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 NEARLY 13 YEARS AND 4 MONTH.
ON /30/09/2024 MORE THAN 2.230.520
VISITORS FROM 135 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...
14-02-2019
Large Pilotless Aerial Vehicle and a Batman In The Sky
Large Pilotless Aerial Vehicle and a Batman In The Sky
With the advancement of technology, drones have become quite popular and very useful. One example is that Ordnance Survey has introduced a solar-powered mapping drone that will be able to fly for 90 straight days and will take high quality pictures of Earth. This new unmanned aircraft will travel at a height of 67,000 feet which is twice the height of a commercial airliner.
Ordnance Survey (a mapping firm) owns 51% of Astigan, which is a firm based in Bridgwater, Somerset, England. Astigan is also the name that was given to the unmanned solar-powered aircraft that is scheduled to complete the last of its endurance tests before the end of this year. Brian Jones, who is Astigan’s managing director, said, “By the end of 2019 we aim to be completing endurance flight testing, building up to 90 days non-stop, which is the operational capability we’re striving for.”
The aircraft, which is controlled remotely, weighs 330 pounds with a wingspan of nearly 130 feet. According to Mr. Jones, the mobility of this aerial vehicle makes it much cheaper and a lot more flexible than using satellite imagery. “It’s incredibly exciting that the UK has developed this kind of technology, delivering satellite capabilities, unparalleled flexibility and improved efficiency, all at a vastly reduced cost,” he explained.
In other news, the Colorado sky has been lit up with giant light paintings of Pokemon characters, the Batman symbol, and a large cube, just to name a few. An artist and photographer named Russell Klimas attached a powerful LED light called Lumecube to his drone and created bright white streaks in the sky which formed several images. In order to map out a detailed flight plan for his drone to make the images in the sky, he used Google Earth as well as a navigation app named Litchi. The images took him less than fifteen minutes to create in the sky. Now that’s definitely a unique and eye-catching way to show off one’s artistic talents.
“A few months ago I was inspired to try and see what shapes I could create while attaching a Lumecube to my drone,” Klimas said. He then explained the process involved in making these images by manually drawing in waypoints one at a time in order to create more detail in the images. “A shape can consist of a few waypoints or hundreds to thousands,” adding, “My current record when writing this article is 633 for Santa and his reindeer but you can definitely have much more.”
Click here to see pictures and a video of the images created by the drone, as well as the article written by Russell Klimas himself on how he created them.
There are extra pictures by clicking here of the Batman and cube images that Klimas created in the sky.
The Cold War may be over (or not), but Space War I is clearly heating up as the world’s major superpowers continue to appear to be scrambling to get as many weaponized satellitesand secret space dronesinto orbit as they can before the other sides do the same. We cannot afford a killer satellite gap!
Many nations are now believed to have some type of “killer satellite” in orbit.
The latest development to suggest we’re heading towards a war in space comes in the form of a new Pentagon publication which was quietly released this week. The 46-page report is titled Challenges to Security in Space and was published by the Defense Intelligence Agency. According to the document, the Pentagon believes “some foreign governments are developing capabilities that threaten others’ ability to use space” and “developing jamming and cyberspace capabilities, directed energy weapons, on-orbit capabilities, and ground-based anti-satellite missiles that can achieve a range of reversible to non-reversible effects” on other satellites and spacecraft. Clearlyit’s only the other guys doing these things, too; the US wouldn’t be up to the same shenanigans, no way!
“Oh that X-37B? It’s merely a weather balloon.”
One of the threats the document cites is a new laser technology China is developing which it claims is intended to zap space debris. Orbital pollution is becoming a serious issue after all, one which threatens every nation’s ability to conduct safe operations in orbit around Earth. While China’s anti-debris lasers certainly seem like they could clean up space if they wanted to, the Pentagon notes (as I did last year when the technology was unveiled) that these seemingly peaceful technologies could easily also function as full-on space weapons:
These systems could include payloads such as kinetic kill vehicles, radio frequency jammers, lasers, chemical sprayers, high-power microwaves, and robotic mechanisms. Some of these systems, such as robotic technology for satellite servicing and repair and debris removal, have peaceful uses but can also be used for military purposes.
The document outlines several technologies the People’s Liberation Army is known to be testing which could pose a threat to other nations’ space-based defense and surveillance capabilities. It makes you wonder what type of reports the Chinese and Russians are publishing concerning the same types of technologies being developed here in the West.
It sure is looking more and more like the next major conflict between superpowers will look like something straight out of the science fiction of the mid-20th century. Space lasers, space-to-surface missile strike capabilities, cyberwarfare conducted by artificial intelligence constructs – nothing is off the table for the oncoming struggle over Earth’s dwindling natural resources. Who will come out on top?
Other than the irradiated super-cockroaches, that is.
Bend, Oregon is a very heavily forested area with beautiful mountains surrounding it. Its an excellent location for an underground base in the back woods location where most people wont go. I've been to Bend, its heaven for a nature love like me. These orbs are strange. I see three in the screenshot above, two red and one white. They look about the same size and shape. Because there is three of them, I am writing off drones, because usually drones are flown alone, but here we have several. Also, way out there in the forest is not a drone hotspot. They are usually seen in city and monument areas. So, its unlikely its human RC toys. Its not Chinese lanterns because they glow yellow or orange and usually the candle at the bottom will burn out in just 3-5 minutes. They move slowly and only in the direction of the wind. Their lights color never change. So these are not Chinese lanterns. All around this one is strange. Alien...yeah, I believe so. But why there, at that time, that moment? What were they doing? And should we be concerned with this sudden UFO activity? Scott C. Waring
News states:
BEND, Ore. (KOIN) -- From stunning snow-capped mountains to wide open skies -- Central Oregon is home to some incredible views -- including some that are seemingly out of this world. "There are a lot of things out there that are completely unexplainable, they're baffling," said Jim Friedman, who spotted one of those sights.Friedman saw strange lights outside his Bend home in late January and caught it on video. "And I thought it was odd because it was over a meadow and there shouldn't have been anything out there," he said. Friedman, a self-admitted fan of the unknown, said he's the "guy that looks and never finds [UFOs.]" He said he's confident what he saw was a not a plane or a planet. It was hovering just 500 feet above the ground -- so Friedman reported what he saw to the Mutual UFO Network. Tom Bowden, the director of Oregon's chapter of MUFON, confirmed Friedman's thoughts after an extensive review. "To me it's exciting," Friedman said. "It's hard to tell someone without even getting excited about it." Then, two days after Friedman recorded whatever he saw -- a friend of his saw something eerily similar flying above the Cascades. "I had my motorhome parked up here and stepped outside. I saw this bright light. I mean it was a brilliant bright light that was in the sky," Coty Alexander said. Alexander called Friedman to compare their videos. "I called Jim that same night and said 'You won't believe this' and told him about exactly what had happened," Alexander said. Alexander captured two red dots that were coming in and out of the picture alongside the bright white light. He said it stayed for more than two minutes. "And it just went out. Totally," Alexander said. He thinks the light was somewhere above Mt. Bachelor and that it had some kind of tower-like structure on top of it. "Either you can believe it or discount it but I know what I saw," Alexander said. Both men say whether you're in town or our in the country, there is no doubt there are secrets in the sky. "I know there's something out there," Friedman said. "I just don't know what it is exactly." "We're not alone," Alexander said.
If we're going to head out into interstellar space one day, we might want to go equipped with some heavy-duty degreaser. New research has found that the vast intervals of space aren't always filled with dry dust, but often contain a mist of greasy molecules.
And there's a lot of space grease out there. The Milky Way galaxy alone holds some 10 billion trillion trillion tonnes of cosmic butter. Although, it's actually more like a greasy sort of soot, and not at all edible.
"This space grease is not the kind of thing you'd want to spread on a slice of toast," said chemist Tim Schmidt from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Australia.
"It's dirty, likely toxic and only forms in the environment of interstellar space (and our laboratory). It's also intriguing that organic material of this kind - material that gets incorporated into planetary systems - is so abundant."
The researchers, from UNSW and Ege University in Turkey, were actually investigating the presence of carbon in interstellar space.
Carbon is a vital ingredient for organic life as we know it - all known life on Earth is carbon-based - but we're not entirely sure how much of it is out there.
Only half the expected carbon is floating around in its pure form. The rest is in one of two forms: aromatic, like mothballs, the researchers said; and aliphatic, or grease-like.
To help bring us closer to understanding how much carbon is out there, the research team recreated a space dust analogue in the lab to figure out its composition.
They replicated the outflows of carbon stars that create organic molecules by expanding carbon-laden plasma into a low-temperature vacuum. They then collected and analysed the resulting material.
When aliphatic carbon in space is viewed against a background radiation source, it produces a specific infrared spectral absorption feature. Using spectroscopy and magnetic resonance, the team was able to determine how closely their lab-created material matched the dust in interstellar space.
"Because then we have it in our hands, we were able to use a variety of techniques to figure out how strongly that greasy carbon absorbs light," Schmidt told the ABC.
"And we can then tell you how much carbon there is in the line of sight to different stars, and then that gives us a picture of how much carbon there is in space in total."
The results indicated that there are roughly 100 greasy carbon atoms for every million hydrogen atoms - that greasy carbon makes up somewhere between a quarter and half of all the available carbon in the Universe.
However, this still leaves a substantial proportion of the carbon to be found in mothball-like form.
Finding out how much aromatic carbon is out there is the next thing the researchers want to tackle.
It's going to be a challenge, but the results will be worth it: figuring out how much carbon is bound up in the interstellar medium will allow more accurate calculations for the amount of carbon that is left over and available for the creation of life.
If you're holding out hope that Mars may have once been an inhabited world, two new studies should put a little spring in your step.
NASA'sMars rover Curiosityhas identified a variety of organic molecules, the carbon-based building blocks of life as we know it, in 3.5-billion-year-old Red Planet rocks, one of the papers reports.
"But there is a possibility that [the organics] are from an ancient life source; we just don't know," Eigenbrode told Space.com. "And even if life was never around, they [the molecules] tell us there was at least something around for organisms to eat."
The other new paper also details a Curiosity find: that methane concentrations in Mars' atmosphere cycle seasonally. The discovery suggests that this gas, which here on Earth is produced primarily by living organisms, is seeping out from underground reservoirs, study team members said.
Again, these results are not evidence of life — methane can also be produced by geological processes — but they are consistent with the presence of Martian organisms, which is exciting in and of itself.
"We cannot rule out the possibility that it was created biologically," said study lead author Chris Webster, a senior research fellow at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. "We can't say that it was, but we're certainly not dropping that idea. So, in a sense, that's positive for the astrobiologists in the world."
Both new studies were published online today (June 7) in the journal Science.
The building blocks of life
The serious hunt for organics on Mars has a long and complicated history. It starts with NASA's twin Viking landers, which touched down on different parts of the Red Planet in 1976 to search for signs of life. The Vikings' science payload included an instrument called a gas chromatograph mass spectrometer (GCMS), which heated Martian soil and studied the molecules that boiled off.
While the Vikings' life-hunting experiments returned intriguing but ambiguous results, the GCMS found no organics. Indeed, the instrument spotted little of note, save for two chlorinated chemicals — chloromethane and dichloromethane — that were thought to be contaminants from Earth. This result convinced most scientists at the time that Mars is a dead planet; life as we know it is impossible without organic molecules, after all.
But that thinking began to shift a bit in 2008, when NASA's Phoenix lander found chlorine-containing chemicals called perchlorates in the Martian soil. Some researchers noted that perchlorates can destroy organics in a heated sample, and suggested that such reactions may have been responsible for the Vikings' null GCMS result.
In 2011, this hypothesis got some experimental backing. In a lab here on Earth, researchers heated perchlorate-spiked soil and spotted chloromethane and dichloromethane boiling out of the sample.
Then, Curiosity came onto the scene. The rover touched down inside Mars' huge Gale Crater in August 2012, kicking off a quest to determine if the Red Planet has ever been capable of supporting microbial life. Curiosity mission scientists quickly answered that question in the affirmative, finding that Gale hosted a long-lived, potentially habitable lake-and-stream system billions of years ago. [Photos: Ancient Mars Lake Could Have Supported Life]
The rover also found organics in relatively short order, using its Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument. SAM identified chlorinated hydrocarbons, such as chlorobenzene and dichlorobutane, in powdered samples drilled out of rock at a spot called Yellowknife Bay, which is near Curiosity's landing site.
The discovery confirmed the existence of native Martian organics. It was tough to know their full story, however, given the seeming ubiquity of perchlorates in the red dirt. For example, did these chlorinated compounds exist as-is in the rock, or were they created from other indigenous organics in a reaction inside SAM, which also heats its samples?
"We were a bit puzzled; we weren't sure what those molecules really meant in the bigger picture of the search for life," Eigenbrode said. "But it gave us a lot of anticipation that, if we can find these molecules here, perhaps we're going to come across other layers of rock that have more organics in them. And that's exactly what happened."
Climbing the mountain
In July 2013, Curiosity left the Yellowknife Bay area and started heading for Mount Sharp, the 3.4-mile-high (5.5 kilometers) mountain that rises from Gale's center. The six-wheeled robot made it to Mount Sharp's base 14 months later, then set to studying its environs.
In the new study, Eigenbrode and her colleagues looked closely at SAM's analyses of samples from the first two Mount Sharp rocks Curiosity drilled — powder collected from targets called Confidence Hills and Mojave in September 2014 and February 2015, respectively.
The researchers considered only the gases that boiled off at temperatures greater than 930 degrees Fahrenheit (500 degrees Celsius) — high enough to take possible perchlorate reactions out of the mix. They found several new organics, as well as a number of molecules that are probably fragments of much larger carbon-containing compounds.
The new observations increase the inventory of known Mars organics and "are more consistent with what we would expect if the organics were from life, from meteorites or from geological processes," Eigenbrode said.
SAM's measurements also suggest that the concentration of organic carbon in the drilled rocks is hundreds of parts per million, she added.
"When you get up to that level, now we're approaching the abundances of carbon that we find in rocks of similar age here on Earth," she said. "So the expectation is, if the stuff here on Earth was largely biological around 3 billion years ago, then there's a consistency there. But it doesn't really tell you anything specific. It's just, OK — it's not weird; it's not anomalous." [Ancient Mars Lakes & Laser Blasts: Curiosity Rover's 10 Biggest Moments in 1st 5 Years]
Methane mystery
Astrobiologists are also keen to better understand the distribution of methane in Mars' air, because the stuff is a potential "biosignature" gas. This is tough to do using Earth-based instruments, because there's a lot of methane in our planet's atmosphere — about 1,850 parts per billion (ppb) — to complicate matters.
So the new study led by Webster presents some landmark results. He and his colleagues report baseline atmospheric methane concentrations over about five Earth years, as measured by Curiosity's Tunable Laser Spectrometer (TLS) instrument. Gale Crater's levels are representative of the Red Planet as a whole, Webster said, given how much mixing goes on in Mars' air.
The researchers found that these concentrations ranged a great deal, from a low of about 0.24 ppb to a maximum of 0.65 ppb. And the variation is seasonal, with the peak coming near the end of the northern hemisphere's summer.
This strong seasonality rules out meteorites or infalling dust as the primary source, Webster said. He and his team instead think the methane is leaking continuously from underground reservoirs and then getting bound to soil particles when it reaches the surface. During warmer weather, more of the methane is freed from these particles and released into the air.
Methane gets destroyed by ultraviolet light within a few hundred years of the gas's appearance in Mars' atmosphere, so the stuff Curiosity detected must have been emitted relatively recently. But that doesn't mean those particular molecules formed recently, Webster said.
"These underground reservoirs — they can be made up of old methane, ancient methane, or they can be made up of modern, or new, methane that's being created today," he told Space.com. "We can't distinguish that."
Nor does the team know the methane's origin, Webster stressed. It could be produced by microbes, but geological processes — namely, the reaction of hot water with certain types of rock — are also a possibility. And the new study deals only with background levels of Mars methane; it doesn't offer any significant insight into one-off surges of the stuff, such as the spike to 7 ppb that Curiosity observed over a few weeks from late 2013 to early 2014
Getting some answers
The Mars-methane picture could get clearer in the relatively near future. The Trace Gas Orbiter — part of the European-led ExoMars program — recently began sniffing the Red Planet's air from above, in an effort to map global concentrations of methane and other gases.
"The big question is, will they see plumes or patches or spikes?" Webster said. "If they could tell us there's a region of Mars where the methane seems to be coming from, that would be huge. Now we can direct future missions in that direction."
For example, the life-hunting ExoMars rover, which is scheduled to launch in 2020, could be sent to sample such a source. The rover might be able to get a carbon-isotope measurement, which would go a long way toward revealing the gas's origin. (Biologically produced methane here on Earth is depleted in the heavier carbon-13 isotope, which contains one more neutron in its nucleus than the "normal" carbon-12 atom.) Curiosity could theoretically make such a measurement as well, Webster said, but the ExoMars rover's TLS instrument will be more sensitive than Curiosity's.
Future missions will also take advantage of the new study by Eigenbrode and her team, Curiosity project scientist Ashwin Vasavada said.
"This gives us a really important insight into how organic molecules can be preserved over time, and what types might be better preserved than others," Vasavada, who's based at JPL, told Space.com. (Vasavada is a co-author of the new methane study but not the organics one.)
Curiosity's results show that lake beds are good collectors and concentrators of organics, he and Eigenbrode said. So an ancient lake wouldn't be a bad place to send a life-hunting rover, such as the ExoMars vehicle or the Mars 2020 rover, which NASA plans to launch two years from now.
"What this does, at the very least, is increase our confidence that there will be something to find with those future missions," Vasavada said, referring to interesting organics.
The Dolmen di Sa Coveccada, a megalithic grave found in northeastern Sardinia.
Credit: Bettina Schulz Paulsson.
Stonehenge is arguably the most famous prehistoric monument in the world. However, not a lot of people know that this megalithic style is far from being unique. There are literally tens of thousands of such ancient sites all across Europe, many of which are thousands of years older than Stonehenge. Now, a new ambitious study took on the massive task of finding the common thread among all these sites. The analysis suggests that a single hunter-gatherer culture founded the megalithic phenomenon in the Brittany region of northwestern France nearly 7,000 years ago.
Standing stones
The debate surrounding the origin of megaliths can be divided into two trains of thought: either they appeared in a single place then spread across Europe through sea routes or they developed independently by different cultures.
Bettina Schulz Paulsson of the University of Gothenburg, Sweden and colleagues combed through a mountain of archaeological data for 35,000 sites, including standing stones as well as tombs and temples. The research team narrowed their analysis down to 2,410 sites across Europe which had human remains buried within them that had been previously radiocarbon dated. To further narrow the dates, the study also took into account the site’s architecture (some pre-megalithic graves involved elaborate structures but not huge stones), tool use, and burial customs. Finally, using statistical methods, the authors were able to paint a clearer picture of where the first monuments were built and in what order.
The Ring of Brodgar in Orkney Islands, UK.
Credit: Bettina Schulz Paulsson.
Dolmen de las Ruines, Catalonia.
Credit: Bettina Schulz Paulsson.
Dolmen in Goosefeld, Germany.
Credit: Bettina Schulz Paulsson.
Paulsson found that the very earliest megaliths were in northwestern France — and not in the Near East as previously suggested — dating to about 4700 B.C.E. The region is also home to gravesites with intricate earthen tombs that date to about 5000 B.C.E, further cementing Brittany as the origin of the megalithic phenomenon. Some standing stones at Brittany sites depict sperm whales and other marine life, suggesting that these hunter-gatherers were also involved with some kind of sea travel. Some of these early standing stone sites — table-like structures that look like the Greek letter Pi called dolmens — were also some of the largest. For instance, the Grand Menhir once rose more than 20 meters high.
From there, megaliths spread across Europe over the next 2,000 years, concentrating around coastal regions of the Mediterranean and the Atlantic coasts. Stonehenge, for instance, is thought to have been first erected in 2400 B.C.E., although the oldest such structures in the British Isles date back to about 4000 B.C.E.
“We argue for the transfer of the megalithic concept over sea routes emanating from northwest France, and for advanced maritime technology and seafaring in the megalithic Age,” the authors wrote in the journal PNAS.
Map showing dates estimated for the start of megaliths in the different European regions. Credit: PNAS.
The emergence of the stone monuments around coastal areas suggests that the practice was spread by prehistoric sailors. If this true, then advanced seafaring in Europe could be pushed back by 2,000 years. This is highly plausible: ancient carvings on Brittany megaliths, such as engravings of many boats, are large enough for a crew of 12.
Of course, there are many other megaliths that have been either destroyed or not discovered yet — some of them may be older and found in a different location than Brittany. But right now this looks like our best bet. Further studies that also include DNA analysis and ancient population movements might shed further light on these mysterious structures.
A new study found that the Earth’s magnetic shield beats like a drum when it’s hit by external impulses. This confirms a decades-old theory
Artist rendition of a plasma jet impact (yellow) generating standing waves at the magnetopause boundary (blue) and in the magnetosphere (green). The outer group of four THEMIS probes witnessed the flapping of the magnetopause over each satellite in succession, confirming the expected behavior/frequency of the theorized magnetopause eigenmode wave.
Image credits: E. Masongsong/UCLA, M. Archer/QMUL, H. Hietala/UTU.
The Earth’s magnetic field is driven by convection currents in the Earth’s outer core. Differences in temperature, pressure, and compositionwithin the outer corecause some parts of the core to move around. The flow of this liquid iron generates electric currents, which in turn produce magnetic fields. The resulting magnetic fields produce further electric currents, which then generate their own magnetic fields, and so on. This natural self-sustaining loop is called a geodynamo, and produces a magnetic field that loops around the entire planet.
This magnetosphere is essential for life on Earth, as it protects the atmosphere from being eroded by the solar wind and deflects cosmic rays (high-energy charged particles that are mostly from outside the Solar System). However, we’re still learning a lot about the magnetosphere. Obviously, no one has gone down to the inner core to actually see how it is formed, and measurements of its overall structure remain challenging. In a new paper, researchers describe a feature of this field which had been predicted mathematically 40 years ago, but never previously observed.
Essentially, when an impulse strikes the outer boundary of the magnetopause, ripples can travel along its surface. These then get reflected back when they approach the magnetic poles. It’s a bit like how acoustic waves are absorbed and reflected by a drum. When the impulse interacts with the Earth’s magnetosphere, the interference the waves leads to a standing wave pattern in which specific points appear to be standing still while others vibrate back and forth — it’s exactly the way a drum resonates when struck.
Dr. Martin Archer, a space physicist at Queen Mary University of London and lead author of the paper, explains:
“There had been speculation that these drum-like vibrations might not occur at all, given the lack of evidence over the 45 years since they were proposed. Another possibility was that they are just very hard to definitively detect.”
“Earth’s magnetic shield is continuously buffeted with turbulence so we thought that clear evidence for the proposed booming vibrations might require a single sharp hit from an impulse. You would also need lots of satellites in just the right places during this event so that other known sounds or resonances could be ruled out. The event in the paper ticked all those quite strict boxes and at last, we’ve shown the boundary’s natural response,” said Archer.
In order to finally prove this theory, researchers used data from five NASATHEMIS satellites, designed specifically to study the magnetosphere. These five satellites were ideally located when a strong isolated plasma jet slammed into the magnetopause.
The probes were able to detect the boundary’s oscillations and the resulting sounds within the Earth’s magnetic shield, which confirmed the drum model and ruled out any alternative explanations
The Earth isn’t alone in having a magnetosphere. Other planets like Mercury, Jupiter and Saturn, have also been found to have similar magnetic shield — which means that drum-like vibrations may be possible elsewhere. However, further research is needed to understand just how often these vibrations occur and what their significance is.
Movements of the magnetopause can have wide-ranging effects on space weather, potentially damaging technology like power grids, GPS, and even passenger airlines.
Journal Reference: ‘Direct Observations Of A Surface Eigenmode Of The Dayside Magnetopause’. Archer et al.Nature Communications.
The mystery behind the “disappearances” in Alaska (Video)
The mystery behind the “disappearances” in Alaska (Video)
In Alaska they are used to disappearances. Each year, around 3,000 people disappear in the peninsula, an even more striking figure if we take into account that 736,732 people live there, according to the 2014 census.
In many cases, these people appear, alive or dead: many explorers and suicides opt for the solitude of these places. In others, the natural conditions of the American State, plagued by rivers, glaciers and extreme cold, complicate the search. Almost all its inhabitants know someone who disappeared without a trace.
In an area of northwest Alaska, which covers 300,000 square miles, more than 20,000 people have mysteriously disappeared. Most of these disappearances have occurred in an area they call the Alaska Triangle.
Some people got lost in the wild landscape, others disappeared in plane crashes. But in all these cases, bodies are discovered in mysterious ways.
Who or what is behind this? Some believe it is the work of local predators. Others point to legendary creatures like the Kushtaka, or the monster of Lake Iliamna. And some believe it's a supernatural force called "the vile vortex."
The American Indians did not walk with compasses, at least for a long time, but they know from time immemorial that strange things happen in that territory. The Eskimo tradition and other autochthonous cultures are full of legends about the place.
Perhaps the excess of clarity, at least during part of the year, is contributing to the occurrence of the dark phenomena that occur in the Alaska Triangle. The sun almost permanently bathes the territory for three months a year and it is believed that there is a greater electromagnetic activity that is the cause of the abnormalities.
But it is not a very convincing explanation, since the disappearances do not stop during the long winter months.
Another hypothesis that has ventured is the position of the territory on the confluence of two tectonic plates; this reasoning also has its weak flank, since it would justify a greater seismic activity but not on its own just such a high index of disappearances.
The truth is that the world still does not know if the case of the Alaskan Triangle is a matter of force majeure or simply legends that have been fed on a few people disoriented in a complicated area.
Meanwhile, many people will not return from that land every year. What do you think? Leave your comment below.
The Secret UFO Conference That No One Knows About via Ufologist Jacques Vallee (Video)
The Secret UFO Conference That No One Knows About via Ufologist Jacques Vallee (Video)
COAST TO COAST AM. George Knapp was joined by legendary ufologist Jacques Vallee, who discussed a recent discrete gathering of international UFO experts that was not mentioned to the public. He revealed that the two-day conference was organized by the French version of NASA, known as CNES, and featured 30 presentations to about 100 attendees.
According to Vallee, the focus of the conference revolved around determining the best way to gather and research UFO cases as well as how to synthesize that data. He attributed the event to a change in the French scientific community, where a new generation has emerged that is willing to take a fresh look at the UFO phenomenon. Unlike UFO research in the United States, which is beset with ideological disputes, Vallee noted, this examination of the phenomenon centered around “a good long look at the data.”
WETENSCHAP & PLANEET Lange tijd ontweek Elon Musk de vraag hoeveel het zou kosten om in de toekomst naar Mars te reizen, maar nu maakt de Tesla- en SpaceX-topman op Twitter toch een richtprijs bekend. Wie naar de planeet wil vliegen met ruimteschip Starship, zal diep in de buidel moeten tasten.
De 47-jarige topman legde uit dat het prijskaartje afhankelijk zal zijn van de vraag. “De prijs is afhankelijk van de vraag, maar ik ben er vrij zeker van dat een reis naar Mars (retourticket is gratis) ooit minder dan 500.000 dollar (omgerekend zo’n 441.540 euro) zal kosten en misschien zelfs minder dan 100.000 dollar (omgerekend zo’n 88.308 euro). Zo laag dat mensen uit welgestelde landen hun huis op Aarde kunnen verkopen en naar Mars kunnen verhuizen, als ze willen”, schreef Musk op Twitter.
SpaceX is van plan om rond 2024 de eerste mensen al naar Mars te laten reizen.
What are the estimated costs for tickets to Moon/Mars accounting for reusability?
Elon Musk✔@elonmusk
Very dependent on volume, but I’m confident moving to Mars (return ticket is free) will one day cost less than $500k & maybe even below $100k. Low enough that most people in advanced economies could sell their home on Earth & move to Mars if they want.
Het bedrijf van de topman wil de Starship, een roestvrijstalen ruimteschip, gebruiken om naar de maan en naar Mars te vliegen. Deze eerste versie van de raket is overigens nog maar een prototype dat alleen omhoog en omlaag kan. Die testversie wordt door Musk de ‘test hopper’ genoemd.
Musk toonde vorige maand op Twitter dat de Starship hopper op eenzelfde manier zal getest worden als de Falcon 9 vijf jaar geleden. De raket kan dus niet naar een baan om de aarde. Dat moeten latere versies wel kunnen. Die hoopt SpaceX later dit jaar te presenteren.
WETENSCHAPHij hield het bijna zestig keer langer uit dan verwacht, maar vandaag wordt er na vijftien jaar toch afscheid van hem genomen: de Marsrobot Opportunity zal dan aan zijn einde komen op de planeet Mars. Het hoogtechnologische wagentje kwam acht maanden geleden in een zware stofstorm terecht en geeft sindsdien geen teken van leven meer.
Verdriet en treurnis alom gisteren op het NASA-hoofdkwartier, waar de wetenschappers een laatste keer probeerden contact te maken met Opportunity, zonder succes. De storm van vorig jaar, de zwaarste in tientallen jaren, heeft de robot allicht het leven gekost. Het marsoppervlak was door de storm maandenlang in dikke stofwolken gehuld, waardoor Opportunity’s zonnepanelen geen dienst meer konden doen.
Maar naast verdriet overheerst toch vooral trots dat het Marswagentje het zo lang heeft uitgehouden. Oorspronkelijk was het de bedoeling dat Opportunity en zijn broertje Spirit, die begin 2004 op de andere kant van de planeet landde, een missie van ongeveer drie maanden zouden uitvoeren. Spirit kon het tot 2011 uitzingen, Opportunity kon daar dus nog enkele jaren bij doen.
Dr. Tanya Harrison✔@tanyaofmars
Spent the evening at JPL as the last ever commands were sent to the Opportunity rover on #Mars.
There was silence. There were tears. There were hugs. There were memories and laughs shared.#ThankYouOppy#GoodnightOppy
De afgelopen maanden deden de ingenieurs bij NASA er alles aan om Opportunity tot leven te wekken. Er werden ongeveer duizend signalen verstuurd om hem opnieuw op te starten, maar tevergeefs. Allicht zal straks het einde van de Marsrobot officieel worden verkondigd. Projectmanager John Callas noemt het “als een liefje dat plots vertrekt en waarvan je hoopt dat ze ooit toch nog voor je deur zal staan, gezond en wel”. “Maar elke dag vermindert je hoop en uiteindelijk moet je beseffen dat dat niet meer zal gebeuren en verdergaan met je leven.”
Opportunity, zo groot als een golfwagentje, legde in totaal 45 kilometer af op Mars en is daarmee nog altijd de absolute recordhouder voor een menselijk object op een andere planeet dan de Aarde. Hij bestudeerde de bodem van de rode planeet, stond aan de basis van de bevestiging dat er ooit water stroomde en ontdekte de eerste meteoriet ooit op een andere planeet. Tussendoor nam hij de prachtigste foto’s, onder andere van een wervelstorm of een panoramisch uitzicht van de kraters op de planeet.
Het einde van Opportunity betekent niet het einde van NASA’s aanwezigheid op Mars. Op de planeet rijdt sinds 2012 ook nog altijd de dubbel zo grote Curiosity rond, en in november vorig jaar landde de nieuwste robotwagen, Insight.
“No animal is more elusive. Nobody I knew had ever seen one in the wild and I never thought that I would either.”
Figures from May 2018 show that over 170 million people worldwide saw the blockbuster movie “Black Panther.” Figures from the past 100 years show that no one has seen an actual black panther (also called a black leopard) in Africa and has a movie or photo to prove it … until now. UK photographer Will Burrard-Lucas revealed stunning images of a live black panther he photographed in Kenya, not far from the mythical land of Wakanda, home of the ‘other’ Black Panther. How cool is that?(The images can be seen here.)
Slinking through the darkness, these stunning images show an ultra-rare black leopard in action. The mythical creature was captured by British wildlife photographer Will Burrard-Lucas, 35, while it was prowling around Laikipia in Kenya in the dead of night
Its wide eyes can be seen looking eagerly for prey, while leopard-like spots can vaguely be seen on its dark coat, which is the result of melanism
Working in collaboration with biologists in the area, Burrard-Lucas went about installing camera traps. These were placed in areas the black leopard was rumoured to frequent
Nicholas Pilfold PhD, a biologist with San Diego Zoo Global who is currently researching leopards at the Loisaba Conservancy and helped Burrard-Lucas with his photography project, confirmed that the recent on-camera sighting was extremely rare
Summing up the black leopard in three words, Burrard-Lucas said: 'They are truly stunning, beautiful and elusive'
Dr Pilfold said: 'We had always heard about black leopard living in this region, but the stories were absent of high quality footage that could confirm their existence.' This grab from San Diego Zoo's video shows the black leopard clambering over rocks. The video footage was shot over a period of a year
“We had always heard about black leopard living in this region, but the stories were absent of high quality footage that could confirm their existence. This is what Will’s photos and the videos on our remote cameras now prove, and are exceptionally rare in their detail and insight.”
A normal African leopard
(Wikipedia)
The black panther or African leopard (Panthera pardus pardus) was suspected of living somewhere in the Loisaba Conservancy, a 57,000 acre wildlife conservancy and working ranch located in Northern Laikipia, Kenya, by Nicholas Pilfold PhD, a biologist working there for the San Diego Zoo Global. According to his study published in January 2019 in the African Journal of Ecology, Pilford’s video cameras captured a young female black panther five times in February, March and April of 2018. (A video can be viewed here.) Those sightings brought photographer Burrard-Lucas to the area with his specially-designed camera traps using wireless motion sensors, high-quality DSLR cameras and multiple flashes. Despite Pilford’s videos, he wasn’t certain he could capture sharp photographs of the black panther.
“I can’t believe it really. I think when I started this project I didn’t actually think I was going to be able to achieve a shot of a black leopard in Africa but that it is exactly what is here on the back of my camera. Just the most stunning, spectacular creature I think I’ve ever photographed!”
Pilford shared with National Geographic some of the mythology behind the black (or melanistic, which is the opposite of albino) panther, whose last known photograph had been taken in 1909.
“These are the first confirmed images of a panther in Africa in nearly 100 years. Almost everyone has a story about seeing one, it’s such a mythical thing. Even when you talk to the older guys that were guides in Kenya many years ago, back when hunting was legal [in the 1950s and ‘60s], there was a known thing that you didn’t hunt black leopards. If you saw them, you didn’t take it.”
The juvenile female was traveling with an older normal female believed to be its mother, so Pilford thinks its color was not a problem with the rest of the cat’s family, even though melanism is extremely rare in African big cats.
Or is it?
Shortly after the photographs were released, researchers at the Ol Ari Nyiro Conservancy 30 miles west of Loisaba unveiled another high-quality photograph of a black leopard reported to have been taken in 2007. Are there more hiding in drawers around Kenya and Africa? Are there more black panthers than the experts believe to exist there? Will this revelation put them in danger?
DIERENIn Kenia is een zeer zeldzaam zwart luipaard gespot. Dat blijkt uit een recente publicatie in het African Journal of Ecology. Het dier heeft haar opvallend donkere tooi te danken aan een zeldzame aandoening genaamd melanisme. Het is de eerste officiële waarneming van het illustere beest sinds 1909.
Het luipaard is een bijzonder exemplaar; hij is bijna volledig zwart gedurende de dag, maar in de nacht zijn andere kleuren zichtbaar. Het dier werd gezien in Laikipia County, een gebied van ongeveer 8.700 vierkante kilometer groot.
Het zwarte luipaard is één keer gespot door camera‘s die door onderzoekers van de San Diego Zoo werden geplaatst in het gebied. Het vrouwtje werd gezien in aanwezigheid van een soortgenoot met een normale vacht. De onderzoekers vermoeden dat dit mogelijk de moeder van het donkere exemplaar is. Eerder waren er al meldingen van mensen die het zwarte luipaard in 2017 en 2018 zeggen gezien te hebben.
WETENSCHAPIn Egypte hebben archeologen het skelet van een 13-jarig meisje ontdekt dat vlakbij een mysterieuze piramide begraven lag. Het meisje lag in foetushouding in de lege tombe van een oude begraafplaats.
De piramide vlakbij de begraafplaats is zo’n 4.600 jaar oud – net als het meisje - en bevindt zich in Meidoem, een plaats ten westen van de Nijl in Egypte.
Het meisje lag moederziel alleen in de graftombe, al vonden de archeologen in de rest van het grafmonument wat meer attributen waaronder twee dierenhoofden (waarschijnlijk afkomstig van stieren) en versierde vazen. Vermoedelijk gaat het om offers, maar of die voor het jonge meisje bestemd waren, betwijfelen de onderzoekers. Verder nog werden de restanten van een stenen muur gevonden. Waarschijnlijk scheidde die muur de begraafplaats van het volk duidelijk af van de potentiële graftombe van de farao.
De piramide in Meidoem is al vaker onderwerp van archeologisch onderzoek geweest. Dat onderzoek kon slechts een tipje van de sluier lichten. Wat archeologen (vrijwel) zeker weten, is dat de piramide gebouwd werd in opdracht van farao Snofroe. Die farao liet tijdens zijn heerschappij maar liefst vier piramides bouwen, waarvan twee grote en twee kleinere. Dat zijn er uitzonderlijk veel. Archeologen konden nog geen concreet antwoord formuleren op de vraag waarom hij dat deed. Met vallen en opstaan, testte de farao vermoedelijk de beste manier uit om een mooie graftombe te bouwen.
De piramide van Meidoem lijkt die theorie te bevestigen. De piramide werd eerst als trappenpiramide gebouwd, het geheel had dus de vorm van een trap. Het getrapte uitzicht van de piramide transformeerde doorheen de tijd tot een ‘echte piramide’ met gladde oppervlaktes die over de trappen gebouwd werden. Waarom en hoe dat precies gebeurde, is niet duidelijk.
(Lees verder onder de foto)
Oorspronkelijk was de piramide zo’n 93 meter hoog. Het glorieuze complex stortte echter in waardoor er momenteel slechts een torentje en wat puin te ‘bewonderen’ is.
Grootste piramidebouwer
Farao – en berucht piramidebouwer – Snofroe zou trouwens een uitstekende leermeester zijn geweest. Hij was immers de vader van farao Cheops. Die slaagde erin om ’s werelds grootste en bekendste piramides (piramides van Gizeh) te bouwen.
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Lost village 2,000 years old found hidden in dense ‘virgin’ forest
Lost village 2,000 years old found hidden in dense ‘virgin’ forest
EWAN JONES
Archeologists have uncovered a completely intact ancient village, the only one of its kind in Europe, dating back almost 2,000 years.
The stunning discovery in northern Poland revealed farming land complete with boundary strips, homesteads, buildings and even roads.
Hidden in dense forests in the Bory Tucholskie region, the area is one of the least explored by archeologists.
The discovery revealed farming land complete with boundary strips, homesteads, buildings and even roads.
M. Jankowski
Archeologist Mateusz Sosnowski from the NCU (Nicolaus Copernicus University) Institute of Archeology in Toruń told PAP: "When it comes to research, it was virgin territory.
“It was a great surprise to discover there not only individual elements of a former settlement, but also its surroundings: fields surrounding the hamlet, traces of single homesteads and even tracts connecting them probable with other settlements."
The remains come from the first centuries of the modern era, Sosnowski and fellow reasearcher who made the discovery, Jerzy Czerniec, believe.
Archeologist Mateusz Sosnowski from the NCU (Nicolaus Copernicus University) Institute of Archeology in Toruń said: "When it comes to research, it was virgin territory. We have an entire estate together with its surrounding farmland in the form of fields and pastures, where all the elements come from the same period. It's unique!"
Mateusz Sosnowski
Sosnowski explained that the discovery is unique because archeologists usually only discover individual elements of settlements or other constructions left over from the activities of ancient people.
Such discoveries usually occur during the building of houses or roads and the digs are rescue efforts. As a result, research is limited to a small area.
In such cases there is also not usually an opportunity to search more widely to see whether there are other remains or interesting artefacts in the vicinity.
Sosnowski explained: "Here we have an entirely different situation.
"We have tracked down unknown traces of an ancient Bory Tucholskie settlement. It's not a matter of one house or a fragment of a settlement.
“We have an entire estate together with its surrounding farmland in the form of fields and pastures, where all the elements come from the same period. It's unique!"
The remains come from the first century of the modern era, researchers believe.
M. Jankowski
The archeologists discovered the find using Aerial Laser Scanning (ALS), a tool ever more frequently used by researchers.
As part of a project aimed at creating anti-flood defences among other things, the whole of Poland was covered. ALS enables very thorough inspection of territory, even if it is overgrown with forest and the differences in height are invisible to the naked eye, as was the case in Bory Tucholskie.
The settlement together with its surrounding fields covers an area of over 170 hectares and the fields are surprisingly regular.
Sosnowski said: "Their shape brings to mind the three-field system of farming, known in Poland only from the middle ages. Was it already in use several hundred years earlier? we hope our research will answer that question."
Archaeologists uncovered an ancient village dating back almost 2,000 years hidden in the dense forest in the northern part of Poland. Surprisingly enough, the village was completely intact and is believed to be the first of its kind ever to be discovered in all of Europe. It was found in the very dense forests in the region of Bory Tucholskie which is one of the less explored areas by archaeologists.
The discovery of the ancient village included buildings, homesteads, boundary strips, and roads. Mateusz Sosnowski, who is an archaeologist from the NCU (Nicolaus Copernicus University) Institute of Archaeology in Toruń, provided further details on the discovery, “It was a great surprise to discover there not only individual elements of a former settlement, but also its surroundings: fields surrounding the hamlet, traces of single homesteads and even tracts connecting them probable with other settlements.”
Forest in Poland
Sosnowski, along with another researcher named Jerzy Czerniec, believe that the settlement dates back to the first centuries of the modern era.
While the majority of discoveries include only individual findings of ancient settlements, such as the remains of an old building, etc…, this discovery is quite unique. “Here we have an entirely different situation,” Sosnowski explained, “We have tracked down unknown traces of an ancient Bory Tucholskie settlement. It’s not a matter of one house or a fragment of a settlement. We have an entire estate together with its surrounding farmland in the form of fields and pastures, where all the elements come from the same period. It’s unique!”
The ancient village was found by using Aerial Laser Scanning (ALS) which researchers use quite often. Since the forests are so dense, the village would have been invisible from the ground, and that’s why the discovery using the extremely thorough ALS is such an incredible find. The settlement, as well as the surrounding farmland, covered more than 170 hectares of land.
Forest in Poland
Quite a few of the archaeological discoveries that have been previously found around the Polish village are thought to be from the modern era or maybe even during the Middle Ages. Sosnowski described the formation of the newly discovered ancient village by saying, “Their shape brings to mind the three-field system of farming, known in Poland only from the Middle Ages. Was it already in use several hundred years earlier? We hope our research will answer that question.”
Secret Rocket Launches and A Mysterious Vapor Trail in England Brett Tingley February 14, 2019 FACEBOOK TWITTER GOOGLE+ With the eyes of the world’s superpowers turned towards space in search of new war-fighting domains, more and more aerospace
Secret Rocket Launches and A Mysterious Vapor Trail in England
With the eyes of the world’s superpowers turned towards space in search of new war-fighting domains, more and more aerospace mysteries keep stacking up. Further evidence of clandestine rocket launches was found in England this week as a witness managed to catch a picture of a mysterious “spiral-shaped cloud” which looks an awful lot like a rocket’s vapor trail, implying that someone in the UK may be putting spacecraft into space on the sly. David Hargrave from Sidbury Hill on Salisbury Plain says he was walking his dog around 5:00 pm local time last Tuesday, February 5 when he spotted the strange cloud and, luckily for us, had the presence of mind to snapa compelling picture of the event.
Despite witnessing the event first-hand, Hargrave says he has no idea what the picture may show:
I haven’t got a clue what it is either – hopefully someone out there will have an answer. I saw it when walking the dogs, looking up and seeing the smoke-like air go up vertically. As it got dark we were then no longer able to see it. It is a mystery.
The cloud in the photograph glows red in the setting sun appears to rise out of the ground in what Hargrave says is the direction of Westbury along the northwestern edge of the Salisbury Plain. Nearly half of the plain is taken up by Defence Training Estate Salisbury Plain (DTE SP), a military training area which includes the Boscombe Down experimental airbase and the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory at Porton Down, one of the United Kingdom’s most secretive military research facilities.
If secret rockets were being launched in the UK, chances are high they could be launched from one of these facilities. However, The London Economicreports that neither the nearby University of Bristol nor the Ministry of Defence claim to know anything about the mysterious vapor trail. Publicly, that is.
Still, the vapor trail in these photos quite strongly resembles other images of known rocket launches and while the official silence surrounding the mysterious cloud is unusual, it’s not unprecedented. Evidence of seemingly secret “black” launchesis being caught on camera around the world with increasing frequency even as government officials deny knowledge of the obvious.
Literally every nation’s government right now.
What’s going on in space that’s requires so much secrecy? Do we really want to know? Furthermore, who owns the air above us? Should governments or private aerospace corporations be allowed to launch whatever they want into the air above our heads without the public’s consent?
“When you join the ‘*** Community,’ which happens automatically if you applied as a candidate, they start giving you points. You get points for getting through each round of the selection process… and then the only way to get more points is to buy merchandise from *** or to donate money to them.”
Without knowing the name of the group running this “community,” you might say it resembles a multi-level marketing program. When you find out this statement is from someone who was a finalist for Mars One, the private Dutch organization promoting the idea of building a permanent human colony on the Red Planet, you realize this was more of a multi-level Martian-ing scheme. And “scheme” seems to be the operative words as the news hit this week that the for-profit arm of Mars One was declared bankrupt in January. The “finalists” may have lost all of their money, but at least they didn’t breathe their final breath while stuck on Mars.
“”By decision of 15 January 2019, the Civil Court of the City of Basel declared the company bankrupt with effect from 15 January 2019, 3.37 p.m., thus dissolving it.”
“The company” was Mars One Ventures, the Swiss-based for-profit arm of Mars One, which was valued at $100 million. That’s not much, considering the company formed in 2012 by Dutch entrepreneur Dutch entrepreneur Bas Lansdorp claimed to need $6 billion to meet its mission statement: “Human settlement of Mars is the next giant leap for humankind. Exploring the solar system as a united humanity will bring us all closer together.”
Line up by how much you donated.
When you think about it, $6 billion doesn’t seem like enough to set up a Mars colonization expedition when it’s close to the figure being bandied about to build just a small portion of a certain wall on Earth. That should have been one of the many warning signs to anyone thinking about signing up. In fact, anexposé in 2014found a lot of unusual problems, starting with that $6 billion budget which seemed too low – and yet, after crowdfunding and donations, Mars One barely raised one percent of it. Then there was the alleged 200,000 people signing up, which quickly became just 2,600 actual participants who sent in videos (and probably some money). An alleged deal with SpaceX to provide the transport was just that … alleged.
Then there was the real big flashing neon warning sign – Mars One proposed to turn the whole application process, training program and trip to Mars into a giant reality TV show that was alleged (there’s that word again) to be run by the creators of the Big Brother franchise. As Howie Mandel likes to say on his show with the models carrying briefcases – no deal.
And yet, Mars One did have some investors and volunteers who bought the pitch (and the starter kit) but not the old adage: “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” Engadget points out that it was obvious from the start that the money needed to fund a reality TV show was far less than one rocket launch and even if it made it to Mars, a group of scientists at MIT who studied the plan said it would quickly kill off the colonists … not exactly good for ratings.
“Once out of administration, Mars One will redirect its focus. For the execution of the actual voyage to Mars, the company will continue to seek strategic collaboration with renowned companies and organizations involved with the travel to Mars. Mars One itself will focus on the even more inspiring “being there”, the adventurous story of humans actually living on Mars, making The Red Planet their new home. Utilizing its new investment plan, Mars One Ventures will establish a marketing machine, creating continuous content about these activities, evaluated from all angles, including technological, psychological, economical, and ethical aspects. The new investor will present its plans at a press conference on Wednesday, March 6, 2019, at a location to be determined.”
Being there? Forget Mars. Let’s see what “investor plans on “being there” March 6.
“So, what do you think about theBerwyn Mountains UFO crash?” I was recently asked. The strange affair in question dates back to 1974 and the mountains of North Wales. And, it’s now time for me to answer that opening question. Back in the 1996-1999 period, when UFOs were all-dominating on the newsstands of the U.K., and when Mulder and Scully were still flying high, much page space was devoted to a strange and genuinely intriguing event that had occurred on a Welsh mountain one dark, winter night in January 1974. For many people of a “The Truth Is Out There” persuasion (in the 1990s, at least), this curious affair was seen as being nothing less than a potential “British Roswell” – or a “Welsh Roswell” would be far more accurate. Stories of whistle-blower testimony collectively suggested that perhaps an alien spacecraft had crashed on North Wales’ Berwyns Mountains range. The craft and crew were said to have been retrieved undercover of the utmost secrecy by elements of the British military and government. And, I have to admit, that at the time in question (’96-’99) I was a fully paid up member of the “I Want To Believe” club, and I gave space to the incident in my books A Covert Agenda. I was most certainly not against the idea that E.T. might have really crashed and burned on the Berwyns all those years ago. But, times and minds change.
It was, as the ’90s breathed their last, that Andy Roberts (to some – including me – a genuine Fortean sleuth, to others a spoiler of ufological fun, and to more than a few, a tool of disinformation agents in the government…YAWN) came along with a preliminary paper on the Berwyns affair. Andy suggested that the Berwyn affair was nothing more than the result of mistaken identity, coupled with a localized earthquake and a meteor shower – on the same night and in approximately the same time-frame. Of course, the true-believers moaned that Andy was following some nefarious agenda, courtesy of the Men in Black – the dreaded “them,” in other words. And, those of a different persuasion gave Andy a collective pat on the back. Especially so when Andy’s book UFO Down? was published.
I have to say, that – given the fact that UFO Down? still represents the only full-length book on the case – Andy did an excellent job of finally digging deep into the many and varied complexities of the affair and coming to a satisfying conclusion. Interestingly, though, it actually leaves the door open to one or two potentially Fortean anomalies having played some sort of presently-unclear role in the case. But, with that said, Andy’s was an excellent study of how and why myths, legends and rumors all played roles in carefully creating and nurturing an admittedly fascinating series of separate events into the tale of a crashed spacecraft from a far-away world.
Easily worthy of a case for Holmes and Watson – and, particularly so given its ingredients of a dark, imposing and windswept mountain-range; little isolated villages; “phantom helicopters” prowling the moonlit skies; claims of deep and dark secrets; and shadowy and sinister Men in Black-like figures said to be roaming the landscape by day and night – the Berwyn story is one that is truly as fascinating as it is one filled with wild twists and turns. All that’s missing is a ghostly black hound with glowing red eyes! Packed with accounts of strange lights on the mountain, an alleged heavy British Army presence, alien bodies recovered at the “crash” site, meteorites, earth tremors, ghost-lights, official files and more, this is a book that anyone and everyone interested in UFOs (and particularly tales of crashed UFOs) should acquire a copy of at the earliest opportunity.
UFO Down? demonstrates how an investigation of such an event should be undertaken, even if the conclusions aren’t what some solely belief-driven souls wish to hear. Well, too bad. Andy went to the places, spoke to the witnesses, chased down the government files, and traveled to where the evidence led him. And, if and when someone else decides to do likewise and comes to a different conclusion, then I’ll take a look at that evidence in its own right. But, right now, we have in my opinion a first-class, true-life detective-style story that tells the truth of the Berwyn affair (or, as close to the truth as we’re likely to get) and reveals its complexities to the extent that we’re able to.
Crashed UFO-themed books are filled with tales of Hangar 18, alien bodies on ice, and extraterrestrial autopsies. UFO Down?is a very different addition to the field of crashed UFO titles, but in a refreshing, welcome and – most important of all – informative and illuminating fashion. Whatever your views on all things saucer-shaped and crashed, you should buy this book. You will learn a lot – about those aforementioned crashed UFOs, but also about why and how the British UFO research community of the 1990s arguably needed its very own Roswell, and how and why belief systems and eyewitness perception may be the most important facets of certain, challenging, alleged UFO events.
Could lightning have literally been the ‘spark’ which ignited all life here on Earth? New bizarre-sounding research published by scientists at Tel Aviv University has found that lightning may give off a unique type of extremely low frequency (ELF) electromagnetic field which actually serves to protect the cells of living organisms. While these fields are quite weak and difficult to detect, scientists think they already have enough data to show the lightning may be one of the key factors which allowed or helped life to flourish on our mysterious planet.
Lightning is known to create what are known as Schumann resonances, a phenomenon in which the Earth’s electromagnetic field resonates at very low frequencies due to the lightning activity worldwide. According to Professor Colin Price of Tel Aviv University’s Porter School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, this new study is among the first to find a connection between lightning and the electromagnetic fields of living things:
It is the first study that demonstrates a link between global lighting activity and the Schumann Resonances and the activity of living cells. It may explain why all living organisms have electrical activity in the same ELF spectral range, and it is the first time such a connection has been shown. This may have some therapeutic implications down the line, since these ELF fields appear to protect cells from damage, but this requires further research.
Researchers found that environmental electromagnetic fields can actually protect cells under stress conditions such as a lack of oxygen. Cells in these stress states seem to respond to the types of electromagnetic resonances given off by lightning activity in ways that suggest these fields can help reduce the damage cells experience while under stress.
While on one hand this study provides one more fascinating hint that all things living and non-living on Earth may be more connected than we know, it also may foreshadow future therapies which harness these mysterious effects of electromagnetic fields. It’s already suspected that the electromagnetic fields given off by today’s telecom devices may be affecting living things in harmful ways, so it makes sense that natural electromagnetic fields may likewise be able to affect living cells. Much more data is needed before definitive conclusions can be drawn about this phenomenon, but if confirmed, it may demonstrate that electromagnetic energy plays a vital role in the natural processes of living things. Could lightning be a vital part of life on Earth?
I’m also left to wonder if perhaps ancient cultures were aware of this phenomenon given some of the claims made about the pyramids and electromagnetic radiation. Could the pyramids have been healing centers?
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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 74 jaar jong.
Mijn hobby's zijn: Ufologie en andere esoterische onderwerpen.
Op deze blog vind je onder artikels, werk van mezelf. Mijn dank gaat ook naar André, Ingrid, Oliver, Paul, Vincent, Georges Filer en MUFON voor de bijdragen voor de verschillende categorieën...
Veel leesplezier en geef je mening over deze blog.