Dit is ons nieuw hondje Kira, een kruising van een waterhond en een Podenko. Ze is sinds 7 februari 2024 bij ons en druk bezig ons hart te veroveren. Het is een lief, aanhankelijk hondje, dat zich op een week snel aan ons heeft aangepast. Ze is heel vinnig en nieuwsgierig, een heel ander hondje dan Noleke.
This is our new dog Kira, a cross between a water dog and a Podenko. She has been with us since February 7, 2024 and is busy winning our hearts. She is a sweet, affectionate dog who quickly adapted to us within a week. She is very quick and curious, a very different dog than Noleke.
DEAR VISITOR,
MY BLOG EXISTS ALREADY 12 YEARS AND 11 MONTHS.
ON 06/05/2024 MORE THAN 1.972.210
VISITORS FROM 134 DIFFERENT NATIONS ALREADY FOUND THEIR WAY TO MY BLOG.
THAT IS AN AVERAGE OF 400GUESTS PER DAY.
THANK YOU FOR VISITING MY BLOG AND HOPE YOU ENJOY EACH TIME.
The purpose of this blog is the creation of an open, international, independent and free forum, where every UFO-researcher can publish the results of his/her research. The languagues, used for this blog, are Dutch, English and French.You can find the articles of a collegue by selecting his category. Each author stays resposable for the continue of his articles. As blogmaster I have the right to refuse an addition or an article, when it attacks other collegues or UFO-groupes.
Druk op onderstaande knop om te reageren in mijn forum
Zoeken in blog
Deze blog is opgedragen aan mijn overleden echtgenote Lucienne.
In 2012 verloor ze haar moedige strijd tegen kanker!
In 2011 startte ik deze blog, omdat ik niet mocht stoppen met mijn UFO-onderzoek.
BEDANKT!!!
Een interessant adres?
UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN - DE ALLERLAATSTE NIEUWTJES
UFO's of UAP'S in België en de rest van de wereld In België had je vooral BUFON of het Belgisch UFO-Netwerk, dat zich met UFO's bezighoudt. BEZOEK DUS ZEKER VOOR ALLE OBJECTIEVE INFORMATIE , enkel nog beschikbaar via Facebook en deze blog.
Verder heb je ook het Belgisch-Ufo-meldpunt en Caelestia, die prachtig, doch ZEER kritisch werk leveren, ja soms zelfs héél sceptisch...
Voor Nederland kan je de mooie site www.ufowijzer.nl bezoeken van Paul Harmans. Een mooie site met veel informatie en artikels.
MUFON of het Mutual UFO Network Inc is een Amerikaanse UFO-vereniging met afdelingen in alle USA-staten en diverse landen.
MUFON's mission is the analytical and scientific investigation of the UFO- Phenomenon for the benefit of humanity...
Je kan ook hun site bekijken onder www.mufon.com.
Ze geven een maandelijks tijdschrift uit, namelijk The MUFON UFO-Journal.
Since 02/01/2020 is Pieter ex-president (=voorzitter) of BUFON, but also ex-National Director MUFON / Flanders and the Netherlands. We work together with the French MUFON Reseau MUFON/EUROP.
ER IS EEN NIEUWE GROEPERING DIE ZICH BUFON NOEMT, MAAR DIE HEBBEN NIETS MET ONZE GROEP TE MAKEN. DEZE COLLEGA'S GEBRUIKEN DE NAAM BUFON VOOR HUN SITE... Ik wens hen veel succes met de verdere uitbouw van hun groep. Zij kunnen de naam BUFON wel geregistreerd hebben, maar het rijke verleden van BUFON kunnen ze niet wegnemen...
Observational astronomy and astrophysics work together to further our understanding of the cosmos. Astrophysicists apply the laws of physics and physical theories to interpret the light gathered by observational astronomers.
Artist’s concept of a black hole. Astronomers use telescopes, both on Earth and in space, to gather radiation from space objects. Astrophysicists wield the laws of physics and physical theories to interpret that radiation. Ultimately, from the observations of astronomers, the minds and labor of astrophysicists – and the imaginations of space artists – we have images like this one.
Astrophysics is the science of physical processes in the cosmos. It uses data gathered by astronomers using telescopes on Earth and in space – combined with the laws and theories of physics – in order to interpret the universe around us. If astronomy asks what and where, astrophysics asks how and why. A sister science – planetary science – studies the planets in our solar system and distant solar systems in our Milky Way galaxy. Another sister science – cosmology – studies external galaxies and voids, and the large-scale structure and history of the universe.
For example, an astronomer might spend nights at the telescope gathering data on a star. Putting on his or her astrophysicist hat – and depending on which instruments were used in conjunction with the telescope (photometers or spectrometers, for example) – that scientist would then turn to the laws of physics to understand how that star produces its energy, whether it has a companion (or perhaps planets, or perhaps an encircling disk), and how the star moves through space.
Galactic astrophysicists would then ask how that star fits with what’s known about our Milky Way galaxy.
Cosmologists would then ask how the knowledge of the stars fits with that of the universe as a whole.
And by the way all of these labels – astronomer, astrophysicist, cosmologist, for example – might describe a single person whose job is to study and understand the universe.
Plus this description is just a very, very simplistic view of what astronomers/astrophysicists/cosmologists actually do. They might, for example, bring many other sciences into their studies: chemistry, geology, biology and more. They’ll bring all of this knowledge into focus using a powerful and complex arsenal of theories, instruments and computational power that would have been unthinkable just a few decades ago. All of the tools of astronomy, all its various devices, data, theories and pathways of study, are seeking to answer humanity’s biggest questions. How did our universe get here? What’s its history? Where did we come from? Are there others like us, elsewhere in the cosmos?
Ultimately, astrophysics is a tool that helps humanity understand its place in the cosmos.
The history of astrophysics really begins in Europe with the Renaissance, when astronomy threw off the shackles of eons-old myths and became a true science. In Florence, in 1610, Galileo Galilei became one of the first to turn the telescope to the sky, revealing a universe at odds with the restrictive teachings of the Church. By 1633, this dangerous contradiction saw Galileo tried by the Roman Inquisition and confined to house arrest for the rest of his life until his death in 1642.
A painting by Giuseppe Bertini (1858), depicting Galileo (standing) showing the Doge or Duke of Venice (seated) how to use a telescope. Galileo is remembered as one of the first great observational astronomers.
In England in 1665, Isaac Newton, having fled Cambridge University to escape the Great Plague, settled back in the town of his birth, the rural community of Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire. Over the next several years, he developed calculus and revolutionary ideas about light. In 1687, he published his Law of Universal Gravitation, stating that every particle attracts every other particle in the universe with a force that is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. For the first time, scientists could calculate the force of attraction between objects in space. This was a giant step forward in scientists’ ability to understand the heavens.
Isaac Newton (1642-1726). He famously said in the year 1675: “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.”
It can therefore be argued that Newton was the first astrophysicist, using the mathematical and physical tools he himself developed to ask questions about the nature of physical processes in the cosmos.
But the most important realization to emerge from Newton’s era was simply that the universe is governed by physical processes. Given the right tools, these processes can be understood by humans. No longer did the universe obey the whims of mystical and unfathomable powers: what was out there was just physics.
In the 20th century, Albert Einstein initiated a new revolution in our understanding of gravity with his general theory of relativity.
Now it’s estimated that what we know about the cosmos is doubling every 10 years.
A large part of that knowledge comes from the continued contribution of astrophysicists to our understanding of the laws of nature at work in the universe.
Einstein in 1947, at the age of 68. His special and general theories of relativity altered the way astrophysicists think about space, matter and time.
Bottom line: Observational astronomy and astrophysics work together to further our understanding of the cosmos. Astrophysicists apply the laws of physics and physical theories to interpret the light gathered by observational astronomers.
A mysterious cosmic event might have ever-so-slightly stretched and squeezed our planet last week. On Jan. 14, astronomers detected a split-second burst of gravitational waves, distortions in space-time … but researchers don't know where this burst came from.
The gravitational wave signal, picked up by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and the Virgo interferometer, lasted only 14 milliseconds, and astronomers haven't yet been able to pinpoint the burst's cause or determine whether it was just a blip in the detectors.
Gravitational waves can be caused by the collision of massive objects, such as two black holes or two neutron stars. Astronomers detected such gravitational waves from a neutron star collision in 2017 and from one in April of 2019, according to new findings that were presented at the meeting of the American Astronomical Society on Jan. 6.
But gravitational waves from collisions of such massive objects typically last longer and manifest in the data as a series of waves that change in frequency over time as the two orbiting objects move closer to each other, said Andy Howell, a staff scientist at Los Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network and an adjunct faculty member in physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He was not part of the LIGO research.
The new signal was not a series of waves but a burst, Howell said. One more likely possibility is that this short-lived burst of gravitational waves comes from a more transient event, such as a supernova explosion, the catastrophic ending to a star's life.
Indeed, some astronomers have hypothesized that this could have been a signal from the Betelgeuse star, which mysteriously dimmed recently and is expected to undergo a supernova explosion. But the Betelgeuse star is still there so it's not that scenario, Howell said. It's also unlikely to be another supernova because they happen in our galaxy only about once every 100 years, he added.
What's more, the burst still "seems a little too short for what we expect from the collapse of a massive star," he said. "On the other hand, we've never seen a star blowing up in gravitational waves before, so we don't really know what it would look like." In addition, the astronomers didn't detect any neutrinos, tiny subatomic particles that carry no charge, which supernovas are known to release.
Another possibility is that the merging of two intermediate-mass black holes caused the signal, Howell said. Merging neutron stars produce waves that last longer (around 30 seconds) than this new signal, while merging black holes might more closely resemble bursts (that last around a couple of seconds). However, intermediate black hole mergers might also release a series of waves that change in frequency.
LIGO came across this signal while specifically looking for such bursts. But "that doesn't mean that what it found is an intermediate-mass black hole merger," Howell told Live Science. "We don't know what they found," especially since LIGO hasn't yet released the exact structure of the signal, he added.
It's also possible that this signal was just noise in the data from the detector, Howell said. But this burst of gravitational waves was found by all three LIGO detectors: one in Washington state, one in Louisiana and one in Italy. So the probability of the LIGO detectors finding this signal by chance (meaning it's a false alarm) is once every 25.84 years, which "gives us some indication that this is a pretty good signal," Howell said.
There could be other explanations for this mysterious burst, too. For example, a supernova could have directly collapsed into a black hole without producing neutrinos, though such an occurrence is very speculative, Howell said. Astronomers are now pointing their telescopes to that region to try to pinpoint the source of the waves.
"The universe always surprises us," he added. "There could be totally new astronomical events out there that produce gravitational waves that we haven't really thought about."
This artist’s impression shows the blast from a heatwave detected in a massive, forming star.Credit: Katharina Immer/JIVE
Here on Earth, we pay quite a lot of attention to the sun. It's visible to us, after all, and central to our lives. But it is only one of the billions of stars in our galaxy, the Milky Way. It's also quite small compared to other stars—many are at least eight times moremassive.
These massive stars influence the structure, shape and chemical content of a galaxy. And when they have exhausted their hydrogen gas fuel and die, they do so in an explosive event called a supernova. This explosion is sometimes so strong that it triggers the formation of new stars out of materials in the dead star’s surroundings.
But there’s an important gap in our knowledge: astronomers don’t yet fully understand how those original massive stars themselves are initially formed. So far, observations have only yielded some pieces of the puzzle. This is because nearly all the known massive stars in our galaxy are located very far away from our solar system. They also form in close proximity to other massive stars, making it difficult to study the environment where they take shape.
One theory, though, is that a rotating disc of gas and dust funnels materials into the growing star.
Astronomers have recently found that the funnelling of matter into a forming star happens at different rates over time. Sometimes the forming star swallows up a huge amount of matter, resulting in a burst of activities in the massive star. This is called an accretion burst event. It is incredibly rare: only three such events have been observed, out of all the billions of massive stars in the Milky Way.
This is why astronomers are so excited about a recent observation of the phenomenon. I was part of the team that recorded this observation. Now, our team and other astronomers will be able to develop and test theories to explain how high-mass stars gain their mass.
A global collaboration
After the first detection of an accretion burst, in 2016, astronomers from around the world agreed in 2017 to coordinate their efforts to observe more. Reported bursts have to be validated and followed up with more observations, and this takes a joint, global effort – which led to the formation of the Maser Monitoring Organisation (M2O).
A maser is the microwave (radio frequency) equivalent of laser. The word stands for “microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation”. Masers are observed using radio telescopes and most of them are observed at centimetre wavelength: they are very compact.
A maser flare can be a sign of an extraordinary event such as the formation of a star. Since 2017 radio telescopes in Japan, Poland, Italy, China, Russia, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa (HartRAO, in the country’s Gauteng province) have been working together to detect a flare stimulated by a burst in the funnelling of materials into a massive star.
In January 2019, astronomers at Ibaraki University in Japan noticed that one such massive protostar, G358-MM1, showed signs of new activity. The masers associated with the object brightened significantly over a short period of time. The theory is that masers brighten when excited by an accretion burst.
Follow-up observations with the Australian Long Baseline Array revealed something astronomers are witnessing for the first time – a blast of heat-wave coming from the source and travelling through the surroundings of the forming big star. Blasts can last for about two weeks to a few months.
Burst of energy
Blasts like this were not observed in the previous two accretion bursts in massive stars. This may imply that it’s a different kind of accretion burst. There may even be a “zoo” of accretion burst types – a whole range of different types which act in different ways that may depend on the mass and evolutionary stage of the young star.
Although the burst activity has died down, the masers are still a lot brighter than they were before the burst. Astronomers are watching with interest to see whether a similar burst will occur again, and at what scale.
This experience shows how valuable it is to have lots of eyes on the sky, from different corners of the globe. Collaboration is astronomy is crucial for new, important discoveries.
OHIO UNIVERSITY HAS YET TO DENY PROFESSOR’S ‘BUGS ON MARS!’ CLAIM. SO.
OHIO UNIVERSITY HAS YET TO DENY PROFESSOR’S ‘BUGS ON MARS!’ CLAIM. SO.
IMAGES VIA PIXABAY/VICTOR TANGERMANN
KRISTIN HOUSER__FILED UNDER: OFF WORLD
SpaceBugs!
On November 20, Ohio University dropped a press release detailing professor emeritus William Romoser’s photo “evidence” that Mars is home to insect life. The claim sparked all sorts of backlash, and the next day, OU deleted the press release because, as university spokesperson Jim Sabin told Futurism, Romoser “no longer wishes to engage with media regarding this research.”
But according to a new Motherboardstory, the school still won’t say whether or not it actually believes in the existence of Martian bugs.
Entomologist William Romoser annotated this NASA Mars rover image to suggest it shows an insect-like form.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Annotations by William Romoser
Martian? I Hardly Knew Him!
Motherboard received a similar statement from OU regarding the removal of the press release — and that’s about all it could get out of the university.
“The Ohio University spokesperson did not answer specific questions such as whether the university believes there are insects on Mars, if it stands behind the research, and how it decides what press releases to write up,” Motherboard wrote.
OU might think this radio silence is the best way to minimize damage to its reputation and support its staff — but if it wants people to stop asking questions, it might want to admit that maaaaaaybe it shouldn’t have promoted Romoser’s bizarre claims in the first place?
Proxima Centauri, the closest star to our sun, may have a second planet, according to researchers from the National Institute of Astrophysics. If confirmed, it would be an ideal candidate for direct imaging by new upcoming space telescopes.
Artist’s concept of Proxima Centauri b, an Earth-sized exoplanet orbiting the nearest star to our sun, Proxima Centauri. Now researchers think there is a second, larger planet also orbiting the star.
In 2016, astronomers announced the discovery of an exoplanet orbiting the closest star to our solar system, Proxima Centauri. Exciting, since the planet appeared to be close to the same size as Earth and not too far away, cosmically-speaking, at 4.2 light-years. Could there be other planets in this nearby system? On January 15, 2020, another research team published its evidence for a second, larger planet orbiting Proxima Centauri. At this point, this second object is still considered a candidate. It is not confirmed. But researchers do make a compelling case for its existence.
The potential discovery was announced by Mario Damasso of the National Institute of Astrophysics and his colleagues on January 15. The new peer-reviewed paper appeared in Science Advances on the same day.
The planet – dubbed Proxima Centauri c – is a fair bit larger than the first planet, Proxima Centauri b, and is about six times more massive than Earth. This would make it a super-Earth, planets that are significantly larger and more massive than Earth but smaller and less massive than Neptune. It is estimated to orbit its star every 5.2 years. Proxima Centauri b, by comparison, is only about 1.3 times Earth’s mass.
Even though Proxima Centauri is the closest star, part of the Alpha Centauri three-star system, it has been difficult to detect planets orbiting it. That’s because most exoplanets discovered so far have been glimpsed via the transit method; that is, they’re detected because they lie edge-on to our line-of-sight to their host stars, and astronomers can detect a minute dip in the host star’s light when the planet crosses in front of it. No such dip in brightness has been seen for Proxima Centauri.
Instead, to find this star’s planets, astronomers have had to use a second planet-hunting technique, called the radial velocity method. Radial velocity refers to a slight wobble in the star’s motion as seen from Earth, caused by the gravity of unseen planets tugging on it. This is how Proxima Centauri b was found, and now, seemingly, Proxima Centauri c.
Two European Southern Observatory (ESO) telescope instruments, the High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) and the Ultraviolet and Visual Echelle Spectrograph (UVES), were used to obtain the data from Proxima Centauri.
Damasso and his team analyzed the star’s light spectrum data, going back 17.5 years, to see if a previously reported light spectrum signal really was from a second planet. If the spectrum oscillates between the red and blue radial velocity, that typically means the star is moving slightly closer to and then farther away from Earth, due to the gravitational pull of a planet or planets. The researchers did find such a signal, occurring over a 1,900-day period. That would mean it is unlikely to be due only to other cyclical shifts in the star’s magnetic field. It would be more consistent with a second planet orbiting the star.
Our sun’s closest neighbors among the stars, including Proxima Centauri.
At this point, we just don’t know enough about them to answer that question. Proxima Centauri b is almost the same size as Earth, and is thought to have similar temperatures, but it orbits very close to its star, which is a red dwarf. Red dwarfs are known for being very active, emitting powerful solar flares. The radiation from those flares could strip away the atmosphere of any close-in planets. Proxima Centauri c is farther out, but may be too cold for life as we know it. It also may be more like Neptune, with a deep gaseous atmosphere and no real solid surface, rather than a super-Earth, which is rocky like Earth, but larger. We just don’t know yet.
Another exciting aspect of Proxima Centauri c, however, is that it is far enough from the glare of its star that it should be able to be photographed directly by upcoming space telescopes. So far, only a handful of planets that are much larger than this have been successfully photographed, and even then, they are still just blobs of light.
Mario Damasso of the National Institute of Astrophysics, whose team found the possible new planet.
Proxima c could become a prime target for follow-up and characterization with next-generation direct imaging instrumentation due to the large maximum angular separation of ~1 arc second from the parent star. The candidate planet represents a challenge for the models of super-Earth formation and evolution.
If scientists can learn more about both Proxima Centauri c and b, including direct imaging for at least c (b would be a lot more difficult), then that should give them a better idea of what both Earth-sized and super-Earth exoplanets are actually like, in particular ones that orbit red dwarf stars. That would then help them figure how many could be potentially habitable, and what conditions would make that possible, an exciting endeavor.
Bottom line:Researchers from the National Institute of Astrophysics have found new evidence for a second planet orbiting Proxima Centauri, the closest star to our sun.
The clarity of these images from the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope in Hawaii is thanks to the telescope’s 4-meter mirror, the world’s largest for a solar telescope. “It’s the biggest jump in our ability to study the sun since Galileo’s time,” a scientist said.
The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope – near the summit of Mount Haleakala on the Hawaiian island of Maui – released its first images of the sun this week. They’re said to be the highest-resolution images of the solar surface ever taken, and who can argue? We’ve never seen images of the sun that look like this. The imagery – released January 29, 2020 – shows cell-like structures roiling on the sun’s surface. We knew this structure existed. These cells are called granules, and they’re caused by convective currents of plasma on the sun. But these images are like nothing we’ve seen previously. Each one of these cells is the size of Texas!
Scientists say the Texas-sized granules are the result of heat carried from inside the sun outward to its surface. It’s as if we’re seeing the sun boil.
The clarity of the image is due to the telescope’s 4-meter (13-foot) mirror, which is the world’s largest for a solar telescope.
Thomas Rimmele is the director of the Inouye solar telescope project. He said:
These are the highest resolution images of the solar surface ever taken.
The U.S. National Science Foundation built the Inouye Solar Telescope, which has more than twice the resolution – double the ability to see clearly – of the next-best solar observatories. Construction of the telescope began in January 2013, and the primary mirror was delivered to the site in August 2017. The completed telescope has now provided its first images of the sun. From an NSF statement about the telescopes first images:
The images show a pattern of turbulent ‘boiling’ plasma that covers the entire sun. The cell-like structures – each about the size of Texas – are the signature of violent motions that transport heat from the inside of the sun to its surface. That hot solar plasma rises in the bright centers of ‘cells,’ cools, then sinks below the surface in dark lanes in a process known as convection.
View larger. | The Inouye Solar Telescope images the sun in more detail than we’ve ever seen before. The telescope can image a region of the sun 24,000 miles (38,000 km) wide. Close up, these images show large cell-like structures hundreds of kilometers across and, for the first time, the smallest features ever seen on the solar surface, some as small as 19 miles (30 km).
The motions of the sun’s plasma constantly twist and tangle the magnetic fields on the sun. Twisted magnetic fields can lead to solar storms that can affect systems on Earth. Magnetic eruptions on the sun can affect air travel, disrupt satellite communications, bring down power grids and disable technologies such as GPS.
It’s all about the magnetic field. To unravel the sun’s biggest mysteries, we have to not only be able to clearly see these tiny structures from 93 million miles [150 million km] away but very precisely measure their magnetic field strength and direction near the surface and trace the field as it extends out into the million-degree corona, the outer atmosphere of the sun.
Finally resolving these tiny magnetic features is central to what makes the Inouye Solar Telescope unique, says NFS. The telescope can measure and characterize the sun’s magnetic field in more detail than ever seen before and determine the causes of potentially harmful solar activity.
Bottom line:The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope has produced the highest resolution images of the sun’s surface ever taken.
Inside Skinwalker Ranch, a Paranormal Hotbed of UFO Research
Inside Skinwalker Ranch, a Paranormal Hotbed of UFO Research
Locals say the ranch has been plagued by strange creatures and cattle mutilations. It's also been used for government UFO research. So what's really happening there?
The long red mesas of Utah’s Uintah Basin greet us as my driver, an American real estate mogul and tech investor, pulls us into Fort Duchesne. Looking out my window, we are finally out of the mountains and in the valley. My mind is lost in thought about the legends here, the supposed curse that now haunts this land, and the men and women who have experienced that curse head on. I have monsters on my mind. Well, actually just one: the Skinwalker.
A quick right turn shakes me from my daze.
“We are almost there,” my driver tells me. “Are you excited?”
He has a childlike grin on his face. We had travelled for nearly three hours from Salt Lake City. A snow storm had interrupted our journey through the mountains, blinding us and covering the highway in a sheet of ice.
Safe in the valley, the sky is blue, a sharp contrast from the grey storm skies at higher altitudes. The sun bounced off the mesa that made the area famous for paranormal junkies and UFO enthusiasts alike. Local lore has always told that strange lights hover over this area and that strange creatures roam the wilderness here. One tale tells of the Ute, an Indigenous tribe from this valley and their uneasy alliance with the Navajo. Siding with American military forces in the late 19th century, the Ute helped force the Navajo people out of the area. Local lore suggests that the Navajo unleashed a Skinwalker, a shapeshifter who can possess animals' skin.
Two massive concrete blockades dotted with “No Trespassing” signs and a massive “STOP” sign loom at the end of the road. As we roll past, a 20-foot-tall black steel gate greets us. Standing on the other side is a guard carrying a black rifle. He gives us a friendly nod and the gate slowly opens.
My host gives me a smile: “Welcome to Skinwalker Ranch.”
IMAGE: MJ BANIAS
We hadn’t originally planned on driving. My host, who bought the ranch from hotel and aerospace magnate Robert Bigelow in 2016, planned to fly me there in his private helicopter.
Since he bought the ranch, he hasn't opened it up to too many people, but that’s slowly changing. A crew from the History Channel has been filming a new documentary series that will air this year. He agreed to let me visit on the condition that I not reveal his identity as part of this article. Few journalists have ever been on the ranch, and as a reporter who typically covers anomalies and weird news, it’s long been a place I wanted to visit. I decided to go.
As we took off in his helicopter, the owner of the ranch got philosophical about why he bought it.
“You know, facing the reality of our mortality is sobering. The anomalies at Skinwalker Ranch, the things that have been reported there over decades, if not hundreds of years. They seem to attest to the fact that we live in a strange universe. Perhaps we are not alone,” he said. Salt Lake City disappeared into the distance as we made our way into the narrow mountain passes.
“Perhaps there is more than meets the eye. The nature of our existence, our physical reality. It is much more complex. The nature of our consciousness and our place in the cosmos. It is funny to think that people are still asking the same questions that our species has been asking for thousands of years,” he told me.
“I think the opportunity to take a living laboratory like the ranch, a place that seems to be the center of gravity of so much of the unexplained, it is a unique experience,” he said. “I manage and lead an effort that I believe is the greatest science project of all time.”
Upon entering the mountains, the storm made it unsafe. We had to turn around and drive.
The Uintah Basin has always been home to strange tales of odd lights, sounds and visions. In the 1950’s, Joseph “Junior” Hicks, a local high school science teacher, began cataloging people’s stories of their experiences in the basin. With Dr. Frank Salisbury, Hicks published a book on the subject in 1974. Sightings of strange creatures and UFOs continued in the area and the mythology became entrenched.
Decades later, things came to a head when ranchers Terry and Gwen Sherman bought the property in 1994. Documented in the book Hunt for the Skinwalker, the Shermans alleged that their cows were mutilated with surgical precision in broad daylight and that their family was hunted by strange aerial objects and floating orbs of light. They heard disembodied voices, experienced poltergeist activity, witnessed horrible monsters emerging from portals, and claimed they encountered a wolf that, when shot several times by a high powered rifle at point blank range, did not die.
TOP: A ZOOMED OUT VIEW OF SKINWALKER RANCH'S LOCATION IN EASTERN UTAH. BOTTOM: A ZOOMED IN VIEW. THE RED LINE SHOWS SKINWALKER RANCH'S GATES AND FENCES.
In 2017, the New York Times broke the story of a secretive government UFO program run by Pentagon counter-intelligence staffer Luis Elizondo. According to the article, in 2007, a Defense Intelligence Agency official visited the ranch, and a short time later, met with Senator Harry Reid of Nevada. According to the New York Times, “Mr. Reid said he met with [DIA] agency officials shortly after his meeting with Mr. Bigelow and learned that they wanted to start a research program on UFOs.” That program, the Advanced Aerospace Weapons Systems Application Program, was given to Bigelow under government contract. His company received $22 million dollars to study and generate reports on exotic science, UFOs, and other anomalous phenomena. The strange events on the ranch, as well as other locations bearing purported paranormal anomalies, were involved in the study, according to the New York Times. AAWSAP was cancelled after two years and, in 2011, Bigelow’s government funding ran out. Attempts to secure more money for research was denied. Meanwhile, the Pentagon’s UFO investigation program, the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, or AATIP, continued looking into unknown aerial encounters by the US military.
Bigelow has been silent as to what occurred on the ranch during his tenure as owner, and wild rumors have ranged from the ranch being a site of secret government weapons testing to hiding underground alien bases. Stories about shapeshifting monsters, interdimensional portals, UFO sightings, and poltergeists continue to this day. In 2016, Bigelow sold the ranch to a company called Adamantium Real Estate Holdings. In 2018, Las Vegas reporter and long time UFO researcher George Knapp and filmmaker Jeremy Corbell released a documentary film about the ranch which only added more to the enigma which surrounds it.
That documentary called it "the most scientifically studied site in paranormal history."
Just because it’s an infamous place for UFO and paranormal hunters doesn’t mean that everyone feels that way, or even knows what it is.
Louise Tsinijinnie, a spokesperson for the Navajo Nation Parks and Recreation Service, told me that Skinwalkers were not something that many Navajo will discuss. I asked her about her thoughts regarding Skinwalker Ranch and the curse allegedly placed there centuries ago.
“It is within the realm of possibility,” she said. “In times of great desperation or wrong doing, the oral storytelling does point to such events occurring.”
Tsinijinnie said that, mythologically and within oral tradition, the Navajo do have stories about Skinwalkers, and Skinwalker Ranch could fit into those narratives. She has heard of the ranch, but was unable to confirm with absolute certainty that such a curse was placed directly on the land.
Betsy Chapoose, the Cultural Rights and Protection Director for the Ute tribe, explained that in her 30 years of working in tribal administration, she had never had anyone come into her office to talk about the ranch. She said people who live near the ranch may have their own stories and traditions regarding the Skinwalker legend, and those were something that ought to be respected. But when I first asked her about the legend and alleged Navajo curse, she didn't know what to make of it:
“That is the first time I have ever heard that story,” her voice breaking into laughter. “It’s true that the Ute and the Navajo have had a strained relationship over land ownership, but I’ve never heard any stories about a curse.”
THE AUTHOR AND WILLIAM
As I hop out of the SUV the next day on the ranch, a black dog bounds towards me.
“Hey pup,” I put out my hand. The dog eagerly accepts a scratch behind the ears.
“That’s William,” the owner says. “He came with the ranch. He knows all its secrets.”
“Seen it all have you pup pup?” I ask. “You must be that big bad monster everyone keeps talking about. You don’t seem so scary.”
The dog accompanies me as I look around the main buildings. The first is a farmhouse, occupied by the live-in caretakers of Skinwalker Ranch, Kandus Linde, a published anthropologist, and her partner Tom Lewis, a freelance graphic artist.
“You hear a lot of stories about what goes on, but most of it is just stories. Do weird things happen? Yeah,” Linde explained to me. “The best way to describe it is that the ranch has a personality. It sounds crazy, I know.”
“It’s over 500 acres,” Linde explained. “It’s a beautiful place. It’s quiet. We literally live in the middle of nowhere, but it’s home. It does have ‘a feeling’ though, and every once in a while, we know we need to get away for a bit.”
More interesting is the second building, only a few steps away. This is the nerve centre of the ranch’s scientific project, known as the Command Center. This hub is the brainchild of Erik Bard, a plasma physicist and partner in a small company that designs and manufactures components for x-ray analytic systems that are used in U.S. national labs.
The new owner has heard all the bizarre stories and rumors, of course. He admits many are far-fetched, but if the ranch does hold strange secrets, he’s out to try his best to confirm them. Over the past several years, he and his staff have completely revamped the ranch, installing surveillance systems and scientific equipment all over in order to try to detect UFOs, paranormal activity, or otherwise explain some of the strange happenings that occur on Skinwalker Ranch.
THE COMMAND CENTER.
IMAGE: MJ BANIAS
The Command Center is the core of that effort.
Behind a locked door, accessible only by code, is a room about the size of a large bedroom. The Command Center, though designed by Bard, was built by the ranch’s superintendent, Thomas Winterton after it was purchased by the current owner. The Command Center has five 55-inch flat screen monitors showing live feeds from nearly a dozen cameras, workbenches, computer systems, microscopes, and just for a touch of fun, embedded green LED rope lights that give the room a cool sci-fi vibe.
"I've made consumer and scientific products in my career, but this ranch and the whole story connected with it are where I find a different and potentially important kind of meaning," Bard tells me.
The first screen that catches my eye monitors air traffic over the ranch. Bard is very clear that their aircraft transponder data feed was not relying on online services like FlightRadar24, an online flight tracking website.
“This data that we are receiving at the ranch is tracked by the equipment that we have here,” Bard explains. “We have receivers on the ranch that track both 1090 MHz ADS-B and 978 MHz UAT signals.” The vast majority of aircraft are required to use either ADS-B or UAT transponders to tell air traffic controllers who they are and where they are. The ranch system provides a live feed, but also stores historical data, so if several witnesses saw something strange in the sky, they could cross reference it with all known flights in the area. Bard explains that the system also creates a secondary historical log as a redundancy.
THOMAS WINTERTON AT LEFT AND ERIK BARD AT RIGHT IN THE COMMAND CENTER.
IMAGE: MJ BANIAS
“The local historical log gets compared against independent sources of what are supposed to be the same data, the latter being the secondary witness. In turn, these get compared against such things as our readings and surveillance footage. A secondary witness is helpful in the event that we have interference with our local equipment during some episode,” Bard says. “We have a lot of equipment problems here because of some strange electromagnetic interference.”
Over the last year, several strange cases of extreme electromagnetic fields have been logged on the ranch. According to Bard, these EM fields are transient, they come and go, move around and at times have reached levels dangerous to humans.
According to the ranch team, several times in the last few years, people on the ranch have become ill and some even required hospitalization. Thomas Winterton was hospitalized with a life threatening subgaleal fluid collection with associated subcalvarial inflammation, or in layman’s terms, swelling in the brain and the collection of fluid between the skull and the scalp, which the team believes occurred when he attempted to dig on the ranch.
I was able to confirm with medical records that some of the medical tests resulted in inconclusive results for common causes of such an injury. It seems the jury is still out and Winterton is currently being monitored by his doctors. Over the summer, three guests on the ranch reported strange skin inflammation, nausea, and extreme lassitude within a close period of time and several went to the local emergency room, according to the owner. I was unable to independently verify why they needed medical attention.
Another screen monitors the radio frequencies at which electromagnetic signals are detected on the ranch. Due to the ranch’s significant distance from radio and cellular towers, the radio signals typically remain at a very low level. On occasion, there are several anomalous occurrences of sudden bursts across a wide range of the RF spectrum, which is not typical of a single signal source or station.
A RADIO SIGNAL SCREEN IN THE COMMAND CENTER.
IMAGE: MJ BANIAS
“We have not been able to determine the origin of these,” Bard tells me as the screen suddenly became erratic with activity. A cell phone or walkie-talkie will only elevate the levels in one area of the RF spectrum, and would create a small peak on the band, he says. “It doesn't make sense when you see a very wide portion of the spectrum jumping up and down like this. My best guess, if I had to come up with a plausible explanation, these could be signals broadcast by automation on some of the oil and gas drilling equipment that’s around the ranch.” Bard has not yet been able to determine the actual cause.
The ranch is also equipped with a weather monitoring station, dozens of stationary and mobile HD camera systems, as well as infrared, night vision, and thermal imaging cameras. Large portions of the 512-acre ranch are under 24/7 surveillance. Bard can view all this remotely, with enough server space to store all those video feeds. Bard often jokingly refers to the ranch as Eden, and much like God, he has eyes everywhere.
Bard explains that any strange events require significant amounts of data to be considered actual anomalies by him and his team. If a strange event does occur, such as the sighting of an aerial anomaly or a sudden surge of electromagnetic frequency, the team examines data across all the monitoring systems to see if and how each device recorded the phenomenon.
Major events, the ones “that count,” not only end up getting picked up on video, but usually correlate to multiple readings on the various sensor platforms. Bard’s favorite system is something he designed and built himself. SATAN, or Sentinel Assignment Telemetry And Notification is a four-legged metal unit with a built in computer and screen. SATAN is equipped to detect vibrations in the ground and air at very low frequencies, transient magnetic fields, as well as infrasonic and seismic activity.
“Now this unit is inside because I am doing some upgrades, but normally, it sits way out on the ranch in a pit. We call it the SATAN pit.” Bard chuckles at his odd Biblical sense of humor, “I know.”
Typically, Bard considers an event anomalous when multiple sensors detect activity simultaneously, and, as yet, defies a straightforward explanation. While Bard is not prepared to say paranormal interdimensional entities or aliens are visiting the ranch, he does believe it’s strange when random electromagnetic frequencies bombard a localized area of the ranch, get logged by all the equipment, and then, a few minutes later, vanish.
AN OLD "BAIT PEN," USED TO MOUNT CAMERAS AND SENSORS. PREVIOUS OWNERS PUT ANIMALS IN THESE PENS TO SEE IF ANYTHING HAPPENED TO THEM. THE CURRENT OWNER DOESN'T DO THIS ANYMORE.
IMAGE: MJ BANIAS
“More has occurred on the property in the last two years than the two decades Bigelow’s group was here,” Bryant ‘Dragon’ Arnold, the ranch’s head of security, tells me rather gruffly as we leave the Command Centre. While that’s impossible to verify, many people on the ranch seem to believe it. “People talk about Bigelow Aerospace and NIDS and BAASS and the Pentagon’s $22 million. I’ll tell you right now, people would be surprised if they knew what we have seen and the money that has been spent since we took over.”
"I take my truck up the road, and as I start to get closer, I start to get really scared. Just this feeling that takes over. Then I hear this voice, as clear as you and me talking right now, that says, ‘Stop, turn around.’"
Arnold, Winterton, and I are touring the property in a black Jeep. The melting snow has turned the usually red dusty trails into a rough brown muck. As our vehicle is getting knocked around by the bumpy road, the two men explain that the ranch was in a state of disrepair in 2016, and significant time and money was spent into upgrading the facilities. Winterton says the septic tank was improperly installed, and the toilets barely worked. He did many of the repairs himself. The surveillance and data collection platforms have also been modernized and improved.
“Whatever the thing on this ranch is, it can drain your phone battery in a second, give people radiation burns, and generate insane levels of electromagnetic frequencies. When we first got here in 2016 after buying the ranch,” Arnold laughs shaking his head. “Shit, some of the gear and tests they left behind, well, let’s just say we’ve taken a more scientific approach.”
A licensed private security expert with significant experience as an outdoorsman, Arnold has known the ranch’s new owner since they were 19. They are basically brothers. He tells me that people show up at the gates all the time wanting to come onto the property. Some people can be belligerent, but most people just stand at the gate and leave when they are asked to.
“One time this guy pulls up to the gate and asks if he can see the ranch. He tells me he that he is from Australia and the ranch was on his Bucket List,” Winterton tells me. “I can’t believe that guy would fly all that way just to come here.”
As we slowly traverse the pothole-strewn roads, I ask Arnold if he has ever had any paranormal experiences on the ranch. He laughs.
A HOMESTEAD ON SKINWALKER RANCH.
IMAGE: MJ BANIAS
“Nothing at first. I thought it was all a bunch of crap. Then, one night, I’m in one of the bedrooms in the ranch house. I’m lying down trying to get to sleep, and then all of a sudden, BAM, something slams into my bed. It’s like when your kids jump into bed with you or someone big kneed the bed. I sit up and turn on the lights. Nothing’s there.”
Something else happened to Arnold this summer, he says. He explains that there was a large film crew on the ranch during the summer. They were filming the first season of the History Channel TV series.
“We all saw it. We were looking at the West field, and then there it was. I thought it was a drone for a second because I try to rationalize everything. It was just hovering there,” Arnold looks at me. “I don’t think I can talk about this. It sounds insane. All the sensors we have went crazy.”
The two men take me to the field where Arnold had his sighting. He tells me that he can’t talk about it. I decide to leave it alone as I look across the snow-covered field. It is quiet. Peaceful. In the distance are some old abandoned buildings.
Heading towards them, I know that these three decaying houses are what they call ‘Homestead 2.’ On the verge of collapse, these old homes housed ranchers and their families since the 1930s well before the ranch became the infamous paranormal hotspot it is now. Over time, these families slowly moved away and none lived on the ranch when the Sherman family bought it in 1994. Winterton hands me a Trifield meter, a handheld device that acts as a gaussmeter, electric field meter, and radio field strength meter in all in one. Grabbing my camera, I slowly walk through these old buildings which probably have countless stories to tell. Even in the middle of the day, they were dark and ominous. There is an odd feeling to these old peeling walls and empty wooden kitchen cabinets, a stillness and silence, and I feel nervous.
A HOMESTEAD.
IMAGE: MJ BANIAS
“We get a lot of weird events at these old homesteads,” Winterton tells me as I return to the Jeep.
“When we first took over the ranch, Bigelow had an older couple here who were the caretakers. They liked living on the ranch, so they stayed here until about a year and a half ago when they decided to leave for health reasons,” Winterton continues. “One night in 2016, they called me, it was probably 2 a.m, and said someone was on the ranch. There was this old basketball they kept by the front porch, anyway, they said someone was bouncing it against the house.”
Kids looking for kicks, overzealous paranormal enthusiasts, and UFO investigators occasionally try to trespass onto the ranch. Winterton, who only lives about 15 minutes from the ranch, jumped in his truck, pistol in hand, and sped to the property.
“When I got there, I made sure they were OK and I just walked through the house making sure no one else was there. I told them to stay inside and went out to see if anyone was walking around,” he says.
THE AUTHOR SITTING INSIDE HOMESTEAD 3.
IMAGE: MJ BANIAS
Using one of the thermal cameras they kept on the ranch, Winterton began going to all the sheds and outbuildings, scanning the fields and the mesa. Nothing.
“I had this feeling I was being watched, but no one was there. I get my shotgun from my truck and, just for good measure, I go to the front yard there, and blast a few shots into the air and yell a few obscenities. Just to scare them,” Winterton tells me with a chuckle.
He decided to search the old homesteads, since a lot of trespassers go to those buildings.
“I take my truck up the road, and as I start to get closer, I start to get really scared. Just this feeling that takes over. Then I hear this voice, as clear as you and me talking right now, that says, ‘Stop, turn around.’ I lean out the window with my spotlight out and start searching around. Nothing. So I get out and blast a few more shots and yell some more.”
The ranch’s bizarre history tends to get into people’s heads. Knowing the history of the ranch, I let my mind run wild. I feel like some invisible presence is watching me. Walking through these old homes, knowing the myths, my logical and rational brain are wrestling with the possibility that something may haunt this ranch like the stories say.
Thinking it was all in his head, Winterton told the couple everything was fine and went home. He had a similar experience six months later while he was plowing snow at the ranch. The same voice. The same feelings of fear and anxiety. He thought he was losing his mind.
One evening, Winterton and his wife went to the ranch because Bard told him that he wanted a hard backup of the video files due to some cameras failing. He asked Winterton to use one of the external hard drives to download the videos from that night. As Winterton began the backup, he and his wife heard a banging sound coming from one of the back bedrooms.
“It sounded like someone had an electrical cord and they were smacking it against a wall. So I jump up and run back there. Nobody was in there. I’ve spent tons of time in the Command Centre. I know the usual sounds that it makes, what the water heater sounds like when it turns on. This was different,” Winterton says. “So we are freaking out at this point. I sit down back at the computer and the download is taking forever. Then, all of a sudden, like someone was standing between us, I hear, ‘Leave now.’ I look at Melissa, she looks at me. Then it happens again, ‘You need to leave now.’”
Tom and Melissa Winterton both jumped up and did as they were told.
“We get into the truck and we got the hell out of there. I am trying to text and call Erik but my phone won’t respond. It’s all frozen. My wife is trying to get it to work. I try. It’s like 10 minutes goes by, and eventually, the phone responds then it just dies. It started to work for a second or two then the batteries are totally dead.”
Melissa Winterton later recounted the story to me in much the same way.
We continue down the road to another decaying house, ‘Homestead 3.’ Surrounded by a circle of old trees, this house is the end of the line. As I explore, the two men point to the west and the property line which separates the ranch from reservation land owned by the Ute.
Winterton and Arnold take me up to the southern side of the ranch which has us climb up a hill that overlooks the entire property. This high up, I can see the entire ranch, the mesas, and the snow covered mountains in the far distance and it truly is a majestic place.
“For all the weird shit that happens here, this is my favorite place in the world,” Arnold tells me as we stand there. “Some of the people here say the ranch is alive. Maybe. I don’t know. But when I’m not here, all I want to do is come back.”
“All I want to do is grab a tent and my camping bag. I could stay here for a week,” I say. “I just want to go exploring.”
“It’s like the ranch calls to you, you know,” Winterton gives me knowing smile.
I eventually have to leave the ranch, and as our SUV gets back on the highway, I can’t help but think that Skinwalker Ranch is so much more than the paranormal mythology that has been crafted around it. Perhaps it is too late to separate the ranch from the lore that has made it famous, but from my short time there, the ranch does seem to have an aura.
For the Defense Intelligence Agency, it was a national security and defense project. For the owner and his science team, it is a place for scientific research into questions that humanity has been grappling with since time immemorial. For the live-in caretakers, for Winterton and Arnold, the ranch is home. For locals, it is a place not spoken of and avoided. For me, a journalist, it is a story I will someday tell my kids around a campfire. For paranormal researchers and UFO enthusiasts, it is a place of myths and legends where unspeakable entities roam and unknown objects travel.
Whatever the truth is behind the strange events which plague Skinwalker Ranch, it is fundamentally a place one ought to respect. As our SUV enters the snow-covered mountain passes on the way back to Salt Lake City, I can’t help but smile. I avoided the curse of the Skinwalker, at least for now.
An unidentified object from outer space has been spotted shooting across the Los Angeles night sky on Wednesday and residents have been sharing footage of the bright light on social media.
Several locals reported seeing the blazing trail, claiming it was either a meteor, a fireball, or a "crazy looking shooting star."
The exact origin of the latest sighting has yet to be confirmed. Any matter illuminating on entry to Earth's atmosphere is considered a meteor. Asteroids are smaller matter orbiting the Sun.
"We have about 60 reports so far [of the sighting] and a trajectory estimate," Mike Hankey, a software developer and meteor observer at the American Meteor Society (AMS), told Newsweek. "We also caught it on one of our meteor camera stations outside of Los Angeles. From the video and also the report we can tell this was most likely NOT a natural fireball meteor. It appears to be 'space-trash', a man-made object re-entry of some type. We are not sure what the object is yet, but this information will probably come out soon."
Many residents in Southern California shared videos of the recent sighting on social media using the hashtag #meteor, which trended on Twitter.
"Meteor over Los Angeles, taken in the Mission Hills/San Fernando Valley area of LA. I got the last 13 seconds of at least a 20 second shooting star #meteor #LAmeteor #LosAngeles #LA #ShootingStar," wrote @StanMoroncini.
"I saw this massive meteor earlier tonight it seemed to fall for a long time and was so amazing to see #meteor," wrote @ColourMeMineBty.
"Y'ALL I was really thinking it was the end of the world.... This thing was huge #meteor," wrote @badddgalkeke
Stan Moroncini@StanMoroncini
Saw the most crazy meteor I’ve ever seen!! It blew into pieces and burned up in the atmosphere!! Oh My Lanta that was SO COOL!!!!! And I caught the end on camera!!#meteor
"Saw the most crazy meteor I've ever seen!! It blew into pieces and burned up in the atmosphere!! Oh My Lanta that was SO COOL!!!!! And I caught the end on camera!! #meteor," wrote @summerrabel.
"Residents in Southern California were treated to a meteor last night. The fireball streaked across the night sky & then broke into several pieces. #meteor #Fireball #ThursdayThoughts," wrote @MariettaDaviz.
Stan Moroncini@StanMoroncini
Meteor over Los Angeles, taken in the Mission Hills/San Fernando Valley area of LA. I got the last 13 seconds of at least a 20 second shooting star #meteor#LAmeteor#LosAngeles#LA#ShootingStar
The bright trail was also reported to be seen from San Diego. "I saw the same meteor here in San Diego. That was so dope! Didn't tell anyone to don't look crazy #meteor," wrote user @mathbjj.
"My boyfriend caught this video of the meteor shower in california and wanted me to post it!! #meteor #SanDiego," wrote @renfriiiii.
Matheus Oliveira@mathbj
I saw the same meteor here in San Diego. That was so dope! Didn’t tell anyone to don’t look crazy
"The majority of visible meteors are caused by particles ranging in size from about that of a small pebble down to a grain of sand, and generally weigh less than 1-2 grams," the AMS explains. "The brilliant flash of light from a meteor is not caused so much by the meteoroid's mass, but by its high level of kinetic energy as it collides with the atmosphere."
kimmy@renfriiiii
My boyfriend caught this video of the meteor shower in california and wanted me to post it!! #meteor#SanDiego
In November, a mysterious "large fireball falling to the earth" was spotted in Salem, Oregon. The incident was first reported as a plane crash, but the Federal Aviation Administration did not report any plane crashes in the area at the time. The AMS and the CNEOS also did not report fireballs in the area. In July, a large fireball was also spotted flashing across the South Florida sky and was reported to be space debris by the AMS, WPTV reported.
Newsweek contacted NASA's Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) for further comment on the latest incident.
A Perseid meteor is seen over Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado in the early morning hours of August 13, 2018.GETTY IMAGES
The lonely expanses of the world’s deserts seem to be devoid of much of anything. They are forbidding, arid wastelands where few tread and where even fewer care to spend much time. Yet, from these expanses of rugged, withered wilderness there have sprung some very weird accounts within the world of the weird, these remote locales and their bleak atmosphere seemingly a perfect recipe for tales of the truly outlandish. Here we will look at some accounts of very weird supposed encounters with what seem to be alien entities, which have occurred out in these moonscape deserts and which serve to perplex.
One of the most bizarre desert alien encounters I have ever seen comes from Timothy Green Beckley’s Strange effects of flying saucers, and supposedly happened in the summer of 1967 somewhere out in the moonscape of an unspecified California desert in the very dark early morning hours. According to the report, 18-year old Jerry James, his father, mother and younger sister were all driving through these badlands on their way from Colorado to a vacation home they kept in California, and the mood at the time was one of excitement and merriment. The drive had been an arduous, 18-hour-long ordeal, but despite their weariness they were in high spirits. They pulled their Chevrolet pickup and house trailer into a service area to get some rest and relax in their trailer before the last leg of their journey, and this is where their vacation would take a turn for the increasingly bizarre.
It began when one of them noticed an object in the sky that was pointed out to the others. Whatever it was soon proved to be no normal aircraft, about the size of a car, somewhat spherical, and sort of resembling a top in that that it was continuously spinning as it wandered about the area, and it suddenly emitted a bright beam like a searchlight down to the parched earth below, much to the family’s surprise. The craft and its inscrutable piercing, searching beam then circled around the area and they had the distinct feeling that it was looking for something down in the dust and scrub below it. They looked on in awe and bewilderment for a few minutes, but this turned to fear when that beam suddenly trained right upon them. The UFO then approached to hover directly above them, that blinding light making it as if it were broad daylight outside and the whole time completely silent. Just as they thought that they were perhaps in big trouble they were bathed in darkness again like a curtain coming down as the craft shot off into the night, leaving them quite shaken. But things were about to get even weirder still.
The next day the family was only a few miles from the service station when they stopped and got out to stretch their legs and noticed a silver-looking vessel or craft of some type come towards them to approach to such a close distance that they said they could even see the little rivets in its metallic surface. It was all rather terrifying, to the point that the mother fainted to crumple to the ground and had to be revived with smelling salts. They then retreated into their trailer and found a strange sight awaiting them there. Whereas moments before the trailer had been rather a mess, with unmade beds and dirty dishes in the sink, now everything was completely in order, cleaned up, and the entire trailer was pristine and spotless. Everything had been put away and it was as if someone had come in and cleaned it all, which was very odd considering they had all left the mess it has been in just minutes before. Just about the only thing out of place was a single kitchen dish lying on the counter, which held something weird within.
Sitting in the dish was what looked like a sprouting carrot, but it started to transform before their startled eyes, sprouting roots that were almost like tentacles in their mobility and the speed in which they fell down over the counter to spill to the floor below and writhe about. The family stared in puzzlement as the plant further bloomed outwards, taking steps back to avoid the ever expanding tangle of quivering roots at their feet. It was also noticed that the plant, the dish, and the cabinet it sat upon were covered with a slimy green-colored substance, of which Jerry would say:
It was a vile smelling substance, and other than that I can’t tell you much about it. One thing strange though. When I touched it with a pencil it ‘ate up’ the wood and lead in a matter of seconds.
The family continued their surreal odyssey when they took the truck out on the road again and found that the vehicle would accelerate and slow against their will as if it had a mind of its own. When they reached a service station and tried to put gasoline in, the cap was removed to belch forth a horrific stench and hissing noise. Making it all even more absurdly weird is that they would later find that the seat where the driver sat had inexplicably rotted away, and the ignition key had become malleable like rubber and now glowed in the dark. What in the world?
This is one of those cases that seems to transcend bizarre and firmly lodge itself into the realm of the truly fringe. Also from 1967 comes an odd report from the Vizcaino Desert of Baja California in Mexico. On the evening of July 2 of that year military intelligence units were reportedly called out to an isolated area of the desert to investigate an alleged UFO crash, and when they arrived at the scene they supposedly found what they were looking for in an unearthly oblong metal craft that had apparently broken in half and was surrounded by a “pungent odor.” Strangest of all were the four bodies of what could only have been the occupants, described as being very odd indeed.
Each of the enormous creatures was said to measure around 9-feet in height, covered with hair and with squashed, hairless ape-like faces with flat wide noses, and mouths twisted open in grimaces of agony that exposed smallish fangs, for the most part more or less looking every bit like what one imagines a Bigfoot would look like. The only thing they wore were a kind of sandals with very thick soles and a copper colored belts with huge buckles lined with small buttons, but other than that they were completely naked and carried no tools. Weirdly, one of the creatures was supposedly found to still be alive, but died soon after. According to the report, the U.S. military moved in and whisked away all of it to Yuma Air Base in Arizona. What happened then? Well, your guess is as good as anyone’s.
Moving into later years in May of 1980 there was a strange encounter described in Linda Moulton Howe’s book An Alien Harvest, and supposedly occurred in the remote desert near Cimarron, New Mexico. The witnesses were a woman and her 8-year old son, who were driving through the desert and spotted three odd lights out in the open landscape near a cattle ranch. They could see that one of the objects was larger than the others, with what looked like lit windows embedded within it. After that they apparently fainted, and it was only when the woman was hypnotically regressed that she would remember what had happened to her out there in that remote place.
According to the witness, she had been gripped by a stifling fear when she heard the cows “screaming in agony,” after which she was purportedly approached and captured by four inhuman entities, three of them troll-like and greenish in color and another, taller hairless pale being with a high forehead and large beautiful eyes and wearing a flowing white cape, which seemed to be the leader. The taller one apparently telepathically scolded the witness for being out there, and she claimed that his touch caused a tingling, burning pain as if it were a hot iron. She was then dragged kicking and screaming to their ship, where she would see her son fast asleep. The aliens then allegedly began a medical examination of her and brought her past a room where greenish shuffling creatures wearing brown clothing were dissecting a cow, horrifically as it was still alive and gurgling in pain, eventually bringing her to another room where there were more of the pale white entities. Her memory then jumps to standing in the desert again, and this time she was brought down to an underground facility populated by more of the ethereal pale beings and where she spies a vat of gelatinous liquid holding a horrific collection of animal and human body parts suspended within. The next thing she would remember after this would be sitting safely back in her car with her son, who would not remember any of it as he had peacefully slept through it all. Weird to say the least.
Another report from Phantoms and Monsters also apparently happened in 1980 in the desert wilds near Tucson, Arizona, where two friends were out exploring on a chilly October evening. They were making their way along a dry riverbed, the darkness pushed away by miner’s lights on their heads, when they came across a large, thick Palo Verde tree that appeared out of the night in the light of their lamps. As they approached, the branches of the tree allegedly started shaking violently, but they could not tell what was causing it. They at first thought it might be wild pigs, but then the shaking stopped and began again higher up in the tree. As they shone their lights and peered into the thick foliage they say they were startled to see two bright blue eyes spaced around a foot apart staring down at them, after which they withdrew and some heavy footfalls could be heard thumping off into the night. The witnesses claim that they would find enormous footprints there the next day, and that the area would have intense UFO activity for several weeks after.
Another strange case involving some sort of humanoid creature comes from the deserts of the Mexican State of Chihuahua. At the end of 1989 and the beginning of 1990, a group of teenagers were on a mission to explore the caves of a place called Cerro Pajarito when they came across something that would haunt them for the rest of their lives. As the group was exploring one of the caves, they came upon the discovery of a dead deer and a doe that were freshly killed and exhibited three odd perforations on their necks that formed a triangular pattern. In the surrounding area, there were footprints that looked like those of a puma, but it soon became apparent that no puma had done this. The group suddenly heard blood curdling squealing sounds and the air became pervaded by a stench described as smelling like burning wood. The terrified group of teenagers looked and saw a hunched over, humanoid figure crouched upon a rock outcropping about 15 meters away from them. The creature apparently started bounding towards them and one of the groups emptied his pistol at it, although the bullets seemed to have no effect. As the panicked group turned tail and ran for dear life, they reported passing yet another humanoid creature that was described as being metallic green in color and standing only 80 cm high. What could this have possibly been? Who knows?
It certainly seems that the isolated, inhospitable wilds of the desert are prime locations for some very strange encounters, and it leaves us to wonder what could be going on here. Are these genuine alien encounters with creatures from another world, interdimensional phenomena, or what? How can we comfortably fit the utter, sheer bizarreness of such reports into what we know? There is no way to be sure of the answer to these questions, but if you are ever out in the sun scorched desert wilderness, be sure to keep an eye out. You never know what you might find.
A special thanks to intrepid researcher and friend Albert S. Rosales for providing these accounts and sources.
You may scoff at the idea of or the need for a military branch devoted to defending or fighting in outer space. You may laugh at its uniform emblem’s obvious resemblance to the Starfleet Command emblem of the fictional fighters for the United Federation of Planets in the Star trek world. But … who are you going to call when a mysterious Russian spacecraft begins tailing an equally mysterious U.S. spy satellite? Space Force, we have a problem!
“This is all circumstantial evidence, but there are a hell of a lot of circumstances that make it look like a known Russian inspection satellite is currently inspecting a known US spy satellite. A pretty thorough look of the satellite catalog can’t produce another potential target that looks as good as this in terms of the orbits and viewing geometry.”
That’s part of what Purdue University astrodynamics grad student Michael Thompson tweeted after spotting Cosmos 2542 (also called Kosmos 2542), a Russian inspection satellite launched in late November 2019, enter a synchronized orbit with USA 245, a National Reconnaissance Office KH-11 image gathering spy satellites. Military watchers like The Drive quickly picked up on this and pointed out that Cosmos 2542 is one of many so-called space apparatus inspection satellites that the Russian space program has put into orbit over the past decade.
“Space apparatus inspector” is a benign description for satellites that have exhibited very non-benign orbital behavior. In a previous report by The Drive, the satellites were spotted tailing space debris very closely in a manner that suggests something more than them being robotic ‘space pickers’. (Note to self – pitch ‘Space Pickers’ to cable network.) The Pentagon expressed concerns about these “inspectors” at a 2018 meeting of the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, but Russia has continued to launch them. Cosmos 2542 appears to be the first to be ‘inspecting’ an active satellite – USA 245 is one of a number of leading-edge reconnaissance (spy) satellites utilizing electro-optical digital imaging to provide a real-time optical observation capability. In other words, a perfect vehicle for spying on other countries. Why does Thompson and The Drive think Cosmos 2542 is spying on OUR spy?
“As I’m typing this, that offset distance shifts between 150 and 300km depending on the location in the orbit.”
That means Cosmos 2542 has placed itself as close as 93 miles away from USA 245 while speeding at thousands of miles per hour. Even more sinisterly, Thompson observed Cosmos 2542 moving in orbit from one side of USA 245 to the other – giving it a full view of the satellite.
What’s the big deal, you may ask … isn’t this just a real-life playout of Mad Magazine’s iconic “Spy vs. Spy” Cold War cartoons? Maybe – it could just be a sinister game that neither side will win. Since USA 245 is highly classified, we don’t know what its true capabilities or ultimate mission are, nor do we know if it’s capable of its own evasive maneuvers (there haven’t been any yet) or if it’s armed and ready for these types of encounters. However, it’s easy to imagine that Cosmos 2542 is close enough to attack and/or destroy USA 245 or render it useless with electronic jammers, blinding lasers or even just by spraying chemicals on its camera lenses – a perfect ‘Spy vs. Spy’ setup.
Is it time for the Space Force?
“There may come a point where we demonstrate some of our capabilities so that our adversaries understand they cannot deny us the use of space without consequence.”
Then-Secretary of the Air Force Heather Wilson said this at the Space Foundation’s 35th annual Space Symposium in 2019. This sounds like what most people expect the Space Force to do. Can it? Will it live up to its fictional emblem inspiration or will it become one-half of Mad’s ‘Spy vs. Spy’?
“Activate paint shields and spray cans, Mr. Sulu.”
Steve Quayle: Vatican UFO Disclosure - Light Orbs Phenomenon
Steve Quayle: Vatican UFO Disclosure - Light Orbs Phenomenon
Steve Quayle Interviews (02/01/2020) — The Responsibility Of The Vatican For The Flow Of Disclosure Information
Steve Quayle is a researcher and author of over a dozen books dealing with advanced ancient technology and civilizations. His documentary film production company Gensix Productions films the “True Legends The Series” all over the world in search of the Lost Cities and the giants of history who were the builders of the great megalithic structures of the ancient world.
Steve is a former talk radio show host who has been warning against genetic armageddon and the end of the human race for decades. He claims transhumanism and the hybrid age is the most dangerous advancement in the technological war against humanity in history.
Life on Mars or just a big rock? UFO hunters claim sketchy Nasa snap shows human-like alien but the space agency says it simply captures the landscape of the red planet
Life on Mars or just a big rock? UFO hunters claim sketchy Nasa snap shows human-like alien but the space agency says it simply captures the landscape of the red planet
UFO hunters claim Curiosity rover has captured image of a tiny alien
Figure said to be standing behind a rock on Mars, peering around corner
They claim it is six inches tall, and compared it to the 'Atacama alien'
But, DNA tests on Atacama remains found it was a human with a mutation
More than a decade ago, a bizarre six-inch skeleton was discovered in Chile’s Atacama Desert, spurring claims that extraterrestrial visitors had crash-landed on Earth.
Now, alien investigators of the internet have spotted what they say could be a living member of the same species.
Just feet away from Nasa’s Curiosity rover, YouTube user Paranormal Crucible claims a tiny humanoid alien can be seen spying from behind a Martian rock.
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Just feet away from Nasa’s Curiosity rover, Youtube user Paranormal Crucible claims a tiny humanoid alien can be seen spying from behind a Martian rock
The original image was captured by the Curiosity rover’s Mastcam, revealing the rocky landscape of the red planet.
But at the bottom-center of the photo, Paranormal Crucible claims to have found something strange.
‘Interesting anomolie [sic] found by the rover, which looks like a little Martian,’ the Youtuber wrote.
‘I have colorized the image and added eyes to the head so its easier to see, but everything is there in the original images, whatever it is it looks humanoid, reminds me of the Atacama Alien, about the same size too, this one is around 6 inches.’
The original image was captured by the Curiosity rover’s Mastcam, revealing the rocky landscape of the red planet. But at the bottom-center of the photo, Paranormal Crucible claims to have found something strange
WHY WE SEE STRANGE THINGS ON MARS
Pareidolia is the psychological response to seeing faces and other significant and everyday items in random stimulus.
It is a form of apophenia, when people see patterns in random, unconnected data.
There have been multiple occasions when people have claimed to see religious images and themes in unexpected places.
On the red planet, one of the most famous is the 'face on Mars' spotted by one of the Viking orbiters in 1976.
This was later proven to just be a chance alignment of shifting sand dunes.
Commenters have speculated that the small figure is likely a Martian woman, based on the shape of its ‘body.’
On UFOSightings Daily, editor Scott C. Waring added to the claims, writing that the figure in the photo is of a Martian species that is alive, but dwindling.
‘This human-like figure is peering around the corner of a rock wall and I can make out its head, chest, shoulders, arm, leg, knee, and foot from this one close up photo,’ Waring writes.
Due to the estimated size, Paranormal Crucible says it ‘could be the same species’ as the ‘Atacama alien.’ In 2013, however, it was revealed that DNA tests on the tiny skeleton found in Chile confirmed that the bizarre specimen was not an alien, but a human with an ‘interesting mutation’
‘Paranormal Crucible says its about 6 inches…I agree. This is one of the species that once lived on Mars and is still living there now, but in lower numbers. The mysteries of Mars just keep revealing themselves one by one.’
Due to the estimated size, Paranormal Crucible says it ‘could be the same species’ as the ‘Atacama alien.’
In 2013, however, it was revealed that DNA tests on the tiny skeleton confirmed that the bizarre specimen found in Chile was not an alien, but a human with an ‘interesting mutation.’
THE MYSTERIOUS 'ATACAMA ALIEN' SKELETON
The 'Atacama alien' remains were found on October 19, 2003 by a man named Oscar Munoz while he was looking for objects of historical value in La Noria – a ghost town in the Atacama Desert.
Near an abandoned church, Munoz found a white cloth containing ‘a strange skeleton no bigger than 15cm [the size of a pen],’ according to a local Chilean newspaper.
It was a creature with hard teeth, a bulging head with an additional odd bulge on top.
Its body was scaly and of dark color. Unlike humans, it had nine ribs.
A few years ago, researchers from Stanford University analysed DNA from bone marrow extracted from the specimen.
They concluded that it was an 'interesting mutation' of a male human that had survived post-birth for between six and eight years.
‘I can say with absolute certainty that it is not a monkey.
'It is human - closer to human than chimpanzees. It lived to the age of six to eight,’ Garry Nolan, director of stem cell biology at Stanford University's School of Medicine in California, said at the time.
Key point: It’s unlikely that the new UAV is capable of Mach-10 hypersonic flight—the Pentagon is still struggling to reach Mach five.
Iran is the only other country besides the United States to operate arguably history’s most powerful interceptor aircraft, the F-14 Tomcat. And the Islamic republic has worked the twin-engine, swing-wing fighters hard.
The F-14s played a major role in Iran’s war with Iraq from 1980 to 1988. Iranian Tomcat pilots were the only ones to successfully employ the F-14’s long-range, heavyweight AIM-54 Phoenix missile to shoot down enemy planes.
In the decades after the war, Tehran repaired and upgraded the surviving F-14s, scouring the globe for parts in defiance of a U.S. government embargo.
The Americans retired their F-14s in 2006, but around 40 of Iran’s Tomcats remain active. Their main role is defending Iran’s nuclear sites. It’s a mission that has brought the interceptors in close contact with some very mysterious aircraft, according to a bizarre and fascinating 2013 story in Combat Aircraft magazine by reporter Babak Taghvaee.
The Iranians believed the objects were spy drones belonging to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, sent to sniff out Tehran’s suspected atomic weapons program. But they attribute to these alleged unmanned aerial vehicles flight characteristics and capabilities far beyond what any known drone can achieve.
And in 2012 one of the alleged flying robots reportedly also shot down an F-14 attempting to intercept it. Or at least some Iranians seem genuinely to believe so.
Over the decades Tehran has built three major nuclear facilities that could, in theory, be used to assemble atomic weapons: reactors at Bushehr and Arak and an enrichment plant at Natanz.
This infrastructure became public knowledge in 2002. No doubt the CIA took a strong interest, potentially long before that date. “A number of reconnaissance UAVs were sent to collect intelligence to prepare for a possible attack” by Western forces, Taghvaee wrote.
To protect the nuke facilities, in 2004 Iran deployed a task force composed of eight F-4E fighters and eight F-14s plus a former 707 airliner and a C-130 cargo plane outfitted with sensors and radios for command and control. The task force encountered what it believed were CIA drones with “astonishing flight characteristics.”
The UAVs could jam radars and disrupt interceptors’ navigation systems. They flew “outside the atmosphere” at speeds of up to Mach 10. They could hover. Flying at night, they emitted a telltale blue light that led to their nickname: “luminous objects.”
“In several cases … F-14s faced them but were unable to operate their armament systems properly,” Taghvaee wrote. One Tomcat taking off to intercept a luminous object on Jan. 26, 2012 mysteriously exploded, killing both crewmen. Taghvaee implies the alleged UAV was somehow responsible, as the F-14 in question was “one of the fittest” of the 40 or so Tomcats then in service.
It should go without saying that the CIA and the Pentagon most likely fly reconnaissance aircraft near—and even over—Iranian nuclear sites. In 2012 and 2013, Iranian fighters tried to intercept American Predator drones outside Tehran’s airspace. In the 2013 incident, a U.S. Air Force F-22 stealth fighter blocked the intercept with some Top Gun-style theatrics.
In 2009, the Air Force copped to the existence of a new, previously secret drone operated in conjunction with the intelligence agency. The RQ-170 Sentinel was based in southern Afghanistan within short flying distance of Iran. In December 2011, a Sentinel crashed on the Afghanistan-Iran border and was captured by Iranian troops.
Neither the Predator nor the Sentinel is particularly high-flying nor can hover or glow blue. And neither has the electrical power to scramble radars and navigation gear.
Rumors abound that the Air Force and CIA operate a stealthy new drone that has not been disclosed to the public. Even if they do, it’s unlikely that the new UAV is capable of Mach-10 hypersonic flight—the Pentagon is still struggling to reach Mach five.
So if Iranian F-14s truly are chasing around super-fast, super-high-flying and lethal UFOs, what exactly are they? Who knows.
David Axe serves as Defense Editor of the National Interest. He is the author of the graphic novels War Fix,War Is Boringand Machete Squad. This first appeared in August 2019 and is being republished due to reader's interest.
(CNN)Neutrinos, so-called "ghost particles" scattered across the universe, can be 10 million times lighter than the mass of an electron, according to a new study.
Neutrinos are referred to as ghostly because they are extremely volatile, or vaporous, cosmic particles that can pass through any kind of matter without changing. They have almost no mass -- but now scientists have calculated the mass of the lightest type of neutrino.
They can travel through the most extreme environments, like stars, planets and entire galaxies, and remain the same. But neutrinos, while highly energetic, have no charge. Not even the most powerful magnetic field can affect them.
Last year, scientists were able to trace the origins of a high-energy, tiny neutrino for the first time. It traveled 3.7 billion light-years to Earth. It was found by sensors deep in the Antarctic ice in the IceCube detector.
Scientists and observatories around the world were able to trace the neutrino to a galaxy with a supermassive, rapidly spinning black hole at its center, known as a blazar. The galaxy sits to the left of Orion's shoulder in his constellation and is about 4 billion light-years from Earth.
Different types of neutrinos appear as three different masses, but the lightest one was unknown until now. And astronomers still don't know much else about the differences in these three types.
"A hundred billion neutrinos fly through your thumb from the Sun every second, even at night," said Arthur Loureiro, study author and PHd student in the University College London's Physics & Astronomy department. "These are very weakly interactive ghosts that we know little about. What we do know is that as they move, they can change between their three flavours, and this can only happen if at least two of their masses are non-zero."
The mix of three different masses is like mixing ice cream flavors, he said.
"The three flavors can be compared to ice cream where you have one scoop containing strawberry, chocolate and vanilla," Loureiro said. "Three flavors are always present but in different ratios, and the changing ratio-and the weird behaviour of the particle-can only be explained by neutrinos having a mass."
The idea of neutrinos having mass garnered scientists Takaaki Kajita and Arthur McDonald the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics.
In order to calculate the low mass of the lightest neutrino, data from 1.1 million galaxies collected by particle physicists and cosmologists was used. This allowed them to measure the expansion rate of the universe. Neutrinos are prevalent in the universe, but hard to spot. The scientists required as much data as possible to have every advantage in their research.
"We used information from a variety of sources including space- and ground-based telescopes observing the first light of the Universe, exploding stars, the largest 3D map of galaxies in the Universe, particle accelerators, nuclear reactors, and more," Loureiro said."As neutrinos are abundant but tiny and elusive, we needed every piece of knowledge available to calculate their mass and our method could be applied to other big questions puzzling cosmologists and particle physicists alike."
The supercomputer, known as Grace, at University College London allowed the researchers to create a mathematical model. The supercomputer crunched half a million computing hours, which would have taken 60 years on a single processor.
The researchers discovered the mass to be 10 million times lighter than an electron. Calculating this mass can help researchers who are studying dark matter, dark energy and the structure of the universe.
INSLAGEN VAN PLANETOÏDEN – EEN VOORSPELBAAR RISICO?
INSLAGEN VAN PLANETOÏDEN – EEN VOORSPELBAAR RISICO?
Karel van der Hucht
Kraters onthullen dat de aarde in het verleden getroffen is door planetoïde-inslagen. En die kunnen zich ook in de toekomst voordoen. Maar kunnen we ze aan zien komen?
In het tijdsbestek 1980-1990 kwamen geologen en astronomen een prehistorische inslagkrater voor de kust van Yucatán (Mexico) op het spoor. De krater bleek even oud als de massa-extinctie van 66 miljoen jaar geleden waarbij ongeveer 75% van al het leven op aarde het leven liet, waaronder de dinosauriërs. Deze uitstervingsgolf wordt algemeen aan de Yucatán-inslag toegeschreven, waardoor het besef doorbrak dat onze kosmische omgeving invloed heeft op leven en evolutie op aarde. Inslagen van planetoïden en kometen op aarde hebben de evolutie niet alleen in het verleden op dramatische wijze beïnvloed, maar zulke inslagen zullen zich ook in de toekomst voordoen. Sindsdien wordt hard gewerkt om zoveel mogelijk potentieel gevaarlijke planetoïden en kometen te ontdekken, te volgen en te karakteriseren.
Dit artikel is oorspronkelijk verschenen in het blad ZENIT, waarin je elke maand alles kunt lezen over sterrenkunde, weerkunde en ruimteonderzoek.
NEA’s Een planetoïde wordt Near Earth Asteroid (NEA) genoemd als zijn baan hem binnen 1,3 Astronomische Eenheden (AE: de gemiddelde afstand aarde-zon, 150 miljoen km) van de zon brengt. Near Earth Asteroids en Near Earth Comets (NEC) vormen samen de categorie Near Earth Objects. Het aan de Internationale Astronomische Unie (IAU) gelieerde Minor Planet Center is sinds 1947 het internationaal erkende registratiecentrum en archief van alle waarnemingen – waar ook ter wereld gedaan – van objecten kleiner dan planeten. Tot januari 1980 had het MPC de banen van 51 NEA’s en 44 NEC’s geregistreerd. Inmiddels zijn dat 21.465 NEA’s en 108 NEC’s (stand van 29 november 2019), waarvan de gegevens publiekelijk beschikbaar zijn op het internet. Dit dankzij het werk van NEO-waarnemers wereldwijd (beroeps en amateurs), het NASA/JPL Center for NEO Studies (CNEOS) en het ESA-SSA NEO Coordination Center (NEOCC). Omdat het aantal geregistreerde NECs minder is dan 1% van het aantal geregistreerde NEA’s, beperken we ons in dit artikel tot NEA’s (aardscheerders).
Tot 29 november 2019 werden 556 passages van NEA’s met afmetingen van 1 tot 325 meter binnen 1 maansafstand (d ≤ 1 Lunar Distance, LD: 384.400 km) geregistreerd, waarvan 30 passages met d ≤ 0,1 LD. De huidige ontdekkingsfrequentie van zulke nabije NEA-passages is momenteel ongeveer 75 per jaar. Zeven recente NEA-inslagen vonden plaats in 1908 (Tunguska), 2008 (2008 TC3, Soedan), 2013 (Chelyabinsk), 2014 (2014 AA, West-Afrika), 2018 (2018 LA, Botswana, zie Beekman 2018a; en Beringzee) en 2019 (2019 MO, Caribische Zee). De inslagen boven Soedan, Chelyabinsk en de Beringzee kwamen onverwacht. In de andere vier gevallen werden de NEA’s kort voor de inslag gedetecteerd.
Het cumulatieve aantal waargenomen Near-Earth Asteroids (NEA’s) per 18 november 2019.
Afbeelding: CNEOS.
Beschikbare baanberekeningen van de thans bekende NEA’s voorspellen 48 NEA-passages met d ≤ 1.00 LD tot het jaar 2200, dus slechts 0,25 per jaar (minstens een factor 4 × 75 = 300 te weinig). Maar hoe compleet is de NEA-inventaris momenteel? Van het geschatte aantal van 942 NEA’s met afmetingen groter dan een kilometer zijn er tot op heden 901 waargenomen (96%), met een inslagfrequentie van eens per half miljoen jaar. In de categorie van 140 m tot 1 km zijn er van het geschatte aantal van ongeveer 24.000 NEA’s 8.875 waargenomen (37%), met een inslagfrequentie van eens in de tienduizend jaar. In de categorie van 40 m tot 140 m zijn er van het geschatte aantal van ongeveer 500.000 NEA’s tot op heden ~ 6300 waargenomen (< 1%), met een inslagfrequentie van eens in de duizend jaar. Momenteel worden er jaarlijks ongeveer 2000 nieuwe NEA’s ontdekt, met afmetingen van een paar meter tot enkele kilometers. Het risico van catastrofale NEA-inslagen op aarde is niet zo zeer geassocieerd met de tot op heden bekende, maar met het gigantische aantal nog toe onbekende NEA’s.
“DE NEA-INSLAG VAN 66 MILJOEN JAAR GELEDEN WAS NIET DE EERSTE IN ZIJN SOORT, EN ONGETWIJFELD OOK NIET DE LAATSTE”
Enkele inslagen De Earth Impact Database vermeldt 160 erkende inslagkraters, met diameters van 10 tot 300 km en een ouderdom van 50.000 tot 2 miljard jaar. De jongste ontdekking, gepubliceerd in november 2018, betreft een ~30 km grote inslagkrater onder Hiawatha Glacier in Noord-West Groenland, onder een kilometerdikke laag ijs. Ieder van deze prehistorische NEO-inslagen had ongetwijfeld een dramatische invloed op zijn omgeving. Maar ook de relatief kleine NEO-inslagen sinds 1908 tonen aan dat onze plaats in het zonnestelsel niet zo veilig is als wij tot voor kort dachten. In het kader hieronder volgt een select overzicht van relevante NEO-inslagen.
(Relatief) recente inslagen op een rij – 66 Mjr BC: de Chicxulub-krater (Mexico). Deze ~150 km grote en ~20 km diepe krater, deels begraven onder het Yucatán-schiereiland, werd veroorzaakt door de inslag van een NEA met een diameter van ongeveer 10 tot 15 km. De tijd van inslag correspondeert goed met de Krijt-Tertiairgrens (de K–T grens is de overgang tussen de geologische tijdperken Krijt (K) en Paleogeen (Pg)), iets minder dan 66 miljoen jaar geleden. De inslag veroorzaakte een wereldwijde verstoring van het aardse klimaat en het uitsterven van ruwweg 75% van alle levensvormen op aarde (massa-extinctie), inclusief de dinosauriërs. Was deze inslag onvermijdelijk? De aarde legt in haar baan om de zon een afstand gelijk aan haar eigen diameter af in ongeveer zeven minuten. Dus als de NEA die de massa-extinctie veroorzaakte zeven minuten eerder of later langs was gekomen, dan zou die de aarde gemist hebben. Dan waren de dinosauriërs toen niet uitgestorven en zouden wij er nu misschien helemaal niet zijn. De NEA-inslag van 66 miljoen jaar geleden was niet de eerste in zijn soort, en zeker ook niet de laatste. – 50.000 B.C.: Meteor Crater (Arizona, VS). Meteor Crater werd veroorzaakt door de inslag van een ijzer-nikkel-NEA met afmetingen van 40 tot 50 m ~50,000 jaar geleden, heeft een diameter van 1,2 km en is 170 m diep. – AD 1490: meteorietenregen in China. In februari-maart van het jaar 1490 regende het stenen van 1 kg tot 1,5 kg uit de hemel in het Chíng-yang-district van de provincie Shansi (China). Volgens toenmalige bronnen zouden hierbij meer dan 10.000 mensen zijn omgekomen. – AD 1803: meteorietenregen in L’Aigle (Frankrijk). In de vroege middag van 26 april 1803 regenden meer dan 3000 meteorieten neer op de stad L’Aigle in Normandië. – AD 1908: explosie boven Tunguska (Rusland). Op 30 juni 1908 explodeerde een NEA met een diameter van ~40 m op een hoogte van ~8,5 km in de omgeving van de rivier de Tunguska (Siberië), waarbij een energie van ~4 megaton TNT vrij kwam, die ~2.000 km2 bosoppervlak verwoestte. – AD 2008: inslag van NEA 2008 TC3 boven Soedan. NEA 2008 TC3, met een diameter van ~4 m, werd slechts 19 uur voor inslag ontdekt en ontplofte vervolgens boven de Nubische woestijn in het noorden van Soedan. Direct na de NEA-ontdekking en nog vóór de explosie ontving het MPC 570 waarnemingen van dit object, verricht door 27 waarnemers wereldwijd. Na de inslag werden in de woestijn 280 meteorieten gelokaliseerd met een gezamenlijk gewicht van ruim 4 kg. – AD 2013: inslag boven Chelyabinsk (Rusland). Op 13 februari 2013 explodeerde een NEA met afmetingen van 17-20 m en een massa van ~11.000 ton op een hoogte van ~23 km boven de stad Chelyabinsk (Rusland), waarbij een hoeveelheid energie van ~440 kT TNT vrijkwam. De drukgolf van de ontploffing arriveerde 88 sec. later in de stad, beschadigde meer dan 7.000 gebouwen en verwonde ~1600 personen als gevolg van gesprongen vensters (glaswonden). De NEA moet vlak voor de inslag van de 24ste magnitude zijn geweest en benaderde de aarde binnen 15° van de richting naar de zon met een snelheid van ~19 km/s. – AD 2018: inslag boven de Beringzee. In december 2018 ontplofte een NEA met een energie van bijna 200 kT TNT (meer dan 10 keer de Hiroshima-bom) onverwacht boven de Beringzee.
Het inslagrisico Het risico dat wij op de korte termijn lopen, op de tijdschaal van een mensenleven, komt voornamelijk van NEA’s met afmetingen van 20 tot 40 meter. Kleinere NEA’s, hoewel groter in aantal, verbranden bij inslag geheel in de aardatmosfeer; grotere NEA’s komen minder vaak voor.
Een NEA met Tunguska-afmetingen (~40 m) scheert een aantal keren per jaar binnen de maansafstand langs de aarde en slaat ongeveer eens in de 500 jaar in. Een NEA met Chelyabinsk-afmetingen (~20 m) scheert bijna eens per week langs de aarde binnen de maansafstand en eens per twee jaar binnen de gordel van de geostationaire satellieten (~36.000 km). Ongeveer 10 miljoen NEA’s met Chelyabinsk-afmetingen hebben banen die de aardbaan snijden; hun inslaginterval is van de orde van 50 jaar. Zie de tabel hieronder voor de gevolgen van NEA inslagen als functie van hun afmetingen.
Gemiddelde gevolgen van NEA inslagen als functie van hun afmetingen.
Afbeelding: Yeomans, 2013, p. 115.
NEO-surveys NEO waarneemstations bevinden zich voornamelijk in de VS en worden gefinancierd door NASA, daarin geleid door de George E. Brown Object Survey Act uit 2005, een initiatief van het Amerikaanse Congres. Die wet eist van NASA om vóór het jaar 2020 90% van alle NEO’s met afmetingen groter dan 140 m te ontdekken, te volgen en te karakteriseren om vast te stellen hoe groot de kans op inslagen van deze NEO’s is. Karakterisering (bepaling van hun fysische eigenschappen) is essentieel voor een goed begrip van het effect van NEO-inslagen en wordt verkregen met fotometrie, spectroscopie, radarwaarnemingen en metingen ter plaatse, zoals momenteel op de NEA’s Ryugu en Bennu plaatsvinden door de sample return-ruimtemissies Hayabusa2 en OSIRIS-REx. De meest productieve NEO-surveys zijn de Amerikaanse Catalina Sky Survey (CSS, sinds 1999) en het Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS, sinds 2011). De NEO-survey NEOWISE opereert vanuit de ruimte. CSS is onderdeel van het Lunar and Planetary Laboratory van de University of Arizona (Tucson, VS). De drie CSS-telescopen staan op het Santa Catalina-gebergte ten noorden van Tucson en behoren tot het Steward Observatory van de University of Arizona: een 1,5 m reflector, een 1,0 m reflector en een 0,7 m Schmidt-telescoop. Tot 2013 werd samengewerkt met de aanverwante Siding Spring Survey en diens 0,5 m Uppsala Schmidt-telescoop op het Siding Spring Observatory in Australië. De CSS 1,5 m survey-telescoop is een f/1,6 reflector met een 10.560 × 10.560 pixels CCD-detector in het primaire focus. Per nacht kan een gezichtsveld van 1000 vierkante graden worden waargenomen met een grensmagnitude van V ≈ 21,5 met een belichtingstijd van 30 sec. per opname.
Pan-STARRS op Hawaii.
Afbeelding: Rob Ratkowski.
Pan-STARRS is een observatorium van de University of Hawaï gelegen op Mount Haleakala (Maui, VS). Pan-STARRS heeft twee telescopen, PS1 en PS2, elk met een spiegel van 1,8 m diameter. Deze telescopen observeren gelijktijdig hetzelfde gebied aan de hemel. Elke spiegel heeft een gezichtsveld van drie graden en een CCD-camera met 1,4 miljard pixels. De resolutie aan de hemel bedraagt 0,3 boogseconden. Voor NEO-waarnemingen overziet men een gezichtsveld van 6000 vierkante graden per nacht. Met een belichtingstijd van 30 à 60 sec. kan Pan-STARRS objecten waarnemen tot een magnitude van V ≈ 26. NEOWISE maakt gebruik van de NASA Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) ruimtemissie. De sonde werd gelanceerd in december 2009 en maakte in vier infrarood-golflentebanden (3,4, 4,6, 12, 22 μm) een survey van de hele hemel, tot in september 2010 de koelvloeistof was uitgeput. De missie werd tot februari 2011 vervolgd als NEOWISE bij 3,4 en 4,6 μm, waarna de ruimtesonde in winterslaap werd gebracht. NEOWISE werd in september 2013 uit haar winterslaap gewekt en heeft tot midden oktober 2019 meer dan 860.000 infraroodwaarnemingen aan het MPC geleverd van 35.277 verschillende objecten in ons zonnestelsel, waaronder 1044 NEO’s en 179 kometen.
Geen zorgen om Apophis Zo af en toe duiken er planetoïden op die mensen (in eerste instantie) zorgen baren. Apophis is er eentje van. Apophis is een NEA met diameter van 370 meter, waarvan de eerste waarnemingen in december 2004 een golf van bezorgdheid veroorzaakte. Het leek erop dat Aphopis met een kans van 2,7% op vrijdag 13 (!) april 2029 met de aarde in botsing zou komen. Vervolgwaarnemingen leidden al spoedig tot minder zorgwekkende voorspellingen, maar het duurde nog tot 2013 voordat waarnemingen met de Goldstone-radartelescoop een al te groot risico uitsloten: de inslagkans in 2029 is hooguit 1 op 500.000. Recente berekeningen voorspellen dat Apophis die dag op 31.356 km langs de aarde zal scheren, zichtbaar met het blote oog als een object van magnitude +3,1. Niettemin is deze unieke close encounter van groot wetenschappelijk belang; plannen voor waarneemcampagnes zijn in de maak. Een inslag van een NEA met Apophis-afmetingen kunnen we eens in de 80.000 jaar verwachten. Een datum van grotere zorg is 16 maart 2880 wanneer NEA 1950 DA (afmetingen: 1,39 × 1,46 × 1,07 km) met een inslagkans van 1 op 8330 (0,012%) langs de aarde zal scheren.
Toekomstige surveys De huidige NEO-inventarisatie is marginaal, zoals hierboven gekwantificeerd. Daardoor is het nog niet mogelijk de risico’s van NEO-inslagen goed te bepalen. Twee ambitieuze projecten moeten op korte termijn enigszins soelaas bieden: LSST op aarde en NEOCam in de ruimte. De Large Synoptic Survey Telescope is een 8,4 m optische telescoop, in aanbouw op het Cerro Pachón-gebergte in het noorden van Chili en moet vanaf 2022 operationeel zijn. LSST zal echter slechts gedeeltelijk beschikbaar zijn voor NEO-waarnemingen. LSST wordt geacht om 62% van de potentieel gevaarlijke NEA’s groter dan 140 m in kaart te brengen in een tijdsbestek van 10 jaar. In 12 jaar zou dat mogelijk 90% kunnen worden.
De Large Synoptic Survey Telescope.
Afbeelding: LSST.org.
Alleen met permanente, optische en infrarood observatoria in de ruimte zal het ontdekken, volgen en karakteriseren van NEO’s kunnen leiden tot een zo volledig mogelijke inventarisatie. Het NASA-JPL NEOCam-project behelst een 50 cm telescoop met een groothoek-infraroodcamera voor waarnemingen bij 4 tot 10 μm, met passief gekoelde detectoren tot 40 K. NEOCam zal opereren in het zon-aarde Lagrange punt L1 (ongeveer vier keer verder dan de maan) gedurende minimaal vier jaar, om 66 % van de NEA’s groter dan 140 m te inventariseren en zo mogelijk 90% in 10 jaar. Veertien jaar heeft het NEOCam-voorstel moeten concurreren met andere ruimteonderzoek-voorstellen. Totdat het besef doorbrak dat NEOCam niet alleen van groot wetenschappelijk, maar vooral ook van groot maatschappelijk belang is: de bescherming van aarde en mensen tegen NEO-inslagen. In september 2019 werd het project goedgekeurd en heet nu NEO Surveillance Mission. De lancering is op zijn vroegst in 2025.
Tot slot NEO-inslagen zijn uniek onder de natuurrampen, omdat zij met grote nauwkeurigheid kunnen worden voorspeld, mits er een voldoende complete NEO-inventarisatie beschikbaar is. Omdat NEO-inslagen zich niets van nationale grenzen aantrekken, ligt internationale samenwerking in NEO-surveys voor de hand. De 100-jarige IAU kan hierin een belangrijke rol spelen. Er zullen grote investeringen gedaan moeten worden om een serie NEO-observatoria in de ruimte te installeren rond de zon tussen de banen van Venus en Mars, met als doel om 90% van alle NEOs groter dan 40 m te inventariseren. Alleen dan zal het mogelijk zijn om tijdig waarschuwingen uit te doen gaan voor NEO-inslagen van Tunguska-niveau en zwaarder. In Resolution 3B van de 28ste Algemene Vergadering van de IAU in 2012 wordt aanbevolen om een dergelijk International NEO Early Warning System te stichten. Als verzekeringspremie voor planeet Aarde tegen inslagen van Near Earth Objects, de ongeleide projectielen van de kosmos. In de woorden van oud-directeur van het NASA JPL Center for NEO Studies Donald K. Yeomans (2013, p. 153): “Near Earth Objects are among the smallest members of the solar system, but their diminutive size is in no way proportional to their importance… We better find them, before they find us.”
Very rarely, a gravity wave rising up in the atmosphere can be filtered and bent to travel between the mesopause and an inversion layer intermittently formed below the mesopause. The mesopause and the inversion layer are colder than the other layers of the atmosphere. In the wave channel established between these two layers, gravity waves coming from below can travel long distances without subsiding. Dune-shaped auroral emissions are created when solar wind charges the oxygen atoms surging through the channel. Credit: Jani Närhi
Working together with space researchers, Finnish amateur photographers have discovered a new auroral form. Named "dunes" by the hobbyists, the phenomenon is believed to be caused by waves of oxygen atoms glowing due to a stream of particles released from the Sun.
In the recently published study, the origins of the dunes were tracked to a wave guide formed within the mesosphere and its boundary, the mesopause. The study also posits that this new auroral form provides researchers with a novel way to investigate conditions in the upper atmosphere.
The study was published in the first issue of the high-impact journal AGU Advances.
An unknown fingerprint appears in the sky
Minna Palmroth, Professor of Computational Space Physics at the University of Helsinki, heads a research group developing the world's most accurate simulation of the near-Earth space and space weather that cause auroral emissions.
The sun releases a steady flow of charged particles, known as the solar wind. Reaching the Earth's ionised upper atmosphere, the ionosphere, they create auroral emissions by exciting atmospheric oxygen and nitrogen atoms. The excitation state is released as auroral light.
In late 2018, Palmroth published a book entitled "Revontulibongarin opas" ("A guide for aurora borealis watchers"). The book was born out of Palmroth's cooperation with Northern Lights enthusiasts and the answers she provided to questions about the physics of the phenomenon in the hobbyists" Facebook group.
Thousands of magnificent photographs of the Northern Lights taken by hobbyists were surveyed and categorized for the book. Each auroral form is like a fingerprint, typical only of a certain phenomenon in the auroral zone. During the classification, hobbyists pointed out that a certain auroral form did not fit into any of the pre-existing categories. Palmroth set aside these unusual forms for later consideration.
By an almost unbelievable coincidence, just days after the book was published, the hobbyists saw this unusual form again and immediately informed Palmroth. The form appeared as a green-tinged and even pattern of waves resembling a striped veil of clouds or dunes on a sandy beach.
"One of the most memorable moments of our research collaboration was when the phenomenon appeared at that specific time and we were able to examine it in real time," says Northern Lights and astronomy hobbyist Matti Helin.
Waves newly revealed by the aurora
Investigations into the phenomenon were launched, with hobbyist observations and scientific methods coming together to explain the waves.
"It was like piecing together a puzzle or conducting detective work," says Helin. "Every day we found new images and came up with new ideas. Eventually, we got to the bottom of it…"
The phenomenon was photographed at the same time in both Laitila and Ruovesi, southwest Finland, with the same detail observed in the auroral emission in both images. Maxime Grandin, a postdoctoral researcher in Palmroth's team, identified stars behind the emission and determined the azimuths and elevations of the stars with the help of the astronomy software program Stellarium. This made it possible to use the stars as points of reference when calculating the altitude and extent of the auroral phenomenon.
Grandin found that the auroral dunes occur at a relatively low altitude of 100 kilometers, in the upper parts of the mesosphere. The wavelength of the wave field was measured to be 45 kilometers.
A total of seven similar events—where a camera had recorded the same even pattern of waves—were further identified from the "Taivaanvahti" ("Sky Watch') service maintained by the Finnish Amateur Astronomer Association, Ursa.
Unexplored region
The part of the auroral zone where the Earth's electrically-neutral atmosphere meets the edge of space is an extremely challenging environment for satellites and other space-borne instruments. Palmroth says this is why it is one of the least studied places on our planet.
"Due to the difficulties in measuring the atmospheric phenomena occurring between 80 and 120 kilometers in altitude, we sometimes call this area 'the ignorosphere,'" she says.
The dunes were observed precisely in that particular region of the auroral zone. The observed phenomenon guided the researchers towards a middle ground between atmospheric research and space research, as the usual methodology of space physics could not explain it alone.
"The differences in brightness within the dune waves could be due to either waves in the precipitating particles coming from space, or in the underlying atmospheric oxygen atoms," says Palmroth. "We ended up proposing that the dunes are a result of increased oxygen atom density."
Next, the team had to determine how the variability in the density of the oxygen atoms caused by gravity waves in the atmosphere results in such an even and widespread field of waves. Normally at the altitude of study there are many different kinds of gravity waves traveling in different directions at different wavelengths, which is why they do not easily form the even wavefields exhibited by the dunes.
The Northern Lights illuminate a tidal bore
The study suggests that the phenomenon in question is a mesospheric bore, a rare and little-studied phenomenon that takes place in the mesosphere. The tidal bore phenomenon is a wave common to many rivers, where the tide travels up the river channel.
Various types of gravity wave are born in the atmosphere and then rise. In very rare cases, gravity waves can get filtered as they rise between the mesopause and an inversion layer that is intermittently formed below the mesopause. The inversion layer makes the filtered waves bend and enables them to travel long distances through the channel without attenuation.
When the oxygen atoms in the bore collide with the electrons precipitating down upon the atmosphere, they become excited. When releasing this excitation, they create the auroral light. This is why mesospheric bores—a phenomenon thus far considered a very challenging subject of research—can occasionally be seen with the naked eye.
Space researchers focus on the atmosphere
Prior to this discovery, mesospheric bores were not observed in the auroral zone, nor have they been investigated via auroral emissions.
"The auroral zone as a whole is usually discounted in studies focused on the bore, as auroral emissions impair the technique used to identify mesospheric bores," says Palmroth.
Traditionally, researchers specializing in the atmosphere and space have largely investigated their topics of interest separate from each other. This is because there are only a handful of known mechanisms of interaction between the ionosphere bathing in the precipitating electrons, and the neutral atmosphere.
With the help of measuring devices operated by the Finnish Meteorological Institute, the dunes were found to occur simultaneously and in the same region where the electromagnetic energy originating in space is transferred to the ignorosphere.
"This could mean that the energy transmitted from space to the ionosphere may be linked with the creation of the inversion layer in the mesosphere," says Palmroth. "In terms of physics, this would be an astounding discovery, as it would represent a new and previously unobserved mechanism of interaction between the ionosphere and the atmosphere."
ADEMBENEMEND MOOI: DEZE NIEUW ONTDEKTE VARIANT VAN HET NOORDERLICHT
ADEMBENEMEND MOOI: DEZE NIEUW ONTDEKTE VARIANT VAN HET NOORDERLICHT
Vivian Lammerse
Het groen getinte licht lijkt wel wat weg te hebben van golvende duinen op een zandstrand.
Onderzoekers hebben samen met Finse amateurfotografen een nieuwe variant van het prachtige noorderlicht ontdekt. Het fenomeen dat niet leek te passen binnen bestaande categorieën van het noorderlicht is ‘de duinen’ genoemd. Een bijpassende naam. Het licht dat aan de nachtelijke hemel verschijnt lijkt namelijk wel wat op golvende duinen op een zandstrand.
Boek De vondst van de nieuwe variant van het noorderlicht is te danken aan duizenden hobbyfotografen die voor een nieuw boek foto’s van het noorderlicht verstrekten. Opvallend genoeg bleek dat een bepaald type licht dat door de fotografen vastgelegd was, niet in een van de reeds bestaande categorieën paste. Slechts een paar dagen na publicatie van het boek zagen hobbyisten dit ongebruikelijke licht opnieuw. “Eén van de meest gedenkwaardige momenten was toen het fenomeen op dat specifieke moment aan de hemel verscheen en we het in realtime konden onderzoeken,” zegt amateurastronoom Matti Helin.
Verklaring Wetenschappers en amateurs verenigden zich om de bijzondere golvende patronen te verklaren. “Het leek op het leggen van een puzzel of het uitvoeren van speurwerk,” herinnert Helin zich. “Elke dag vonden we nieuwe afbeeldingen en kwamen we met nieuwe ideeën. Uiteindelijk kwamen we erachter…” In een nieuw wetenschappelijk artikel doen onderzoekers hun bevindingen uit de doeken. Zo ontdekten ze dat de ‘duinen’ voorkomen op een relatief lage hoogte van ongeveer 100 kilometer boven de grond, in de bovenste regionen van de mesosfeer.
Wat is het noorderlicht? Het noorderlicht ontstaat wanneer geladen deeltjes afkomstig van de zon door het aardmagnetisch veld in de buurt van de noord- en zuidpool worden afgebogen. De deeltjes dringen vervolgens met hoge snelheid de atmosfeer nabij de polen binnen en botsen op verschillende gassen. Daarbij ontstaat het veelkleurige licht dat wij het noorderlicht of poollicht noemen.
De studie suggereert dat het fenomeen in kwestie een zogenoemde mesosferische branding (in het Engels mesospheric bore) is. Dit is een zeldzaam en nog maar weinig bestudeerd fenomeen dat zich in de mesosfeer afspeelt. Het manifesteert zich wanneer golven van zuurstofatomen in de atmosfeer worden opgewekt door interacties met zonnewind, waardoor er een gloeiend, duinachtig effect ontstaat. “De verschillen in helderheid van de duingolven hebben mogelijk te maken met neerslaande deeltjes uit de ruimte, of met onderliggende atmosferische zuurstofatomen,” legt onderzoeker Minna Palmroth uit. “Uiteindelijk kwamen we tot de conclusie dat de duinen het gevolg zijn van een verhoogde dichtheid van zuurstofatomen.”
Energie Met behulp van geavanceerde meetapparatuur bleek dat de duinen gelijktijdig en in hetzelfde gebied voorkomen waar de elektromagnetische energie uit de ruimte wordt overgedragen aan de mesosfeer. “Dit kan betekenen dat de energie die vanuit de ruimte naar de ionosfeer wordt overgebracht kan worden gekoppeld aan het ontstaan van de inversielaag in de mesosfeer,” stelt Palmroth. “In termen van de fysica zou dit een verbazingwekkende ontdekking zijn, omdat het een nieuw en voorheen niet waargenomen mechanisme van interactie is tussen de ionosfeer en de atmosfeer.”
De foto’s en video’s van het nieuw ontdekte fenomeen zijn hoe dan ook adembenemend. Daarnaast kunnen ze helpen om de de omstandigheden in de moeilijk te bestuderen mesosfeer te onderzoeken. Het is trouwens niet voor het eerst dat onderzoekers een nieuw type poollicht ontdekten. Eerder werd ook al het mysterieuze verschijnsel STEVE afgedaan als een nieuwe variant. Helaas werd dat idee ontkracht en bleek het eerder te gaan om een soort ‘luchtgloed’.
The wreckage of a ship that mysteriously went missing in the Bermuda Triangle almost 100 years ago has been discovered off the coast of Florida, a team of researchers has said.
The SS Cotopaxi—an American merchant steamer—left Charleston, South Carolina on November 29, 1925, loaded with coal. But the vessel vanished without a trace before arriving at its final destination, Havana, Cuba.
The fate of the Cotopaxi and the 32 people on board has long puzzled experts, and the ship's disappearance has become one of the famous stories associated with the legend of the Triangle—a notorious region of the western North Atlantic Ocean where several ships and aircraft are said to have gone missing in strange circumstances.
"The Cotopaxi was on a routine voyage," marine biologist and underwater explorer Michael Barnette told Newsweek. "She was employed in the coal trade and so this was just another trip at the end of November of 1925. We know that on that voyage something happened because she delivered a mayday message early December saying she's in distress.
"And then that was it. They never found any wreckage. They never found any lifeboats, bodies or anything. The vessel just disappeared after that point. So we've been trying to determine what happened."
The story of the disappearance of the Cotopaxi has had a colorful past. Film director Steven Spielberg included the vessel in his sci-fi classic Close Encounters of the Third Kind, in which it was discovered in the Gobi Desert, having apparently been placed there by extraterrestrials. In 2015, a news report said the ship had reappeared near a restricted military zone off the coast of Cuba. Various versions of this story emerged in the years that followed. All have been dismissed as hoaxes, however.
Now, after almost a century of uncertainty and speculation, a more realistic explanation has emerged. Barnette and colleagues say they have located the wreck around 35 miles off the coast of St. Augustine, on Florida's northeast coast.
The discovery is revealed in an episode of Shipwreck Secrets, a new Science Channel series that starts next month.
"I've always been fascinated by history," Barnette, who has discovered the wrecks of numerous lost ships over the course of his career, said. "I'm a marine biologist by profession. But maritime history is my real passion. I like going out and trying to identify wrecks because every one has a fascinating story. I'm just a very curious guy."
The search for the wreck began thousands of miles away from the Bermuda Triangle in London, England. Barnette contacted British historian Guy Walters and asked him to dig through the archives of Lloyd's of London, which contains insurance documents related to the ship's fateful voyage.
During his search, Walters managed to uncover evidence that the Cotopaxi had sent out a distress signal on December 1, 1925—a key piece of information that historians had not previously known about.
"A lot of times, it's more important to spend more time in the archives researching than it is on the water, because that's when you will make the discoveries in all these articles for insurance or things of that nature," he told Newsweek.
According to the documents he uncovered, the distress signals were picked up in Jacksonville, Florida, placing the ship in the vicinity of the so-called Bear Wreck—located off the coast of St. Augustine—which has baffled experts for decades.
The waters off the coast of St. Augustine—a thriving port in colonial times—are filled with 16th and 17th century shipwrecks. The Bear Wreck, however, stands out from these in a number of ways. Firstly, it appears to be from the late 19th or early 20th century, and is located much further off the coast than most of the other older shipwrecks. The ship's real name and the reason it sank have long remained a mystery.
Michael Barnette diving the Bear Wreck.DISCOVERY COMMUNICATIONS, LLC
With the evidence uncovered by Walters, Barnette and his dive partner Joe Citelli decided to conduct a series of dives at the Bear Wreck in order to look for an artifact that could link it to the Cotopaxi. Specifically, they wanted to find an object with the vessel's name on it—something commonly found on the bell of ships.
However, such discoveries are rare and despite the use of a remotely operated underwater vehicle, the divers did not find what they were looking for, in part, because the wreck is covered in large quantities of sand.
Barnette got in touch with Al Perkins, a diver who has been exploring the Bear Wreck for more than three decades, collecting numerous objects from it in the process. One of the items in his collection seemed to provide a clue to the wreck's origins.
The object was a valve that had been manufactured by a company based around 12 miles from where the Cotopaxi was built—in Ecorse, Michigan. But was this a coincidence or a piece of evidence linking the Bear Wreck to the Cotopaxi?
Barnette reached out to Chuck Meide and Brendan Burke from the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Maritime Museum—two experts on the shipwrecks in the waters surrounding the city.
Under the guidance of Meide and Burke, Barnette conducted more dives to collect measurements of the Bear Wreck. These were then compared with the original plans of the Cotopaxi. The team discovered that numerous features—including the length of the vessel and dimensions of the boilers—matched the measurements they had taken.
Finally, Barnette received a crucial piece of information from Walters, who had been carrying out research at the National Archives of New York. There, the historian found documents from a legal case that the families of some of the missing crewmen had brought against the Cotopaxi's operator—the Clinchfield Navigation company. They argued the ship was unseaworthy and unsuited to rough ocean conditions.
In the documents, the president of the company countered that this was not the case and the only reason the ship sunk was because she had been caught in a large storm off the Florida coast—one that is attested in historical weather records on the day that the Cotopaxi sent out distress signals.
In his testimony the president reported the last known coordinates of the Cotopaxi, which were dated to November 30, 1925. Barnette plotted these coordinates on a map, placing the ship 22 miles north of the Bear Wreck on this date, on what would appear to be the vessel's expected course if it was traveling its regular route from Charleston to Havana.
For the team, this was the final piece of the puzzle linking the Cotopaxi to the Bear Wreck. Given that a storm would strike the area the next day—and the evidence from the legal documents indicating that the vessel was not seaworthy—the researchers also appeared to have uncovered a possible explanation for the ship's sinking.
The team believes these final coordinates, coupled with a distress signal being sent from the ship the next day, and historic records showing a storm had hit the area, are further evidence to show the Bear Wreck the site of the sunken Cotopaxi.
"We approach all these shipwrecks kind of like a cold case murder case, right? You know, you have the body there. You try and gain whatever information you can. There's a whole bunch of tools that we use to try to identify these wrecks," Barnette said.
He described the moment of realization that the Bear Wreck is probably the final resting place of the Cotopaxi as like a "jolt of electricity."
A remotely operated underwater vehicle which the team used to explore the Bear Wreck.DISCOVERY COMMUNICATIONS, LLC
"A lot of times it is very emotional because first you are excited that your theory is correct. There's also an emotional rollercoaster because you realize, 'wait a second, this is a grave site which marks the final resting spot spot of the crew members that went down with the vessel.' So there's a responsibility to try and reach out to the families so we can help give closure to them," he said.
"Myself and other wreck divers around the world, when we identify these wrecks, sometimes we're writing the final chapter in the story or sometimes we're actually rewriting history," he said. "What people assume actually happened sometimes is not the case."
Barnette adds that paranormal explanations for the disappearances of ships and aircraft in the Bermuda Triangle—which have frequently been debunked by experts—often distract from what's really important.
"Each one of these shipwreck stories is their own saga, and a lot of times you kind of hit on the Bermuda Triangle. But the Bermuda Triangle is not the story, it's the drama that unfolds on these individual shipwrecks, and aircraft."
The way the fabric of space and time swirls in a cosmic whirlpool around a dead star has confirmed yet another prediction from Einstein's theory of general relativity, a new study finds.
That prediction is a phenomenon known as frame dragging, or the Lense-Thirring effect. It states that space-time will churn around a massive, rotating body. For example, imagine Earth were submerged in honey. As the planet rotated, the honey around it would swirl — and the same holds true with space-time.
Satellite experiments have detected frame dragging in the gravitational field of rotating Earth, but the effect is extraordinarily small and, therefore, has been challenging to measure. Objects with greater masses and more powerful gravitational fields, such as white dwarfs and neutron stars, offer better chances to see this phenomenon.
Scientists focused on PSR J1141-6545, a young pulsar about 1.27 times the mass of the sun. The pulsar is located 10,000 to 25,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Musca (the fly), which is near the famous Southern Cross constellation.
A pulsar is a fast-spinning neutron star that emits radio waves along its magnetic poles. (Neutron stars are corpses of stars that died in catastrophic explosions known as supernovas; the gravity of these remnants is powerful enough to crush protons together with electrons to form neutrons.)
PSR J1141-6545 circles a white dwarf with a mass about the same as the sun's. White dwarfs are the superdense Earth-size cores of dead stars that are left behind after average-size stars have exhausted their fuel and shed their outer layers. Our sun will end up as a white dwarf one day, as will more than 90% of all stars in our galaxy.
The pulsar orbits the white dwarf in a tight, fast orbit less than 5 hours long, hurtling through space at about 620,000 mph (1 million km/h), with a maximum separation between the stars barely larger than the size of our sun, study lead author Vivek Venkatraman Krishnan, an astrophysicist at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, Germany, told Space.com.
The researchers measured when pulses from the pulsar arrived at Earth to an accuracy within 100 microseconds over a period of nearly 20 years, using the Parkes and UTMOST radio telescopes in Australia. This allowed them to detect a long-term drift in the way the pulsar and white dwarf orbit each other.
After eliminating other possible causes of this drift, the scientists concluded that it was the result of frame dragging: The way the rapidly spinning white dwarf pulls on space-time has caused the pulsar's orbit to change its orientation slowly over time. Based on the level of frame dragging, the researchers calculated that the white dwarf whirls on its axis about 30 times an hour.
Previous research suggested that the white dwarf formed before the pulsar in this binary system. One prediction of such theoretical models is that, before the pulsar-forming supernova occurred, the progenitor of the pulsar shed nearly 20,000 Earth masses' worth of matter onto the white dwarf over the course of about 16,000 years, boosting its rate of spin.
"Systems like PSR J1141-6545, where the pulsar is younger than the white dwarf, are quite rare," Venkatraman Krishnan said. The new study "confirms a long-standing hypothesis of how this binary system came to be, something that was proposed over two decades ago."
The researchers noted that they used frame dragging to yield insight into the rotating star that caused it. In the future, they said, they can use a similar method to analyze binary neutron stars to learn more about their internal composition, "which, even after more than 50 years of observing them, we do not yet have a handle on," Venkatraman Krishnan said. "The density of matter inside a neutron star far exceeds what can be achieved in a lab, so there is a wealth of new physics to be learnt by using this technique to double neutron-star systems."
The scientists detailed their findings online today (Jan. 30) in the journal Science.
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Over mijzelf
Ik ben Pieter, en gebruik soms ook wel de schuilnaam Peter2011.
Ik ben een man en woon in Linter (België) en mijn beroep is Ik ben op rust..
Ik ben geboren op 18/10/1950 en ben nu dus 73 jaar jong.
Mijn hobby's zijn: Ufologie en andere esoterische onderwerpen.
Op deze blog vind je onder artikels, werk van mezelf. Mijn dank gaat ook naar André, Ingrid, Oliver, Paul, Vincent, Georges Filer en MUFON voor de bijdragen voor de verschillende categorieën...
Veel leesplezier en geef je mening over deze blog.
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