just before his assignment to a land-based patrol mission on Okinawa. During the course of his Navy career, he rose to the rank of captain and logged 5,000 hours of flight time, including 2,000 hours in jet aircraft, much of which was carrier-based.

From 1965 to 1966, he attended the Aerospace Research Pilot School to prepare for astronaut duties and to acquire certification as a test pilot. Mitchell graduated first in his class and then served as an instructor in advanced mathematics and navigation theory for astronaut candidates. In 1966, he was chosen by NASA to be an astronaut. He retired from NASA in 1972. Among his many outstanding honors and awards were the Presidential Medal of Honor, the Navy Distinguished Service Medal and the NASA Distinguished Service Medal.

UFOs AND EXTRATERRESTRIAL VISITORS

From the early days of his retirement until his recent death, Edgar seriously addressed the issue of unidentified flying objects and extraterrestrial visitors. He regularly made public claims that Earth has been visited by extraterrestrial life. Among those statements were the following:

• “We are not alone in the universe. They have been coming here for a long time.”
• “Yes, there have been ET visitations. There have been crashed craft. There have been materials and bodies recovered.”
• “When I learned that aliens really do exist, I wasn’t too surprised. But what did shock me when I started investigating extraterrestrial reports a decade ago is the extent to which the proof has been hushed up.”
• “There have been craft recovered, and there has been a certain amount of reverse engineering that has allowed some of these craft, or some components, to be duplicated. And, there are Earthlings who are utilizing some of this equipment in certain ways.”

On Sept. 18-19, 2014, NASA and the Library of Congress hosted a symposium concerning preparation for the discovery of extraterrestrial life. Titled “Preparing for Discovery: A Rational Approach to the Implications of Finding Microbial, Complex or Intelligent Life Beyond Earth,” the symposium failed to address the UFO phenomenon in any way, except in one statement regarding a question from a member of the audience.

In response to that situation, Edgar Mitchell joined with three other writers to forward an open letter to NASA and the Library of Congress pointing out the remarkable omission of UFO data. The title of the open letter was: “Neglected and Unacknowledged Evidence: A Response to ‘Preparing for Discovery — NASA/Library of Congress Astrobiology Symposium.’” Others who signed the 12-page letter were Paul Hellyer, former deputy prime minister of Canada; Canadian UFO journalist Victor Viggiani; and me.

The open letter said: “The current research within the systemic knowledge base to which we refer unequivocally confirms the existence of a wide range of hard data that point directly to the substantive reality of the phenomenon commonly referred to as unidentified flying objects. Secondly, there exists unimpeachable evidence originating from high level government and military sources, witness testimony and government documents that not only validate the UFO reality but also corroborate government and military efforts to create an embargo around this knowledge, and consequently sequester it from the public.”

https://youtu.be/CI9kEvZ6IUo

The letter further said: “This category of evidence (UFO/ET matters) were it to have been considered for inclusion on the symposium dais, could clarify and provide lucid authentication as to the validity of the UFO phenomenon, and moreover — the palpable possibility that we are, in fact, being engaged by off-world civilizations. To eliminate rigorous examination of either of these possibilities, at all levels of inquiry is by definition unscientific.”

Thus, in signing the aforementioned letter, Edgar Mitchell once again confirmed his strong opinion that people who should know better are treating UFO/ET phenomena unfairly and unscientifically. Clearly he did his best to speak truth to power on this vital issue.

Farewell, Edgar, and bon voyage.

Bill Wickersham is an adjunct professor of Peace Studies at the University of Missouri. To view excerpts from the open letter and a link to the entire document, Google: Edgar Mitchell and Paul Hellyer Co-sign Critique to NASA

{ http://www.columbiatribune.com/ }

02-03-2016 om 23:26 geschreven door peter  

Snowden Reveals Documents: 'More Intelligent Homo Sapiens Exist Underground'

Edward Snowden, the leaker of NSA surveillance documents, was granted asylum in Venezuela on Friday. With safe harbors in sight, Snowden was willing to share shocking and world-shattering exclusive secret government documents with The Internet Chronicle.

---

 

Snowden’s testimony was as follows:

 

 “The highest levels of government don’t know what to do about UFOs, and the official story that they are all merely weather balloons or natural phenomena has been clearly dismissed. If anything, these documents speak about UFOs as if they are surely guided by an intelligence beyond our own. As it turns out, the most credible and inexplicable sightings are of vehicles that have been spotted leaving the sea floor at hydrothermal vents and directly entering solar orbit.

 

“Because ballistic missile tracking systems and deep-sea sonar are kept as state secrets, scientists don’t have access to data about these objects. However, most of the contractors at DARPA are sure that there is a species more intelligent than homo sapiens living in the mantle of the Earth. It makes sense, if you think about it, because that is the only place where conditions have been more or less stable for billions of years. Extremophiles may live at different temperatures than us, but they have been able to thrive and develop intelligence at a seemingly accelerated rate. That’s not true, because they’ve simply evolved at the same rate, but without many of the vicissitudes which set back surface life . . .

 

“The president receives daily briefings about their activities. Analysts believe their technology to be so far advanced that we stand little chance of survival in any potential war. The general sentiment is that we are but ants from their perspective, so there is little chance they would empathize or attempt to communicate with us, and the current contingency plan is to detonate nuclear weapons in deep caverns to ‘sting’ the foe we have no hope of destroying in hopes it would discourage further attacks.”

 

 

Critics may allege that what the 30-year-old former NSA and CIA contractor can state with authority about our ultraterrestrial neighbors is already well-known. But the Ground-Penetrating Radar, or GPR, scans, which The Internet Chronicle has shared and confirmed with sources within intelligence community, will only serve to underscore popular bitterness over strategically timed earthquakes and tsunamis.

 

Just as PRISM shined a new light on goings-on in NSA’s ECHELON computer systems, revealed in the 1990s, the vast complexes of underground cities – laser-etched from pure diamond – apparent in the GPR scans will transform public debate about the balance between liberty and security. - Chronicle

 

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{ http://7tales.net/index.php }

02-03-2016 om 18:09 geschreven door peter  

Harvard Scientists: There May be an Ancient Earth Inside... Earth

A team of Harvard scientists believe the remnants of an ancient Earth, dating to the time another planet collided with ours to produce the moon, may still be lodged deep within the Earth’s mantle

If you thought it was a trip to see the Earth from space, then wait until you get a load of this: A team of scientists from Harvard University believe that have found evidence that an ancient Earth exists inside the Earth.

 

The team believes that a previously unexplained isotopic ratio from deep within the Earth might be a signal from material from before the Earth collided with another planet-sized body, which led to the creation of the Moon. This might be an echo of an ancient Earth that existed 4.5 billion years ago, prior to the proposed collision.

 

 

The current favored theory says that the Moon was formed 4.5 billion years ago when the Earth collided with a mass the size of Mars, dubbed “Theia.” 

 

This theory states that the heat generated by the collision would have melted the whole planet before some of the debris spun off to create the Moon.

 

But now, the team at Harvard, led by Associate Professor Sujoy Mukhopadhyay, believe that they’ve found evidence to support that only part of the Earth melted, and that an ancient part still exists within the Earth’s mantle.

 

 

According to Professor Mukhopadhyay: 

 

“The energy released by the impact between the Earth and Theia would have been huge, certainly enough to melt the whole planet. But we believe that the impact energy was not evenly distributed throughout the ancient Earth. 

 

“This means that a major part of the impacted hemisphere would probably have been completely vaporized, but the opposite hemisphere would have been partly shielded, and would not have undergone complete melting.”

 

The team analyzed the ratios of noble gas isotopes from deep within the Earth’s mantle and compared the results to isotope ratios closer to the surface. They found that 3He to 22Ne ratio from the shallow mantle is significantly higher than the equivalent ratio deep within the mantle.

 

 

Professor Mukhopadhyay remarked: 

 

“This implies that the last giant impact did not completely mix the mantle and there was not a whole mantle magma ocean.”

 

Further evidence comes from analysis of the 129-Xenon to 120-Xenon ratio. Material brought to the surface from the deep mantle has a lower ratio than what’s normally found near the surface. 

 

Because 129-Xenon is produced by the radioactive decay of 129-Iodine, the isotopes place the formation age of the ancient section of mantle to within the first 100 million years of Earth’s history.

“The geochemistry indicates that there are differences between the noble gas isotope ratios in different parts of the Earth, and these need to be explained. 

 

“The idea that a very disruptive collision of the Earth with another planet-sized body, the biggest event in Earth’s geological history, did not completely melt and homogenize the Earth challenges some of our notions on planet formation and the energetics of giant impacts. 

 

“If the theory is proven correct, then we may be seeing echoes of the ancient Earth, from a time before the collision,” said Professor Mukhopadhyay.

 

Professor Richard Carlson of the Carnegie Institution Department of Terrestrial Magnetism stated: 

 

“This exciting result is adding to the observational evidence that important aspects of Earth’s composition were established during the violent birth of the planet and is providing a new look at the physical processes by which this can occur.”

 

The findings of the team at Harvard coincide with a German team’s findings supporting the theory that the Moon was formed 4.5 billion years ago after a catastrophic collision with a planet-sized mass.

 

Both the Harvard and German teams presented their findings to the Goldschmidt Geochemistry Conference in California.

 

Agartha, anyone?

 

 

 

---

{ http://7tales.net/index.php }

02-03-2016 om 18:02 geschreven door peter  

 In theory light and matter are interchangeable, but a practical demonstration was thought to be impossible. Photograph: Lawrence Manning/Corbis

Researchers have worked out how to make matter from pure light and are drawing up plans to demonstrate the feat within the next 12 months.

The theory underpinning the idea was first described 80 years ago by two physicists who later worked on the first atomic bomb. At the time they considered the conversion of light into matter impossible in a laboratory.

But in a report published on Sunday, physicists at Imperial College London claim to have cracked the problem using high-powered lasers and other equipment now available to scientists.

"We have shown in principle how you can make matter from light," said Steven Rose at Imperial. "If you do this experiment, you will be taking light and turning it into matter."

The scientists are not on the verge of a machine that can create everyday objects from a sudden blast of laser energy. The kind of matter they aim to make comes in the form of subatomic particles invisible to the naked eye.

The original idea was written down by two US physicists, Gregory Breit and John Wheeler, in 1934. They worked out that – very rarely – two particles of light, or photons, could combine to produce an electron and its antimatter equivalent, a positron. Electrons are particles of matter that form the outer shells of atoms in the everyday objects around us.

But Breit and Wheeler had no expectations that their theory would be proved any time soon. In their study, the physicists noted that the process was so rare and hard to produce that it would be "hopeless to try to observe the pair formation in laboratory experiments".

Oliver Pike, the lead researcher on the study, said the process was one of the most elegant demonstrations of Einstein's famous relationship that shows matter and energy are interchangeable currencies. "The Breit-Wheeler process is the simplest way matter can be made from light and one of the purest demonstrations of E=mc²," he said.

Writing in the journal Nature Photonics, the scientists describe how they could turn light into matter through a number of separate steps. The first step fires electrons at a slab of gold to produce a beam of high-energy photons. Next, they fire a high-energy laser into a tiny gold capsule called a hohlraum, from the German for "empty room". This produces light as bright as that emitted from stars. In the final stage, they send the first beam of photons into the hohlraum where the two streams of photons collide.

The scientists' calculations show that the setup squeezes enough particles of light with high enough energies into a small enough volume to create around 100,000 electron-positron pairs.

The process is one of the most spectacular predictions of a theory called quantum electrodynamics (QED) that was developed in the run up to the second world war. "You might call it the most dramatic consequence of QED and it clearly shows that light and matter are interchangeable," Rose told the Guardian.

The scientists hope to demonstrate the process in the next 12 months. There are a number of sites around the world that have the technology. One is the huge Omega laser in Rochester, New York. But another is the Orion laser at Aldermaston, the atomic weapons facility in Berkshire.

A successful demonstration will encourage physicists who have been eyeing the prospect of a photon-photon collider as a tool to study how subatomic particles behave. "Such a collider could be used to study fundamental physics with a very clean experimental setup: pure light goes in, matter comes out. The experiment would be the first demonstration of this," Pike said.

Andrei Seryi, director of the John Adams Institute at Oxford University, said: "It's breathtaking to think that things we thought are not connected, can in fact be converted to each other: matter and energy, particles and light. Would we be able in the future to convert energy into time and vice versa?"

{ http://www.theguardian.com/international }

02-03-2016 om 17:49 geschreven door peter  

Dream Chaser: Sierra Nevada's Design for Spaceflight

Dream Chaser, a private spacecraft that looks like a stubby version of the space shuttle, is a concept being tested by Sierra Nevada Corp. based on NASA designs of a 1980s spacecraft prototype.

The spacecraft, which originally was developed by a company called SpaceDev, is among a group of ships that vied for private flights to the International Space Station. NASA funded SpaceX's and Boeing's concepts in 2014 for the last round of Commercial Crew Program development, sparking a formal protest from Sierra Nevada. In 2016, however, NASA selected Sierra Nevada, SpaceX and Orbital ATK for anticipated cargo missions to fly between 2019 and 2024. No specific flight awards have been made yet.

Once ready, Dream Chaser will carry up to seven people to the orbiting complex. It will launch vertically upon an Atlas 5 rocket and then, like the shuttle, land on a runway horizontally.

Based on secret Soviet design

Sierra Nevada, founded in 1963, describes itself as having expertise in electronics, avionics and communications systems. The Colorado-based firm has a space systems division that works on areas such as propulsion, small satellites and components for customers.

The spacecraft has a bit of a tangled history. Its design is based mainly on the HL-20 — a NASA spacecraft design from the 1980s that was itself based on a Soviet spacecraft called the BOR-4. But the HL-20 design was never used for space.

SpaceDev resurrected the design. According to Ars Technica, in 2006 the firm signed a licensing agreement with NASA to reuse HL-20 for the Dream Chaser concept.

"We have tried to make it clear that SpaceDev does have plans of our own in terms of human spaceflight, both orbital and suborbital," said Jim Benson, the firm's founding chairman and CEO, in a Space.com 2004 interview.

Despite the agency heritage, SpaceDev failed to get funding under the initial NASA Commercial Orbital Transportation Systems (COTS) program to fund commercial spacecraft. Benson left SpaceDev in 2006 to found a new space tourism company, but died in 2008 of a brain tumor.

SpaceDev, meanwhile, merged with Starsys Research Corp. and continued work with NASA under a non-reimbursable Space Act agreement in 2007.

That same year, it signed a memorandum of understanding with United Launch Alliance to put Dream Chaser on an Atlas 5 rocket. This entailed some design changes, but the companies were optimistic from the early days that this arrangement would work.

Sierra Nevada purchased SpaceDev in 2008, which added a new space systems business area to Sierra Nevada's divisions.

"The acquisition of SpaceDev ... represents a dynamic expansion of [Sierra Nevada]'s space technology capabilities," stated Fatih Ozmen, Sierra Nevada's chief executive, after the acquisition was finalized in December 2008. 

"We believe that combining SpaceDev's unique technological offerings, manufacturing capabilities and talented team with our existing space business and technology base will allow us to significantly increase our capacity and scalability while better serving our customers and making us a leader in space technology with access to a much wider customer and technology base."

NASA money for development

In August 2012, Sierra Nevada was one of three companies that received money under the Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) award. CCiCap was the third phase of commercial crew development, and was supposed to help companies in the latter stages of spacecraft work to get their ships ready for flight. Sierra Nevada's contract, which was worth up to $212.5 million, paid out money as the company progressed through certain milestones. 

"We're very pleased today to receive the award from NASA as a recognition of our work. We think the whole program is a very successful public-private partnership," Mark Sirangelo, corporate vice president of Sierra Nevada's space systems division, said Aug. 3, 2012, following the CCiCap announcement.

The company also passed several major tests in 2012, most notably a "captive carry" flight test where it rode below a helicopter. The spacecraft did a single glide test in 2013 where it was released from a helicopter and arrived at the runway, only to skid off and cause damage to the vehicle.

"We had a successful approach to the runway. The vehicle flared on cue and the speeds were perfect," said Mark Sirangelo, corporate vice president and head of Sierra Nevada Corporation's (SNC) Space Systems based in Louisville, Colo., in a Space.com interview in October 2013.

"We hit the centerline exactly where we needed to be. On approach and landing, the left main gear did not deploy satisfactorily," he added. 

NASA protest

In September 2014, NASA announced the next and final phase of the commercial spaceflight program would see SpaceX's Dragon and Boeing's CST-100 spacecraft funded for the Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap). The goal is to have the spacecraft ready to fly the International Space Station by 2017.

Sierra Nevada filed a protest Sept. 26, 2014, that temporarily halted work on commercial crew endeavors. The company said that Dream Chaser's technical concept was equally as mature as at least one of the rival companies, and that there were "serious questions and inconsistencies in the source selection process."

While the U.S. government allowed work to continue on commercial crew, the protest was reviewed by its General Accountability Office. In January 2015, the office said it would rule against Sierra Nevada. 

"GAO disagreed with Sierra Nevada's arguments about NASA's evaluation, and found no undue emphasis on NASA's consideration of each offeror's proposed schedule, and likelihood to achieve crew transportation system certification not later than 2017," part of the statement read.

Sierra Nevada's response said, in part, that the company would continue to look for other customers for its contract. 

"While the outcome was not what [Sierra Nevada] expected, we maintain our belief that the Dream Chaser spacecraft is technically very capable, reliable and was qualified to win based on NASA's high ratings of the space system," the company said in its statement.

In early 2016, NASA announced that Sierra Nevada (along with SpaceX and Orbital ATK) would all be listed as possible providers for cargo missions to ISS between 2019 and 2024. Specific flight awards haven't been made yet. 

"NASA has not yet ordered any missions, but will make a total of six selections from each menu of mission options at fixed prices, as needed," NASA wrote in a statement at the time. "Each task order has milestones with specified amounts and performance dates. Each mission requires complex preparation and several years of lead time."

The company is now working toward doing a second glide test in early 2016, but a firm date has not been released. 

"SNC has made significant structural and systems improvements to the ETA including the composite wings and aeroshells," Sierra Nevada wrote in October 2015. "SNC also invested heavily in maturing the spacecraft orbital avionics, guidance navigation and control, the flight software, and employed a number of new processes, all of which will be used on the orbital vehicle as well."

The NASA contract also triggered a $36 million investment by the 22-nation European Space Agency. Once the agreement is signed, ESA will begin work building the first flight model of the International Berthing and Docking Mechanism (IBDM), which Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser Cargo System will use to attach itself to the space station. 

Additional resources

• Sierra Nevada Corp.: Space Systems
• NASA: Commercial Crew & Cargo

{ http://www.space.com/ }

02-03-2016 om 17:38 geschreven door peter  

The JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE

The Primary Mirror

An Overview

One of the James Webb Space Telescope's science goals is to look back through time to when galaxies were young. Webb will do this by observing galaxies that are very distant, at over 13 billion light years away from us. To see such far-off and faint objects, Webb needs a large mirror. A telescope’s sensitivity, or how much detail it can see, is directly related to the size of the mirror area that collects light from the objects being observed. A larger area collects more light, just like a larger bucket collects more water in a rain shower than a small one.

Webb Telescope's scientists and engineers determined that a primary mirror 6.5 meters (21 feet 4 inches) across is what was needed to measure the light from these distant galaxies. Building a mirror this large is challenging, even for use on the ground. A mirror this large has never before been launched into space!

If the Hubble Space Telescope's 2.4 meter mirror were scaled to be large enough for Webb, it would be too heavy to launch into orbit. The Webb team had to find new ways to build the mirror so that it would be light enough - only one-tenth of the mass of Hubble's mirror per unit area - yet very strong.

The Webb Telescope team decided to make the mirror segments from beryllium, which is both strong and light. Each segment weighs approximately 20 kilograms (46 pounds). The Webb Telescope team also decided to build the mirror in segments on a structure which will fold up, like the leaves of a drop-leaf table, so that it can fit into a rocket. The mirror would then unfold after launch. Each of the 18 hexagonal-shaped mirror segments is 1.32 meters (4.3 feet) in diameter, flat to flat. (Webb's secondary mirror is 0.74 meters in diameter.)

The diagram above shows the three  different mirror prescriptions that the segments have.

The hexagonal shape allows a segmented mirror with high filling factor and six-fold symmetry. High filling factor means the segments fit together without gaps. If the segments were circular, there would be gaps between them. Symmetry is good because there need only be 3 different optical prescriptions for 18 segments, 6 of each (see above right diagram). Finally, a roughly circular overall mirror shape is desired because that focuses the light into the most compact region on the detectors. A oval mirror, for example, would give images that are elongated in one direction. A square mirror would send a lot of the light out of the central region.

Once in space, getting these mirrors to focus correctly on faraway galaxies is another challenge. Actuators, or tiny mechanical motors, provide the answer to achieving a single perfect focus. The primary mirror segments and secondary mirror are moved by six actuators that are attached to the back of each mirror piece. The primary mirror segments also have an additional actuator at its center that adjusts its curvature. The telescope's tertiary mirror remains stationary.

Lee Feinberg, Webb Optical Telescope Element Manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. explained, "Aligning the primary mirror segments as though they are a single large mirror means each mirror is aligned to 1/10,000th the thickness of a human hair. What's even more amazing is that the engineers and scientists working on the Webb telescope literally had to invent how to do this."

Watch the the actuators being attached to the back of a telescope mirror in this "Behind the Webb" video:

These diagrams show the back of the mirrors and the actuators.

One further challenge is to keep Webb's mirror cold. To see the first stars and galaxies in the early Universe, astronomers have to observe the infrared light given off by them, and use a telescope and instruments optimized for this light. Because warm objects give off infrared light, or heat, if Webb's mirror was the same temperature as the Hubble Space Telescope's, the faint infrared light from distant galaxies would be lost in the infrared glow of the mirror. Thus, Webb needs to be very cold ("cryogenic"), with its mirrors at around -220 degrees C (-364 degree F). The mirror as a whole must be able to withstand very cold temperatures as well as hold its shape.

To keep Webb cold, it will be sent into deep space, far from the Earth. Sunshields will shade the mirrors and instruments from the Sun's heat, as well as keep them separated from the warm spacecraft bus.

Here is an animation of how light travels through the telescope. JWST is what is known as a three mirror anastigmat. In this configuration, the primary mirror is concave, the secondary is convex, and it works slightly off-axis. The tertiary removes the resulting astigmatism and also flattens the focal plane. This also allows for a wider field of view.

How Did NASA Come Up With These Ideas?

NASA set out to research new ways to build mirrors for telescopes. The Advanced Mirror System Demonstrator (AMSD) program was a four-year partnership between NASA, the National Reconnaissance Office and the US Air Force to study ways to build lightweight mirrors. Based on the ASMD studies, two test mirrors were built and fully tested. One was made from beryllium by Ball Aerospace; the other was built by Kodak (formerly ITT, now the Harris Corporation) and was made from a special type of glass.

A team of experts was chosen to test both of these mirrors, to determine how well they work, how much they cost and how easy (or difficult) it would be to build a full-size, 6.5-meter mirror. The experts recommended that beryllium mirror be selected for the James Webb Space Telescope, for several reasons, one being that beryllium holds its shape at cryogenic temperatures. Based on the expert team's recommendation, Northrop Grumman (the company that is leading the effort to build Webb) selected a beryllium mirror, and the project management at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center approved this decision.

Why Beryllium?

Beryllium is a light metal (atomic symbol: Be) that has many features that make it desirable for Webb's primary mirror. In particular, beryllium is very strong for its weight and is good at holding its shape across a range of temperatures. Beryllium is a good conductor of electricity and heat, and is not magnetic. (At left is a picture of a marble-sized piece of Beryllium)

Because it is light and strong, beryllium is often used to build parts for supersonic (faster-than-the-speed-of-sound) airplanes and the Space Shuttle. It is also used in more down-to-Earth applications like springs and tools. Special care has to be taken when working with beryllium, because it is unhealthy to breathe in or swallow beryllium dust.

How and Where the Beryllium Mirrors Were Made

The James Webb Space Telescope's 18 special lightweight beryllium mirrors have to make 14 stops to 11 different places around the U.S. to complete their manufacturing. They come to life at beryllium mines in Utah, and then move across the country for processing and polishing. In fact, the mirrors make stops in eight states along the way, visiting some states more than once, before journeying to South America for lift-off and the beginning of their final journey to space. Explore an interactive map showing the journey of the mirrors.

The beryllium to make Webb's mirror was mined in Utah and purified at Brush Wellman in Ohio. The particular type of beryllium used in the Webb mirrors is called O-30 and is a fine powder. The powder was placed into a stainless steel canister and pressed into a flat shape. Once the steel canister was removed, the resulting chunk of beryllium was cut in half to make two mirror blanks about 1.3 meters (4 feet) across. Each mirror blank was used to make one mirror segment; the full mirror is made from 18 hexagonal segments.

Once the mirror blanks passed inspection, they were sent to Axsys Technologies in Cullman, Alabama. The first two mirror blanks were completed in March 2004.

Axsys Technologies shaped the mirror blanks into their final shape. The process of shaping the mirror starts with cutting away most of the back side of the beryllium mirror blank, leaving just a thin "rib" structure. The ribs are only about 1 millimeter (about 1/25 of an inch) thick. Although most of the metal is gone, the ribs are enough to keep the segment's shape steady. This makes each segment very light. A beryllium mirror segment is 20 kilograms in mass. (A full primary mirror segment assembly including its actuator is about 40 kg.)

The front surface of each blank was smoothed out and shaped properly so that it will be ready for its final position in the large mirror.

This movie shows the mirror blanks being made at Brush Wellman and shaped at Axsys.

Mirror Polishing

Once the mirror segments were shaped by Axsys, they were sent to Richmond, CA, where SSG/Tinsley polished them.

SSG/Tinsley started by grinding down the surface of each mirror close to its final shape. After this was done, the mirrors were carefully smoothed out and polished. The process of smoothing and polishing is repeated until each mirror segment is nearly perfect. At that point, the segments travel to NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville (MSFC), Alabama for cryogenic testing.

Since many materials change shape when they change temperature, a test team from Ball Aerospace worked together with NASA engineers of Marshall Space Flight Center’s X-ray and Cryogenic Facility (XRCF) to cool the mirror segments down to the temperature Webb will expericence in deep space, -400 degrees Farenheit (-240 degrees Celsius).

Cryogenic testing of the primary mirror segments began in at Marshall's XRCF by Ball Aerospace in 2009.

 

The change in mirror segment shape due to the exposure to these cryogenic temperatures was recorded by Ball Aerospace Engineers using a laser interferometer. This information, together with the mirrors, traveled back to California for final surface polishing at Tinsley.

This short video shows part of the mirror polishing process. The mirrors' final polish was completed in June of 2011.

You can learn more about how the mirror segments are polished in this "Behind the Webb" video podcast:

Gold Coating

Once a mirror segment's final shape is corrected for any imaging effects due to cold temperatures, and polishing is complete, a thin coating of gold is applied. Gold improves the mirror's reflection of infrared light.

Some Technical Details: How is the gold applied to the mirrors? The answer is vacuum vapor deposition. Quantum Coating Incorporated did the coatings on our telescope mirrors. Essentially, the mirrors are put inside a vacuum chamber and a small quantity of gold is vaporized and it deposits on the mirror. Areas that we don't want coated (like the backside and all the mechanisms and such) are masked-off. Typical thickness of the gold is 1000 Angstroms (100 nanometers). A thin layer of amorphous SiO2 (glass) is deposited on top of the gold to protect it from scratches in case of handling or if particles get on the surface and move around (the gold is pure and very soft).

This Behind the Webb video is about mirror coating:

Below is the engineering design unit primary mirror segment (flight spare) coated in gold by Quantum Coating Incorporated. Photo by Drew Noel.

After the gold coating was applied, the mirrors once again traveled back to Marshall Space Flight Center for a final verification of mirror surface shape at cryogenic temperatures. The mirror segments are now complete - they will soon travel to NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

The secondary mirror, now completed, went through a similar process - here it is after being gold-coated by Quantum Coating Incorporated.

In this video, you can follow the mirror's journey from rough ore to precisely reflective, gold-coated segments:

02-03-2016 om 17:28 geschreven door peter  

How to find alien life: Researchers reveal the 'biosignature' that could help us spot extraterrestrials 

• Findings will be useful with the James Webb Space Telescope in 2018
• Will interpret light from exoplanets by looking for specific 'biosignatures' 
• Large O4 signature could mean atmosphere has too much oxygen for life
• Carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide also mean low probability of life

By STACY LIBERATORE FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

Past research has found that some planets create oxygen without the presence of biological organism , which has caused experts to believe this other worlds can sustain life.

But new findings will help determine the difference between life and the illusion of life, by identifying 'biosignatures' in the atmosphere of exoplanets.

Researchers believe this can be determined by studying the spectra features of light that is seen in the planet's atmosphere as it transits.

New findings will help determine the difference between life and the illusion of life, by identifying 'biosignatures' in the atmosphere of exoplanets. Researchers believe this can be determined by studying the spectra features of light that is seen in the planet's atmosphere as it transits

'Recently proposed mechanisms for developing abiotic O2/O3 in terrestrial exoplanet atmospheres would produce spectral discriminators that are potentially identifiable with future telescope observations, including James Webb Space Telescope,' reads the study published by the University of Washington in the journal arXiv.

HOW TO SPOT BIOSIGNATURES AND IMPOSTORS? 

The first scenario suggests the star's ultraviolet light causes carbon dioxide to break down, which releases oxygen atoms to create O2 and will also produce an enormous amount of carbon monoxide as well. 

'So if we saw carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide together in the atmosphere of a rocky planet, we would know to be very suspicious that future oxygen detections would mean life,'Edward Schwieterman, from the University of Washington, said.

The second is starlight breaks down atmospheric water vapor and splits it into hydrogen and oxygen, which then go in different directions.

The hydrogen floats out into space and the oxygen lingers in the atmosphere, which produces numerous O4 and O2 molecules.

'Certain O4 features are potentially detectable in transit spectroscopy, and many more could be seen in reflected light,' Schwieterman said.

'Seeing a large O4 signature could tip you off that this atmosphere has far too much oxygen to be biologically produced.'

'These discriminants are more detectable than O2 or O3 in transmission observations.'

The James Webb Space Telescope is set to be released sometime in 2018 and the University of Washington believes this new model will help 'rule out false positives in the search for life beyond Earth.'

Experts have hope that this device will be able to detect 'biosignatures' on planets far beyond our own solar system and rule out the false positives.

For example, oxygen on Earth is a 'biosignature', but even though it can be found on other planets it does not mean there is life.

Venus has both oxygen and carbon dioxide, but its atmosphere is too hot and acidic to sustain life - showing oxygen is a false positive.

'We wanted to determine if there was something we could observe that gave away these 'false positive' cases among exoplanets,' said lead author Edward Schwieterman, a doctoral student in astronomy.

'We call them 'biosignature impostors' in the paper.

'The potential discovery of life beyond our solar system is of such a huge magnitude and consequence, we really need to be sure we've got it right — that when we interpret the light from these exoplanets we know exactly what we're looking for, and what could fool us.'

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Previous studies have shown that other planets create oxygen 'aboitically' or not from a living organism.

This has been found in planets that orbit low-mass stars, which are much smaller and dimmer than Earth's sun.

WE COULD FIND ALIEN LIFE IN THE NEXT 10-20 YEARS, CLAIMS NASA 

There at least 200 billion Earth-like planets in our galaxy – and now Nasa officials claim we could be on the verge of finding life on one of them.

During a talk in Washington earlier this month, the space agency announced that humanity is likely to encounter extra-terrestrials within a decade.

'I believe we are going to have strong indications of life beyond Earth in the next decade and definitive evidence in the next 10 to 20 years,' Ellen Stofan, chief scientist for Nasa, said.

'We know where to look, we know how to look, and in most cases we have the technology.'

Jeffery Newmark, interim director of heliophysics at the agency, added: 'It's definitely not an if, it's a when.'

'We are not talking about little green men,' said Stofan. 'We are talking about little microbes.'

The announcement has been prompted by the recent discovery of water by Nasa in surprising places.

Jim Green, director of planetary science at Nasa, noted that a recent study of the Martian atmosphere found 50 per cent of the planet's northern hemisphere once had oceans a mile deep. 

The first scenario suggests the star's ultraviolet light causes carbon dioxide to break down, which releases oxygen atoms to create O2 and will also produce an enormous amount of carbon monoxide as well.

'So if we saw carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide together in the atmosphere of a rocky planet, we would know to be very suspicious that future oxygen detections would mean life,' Schwieterman said.

The second is starlight breaks down atmospheric water vapor and splits it into hydrogen and oxygen, which then go in different directions.

For example, oxygen on Earth is a 'biosignature', but even though it can be found on other planets it does not mean there is life. Venus (pictured) has both oxygen and carbon dioxide, but its atmosphere is too hot and acidic to sustain life -- showing oxygen is a false positive.

The hydrogen floats out into space and the oxygen lingers in the atmosphere, which produces numerous O4 and O2 molecules.

'Certain O4 features are potentially detectable in transit spectroscopy, and many more could be seen in reflected light,' Schwieterman said.

'Seeing a large O4 signature could tip you off that this atmosphere has far too much oxygen to be biologically produced.'

https://youtu.be/4gvPl3qWZIM

https://youtu.be/y9Z2GbFJWmo

'It's one thing to detect a biosignature gas, but another thing to be able to interpret what you are looking at, said Victoria Meadows, UW professor of astronomy and principal investigator of the Virtual Planetary Laboratory.

'This research is important because biosignature impostors may be more common for planets orbiting low-mass stars, which will be the first places we look for life outside our solar system in the coming decade.' 

The James Webb Space Telescope (pictured) is set to be released sometime in 2018 and the University of Washington believes this new model will help 'rule out false positives in the search for life beyond Earth. Experts have hope that this device will be able to detect 'biosignatures' on planets

{ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

02-03-2016 om 17:15 geschreven door peter  

Details on the Planetary Impact Emergency Response Working Group

A partnership between the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and NASA is in place "to develop guidance to prepare for any potential impact of our planet by a large natural object."

A Planetary Impact Emergency Response Working Group (PIERWG) Charter was signed in August 2015 and is now available for public viewing here. 

The Charter notes that "the risks are inherently unique and there are currently no national policy covering this particular threat."

Spelled out in the Charter is the framework for the structure and processes of an interagency team focused on preparation for a predicted or actual impact of an asteroid or comet that could affect the United States or its territories.

The Charter details the roles, responsibilities, and membership of the PIERWG.

Coordinating agencies

The objective of the PIERWG provides a forum for affected U.S. Departments and Agencies to develop the essential information and recommendations needed by senior leadership to make informed decisions to respond to the “unique challenges” of an impending NEO impact.

PIERWG coordinating agencies include the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, the Department of Homeland Security-Science and Technology, as well as Department of Defense, and the Department of State’s Office of Space and Advanced Technology.

Approving the document is Damon Penn, Assistant Administrator of the Response Directorate of FEMA and NASA’s James Green, Director of the Planetary Science Division.

In early January, NASA announced the establishment of a Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO) created to coordinate U.S. agencies and intergovernmental efforts to respond to future near-Earth objects that threaten Earth.

Leonard David has been reporting on the space industry for more than five decades. He is former director of research for the National Commission on Space and is co-author of Buzz Aldrin's 2013 book "Mission to Mars – My Vision for Space Exploration" published by National Geographic with a new updated paperback version released in May 2015. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.

EDITOR'S RECOMMENDATIONS

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• Asteroids: Fun Facts and Information About Asteroids

{ http://www.space.com/ }

02-03-2016 om 16:54 geschreven door peter  

First version of this article was originally published on January  22, 2015

A. Sutherland – MessageToEagle.com – With the discovery of the crucial, though, unexpected link between space and time, Einstein realized that these two things could no longer be thought of as separate things.

They are fused together and form the continuum (manifold) of space-time, viewed as a four-dimensional vector space.

Suddenly, he realized something unbelievable, namely that our understanding of past, present and future and the sharp difference we see between them – may only be an illusion.

“The distinction between past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion,” he said.

At first, he wasn’t particularly thrilled with the unified spacetime idea and dismissed new four-dimensional geometry propose

d by Hermann Minkowski, as “superfluous” pedantry but he eventually accepted the idea and so must we.

As Arthur Schopenhauer expressed, “the most insignificant present has over the most significant past the advantage of reality” and such a belief cannot be so easily dismissed.

Naturally, this illusion – our understanding of past, present and future – is very convincing for us, but it’s still an illusion, we live with every day, every moment, continuously.

Centuries ago, St. Augustine of Hippo, one of the world’s most influential thinkers was also occupied with the phenomenon of time and space.

“How can the past and future be, when the past no longer is, and the future is not yet?” he asked.

“As for the present, if it were always present and never moved on to become the past, it would not be time, but eternity.”

Essentially the same question we are pondering today.

Most of us are convinced that reality means the events of the present moment.

It’s our fundamental belief since we were children because the only we understand is the reality of the moment.

We divide time into past, present and future and it seems essential to our experience of reality – our reality – as anything, says Paul Davies, a Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of Adelaide, Australia.

But what if our perception of time and space has simply deceived us?

Much of what we thought we knew about our universe-that the past has already happened and the future is yet to be, that space is just an empty void, that our universe is the only universe that exists-just might be wrong, says famous physicist Brian Greene.

In our day-to-day lives, we experience time as a continuous flow. But it can also be useful to think of time as a series of snapshots, or moments, and every event can be thought of as the unfolding of moment, after moment, after moment.

And “if we picture all these moments, or snapshots, line them up, every moment here on Earth, every moment of Earth orbiting the Sun, and every moment throughout the entire universe, we would see every event that has ever happened or will ever happen, from the birth of our universe at the Big Bang, some 14-billion years ago; to the formation of stars in the Milky Way galaxy; to the creation of Earth, four and a half billion years ago; to the time of the dinosaurs; to events happening on Earth today, like me working in my office,” Greene explains.

Don’t you have a strange feeling that someone out there is so incredibly advanced technologically that he can observe all those movements (snapshots) in the entire universe when they take place simultaneously?

And when we seriously consider the simple but essential concept of “now we begin to understand that both past and future must be real because they could be your now, which means past, present and future – are all equally real and all exist.

Moreover, they exist all at once.

Written by A. Sutherland – MessageToEagle.com Staff Writer

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source:

Brian Greene, The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time and the Texture of Reality

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02-03-2016 om 16:39 geschreven door peter  

02-03-2016 om 16:26 geschreven door peter