FAMOUS ATLANTIS FOUND IN JAPAN?! (VIDEO)

This one is strange because we might find that this is not a naturally occurring circumstance when the mystery is solved.

Atlantis is the mythical underwater city ruled by either Poseidon or Aquaman, depending on whom you ask.

As the story originated in Greece, many believe that the possible real-world equivalent is located somewhere in the Mediterranean.

Or maybe it’s next to Japan. Large stone formations lie below the waters of Yonaguni Jima, Japan

They resemble Egyptian or Aztec pyramids and have been underwater for about 3,000 years.

Originally discovered by a local diver, the formations were thought to be naturally forming, albeit at strangely accurate 90-degree angles.

These rock shapes were later theorized to be an ancient city (5,000 years old) knocked into the ocean by a large seismic event.

This theory is generally accepted but not completely proven.

Unlike the previous mysteries, this one has a pretty solid answer.

We hope that helps us all sleep a little better tonight.

Video:

Selected videos peter2011

{ http://aliensdocs.com/ }

19-02-2019 om 22:51 geschreven door peter  

The institution behind the claim will not reveal how the claim has been proven, Aldrin himself has denied it, and at least some of the astronauts named didn’t actually take part in the study, since two of them are dead.

The claim, originally published in the Daily Star, has now been repeated by many of the world’s biggest websites and across the world. The reports – many of which cast little doubt on the initial claims – have been shared thousands of times.

The report trades on the idea that Nasa is secretly keeping evidence of aliens under wraps.

While some Apollo astronauts have claimed to have seen UFOs during their missions, Mr Aldrin, the second man on the moon, has not – repeatedly denying reports suggesting he spotted an alien craft during the historic 1969 mission.

The original report said Apollo 11 astronaut Mr Aldrin had “passed lie detector tests over claims they experienced alien encounters”. It said experts had examined astronauts’accounts of “strange space sightings”, using the “latest technology” and that they had proven the astronauts were convinced about what they saw.

It claimed that the experts came from the Institute of BioAcoustic Biology and Sound Health, a non-profit in Albany, Ohio. The organisation had used “top-secret” technology, it said, which scans people’s voices to understand them.

As well as Mr Aldrin, the report claims that four Nasa astronauts have been studied and found to be telling the truth about their claims. It appears that the group did that with recordings, since two of the astronauts being studied are now dead.

But there’s no proof that the wild claims of that organisation have been tested or proven. While “bioacoustics” is a legitimate scientific exercise – it explores how living things make and are changed by sound – that is not what the organisation is doing.

A website that appears to belong to the institute claims that it “quietly goes about changing the future”. “This tiny non-profit research institute has provided supporting evidence for the ancient claims that the sounds of the voice can act as a holographic representation of health and wellness,” the website claims.

It goes on to suggest that the institute can not only tell whether people are lying, but also can be used to “reverse diseases and traumas previously thought to be incurable, to reveal the secrets of our true nature, to enhance our lives, to predict what may be our fate through the frequencies of our voice”.

None of those claims have been tested and many of them appear to be impossible according to modern science. It is theoretically possible that it could be possible to understand whether someone is lying by listening to their voice, but previous examples have been unreliable and the institute reported on by the Daily Star did not make its working available to the public or to other scientists.

Mr Aldrin has repeatedly dismissed suggestions he has seen a UFO. He has spoken about seeing a light out of the window as he was heading towards the Moon – but has always said he is sure that what he saw was either the rocket the crew had separated from, or panels that had come off when the lander and the rocket were detached.

“It was not an alien,” he wrote in an Ask Me Anything session on Reddit three years ago. He explained that he had told Nasa about what he had seen and presumed that information had been sent out into the world – until he mentioned what he had seen in a TV interview, which many now point to as proof that Mr Aldrin had seen an alien craft.

The Daily Star repeated this claim in its report, writing that “Aldrin has always maintained he spotted a UFO on the way to the moon”. While it is true that what he said is in some sense unidentified – in that it’s not clear what part of the spacecraft it was – the suggestion that he thinks it might be alien was false and he has repeatedly denied it.

But the institute and the Daily Star suggested that Mr Aldrin had seen a UFO and that its tests had shown that he knew it, even if he wasn’t aware of it. He continues to believe otherwise because his logical mind “cannot explain it”, the Daily Star reported.

{ http://aliensdocs.com/ }

19-02-2019 om 22:25 geschreven door peter  

Super Snow Moon Today Is the Biggest Full Moon of 2019

19-02-2019 om 20:47 geschreven door peter  

Stonehenge rocks were brought in from 180 miles away

 BY MIHAI ANDREI 

As if Stonehenge wasn’t impressive enough, its rocks were quarried from a very, very long distance away. Now, researchers have zoomed in on the source of the rocks, identifying it at an outcrop in Wales, 180 miles away from the site.

The Welsh quarry where the rocks were brought from.

Image credits: UCL.

Stonehenge, which lies firmly in England, used rocks quarried from Wales. Geologists have long known that at least 42 of Stonehenge’s smaller stones, known as ‘bluestones’, came from the Preseli hills in Pembrokeshire, west Wales. The new study shows exactly where these rocks were quarried from.

“This was the dominant source of Stonehenge’s spotted dolerite, so-called because it has white spots in the igneous blue rock. At least five of Stonehenge’s bluestones, and probably more, came from Carn Goedog,” said geologist Dr. Richard Bevins from the National Museum of Wales.

This is rather unusual, as most megaliths of the time are built with rocks from no more than 10 miles away — which is very reasonable, considering how difficult it would have been to carry these big rocks over miles and miles. Especially in Europe, Neolithic megaliths were built with local rocks, says Professor Mike Pearson. Scientists have been trying to understand what makes Stonehenge such a remarkable outlier.

“We’re now looking to find out just what was so special about the Preseli hills 5,000 years ago, and whether there were any important stone circles here, built before the bluestones were moved to Stonehenge.”

According to the study, the bluestone outcrops consist of natural, vertical pillars. It wouldn’t have been all that difficult to extract from the outcrop, particularly compared to the stone quarries in ancient Egypt, which often consisted of much more solid rocks like basalt or granite. The tools they had, however, were woefully unfit for this type of job.

The Stonehenge workers actually left some traces of their work behind. Archaeologists have discovered tools such as hammer stones and stone wedges, but these wedges were much softer than the rocks.

“The stone wedges are made of imported mudstone, much softer than the hard dolerite pillars. An engineering colleague has suggested that hammering in a hard wedge could have created stress fractures, causing the thin pillars to crack. Using a soft wedge means that, if anything were to break, it would be the wedge and not the pillar,” said Professor Parker Pearson.

Transportation, however, would have been even more difficult. Excavations around the outcrop have uncovered the remains of man-made platforms of stone and Earth. Archaeologists also suspect that the builders used perishable ropes and levers.

“Bluestone pillars could be eased down onto this platform, which acted as a loading bay for lowering them onto wooden sledges before dragging them away,” said Professor Colin Richards (University of the Highlands and Islands), who has excavated Britain’s only other identified megalith quarry in the Orkney islands, off the north coast of Scotland.

The new discovery also works against a popular theory, which claimed that the rocks were carried on water, using rafts.

“Some people think that the bluestones were taken southwards to Milford Haven and placed on rafts or slung between boats and then paddled up the Bristol Channel and along the Bristol Avon towards Salisbury Plain. But these quarries are on the north side of the Preseli hills so the megaliths could have simply gone overland all the way to Salisbury Plain,” said Professor Kate Welham (Bournemouth University).

So some of the Stonehenge rocks were quarried with soft tools and carried using rudimentary platforms over 180 miles, an absolutely grueling journey — and we’re really not sure why.

The team now believes that Stonehenge was initially a circle of rough, unworked bluestones set in shallow pits (called the Aubrey holes). Over time, more rocks were added, finessed, and re-arranged.

• The findings have been published in the journal Antiquity.

{ https://www.zmescience.com/ }

19-02-2019 om 20:31 geschreven door peter  

19-02-2019 om 20:15 geschreven door peter  

19-02-2019 om 18:28 geschreven door peter  

Gigantische gletsjer twee keer zo groot als België dreigt los te komen van Antarctica: zeeniveau kan tot 3 meter stijgen

Illustratie FOTO: GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO

{ https://www.nieuwsblad.be/ }

19-02-2019 om 18:10 geschreven door peter  

Mars: What We Know About the Red Planet

Mars is the fourth planet from the sun. Befitting the Red Planet's bloody color, the Romans named it after their god of war. In truth, the Romans copied the ancient Greeks, who also named the planet after their god of war, Ares. Other civilizations also typically gave the planet names based on its color — for example, the Egyptians named it "Her Desher," meaning "the red one," while ancient Chinese astronomers dubbed it "the fire star."

Physical characteristics

The bright rust color Mars is known for is due to iron-rich minerals in its regolith — the loose dust and rock covering its surface. The soil of Earth is a kind of regolith, too, albeit one loaded with organic content. According to NASA, the iron minerals oxidize, or rust, causing the soil to look red.

The cold, thin atmosphere means liquid water likely cannot exist on the Martian surface for any length of time. Features called recurring slope lineae may have spurts of briny water flowing on the surface, but this evidence is disputed; some scientists argue the hydrogen spotted from orbit in this region may instead indicate briny salts. This means that although this desert planet is just half the diameter of Earth, it has the same amount of dry land.

The Red Planet is home to both the highest mountain and the deepest, longest valley in the solar system. Olympus Mons is roughly 17 miles (27 kilometers) high, about three times as tall as Mount Everest, while the Valles Marinerissystem of valleys — named after the Mariner 9 probe that discovered it in 1971 — reaches as deep as 6 miles (10 km) and runs east-west for roughly 2,500 miles (4,000 km), about one-fifth of the distance around Mars and close to the width of Australia.

Scientists think the Valles Marineris formed mostly by rifting of the crust as it got stretched. Individual canyons within the system are as much as 60 miles (100 km) wide. The canyons merge in the central part of the Valles Marineris in a region as much as 370 miles (600 km) wide. Large channels emerging from the ends of some canyons and layered sediments within suggest the canyons might once have been filled with liquid water.

Mars also has the largest volcanoes in the solar system, Olympus Mons being one of them. The massive volcano, which is about 370 miles (600 km) in diameter, is wide enough to cover the state of New Mexico. Olympus Mons is a shield volcano, with slopes that rise gradually like those of Hawaiian volcanoes, and was created by eruptions of lavas that flowed for long distances before solidifying. Mars also has many other kinds of volcanic landforms, from small, steep-sided cones to enormous plains coated in hardened lava. Some minor eruptions might still occur on the planet.

Channels, valleys and gullies are found all over Mars, and suggest that liquid water might have flowed across the planet's surface in recent times. Some channels can be 60 miles (100 km) wide and 1,200 miles (2,000 km) long. Water may still lie in cracks and pores in underground rock. A study by scientists in 2018 suggested that salty water below the Martian surface could hold a considerable amount of oxygen, which would support microbial life. However, the amount of oxygen depends on temperature and pressure; temperature changes on Mars from time to time as the tilt of its rotation axis shifts.

Many regions of Mars are flat, low-lying plains. The lowest of the northern plains are among the flattest, smoothest places in the solar system, potentially created by water that once flowed across the Martian surface. The northern hemisphere mostly lies at a lower elevation than the southern hemisphere, suggesting the crust may be thinner in the north than in the south. This difference between the north and south might be due to a very large impact shortly after the birth of Mars. 

The number of craters on Mars varies dramatically from place to place, depending on how old the surface is. Much of the surface of the southern hemisphere is extremely old, and so has many craters — including the planet's largest, 1,400-mile-wide (2,300 km) Hellas Planitia — while that of northern hemisphere is younger and so has fewer craters. Some volcanoes also have a few craters, which suggests they erupted recently, with the resulting lava covering up any old craters. Some craters have unusual-looking deposits of debris around them resembling solidified mudflows, potentially indicating that the impactor hit underground water or ice.

In 2018, the European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft detected what could be a slurry of water and grains underneath icy Planum Australe. (Some reports describe it as a "lake," but it's unclear how much regolith is inside the water.) This body of water is said to be about 12.4 miles (20 km) across. Its underground location is reminiscent of similar underground lakes in Antarctica, which have been found to host microbes. Late in the year, Mars Express also spied a huge, icy zone in the Red Planet's Korolev Crater.

Polar caps

Vast deposits of what appear to be finely layered stacks of water ice and dust extend from the poles to latitudes of about 80 degrees in both hemispheres. These were probably deposited by the atmosphere over long spans of time. On top of much of these layered deposits in both hemispheres are caps of water ice that remain frozen year-round. 

Additional seasonal caps of frost appear in the wintertime. These are made of solid carbon dioxide, also known as "dry ice," which has condensed from carbon dioxide gas in the atmosphere. In the deepest part of the winter, this frost can extend from the poles to latitudes as low as 45 degrees, or halfway to the equator. The dry ice layer appears to have a fluffy texture, like freshly fallen snow, according to a report in the Journal of Geophysical Research-Planets.

Climate

Mars is much colder than Earth, in large part due to its greater distance from the sun. The average temperature is about minus 80 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 60 degrees Celsius), although it can vary from minus 195 F (minus 125 C) near the poles during the winter to as much as 70 F (20 C) at midday near the equator.

The carbon-dioxide-rich atmosphere of Mars is also about 100 times less dense than Earth's on average, but it is nevertheless thick enough to support weather, clouds and winds. The density of the atmosphere varies seasonally, as winter forces carbon dioxide to freeze out of the Martian air. In the ancient past, the atmosphere was likely thicker and able to support water flowing on its surface. Over time, lighter molecules in the Martian atmosphere escaped under pressure from the solar wind, which affected the atmosphere because Mars does not have a global magnetic field. This process is being studied today by NASA's MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) mission.

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter found the first definitive detections of carbon-dioxide snow clouds, making Mars the only body in the solar system known to host such unusual winter weather. The Red Planet also causes water-ice snow to fall from the clouds.

The dust storms on Mars are the largest in the solar system, capable of blanketing the entire Red Planet and lasting for months. One theory as to why dust storms can grow so big on Mars is because the airborne dust particles absorb sunlight, warming the Martian atmosphere in their vicinity. Warm pockets of air then flow toward colder regions, generating winds. Strong winds lift more dust off the ground, which, in turn, heats the atmosphere, raising more wind and kicking up more dust.

Orbital characteristics

The axis of Mars, like Earth's, is tilted with relation to the sun. This means that like Earth, the amount of sunlight falling on certain parts of the Red Planet can vary widely during the year, giving Mars seasons.

However, the seasons that Mars experiences are more extreme than Earth's because the Red Planet's elliptical, oval-shaped orbit around the sun is more elongated than that of any of the other major planets. When Mars is closest to the sun, its southern hemisphere is tilted toward the sun, giving it a short, very hot summer, while the northern hemisphere experiences a short, cold winter. When Mars is farthest from the sun, the northern hemisphere is tilted toward the sun, giving it a long, mild summer, while the southern hemisphere experiences a long, cold winter.

The tilt of the Red Planet's axis swings wildly over time because it's not stabilized by a large moon, such as Earth is. This led to different climates on the Martian surface throughout its history. A 2017 study suggests that the changing tilt also influenced the release of methane into Mars' atmosphere, causing temporary warming periods that allowed water to flow. 

Facts about Mars' orbit:

• Average distance from the sun: 141,633,260 miles (227,936,640 km). By comparison: 1.524 times that of Earth.
• Perihelion (closest): 128,400,000 miles (206,600,000 km). By comparison: 1.404 times that of Earth.
• Aphelion (farthest): 154,900,000 miles (249,200,000 km). By comparison: 1.638 times that of Earth.

Composition & structure

• Atmospheric composition (by volume) 

According to NASA, the atmosphere of Mars is 95.32 percent carbon dioxide, 2.7 percent nitrogen, 1.6 percent argon, 0.13 percent oxygen, 0.08 percent carbon monoxide, with minor amounts of water, nitrogen oxide, neon, hydrogen-deuterium-oxygen, krypton and xenon.

• Magnetic field

• Chemical composition

Mars likely has a solid core composed of iron, nickel and sulfur. The mantle of Mars is probably similar to Earth's in that it is composed mostly of peridotite, which is made up primarily of silicon, oxygen, iron and magnesium. The crust is probably largely made of the volcanic rock basalt, which is also common in the crusts of the Earth and the moon, although some crustal rocks, especially in the northern hemisphere, may be a form of andesite, a volcanic rock that contains more silica than basalt does.

Internal structure

Scientists think that on average, the Martian core is between 1,800 and 2,400 miles in diameter (3,000 and 4,000 km), its mantle is about 900 to 1,200 miles (5,400 to 7,200 km) wide and its crust is about 30 miles (50 km) thick.

The moons of Mars

The two moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos, were discovered by American astronomer Asaph Hall over the course of a week in 1877. Hall had almost given up his search for a moon of Mars, but his wife, Angelina, urged him on. He discovered Deimos the next night, and Phobos six days after that. He named the moons after the sons of the Greek war god Ares — Phobos means "fear," while Deimos means "rout."

Both Phobos and Deimos are apparently made of carbon-rich rock mixed with ice and are covered in dust and loose rocks. They are tiny next to Earth's moon, and are irregularly shaped, since they lack enough gravity to pull themselves into a more circular form. The widest Phobos gets is about 17 miles (27 km), and the widest Deimos gets is roughly 9 miles (15 km).

Both moons are pockmarked with craters from meteor impacts. The surface of Phobos also possesses an intricate pattern of grooves, which may be cracks that formed after the impact created the moon's largest crater — a hole about 6 miles (10 km) wide, or nearly half the width of Phobos. They always show the same face to Mars, just as our moon does to Earth.

It remains uncertain how Phobos and Deimos were born. They may have been asteroids captured by Mars' gravitational pull, or they may have been formed in orbit around Mars the same time the planet came into existence. Ultraviolet light reflected from Phobos provides strong evidence that the moon is a captured asteroid ,according to astronomers at the University of Padova in Italy.

Phobos is gradually spiraling toward Mars, drawing about 6 feet (1.8 meters) closer to the Red Planet each century. Within 50 million years, Phobos will either smash into Mars or break up and form a ring of debris around the planet.

Research & exploration

The first person to watch Mars with a telescope was Galileo Galilei. In the century following, astronomers discovered the planet's polar ice caps. In the 19th and 20th centuries, researchers believed they saw a network of long, straight canals on Mars, that hinted at possible civilization, although later these proved to be mistaken interpretations of dark regions they saw.

A number of martian rocks have fallen to the surface of Earth over the eons, providing scientists a rare opportunity to study Martian rocks without having to leave our planet. One of the most controversial finds was Allan Hills 84001 (ALH 84001) — a Martian meteorite that in 1996, was said to contain shapes reminiscent of small fossils. The find garnered a lot of media attention at the time, but subsequent studies dismissed the idea. The debate was still ongoing in 2016, the 20th anniversary of the announcement. In 2018, a separate meteorite study found that organic molecules — the building blocks of life, although not necessarily life itself — could have formed on Mars through battery-like chemical reactions.

The Soviet Union also launched numerous spacecraft in the 1960s and early 1970s, but most of those missions failed. Mars 2 (1971) and Mars 3 (1971) operated successfully, but were unable to map the surface due to dust storms. NASA's Viking 1 lander touched down on the surface of Mars in 1976, the first successful landing on the Red Planet. The lander took the first close-up pictures of the Martian surface but found no strong evidence for life.

The next two craft to successfully reach Mars were the Mars Pathfinder, a lander, and Mars Global Surveyor, an orbiter, both launched in 1996. A small robot onboard Pathfinder named Sojourner — the first wheeled rover to explore the surface of another planet — ventured over the planet's surface analyzing rocks.

In 2001, the NASA launched the Mars Odyssey probe, which discovered vast amounts of water ice beneath the Martian surface, mostly in the upper 3 feet (1 meter). It remains uncertain whether more water lies underneath, since the probe cannot see water any deeper.

In 2003, Mars passed closer to Earth than anytime in that past 60,000 years. That same year, NASA launched two rovers, nicknamed Spirit and Opportunity, which explored different regions of the Martian surface. Both rovers found signs that water once flowed on the planet's surface. 

In 2008, NASA sent another mission, Phoenix, to land in the northern plains of Mars and search for water which it succeeded in doing. 

In 2011, NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission sent the Mars Curiosity rover, to investigate Martian rocks and determine the geologic processes that created them. Among the mission's findings was the first meteorite on the surface of the Red Planet. The rover has found complex organic molecules on the surface, as well as seasonal fluctuations in methane concentrations in the atmosphere.

NASA has two other orbiters working around the planet, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution). The European Space Agency (ESA) also has two spacecraft orbiting the planet: Mars Express and the Trace Gas Orbiter.

In September 2014, India's Mars Orbiter Mission also reached the Red Planet, making it the fourth nation to successfully enter orbit around Mars.

In November 2018, NASA sent a stationary lander called Mars InSight to the surface. InSight will examine the planet's geologic activity by burrowing a probe underground.

NASA plans to launch a successor rover mission to Curiosity, called Mars 2020. This mission will search for ancient signs of life and, depending on how promising its samples look, it may "cache" the results in safe spots on the Red Planet for a future rover to pick up.

ESA is working on its own ExoMars rover that should also launch in 2020, and will include a drill to go deep into the Red Planet, collecting soil samples from about 2 meters (6.5 feet) deep.

Lost missions

Mars is far from an easy planet to reach. NASA, Russia, the European Space Agency, China, Japan and the Soviet Union collectively lost many spacecraft in their quest to explore the Red Planet. Notable examples include:

1992 — NASA's Mars Observer

1996 — Russia's Mars 96

1998 — NASA's Mars Climate Orbiter, Japan's Nozomi

1999 — NASA's Mars Polar Lander

2003 — ESA's Beagle 2 lander

2011 — Russia's Fobus-Grunt mission to Phobos with the Chinese Yinghuo-1 orbiter

2016 — ESA's Schiaparelli test lander

Human missions to come

Robots aren't the only ones getting a ticket to Mars. A workshop group of scientists from government agencies, academia and industry have determined that a NASA-led manned mission to Mars should be possible by the 2030s. However, in late 2017, the Trump administration directed NASA to send people back to the moon before going to Mars. NASA is now more focused on a concept called the Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway that would be a moon-based space station and headquarters for further space exploration.

Robotic missions to the Red Planet have seen much success in the past few decades, but it remains a considerable challenge to get people to Mars. With current rocket technology, it would take several months for people to travel to Mars, and that means they would live for several months in microgravity, which has devastating effects on the human body. Performing activities in the moderate gravity on Mars could prove extremely difficult after many months in microgravity. Research on the effects of microgravity continues on the International Space Station.

NASA isn't the only one with Martian astronaut hopefuls. Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, has outlined multiple concepts to bring people to Mars. In November 2018, Musk rebranded SpaceX's future "Big Falcon Rocket" to "Starship". Other nations, including China and Russia, have also announced their goals for sending humans to Mars.

Additional resources:

• Read about and see pictures of more than 40 missions to Mars.
• Follow the rover Curiosity as it makes its way across the Martian terrain.
• Learn more about Mars at NASA's Solar System Exploration website.
• This article was updated on Feb. 7, 2019, by Space.com contributor Elizabeth Howell.

{ https://www.space.com/ }

19-02-2019 om 17:53 geschreven door peter  

Can Artificial Intelligence (AI) Help In Finding Extraterrestrial Intelligence (ETI)?

The existence of intelligent life forms beyond Earth has been speculated on for centuries. However, with the recent advancements in the field of science and technology, this speculation is becoming much more intense. We have already sent Voyagers out into the cosmos to find if anyone is out there and detect any traces of extraterrestrial habitation.

In our quest for extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI), we have typically looked for empathetic signs of intelligence, physiology, and communication like our own. Many researchers, like Jill Tarter, who specialize in searching for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI), opine that a conventional approach like transmitting electromagnetic signals might be good for detecting technosignatures, but not necessarily intelligence.

For that reason, scientists are now attempting to use artificial intelligence (AI) to find alien intelligence in ways we as humans cannot achieve. Artificial intelligence (AI) is a specially designed type of software that mimics the way humans learn and solve complex problems. Machines running AI programs learn activities like speech recognition, planning, problem-solving, perception, and planning all by themselves, and can work efficiently without getting lost in the labyrinth of data. You can learn everything you want to know about AI here.

Understanding ‘Intelligence’

To earnestly go out and find extraterrestrial intelligence, we must eliminate the dogma of human beings as a supremely intelligent species.

There are many examples in the wild demonstrating that animals can be incredibly smart in their own ways. For instance, spiders are known to process information through their webs, crows understand analogies, cetaceans like dolphins have their own dialects, and primates like chimpanzees skillfully use tools to complete tasks. In other words, ‘non-human’ forms of intelligence and culture are all around us.

A chimpanzee showing off his intelligence

(Photo Credit : Cornelia Schrauf/Wikimedia Commons)

Extraterrestrial intelligence might look like a dinosaur, an ant, a shark or a robot—or something radically different from any forms or ideas found on Earth.

The SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute is toiling day and night to uncover alien intelligence elsewhere in the universe. However, the conventional SETI approach suffers from two limitations: First, they surmise that extraterrestrial creatures are smart and ready to communicate with us or other species; Second is the assumption that we are intelligent enough to recognize the messages if they (aliens) send them to us in some raw or encoded form.

(Photo Credit : Denys/Wikimedia Commons)

However, thanks to recent discoveries in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) and deep learning, we can now re-examine existing data to uncover any minute traces of extraterrestrial intelligence. SETI researchers are convinced that artificial intelligence could turn out to be the game changer in the search, as AI algorithms are ideal for spotting differences and forming patterns out of the massive sea of data.

That is why researchers at the SETI Institute are partnering with the tech giants like Intel, IBM, and others to discuss ways in which AI can be used to solve pertinent space and science problems, including the discovery of extraterrestrial intelligence.

AI Anomaly Engine

One of the ways in which the discovery of alien existence could be achieved is by designing an AI anomaly engine. The idea at the heart of this strategy is to scan for anomalous patterns that may not necessarily be communication signals sent by aliens, but rather subtle manifestations of technological advancement that have been achieved in other parts of the universe. The main motive of the AI anomaly engine is to discern a data set that is aberrant to the standard baseline. This strategy helps to curtail futile efforts, such as making vague assumptions about what an extraterrestrial intelligent species would look like, which is inherently filled with our own biases.

The best part of the AI anomaly engine is that it is often seen as a win-win proposition. Even if an unusual discovery is not related to an extraterrestrial civilization, it demands an explanation that might propel our researchers to understand the universe in an even more profound way.

Autocorrelator

That being said, designing an efficient AI anomaly detection engine that ingeniously works with the multivariant data remains a dark art for even the best minds working in the SETI field. Despite the potential it holds, designing an AI anomaly engine continues to be highly challenging. Another approach is to train a deep neural network to be an autocorrelator, capable of finding unusual examples of data.

For the uninitiated, a deep learning neural network is a paradigm of AI that derives inspiration from the structure of the human brain; it consists of a set of complex units (equivalent to neurons in our brain). Each unit combines a set of input values to generate an output value, which in turn is passed on to other neurons in the deeper layer of the network. In other words, a deep neural network involves the use of neural networks—computer programs that are structurally inspired by the dense network of neurons in the human brain.

(Photo Credit: Pixabay)

To successfully implement an autocorrelator, the input data needs to be compressed so that it can flow through a pinch-point in the neural net—like sand flowing through an hourglass.

By design, AI algorithms are fast learners, so the more they sift through data of a similar nature, the better the AI program becomes at compressing and categorizing that information. Furthermore, if it encounters data that is unusual by set standards, it would notify the researchers about the discovery of this incongruous data.

The limitation of autocorrelators, at the moment, is that they work best with limited data size and still lack the flexibility needed to correctly spot the outliers that could provide some hint of extraterrestrial intelligence.

However, research in the niche field of AI is going full steam ahead. It is expected that researchers will come out with many more ways to further enhance the capabilities of AI. AI algorithms could potentially spot anomalies within the huge data repository collected after years of research in space science disciplines.

It is possible that proof of alien intelligence could be lurking within the petabytes of space data we’ve already gathered, and the sophisticated AI of the future will reveal all the secrets hiding there!

References:

1. ScienceDirect
2. Cornell University
3. Cambridge University

{ https://www.scienceabc.com/ }

19-02-2019 om 17:32 geschreven door peter  

ALERTE AUX ALIENS AU PAYS DE GALLES : Un expert en OVNI affirme que la lumière bleue étrange est liée à une “base extraterrestre souterraine”

Des images effrayantes d’une mystérieuse lumière bleue et éclatante au-dessus de l’A55 seraient reliées à une “base extraterrestre souterraine” dans le nord du Pays de Galles, a déclaré un enquêteur sur les OVNI.

Des séquences de l’étrange lumière flottante ont été prises par un membre du Service aérien de la Police nationale, ce qui a déclenché une réaction de l’enquêteur Russ Kellett, qui a dit que c’était un signe d’une forme de vie extraterrestre. Il a dit à North Wales Live : “Je pense que la lumière est probablement connectée à une base souterraine. Je ne sais pas ce que c’était, mais c’est peut-être un OVNI qui s’est écrasé, quelque chose qui a atterri dans la région ou même quelque chose qui a été amené dans la région. Ça pourrait être un signe avant-coureur que quelque chose d’autre est sur le point d’arriver.”

La lumière est apparue près de Northop où elle a brillé avant de s’estomper tandis que des chauffeurs de poids lourds et automobilistes affluaient sur la route pour leurs déplacements matinaux.

La source de la lumière demeure inconnue.

D’autres théoriciens pensent que la lumière, qui éclairait tout le tronçon de route très fréquentée, pourrait être le résultat d’un phénomène naturel comme la foudre.

La théorie de M. Kellett n’est cependant pas la première à lier ce type de phénomène aux extraterrestres. En décembre dernier, il a dit qu’il ne doutait pas que quelque part au Pays de Galles, il y avait une base secrète extraterrestre.

Il a également prétendu avoir été enlevé à plusieurs reprises dans le passé et croyait qu’une opération militaire secrète avait eu lieu dans la mer d’Irlande entre le nord du Pays de Galles et Liverpool le matin de l’incident des montagnes Berwyn, qu’il sonde depuis trois décennies, ce qui est étonnant.

Il a dit : “Le nord du Pays de Galles est considéré comme un point chaud pour les OVNI depuis l’incident des Montagnes Berwyn. J’ai regardé de très près cette zone, et il se passe quelque chose.”

L’incident des Montagnes Berwyn s’est produit en 1974 quand le ciel s’est embrasé avec des lumières vives à la suite d’un tremblement de terre.

Le tremblement a été enregistré à une magnitude de 3,5 et a été ressenti jusqu’à Liverpool.

Cela a donné lieu à un certain nombre de théories, dont celle d’un OVNI qui s’est écrasé sur terre. D’autres disent qu’il est possible qu’une météorite se soit écrasée dans la région.

• Source: Express.co.uk, le 18 février 2019 – 
• Traduction Nouvelordremondial.cc

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19-02-2019 om 17:14 geschreven door peter  

Could Volcanic Activity Allow Water Beneath the Martian Polar Ice?

{ https://www.space.com/ }

19-02-2019 om 16:38 geschreven door peter  

Mysterious Flash of Light in Wales Sky Triggers 'Alien Warning' Speculation

{ https://sputniknews.com/ }

19-02-2019 om 16:20 geschreven door peter  

Finally, humanity gets the tools needed to find life on other planets

In the "Star Trek" universe, humans made contact with aliens in 2063. In the real world, scientists could beat that mark by decades, at least when it comes to detecting signs of life beyond this rock.

Exactly four centuries ago this year, Galileo sent a letter to the Grand Duchess of Tuscany to implore the powers-that-be of the time to accept the scientific fact that the Earth revolves around the sun and not the reverse.

It was not a new idea -- the ancient Greek Aristarchus made the same argument almost 2,000 years earlier, as did Copernicus in the 16th century -- but it was Galileo who finally had observations made with the newly invented telescope to prove the case.

Of course, that didn't save Galileo from persecution and spending the last decade of his life under house arrest, but eventually this fundamental idea became the foundation of astronomy and forever changed our view of the universe and our place in it.

Just as Galileo's telescope helped prove what had been suspected for centuries, now, exactly 400 years later, many scientists and observers believe a new generation of telescopes -- both under construction on Earth and planned for launch into space in the coming years -- will bring new discoveries that will again fundamentally alter humanity's view of our role in the wider cosmos. Specifically, it's believed these instruments could offer concrete evidence of what many suspect to be near a mathematical certainty: that we are not alone in the universe, that life exists in some form on other distant planets.

"I expect that in the next 10 to 20 years we might be able to determine with the future ground and space telescopes that some exoplanets are likely habitable or even habitable (not just potentially habitable) but not yet to confirm that any is inhabited; that might take longer than 30 years," Abel Méndez, who directs the Planetary Habitability Laboratory at the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo, told CNET's Crave blog. "I hope I'm wrong and we do it earlier."

Méndez, who will appear in a recorded interview on Tuesday's CraveCast at noon PT, convened some of the smartest people involved in humanity's exoplanet search effort Monday at an astrobiology conference in Chicago -- MIT astrophysicist Sara Seager will be among those attending.

"(We are) embarking on the 'real search for alien life' by being the first generation capable of finding signs of life," Seager said on Twitter last year.

Alberto Conti

✔@albertoconti

 · May 21, 2014

@ProfSaraSeager What excites you the most about the search for life? What do you think we will find over the next 10 years #search4life

Sara Seager@ProfSaraSeager

.@albertoconti #search4life Embarking on the "real search for alien life" by being the first generation capable of finding signs of life

• 5

6:13 PM - May 21, 2014

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The new capability that Seager is referring to is the next generation of space telescopes that will succeed the likes of the Hubble, Kepler and Spitzer to better identify smaller, Earth-size planets and search for biosignatures emanating from their surfaces or atmospheres. NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), with a mirror almost three times larger than Hubble's, and the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) are scheduled for launch in 2018 and 2017, respectively, and will team up to identify and then study potentially habitable or even potentially inhabited exoplanets.

Since the 1990s, there has been a boom in data confirming that our galaxy, our universe and even the unexplored corners of our solar system are utterly littered with planets and other large chunks of rock, some hosting ice, water, lakes, oceans and the building blocks of life.

Most of these discoveries -- from the possibly warm "soda ocean" beneath the surface of Saturn's moon Enceladus to Kepler 186-f, an Earth-size planet in the constellation Cygnus some 500 light-years away that may hold water -- have been made with telescopes and technology designed and built pre-Facebook and pre-iPhone. The Hubble space telescope, a veteran workhorse of space exploration, was built in the 1980s.

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When it comes to searching the cosmos for signs of life, it's kind of like we're living in the age of Google, but still relying on the microfiche machine in the back of the library to help us find what we're looking for.

"If we want to study (many more) potentially habitable terrestrial planets around nearby stars, there are a couple of things that we need. First, if we plan to observe them with JWST we need to find planets eclipsing bright, nearby, low-mass stars," Heather Knutson, an assistant professor of planetary science at the California Institute of Technology, told CNET's Crave blog. "TESS is a crucial step in this process because it will find the closest, brightest transiting planet systems that will make ideal targets for JWST to characterize."

Astrobiologists won't look through the JWST and see real-life Wookiees orKlingons waving back at us, but it will allow distant rocky planets and their characteristics to begin to come into focus, in a manner of speaking. Right now, Hubble has a hard time characterizing smaller planets, so this is an important step toward identifying far-off Earth cousins and their characteristics.

The 7 confirmed exoplanets most likely to host life (pictures)

The next step to ID'ing E.T., even in microscopic form, would be to get a positive hit for biosignature gases -- such as methane, oxygen or carbon dioxide, just to name the familiar ones -- from one of these planets.

While Knutson believes "we certainly won't be able to detect biosignatures" with JWST, Seager is not quite so pessimistic, having said it could be the telescope's most exciting discovery, but would require good luck.

Sara Seager@ProfSaraSeager

Replying to @astraughnomer

.@astraughnomer The most exciting discovery by #JWST would be biosigs in a rocky exoplanet atmosphere--but we have to get lucky #search4life

• 14

7:33 PM - Nov 18, 2014

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But we've mentioned just two of the planned new telescopes to come in the next decade. NASA's Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST); the European Space Agency's Gaia (launched 2013) and planned PLATO satellites; new ground-based telescopes in Hawaii, Chile (the Giant Magellan Telescope) and elsewhere, as well as Seager's own Starshade project, which she explains in the TEDx talk embedded below, will all contribute to the search for distant life over the next 15 years or more.

---

Not surprisingly, much of this equipment will be far more powerful than what's been used to make the exciting exoplanet discoveries of the last few years, giving us exponentially more capability than ever before. But even optimists like Seager caution that there's still a scientific process to be performed before we can point to a star in the night sky and tell our children that it hosts life in its solar system (something she does believe she'll be able to do in her lifetime).

Once biosignatures have been detected on exoplanets, those atmospheres will need to be observed in more detail to eliminate "false positives," and that may require yet another generation of telescope technology.

Here's the illustration Mendez likes to use in his presentations showing how he expects the search to progress against a timeline of new telescope and satellite launches along the bottom

PHL/UPR-Arecibo

19-02-2019 om 16:05 geschreven door peter  

Dr. John Alexander - UFOs: Myths, Conspiracies, and Realities

This is retired Army Col. John Alexander's International UFO Congress lecture from 2011.

Alexander’s presentation will include an insider’s view of how the U.S. government deals with UFOs and other phenomena with detailed explanation about specific events. While supporting the physical reality of UFOs, he will discuss some of the myths that have been built up over time. Noting that real disclosure has happened yet gone unnoticed, Alexander will examine disclosure and address its actual confirmation.

John Alexander is a retired U.S. Army Colonel and a leading advocate for the development of non-lethal weapons. For the first time anywhere his new book, UFOs: Myths, Conspiracies, and Realities, which provides a government insider’s look at the UFO phenomena, will be available. In his book, Alexander discusses the organization he created while on active duty to explore this topic. Comprised of members across the Department of Defense and aerospace industries, Alexander was surprised at what he learned when he briefed the leaders of many of these agencies. A very important aspect of this book is a description of how government agencies really work, and how an individual’s belief system impacts the organization’s operations.

Visit John's website at: http://johnbalexander.com/

More about the International UFO Congress:  http://ufocongress.com/

Purchase UFO Congress DVDs and other cool UFO and alien merch here: 

• https://store.ufocongress.com/

Watch other lectures at the International UFO Congress Video Portal: 

•  https://www.ufocongressvideos.com

Follow the UFO Congress on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ufo.conference/

And Twitter: https://twitter.com/IUFOC

Watch more videos at the UFO Congress Video on Demand site: 

• https://www.ufocongressvideos.com/

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19-02-2019 om 15:37 geschreven door peter  

VIDEO. ‘Vliegende dolfijn’ van Airbus maakt testvlucht - HLN.be

Jan Aelberts 

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19-02-2019 om 15:11 geschreven door peter  

19-02-2019 om 14:54 geschreven door peter  

Scientists have found footprints that could have possibly been made by Neanderthals thousands of years ago. The footprints were discovered in Gibraltar – more specifically, the area of Catalan Bay Sand Dunes – which is located on Spain’s southern coast. The sand sheets from the dunes above Catalan Bay were from the last glacial period when the water levels there were around 120 meters below where they are today.

An international journal called Quaternary Science Reviewspublished a paper with help from scientists from the Gibraltar National Museum, as well as their colleagues from Japan, Portugal, and Spain. Their work began ten years ago when they discovered footprints that were created by vertebrates that lived in Gibraltar. Those footprints were made from red deer, leopards, ibex, aurochs, and straight-tusked elephants.

What’s even more exciting is that they discovered footprints of a young human who could very well have been a Neanderthal. This human is said to have been between 106 and 126 cm tall which is between 40 and 50 inches in height. Since it is believed that this human lived around 29,000 years ago, that would mean that he was most likely a Neanderthal from Gorham’s Cave in Gibraltar.

The researchers used Optically-Stimulated Luminescence (or OSL) to figure out the dates of the sediment deposits that were found on the lower cliff foot dunes above Catalan Bay. OSL was able to date the quartz sediment deposits by figuring out when it was last exposed to sunlight.

If these footprints are proven to be from a Neanderthal, it would be only the second location on the entire planet that has confirmed footprints made by these ancient human ancestors. The second location is Vartop Cave which is located in Romania. It would also be extremely important information regarding the Gibraltar Pleistocene heritage.

Discovering ancient footprints of animals and perhaps even a Neanderthal is an incredible find in regards to the history of Gibraltar. “This is extraordinary research and gives us an incredible insight into the wildlife community of Gibraltar’s past. We should all take a moment to imagine the scene when these animals walked across our landscape. It helps us understand the importance of looking after our heritage,” Minister for Heritage John Cortes MP said. He added, “I congratulate the research team on uncovering this fascinating, hidden evidence of our Rock’s past.”

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19-02-2019 om 14:46 geschreven door peter  

UFO Disguised As Comet Slowed Down Rotation When Nearest To Earth, UFO Sighting News.

Date of sighting: May 2017
Location of sighting: Near Earths orbit
Source: 

• https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12808

When is a comet a UFO? When it makes impossible changes in short amounts of time. Comet 41P slowed its rotation speed by 3X or 300% when it was closest to Earth. And why you say? Because its not a comet, its an alien probe that was scanning Earth. This is not a comet, but an alien probe sent to pass all the planets and moons in our solar system and scan them for advancements in life, technology, and to detect any changes in those places since it last passed by. You can even see that when I add contrast to the photo of Comet 41P, along the lower edges is seen large rectangular wall of structures. Comets don't have structures, only alien ships would have structures. It sounds like NASA is not telling us the full truth about this one. 
Scott C. Waring

NASA states: 

Observations by NASA's Swift spacecraft, now renamed the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory after the mission’s late principal investigator, have captured an unprecedented change in the rotation of a comet. Images taken in May 2017 reveal that comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresák — 41P for short — was spinning three times slower than it was in March, when it was observed by the Discovery Channel Telescope at Lowell Observatory in Arizona. The abrupt slowdown is the most dramatic change in a comet's rotation ever seen.

 

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

19-02-2019 om 14:24 geschreven door peter  

Triangle UFO within Disk Recorded By Australian Police During Lightning Storm, Feb 16, 2019, Video, UFO Sighting News.

Date of sighting: February 16, 2019

Location of sighting: Broome, Australia

 

This UFO appeared during a lightning storm over Australia this week and was caught on CCTV cameras in a police car. The glowing white object looks like a disk, but then a bright white triangle appears in its center as it moves away. That is why the camera didn't follow it is that it was a dashboard camera on the police car. At first seeing the disk, I had doubts, but when this object lit up with a triangle within it...I knew it was 100% real. 

 

I also noticed on their Twitter feed that the police try to downplay the earlier tweet by tweeting again saying it was probably a reflection, but know this, police are not UFO experts. They are just down playing the UFO sighting to keep their jobs, security and some are probably close to retirement and don't want to risk losing the benefits it comes with. Talking about UFOs is still seen as taboo...forbidden among many. I get that, they have families to think of, but know this. Thats a real UFO, and its causing the lightning storm to appear, not the other way around. 

Scott C. Waring-Taiwan

 

Eyewitness states: 

"After reviewing CCTV at town beach of last nights storm, it appears we were not alone," the police's official Twitter feed wrote, followed by a string of UFO emoji.

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

19-02-2019 om 14:19 geschreven door peter  

Are Aliens Secretly Studying Life on Earth from Afar? The Zoo Hypothesis Says Yes

Written by Joanie Faletto

Running into an alien on the bus would be strange — but it's almost equally strange that humankind has never encountered aliens. The universe is vast. Can we really be alone in it? (Cue "X-Files" theme song.)

The Fermi Paradox

Think about it: What are the chances that life on Earth is the only life in the impossibly gigantic universe? There are probably 100 Earth-like planets for every grain of sand in the world, yet we've never even heard from an extraterrestrial life form. No "Hey" — not even a "U up?" Why?

We're not the first people to wonder. Enrico Fermi, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist, also thought it was odd. As he famously put it to his friends in the cafeteria one day: "Where is everybody?" In 1950, this became formalized as the Fermi paradox. How can we have not one scrap of evidence aliens exist, when it's overwhelmingly likely that they do?

You might assume aliens are just too far away, but Fermi wasn't swayed by that argument. An alien civilization with a solid space program could make rapid imperial progress, Fermi argued. He estimated it would take just 10 million years for an alien civilization to take over our entire galaxy. They've had tons of chances when you consider that the Milky Way Galaxy has been around for 10 billion years.

(This isn't what Fermi won the Nobel for, FYI; that was for his research into radioactivity and nuclear reactions. Feeling excluded from the universe's social scene was a side project.)

The Spooky "Zoo Hypothesis"

One explanation of the Fermi paradox is the zoo hypothesis. It's admittedly a freaky situation to consider, but here it is: aliens know we earthlings are here, but they're purposely avoiding contact with us, opting to study us from afar instead.

This hypothesized answer to the Fermi Paradox was proposed by MIT astronomer John A. Ball in 1973. It's named the zoo hypothesis because it suggests that all life on Earth is just like an animal (or, you know, a few billion animals) at the zoo — look, but don't touch! Ball suggests that maybe alien civilizations are advanced enough to know not to influence our primitive society, or not to get involved with other intelligent lifeforms (the Prime Directive, anybody?).

Overall, Ball laid out 10 possible solutions to Fermi's Paradox. The zoo hypothesis covers just two of them: in one, aliens find us "of some interest" and study us casually; in the other, aliens find us "interesting" and pay closer attention. In both scenarios, though, they're actively avoiding us. Harsh.

In an even harsher solution, outside the zoo hypothesis, aliens know about us and don't care. In this scenario, "We pose no threat, and we have nothing they want," Ball writes. "This is a likely but a very unpopular answer, for it seems to downgrade mankind's importance, and we do like to feel important."

A more popular answer to the Fermi Paradox is that alien life is still very primitive or has already come and gone. At this point, it's really anyone's guess. So if you want to assume we're a Very Important Species, at this point, go ahead. Why not?

It's fun to think about all the reasons aliens haven't contacted us. For more of them, check out "If the Universe Is Teeming with Aliens ... Where is Everybody?: Seventy-Five Solutions to the Fermi Paradox and the Problem of Extraterrestrial Life" by Stephen Webb. We handpick reading recommendations we think you may like. If you choose to make a purchase through that link, Curiosity will get a share of the sale.

The "Alien Zoo" Theory

Perhaps alien lifeforms are treating Earth like a zoo, and are observing it all without disturbing us.

The Alien Zoo Theory! (Theory Thursday Ep.3)

– Koi Fresco

{ https://curiosity.com/ }

19-02-2019 om 01:29 geschreven door peter