NEXT NASA MARS ROVER WILL SPORT A ROCK-VAPORIZING LASER

Mars 2020's mast, or "head," includes a laser instrument called SuperCam that can vaporize rock material and study the resulting plasma.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
› Full image and caption

{ https://futurism.com/the-byte }

11-02-2020 om 00:15 geschreven door peter  

A full moon is opposite the sun. We see all of its dayside.

Illustration via Bob King.

The coming full moon is February 9 at 07:33 UTC. That means the night of February 8-9, 2020, will bring the fullest moon for those in the Americas. The moon appears full to the eye for two to three nights. However, astronomers regard the moon as full at a precisely defined instant, when the moon is exactly 180 degrees opposite the sun in ecliptic longitude.

It’s that feature of a full moon – the fact that it’s opposite the sun as viewed from Earth – that causes a full moon to look full.

A kiss under the full moon of November 3, 2017, via our friend Steven Sweet of Lunar 101-Moon Book. He was at Port Credit, a neighborhood in the city of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada … at the mouth of the Credit River on the north shore of Lake Ontario.

Why does a full moon look full? Remember that half the moon is always illuminated by the sun. That lighted half is the moon’s day side. In order to appear full to us on Earth, we have to see the entire day side of the moon. That happens only when the moon is opposite the sun in our sky. So a full moon looks full because it’s opposite the sun.

That’s also why every full moon rises in the east around sunset – climbs highest up for the night midway between sunset and sunrise (around midnight) – and sets around sunrise. Stand outside tonight around sunset and look for the moon. Sun going down while the moon is coming up? That’s a full moon, or close to one.

Just be aware that the moon will look full for at least a couple of night around the instant of full moon.

• Read more: What are the full moon names?

Often, you’ll find two different dates on calendars for the date of full moon. That’s because some calendars list moon phases in Coordinated Universal Time, also called Universal Time Coordinated (UTC). And other calendars list moon phases in local time, a clock time of a specific place, usually the place that made and distributed the calendars. Translate UTC to your local time.

Want to know the instant of full moon in your part of the world, as well as the moonrise and moonset times? Visit Sunrise Sunset Calendars, remembering to check the moon phases plus moonrise and moonset boxes.

If a full moon is opposite the sun, why doesn’t Earth’s shadow fall on the moon at every full moon? The reason is that the moon’s orbit is tilted by 5.1 degrees with respect to Earth’s orbit around the sun. At every full moon, Earth’s shadow sweeps near the moon. But, in most months, there’s no eclipse.

A full moon normally passes above or below Earth’s shadow, with no eclipse.

Illustration by Bob King.

As the moon orbits Earth, it changes phase in an orderly way. Follow these links to understand the various phases of the moon.

New moon
Waxing crescent moon
First quarter moon
Waxing gibbous moon
Full moon
Waning gibbous moon
Last quarter moon
Waning crescent moon

• Bottom line: A full moon looks full because it’s opposite the sun. Its lighted face is turned entirely in Earth’s direction. The next full moon is February 9 at 07:33 UTC. (Translate UTC to your time).
• Read more: 4 keys to understanding moon phases

{ https://earthsky.org/ }

10-02-2020 om 23:53 geschreven door peter  

Scientists built an AI to figure out what the universe is made of

STORY BY Tristan Greene

A multi-university team of researchers from Japan recently used the world’s fastest astrophysics-simulation supercomputers to develop an AI system capable of predicting the structure of the universe itself. The scientists hope that in doing so they’ll unlock the mysteries surrounding dark matter and dark energy.

Dubbed “Dark Emulator,” the AI system parses gigantic troves of astrophysics data and uses the information to build simulations of our universe. It taps into a massive database full of information gleaned from special telescopes and compares current data with what scientists expect based on theories surrounding the universe’s origin.

• Study: Our universe may be part of a giant quantum computer

The simulation basically attempts to demonstrate what the universe might look like, including its edges, based on the big bang theory and the subsequent rapid expansion that continues to take place.

According to Phys.Org, the lead author on the team’s research paper, Takahiro Nishimichi, said:

We built an extraordinarily large database using a supercomputer, which took us three years to finish, but now we can recreate it on a laptop in a matter of seconds. I feel like there is great potential in data science.

Using this result, I hope we can work our way toward uncovering the greatest mystery of modern physics, which is to uncover what dark energy is.

The hope here is that by understanding the general cosmology of the entire universe, scientists will be able to from better theories on how dark matter works. We currently assume that most of the universe is made up of dark matter. The “void of space” as it were, isn’t a void but composed of energized matter that, so far, can’t be directly observed.

But we’re currently unable to prove dark matter exists through scientific rigor, observation, and measurement. And that leaves astrophysicists struggling to come up with a unified theory of the universe that encompasses all the different ideas in play. How do we reconcile the Big Bang, Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principal, Einstein’s Relativity, and Newton’s Laws of thermodynamics with modern quantum mechanics and dark energy theories?

The team from Japan hopes we do so with the information we’re able to glean from Dark Emulator. The AI system doesn’t just analyze data for loose ends, it learns from each simulation it creates and uses the output to inform the next iteration.

It does this by analyzing the invisible tendrils between galaxies and performing astronomical (literally) feats of mathematics to create more precise simulations. According to a paper the team published in Astrophysical Journal, it’s incredibly accurate:

The emulator predicts the halo–matter cross-correlation, relevant for galaxy–galaxy weak lensing, with an accuracy better than 2% and the halo autocorrelation, relevant for galaxy clustering correlation, with an accuracy better than 4%.

Eventually, this technology could help flesh out our understanding of the universe and allow scientists to determine exactly what dark matter is and how dark energy works. For now, this means filling in some of the massive blanks we have in our understanding of what the universe actually looks like beyond our front porch.

But in the future, having a clear understanding of dark energy could bring about myriad far-off science fiction technologies such as warp drives, time-travel, and teleportation. That is, of course, if dark matter even exists.

{ https://thenextweb.com/ }

10-02-2020 om 23:33 geschreven door peter  

We think of Uranus and Neptune almost as twins. In some ways, they are very similar. But a new study by researchers at PlanetS explains why, in some aspects, they are also radically different.

Uranus (left) and Neptune (right). While the 2 ice giant planets have similarities, they also have significant differences, which might be explained by impacts from other large bodies in the early solar system.

Image via NASA/ JPL/ PlanetS.

We tend to lump Uranus and Neptune together in our thoughts, almost as if they’re twin worlds. They are nearly the same size – bigger than Earth, but smaller than Jupiter or Saturn – and both are bluish or bluish-green, with deep atmospheres and icy interiors. But, though superficially similar, Uranus and Neptune are really quite different. They’re more different from each other than most people think. And, though their differences still haven’t been fully explained, it now seems that mighty collisions with careening planet-sized bodies – early in solar system history – might be the key.

Researchers of the National Centre of Competence in Research PlanetS (PlanetS) at the University of Zurich in Switzerland ran computer simulations to explore the role of collisions in shaping the differences between Uranus and Neptune. The findings were announced by PlanetS on February 4, 2020, with the associated research paper first published on November 22, 2019.

Uranus and Neptune are the two most distant known major planets in our solar system. Both are now considered ice giants. Both are fundamentally different from the larger gas giants Jupiter and Saturn, and from smaller rocky worlds like Earth. Uranus and Neptune have similar masses and internal compositions. Their outer atmospheres are composed of hydrogen, helium and methane, while their mantles are a combination of water, ammonia and methane ices, and their cores are a mix of rock and ice.

Uranus tends to have a blander appearance than Neptune and is mostly cloudless. Neptune’s atmosphere has darker bands than that of Uranus, with streaks and wisps of white clouds, as well as a large “dark spot.”

But there are also more significant differences between the two worlds, and the researchers wanted to know why. According to a statement by Christian Reinhardt, one of the PlanetS members:

… there are also striking differences between the two planets that require explanation.

Diagram depicting the the formation of both Uranus and Neptune, and how they evolved differently due to impacts from other large objects in the early solar system.

Image via Reinhardt & Helled/ ICS/ University of Zürich/ PlanetS.

Another team member, Joachim Stadel, pointed out that, unlike Neptune and Earth and most other major planets in our solar system, Uranus doesn’t rotate around an axis that lies nearly perpendicular with respect to the plane of its orbit. Instead:

… Uranus and its major satellites are tilted about 97 degrees into the solar plane, and the planet effectively rotates retrograde with respect to the sun.

Another key difference is that the larger moons of Uranus are in stable orbits that are aligned with the tilt of the planet. But Neptune’s largest moon, Triton, circles the planet at a very inclined orbit.

These differences suggest that Uranus’ moons formed from the same disk of dust and gas that the planet itself did, while Triton was probably once a separate object captured by Neptune’s gravity.

According to the researchers, these and other differences point to different kinds of impacts that affected the two planets long ago.

Size comparison of Earth and Neptune. According to the new study, objects with about 1 to 3 Earth masses collided with both Uranus and Neptune after they formed. Uranus was just grazed, while Neptune suffered a head-on impact.

Image via NASA/ Sky & Telescope.

The researchers ran computer simulations in order to explore a range of different possible collisions on both planets. From the paper:

Despite many similarities, there are significant observed differences between Uranus and Neptune: while Uranus is tilted and has a regular set of satellites, suggesting their accretion from a disk, Neptune’s moons are irregular and are captured objects. In addition, Neptune seems to have an internal heat source, while Uranus is in equilibrium with solar insulation. Finally, structure models based on gravity data suggest that Uranus is more centrally condensed than Neptune. We perform[ed] a large suite of high-resolution SPH simulations to investigate whether these differences can be explained by giant impacts.

For Uranus, we find that an oblique impact can tilt its spin axis and eject enough material to create a disk where the regular satellites are formed. Some of the disks are massive and extended enough, and consist of enough rocky material to explain the formation of Uranus’ regular satellites.

For Neptune, we investigate whether a head-on collision could mix the interior … We find that massive and dense projectiles can penetrate towards the center and deposit mass and energy in the deep interior, leading to a less centrally concentrated interior for Neptune.

We conclude that the dichotomy between the ice giants can be explained by violent impacts after their formation.

As another team member, Alice Chau, noted:

It is often assumed that both planets formed in a similar way.

But these results show that their formations – or at least their very early history – were not so similar as first thought.

Neptune and its largest moon, Triton, whose orbit is highly inclined. Triton’s orbit suggests it was captured by Neptune’s gravity. Meanwhile, the moons of Uranus likely formed in the same disk of gas and dust that Uranus did.

Image via NASA/ JPL/ USGS/ Astronomy.

In one scenario, where Uranus and Neptune start off as being more similar, it was found that an impact with a body of one to three Earth masses could explain the differences we see today. If the object just grazed Uranus instead of a head-on collision, the planet’s interior would not be affected but the impact would still be enough to tilt the planet.

Conversely, if Neptune did experience a head-on impact, the collision would have affected the planet’s interior but would not form a disk of debris. This would explain why Neptune doesn’t have any large moons in regular orbits. A large heat flux on Neptune also points to the interior being remixed in a massive collision.

The simulations show how the two planets probably started off being much more similar, but the different kinds of collisions altered them significantly. As team member Ravit Helled said:

We clearly show that an initially similar formation pathway to Uranus and Neptune can result in the dichotomy observed in the properties of these fascinating outer planets.

Comparison of the interior structures of the 2 gas giants, Jupiter and Saturn, and the 2 ice giants, Uranus and Neptune. Earth is to scale.

Image via NASA/ Lunar and Planetary Institute.

The results of this study show how random events – like planetary collisions with other large bodies in the early solar system – can decidedly affect the future evolution of a planet. Uranus and Neptune are the worlds we see today because of such events, this study says. What if neither planet had been hit? What if Neptune had just been grazed instead of Uranus? What would these ice giants be like today in such circumstances? We don’t know, but knowing more about how they could have been affected will help scientists better understand the formation of these types of planets, as well as the gas giants like Jupiter and Saturn, and rocky worlds like Earth, Mars, Venus, and Mercury.

With a better understanding of how the planets in our own solar system formed and evolved, we can then also apply that knowledge to the study of worlds in distant solar systems.

• Bottom line: A new study by researchers at PlanetS sheds light on why Uranus and Neptune are similar in some ways, but radically different in others. It seems collisions – early in solar system history – are the key.
• Source: Bifurcation in the history of Uranus and Neptune (the role of giant impacts)
• Via PlanetS

{ https://earthsky.org/ }

10-02-2020 om 23:21 geschreven door peter  

The UFO phenomenon has many aspects that are all increasingly weirder than the last. It is often difficult to ascertain just what we are dealing with, and such accounts can really run the range from the merely odd to the downright absurd. Among all of these reports one can find certain strings of reports that don’t seem to really fit into any particular mold, and definitely one of these was a strange flap of anomalous green fireballs that appeared over a period of a couple of years over New Mexico, in the United States, which are mostly an obscure oddity but which still have never been solved.

The strange phenomena known as the “green fireballs” can best be tracked back to December 5, 1948, when a USAF C-47 transport plane crew was on their way from Lowry Air Force Base, Colorado, to Williams Air Force Base in Chandler, Arizona. It had been a fairly routine flight until they got near Las Vegas and observed an eerie green light described as a “green ball of fire” illuminating the sky to the west of the city, followed by another not long after. At around the same time, another plane in the vicinity reported the same thing, describing it as pale green with a pale green trail, and saying that the light seemed to be coming towards them, fast enough that they took evasive maneuvers to avoid a collision. The crew at first thought it might be a meteorite but they dismissed this due to the fact that the object was too low to the ground and not moving fast enough. One pilot would say of the object:

Take a soft ball and paint it with some kind of fluorescent paint that will glow a bright green in the dark… Then have someone take the ball out about 100 feet in front of you and about 10 feet above you. Have him throw the ball right at your face, as hard as he can throw it. That’s what a green fireball looks like.

Image by Steve Baxter

Interestingly, while it was mostly thought that this was clearly a meteorite, when a Dr. Lincoln LaPaz, head of the University of New Mexico’s Institute of Meteoritics was sent to the area where it was believed the object should have fell based on its reported flight path there was no sign of any impact and no trace of a meteorite. On December 8, 1948, sightings of these strange green lights would continue, when a Beech T-7 on its way from Kirkland AFB to Las Vegas when the pilot and co-pilot saw a brilliant green light about 2,000 ft above them, which was headed their way at high speed and with a trajectory described as “flat and parallel to the ground.” The researcher LaPaz would once again step in to investigate and learn that there had been several other sightings of these green balls of light, all of them near the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and Sandia atomic-weapons laboratory, as well as at other key military and sensitive installations in the region such as radar stations, nuclear reactors, and fighter-interceptor bases around the country. Why? No one knows.

Making it all rather intriguing was that most of these sightings were being made by trained observers and reliable witnesses such as pilots, weather observers, scientists, intelligence officers and other military personnel, who were unlikely to be making this all up or making mistakes as to what they were seeing. During his investigation LaPaz was also unable to uncover any evidence of meteorite activity, nor that there had been ever any rocket or flare tests in the areas where these sightings were taking place during those time frames. He also was beginning to doubt the meteorite theory by this point, because of the horizontal trajectories of the objects and the fact that green was not considered to be a usual color for meteorites, with him saying of the strange phenomenon:

The fireballs are Kelly green, whereas meteors are red, yellow, blue, or white. A green color could be caused by large amounts of copper, but this element is rarely found in ordinary fireballs. It could also originate from certain man-made atomic fuels. They make no noise. None of the observers of green fireballs, nor persons in the area of the balls, have report any sound whatsoever. Also the fact that they disappear and no fragments have been found on the earth, may be evidence that their flight is controlled.

Sightings of the strange green balls of fire would continue coming in over the coming month, with LaPaz himself seeing one of them on December 12th near Santa Fe that due to its perfectly horizontal trajectory, color, speed, and the way it wobbled convinced him this was no meteor. He would later ascertain that the object had passed directly over the Los Alamos laboratory and had been seen by several other witnesses in the area. A particularly spectacular sighting was made on December 20, when a patrol at Los Alamos observed several luminescent green lights descend rapidly at an angle of 45 degrees, only to then level off and continue on a horizontal pathway out of sight. On this occasion there was even mention made of what looked like an exhaust trail, similar to that of a rocket. Making it more curious is that when these sightings were reported the Air Force was quick to keep it all under wraps, even going as far as to halt the press release on the incident because of “pressure from other agencies also investigating this occurrence.” The story still managed to get out, and in a Feb 29, 1949 edition of the local newspaper Skyliner it was written of the secrecy:

A call to El Paso, Tex., brought official denial from D. K. Brown, head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation district that embraces Los Alamos, that his agency had not been called to deal with the matter. At the information or thought-control office officials indicated that they knew about the recurring green flame in the sky but indicated that it wouldn’t be wise to write about it. Capt. Carroll Tyler, project manager, said simply that all he knew about the lights was rumor — the same rumors that everyone is hearing.

Why was there so much official denial over these sightings? Who knows? Sightings would continue into the next year, when there were more reports into January. One notable account occurred on January 30, 1949, when an extremely bright green fireball was observed over New Mexico by over one hundred witnesses, including trained military personnel, oil workers, aircrew, control tower personnel, all of who described the same thing and noted that the object was completely silent. Sightings would keep on coming in right on into the following year, when pilot Captain A. Harvey and co-pilot Merrick C. Marshall saw a green fireball as they were approaching Albuquerque from Gallup, New Mexico. The Dec. 18, 1950 edition of the Albuquerque Journal would say of the encounter:

The two flyers reported that the light first appeared in the northeast, approximately over Las Vegas. They watched the light for ten minutes, they said, as it moved in the direction of Las Alamos. During that time the “greenish fireball” seemed to circle Los Alamos and then head directly toward Albuquerque. In turning, the light changed from green to a very bright white and passed over and to the rear of their plane — then near Albuquerque — at an estimated speed of over “700 miles an hour.” The time when the light was first sighted was at exactly 11:25 p.m. It remained in view until 11:35. Both pilots are experienced airmen and said it could not possibly have been another plane.

After this the sightings of the green fireballs sort of peter out and we are left to search for answers. Theories have abounded as to what could have caused the 1948-1950 green fireball flap of the Southwest. The meteor theory was largely put to rest by LaPaz, who could find no evidence whatsoever that meteorites were to blame and also pointed out time and time again that the objects displayed very uncharacteristic features for meteorites. Another idea is that it was caused by the phenomenon called ball lightning, which is in itself little understood and entails hovering orbs of electricity that appear and then blink out of existence. Still other ideas are that this was evidence of top secret aircraft or rocket tests, fallout-debris clouds associated with top-secret atomic testing, or Soviet spy technology, which might explain why they were always seen near these government installations. Of course there is also the idea that these were UFOs or even probes dropped from larger alien spacecraft. What was at the heart of the deluge of green fireball accounts reported by so many during this time span? Was this meteors, atmospheric phenomena, or visitors from another world? We didn’t know then, and we don’t know now. It remains a mystery.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

10-02-2020 om 22:48 geschreven door peter  

10-02-2020 om 20:38 geschreven door peter  

Something in Deep Space Is Sending Signals to Earth in Steady 16-Day Cycles

Scientists have discovered the first fast radio burst that beats at a steady rhythm, and the mysterious repeating signal is coming from the outskirts of another galaxy.

By Becky Ferreira

IMAGE: APHELLEON VIA GETTY IMAGES

A mysterious radio source located in a galaxy 500 million light years from Earth is pulsing on a 16-day cycle, like clockwork, according to a new study. This marks the first time that scientists have ever detected periodicity in these signals, which are known as fast radio bursts (FRBs), and is a major step toward unmasking their sources.

FRBs are one of the most tantalizing puzzles that the universe has thrown at scientists in recent years. First spotted in 2007, these powerful radio bursts are produced by energetic sources, though nobody is sure what those might be. FRBs are also mystifying because they can be either one-offs or “repeaters,” meaning some bursts appear only once in a certain part of the sky, while others emit multiple flashes to Earth.

Pulses from these repeat bursts have, so far, seemed somewhat random and discordant in their timing. But that changed last year, when the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment Fast Radio Burst Project (CHIME/FRB), a group dedicated to observing and studying FRBs, discovered that a repeater called FRB 180916.J0158+65 had a regular cadence.

The CHIME/FRB team kept tabs on the repeating burst between September 2018 and October 2019 using the CHIME radio telescope in British Columbia. During that period, the bursts were clustered into a period of four days, and then seemed to switch off for the next 12 days, for a total cycle of about 16 days. Some cycles did not produce any visible bursts, but those that did were all synced up to the same 16-day intervals.

An animation shows the random appearance of fast radio bursts (FRBs) across the sky.

(Credit: NRAO Outreach/T. Jarrett (IPAC/Caltech); B. Saxton, NRAO/AUI/NSF)

“We conclude that this is the first detected periodicity of any kind in an FRB source,” the team said in a paper published on the preprint server arXiv in late January. “The discovery of a 16.35-day periodicity in a repeating FRB source is an important clue to the nature of this object.”

Scientists recently tracked down this particular FRB to a galaxy called SDSS J015800.28+654253.0, which is a half a billion light years from Earth. That may seem like a huge distance, but FRB 180916.J0158+65 is actually the closest FRB ever detected.

But while we know where it is, we still don’t know what it is. To that point, the beat of the FRB suggests that it might be modulated by its surroundings. If the source of the FRB is orbiting a compact object, such as a black hole, then it might only flash its signals toward Earth at a certain point in its orbital period. That scenario could potentially match this recognizable 16-day cycle

It’s also possible that we are witnessing a binary system containing a massive star and a super-dense stellar core known as a neutron star, according to a study published on arXiv on Wednesday by a separate team that looked at the same data. In that model, the neutron star would emit radio bursts, but those signals would be periodically eclipsed by opaque outflowing winds from its giant companion.

Another scenario is that the FRB rhythm isn’t tempered by another object, and is sending out the pulses directly from the source. Scientists have previously suggested that flares from highly magnetized neutron stars, called magnetars, might be the source of some FRBs. But since magnetars tend to rotate every few seconds, a 16-day cycle does not match the expected profile of a magnetar-based FRB.

Ultimately, the CHIME/FRB team hopes to find similar patterns in the handful of known repeating bursts to see if these cycles are common. The researchers also plan to keep a careful eye on FRB 180916.J0158+6 while it is active in order to spot any other details that might point to its identity.

FRBs have baffled scientists for more than a decade, but new facilities such as CHIME are revealing new details about these weird events every year. While we still don’t know what is blasting out these bizarre signals, the discovery of a clear tempo from one of these sources provides a significant lead for scientists to follow.

{ https://www.vice.com/en_us }

10-02-2020 om 18:25 geschreven door peter  

10-02-2020 om 18:02 geschreven door peter  

David Wilcock: Mystifying UFO Disclosure Cases via The Unknown

David Wilcock is a professional intuitive consultant who, since reading Richard C. Hoagland’s “The Monuments of Mars” in 1993, has intensively researched ufology, ancient civilizations, consciousness science, and new paradigms of matter and energy.

He is the author of a critically acclaimed trilogy of scientific research works, known as the Convergence series, which gives definitive support to the idea that a change in matter, energy and consciousness is now occurring on the Earth and throughout the solar system.

Wilcock has appeared on broadcast television, lectured throughout the United States and Japan, published a variety of magazine articles and appeared on numerous radio talk shows. He is the co-author of the book “The Reincarnation of Edgar Cayce,” now available in bookstores nationwide, and a summary of his latest scientific work appears therein, where a breakthrough case for mass, spontaneous DNA evolution on Earth is unveiled. David is also an accomplished musician and composer within a variety of styles, including jazz-fusion, meditative and world music.

other videos - peter2011

{ https://beforeitsnews.com/ }

10-02-2020 om 17:58 geschreven door peter  

This footage was taken in Nevada on January 29, 2020 on the break of dawn.The witness noticed a huge flying saucer shaped cloud which looks like a huge craft hiding in a cloud.

Lenticular clouds are often comparable in appearance to a flying saucer and probably it is just a regular cloud.

But I have my suspicions since there are undoubtedly man-made or extraterrestrial flying objects with cloaking capabilities that are kept secret from the public.

  

Lenticular clouds - peter2011

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

10-02-2020 om 17:29 geschreven door peter  

UFOs flying over Desert Hot Springs, California 7-Feb-2020

New footage of a bright unidentified flying objects in the sky above Desert Hot Springs, also known as DHS, a city in Riverside County, California, United States. This happened on 7th February 2020.

Witness report:

 My wife and visiting desert hot springs for the mineral waters that we do every year this time of year. We where headed towards yucca valley to visit. On Indian Canyon road going west towards highway 62 that take you to yucca valley. My wife is a birdwatcher for decades. She spotted the string of lights that she first thought they where white pelicans. Based on the flight pattern and how the lights changed shape and direct we knew it wasn’t birds. The sighting flew over head while we where driving and passed us fast going northwest towards the mountains. I pulled over to get video and photos off my iPhone. The lights or more like different shaped orbs numbers changed from 20 to 35 objects every time it changed directions.

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

10-02-2020 om 14:12 geschreven door peter  

10-02-2020 om 12:38 geschreven door peter  

As we wait in anticipation for future life-seeking missions to Mars, asteroids and other space bodies in our solar system, speculation that these probes will find life forms is increasing, but most scientists agree that it will be bacteria or other microorganisms. One who doesn’t is leading British space scientist Professor Monica Grady.

“If there is something on Mars, it’s likely to be very small—bacteria. But I think we’ve got a better chance of having slightly higher forms of life on Europa, perhaps similar to the intelligence of an octopus.”

In a recent speech at Liverpool Hope University (covered by Phys.org), her first as the school’s new Chancellor, Grady explained that she’s confident Europa is home to higher-level life forms, but they’re in lower-level realms than on the surface. It’s slightly smaller than Earth’s moon but covered with a 15-mile thick layer of ice. That ice would protect creatures living underneath it from deadly solar radiation and asteroids – Europa’s atmosphere is too thin to protect it or support life. On the other hand, it’s likely that underneath all of the ice is liquid water of the salty kind, and hydrothermal vents that could spark the creation of life and then provide an environment to support it. If this sounds like Earth, Grady agrees.

“”But I think it’s highly likely there will be life elsewhere—and I think it’s highly likely they’ll be made of the same elements. Humans evolved from little furry mammals that got the opportunity to evolve because the dinosaurs were killed by an asteroid impact. That is probably not going to happen on every planet—but it’s at least possible based purely on a statistical argument.”

But octopuses?

“I’m fairly specified we’re all there is at our amount of intelligence in this planetary method. And even if there are octopuses on Europa, that does not give us a cause to damage our planet.”

Europa

Describing the chances for finding intelligent life at our level (we can debate the notion that we’re not so intelligent at another time) in the Milky Way as highly unlikely, Grady sees us as galactic environmentalists – protecting both our planet and any space body we set foot or probe on. Her choice of “octopus” to describe the highest level of life we might encounter may just be a backhanded reference to the movie ‘Europa Report’ in which the first mission to Europa discovers a tentacled, bioluminescent creature described as a cross between an octopus and a squid. On the other hand, many people believe that the mammal-like intelligence of octopuses is because they’re aliens on Earth. Could they be from Europa?

We’ll have to wait for the anticipated Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer, Europa Clipper or Europa Lander missions to find out.

Or, we could figure out a way to talk to an octopus.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

10-02-2020 om 11:48 geschreven door peter  

1KM Long UFO Seen Over Mountain Range Heading Towards Nellis AFB, Video, UFO Sighting News.

Date of sighting: January 29, 2020

Location of sighting: 45 Miles From Baker, Nevada

 

This video was taken on the extraterrestrial highway. An area famous for its UFO sightings in the middle of nowhere. This video is an awesome capture of an actual alien craft in the Nevada area. This object is 40 miles from Baker city and 132 miles from Las Vegas, Nevada...which is easy to find out by looking at the road sign at the 14 second mark in the video. Las Vegas has Nellis AFB which has given some land behind the old firing range to the Tall White Species, in exchange for friendship and technology. But this is also not far from Area 51. This UFO is about 1km across using the mountains to determine its size. Thats a mothership...and its following the mountain range...and guess what? The mountain range leads directly to behind Nellis AFB...the Tall White location. This is 100% proof that alien activity is still happening in Nevada. I love the detail on this one. It has an open payload door area at its top, lower center has a white shiny half dome...classic disk shape. 

Scott C. Waring 

{ https://www.etdatabase.com/ }

10-02-2020 om 11:17 geschreven door peter  

Commercial Airline Pilot Records UFO Over Medellín, Colombia, UFO Sighting News.

Date of sighting: January 26, 2020
Location of sighting: unknown
Original video: 

• https://www.tiktok.com/@cesarinmp/video/6785921462571126021
  
  

Commercial pilot César Murillo Pérez, who flies for Colombian airline company Viva Air, recorded a video of what appears to be a metallic, roughly spherical object while in the air over Medellín, the capital of Colombia’s Antioquia province. He immediately posted the video to Tiktok site and it began to go viral with over 820,000 views. The object is clearly not a balloon since its sides are not round but actually more cube with protruding edges. This UFO looks very similar to the UFO that was released by accident by the government in infrared. Also the person really is a pilot who has posted other videos of aircraft, and sunsets above places around the globe. He flies from South America to Europe. This is absolutly a UFO and its the most legitimate and close up focused view of a UFO of 2020 so far. 
Scott C. Waring 

{ https://www.etdatabase.com/ }

10-02-2020 om 11:09 geschreven door peter  

Only one earthly spacecraft has ever visited Pluto. New Horizons gathered the data to create this composite image in 2015. The heart-shaped feature is now called Tombaugh Regio. It’s a large, bright plain – largest feature on the planet – named for Pluto’s discoverer, Clyde Tombaugh. New research has revealed that this heart of Pluto’s makes the planet’s winds blow.

Image via NASA/ JHU APL/ SWRI/ AGU.

Wasn’t it wonderful when – after all the disappointment surrounding Pluto’s loss of major planet status in 2006 – the New Horizons spacecraft made its historic sweep past the planet in 2015 and discovered a big heart on its surface? Last week (February 4, 2020), scientists announced something new and interesting about Pluto’s heart, which is called Tombaugh Regio, and which is a vast plain on the planet covered with nitrogen ice. The new research shows that Pluto’s renowned nitrogen heart rules its atmospheric circulation. It causes Pluto’s winds to blow.

This new research was published February 4 in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets. This journal is published by the American Geophysical Union (AGU). A statement from AGU explained:

During the day, a thin layer of [the nitrogen ice covering Tombaugh Regio] warms and turns into vapor. At night, the vapor condenses and once again forms ice. Each sequence is like a heartbeat, pumping nitrogen winds around the dwarf planet.

The new work suggests that this cycle pushes Pluto’s atmosphere to circulate in the opposite direction of its spin – a unique phenomenon called retro-rotation. As air whips close to the surface, it transports heat, grains of ice and haze particles to create dark wind streaks and plains across the north and northwestern regions of Tombaugh Regio. According to the study’s lead author, astrophysicist and planetary scientist Tanguy Bertrand of NASA’s Ames Research Center in California:

This highlights the fact that Pluto’s atmosphere and winds – even if the density of the atmosphere is very low – can impact the surface.

Before New Horizons visited Pluto, the Hubble Space Telescope captured this image of the distant planet in 2010. Pluto’s heart hadn’t been revealed then, but it’s somewhat discernible in this image.

Image via NASA/ ESA/ M. Buie/ HubbleSite.

Pluto once was considered the outpost planet in our solar system, but no more. Now we know it’s one of many small bodies in the solar system’s frozen outer reaches, a realm now known as the Kuiper Belt. Pluto is located billions of miles from our planet Earth. It took New Horizons – one of the fastest spacecraft yet built by earthlings – nine years to get there. Once it did arrive, the information gathered by New Horizons required 4.5 hours to travel back to Earth, moving at the speed of light (186,000 miles per second).

In that distant realm of our solar system, nitrogen gas – the major component of Earth’s atmosphere – composes most of Pluto’s thin atmosphere, too. Most of the nitrogen ice on Pluto’s surface is confined to Tombaugh Regio, these scienists said. Describing Pluto’s heart, they said:

Its left ‘lobe’ is a 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) ice sheet located in a 3-kilometer (1.9-mile) deep basin named Sputnik Planitia – an area that holds most of the dwarf planet’s nitrogen ice because of its low elevation. The heart’s right ‘lobe’ is comprised of highlands and nitrogen-rich glaciers that extend into the basin.

This close-up image from New Horizons shows the center left of Pluto’s heart. It’s a vast, craterless plain, covered with nitrogen ice. It may be no more than 100 million years old and is possibly still being shaped by geologic processes. This frozen region has been named Sputnik Planitia (Sputnik Plain), after Earth’s first artificial satellite. The surface appears to be divided into irregularly-shaped segments that are ringed by narrow troughs. Features that appear to be groups of mounds and fields of small pits are also visible. Image acquired July 14, 2015. Features as small as 1/2 mile (1 km) across are visible.

Image via NASA/ JHU APL/ SWRI.

Bertrand commented:

Before New Horizons, everyone thought Pluto was going to be a netball – completely flat, almost no diversity. But it’s completely different. It has a lot of different landscapes and we are trying to understand what’s going on there.

To accomplish this, Bertrand and his team pulled from New Horizons’ data and then simulated Pluto’s nitrogen cycle with a weather forecast model. They then assessed how winds blew across Pluto’s surface. Their statement explained:

The group discovered that Pluto’s winds above 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) blow to the west – the opposite direction from the dwarf planet’s eastern spin – in a retro-rotation during most of its year. As nitrogen within Tombaugh Regio vaporizes in the north and becomes ice in the south, its movement triggers westward winds, according to the new study. No other place in the solar system has such an atmosphere, except perhaps Neptune’s moon Triton.

The researchers also found a strong current of fast-moving, near-surface air along the western boundary of the Sputnik Planitia basin. The airflow is like wind patterns on Earth, such as the Kuroshio along the eastern edge of Asia. Atmospheric nitrogen condensing into ice drives this wind pattern, according to the new findings. Sputnik Planitia’s high cliffs trap the cold air inside the basin, where it circulates and becomes stronger as it passes through the western region.

The intense western boundary current’s existence excited Candice Hansen-Koharcheck, a planetary scientist with the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona, who wasn’t involved with the new study. She said:

It’s very much the kind of thing that’s due to the topography or specifics of the setting. I’m impressed that Pluto’s models have advanced to the point that you can talk about regional weather.

On the broader scale, Hansen-Koharcheck thought the new study was intriguing. She added:

This whole concept of Pluto’s beating heart is a wonderful way of thinking about it.

A map of the Tombaugh Regio area on Pluto, which includes the heart-shaped surface feature.

Image via NASA/ JHU APL/ SWRI/ Wikimedia Commons.

• Bottom line: A heart-shaped feature on Pluto is partly covered in frozen nitrogen. During the day, nitrogen ice evaporates in the north, then condenses back to ice at night in the south. According to a new study, this process sets off winds in a westerly direction for most of the Plutonian year, which is opposite to the dwarf planet’s eastward spin. They also found fast and powerful near-surface winds along the western boundary of the Sputnik Planitia basin.
• Source: Pluto’s beating heart regulates the atmospheric circulation: results from high resolution and multi-year numerical climate simulations
• Via American Geophysical Union

{ https://earthsky.org/ }

10-02-2020 om 00:31 geschreven door peter  

Something is Killing Galaxies, and Scientists are on the Case

Galaxy clusters

The life cycle of galaxies

An ideal case study

[ Deep knowledge, daily. Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter. ]

• Toby Brown, Post Doctorate Fellow in Astrophysics, McMaster University
• This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
  
  Follow cosmic database on facebook and twitter

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

09-02-2020 om 23:57 geschreven door peter  

Astronomers Find Huge Amount of Oxygen in Ancient Dwarf Star

Using high-resolution spectroscopic observations from the High-Resolution Echelle Spectrometer (HIRES) on the 10-m Keck I telescope at the W. M. Keck Observatory, an international team of astronomers and astrophysicists has detected large amount of oxygen in the atmosphere of SDSS J081554.26+472947.5 (J0815+4729 for short), an ancient dwarf star located 5,000 light-years away in the constellation of Lynx. The finding provides an important clue on how oxygen and other important elements were produced in the Universe’s first generations of stars.

This image shows the ancient dwarf star J0815+4729 (center).

Image credit: Centre de Données astronomiques de Strasbourg / SIMBAD / SDSS.

Oxygen is the third most abundant element in the Universe after hydrogen and helium, and is essential for all forms of life on Earth, as the chemical basis of respiration and a building block of carbohydrates. It is also the main elemental component of the Earth’s crust.

However, this element didn’t exist in the early Universe; it is created through nuclear fusion reactions that occur deep inside the most massive stars, those with masses roughly 10 times the mass of the Sun or greater.

Tracing the early production of oxygen and other elements requires studying the oldest stars still in existence.

“Stars like J0815+4729 are referred to as halo stars,” said Dr. Adam Burgasser, an astrophysicist in the Center for Astrophysics and Space Science at the University of California San Diego.

“This is due to their roughly spherical distribution around the Milky Way, as opposed to the more familiar flat disk of younger stars that include the Sun.”

Halo stars like J0815+4729 are truly ancient stars, allowing astronomers a peek into element production early in the history of the Universe.

Dr. Burgasser and colleagues measured the abundances of 16 chemical species in the atmosphere of J0815+4729, including oxygen.

“The primitive composition of the star indicates that it was formed during the first hundreds of millions of years after the Big Bang, possibly from the material expelled from the first supernovae of the Milky Way,” said Dr. Jonay González Hernández, a postdoctoral researcher in the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias and the Universidad de La Laguna, Spain.

The HIRES data of J0815+4729 revealed a very unusual chemical composition.

While the star has relatively large amounts of carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen — approximately 10, 8, and 3% of the abundances measured in the Sun — other elements like calcium and iron have abundances around one millionth that of the Sun.

“Only a few such stars are known in the halo of our Galaxy, but none have such an enormous amount of carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen compared to their iron content,” said Dr. David Aguado, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Cambridge.

“Thirty years ago we started to study the presence of oxygen in the oldest stars of the Galaxy; those results had already indicated that this element was produced enormously in the first generations of supernovae,” said Dr. Rafael Rebolo, from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, the Universidad de La Laguna and the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas.

“However, we could not imagine that we would find a case of enrichment as spectacular as that of this star.”

• The discovery is reported in a paper in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.
• Jonay I. González Hernández et al. 2020. The Extreme CNO-enhanced Composition of the Primitive Iron-poor Dwarf Star J0815+4729. ApJL 889, L13; doi: 10.3847/2041-8213/ab62ae

{ http://www.sci-news.com/ }

09-02-2020 om 23:37 geschreven door peter  

How to die on Mars

09-02-2020 om 23:25 geschreven door peter  

Professor Monica Grady believes Europa may be our best chance of finding "higher forms" of alien life in the Milky Way galaxy

By Myriam Toua

Professor Monica Grady from the Liverpool Hope University 

(Image: Twitter)

A British space scientist says she believes it is “almost certain” that Europa - one of Jupiter’s moons - is home to octopus-like alien creatures.

Professor of Planetary and Space Science at Liverpool Hope University Monica Grady claims ice beneath the moon’s surface may have life forms that have a similar level of intelligence to octopuses.

Professor Grady also thinks deep caves on the surface of Mars could also contain alien life.

She said: “When it comes to the prospects of life beyond Earth, it’s almost a racing certainty that there’s life beneath the ice on Europa.

Europa could host aliens in its icy seas 

(Image: The New Day)

“Elsewhere, if there’s going to be life on Mars, it’s going to be under the surface of the planet.

“There you’re protected from solar radiation. And that means there’s possibility of ice remain in the pores of the rocks, which could act as a source of water.

“If there is something on Mars, it’s likely to be very small bacteria.

“But I think we’ve got a better chance of having slightly higher forms of life on Europa, perhaps similar to the intelligence of an octopus.”

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope found evidence of sodium chloride, known to us as salt, on the planet’s surface last year.

Professor Grady believes that any life on Mars is likely to be very small bacteria 

(Image: NASA / SWNS)

This suggests that there is likely to be a giant sea containing salty water underneath Europa’s icy surface.

Europa is thought to be one of the moon's closest to Earth as it is understood to also have a surface ocean of salty water.

Speaking of what could lie beyond the Milky Way, Professor Grady said conditions that led to the creation of life on Earth are “highly likely” to exist elsewhere.

She explained: “Our solar system is not a particularly special planetary system, as far as we know, and we still haven’t explored all the stars in the galaxy.

“But I think it’s highly likely there will be life elsewhere - and I think it’s highly likely they’ll be made of the same elements.

“Humans evolved from little furry mammals that got the opportunity to evolve because the dinosaurs were killed by an asteroid impact.

09-02-2020 om 22:49 geschreven door peter