Swedish astronaut Marcus Wandt took control of a series of robots in Germany while on board the International Space Station, zipping around the Earth at 28,000 kilometers per hour (17,500 mph.) Researchers want to understand how time delays can affect the remote control of robots from an orbiting platform. Future astronauts could control rovers on the Moon’s or Mars’s surface from a spacecraft in orbit. Until now, only wheeled rovers have been part of the tests, but now they have added a dog-like robot called Bert.

This robot research session, called ‘Surface Avatar’ follows initial experiments carried out in July 2023. Wandt operated the robots from a control station in the space station’s Columbus module, commanding three different robots at the German Space Agency’s (DLR) Robotics and Mechatronics Center in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany. The goal is to develop innovative technologies that will allow humans to control several robots with precision, and have them act semi- or fully autonomously and even have different robots perform a task together.

“Future stations on the Moon and Mars, including astronaut habitats, will be built and maintained by robots operating under the guidance of astronauts,” said Alin Albu-Schäffer, Director of the DLR Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics, in a DLR article. “Our latest control and AI algorithms enable a single astronaut to command an entire team of different robots. Our DLR-ESA team is a world leader when it comes to this technology.”

The remote operation of the dog-like robot Bert was marked the first time a non-wheel-driven robot was controlled remotely from space by astronauts. Previously, DLR’s humanoid service robot Rollin’ Justin and ESA’s Interact Rover have been teleoperated from space.

During the session, Wandt, who is part of the private Axiom Mission 3 (Ax-3), was able to command Bert to utilize several types of gaits and, because of his leg-based locomotion, Bert was able to explore rough terrain, including small caves — areas that the rolling robots cannot reach. At one point, Wandt allowed Bert to explore the lab’s surroundings independently and monitor the terrain with his camera eyes. Meanwhile, Wandt operated Rollin’ Justin and the Interact Rover.

The time delay between the ISS and Earth is usually less than one second.

“That’s because my radio call comes from ISS first to White Sands in the USA,” explained German Space Agency astronaut Matthias Maurer, in a video from DLR. “From there it goes to Houston at NASA. From there it will be forwarded to Munich where our control center is in Oberpfaffenhofen.”

Maurer added that the delay experienced is like what sometimes happens on a Skype call, which occasionally has delays in communications. And of course, the round-trip delay time might be close to 2 seconds, which is deficiently noticeable, especially during conversations.

DLR said that future operations of robots and humans working together must be well planned out in order for them to work as a team. When building a habitat, for example, combining the different skills of several robots is very helpful.

Wandt also tested out this concept and for the first time two robots worked together to accomplish a task: Rollin’ Justin and the Interact Rover jointly installed a short pipe representing a scientific measuring device. Under the command of Wandt, Rollin’ Justin used his dexterous hands to safely grasp the pipe and carefully guide it to the measuring point. Wandt then used the Interact rover’s remote control to install the pipe held in position by Justin.

Robots have also been used in space on board the ISS. Robonaut is a joint DARPA–NASA project that created a humanoid torso robot to test out robotics in space. Additionally, three free-flying robots on the space station, known as Astrobees, support multiple demonstrations of technology for various types of robotic assistance on space exploration missions and on Earth.

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

02-02-2024 om 22:20 geschreven door peter  

The habitable zone is a rather crude way to identify planets that may have liquid water. Its boundaries are unclear and even contradictory since stellar spectral type, planetary albedo, mass, and even how cloudy its atmosphere is can determine if a planet has liquid water.

The idea of a conservative habitable zone (CHZ) is more helpful. It comes from a 2014 paper by Kopparapu et al. It’s a region around a star where a rocky planet receives between 0.42 and 0.842 as much solar insolation as Earth does. Any rocky planet receiving that much energy is in the CHZ, regardless of distance.

Discovering a Super-Earth in a star’s CHZ is always exciting. It fuels our sense of wonder about other planets and the possibility that some may harbour other life. For that reason, they’re more intriguing than planets like Hot Jupiters for instance, which have zero possibility of hosting liquid water or life. Not even the hardiest extremophiles can survive a Hot Jupiter’s wicked environment.

But this discovery is also exciting for a couple of other reasons.

Now that we’ve discovered thousands of exoplanets, astronomers are seeing trends in the population. One of the things they noticed is a gap in the small planet population between 1.5 and 2 Earth radii. It’s known as the small planet radius gap or the sub-Neptune radius gap (also called the Fulton gap and the photoevaporation valley.) At 1.55 Earth radii, TOI-715b is inside the gap.

It’s extremely unlikely that no planets form in this radius gap. Planets must start out larger and lose mass to end up in the gap. So, the Fulton Gap tells us something about how some planets lose mass. Astronomers think that planets in the gap start out larger, but their stars strip away some of their mass by photoevaporation, shrinking them. That’s why it’s sometimes called the photoevaporation valley. There’s a lot of uncertainty around the valley and photoevaporation, and astronomers want to study planets in the valley to see what they can learn.

“The importance of the radius valley lies in its potential to teach us about planetary formation and post-formation evolution, and hence, planets inside this gap are crucial in furthering our understanding of the factors that sculpt it,” the authors explain.

There’s some uncertainty if this radius gap exists around M-dwarfs or not. It’s possible that M-dwarfs have a density gap rather than a radius gap. “A recent study by Luque & Pallé (2022), however, indicates that M-dwarf planets may have a density gap rather than a radius gap separating two populations of small planets (rocky and water worlds),” the authors write.

Whether it’s a radius gap or a density gap, TOI-715b should have something to tell us about exoplanets, photoevaporation, and the nature of exoplanet distribution around red dwarfs. But to discover what it has to tell us requires further, detailed observations. That’s the second reason wh

Ever since we started finding exoplanets, scientists have looked forward to the day when the James Webb Space Telescope is operational. “At long last, the era of JWST has arrived, and with it, the age of detailed exoplanetary atmospheric characterization,” the authors write in their paper. The JWST has the ability to observe the spectra of exoplanet atmospheres and determine their constituents. But even though the JWST is enormously powerful, some targets present better opportunities for transmission spectroscopy than others.

TOI-715b is a prime target because it’s close to its star. Since TOI-715 is a small red dwarf, and the planet orbits it every 19 days, the exoplanet’s transits in front of its star are deeper and more frequent. That means the JWST doesn’t need much time to observe the planet’s atmosphere, making it an efficient use of the space telescope’s time. “In the context of atmospheric characterization by transmission spectroscopy, bright, nearby M dwarfs are ideal planetary hosts as small temperate planets will transit frequently, enabling high signal-to-noise detections of atmospheric features with fewer hours of telescope time,” the authors explain.

Can this Super-Earth be habitable? Lacking the JWST’s spectroscopy, we’re reduced to speculating. It’s in the conservative habitable zone, but that doesn’t get us very far. Still, there are some hopeful signs.

TOI-715 is a little older than our Sun at about 6.6 billion years old. The star shows a “low degree of magnetic activity,” according to the authors. That’s probably why the star shows an absence of flaring in the TESS light curves compared to younger M-dwarfs. Red dwarfs are known to exhibit extremely powerful flaring that can sterilize planets. They can also strip away atmospheres, which could be responsible for the exoplanet photoevaporation valley.

Another planet may be orbiting TOI-715. It’s currently only a candidate named TIC 271971130.02, but if confirmed, it will be the smallest habitable zone planet TESS has ever found. But follow-up observations are needed to confirm it.

The TOI-715 system is a compelling target for further study. TOI-715b is waiting its turn, but eventually, the JWST will examine its atmosphere. If those results support habitability, astronomers’ excitement will only grow. At the same time, we may learn more about the radius or density gap, an obstacle to a more thorough understanding of exoplanets.

Add in the fact that the star may host another habitable zone planet, the smallest one found yet by TESS, and the TOI-715 system becomes even more important.

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

02-02-2024 om 22:10 geschreven door peter  

Is this another Chinese spy balloon moment? Famous 'cube in a sphere' UFO spotted at military bases along the East Coast may have been a high-tech ENEMY drone, says ex-Pentagon UFO investigator dubbed 'Dr. Evil'

• The Pentagon's first ever UFO boss pointed to a Chinese-made 'spherical' drone in an uncut version of his new interview, made available to DailyMail.com 
• Retired UFO chief Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick was called 'Dr. Evil' for his laser research 
• READ MORE: UFO whistleblower held secret talk with 'Wall St. bigwigs' and CIA officials in Manhattan and claimed US was in possession of 40ft Tardis-like craft

By MATTHEW PHELAN SENIOR SCIENCE REPORTER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

The Pentagon's former UFO chief has revealed his conclusion to one of the most famous UFO cases of the modern era: the Navy's baffling 'cube in a sphere' UFO was just a super high-tech drone.

US Navy fighter pilots had reported seeing these other-worldly craft near the Atlantic coast between 2014 and 2015, which nearly tore the wing off an F/A-18 Super Hornet that was flying with the USS Roosevelt during one incident.

Now Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick, the Pentagon's recently retired UFO chief, says that the objects were likely 'next generation,' 'spherical' drones that move 'very accurately.'

While not confirmed, his description matches a drone-prototype made public by Chinese researchers in 2022 — a silver orb with eight thrusters configured at the tips of an internal cube, making it capable of unprecedented mid-air twists and turns.

The case highlights why UFOs must be taken seriously and not be subject to ridicule, Kirkpatrick suggested. 

The Pentagon's departing UFO chief, Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick, cited public 'next generation' drone research by academics in Singapore in an effort to explain the Navy's 'cube in a sphere' UFO sightings. Above a 'SpICED (Cube)' drone prototype published by Chinese researchers in 2022

In an op-ed published by Scientific American last week, Dr. Kirkpatrick dismissed US Air Force veteran David Grusch as one of several 'conspiracy-minded 'whistleblowers'' on UFOs. He emphasized that the Pentagon's UFO mission should be focused on US foreign adversaries

Dr Kirkpatrick's new comments come ahead of the Pentagon's congressionally mandated 'Historical Record Report' on UFOs, due to lawmakers in June of 2024. 

DailyMail.com was given an early draft transcript of Dr. Kirkpatrick's appearance on Fresh Produce Media's 'In the Room with Peter Bergen,' in which the physicist delved deeper into the national security risk that has come from stigmatizing eyewitness reports of UFOs.

'That gap could potentially be exploited by somebody,' Dr. Kirkpatrick told Bergen, 'put a platform in [the] continental United States that nobody knew was there.'

A longtime laser physicist, Dr. Kirkpatrick's government service took him to the Air Force Research Laboratory, the CIA and a position at America's highly secretive spy satellite agency the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) before chasing UFOs.

The physicist's Air Force colleagues once nicknamed him 'Dr. Evil' after the laser-obsessed villain in the Austin Powers series of spy film spoofs. 

'One of my going away presents, as I was leaving the National Reconnaissance Office,' Dr. Kirkpatrick told CNN national security reporter Peter Bergen, 'was one of my close colleagues gave me a shark with a laser pointer strapped to its head.'

Dr. Kirkpatrick headed up the Pentagon's then-brand new All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) from July 2022 until the end of December 2023, leveraging his scientific expertise toward the tricky task of investigating military UFO cases.

Last May, Dr. Kirkpatrick briefed NASA's UFO advisory panel that AARO had logged roughly 800 cases of flying, spherical 'metallic orb' UFOs.

'This is a typical example of the thing that we see most of,' Dr. Kirkpatrick told the panel. 'We see these all over the world and we see these making very interesting apparent maneuvers.' 

It's unclear just how similar these metallic orbs may be to the UFOs first brought to public attention by former Navy lieutenant and fighter pilot Ryan Graves, who described them to Congress as 'a dark gray or black cube inside of a clear sphere.'

But Dr. Kirkpatrick told the podcast these otherworldly craft may very likely have been a foreign espionage platform.

'There's a large number of people, pilots, others, who have said, 'Hey, I saw this giant sphere. It had a cube in it,'' he said, ''I don't understand it. It must be an alien.''

Swiss-based drone maker Flyability has also been producing spherical 'gimbal' drones since at least 2015. Both Flyability and the Singapore-based makers of the SpICED drone cited collision safety as their reasoning for pursuing these aircraft's round designs - not airborne spying 

DailyMail.com has been given an early draft transcript of Dr. Kirkpatrick's appearance on the 'In the Room with Peter Bergen' podcast (above) in which the physicist discussed 'spherical' drones made by researchers in Singapore, comparing them to the US Navy's UFO sightings

'Well, actually, no, there's a number of papers out,' Dr. Kirkpatrick continued in this early, uncut draft of his podcast interview with CNN analyst Peter Bergen.

'The most recent one was from, University of Singapore, I believe, where the next generation of drones that are being built are spherical.'

'They've taken about a two-meter size, inflatable, and they put a cube inside of it,' Dr. Kirkpatrick continued. 'And everywhere the corner of the cube touches the sphere, they've fused it, cut it out, and put little thrusters in.'

READ MORE: 

• US Customs and Border Protection quietly released a tranche of 10 videos of mysterious 'craft' whizzing around US skies - as one senior ex-intelligence officer says they are a THREAT

US Customs and Border Patrol, the agency responsible for keeping terrorists and weapons out of the country, uploaded 10 videos that appear to show craft moving in strange ways in our skies. The videos document a fighter jet pursued by an apparently baffling flying orb, as well as something that appears to be a propeller-powered hang-glider, and another apparent orb hovering near a parked 16-wheeler truck

'So, now I have eight thrusters. And I can put cameras on it and anything else I want,' the ex-AARO chief told Bergen. 

'With eight thrusters in a cube configuration, I can maneuver this drone around very accurately.' 

Scientists with the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) in China did, in fact, prototype a spherical drone along these lines, dubbed the 'Spherical Indoor Coandă Effect Drone (SpICED)' in a September 2022 issue of the peer-reviewed journal Drones. 

The research team in Singapore noted that their new prototype, which benefited from an internal propulsion system with eight nozzles in a cube configuration, showed a promising 40 percent reduction in 'trajectory control error' during their test flights. 

The SUTD's 'cube in a sphere' drone prototype, they wrote, proved to be more swiftly and accurately maneuverable than their past internal 'tetrahedron' configuration.

But the Chinese-made drone is not the only novel unmanned spherical craft in production: Swiss-based Flyability has been producing 'spherical' drones since at least 2015, when it won a $1 million competition in the United Arab Emirates.

The makers of Flyability's 'gimbal' drone and the SpICED balloon drone both cited collision safety as their reasoning for pursuing these unmanned aircrafts' round designs — not high maneuverability for clandestine spying.  

But they are not the only actors pursuing this kind of aerospace research, according to AARO's departing director. 

'They've tried these all over the place,' Dr. Kirkpatrick said.

'There are a number of advanced technologies that are being commercialized that people don't recognize,' he said. 'Why they go immediately to 'this is extraterrestrial' is another conversation.'

While playing a 2022 military UFO video taken by an MQ-9 Reaper drone in the Mid East, AARO director Dr. Kirkpatrick told NASA's UFO advisory panel last May, 'We see these ['metallic orbs'] all over the world, and we see these making very interesting apparent maneuvers'

Speaking to Bergen's podcast, Dr. Kirkpatrick emphasized that he sees more terrestrial, counter-intelligence and defense-oriented tasks as AARO's primary reason for being.

'The office's mission is not to prove the existence of extraterrestrials,' he said.  

'The office's mission is to minimize technical and intelligence surprise. That is the primary mission.'

The laser physicist noted that last February's Chinese spy balloon drama, when multiple objects were tracked and shot down within US and Canadian airspace, could be attributed to AARO's work focusing on anomalous aerial activities.

'Four major candidates' have been interviewed to replace Pentagon UFO boss, Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick (above), an anonymous source told DailyMail.com, following heated public sparring between the former CIA physicist and UFO whistleblowers, who 'never did trust Sean,' according to one UFO whistleblower's attorney Daniel Sheehan  

For years, national security reporters have speculated that the Navy's 'cube in a sphere' UFOs might be related to a 1949 patent for an 'airborne radar reflector' (schematic above) filed with the US Patent and Trade Office by Washington DC resident Leon Chromak

In the past, Dr. Kirkpatrick said, 'in the long list of things that they need to be paying attention to, this one was at the bottom of that list.' 

'So, there is a gap — and no one fully, I think, appreciated until the last few years that that gap could potentially be exploited by somebody,' he explained, 'put a platform in, you know, [the] continental United States that nobody knew was there.' 

But Dr. Kirkpatrick's terrestrial approach during his 18-month tenure at AARO has not been without its critics — particularly over his very public disagreements with UFO whistleblower and fellow NRO veteran David Grusch. 

Dr. Kirkpatrick expanded his own criticisms of Grusch in his new interview with Bergen, describing him as someone who had 'fallen to the influence' of UFO 'True Believers' within the US military and private defense contractor Bigelow Aerospace, which investigated UFO cases on contract for the Pentagon from 2007 to 2012.

In a new op-ed published by Scientific American last week, Dr. Kirkpatrick further dismissed Grusch as one of several 'conspiracy-minded 'whistleblowers.'' 

Grusch, a former high-ranking US intelligence official, has accused the US military and its private contractors of illegally hiding evidence of crashed UFOs, recovered 'beings,' and even UFO-related deaths, both under oath to Congress and in the press. 

For their part, these same UFO whistleblowers have accused Dr. Kirkpatrick of fostering an 'atmosphere of disinterest,' while others have suggested his superiors are secretly holding back AARO's UFO investigation efforts. 

Daniel Sheehan, the Harvard-trained lawyer who represented UFO whistleblower Luis Elizondo in his complaint to the Pentagon's Inspector General, said last year to DailyMail.com, 'really knowledgeable' UFO whistleblowers 'never did trust Sean.' 

Instead, 'what they were doing is they were going straight through to the Senate Intelligence Committee,' Sheehan said. 

(To be sure, however, some military UFO witnesses have also described 'really positive' experiences with the Dr. Kirkpatrick's office.)

Scientists with the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) in China, published their prototype spherical drone (above) in a Sept. 2022 issue of the journal Drones. The cube configuration, they wrote, showed a 40 percent reduction in 'trajectory control error'

Swiss-based Flyability entered their own spherical drone (above) into a contest launched by the Prime Minister's Office of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The UAE competition was billed as the 'World Cup of Drones,' with over 800 submitted entries from 57 countries

Flyability won $1 million in the UAE's 'Drones for Good' competition in 2015 for their 'gimbal'

In portions of Dr. Kirkpatrick's new podcast interview, which appear to have been cut before air, the retired government scientist commented that AARO's benefit to the US Intelligence Community (IC) was its latitude to conduct domestic surveillance 'We filled a gap,' he said

In portions of Dr. Kirkpatrick's podcast interview — which appear to have been cut before air — the retired government scientist commented that AARO's benefit to the US Intelligence Community (IC) was its latitude to conduct domestic surveillance.  

'We filled a gap,' Dr. Kirkpatrick said. 'The intelligence community is prohibited by law from observing [the] continental United States, right?' 

'And so, the only people that actually have authority to do that, really, are FBI, Homeland Security, [and] a few other counter-intelligence elements across the IC,' he noted, 'but that's pretty much it.'

'No one fully, I think, appreciated until the last few years that that gap could potentially be exploited by somebody [...] And that's where you ended up with Chinese balloons,' he said. 

When DailyMail.com reached out to Peter Bergen and a spokesperson for his podcast, the spokesperson noted that, based on conversations with the 'In the Room' team, 'those excerpts were cut for time.' 

'Episodes generally don't go over 45 minutes,' they said.

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

02-02-2024 om 20:38 geschreven door peter  

Ieder mens is anders en dat geldt ook voor spiraalstelsels. De James Webb-ruimtetelescoop richtte zijn blik op negentien spiraalstelsels en trof verschillende structuren aan.

Op de foto’s zie je waar sterren, gas en stof zich bevinden in deze sterrenstelsels. De infraroodbeelden helpen wetenschappers om meer te weten te komen over spiraalstelsels. Zo kunnen computersimulaties verbeterd worden om zo meer inzicht te krijgen in de vorming en de evolutie van spiraalstelsels. En dat is handig, want ook ons eigen moederstelsel – de Melkweg – is namelijk een spiraalstelsel met een centrale balk.

Dankzij de NIRCam zijn miljoenen sterren gefotografeerd in deze negentien spiraalstelsels. Je kunt deze sterren herkennen als blauwe stipjes. Zie je heldere verdikkingen? Dit zijn sterrengroepen. Het MIRI-instrument van James Webb is gebruikt om het gloeiende stof tussen sterren in kaart te brengen. Dit instrument kan ook protosterren zien. Dit zijn sterren die nog niet volledig zijn gevormd en zich schuilhouden in cocons van stof. Verder zien astronomen grote, ronde schillen van gas. Deze zijn mogelijk ontstaan door geëxplodeerde sterren, oftewel door supernova’s.

Astronomen denken dat sterrenstelsels van binnenuit groeien. De eerste sterren ontstaan nabij het centrum en daarna spreidt stervorming naar buiten. Des te verder een ster is verwijderd van het centrum, des te groter is de kans dat het een jonge ster is. Op de foto’s zie je veel blauwe stippen nabij de centra van de sterrenstelsels, maar dit zijn oude sterren.

Hierboven waren al vier sterrenstelsels zichtbaar. Hieronder volgen de overige vijftien foto’s. Klik op de foto’s om een grotere versie te downloaden, bijvoorbeeld als achtergrond op je telefoon.

{ https://scientias.nl/ }

02-02-2024 om 20:16 geschreven door peter  

Ieder mens is anders en dat geldt ook voor spiraalstelsels. De James Webb-ruimtetelescoop richtte zijn blik op negentien spiraalstelsels en trof verschillende structuren aan.

Op de foto’s zie je waar sterren, gas en stof zich bevinden in deze sterrenstelsels. De infraroodbeelden helpen wetenschappers om meer te weten te komen over spiraalstelsels. Zo kunnen computersimulaties verbeterd worden om zo meer inzicht te krijgen in de vorming en de evolutie van spiraalstelsels. En dat is handig, want ook ons eigen moederstelsel – de Melkweg – is namelijk een spiraalstelsel met een centrale balk.

  NGC 1672 op 60 miljoen lichtjaar van de aarde.

Bronmateriaal

• "Webb depicts staggering structure in 19 nearby spiral galaxies" - ESA
  
• Afbeelding bovenaan dit artikel: ESA

{ https://scientias.nl/ }

02-02-2024 om 20:11 geschreven door peter  

Unveiling Our Cosmic Legacy: The Panspermia Hypothesis

In the grand tapestry of the cosmos, the origins of life on Earth have been a subject of endless fascination and inquiry. Among the myriad theories proposed by scientists and thinkers alike, one stands out with its bold assertion that we, the inhabitants of Earth, might not be solely of this world. This theory, known as panspermia, suggests that life’s seeds were not sown on the fertile grounds of Earth from scratch but were instead delivered from the vast reaches of space.

The Journey from the Stars

Panspermia posits that microscopic life forms, capable of surviving the harsh conditions of space, journeyed across the interstellar void, hitching rides on comets, asteroids, or meteorites, to find a new home on Earth. This journey, spanning possibly millions of years, could explain how life began on our planet. The theory challenges the traditional notion of abiogenesis, which argues that life arose independently on Earth through natural processes.

Microbial Astronauts: Evidence and Implications

Evidence supporting panspermia comes from the study of extremophiles—organisms that thrive in conditions previously thought to be uninhabitable. These resilient beings survive extreme temperatures, radiation, and vacuum, hinting at a possible extraterrestrial origin. Moreover, discoveries of organic molecules in comets and meteorites add credence to the idea that the building blocks of life could indeed travel across the cosmos.

VIDEO:

• The Why Files – We Are the Aliens | Life’s Interstellar Journey to Earth: Panspermia

• https://youtu.be/xxZLBncNRXs

The panspermia hypothesis also gains support from the analysis of ancient rocks on Earth that contain isotopic signatures and biogenic carbon, suggesting that life might have appeared on Earth much earlier than previously thought, possibly during the Hadean or Archean eons. These findings challenge the timeline of life’s emergence and open the door to the possibility that Earth’s first life forms were alien stowaways.

Directed Panspermia: A Galactic Gardening?

Taking the concept a step further, some propose the theory of directed panspermia, which suggests that life on Earth was not a mere accident but a deliberate act by an advanced extraterrestrial civilization. This controversial idea implies that these cosmic gardeners seeded Earth with life for reasons unknown, perhaps as part of a galactic experiment or as a way to ensure the propagation of life throughout the universe.

Unraveling Our Origins

The implications of panspermia are profound, challenging our understanding of life’s origins and our place in the universe. If life on Earth indeed has extraterrestrial roots, it would suggest that the universe is teeming with life, much of it possibly sharing a common ancestry with us. It raises philosophical questions about the nature of life itself and the interconnectedness of all living beings across the cosmic expanse.

The Search Continues

While panspermia remains a hypothesis, the search for evidence continues. Space missions like the study of asteroids, comets, and the Martian surface aim to uncover more clues about the organic compounds present in our solar system. As our technological capabilities grow, so does our ability to probe deeper into the mysteries of life’s origins.

The panspermia hypothesis offers a tantalizing glimpse into our cosmic legacy, suggesting that we may indeed be aliens, our lineage tracing back to the stars. As we continue to explore the vastness of space and the depths of our own planet, we inch closer to understanding the true origins of life on Earth. Whether we find definitive proof of panspermia or not, the journey of discovery will undoubtedly shed light on the intricate and wondrous nature of life itself.

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

02-02-2024 om 17:41 geschreven door peter  

Arizona Man Filmed Huge Solid UFO In Phoenix Lights: MIB Took Video & Man Vanished

Frances Barwood, a member of the city council, opened an investigation into the incident. Since the military and local authorities had already managed to claim that the lights seen by the eyewitnesses were only flares, her coworkers thought her behavior was ludicrous.

Barwood received a call from Richard Curtis a few months later. He said right away that he had extremely detailed footage of the Phoenix Lights despite being an injured former soldier. He claimed that had personally captured them using high-quality equipment.

“He said you could see the shape. He said you could see how big it was in comparison to the surrounding buildings and everything. He described that the lights were gaseous. He was so excited that he had gotten all this on video,” Barwood recalled him telling her. Additionally, Curtis admitted to Barwood that he had no idea who else to call and that he trusted her.

Since the majority of the Phoenix Lights video footage up until this point had been merely specks of light on a dark background, Barwood was intrigued by this message. Curtis agreed to provide copies of the footage to Barwood’s office after she urged him to do so. However, days passed, and she did not receive films either by mail or by courier. “I thought he made this up. He didn’t have video, you know, all this stuff,” she said.

A week later, Curtis telephoned Barwood at her house and inquired about her thoughts on the films. Barwood informed him that she had not received them and expressed her amazement. Curtis continued by telling her that following their phone call, two men from her workplace stopped up at his home. The two “similar-looking” individuals were fully covered in black (three-piece black suits, black shoes, black hats, black suitcases, etc.). The men were not dressed in jackets or other gear, even though it was fairly chilly outside. It struck Curtis as weird.

He asked the men if they were from Barwood’s office and they confirmed it. Then they inquired about the Phoenix Lights videos, specifically to find out if Curtis had copied them. They responded that they would make copies for him themselves when he said he had not been able to. Curtis then handed them his videos and the two men left his house in a black sedan.

Barwood informed Curtis that she had no men in her office and that all of her staff were female. “I had no idea who these guys were. It sounds so bizarre. Nothing made sense to me,” Barwood recalled thinking. All of this infuriated Richard Curtis, who concluded that the authorities had misled him. In an interview with Phoenix TV, he discussed everything that had happened, including the “Men in Black” visit and that they took his videos.

Read also:

• Neil Armstrong Confided Italian Journalist That UFOs Observed Them Insistently On Moon
• Harvard Scientist Explains Which UFOs Over Ukraine Could Be Extraterrestrial Spacecraft
• Ex-US Army Major Released NASA Footage Of 2000-Mile-Long UFO Near Saturn
• Ex-CIA Officer: Truth About UFOs Is Terrifying & Interdimensional Beings Are Within Us

And shortly after that, when Barwood tried to call Curtis, she discovered that he was not answering. When she got to his apartment, he was not there, but the neighbors informed her that Curtis had supposedly taken a faulty medication and had been transported by ambulance to the hospital. There were no records of Curtis ever being admitted to any Phoenix-area hospitals when Barwood started looking for him there.

Barwood made the decision to have her phone lines checked by a professional when she questioned how the odd men even knew about the tapes. He visited her house and conducted his tests there. After that, he went outdoors. “He wouldn’t come back in the house. He came to the backdoor and said, “No, I’m not coming in. Yes, your phone is tapped, it’s a government tap,” she said.

Since the military and authorities insisted that the Phoenix Lights were nothing more than flares, Barwood was astounded to learn that someone in the US government had tapped her phones. Richard Curtis vanished without a trace.

It became a worldwide sensation throughout the course of the subsequent months. It was “the second biggest case in UFOlogy after Roswell,” according to the late Art Bell, host of the syndicated paranormal radio program Coast to Coast AM.

The bizarre light show, according to skeptics, was caused by man-made aircraft from Glendale’s Luke Air Force Base or other neighboring military installations conducting training drills. The Phoenix Lights, according to UFOlogists, were not of this world.

Below you can find a transcript from a FOX10 NEWS (Phoenix Lights) reported by Jim Schnabel: (Source)

Voiceover: Months after this (March 13) sighting there are many questions regarding the strange lights over Phoenix. Is this a solid craft, or merely lights in an empty sky? What could be the conclusive evidence is now mysteriously missing. Richard Curtis claims his home video is proof that this sighting was a huge flying craft. And he claims his video shows a solid object in the sky passing over his home.

Curtis: I saw the bottom part (of the craft) as it went over Phoenix, because the lights lit the bottom of it, and it partially blocked out the clouds and the stars. : voiceover: Curtis called city councilwoman Frances Emma Barwood, wanting to show her the footage. : (on screen: cut to a headshot of Barwood)

Barwood: He said he had it on two videotapes, and would I like them, so I said, “Of course I would.”, and could he give me copies of them. He said he would. I told him how to get them to my office and to mark them ‘personal and confidential’.

Voiceover: But before Curtis could send copies to Barwood, he’s paid a visit by two mysterious men in black. : Curtis:(voiced over MIB reenactments) They were dressed in black suits, with black hats and sunglasses. They asked me if I had tapes for councilwoman Barwood, and I said “Yah, they’re laying right here”. They said, “We’ve stopped by to pick them up.” So I said, “Great!” and just handed (the original tapes) to them.

Barwood: I didn’t get them, and I have no idea who these two men were since I have just females working in my office. It’s absolutely puzzling to me.

Voiceover: Did the tapes ever exist, and if so were they proof of more than “lights” in the sky? And who were these mysterious Men in Black who allegedly took them?

Curtis (voiced over): I think someone listened in on that phone call and wanted those tapes.

Barwood (voiced over): I can’t explain it. It’s just eerie. Voiceover: The mystery continues.

Source:

•  Encounter: UFO, Season 1, Episode 5, Episode aired Sep 21, 2021

{ https://www.howandwhys.com/ }

02-02-2024 om 00:46 geschreven door peter  

Here, The Debrief looks at three of the past most promising warp drive models, along with one brand new physics concept called the “Tri-Space Model,” which may hold the key to making faster-than-light travel possible.

THE ORIGINAL: ALCUBIERRE/WHITE WARP DRIVE

While Alcubierre’s warp drive concept showed that traveling faster than light was mathematically possible, it was widely criticized for its massive power requirements and use of purely theoretical “exotic matter.” Still, many scientists and engineers were intrigued by his work, including former NASA engineer and physicist Dr. Harold G. “Sonny” White.

Hoping to move Alcubierre’s metric from theory into a published, canonical form, White first looked at the idea more closely in 2003.

“I started working in the (NASA) space program in 2000,” White told The Debrief in an interview. “While I was working in the space program, I was thinking about this Advanced Power propulsion. I was thinking about this Alcubierre Warp metric. You know, it was not published in its canonical form. And so, in 2003, I published a paper in the journal General Relativity and Gravitation.”

White immediately noted how Alcubierre’s math worked but also spotted areas he thought his own background in engineering and physics could improve the concept.

“Some things didn’t quite make sense to me, but by putting it into canonical form, helped me figure out ‘how does this concept really work?’, White told The Debrief. “From the process of not being at warp to being at warp… what would that look like when you look at the mathematics? And the only way I could see to answer the question is to put it in the canonical form in 2003, so that’s what I talked about in that paper.”

Theoretical Warp Bubble Structure

(Image Credit LSI)

Years later, White was asked by NASA to present his updated warp concept, leading to his 2011 paper and the warp drive concept now known as the “Acubierre/White Warp Drive.”

“I got asked to give a talk [about the warp drive] to DARPA and NASA at the DARPA 100-year Starship Symposium in 2011,” he told The Debrief. “I did a sensitivity study on the metric. I looked at what happens when you change the parameters and the mathematics.”

Specifically, White looked at the geometry of the classic warp drive model and found something that dramatically reduced the amount of energy required by Alcubierre.

“It basically comes down to how thick you make the toroidal ring and negative vacuum energy density,” he explained. “How thick or thin to make it, topologically? What does that do to the overall energy required? And so, during that work, I had no ‘objective’ objectives, per se, other than just to explore. In the process of doing that, I discovered that by making that ring a little thicker, instead of being like a wedding band wrapped around your finger, it’s a little bit more like a lifesaver, was key.”

In fact, White’s geometric adjustment to the classic model dramatically reduced the amount of exotic matter required to a much more manageable concept.

“By using that optimization technique, I was able to reduce the amount of exotic matter from a Jupiter-sized amount down to something about the size of the Voyager spacecraft,” said White. “So about two metric tons or just under two metric tons.”

As White notes, even a few tons of a theoretical substance like exotic matter is still unachievable by today’s scientists and engineers, but his changes definitely improved the ultimate viability of Alcubierre’s idea.

“Instead of just being mathematically possible in our work, we potentially move it into the category of maybe it’s plausible,” he noted with a lighthearted shrug. “There are now two metric tons of this stuff we’re not quite sure exactly how to make.”

White’s views about the feasibility of warp drives and their related effects have garnered a fair amount of attention from critics over the years. Among them is astrophysicist Ethan Siegel who, while remaining skeptical of White’s claims, has noted that the warp drive concept “remains an interesting possibility and one worthy of continued scientific investigation, but one that you should remain tremendously skeptical about given the current state of affairs.”

THE LENTZ DRIVE

A decade after White updated the original warp drive concept, reducing the need for exotic matter down from a Jupiter-sized amount to a few tons, another scientist named Dr. Eric W. Lentz decided to take a stab at his own warp drive concept. Published in 2021, his paper “Breaking the warp barrier: hyper-fast solitons in Einstein–Maxwell-plasma theory” lays out a whole new warp drive concept. And unlike Alcubierre and White, Lentz believed that his faster-than-light warp drive model could be accomplished in a completely new and different way.

“The Alcubierre solution provided an intuitive picture of what a warp drive would do: contract the space immediately in front of the central region containing the ship or transport, and expand the space immediately behind,” Dr. Lentz explained in an email to The Debrief. “This gives us the picture of the warp drive as a wave of curvature on which a ship will ride to its destination.”

However, Lentz explains, “this picture is not an essential feature of a warp drive.” Instead, he says, a solution proposed by physicist Jose Natario back in 2002 showed that the expansion and contraction weren’t necessary to transport the ship forward. That work, says Lentz, was critical to forming his own theory, one where a warp field could be created using only traditional matter and not exotic matter.

“[Natario] showed that the expansion could be trivial (zero) everywhere and still perform the same task of transporting a ship,” Lentz told The Debrief. This is a significant breakthrough, he says, because it means that exotic matter that warps the space in front of the theoretical passenger, as well as behind them (as depicted in nearly all theoretical warp drive solutions), is no longer needed to achieve faster-than-light travel.

Could dark matter allow physicists a path toward overcoming the challenges of faster-than-light travel?

(Credit: ESO)

“In the Alcubierre solution, the energy density and curvatures are maximally separated, with the energy being restricted to a small torus between the regions of high contraction and expansion,” Lentz told The Debrief, once again evoking the classic image of the Alcubierre Warp model. “The curvatures and sources in my proposal are instead highly correlated, with the regions of high energy density and high expansion and contraction overlapping almost exactly.”

As his published paper explains, “This is the first example of hyper-fast solitons resulting from known and familiar sources, reopening the discussion of superluminal mechanisms rooted in conventional physics.”

Lentz does freely admit that his theory is somewhat novel, even in this highly theoretical arena. “The expansion factor in my proposal is stranger still [than in Natario or Alcubierre], having regions of large expansion and contraction of space surrounding the central region containing a ship.”

Still, the issue of power requirements is not totally solved by Lentz, although he told The Debrief there is some hope in this area.

“There are a number of very effective energy-saving mechanisms for the Alcubierre drive described in the literature,” he explained. “The challenge would be to either modify these mechanisms to operate using only conventional sources, [like his proposed theory which does not require exotic matter] or to innovate novel energy saving techniques.”

In other words, if these proposed energy reduction techniques don’t work on his drive concept due to the lack of exotic matter, a legitimate concern, then an entirely new solution, the likes of which has not yet been proposed, would need to be found. Fortunately, Lentz says, his drive already accomplishes some of that goal since “not all the energy needs to come directly from the reactor, as we expect much of the energy sourcing the bubble to come from the particles’ rest masses.”

{ https://thedebrief.org/category/space/ }

01-02-2024 om 23:25 geschreven door peter  

New York-based Applied Physics first achieved recognition with the 2021 publication of a peer-reviewed theoretical paper detailing the mathematics behind the construction of a physical warp drive. More recently, the organization published a method for using Cal Tech’s Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) to detect the use of warp drives in outer space, co-authored by Dr. Manfred Paulini, the Associate Dean of Physics at Carnegie Mellon University.

Now, the group says their peers working in the field warp field mechanics have a tool that didn’t exist previously or was simply too expensive and impractical to utilize. Their findings, published in the peer-reviewed journal Universe, are setting the pace for a small but growing community of researchers hoping to explore the mechanics of gravity and bring about humanity’s first real warp-drive spacecraft.

SOUND WAVES AND GLYCERIN PROVED TO BE THE KEY INGREDIENTS

To create their simulated black hole, the paper’s lead author, Dr. Edward Rietman, and his co-author, Dr. Brandon Melcher, filled a chamber with an everyday, non-toxic liquid. “The dielectric medium used was glycerin,” explained Rietman in an exclusive email to The Debrief. “It has the nice property of being optically transparent and dense, and its normal refractive index is 1.4768.”

Next, the researchers bombarded the dielectric medium with targeted sound waves. Once the waves were tuned correctly, Rietman and Melcher employed a Thorlabs FS30SMA-1550 fiber collimator to send the light into a Thorlabs CSS 100 series spectrometer, which confirmed the bending of light, exactly like a real black hole in space.

“The team induced a black hole by modulating acoustic waves in a dense fluid, building on recent research that explores the use of high-frequency acoustic waves for analog simulations of gravity and general relativity in the laboratory,” the Applied Physics team told The Debrief. “The acoustic waves alter the medium through which they travel, deflecting laser light in the lab similarly to how the gravitational pull of black holes bends the light of distant stars behind them.”

In other words, sound waves were focused into a thick fluid, causing light to bend around like they were close to a black hole. “This discovery provides a novel method to gain insight into the physics of black holes, all within the safety of a laboratory,” the team explained.

Also significant, the team says that their measurements of the degree to which bent light the artificial black hole bent light jibe perfectly with the real thing. “We show the calculations comparing our results with the Schwarzschild metric (in our paper),” Rietman told The Debrief.

“CHEAPER, BETTER, FASTER” BLACK HOLE OPENS UP GRAVITY RESEARCH TO EVERYONE

While simulated black holes are currently used in labs to explore a wide range of phenomena, the team at Applied Physics says their particular black hole is more accessible to operate than the alternatives and is markedly less expensive. This cost-benefit, they note, will allow the small but growing community of physicists and engineers trying to advance science toward the construction of a real warp drive to afford a highly-specialized tool that is critical to their work.

“A Bose-Einstein condensate requires liquid He (helium) temperatures plus a room full of costly equipment (that can total) over $1 million,” Gianni Martire, founder of Applied Physics, explained in a message to The Debrief, “whereas our system is truly benchtop, with total costs around $10k.”

“We couldn’t afford $1 million,” added Martire,” so we invented a cheaper, better, faster way simply out of need.”

ARTIFICIAL BLACK HOLE COULD ENABLE DEVELOPMENT OF A REAL WORLD WARP DRIVE SPACECRAFT

The researchers behind the artificial black hole caution that the first flight of a working warp drive spacecraft could still be decades away, or that such technology may simply be too complex to ever really come to fruition. However, they reiterate that their solution provides a new tool to like-minded researchers who are banking on the possibility that making warp drive a reality can be achieved.

“Nobody has used glycerin to create a black hole system in the lab,” Melcher told The Debrief. “We view this advance as offering another tool to analog system researchers. We view the pressure variations in glycerin as fertile soil for more complicated space/time possibilities.”

“We’re here to scale science,” the physicist added, “not conjecture, so measuring is important.”

When asked how their work can help facilitate advancements toward a working warp drive, Rietman was notably cautious, though still optimistic.

“This discovery demonstrates the exciting potential of analog systems for studying astrophysical and cosmological phenomena in the laboratory,” he told The Debrief. “With this innovation, we can better understand the effects of curved space/time and advance the future of warp drive research.”

“It is too early to answer clearly [how this will lead to a warp drive] as we need to publish more papers on work we’ve done,” he later added. “Science and technology advance one step at a time, so we can say it will, but going into the details is a deep science hole that will take away focus. We need this to measure and prove theories in warp [mechanics]. That’s the simple way to say it.”

Ultimately, the Applied Physics research team says their new tool is sorely needed by researchers like themselves who hope to advance humanity’s understanding of gravity. But they also point out that the top benefit of their new laboratory-created black hole may be its safety since creating an actual black hole here on earth could have catastrophic consequences.

“Just don’t leave your black hole unattended,” Martire joked before adding, “We should probably make that into a sign.”

• Christopher Plain is a novelist, comedian, and Head Science Writer at The Debrief. Follow and connect with him on Twitter, learn about his books at plainfiction.com, or email him directly at christopher@thedebrief.org.

{ https://thedebrief.org/category/space/ }

01-02-2024 om 22:45 geschreven door peter  

Campus Puritans Come for an Astronomer—And His Byline

By demanding that morality tests be imposed on scientific journal authorship, Geoff Marcy’s critics are creating a dangerous precedent.

Lawrence M. Krauss

Are we alone in the universe? It’s one of the most compelling existential questions facing humanity. And the past half-century has witnessed a revolution in our ability to scan the cosmos in search of an answer. When I was a university student, the possibility of discovering, much less observing, planets in other star systems seemed like science fiction. But that has changed. Thanks to orbiting observatories such as the James Webb Space Telescope, and huge ground-based telescopes such as the Keck Observatory in Mauna Kea Hawaii, astronomers could be on the cusp of finding evidence for life around one or more of the thousands of extrasolar planets (also known as exoplanets) that have now been discovered.

And yet, even as new technology allows humanity to peer into distant galaxies and answer profound questions about the universe, some scientists working in this field are being hounded by colleagues more focused on leading terrestrial outrage mobs than finding new discoveries in the heavens.

The existence of planets orbiting other main sequence stars (a category that includes about 90 percent of the stars in the universe) was first demonstrated in 1995, when Swiss astrophysicist Michel Mayor and Swiss astronomer Didier Queloz inferred the existence of a Jupiter-mass companion of the star 51 Pegasi, approximately 50 light years away from our own solar system. They did this by observing cyclic “wobbles” in the star’s path—tiny oscillatory movements whose maximum speed is about 70 meters per second, negligible in astronomical terms. These oscillations reflect the gravitational tug of 51 Pegasi’s planetary companion, which orbits the star once every four days, at a distance far closer than Mercury orbits our Sun.

The discovery was accomplished using a technique that Mayor and Queloz spearheaded in parallel with similar work done by American astronomer Geoff Marcy. Both teams based their observations on the Doppler effect, the well-known phenomenon by which a wave’s apparent frequency will change depending on whether the observer is moving toward, or away from, the radiation source. (It’s similar to the principle that police use to measure your car’s speed with a radar gun.) To the extent that a star’s wobble aligns with the axis of observation, the frequency of its emitted light, as observed on Earth, would also vary, albeit by a minute amount.

The two teams used sensitive spectrometers that could measure such shifts. And within a month of Mayor and Queloz’s observations becoming known, their results were confirmed by Marcy and his own colleagues. Marcy’s team went on to identify 70 of the first 100 known exoplanets, including the first exoplanet located as far from its star as Jupiter is from the Sun. In 2005, Marcy and Mayor shared the prestigious Shaw Prize in Astronomy, awarded for outstanding contributions in the field.

Another planet-detecting technique—which I will admit to having previously dismissed as nearly impossible—was uncovered by Marcy’s group, working with Tennessee State University astronomer Greg Henry. Using this method, a planet’s existence is inferred from the fact that its associated star is dimmed (to a terrestrial observer) by a minute amount (less than one part in a thousand) when the planet passes in front of it. This “transit” technique of exoplanetary detection was used by NASA’s 2009 Kepler Mission, of which Marcy was a Science Team member, to discover approximately 4,000 planets. Many of these are the size of our Earth, and would seem to have surface temperatures conducive to biology (as we know it).

By now, we have discovered many systems with multiple planets orbiting a single star. And this naturally invites the question: Is the character of our own solar system, with large giant gas planets (Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune) orbiting farther out, and smaller rocky planets (Mars, Earth, Venus, and Mercury) orbiting closer in (allowing the surface of at least one of these latter planets, Earth, to be sufficiently warm to host liquid water), a prerequisite for the development of life?

In March, a group of 16 authors—including Marcy; lead author Lauren Weiss, a junior faculty member in the astrophysics group at Notre Dame University, and a former PhD student of Marcy; and Caltech astronomer Andrew Howard, a former postdoctoral researcher who’s worked under Marcy’s direction—posted a paper entitled ‘The Kepler Giant Planet Search. I: A Decade of Kepler Planet Host Radial Velocities from W. M. Keck Observatory’ to arXiv, an archive for electronic preprints of scientific papers in certain fields. One of the authors’ purposes was to explore how the existence of Jupiter-size outer planets might correlate with the existence of smaller rocky inner planets. (A layperson might ask what the existence of a gas giant such a Jupiter has to do with the emergence of life on a rocky planet much closer to the sun. One answer is that—to take our own solar system as a representative example—Jupiter is believed to have absorbed or deflected large asteroids and comets from the outer solar system that otherwise would have vaporized Earth’s oceans, from which life first emerged.) Here is part of the abstract of that paper:

Despite the importance of Jupiter and Saturn to Earth’s formation and habitability, there has not yet been a comprehensive observational study of how giant exoplanets correlate with the architectural properties of close-in, sub-Neptune sized exoplanets. This is largely because transit surveys are particularly insensitive to planets [whose orbit radius is greater than that of Earth], and so their census of Jupiter-like planets is incomplete, inhibiting our study of the relationship between Jupiter-like planets and the small planets that do transit. To establish the relationship between small and giant planets, we conducted the Kepler Giant Planet Survey (KGPS). Using W. M. Keck Observatory HIRES [High Resolution Echelle Spectrometer], we spent over a decade collecting 2,858 [exoplanets detected using the Doppler wobble method] (2,181 of which are presented here for the first time) of 63 sun-like stars that host 157 transiting planets.

But if you visit arXiv to read the paper now, you can’t. It’s been withdrawn. Why? Was the data incorrect? Was the analysis conducted improperly? No. The problem was that Geoff Marcy’s name was on it.

Nine years ago, Marcy was investigated by his then-employer, the University of California, for behaviour that was described as sexual harassment. (You can read his take about the claims here, wherein he describes the infractions as resulting from him treating students as friends, hugging them or kissing them on the forehead if they related personal problems, and so forth.) It is worth adding that during his time at the University of California, Marcy also developed a record of working to promote a welcoming environment for women in science, advocating progressive university policies, and mentoring many female PhD students who subsequently went on to successful careers.

It is true that a University of California investigator decided in favour of Marcy’s complainants, albeit based on a (weak) preponderance-of-the-evidence standard. (And the low levels of due process that typify campus investigations of this type are well-known.) But even so, following the investigation, U.C. Berkeley recommended that Marcy should continue as a full professor, as he’d recently demonstrated five years of more careful behavior, which had elicited no further complaints.

Nevertheless, the online pressure against him became intolerable, and so Marcy eventually chose to leave his position voluntarily, so as to allow his colleagues and the department as a whole to get past the controversy surrounding his continued presence in the department. Grant sponsorship of his research ended, and he was removed from various collaborations. The Nobel Prize was awarded to Mayor and Queloz in 2019 for their work on exoplanets, but Marcy wasn’t included, in spite of the seminal role he and his group had played. In 2021, Marcy was ejected from the National Academy of Sciences, a shockingly severe response to behaviour that not only wasn’t criminal in nature, but which his university hadn’t even considered a firing offense. The pattern was clear: The imperatives of academic virtue signaling required individuals and institutions to publicly humiliate Marcy as a means to indicate their own moral bona fides.

Marcy’s name had been included in the authorship of ‘The Kepler Giant Planet Search’ on the basis of his long-standing contributions to the project therein discussed. He helped design, build, and even fund the Doppler system at the Keck Observatory; and he helped write the novel computer algorithm used to distill evidence of stellar wobbles from the background data.

One might imagine that the previous sanctions meted out to Marcy might have been enough. But not so: Once Astronomy Twitter discovered his name on the paper, a wave of outrage manifested itself. Many complained that it was wrong to have such a person’s work “promoted” in such a way—as if scientific publications were press releases. The pressure became so great that Weiss, the lead author, withdrew the paper from the arXiv altogether on April 7th, indicating, euphemistically, “It has come to my attention that there are significant concerns about the author list of this manuscript. It is very important to me that I honor everyone’s contribution to this work appropriately. Accordingly, I am revisiting the author list, with the goal of setting a standard for authorship that fairly acknowledges everyone’s contribution.” I have learned that, as a result of the social-media furor, several co-authors had requested their names be removed from the author list. As of now, the status of the paper is still in limbo.

In the style of a Soviet apparatchik announcing that one of his comrades had fallen from favour, the aforementioned Caltech astronomer and former Marcy-supervised post-doc, Andrew Howard, publicly assured everyone that Marcy, in a reporter’s words, “won’t co-author any papers the group publishes going forward.” These remarks were published in a May 16th Science hit piece on Marcy’s reputation, whose author appeared to agree with those seeking to bounce Marcy from the author list. The torqued title: “After outcry, disgraced sexual harasser removed from astronomy manuscript.”

A student who co-authored earlier publications as part of the same collaboration—in which Marcy’s name had appeared as co-author—now claims that having Marcy’s name on this new manuscript would be bad for her career. On what basis she made this claim is not clear. As noted above, Lauren Weiss, the lead author, is one of Marcy’s former students. Her name, like Howard’s, has appeared on numerous publications alongside Marcy’s. It appears that their association with the so-called “disgraced sexual harasser” helped, not hurt, their careers.

Another student, whose role on the project was confined to collecting data, complained that the appearance of Marcy’s name on the paper would somehow serve to “promote” Marcy at the expense of the student. Putting aside the respective importance of the contributions being made, the complaint reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of how scientific publication works. These articles are not press releases, and one’s appearance on an author list is not a form of “promotion.” Rather, it is meant to indicate one’s actual intellectual contribution to the design and implementation of a project—a form of recognition the lead author and other co-authors presumably agreed upon before the paper was submitted for publication.

The Science article also included a student’s extremely dubious claim that the presence of Marcy’s name on the author list would produce “potential psychological harm.” Specifically: “A lot of people in astronomy, especially a lot of women, are survivors of sexual assault and sexual harassment themselves, so seeing your name next to his—seeing his name at all—can be extremely triggering for a lot of people.” At the risk of appearing insensitive, anyone whose psychological trauma is so severe that it causes them to be emotionally triggered by the sight of someone’s name on a publication is in need of therapy. More importantly, such personal sensitivities should not serve to award individuals with veto power on the appearance of bylines in scientific publications.

Such is the (new) outcry over Marcy that the American Astronomical Society (AAS), a publisher of journals in which his name has appeared frequently, felt compelled to get in on the act. One might imagine that it would stand on the side of proper scholarship, asserting that author credits should reflect project contributions; which is to say that the only grounds for removing an author’s name should be a disclosure to the effect that he or she did not actually contribute to the underlying science, or that he or she was involved in falsifying or distorting data.

Instead, AAS President Kelsey Johnson publicly confirmed that the society’s ethics working group is now considering whether to classify “sexual harassment—and, indeed, all forms of harassment, discrimination, and bullying”—as grounds for restricting authorship. Under this standard, any number of people might have their names stripped from scientific papers, including, ironically, many of those same individuals now demanding that Marcy’s name be removed from ‘The Kepler Giant Planet Search.’ After all, how was lead author Weiss (a junior faculty member, it should be remembered) induced to withdraw the paper with its current author list except through mob bullying tactics?

Indeed, one of Marcy’s SETI collaborators, Nordic Institute of Theoretical Physics researcher Beatriz Villarroel, has filed harassment complaints on this very basis. Recently, she was blocked from presenting at an astrobiology conference at Penn State because of her collaboration with Marcy. She also had to withdraw an application to become an affiliate at the SETI institute in California after being instructed not to publish any papers, or apply for any grants, for a project involving Marcy.

The campaign against not only accused harassers, but also those who are accused of even dealing with accused harassers, including producing good science with them, is beginning to take on the flavour of anti-collaborator campaigns during wartime. Some organizations are even seeking to encode this mob logic in their formal rules, through codes of conduct that serve to punish those who collaborate with, or even cite the work of, those deemed to have committed harassment or offences against Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI).

In the current political environment, few are willing to stand against the pitchforks. Two senior female astronomers to whom I sent a draft of this piece for possible comment prior to publication indicated that they agreed with the expressed views, but would not be willing to say so publicly. One stated that she didn’t want her students and postdocs to have a supervisor who could be viewed as “guilty by association.” Shouldn’t the mob mentality that produces this kind of fear be deemed at least as worthy of condemnation by the scientific community?

Even the AAS leadership seems to have recognized the hypocrisy at play here, albeit grudgingly. A 2021 online note authored by the AAS’s then-President, University of Washington astronomer Paula Szkody (who herself co-authored a paper with Marcy in 2012), affirmed that the AAS ethics code states that “all persons who have made significant contributions to a work intended for publication should be offered the opportunity to be listed as authors” (a policy consistent with that of Springer, a major science publisher, which warns contributors that “it is dishonest to omit an author who has made significant contributions”). But in the same breath, she noted that the AAS anti-harassment policy “allow[s] for the denial of authorship privileges”—a provision that, when implemented, would plainly make nonsense of the idea that “all persons” who’d made “significant contributions to a work intended for publication” would be entitled to appear as listed authors. The two principles, the then-President acknowledged, “could be construed as being in potential conflict.” Could be?

The slippery slope here is very slippery indeed. In the future, will everyone who writes scientific papers first have to be vouched for by some social-justice tribunal that assesses their moral purity? And if so, using what criteria—and under what statute of limitations?

It has long been seen as a progressive habit of mind to understand that people can change, and that past sins do not inevitably define a human’s worth. There are famous examples of scientific papers being written from prison. And the same people baying for Marcy’s ongoing humiliation would likely be horrified to see the authorship of such then-incarcerated individuals stricken from the published record. Their puritanism is highly selective, in other words, being guided by the cyclic wobbles (to apply an astronomical metaphor) of political fashion.

Members of the anti-Marcy contingent might peer into their own closets, and remember that there are many ways that one can run afoul of online mobs. In recent years, it has become seen as normal for scientists to be required to put their signature to DEI pledges and anti-racism manifestos as a condition of academic employment. And the broad language in these documents leaves signatories vulnerable to all manner of accusations. Once we accept the principle that a scientist’s “significant contributions” to a project stop being significant simply because of his or her alleged moral defects, there is no particular reason to expect that such scrutiny won’t be extended to one’s political views, social-media posts, and even private conversations and jokes.

As Canadian science historian, Yves Gingras, put it in a thoughtful article last year, scientists are hardly immune from social panics. The Soviets were fond of judging science based on the politics of the men and women who conducted it, often denouncing the work of “bourgeois” scientists, whom they accused of being lackeys to Western imperialists. Google the name “Trofim Lysenko” to learn how that story ended. As Gingras stressed, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”

My wife recently reminded me of a quote from Henry Adams, which suggests, I think, an apt lesson to end on: “A teacher affects eternity: he can never tell where his influence stops.” The same principle applies to scientists. Members of the mob that came after Marcy won nothing for themselves but a brief spasm of schadenfreude. The consequences of this kind of precedent will last much, much longer.

Editor’s note:

• On May 27, the text of this article was modified so as to clarify that Caltech astronomer Andrew Howard was not among those who had requested that his name be removed from the author list of The Kepler Giant Planet Search. Additionally, the article has been corrected in regard to the quoted text indicating that Geoff Marcy “won’t co-author any papers the group publishes going forward.” Due to an editing error, these words were originally attributed to Howard. In fact, they are properly attributed to a Science magazine writer who’d summarized Howard’s comments.

{ https://quillette.com/ }

01-02-2024 om 21:58 geschreven door peter  

According to the new assessment, 247 new reports, as well as 119 “that were either since discovered or reported after the preliminary assessment’s time period,” have been accumulated since the publication of the last report on UAP issued by the ODNI in June 2021, spanning a 17 year period.

“This totals 510 UAP reports as of 30 August 2022,” the report’s authors state. “Additional information is provided in the classified version of this report.” Most of the new reporting “originates from U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force aviators and operators who witnessed UAP during the course of their operational duties,” the report adds.

“AARO and ODNI assess that the observed increase in the UAP reporting rate is partially due to a better understanding of the possible threats that UAP may represent,” the report states, “either as safety of flight hazards or as potential adversary collection platforms, and partially due to reduced stigma surrounding UAP reporting.”

“This increased reporting allows more opportunities to apply rigorous analysis and resolve events,” the report adds.

Although leaving open the possibility that irregularities in the detection capabilities of sensors and other errors in equipment function may account for some UAP reports, “ODNI and AARO operate under the assumption that UAP reports are derived from the observer’s accurate recollection of the event and/or sensors that generally operate correctly and capture enough real data to allow initial assessments,” the report states.

Based on AARO’s analysis and characterization of the 366 reports collected since the issuance of the last ODNI report, it says that “more than half” appear to exhibit “unremarkable characteristics,” with half a dozen attributed to aerial clutter, 26 believed to represent Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) craft or “UAS-like entities,” and 163 determined as being representative of “balloon or balloon-like entities.”

The report states that such initial characterization of these events “does not mean positively resolved or unidentified” but is intended to enable AARO “to efficiently and effectively leverage resources against the remaining 171 uncharacterized and unattributed UAP reports.” The report also emphasized that “many reports lack enough detailed data to enable attribution of UAP with high certainty” despite the methods employed in collecting and reporting those incidents.

Mirroring themes from the 2021 report, flight safety challenges associated with the presence of UAP over the U.S. and in other airspace remains a concern, characterized as “a safety of flight and collision hazard to air assets” in Thursday’s report. However, the summary notes that AARO and its partner agencies have logged no known collisions with UAP.

New to the DOD’s assessment of concerns related to UAP is what the new report characterizes as potential “health implications” related to the phenomenon, although noting that presently, there are “no encounters with UAP confirmed to contribute directly to adverse health-related effects to the observer(s).”

“Acknowledging that health-related effects may appear at any time after an event occurs, AARO will track any reported health implications related to UAP should they emerge,” the report adds.

The report acknowledges that UAP reporting has increased since the issuance of the 2021 ODNI report, possibly due to the removal of stigmas associated with the topic in years past and the institution of new formalized methods of reporting by military personnel. Fundamentally, in addition to the potential hazards to flight safety that some UAP may represent, AARO is focused on assessing the possibility of adversary collection threats that could be related to many UAP incidents.

The report, an unclassified document based on a classified version that was originally set for arrival on October 31, 2022, was published on the ODNI website on Thursday, with a classified version delivered to Congress yesterday, according to a statement issued by Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Brigadier General Pat Ryder. It is the second in an ongoing series of periodic updates in coordination with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) on findings related to what the DOD characterizes as unidentified anomalous phenomena.

“The safety of our service personnel, our bases and installations, and the protection of U.S. operations security on land, in the skies, seas, and space are paramount,” Ryder stated. “We take reports of incursions into our designated space, land, sea, or airspaces seriously and examine each one.”

“There is no single explanation that addresses the majority of UAP reports,” said Department of Defense spokesperson Sue Gough in a statement provided to The Debrief in response to queries about the report and the DOD’s position on current findings related to U.S. government UAP investigations.

“We are collecting as much data as we can, following the data where it leads, and will share our findings whenever possible,” Gough said, adding that the DOD would not rush to conclusions in its analysis of incidents involving unidentified phenomena.

“In many cases, observed phenomena are classified as ‘unidentified’ simply because sensors were not able to collect enough information to make a positive attribution,” Gough further clarified, adding that the DOD continues to improve its data collection capabilities in order to help ensure that “sufficient data for our analysis” can be collected when UAP events occur.

Similar inquiries were made with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence by The Debrief, although ODNI Spokesperson Jamie Mason conveyed that the Office could not offer any guidance or additional comments on the UAP report at that time.

In recent days, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 was signed into law by President Biden. Included within the annual defense bill are provisions aimed at improving government transparency on the UAP issue by providing protections for whistleblowers, in addition to expanding the scope of current investigations by the DOD’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO).

Earlier in December, the Pentagon held a media roundtable that briefly addressed the findings of the DOD’s new All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) in advance of the release of the report. In attendance were Ronald Moultrie, Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security, who also appeared at a Congressional hearing earlier this year that addressed the subject, and Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick, the director of AARO, whose participation marked his first public appearance since taking over the DOD’s new office.

“We have an important and yet challenging mission to lead an interagency effort to document, collect, analyze and when possible, resolve reports of any unidentified anomalous phenomena,” Kirkpatrick said during the briefing, adding that the DOD has “transferred the data and responsibilities from the previous Navy-led UAP task force, and disestablished it.”

“During that transition, we’ve taken the opportunity to expand and standardize and integrate UAP reporting and reevaluate the data we’ve collected,” Kirkpatrick added.

Moultrie also emphasized that the DOD “takes public interest in UAPs seriously,” adding that “we are fully committed to the principles of openness and accountability to the American people. We are committed to sharing as much detail with the public as we can.”

Last November, the DOD announced the establishment of what it then called the Airborne Object Identification and Management Group (AOIMSG), the mission for which had been limited primarily to incidents occurring within military airspace. The scope of the AOIMSG was later broadened in July 2022 following additional direction from Congress, as outlined in wording that appeared in the FY 2022 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

“On July 15, 2022, Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks, in coordination with the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), amended her original direction to the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence & Security by renaming and expanding the scope of the Airborne Object Identification and Management Group (AOIMSG) to the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO),” read a portion of a July 20, 2022, DOD release.

According to the DOD release, the FY 2022 NDAA “included a provision to establish an office, in coordination with DNI, with responsibilities that were broader than those originally assigned to the AOIMSG.”

Wording within the NDAA also required an annual report on the DOD’s latest findings on UAP to be delivered to Congress by no later than October 31.

Some have noted that the delivery date for the annual report, which according to last year’s NDAA was scheduled to coincide with Halloween, seemingly nods to the long-held flippant attitudes maintained by both the military, and the academic community, toward anomalous aerial phenomena.

Several weeks in advance of the report’s late arrival, an October 28 article by New York Times reporter Julian Barnes also seemingly downplayed the significance of unresolved incidents in the DOD’s current UAP dataset. Citing government officials familiar with the document and its findings who spoke on background, Barnes reported that “surveillance operations by foreign powers and weather balloons or other airborne clutter” could account for most UAP incidents investigated by the DOD in recent years, adding that such sightings have given weight to “theories about visiting space aliens” and espionage by adversaries like China and Russia.

The newly released report, by contrast, while noting that “more than half” of the UAP reports currently collected by AARO seem to display “unremarkable” behavior, nonetheless conveys that a significant number remain that do not appear to have such prosaic characteristics, and remain a focus of AARO’s further investigations.

In her statement provided to The Debrief, Department of Defense spokesperson Sue Gough emphasized that the Pentagon does not downplay UAP incidents and recognizes the current level of public interest in these events, as well as issues of transparency related to them, statements in-line with those expressed by Moultrie and Kirkpatrick earlier in December.

“DoD takes public interest in UAP seriously,” Gough told The Debrief, adding that the Department “is committed to the principles of openness and accountability to the American people which it must balance with its obligation to protect sensitive information, sources and methods.”

• Micah Hanks is Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of The Debrief. Follow his work at micahhanks.com and on Twitter: @MicahHanks. 

{ https://thedebrief.org/category/science/ }

01-02-2024 om 21:40 geschreven door peter  

Clouds of vaporized rock, and perhaps even glittering gems, could fill the skies of some distant worlds. Add howling winds and broiling temperatures, and you begin to catch the first glimpse of wildly different environments on one of the many varieties of exoplanets ­– planets around other stars.

Exoplanet scientists are on the edge of their seats. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has begun to deliver its first science images and data. The targets for observations to come include the atmospheres of some of the strangest exoplanets found so far.

Among the best ways to understand these atmospheres, and even the planets themselves, will be the first-ever direct observations of clouds, however weird and exotic they might be.

“On Earth, a lot of these minerals are jewels,” said Tiffany Kataria, an exoplanet scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “A geologist would study them as rocks on Earth. But they can form clouds on exoplanets. That’s pretty wild.”

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These planets – hot gas giants – are among many exoplanet types confirmed in the galaxy. They could have clouds of vaporized rock because they orbit so close to their stars, making their atmospheres ferociously hot.

And while clouds of rock, rubies, or sapphires might sound enchanting, actually detecting such minerals in an exoplanet atmosphere also would be a giant step forward in scientific knowledge.

“Clouds tell us a lot about the chemistry in the atmosphere,” Kataria said. “It then becomes a question of how the clouds formed, and the formation and evolution of the system as a whole.”

The Webb telescope's many capabilities include “spectroscopy” – splitting the light Webb receives from distant stars and planets into a spectrum, a bit like a rainbow. That would allow scientists to read the types of molecules present in an exoplanet atmosphere.

And that means Webb could detect specific types of minerals in clouds.

Detailed study of exoplanet clouds might even yield evidence of a habitable, potentially life-bearing planet – say on a small, rocky world like Earth.

“Clouds are an important feature on Earth, to regulate temperature,” Kataria said. “They’re an important consideration for Earth’s climate. It stands to reason that clouds could also be a vital component in the atmosphere of a habitable exoplanet. The more we understand how clouds form in general – as they have on Earth and other solar system planets – the more we understand how clouds evolved in more exotic environments.”

Probing the hearts of exoplanet clouds could bring together experts from many scientific fields as they seek to understand the origin, evolution, and environments of other planets in our galaxy.

“This further illustrates that exoplanets as a field really is interdisciplinary, borrowing lessons learned from astronomy, planetary science, geology, chemistry, and other areas of science,” Kataria said. “It’s so important to build these connections with scientists in all these different fields to better understand the many exotic worlds out there.”

The James Webb Space Telescope is the world's premier space science observatory. Webb will solve mysteries in our solar system, look beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probe the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Canadian Space Agency.

For more information about Webb, visit www.nasa.gov/webb.

{ https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/ }

01-02-2024 om 21:28 geschreven door peter  

Rock that punched hole in New Jersey house confirmed to be 4.6 billion-year-old meteorite

A metallic-looking rock that smashed through the roof of a residential home in New Jersey's Hopewell Township earlier this week is indeed a meteorite — a rare one about 4.6 billion years old, scientists confirmed on Thursday (May 11).

"It was obvious right away from looking at it that it was a meteorite in a class called stony chondrite," Nathan Magee, chair of the physics department at The College of New Jersey (TCNJ), whose office was contacted by the Hopewell Township police soon after the rock was found on Monday (May 8), told Space.com.

Chondrites are primitive rocks that make up 85% of meteorites found on Earth. Most chondrites found to date have been discovered in Antarctica; only rarely does one crash in populated areas. 

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• What are meteorites?

The New Jersey rock, which is about 6 inches long by 4 inches wide (15 by 10 centimeters), is a notable exception. It slammed into the Hopewell Township house, dented the floorboard, punched two holes in the ceiling and was still warm when it was discovered by Suzy Kop in her father's bedroom around noon on Monday. 

"I'm looking up on the ceiling and there's these two holes, and I'm like, 'What in the world has happened here?'" Kop told 6 ABC's Trish Hartman.

Once emergency responders cleared Kop, her family and their home of any harmful radioactive residues, Kop handed over the space rock to the nearby college for further inspection.

At TCNJ, Magee's team consulted Jerry Delaney, a retired meteorite expert who had worked on the meteorite collection at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. The team confirmed the space rock to be about 4.56 billion years old, which means it has been around since the beginning of our solar system and represents the leftover fragments from its creation.

The 2.2-pound (0.9 kilograms) meteorite, which will likely be named Titusville, NJ — the postal address closest to its landing site — is "in excellent condition, and one of a very small number of similar witnessed chondrite falls known to science," Magee said in a statement on Thursday.

The top layer of the meteorite has a blackened crust a few millimeters thick from partially burning up in Earth's atmosphere. Using a hand lens designed to look at rocks closely, his team found that the meteroite's minerals are blue and gray in color, with a small amount of other metals mixed in, Magee told Space.com.

The team studied the rock's texture and composition by placing it inside a large chamber of a scanning electron microscope. Based on initial estimates, the meteorite is a chondrite of class LL-6, which has less iron than other members of its family and is at least 30 to 40% denser than the most common rocks on Earth, like slate or granite. 

"So it was clear it was not an Earth rock," Magee told Space.com.

Even before the space rock had breached Earth's atmosphere, it was exposed to a lot of heat in outer space that had heavily altered its structure and composition, so much so that it is difficult to easily distinguish individual grains or chondrules that make up the meteorite, scientists shared in Thursday's update.

• Follow Sharmila Kuthunur on Twitter @skuthunur. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

{ https://www.space.com/ }

01-02-2024 om 21:17 geschreven door peter  

Breathtaking Footage of 1,000 Lego Astronauts Flying to Space

Two cameras captured 1,000 Lego astronauts flying to the edge of space on a 3D-printed mini space shuttle.

The voyage was powered by a stratospheric balloon that burst after taking the Legonauts 22 miles above the Earth’s surface when they safely landed back on terra firma with the help of a parachute.

Lego sent 1,000 mini-astronauts on a trip to near space.

(Image credit: LEGO/Kreativ Gang)

A Kreativ Gang team member with the 3D-printed space shuttle made for Legonauts.

The 3D-printed space shuttle was made from a lightweight carbon composite material, built by a team of space architects and engineers from Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

There were three separate space flights with roughly 330 Legonauts going up each time and the team from Kreativ Gang, a marketing agency producing a Lego campaign, had to ensure none of the astronauts fell off the open-air shuttle.

“To make the figures stay on the space shuttle after the balloon burst was a major challenge,” says Dominik Matusinsky, an executive at Kreativ Gang, tells Space.com.

“We wanted the figures to be exposed directly to space, not to be stored inside anything. But during the free fall stage [before the parachute opened], they experienced speeds of up to 300 kilometers per hour [186 miles per hour], so that was a challenge.”

In an Instagram post, the Kreativ gang explained that the Legonauts flew from Malé Bielice Airport near Partizánské in Slovakia on Saturday, May 20 on a shuttle made of carbon fiber and 3D-printed stainless steel.

“They have landed in three different places and are ready to end their journey on your nightstand,” the team jokes.

“This space feat of ours was captured by two cameras during the entire ride. One monitored the space with the mini-crew from the cockpit, and the other, attached to the shoulder, took a view of the entire platform.

“In the photos and videos, you can see breathtaking shots of the Earth as well as figures who are fully enjoying their flight into space.”

The stunt was a promotional campaign for Lego. Anyone who buys a new Lego set and registers it could win the Lego astronauts as a prize. More details are avaialbe on Kreativ Gang’s website.

Image credits: All photos by Kreativ Gang/LEGO.

According to Dominik Matusinsky, an executive at marketing agency Kreativ Gang that produced the campaign for Lego, the team had to make sure that none of the astronauts fell off the open-air shuttle during the early stages of the platform's descent. 

"To make the [Lego] figures stay on the space shuttle after the balloon burst was a major challenge," Matusinky told Space.com in an email. "We wanted [the figures] to be exposed directly to space, not to be stored inside anything. But during the free fall stage [before the parachute opened], they experienced speeds of up to 300 km/h [186 mph], so that was a challenge."

For the balloons to comfortably lift off, the whole platform including its passengers had to weigh no more than 6 pounds (2.7 kilograms).

"The challenge was to build the space shuttle as lightweight as possible," added Rousek. "We ended up making it from carbon fiber, 3D printed stainless steel and plastic."

Two cameras filmed the rides: One monitoring the crew compartment;, the other attached to a boom filming a view of the entire platform.

The Lego astronauts will now be put up as a prize in a drawing in the Czech Republic and Slovakia for anyone who buys and registers a new Lego set.

{ https://petapixel.com/ }

01-02-2024 om 21:04 geschreven door peter  

Multiple Pilots Describe Seeing UFOs ‘Forming Triangles’ To Air Traffic Control In Canada

BY DOUGLAS CHARLES

Several pilots recently reported seeing UFOs in Canada, describing “multiple lights sometimes in a triangle formation” to air traffic control.

“I’m certainly no expert, but they’re moving side-to-side and then going away from each other and then forming triangles. That doesn’t really seem like they’re in any type of orbit. But I mean, I’m no expert,” an Air Canada pilot from Seattle to Winnipeg said while flying over Saskatchewan in audio obtained by CTV News from two feeds at LiveATC.net.

“Yeah, it’s quite bizarre,” echoed a pilot on a Flair Airlines flight from Vancouver to Toronto. “There’s around six of them just randomly in formation flying at a high altitude at 12 o’clock.”

“Definitely not satellites,” said another pilot on a Morningstar Air Express cargo flight from Calgary to Toronto. “It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen in the 15 years of night flying that I’ve done.”

“There’s no active airspace, military airspace, anything like that we’re aware of,” an air traffic controller told the pilots. “I honestly have no idea what that might be.”

The total audio of the conversations between the pilots and air traffic control in Canada discussing the mysterious lights was originally 2.5 hours long, but has been condensed down to a 13-minute video.

At least four different pilots reported seeing the strange lights of these UFOs on Jan. 19, with some appearing as high as 100,000 feet in the sky.

Daniel Otis, who reported about the UFO sightings for CTV News, also wrote on YouTube, “Their reports appeared in Transport Canada’s online aviation incident database on Jan. 23. NORAD was also notified of the incident, which occurred over Saskatchewan and Manitoba.”

The Canadian Air Defence was also notified about the UFOs, according to the Civil Aviation Daily Occurrence Reporting System (CADORS) report.

As is almost always the way in UFO cases such as this, much like in America, no one in power wants to talk or provide an actual explanation.

“Reports of unidentified objects can rarely be followed up on as they are as the title implies, unidentified,” a Transport Canada spokesperson told CTV News. “The department is reviewing the circumstances of this incident and will take appropriate action if non-compliance with the regulations is identified.”

A Canadian NORAD and Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) spokesperson told CTV News, “NORAD detects radar tracks and if required, provides a threat assessment of those tracks based on a variety of factors. For operational security reasons, we do not discuss how NORAD assesses threats.”

 { https://brobible.com/ }

01-02-2024 om 18:38 geschreven door peter  

Ufology: Why Scientists Are Finally Turning UFO Sightings Into Serious Research

For as long as humans have claimed they’ve seen UFOs—and it’s been a long, long time—the established scientific community has more or less considered them to be nonsense. While that hasn’t changed much, even as we’re in the midst of a modern ufological renaissance, some renegade scientists are fighting to bring academic rigor to UFO research.

Take Richard Hoffman, an information technology expert with over 25 years of experience, formerly contracted with the U.S. Army’s Materiel Command at the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama. As a senior lead architect, he kept the Army’s digital infrastructure running and safe from attack.

He’s also a UFO researcher.

“The scientific community still has to deal with the decades of stigma associated with what they see as pseudoscience or fringe science,” Hoffman tells Popular Mechanics. “Many scientists do have interests in the phenomena, but are most often discouraged by others to embrace it so they hide it.”

Hoffman is one of three executive board members who run a nonprofit scientific organization known as the Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies (SCU).

✅ Unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) is the current rebranding of unidentified flying objects (UFO), a term that many believe to carry too much cultural baggage.

“There are very few UFO organizations remaining today,” Hoffman says. “Of the few that do remain, they each have their unique contributions to the phenomena, but most are in data collection roles versus long-term scientific study of cases.”

The difference with the SCU—and it’s a big one—is that it collects data that can be analyzed and studied by scientific experts, subsequently generating peer-reviewed papers published in journals and on websites, says Hoffman. The SCU doesn’t collect day-to-day UAP sighting reports, but rather digs into the more complex cases where multiple sensory data, like radar tracks and video, may exist.

Getty Images

An Objective of Legitimacy

The SCU played a significant role in studying the 2004 Nimitz UFO Encounter, when the organization released a nearly 300-page report on the incident. In 2017, the story hit the mainstream when the New York Times published a groundbreaking story about the Navy pilots who intercepted a strange object off the coast of San Diego in November 2004, and captured video of the object with their F-18’s gun camera.

In 2019, Popular Mechanics published a story about several other military personnel who also witnessed the Nimitz encounter on their radar systems and over their ship’s video system.

The SCU paper examined the available public data and testimony regarding the case, concluding that the “results suggest that given the available information, the AAV’s capabilities are beyond any known technology.”

To be clear, the SCU hasn’t concluded that some non-human intelligence is responsible. Fully aware of the significant gaps in data, the organization has suggested that “the public release of all Navy records associated with this incident to enable a full, scientific and open investigation is strongly recommended.”

The UFO research community is used to having scant data on UFO incidents; the vast majority of cases are purely anecdotal. When physical evidence or data is available, the well-established ufological conspiracy and myth-making machines begin to put that data into jeopardy.

“To date, there hasn’t been an extensive and well-funded scientific investigation of these phenomena using state-of-the-art investigative tools and a dedicated investigative team,” Robert Powell, an SCU executive board member and device physics expert, tells Popular Mechanics. The SCU is aiming to change that. Membership in the organization requires a resume submission, and a committee meets to thoroughly vet each new member.

So who makes up the 120+ members of the SCU, exactly? Mostly scientists, former military officers, and former law enforcement personnel with technical experience and investigative backgrounds, Powell says. While SCU encourages all UAP scientists to publish their work through peer-reviewed journals, and SCU members have been authors in peer-reviewed journals, a stigma still exists about UAP research. “This prevents quality papers from being published in mainstream journals simply because the topic is UAP. Therefore, SCU also provides a peer-review process for UAP papers submitted to SCU for publication,” Powell says.

To begin bridging the gap between the UFO research community and the scientific community, the SCU formed its own open-access peer-reviewed academic journal, Limina. “Anyone wishing to submit a paper to the journal should contact SCU,” Powell says.

Bettmann//Getty Images

Fighting the Stigma

Yet for all the promising progress, the SCU and similar organizations are still facing an uphill battle. The decades-long taboo surrounding UFOs and their study is thoroughly entrenched in established scientific and academic communities. They are, in essence, a dirty subject that can kill a professional career.

In 1953, the Robertson Panel was formed to look at UFO reports at the behest of the government due to a string of odd aerial objects being spotted over Washington, D.C. the previous year. The panel concluded in its classified report that UFOs posed no risk to national security, and proposed that the National Security Council actively debunk UFO reports with the intention to ideologically inoculate the public to ensure UFOs would become the subject of ridicule. The Panel even recommended that UFO investigative and research groups be monitored by intelligence agencies for subversive activity.

Seventeen years later, the infamous Condon Report, which was a product of the U.S. Air Force and the University of Colorado, was responsible for the death of the Air Force’s UFO study, Project Blue Book. The report became embroiled in controversy when a memorandum was released, explaining that the report itself had to “trick” the public into thinking the study was objective, but would ensure that the final and official position is that all UFO incidents were hoaxes, delusion, and human error.

Officially, UFOs became the subject of ridicule. Tie that in with the rise of new-age UFO prophets and cults, stories of space men from Venus, alien bases in Antarctica, and the merging of UFO and conspiracy cultures, and those who used empirical data or maintained a rational and logical research approach became lumped into the same subculture as people claiming to be alien channelers or time-traveling alien ambassadors who often use people’s gullibility to earn a living.

It’s no wonder academics, professionals, and scientists publicly shy away from the subject. In research for this article, one physicist from a university in New York expressed their discomfort and asked that their name not be used because they were still trying to get tenure.

“I don’t get the sense the scientific community is any more interested or open than it was before,” Alexander Wendt, Ph.D., a political science professor at the Ohio State University, tells Popular Mechanics. “But what has changed, I think, is the politics. I think that the wind is changing on this, just like it is on a lot of things. And it’s probably young people in particular who are driving the change and are more open.”

Forging a Scientific Future

Wendt, who has done academic work on the UFO question and presented a lecture at TEDx Columbus on the science of UFOs, sits on the board of UFOData, a project designed to create high-tech observation systems to monitor the skies and track anomalous phenomena. He knows that the taboo exists surrounding UFO research, and getting any grant money to study UFOs is still practically impossible. According to Wendt, neither the government nor any established scientific organizations are going to fund UFO research. The solution seems to be crowdfunding or finding private donors who will invest in these projects.

UFOData isn’t the only group engaged in observational studies. For three decades, Project Hessdalen, a small observatory station that monitors a valley in Norway subject to strange light phenomena, has been jointly funded by the Østfold University College and personal donations. Another organization, the UFO Data Acquisition Project (UFODAP), is also building small computer units designed to monitor and track aerial oddities. Using multiple sensors, the UFO Data Acquisition Unit is designed to record and track UAP, as well as provide metadata which can be analyzed.

Hoffman recognizes that contemporary ufology still makes academics and scientists nervous. Even with the 2019 Navy announcement that UAPs do violate American airspace and that the Pentagon was running the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, people are starting to ask more questions and some scientists are starting to participate.

“We are encouraged by this and believe it will continue to advance, however, the UFO community itself is composed of factions which continue to make scientists cringe,” Hoffman says. “SCU is attempting to support scientists and serious researchers by focusing on what science can do to advance their interests. They see us as being a safe place where conspiracy theories are non-existent and scientific methodologies win.”

So while the existence of UFOs is no longer up for debate, their source very much is. The UFO community has always been comprised of cultural and social renegades who haunt the fringes of mainstream culture, subjects of ridicule more than respect. While some still smirk at the thought of anomalous aerial objects occupying our skies, the information slowly coming out into the public domain is starting to prove that these objects may not be a laughing matter.

Whether the source of some of these data-rich UFO incidents is secret government technology, an alien nonhuman intelligence, or something fundamentally beyond our physical and philosophical understanding, we’re left to wonder, as countless thinkers and, yes, even scientists, have before: “What if?”

• Editor’s Note: This story was originally published on July 2, 2020.

{ https://www.popularmechanics.com/ }

01-02-2024 om 18:27 geschreven door peter  

Area 51 Insider Witnesses: Disc-Shaped UFOs and Extraterrestrial Encounters

Nestled within the Nevada desert, Area 51 has long been a focal point of intrigue and speculation for enthusiasts of the unexplained and scholars of extraterrestrial phenomena alike. This highly classified military base, officially acknowledged by the U.S. government only in recent years, remains shrouded in secrecy, fueling theories about alien spacecraft, extraterrestrial encounters, and advanced technology far beyond human capabilities.

Eyewitness Accounts and Whistleblower Testimonies

Among the myriad of tales surrounding Area 51, few are as compelling as the accounts of individuals who claim to have worked within its confines, witnessing the unimaginable. These whistleblowers speak of disc-shaped crafts and non-human entities, often referred to as “Greys,” housed within the depths of the facility. Such testimonies offer a tantalizing glimpse into a world where the lines between science fiction and reality blur.

One notable account comes from a supposed former sentry at S-4, a sector allegedly located near Area 51. This individual described observing multiple disc-shaped crafts, each with unique characteristics, some of which appeared capable of hovering and others that boasted sleek, aerodynamic designs reminiscent of descriptions in popular UFO lore. These crafts were said to be stored on platforms, suggesting they were either the subject of reverse engineering efforts or perhaps even ready for flight.

Government Secrecy and Surveillance

The veil of secrecy enveloping Area 51 extends beyond the base itself, encompassing alleged monitoring and intimidation tactics aimed at silencing those daring to reveal its secrets. Whistleblowers have reported experiences ranging from phone tapping and mail interception to outright threats, painting a picture of a government desperate to keep the lid on potentially Earth-shattering revelations. Such measures only serve to deepen the mystery and stoke the fires of speculation regarding the activities conducted far from the public eye.

VIDEO:

• Eyewitness to disc-shaped craft and aliens at Area 51 discussed by UFO researcher Wendelle Stevens

• https://youtu.be/eLKEOxfkOk8

The narrative surrounding Area 51 challenges us to question the boundaries of our understanding and the lengths to which governments might go to protect secrets of cosmic significance. It beckons the brave and the curious to look to the skies and ponder what might be, fueling a relentless quest for truth in a world brimming with mysteries yet to be unraveled.

As we stand on the precipice of discovery, the stories of Area 51 remind us that reality may indeed be stranger than fiction, urging us to keep our minds open to the infinite possibilities that lie beyond our current grasp. The journey into the unknown continues, with each whispered tale and leaked document adding a new piece to the ever-expanding puzzle of our universe.

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

01-02-2024 om 17:46 geschreven door peter  

'It's getting closer and closer for sure.' How SETI is expanding its search for alien intelligence (exclusive)

Related: 

• SETI scientists begin huge new hunt for intelligent aliens

• https://youtu.be/Tcaqq1j69UQ

Space.com caught up with Bill Diamond, President and CEO of the SETI Institute for an exclusive, mind-stretching close-encounter discussion regarding the mounting evidence for extraterrestrial intelligence. 

Spoiler alert! It's not that old tried, true and tired query "are we alone?" Rather, it's more like "just how crowded is it?"

Early stages

There's a lot going on today in terms of searching for and trying to understand potential extraterrestrial life in the universe, Diamond said.

"Much of the first several decades of SETI, the effort has been quite minimal, looking with fairly 'insensitive' instruments in fairly narrow parts of the radio spectrum in random parts of the sky. So hardly anything that could be considered a comprehensive endeavor," said Diamond.

But even today, in many ways, SETI work is still in the early stages. However, more and more is taking place with an increasing number of instruments and technologies around the world. "There's an extensive and expanded effort ongoing now," Diamond said.

COSMIC collaboration

For example, there's the Commensal Open-Source Multimode Interferometer Cluster Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence — mercifully shortened to COSMIC SETI. 

All 27 antennas that constitute the Very Large Array (VLA) in New Mexico have been outfitted with new gear to perform 24/7 SETI observations under a collaboration between the SETI Institute and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, the group that operates the VLA. 

Yes, that's the same VLA showcased in the 1997 sci-fi film "Contact," replete with actress Jodie Foster adorned with a tight-fitting stereo headset. In reality, the VLA was never used for SETI, Diamond noted, but now it is.

Detectable signatures

"COSMIC is really the most comprehensive SETI search on a single instrument in history. That's very exciting," Diamond said, and gives the COSMIC effort access to a complete and independent copy of the data streams from the entire VLA.

COSMIC will analyze data for the possible presence of "technosignatures" - detectable signatures and signals that shout out the presence of distant advanced civilizations. 

In scientific circles, technosignatures are viewed as a subset of the far more established search for "biosignatures" — evidence of microbial or other primitive life loitering on some of the billions of exoplanets we now know exist.

Newly augmented

"For classical radio SETI, there's more going on now around the world than there has ever been," Diamond said. That uptick also includes the SETI Institute's newly augmented Allen Telescope Array situated northeast of San Francisco. It was named after Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, given his generous financial backing of the facility in its early phases.

The Allen Telescope Array (ATA) has undergone antenna redesign and now is outfitted with high-end computers, signal processors, and other electronics making it far faster than ever before, Diamond adds. "The instrument is performing at a level that it has never performed at since it was built. All of that is fairly new in the two to three years."

One output from ATA has been its use by SETI Institute scientists to delve into powerful Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs), a head-scratching phenomenon wanting of explanation. 

Philanthropic gift

A passionate booster in ATA's overhaul was Franklin Antonio, a co-founder of Qualcomm, a communications chip company. Antonio's support as an institute technical advisor continues with his philanthropic gift to the SETI Institute of $200 million after his passing last May.

That bequest is sparking an action plan that will enhance the institute's multi-disciplinary, multi-center research, education and outreach make-up, Diamond said.

Also on the institute's agenda is taking in and evaluating ideas from SETI researchers anywhere in the world to tap into a pool of money for such things as technology, software, or to run an experiment. 

"If we like what you're doing, we'll fund it," Diamond said. "We will kind of take the place of NASA for the time being as the only place in the world where you can submit a proposal to do SETI work."

Those three words

Roll back time to Columbus Day in 1992 when NASA initiated a formal, more intensive, SETI program. But less than a year later, Congress short-circuited the program. 

Is it time for the government to re-embrace the search for extraterrestrial intelligence?

"Yes, absolutely," Diamond responded. NASA, he said, has a trio of science questions it's spearheading: How does the Universe work? How did we get here?  Are we alone?

Almost every time NASA leadership publicly speaks, said Diamond, they invoke those three words — Are we alone?

"We all want to know. NASA clearly wants to know as it's one of their science priorities," Diamond said. "So isn't it time they get back in the business of trying to answer that question?"

Planets are everywhere

NASA's own Kepler space telescope served as the space agency's first planet-hunting mission. During nine years of deep space scoping, Diamond emphasized, it showed our galaxy contains billions of exoplanets. "It told us that planets are everywhere and a lot of them are potentially habitable."

NASA is starting to chip away at SETI work, Diamond noted. A NASA-funded grant to a SETI Institute scientist is using observations from the space agency's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). The intent is to purge out of the TESS data possible technosignatures aided by artificial intelligence/machine learning tools.

"So yes, I think the winds of change are blowing a little bit in favor of the government getting back into this business. And, in my opinion, I think they should step up and do it," Diamond said

Neighborhood watch

With all the in-motion SETI research underway, just how prepared are we for a confirmed, door-ringing neighborhood watch revelation?

"The straight answer to that question is no, we are not necessarily ready, although it depends on what the answer is," Diamond responded. It's only a matter of time before this question is answered, he added, at one level or another. 

We should begin to think about how we convey this information, possible impacts to society, to religion, to politics, to technology, to governments, said Diamond. 

"I do think that with all these technologies, modalities, instruments looking in different ways," Diamond concluded, "it's getting closer and closer for sure."

{ https://www.space.com/ }

01-02-2024 om 01:14 geschreven door peter  

MULTI-TERRAIN INVISIBILITY INSPIRED BY UNIQUE CLASS OF ANIMAL

In nature, certain animals have adapted themselves to appear virtually invisible to both predators and prey. The most famous of these is the chameleon, which can adapt its outer appearance to match its environment almost perfectly.

However, the chameleon is not the only poikilotherm lauded for its ability to achieve a form of invisibility to aid its survival. For example, the bearded dragon is noted for its ability to conceal itself thermally by matching the temperature of its environment, while the glass frog can make itself transparent so that predators cannot see it directly.

Now, a team of researchers says they have combined the adaptive ability of all three animals to produce a metamaterial that is effectively invisible across microwave, visible, and infrared spectra to achieve previously impossible multi-terrain invisibility.

CHIMERA COMBINES ADAPTIVE ABILITIES OF THREE DIFFERENT POIKILOTHERMS

“Although camouflage technology has been a long-standing topic, the enthusiasm towards a practical[1]oriented invisibility has never weakened,” the researchers explain in the recently published research paper. “Past decades have witnessed a proliferation of metasurface-based invisibility owing to the advent of metasurfaces that can freely customize the electromagnetic waves. However, state-of-the-art works only achieve broadband invisibility in an individual terrain with its specific electromagnetic background.”

To surpass these limitations, the researchers studied the camouflage techniques used by animals that achieve some form of invisibility across a range of electromagnetic spectra, including microwave, visible, and thermal (infrared). Specifically, they studied how poikilotherms like the chameleon, the bearded dragon, and the glass frog can hide themselves and then incorporated all three abilities into one metamaterial they called Chimera.

Conceptual illustration of the Chimera metasurface with multi-terrain adaptive invisibility. The proposed metasurface, just like the Chimera made up of three animals in Greek mythology, incorporates the environment-adaptation traits of three poikilotherms. The photo of the bearded dragon is reproduced from previous literature (5). Chameleon, glass frog, and terrain photos are reproduced from Visual China Group Co., Ltd. All the photos are used with permission.

“In this study, we introduce a multi-terrain invisibility metasurface that integrates biomimetic camouflage strategies, enabling dynamic invisibility across diverse terrains characterized by varying electromagnetic properties,” they explain. “This innovation is designed to effectively counter advanced synthesized detection methods encompassing microwaves, infrared, and visible light.”

Their new material achieves three distinct methods of multi-terrain invisibility. According to the researchers, the first ability is a “chameleon-like broadband in situ tunable microwave reflection mimicry” of a wide spectrum of natural terrains across a range of 8 to 12 GHz, including a water’s surface, shoal, beach/desert, grassland, and frozen ground environments. The same material can remain as optically transparent as an “invisible glass frog” while also successfully mimicking the bearded dragon’s “electrothermal effect” that can decrease the maximum thermal imaging difference between it and its local environment down to a paltry 3.1 degrees Celsius. This tiny temperature difference, the researchers note, “cannot be recognized by human eyes.”

By understanding the mechanisms behind all of these capabilities, the researchers say they have created a three-tiered “Chimera” incorporating the natural camouflage capabilities of all three animals into one surface. So, while some previous methods that mimic one of these capabilities in a narrow range of environments have been shown to create a limited amount of invisibility, the researchers say that their breakthrough metamaterial can accomplish all three at the same time and operate effectively across a wide range of natural environments.

“Compared to previous tunable invisibility strategies, our demonstration artificially reconstructs the environment-adaptive behaviors of chameleons, bearded dragons, and glass frogs in an integrated manner with the outstanding camouflage properties of broad bandwidth, polarization insensitivity, and angular allowance,” they explain.

ACHIEVING MULTITERRAIN INVISIBILITY COULD HAVE SCIENTIFIC AND MILITARY APPLICATIONS

While the Jilin University researchers behind the new metamaterial say they are still in the laboratory stages, the potential uses for Chimera they identify include uses for scientists and researchers hoping to remain effectively invisible while studying animals in their natural habitat to potential military uses that involve hiding soldiers and their equipment from electromagnetic detection including microwave, optical and infrared scanning.

“Our work has potential practical applications,” they write. “On one hand, the continuous low-dispersion in-situ tunability between quasiperfect reflection and strong absorption provides an abundance of states to mimic the electromagnetic characteristics of various real-world terrains, thus avoiding recognition by microwave radars from natural surroundings. On the other hand, the proposed metasurface may also reduce the long-distance detected probability of infrared detectors and optical video equipment by reappearing the thermal regulation of bearded dragons and the self-transparency of glass frogs.”

Finally, they also note that their Chimera metasurface retains potential compatibility with currently available infrared and visible camouflage materials and equipment, which may accelerate their implementation.

“Our work extends the applicable range of camouflage techniques from the constrained scenario to more terrains and advances reconfigurable electromagnetic devices to a multistable and circuit-topology-dynamic stage,” they conclude.

• Christopher Plain is a Science Fiction and Fantasy novelist and Head Science Writer at The Debrief. Follow and connect with him on X, learn about his books at plainfiction.com, or email him directly at christopher@thedebrief.org.

{ https://thedebrief.org/category/science/ }

01-02-2024 om 00:43 geschreven door peter  

Nebraska Police Officer Abducted By Aliens From Nearest Galaxy Found Out Earth Was Their Energy Source

Schirmer assumed that it was just a truck, so he passed the intersection, drove his car to the object, stopped at 40 feet, and switched on his cruiser’s headlights. He was totally amazed to see that the object was nothing like a truck. It was shining brightly and had a metallic body. The policeman also noticed that the blinking lights were coming from the saucer’s window.

In a report, he later wrote: “At 2:30 a.m. On December 3, 1967, I saw a UFO at the junction of (U.S. Highway) 6 and (Nebraska Highway) 63. Believe it or not.”

Read also:

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He described the object to be oval-shaped, 20 feet wide, and 15 feet tall. He also said that when he approached the UFO, it rose to 50 feet off the ground, emitted a loud beep sound, suddenly shot a light beam to the ground and vanished in the sky.

At that moment, Schirmer thought his encounter with the alien spacecraft was over. But when he returned to his station, it was 3 a.m., so he lost 20 minutes between the spacecraft’s disappearance and returning to his station.

When he got home, Schirmer went to bed but could not fall asleep because of a severe headache. He found a red scar under his left ear.

Schirmer used to make notes in his log, and he wrote down everything about his UFO encounter.

As soon as the news hit the media, Schirmer’s phone was flooded with prank calls. One man called him and said he was from Mars. Once, he was flagged down by a local tire shop owner who said: “Herb, if you ever see another flying saucer, and it lands, you tell them (aliens) I want to sell ’em a set of tires.”

Schirmer joined the US navy at the age of 17 and also served in the Vietnam war although he had never supported the war. After the navy, he decided to join law enforcement.

The policeman struggled to remember what had happened to him in the 20 minutes following the UFO encounter. After several months in 1968, a psychologist from the University of Wyoming, Dr. Leo Sprinkle conducted a hypnosis session with him, during which it was possible to partially restore information erased from his memory. Those hypnotic sessions were conducted by the Condon Committee, a University of Colorado project, funded by the U.S. Air Force.

Schirmer said that the engine of his car stalled and the radio turned off. He saw something white, and a fuzzy figure that resembled a man came out of the spacecraft and approached his police cruiser.

Schirmer’s sketch of the alien

Schirmer replied, “Yes, sir,” and then the alien asked him to go with him.

The alien took him into his spacecraft which was full of lights, cables, and various instruments. The policeman met several aliens onboard who were smaller in size. They told him that there were other flying objects of the same kind, flying in the atmosphere of our planet.

He also said that aliens had bases in the United States, but they themselves came from the nearest galaxy and stayed on Venus for a while. The aliens said their propulsion system was based on reverse electromagnetism, and Earth was their energy source. Their goal was to prevent humanity from destroying the Earth.

After further investigation, which included hypnotic regression, Sprinkle, worried about a perceived bias on his part, wrote:

“The writer [Sprinkle] believes that there is sufficient empirical evidence to support the views that the following phenomena exist: hypnotic processes or varying levels of awareness; extra sensory perception and psychokenetic (sic) processes (ESP or psi processes); and spacecraft (“flying saucers”) from extraterrestrial sources which are controlled by intelligent beings who seem to be conducting an intensive survey of the earth.

Because these views are different from those of many persons in contemporary society, the writer [Sprinkle] offers his impressions with the recognition that other observers may have obtained different, and even conflicting, impressions of the interview with Sgt. Schmirer.”

The Condon Committee unanimously dismissed Schirmer’s message as sheer delusion and hallucination. Dr. Sprinkle had a different opinion but could not convince them. The state of mind of his patient was not brilliant.

“Evaluation of psychological assessment tests, the lack of any evidence, and interviews with the patrolman, left project staff with no confidence that the trooper’s reported UFO experience was physically real,” Condon Committee concluded.

However, the abduction story of Schirmer continued hitting the headlines throughout the 1970s. He left Ashland and settled in the Pacific Northwest.

Schirmer died in 2017, but before his death, Cartoonist Michael Jasorka released a graphic novel: “December 3, 1967: An Alien Encounter” at a launch party on Dec. 3, 2011, in Los Angeles. In the novel, he illustrated Schirmer’s story in black and white color. The artist, who also believes this story, dedicated the novel to Schirmer.

The case has been picked apart by UFO researchers ever since, and it is hard to know what to make of it all. It is certainly notable that Schirmer has always stuck by his story even in the face of ridicule and his own life falling apart around him, so is this perhaps indicative of him maybe telling the truth, or at least what he truly believes to be the truth? Or is this just the ramblings of someone who has lost their grip on reality? It is difficult to say for sure, and the case of Herbert Schirmer remains unsolved.

{ https://www.howandwhys.com/ }

01-02-2024 om 00:29 geschreven door peter