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
Richmond’s “Mystery Lights”: Early Reports of Aerial Oddities Over America
Richmond’s “Mystery Lights”: Early Reports of Aerial Oddities Over America
These were the words of Kenneth Arnold, according to one of the many quotes attributed to him during national coverage of his famous observation of nine “discs” flying in formation near Mount Ranier, Washington, in June of 1947. According to most accounts, this was the incident that brought the public into awareness of the so-called “flying saucers.”
Hence, in the days after Arnold’s account went to print across the nation, several other reports of unusual aerial phenomena from other parts of the country began to appear. That is to say, once the news about “saucers” was on people’s minds, it was no big surprise that similar reports began to crop up elsewhere.
This is one reason why reports from prior to Arnold’s initial sighting are so interesting, where incidents involving unusual aerial phenomenon were less likely to have been influenced by all the press Arnold and his story were getting at the time.
Kenneth Arnold
Arguably, one of the most notable incidents of this kind was reported by Captain Jack Puckett of Strategic Air Command on August 1, 1946. Early that morning, Puckett was flying a twin-engine C-47 from Langley Field to MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida, reported having a near-collision with a large, rocket-like aircraft that blazed past him. Only weeks prior to that, numerous reports out of Scandinavia detailed similar encounters with smaller, rocket-like objects seen streaking through the skies, which resulted in the first government inquiry into unidentified flying objects.
Another instance of pre-Kenneth Arnold UFO sightings (which, remember, weren’t actually called UFOs until a few years later, with the institution of Project Blue Book) involved sightings of unusual nighttime lights that were being seen over Richmond, Virginia, in the weeks leading up to Arnold’s sighting.
The reports, which didn’t begin to surface until well after Arnold’s sighting made news, were first logged by staff members with the Weather Bureau in Richmond, where they had begun to receive calls over several successive evenings from people in the Richmond area that were claiming to have seen odd aerial lights.
On June 30, 1947, an Associated Press article out of Washington, D.C., described that the reports of the lights had preceded news of Arnold’s sightings by several weeks, quoting Samuel S. Trotter, an assistant meteorologist at the Richmond Weather Bureau.
“Mr. Trotter added the reports here started before anything was printed about the ‘flying saucers’,” the report states.
However, Trotter and his colleagues apparently weren’t particularly impressed with the reports. “[Trotter] said he was convinced ‘that what they see is a spotlight somewhere playing on the clouds.”
“When I tell them so, nobody believes me,” the meteorologist complained.
Apart from the fact that the “mystery lights” over Richmond provide a somewhat less than compelling UFO report from the pre-Kenneth Arnold era, it helps illustrate a few other things, too. Apparently, even prior to the “arrival” of flying saucers over Mount Rainier in June 1947, people were reporting unusual things they were seeing in the skies. And as Trotter laments in the quote above, even when he advised that these lights were probably just spotlights reflecting off clouds, people seemed to disagree, preferring to believe that they were seeing something else instead.
We can’t rule out that latter possibility, especially in light of the other reports of objects in the skies at that time. Regardless, this is interesting, particularly since it is often asserted that people were more inclined to express doubt about conventional things they had seen in the skies after the “flying saucer” craze had already begun. If Trotter’s account of people’s disbelief is accurate, at least a few folks in the Richmond area had seemed to be exhibiting this tendency several weeks before Kenneth Arnold put flying saucers on the map.
Could it be that there are psychological reasons for why some people gravitate toward belief in extraordinary things? Maybe so, although I certainly don’t think that this idea alone can “explain” or roundly debunk all UFO reports.
However, noting such things in relation to the history of UFOlogy may be useful in helping us remove certain stigmas and preconceptions about what people have seen, and how they may have interpreted it in relation to other things that were going on in the world at a given time. Hence, the Pre-Kenneth Arnold reports like these remain some of the most interesting in the collected literature from the early years of UFO research.
In late 2017, the UFOlogy and conspiracy circles were somewhat vindicated by the not-so-surprising revelation that the Pentagonoperated a secret research programto investigate anomalous aerial phenomenon. While some of us are beginning to believe that those so-called “revelations” about the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, or AATIP, may actually be a smokescreenor publicity stunt, the program’s former director Luis Elizondo continues to hint that more secrets will soon be revealed.
The latest revelation about Pentagon UFO research didn’t come from Elizondo or anyone else at the “To the Stars Academy of Arts and Sciences,” but instead were brought to light by Keith Basterfield at the blog “Unidentified Aerial Phenomena – Scientific Research.” With so many headlines being written about the Pentagon’s UFO research program, Basterfield began digging through older texts and documents to see if AATIP might be the tip of a much older iceberg.
Basterfield may have found something, if his sources are to be taken at their words. After re-reading the 1990 book Out Thereby New York Times reporter Howard Blum, Basterfield discovered a few anecdotes concerning Major General James C. Pfautz, Chief of Air Force Intelligence who oversaw a $5 million UFO research program within the Pentagon.
Major General James C. Pfautz, USAF
According to Blum’s book, the program ran from 1983 to 1985 and was kept off the Air Force’s official books to hide its massive price tag. Pfautz reportedly told Blum that the program was established to study and identify the many anomalous phenomena the Air Force regularly encounters as it carries out its principal mission of protecting America’s skies:
In 1983, six months after taking command of Air Force Intelligence [Pfautz] decided to investigate the heavens. To Pfautz’s way of thinking, the decision to establish this secret UFO task force was not that extraordinary. The primary job of the Air Force of the United States of America was to protect and defend the airspace of this country. No intrusions could be tolerated. It was his job, he reasoned, to investigate whether unidentified objects of any sort, of any origin, were penetrating this airspace. He was simply fulfilling the responsibility of his office.
According to anonymous sources Blum cites, Pfautz was invited to address the Defense Intelligence Agency’s alleged “UFO Working Group” which went by the characteristically uninteresting name “Advanced Theoretical Physics.” While addressing the group, Pfautz is said to have become emotional in describing the threats Earth faces from unknown phenomena, even going so far as to suggest attempting to forge an alliance with the extraterrestrial beings visiting Earth.
Pfautz was eventually outed from his leadership post at Air Force Intelligence for what can be described as political reasons. Blum writes that Pfautz had initially agreed to a private interview with him to discuss the program, but cancelled suspiciously at the last minute after allegedly being notified that the program’s research remained classified. The fate of the alleged program is ultimately unknown, but it could be that it in some ways morphed into the more recent AATIP.
What’s to be made of Howard Blum’s tale? On one hand, this is merely an unconfirmed anecdote, but then again Blum is one of the most respected journalists in America and has published several New York Times best-selling works of non-fiction including Out There. Could this 1990 book contain one more crumb of truth which suggests our government may actually know more about anomalous aerial phenomena than they’re letting on? Be sure to head over to Basterfield’s blog and read the full account for yourself.
It’s unusual when the U.S. government reveals information about unusual occurrences or events in space … especially without the intervention of a rock star. It’s even more unusual for the Russian government to do it. Yet that’s what’s happening in Moscow where a leading scientist revealed that a Russian satellite has picked up strange explosions of light that researchers are unable to explain. Инопланетяне? (Russian for “Aliens?” – at least that’s what Google Translate claims.)
“With the help of the telescope, we have obtained even more important results than we expected. It looks like we have encountered new physical phenomena… We do not yet know their physical nature… For example, during Lomonosov’s flight at an altitude of several dozen kilometres, we have registered several times a very powerful ‘explosion’ of light. But everything was clear underneath it, no storms, no clouds.”
“We do not yet know their physical nature.” That’s not the kind of thing Russians are accustomed to hearing from officials, but that’s exactly what Mikhail Panasyuk, the director of the Research Institute of Nuclear Physics at the Russian State University, told Sputnik News this week. An ultraviolet telescope installed on the Russian satellite Lomonosov — launched in 2016 and named for Mikhail Lomonosov, the Russian mathematical genius and scientist whose discoveries include the atmosphere of Venus and the law of conservation of mass in chemical reaction – picked up light “explosions” in the upper atmosphere where Lomonosov was supposed to be observing gamma-ray bursts, high-energy cosmic rays and transient (short-duration) atmospheric phenomena.
Sprite
Technically, “transient phenomena” describes the mysterious lights observed by the Lomonosov satellite, but Panasyuk and other scientists are concerned because they can’t identify them beyond “light explosions.” Sprites are similar light flashes that appear above thunderstorms, but there were no storm clouds under these lights and so little is known about sprites that it’s not even a certainly that they can be picked up by a UV telescope. The researchers have eliminated ground explosions and missile or rocket launches. It’s possible that the explosions could be the result of secret weapons testing, but good luck getting the Russian government to admit to that. By process of elimination, that leaves … Инопланетяне!
Before you toss out the possibility of “Aliens!”, there’s one more strange occurrence to report:
“On June 30, 2018, the Head of Nuclear Physics Institute of Moscow State University, NIIYaF MGU, Mikhail Panasyuk, confirmed the report by the RIA Novosti news agency that Mikhailo Lomonosov, one of only two dedicated scientific satellites operated by Russia, had suffered a failure of its data transmission system.”
Any ideas?
These light explosions occurred some time before June 30, 2018, when Russian space watchers the satellite suffered a malfunction and has been shut down ever since. So, the news of the event has been hidden for almost a year, the Lomonosov mysteriously malfunctioned and was shut down, and suddenly the same head scientist has decided to talk about it with the media. Is he worried? Are the Russians? Should we be?
If you have read my2010 book, Final Events, you’ll know that for years, a small element of the U.S. Government (very small) has secretly investigated the UFO phenomenon from the perspective that – rather than being alien in nature – it has literal demonic origins. And, while the idea that UFOs could be anything less than extraterrestrial is most assuredly not what the vast majority of people within the realm of Ufological research want to hear, the demonic theory is one that attracts a faithful following. As for me, I pretty much gave up the extraterrestrial theory more than a few years back, but I still don’t fully rule it out. But literal demons, overseen by the Devil, and from a literal Hell? Admittedly, I find that extremely hard to buy into. In fact, almost impossible. It’s important to note, though, that there’s nothing new about all this. The reason I say that is because I often get correspondence from people who assume the demonic angle is something recent, something of modern day times. It isn’t. A perfect example is a highly controversial1955 book titledRound Trip to Hell in a Flying Saucer. It was written by a man named Cecil Michael.
So, what does the book tell us? Well, I’ll tell you. If you have not read Michael’s book, then you should. It’s part horror-story, highly Contactee-themed, and infinitely weird in the extreme. Replete with strange tales of ethereal, human-like entities that manifest before Michael; out-of-body experiences; a cosmic trip in a UFO to the Planet Hell (yes, really!); and tales of alien wisdom, this is a highly entertaining, rip-roaring read that absolutely typifies much of the early-1950s Contactee movement. We may never really know to what extent Michael’s story had a basis in some form of non-human reality, if his experiences were purely internal and subjective, or if it was a gigantic hoax. Personally, I go for theory number two. Whatever the truth, Michael was personally sure he had been to a hellish realm and that it was one tied to the UFO phenomenon.
The issue I have with most of the people who have written books on the UFO-demonic angle – and that includes Cecil Michael – is that they are absolutely sure they have the answer to the riddle. They don’t. What they do have, however, is a strong belief that they are right. And there’s nothing wrong with having a belief-system, providing that you recognize it as that and as nothing else – at all. Just a handful of pages into Final Events, I wrote the following, which sums up my approach to all this: “…it’s important to note that the accounts, beliefs, theories and conclusions that I uncovered are strictly those of the people who have been willing to have them publicized. As the author of the book, I am only the messenger for those who adhere to the message. In view of this, it is perhaps wise and apposite for me to cite the words of Sir Walter Scott: ‘I cannot tell how the truth may be; I say the tale as ’twas said to me.'”
Next year will be ten years since Final Events was published. I still stand by what I said back then: there is a real UFO phenomenon. It’s probably not extraterrestrial. And I find it hard to accept it’s all down to dangerous and manipulative demons and the work of the Devil. But, I felt – and I still feel – that telling the story of a group of people in government who fully believe the scenario is worth doing, even though I don’t personally buy into their beliefs. Far more relevant information has come forward since 2010; some of it is arguably beyondcontroversial. Will there be a sequel one day? Yes, there will, but not from me. I’m leaving that in the hands of someone who has taken the story – and the investigation – to new and amazing levels…
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.”
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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.
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