The purpose of this blog is the creation of an open, international, independent and free forum, where every UFO-researcher can publish the results of his/her research. The languagues, used for this blog, are Dutch, English and French.You can find the articles of a collegue by selecting his category. Each author stays resposable for the continue of his articles. As blogmaster I have the right to refuse an addition or an article, when it attacks other collegues or UFO-groupes.
Druk op onderstaande knop om te reageren in mijn forum
Zoeken in blog
Deze blog is opgedragen aan mijn overleden echtgenote Lucienne.
In 2012 verloor ze haar moedige strijd tegen kanker!
In 2011 startte ik deze blog, omdat ik niet mocht stoppen met mijn UFO-onderzoek.
BEDANKT!!!
Een interessant adres?
UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN - DE ALLERLAATSTE NIEUWTJES
UFO's of UAP'S in België en de rest van de wereld Ontdek de Fascinerende Wereld van UFO's en UAP's: Jouw Bron voor Onthullende Informatie!
Ben jij ook gefascineerd door het onbekende? Wil je meer weten over UFO's en UAP's, niet alleen in België, maar over de hele wereld? Dan ben je op de juiste plek!
België: Het Kloppend Hart van UFO-onderzoek
In België is BUFON (Belgisch UFO-Netwerk) dé autoriteit op het gebied van UFO-onderzoek. Voor betrouwbare en objectieve informatie over deze intrigerende fenomenen, bezoek je zeker onze Facebook-pagina en deze blog. Maar dat is nog niet alles! Ontdek ook het Belgisch UFO-meldpunt en Caelestia, twee organisaties die diepgaand onderzoek verrichten, al zijn ze soms kritisch of sceptisch.
Nederland: Een Schat aan Informatie
Voor onze Nederlandse buren is er de schitterende website www.ufowijzer.nl, beheerd door Paul Harmans. Deze site biedt een schat aan informatie en artikelen die je niet wilt missen!
Internationaal: MUFON - De Wereldwijde Autoriteit
Neem ook een kijkje bij MUFON (Mutual UFO Network Inc.), een gerenommeerde Amerikaanse UFO-vereniging met afdelingen in de VS en wereldwijd. MUFON is toegewijd aan de wetenschappelijke en analytische studie van het UFO-fenomeen, en hun maandelijkse tijdschrift, The MUFON UFO-Journal, is een must-read voor elke UFO-enthousiasteling. Bezoek hun website op www.mufon.com voor meer informatie.
Samenwerking en Toekomstvisie
Sinds 1 februari 2020 is Pieter niet alleen ex-president van BUFON, maar ook de voormalige nationale directeur van MUFON in Vlaanderen en Nederland. Dit creëert een sterke samenwerking met de Franse MUFON Reseau MUFON/EUROP, wat ons in staat stelt om nog meer waardevolle inzichten te delen.
Let op: Nepprofielen en Nieuwe Groeperingen
Pas op voor een nieuwe groepering die zich ook BUFON noemt, maar geen enkele connectie heeft met onze gevestigde organisatie. Hoewel zij de naam geregistreerd hebben, kunnen ze het rijke verleden en de expertise van onze groep niet evenaren. We wensen hen veel succes, maar we blijven de autoriteit in UFO-onderzoek!
Blijf Op De Hoogte!
Wil jij de laatste nieuwtjes over UFO's, ruimtevaart, archeologie, en meer? Volg ons dan en duik samen met ons in de fascinerende wereld van het onbekende! Sluit je aan bij de gemeenschap van nieuwsgierige geesten die net als jij verlangen naar antwoorden en avonturen in de sterren!
Heb je vragen of wil je meer weten? Aarzel dan niet om contact met ons op te nemen! Samen ontrafelen we het mysterie van de lucht en daarbuiten.
19-12-2024
It Goes Back Centuries: UFO and Alien Encounters from Before the Modern UFO Era
It Goes Back Centuries: UFO and Alien Encounters from Before the Modern UFO Era
When most of us think of UFOs, we likely cast our minds no further back than the late 1940s, which is widely considered to be the start of the modern UFO era. Likewise, when the subject of encounters with aliens and alien abduction are discussed, we almost certainly think of cases from the 1970s, eighties, or even 1990s. The fact is, though, there are many encounters on record that appear to clearly describe strange aerial objects, as well as some that even suggest interaction with otherworldly entities long before the mid-twentieth century.
Perhaps a good place to start would be with the Tulli Papyrus, and what some people have claimed is one of the earliest documented sightings of a UFO somewhere around 1500 BC. This intriguing document, it is claimed, records the appearance of a strange object over the land of ancient Egypt. The document was first discovered in 1933 while the Director of the Egyptian Museum at the Vatican, Alberto Tulli, was working in Cairo, although what makes it particularly controversial is that no one – other than Tulli, that is – has ever seen the original. According to Tulli’s account, he came across the ancient papyrus, which was written in hieratic script, while in an antique shop. However, he didn’t have enough money to purchase it. Instead, he made a copy and then translated the hieratic scripts into hieroglyphics. Of course, this has led some people to contemplate just how accurate the translations are and whether the document ever existed at all. Whatever the truth, the full translation of the document – according to Tulli – reads as follows:
“In the year 22, in the third month of winter, in the sixth hour of the day, the scribes of the House of Life noticed a circle of fire that was coming from the sky...From the mouth it emitted a foul breath. It had no head. Its body was one rod long and one rod wide. It had no voice. And from that the hearts of the scribes became confused and they threw themselves down on their bellies...then they reported the thing to the Pharaoh...His Majesty ordered...has been examined...and he was meditating on what had happened, that it was recorded in the scrolls of the House of the Life. Now after some days had passed, these things became more and more numerous in the skies. Their splendor exceeded that of the sun and extended to the limits of the four angles of the sky...High and wide in the sky was the position from which these fire circles came and went. The army of the Pharaoh looked on with him in their midst. It was after supper. Then these fire circles ascended higher into the sky and they headed toward the south. Fish and birds then fell from the sky. A marvel never before known since the foundation of their land...And Pharaoh caused incense to be brought to make peace with Earth...and what happened was ordered to be written in the Annals of the House of Life so that it be remembered for all time forward.”
It is easy to see how such a translation would be interpreted as a UFO encounter. It is claimed that once Tulli had translated the document and realized the true importance of what he had read, he disclosed the findings to the Vatican, who agreed to fund the purchase of the papyrus. However, by the time he returned to the shop, the ancient writing was no longer there – it had mysteriously disappeared. The tale, though, would take another turn two decades later in the early 1950s.
In 1953, an Italian man, Prince Boris of Rachelwiltz, claimed to have found a torn version of the ancient papyrus in a book that had once belonged to none other than Alberto Tulli. He claimed that he also translated the ancient writing and, much like Tulli, revealed a description of a disc or circle of fire. Interestingly, the Vatican denied any knowledge of the whereabouts of the apparent original document.
A decade and a half later, in 1968, the Tulli Papyrus was featured in the US Air Force-commissioned Condon Report when Samuel Rosenberg asked the Vatican to comment on the claims of the original document and translation. The Vatican offered the document was “not the property of the Vatican Museum” and that Tulli had “disappeared and was never found”, which is perhaps ominous in itself. They also stated they had discovered that Tulli was not an Egyptologist and, as such, was not qualified to have translated the document, if indeed it ever existed. Even more remarkable, they further claimed that “Rachelwitz, in a confidential letter, admitted that he had never seen the original document or Tulli’s original notes”. In short, the Vatican was not only distancing itself from the Tulli Papyrus, but they were also ensuring there was considerable doubt cast onto both Tulli and Rachelwitz.
As we might imagine, some researchers and investigators are suspicious of the Vatican’s comments, believing them to be nothing more than a cover-up of their knowledge regarding the document’s existence and authenticity. However, as intriguing and thought-provoking as the alleged document is, we need to treat the alleged documentation with a considerable pinch of salt.
While there might be doubt regarding the Tulli Papyrus, the records of ancient Rome are much more solid, especially given the meticulous procedures involved in record-keeping in the Roman Empire. And surprisingly or not, there are several documented incidents that sound very much like UFO encounters.
In the book Wonders in the Sky: Unexplained Aerial Objects from Antiquity to Modern Times, Jacques Vallee and Chris Aubeck relay just such an incident from 343 BC. The account is found in the writings of Diodorus Siculus, who documents the journey of Timoleon from Corinth to Sicily and who, ultimately, suggested that a strange light in the sky guided his route. He would write that “all through the night he was preceded by a torch blazing in the sky up to the moment when the squadron made harbor in Italy!” The insinuation that the light in question remained until Timoleon reached his destination upon which it disappeared might very well suggest some kind of purposeful interaction.
Just over a century later, between 218 to 201 BC, during the Second Punic War, the Pontifex Maximus of Rome documented several sightings of “gleaming round shields” in the Annales Maximi. Just under a hundred years later, in the year 122 BC, over the skies of Ariminium in modern-day Italy, when there were several reports of “three moons” appearing in the sky overhead. Furthermore, these “moons” were visible not only at night but also for several hours during the day. The incident was one of several documented by Pliny the Elder in his Historia Naturallis volumes, who wrote, “Three moons have appeared at once in the consulship of Gnaeus Domitius and Gaius Fannius”.
Just under 50 years later, in 74 BC in what is modern-day Turkey, a truly remarkable incident was documented by Roman historian Plutarch. According to his writings, on the day in question, under bright sunshine, Roman and Turkish soldiers were advancing toward each other in anticipation of a bloody battle when a sound like the rumble of thunder was heard, followed by a bright flash of light. The two battalions stopped their advances and looked upwards to the sky, where they saw a “huge flame-like body” that proceeded to “fall between the two armies!” Plutarch wrote that the object was shaped like a “wine jar” and was silver in color. Incidentally, both armies retreated a short time later, which perhaps should make us contemplate whether the intention of the landing was to cause the battle to be abandoned, and if that was true, it would suggest a definite interference in human affairs by the intelligence behind the object.
There is another interesting sighting documented from the year 12 BC, and while there is not a great amount of detail, it features a detail that has been witnessed several times in UFO sightings of our contemporary era. According to the ancient report, residents of Rome witnessed the appearance of a “comet-like” object that hovered over the city for several days. After this, it then “melted”, with witnesses stating that pieces that melted away looked similar to flashing torches. What is interesting is that in the twenty-first century, there have been several sightings of glowing objects hovering overhead that then emit several “drips” that look similar to pieces melting from it. Whether these objects are extraterrestrial vehicles or not, it is interesting to see a report detailing an almost identical event.
A particularly thought-provoking incident was documented by historian Josephus and took place in Judea in the year 65, where the residents of the city witnessed what can only be described as a battle between aerial objects. In fact, Josephus would write that the account would “likely have been deemed a fable were it not for the narratives of eyewitnesses!” He continued that on the day in question, “armed battalions (were) hurtling through the clouds”, which then forced the ground to shake. Another historian, Tacitus, also documented the remarkable affair, writing that “in the sky appeared a vision of armies in conflict, of glittering armor!”
Documented reports of what we would determine from a modern perspective as being a battle between UFOs can be found a millennium and a half later on two separate occasions. The first occurred on April 14th, 1561, in the city of Nuremberg in Germany and was documented in an illustrated broadsheet the following week by Hanns Glaser, a “letter-painter” of the city. Glaser offered that the residents of the city were witness to “a very frightful spectacle” overhead as globes of “blood-red, bluish, or black” hung in the sky. Among these globes were “plates and blood-colored crosses”. Glaser continued that several of these objects were “three in a row”, which perhaps suggested they were in some kind of formation. Also mentioned was the presence of huge tube-shaped objects from which further “globes” emerged, perhaps suggesting they were motherships. Glaser went on to detail how these strange aerial vehicles went on to “fight one another” until “they all fell…from the sun and sky down to the earth as if everything was on fire!” When the flames died down all that was left was “immense smoke”.
Just over five later, during the course of several weeks between late July and early August 1566, in Basel, Switzerland, further apparent aerial battles were witnessed. These sightings would culminate just before dawn on August 7th, when “many large black globes were seen in the air, moving before the sun with great speed!” The incident was documented by Samuel Coccius, who stated that the black globes were “turning against each other as if fighting. Some of them became red and fiery and afterward faded and went out!” We might conclude that the “red and fiery” refers to some kind of aerial explosion that caused these craft to fall to the ground.
According to an account that can be found in the book Best UFO Cases – Europe by Illobrand Von Ludwiger, at around 2 pm on the afternoon of April 8th, 1665, in Stralsund, Germany, near the Baltic Sea, several fishermen noticed what they thought was a particularly large swarm of birds over the water. However, the longer they watched this swarm, the more they noticed that they “changed to battleships in the sky!” Clearly, we can conclude that no physical transformation took place, but that the birds were, in fact, aerial vehicles that simply became clearer to the fishermen the closer they got. The strangeness, though, was just beginning.
As the fishermen looked on, the object began fighting “one against the other” which caused a “lot of smoke” to develop. Even more amazing, further objects arrived in the sky, each joining the aerial battle that was clearly taking place. The fishermen watched this bizarre show for several hours. According to the 1680 writings of Erasmus Francisci (who was one of Ludwiger’s sources for his account), these aerial battles “were frequent in the medieval age” and were regarded as “air visions” that were often seen as a warning.
Then, the battle seemed to come to a stop and the objects dispersed before a huge object suddenly appeared overhead. Francisci described this “flat round form” as looking very much “like a plate” or “like the big hat of a man” and was “the color of the moon!” It proceeded to move slowly across the sky before coming to a stop directly over St. Nikolai Church. It remained there for several hours with multiple residents of the area now aware of its presence. While many witnesses at the time – who already, according to Francisci, believed these aerial displays were divine visions – believed its decision to stop over the church was a further sign of divinity, we should perhaps consider that as one of the tallest buildings of the times, it is understandable that apparent aerial visitors would focus on them as a point of interest. Whatever the truth, the large object eventually left the region and disappeared.
The following day, however, the main witnesses to the bizarre events, the fishermen, became suddenly ill, with descriptions offering that they were “trembling all over and (had) pain in (their) head and limbs!” One detail states that one of the men had even been physically sick “on his feet!” Two of the fishermen were eventually “interrogated” by local authorities, and it was determined that the entire episode had been a vision from God. Today, though, we can see the event for what it seemingly was: some kind of aerial battle involving vehicles that very well could have been from another world.
There are several things for us to quickly consider here. We have already examined two similar encounters from the previous century that took place in the same region of Europe. As bizarre as it might sound, should we contemplate that there was some kind of aerial conflict taking place on Earth between two warring cosmic visitors from elsewhere in the Universe, and if so, why had such potential alien civilizations chosen the Earth for this battle? Or might we consider that these futuristic vehicles belonged to two civilizations already present on Earth, and if this was the case, who were these advanced civilizations and where did they go?
Just over four centuries earlier, in 1180 in Kii Province in Japan, as documented in The Book of Ghosts, UFOs, and the Unexplained by James Paton, several fishermen witnessed a bright object they described as an “earthen-ware vessel” in the night sky. An earthen-ware vessel, incidentally, is similar to a soup bowl or saucer – similar to how objects were often described at the start of the modern UFO era. The fishermen offered that the object had first appeared from the direction of Mount Nyoigadake before suddenly changing direction and disappearing into the distance with great speed.
Just over half a century later, also in Japan, in 1235, according to an account documented in the medieval Japanese text, the Azuma Kagami, General Yoritsune ordered what could possibly be regarded as the first UFO investigation on record. The orders were issued after Yoritsune and his men witnessed several strange lights dancing in the night sky as they camped for the night. They watched them for several hours as they performed bizarre maneuvers overhead. Following the lights vanishing, Yoritsune gathered his most intelligent men and ordered them to investigate what the lights might have been and report their findings to him. Incidentally, his men insisted that the lights were “completely natural” and that the aerial anomaly was likely the result of “the wind making the stars sway!”
Another account detailed in James Paton’s The Book of Ghosts, UFOs, and the Unexplained occurred just short of 20 years later, on New Year’s Day 1254 in St. Albans in Hertfordshire, England. On the night in question, several monks had gathered at the local church in order to celebrate the New Year festivities and witnessed “a kind of large ship, elegantly shaped and of marvelous color!” According to the writing of the incident – documented by Matthew of Paris – hovered silently over the church, clearly standing out against the stars in the early evening sky. The object remained where it was for several minutes before ascending high into the sky and disappearing from sight. Whatever the object was, it is widely agreed by UFO investigators and historians alike that they most certainly saw something very strange.
Across the Atlantic in the New World that would become the United States of America, we find many more sightings of strange, out-of-place aerial objects. Arguably, the first recorded sighting of what we would today call a UFO occurred on the banks of the Muddy River near Boston, Massachusetts, one evening in 1638. Jeff Belanger relays the account in the book Picture Yourself Legend Tripping: Your Complete Guide to Finding UFOs, Monster, Ghosts, and Urban Legends in Your Own Backyard, offering the incident was first recorded in the journal of Governor John Winthrop. Winthrop wrote that a local man named James Everell – widely regarded as a “sober, discreet” man – along with two other unnamed men, witnessed a large, bright light moving across the night sky on the evening in question. Further, according to the report, the object stopped and hovered momentarily – where it would “flare up” – before moving once more, when it “took on the shape of a swine” (we might imagine that the object Winthrop was trying to describe was cigar or tube-shaped). The report continues that the witnesses followed the object for around a mile, noting that it was “swift as an arrow”, before it eventually disappeared into the distance.
At around 9 pm on the evening of June 30th, 1790, in the Schoharie County region of New York, a “bright shining light” was witnessed by a local German immigrant to the United States while sitting on his porch, who would eventually speak of the incident in 1823 in an official statement to the Historical Philosophical Society of the State of New York. At the same time that he noticed the light, he heard a “great roar” that seemed to come from the glowing object. The brightness of the object continued to increase, so much so that the witness stated it appeared as though he was sitting in the “noonday sun!”
To begin with, this strange craft moved across the sky in a similar fashion to a meteorite. However, after several moments, it leveled out somewhat and maintained the same altitude as it carried on its path just above the treetops before it ascended slightly with the speed of a “galloping horse” as it went over Owelus Sowless Hill. The witness further described the object as being around 300 yards long and a similar shape to a snake but with a shape similar to “the roots of a tree plucked up by force” where the head should be. The exterior of the object, according to the witness’s statement, “closely resembled a welding hot iron and sparked similar to it!” Even more remarkable, the witness claimed to have felt a considerable heat coming from the craft, despite being a significant distance away from it. In fact, such was the heat coming from the object that it warmed his entire house. What’s more, an aroma of burning sulfur and tar permeated the air around him and remained until well into the next day long after the object had gone.
Around half a century later, in the November 26th, 1846, edition of the Official Gazette of the Empire of Brazil newspaper, we can find what is widely agreed to be Brazil’s first officially documented UFO encounter. Furthermore, and lending immediate credibility to the case, the writer of the article, who was also the main witness, was a highly respected and decorated member of the Brazilian Navy, Augusto Lerverger.
The incident unfolded just before 6 am one morning in June 1846, when Lerverger was leading two gunboats down the Paraguay River, which runs between Paraguay and Brazil’s Matto Grasso area, on their way to Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay (the expedition was said to be a “military muscle-flexing” exercise on the part of the Brazilian government). They were just under 20 miles away from their destination when they witnessed a “phenomenon never seen before!” Lerverger wrote that out of the clear and calm sky, a “luminous globe performed with instant speed a 30-degree curve” ahead of them. He continued that a “light band” was connected to this globe, along which were “three bodies whose brightness was much more lively!” This object – as well as the three separate objects – continued to increase in brightness. Lerverger further stated that the three objects were separate from each other and were different shapes – one being circular, one an “irregular quadrangle” and the last “an arc of a circle” – with a “ribbon of very faint light” moving around them in a zig-zag motion.
The crew watched the object as it moved, noting that it began to change shape once more, this time appearing like a “flat elliptical shape” before it disappeared into the distance. In total, it was in view for around 25 minutes. By the time they arrived at their destination a short time later, it was clear to all onboard – including the Brazilian Ambassador, Dr. Jose Antonio Bueno, who was also present - that many other people had also seen the aerial anomaly. Lerverger speculated whether they had witnessed a meteor or some other kind of atmospheric phenomena. However, certainly, when examined from a modern perspective, it would appear the crew witnessed some kind of nuts-and-bolts mechanical craft.
As strange as it might sound, 1846 appears to have been quite the year for UFO sightings, with several others on record around the world. A little over a month later, at around 2:30 am on August 25th, 1846, in Saint-Apre, France, Dr. Moreau was making his way home following a late-night house call to one of his patients. As he walked along, a strange light suddenly appeared and enveloped him. When he looked up, he saw a mysterious globe that opened. A moment later, “hundreds of star-like objects” emerged from the globe and went into the air. This bizarre display continued for five minutes before the object disappeared back into the night sky.
Several weeks later, also in France in La Salette on September 19th, 11-year-old Maximin and 14-year-old Melanie Calvat were herding cattle when they reported seeing a suddenly appearing bright light flash across the sky. Although the sighting unfolded during the middle of the day, Melanie offered that the object was “shining more brightly than the sun!” Melanie recalled that she was immediately captivated by the strange glow, stating that as she watched, “something inconceivably fantastic passed” through her. Then, things turned even stranger. Melanie recalled that she witnessed a “lady” emerge from the light, a lady that she claimed was the “Virgin Mary” and that her appearance was a warning or omen.
In November 1846, on the Rangoon River in China, several people onboard a ship making its way down the river noticed a strange light suddenly appear in front of it. The main witness, the ship owner’s wife, and her four-year-old child, along with the ship’s captain, were standing at the front of the vessel when the light appeared. They recalled how the light had the appearance of a “compact flame” which appeared to move for several moments along the water’s edge.
According to another account in the book Wonders in the Sky, several months later, at around 8:30 pm on the evening of March 19th, 1847, in London, England, a witness referred to only as “A”, along with a friend, was walking down Albion Road when the evening took a most unusual turn. The pair suddenly noticed what they believed to be a balloon descending out of the night sky. However, as they watched it, and the lower it got, they quickly realized from “its intense brightness” that the object was “not an Earthly thing!” They continued to watch, noting that every now and then, several “fiery coruscations” were projected from the object as it took on the appearance of an “intensely radiant cloud!” The witness further offered that the object was so bright that it “cast a brilliant light on the houses” below. Both looked on as a second object appeared and descended to the same altitude as the first one. They both hovered in the air for around two minutes before the first object “absorbed” the second one and then began to ascend and disappear into the night sky.
In a letter to the Scientific American, Professor A.C. Carnes relayed another account of a strange aerial object that unfolded in the early hours of June 1st, 1854, on the campus of a Tennessee college. According to the report, several students awoke on the morning in question to see two strange objects hovering in the sky overhead. The witnesses claimed that one of the objects appeared moon-like while the other appeared like a star. The moon-like object began to decrease in size until it eventually disappeared. Then, the other object began to grow. Eventually, it began to change form, first into a globe or spherical object and then into an elongated shape.
In his letter, Carnes wrote, “The first (object) became visible again, and increased rapidly in size, while the other diminished, and the two spots kept changing thus for about half an hour!” After watching the objects until they disappeared, the students sought the advice of their professors, including Carnes, but none of them could offer an explanation. The incident remains a complete mystery today.
Another intriguing incident occurred a little over half a decade later, in March 1861, a short time after the inauguration of President Abraham Lincoln’s first term as President of the United States, once more in New York, a city still far from the sprawling metropolis it is today, but still a jungle of tall buildings that was a “cramped urban setting” for the people who resided there. On the night in question, in an area known as Five Points, Mrs. Kinder was looking out of her bedroom window at the church near her upper-floor apartment when she saw a “cross-like object with a flaming luminosity” moving across the sky. She immediately woke her husband, who also saw the bizarre aerial anomaly. The pair watched the object at the window until it disappeared into the distance. Mrs. Kinder would speak of the encounter to her priest at St. Peters Church in Jersey City, who would document the report in his Baptismal records. Also of interest, around the same time as the sighting, only six blocks from Kinder’s apartment, an entire block of buildings was brought to the ground by a raging fire. Whether there is a connection between this brutal blaze of the fiery object witnessed by Kinder remains open to debate.
While there have undoubtedly been apparent encounters with alien entities long before the twentieth century (some of which we will examine shortly), there is little doubt that an encounter from early 1917 – an account I relay in From Deep Within The Archives Of UFO Insight: History’s Most Bizarre, Outlandish, And Controversial UFO And Alien Encounters - is worth our time exploring here, not least as it features some of the specific details of the alien abduction phenomenon that would sweep the planet decades after the start of the modern UFO era.
According to most sources, the account first appeared in the June 9th, 1978, edition of the Finnish newspaper Kurkijokelainen, in an article written by Latomaen Aino, and documents what appears to be a classic case of alien abduction. According to the account, somewhere between January and Easter of 1917, in the North Karelia region of Finland, a local woman, Anni Lattu, who lived in a small house near the church of Kurkijoki, disappeared for several days before reappearing just as mysteriously. Although many of the local villagers thought it strange that she had seemingly left without saying anything to anyone, they assumed she had gone to visit family, and so no alarm was raised. When Anni returned, however, she did so with a bizarre tale.
She claimed that one morning, while going about her usual chores, a “large apparatus, like a big wash basin” appeared in the sky overhead and descended to the ground near her home. It is worth noting straight away that Anni’s description of this apparent aerial object is disc-shaped, just like many of the objects that would be reported over the second half of the twentieth century, as wash basins in Finland during this time were shaped like large soup bowls. That, though, was far from the only detail that resonated very nicely with close encounters of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.
She stated that several moments after the strange object landed on the ground outside her house, a ladder emerged from the side of the craft and stretched slowly to the ground. A moment after that, several “small creatures” that she referred to as “little devils” appeared on the ladder. They walked down it and over to where she was standing. Although she wasn’t certain how, she knew that these creatures wanted her to go with them, and although she attempted to resist, the figures forcibly took her aboard. She stated that the walls of this futuristic craft shone brightly and that a moment after stepping foot inside, the object was moving. She stated it “traveled very quickly” and that “many wonders were shown to her!” Perhaps most interesting of all, in terms of details that can be found in UFO and alien abduction reports decades later, was that this strange vehicle was silent and “did not make any noise as in the train!” There were, though, further revelations from her remarkable tale.
She went on to describe being taken “above the world” and “between the stars”, clearly indicating she had left the planet and was taken into space. She further claimed that although she didn’t at all know their language, she understood everything the strange entities said to her, leading some researchers to question if her apparent abductors were using telepathy to communicate, something else that often shows up in other alien abduction encounters. The next thing she recalled was standing outside her house. To Anni, she had been gone only a short time. It was only when she spoke to friends and neighbors that she realized several days had passed.
According to the article, Anni was happy to speak to anyone who would listen about her fantastic adventure. However, as we might expect, most of the villagers dismissed her account, suspecting she had hallucinated the entire thing, perhaps as a result of suffering an intense fever from exposure to the cold, they reasoned. Or perhaps she had suffered a mental breakdown. Anni, though, never wavered from her version of events.
Several months after the publication of the article in the summer of 1978, Finish UFO investigator Mauritz Heitamaki took an interest in the case. So much so, in fact, that he ventured to the village where the apparent abduction had taken place. Even more remarkable, during his investigation, he managed to track down a witness who claimed to have known Anni shortly after the abduction happened.
The witness – referred to in Heitamaki’s report only as NM – claimed that when she was seven years old, her mother was Anni’s neighbor, and the pair would often speak. NM would listen to these conversations and clearly remembered hearing Anni speaking of the bizarre affair with her mother on several occasions. As was reported in the newspaper article, NM insisted that Anni always told the exact same story, never once differing in her account. NM also offered that despite reports that Anni was a widow, she was, in fact, married, although her husband often left Anni alone for weeks at a time. Further, according to NM, Anni remained in the same village where the encounter took place until her death in 1930.
It is also worth our time to examine an account of an alien encounter that occurred in the small town of Lodi in California. According to reports, one evening during the summer of 1896, Colonel HG Shaw was traveling to Fresno by horse and carriage with a friend for an upcoming exhibition that they were to organize. However, out of nowhere, their horse would suddenly come to a complete stop. Not only would it refuse to move forward, but it was clearly in a severe state of fright and stress.
At this point, Shaw and his friend decided to investigate, and upon looking ahead of the horse, they could make out three tall figures standing a little way off in the middle of the road. The description Shaw gave of these creatures – large, hairless heads with large dark eyes and legs and arms that appeared too thin and out of proportion to their frames – is the same as many of the descriptions of grey aliens from throughout the Modern UFO era, and we should keep in mind, this report came six decades before the Roswell incident.
The two men watched the three figures for several moments and noticed how, every so often, they would place a bag with some kind of tube attached to their mouths, perhaps suggesting that it was some kind of breathing aid or apparatus. On the other hand, each figure carried some kind of glowing lamp. Furthermore, the two men could hear these mysterious creatures speaking to each other in a language they were unfamiliar with.
Several moments later, the three figures suddenly turned around and walked toward a nearby bridge. The two men watched them go, the light from their lamps revealing a hovering, metallic object close to the bridge. The three figures entered the hovering craft, which then began to ascend, eventually disappearing into the night sky. Although he wasn’t entirely sure what he and his friend had seen that night (although he stated in his report these figures could have been from Mars), he was certain they had witnessed something quite extraordinary.
There have been many other apparent encounters worth exploring. On the morning of August 5th, 1608, in Nice, France, for example, multiple residents of the city witnessed three glowing objects overhead. According to the reports, the objects revolved in the air as they moved in the direction of the city fortress. The three aerial vehicles continued across the fortress and headed out toward the Mediterranean Sea. They eventually came to a stop where the witnesses claimed to see them float on the water. Even more remarkable, as the witnesses watched the object, they could clearly see two humanoid figures emerge from one of them, a tube connected to their bodies from inside the craft. They each had a “large head” with “luminous eyes” and wore silver and red clothing. It appeared the entities were carrying out repairs of some kind before they reentered the craft. Following this, the three objects ascended high into the sky and then sped off into the distance.
A particularly intriguing account that could very well be a case of alien abduction in the seventeenth century can be found in the 1841 publication by Charles McKay, Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. The case in question features Major Thomas Weir, a respected Scottish soldier and commander of the Edinburgh Town Guard who, in 1670, while gravely sick and bed-ridden, seemingly confessed to bizarre activities involving his sister, Jean Weir, to the Lord Provost, activities that appeared to be ground in the Occult. When his sister was confronted with her brother’s confession, she broke down, claiming they had been involved in a lifetime of strange and bizarre events.
Of most interest to us here, though, is an account offered by Jean that took place at some time in 1648, when a mysterious stranger arrived out of nowhere in a “fiery coach” and proceeded to take her brother away. During this journey, this mysterious stranger imparted “supernatural intelligence” to Thomas, including information about a battle taking place at Worcester, a battle, incidentally, that the Scots lost. We might consider that the “fiery coach” described by Jean was, in fact, some kind of aerial object – essentially, a UFO – and this mysterious journey he embarked on was actually an alien abduction. Furthermore, the “lifetime of strange and bizarre events” could very well be an indication of repeat alien abduction. We might also consider the fact of this “supernatural intelligence” passed to Thomas. In many cases of alien abduction, many abductees speak of being given information, sometimes about future events. Could that have been the case here? Whatever the truth, the confession of Thomas and Jean would have tragic and unfortunate consequences for the siblings.
To begin with, the apparent confession of Thomas Weir was not taken seriously, not least because of Weir’s noble standing, but also because it was suspected he was suffering from senility. However, following his sister’s statements, both were arrested and eventually tried for practicing witchcraft. Both were found guilty, although Thomas’s conviction was on the much lesser charges (for the times) of incest and beastiality. Both, however, were sentenced to death.
Another bizarre encounter unfolded in October 1847 in the Saratov region of Russia when local residents witnessed “four fiery columns of light” overhead. These columns remained in sight for almost two hours and sparkled between shades of white and blue. Then, without warning, the four columns simply disappeared. The strangeness, though, was far from over. As the next few hours, days, and weeks progressed, residents of Saratov began commenting on several “bizarre-looking strangers” seen walking around the area. In fact, several people even approached these strangers and attempted to talk to them, although it was clear they didn’t understand them, and nor could residents understand the strangers.
These strange figures were described as looking similar to “elderly men” with “yellow-greenish faces” and without a beard (something that almost all male residents of the area sported). Most of the locals determined that these strangers were likely “eccentric travelers” who were friendly enough with those who encountered them. These strangers would appear regularly, each day in a different part of the region, always disappearing before nightfall. The last recorded sighting of them was on the evening of October 6th, 1848, almost a year after the strange columns of light appeared over the region. On this night, at around 9 pm, a bright light suddenly appeared overhead lighting up the entire area. At the same time, a low thunder-like rumbling sound could also be heard. This went on for around an hour before a “blood red colored spot” appeared within the light, which then morphed into an “elongated form” before finally splitting into several columns of sparkling light. These columns remained until around 11 pm when they suddenly disappeared – as had the strangers, who were never seen again.
Might we assume that these “eccentric travelers” were connected to the strange columns of light witnessed that October evening, and that they might have traveled from much further away than most would imagine? Could it be that the columns of light transported them from the ground to an aerial craft overhead? Or might they even have been some kind of portals or gateways to another realm or part of the universe? The incident remains completely unexplained.
As we can see, then, it is clear that UFO sightings and encounters with alien entities, including apparent alien abductions, have been happening throughout human history. And the incidents we have explored here are just some of the many encounters on record from across the centuries. Indeed, to examine them all would likely take an entire volume. We can only imagine how many other sightings and encounters went undocumented and, as such, are now lost to history, buried under the sands of time. Or how many from antiquity were recorded in the records that were destroyed during such episodes as the burning of the library of Alexandria, and the wiping out of records of many of the North and South American native populations by European explorers. We might also consider how many cases have been documented but now reside in locked-away vaults in various destinations around the world. Perhaps the one certain thing is that our history is littered with these strange accounts, which should alert us to the fact that our collective reality and place in the universe are far different from what most might think.
Ancient Aliens: UFO Technology Found on Earth
Ancient Aliens: Egyptian Mysteries Hide Proof of UFOs
Heinrich Frank Deep inside Brazil, there are tunnels large enough for a person to walk through. They are neatly symmetrical—too neat to have been caused by any known geologic process. And they are lined with claw marks.
These megatunnels are probably the handiwork of giant ground sloths—humongous "paleoburrows" that no longer walk the Earth. But tens of thousands of years after these megafauna did their digging, those tunnels still dot this part of South America. Discover has a great feature up about it.
Heinrich Franks
Claw marks
Up until the 2000s, little was known or written about this bounty of holes. But since he came upon his first one near Novo Hamburgo, Brazilian scientist Heinrich Frank has found more than 1,500 tunnels. Frank has found burrows that measure hundreds of feet long. Scientists have discovered one with branching tunnels that, when you measure the thing in its entirety, comes in at 2,000 feet long. It had to have been dug by many creatures over generations, not by one or two giant sloths.
The big open question is, Why? The tunnels appear to be much larger than any burrowing animal would need to get away from bad weather or hungry predators. As Frank tells Discover, "There's no explanation – not predators, not climate, not humidity. I really don't know."
A UFO expert, Carl Nally of UFO and Paranormal Research Ireland (UPRI), claims the spate of recent mysterious drone sightings could be a precursor to an alien invasion. He also says they will be conducting this invasion using an invasion portal located here on Earth.
Speaking to the Irish Mirror, Nally believes that the unexplained drone sightings that have been proliferating all over the United States and abroad would have been positively identified as drones by the American government if they were, in fact, nothing more than unmanned aircraft. Especially since many of these sightings have occurred near military bases.
“It’s an amazing situation, the way we see it,” he said. “You would imagine that, when anything appears over a military base, a military helicopter would go up and investigate them, but they haven’t done that.
“They call them drones. Are they drones or UFOs? They would have identified them by now if they were drones – even just by shooting one of them down to see what it is. But they haven’t done that, and that leads us to believe that, possibly, it could be UFOs again.”
He believes that one explanation for all of these supposed drones not being properly identified by governments may have to do with the use of portals. A similar theory has also been applied to cryptids like Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster.
“It’s very peculiar that it’s happening in a lot of places at the same time,” Carl Nally continued. “We’re not used to that on this side of the world. At some point, they will make themselves known, and why not now?”
One portal Nally believes exists is located over Athlone, Slane, Boyle, Wicklow, and West Cork in Ireleand.
He cites research being conducted by a astronomer Dr. Eamonn Ansbro and New Zealand airline pilot Dr. Bruce Cathie as possible evidence that these portals are being used by aliens. “”They are entering earth at an increasingly rapid pace, and the fact that the entry coincides with sightings over military bases – that is concerning,” Nally told the Westmeath Independent.
“We’ve had a huge number of reports from people in the Midlands who reportseeing orbortic tac shaped UFOs,” he continued.
“Dr. Ansbro and Dr. Cathie have developed a theory that UFOs operate on tracks which they can enter and exit the Earth from,” Nally explained. “They have been working on this theory for the past 12 to 15 years. They have been researching sites where UFOs are most often seen. Their mathematical theory is proven to be 92% accurate.”
VIDEOS
UFO Expert Says There's Alien Proof Being Kept Secret - Jeremy Corbell Interview
What we know so far about mysterious drones over New Jersey
Alien Invasion? See The Definitive News Report On Intelligent Life In The Universe
New Research Suggests Io Doesn’t Have a Shallow Ocean of Magma
Jupiter’s moon Io is the most volcanically active body in the Solar System, with roughly 400 active volcanoes regularly ejecting magma into space. This activity arises from Io’s eccentric orbit around Jupiter, which produces incredibly powerful tidal interactions in the interior. In addition to powering Io’s volcanism,
this tidal energy is believed to support a global subsurface magma ocean. However, the extent and depth of this ocean remains the subject of debate, with some supporting the idea of a shallow magma ocean while others believe Io has a more rigid, mostly solid interior.
In a recent NASA-supported study, an international team of researchers combined data from multiple missions to measure Io’s tidal deformation. According to their findings, Io does not possess a magma ocean and likely has a mostly solid mantle. Their findings further suggest that tidal forces do not necessarily lead to global magma oceans on moons or planetary bodies. This could have implications for the study of exoplanets that experience tidal heating, including Super-Earths and exomoons similar to Io that orbit massive gas giants.
An amazingly active Io, Jupiter’s “pizza moon,” shows multiple volcanoes and hot spots, as seen with Juno’s infrared camera. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/ASI/INAF/JIRAM/Roman Tkachenko
As they explain in their paper, two types of analysis have predicted the existence of a global magma ocean. On the one hand, magnetic induction measurements conducted by the Galileo mission suggested the existence of a magma ocean within Io, approximately 50 km [~30 mi] thick and located near the surface. These results also implied that about 20% of the material in Io’s mantle is melted. However, these results were subjected to debate for many years. In recent years, NASA’s Juno mission conducted multiple flybys of Io and the other Jovian moons and obtained data that supported this conclusion.
In particular, the Juno probe conducted a global mapping campaign of Io’s volcanoes, which suggested that the distribution of volcanic heat flow is consistent with the presence of a global magma ocean. However, these discoveries have led to considerable debate about these techniques and whether they can be used to distinguish whether a shallow global magma ocean drives Io’s volcanic activity. This is the question Park and his colleagues sought to address in their study:
“In our study, Io’s tidal deformation is modeled using the gravitational tidal Love number k2, which is defined as the ratio of the imposed gravitational potential from Jupiter to the induced potential from the deformation of Io. In short, if k2 is large, there is a global magma ocean, and if k2 is small, there is no global magma ocean. Our result shows that the recovered value of k2 is small, consistent with Io not having a global magma ocean.”
The significance of these findings goes far beyond the study of Io and other potentially volcanic moons. Beyond the Solar System, astronomers have discovered countless bodies that (according to current planetary models) experience intense tidal heating. This includes rocky exoplanets that are several times the size and mass of Earth (Super-Earths) and in the case of tidally-locked planets like the TRAPPIST-1 system. These findings are also relevant for the study of exomoons that also experience intense tidal heating (similar to the Jovian moons). As Park explained:
“Although it is commonly assumed among the exoplanet community that intense tidal heating may lead to magma oceans, the example of Io shows that this need not be the case. Our results indicate that tidal forces do not universally create global magma oceans, which may be prevented from forming due to rapid melt ascent, intrusion, and eruption, so even strong tidal heating – like that expected on several known exoplanets and super-Earths – may not guarantee the formation of magma oceans on moons or planetary bodies.”
The JWST Looked Over the Hubble’s Shoulder and Confirmed that the Universe is Expanding Faster
These 36 galaxies all contain Type 1a supernovae and Cepheid variables. They serve as standard distance markers used to measure how fast the Universe is expanding. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Adam G. Riess (STScI, JHU)
The JWST Looked Over the Hubble’s Shoulder and Confirmed that the Universe is Expanding Faster
It’s axiomatic that the Universe is expanding. However, the rate of expansion hasn’t remained the same. It appears that the Universe is expanding more quickly now than it did in the past.
Astronomers have struggled to understand this and have wondered if the apparent acceleration is due to instrument errors. The JWST has put that question to rest.
American astronomer Edwin Hubble is widely credited with discovering the expansion of the Universe. But it actually stemmed from relativity equations and was pioneered by Russian scientist Alexander Freedman. Hubble’s Law bears Edwin’s name, though, and he was the one who confirmed the expansion, called Hubble’s constant, and put a more precise value to it. It measures how rapidly galaxies that aren’t gravitationally bound are moving away from one another. The movement of objects due solely to the Hubble constant is called the Hubble flow.
Measuring the Hubble constant means measuring distances to far-flung objects. Astronomers use the cosmic distance ladder (CDL) to do that. However, the ladder has a problem.
This illustration shows the three basic steps astronomers use to calculate how fast the universe expands over time, a value called the Hubble constant. All the steps involve building a strong “cosmic distance ladder” by starting with measuring accurate distances to nearby galaxies and then moving to galaxies farther and farther away. Image Credit: NASA, ESA and A. Feild (STScI)
The first rungs on the CDL are fundamental measurements that can be observed directly. Parallax measurement is the most important fundamental measurement. But the method breaks down at great distances.
Beyond that, astronomers use standard candles, things with known intrinsic brightness, like supernovae and Cepheid variables. Those objects and their relationships help astronomers measure distances to other galaxies. This has been tricky to measure, though advancing technology has made progress.
Another pair of problems plagues the effort, though. The first is that different telescopes and methods produce different distance measurements. The second is that our measurements of distances and expansion don’t match up with the Standard Model of Cosmology, also known as the Lambda Cold Dark Matter (LCDM) model. That discrepancy is called the Hubble tension.
The question is, can the mismatch between the measurements and the LCDM be explained by instrument differences? That possibility has to be eliminated, and the trick is to take one large set of distance measurements from one telescope and compare them to another.
New research in The Astrophysical Journal tackles the problem by comparing Hubble Space Telescope measurements with JWST measurements. It’s titled “JWST Validates HST Distance Measurements: Selection of Supernova Subsample Explains Differences in JWST Estimates of Local H0.” The lead author is Adam Riess, a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor and Thomas J. Barber Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Johns Hopkins University. Riess is also a Nobel laureate, winning the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics “for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe through observations of distant supernovae,” according to the Nobel Institute.
As of 2022, the Hubble Space Telescope gathered the most numerous sample of homogeneously measured standard candles. It measured a large number of standard candles out to about 40 Mpc or about 130 million light-years. “As of 2022, the largest collection of homogeneously measured SNe Ia is complete to D less than or equal to 40 Mpc or redshift z less than or equal to 0.01,” the authors of the research write. “It consists of 42 SNe Ia in 37 host galaxies calibrated with observations of Cepheids with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), the heritage of more than 1000 orbits (a comparable number of hours) invested over the last ~20 yrs.”
In this research, the astronomers used the powerful JWST to cross-check the Hubble’s work. “We cross-check the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Cepheid/Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) distance ladder, which yields the most precise local H0 (Hubble flow), against early James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) subsamples (~1/4 of the HST sample) from SH0ES and CCHP, calibrated only with NGC 4258,” the authors write. SH0ES and CCHP are different observing efforts aimed at measuring the Hubble constant. SH0ES stands for Supernova H0 for the Equation of State of Dark Energy, and CCHP stands for Chicago-Carnegie Hubble Program, which uses the JWST to measure the Hubble constant.
“JWST has certain distinct advantages (and some disadvantages) compared to HST for measuring distances to nearby galaxies,” Riess and his co-authors write. It offers a 2.5 times higher near-infrared resolution than the HST. Despite some of its disadvantages, the JWST “is able to provide a strong cross-check of distances in the first two rungs,” the authors explain.
Observations from both telescopes are closely aligned, which basically minimizes instrument error as the cause of the discrepancy between observations and the Lambda CDM model.
There’s a lot to digest in this figure from the research. It shows “Comparisons of H0 between HST Cepheids and other measures (JWST Cepheids, JWST JAGB, and JWST NIR-TRGB) for SN Ia host subsamples selected by different teams and for the different methods,” the authors explain. JAGB stands for J-region Asymptotic Giant Branch, and TRGB stands for Tip of the Red Giant Branch. Both JAGB and TRGB are ways of measuring distance to specific types of stars. Basically, coloured circles represent Hubble measurements, and squares represent JWST measurements. “The HST Cepheid and JWST distance measurements themselves are in good agreement,” the authors write. Image Credit: Riess et al. 2024.
“While it will still take multiple years for the JWST sample of SN hosts to be as large as the HST sample, we show that the current JWST measurements have already ruled out systematic biases from the first rungs of the distance ladder at a much smaller level than the Hubble tension,” the authors write.
This research covered about one-third of the Hubble’s data set, with the known distance to a galaxy called NGC 4258 serving as a reference point. Even though the data set was small, Riess and his co-researchers achieved impressively precise results. They showed that the measurement differences were less than 2%. That’s much less than the 8% to 9% in the Hubble tension discrepancy.
NGC 4258 is significant in the cosmic distance ladder because it contains Cepheid variables similar to both the metallicities of the Milky Way and other galaxies’ Cepheids. Astronomers use it to calibrate distances to Cepheids with different metallicities. A new composite of NGC 4258 features X-rays from Chandra (blue), radio waves from the VLA (purple), optical data from Hubble (yellow and blue), and infrared with Spitzer (red). Image Credit: Chandra
That means that our Lamda CDM model is missing something. The standard model yields an expansion rate of about 67 to 68 kilometres per second per megaparsec. Telescope observations yield a slightly higher rate: between 70 and 76 kilometres per second per megaparsec. This work shows that the discrepancy can’t be due to the different telescopes and methods.
“The discrepancy between the observed expansion rate of the universe and the predictions of the standard model suggests that our understanding of the universe may be incomplete. With two NASA flagship telescopes now confirming each other’s findings, we must take this [Hubble tension] problem very seriously—it’s a challenge but also an incredible opportunity to learn more about our universe,” said lead author Riess.
What could be missing from the Lambda CDM model?
Marc Kamionkowski is a Johns Hopkins cosmologist who helped calculate the Hubble constant and recently developed a possible new explanation for the tension. Though not part of this research, he commented on it in a press release.
“One possible explanation for the Hubble tension would be if there was something missing in our understanding of the early universe, such as a new component of matter—early dark energy—that gave the universe an unexpected kick after the big bang,” said Kamionkowski. “And there are other ideas, like funny dark matter properties, exotic particles, changing electron mass, or primordial magnetic fields that may do the trick. Theorists have license to get pretty creative.”
The door is open, theorists just have to walk in.
Revealing the Cosmos: A Startling New View from the James Webb Space Telescope
Whoa! James Webb Space Telescope delivers mind-boggling view of 'exploded star' - See in 4K
New Study Examines Elusive Nature of Martian Liquid Brines
New Study Examines Elusive Nature of Martian Liquid Brines
Mars is located at the extreme limits of brine stability; and only a combination of the most favorable environmental conditions and lowest eutectic temperature salts allows for brines to be at least temporarily stable on the Martian surface, according to a new studypublished in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
This image of an impact crater in the Sirenum Fossae region of Mars was taken by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on March 30, 2015. The crater is approximately 3,300 feet (1-km) wide and appears relatively recent as it has a sharp rim and well-preserved ejecta. The steep inner slopes are carved by gullies and include possible recurring slope lineae on the equator-facing slopes.
Image credit: NASA / JPL / University of Arizona / Alfred McEwen.
Liquid water is a critical precondition for a habitable planet. Yet the combination of low temperature, atmospheric pressure and water vapor pressure on Mars means any liquid water found there would likely freeze, boil or evaporate immediately, making its presence unlikely.
Yet palnetary researchers continue to make the case for the presence of liquid water on the Red Planet.
Of particular interest has been the discovery of seasonal dark streaks called the recurring slope lineae.
These features appear in several locations on Mars when temperatures are above minus 23 degrees Celsius (minus 10 degrees Fahrenheit), and disappear at colder times.
They often have been described as possibly related to liquid water.
The new study throws cold water on the notion that we are likely find liquid water on Mars in recurring slope lineae, permafrost or brines anytime soon.
“A closer look at RSLs indicates their behavior is consistent with sand and dust flows with no water needed to create them,” said lead author Dr. Vincent Chevrier, a researcher at the University of Arkansas.
Other researchers think that brines, which are solutions with a high concentration of salts, such as Earth’s oceans, may hold the key to finding liquid water on Mars.
Brines can freeze at much lower temperatures, and there is an abundance of salts on Mars.
Of those salts, perchlorates would seem to be the most promising, since they have extremely low eutectic temperatures (which is when the melting point of a mixture is lower than any single ingredient).
For instance, a calcium perchlorate brine solidifies at minus 75 degrees Celsius (14 degrees Fahrenheit), while Mars has an average surface temperature of minus 50 degrees Celsius (minus 58 degrees Fahrenheit) at the equator, theoretically suggesting there could be a zone where calcium perchlorate brine could stay liquid, particularly in the subsurface.
Dr. Chevrier and his colleague, Dr. Rachel Slank from the Lunar and Planetary Institute, then examined all of the arguments for and against brines potentially forming stable liquids.
“The various limiting factors, including the relatively low amounts of the most promising salts, water vapor pressure and ice location strongly limit the abundances of brines on the surface or shallow subsurface,” they said.
“And even if brines did form, they would remain highly un-habitable by terrestrial standards.”
“Despite these drawbacks and limitations, there is always the possibility that Martian life adapted to those brines and some terrestrial organisms could survive in them, which is a consideration for planetary protection because life on Mars might exist today in that case.”
“Hence, detecting brines in situ remains a major objective of the exploration of the Red Planet.”
Moving forward, the authors suggest the next hurdles will be improving the instruments needed to detect small amounts of brines, doing a better job of identifying the best places to look for them, and being able to conduct more laboratory measurements under Martian conditions.
“Despite our best efforts to prove otherwise, Mars still remains a cold, dry and utterly unhabitable desert,” Dr. Chevrier said.
Vincent F. Chevrier & Rachel A. Slank. 2024. The elusive nature of Martian liquid brines. PNAS 121 (52): e2321067121; doi: 10.1073/pnas.2321067121
VIDEOS
Reservoir of Liquid Water Found Deep on Mars | Groundbreaking Discovery by NASA
When we think about unexpected events, asteroid impacts are typically quite low on the list. After all, a large asteroid colliding with Earth is highly unlikely in the foreseeable future.
However, given the potential catastrophic damage that such an event could cause, experts from NASA have made it a priority to plan for this distant possibility.
Every two years, a special branch of NASA, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s (JPL) Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS), leads a hypothetical exercise where scientists and decision-makers simulate an asteroid impact scenario.
The goal of these exercises, involving both federal and international agencies, is to address the uncertainties tied to an asteroid strike.
Grand schemers of disaster prep
CNEOS, based in Southern California, has been instrumental in formulating these disaster management exercises for over a decade.
These specialists are tasked with the crucial job of tracking and classifying asteroids and comets, in addition to identifying potential threats to Earth.
Paul Chodas, director of CNEOS, sheds light on the painstaking nature of these drills.
“These hypothetical scenarios are complex and take significant effort to design, so our purpose is to make them useful and challenging for exercise participants and decision-makers,” he explains.
By honing their processes and procedures, the team becomes better equipped to formulate an effective plan of action in case of actual threats, filling any gaps in the planetary defense community’s knowledge.
Earth and asteroid impact scenario
This year’s simulation brought the ‘what if’ into alarming focus. Imagining a hypothetical asteroid of considerable size, the team calculated a 72% chance of it striking Earth in 14 years.
Potential impact locations included heavily populated areas across North America, Southern Europe, and North Africa. However, there was also a substantial 28% chance that the asteroid would entirely miss Earth.
Once in close proximity to the Sun, further observation of the asteroid was deemed impossible for the next seven months, leaving decision-makers in a quandary concerning what to do next.
“This was a very successful tabletop exercise, with nearly 100 participants from U.S. government agencies and, for the first time, international planetary defense experts,” said Terik Daly from APL, who coordinated the exercise.
“An asteroid impact would have severe national and international ramifications, so should this scenario play out for real, we’d need international collaboration.”
Global team takes clues from reality
These simulations are a collaborative endeavor. Participants include NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO), the Federal Emergency Management Agency Response Directorate (FEMA Response), and the Department of State Office of Space Affairs.
Earlier this year, nearly 100 participants from various U.S. government agencies gathered in Laurel, Maryland, at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (JHUAPL).
For the first time, international planetary defense experts were also part of this event, highlighting the need for global cooperation in handling such potential crises.
To make the scenario more realistic, the CNEOS team simulated all the observations leading up to the exercise.
“At this point in time, the impact was likely but not yet certain, and there were significant uncertainties in the object’s size and the impact location,” said Davide Farnocchia, a navigation engineer at JPL and CNEOS, who led the design of the asteroid’s orbit.
“It was interesting to see how this affected the decision-makers’ choices and how the international community might respond to a real-world threat 14 years out.”
Shields up: Averting potential disaster
Among the remarkable scientists pioneering asteroid deflection missions is the team behind the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART).
This mission was a monumental success and has provided foundations for future asteroid deflection efforts.
The process behind this isn’t as simple as playing cosmic billiards, though. It involves years of preparation and planning, requiring advanced observatories capable of detecting hazardous asteroids as early as possible.
The Near-Earth Object Surveyor (NEOS), an infrared space telescope slated for launch in late 2027, plays a significant role in achieving this mission.
Understanding Near-Earth Objects (NEOs)
Near-Earth objects (NEOs) are space rocks that come close to Earth’s orbit, including both asteroids and comets.
NEOs come in a wide range of sizes. Some are just a few meters across, while others can be kilometers in diameter.
Even small NEOs can cause significant damage if they collide with Earth, and large ones could lead to catastrophic events.
Many NEOs contain ancient materials from the early solar system. Studying these materials can give us insights into how planets and other celestial bodies formed and evolved.
Past lessons and future preparations
Let’s be honest. The idea of asteroid impacts may sound like a storyline lifted straight from a blockbuster movie script. But the effects of such celestial encounters are very real and potentially devastating.
The Tunguska event of 1908 serves as a grim reminder. A small asteroid exploded above Siberia, flattening approximately 80 million trees over an area stretching 800 square miles.
More recently, the Chelyabinsk meteor in 2013 shook Russia, causing extensive injuries and property damage due to the resulting shockwave.
In light of past events and the potential risks they pose, NASA employs a comprehensive approach that consists of proactive and reactive strategies.
Proactively, missions like DART are integral to developing techniques to alter an asteroid’s course. Infrared space telescopes like the Near-Earth Object Surveyor aim to spot and classify potentially dangerous objects long before they become a threat.
Reactively, NASA has established emergency response exercises to ensure global coordination and swift decision-making processes are in place.
Protecting Earth from asteroids
NASA’s asteroid impact exercises serve as a stark reminder of the potential threats lurking in the cosmos.
These exercises simulate scenarios where an asteroid might be on a collision course with Earth, challenging scientists to develop effective strategies for deflection or mitigation.
Yet, they also highlight our abilities to strategize, collaborate, and leverage advanced technology in the face of such dangers.
By bringing together experts from diverse fields, from astronomy to engineering, these exercises foster innovation and preparedness.
Do you feel safer knowing about the measures in place?
Let’s continue our vigilance because, as the saying goes, “Forewarned is forearmed.” Every step we take today could be crucial for protecting our planet tomorrow.
Next time you look up at the night sky, remember the unsung heroes of space working tirelessly to safeguard our planet. Because as we’ve learned, the best offense can often be a great defense.
Nasa astronauts Butch and Suni's homecoming delayed again
Nasa astronauts Butch and Suni's homecoming delayed again
Pallab Ghosh - Science Correspondent
Astronauts Suni Williams (left) and Butch Wilmore were supposed to have stayed on the space station for eight days
Nasa says that the astronauts stuck on the International Space Station will have to wait even longer to get home.
Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were due to be back after just a week when they blasted off in June.
Their stay was extended to February next year because of technical issues with the experimental spacecraft, Starliner, built by Boeing.
Now - following a delay in launching a new capsule to the ISS - the pair won't be back until late March or possibly April.
Nasa said the delay posed no risk to the astronauts.
NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore are seen from the International Space Station on September 13, 2024. On Tuesday, NASA announced that the two astronauts will face another delay in their return home to earth.
NASA via AP/NASA via AP
In a statement Nasa stated: "The International Space Station recently received two resupply flights in November and is well-stocked with everything the crew needs, including food, water, clothing, and oxygen. The resupply spacecraft also carried special items for the crew to celebrate the holidays aboard the orbital platform."
Most space station missions last six months, with a few reaching a full year. So the extension to Butch and Suni's already overdue stay in space should not be a problem, according to Dr Simeon Barber, from the Open University.
"I'm sure that they are already disappointed that they were going to miss Christmas back home with the folks. But this is only another two months on an already quite long mission, and I'm sure if you ask them, I'm sure they would tell you that the space station is where they love to be," he said.
A new crew needs to launch before Wilmore and Williams can return and the next mission has been delayed by more than a month, according to the space agency.
Nasa's next crew of four for the ISS was supposed to have been launched in February 2025. The capsule carrying that crew was due to be the one bringing Butch and Sunni home, as well as NASA astronauts Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov as part of the normal crew rotation.
But there has been a delay by the private sector firm SpaceX in preparing a brand-new Dragon capsule for the mission. That is now scheduled for flight readiness no earlier than late March.
Nasa said it considered using a different SpaceX capsule to fly up the replacement crew to keep the flights on schedule.
But it has now decided the best option is to wait for the new capsule to transport the next crew.
VIDEOS
NASA's two stuck astronauts hit six months in space. Just two more to go before heading home
NASA Again Delays Return Of Astronauts Stranded On Space Station
Ex-Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan and NJ Senator Andy Kim share footage of 'drones'
The most widely-viewed videos many claim show mysterious drones hovering over New Jersey and New York show clear signs of what they actually are, according to three drone and aeronautics experts who spoke to The Post.
The drones in New Jersey night skies were first flagged Nov. 13, hovering in airspace not far from the Picatinny Arsenal military facility in Wharton, NJ.
Since then reports of strange flashing orbs, statically hovering craft and silent low-flying crafts with distinctive lights have been spotted, some the size of mini-SUVs, and recorded on video by bystanders across the tri-state area.
Theories about the origins of the suspected drones include that they’ve been sent by foreign rivals including Iran or China.
New Jersey Senator Andy Kim headed out with police to investigate the widespread msytery sightings across New Jersey. He also shared videos of what he describes as multiple unidentified drones in his quest for answers.AndyKimNJ/X
Aviation ace Captain Ross ‘Rusty’ Aimer, who joined The Post’s panel to review and explain video of mysterious sightings across the tri-state area.Courtesy of Captain Ross "Rusty" Aimer
The activity prompted the FBI to open an investigation, but the agency warned earlier this week although they have received over 5,000 reports of drone sightings, less than 100 warranted further investigation.
The Post showed six of the most widely circulated drone videos to three experts, who explained how amidst the hysteria, the truth is usually a lot simpler than people want to think.
Those experts are: Captain Ross “Rusty” Aimer, a retired United Airlines pilot who is now CEO of Aero Consulting experts, Seth J. Frantzman, author of “Drone Wars: Pioneers, Killing Machines, Artificial Intelligence, and the Battle for the Future” and retired pilot, Captain Richard J. Levy who is now CEO of Aviation Expert Consulting.
Video 1: Mysterious floating orb
An ABC News 7 news crew captured video which appeared to show a mysterious floating orb – although experts say it may just be a trick of the light.ABC 7
“It’s hard to tell what this is because of the quality, it could be a planet or star or even an engine of an aircraft. As with many of the sightings, it’s difficult to tell because of the quality of the video,” said Frantzman.
Aimer added: “That is a bad focus to me of a lighted object. It looks like it could be a lighted drone but it looks like a picture that is way out of focus, a lighted subject.
“This one is very blurred. It could be distorted lights on a drone or a helicopter but the picture is not very good, so it’s impossible to say,” said Levy, who has 41 years of flying experience in the US.
Social media users have also pointed out this video, although filmed by a reputable news crew, is likely a trick of the light on a camera lens.
Video 2: Lights cruise over rooftop
In this video a pair of flashing lights — visible to the left of the peak of the house in the center of the picture — soar over a house in Neptune, N.J., then appear to slow to an almost complete stop.Guitarland/Reddit
A closer shot of the mysterious object, which shows off its lights, which are in line with those displayed by aircraft required by the FAA.Guitarland/Reddit
Frantzman said: “This appears to be a plane and it is has the types of lights one would expect on an aircraft. Even if it is a drone, it appears to be flying with lights which implies it is not trying to do anything nefarious.
Do you have footage of drones over the skies of New Jersey or New York? Send it to The Post at drones@nypost.com.
“If they were nefarious, like Chinese drones or Iranian drones coming to spy, you’d expect you wouldn’t see them conducting illegal surveillance,” he added.
“At first it could have been an aircraft, but when the aircraft went over the photographer, it slowed down tremendously. It’s maybe an optical illusion or it could have been a drone. I couldn’t say positively,” added Levy.
Video 3: Triangle of lights in the night sky
Footage captured on Sunday, Dec. 1 in Mendham, New Jersey, shows three green floating dots in the sky.@MendhamMike/Storyful
Frantzman said this video appeared quite clearly to be a plane.
Aimer explained: “In a commercial aircraft you must have certain types of lights to operate between dawn and dusk. One is position lights – a green and red light on each wing tip and a tail light. Then there are strobe lights at the top and bottom of the aircraft which are usually red, and there are high intensity strobe lights that must be on day and night.
“In my opinion, these Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) are being flown by ‘monkey see, monkey do’ guys trying their new remote drone systems that are small enough not to require registration, without knowing the rules and regulations. They’re probably trying to look for and catch one of these mysterious drones they’ve been hearing about. That’s why all of a sudden we see more reports of these UAS.”
Frantzman also said: “Look at flight tracking sites, the airspace is very crowded, and people should understand when they look up they’re going to see all sorts of phenomena so identifying everything they see as an unmanned aircraft is probably a mistake.”
Seth Frantzman, author of “Drone Wars: Pioneers, Killing Machines, Artificial Intelligence, and the Battle for the Future,” who is also a retired pilot.Courtesy of Seth Frantzman
Ex-Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan and NJ Senator Andy Kim share footage of 'drones'
The most widely-viewed videos many claim show mysterious drones hovering over New Jersey and New York show clear signs of what they actually are, according to three drone and aeronautics experts who spoke to The Post.
The drones in New Jersey night skies were first flagged Nov. 13, hovering in airspace not far from the Picatinny Arsenal military facility in Wharton, NJ.
Since then reports of strange flashing orbs, statically hovering craft and silent low-flying crafts with distinctive lights have been spotted, some the size of mini-SUVs, and recorded on video by bystanders across the tri-state area.
Theories about the origins of the suspected drones include that they’ve been sent by foreign rivals including Iran or China.
New Jersey Senator Andy Kim headed out with police to investigate the widespread msytery sightings across New Jersey. He also shared videos of what he describes as multiple unidentified drones in his quest for answers.AndyKimNJ/X
Aviation ace Captain Ross ‘Rusty’ Aimer, who joined The Post’s panel to review and explain video of mysterious sightings across the tri-state area.Courtesy of Captain Ross "Rusty" Aimer
The activity prompted the FBI to open an investigation, but the agency warned earlier this week although they have received over 5,000 reports of drone sightings, less than 100 warranted further investigation.
The Post showed six of the most widely circulated drone videos to three experts, who explained how amidst the hysteria, the truth is usually a lot simpler than people want to think.
Those experts are: Captain Ross “Rusty” Aimer, a retired United Airlines pilot who is now CEO of Aero Consulting experts, Seth J. Frantzman, author of “Drone Wars: Pioneers, Killing Machines, Artificial Intelligence, and the Battle for the Future” and retired pilot, Captain Richard J. Levy who is now CEO of Aviation Expert Consulting.
Video 4: Taken from a plane window as it prepares to land
A supposed drone captured close to the flightpath of a plane coming in to land at LaGuardia airport in New York. Various online sources have since pinpointed it as another plane.
tryingtobuildapc1234/Reddit
The experts all agreed this was a video of a plane passing another.
“Even if it is a type of unmanned drone, which is unlikely, the fact it is flying with lights at night indicates it is flying within the types of regulations one would expect an aircraft to do in civilian airspace,” said Frantzman.
Online sleuths even claimed they had managed to pinpoint where the video, from Dec 14. was taken by looking at the ground visible in the video and the time. They also identified the two planes involved, a United plane from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, to Newark and a Delta flight from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to LaGuardia. The original poster of the video also later acknowledged the data matches.
Video 5: Dual floating beacons
One of the videos shaed by Kim showing what he describes as multiple unidentified drones flying over New Jersey. However, it is difficult to say exactly what they are from the video.Andy Kim via Storyful
“The quality of the video makes it difficult to make out what type of aircraft or even stars or planets are in it, but it would appear to be planes, planets or stars,” said Frantzman, hedging his bets.
He added: “Look at flight tracking sites, the airspace is very crowded, and people should understand when they look up they’re going to see all sorts of phenomena so identifying everything they see as an unmanned aircraft is probably a mistake.”
The other experts agreed that the video was taken too far away to say for certain what the objects in the sky were or how they were moving.
Aimer explained that if the craft were posing any significant threat to security, they wouldn’t be there for long.
“If any regular aircraft violates Temporary Flight Restriction (TFR) areas or the permanent ones like at Air Force bases they deploy fighter jets to escort that intruder out or sometimes have orders to shoot that aircraft down.
“I’m not really worried about these drones because if they posed a danger, we have the technology to detect that, deal with them and shoot them.
Captain Ross “Rusty” Aimer says people should remain calm as it doesn’t appear drones are disrupting flights or a threat to the public.Courtesy of Captain Ross "Rusty" Aimer
Retired airline pilot captain Richard Levy, who is now now CEO of Aviation Expert Consulting, said planes are often mistaken for other aircraft, such as drones.Courtesy of Richard Levy
“Anytime there is any possible danger, believe me they will shoot them down, there’s no question about it.
“They could read that digital license plate on the drone and go look for the owner. It can be read remotely by simply an app on your cell phone.
“If they can’t read its digital license plate, they take other measures like sending a fighter jet to scramble or shoot it down if it becomes dangerously close to some place they don’t want you to fly, like the White House.”
Video 6: Mysterious vapors, more seemingly floating objects
A vapor trail in the sky highlighted by one spotter as suspicious
AP/Trisha Bushey/Christopher Stadulis
Another unidentified floating object spotted near Clinton Township in New Jersey, wher the majority of drone sightings have taken place.AP/Trisha Bushey/Christopher StadulisView video here
“Anyone can tell it’s an airliner — that is the only one where it is absolutely clear it is an aircraft,” said Levy.
“The quality of the video makes it difficult to determine what is being seen, but it appears likely to be planes, manned aircraft,” said Frantzman.
Many lawmakers are calling for answers but the experts said if there were a risk to the public, we’d know about it now or have seen the effects. But the authorities should work to quell people’s fear.
“The government should be better about what we can expect to see in the night sky. They have let people work themselves up into a hysteria they don’t need to be in,” Frantzman added.
Plane passenger films mysterious Orbs fuel speculation on Drone origins
Plane passenger films mysterious Orbs fuel speculation on Drone origins
The ongoing mystery surrounding recent drone sightings has become increasingly complex, with conflicting reports making it difficult to draw definitive conclusions. However, a new and intriguing element has emerged alongside these drones sightings: numerous accounts of mysterious orbs, potentially of alien origin, flying at both low and high altitudes.
Reports of mysterious orbs have been increasing in recent weeks. These orbs have been sighted at both high altitudes and closer to urban areas.
Pilots have reported encounters to air traffic control. Listen to conversations between pilots and traffic control.
And a passenger aboard United Airlines flight UA2359 from Chicago to Newark recently captured footage of these mysterious orbs. The video, shared online by the user “EasilyAmusedEE” on December 16, 2024, shows objects at altitudes between 40,000 and 50,000 feet—far beyond the capabilities of consumer drones. The footage was reportedly taken using an iPhone 16 Pro Max.
Video plane passenger films unknown orbs.
About the drone sightings: Meanwhile, eyewitness accounts describe these so-called drones as crafts that emit no noise, suggesting advanced technology. Additionally, there are claims that these crafts seem to intentionally draw attention, as they have reportedly interfered with cars (lamps flickering), electronics, streetlights (lamps flickering), and even fully charged batteries, which are said to be instantly drained in their presence.
Video shows among other (drone/orb) sightings, cars lamps flickering, streetlights lamps flickering, fully charged batteries drained.
This surge in Orb sightings raises more questions. Are these orbs extraterrestrial in origin? Could they be deliberately associated with the drone phenomena, or is their timing coincidental? Some suggest the possibility of a false flag operation, hinting at a deeper and potentially misleading agenda by the U.S. government.
Whether these drones and Orbs sightings point to advanced human technology, extraterrestrial activity, or a mix of both, one thing is clear: there is something significant going on.
“This one is very blurred. It could be distorted lights on a drone or a helicopter but the picture is not very good, so it’s impossible to say,” said Levy, who has 41 years of flying experience in the US.
Drone Test Flights Are Being Tested for Flights on Alien Worlds
An atmospheric probe model attached upside down to a quad rotor remotely piloted aircraft ascends with the Moon visible on Oct. 22, 2024. The quad rotor aircraft released the probe above Rogers Dry Lake, a flight area adjacent NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. The probe was designed and built at the center. Credit : NASA/Steve Freeman
Drone Test Flights Are Being Tested for Flights on Alien Worlds
We’ve already seen the success of the Ingenuity probe on Mars. The first aircraft to fly on another world set off on its maiden voyage in April 2021 and has now completed 72 flights. Now a team of engineers are taking the idea one step further and investigating ways that drones can be released from satellites in orbit and explore the atmosphere without having to land. The results are positive and suggest this could be a cost effective way to explore alien atmospheres.
The idea of using drones on alien worlds has been enticing engineers and planetary explorers for a few years now. They’re lightweight and versatile and an excellent cost effective way to study the atmosphere of the planets. Orbiters and rovers have been visiting the planets for decades now but drones can explore in ways rovers and orbiters cannot. Not only will they be useful to study atmospheric effects but they will be able to reach inaccessible surface areas providing imagery to inform potential future land based study.
Illustration of Perseverance on Mars
Perhaps one of the most famous, indeed the only successful planetary drone to date is the Ingenuity drone which was part of the Perseverance rover mission. It was able to demonstrate that controlled flight in the Martian atmosphere was possible, could hunt out possible landing sites for future missions and direct ground based exploration. It’s iconic large wingspan was needed due to the rarefied atmosphere on Mars requiring larger rotor blades to generate the required lift. Ingenuity was originally planned as a technology demonstration mission but it soon became a useful tool in the Perseverance mission arsenal.
Ingenuity helicopter
NASA engineers are very aware of the benefits of drone technology and so a team of engineers and researchers from the Armstrong Flight Research Center in California have been taking the idea of small drones one step further. The research was part of the Center Innovation Fund award from 2023 and began as the team developed three atmospheric probe models. The models were all the same, measuring 71 cm from top to bottom, one for visual demonstration, the other two for research and technology readiness.
Justin Link, left, small unmanned aircraft systems pilot; John Bodylski, atmospheric probe principal investigator; and Justin Hall, chief pilot of small unmanned aircraft systems, discuss details of the atmospheric probe flight plan on Oct. 22, 2024. A quad rotor remotely piloted aircraft released the probe above Rogers Dry Lake, a flight area adjacent NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. The probe was designed and built at the center.
NASA/Steve Freeman
Justin Hall, chief pilot of small unmanned aircraft systems, prepares the atmospheric probe for flight above Rogers Dry Lake, a flight area adjacent NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. At right, Justin Link, small unmanned aircraft systems pilot, assists. The probe, designed and built at the center, flew after release from a quad rotor remotely piloted aircraft on Oct. 22, 2024.
NASA/Steve Freeman
Derek Abramson, left, chief engineer for the Dale Reed Subscale Flight Research Laboratory, and Justin Link, small unmanned aircraft system pilot, carry the atmospheric probe model and a quad rotor remotely piloted aircraft to position it for flight on Oct. 24, 2024. John Bodylski, probe principal investigator, right, and videographer Jacob Shaw watch the preparations. Once at altitude, the quad rotor aircraft released the probe above Rogers Dry Lake, a flight area adjacent to NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. The probe was designed and built at the center.
NASA/Steve Freeman
A quad rotor remotely piloted aircraft releases the atmospheric probe model above Rogers Dry Lake, a flight area adjacent NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, on Oct. 22, 2024. The probe was designed and built at the center.
NASA/Carla Thomas
Their first launch on 1 August didn’t go to plan with a failure in the release mechanism. The team reviewed everything from the lifting aircraft, the release mechanism and even the probe design itself to identify improvements. The team were finally able to conduct flights with their new atmospheric probe after it was released from a quad rotor remotely piloted aircraft on 22 October 2024.
The flights were conducted above the Rogers Dry Lake near in California with designs informed by previous NASA instrumentation designed for lifting and transportation. The test flights were aiming to prove the shape of the probe worked. The team now want to release the probe from a higher altitude, ultimately hoping to be able to release it from a satellite in orbit around a planet.
The next steps are to review photos and videos from the flight to identify further improvements before another probe is built. Once they have probed the flight technology, instrumentation will be added to facilitate data gathering and recording. If all goes to plan then the team hope to be chosen for a mission to one of the planets, be released in orbit and then dive into the atmosphere under controlled flight to learn more about the environment.
It seems that we are completely alone in the universe. But simple reasoning suggests that there should be an abundance of alien civilizations. Maybe they’re all out there, but they are keeping their distance. Welcome to the zoo (hypothesis).
Brian Cox - Alien Life & The Zoo Hypothesis
The story goes that in the summer of 1950, eminent physicist Enrico Fermi was visiting colleagues at Los Alamos National Laboratory. It was the initial peak of UFO mania, and naturally the physicists brought it up over lunch. After a short while, Fermi went silent. Later, well after the conversation had turned to other topics, he exclaimed “Where is everybody?”
Everybody knew what he meant. We know that the universe is capable of producing intelligent life. We’re literally living proof of that. But the cosmos tends to not do things just once. If life happened here, it likely also happened elsewhere. In fact, given the extraordinary age of the universe and the incredible number of stars and planetary systems in any given galaxy, the Milky Way should be abuzz with intelligent space-faring civilizations.
Humanity itself is right on the cusp of developing a sustained interplanetary presence, and our species is still in its youth, at least as cosmic reckoning is concerned. We should see evidence for other intelligent species everywhere: radio signals, megastructures, wandering probes, and so on.
But we’ve got nothing. So where is everybody?
Perhaps the strangest possible solution to Fermi’s paradox, as this conundrum came to be known, is known as the zoo hypothesis. In this idea, alien life is indeed common, as is intelligence. There really is no huge barrier to intelligent creatures developing spaceflight capabilities and spreading themselves throughout the galaxy.
But the reason that we don’t see anybody is that they are intentionally hiding themselves from us. Through their sophisticated observations, they can easily tell that we are intelligent ourselves, but also somewhat dangerous. After all, we have peaceful space rockets and dangerous ICBMs. We are just dipping our toes into space, and we may not be exactly trustworthy.
And so the intelligent civilizations of the galaxy are keeping us in a sort of “zoo.” They are masking themselves and their signals, making us think that we’re all alone, largely confined to our own solar system and a few nearby stars.
Once we prove ourselves, the hypothesis goes, we’ll be welcomed into the larger galactic community with open arms (or tentacles).
The zoo hypothesis is, honestly, a little far-fetched. It assumes not only the existence of alien civilizations, but also their motives and intentions. But we ultimately do not know if we are alone in the universe. And there’s only one way to find out.
There are many assumptions about the number of extraterrestrial species in the universe. Many UFOlogists, abductees, and even people in authority claim to have seen the so-called intelligent beings from outer space. Alex Collier is the only contactee who provided in-depth information about the beings from Andromeda. In his interviews, he discussed the influence of various alien species on the human race.
Many well-known UFO enthusiasts considered Collier to be credible, at least in the sense that he tries to convey as fully as possible the information received from his contacts with the Andromedans. He first began to experience extraterrestrial contact during his childhood up to his mid-teens. After the experiences stopped over several years, which included military service as a helicopter pilot in the U.S. Army, the contact resumed in 1985.
He met with two Andromedans (Vissaeus and Moranay) who became his mentors and took him on board their space vehicles including a large extraterrestrial mother ship where he was exposed to the teachings of the Andromedans over three months. The Andromedans gave him information about cosmic spirituality, life in the universe, and Earth’s galactic history.
Collier claimed that humans are a composite of 22 different ET races that arrived on Earth at different times
The Andromedans are “one of the thousands of extraterrestrial races in existence.” They are human and some have bluish skin, measuring more than 2 meters tall. According to Collier, the author of the book “Defending Sacred Ground: The Andromedan Compendium,” all human life forms originated in the Lyra Constellation. However, a war caused their stars to explode, making humanity spread to different places in the galaxy to survive.
Collier explains that the different skin tones are due to different DNAs and exposure to different stars. The Andromeda Beings are one of the oldest civilizations living in the Andromeda constellation.
He further stated the physical creation of our Universe accordingly was 21 billion years ago. Collier said, “If this is the true nature of what our Universe is and how it works then we must come to realize that there is more to us also since we are connected to this process as well, on most levels if not all of them.” It has been explained to him that our conception of the Big Bang theory is correct in its simplicity and that the idea of creation and evolution are correct also, so everyone is right and all of our present theories and evaluations are incomplete.
No matter where in the constellation it lives, this civilization has a single government and is spiritually 4,700 more advanced than us, as well as 5,000 years technologically. However, they maintain a balance of the spiritual and technological. They use technology to be able to evolve spiritually.
This is because there are different dimensional levels. We are currently in the Third dimension. We still haven’t reached the Fourth, much less the Fifth. What differentiates the Third from the Fourth dimension, is the conscience.
In the fourth dimension, there is a collective consciousness, because everyone is telepathic and can read the mind of the rest. This leads to each person being authentic, transparent, and without ulterior motives. Upon entering this dimension, the being becomes clairvoyant since, in this state of consciousness, energy systems and fields can be seen.
However, there are still dualities, and the judgment systems are modified since the judiciary will be able to make decisions according to the energy fields. The beings of Andromeda have not lived in a society as manipulated as ours. They are telepathic and clairvoyant because they have studied all the sciences.
All souls know who they are, they all know about their past lives, and every time they incarnate, they are aware and know where they are going. In addition, they can see their evolution in the afterlife.
According to various interviews by Collier, he stated that Earth is under the control of “regressive” extraterrestrial beings. Those aliens came to Earth from the star system known as Alpha Draconis. He said that two different philosophical belief systems separate humans. One of them spreads love & free will, while the other one shows control and resource consumption. He said humans are behind the Andromedans because of the manipulations in our DNA. The intense manipulation of Earth dates back 5,700 years. However, this has an origin 14,000 years ago, when the aliens from Orion began to manipulate our DNA structure.
In his last lecture, before he retired from the UFO lecture circuit in 2002, Collier said that the ancient alien race known as the “Founders” are responsible for building planets’ environments and making them suitable for life. The Andromedans and the Pleiadians believed that this ancient alien race was called the “Paa Tal.”
He even said that those aliens can remove moons to alter the planet’s position from its sun to control the amount of radiation. The Andromedans could reportedly create a solar system.
Collier noted that the Andromedans are about 4,300 to 4,500 years ahead of us in technology. They do not count years in 365 days as we do on Earth. According to different extraterrestrials, one year is a time when every cell in their body duplicates itself, and it takes around 34 years.
According to Collier, humans consist of 22 extraterrestrial races. He claimed that about 135 billion people are living on the planets in the eight closest galaxies to us. He even said that when he visited one of those habitable planets, those people got scared of seeing an Earthling because of our bad reputation. In the whole universe, only humans could make their own people slaves and kill them for their own benefit.
The following information was shared by Alex that he received from a
The Pleiadians, a human species, originated from Lyra and developed advanced weapons that played a crucial role in sustaining them through the Orion Wars and beyond. According to some accounts, the Pleiadians, known as Lyrans, first arrived on Earth before settling in the Pleiades. While a group of Lyrans colonized Earth temporarily, a larger faction ventured to the Pleiades and other star systems during the Orion Wars.
The Pleiadians are considered our distant first cousins and ancestral forefathers to some of our races. They are descendants of the Lyrans who came from Lyra, arriving on space stations or arks due to their star systems’ characteristics and the potential for stable longevity. The Lyran exploration involved sending down scout teams of scientists, engineers, and agricultural specialists to study the surfaces of potentially habitable planets, gathering data for colonization.
Each planet was carefully explored, and based on its unique nature, colonies were established. This explains the Pleiadians’ interest in Earth, as they have been visiting for over 79,743 years, establishing large settlements throughout history. Despite our similarities, the Pleiadians are emotionally and spiritually more evolved, having experienced their own growth pains.
They have made efforts to share their knowledge with us to prevent setbacks and destructions, but not enough people are heeding their advice. The Pleiades, an open star cluster in the constellation of Taurus, consists of 254 stars and numerous planetary bodies, with young stars predominant. The Pleiadians and Earth’s alphabets share similarities, dating back about 11,157 years when script forms were developed on Earth and carried to the Pleiades.
Among the star systems, Taygeta is the most advanced, and Taro orbits Alcyone. Pleiadians resemble us in size, stature, build, and hair color. They are fluent in our languages and knowledgeable about our sciences and history. Our human aggressiveness is believed to have been inherited from them. Their longer lifespans, exceeding ours by at least tenfold, are attributed to advanced technology allowing faster-than-light travel.
Pleiadians express concerns about our misuse of sciences and our loss of spiritual harmony. Rejecting money, politics, and religions, they see politics and religions as essentially the same. Their worry intensifies as benevolent extraterrestrial races visit, fearing we might destroy our planet and ourselves.
All Earth languages are said to derive from an ancient Pre-Sumerian language called Tamil, spoken in Lyra and the Pleiades. The Pleiadians, like other groups, have left descendants on Earth in the past. While willing to help, they emphasize that we must correct our own mistakes and shape our own future, as they won’t interfere with our evolution to the extent of taking responsibility for our race.
0
1
2
3
4
5
- Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen) Categorie:ALIEN LIFE, UFO- CRASHES, ABDUCTIONS, MEN IN BLACK, ed ( FR. , NL; E )
17-12-2024
The Pascagoula UFO Encounter
The Pascagoula UFO Encounter
Alien Contact: The Pascagoula UFO Encounter | Unexplained UFOs
Pascagoula Alien Abduction Case: Exclusive Unseen Video Unveiled | Unexplained With Howard Hughes
In October 1973, the world was captivated by the shocking story of Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker, two men who claimed to have been abducted by aliens in Pascagoula, Mississippi.
Howard Hughes is joined by UFO investigator and publisher Philip Mantle.
Now, as the 50th anniversary of this famous case approaches, new witnesses and evidence are emerging, shedding even more light on this extraordinary event.
When Hickson and Parker arrived at the Sheriff's Department that fateful night, they were in a state of panic, claiming to have just been abducted by aliens. Authorities tried to catch them in a lie, but their story remained consistent. Both men later passed polygraph tests, further adding to the credibility of their claims.
The incident took place on October 11, 1973, and immediately garnered media attention. The case became one of the best-documented instances of alien abduction, with extensive testimony, photographs, police records, and newspaper stories filling the pages of Philip Mantle and Irina McCammon Scott's book, "It's Here Beyond Reasonable Doubt."
For years, the story of Hickson and Parker has fascinated and gripped audiences. The fact that they were interviewed by law enforcement within hours of the incident and recorded secretly adds to the uniqueness of their account. A tape recording of their conversation, which was meant to catch them in a lie, only reinforced the authenticity of their experience.
In the years that followed, Hickson and Parker faced relentless media attention, forcing them to move around frequently to avoid the glare of publicity. Calvin Parker, in particular, wanted nothing to do with the media and even used a false name at one point to maintain his privacy. It wasn't until 2018, when Parker wrote his own book and finally shared the full story with his wife and family, that he began to open up about the traumatic event.
Despite scepticism from some quarters, Parker's story has remained consistent throughout the years. Multiple interviews and conversations with him have revealed no changes in his account, further strengthening the credibility of his claims. His recent illness has prevented him from appearing on shows to discuss the incident, but his story continues to resonate with those who believe in the existence of extra-terrestrial life.
As the 50th anniversary of the Pascagoula alien abduction case approaches, researchers and investigators are still unearthing new witnesses and evidence. These recent findings promise to shed even more light on this compelling and enduring mystery. Whether one believes in the existence of aliens or not, the story of Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker serves as a reminder of the enduring fascination with the unknown and the unexplained.
0
1
2
3
4
5
- Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen) Categorie:ALIEN LIFE, UFO- CRASHES, ABDUCTIONS, MEN IN BLACK, ed ( FR. , NL; E )
Massive Drone Found by Police in New York Raises Questions
Massive Drone Found by Police in New York Raises Questions
Story by Flynn Nicholls
NYPD Recovers Massive Drone at Brooklyn Navy Yard
What's New
Police have recovered a massive drone apparently abandoned in the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
A photo obtained by the New York Post shows an NYPD officer holding up the large aircraft, which appears to be more than five feet in diameter. Energy startup Amogy, Inc. said it manufactured the drone and had placed it on the sidewalk outside its headquarters a month before.
Newsweek has contacted the NYPD and Amogy Inc. via email for comment.
Why It Matters
The NYPD's recovery of the drone comes amid a wave of reported drone activity across New York and New Jersey in recent weeks.
Stock image of NYPD cars, and inset, stock image of a drone. Police have recovered a massive drone that was apparently abandoned in the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
According to the Post's report, police responded to an emailed tip and located the drone on the sidewalk at Fifth Street between Market Street and Morris Avenue.
A passerby told officers he worked in the building that houses the headquarters of the drone's manufacturer Amogy, Inc., a sustainable energy startup.
Amogy CEO Seonghoon Woo later confirmed to the Post that the drone belonged to the company and said it had been placed on the sidewalk after a company party about a month ago.
An Amogy spokesperson told the Post the drone had been used in a demonstration of its clean energy technology three years ago and had been on display outside the company's headquarters ever since.
"NYPD took possession of it for a brief period. Amogy cooperated fully with NYPD and the drone has since been returned to the company after NYPD determined the drone was not a threat," the spokesperson said.
Even though the spokesperson said the drone was not a threat, news account @rawsalerts posted to X a video showing the officers holding it, garnering 3.7 million views by Tuesday morning, with several users skeptical of the official story.
What People Are Saying About Drones
Rebecca Weiner, NYPD Deputy Commissioner of counterterrorism and intelligence, at a briefing: "What we've seen over the past few days here in the city has actually been quite normal, frankly, in terms of the actual drone activity that we see every day... You have a really strong uptick in reporting but not a strong uptick in actual drone detection, which makes sense — all people are seeing on the news is drone sightings everywhere."
White House National Security Communications adviser John Kirby in a press briefing: "The Department of Homeland Security and the FBI are investigating these sightings, and they're working closely with state and local law enforcement to provide resources, using numerous detection methods to better understand their origin."
President-elect Donald Trump, to reporters at Mar-a-Lago: "I think they'd [the government] be better off saying what it is. Our military knows, and our president knows, and for some reason, they want to keep people in suspense."
What Happens Next
As concerns about drone sightings persist, authorities are likely to continue monitoring and responding to reports across the region.
NYPD discovers massive drone amid spate of sightings in tri-state area but this one can be explained
CNN's Kate Bolduan asks NJ lawmaker what officials have told him about mysterious drone sightings
NASA Cuts Live Feed After UFO appears flying past International Space Station Dec 16, 2024, UAP Sighting News.
NASA Cuts Live Feed After UFO appears flying past International Space Station Dec 16, 2024, UAP Sighting News.
Date of sighting: Dec 17, 2024
Location of sighting: International Space Station, New Jersey, Hill AFB Utah.
Guys this is really something. Two UFOs were passing the space station on live NASA cam today, then the NASA stream suddenly went to blue screen with a lost contact message. Maybe it was the alien craft which cut communications or maybe it was NASA trying to hide this info from the public, but either way, I got it for you here. These are 100% real alien ships. US gov says drones, but they are maned alien ships.
Why now? Because the alien species out there want disclosure and want the public to know the truth. Why now? Because ai, it's growing exponentially every day and it may get out of control. Aliens can predict the future with a 99.99% accuracy, so they saw something...a turning point, a pivotal moment in human history where aliens were needed or could reveal themselves to the world.
UFO Recorded by Channel 7 TV News Over Mendham Borough, New Jersey, Dec 17, 2024, UAP Sighting News.
UFO Recorded by Channel 7 TV News Over Mendham Borough, New Jersey, Dec 17, 2024, UAP Sighting News.
Date of sighting: Dec 17, 2024 Location of sighting: Mendham Borough, New Jersey, USA
Hey all, check this out. A UFO was reported over New Jersey and a TV news channel went out to investigate it. They caught a glowing orb or sphere flying low, hovering in place. It's clearly not a US military drone, it's not an Iran drone, this is pure alien technology we are looking at. Great capture, much more news on the UFO front to come. So earlier when I thought they were drones, I was clearly wrong. This is the first clear video that I have seen.
Spiral galaxies and elliptical galaxies both contain bulges, also called spheroids. How these spheroids form andevolve is a puzzling question, but new research brings us closer to an answer. Image Credit: ESA
Astronomers have spent decades trying to understand how galaxies grow so large. One piece of the puzzle is spheroids, also known as galactic bulges. Spiral galaxies and elliptical galaxies have different morphologies, but they both have spheroids. This is where most of their stars are and, in fact, where most stars in the Universe reside. Since most stars reside in spheroids, understanding them is critical to understanding how galaxies grow and evolve.
New research focused on spheroids has brought them closer than ever to understanding how galaxies become so massive.
Elliptical galaxies have no flat disk component. They’re smooth and featureless and contain comparatively little gas and dust compared to spirals. Without gas and dust, new stars seldom form, so ellipticals are populated with older stars.
Astronomers don’t know how these ancient, bulging galaxies formed and evolved. However, a new research letter in Nature may finally have the answer. It’s titled “In situ spheroid formation in distant submillimetre-bright galaxies.” The lead author is Qing-Hua Tan from the Purple Mountain Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China. Dr. Annagrazia Puglisi from the University of Southampton co-authored the research.
“Our findings take us closer to solving a long-standing mystery in astronomy that will redefine our understanding of how galaxies were created in the early universe.”
Dr. Annagrazia Puglisi, University of Southampton
The international team of researchers used the Atacama Large Millimetre/sub-millimetre Array (ALMA) to examine highly luminous starburst galaxies in the distant Universe. Sub-millimetre means it observes electromagnetic energy between far-infrared and microwave. Astronomers have suspected for a long time that these galaxies are connected to spheroids, but observing them is challenging.
“Infrared/submillimetre-bright galaxies at high redshifts have long been suspected to be related to spheroid formation,” the authors write. “Proving this connection has been hampered so far by heavy dust obscuration when focusing on their stellar emission or by methodologies and limited signal-to-noise ratios when looking at submillimetre wavelengths.”
This image shows two of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) 12-metre antennas. ALMA has 66 antennas that work together as an interferometer. (Credit : Iztok Bonina/ESO)
The researchers used ALMA to analyze more than 100 of these ancient galaxies with a new technique that measures their distribution of light. These brightness profiles show that the majority of the galaxies have tri-axial shapes rather than flat disks, indicating that something in their history made them misshapen.
Two important concepts underpin the team’s results: The Sersic index and the Spergel index.
The Sersic index is a fundamental concept in describing the brightness profiles of galaxies. It characterizes the radial distribution of light coming from galaxies and basically describes how light is concentrated in a galaxy.
The Spergel index is less commonly used. It’s based on the distribution of dark matter in galaxies. Rather than light, it helps astronomers understand how matter is concentrated. Together, both indices help astronomers characterize the complex structure of galaxies.
These indices, along with the new ALMA observations, led to new insights into how spheroids formed through mergers and the resulting influx of cold, star-forming gas.
It all starts with a galaxy collision or merger, which sends large flows of cold gas into the galactic centre.
This is a JWST image (not from this research) of an ancient galaxy merger from 13 billion years ago. The galaxy, named Gz9p3, has a double nucleus indicating that the merger is ongoing. While astronomers know that mergers are a critical part of galaxy growth and evolution, the role spheroids play has been difficult to discern. Image Credit: NASA/Boyett et al
“Two disk galaxies smashing together caused gas—the fuel from which stars are formed—to sink towards their centre, generating trillions of new stars,” said co-author Puglisi. “These cosmic collisions happened some eight to 12 billion years ago when the universe was in a much more active phase of its evolution.”
“This is the first real evidence that spheroids form directly through intense episodes of star formation located in the cores of distant galaxies,” Puglisi said. “These galaxies form quickly—gas is sucked inwards to feed black holes and triggers bursts of stars, which are created at rates ten to 100 times faster than our Milky Way.”
The researchers compared their observations to hydro-simulations of galaxy mergers. The results show that the spheroids can maintain their shape for up to approximately 50 million years after the merger. “This is compatible with the inferred timescales for the submillimeter-bright bursts based on observations,” the authors write. After this intense period of star formation in the spheroid, the gas is used up, and things die down. No more energy is injected into the system, and the residual gas flattens out into a disk.
This figure from the research shows how the spheroids lose their shape after the intense period of star formation following a merger. (a) shows maps (2×2 kpc) of the central gas in three different mergers, showing the flattest projection for these systems observed at 12 Myr from coalescence; that is, these systems are 3D spheroidal structures, not face-on disks. (b) shows the star-formation rate peaking and then dimishining over time. (c) shows C/A, which quantifies the relative system thickness encompassing all galactic components, including disks, bars, and bulges. It’s a ratio between C, the shortest axis, and A, the longest axis in a triaxial ellipsoid. Image Credit: Tan et al. 2024.
These types of galaxies were more plentiful in the early Universe than they are now. The researchers’ results show that these galaxies used up their fuel quickly, forming the spheroids that are now populated by old stars.
This isn’t the first time that astronomers have investigated the potential link between spheroids and distant submillimeter-bright galaxies. Previous research that found evidence for tri-axiality also found heavy ellipticity and other evidence showing that submillimeter-bright galaxies are disks with bars in the submillimeter. However, this new research relied on observations with a higher signal-to-noise ratio than previous research.
“Astrophysicists have sought to understand this process for decades,” Puglisi said. “Our findings take us closer to solving a long-standing mystery in astronomy that will redefine our understanding of how galaxies were created in the early universe.”
“This will give us a more complete picture of early galaxy formation and deepen our understanding of how the universe has evolved since the beginning of time.”
A New Study Suggests How we Could Find Advanced Civilizations that Ran Out of Fusion Fuel
This view of Earth’s horizon was taken by an Expedition 7 crewmember onboard the International Space Station, using a wide-angle lens while the Station was over the Pacific Ocean. A new study suggests that Earth's water didn't all come from comets, but likely also came from water-rich planetesimals. Credit: NASA
A New Study Suggests How we Could Find Advanced Civilizations that Ran Out of Fusion Fuel
When it comes to our modern society and the many crises we face, there is little doubt that fusion power is the way of the future. The technology not only offers abundant power that could solve the energy crisis, it does so in a clean and sustainable way. At least as long as our supplies of deuterium (H2) and helium-3 hold up. In a recent study, a team of researchers considered how evidence of deuterium-deuterium (DD) fusion could be used as a potential technosignature in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence(SETI).
The study was conducted by David C. Catling and Joshua Krissansen-Totton of the Department of Earth & Space Sciences and the Virtual Planetary Laboratory (VPL) at the University of Washington (respectively) and Tyler D. Robinson of the VPL and the Lunar & Planetary Laboratory (LPL) at the University of Arizona. In their paper, which is set to appear in the Astrophysical Journal, the team considered how long-lived extraterrestrial civilizations may deplete their supplies of deuterium – something that would be detectable by space telescopes.
At the heart of SETI lies the foregone conclusion that advanced civilizations have existed in our galaxy long before humanity. Another conclusion extends from this: if humanity can conceive of something (and the physics are sound), a more advanced civilization is likely to have already built it. In fact, it has been suggested by many SETI researchers and scientists that advanced civilizations will adopt fusion power to meet their growing energy needs as they continue to grow and ascend the Kardashev Scale.
The spherical tokamak MAST at the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy (UK). Photo: CCFE
This is understandable, considering how other forms of energy (fossil fuels, solar, wind, nuclear, hydroelectric, etc.) are either finite or inefficient. Space-based solar power is a viable option since it can provide a steady supply of energy that is not subject to intermittency or weather patterns. Nevertheless, nuclear fusion is considered a major contender for future energy needs because of its efficiency and energy density. It is estimated that one gram of hydrogen fuel could generate as much as 90,000 kilowatt-hours of energy – the equivalent of 11 metric tons (12 U.S. tons) of coal.
In addition, deuterium has a natural abundance in Earth’s oceans of about one atom of deuterium in every 6,420 atoms of hydrogen. This deuterium interacts with water molecules and will replace one or both hydrogen atoms to create “semi-heavy water” (HOD or DOH) and sometimes “heavy water” (D2O). This works out to 4.85×1013 or 48.5 billion metric tons (5.346×1013 U.S. tons) of deuterium. As they argue in their paper, extracting deuterium from an ocean would decrease its ratio of deuterium-to-hydrogen (D/H), which would be detectable in atmospheric water vapor. Meanwhile, the helium produced in the nuclear reactions would escape to space.
In recent years, it has been suggested that excess carbon dioxide and radioactive isotopes in an exoplanet’s atmosphere could be used to infer the presence of an industrial civilization. In the same vein, low values of D/H in an exoplanet’s atmosphere (along with helium) could be used to detect a highly advanced and long-lived civilization. As Catling explained in a recent interview with phys.org, this possibility is one he began pondering years ago.
“I didn’t do much with this germ of idea until I was co-organizing an astrobiology meeting last year at Green Bank Observatory in West Virginia,” he said. “Measuring the D/H ratio in water vapor on exoplanets is certainly not a piece of cake. But it’s not a pipe dream either.”
A model JWST transmission spectrum for an Earth-like planet, showing the wavelengths of sunlight that molecules like ozone (O3), water (H2O), carbon dioxide (CO2), and methane (CH4) absorb. Credit: NASA, ESA, Leah Hustak (STScI)
To model what an advanced civilization dependent on DD fusion would look like, Catling and his colleagues considered projections for what Earth will look like by 2100. At this point, the global population is expected to reach 10.4 billion, and fusion power is projected to provide 100 Terawatts (TW). They then multiplied that by a factor of ten (1,000 TW) for a more advanced civilization and found that they would reduce the D/H value of an Earth-like ocean to that of the interstellar medium (ISM) in about 170 million years.
The beauty of this approach is that the low D/H values in an exoplanet’s atmosphere would persist long after a civilization went extinct, migrated off-world, or became even more advanced and “transcended.” In terms of search strategies, the team used the Spectral Mapping Atmospheric Radiative Transfer (SMART) model to identify the specific wavelengths and emission lines for HDO and H2O. These findings will be useful for future surveys involving the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), NASA’s proposed Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO), and the Large Interferometer For Exoplanets (LIFE).
“It’s up to the engineers and scientists designing [HWO] and [LIFE] to see if measuring D/H on exoplanets might be an achievable goal. What we can say, so far, is that looking for D/H from LIFE appears to be feasible for exoplanets with plenty of atmospheric water vapor in a region of the spectrum around 8 microns wavelength.”
Beste bezoeker, Heb je zelf al ooit een vreemde waarneming gedaan, laat dit dan even weten via email aan Frederick Delaere opwww.ufomeldpunt.be. Deze onderzoekers behandelen jouw melding in volledige anonimiteit en met alle respect voor jouw privacy. Ze zijn kritisch, objectief maar open minded aangelegd en zullen jou steeds een verklaring geven voor jouw waarneming! DUS AARZEL NIET, ALS JE EEN ANTWOORD OP JOUW VRAGEN WENST, CONTACTEER FREDERICK. BIJ VOORBAAT DANK...
Druk op onderstaande knop om je bestand , jouw artikel naar mij te verzenden. INDIEN HET DE MOEITE WAARD IS, PLAATS IK HET OP DE BLOG ONDER DIVERSEN MET JOUW NAAM...
Druk op onderstaande knop om een berichtje achter te laten in mijn gastenboek
Alvast bedankt voor al jouw bezoekjes en jouw reacties. Nog een prettige dag verder!!!
Over mijzelf
Ik ben Pieter, en gebruik soms ook wel de schuilnaam Peter2011.
Ik ben een man en woon in Linter (België) en mijn beroep is Ik ben op rust..
Ik ben geboren op 18/10/1950 en ben nu dus 74 jaar jong.
Mijn hobby's zijn: Ufologie en andere esoterische onderwerpen.
Op deze blog vind je onder artikels, werk van mezelf. Mijn dank gaat ook naar André, Ingrid, Oliver, Paul, Vincent, Georges Filer en MUFON voor de bijdragen voor de verschillende categorieën...
Veel leesplezier en geef je mening over deze blog.
