13-12-2019 om 19:01 geschreven door peter  

Large Atmospheric Waves in the Jet Stream Present Risk to Global Food Production

Researchers at Oxford University, together with and international colleagues, have discovered jet stream patterns that could affect up to a quarter of global food production.In a new study published today in Nature Climate Change, scientists show how specific wave patterns in the jet stream strongly increase the chance of co-occurring heatwaves in major food producing regions of Northern America, Western Europe and Asia. Their research finds that these simultaneous heatwaves significantly reduce crop production across those regions, creating the risk of multiple harvest failures and other far-reaching societal consequences, including social unrest.

Lead author, Dr Kai Kornhuber from the University of Oxford’s Department of Physics and Colombia University’s Earth Institute, said: ‘Co-occurring heatwaves will become more severe in the coming decades if greenhouse gases are not mitigated. In an interconnected world, this can lead to food price spikes and have impacts on food availability even in remote regions not directly affected by heatwaves.

Credit: University of Oxford

‘We found a 20-fold increase in the risk of simultaneous heatwaves in major crop producing regions when these global scale wind patterns are in place. Until now this was an underexplored vulnerability in the food system. We have found that during these events there actually is a global structure in the otherwise quite chaotic circulation. The bell can ring in multiple regions at once and the impacts of those specific interconnections were not quantified previously.’

Western North America, Western Europe and the Caspian Sea region are particularly susceptible to these atmospheric patterns that get heat and drought locked into one place simultaneously where they then affect crops production yields.

Dr Dim Coumou, co-author from the Institute for Environmental Studies at VU Amsterdam, said: ‘Normally low harvests in one region are expected to be balanced out by good harvests elsewhere but these waves can cause reduced harvests in several important breadbaskets simultaneously, creating risks for global food production.’

Dr Elisabeth Vogel, co-author from Melbourne University, said: ‘During years in which two or more summer weeks featured the amplified wave pattern, cereal crop production was reduced by more than 10% in individual regions, and by 4% when averaged across all crop regions affected by the pattern.’

Dr Radley Horton, co-author from the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Colombia University, said: ‘If climate models are unable to reproduce these wave patterns, risk managers such as reinsurers and food security experts may face a blind spot when assessing how simultaneous heat waves and their impacts could change in a warming climate.’

The scientists conclude that a thorough understanding of what drives this jet stream behaviour could ultimately improve seasonal predictions of agricultural production at the global scale and inform risk assessments of harvest failures across multiple food-producing regions.

Contacts and sources:

• Ruth Abrahams
• University of Oxford

{ https://beforeitsnews.com/ }

13-12-2019 om 18:55 geschreven door peter  

How Enceladus Got Its "Tiger Stripes"

Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus is of great interest to scientists due to its subsurface ocean, making it a prime target for those searching for life elsewhere. New research led by Carnegie’s Doug Hemingway reveals the physics governing the fissures through which ocean water erupts from the moon’s icy surface, giving its south pole an unusual “tiger stripe” appearance.

“First seen by the Cassini mission to Saturn, these stripes are like nothing else known in our Solar System,” lead author Hemingway explained. “They are parallel and evenly spaced, about 130 kilometers long and 35 kilometers apart. What makes them especially interesting is that they are continually erupting with water ice, even as we speak. No other icy planets or moons have anything quite like them.”

Enceladus experiences internal heating due to the eccentricity of its orbit. It is sometimes a little closer to Saturn and sometimes a littler farther, which causes the moon to be slightly deformed—stretched and relaxed—as it responds to the giant planet’s gravity. It is this process that keeps the moon from freezing completely solid.

Key to the formation of the fissures is the fact that the moon’s poles experience the greatest effects of this gravitationally induced deformation, so the ice sheet is thinnest over them. During periods of gradual cooling on Enceladus, some of the moon’s subsurface ocean will freeze. Because water expands as it freezes, as the icy crust thickens from below, the pressure in the underlying ocean increases until the ice shell eventually splits open, creating a fissure. Because of their comparatively thin ice, the poles are the most susceptible to cracks.

The researchers believe the fissure named after the city of Baghdad was the first to form. (The stripes are named after places referred to in the stories of One Thousand and One Nights, which are also called Arabian Nights.) However, it didn’t just freeze back up again. It stayed open, allowing ocean water to spew from its crevasse that, in turn, caused three more parallel cracks to form.

“Our model explains the regular spacing of the cracks,” Rudolph said.

The additional splits formed from the weight of ice and snow building up along the edges of the Baghdad fissure as jets of water from the subsurface ocean froze and fell back down. This weight added a new form of pressure on the ice sheet.

{ https://beforeitsnews.com/ }

13-12-2019 om 17:52 geschreven door peter  

First physical evidence of Egyptian 'head cones' found in 3,300-year-old tomb reveal they were made of WAX and may have been designed to scent the hair and purify the soul

• Research team reveals exciting discovery of two head cones in Egyptian graves  
• Some scholars argued the distinctive headwear only ever existed in artworks
• The cones were found in the ancient city of Armarna, 194 miles south of Cairo
• The Egyptian city was abandoned in 1332 BC after being occupied for just 15 years after the death of its 'heretic' founder

By JONATHAN CHADWICK FOR MAILONLINE

Ancient Egyptian art frequently depicts people wearing cone-shaped headgear, but none has ever been found. 

Now an international team of archaeologists has uncovered the first ever physical evidence of Egyptian head cones in the ancient city of Armarna, 194 miles south of the capital Cairo.  

The head cones, made from wax, were discovered at two graves in 2010 and 2015. They were found in fragments but researchers have been able to reconstruct their shape. 

They provide the first conclusive evidence that the objects actually existed and were worn by Egyptians, according to the archaeologists.

Due to the lack of material evidence, scholars have previously speculated that the head cones only ever existed as mere depictions in art. 

Some believed that they were entirely symbolic - like halos given to religious figures in Christian art - while others argued that they did exist but were made of materials that did not survive. 

Cone 1 excavated at the South Tombs Cemetery in 2010,  on the remains of an individual estimated to be a 20–29-year-old female

The Egyptian city of Amarna, 194 miles south of the Egyptian capital Cairo, was abandoned in 1332 after being occupied for only 15 years

The graves in which the cones were discovered are thought to have belonged to the non-elite, suggesting that the cones were not a particular mark of status.  

'These are the first archaeological examples of this usual headwear yet known from Egypt, although we have many images of people wearing them’, said Anna Stevens, lead author of the study.

‘Many questions remain about the meaning and function of the head cones – and the excavated examples won’t answer them all. 

‘But careful excavation has now shown that the cones certainly existed in 3D form, that they could be worn by the deceased and that they were not only for the elite.'

Spectroscopy analysis of the cones revealed that they were hollow and made of plant or animal wax - most likely beeswax.

It is believed they may have been infused with perfume to purify the wearer so they could engage with the rituals and deities of the afterlife.  

Other theories suggest they may be connected with ideas of fertility and resurrection. 

Based on cranial and pelvic observations of the human remains found with the head cones, one of the bodies is believed to be of a woman aged between 20-29 years at her time of death, still with well-preserved hair under the cone.

The adult female remains in its original place of discovery, compelete with headcone and well-preserved hair

Excavations taking place at the North Tombs Cemetery in 2017 as part of the Amarna project

The second cone, found in 2015, belonged to a 15-20 year-old of indeterminate sex. 

Researchers say it's probable that these two cones were ‘model’ versions made for a burial environment, and that cones intended to be worn by the living could have been constructed differently. 

Ancient Egyptians are often depicted wearing cones in artwork depicting banquets, worship and the afterlife.

Scholars often link the cones with sensuality and sexuality, as they frequently appear in artistic imagery of women - sometimes unclothed. 

One popular theory is was that they were an unguent – pieces of fat or wax perfumed, perhaps with myrrh. 

As the cone melted, the scent was released, with some ancient Egyptian literature suggesting that this process would scent and cleanse the hair and body. 

Head cones are worn by females and males in Ancient Egyptian art depicting banqueting scenes, including those honouring the dead, funerals, or people being rewarded by the king

A reconstruction of the two cones, revealing they are both hollow 

It is not known why these cones were included in the burials, but researchers suggest they may have been symbols meant to enhance the rebirth or personal fertility of the deceased in the afterlife.

They have also previously simply been interpreted more broadly as symbols of the tomb owner's contentedness in the afterlife. 

The city of Amarna was built by the pharaoh Akhenaten as home for the cult of the sun god Aten and now contains thousands of graves.

Akhenaten controversially placed much emphasis on the worship of the Egyptian sun, and away from Egyptian tradition of polytheism, the worship of multiple deities.

The city was abandoned around 10 years after the pharaoh’s death, despite only being occupied for 15 years from 1347 to 1332 BC.

But the abandoned city attracted ancient looters, who stole from all four cemeteries at the site.

This has made the task of piecing together all the disturbed burials all the more difficult for archaeologists of the Amarna Project, who have been excavating the site since2005.

The study of the two head cones has been published in the journal Antiquity.  

Read more:

• From representation to reality: ancient Egyptian wax head cones from Amarna | Antiquity | Cambridge Core

{  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

13-12-2019 om 17:25 geschreven door peter  

One of the many places known for elongated skulls is Egypt. While few ancient remains or mummies have been discovered sporting the long craniums, many paintings and sculptures depict them. In many other paintings, the Egyptians aren’t shown with cone heads but more than a few have mysterious head cones. Now, a new study reports that a few of these head cones have actually been found — and they may solve the mystery surrounding their appearances in ancient Egyptian art.

“Images of ancient Egyptians wearing distinctive, cone-shaped objects on their heads have, in the absence of physical examples, long elicited scholarly debate. Did people wear these cones, or were they a purely iconographic device? What was their function and meaning? Recent excavations at the Amarna cemeteries now provide the first material examples of head cones.”

In the study published in the journal Antiquity, a team of archeologists describe finding two of these mysterious head cones in graves in Akhetaten (also called Amarna), an unusual ancient Egyptian city that was only occupied for about 15 years during the 14th century B.C.E. while Egypt was ruled by its namesake — Akhenaten. He was later considered to be a heretic for creating a religious system based on a single god, Aten, and may have also been the father of Tutankhamun. What does any of this have to do with the mysterious head cones?

“Between 1550 B.C. and 30 B.C., Egyptian art depicted people wearing what look like cones on their heads. Because no examples of these cones had ever been found, archaeologists wondered whether they actually existed or were an artistic motif that had no basis in reality (similar to people with halos over their heads depicted in Christian art).”

LiveScience draws a comparison between the Christian halo and the head cone, giving it a religious connotation. The difference is, we now have two real people with real head cones found in graves in Akhetaten. (Photographs here.) One, a woman no more than 29 when she died, had “long, thick braids featuring many extensions and end-curls” and “the cone was found in situ, placed on top of the head over the well-preserved hair.” The other, according to the archeologists, was an individual of undetermined sex, age 15-to-20, whose cone “seems to be that of a low dome” and measured 3.1 inches (80 mm) high and 3.9 inches (100 mm) across.

Plan of excavation of a young woman with a head cone buried at Amarna, Egypt.

ILLUSTRATION BY M. SHEPPERSON FROM STEVENS ET AL. 2019, ANTIQUITY PUBLICATIONS LTD.

Besides their actual existence, what the researchers found most unusual about these two head cones was that they were made of beeswax – not a perfumed oil solid or fat that was intended to melt in the grave to cleanse the spirit. Oh, and the cones were solid lumps of wax, not hollow hats. The beeswax, combined with the physical condition of the individuals, indicates they were of a worker class – a surprise to archeologists who believed they signified membership in a higher class. So, what was their true purpose?

“The authors tentatively suggest that the Amarna cones were symbols meant to enhance the rebirth or personal fertility of the deceased in the afterlife.”

Now that they finally have a couple of head cones to deconstruct, the researchers speculate the cream-colored beeswax bonnets were fertility aids placed on their heads in death to resolve these issues in the afterlife. Support for this theory comes from the fact that “Scholars often link the cones specifically with sensuality, sexuality and related notions, as they are frequently associated in imagery with women, sometimes unclothed” and are painted on women in scenes with the fertility goddess Hathor.

Beeswax is still used in rituals

One of the graves found with a head cone.

AMARNA PROJECT/ANTIQUITY PUBLICATIONS LTD

Case closed? Not so fast, say other researchers interviewed by LiveScience. Lise Manniche, a professor emeritus of Egyptology at the University of Copenhagen, thinks they were just cheaper, lower-class versions of the perfumed unguent head cones of the upper class. Nicola Harrington, an honorary research associate at the University of Sydney’s archaeology department, points out that the two individuals had “stress/compression fractures of the mid-lower spine” which were common among dancers, indicating that the two may have been ritual hoofers who performed for the king and his god Aten.

Which brings us back to the brief life of Akhetaten and the controversy surrounding Akhenaten and his attempt at monotheism in ancient Egypt. Was this so abhorring that these people were forced to abandon Akhenaten, which means “Horizon of the Aten,” in shame?

Our head cones are tipped to the archeologists who continue to search for their true meaning.

Depictions of head cones from Amarna, Egypt.

STEVENS ET AL. 2019 / ANTIQUITY PUBLICATIONS LTD.

{   https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

13-12-2019 om 17:02 geschreven door peter  

Strange Circles Appear On Forbidden Island, Video, UFO Sighting News.

Date of discovery: Dec 2019
Location of discovery: Island of Carmen

A helicopter was passing over an island area and noticed something really strange. The beach area was littered with huge circles that were tied together. They almost appeare like we are looking at giant atoms...or perhaps the atomic structure of a totally new element. 

This island is forbidden for anyone to step onto it. Its considered a wildlife refuge...or so they say. But may be a hidden island that is used by aliens as a base location. These circles should not exist on an island where there are no humans on it. Obviously these circles were made by intelligent beings...if no humans...then aliens. 
Scott C. Waring

Strange Symbols Resembling Crop Circles Appear In UNESCO Protected Island

By Inigo Monzon 

KEY POINTS

• Symbols that resemble crop circles appeared in Isla del Carmen
• The symbols appeared in nature reserve protected by UNESCO
• A UFO expert believes the symbols were made by aliens

Several strange symbols resembling crop circles were spotted along the beaches of a nature reserve in Mexico that’s protected by UNESCO. According to a UFO expert, the symbols could have been made by intelligent alien life forms.

The symbols appeared on the beaches of an island in Mexico known as Isla del Carmen, which is situated in the Gulf of California. It is classified as a nature reserve and is under the protection of UNESCO.

According to the YouTube channel shadowland.13, photos of the mysterious symbols were taken by a helicopter pilot of the aviation company Specialized Aero as he was passing over the island. Based on the photos, the symbols were drawn on the sand and featured same-sized circles. Each of the circles was connected to each other by straight lines that were also drawn on the sand.

The symmetrical appearance and vastness of the symbols closely resemble the crop circles that usually appear in cornfields. Due to their mysterious nature, these symbols have been associated with UFOs and alien entities.

According to Scott Waring of ET Data Base, the strange symbols that appeared in Isla del Carmen resemble the structure of atoms or a new element.

“The beach area was littered with huge circles that were tied together,” he wrote on a blog post. “They almost appear like we are looking at giant atoms...or perhaps the atomic structure of a totally new element.”

Waring noted that the area where the symbols appeared is a protected site, which means people are not allowed to wander through it without proper authorization or a guide. Because of this, he believes that it is highly unlikely that the symbols were made by humans. He suggested that alien life forms may have taken advantage of the island’s remote nature to establish a base there.  

“This island is forbidden for anyone to step onto it,” he stated. “It’s considered a wildlife refuge...or so they say. But maybe a hidden island that is used by aliens as a base location. These circles should not exist on an island where there are no humans on it. Obviously these circles were made by intelligent beings...if no humans...then aliens.”

Crop Circle found in Chualar, Ca, now known to be created by NVIDIA. 

Photo: Courtesy of Tech Crunch

 SOURCE: 

• https://www.ibtimes.com/

{ https://www.etdatabase.com/ }

13-12-2019 om 16:27 geschreven door peter  

Never Before Seen Photos Of UFOs At Shuttle Atlantis! UFO Sighting News.

Date of sighting: Aug 2, 1991 discovery by me this week.
Location of sighting: Earths orbit at Shuttle Atlantis STS43
Sources: 

• https://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/SearchPhotos/photo.pl?mission=STS043&roll=71&frame=71
• https://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/SearchPhotos/photo.pl?mission=STS043&roll=71&frame=72
• https://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/SearchPhotos/photo.pl?mission=STS043&roll=71&frame=73
• https://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/SearchPhotos/photo.pl?mission=STS043&roll=71&frame=74
• https://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/SearchPhotos/photo.pl?mission=STS043&roll=71&frame=75

I found two UFOs in a NASA archive floating near the space shuttle Atlantis. These photo have never before been reported by anyone and have never before been seen by the public. 

The UFOs are in five of the shuttle photos. When I put them in sequence, we can see them moving about over the course of a few minutes. Clearly if NASA is watching the objects this close...then its obvious they have no idea what they are or what the objects could be doing. They even mark the photos as "Debris?" Yes, they put a question mark because they don't know what they were. 

If you look at the close up of one of the UFOs...you will notice that it has a defined shape like a mini shuttle, but without wings. This is 100% proof that aliens are highly interested in the shuttle missions. 
Scott C. Waring-Taiwan

{ https://www.etdatabase.com/ }

13-12-2019 om 15:54 geschreven door peter  

Cigar-shaped UFO over Smokey Mountains, Tennessee – 2019

This strange UFO encounter of a cigar-shaped object photographed during daytime was submitted to me recently. It was taken on 27th September 2019 in Smokey Mountains, Tennessee.

Witness report: 

This was at smoky mountains September 27th 2019 was taking pictures from our motel room and seen this. So weird.

{ http://www.latest-ufo-sightings.net/ }

13-12-2019 om 11:15 geschreven door peter  

The Miracle of the Sun, also known as the Miracle of Fátima, is reported to have occurred on 13 October 1917, attended by a large crowd who had gathered in Fátima, Portugal.

The prophecy made by three shepherd children was that the Virgin Mary (referred to as Our Lady of Fátima), would appear and perform miracles on that date.

The official 1917 story reads: Newspapers published testimony from witnesses who said that they had seen extraordinary solar activity, such as the Sun appearing to "dance" or zig-zag in the sky, careen towards the Earth, or emit multicolored light and radiant colors. According to these reports, the event lasted approximately ten minutes.

According to many witnesses, after a period of rain, the dark clouds broke and the Sun appeared as an opaque, spinning disc in the sky. It was said to be significantly duller than normal, and to cast multicolored lights across the landscape, the people, and the surrounding clouds. The Sun was then reported to have careened towards the Earth before zig-zagging back to its normal position.

But according to Joaquim Fernandes Ph. D. who has studied the event on October 13, 1917, it was some kind of physical phenomenon.

There is a testimony from a lawyer, Dr. Almeida Garret, who was present at the miracle of the sun and Garret said that he looked up and saw a dull silver disc object.

And it was not only Almeida Garret who refers to a dull disc object, many witnesses describe a cloud just coming out of nowhere and out this cloud comes a craft.

Although the miracle of the sun is still surrounded by mystery, according to L.A. Marzulli, the witnesses of the 1917 event are actually seeing a cloud that forms in front of the sun on which then the UFO comes out, making some impossible maneuvers before it disappears.

{ http://ufosightingshotspot.blogspot.com/ }

13-12-2019 om 11:08 geschreven door peter  

Mysterious lights hovering over Mesa skies Sunday night puzzle residents

MESA, AZ — Mysterious lights hovering above the east Valley have many wondering if we've had a close encounter.

"It was pretty bright, it was about straight up over here, and it went straight that way, stopped, and it didn't seem like it was too far," said DJ Maier and Kerri Burnett, describing what they saw.

The couple says they spotted the phenomenon outside their Mesa home on Sunday around nine that night.

They say the object seemed to come from the southeast.

"It started moving kind of diagonal across, I was trying to figure out which way it was heading, and that's when we noticed it started dropping things from it," said Burnett.

The object captured on two cell phones looks like a bright orb hovering silently in the sky. Every few moments, the object appears to drop what looks to be flares towards the ground.

"And it wasn't just us, our neighbors next door they were out, they weren't even filming. They were more in amazement, like statues, just watching it," said Maier.

Maier immediately posted the video to Facebook, and the comments rolled in but none had any explanation for what they were seeing.

"Some said it may be an aircraft, others said aliens or a comet," said Maier.

The entire event harkens back to 1997 and the mysterious Phoenix Lights phenomenon -- a mystery that remains in hot debate even today.

ABC15 reached out to several aviation experts who theorized the lights seen Sunday could be from parachute flares used by the military or even helicopters or other aircraft dropping flares during training.

In fact, the Outlaw Military Operations Area sits not far from where the video was shot. But video found online of those types of exercises just doesn't seem to match.

"There were no navigation lights. Even the military has to have navigation lights on. That's an FAA rule," said Maier.

ABC15 reached out to the Federal Aviation Administration, Luke Air Force Base and the Army National Guard, but none could say for certain what it was.

It leaves the answer to what was caught on camera to anyone's guess.

"I know what I saw, and I don't think it was from here, and I think it was definitely something else," said Maier.

{ https://www.abc15.com/news}

13-12-2019 om 01:43 geschreven door peter  

NASA’s Hubble Telescope Spotted ‘Being Watched by Mysterious Flying Saucer’

Article by Simon Green * (dailystar.co.uk)

• Trawling through pictures from NASA’s Hubble Telescope, Tyler Glockner of the YouTube channel ‘secureteam10’ noticed nearby a flying saucer-shaped UFO “watching” the space telescope in the background. (see video clip starting at 5 minutes)
• Tyler says in the video, “If you look in the distance, almost as if there’s something sitting and watching the Hubble telescope, there appears to be something alien.” “[It] looks like a flying saucer.” Glockner added, “[W]hen NASA is not busy cutting the feed and hiding these things from us, we get to see some pretty cool pieces of evidence.” “Could this be a satellite? It could be but I don’t know of any satellite that looks like a flying saucer.”
• One YouTube commenter said this was the “best UFO video I’ve seen in a while”. Another claimed that it was just a “lens flare”.

A flying saucer-shaped UFO has been captured “watching” NASA’s Hubble Telescope, a renowned conspiracy theorist has claimed.

Tyler Glockner – of YouTube channel secureteam10 – noticed the bizarre sight as he trawled through NASA pictures this week.

In his video, a bright light can be seen in the background of the telescope, above Earth.

He goes to zoom in and discovers the “craft” is shaped just like a flying saucer.

“If you look in the distance, almost as if there’s something sitting and watching the Hubble telescope, there appears to be something alien,” Tyler said in the video.

“This looks alien to me, it’s not just the light but looks like a flying saucer.

“It almost looks like it’s flying head on with the telescope, it could be something passing by.

“It looks like something was captured here in space – there’s almost more UFO sightings captured above Earth then on the planet.

“It seems like these things are buzzing by like rush-hour traffic and when NASA is not busy cutting the feed and hiding these things from us, we get to see some pretty cool pieces of evidence.

“Could this be a satellite? It could be but I don’t know of any satellite that looks like a flying saucer.”

video clip of UFO ‘watching’ the Hubble Telescope (starts at 5 min, ‘secureteam 10’ YouTube)

The fascinating footage has garnered more than 80,000 views since it was posted to YouTube on October 19.

Hundreds commented their thoughts, with one writing: “That saucer by the Hubble is probably some man-made, reverse engineered contraption.

“I'm sure the ISS are informed of when and where the magic will be, while we remain clueless.”

Another added: “The ship in the Hubble pic looks like the small craft from Independence Day in my opinion.”

{ https://exonews.org/ - https://www.dailystar.co.uk/ }

13-12-2019 om 01:30 geschreven door peter  

Egyptian pyramids under a night sky. Several researchers believe astronomical at this site point to signs of an ancient advanced civilization.alignments 

Ancient Astronomical Alignments: Reading and Mapping the Stars at Early Advanced Civilization Sites

Many of the cuneiform tablets of Mesopotamia and hieroglyphs of Egypt make reference to the sun, stars, or planetary positions. Also, a number of ancient structures in many parts of the world are aligned with, or directly oriented toward, the cardinal points (East, North, South, and West) or celestial objects. A recent study by astronomy historian Michael Horkin involved cataloging 2000 Neolithic tombs and researching over 1000 others in France, Portugal, Spain, and North Africa. His paper, presented to the Royal Astronomical Society in England, points out that thousands of Neolithic structures erected prior to 1000 BC were apparently built to face the sun or key constellations.

Commenting on the study, E.C. Krupp, an archaeoastronomer with the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, states, “It implies a certain social organization in the commitment to build the construction of these monuments, as well as a system of celestial observation.” Yet, Horkin says about one part of the study, “We do not know much about the constellations as viewed by the [ancient peoples], since they were not literate.” Illiteracy is the common assumption about ancient and unknown cultures – but what are we to make of the vast number of megalithic structures, dolmans, cairns, and henges (like Stonehenge) that we find built and precisely aligned with astronomical coordinates?

Stonehenge. 

( LuckyStep/Fotolia)

A Belief that ‘Prior’ Meant ‘Primitive’

If myth tells us there was a time when man was regularly reading the stars, communing with the Earth and the heavens, and generally studying from the book of Nature rather than symbols on paper, can we really say he was illiterate?

• The Hidden Message in Khafre’s Pyramid: What Were the Builders Trying to Tell Us?
• Looking to the Stars of Australian Aboriginal Astronomy
• A Circular Egyptian Mythology: Does the Dendera Zodiac Represent the Most Ancient Astronomy?

Most early and literate explorers did not recognize the astronomical alignments and mathematical characteristics inherent in the pyramids , Egyptian temple ruins, and other ancient megaliths. Since it was assumed that the people who built them must have been more primitive than the later people of Greece, and especially Rome, no one was looking for architectural features that required celestial calculations.

It wasn’t until the late 19th century, when the prominent British Astronomer Sir Norman Lockyer first seriously began to look at ancient temples around the world, that many astronomical alignments were noted. And even then, most archaeologists downplayed such observations as coincidence or merely structural aspects of primitive religious beliefs.

British Astronomer Sir Norman Lockyer.

( Public Domain )

Astronomical Alignment and Mathematical Feats at the Great Pyramid

Astonishingly, we had to wait until the 1960’s before any serious study of celestial alignment was undertaken at Stonehenge (which we now know can be used to predict eclipses), one of the most famous megalithic sites in the world. Because of this lack of interest in connecting the dots, so to speak, important clues that resided in temple alignments with solstices, equinoxes, and other celestial phenomena were completely missed and went undiscovered for centuries. Still today, many archaeologists dismiss much of this astronomical information as unimportant because it does not fit well with accepted interpretations of archaic civilizations.

Over the past few decades, though, the tide has slowly begun to turn, as irrefutable evidence reveals that sophisticated astronomy, mathematics, and other higher sciences were indeed incorporated into many ancient structures. The most obvious candidate for study is the Great Pyramid at Giza , which is larger than anything the Romans or Greeks ever built, and still the largest stone building on Earth.

The Great Pyramid of Egypt.

Credit: BigStockPhoto

With its original white (or possibly gold) capstone and limestone siding, it must have been an amazing sight, visible for miles (some ancient people referred to it as “The Light”). It is aligned to within 1/20th of a degree of the direction of the Earth’s rotation – not an easy feat. The massive base of the pyramid today appears to be level to within one centimeter, yet this accomplishment is said to have been performed with stone hammers, an assumption impossible to believe.

J. H. Cole, using modern surveying techniques, has accurately measured the pyramid, finding the ratio of the perimeter to the height a perfect imitation of a sphere (2 times Pi, the radius to circumference ratio of a sphere). Peter Tompkins, in his Secrets of the Great Pyramid , points out several other mathematical representations as well. Dividing the surface area of the Great Pyramid by the area of its base results in a number very near the golden mean (1.618), “a famous ratio in art and architecture.” In addition, he shows that the three great pyramids as they are laid out fit exactly into a rectangle aligned to the cardinal directions, measuring 1414 cubits by 1732 cubits, “a thousand times the square roots of 2 and 3 respectively.”

Still more interesting, in 1993 Robert Bauval (co-author of several books on the pyramids) noticed that the three main pyramids on the Giza Plateau were a mirror reflection of the three belt stars in the constellation Orion, a constellation important to the Egyptians . Bauval and others have also pointed out that the shafts in the Great Pyramid extending from the King’s and Queen’s Chambers also represent stellar alignments. Cutting such stones to the precise angles, placing them in a position so that their sides form a diagonal shaft that aligns with key astronomical coordinates (which must be calculated when most of the stars are not visible in that position, due to precession), embedding them in a massive structure comprised of millions of stones – some up to 70 tons – and doing it all without harder-than-stone tools or instruments or math, or even wheels, is pretty amazing stuff for a “primitive” culture. Or maybe that simplistic assumption is wrong.

Giza pyramids superimposed over the three stars of Orion's Belt.

(Davkal/ CC BY SA 3.0 )

The Mark of Early Advanced Civilizations?

One of the great enigmas presented by the ruins of many of these ancient cultures, most notably Egypt, is that they seemed to have arisen very quickly out of nothing. The Great Pyramid is supposed to have been built near the presumed beginning of this mysterious civilization. As author and rebel Egyptologist John Anthony West states, “The evidence for these advanced civilizations is almost universal in the sense that they all seem to be at their height near the beginning...practically all of them have deluge myths, practically all of them talk about earlier times, Golden Ages when people lived longer and were much more enlightened and advanced.”

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When Mesopotamia was being unearthed and some of the Biblical royal and city names could for the first time be confirmed as actual historical sites, there began to be good reason to take the stories of the Old Testament more literally, as well as some of the other myths and legends from prehistory.

There really might have been a flood of Biblical proportions , and a type of Noah’s Ark and the near loss of all that came before. It may not have happened exactly like the story, but there could have been massive flooding in some parts of the world that wiped away much evidence of prior civilizations. How else could civilization seem to develop out of nothing in Mesopotamia or Egypt 5000 years ago? The plant may have been chopped to the ground, but the roots would still be there.

‘The Deluge’ by Francis Danby, 1840.

( Public Domain )

• Top Image: Egyptian pyramids under a night sky. Several researchers believe astronomical alignments at this site point to signs of an ancient advanced civilization. Source: CC0

By Walter Cruttenden

• Extract from Chapter 1: Astronomical Alignments in ‘ Lost Star of Myth and Time ’ by Walter Cruttenden.

{ https://www.ancient-origins.net/ }

13-12-2019 om 01:10 geschreven door peter  

Cataclysm, Mass Extinctions, and the Consequent Myths

According to geologists, in the interval from 10,000 to 8,000 BC, some 35 to 45 species of large mammals became extinct. This is called a mass extinction. Mass extinctions can be defined as species death within a relatively short interval of time.

None of the mainstream theories which attempt to account for these great extinctions are entirely satisfactory. This is likely because orthodox geologists are operating out of the straitjacket of the theory of uniformitarianism, which suggests a rather slow, gradual change over time.

In geology, the present is key to the past. However, it’s commonly agreed that geologic time is marked by a relatively sudden change in climate about 10,000 years ago or more, from a cold glacial to warm interglacial environment.

During this time, there were catastrophic changes across the planet. For example, the asphalt and tar seeps of California, like those in South America and Africa, host a rich assemblage of evidence of faunal and floral life, the most spectacular having occurred in Rancho La Brea where the remains of numerous animals are tightly packed together.

Approximately 700 skulls of saber-toothed tigers have been systematically excavated, accompanied by a huge number of remains from horses, camels, bison, mammoths, mastodons, coyotes, wolves, sloths, and other faunal contemporaries, broken, mashed, and contorted. This suggests a sudden mass extinction where animals, predator and prey alike, were suddenly thrown together.

The Beresovka mammoth in Siberia was found with daises in its stomach. The intense refrigeration of this mammoth and others suggests that this happened very suddenly.

The Beresovka mammoth, except for head, it is an almost wholly preserved, mummified mammoth carcass discovered in Siberia.

(Cropbot / CC BY-SA 2.0 )

It froze the ground solid, turned lake and ground water into great lenses of ice, and froze dead and dying animals and plants throughout the region into grim memorials which have survived, unchanged, in that condition, down to our own day. Among these have been the frozen carcasses of mammoths, woolly rhinoceroses, and other large mammals.

It is important to note that these mammoth carcasses represent healthy, well-nourished individuals. They do not belong to very old, degenerate, or starving animals as some have maintained.

Indeed, a deep-frozen six-month old baby mammoth carcass found in 1977 was so perfectly preserved that analysis of its blood and protein, and its tissues were used for genetic studies. Interestingly, the date for its demise was determined to be about 12,000 years ago.

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The frozen mammoth calf "Lyuba" which still had food in its stomach.

(FunkMonk / CC BY-SA 2.0 )

The frozen mammoth flesh was described as fibrous and marbled with fat and looked as fresh as well-frozen beef. Excellent soup was made from the meat of some frozen mammoth carcasses, and the meat itself was apparently cooked and eaten.

The area where mammoths once lived is today called the tundra, where the average annual temperature is only two degrees above zero. It is treeless and the ground is frozen for 10 months of the year.

Where did these huge animals get enough to eat, considering the adult elephant can consume up to about 350 pounds of food daily? In addition, mastodons have been found deep frozen next to the carcasses of mammoths in Alaska, as well as the remains of horses, squirrels, and rhinoceroses.

Theories of Mass Extinction: The Clovis People

In an attempt to explain the extinction of so many species of land animals during this period, mainstream scientists have put forward a number of theories. One theory postulates that overhunting by early man was the cause. This is the most popular theory today.

It is believed that the Clovis people , hunters and gatherers, who suddenly emerged into prominence about 11,500 BC were responsible for the great extinctions. This is because, compared to the indigenous people of North America , the immigrant Clovis people were more numerous and more advanced in their hunting methods.

It is theorized they hunted many large mammals, or megafauna, to extinction. Their hunting amounted to overkill.

Clovis points from the Rummells-Maske Cache Site, Iowa.

(Billwhittaker / CC BY-SA 3.0 )

The most popular theory suggests that the immigrants must have gone from the arctic (Siberia) to the tropics and on to the near Antarctic regions of South America in a little over a thousand years. In addition to traveling this great distance in such a relatively short period of time, the Clovis people, seemingly ubiquitous, nearly wiped out whole large mammalian genera in the New World.

Archaeological research has yielded evidence of human occupation in the Americas as early as 32,000 years ago. Yet within 1,000 to 2,000 years after the arrival of the Clovis people, most of the big mammals were gone.

These animals, or megafauna, included mammoths, mastodons, giant ground sloths, horses, camels, giant bears, cave lions, giant bison the size of mammoths, and saber-toothed tigers. That the Clovis could wipe out most of the big mammals, predator and prey alike, in such a short period time seems a bit unlikely.

Other Theories that Account for a Cataclysmic Event

What could have caused the climate to change so suddenly? Theories that account for this are not accepted by mainstream scientists. The first theory proposed here is crustal displacement as was elucidated by Charles Hapgood in his book Earth’s Shifting Crust , later called The Path of the Pole .

The ice cover of the Last Glacial Maximum, about 20,000 years ago, is asymmetric with respect to the present position of the North Pole in the Arctic Sea. The North Pole was presumedly positioned in Greenland. A modeled path of a rapid polar shift is shown. It is a spiral, starting in Greenland and ending in the Arctic sea. A turn takes about 400 days. A relaxation time of 1,000 days for global deformations of the Earth was assumed.

(Walter Baltensperger / Public Domain )

One intriguing question is why so many of the large mammal carcasses are found so far north. In fact, their numbers increase farther north towards the Arctic Ocean. In addition, their bones are spread over the bottom of that ocean, where ships have dredged them up.

If the pole was at Hudson Bay instead of the Arctic Circle, as it is today, Siberia and Alaska would have been south of the pole and hence in a warmer climate. These large creatures could have survived, even flourished, in such an environment.

There are thousands of well-preserved mammoth tusks that have been discovered in Siberia and which have led to a worldwide trade in ivory, which has been going on since Roman times. If the ivory tusks are exposed to the air for any length of time, they rot; and yet there are well preserved tusks from extinct animals in the Arctic area still found today.

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Tusk of the adult male "Yukagir mammoth".

(FunkMonk / CC BY-SA 2.0 )

Some theorists have proposed that the outer crust of the Earth shifts periodically, moving some continents towards the poles and others away from them. Although this process may take up to 5,000 years, the final stages are rapid. According to this theory, the poles shifted from Hudson Bay to the Arctic Circle suddenly with dire consequences.

As a result, a crustal displacement model proposes catastrophic changes have occurred on the surface of the Earth. This theory challenges the central idea of geology: the principal of uniformitarianism, which we have already discussed.

There were earlier models of crustal displacement. One theory, purporting to explain the cause of the ice age, was due to the sliding of the lithosphere over the viscous magma underlying it through tidal friction.

Normal mantle viscosity, enhanced by powerful external influence, combined with sudden deglaciation, thus seemingly caused not only sudden crustal slippage and fracturing, volcanism, seismic activity but also a change in the actual inclination of the Earth’s spin axis. Proportional to the Earth as a whole, the crust is scarcely thicker than an onionskin is to an onion.

According to Hapgood, the last crustal displacement, around 11,500 years ago greatly affected North and South America, Australia, as well as parts of Asia. Hancock suggests some parts of Europe were impacted as well. The continent of Africa was not as greatly affected.

This is consistent with other theorists who propose that an Earth crust displacement would cause extinctions to occur on different continents at different rates as a result of varying changes in the world’s latitudes. Some continents experience great climatic change while others are largely unaffected.

Diagram of the internal layering of the Earth showing the lithosphere above the asthenosphere (not to scale).

(Nefronus / Public Domain )

Extraterrestrial Strike

Another theory is that an extraterrestrial object struck the planet, a catastrophic event. In his book, Magicians of the Gods: The Forgotten Wisdom of Earth’s Lost Civilization , Graham Hancock proposes that a comet struck North America 12,900 years ago and then again 11,600 years ago, wiping out the Clovis people, many species of megafauna, and melted the ice caps, causing a great flood, which is also reported in so many myths. Such an event could have facilitated a crustal displacement as well, causing the poles to shift.

Hancock suggests that parts of Europe and northern South America were also impacted. This is called the Younger Dryas comet impact theory, first proposed in 2007, and it has gained the support of some mainstream scientists.

A large enough comet could cause a cataclysm on Earth.

(urikyo33 / Public Domain )

It is important to mention that evidence of melted minerals such as chromite, quartz, and chert suggests temperatures were so high as to melt steel. As a result, Hancock proposes that an advanced civilization of prehistoric antiquity was obliterated from the face of the Earth during the Younger Dryas period. This has come down to us as the legend of Atlantis.

Myths of the Great Flood

Myths of a great flood are also associated with this period. A myth is defined as a traditional or legendary story, usually concerning some superhuman being or some alleged person or event, with or without a determinable basis of fact or of natural explanation.

Mythologist Joseph Campbell has said that the symbols of mythology are not manufactured; they cannot be ordered, invented, or permanently suppressed. They are spontaneous productions of the psyche, and each bear within it, undamaged, the germ power of its source.

Many legends exist about the flood. Most peoples on Earth have ancestral memories of a flood of such a magnitude and with disastrous consequences, a universal catastrophe.

Thus, flood stories are found in Asia - in India, Burma, China and Malaya, in Palestine and Mesopotamia; as well as in Australia and most of the Pacific Islands, and among the Indians of the Americas. They are rarer, although not unknown, in Europe. They are not known at all in Africa, however.

The very fact that flood stories are found among people so diverse and far apart, both in time and space, shows that their common features cannot be coincidences, being the human mind’s similar reactions to similar circumstances. Other researchers have found, however, that there are tales of cataclysmic deluges told by peoples who have never seen the sea, or lakes, or great rivers.

The Greek fear of an errant sun was expressed in the myth of the sun god Helios and his son, Phaethon, born to him by a mortal woman. According to the story, the teenager Phaethon wanted to impress his friends by driving Helios’ chariot; however, he couldn’t control the winged steeds and thus dragged the sun closer to the Earth, setting it on fire.

Helios appealed to Zeus who killed Phaethon with a thunderbolt and unleashed a great flood to drown the fire, perhaps a symbolic version of real physical events. Some accounts suggest a comet or meteor striking or coming too close to Earth, an event that could, as already mentioned, precipitate a crustal displacement, facilitating a pole shift , and consequent flood.

In fact, according to Plato, the Egyptians told his ancestor, Solon, that the truth behind the myth is that there is a deviation in the heavenly bodies that travel around the Earth, which causes huge fires that destroy what is on the Earth across vast stretches of time.

The Ojibwa of North America had a myth of a fiery comet. They describe a comet that burned everything to the ground. It was depicted as having a long white tail that scorched the Earth, ushering in a different world. According to the Ojibwa, soon after the comet, the flooding of the Earth occurred.

Similar myths can be found between widely separated cultures around the globe. For example, there are striking similarities between the Haida Gwaii of western Canada and, halfway across the world, the Sumerians.

The Haida myth states that:

Long ago, our ancestors lived in the world’s largest village. Life was carefree until the chief of the heavens decided to destroy humankind by changing the sky and bringing a worldwide flood. Survivors escaped in giant canoes, which took them to a new home, where they landed on a mountaintop. A new era began.

Here is the Sumerian myth:

Long ago our ancestors lived on the island paradise of Dilmun. Life was carefree until the flood god Enlil decided to destroy humankind by changing the sky and bringing a worldwide flood. Survivors escaped in a large ship, which took them to a new home, where they landed upon a mountaintop. A new era began.

At the end of the last ice age, mainstream scientists note, the melting of ice is believed to have raised ocean levels by some 300 feet (91 meters). Flood myths from all over the world characteristically describe scenes when humans and animals flee from the rising tides and take refuge on mountaintops.

The Great Flood myth is a cataclysm that is prevalent in many cultures throughout the world. 

(JarektUploadBot / Public Domain )

The ancient Egyptian Papyrus describes a terrible devastation created by an early cataclysm, which turned the Earth upside down. The Ermitage Papyrus , now preserved in St. Petersburg, refers to a similar ancient world convulsion, while a third Egyptian papyrus tells how the world was nearly destroyed by fire and water during a tremendous celestial upheaval long ago, when the south became north and the world turned over.

The Berbers of North Africa have a legend of a land across the sea called Attala, which was rich in tin, silver, and gold but was submerged by the sea. The Basques of northern Spain and southern France consider themselves descendants of Atlaintika, or Atlantis.

Ancient Celtic legends called the continent reclaimed by the sea, Avalon. Arabian legends refer to the land of Ad, reputed to be the seat of civilization located across the western ocean. The ancient Indian texts refer to a continent called Atyantika, which was the scene of a catastrophic destruction.

There are over 500 cultures worldwide with legends of a great deluge. Survivors include single individuals or small groups. All seemed to have been forewarned of an impending catastrophe. They escaped by seeking high ground, caves, or by means of various objects that would float.

In summing up, something catastrophic happened at the end of the last ice age. Myths by people who experienced this help us better understand what occurred.

• Top image: The Earth endured a cataclysm that caused a mass extinction of many large mammals. Source:  James Thew / Adobe Stock.

By Pat Hanratty

{ https://www.stellanovus.com/ }

13-12-2019 om 00:29 geschreven door peter  

NASA's Treasure Map for Water Ice on Mars

{ https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/ }

12-12-2019 om 23:56 geschreven door peter  

44,000-Year-Old Cave Painting Could Be the Earliest Known Depiction of Hunting

A section of the cave painting.
Image: Griffith University

Archaeologists in Indonesia have stumbled upon an extraordinarily old cave painting which appears to depict human-like figures in pursuit of wild pigs and buffaloes. It’s quite possibly the oldest portrayal of a hunting scene in the archaeological record, but the vague nature of the artwork leaves it open to interpretation.

New research published today in Nature describes the discovery of an approximately 43,900-year-old cave painting found at the Leang Bulu’ Sipong 4 site in South Sulawesi, Indonesia.

The lead authors of the new study, archaeologists Adam Brumm and Maxime Aubert from Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia, say it’s a hunting scene, making it the oldest on record—assuming their interpretation is correct. One of the experts we spoke to said the painting, which depicts a series of human-like figures around several animals, may represent something else entirely.

A wide view of the entire painting, with annotations.
Image: Griffith University

Regardless of what exactly it depicts, this piece is significant due to its extreme age, the sophistication of the artwork, and its geographical location. Assuming the dating was done correctly, it’s now the oldest known figurative art drawn by early modern humans.

“This is a very important paper,” said Chris Stringer, a physical anthropologist from the Natural History Museum in London who wasn’t involved with the new research, in an email to Gizmodo.

First, some important context before we dive into the details.

Older cave art dating to around 64,000 years ago has been discovered in Europe, but those drawings, featuring animals, dots, geometric signs, and hand stencils, were almost certainly produced by Neanderthals. An older, non-figurative art piece attributed to our species was recently unearthed in South Africa in the form of a 73,000-year-old cross-hatched pattern drawn onto a smooth rock. And in 2014, the same Griffith University researchers from the new study found the oldest known cave paintings produced by early modern humans—a series of hand stencils dating back some 40,000 years, also in Sulawesi.

As for cave paintings depicting hunting scenes, in which both humans and animals are unambiguously shown together, that’s surprisingly rare. Prior to the new discovery, the oldest known hunting scenes belonged to Upper Paleolithic European cultures, sometimes referred to as Magdalenian cultures, dating to around 21,000 to 14,000 years ago, including the famous drawing found at The Shaft in Lascaux France, which depicts a wounded bison charging a bird-headed humanoid. These artworks inspired the idea that Magdalenian cultures kickstarted these sorts of figurative, or representational, drawings, to which all subsequent cave artists owe their inspiration. The new discovery at Leang Bulu’ Sipong 4 effectively overturns this Eurocentric assumption.

Found in 2017, the 43,900-year-old cave painting appears to be a single composition that measures around 4 meters (13 feet) wide. The painting isn’t perfectly legible due to bright splotches that formed over it, but much of the scene is still visible. The artist, or artists, appears to be depicting tiny human-like figures who are brandishing spears and/or ropes as they pursue buffaloes and pigs.

Possible therianthropes, in which hunters are depicted as part-human, part-animal beings (the red arrow up top shows the figure’s ‘beak’)

Image: Griffith University

Fascinatingly, the figures were drawn as human-animal hybrids—an abstraction or impression known as therianthropes. While rare, anthropologists and archaeologists have seen this sort of representation before.

“Previously, the earliest relatively unambiguous image of a therianthrope known to archaeology was the so-named ‘Lion-man’ figurine from Germany, a sculpture of a part-human, part-cave lion being carved out of mammoth tusk,” Brumm told Gizmodo in an email. “This was found in 1939 in cave deposits believed to around 40,000 years old. The meaning of this image has been extensively debated for decades; some think it represents a trancing shaman transforming into a lion, others think it is an image of a spirit or god or some sort of supernatural creature, and others think it just depicts a guy wearing an animal skin.”

Clearly, therianthropes are evidence of highly developed thinking. In this case, the figures, with body parts borrowed from lizards and birds, were used to convey a story or possibly some kind of spiritual meaning. Consequently, this might be the oldest known depiction of spiritual or mythical beings, highlighting the existential or metaphysical sophistication of this early culture.

“These images represent some of the oldest storytelling anywhere in the world and contain elements that have never been seen together—a hunting scene depicting hunting strategies combined with the use of therianthropes,” Kira Westaway, an associate professor from the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Macquarie University in Australia, told Gizmodo. “This is not just a simple representation of themselves, such as a hand stencil, but a complex representation of their existence and potentially their beliefs—to find this at this early age is astonishing,” said Westaway, who wasn’t involved with the new research.

A section of the cave painting, showing six human-like figures surrounding an anoa, or dwarf buffalo.
Image: Griffith University

As noted, much of the painting is covered in splotches, which turned out to be as much of a blessing as it was a curse.

“These features are small, hard, popcorn-like nodular growths comprised of calcium carbonate materials that form naturally on the limestone cave walls and ceilings over very long periods of time and sometimes, fortunately, as in this case, over the prehistoric paintings,” said Brumm. “I say fortunately because in some instances it is possible to date when these mineral deposits formed using the uranium-series method, which essentially measures the radioactive decay of elements within the calcium carbonate.”

So the popcorn-like growths, which formed well after the drawing was made, were used to date the piece, which means the painting could be older—perhaps considerably older—than the date given of 43,900 years ago. The earliest fossil evidence of Homo sapiens in this part of the world dates to around 70,000 years ago in Sumatra, but evidence of archaic humans, namely Homo erectus, living in Indonesia date back to—get this—around 1.5 million years ago in Java. Intriguingly, Denisovans, a sister group to the Neanderthals, were still around when this cave painting was made, and fossil and genetic evidence suggests they made it into southeast Asia and Melanesia. We asked Dr. Stringer if this art could’ve been produced by other humans, Denisovans included.

“Well, they might still have survived in Asia at this date, but this kind of art was certainly demonstrably created by Homo sapiens at later dates in various parts of the world, so it is most likely to be the work of our species, which is represented in the region at more than 70,000 years ago in Sumatra (Lida Ajer) and about 40,000 years ago in Borneo (Niah Cave) and Australia (Mungo),” said Stringer.

The Indonesian island of Sulawesi, showing the location of Leang Bulu’ Sipong 4 in the limestone karst region of Pangkep, near Makassar.
Image: Kim Newman

The painting was drawn with natural mineral pigments, including ochre and ironstone hematite. According to the authors, the scene depicts several therianthropes in the act of killing or subduing six animals: two Sulawesi warty pigs and four dwarf buffaloes known as anoas, both of which were common to Sulawesi at the time.

“Although these animals were depicted in outline profile with irregular patterns of infill the figures were executed with a relatively high degree of anatomical realism and certain [anatomical features] of these species are clearly represented, such as, in the case of Sulawesi warty pig, its distinctive head crest, and, with the anoas, their characteristic straight, dagger-like horns,” Brumm told Gizmodo.

Brumm said “we can’t ever know the real meanings of this cave painting,” but the “depiction of armed human-like figures surrounding the animals and confronting them with what seem to be ropes or spears, at least in our view, is fairly convincing evidence that this is a hunting scene of some description,” he explained, adding that it’s wholly plausible that “the presence of therianthropes possibly implies a spiritual dimension to the art” and it could represent “some kind of myth or religious story, but of course we can only guess.”

Given the extreme date and location of this cave painting, it’s exceptionally unlikely that artworks seen later in Europe had any cultural connection.

“Certainly these paintings show that any Eurocentric narrative of the development of such complex representational art must be wrong,” Stringer told Gizmodo. “In my view, comparable artistic creations in Australia will eventually be placed to this same remote period of time, and even older representational art may one day be found in Africa, preceding significant dispersals of modern humans from there, beginning around 60,000 years ago.”

Relatedly, Westaway said “religious thoughts and hunting strategies that are older than those depicted in European rock art certainly changes our perspectives on the abilities of the modern humans that traveled down through Asia en route to Australia.”

Close-up view of an animal-like figure with the red arrow indicating a possible ‘tail’.
Image: Griffith University

But does the cave painting actually portray a hunting scene? Paul Bahn, author of The First Artists: In Search of the World’s Oldest Art, isn’t convinced, saying the interpretation of the piece is “somewhat excessive and simplistic.” Here’s what he said to Gizmodo in an email:

The big animals are fine, and seem straightforward to our modern eyes. The ‘humanoid’ figures, on the other hand, are so tiny and badly weathered that their interpretation is by no means clear. They might be therianthropes, but this is highly uncertain. Therianthropes are extremely rare in European Ice Age art, and in fact this collection—if valid—almost outnumbers those in Europe! For example, the supposed ‘tail’ on [one of the figures pictured above] could just as easily be a backward-pointing phallus, like the one on Europe’s most famous therianthrope in Les Trois Frères cave [see here].

I agree with the authors that, if they are indeed therianthropes, then their status and their tiny size would suggest that this is not a straightforward hunting scene. It is far more likely to be a story or myth, and may not involve hunting at all—I see no clear weapons, and the lines may not even be ropes. They could be many things. One could argue that the small creatures are creating the big ones, or vice versa! In short, there is a lot of wishful thinking in the chosen interpretation. Personally I would have rested content with presenting some very fine early art in a part of the world which has only recently come to the fore in this field. It is especially hard to judge since we do not have a single clear hunting scene in the whole of European Ice Age art!

In addition to this, Bahn said the European examples of therianthropes are equally worthy of criticism in terms of how they’ve been interpreted, and he felt the authors made a mistake by failing to mention a complex stone-bone figure known as the “Mask”—a 70,000-year-old artifact found in La Roche-Cotard, France, that was produced by Neanderthals and which is in his opinion is an early example of figurative art.

Stringer, on the other hand, said some experts might question the uranium-series dating of the wall markings, but the “method looks to have been applied carefully, and this is almost certainly the oldest dated representational art so far,” he told Gizmodo. As for the interpretation of the therianthropes and the ropes, Stringer said that was “more speculative,” but he found the authors’ interpretations to be “reasonable.”

It’s pretty amazing how a single old painting can cause so much conversation and speculation—but such is the nature of art and science. It’s a magical thing when these two disciplines converge, and it’s safe to say this cave painting will continue to spark discussions and arguments over the years to come.

{ https://gizmodo.com/ }

12-12-2019 om 23:41 geschreven door peter  

SpaceX to Make Starlink Satellites Dimmer to Lessen Impact on Astronomy: Report

12-12-2019 om 23:19 geschreven door peter  

How NASA's Next Mars Rover Will Hunt for Alien Life

By Mike Wall 

The strategy involves matching geochemistry with structure.

Artist's illustration on NASA's 2020 Mars rover on the Red Planet.

(Image: © NASA)

SAN FRANCISCO — Spotting signs of long-dead life is a tall order for a lonely robot on a faraway world, but NASA's next Mars rover should be up to the challenge, mission team members said.

NASA's 2020 Mars rover is scheduled to launch next summer and touch down in February 2021 inside the Red Planet's 28-mile-wide (45 kilometers) Jezero Crater, which scientists think hosted a lake and river delta in the ancient past.

The six-wheeled robot will then scour the area for potential biosignatures. This work will consist of observing Jezero rocks in fine textural detail and using several spectrometers to map geochemistry precisely onto that texture, Mars 2020 deputy project scientist Katie Stack Morgan told reporters today (Dec. 10) here at the annual fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU).

• Related: NASA's Mars Rover 2020 Mission in Pictures

"It's our understanding of biosignatures in the rock record that it's that combination — texture and mapping of composition — that really allows you to build a strong case for a biosignature," said Stack Morgan, who's based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California.

"So, we are very much hoping that, with our payload, we can make a very strong case that there are biosignatures on the surface of Mars," should any exist, she added.

Stack Morgan passed around a fossil stromatolite that formed here on Earth to help illustrate her point. Stromatolites are mats formed by the growth of photosynthetic microbes known as cyanobacteria. This growth occurs in discrete layers, so mapping carbon-containing organic compounds precisely onto the layers in a similar Martian structure would provide strong evidence of life, she said.

Mars 2020 — which will receive a more memorable moniker soon, via a student naming contest — will be able to do such work. Its predecessor, NASA's Curiosity rover, cannot. Curiosity can image rocks in similar detail to Mars 2020, but it determines composition in bulk and therefore cannot map the geochemistry onto the observed structure.

"We would just grind up that stromatolite and tell you it has carbon," Curiosity mission scientist Ashwin Vasavada, also of JPL, said with a laugh during today's media roundtable.

That's no knock on Curiosity, which has been exploring Mars' 96-mile-wide (154 km) Gale Crater since August 2012 and is still going strong. Curiosity has achieved a great deal, finding, for example, that Gale supported a potentially habitable lake-and-stream system for long stretches in the ancient past. But the older rover isn't equipped with life-hunting gear.

• Related: Long Window for Life on Mars: Hundreds of Millions of Years?

Mars 2020's on-site observations alone may not be enough to convince some researchers that life once existed on the Red Planet. Scientists are a skeptical bunch by nature, after all, and any announcement of a potential discovery of alien life will be scrutinized incredibly intensely, as we've already seen with the Viking Mars lander results and analyses of the Red Planet meteorite ALH84001.

But the mission is making accommodations for such skepticism. A core part of Mars 2020 is the collection and caching of 20 to 30 drilled samples for eventual return to Earth, where multiple research teams in well-equipped labs around the world can study the material.

The retrieval of those samples will be a joint effort of NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA). Details of this plan are still being worked out, but Earth return does indeed seem like it's going to happen: ESA brass officially confirmed the agency's participation during a high-level meeting late last month. (ESA is working on its own life-hunting Mars rover, by the way, a robot named Rosalind Franklin, which is scheduled to launch next summer, just like Mars 2020. Rosalind Franklin is part of the ExoMars program, a collaboration between ESA and Russia's federal space agency, Roscosmos.)

Mars 2020 isn't just a life-hunting mission, however. The rover's analyses should also help scientists better understand the ways in which rocky planets evolve over time, Stack Morgan said. And Mars 2020 carries gear that should aid NASA's plan to put astronauts on the Red Planet in the 2030s.

For example, the coming rover is equipped with ground-penetrating radar, which will search for deposits of subsurface water ice — a key resource for Mars pioneers — and pockets of briny liquid, among other things. Another instrument is a technology demonstration that will generate oxygen from the carbon-dioxide-dominated Martian atmosphere. 

Overall, the car-size robot will tote seven science instruments and 23 cameras to the Red Planet. Mars 2020 will also sport a microphone to capture otherworldly sounds, and the probe will bring a tiny, technology-demonstrating helicopter scout as well.

• Mars 2020: The Red Planet's Next Rover
• Life on Mars: Exploration & Evidence
• Photos: Ancient Mars Lake Could Have Supported Life

Mike Wall's book about the search for alien life, "Out There" (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), is out now.

Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall.

Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook. 

{ https://www.space.com/ }

12-12-2019 om 23:05 geschreven door peter  

Some of the most spectacular UFO accounts come from pilots and aircraft. These are the witnesses that seem to know what they are talking about, who are familiar with the skies and the various phenomena associated with them, and reports of strange unidentified objects from such witnesses always capture attention. One of the most well-documented such accounts on record comes from a crew aboard a Japanese airliner flying over Alaska, and it has gone on to become a much discussed entry into the realm of airborne UFO sightings.

It was November 17, 1986, and Japan Air Lines flight 1628, a Japanese Boeing 747-200F cargo aircraft, was on its way from Paris to Narita International Airport, in Japan, with a cargo of Beaujolais wine. The flight was overseen by Japan Airlines Captain Kenju Terauchi, an ex-fighter pilot and senior airline pilot with more than 10,000 hours flight experience, and everything was smooth at the start. The plane took off on schedule and made its way towards its destination, a route which would take it over a portion stretching from Reykjavík to Anchorage, Alaska. It was here in these skies that the routine flight would take a turn for the decidedly unusual.

At approximately 5:11 PM, the plane was passing over eastern Alaska when some of the crew made an observation of two unidentified objects on the left of the aircraft, described as having rectangular arrays of thrusters that appeared to be glowing. The objects seemed to be square shaped and somewhat cylindrical, and were keeping to the cover of the clouds and darkness, yet undeniably were apparently pacing the plane, suddenly rising with great speed to approach the plane, getting so close that the interior of the aircraft was illuminated by their glow and the heat emanating off of them could be felt. The alarmed Captain Terauchi made a series of panicked calls to the Anchorage Air Traffic Control Center to see if there were any other aircraft in the area, to which they responded that there were none showing up on radar. It was about at this point that the two unidentified objects began to dart and move in a very erratic manner, and a much larger craft also would loom into view behind them. Terauchi would say of the weird encounter:

The distance from the lights was far enough from us and we felt no immediate danger. I thought perhaps it is a UFO. The lights were still moving strangely. Most unexpectedly two spaceships appeared [directly in front of the plane], shooting off lights. The inside cockpit shined brightly and I felt [the warmth of the UFO’s thrusters’] on my face. Then, three to seven seconds later, the fire — like from jet engines — stopped and became a small circle of lights as they began to fly in level flight at the same speed as we were. The middle of the body of the ship sparked an occasional stream of lights, like a charcoal fire. Its shape was a square, flying 500 feet to 1,000 feet in front of us, very slightly higher in altitude than us. Its size was about the same size as the body of a DC-8 [similar in size to a Boeing 707].

It is impossible for any manmade machine to make a sudden appearance in front of a jumbo jet that is flying 910 kilometers per hour and to move along in a formation paralleling our aircraft. But we did not feel threatened or in danger. Honestly, we were simply astounded. I have no idea why they came so close to us. There was a pale white flat light in the direction where the ships flew away, [pacing us]. The Anchorage Center replied that they saw nothing on their radar. I set our digital weather radar distance to 20 miles, radar angle to horizon. There it was, on the screen: a large, green, round object had appeared seven or eight miles away, in the direction of the object. We arrived at the sky above the Eielson Air Force Base and Fairbanks. It was a clear night. We were just above the bright city lights and we checked the pale white light behind us. There was a silhouette of a gigantic spaceship! We must get away quickly!

The larger craft was described by Terauchi as “a mothership,” and reported as being twice the size of an aircraft carrier, looming out there on the horizon and pacing the airplane. Throughout the whole ordeal, the original lights were displaying feats of maneuverability that were well beyond any known aircraft, seeming to defy gravity, and Terauchi would say of this:

The thing was flying as if there was no such thing as gravity. It sped up, then stopped, then flew at our speed, in our direction, so that to us it [appeared to be] standing still. The next instant it changed course. In other words, the flying object had overcome gravity.

In the meantime, Air Traffic Control was unable to register anything on their radar to confirm any of this, although Elmendorf’s NORAD Regional Operations Control Center (ROCC) did manage to pick up a “surge primary return” in the area. Terauchi carried out evasive maneuvers, changing altitudes and moving about in circles, but the strange craft easily managed to match them and continue to follow, and when offers were made to scramble military jets the Captain refused, not sensing that there was any imminent threat. The objects would continue their inscrutable activities until a United Airlines passenger jet entered the airspace around 150 miles from Anchorage and purportedly sent the UFOs scattering off into the unknown. Flight 1628 would land safely, and Terauchi and his crew, co-pilot Takanori Tamefuji and flight engineer Yoshio Tsukuba, would file a report with the Federal Aviation Administration on what they had witnessed.

The bizarre account would get out into the press, and interestingly Captain Terauchi would be grounded in response, relegated to a desk job, which only stoked the fires of conspiracy talk. John Callahan, the FAA Division Chief of the Accidents and Investigations branch, launched an investigation and would turn up some interesting findings, such as evidence that showed that the objects at some points had been clocked at moving thousands of miles per hour. Callahan would apparently have a meeting attended by representatives of the FBI, CIA and President Reagan’s Scientific Study Team, during which the data was met with excitement according to him. He would say:

When they asked me what I thought, I told them that it looked like we had a UFO that was up there. As far as I was concerned, Reagan’s science team were the ones that verified my own thoughts about it. They were very, very excited about the data. They had said at that time that this was the was the only time — and they had used the words ‘a UFO’ — was ever recorded on radar for any length of time.

Regardless of this, it was allegedly decided to basically bury the data on the incident and all present were told to act as if the meeting had never taken place at all. Not only this, Callahan would claim that the officials had confiscated all of the data and whisked it away, although he managed to squirrel away the initial pilot’s report. The FAA would conduct a 3-month investigation into the incident, and after it wrapped up there would be a fair amount of backtracking, such as claiming that the military radar signatures had been caused by technical difficulties and a “split radar image,” and that there was no evidence at all that anything had been there.

The case has ever since been picked up and hotly discussed in UFO circles, where various hypotheses have been thrown about. The skeptical argument is that the crew had been disoriented and had misidentified Venus or Mars, both of which had been unusually bright at the time in question, or that they had been reflections on cloud cover or the result of optical illusions caused by ice crystals. However, we must remember that these were experienced pilots and that there was mention of actual heat from the UFOs permeating the air around them. Another skeptical argument is that Captain Terauchi had already established himself as being a UFO believer, having logged several other sightings during his tenure with the airline, and so it is suggested that perhaps he was not a totally unbiased observer, but here the phenomenon was witnessed by other crew as well, who corroborated the story, although it is only Terauchi who apparently saw “the mothership.” The exact details of the meeting allegedly attended by Callahan have never been officially released or corroborated either, further muddying the waters.

What did Japan Airlines Flight 1628 see, if anything? The theories have orbited the case of course, including that this was some sort of top secret stealth technology or experimental aircraft being tested, that it was actual aliens, or that it was nothing more than Venus or ice crystals. The intriguing thing here is the meeting that supposedly took place afterwards and the unceremonious grounding of the pilot who logged it all. Is this evidence of a cover up, or something else? Regardless of what is really going on here, the case has become one of the most oft-discussed and pervasive in UFO literature, and stands tall among the numerous accounts of pilots having brushes with the unknown.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

12-12-2019 om 21:44 geschreven door peter  

In my previous article, I detailed how Kenneth Arnold – the man who ushered in the era of Flying Saucers in June 1947 – eventually changed his views on the nature of the UFO phenomenon. In Arnold’s own words in the early 1960s: “After some 14 years of extensive research, it is my conclusion that the so-called unidentified flying objects that have been seen in our atmosphere are not space ships at all, but are groups and masses of living organisms that are as much a part of our atmosphere and space as the life we find in the depths of our oceans. The only major difference in the space and atmosphere organisms are that they have the natural ability to change their densities at will.” That’s quite a change of opinion, to say the very least! Still on this issue of changing opinions, I’ll share with you today what I think is the most spectacular (and controversial and mysterious) change of opinion in the entire history of Ufology. It all revolves around the Roswell affair of July 1947 and the U.S. Air Force.

In 1994, the USAF published a detailed report (followed by an even bigger one in 1995) stating that while the Pentagon did not believe aliens crashed at Roswell, its staff no longer believed that the cause of the event was a weather balloon. The Air Force said that what really came down was a Mogul balloon: a huge balloon array designed to monitor for early Soviet atomic test-explosions in the atmosphere. But, that’s not the most amazing change of opinion I want to share with you. Yes, it relates to Roswell (directly, no less) but it is focused on a very different aspect of the mystery – that involving claims that bodies had been found at the crash site. In its 1994 report, the Air Force firmly stated that they had not addressed the matter of bodies for one specific, simple reason: Mogul balloons didn’t have crews. They were completely, 100 percent unmanned. In light of the USAF’s 1994 words on the bodies (or the lack of them), it was a very big surprise when, in 1997, the Air Force announced they were releasing a new report that would show bodies were found after all. They were, in reality, the Pentagon said, crash-test dummies. In other words, witness to the affair were really seeing military dummies on the ranch floor when they thought they were seeing small unusual bodies.

The 1997 report is a strange one. We have to wonder why the USAF even decided to publish the “dummies report.” Three years earlier it had made a clear and concise statement that no bodies of any kind – human, animal or alien – were found. When the USAF changed its opinion  – and having published a new report in 1997 that, in many ways, only served to create suspicions that this was all part of an ongoing cover-up – it wasn’t just UFO researchers who sat up and took notice: it was the mainstream media, too; many of who displayed doubts about the new theory. Or the new opinion. Let’s see what the Air Force had to say about this massive turnaround.

The 1997 report was titled The Roswell Report: Case Closed. In the foreword to the extensive report, Sheila Widnall, who at the time was the Secretary of the Air Force, stated this: “‘The ‘Roswell Incident’ has assumed a central place in American folklore since the events of the 1940s in a remote area of New Mexico. Because the Air Force was a major player in those events, we have played a key role in executing the General Accounting Office’s tasking to uncover all records regarding that incident. Our objective throughout this inquiry has been simple and consistent: to find all the facts and bring them to light. If documents were classified, declassify them; where they were dispersed, bring them into a single source for public review. In July 1994, we completed the first step in that effort and later published The Roswell Report: Fact vs. Fiction in the New Mexico Desert. This volume represents the necessary follow-on to that first publication and contains additional material and analysis. I think that with this publication we have reached our goal of a complete and open explanation of the events that occurred in the Southwest many years ago. Beyond that achievement, this inquiry has shed fascinating light into the Air Force of that era and revitalized our appreciation for the dedication and accomplishments of the men and women of that time. As we celebrate the Air Force’s 50th Anniversary, it is appropriate to once again reflect on the sacrifices made by so many to make ours the finest air and space force in history.”

So, why did the USAF alter its opinion? The 1997 report includes the following: “The July 1994 Air Force report concluded that the predecessor to the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Army Air Forces, did indeed recover material near Roswell in July 1947. This 1,000-page report methodically explains that what was recovered by the Army Air Forces was not the remnants of an extraterrestrial spacecraft and its alien crew, but debris from an Army Air Forces balloon-borne research project code named Mogul. Although Mogul components clearly accounted for the claims of ‘flying saucer’ debris recovered in 1947, lingering questions remained concerning anecdotal accounts that included descriptions of ‘alien’ bodies. The issue of ‘bodies’ was not discussed extensively in the 1994 report because there were not any bodies connected with events that occurred in 1947. The extensive Secretary of the Air Force-directed search of Army Air Forces and U.S. Air Force records from 1947 did not yield information that even suggested the 1947 ‘Roswell’ events were anything other than the retrieval of the Mogul equipment.”

The USAF continued: “Subsequent to the 1994 report, Air Force researchers discovered information that provided a rational explanation for the alleged observations of alien bodies associated with the ‘Roswell Incident.’ Pursuant to the discovery, research efforts compared documented Air Force activities to the incredible claims of ‘flying saucers,’ ‘aliens’ and seemingly unusual Air Force involvement. This in-depth examination revealed that these accounts, in most instances, were of actual Air Force activities but were seriously flawed in several major areas, most notably: the Air Force operations that inspired reports of  ‘bodies’ (in addition to being earthly in origin) did not occur in 1947. It appears that UFO proponents have failed to establish the accurate dates for these ‘alien’ observations (in some instances by more than a decade) and then erroneously linked them to the actual Project Mogul debris recovery. This report discusses the results of this further research and identifies the likely sources of the claims of ‘alien’ bodies. Contrary to allegations that the Air Force has engaged in a cover-up and possesses dark secrets involving the Roswell claims, some of the accounts appear to be descriptions of unclassified and widely publicized Air Force scientific achievements.”

The military’s conclusions read as follows, in summarized form:  “Air Force activities which occurred over a period of many years have been consolidated and are now represented to have occurred in two or three days in July 1947. ‘Aliens’ observed in the New Mexico desert were probably anthropomorphic test dummies that were carried aloft by U.S. Air Force high altitude balloons for scientific research. The ‘unusual’ military activities in the New Mexico desert were high altitude research balloon launch and recovery operations. The reports of military units that always seemed to arrive shortly after the crash of a flying saucer to retrieve the saucer and ‘crew’ were actually accurate descriptions of Air Force personnel engaged in anthropomorphic dummy recovery operations. Claims of bodies at the Roswell Army Air Field hospital were most likely a combination of two separate incidents: 1) a 1956 KC-97 aircraft accident in which 11 Air Force members lost their lives; and, 2) a 1959 manned balloon mishap in which two Air Force pilots were injured.”

The biggest change of opinion in UFO history? In my view, yes.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

12-12-2019 om 21:18 geschreven door peter  

The landscape of UFOlogy is littered with an array of stories of the strange and outlandish. This area is by nature a wellspring of high strangeness, the bizarre, and reports that often seem to defy all attempts to categorize them. Among these the most unusual seem to be those cases in which an unidentified object has come hurtling down from the heavens to crash, and there is a surprisingly high number of such otherwordly tales. One of the more well-known and oft-discussed of these is a mysterious event that unfolded in the remote wilds of Nova Scotia, Canada, and which has attracted much attention from UFOogists and remains unsolved to this day.

It was the evening of October 4, 1967, and the day had come to an end at the tiny, rustic fishing village of Shag Harbour, tucked away in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia and surrounded by scenic vistas. The sun went down, and the evening was just like any other, until at 11:20 PM something very strange happened at this isolated place. Up in the sky there was a sudden bright flash, and four brilliant lights that travelled over the area for nearly an hour, until a bright object suddenly dipped down to go crashing into the water with great force. Some people would claim that the anomalous object had made an otherworldly whistling noise as it descended, to punctuate its landing with a loud, reverberating boom, while others reported that the object seemed to flash a sequence of lights before its fall. One witness named Laurie Wickens would later say of it:

We see four lights in the sky and over the land here. We thought it was a plane and never paid no attention – more or less just watching lights go on and off. It went across the road in front of us, behind the hill – we couldn’t see it. We made it to the top of the hill. There was a light in the water. We went to the phone booth, called the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) and reported a plane crash.

Shag Harbour

Wickens would add that the mysterious craft had floated about in the water around a half mile off shore while trailing a strange yellowish substance, bobbing along for nearly an hour before sinking down into the depths, and there were several RCMP officers who saw the floating object as well. In all, at least eleven people would flood the RCMP with reports of having seen essentially the same thing, a bright light whizzing across the sky to crash into the sea, and it was at first assumed to be an airplane crash. In response, both local fishermen and the RCMP immediately launched a search and rescue operation, quickly arriving at the scene where the object had supposedly gone down, joined by the Coast Guard, but there was no wreckage or sign of the aircraft other than an unusual yellow foam found swirling about in the waves.

Interestingly, it would be found that there were no aircraft reported missing, and that indeed all commercial, private and military aircraft were totally accounted for all along the eastern seaboard stretching down through New England. Simply put, if this had been a plane, then no one knew who it was or where it came from. The mention of the lights and behavior of the craft before impact, as well as the lack of any missing aircraft and the fact that it did not sink right away, led RCC Halifax to pass along the strange incident to the “Air Desk” at Royal Canadian Air Force headquarters in Ottawa, where it was labelled as a UFO report. It was at around this time that the military moved in, with a Navy ship and divers from the Royal Canadian Navy and the Fleet Diving Unit Atlantic arriving on the scene to search the depths for a full three days, scouring the entire area, although their official report would claim that they had found nothing at all, no bodies, no wreckage, nothing. Of course, there were some witnesses who would step forward to claim that the Navy had indeed found something, and that it had been whisked away, but there is nothing to verify this.

In the meantime, the story was hitting the news in a major way, and there was much talk about the possibility that this had not been a plane at all, but rather a crashed UFO. Feeding into this idea were several other UFO sightings that had been reported in the same general area in the days leading up to what had been dubbed “The Shag Harbour Incident” and could be related. In one report, on the same evening at 7:15 PM Air Canada flight 305 reported that they had spotted a brilliantly lit, rectangular object with smaller lights behind it pacing their plane about a mile off, before they witnessed a large explosion, followed by another apparent explosion, although these produced no noticeable sound. could this have been the craft that went down? In another, Capt. Leo Howard Mersey, of the fishing vessel MV Nickerson, had picked up four anomalous objects on radar, after which the entire crew had seen a formation of four bright lights in the sky.

It would turn out that there had been several other reports of strange lights in the skies of the area in the hours leading up to the crash, which only served to fuel the fires of discussion that this had been no airplane. This would help the incident launch itself firmly into the UFO discourse, and it would become a classic case of a possible UFO crash, surrounded by mysteries and conspiracy theories. The case would go on to be investigated by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Canadian Coast Guard, the Royal Canadian Air Force, the Canadian government, and the U.S. Condon Committee, making it one of the most well-documented cases of what officially remains a UFO out there.

The incident has gone on to become a part of local and Canadian UFO lore, to the point that there is an annual two-day Shag Harbour UFO festival, as well as a limited edition series of glow-in-the-dark coins depicting the incident that were released by The Royal Canadian Mint that sold out nearly immediately. The case has become a classic, iconic addition to theUFO lore, very well documented, and still no one really has any idea of what exactly transpired on that fateful evening. Was it aliens, meteors, an earthquake, or what? Did the government cover it all up to relegate it into the dark recesses of history? No one really knows, and the Shag Harbour Incident remains a much talked about case within the annals of the strange.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

12-12-2019 om 21:02 geschreven door peter