Europe's Philae comet lander made a 2nd touchdown in a spooky spot: 'Skull-Top Ridge'

This image shows the outline of Skull-Top Ridge, the second landing site on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko for the Rosetta spacecraft's Philae lander, which set down on Nov. 12, 2014.

(Image: © Images: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA; Analysis: O’Rourke et al (2020))

Philae couldn't snag enough sunlight in its final location to recharge its secondary battery, so the lander collected science data for only a few days. Still, the lander's varied observations have helped scientists better understand 67P and comets in general. 

The Rosetta team quickly spotted Philae's first touchdown site in imagery captured by the Rosetta orbiter mothership, which began circling Comet 67P in August 2014. Philae itself was found in September 2016 after an extensive imagery search, but the location of the second touchdown site had remained elusive.

"Philae had left us with one final mystery waiting to be solved," ESA's Laurence O'Rourke, who led the successful hunt for Philae, said in a statement. "It was important to find the touchdown site, because sensors on Philae indicated that it had dug into the surface, most likely exposing the primitive ice hidden underneath, which would give us invaluable access to billions-of-years-old ice."

Touchdown at 'Skull-Top Ridge'

That mystery has now been solved, a new study reports. After analyzing reams of data gathered by the Rosetta orbiter and Philae — especially readings from the lander's magnetometer, which sits at the end of a 19-inch (48 centimeters) boom and registered every impact — a team led by O'Rourke has found the second touchdown site. 

The spot lies just 100 feet (30 meters) from Philae's final resting place, the researchers report in the new study, which was published online today (Oct. 28) in the journal Nature. O'Rourke and his colleagues determined that Philae spent nearly two minutes at the second touchdown site, hitting the surface at least four different times in the process. 

"The shape of the boulders impacted by Philae reminded me of a skull when viewed from above, so I decided to nickname the region 'skull-top ridge' and to continue that theme for other features observed," O'Rourke said. "The right 'eye' of the 'skull face' was made by Philae's top surface compressing the dust while the gap between the boulders is 'skull-top crevice,' where Philae acted like a windmill to pass between them."

These impacts unearthed bright material that the researchers determined to be water ice. The freshly excavated stuff looked quite different than the rest of Comet 67P's surface, which has been weathered by the harsh space environment, team members said.  

And one of the impacts gouged a 10-inch-deep (25 centimeters) dent into a Comet 67P ice boulder — a scar that betrays a very soft body. Indeed, the researchers calculated that 67P's ice-dust interior is "fluffier than froth on a cappuccino, or the foam found in a bubble bath or on top of waves at the seashore," O'Rourke said.

• Related: You can see every comet photo (and more) from Europe's Rosetta

The study team further calculated a porosity of 75% for that wounded boulder, meaning that it's three-quarters empty space. That figure is consistent with the porosity value for Comet 67P in its entirety, which mission team members determined in a previous study.  

Neither Philae nor the Rosetta orbiter is still operational. The lander gave up the ghost early on, and mission team members guided its mothership (by then low on fuel) to a soft, controlled crash on Comet 67P's surface in September 2016. But the new results show that the historic mission, which launched all the way back in March 2004, continues to bear scientific fruit.

"This is a fantastic multi-instrument result that not only fills in the gaps in the story of Philae’s bouncy journey but also informs us about the nature of the comet," Matt Taylor, ESA's Rosetta project scientist, said in the same statement, referring to the new study.

"In particular, understanding the strength of a comet is critical for future lander missions," added Taylor, who was not involved in the newly published research. "That the comet has such a fluffy interior is really valuable information in terms of how to design the landing mechanisms, and also for the mechanical processes that might be needed to retrieve samples."

But designers of comet-sampling missions may be in for a real challenge, planetary scientist Erik Asphaug noted in a "News and Views" piece about the Philae results that was also published today in Nature.

Asphaug pointed out that Philae's planned touchdown site — the locale that hosted its first bounce — was a flat plain. Such regions, while (theoretically) easier to land on, are often covered by many meters of "lag" deposits, dust particles too hefty to be carried off by water vapor and other volatile gases that are boiled off when comets pass close to the sun, Asphaug wrote. 

The plains therefore aren't likely to harbor easily accessible pristine material left over from the solar system's earliest days. Rather, Asphaug wrote, the new results "suggest that the best places to sample comets will not be the flat plains, but along the newly exposed ridges, cliffs and boulder piles, which are more difficult to land on."

• Mike Wall is the author of "Out There" (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life.
• Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall.
• Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook. 

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29-10-2020 om 23:39 geschreven door peter  

Its astronomical value is another reason why we should invest more in space.

 by Tibi Puiu in News, Space

Most asteroids are made of plain rock or ice — but not ’16 Psyche’.

According to recent observations perform using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, the chunky asteroid from the solar system’s main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter is mostly made of nickel and iron. This makes it an extremely atypical asteroid and a very valuable one — it’s worth as much as $10,000 quadrillion in raw resources by some estimates, or almost 70,000 times the value of the global economy in 2019.

Billionaires: ‘hold my beer’

Psyche spans 140 miles (225 km) in diameter, making it one of the largest objects in the main asteroid belt. In fact, Psyche is so large it was easily discovered using 19th-century technology in 1852.

The novelty is that now scientists have reported in The Planetary Science Journal the asteroid’s composition.

Scientists previously had some hints that Psyche is a dense, largely metallic object. This assumption has now been confirmed thanks to observations at two specific points in the asteroid’s rotation that offered a view of both sides of Psyche at ultraviolet wavelengths.

For the first time, astronomers have recorded iron oxide ultraviolet absorption bands in any asteroid. This is a clear indication that oxidation is occurring on the surface of the asteroid. Its high density suggests that the oxidated metals are nickel and iron. In fact, the entire asteroid might be the leftover core of a failed planet that never succeeded in forming into one.

“We’ve seen meteorites that are mostly metal, but Psyche could be unique in that it might be an asteroid that is totally made of iron and nickel,” Dr. Tracy Becker, Southwest Research Institute planetary scientist and co-author of the new study, said in a statement. “Earth has a metal core, a mantle and crust. It’s possible that as a Psyche protoplanet was forming, it was struck by another object in our solar system and lost its mantle and crust.”

The oxidation is believed to be caused by the solar wind. This flow of charged particles from the sun’s corona is responsible for the beautiful tails of comets, the formation of auroras in Earth’s atmosphere, and, in this case, the space weathering of Psyche.

Such metal asteroids are extremely rare, which is why Psyche was shortlisted in 2017 for a mission to study it closely using a spacecraft. The mission, which will be operated by NASA, is slated for a 2022 launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. The unmanned spacecraft would become the first to visit a body almost entirely made of metal, learning more about the asteroid as well as the solar system.

Since Psyche is believed to be as old as the solar system itself, findings from the mission could enrich our understanding of how planets form. Besides the scientific value of the mission, if you take into account the size of the asteroid and its metal composition, its total economic value could add up to $10,000 quadrillion, or $10 million trillion. That’s quite the incentive to visit the asteroid — provided, of course, we one day develop the technology to mine and retrieve metals from such asteroids.

“To understand what really makes up a planet and to potentially see the inside of a planet is fascinating,” Becker said.

“Once we get to Psyche, we’re really going to understand if that’s the case, even if it doesn’t turn out as we expect … any time there’s a surprise, it’s always exciting,” he added.

RELATED VIDEOS, xelected and posted by peter2011

{ https://www.zmescience.com/ }

29-10-2020 om 22:39 geschreven door peter  

Modern graffiti leads scientists to 27,000-year-old cave art in Spain

The Gravettian art culture famous for stone age Venus statues was more widespread than previously thought.

 by Tibi Puiu

 

Spanish researchers reported today the discovery of rock art in a cave system in the Basque Country, in northern Spain. The 27,000-year-old art, which includes engravings of bison and horses, is characteristic of a cultural style common across Europe but which was never before seen in the Iberian Peninsula until now.

Video: Bison engravings discovered in Spanish caves reveal a common art culture existed across Europe over 25,000 years ago 

In this video, a cave explorer goes around the Aitzbitarte caves in Spain, in which bison engravings discovered in Spanish caves reveal a common art culture existed across Europe over 25,000 years ago.

Share this video: Bison engravings from 25,000 years ago discovered in Spanish caves

A clash of two cultures

“Western Europe has the biggest density of Palaeolithic cave art in the world, including the famous Altamira and Lascaux caves. It is especially concentrated in Northern Spain and Southwest France. Despite this, there was a void in what nowadays is the Basque Country. A decade ago, we started several survey projects in order to understand this absence. Consequently, we found more than 20 new [samples of] cave art — that is four times more than we knew before, including the four caves of Aitzbitarte hill,” Diego Garate of the Instituto Internacional de Investigaciones Prehistóricas de Cantabria in Spain told ZME Science.

Undetermined animal at the bottom of the ramp in Aitzbitarte III.

Credit: Garate et al, PLOS ONE.

Garate first performed surveys in the Aitzbitarte cave complex in Basque Country in 2015. Deep inside cave number five, the researchers found that the walls were covered in recent graffiti. Remarkably, next to them were also ancient cave paintings engraved thousands of years ago.

“Suddenly, under an ‘exit’ and an arrow written on the wall, a so some fine tracings that were not so recent. After some minutes I was able to see a bison drawing. This is how we started watching all the walls looking for other engravings,” Garate said.

“Some of them are in dangerous places, even after descending vertical slopes of 15 meters. Paleolithic people were very habituated to the underground landscape. This difficult access to the decorated areas was a real challenge when documenting and studying the artworks,” he added.

Scientists had been exploring the Aitzbitarte caves since the end of the 20th century. So far, they’ve recovered thousands of stone tools and butchered bones, suggesting the caves sheltered hunter-gatherers continuously over the span of ten thousand years.

When compared to other cultures, the Aitzbitarte cave art bears a striking resemblance to the style of the Gravettian cultural complex. An Upper Palaeolithic (Late Old Stone Age) culture, the Gravettian culture succeeded the Aurignacian to dominate much of Europe from around 29,000 BC.

The Gravettian people are famous for the many Venus figurines they created, which are widely distributed across Europe and into Siberia. Another famous prehistoric discovery of this period is represented by hand stencils in Cosquer Cave close to Marseilles, in the south of France.

Back at Aitzbitarte, Spanish researchers described Paleolithic animal engravings drawn in a Gravettian style in which the horns and legs lack proper perspective, and pairs of limbs are consistently depicted as “double Y” figures.

“We have compared these figures with others found in Europe using multivariate statistics and have concluded that their distribution coincides with the dispersion of the most frequent tools in the region about 27,000 years ago. The diffusion of this style largely agrees with finds of Noailles burins and Isturitz points, tools that appeared in the Western Pyrenees between 31,000 and 29,000 years ago and later spread towards southern France and finally reached the Mediterranean, where the most recent figures in this style are found,” Garate told ZME Science.

“These peculiarities differentiate them from other cave art in northern Spain. To give an example, while in Aitzbitarte they were engraving bison with these specific conventions, in the rest of the Cantabrian region they were painting red deer by applying the pigment with their finger-tips, however, certain details are common to different styles, such as the way of representing horses and the absence of perspective in both front and back legs. Therefore, despite the existence of particularities in each region, long-distance cultural exchange networks also existed,” the researcher added.

In the future, Garate plans on exploring other caves in the region. He is sure more forgotten cave art is waiting to be found.

“These are the first remains of human artistic ability and some of them have been named World Heritage by UNESCO. Without a doubt, knowing them helps us understand who we are,” he said.

The findings appeared in the journal PLOS ONE.

{ https://www.zmescience.com/ }

29-10-2020 om 22:01 geschreven door peter  

The small rogue planet—a free-roaming rock without a star to orbit—was only detectable for 42 minutes as it briefly zoomed in front of a star.

By Maddie Bender

ARTIST'S CONCEPTION OF THE MICROLENSING EVENT

Astronomers have detected a rogue planet hurtling through space without orbiting a sun. This planet, believed to likely be roughly the mass of Mars, is the smallest of its kind discovered to date and could only be observed indirectly with a technique called gravitational microlensing, a technique often used to detect exoplanets.

The Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE) in Poland first reported the existence of sunless, free-roaming planets in 2011, but this one would be the smallest-ever discovered, emitting a measurable signal for a mere 42 minutes. The discovery was published in the journal Astrophysical Journal Letters on Thursda

“This is the shortest microlensing event ever found, so the lowest mass planet ever found by microlensing” said Przemek Mróz, the first author of the paper and a postdoctoral scholar at Caltech. “This is really exciting because it's such a tiny piece of rock.”

Discovering an ordinary exoplanet typically requires observing the star that it orbits, inferring the presence of the planet in the form of changes in the light that the star emits over time. But these free-roaming exoplanets don’t have a nearby light source, so the astronomers used a method underpinned by Einstein’s theory of relativity: gravitational microlensing. 

Planets bend the space-time fabric around them through their gravitational fields. When the Earth, an exoplanet, and a star are in a straight line, the exoplanet between Earth and the star acts like a magnifying glass, making the star appear brighter. The time these three objects stay in a line depends on how massive the exoplanet is, among other factors, so the duration of a signal can be used to estimate the planet’s mass.

Because it’s an exceedingly rare event for these three space objects to line up perfectly, and because OGLE has already observed multiple rogue planets using gravitational microlensing, these types of planets may be as common as stars throughout our galaxy, Mróz said.

OGLE began in 1992 as a project to search for dark matter using microlensing but has transitioned to searching for rogue planets in the past decade, Mróz said. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, though, the OGLE telescope has not been making observations regularly from where it is housed in Chile. So Mróz and his colleagues decided to look through archival data for extremely brief gravitational microlensing signals. 

In July, they found a 42-minute observation from 2016. Next, they compared their observation to data from a Korean telescope that happened to be observing the same part of the galaxy on that night and confirmed the signal wasn’t just a fluke in their instruments. The planet they found was between the mass of Mars and Earth and could not have been orbiting a star within 8 astronomical units—for reference, Saturn is 9.5 astronomical units from our Sun. Ruling out any star in this planet’s orbit for certain would be a challenge, Mróz said, since it would take years of observation for the planet to even make one trip around a star at that distance or greater.

Scientists believe these rogue exoplanets can come into existence through a couple of processes: they may form when clouds of gas collapse inward, or the planets may have been ejected from orbiting a star. In a few billion years, for example, our Sun will have lost mass and its gravitational force will have decreased to the point where Uranus and Neptune will be released from orbit and will drift into outer space.

Mróz said that he and his colleagues are continuing to analyze archival data and to look for even more low-mass rogue planets.

“Generally, the concept of free-floating planets is one I think is interesting—that you have a planet that is wandering through the galaxy without a star,” he said.

“It always strikes me that thanks to using Einstein's theory, we can detect such tiny pieces of rock floating in space. That's really cool.”

ALL RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011

JAN SKOWRON / ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATORY / UNIVERSITY OF WARSAW

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29-10-2020 om 21:38 geschreven door peter  

{ https://nationalufocenter.com/ }

29-10-2020 om 18:24 geschreven door peter  

UFO Sightings in the United States

Sightings are from MUFON CMS

Arizona Light

Sedona – On October 20, 2 20, my Oculus all sky camera was running all night in hopes of capturing an Orionid Meteor. In the morning as I reviewed my video I noticed this string of 5-6 lights that appeared than vanished. I slowed down this video to 1/8 normal speed and booster contrast a bit and brightened the video and a still from it I made.

Arkansas Lights

Huntsville — On October19,2020,

This video was taken from a game camera on our family hunting   property. Notice the quick change of direction at the very end of the video. The deer in the video moves it’s head upward causing the video to start. I’m presuming the “UFO” did not make noise because the deer did not look up as it flew over.

California Object

 I will not divulge my identity nor my exact location. However, I will let you know this happened in Southern California. On January 20, 2020

I fell asleep while watching TV. I awoke at about 2 AM to the sound of someone talking on TV. It wasn’t very loud and I thought that I should turn off the TV. Then, I noticed something moving out of the corner of my eye. I turned to look and saw a black mass hovering over our table in the kitchen area. It was completely silent. Panic set in. I was petrified at what I saw. I could not breathe nor move; I was frozen in fear. I tried to get out a scream, but couldn’t. I tried and tried then eventually I found myself screaming over and over again. My wife, who was asleep in the other room, ran into the living room. While she was entering the room, I saw the black mass in our kitchen shrink and then disappear completely. Unfortunately, my wife had just missed it.

Note: This is an interesting case and one for the Xfiles. It is certainly a paranormal eve. Thanks to Will Pucket/www.ufosnw.com/newsite/

Michigan Light as

Brighton — I was looking up at the sky since there are animal traps on my roof to catch the flying squirrels in my attic. The moment I looked up to view the trap, I saw come over my house a completely white object with 2 shapes to it on October16, 2020. O ne end was rectangular, and one end was rounded. The sky was blue with no clouds. This object sped up a little, then slowed down, the sped up a little, then slowed down and then stopped. It then disappeared. The total time span was about 15 seconds. There was absolutely no sound.

New Jersey Object

North Wildwood – On September 30, 2020 my boyfriend were taking a few pictures of the moon over the ocean from our porch. Like we do on many occasions. But we never had the anomalies that we had on this particular night. We are not sure what they are but feel it is worth a look. I am providing the unedited photos and the photos with anomaly circled.

Air National Guard Base – My mother & I went to visit my Mothers Brother, Jack at the Air National Guard Base in New Jersey at night on a weekend in the summer of 1962 or 63, I think! After going outside, we observed a glowing white Orb moving slowly toward the Base & went behind the tower. We waited to see it come out the other side but it didn’t come out of the other side but suddenly, it shot straight up at astonishing speed into the sky, out of sight! I was about 12 or 13 years old at the time but we never reported the sighting because we thought it might be something connected to the Base & who would believe us anyway! But, since watching your show Hanger 1

New York Dark Objects

Mary — Three 3 black orbs and helicopter.

Photo courtesy of MUFON.com

 Taken on Oct 16, 2020

Ohio Cylinder

Waverly –– October23, 2020,

it was a white cigar shaped object flying in a straight line with no sound no visible appendages.

Oregon Lights

Newberg – On October14, 2020, 6:09 am Newberg Oregon. I took my 2 dogs out to pee. I noticed the stars out; it was still dark outside, cold and clear with some light thin clouds in the sky. I noticed some star constellations, they were very bright. Orisons Belt, then I looked left and saw one of the dippers. Then looked toward the west and saw over 30 stars in a row. A straight line and the line were moving. An example is an open strand of pearls and if you were pulling them in a straight line. They were moving toward 30degrees. There was a cloud I could not see through, a thin cloud. I was not able to see them once they moved behind the cloud. I told my husband in a frantic tone “there are UFO’s in the sky” I ran downstairs to film. I tried videoing the lights, 3-5 times, but it was so dark and they were not showing up. Maybe with good photo editing, they can be seen. Anyway, my husband ran outside and watched as the last 20-30 were heading into the cloud bank. What was really strange (it was all strange) the last light was not at the same distance as all the other lights before it in line. It was “falling behind”. Then it got light out within a few minutes and it was over.

Tennessee Flame

Nolensville – On October18, 2020, me and my family observed a glowing gold object with a flame line top. It looked a bit like the comet hale bop but it was more defined and pencil like in shape. It was glowing/blazing very bright. At first I thought it might be a comet but I couldn’t find anything online about that. We tried to take pictures of it and the cameras on our phones behaved strangely and we couldn’t get a good shot. While we were trying to fix the problem it disappeared right in front of us. It briefly reappeared for a minute a few minutes later and disappeared again. There were some clouds but the object appeared to be in front of the clouds illuminating them. Earlier we had gone for a drive and had a strange experience where it took us an hour and a half to get to Shelbyville from our home and only 45 minutes to get back. We remarked on how time felt strange and how it seemed like it took so much longer to get there. We did not stop either way as it was just a drive. It didn’t make sense for it to be so vastly different as the route was basically the same. My husband made a comet t that perhaps it was aliens. We returned home at 5:00 pm and saw this strange object at 8:00 PM. I did get some crappy photos of it when it appeared again the 2nd time but the color on the photoA does not match what we saw. It was a Brilliant gold color- with an orange cast- very vibrant. The photos makes it appear white and it was not that color.

Texas Lights

Willis – On October 21, 2020, this was a perfect triangle that I have seen over multiple evenings and have hours of video and pictures taken from my iPhone 11 X Pro. This was also seen on one of the nights by three other people that were with me. Two nights with my wife I used a heavy duty flashlight last night, after and it responded in kind by flashing its lights in response to me

Worldwide UFO Sightings

Australian Moon Lights

Newcastle — Darren Delaney, Newcastle NSW Australia

 Photos of the moon taken on September 8,,

 Canada Disk

Co roach — On October1, 2020,

A coworker had stopped to take a picture of the drilling rig he was working on, South of Coronach, Sask. at the Westmoreland Coal mine. After he took the picture, he looked at it to check the quality. He noticed the object in the upper right and a second to the left of the derrick. He had shown me the picture in September, after we had a conversation about the possibility of extra terrestrial life. I asked if anyone else saw the picture or the objects, and he told me “No”. I then asked if he had reported it. He told me he didn’t say anything for fear of being ridiculed. He told me that he didn’t see or hear anything in the sky before or after he had taken the picture. I asked if there were any planes or vapor trails in the sky and he said “No”.

France Light

Vannes — I go out on my terrace and raise my head to heaven, I believe hallucinated and immediately call my wife after different. Research, I concluded   the first day everything was in a single file for about fifty objects, but the day after tomorrow rebel but this time objects have random speeds and changing directions on April 25, 2020.

Germany Lights

Idsten — On Saturday evening (approx. 0750 AM) October17, 2020,

I spotted a glowing object flying above our hometown valley from my balcony. I immediately called my wife and daughter to come and see it. We observed the object flying in circles above the valley.
My wife went in to get our spyglasses. Through the spyglass we could very clearly see that the glow came from an object above the clouds. I tried to film the object with my mobile but it was impossible. We informed my mother who lives just a few streets away to see it as well. She came and saw it.
My wife then got our night vision equipment, a spyglass with night vision used for deer stalking. Through this device we could see that there were actually two objects flying in circles. I then placed my mobile phone camera in front of the ocular of the night vision equipment and was actually able to film it. I sent the videos to our elder daughter who lives in Wiesbaden and she told us that she saw three lights hovering over Wiesbaden on her way home from work. She even talked to people in the streets about It.; hence, there must be more witnesses.

UK/England Flashing Light

 Bellevue, Washington (Over Cougar Mountain): September 20, 2020I saw the same thing as posted on your site Sept 11, 2017 over Bellevue/Cougar Mountain on Sep 20 this year. Has this sighting been solved or identified? I have a few photos. See one of them above.

Additional Details Provided by Witness: 

I saw it in person. It made no sound and was moving east. I was standing at around 1,400 feet when I took photos. In photo with tree, lower left is corner of one story house/roof. My wife and I both saw and each took photos. The photos were from mobile phone cameras. I am guessing that the object was 15 feet long. The four “wheel” looking appendages did not pivot or change angle. It remained upright, that is with four “wheels” oriented as they are in photo. The interior of the “wheels” looked silver. It did not produce its own light and just seemed to reflect sunlight. There was no exhaust or discharge of any kind. The “Body” looked mostly red. I am guessing it was traveling at 30 MPH. It did not turn or change direction. There was very slight wind at time. (Clearly it was moving under its own power.) I saw no tow plane or anything else in the sky. The path was over a very densely populated area and just south of I-90 (though would have been visible looking up from that interstate). My first thought was that it was a massive drone or a flying cartoon car (LOL). I still have no idea. I asked friends who work at Amazon in Seattle for any Intel on beta tests for drones or the like, but came up empty.

Note: The witness is referring to the sighting of an erratic moving strange shaped craft in Seattle, WA. The object is very strange and I don’t think it is a balloon or drone. Thanks to Will Pucket/www.ufosnw.com/newsite/

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Filer’s Files salutes our fighting men and women; God Bless Our Troops, and Georgie, Elizabeth, and Victoria Filer, and Eddie Pedrick. May the Angels be your guide and take you to paradise.

Put another way, a young person in the U.S. is nearly 11 times as likely to die in a swimming pool than in a school shooting. Few public officials would say pools are doing a poor job protecting swimmers, but the statistics suggest that we need “more lifeguards at pools, as opposed to guards at schools,” Fox said

The Filer Research Institute feels the scientific study of UFOs is for the benefit of humankind and is an important endeavor. The US Air Force investigated UFOs publicly for more than twenty years under Project Blue Book; and I continue this advanced research. I believe the God of the universe has spread life throughout the cosmos and UFO’s are visiting us in ever-increasing numbers.

CAUTION MOST OF THESE ARE INITIAL REPORTS AND REQUIRE FURTHER INVESTIGATION. If you wish to stop receiving these files, please send a message to Majorstar@verizon.net.

Filer’s Files salutes our fighting men and women Georgie Filer and Eddie Pedrick my grandsons who both drowned. We pray that God will bless those who read these files spiritually.

{ https://nationalufocenter.com/ }

29-10-2020 om 18:23 geschreven door peter  

Driver caught a UFO over Columbus, Ohio TODAY!

This strange unidentified flying object was filmed over Columbus, OH today (29th October 2020). What do you think it is?

Witness report: 

My daughter was moving from franklin County Columbus to Fairfield County Lancaster.As we were traveling 3 very bright large lights caught my eye off on the left side (driver) . The one on the bottom went out and when it re appeared it was on my right side (passenger side. I kept watching for a few minutes because it was just sitting in the sky that’s when I told my daughter to record.the lights. As you can see by the camera and our voices we didn’t know what we were looking at. It traveled from way far in front of us to directly over us in a matter of seconds we couldn’t get the entire bottom of the object because we were in traffic and it passed right over us.we were looking directly under it all you could see were the lights the top was as if it were transparent it was dark but I could see a shape of it.

At one point it looked like a giant drone but with all the lights that was underneath you should of been able to see exactly what it was but you couldn’t. I say drone because I seen something that went straight up into the air it was so dark you really had to be looking directly at it to even see it.
The only shots we got of this this was when it was coming in our direction and it was low in the sky as if it was going to land somewhere behind us in the fields. I wish I could of gotten a better shot of this thing but I showed it to someone who works at the airport and they said those weren’t airplane or helicopter lights. I tried to download it tom my computer to see if I could get a better look at this thing but wasn’t able to maybe someone at your agency could enhance the video to make sense of what we saw.

Check out this amazing book about the top 10 UFO cases in the history.$

Get your’s on Amazon:

Top 10 UFO Sightings: Best Cases: Aliens are visiting us

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29-10-2020 om 18:01 geschreven door peter  

Bright lights in the sky above Joshua Tree, California 20-Oct-2020

This UFO sighting was published on MUFON’s website today. It shows strange bright lights that were hovering in the sky above Joshua Tree in California on 20th October 2020. Also some strange noise was recorded on video!

Witness report: 

Several hours of lights appearing, multiplying disappearing. These three all come from one 12 minute long video. We were camping in the desert and it was a dark night with a crescent moon. We had just sat down to our dinner at our picnic table, when these lights appeared out in the desert.
Media File 1. We see lights multiply, disappear. We are talking to nearby campers at Belle Campground. They said that they had never seen anything like it. This video is the last in sequence of these three.
Media File 2. Earliest appearance from the same 12 minute long video. 7:22 pm time stamp. You hear the loud buzzing noises on audio. Never heard this before or since on my phone.
Media file 3. Another appearance that happened before #1: showing them appear and disappear.
We were at this spot about one year ago, under the Hunter’s Moon, and looked for lights, but saw nothing unusual.
Dr. Greer had been doing CE5 in Joshua Tree, for several nights previous to our arrival on 10-20-2020. We camped here for several more nights and saw nothing unusual.
Actress Roma Downey posted a video of the lights that night on her Twitter, so she saw them too.

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29-10-2020 om 17:55 geschreven door peter  

In the hours just after dark on August 8, 1993, a 27 -year-old housewife and mother of three children by the name of Kelly Cahill was driving with her husband between Belgrave and Fountain Gate, in Victoria, Australia, in order to attend a birthday party later that evening for Kelly’s friend’s daughter. At around 7 PM, they were passing the quiet foothills of the Dandenongs mountain range, approaching the outer Melbourne suburban housing estate where the friend lived. Since it was a fairly remote and dark road there were few other cars around, although on this evening Kelly would claim that there was another vehicle down the road behind them with a man and a woman within. It was a quiet, peaceful night, and other than that there wasn’t much to see, and so Kelly sat back watching the evening float by her passenger window. Yet something would come up out of the dark that would snap her awake.

Kelly Cahill

As Kelly looked out over the rural, increasingly mountainous landscape, she allegedly saw a “ring of orange lights” sitting on the ground in a nearby paddock. As she watched this mystery object wondering what it could be they passed by and she told her husband that she had just seen a UFO, but he didn’t seem to really believe her, saying it was probably just a helicopter. They sort of just put it out of their minds and went about going to the friend’s party and having a normal evening before heading back for the drive home. As they did they would both then see what appears to have been the same object Kelly had seen earlier, only this time it was hovering over the road right in front of them. Kelly would later tell UFO researcher Robb Tilley of what happened then:

Anyway, we were driving back down the road in the same stretch. Both of us,just me and my husband . . . we both saw this ring, mind you … . in front of us, hovering above the road. It was just something sitting there. . . . I couldn’t tell what it was. We were at first far away, but as you got closer to it was sort of . . . well, it wasn’t like the orange light in the field. It was a round shape with some sort of glass around, or what looked like windows and lights around the bottom. Because it was dark, you couldn’t really tell at first. But as we got closer and closer, there was no noise or anything. Even my husband’s going. “You’re right! That’s something. That’s very, very strange.” And I swear we saw people in there, and then just as I said to him, “I swear there’s people in there,” it just shot off to the left as fast as it could go. I mean it just disappeared. Within a split second it had gone.

We kept driving and about a kilometer ahead, all of a sudden, there’s this really, really bright light in front of us, and I’ve got my hand up, up above my brow, to look out the window, because it’s that bright, but I can’t see anything. I said to [my husband], “What are you going to do?” He said, “I’m going to keep driving.” From there, that is the last we remembered until . . . I knew I was going to see a UFO, you know, I just knew, because of what we had seen, I’d seen it twice in one night and he had seen it once . . . and the adrenalin is pumping, the heart is thumping, I’m so excited. All of a sudden I’m sitting in the car, and I’m saying to my husband, “What happened?” And he says to me, “I don’t know. We must have gone around a corner or something.

They both felt very strange at this point, as if they had had a blackout, but they weren’t sure quite why they felt this way but it was unshakeable. There was also apparently a “smell like vomit” permeating the vehicle, although there was no sign that either of them had thrown up. They had the very surreal sense that something was not quite right, and that something had happened to them, and as they talked about this it got even stranger still when Kelly saw a tall dark figure pass by along the side of the road that she did not think was human. It was not until they got home that they realized that they were both missing an hour of time, and Kelly noticed an odd triangular mark right above her navel and a scar above that, neither of which she had had before that night.

On top of this, they both experienced inexplicable headaches, nausea, stomach pain, and severe muscular fatigue over the coming weeks, during which time Kelly began menstruating out of cycle and fell so sick she could barely walk. Her husband would rush her to the hospital, where they were told that she had a womb infection. As all of this was going on, Kelly began to have little fragments of memory come back to her from that lost time, little flickers that floated up from her subconscious like fleeting, half-forgotten dreams. First she remembered going into an intense, blindingly bright light, then there were faint images of shadow figures moving in that light, and then one day when they were driving past the same spot she felt a sudden sense of overwhelming terror and it all came back to her. She would say of this:

On the way home from bingo that night, we went along the same road, and as we passed a certain spot I just got this incredible feeling of terror go through me, I mean absolute terror. All of a sudden I just started remembering, and by the next morning I had remembered just about everything that happened, except there’s still missing time that I can’t. What we had actually done, we had driven into the light, but the road curved, and the light we had thought was in front of us was actually to our right-hand side. It was in the field, and it was massive… the “size of a house” or perhaps close to 5O meters. So it was very big. Why I knew it was very big was because we could have driven for five minutes. The road sort of wound around this part. You could have driven for five minutes and not had it out of your sight the whole time.

She remembered that her and her husband had then stopped the car and gotten out to get a better look at the light. At this point she somehow noticed that there was another car that had stopped down the road, and that three people had stepped out of it. She turned her attention back to the otherworldly craft in front of them, and that’s when she saw a very tall, thin black figure, estimated as about 7 feet tall, and possessing luminous red eyes, which she describes as “burning red, like . . . fluorescent stop lights, I suppose, that sort of real burning red.” The entity was approaching them, and she felt overwhelmed with a cold, gripping terror. She would explain of what happened next:

All of a sudden I started screaming out [to my husbands. . . . Now this has really got me baffled because of the fact that a human being doesn’t know this, so I don’t even know how I came out with this, but I started saying, “They’ve got no souls.” And then I started screaming, “THEY’VE GOT NO SOULS!” Then all of a sudden there were heaps of them in the field, not just one, a whole heap of them, and they started coming towards us . . . faster than a man could run, and they were gliding off the ground. They got halfway across the field. They split up. Some of them went towards the other people [two or three, Kelly thought]. and some of them [the rest] came towards us. Kelly found herself screaming to the other people down the road, “They’re evil! They’re going to kill us!” I was hysterically terrified. . . . I had never felt terror like that. Not even in my worst nightmares had I experienced terror like that. The next thing I know, I felt this oomph! in my stomach, right across here like I was winded, but I was thrown right back, and I was on my back on the ground. I sat up, with my head between my knees. Here, I’m trying to stay conscious. I couldn’t see. My eyes. . . . It was all black.

She says that during this encounter she was only vaguely aware of her husband nearby, who was mostly silent, and that the creatures kept sending telepathic messages into her mind assuring her that they meant her no harm. Despite these insistent assurances, she felt with every fiber of her being that they were actually all evil somehow, and she says she suddenly felt a surge of anger overcome and usurp the uncontrollable fear that had paralyzed her. She remembers shouting at the beings to go away and cursing and threatening them, and the next thing she remembers is being back in her car, any other memories just a whirlwind of shards and pieces. In the coming weeks she would have extremely vivid dreams of being she had seen, as well as of being within their ship and speaking with them. She would say of one of these “dreamings” as she calls them as follows:

When after I did remember it, I had another dream, and these dreams seemed very physical. I know I’m dreaming, and I’ve got to wake up out of them. . . . In this particular one, I felt as if my legs were being pulled off the bed, and it was like I was paralyzed from my waist down, and my legs were being pulled over to the side; yet I could almost use the top of my body. Then I’m grabbing a pillow, trying to hit my husband, to wake him up. . . . I’m fighting this. I’m not going to let this thing drag me off the bed by my legs. Then I woke up and saw it standing there again! This time the hood covered the eyes, and it didn’t scare me. . . . I was still terrified, but it didn’t scare me quite as much, because each time it scared me, it was that same power like I felt out in the field that night.

During all of this, her husband remained unable to remember anything of what had happened, and it was all very bizarre to say the least. Kelly would contact Sydney-based researcher Bill Chalker, of the UFO Investigation Centre, who would launch a full, in-depth investigation into the events along with a group called Phenomena Research Australia [PRA]. They were not only able to track down other witnesses in two other cars who had passed that night and seen the UFO at the time as well, but also locate the three people described by Cahill who had also been approached by the strange entities on that fateful evening, who all also just so happened to have triangular marks on their bodies very similar to the one Kelly had. In addition to this, upon investigating the site of the UFO landing, Chalker and his team claimed that they had managed to find various physical evidence such as chemical and magnetic anomalies, as well as unusual radiation and magnetic readings and strange marks in the field that could not be explained.

In the meantime, the whole bizarre tale had hit the news, and Kelly Cahill would become a bit of a celebrity, appearing on TV shows, at UFO conferences, and writing a book about it all in 1997 called Encounter: The True Story. She would add other details to her account over the years, claiming that she had been menaced by an unmarked black helicopter, and to have forged a telepathic link with the aliens, who warned that they planned to invade Earth. Although her story may sound fantastical and almost absurd to some, she has long been seen as a rather reliable witness, as she no history of mental illness, no reason to lie, no prior connection to the UFO field, and was largely praised by neighbors and family as being an honest, sincere woman. Indeed, this perceived reliability, as well as the corroborating reports and the physical evidence left behind, have made Kelly Cahill’s case very significant in the UFO field, with Bill Chalker saying of this:

Here we have a striking situation. Two groups of persons unknown to each other have witnessed the same UFO encounter and entities. They also experienced missing time, and each group has been available to competent investigators. Independent witnesses have provided information which enable cross-checking and correlations to reveal a remarkable amount of similar information. The result is a compelling case for the reality of the strange events described. The ontological status of the events is further strengthened by a range of apparently related physical traces, including ground traces, a magnetic anomaly, and effects on some of the witnesses.

Indeed, the case of Kelly Cahill has become one of the most intriguing and baffling UFO cases Australia has ever seen, yet it remains a frustrating nut to crack. The main problem is that, although Phenomena Research Australia claims to have compiled a detailed report on all of the data and information pertaining to the case, this report has never been released to the public and remains under wraps. The names of the supposed other witnesses have also never been revealed, and they have never been interviewed by independent, mainstream sources. Indeed, even the name Kelly Cahill is a pseudonym, and so there is a thick cloud of mystery obscuring the real truth. In the end, we may never know exactly what happened out there on that lonely road, and it remains a strange mystery that will perhaps always elude us, as well as one of the most bizarre alien abduction accounts Australia has ever seen.

ALL RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

29-10-2020 om 16:42 geschreven door peter  

Bats get blamed for a variety of human problems from rabies to viruses (including the coronavirus) to vampirism, even though most of the transmissions are caused by humans themselves – eating them, touching injured bats, disturbing their caves, etc. It’s long past time we humans show bats a little more respect and a new discovery gives an excellent reason why – it turns out vampire bats in the wild prevent the spread of illnesses within their colony by practicing social distancing. Feeling a little ashamed right now?

“We tracked this unintentional “social distancing” effect hour-by-hour in a wild colony of vampire bats. Using bat-borne proximity sensors, we compared changes in the social network connectedness of immune-challenged “sick” bats versus “control” bats over time.”

Vampire bat

In a study published in the journal Behavioral Ecology, Simon P Ripperger of the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology at The Ohio State University and study lead author describes how his team captured 31 adult female vampire bats (Desmodus rotundus) from a roost in Belize, injected 16 with the immune-challenging substance lipopolysaccharide to make them “sick,” and injected the other left 15 with saline as a control group. Next, they attached proximity sensors and released them back into the wild. Then it was time to sit back and watch the monitors.

“Compared to the control group, “sick” (LPS-injected) bats associated with fewer groupmates (lower degree centrality), spent less time with others (lower strength centrality), and were less socially connected to more well-connected groupmates when considering both direct and indirect connections (lower eigenvector centrality), and these effects declined after the treatment period. During the 6 h of the treatment period, a “sick” bat associated on average with four fewer associates than a control bat.”

The “sick” vampire bats were observed spending less time interacting with the other bat in the colony, including participating in grooming their available partners, while the control bats continued normal associations. In other words, the sick bats self-isolated or practiced social distancing. This was more than just the normal behavior seen in most animals where the others in a group avoided the sick one – this was a conscious decision by the sick to stay away from the well until they felt better. While the lipopolysaccharide was not contagious, this data allowed the researchers to predict that this behavior would help reduce the spread of a contagious disease among the bats.

“The sensors gave us an amazing new window into how the social behavior of these bats changed from hour to hour and even minute to minute during the course of the day and night, even while they are hidden in the darkness of a hollow tree.”

As Ripperger indicates in the press release, frequent testing/monitoring of the vampire bats gave the surgeons an unprecedented way of tracking the “disease.” So, social distancing and testing helped keep the healthy bats safe while allowing the team to closely monitor their progress.

Leave it to vampire bats to show up humans. If those pointy little teeth didn’t tear them, they’d probably wear masks too.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

29-10-2020 om 16:21 geschreven door peter  

{ https://www.hln.be/ }

29-10-2020 om 16:11 geschreven door peter  

Cloud Orb Fleet Seen Over Mexico, May Be Monitoring Covid Spikes This Winter! Oct 22, 2020, Video, UFO Sighting News.

Date of sighting: Oct 22, 2020
Location of sighting: Valdequirico, Mexico

 

Watch this video and you will see a whole fleet of cloud orbs going in all directions. Not if these were balloons, they would all go one direction...the direction the wind is blowing. However that is not the case here. They move with deliberate motions...they have intelligence. There are no wings...ruling out planes, birds. This is absolutely alien in origin. A whole fleet of UFOs means something big is about to happen. Maybe they were dropped off to monitor a spike in Covid19 infections in Mexico. Aliens...they love to gather information. Its like gold to them. 

Scott C. Waring - Taiwan 

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

29-10-2020 om 15:37 geschreven door peter  

Mysterious Purple Light Over Sweden On Oct 27, 2020, Video, UFO Sighting News.

Date of sighting: Oct 27, 2020
Location of sighting: Sweden

A person in Sweden was driving home at night and come some car cam footage of a mysterious purple/pink glow lighting up the night sky. This is very strange and as the eyewitness suggests...perhaps its a UFO that has landed over in that area or is lurking in the clouds. One thing is clear...this is absolute proof that there are aliens over there!

Scott C. Waring - Taiwan

RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011

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

29-10-2020 om 15:07 geschreven door peter  

Glowing White Disk Seen Moving Over El Paso, Texas At Moment City Imposes Covid Curfew Rules, Oct 27, 2020, Video, UFO Sighting News.

Date of sighting: Oct 27, 2020

Location of sighting: El Paso, Texas, USA

 

Watch this huge glowing object flying over the city of El Paso, Texas just a few nights ago. The object goes in and out of focus, but at times we can clearly see the craft. The object is white and cloud like, but moves with deliberate actions, which is proof its intelligently controlled. This UFO was probably monitoring how the public is taking the new curfews that El Paso has placed on the city 2 days ago. Its got to be causing a lot of stress and panic for the public, and aliens want to record how humans handle such moments. Such a moment might exist in the future when aliens themselves come down to greet the public. 

Scott C. Waring - Taiwan

 

Eyewitness states: 

As I was recording what appeared to be a UFO , I caught something else that I did not see at the moment until I saw the video a few days later and noticed out the corner of my eye while watching the flying object ,something moved ... I am Lost For Words on what it could be but looks like a tall stick figure move right then left then right again walking all the way behind a trailer bed and disappear ... what the hell is it ??? What do you guys think .. please comment your thought I have shown it to a few people and they are all blown away and can not explain it...

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

29-10-2020 om 14:40 geschreven door peter  

Tear Drop UFO Rests In Sky Over Chester Springs, Pennsylvania Oct 19, 2020, Video, UFO Sighting News.

Date of sighting: Oct 19, 2020

Location of sighting: Chester Springs, Pennsylvania, USA

 

This dark UFO is very similar to another UFO I reported yesterday that was over the Philippines not long ago. The UFO is dark, tear drop shaped and moves silently and slowly. Very similar in appearance to the Dark Knight Satellites. This is an awesome video that is 100% proof that aliens exist. I just can't believe that its just hanging there over the hilltop. Wow! Fantastic capture of a real alien craft. 

Scott C. Waring - Taiwan 

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

29-10-2020 om 14:36 geschreven door peter  

Witness:

We were camping in Joshua Tree at Belle Campground, California on 10-20-2020. Around 7:20 pm when we observed bright lights in the sky. They looked like bright gold slightly orange lights. 

Started as 3 lights, turned into 4. Others appeared. disappeared, came back, multiplied into 3 or 4, lights separating and moving in relation to each other, in triangular patterns at times. Sometimes one morphing into 3 or 4 in a matter of seconds, at times 2 sets of 4. This happened 3 separate times from 7:20-10 pm. 

Then we heard plane or helicopter sounds, and upon looking thru binoculars we saw plumes of something above the lights. They looked larger and possibly different in shape, too. Other campers saw the lights. The people in the adjacent campsite commented that they had never seen anything like it. Mufon reports here and here. 

Remarkable: 

Dr. Greer had been doing CE5 in Joshua Tree, for several nights previous to our arrival on 10-20-2020 while actress Roma Downey was in Joshua Tree and saw the lights too and posted a video of the lights on her twitter.

https://www.derryjournal.com/news/people/derry-actress-roma-downey-unnerved-ufos-over-joshua-tree-desert-3013188

  

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

29-10-2020 om 14:11 geschreven door peter  

For the first time ever, scientists have identified water on the moon’s sunlit surface using SOFIA, an airborne observatory. Water on the moon also appears more widespread than previously thought.

View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Steven Arthur Sweet of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, captured the moon just past 1st quarter on October 23, 2020. See more of Steven’s work at Lunar 101-Moon Book.

Eureka! For the first time ever, scientists have identified water on the moon’s sunlit surface. They also found that water is more common on the moon than previously thought, with pockets of ice hiding in some of its darker, shadow-covered regions. A team of project scientists and leaders announced the news and discussed the exciting revelations during a conference held by NASA earlier today (Monday, October 26, 2020). Speakers also referenced the agency’s ambitious Artemis program, which aims to land astronauts at the moon’s south pole in the year 2024.

• EarthSky’s lunar calendar shows the moon phase for every day in 2021. Order yours before they’re gone! Makes a great gift.

Scientists have been finding signs of water on the moon since 2009 and, in 2018, confirmed the presence of water ice at the moon’s south pole, in craters that are in perpetual shadow. This water was already considered a possible future resource for astronauts on the moon. The announcement made today comes from two new studies that have detected water at one of the largest crater formations on the sunlit surface on the moon, and also revealed that the lunar surface could be harboring plentiful patches of hidden ice in “cold traps,” permanently shadowed areas on both sides of the moon.

Previous observations identified ice based on its spectral signature – the distinct “barcode” of its chemical composition – but that data doesn’t distinguish between water and hydroxyl bound to minerals on the lunar surface. With these new observations, researchers were able to single out the unique chemical signature of water near Clavius Crater, one of the largest crater formations on the moon. Paul Hertz, who leads NASA’s astrophysics division, said in a statement:

We had indications that H2O – the familiar water we know – might be present on the sunlit side of the moon. Now we know it is there. This discovery challenges our understanding of the lunar surface and raises intriguing questions about resources relevant for deep space exploration.

The Clavius crater on the moon as seen by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. The SOFIA observatory has detected water ice in shadowed regions of this sunlit lunar location.

Image by NASA/ Moon Trek/ USGS/ LRO.

How the water then gets stored also raises some intriguing questions. The water could be trapped in tiny beadlike structures in the soil that form out of the high heat created by meteorite impacts. Another possibility is that the water could be hidden between grains of lunar soil and sheltered from the sunlight. Casey Honniball, the lead author who published the results from her graduate thesis work, said:

Without a thick atmosphere, water on the sunlit lunar surface should just be lost to space, yet somehow we’re seeing it. Something is generating the water, and something must be trapping it there.

The new discovery comes from an airborne observatory called the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, aka SOFIA, which rides aboard a German-American aircraft that made its first flight in 2007. The instrument used to pick up the specific wavelength unique to water molecules is called the Faint Object infraRed CAmera for the SOFIA Telescope, or FORCAST.

FORCAST is packed aboard a modified 747 jet plane that carries its instruments up above most of Earth’s atmosphere, which offers some unique advantages. Earth’s atmosphere is both turbulent and turbid. For example, only radio and visible light pass easily through the different atmospheric layers, meaning that other wavelengths of light, such as infrared, are not easily captured using ground-based cameras. Infrared light, in particular, is absorbed at many wavelengths by water vapor in the Earth’s atmosphere, so most infrared telescopes are at high elevations in dry places, above as much of the atmosphere as possible. SOFIA’s instruments focus on infrared light, studying objects in our own solar system and beyond.

Unlike infrared telescopes in space – such as the Spitzer Space Telescope and the Herschel Space Observatory (both now retired) – SOFIA is relatively easy to upgrade since it returns routinely back to Earth, where it’s operated and maintained as necessary at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Palmdale, California. Each of the observatory’s flights lasts approximately 10 hours. SOFIA was grounded in mid-March 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and only began flying again in mid-August, according to NASA statements. SOFIA has also struggled in the budgetary process over the past decade, as presidential budget requests have repeatedly selected the project for cancellation; Congress has reinstated it each time.

The announcement is relative to predictions that – beneath the surfaces of Mars, Venus and our own moon – there are majestic volcanic caves, or lava tubes, formed by flowing magma and covered in tiny crystals. These lunar caves could provide shelter for future lunar explorers, and NASA has been testing an exploratory cave rover toward that end. In any case, this new water discovery could prove monumental in humanity’s plans to not only return astronauts to the moon, but also to create long-term habitats on the lunar surface as well as a jumping-off point to Mars.

Hertz and Honniball were two of four speakers during today’s news conference. They were also joined by Naseem Rangwala, project scientist for the SOFIA mission at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California, and Jacob Bleacher, a chief exploration scientist.

The SOFIA aircraft taking off.

Image by NASA.

• Bottom line: For the first time ever, scientists have identified water on the moon’s sunlit surface; they also have indications that the water is more widespread than previously thought. The discovery comes from the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA).
• Via NASA

RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011

{ https://earthsky.org/ }

29-10-2020 om 01:20 geschreven door peter  

Special 'jellyfish galaxies' feed their supermassive black holes with enormous 'tentacles' of gas and stars

• 'Jellyfish galaxies' have extremely long tentacles of gas and stars
• A study found these tentacles make the galaxies easy for black holes to feed on
• This helps to explain why many supermassive black holes do not appear active 
• One in seven of the jellyfish galaxies studied were fuelling supermassive black holes (AGN) 

By ABIGAIL BEALL FOR MAILONLINE

At the centre of many galaxies there is a supermassive black hole, which can be anything between 1,000 and one billion times the mass of our sun.

But not all these supermassive black holes are active, feeding on galaxies and shining brightly - and the reason why is a mystery.

Now, researchers have come closer to solving the mystery, by discovering a previously unknown way that supermassive black holes can 'feed'.

The team studied the central black holes within special 'jellyfish galaxies', which are named after their long tentacles of gas and stars.

They found that the mechanism that produces the 'tentacles' that give these galaxies their nickname also makes it possible for the gas to reach the central regions of the galaxies, feeding the black hole and causing it to shine brilliantly.

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This image shows a jellyfish galaxy, nicknamed JW206. Material is seen streaming out of the galaxy in long tendrils. Red shows the glow from ionised hydrogen gas and the whiter regions are where most of the stars in the galaxy are located

'These MUSE observations suggest a novel mechanism for gas to be funnelled towards the black hole's neighbourhood,' said Dr Yara Jaffé, co-author of the study, from the European Southern Observatory (ESO).

'This result is important because it provides a new piece in the puzzle of the poorly understood connections between supermassive black holes and their host galaxies.'

When a supermassive black hole at the centre of a galaxy is active, it is called an active galactic nuclei (AGN).

On average, less than a tenth of galaxies are found to have AGN at their centre. 

However, the new study found six out of seven of a special type of galaxy feed brightly shining supermassive black holes.

These galaxies, known as jellyfish galaxies, have extremely long tentacles of stars and gas – extending for tens of thousands of light years.

Scientists found that the mechanism that produces the 'tentacles' that give jellyfish galaxies their nickname also makes it possible for the gas to reach the central regions of the galaxies, feeding the black hole and causing it to shine brilliantly

The team studied the central black holes within special 'jellyfish galaxies', which are named after their long tentacles of gas and stars. This image shows a jellyfish galaxy in the three-dimensional view of the MUSE instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope.

These tentacles are made by a process called ram pressure stripping, in galaxy clusters.

'This strong link between ram pressure stripping and active black holes was not predicted and has never been reported before,' said team leader Dr Bianca Poggianti from the INAF-Astronomical Observatory of Padova in Italy.

'It seems that the central black hole is being fed because some of the gas, rather than being removed, reaches the galaxy centre.'

But this is only the beginning - the study is part of a much more extensive experiment looking at many more jellyfish galaxies, which is currently in progress.

An Italian-led team made the finding while observing jellyfish galaxies (pictured) using the MUSE (Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer) instrument on the Very Large Telescope at the Paranal Observatory in Chile

'This survey, when completed, will reveal how many, and which, gas-rich galaxies entering clusters go through a period of increased activity at their cores,' says Dr Poggianti.

'A long-standing puzzle in astronomy has been to understand how galaxies form and change in our expanding and evolving Universe.

'Jellyfish galaxies are a key to understanding galaxy evolution as they are galaxies caught in the middle of a dramatic transformation.'

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29-10-2020 om 00:57 geschreven door peter  

View larger. | The galaxy JO206 and its ordered magnetic field (green lines) along its gas tail. The pink objects characterize H-alpha emission, a type of emission that suggests the formation of new stars.

Image via ESO/ GASP collaboration/ AIP.

Jellyfish galaxies are thought to take on their unique structure when they travel through the centers of galaxy clusters. As they move through, their motion pushes interstellar gas in the opposite direction, forming a gas tail that gives jellyfish galaxies their appearance of “tentacles” (really, stars and gas) and hence their name. Earlier studies indicated rapid star formation in the gas tails of jellyfish galaxies. And so astronomers began wondering about the role played by the jellyfish galaxies’ magnetic fields, especially since magnetic fields’ contribution to the process of star formation is an area of active research.

But the tails of jellyfish galaxies have been difficult to study due to their low brightness. That’s why galactic astronomers might have issued a satisfied collective “hmmmm!” this week (October 26, 2020), when a team in Europe announced the results of their careful analysis of the magnetic field structure of the tail of a jellyfish galaxy known as JO206. They found the magnetic field aligned very precisely along the galaxy’s “tentacles,” or tail, where active star formation is taking place.

The German-Italian team that conducted the study had their results published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Astronomy. Lead author was Ancla Müller from the Ruhr University Bochum. Müller explained:

As the galaxy falls on the center of the galaxy cluster, an interaction takes place with the medium between the individual galaxies and its magnetic field.

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The magnetic fields of galaxies are an area of active research. Here’s an image from SOFIA showing celestial dust grains, which are aligned perpendicular to magnetic field lines at the center of our own galaxy, the Milky Way. 

Read more about this photo.

Image via NASA/ SOFIA/ L. Proudfit; ESA/ Herschel; Hubble Space Telescope.

In order to explain this interaction, the team used computer simulations together with their polarization data observed with the VLA, to develop a theory. Their scenario involves the jellyfish galaxy JO206 rushing at high speed to the center of the galaxy cluster, causing its own magnetic fields to interact with those in the cluster. Meanwhile, hot winds from the space between the galaxies is collecting, they said, as accumulations of plasma (not solid, not liquid, not gas, but a fourth state of matter) on the outside of the newly formed tail of the jellyfish galaxy. Co-author Christoph Pfrommer of the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics in Potsdam explained that the magnetic layer surrounding the tail protects it from falling apart:

As the jellyfish galaxy flies through the galaxy cluster, its magnetic field wraps around the galaxy like a mantle and is further strengthened and smoothed by the high speed of the galaxy and by cooling effects.

Ancla Müller added:

This would provide enough material for star formation. It should be fascinating to see whether this picture can be confirmed by further measurements on other objects.

Astronomer Bianca Poggianti of the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics – whose earlier study had shown that stars can form in the gas tails of jellyfish galaxies, and who is a co-author on the current paper – concluded:

To verify the hypotheses suggested by the observations of the jellyfish galaxy JO206 we are observing other galaxies with similar tails using radio telescopes in Australia, South Africa and the United States.

The observation of the magnetic field of JO206 is the first and so far the only investigation of its kind in a jellyfish galaxy. We need more observations to understand if the discovered phenomenon is common or exceptional. This will also allow us to understand what connection exists between the magnetic field and the star formation outside the galaxy disks.

Here’s another jellyfish galaxy. This one is called ESO 137-001. This image was obtained using Hubble Space Telescope observations, combined with data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory.

Image via NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center.

• Bottom line: A team in Europe announced the results of their careful analysis of the magnetic field structure of the tail of a jellyfish galaxy known as JO206. They found the magnetic field aligned very precisely along the galaxy’s “tentacles,” or tail, where active star formation is taking place.
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29-10-2020 om 00:34 geschreven door peter  

China chooses landing site for its Tianwen-1 Mars rover

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28-10-2020 om 23:58 geschreven door peter