Dit is ons nieuw hondje Kira, een kruising van een waterhond en een Podenko. Ze is sinds 7 februari 2024 bij ons en druk bezig ons hart te veroveren. Het is een lief, aanhankelijk hondje, dat zich op een week snel aan ons heeft aangepast. Ze is heel vinnig en nieuwsgierig, een heel ander hondje dan Noleke.
This is our new dog Kira, a cross between a water dog and a Podenko. She has been with us since February 7, 2024 and is busy winning our hearts. She is a sweet, affectionate dog who quickly adapted to us within a week. She is very quick and curious, a very different dog than Noleke.
DEAR VISITOR,
MY BLOG EXISTS ALREADY 12 YEARS AND 10 MONTHS.
ON 06/04/2024 MORE THAN 1.951.050
VISITORS FROM 134 DIFFERENT NATIONS ALREADY FOUND THEIR WAY TO MY BLOG.
THAT IS AN AVERAGE OF 400GUESTS PER DAY.
THANK YOU FOR VISITING MY BLOG AND HOPE YOU ENJOY EACH TIME.
The purpose of this blog is the creation of an open, international, independent and free forum, where every UFO-researcher can publish the results of his/her research. The languagues, used for this blog, are Dutch, English and French.You can find the articles of a collegue by selecting his category. Each author stays resposable for the continue of his articles. As blogmaster I have the right to refuse an addition or an article, when it attacks other collegues or UFO-groupes.
Druk op onderstaande knop om te reageren in mijn forum
Zoeken in blog
Deze blog is opgedragen aan mijn overleden echtgenote Lucienne.
In 2012 verloor ze haar moedige strijd tegen kanker!
In 2011 startte ik deze blog, omdat ik niet mocht stoppen met mijn UFO-onderzoek.
BEDANKT!!!
Een interessant adres?
UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN - DE ALLERLAATSTE NIEUWTJES
UFO's of UAP'S in België en de rest van de wereld In België had je vooral BUFON of het Belgisch UFO-Netwerk, dat zich met UFO's bezighoudt. BEZOEK DUS ZEKER VOOR ALLE OBJECTIEVE INFORMATIE , enkel nog beschikbaar via Facebook en deze blog.
Verder heb je ook het Belgisch-Ufo-meldpunt en Caelestia, die prachtig, doch ZEER kritisch werk leveren, ja soms zelfs héél sceptisch...
Voor Nederland kan je de mooie site www.ufowijzer.nl bezoeken van Paul Harmans. Een mooie site met veel informatie en artikels.
MUFON of het Mutual UFO Network Inc is een Amerikaanse UFO-vereniging met afdelingen in alle USA-staten en diverse landen.
MUFON's mission is the analytical and scientific investigation of the UFO- Phenomenon for the benefit of humanity...
Je kan ook hun site bekijken onder www.mufon.com.
Ze geven een maandelijks tijdschrift uit, namelijk The MUFON UFO-Journal.
Since 02/01/2020 is Pieter ex-president (=voorzitter) of BUFON, but also ex-National Director MUFON / Flanders and the Netherlands. We work together with the French MUFON Reseau MUFON/EUROP.
ER IS EEN NIEUWE GROEPERING DIE ZICH BUFON NOEMT, MAAR DIE HEBBEN NIETS MET ONZE GROEP TE MAKEN. DEZE COLLEGA'S GEBRUIKEN DE NAAM BUFON VOOR HUN SITE... Ik wens hen veel succes met de verdere uitbouw van hun groep. Zij kunnen de naam BUFON wel geregistreerd hebben, maar het rijke verleden van BUFON kunnen ze niet wegnemen...
16-04-2017
The Most Amazing Space Stories of the Week!
The Most Amazing Space Stories of the Week!
By SPACE.com Staff
Two of the raised treads on the left middle wheel of NASA's Curiosity rover on Mars suffered breaks in early 2017. One of the breaks is visible as a partially detached section at the top of the wheel, seen here by Curiosity's arm-mounted Mars Hand Lens Imager.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
A Dragon returns, North Korea tests a rocket engine, a wheel breaks on Mars and a spacewalk streak begins — it's Space.com's top news stories of the week.
Transition begins
U.S. President Donald Trump signed a bill authorizing a $19.5 billion budget for NASA in 2017, setting its priorities for the year. Vice President Mike Pence also announced that he would head a re-established National Space Council, which will advise the president on space issues. [Full Story: President Trump Signs NASA Authorization Bill]
Dragon came back
SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, bringing more than 2 tons of science experiments and gear back from the International Space Station. Officials retrieved the spacecraft and had time-sensitive scientific samples in the lab within 48 hours. [Full Story: SpaceX Dragon Capsule Returns to Earth with Ocean Splashdown]
NASA's Curiosity Mars rover has two small breaks in the treads of one of its six heavy wheels. Curiosity has already lasted well beyond its original two-year mission lifetime, and it should be able to continue unhindered by this latest wear and tear. [Full Story: Breaks Found in Curiosity Mars Rover's Wheel]
(Tiny) thrusters, on!
New, dime-size ion thrusters could keep constellations of small satellites in orbit — or, working together, propel astronauts to Mars. The newly-developed "thruster chips" eject ions drawn from a salt-based propellant solution. [Full Story: Dime-Size Thrusters Could Propel Satellites, Spacecraft]
Three observant satellites, called Swarm, have mapped the complex magnetic field of Earth's crust and outer mantle, known as its lithosphere. The signal is tiny, but illuminating about the Earth's history. (And one city in Africa has a mysteriously sharp and strong magnetic spike.) [Full Story: Earth's Magnetic Cocoon Mapped in Extreme Detail]
A radio telescope that could probe the dawn of the universe's first stars and galaxies received a new grant, boosting its potential size from 240 huge antenna dishes to 350 — letting it look even further back in time. [Full Story: Telescope Eyeing Universe's First Stars Gets (Another) Big Boost]
The Most Interesting Science News Articles of the Week
The Most Interesting Science News Articles of the Week
By Live Science Staff
Each week we uncover the most interesting and informative articles from around the world, here are 10 of the coolest stories in science this week.
Hardy microbes
Serpentinite rock. Serpentine rock formations found near the Mariana Trench have signatures of organic processes that could be indicative of life.
Credit: Uhryn Larysa/Shutterstock.com
A host of hardy microbes may be living miles beneath the ocean floor, new research suggests.
"Although we cannot pinpoint the exact origin of the organic matter, chemical analysis of the constituents resembles molecular signatures that could be produced by microbial life deep within or below the mud volcano," the researchers wrote in the study. [Read more about deep life.]
Elephantiasis
This image shows the typical symptoms of podoconiosis, including swollen, thickened lower limbs with a warty and mossy appearance. This is an advanced form of the disease.
Credit: Dr. Christine Kihembo
A rare condition called elephantiasis, which tends to strike people in tropical parts of the world, was long thought to occur due to a parasitic infection. But a new study shows that the condition can have another cause: sharp crystals found in certain soils.
But in 2014 and 2015, there were reports of two intense outbreaks of elephantiasis in western Uganda, an area that is not known to harbor these worms. [Read more about the rare condition.]
'Sterile' Neutrinos
A view inside a particle detector tank at Daya Bay, where photomultiplier tubes measure signals from antineutrinos.
Credit: Roy Kaltschmidt/Berkeley Lab
Proposed elusive subatomic particles that only fleetingly interact with matter through gravity may not exist, at least if new data from a nuclear reactor is any indication.
"Among the possible explanations, the most exciting one is that we have a new piece of physics," such as sterile neutrinos, said Kam-Liu Bak, the spokesperson for the Daya Bay Collaboration. "That explanation is now unlikely." [Read more about the particles.]
Strange culture
A mummified cat from the University of Aberdeen Museums has been made into an interactive 3D model.
Credit: University of Aberdeen
Behind the scenes at the University of Aberdeen Museums, researchers are using high-tech 3D imaging software to reveal what is inside a 2,000-year-old Egyptian cat mummy and other ancient mummified artifacts in the museums' collections.
Household pets were commonly mummified and buried alongside their owners in ancient Egypt. Many were also preserved as sacred offerings to the gods, and an entire industry existed that is thought to have churned out more than 70 million animal mummies, BBC News reported. [Read more about cat mummies.]
Beauty and the Beast
Beauty (Emma Watson) and Beast (Dan Stevens) overcome their differences to find true love in the 2017 film "Beauty and the Beast."
Credit: Disney
The recent live-action movie "Beauty and the Beast" (Disney, 2017) is the latest retelling of the "tale as old as time" — a tender and life-changing romance between a human and a nonhuman animal that is ultimately made human by love — which has captivated audiences of all ages for hundreds of years.
What explains the enduring attraction of these myths and stories, and what might our affection for these bizarre pairings tell us about ourselves? [Read more about the fascination.]
Odd exhibit
A sperm whale penis, mounted and stuffed, at the Explorers Club headquarters in New York City.
Credit: Courtesy of the Explorers Club
In 1977, the Explorers Club in New York received an unusual gift. Unable to attend a whaling exhibition that the club was hosting, Mr. and Mrs. Frederick S. Schauffler sent their regrets in a note … along with a sperm whale foreskin, stuffed and mounted on an oak base.
According to a report by the Nantucket Historical Association, Sanderson was born in Ohio in 1874, but he lived his final years on the Massachusetts island of Nantucket. Sometime in the 1920s, he bought a historic Nantucket home and began filling it with whaling artifacts, such as "harpoons, boarding knives, cutting spades and bomb lances, as part of a careful interior restoration of that house," Aimee Newell wrote in the NHA report. [Read more about the strange artifact.]
Moon Enceladus
This enhanced-color image of Enceladus by NASA's Cassini spacecraft features the "tiger stripe" fractures, from which geysers blast water ice and other material from the Saturn moon's subsurface ocean out into space.
Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Saturn's icy moon Enceladus is looking more and more like a habitable world.
These reactions depend on the presence of molecular hydrogen (H2), which, the new study reports, is likely being produced continuously by reactions between hot water and rock deep down in Enceladus' sea. [Read more about the energy source.]
Lost art
One of the fish from the site with 5,000-year-old rock art in the Thune Valley, Botswana.
Credit: David Pearce
They may now be underwater, but the oldest rock art paintings in southern Africa are about 5,000 years old, far more ancient than previously realized, a new study finds.
The researchers then used a novel technique to isolate the paint fragments before dating them, as well as 13 other fragments from rock art sites across southern Africa, including in Lesotho and South Africa. [Read more about the ancient rock art.]
Learning bots
When Microsoft released an artificially intelligent chatbot named Tay on Twitter last March, things took a predictably disastrous turn. Within 24 hours, the bot was spewing racist, neo-Nazi rants, much of which it picked up by incorporating the language of Twitter users who interacted with it.
The researchers experimented with a widely used machine-learning system called the Global Vectors for Word Representation (GloVe) and found that every sort of human bias they tested showed up in the artificial system. [Read more about artificial intelligence.]
Elon's odds
Elon Musk speaks during an event to launch the new Tesla Model X Crossover SUV in Fremont, California, on Sept. 29, 2015.
Credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
I've been imagining a network of electrodes clinging to my brain, trying, with increasing mechanical desperation, to unwind all of these thoughts and figure out what to do with them.
That's what tech guru Elon Musk wants: neural implants that would connect to the human brain and merge the mind with a machine. [Read more about brain hacking.]
Naval Officer Tells Us EXACTLY What He Saw Hidden In Antarctica
Naval Officer Tells Us EXACTLY What He Saw Hidden In Antarctica
A naval officer tells us what he remembers, including seeing a huge opening in the ice in a no-fly area they were crossing with a medical emergency on board. Then he ferried a group of scientists who had disappeared for two weeks, and has specifically been warned not to refer again to this subject. As he put it, “they looked scared.
Antarctica has long been considered one of the most mysterious places on Earth. Therefore, it is not strange that numerous ‘conspiracy theories, claims, and accounts’ have been proposed throughout the years, trying to explain some of the many enigmatic occurrences on Earth’s most isolated continent.
For years people have claimed that Antarctica is one of the most guarded places on Earth for a good reason.
Many authors have proposed that there are many interesting things hidden beneath Antarctica that are kept away from society.
Talk about ancient civilization inhabiting Antarctica has existed for decades. What if, in the distant past, when Earth –and Antarctica— was much different than today, an ancient civilization developed there, creating fascinating structures, monuments and temples?
Would we find evidence of their existence today? Many people claim that we already have.
But why has Antarctica become a ‘center’ for conspiracy theories?
Perhaps one of the greatest reasons is because it is so isolated and you can’t just travel there as you wish. Furthermore, even though we know about Antarctica only for a little over 100 years, there are numerous ancient maps that depict parts of Antarctica free of ice.
One of the most controversial maps was without a doubt composed in 1513, by Turkish Admiral Piri Reis who drew a map that would create a global debate over 500 years after him. The map depicts Antarctica which was discovered between 1818-1820.
But how is this possible? The history of Antarctica emerges from early Western theories of a vast continent, known as Terra Australis, believed to exist in the far south of the globe. The term Antarctic, referring to the opposite of the Arctic Circle, was coined by Marinus of Tyre in the 2nd century AD.
In 1820, several expeditions claimed to have been the first to have sighted the ice shelf or the continent. Interestingly, a Russian expedition was led by Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev, a British expedition was captained by Edward Bransfield and an American sealer Nathaniel Palmer participated.
The first landing was probably just over a year later when American Captain John Davis, a sealer, set foot on the ice. Norwegian Roald Amundsen finally reached the Pole on December 14, 1911, following a dramatic race with the Englishman Robert Falcon Scott.
But the above accounts are all relatively recent.
Here are ancient maps that date back over 500 years which already depict the continent, and some of them show Antarctica free of ice.
In 2012, a satellite image of Antarctica spotted a strange oval-shaped formation in one of the most remote places on the planet. Thousands of miles from modern society, the strange oval-shaped structure raised numerous questions among experts.
At 400-feet across, experts analyzing the image ask whether or not this ‘structure’ could be the result of Mother Nature. The unusual shape of the structure suggests it may be man-made formation.
The above image is just one of the many odd things that have been found on Antarctica and many authors and whistleblowers claim there’s more to Antarctica than we’ve ever been told.
What is referred to as a ‘truly shocking and astonishing video on extremely strange events in the Antarctic continent’ has recently been uploaded to YouTube, causing a social network debate about Antarctica and what’s really there.
“A naval officer tells us what he remembers, including seeing a huge opening in the ice in a no-fly area they were crossing with a medical emergency on board. Then he ferried a group of scientists who had disappeared for two weeks, and has specifically been warned not to refer again to this subject. As he put it, “they looked scared.” When they returned to McMurdo, their gear was isolated and they were flown back to Christchurch, New Zealand in a special plane. He discusses what he saw and experienced in detail. This is the most provocative story about what is going on in Antarctica ever presented anywhere.”
CLE 2017 Reveals: Secret Space Programs, Aliens, and Inner Earth Civilizations
CLE 2017 Reveals: Secret Space Programs, Aliens, and Inner Earth Civilizations
Inner Earth beings… “They’re a fourth-density being, and apparently they trace their lineage back to the Earth, and some of them, including the Anshar here, back 18 million years.”
During the Conscious Life Expo 2017 in LA, Corey Goode revealed fascinating details about secret space programs, Alien life and Inner Earth civilizations.
Corey Goode identifies himself as an intuitive empath (IE). According to the Sphere Being Alliance, Corey Goode was recruited through one of the MILAB programs at the young age of six. (MILAB is a term coined for the military abduction of a person that indoctrinates and trains them for any number of military black ops programs.) Goode trained and served in the MILAB program from 1976-1986/87. Toward the end of his time at MILAB he was assigned to fill an IE support role for a rotating Earth Delegate Seat (shared by secret earth government groups) in a “human-type” ET SuperFederation Council.
During the Conscious Life Expo 2017 in LA, Goode spoke about fascinating details concerning Alien life, Alien contact, inner-Earth civilization and forbidden knowledge in general.
Alien contact has already happened
“When I was first being picked up and taken to these MILAB-type programs, I found myself being slowly introduced to non-terrestrials. You would go into like a virtual reality setting where they put the goggles on you, and you’re sitting in a chair, and there would be a bunch of military and medical people in the room.”
“…And then, when you took the goggles off, there would be a Grey alien sitting at the table. They would just spring it on you. Yeah. They spent years acclimating people to being in the presence of non-terrestrials, because no matter who you are, it’s going to throw you off. We’re genetically programmed to respond viscerally to thenon-terrestrials.”
The Secret Space Program
Corey Goode isn’t the only one who has spoken out about the existence of a fully operational secret space program.
Interestingly, a former NASA employee claimed there were secret manned missions to Mars over 20 years ago. In an interview with Coast-to-Coast AM, a woman by the name of ‘Jackie’ talked about humans on Mars, something that has been discussed among other alleged NASA employees for years; ‘…Then I saw two men in space suits – not the bulky suits we normally used, but they looked protective. They came over the horizon walking to the Viking Explorer…’
In addition to the above, a former Marine claims to have even WORKED on Mars.
The retired officer only known as Captain Kaye (pseudonym), said that not only have humans made it to Mars in the past, we have developed a secret space program and flotilla that operates in space. According to the former Marine, he was posted on the red planet for years and his mission was to protect the five human colonies from indigenous life forms on Mars. According to Captain Kaye, not only did he spend years on Mars, but he also served aboard a giant space carrier for three years.
But perhaps the best person to expose everything related to secret programs and shadow governments was Senator Daniel K. Inouye who said: “There exists a shadowy government with its own Air Force, its own Navy, its own fundraising mechanism, and the ability to pursue its own ideas of the national interest, free from all checks and balances, and free from the law itself.”
During the Conscious Life Expo 2017 Goode explained in detail the Secret Space Program:
“When I was almost 17, I was brought into the Secret Space Program (SSP), which I had been groomed for all throughout the MILAB program. They drafted me into Solar Warden. It was my Christmas break, 1986. I was . . . My birthday’s in 11 days, so it’s February 22. It was during December just before my 17th birthday that they brought me in.”
“They assigned me to a research vessel, and the captain did not want me on board. In the past, they had put what he called “children” on board, and they cried for mom, and it took about a year for them to acclimate, and he did not want to go through that. It was too disruptive. So instead, they sent me to the Intruder, Intercept and Interrogation program, where they would use intuitive empaths to interrogate non-terrestrials that they had caught in our Solar System or on Earth.”
“I was in that program for about a year, just under a year. And then they reassigned me back to the Sommerfield. I worked for scientists and engineers. When I was working on the science side with the scientists, they called me a Specialist. And I was a Technician when I was working with the engineers. Who remembers talking about the dart craft coming in my back yard to pick me up?”
Inner Earth civilizations
Goode isn’t the only one who believes there are civilizations inhabiting lower parts of Earth’s crust. In a new interview by Coast to Coast am, author and researchers David Wilcock stated that an alliance of ancient civilizations is living inside the planet. These ancient civilizations have been calling the inner Earth their home for long periods of time and they are about the reveal themselves to the world. Wilcock explained that during the formation of all watery planets in the universe (and according to latest studies by NASA there are quite a few) hollow cavities are formed below the surface of the crust, with their very own biome with bacteria that is capable of giving off natural light.
Goode further elaborated on the subject during the Conscious Life Expo 2017:
“The Inner Earth. It seems to be probably the most popular topic that I’ve talked about.”
“A lot of you remember me talking about witnessing the city in the deep cavern. This is an animation that Rene created to help depict it. It’s very good. The only difference was the cavern was the size of a state. There’s no way to really accurately depict on scale how large it was. It’s unbelievable. There’s mist up along the ceiling of the cave, cavern.”
“It was like New York, or Manhattan, under the ground. Inside these pillars, natural pillars, they had built into what looked like a bunch of condos. I guess that’s where all the . . . They don’t have money. I was going to say that’s where all the rich people live. They don’t have money.”
“They’re a fourth-density being, and apparently they trace their lineage back to the Earth, and some of them, including the Anshar here, back 18 million years.”
Believe it or not: Things You Should Know About the REPTILIAN Conspiracy Theory (VIDEO)
Believe it or not: Things You Should Know About the REPTILIAN Conspiracy Theory (VIDEO)
No, we’re not talking about lizards driving around in fancy cars – though that’s not far off from what some people believe is happening. The concept was brought to popularity by former BBC sports writer and self-proclaimed “son of God”, David Icke in his 1999 book The Biggest Secret: The Book That Will Change the World. In the book, Icke posits that society is controlled by humanoid reptiles. For the sake of simplicity, we will call them the Reptilians. While it may sound like a wildly outlandish conspiracy theory, approximately 12 million Americans believe that it’s actually true and there is a conspiracy against humans perpetrated by the Reptilians.
In a post-truth and alternative-fact world, how should we understand conspiracy theories?
In a post-truth and alternative-fact world, how should we understand conspiracy theories?
In an environment of scepticism, it's difficult to draw the line between rational thinking and conspiracy thoerising.
Reuters
But how about this assertion: the world is ruled by a powerful and secretive cabal? Suddenly, those one-word responses don’t fit quite so easily. The world may not be run by a cabal of Illuminati. Or alien lizards. But there is an elite – the world’s top politicians and most powerful corporations – whose decisions affect the lives of all of us.
And yes, even in this age of transparency, many of their meetings and decisions are conducted behindclosed doors.
Rational observation versus conspiracy theories
So where does rational observation end and conspiracy theorising begin? If only it were that simple. “We think there’s ‘conspiracy theory’ and then there’s acceptable political discourse,” said political scientist, Professor David Runciman. “But the difficulty is that there’s no clear dividing line where you can say, ‘We question it to this point, and beyond that questions are crazy’.”
Runciman is a director of Conspiracy and Democracy, a five-year, Leverhulme-funded project based at the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities that is drawing together researchers across disciplines to assemble a natural history of conspiracy theories. He offers a succinct definition. “In the pejorative sense, a conspiracy theory is a view about the world in which the surface story is never the real story,” he said. “It’s a view without any limits to its scepticism or doubt. It’s a mindset in which nothing that contradicts the theory is taken as anything other than evidence that the theory is true.”
Such sceptical mindsets are currently grabbing headlines, with narratives around “fake news” and “alternative facts”. “There’s a conspiracy-theory scare right now,” said Runciman. “But you can’t blame digital technology for this. For people who want to bypass conventional sources of information, it’s easier to do it. But the propensity of people to believe these things isn’t a modern phenomenon.”
Emergence of conspiracy theories
Historian Dr Andrew McKenzie-McHarg, one of the Conspiracy and Democracy project’s researchers, is examining when we first started to notice conspiracy theories. When these theories emerged is a contentious question: “Some say antiquity, others the Renaissance. Others say the French Revolution, when we see the first modern conspiracy theories, around the Illuminati.”
Whatever the answer might be, it was only in relatively modern times that conditions arose that made possible the observation of the phenomenon. As McKenzie-McHarg points out, “The concept ‘conspiracy theory’ itself is from the 19th century, when it’s used in a forensic context at a time of increasingly scientific approaches to crime.”
In the 20th century the concept itself, fittingly enough, became the subject of a conspiracy theory. “There are those who claim that the words ‘conspiracy theory’ were introduced by the CIA to discredit people who were promoting these sorts of ideas,” said McKenzie-McHarg. “All my work is about demonstrating that the conspiracy theory about the concept ‘conspiracy theory’… is not true.”
In fact, as he points out, the origins of the phenomenon are deep-rooted. Ironically, it seems that this behaviour, which today we associate with those who feel impotent in the face of forces they can’t control, may bestow a sense of agency. McKenzie-McHarg links conspiracy theorising to the age-old notion of the scapegoat. “Identifying the scapegoat gives you the opportunity to do something – to marginalise or persecute those who have been identified as the guilty party. It’s far better to be doing something than nothing.”
Brains and beliefs
Neuroscientist Professor Paul Fletcher traces conspiracy theorising behaviour back to an even more fundamental origin: the brain. His work on delusion and hallucination points to a conclusion both startling and persuasive: that conspiracy theories, like other forms of belief, arise from the natural function of the mind.
“The brain – our minds – have an impossible task in making sense of a world that is noisy and ambiguous,” he said. “We have to take short cuts. We have to add our own evidence rather than being a passive receptacle of the world. The majority of our beliefs and precepts are useful – but they are not a facsimile of what’s out there.”
In other words, conspiracy theories, like more sanctioned forms of belief, are our attempts to craft an explanation of the world around us. And what’s crucial in determining whether those explanations are acceptable or not, is context. In many cultures, Fletcher said, it might be “perfectly reasonable” to believe that you were being communicated with by a godlike entity. Not so in Western society today.
Of course, diagnosable mental illness creates delusion and requires treatment. But as Fletcher points out, conspiracy theories arise from the processing of evidence in our brain, resulting in a conclusion that the majority of society does not share. And the opinions of that majority are formed in exactly the same way. “Beliefs are not the logical workings-out of evidence that we assume them to be – they are based on our own biases and assumptions.”
Bias, assumption and Patient Zero
And sometimes, those assumptions lead us astray. One striking example has been analysed by Dr Richard McKay, a Wellcome Trust Research Fellow, whose co-authored study of the Patient Zero narrative of the AIDS epidemic received global attention last year and appears in monograph later this year.
Among the study’s revelations was the fact that Patient Zero (an Air Canada flight attendant named Gaétan Dugas) was not the source of the outbreak, and that his designation as “zero” or “0” was a corruption of his abbreviated identifier in an early study as patient “O” – a study subject who resided “Outside of California”.
McKay echoes Fletcher’s assertion that bias and assumption are instrumental in creating beliefs – in this case, an entire hypothesis about the origin and spread of the AIDS epidemic. “When epidemics arise, there is a long history of trying to find out the first cases,” he said. “Overlapping with that, there have always been people trying to figure out, ‘How do we stop this?’ And then there’s another group focusing on ‘Why did that happen?’ and ‘Who can we blame?’ To an extent, which of those stories you subscribe to will depend on your world view, and which systems of belief and power you subscribe to.”
He believes the Patient Zero false narrative wasn’t a conspiracy theory, but rather a demonstration of how chosen narratives can win out over evidence, and an argument for the care with which we need to craft our explanations. This tendency partly explains why conspiracy theories are so very hard to disprove or dislodge: they are self-reinforcing, thanks to the information chosen for consideration in the first place.
Post-truth, post-factual and fake news
Understanding – and disseminating – how evidence can be used better is the task of one of Cambridge’s newest bodies, the Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication, based in the Faculty of Mathematics. Executive Director Dr Alexandra Freeman said the centre is tasked with aiding key decision-makers and communicators, such as civil servants, doctors and journalists, to better grasp the evidence they use, and present it more effectively to their audience.
This could not be more relevant in 2017. It is a truism of the past year in politics that those responsible for clearly communicating evidence have failed to do so – or failed to cut through when they did. The 2016 EU referendum saw Michael Gove declare that “people in this country have had enough of experts”, while in the US presidential race, both the media and the public were fascinated by Donald Trump’s fluid use of fact. And in the wake of that acrimonious race, terms such as “post-truth”, “postfactual” and “fake news” have entered the mainstream. The need for a centre such as the Winton has never been clearer.
“I don’t think we can deal with conspiracy theorists directly,” Freeman explained. “There will always be those who don’t trust anyone, even the University of Cambridge’s Maths Department! Obviously we can try to establish our credentials for being trusted by being honest about everything we do, being open about the levels of uncertainty and disagreement in the evidence we are presenting, and providing reference sources for all our information.”
Conspiracy theories as critical commentaries
Which is why Dr Nayanika Mathur’s fieldwork at CRASSH is so intriguing – she is studying the contrasting attempts to introduce biometric ID in Britain and India. In the UK, the proposals were scrapped in 2010; in India, the Unique Identification project or Aadhaar is proceeding despite opposition.
“The [Indian] government has branded much criticism of the UID as conspiratorial,” Mathur explains. “Yet at least some of the criticism is being levelled not by crackpots, but by respected legal minds and grounded activists. By taking seriously the so-called conspiracy theories around the UID, I am attempting to unsettle the common understanding of conspiracy theorists as deluded or crazy. That means I can look at conspiracy theories as critical commentaries on the world, from which we can learn a lot.”
We live in an age when even scientists investigating an epidemic can get the narrative wrong, and in which those who govern us often fail badly at communicating their evidence-based arguments. Meanwhile those labelled conspiracy theorists, said Fletcher, may reach conclusions that run counter to the mainstream, but, in shaping – and warping – the evidence to fit their strong beliefs, they are not doing much different from what we all do, all the time.
The danger arises when they don’t accept facts that counter these beliefs, and stick to their own “alternative facts”. So, should we stop writing off conspiracy theorists, and instead view them – as Mathur does – as offering a critical commentary on our times? From Illuminati to ID cards, the latest crop of Cambridge research suggests that the history of weird ideas says as much about all of us, as it does about the people who believe them.
Are UFOs seen on Earth so often people now DON'T BOTHER to report the bizarre sightings?
Are UFOs seen on Earth so often people now DON'T BOTHER to report the bizarre sightings?
ALIEN experts are considering whether people have become so used to seeing UFOs visiting Earth, they are becoming normalised and are less likely to report the experience.
Are so many UFOs seen now that they don't all get reported to MUFON?
The US-based MUTUAL UFO Network (MUFON) is investigating after a stark drop in reported sightings for the first quarter of 2017.
MUFON is the world's biggest organisation dedicated to alien research and keeps searchable online global database of suspicious sightings reported by the public.
Robert Powell, MUFON director of research, said reports from within the US were down by 32 per cent from January to March this year, based on the average amounts over the previous five years.
Domestic UFO reports for the first quarter 2017 are down a staggering 32 per cent as compared to the averse for the same period over the previous five years, according to Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) Director of Research Robert Powell.
From January 1 to March 31, 2017, the MUFON US database showed 992 UFO reports where the case occurred during January, February or March.
The average over the last five years for that period was around 1,460 cases.
Mr Powell said: "We have no current explanation on why the drop in UFO reports.
California has traditionally been the number one reporting state for UFO cases in any given month for years – but that status is somewhat misleading when you review populations.
Roger Marsh, of MUFON
MUFON Executive Director Harzan said: “There is a direct correlation between UFO television programming and UFO reporting.
“The shows apparently make people aware that they have a place to file a report.
"When one of our 'Hangar 1' episodes is playing on the History channel – there is always an increase in reporting - although that surge does tend to be people recalling older cases.”
This year, the top five reporting shapes in 2017 to date are Sphere (186), Star-like (106), Circle (100), Triangle (73) and Disc (64).
But, if you do wish to see a UFO at the moment, MUFON says head to Oregon, the current UFO hot spot, in terms of sightings compared to the number of people.
Mr Marsh said: "California has traditionally been the number one reporting state for UFO cases in any given month for years – but that status is somewhat misleading when you review populations.
"There were 33 UFO reports from California in February 2017 – which is 0.87 reports per million people.
"California holds rank as the most populated state – with more than 38 million people.
But during the same month – February – there were eight reports from Oregon – which equals 2.05 UFO reports for every one million people – from a state with a population of about 3.97 million."
He said the odds of seeing a UFO in oregon
If you were choosing the best spot to night watch for UFOs – you have nearly 3-1 odds in Oregon over California when you review statistics by population.
New Mexico was second for sightings per head of the population.
There were four UFO sightings reported to MUFON in February for New Mexico - 1.92 UFO sightings per million people.
Mauricio Morales posted the "UFO" images on Facebook before they were picked up by various alien websites and YouTube channels, which described it as in the area "Ground Zero" for aliens, UFOs, and secret bases.
Mr Morales posted on Facebook: "As I was driving back to Phoenix this evening, I was a few miles past Parker, when I saw a shooting star with a green hue in the corner of my eye.
"I kept driving for a few miles and noticed a small orange light far in the distance to my right.
"At first I thought that maybe a meteor had hit nearby and set a fire in the desert or possibly a distant antenna light."
I said he thought nothing more of it until about three-and-a-half miles later the light reappeared.
He said: "This is when I realised that whatever this was, wasn’t normal.
"I was about a quarter of a mile from the crossing between Highway 72 and Highway 95 between Parker and Quartzsite, Arizona.
Whatever this was, I have never seen anything like this in my life before. Super cool experience.
Mauricio Morales
However, after calling out on Facebook for views, Mr Morales concluded it was nothing to do with aliens and was just military flares dropped from a military aircraft.
Several people came forward to say they were "marfa lights" which are a type of military flare.
UFO hoax buster Scott Brando also said he had ruled out these being anything alien.
The Italian, who forensically examines alleged UFO images and footage, tweeted that he believed the objects were just military flares.
The earthly conclusion did not stop other UFO sites trying to suggest they could not be explained.
Tyler Glockner, who runs YouTube channel Secureteam10, argued they were far too bright to be flares in a video entitled "MEDIA COVER-UP: Mass UFO Sighting Over Arizona Desert!"
He said it was likely a cover-up as media had reported it wrongly as a meteor, and suggest dthe sighting was in a "Ground Zero" area for alien and UFO activity.
The Collective Evolution conspiracy theory website said although there was no "proof" the Arizona lights were from aliens, people should not be "fooled".
In an article, the website said: "Don’t be fooled, there is a tremendous amount of evidence pointing toward the fact that some of these UFOs, whose presence were officially acknowledged within the mainstream using declassified documents and hundreds of high ranking military/political whistleblowers, are indeed extraterrestrial in origin."
The bizarre disc-like object was filmed on an airplane reportedly flying over the United Kingdom.
Although it is not clear exactly when it was filmed, it was posted onto video-sharing website YouTube yesterday.
In the 60-second clip, the UFO flies through cloud cover at what seems to be the same speed as the aircraft.
GETTY/YOUTUBE
SPOTTED: The bizarre unidentified object was apparently filmed flying next to a plane
“I've not seen anything manmade behaving like that, even a missile does not look that fast”
YouTube user
The person who posted the video online wrote alongside it: "This is mind blowing it's from a plane but it's still keeping up with the airplane which is incredible.
"The video is valid as far as I can tell?"
And netizens seemed to be convinced it is genuinely an alien spaceship.
One internet user commented: "That accelerated very quickly, I've not seen anything manmade behaving like that, even a missile does not look that fast."
Another simply wrote: "Nice".
Passenger jets are apparently good places to catch weird unidentified aircraft on camera.
Volgende week zal asteroïde 2014-J025 op een afstand van 1,8 miljoen kilometer langs onze planeet scheren en dat is wel heel dichtbij. De ruimterots zal de aarde niet raken maar toch spreken sterrenkundigen van NASA van een 'near-Earth asteroid', astronomisch gezien bijna in onze achtertuin.
De asteroïde werd drie jaar geleden voor het eerst waargenomen. Op 19 april zal de grote rotsblok, met een doorsnee van 650 meter, op ongeveer 4,6 keer de afstand tussen de aarde en de maan voorbij vliegen.
Zeker is alvast dat het rotsblok de aarde niet zal raken maar toch is het opmerkelijk dat een asteroïde zo dichtbij komt. Regelmatig vliegen er kleinere stukken voorbij de aarde maar dit formaat is redelijk zeldzaam.
Tot 21 april zou je met een telescoop de 2014-JO15 kunnen zien maar daarna is hij ook weer verdwenen. Verschillende observatoria en sterrenwachten maken zich dan ook klaar om dit fenomeen te kunnen bezichtigen. Er is namelijk nog niet veel geweten over de asteroïde, zelfs de doorsnede is een grove schatting.
De laatste keer dan er een rotsblok nog zo dichtbij kwam, is al van 2004 geleden. De Toutatis vloog toen voorbij op een afstand van vier keer die van de aarde tot de maan. In 2027 wordt een volgende rotsblok zo dichtbij verwacht, de 1999-AN10. Deze zal ongeveer net zo ver als de maan van ons verwijderd zijn.
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VREEMD GAT / INKEPING OP NASA FOTO BIJ ZUIDPOOL MARS ( VIDEO )
VREEMD GAT / INKEPING OP NASA FOTO BIJ ZUIDPOOL MARS ( VIDEO )
NASA komt iedere keer met spannende aankondigingen over persconferenties die de wereld zullen schokken en telkens opnieuw valt het publiek bijna in slaap.
Wat veel spannender is, is wat NASA niet zegt en dat zijn dingen zoals de foto die ze onlangs maakten van de zuidpool van Mars waarop een vreemd “gat/inkeping” is te zien.
NASA zegt dat het hier misschien een inslagkrater betreft, maar dat ze ook niet weten wat het is. Ze durven in ieder geval niet met zekerheid te zeggen dat het een inslagkrater is en ze hebben al helemaal geen verklaring voor de vreemde schaduwlijnen die ook op de foto voorkomen.
Normaal gesproken zien we dit soort beelden niet omdat de zuidpool van Mars bedekt lijkt te zijn met ijs.
Maar, wat dit vooral ook interessant maakt, is dat dit het zoveelste gat of is bij of in de buurt van een pool.
Zo is er naast de vreemde zeshoekige vorm iets aan de noordkant van de planeet Saturnus, ook daar iets dat verdacht veel lijkt op een gat.
Ook op Jupiter zien we een gat bij de zuidpool.
Bij de maan Europa die bij Jupiter hoort, lijkt het wel alsof er iets ontbreekt of wordt verborgen bij de zuidpool.
Ook bij de zuidpool van Venus zien we een merkwaardig iets. Men noemt dit een vortex van wolken.
Zo langzamerhand toont zich een soort patroon.
De noordpool van Neptunus is bedekt met wolken.
En wat te denken van de volgende opname? Die laat het poollicht zien op onze zuidpool, maar ook iets dat verdacht veel lijkt op een gat.
En zo is te zien dat er zich op veel planeten in ons zonnestelsel een soort gaten bevinden in de buurt van de polen. Veel teveel om nog langer toeval te kunnen zijn.
ZULLEN BUITENAARDSEN HET GEBRUIK KERNWAPENS TOESTAAN ? ( VIDEO )
ZULLEN BUITENAARDSEN HET GEBRUIK KERNWAPENS TOESTAAN ? ( VIDEO )
De wereld zit op de punt van de stoel, want niemand weet wat er binnenkort wel of niet zal gebeuren met betrekking tot Noord Korea.
Het schijnt nu nog rustig te zijn in het land, maar wanneer de grote leider Kim Jong-un binnenkort geen kernproef doet, zal hij aanzienlijk gezichtsverlies lijden en dat wordt een probleem.
Bij dit alles speelt natuurlijk toch ook iets anders een rol en dat is of de buitenaardsen, die als geen ander weten wat een kernexplosie of -explosies kan/kunnen veroorzaken, rustig gaan zitten afwachten of dat ze op een dergelijk moment toch gaan ingrijpen.
Er schijnt een soort intergalactische erecode te zijn waarbij buitenaardsen niet zomaar mogen ingrijpen op andere planeten, maar er zijn aanwijzingen dat nucleaire dreigingen met kernwapens hier een uitzondering op vormen.
Volgens de bekende NASA astronaut Edgar Mitchell waren de buitenaardsen getuige van de kernproeven die door de Amerikanen werden gehouden in 1945 in de woestijn van Nieuw Mexico. Dit gebeurde op de beroemde White Sands Proving Ground en dat was ook de plek waar de eerste atoombom tot ontploffing werd gebracht.
Ook zijn er talloze berichten dat ze tijdens de vorige Koude Oorlog tussen Amerika en Rusland heel actief waren en de zaak nauwlettend in de gaten hielden.
Edgar Mitchell die vorig jaar februari is overleden heeft veel gesproken met luchtmachtofficieren die in die tijd werkten in speciale lanceerinstallaties tijdens de Koude Oorlog en zij vertelden hem verhalen dat er regelmatig UFO’s werden waargenomen en dat hun raketten soms onklaar werden gemaakt.
Iets dergelijks gebeurde ook op 23 oktober 2010 toen ongeveer 50 Intercontinentale raketten (ICBM) offline werden gehaald door wat door het Pentagon een “miscommunicatie” wordt genoemd. Het is echter veel waarschijnlijker dat buitenaardsen hiervoor verantwoordelijk waren. Tijdens dit incident op de Warren Air Force basis in Wyoming werkten ongeveer tien procent van alle lange afstandsraketten niet gedurende een periode van 45 minuten.
Eén van de meest opmerkelijke zaken ooit wat dit betreft staat bekend als het Big Sur Incident. Het is een door de luchtmacht gemaakte filmopname van een UFO die een raket nadert met een dummy kernkop tijdens een testlancering. Dan vuurt de UFO enkele keren een soort lichtstraal richting kop van de raket die vervolgens neerstort. De raket vliegt ergens in september 1964 richting Stille Oceaan waar het in de buurt van de Kwajalein Atol in zee terecht moet komen.
Dit verhaal werd in 1982 naar buiten gebracht door voormalig luitenant Robert M. Jacobs en later bevestigd door zijn superieur majoor Florenze J. Mansmann. Ook hij heeft de beelden gezien die later in beslag werden genomen door agenten van de CIA.
Mansmann verklaarde dat tijdens een beeld voor beeld analyse met een vergrootglas bleek dat het ging om een klassieke vliegende schotel met een koepel bovenop.
En nu naar Noord Korea en wel 18 mei 2015. Ook in die periode was Kim Jong-un druk bezig met het lanceren van allerlei raketten en het schijnt dat er ook toen buitenaardsen waren die een oogje in het zeil hielden.
Veel van die militaire activiteiten vonden plaats in de buurt van de plaats Wonsan en is het ook daar dat een inwoner op die dag een vreemde grote UFO vastlegde op film.
Op zich is dat natuurlijk wel uniek omdat je zelden beeldmateriaal ziet uit dat land dat door inwoners zelf is gemaakt.
Een Noord Koreaan wandelt die dag samen met zijn vrouw en ze zien opeens een groot langwerpig object in de lucht.
Het object hing stil en maakte geen geluid. Hij slaagde erin twee minuten lang deze UFO te filmen met zijn mobiele telefoon. Op een gegeven moment begon het langzaam rond te draaien en vertoonde alle tekenen dat het onder intelligente besturing stond.
Is dit toeval of betekent dit inderdaad dat we iets rustiger kunnen ademhalen omdat buitenaardsen niet zullen toestaan dat iemand gekke dingen gaat doen met kernwapens.
The mysterious cosmic ceiling of the tomb of Senmut, April 2017, Video, UFO Sighting News.
The mysterious cosmic ceiling of the tomb of Senmut, April 2017, Video, UFO Sighting News.
There is an overwhelming about of evidence that some ancient egyptian leaders were aliens, and the tomb of Senmut and the astronomical signs are further proof. If we had to build the ancient pyramid today, it would never get built. The blocks were too big, and the seems between them were too perfectly sealed without cement, not to mention even with todays technology, this would be an almost impossible task. Scott C. Waring
Video states: In the tomb of Senmut, the architect of Queen Hatshepsut, a panel of the ceiling represents the celestial sphere, the signs of the zodiac, and the other constellations, with an inverted orientation of the southern part of the firmament (1). Senenmut supervised the quarrying, transport, and erection of twin obelisks, at the time the tallest in the world, at the entrance to the Temple of Karnak.
A characteristic feature of the Senmout ceiling is the astronomically false orientation of the South panel. The center of this panel is occupied by the Orion-Sirius group, in which Orion appears to the west of Sirius, instead of being to the East.
Zorgde een komeetinslag ervoor dat de mammoet verdween?
Zorgde een komeetinslag ervoor dat de mammoet verdween?
Tim Kraaijvanger
Wetenschappers beweren dat het klimaat 13.000 jaar geleden veranderde door een komeetinslag. Dieren als de mammoet en de mastodont verdwenen hierdoor in Noord-Amerika.
Geoloog James Kennett (Universiteit van Californië in Santa Barbara) en zijn collega’s presenteren in een paper in het wetenschappelijke vakblad Scientific Reports bewijzen dat een komeet 12.800 jaar geleden insloeg. Zij verzamelden sedimenten op elf verschillende plekken, zoals in de Amerikaanse staten Ohio, New Mexico en Arizona. Ze troffen exotische materialen aan, zoals gesmolten glas, nanodiamanten en platinum. Er is maar een verklaring mogelijk voor de aanwezigheid van deze materialen, namelijk een meteorietinslag.
“We hebben de ‘vingerafdruk’ van deze inslag gevonden”, concludeert professor Kennett. “Aangezien we weten wanneer de inslag plaatsvond, kunnen we de link leggen met abrupte veranderingen. Denk bijvoorbeeld aan klimaatverandering, sterfte van diersoorten en afname van de bevolking.”
NEDERLAND
Dat het Jonge Dryas abrupt begon, zien we ook terug in Nederland. In Leusden vonden onderzoekers onlangs de overblijfselen van een grote groep dennenbomen die zo’n 13.000 jaar geleden leefden. Dankzij deze bomen is inzichtelijk hoe snel het klimaat veranderde. “We denken dat de Groenlandse ijskap in één jaar reageerde en dat het klimaat toen, bijna als een ‘The Day After Tomorrow’-scenario, ook binnen een jaar veranderde,” zegt wetenschapper Wim Hoek aan Scientias.nl. “We weten uit geologisch onderzoek dat het landschap uiteindelijk teruggaat naar stuifzanden en toendravegetatie, maar je ziet hier dat bomen het waarschijnlijk al binnen een jaar voelden.”
Jonge Dryas De Jonge Dryas was de laatste koude periode tijdens het Weichsel-glaciaal en wordt ook wel eens ‘The Big Freeze’ genoemd. In tien jaar tijd daalde temperatuur flink. Zo was het binnenland van Groenland vijftien graden Celsius kouder dan vandaag de dag. De gemiddelde jaartemperatuur in Engeland was ongeveer -5 graden Celsius.
Veranderingen Wetenschappers vermoeden dat de Jonge Dryas de aanleiding vormde voor het ontstaan van landbouw in de Levant. Door het koude en droge klimaat konden mensen niet langer leven van het zaaien van voedseldragende planten. Mogelijk leidde dit langzaam tot de ontwikkeling van het verbouwen van graan.
Maar er is meer. Mogelijk leidde de komeetinslag tot het uitsterven van mammoeten en mastodonten in Noord-Amerika.
Tegenstanders Het is belangrijk dat de onderzoekers op meerdere plekken exotische materialen hebben ontdekt. Er zijn namelijk tegenstanders, die denken dat gesmolten gesteenten niet zijn veroorzaakt door een komeetinslag, maar door haardvuur. Als de ‘vingerafdruk’ van de komeetinslag echter wereldwijd te vinden is, dan is dit een ander verhaal.
The MAVEN space probe has been inspecting Mars’s upper atmosphere for about a year and a half now, and in that time it’s helped NASA researchers learn important insights about the red planet. Now MAVEN — which stands for Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution — has revealed that Mars’ atmosphere contains charged metal atoms (aka “ions”) — just like the atmosphere on Earth.
The metal comes from small meteoroids that rain down constantly upon Mars. First, the meteoroids vaporize. Then charged particles within the atmosphere pull some metal atoms away and transform them into charged atoms.
The neat thing about metal ions is that they can be used to understand motion in the ionosphere layer of the atmosphere. Winds and electric fields move these ions far from their origin point. Since the ions have a long lifetime, researchers can use them to deduce how movement is occurring within the ionosphere over an extended period of time.
Earth’s atmosphere also contains metal ions. If any news about Mars makes you immediately ask, “What does this mean for the prospect of future human colonization of Mars,” we’ve got bad news for you.
It amounts to very little, unfortunately. That’s the professional opinion of Joe Grebowsky of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and one of the authors of the study.
“One effect, and here I am exaggerating, could be long distance radio communication between points on the surface,” Grebowksy said. “The anomalous metal layers we saw have features akin to complex Sporadic E ionosphere layers that in the past created problems with long-distance radio communication. This was done because communication was done by reflecting radio signals off the ionosphere and the complex sporadic layers screwed things up. But with current use of satellite communications, this is unlikely a big worry for surface communication.”
An artist's concept of MAVEN exploring Mars.
NASA researchers suspect that metal ions may exist in the atmospheres of every planet in our solar system, because radio signals emitted by roaming spacecraft are sometimes blocked as they pass through planets’ atmospheres.
However, this discovery is “the first direct detection of the permanent presence of metal ions in the ionosphere of a planet other than Earth,” Grebowsky says.
Up next for MAVEN: another year and a half of scientific research about Mars, and then six years as a telecommunications orbiter, before it finally runs out of fuel.
Saturn’s Moon Has Just Become The Best New Spot To Hunt For Alien Life
Saturn’s Moon Has Just Become The Best New Spot To Hunt For Alien Life
According to NASA, it has nearly all the ingredients needed to support life.
A new study published in the journal Science has revealed that molecular hydrogen is being generated in Enceladus, one of Saturn’s moons. Specifically, it’s being produced by Enceladus’ warm subterranean ice-covered ocean through the plumes of water vapor it’s shooting out. And based on the analysis of data, NASA believes that the most plausible explanation is the presence of chemical reactions between the moon’s hot rocky core and its warm ocean water, much like those that create ecosystems around deep seafloor vents on our planet.
Although NASA did not exactly find evidence of life, what’s remarkable about the discovery is that it adds to mounting proof suggesting that even if a celestial body might look inhabitable because it’s covered with ice, an entirely different story might be brewing beneath its surface. Just a few days before, they also spotted what looked like water plumes being spewed out by Europa, one of Jupiter’s icy moons.
Enceladus is one of Saturn’s larger moons with a diameter of about 313 miles (504 km) and a dynamic surface that’s considered young in terms of geological age. It orbits its host in a non-circular way, which is why astronomers believe that gravitational forces are tugging at it unequally (just like our own moon does, creating high and low tides). This turning and churning generates heat in the core, and it is likely this heat that allows Enceladus to keep its water in a liquid state.
Liquid water is one of the most essential elements of life, which basically means that every living organism needs liquid water to thrive. Life also requires a source of energy (in other words, food), and the right combination of chemicals to create an organism known as CHNOPS or carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulfur.
For the longest time, it was believed that sunlight is also essential in sustaining life. It was only in the late 70s when it was discovered that life can thrive even in darkness — when a host of ecosystems was found around holes on the ocean floor spewing hydrothermal vents or jets of hot water filled with all kinds of molecules.
That means that in lieu of sunlight, life can be created when there’s liquid water, an energy source, and the right chemical mix. And that opens up a host of possibilities that suggest life can exist even in the harshest and darkest environments.
The discovery of hydrogen in Enceladus was made by the Cassini spacecraft which had been orbiting Saturn since 2004. Its mission, however, is almost over. In less than two weeks, it will begin its descent through Saturn’s rings, until it eventually crashes into the planet and retires for good.
Cassini will be leaving a great legacy, though. Confirming the existence of hydrogen is almost a confirmation that Enceladus’ ocean might be habitable.
As explained by Linda Spilker, one of the Cassini project scientists working at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL): “Confirmation that the chemical energy for life exists within the ocean of a small moon of Saturn is an important milestone in our search for habitable worlds beyond Earth.”
Event celebrates 60 years of The Sky At Night. The show is the longest running TV show in the UK and is still exploring new worlds...
When Patrick Moore presented the first episode of The Sky At Night on April 24, 1957, no spacecraft had ever been launched beyond our atmosphere, Mars was thought to be home to alien life, and no one knew if there were any planets beyond our solar system.
Yet within a few months the launch of Russia’s Sputnik ushered us into the space age, and Mariner 4 later flew past Mars, heralding the first blurry images of its cratered surface.
When Patrick Moore presented the first episode of The Sky At Night on April 24, 1957, no spacecraft had ever been launched beyond our atmosphere
So began The Sky At Night’s remarkable intergalactic odyssey. It went on to become the world’s longest-running TV series, and was hosted by the same presenter for 55 years – the late and eccentric Sir Patrick Moore.
Today the monthly programme is hosted by astronomical researcher Professor Chris Lintott and scientist Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock, who continue to amaze with new discoveries.
Now, as the BBC show celebrates its 60th anniversary, Event presents 10 heavenly reasons it’s such an enduring TV star.
1. The May & Moore show: Queen guitarist Brian May (right, with Moore) has been a guest on The Sky At Night several times. He was studying for a PhD on interplanetary dust at Imperial College before the band became a global success and finally completed it in 2007. He became a close friend of Moore, and when the astronomer ran into financial trouble in later years, May bought his house and leased it back to him for a peppercorn rent. May said the programme led to his interest in astronomy
2. How’s your Russian, Patrick? Moore once interviewed a Russian astronomer live about Lunik 2, the first spacecraft to reach the Moon, in 1959. As Moore was interviewing him, he noticed a producer behind him holding a sign that said ‘the man speaks no English’. So when the Russian replied, Moore simply turned to camera and gave his own answer in English, without knowing what the cosmonaut had actually said
3. How Moore mapped the moon: The first pictures of the far side of the Moon were shown live on the show on October 24, 1959, having arrived at the BBC during the broadcast. The pictures were taken from the Soviet satellite Lunik 3 – the Russians had borrowed Moore’s hand-drawn maps of the Moon, drawn from observations through his telescopes, to help align their pictures of the far side. In return, they promised to send their images to London as soon as they could
4. The fly at night: Moore claimed his most difficult moment doing The Sky At Night was when he swallowed a fly live on air in the late Fifties (the film hasn’t survived). ‘What else could I do? It buzzed all the way down,’ he said. On another occasion, in the late Sixties, Moore’s dentures snapped moments before he was due on air and he presented the programme with his teeth held together by Sellotape. In July 2004, Moore was unable to make the broadcast owing to a bout of food poisoning, caused by a goose egg. It was the only broadcast he missed in his 55-yeartenure
5. Michael Bentine’s potty time: The chat in 1979 between Moore and his long-time friend, Michael Bentine of the Goons (left, with Moore in 1968), must rate as one of the most bizarre episodes ever. The two men discussed, in serious tones, Bentine’s theories of UFOs, where he says ‘there’s no reason they shouldn’t resemble us’. The episode – now a classic – ends with two puppet figures representing aliens, squeakily debating whether there is any sign of intelligent life on Earth
6. When stars collide... One of Prof Brian Cox’s (above) favourite possessions is his 1979 edition of The Observer’s Book Of Astronomy (written by Moore), which he won as a school prize for 100 per cent attendance. ‘Later in life I met Patrick when I filmed the 700th Sky At Night with him,’ Cox recalls. ‘I took the book for him to sign. When he opened it he laughed when he saw what it was for’
7. Total eclipse of the senses: The first live broadcast of a total eclipse was filmed in Serbia in 1961, with Moore perched on a mountaintop. The crew had been told that animals go to sleep during an eclipse, so they floodlit the local cows to watch. But the animals just stood there, chewing. It was the local producer, who spoke no English, who had suggested the idea. If he had conveyed this in English Moore would have known the notion was ridiculous. Instead he was cross. Afterwards the crew skied down the mountain, and Moore injured his knee, before going off to get drunk
8. Terry goes bats: Author Terry Pratchett (above) was a regular guest on the show. He used to bring his bat detector with him and spend the evening listening for bats while observing through Moore’s telescopes
9. The number of the beastliness Programme #666 from May 2008, entitled What We Don’t Know, was about ideas that scare astronomers, and was filmed in a bizarre red-lit tent ‘to make us all look rather demonic’, according to producers. Topics included ‘What if there was no big bang?, dark matter and dark energy. The really scary thing was Moore cackling: ‘What if you’re all wrong about everything?’
10. Moore saves the day: The team was to present a show about the transits of Venus (when the planet crosses the Sun’s path) from Carr House in Hoole, Cheshire. Half an hour before transmission they discovered the record of Sibelius’s At The Castle Gate (the show’s theme tune) had been left in London. They tried to find a piano for Moore to play but could only find a harpsichord. Moore had never played one before but he managed it just as the show started...
‘The Sky At Night: 60th Anniversary Special’ features archive footage, interviews with those who were involved in the great discoveries, and re-creations of observations and experiments. It’s on next Sunday at 10pm on BBC Four
NASA: Ingredients for Life at Saturn’s Moon Enceladus
There are dozens of moons in Earth’s solar system, but not one of them is the same as the next. And because there is so much variety, some of these moons are more important than others, especially for people who are trying to find aliens.
Saturn's moon Enceladus might be hosting life beneath its surface of ice.
Photo: NASA
1. Enceladus
NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has learned a lot while observing Enceladus, as well as its parent planet Saturn and Saturn’s other moons. But Enceladus is special because the space agency recently announced it might be hosting alien life in an ocean beneath its icy surface. Below the surface there is also a source of heat and, scientists have just discovered, hydrogen that could serve as a source of energy to certain life forms.
We don’t have a spacecraft on this moon’s surface yet, but NASA is preparing for such a scenario. Its Jet Propulsion Laboratory is working on a fleet of robots specifically geared toward crawling over and cutting into the thick surfaces of ice on bodies such as Enceladus. Those robots have tools such as heated prongs to melt ice, drills to dig down, buzz saws to power through tough blocks and catapults to send miniprobes out for more samples.
Europa, a moon of Jupiter, might be hosting alien life because it has oceans beneath its icy surface.
Photo: NASA
2. Europa
Scientists suspect Europa, a moon of Jupiter, has conditions similar to Enceladus, so it could also be harboring extraterrestrial life, even if only microbes. A probe that could launch in the next decade could make this idea more definitive, and some of the new ice-trekking robotic technology NASA is developing could be aboard.
Phobos is an irregularly shaped moon orbiting Mars.
Photo: NASA
3. Phobos
This oblong moon of Mars, larger and closer to the Red Planet than its only companion Deimos, is crucial because of its position around Earth’s closest planetary neighbor — a NASA spacecraft narrowly avoided crashing into it earlier this year — and because it is a possible target for a space probe of its own. Officials from France and Japan recently announced those two countries are considering working together to land a craft on Phobos and collect samples. The samples would be the first from a moon other than Earth’s to be brought back. And because Mars is such a large focus for scientists looking for alien life in the solar system, Phobos would represent one more way to learn more about that planet: A spacecraft settled on Phobos, which orbits Mars three times a day, would have a great vantage point.
Titan is the second-largest moon in the solar system, and the largest one orbiting Saturn.
Photo: NASA
4. Titan
The largest moon of Saturn is partly on this list because it is electric. Scientists recently found grains of sand on Titan’s surface are so light, a little breeze makes them rub together enough — causing friction — to produce a ton of static electricity. Enough static electricity, in fact, that if you were to build a sand castle on Titan, you would not even need any water; the particles would stick together on their own for weeks.
That’s cool on its own, but Titan is also a solid candidate for harboring extraterrestrial life because, as NASA notes, it is “the only moon in our solar system that has clouds and a dense atmosphere, mostly nitrogen and methane,” and the only place we know of where liquid flows on its surface in a way that looks like Earth, even if that liquid is ethane and methane rather than water. “These liquids form clouds from which the liquid gases sometimes rain from the sky as water does on Earth.”
Earth's moon is the only celestial body where humans have landed.
Photo: NASA
5. The Moon
What would a list of moons be without Earth’s only natural satellite? At a most basic level of importance, any observer can look up at the night sky — or sometimes the daytime sky — and see it in all its glory. The gravitational pull between Earth and the Moon influences the movement of ocean water, and the Moon played a key role in motivating humans to invent the technology to travel through space. Space science would not be where it is today without our beloved Moon.
And it’s not just a boring, dead rock. The Moon holds all sorts of mysteries to help us learn more about our universe. For example, scientists recently solved a mystery of why an iconic crater looks so much younger than the area around it: a special kind of foamy lava that erupted when the Moon’s volcanic activity was coming to an end billions of years ago.
There are potentially thousands of exoplanets, or planets outside our solar system. In the spirit of Halloween, scientific YouTube channel DNews lays out just a few alien exoplanets that sound "horrific" to us, Earthlings.
For starters, the exoplanet 55 Cancri e is oozing with poisonous liquid. About 40 light years away, it's known as a "super Earth," about eight times larger the mass of our home planet and much hotter because it's so close to its star. In fact, the high heat of the planet has made it so that water and other liquids are unable to exist in their regular liquid state, pushing them to "supercritical" states under the pressure. The fluids become exotic, oozing non-liquids, also gleaming with the poisonous hydrogen cyanide, oozing below the surface of 55 Cancri e.
Similar to Jupiter, except larger and hotter, is exoplanet CoRoT-2a. The planet orbits very close to its star, so it's now bloated due to extreme heating. Powerful ex-rays perpetually explode from the star, which cause five million tons of material to blast off the planet and into space every second.
Another exoplanet, Kepler-19b might have a ghost—okay, probably not, but the planet doesn't have a consistent orbit, which is anomalous. The planet will occasionally speed up and then slow down seemingly on its own, whereas it would seem that the planet would need some external force causing the abnormal orbit speeds. It could be, according to the video, that a "ghostly alien world" is tugging at Kepler-19b from afar.
The last of these scary, spooky exoplanets listed was Fomalhaut b, within the Fomalhaut star system. The planet resides in dusty debris 25 light years from Earth, making images of it look like the Eye of Sauron from Lord of the Rings.
While none of these exoplanets would be pleasant to Earthling senses, the way aliens react to them is a different story. It's not clear what kind of life exists on these planets, if any, but if they're out there, they're probably much tougher than we are.
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Over mijzelf
Ik ben Pieter, en gebruik soms ook wel de schuilnaam Peter2011.
Ik ben een man en woon in Linter (België) en mijn beroep is Ik ben op rust..
Ik ben geboren op 18/10/1950 en ben nu dus 73 jaar jong.
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