Curiosity pose sur Mars devant le mont Mercou et signe l'un de ses plus beaux selfies - PART I

Xavier Demeersman - Journaliste

Où est en ce moment le rover Curiosity ? Devant le mont Mercou... sur Mars. Pas celui qui est sur Terre, dans le sud-ouest de la France. Le robot a passé beaucoup de temps sur ce site et en a profité pour prendre l'un de ses plus beaux autoportraits depuis son site d'exploration.

Curiosity, illustre prédécesseur de Perseverance, poursuit ses activités sur les pentes du mont Sharp (5.000 mètres d'altitude). Ces derniers jours, il a transmis au Le JPL est le principal centre américain pour l'exploration robotique du..." data-url="/sciences/definitions/univers-jet-propulsion-laboratory-2561/" data-more="Lire la suite">JPL, sa maison-mère (sur Terre), un bel assortiment d'images de son environnement prises les 16 et 26 mars derniers, au pied d'un monticule de six mètres de haut, qui a été surnommé le Mont Mercou. À la Nasa, on s'est empressé d'assembler les quelque 71 pièces du puzzle-mosaïque pour obtenir ce beau selfie du rover-explorateur devant ce site exceptionnel. Il se compose exactement de 60 images prises le 26 mars avec la caméra Mahli (Mars Hand Lens Imager), et de 11 autres, capturées 10 jours plus tôt, du haut de la Mastcam.

Curiosity posant devant le mont Mercou.

© Nasa, JPL-Caltech, MSSS 

Un double du mont Mercou sur Mars

Cela fait plusieurs semaines que le robot tourne autour de ce relief. Il intéresse beaucoup les géologues sur Terre en effet pour tout ce qu'il a raconté sur le passé de Mars. Son aspect feuilleté est comme un livre que les scientifiques veulent ouvrir. Comme vous pouvez le voir, Curiosity a procédé à un forage sur le site. C'était le 30^e de son expédition qui a débuté il y a bientôt neuf ans. L'endroit a été nommé « Nontron », en référence au village éponyme situé en Dordogne, où de la nontronite a été découverte en 1822.

Le mont Mercou vu sous deux angles différents. 32 images prises par la Mastcam de Curiosity composent ce paysage.

© Nasa, JPL-Caltech, MSSS 

Tout indique que la région en contient comme l'ont montré les observations réalisées depuis l'orbite martienne. Et devinez ce que l'on trouve sur Terre, en France, à proximité de cette commune du sud-ouest ? Le mont Mercou. La colline de 316 mètres se retrouve donc désormais sur les cartes de deux planètes différentes.

Sur Mars, Curiosity se prend en selfie sur un site exceptionnel riche en argile

Article de Xavier Demeersman publié le 25 octobre 2019

Cinquante-sept images composent ce superbe selfie de Curiosity et de son environnement martien réalisé il y a quelques jours. Le site de « Glen Etive », où le rover vient de faire deux forages, s'avère très précieux et retient toute l'attention des chercheurs de la Nasa.

Selfie de Curiosity capturé le 11 octobre 2019 sur le site de « Glen Etive ». Bariolé de poussière, le rover commence à prendre la couleur de Mars.

© Nasa, JPL-Caltech, MSSS 

Seul sur Mars, en tout cas seul robot au sol en service actuellement, l'infatigable Curiosity poursuit ses activités de géochimiste sur les flancs du mont Sharp. Le 11 octobre dernier, lors de son 2.553^e jour martien, le rover a profité d'une pause dans son travail pour réaliser un nouvel autoportrait.

Les 57 images individuelles prises patiemment avec la caméra Mahli (Mars Hand Lens Imager) qui équipe son bras robotique ont été « cousues » ensemble pour composer ce sublime tableau dans lequel on peut admirer l'astromobile d'une tonne - c'est l'occasion de voir dans quel état il est et d'ailleurs, on notera que Curiosity est barbouillé de poussière des pieds à la tête ; il se fond de plus en plus dans le paysage - et son environnement. Et quelle beauté tout autour de lui. Une beauté aride, certes, mais fascinante.

Ainsi, au loin, sur l'horizon, peut-on voir les remparts nord du cratère Gale (au passage, rappelons que le rover s'est posé au pied du mont Sharp, au centre de ce cratère de 155 kilomètres de diamètre, il y a déjà sept ans maintenant). En haut à droite de l'image, on aperçoit un morceau des niveaux supérieurs de l'édifice qu'arpente méticuleusement le rover. Dans le prolongement de cette pente, à l'arrière-plan, et à quelque 300 mètres de Curiosity, on distingue la masse sombre de la crête Vera Rubin qu'il explorait un an plus tôt. À ses pieds enfin, à gauche, à mi-chemin quasiment entre ses deux roues avant, deux petites piqûres dans le sol : les forages opérés par l'astromobile il y a un peu plus d'un mois.

Pour en avoir plein les yeux, téléchargez ce nouveau selfie de Curiosity en haute résolution réalisé lors de son 2.553^e jour martien.

© Nasa, JPL-Caltech, MSSS 

Un site particulièrement intéressant

Nommés « Glen Etive 1 » et « Glen Etive 2 », les deux trous, et surtout la matière récoltée, ont une saveur toute particulière pour les chercheurs de la mission. Il y a un mois en effet, le 24 septembre, c'était la deuxième fois seulement depuis le début de son séjour sur Mars que le petit laboratoire sur roues tout-terrain, de son vrai nom MSL (Mars Science Laboratory), se livre à une expérience de chimie par voie humide (en anglais, wet-chemistry). Sur les 74 gobelets disposés au sein de l'instrument SAM (Sample Analysis at Mars), neuf sont dotés de solvants qui offrent la possibilité de détecter la présence de matière organique.

Le site de « Glen Etive », au cœur de l'« unité d'argile » (identifiée depuis l'espace) lequel site n'a bien sûr pas été choisi au hasard, est tout indiqué pour ces recherches car, si ça se trouve, ces roches ont conservé des traces de vie passée. Que disent les résultats ? Rien, pour l'instant. Il va en effet falloir être patient : « les données de SAM sont extrêmement complexes et prennent du temps à interpréter » a rappelé Paul Mahaffy, en charge de l'instrument à la Nasa. Aussi, rendez-vous début 2020 pour découvrir les secrets que renferment ces échantillons réduits en poudre. Voilà qui aiguise notre curiosité.

Sur Mars, Curiosity explore un nouveau site riche en argile et nous offre un selfie

Article de Xavier Demeersman publié le 31 mai 2019

Quand il ne travaille pas, le rover Curiosity regarde les nuages défiler dans le ciel et se prend en photo. Voici son dernier autoportrait, réalisé dans une région riche en argile sur les pentes du mont Sharp.

Le 6 août prochain, cela fera sept ans déjà que Curiosity a débarqué sur Mars, dans le cratère Gale. Sa mission d'exploration, loin d'être achevée, se poursuit toujours sur les flancs du mont Sharp, point culminant (5.500 mètres) constitué d'un empilement de couches sédimentaires. L'astromobile, qui ne prend jamais de vacances, a récemment réalisé ses vingtième et vingt et unième forages : « Aberlady » et « Kilmarie », dans le sol d'une région qui était apparue très riche en argile aux yeux des sondes en orbite il y a plusieurs années, bien avant l'arrivée de Curiosity. C'est entre autres pour cette raison que ce site a été choisi. Et ça se confirme : l'argile abonde. Le scénario le plus probable pour l'expliquer est qu'il y avait bien un lac à cet endroit, il y a environ 3,7 milliards d'années, et que les argiles s'y sont formées au fond, en interaction avec l'eau.

Cinquante-sept images individuelles composent ce nouveau selfie de Curiosity créé le 12 mai. Téléchargez l'image en haute résolution ici.

© Nasa, JPL-Caltech, MSSS 

Curiosity observe des nuages noctulescents

Sur ce tout nouveau selfie de Curiosity, les deux trous « Aberlady » et « Kilmarie » sont visibles à ses pieds. L'image prise le 12 mai - lors de son 2.405^e jour sur Mars - se compose de 57 photos individuelles capturées par Mahli (Mars Hand Lens Imager), la caméra qu'il tient au bout de son bras robotique.

Nuages de glace d’eau défilant à quelque 31 kilomètres au-dessus de Curiosity.

© Nasa, JPL-Caltech 

Bien que l'essentiel de son activité soit de regarder le sol de Mars pour le caractériser - et comprendre son évolution, son habitabilité -, il arrive aussi que le rover ait le nez en l'air, parfois sur un coucher de soleil à l'horizon et parfois pour deviser le temps qu'il fait. Et il y a quelques jours, le 17 mai, le rover a aperçu des nuages défiler au-dessus de lui. Des nuages noctulescents, haut perchés (à une altitude estimée de 31 kilomètres), qu'il a pu photographier avec sa caméra de navigation NavCam. Et d'ailleurs, histoire de mieux inférer leur altitude, la Nasa en a profité pour tourner les yeux du robot InSight (à 600 kilomètres de là) sur ces nuages de glace, au même moment.

Curiosity nous offre son dernier selfie et un superbe panorama de Mars

Article de Xavier Demeersman publié le 5 février 2019

Curiosity nous a envoyé un nouveau selfie. Il vient d'être réalisé sur le flanc nord de la montagne qu'il escalade. Depuis ces hauteurs, le rover en a profité aussi pour capturer un splendide panorama. C'est la première fois que le robot se retourne pour contempler ce paysage. Au loin, les remparts du cratère où il se trouve et, dans la plaine, on peut voir tous les sites qu'il a visités depuis son arrivée sur Mars, il y a cinq ans et demi.

Sur Mars, à une centaine de millions de kilomètres de la Terre, l'infatigable Opportunity a fêté, le 25 janvier dernier, son quatorzième anniversaire d'exploration dans la région de Terra Meridiani -- 45 kilomètres ont déjà été parcourus en 4.836 jours martiens. Une prouesse ! Presque à la même latitude, mais à 8.400 kilomètres de là, Curiosity poursuit de son côté l'ascension du mont Sharp, édifice de 5.500 mètres de haut qui campe au centre du cratère Gale (154 kilomètres de diamètre) où le rover d'une tonne a atterri voilà maintenant cinq ans et demi. Les deux astromobiles se portent bien et, chemin faisant, prolongent leurs missions d'investigations des roches martiennes.

Il y a quelques jours, Curiosity a transmis aux équipes qui le pilotent et prennent soin de lui, un nouvel autoportrait. Le tableau se compose de dizaines de photos indépendantes assemblées qui ont été prises durant la journée du 23 janvier avec la caméra Mahli (Mars Hand Lens Imager) sur son bras articulé. On peut admirer le rover poser sur la crête Vera Rubin où il séjourne depuis plusieurs semaines. Juste derrière lui, un terrain en pente riche en argile que les « scientifiques sont impatients de commencer à explorer », écrit la Nasa. Il est prévu qu'il s'y rende au cours des prochaines semaines. Tout au fond, derrière le rover, on reconnaît le sommet du mont Sharp qu'il atteindra, qui sait, peut-être un jour.

Curiosity sur le site Vera Rubin, le 23 janvier 2018 (sol 1943). Des dizaines d'images assemblées composent ce nouveau selfie. Juste derrière le rover, le site qu'il va bientôt explorer. Tout au fond : le sommet du mont Sharp. Téléchargez l'image en haute résolution ici.

© Nasa, JPL-Caltech, MSSS 

Un fantastique panorama où l’on retrouve le parcours de Curiosity sur Mars

Depuis les hauteurs de la montagne qu'il arpente (sur le flanc nord), Curiosity jouit d'un point de vue unique sur les paysages qui l'entourent, sur des dizaines de kilomètres à la ronde. Les équipes du rover ont tenu à partager la vue saisissante qui s'étalait devant lui en octobre dernier. Le robot a pris quelques heures pour réaliser ce magnifique panorama avec l'œil gauche de la caméra de son mât (voir ci-dessus). C'était peu avant le solstice d'hiver dans l'hémisphère nord martien. Le temps était au beau fixe, offrant de beaux détails sur les collines lointaines, à plus de 80 kilomètres.

« Même si Curiosity grimpe régulièrement depuis cinq ans, c'est la première fois que nous regardons en arrière et voyons toute la mission en dessous de nous », a commenté Ashwin Vasavada, chercheur de la mission au JPL.

Tout au fond, à l'arrière-plan, on aperçoit dans des tons éthérés, les remparts nord de l'immense cratère d'impact formé il y a plus de 3,6 milliards d'années. Plus près, dans la plaine -- les recherches de Curiosity ont révélé qu'il s'agit d'un ancien lac --, on aperçoit les principaux sites que le rover a visités depuis son arrivée le 6 août 2012. 18 kilomètres ont été parcourus depuis le site d'atterrissage et l'astromobile s'est élevé de 327 mètres. Sur ces images, la balance des blancs a été travaillée de façon à obtenir un rendu des roches comme elles nous apparaîtraient de jour, sur Terre (ce qui facilite le travail des géologues).

Un panorama exquis que vous pouvez retrouver ici en haute résolution et avec un luxe de détails. On a littéralement l'impression d'y être, de sentir les rayons du Soleil d'hiver et une légère brise martienne... Des paysages transformés depuis des milliards d'années par les alizés et aussi, dans la jeunesse de la planète, par l'eau. Vous pouvez également télécharger une version avec tous les sites visités par le rover annotés ici.

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01-04-2021 om 21:32 geschreven door peter  

Curiosity pose sur Mars devant le mont Mercou et signe l'un de ses plus beaux selfies -  PART II

Xavier Demeersman - Journaliste

Curiosity : un étonnant selfie sur un sol très hydraté 

Article de Xavier Demeersman publié le 26 août 2015

Curiosity s'est offert un nouvel autoportrait qui combine une mosaïque d'images prises la veille du troisième anniversaire de son arrivée sur Mars, dans le cratère Gale. Le site de Marias Pass, où il était ces dernières semaines, sur les flancs du mont Sharp, témoigne d'un taux d'hydrogène et de silice plus élevé que dans les autres endroits visités par le rover. Il s'agit de précieux indices de matériaux hydratés témoignant de l'histoire passée de Mars et que les planétologues espèrent bien déchiffrer.

Le 6 août 2015 marquait le premier anniversaire de la sonde européenne Rosetta autour du noyau de la comète Tchouri, une semaine tout juste avant son passage au périhélie. À quelques millions de kilomètres de là, Curiosity fêtait seul sur Mars le troisième anniversaire de son débarquement à l'intérieur du cratère Gale. La veille, lors du sol 1.065 (1.065^e jour martien), le rover américain s'est livré à un méticuleux autoportrait ou selfie.

Le tableau final réunit pas moins de 92 images brutes individuelles capturées durant une heure avec la caméra Mahli (Mars Hand Lens Imager), installée au bout de son bras articulé. Elles sont visibles, séparément, au sein de la galerie dédiée du site de la Nasa. Par ailleurs, l'excellent blog d'Emily Lakdawa (journaliste à la Planetary Society) offre de les découvrir toutes ensemble, réunies en une seule image non traitée et non combinée. Une vidéo très intéressante, visible sur YouTube, illustre la méthode employée pour acquérir cette mosaïque d'images - une méthode également employée par le rover au début de son séjour sur Mars. Comme l'explique la Nasa dans son communiqué, avant d'envoyer les instructions, des essais furent réalisés au préalable dans un studio-laboratoire sur Terre, avec la doublure de Curiosity (à voir ici). Bien sûr, le bras robotisé n'apparaît pas mais on voit toutefois son ombre projetée sur le sol poussiéreux de la Planète rouge.

Image composite de 92 photos individuelles prises le 5 août 2015 avec la caméra Mahli, installée au bout du bras articulé. Le rover est juché sur une petite colline, où il a foré deux trous (les taches grises). Derrière lui, le mont Sharp, à gauche, et, à droite une partie des remparts ouest du cratère Gale. L’image en très haute résolution est téléchargeable ici (2,23 Mo).

© Nasa, JPL-Caltech, MSSS 

Cet autoportrait du 5 août est le cinquième réalisé sur un site de collecte d'échantillons. Les trous que l'on distingue devant le rover ont été forés dans une roche baptisée « Buckskin ». L'image s'inscrit dans la lignée des selfies des sites « Rocknest », « John Klein », « Mojave » et « Windjana ». Pour celui-ci, le rover faisait face au nord-est. À l'arrière-plan, derrière lui, on aperçoit à gauche, au sud de sa position, la silhouette du mont Sharp (5,5 km d'altitude) - qu'il a commencé de gravir en septembre 2014 - et, à droite, en direction de l'ouest, une partie des parois rocheuses qui entourent ce vaste cratère d'impact de 155 km de diamètre.

Un taux élevé d'hydrogène et de silice

Curiosity a grimpé une petite colline d'environ 6 mètres de hauteur et effectué son septième forage à son sommet le 30 juillet dernier (sol 1.060). Le site nommé « Marias Pass » (« le col de Marias ») a particulièrement attiré l'attention des scientifiques de la mission. En effet, en passant dans les parages le 21 mai, l'instrument Dan (Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons) avait détecté en mode passif un taux plus élevé qu'ailleurs d'hydrogène dans le sol. Quant aux tirs laser réalisés avec ChemCam, ils ont révélé un niveau important de silice. En faisant un détour sur son chemin à travers les contreforts de cette montagne échafaudée d'empilements de couches sédimentaires, les chercheurs ont donc eu une nouvelle occasion d'étudier un environnement à la jonction de deux couches. Quelques mois auparavant, le rover avait observé, et même foré, dans cette formation sur le site Pahrump Hills. Pour les planétologues, il est important de comprendre quelles étaient les conditions qui régnaient alors dans cette région pour qu'une modification de la composition des sols ait pu être opérée, marquant ainsi une transition.

La silice contient du silicium et de l'oxygène que l'on retrouve abondamment sur Terre dans plusieurs minéraux, comme le quartz. L'abondance d'hydrogène est interprétée comme des ions hydroxyles (OH^-) issus de l'eau et liés aux roches. Autant de marqueurs signalant la présence de matériaux hydratés comme l'ont confirmé les passages de Dan en mode actif. « Jusqu'à un mètre en dessous du rover, le sol présente dans cette région trois ou quatre fois plus d'eau que n'importe quel site sur lequel Curiosity a roulé durant ses trois années sur Mars », souligne à ce propos le responsable de l'instrument, Igor Mitrofanov de l'institut de Recherche spatiale de Moscou.

Enfin, on peut se réjouir que les forages aient pu être exécutés sans problèmes de courts-circuits, à l'inverse de ce qui s'était produit en février dernier, à l'occasion d'un transfert d'échantillons réduits en poudre à Pahrump Hills. Curiosity a repris la route le 12 août après plusieurs semaines passées dans cet environnement inédit et avec un échantillon en cours d'analyse. Le 18 août, il avait déjà parcouru 132 mètres.

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01-04-2021 om 21:31 geschreven door peter  

 Scientists Unearth Skull Of Dinosaur Called ‘one Who Causes Fear’ In Argentina: Study

Scientists in Argentina recently have discovered the well-preserved skull of a large meat-eating dinosaur named ‘one who causes fear’ in the Mapuche language.

Written By Bhavya Sukheja

Scientists in Argentina recently have discovered the well-preserved skull of a large meat-eating dinosaur named ‘one who causes fear’ in the local Mapuche language. According to the study published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, the horned ‘Llukalkan aliocranianus’ was around 5 metres long and roamed South America 85 million years ago. Researchers discovered the remains nearby of another carnivorous dinosaur, something they said was highly unusual. 

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As per the study, similar to T-rex, the Llukalkan dinosaur was also two-legged with very short arms but was medium-sized compared to the giant T-rex. The dinosaur had short horns and tiny fingers. It was estimated to weigh between one and five tonnes, which is slightly lighter than an adult African elephant. 

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Species similar to Viavenator

The researchers said that the dinosaur was probably a fearsome predator, with a large skull and a strong bite. The findings suggest that it had better hearing than other dinosaurs in the abelisaurids family which likely made it a better hunter. The fossilised remains of the beast were found at a famous fossil site near La Invernada in Argentina. 

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Lead author Dr Federico Gianechini, from the National University of San Luis, said, “This is a particularly important discovery because it suggests that the diversity and abundance of abelisaurids were remarkable, not only across Patagonia but also in more local areas during the dinosaurs' twilight period”. 

"This discovery also suggests that there are likely more abelisaurid out there that we just haven't found yet, so we will be looking for other new species and a better understanding of the relationship among furilesaurs," says Dr Gianechini.

Gianechini further informed that abelisauridae were a family of theropod dinosaurs averaging five to nine meters long that prowled mainly in Patagonia and other areas of the ancient southern subcontinent Gondwana, which today has split into Africa, India, Antarctica, Australia, and South America. Co-author Dr Ariel Mendez from the Patagonian Institute of Geology and Palaeontology said that these dinosaurs were still trying out new evolutionary pathways and rapidly diversifying right before they died out completely. The fossilised remains of Llukalkan include a superbly preserved and uncrushed braincase and this new species is also similar in many respects to Viavenator, except that it is smaller, the holes in the skull through which the veins pass are larger and more widely separated from the supraoccipital crest, among other differences. 

(Image: Twitter)

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01-04-2021 om 20:25 geschreven door peter  

Schedel van “angst inboezemende” dinosaurus gevonden in Patagonië

Wetenschappers hebben in het zuiden van Argentinië de schedel van een enorme vleesetende dino gevonden. De Mapuche noemen de dinosaurus in hun eigen taal, het Mapudungun, “eentje die angst inboezemt”. Het uitgestorven dier liep 85 miljoen jaar geleden tijdens het late Krijt in Zuid-Amerika rond.

 Bron: BBC

De gehoornde Llukalkan aliocranianus van vijf meter lang moet er angstaanjagend hebben uitgezien. De dinosaurus had, net als de bekende Tyrannosaurus rex, twee achterpoten en twee korte voorpoten. Hij was wel kleiner dan de reusachtige T. rex. De Llukalkan aliocranianus had ook smalle vingers en korte hoorns. Hij woog tussen 1 en 5 ton, iets lichter dan een volwassen Afrikaanse olifant. Een gevreesd roofdier was het, met een grote schedel en een stevige beet. Dat blijkt uit het onderzoek dat is verschenen in het vakblad Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. Het is gebaseerd op overblijfselen van de Llukalkan aliocranianus, gevonden in Patagonië.

Lees ook

• 

  Uitgestorven ‘hobbits’ mogelijk verwant met moderne mens via neanderthaler en denisovamens

Volgens de onderzoekers had deze dinosaurus een beter gehoor dan de andere exemplaren in de familie van de Abelisauridae. Dat maakte van hem waarschijnlijk ook een betere jager, meent Federico Gianechini, paleontoloog aan de National University of San Luis Argentina. Opvallend is dat de schedel naast een andere, iets grotere vleesetende dinosaurus, de Viavenator exxoni, lag. Het is volgens Gianechini erg ongewoon dat twee Abelisauridae op hetzelfde moment en dicht bij elkaar leefden. De twee wedijverden ongetwijfeld met elkaar voor dezelfde prooien of ze aten elkaar misschien zelfs op, aldus Gianechini.

In Argentinië zijn de laatste decennia wel meer belangrijke restanten van dino’s opgegraven. In 2014 ging het om een exemplaar met een gewicht van ongeveer 14 olifanten, mogelijk de grootste ooit.

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01-04-2021 om 20:15 geschreven door peter  

Schedel van “angst inboezemende” dinosaurus gevonden in Patagonië

Wetenschappers hebben in het zuiden van Argentinië de schedel van een enorme vleesetende dino gevonden. De Mapuche noemen de dinosaurus in hun eigen taal, het Mapudungun, “eentje die angst inboezemt”. Het uitgestorven dier liep 85 miljoen jaar geleden tijdens het late Krijt in Zuid-Amerika rond.

 Bron: BBC

De gehoornde Llukalkan aliocranianus van vijf meter lang moet er angstaanjagend hebben uitgezien. De dinosaurus had, net als de bekende Tyrannosaurus rex, twee achterpoten en twee korte voorpoten. Hij was wel kleiner dan de reusachtige T. rex. De Llukalkan aliocranianus had ook smalle vingers en korte hoorns. Hij woog tussen 1 en 5 ton, iets lichter dan een volwassen Afrikaanse olifant. Een gevreesd roofdier was het, met een grote schedel en een stevige beet. Dat blijkt uit het onderzoek dat is verschenen in het vakblad Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. Het is gebaseerd op overblijfselen van de Llukalkan aliocranianus, gevonden in Patagonië.

Lees ook

• 

  Uitgestorven ‘hobbits’ mogelijk verwant met moderne mens via neanderthaler en denisovamens

Volgens de onderzoekers had deze dinosaurus een beter gehoor dan de andere exemplaren in de familie van de Abelisauridae. Dat maakte van hem waarschijnlijk ook een betere jager, meent Federico Gianechini, paleontoloog aan de National University of San Luis Argentina. Opvallend is dat de schedel naast een andere, iets grotere vleesetende dinosaurus, de Viavenator exxoni, lag. Het is volgens Gianechini erg ongewoon dat twee Abelisauridae op hetzelfde moment en dicht bij elkaar leefden. De twee wedijverden ongetwijfeld met elkaar voor dezelfde prooien of ze aten elkaar misschien zelfs op, aldus Gianechini.

In Argentinië zijn de laatste decennia wel meer belangrijke restanten van dino’s opgegraven. In 2014 ging het om een exemplaar met een gewicht van ongeveer 14 olifanten, mogelijk de grootste ooit.

{ https://www.hln.be/ }

01-04-2021 om 20:15 geschreven door peter  

The Debris Cloud From a Supernova Shows an Imprint of the Actual Explosion

Computer models are continuing to play an increasing role in scientific discovery.  Everything from the first moments after the Big Bang to potential for life to form on other planets has been the target of some sort of computer model.  Now scientists from the RIKEN Astrophysical Big Bang Laboratory are turning this almost ubiquitous tool to a very violent event – Type Ia supernovae.  Their work has now resulted in a more nuanced understanding of the effects of these important events.

Type Ia supernovae are a type of supernova that occur in binary star systems – specifically systems with a white dwarf star.  Eventually the white dwarf will run out of fuel to power its nuclear reaction.  However, in some cases, matter from the companion star can reignite the reactions of the white dwarf, which could then cause a runaway nuclear fusion event, resulting in a Type Ia supernova and creating all of the naturally occurring heavy elements with atomic weights larger than iron.

When the white dwarf explodes, it creates a shockwave known as a remnant. These remnants are known to vary along with the explosion that created them, but it has not really been clear how or why.

That is where the computer simulation comes in.  The team at RIKEN, led by physicist Gilles Ferrand, actually developed two different models – one for modeling the supernova explosion itself and one modeling the remnant.  

There were two main variables that the RIKEN team wanted to control as part of the explosion model.  The first was how exactly the runaway reaction that caused the supernova is ignited.  The second was how that explosion propagates itself through the collapsing star.

Outputs from the various models created using this methodology were then fed into the simulation of the supernova remnant.  Dr. Ferrand and his team noticed that there were four main categories the remnants could be categorized into, based on some variable details of the actual explosion that spawned them.

The first was the number of points at which the supernova explosion begins to take place.  The two broad categories for this variable are that the explosion would either start in a few, distinct places, or multiple places simultaneously throughout the star.  

The second variable deals with a concept know as deflagration, which is defined as “a turbulent fire that moves slower than the speed of sound.”  Alternatively, these deflagrations can occasionally devolve into an extremely fast moving detonation.  Deflagration fires are caused by the explosions that kick off the supernova, but the speed with which they move could have profound impacts on the remnant.

Combining all these variables into a full remnant model allows the researchers to define four distinct types of remnant that result from four different types of explosions.  Since remnants are still visible hundreds of years after the supernova that created them takes place, understanding their form and then backtracking to the type of supernova that caused it in the first place could be particularly useful for understanding the frequency of different types of stellar explosions. 

Someday there might even be a computer model that can accurately predict what kind of remnant would be created by a given supernova before it is even visible. Sounds like some good follow-up work for Dr. Ferrand and his team.

{ https://beforeitsnews.com/ }

01-04-2021 om 19:03 geschreven door peter  

The Closest Star Cluster to Earth is Being Dismantled in Front of our Eyes

Star clusters are interesting inhabitants of the sky.  They vary in sizes, distances, and number of stars, but almost all are spectacular to look at.  And most of them are in the process of being torn apart.  That is certainly the case for the Hyades star cluster – the closest one to Earth at only 153 light years away.  The problem is, there is something causing a lot more destruction than would be expected given the mass and energy in the surrounding space.  Now, a team of scientists from ESA have a theory as to what the cause of the destruction might be – a mysterious dark matter sub-halo.

This novel theory extends from findings gleaned from data collected by GAIA, ESA’s star mapping satellite.  The GAIA team expected to see what are called “tidal tails” trailing and leading the star cluster as it moves throughout the galaxy.  These tails are formed when some stars are forced to the outer edges of the cluster, and then pulled by the gravitational pull of the galaxy itself, pushing some stars forward in their journey through the galaxy, while other stars are pulled further behind.

The GAIA team did find tidal tails on either side of the Hyades cluster when they observed it.  However, they were extraordinarily long – thousands of light years across the galaxy, each holding thousands of stars.  Observing them in their entirety was only possible because of the GAIA data and a computer model that Dr. Tereza Jerabkova, an ESA research fellow, developed with her colleagues.

That model had several added advantages over previous efforts to map the tidal tail of the Hyades.  Without the model, thousands of stars that had been left behind by the cluster hundreds of millions of years ago would not be included in the tail due to changes in their orbit during that time.  But there was something even more interesting hiding in the data that the model failed to predict.

There seemed to be huge holes in the tidal tail, where stars were completely missing.  One of the nice things about well-written simulations is that it is possible to quickly adapt them to new data, and that is exactly what Dr. Jerabkova did.  Changing parameters to try to account for the missing stars, she realized that the presence of an object weighing 10 million solar masses could have caused the disruption seen in the tidal tail pattern.  Only there wasn’t any object of that size anywhere near the missing stars.

Realizing that they couldn’t see any object, the researchers turned to something that they couldn’t actually see – dark matter.  Scientists have long theorized about dark matter sub-halos – invisible clusters of dark matter that exert gravitational forces throughout the galaxy.  But so far, no one has ever seen them in action.

If the ESA team’s models are correct, a sub-halo could be the cause of the disruption in the Hyades’ tidal tail.  While this would be exciting new evidence for the presence of such understudied massive structures, it is far from certain that they are the sole cause of the Hyades’ disruption.  As always, more data is needed, and GAIA is still patiently collecting data on more than a billion stars.  Maybe the next round of data will hold some additional insight on what exactly is happening to this spectacular star cluster.

Learn More:

• ESA – Is the nearest star cluster to the Sun being destroyed?
• Astronomy and Astrophysics – The 800 pc long tidal tails of the Hyades star cluster
• ScienceNews – The star cluster closest to Earth is in its death throes
• LiveScience – A ‘lump’ of dark matter may be ripping apart Taurus’ face
• UT – Something other than just gravity is contributing to the shape of dark matter halos

Lead Image:

• The Hyades tidal tails
  Credit: ESA / GAIA / DPAC
  Acknowledgement: S. Jordan / T. Sagrista

The post The Closest Star Cluster to Earth is Being Dismantled in Front of our Eyes appeared first on Universe Today.

Source: 

• https://www.universetoday.com/150740/the-closest-star-cluster-to-earth-is-being-dismantled-in-front-of-our-eyes/

{ https://beforeitsnews.com/ }

01-04-2021 om 16:11 geschreven door peter  

Light Over Lake Charles, Louisiana, USA 3-31-2021, UFO Sighting News.

Date of sighting: March 31, 2021

Location of sighting: Lake Charles, Louisiana, USA

Source: MUFON 114498

 

This report just came in. A person in Louisiana recorded a glowing light in the sky last night. The object is silent, but moves around erratically. The object seems to be very high up and almost looks like a drone, but I have never seen a drone with so powerful of a light before. So I honestly don't think it's a drone. Such glowing spheres have been seen around the world. For instance they are seen over Denver, Colorado and even at the famous Dome of Rock Temple in front of thousands of tourists. That must have been something to see in person. This glowing object is a UFO.

Scott C. Waring - Taiwan 

 

Eyewitness states: 

I was talking on the phone outside when I noticed a Light approaching me from the north. I Watched the light Do some pretty incredible acrobatics before I remembered my cell phone camera. The Night was partly cloudy and Pretty windy, with a wind from the north west about 10-25 mph and gusty. The light seemed not to react to the wind conditions at all. It seemed to be at about 3000 Ft. altitude when I first noticed it. It was descending rapidly directly toward my position. It appeared to descend just into the cloud deck and bob in and out eventually coming to a hover near the bottom of the clouds. ( Estimate 2500 ft.) The Light would dim periodically, and simultaneously appear to descend when it did so, usually after a sharp curving maneuver. The color was variable from a deep barely visible red, to a brilliant white, Tending toward yellowish most of the time. Most of the more startling color changes are not on the video. There was no noise and it seemed to move effortlessly in any direction. The speed seemed excessive for a drone at the altitude it appeared to be at. This is not the first time I have seen This Phenomena in this area, but it is the first time I have captured it on video.

  

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

01-04-2021 om 15:31 geschreven door peter  

On March 31, 2021, strange ball of lights have been observed over Louisiana and Illinois. Where do they come from? 

Ball of light flying over Lake Charles, Louisiana. 

Witness noticed a light doing some pretty incredible acrobatics before he remembered my cell phone camera. The night was partly cloudy and pretty windy but the light seemed not to react to the wind conditions at all. 

The ball of light seemed to be at about 3000 Ft. altitude and appeared to descend just into the cloud deck and bob in and out eventually coming to a hover near the bottom of the clouds. ( Estimate 2500 ft.) 

There was no noise and it seemed to move effortlessly in any direction. The speed seemed excessive for a drone at the altitude it appeared to be at. Mufon case 114498.

Ball of light moving in straight-line path above Mc Cullum Lake, Illinois. 

Witness was at the intersection of McCullom Lake Rd and Richmond Rd in McHenry when I saw the ball of light above McCullom Lake moving at a speed a lower plane would probably move at. 

It consisted of a single fiery orange glow, mainly round in shape, but the bright area within the round shape was not consistent in its position or intensity. 

The light continued in an east-southeast direction for about 30-45 more seconds before it became more distant and disappeared; then the sky was completely dark in the place it one was. Mufon case 114499.

  

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

01-04-2021 om 14:57 geschreven door peter  

Two interesting UFO videos filmed over Quebec, Canada

I just found these two UFO videos filmed in Canada on Instagram. First one was filmed over the city of Montreal and the second one was filmed somewhere over Quebec. Both were taken a few days ago.

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

01-04-2021 om 14:45 geschreven door peter  

UFO maneuvering over Lake Charles, Louisiana 31-Mar-2021

This bright unidentified flying object was caught on tape in the sky above Lake Charles, a city in southwest Louisiana on 31st March 2021.

Witness report: 

I was talking on the phone outside when I noticed a Light approaching me from the north. I Watched the light Do some pretty incredible acrobatics before I remembered my cell phone camera. The Night was partly cloudy and Pretty windy, with a wind from the north west about 10-25 mph and gusty. The light seemed not to react to the wind conditions at all. It seemed to be at about 3000 Ft. altitude when I first noticed it. It was descending rapidly directly toward my position. It appeared to descend just into the cloud deck and bob in and out
eventually coming to a hover near the bottom of the clouds. ( Estimate 2500 ft.)
The Light would dim periodically, and simultaneously appear to descend when it did so, usually after a sharp curving maneuver.
The color was variable from a deep barely visible red, to a brilliant white, Tending toward yellowish most of the time. Most of the more startling color changes are not on the video. There was no noise and it seemed to move effortlessly in any direction. The speed seemed excessive for a drone at the altitude it appeared to be at.
This is not the first time I have seen This Phenomena in this area, but it is the first time I have captured it on video.

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

01-04-2021 om 14:41 geschreven door peter  

'Fireball' meteorite that smashed into a frozen US lake in 2018 contains 'pristine' organic compounds that could shed light on the origins of life

• Footage of the fireball which soared across the sky on Jan 16, 2018 went viral 

• It has now been studied and contains raw materials for life to form 

• Meteorites billions of years ago may have brought  similar molecules to Earth 

• It is possible these molecules eventually helped create life as we know it 

By JOE PINKSTONE FOR MAILONLINE 

A meteorite that stunned the world when it blazed through the sky and plummeted into a frozen lake in Michigan on January 16, 2018 contains some of the key ingredients for the creation of life, scientists have discovered.

The six-foot wide rock fragmented and illuminated the sky while travelling at 30,000mph, with footage of the event going viral around the world.  

Fragments were rapidly tracked down and handed over to scientists who now know it contains some of the key ingredients for the creation of life. 

So-called 'organic compounds' were found and these carbon-containing molecules are the backbone of amino acids, fats, DNA and other biological materials.

The discovery of these raw materials on a space rock means it is possible that billions of years ago a larger, but similar, meteorite landed on Earth and brought these organic compounds with it, eventually allowing life to flourish.

Security camera footage of the fireball in the sky over Toledo, Ohio. The six-foot wide rock fragmented and illuminated the sky while travelling at 30,000mph

The meteorite fragment that fell on Strawberry Lake which contains pristine extraterrestrial organic compounds

Philipp Heck, a curator at the Field Museum in Chicago, which led analysis on the rock says: 'These kinds of organic compounds were likely delivered to the early Earth by meteorites and might have contributed to the ingredients of life.'

While scientists know that carbon-based compounds were instrumental in the development of life on Earth, their origins remain a mystery. 

Some theories say they were belched out from deep inside the Earth, while others contest they likely landed on our planet from another world via meteorites. 

The rock is not thought to contain life itself, but materials which – given the right conditions – could create life. 

Scientists benefited from the public furore following the event, as it meant the rock fragments were rapidly tracked down and retrieved. 

This ensured they remained relatively clean and unsullied by Earth's microbe-rich dirt, allowing for a truer picture of the meteorite's contents. 

'This meteorite is special because it fell onto a frozen lake and was recovered quickly. It was very pristine,' says Dr Heck.

'We could see the minerals weren't much altered and later found that it contained a rich inventory of extraterrestrial organic compounds.'

Meteorite hunter Robert Ward with the meteorite on Strawberry Lake near Hamburg, Michigan

A piece of the meteorite sits on a display during a press conference, Friday, Jan. 19, 2018, at the Longway Planetarium in Flint, Michigan. Scientists now know it contains organic compounds 

Astronomer Todd Slisher unfolds tin-foil to reveal a piece of the meteorite during the 2018 press conference

WHAT WAS THE MASSIVE FIREBALL THAT SOARED OVER MICHIGAN?

The American Meteor Society says it received hundreds of reports of a fireball on the night of Tuesday January 16 over Michigan, including many in the Detroit area.

Footage of a meteorite falling from the sky was captured by a number of residents throughout Michigan and further afield that evening.

A bright light, understood to be the soaring fireball exploding above Michigan, was seen as far away as Chicago and even across the border in Canada.

The United States Geological Survey said the equivalent of a 2.0-magnitude earthquake struck the area at the same time..

This would suggest it came crashing down to earth, but there has been no official confirmation of this yet.

By the end of the week, meteorite hunters who flocked to Detroit from across the U.S. after a meteor exploded had begun to find the fragments.

The 6-foot-wide meteor broke apart Tuesday about 20 miles over Earth, NASA scientists said. Most of the fragments landed in Hamburg Township.

The rock blazed bright as it burned up in Earth's atmosphere and broke up, but it was large enough that many of its pieces remained intact when they landed. 

Smaller meteors disintegrate completely until nothing is left by the time it approaches Earth's surface. 

But the pieces of the 2018 rock were so large they could be tracked by weather systems normally used to predict and follow rain and hail.  

'Weather radar helped show the position and velocity of the meteorite. That meant that we were able to find it very quickly,' Dr Heck says. 

Within two days an eager meteorite hunter, Robert Ward, had tracked down the first piece on the frozen surface of Strawberry Lake, near Hamburg, Michigan and entrusted it to the Chicago Field Museum.   

The short period of time it took for the rock to be found provides an invaluable research opportunity. 

'Because there was so much excitement surrounding it, everybody wanted to apply their own technique to it, so we have an unusually comprehensive set of data for a single meteorite,' says Ms Jennika Greer, co-author of the research and a scientist at the University of Chicago.

The research found that, apart from the cacophony of organic compounds, the rock is a rare form of meteorite, called a H4 chondrite.  

The findings are published in the journal Meteoritics & Planetary Science.

RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

01-04-2021 om 01:22 geschreven door peter  

Fiery 'airburst' of superheated gas slammed into Antarctica 430,000 years ago

By Nicoletta Lanese - Staff Writer

Scientists found evidence that a meteor vaporized over Antarctica 430,000 years ago, burning up in a dramatic plume of hot gases. 

(Image credit: Mark Garlick / markgarlick.com)

Roughly 430,000 years ago, an incandescent ball of hot gas came barreling out of the sky and slammed into Antarctica — and now, scientists have found tiny bits of debris formed by that impact.

The team scooped up the mineral particles from Walnumfjellet in the Sør Rondane Mountains of Queen Maud Land, Antarctica, which is located south of Africa on the eastern side of the continent. Antarctica offers the perfect environment to scout for meteorite remnants, due to its dry, frigid climate and minimal human presence, first author Matthias van Ginneken, a geoscientist who specializes in the study of micrometeorites, or extremely tiny meteorites the size of dust particles, told Live Science.

"It was my first Antarctic expedition … and we found this very ideal sampling area on top of a Sør Rondane mountain," said Van Ginneken, who now conducts research at the University of Kent in the United Kingdom, but during the study, held positions with the Free University of Brussels, Vrije Universiteit Brussel and Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences. After gathering sediment from the summit, Van Ginneken scanned the samples with an electron microscope.

• Related: 50 amazing facts about Antarctica

"To my great surprise, I found these very weird looking particles that did not look like terrestrial particles ... but they didn't look like micrometeorites either," he said. Unlike micrometeorites, which resemble fine dust, about half of the samples looked like several teeny stones fused together. Some carried tiny flecks of material on their surfaces, while others bore distinct, almost snowflake-like markings, he said.

The chemical composition of the particles suggested that they formed hundreds of thousands of years ago during an airburst in the lower atmosphere, which occurs when a meteorite becomes vaporized before hitting the ground, according to the new study, published online March 31 in the journal Science Advances.

"If more of these unique touchdowns can be identified and then even older particles are investigated, maybe we can use them to understand the characteristics of early Earth's atmosphere," Maitrayee Bose, an isotope cosmochemist at Arizona State University (ASU) in Tempe, who was not involved in the study, told Live Science in an email. 

Understanding the nature of these impacts could also help us prepare if such a meteor came zooming toward Earth again, but this time aimed at a bustling city instead of the Antarctic wilderness, Van Ginneken said. 

Reconstructing the impact 

Upon first discovering the unusual particles, "I said, 'Bingo! This is fantastic, fantastic stuff,'" Van Ginneken said. But the discovery was just the start of the story — to learn how these particles came to be, the team conducted thorough chemical analyses, searched the literature for reports of similar particles and created numerical models to visualize the original asteroid that created them. 

"The paper does detailed analysis at each step ... and does an excellent job of convincing me that such an event may have occurred in Earth's recent past," Bose told Live Science.

The particles themselves measured about 0.004 to 0.01 inches across (100-300 micrometers) and mostly contained the minerals olivine and iron spinel, which formed the snowflake-like patterns on some of the particles. These minerals were fused together by a small amount of glass. This composition closely matched a class of meteorites known as CI chondrites, confirming that the particles contained material from an asteroid, Van Ginneken said. 

The high quantity of nickel in the particles also pointed to an extraterrestrial origin, because nickel is not very abundant in the Earth's terrestrial crust, he added.

• Related: Fallen stars: A gallery of famous meteorites

Knowing that these particles contain material from space, the authors then wanted to figure out where and how they formed once their parent meteoroid entered Earth's atmosphere. The oxygen isotopes in the particles — meaning forms of oxygen with different numbers of neutrons — revealed how much oxygen was present during the particles' formation, Van Ginneken said.

Compared with typical chondrite material, the samples were very rich in oxygen, overall, suggesting they formed in the atmosphere, but relatively close to the ground. That said, the particles contained very few heavy oxygen isotopes, and specifically lacked an isotope called oxygen-18, the team found. This mimics the chemical composition of Antarctic ice, which contains little oxygen-18; based on this, the team concluded that the particles interacted and mixed with the ice during their formation.

Next, to estimate when these particles formed, the team went hunting for reports of similar meteorite touchdowns. It turned out that similar particles had been captured in ice cores drawn from other regions of Antarctica, including two summits known as the EPICA Dome C and Dome Fuji. Studies suggest that these meteorites fell to Earth 430,000 and 480,000 years ago, respectively, and by comparing the newfound particles to these other ones, the authors estimated that the Walnumfjellet particles formed 430,000 years ago.

"The mineralogic and textural evidence used in the paper shows similarities between particles from the different regions in Antarctica," but despite these overlaps, the absolute age of the Walnumfjellet particles remains unknown, Bose said. Future analyses will be needed to nail down their precise age, more conclusively, she said. 

Considering the size, shape and density of the particles, the team was also able to produce a "very rough calculation" as to the size of their parent asteroid, Van Ginneken said. The particles' fused appearance hints that the cloud of hot gas in which they formed was very large and very dense, which allowed the minerals to collide and melt into one another on their way to Earth. This hints that the original asteroid was likely between 328 feet and 492 feet (100 and 150 meters) in diameter.  

Based on their numerical models, "it turns out that such an asteroid will not reach the ground … basically it would be vaporized into a cloud of superheated meteoritic gas," Van Ginneken said. The cloud of gas would then continue descending toward the ground at a similar rate to the original asteroid — "we are talking kilometers per second," he said. 

"This very dense, incandescent plume that would reach the surface, this is extremely destructive. This could destroy a large city in a matter of seconds, and do severe damage over hundreds of kilometers," Van Ginneken said.

RELATED CONTENT

• 15 incredible places on Earth that are frozen in time
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• Too hot to handle: 7 sizzling places on Planet Earth 

Airburst events occur much more frequently than asteroid impacts that create large craters in the crust, he added. For example, an airburst event took place in Chelyabinsk, Russia in 2013, and scientists also suspect that the massive explosion that leveled forests near Tunguska, Russia in 1908 was an airburst, the authors wrote in the Science Advances report. 

Tunguska-like events are estimated to occur "once every 100 to 10,000 years, which is orders of magnitude more frequent than large crater-forming impacts," the authors wrote. Studying the newfound Walnumfjellet particles could help scientists better understand how often these impacts occur and how severely they damage the earth below, Van Ginneken said.

The study suggests "that we should worry more about smaller asteroids, between a few tens of meters and 200 meters [32-656 feet in diameter], than much larger asteroids resulting in impact-cratering events," because the smaller asteroids touch down on our planet more often, he said. Should such an asteroid start hurtling toward a small country, a mass evacuation would likely be required to spare people from the fiery plume, he said. 

• Originally published on Live Science.

RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011

{ https://www.livescience.com/ }

01-04-2021 om 00:47 geschreven door peter  

{ https://www.hln.be/ }

01-04-2021 om 00:23 geschreven door peter  

SpaceX, Shift4’s Inspiration4 mission reveals its final two crew members

The crew for SpaceX and Shift4’s all-civilian Inspiration4 mission is now complete. The final two members of the groundbreaking mission were announced on Tuesday at the Kennedy Space Center in Floria, where the Falcon 9 rocket carrying Inspiration4’s Crew Dragon capsule will be launching later this year. 

Joining 38-year-old Shift4Payments CEO Jared Isaacman and 29-year-old physician assistant Hayley Arceneaux will be 41-year-old Chris Sembroski, an Air Force veteran and educator working for Lockheed Martin, and 51-year-old Dr. Sian Proctor, an entrepreneur, educator, and trained pilot who has a passion for space. 

As per Inspiration4’s website, Sembroski will represent the virtue of Generosity, and Dr. Proctor will represent Prosperity. Isaacman represents the virtue of Leadership, while Arceneaux represents the virtue of Hope. 

In an interview with TODAY‘s Tom Costello, Dr. Proctor remarked that being selected for the Inspiration4 mission felt like “opening up the chocolate bar and seeing the golden ticket to Willy Wonka and the chocolate factory.” She remarked that she had no worries about the mission at all, and that her reservations were actually more rooted in the prospect of the opportunity to go to space slipping by. 

“I was more worried that this opportunity had slipped me by and I would never get the chance to go to space, but now here I am and that just shows you never give up because that moment for me is here… I’m ready. Just strap me in, let’s go!” she said. 

As for Sembroski, launching from the Kennedy Space Center would be a rather symbolic experience. Twenty years ago, Sembroski showcased his passion for education and supporting passions by serving as a Space Camp counselor, an experience that he highlighted during his interview with TODAY. 

“I’ve taken that experience with me to really drive the passion for getting kids to seek their passion in science and technology and really spark the interest in those fields by using space as that medium, and then ever since it’s stuck with me,” he said. 

Isaacson, for his part, remarked that he is extremely excited for the Inspiration4 launch. “This is a very real moment, but I can’t help but be overwhelmed just thinking about all of the history that came before us here. That’s what’s going through my mind, like the astronauts climbing into the Apollo missions and Skylab and the space shuttle. It’s just so incredible to be here,” he said. 

The Inspiration4 crew would now be undergoing intensive training for their upcoming mission, which is expected to launch sometime this fall. Previously, Isaacson has noted that Inspiration4 could launch around October, but in his recent interview with the US media outlet, he noted that the mission could launch before the end of September instead. Such a timetable would give the crew just about six months to get fully trained and ready for a multi-day trip to space about 335 miles above Earth. 

Watch TODAY’s segment on Inspiration4’s completed crew in the video below.

Don’t hesitate to contact us for news tips. Just send a message to tips@teslarati.com to give us a heads up.

The post SpaceX, Shift4’s Inspiration4 mission reveals its final two crew members appeared first on TESLARATI.

Source: 

• https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-inspiration-4-mission-crew-members-final/

{ https://beforeitsnews.com/ }

31-03-2021 om 20:49 geschreven door peter  

Elon Musk Accidentally? Tweets Photo Showing UFO Over Mars

{ https://beforeitsnews.com/ }

31-03-2021 om 20:41 geschreven door peter  

St. Helens, Merseyside Woman Snaps a Possible Alien Creature

Mellisa Braham, a St. Helens resident, reported seeing a tiny humanoid-shaped figure on February 26 Friday. It was her birthday recently, and as a gift, she received a new smartphone. Seeing it was a lovely afternoon on Friday, she decided to take her dog for a walk with her new phone to test out the camera.

She took several video clips and photographs at different resolutions. Later on in the evening, she uploaded the pictures to her PC to look at them.

When looking through the still photos, she noticed one of them showing what looks like a small humanoid-shaped figure walking from right to left.

Initially, she could not tell if the object was a tiny living and breathing being of some kind, but after she enlarged the photo, she saw what resembled a bipedal being with a head, eye, body, arms, legs, hands, and feet.

She said the object in the picture reflects sunlight and also casts a shadow on the ground and doesn’t look like a bird, rat, squirrel, or any other kind of animal.

Mellisa doesn’t rule out that the object could be something of nothing, something mundane captured at a weird angle or just a trick of the light, making it look extraordinary. She sent the photo to several experts and researchers to analyse and know what they make of it.

The picture was snapped at full resolution, 12 MP, camera set to fully automatic, and no zoom used. It was taken when the weather was dry, mild, and sunny at 16:05 between the Victoria park entrance and the now-demolished healthcare centre on Cowley Hill Lane, St. Helens, Merseyside, UK.

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

31-03-2021 om 20:34 geschreven door peter  

According to Churchward, the lost Pacific continent of Mu "extended from somewhere north of Hawaii to the south as far as the Fijis and Easter Island." 

He claimed Mu was the site of the Garden of Eden and the home of 64,000,000 inhabitants known as the Naacals.

Its civilization, which flourished 50,000 years before Churchward's day, was technologically more advanced than his own, and the ancient civilizations of India, Babylon, Persia, Egypt and the Mayas were merely the decayed remnants of its colonies. 

Could this strange land and advanced human's have really existed? 

01:15​ Colonel James Churchward 

04:22​ Lemuria and Australia

  

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31-03-2021 om 18:59 geschreven door peter  

Silver UFO flying strangely slowly over Saint Paul, Minnesota, next, a glowing Orb flew in and stayed for 2 hours over Lawrenceville, Georgia. 

Then a blinking light flashing in a triangle over Florence, Montana, the lights were flashing like they were going in a pattern around a saucer shape metallic craft and a huge cylinder shaped anomaly near the sun appears and disappears within a second.

Source: www.mufon.com

  

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31-03-2021 om 18:53 geschreven door peter  

Mars' dark streaks are probably caused by dry landslides

By Mike Wall  

The evidence continues to mount.

Features called recurring slope lineae (RSL) are found on some Martian slopes in warmer months. Red arrows point out an RSL in this image taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera system on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. 

(Image credit: A. McEwen/NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona)

Mars' bizarre dark streaks may not be so astrobiologically intriguing after all.

Those streaks, known as recurring slope lineae, were discovered in 2011 by scientists studying imagery captured by the powerful High Resolution Imaging Experiment (HiRISE) camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). 

As their name suggests, recurring slope lineae, or RSL for short, are found on Red Planet slopes. The marks creep down steep inclines, especially in Mars' southern hemisphere, during warm times of the year and fade away as the weather cools.  

• Photos: The search for water on Mars

These characteristics led scientists to speculate that the dark marks could be caused by salty liquid water flowing or seeping through the red dirt, in spots that get warm enough for some of Mars' plentiful subsurface ice to melt. That exciting hypothesis got a boost in 2015, when data gathered by MRO's Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer instrument, or CRISM, revealed the apparent signature of hydrated salts at some RSL locales. That's just what you'd expect to see after briny liquid had evaporated away.

But the liquid-water explanation has been losing favor over the last few years. For example, a 2018 study cast serious doubt on the CRISM find, suggesting that the supposed hydrated-salt fingerprint was actually an artifact of data processing. And researchers have been finding more and more evidence, from both experimental and modeling work, that dry landslides are etching the dark marks into warm Martian slopes. 

Another such study came out this past January. HiRISE imagery revealed a big increase in RSL activity in the wake of the global dust storm that killed NASA's Opportunity Mars rover in 2018, researchers report in the paper, which was published in Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets. 

The team, led by HiRISE principal investigator Alfred McEwen, counted 150 active RSL sites during the year of the dust storm, compared to an annual average of just 36 in the six previous years. (The years here are Mars years, each of which lasts about 687 Earth days.) 

"There are clear dust devil tracks in 73% of post‐storm images in the southern middle latitudes in the summer, where and when dust devils are most active," the researchers wrote in the study. 

"The tracks indicate dust lifting, by several mechanisms," they added. "We suggest that dust lifting processes on steep slopes may initiate and sustain RSL formed from flows of dust (perhaps clumped) and/or sand that is destabilized by dust movement."

McEwen discussed the recent study last Thursday (March 25) during a presentation at the 2021 Spring Meeting of the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine's Committee on Planetary Protection. (Planetary protection refers to efforts to avoid contaminating other worlds with microbes from Earth, and to prevent potential alien bugs from getting a foothold on our planet.)

He also gave an overview of the decade-long history of RSL research, which he said now points strongly toward dry explanations for the dark features.

"None of the wet hypotheses have survived, in my opinion," said McEwen, who's based at the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory.

He also said he doesn't believe that RSL sites should be regarded as "special regions" — locales that might be capable of supporting Earth life and are therefore off-limits to exploration by all but the most rigorously sterilized spacecraft. 

If that view becomes the consensus, it will be easier for NASA and other space agencies to send rovers to RSL sites and study the mysterious features up close. But consensus has not yet been reached; the new study, while suggestive, doesn't slam the door on the wet-RSL hypothesis.

"These debates will continue," McEwen said.

• 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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31-03-2021 om 01:46 geschreven door peter