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Maandag 2 juni 2025
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.
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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.
27-04-2025
Panicking Over AI? What Chinese, British, and American History Can Teach Us (Part 2)
Panicking Over AI? What Chinese, British, and American History Can Teach Us (Part 2)
China’s final dynasty experienced severe difficulties based on its internal contradictions, and was unable to absorb the introduction of important new technologies without disruption. The historical experiences of Britain and the United States also have lessons to teach us about the impact of significant new technologies, and about how those impacts can be managed—or mismanaged—to promote the greater good, or to harm it.
The Last Dynasty
China’s final imperial dynasty, the Qing, collapsed under the weight of multiple uprisings both from within and without. Despite achieving impressive economic growth during the 18th century – fuelled by agricultural innovation, a population boom, and the roaring global trade in tea and porcelain – levels of inequality exploded, in part due to widespread corruption.
The infamous government official Heshen, widely regarded as the most corrupt figure in the Qing dynasty, amassed a personal fortune reckoned to exceed the empire’s entire annual revenue (one estimate suggests he amassed 1.1 billion taels of silver, equivalent to around US$270 billion (£200bn), during his lucrative career).
Imperial institutions failed to restrain the inequality and moral decay that the Qing’s growth had initially masked. The mechanisms that once spurred prosperity – technological advances, centralised bureaucracy and Confucian moral authority – eventually ossified, serving entrenched power rather than adaptive reform.
When shocks like natural disasters and foreign invasions struck, the system could no longer respond. The collapse of the empire became inevitable – and this time there was no groundbreaking technology to enable a new dynasty to take the Qing’s place. Nor were there fresh social ideals or revitalised institutions capable of rebooting the imperial model. As foreign powers surged ahead with their own technological breakthroughs, China’s imperial system collapsed under its own weight. The age of emperors was over.
A grandfather and grandson beg for food amid the collapse of China’s Qing dynasty in the late 19th century.
The world had turned. As China embarked on two centuries of technological and economic stagnation – and political humiliation at the hands of Great Britain and Japan – other nations, led first by Britain and then the US, would step up to build global empires on the back of new technological leaps.
In these modern empires, we see the same four key influences on their cycles of growth and inequality – technology, institutions, politics and social norms – but playing out at an ever-faster rate. As the saying goes: history does not repeat itself, but it often rhymes.
Rule Britannia
If imperial China’s inequality saga was written in rice and rebellions, Britain’s industrial revolution featured steam and strikes. In Lancashire’s “satanic mills”, steam engines and mechanised looms created industrialists so rich that their fortunes dwarfed small nations.
In 1835, social observer Andrew Ure enthused: “Machinery is the grand agent of civilisation.” Yet for many decades, the steam engines, spinning jennies and railways disproportionately enriched the new industrial class, just as in the Han dynasty of China 2,000 years earlier. The workers? They inhaled soot, lived in slums – and staged Europe’s first symbolic protest when the Luddites began smashing their looms in 1811.
During the 19th century, Britain’s richest 1% hoarded as much as 70% of the nation’s wealth, while labourers toiled 16-hour days in mills. In cities like Manchester, child workers earned pennies while industrialists built palaces.
But as inequality peaked in Britain, the backlash brewed. Trade unions formed (and became legal in 1824) to demand fair wages. Reforms such as the Factory Acts (1833–1878) banned child labour and capped working hours.
Although government forces intervened to suppress the uprisings, unrest such as the 1830 Swing Riots and 1842 General Strike exposed deep social and economic inequalities. By 1900, child labour was banned and pensions had been introduced. The 1900 Labour Representation Committee (later the Labour Party) vowed to “promote legislation in the direct interests of labour” – a striking echo of how China’s imperial exams had attempted to open paths to power.
Slowly, the working class saw some improvement: real wages for Britain’s poorest workers gradually increased over the latter half of the 19th century, as mass production lowered the cost of goods and expanding factory employment provided a more stable livelihood than subsistence farming.
And then, two world wars flattened Britain’s elite – the Blitz didn’t discriminate between rich and poor neighbourhoods. When peace finally returned, the Beveridge Report gave rise to the welfare state: the NHS, social housing, and pensions.
Income inequality plummeted as a result. The top 1%’s share fell from 70% to 15% by 1979. While China’s inequality fell via dynastic collapse, Britain’s decline resulted from war-driven destruction, progressive taxation, and expansive social reforms.
Wealth share of top 1% in the UK,inequality before 1895 is not well documented; dotted curve is conjectured based on Kuznets curve. Sources: Alvaredo et al (2018), World Inequality Database.
However, from the 1980s onwards, inequality in Britain has begun to rise again. This new cycle of inequality has coincided with another technological revolution: the emergence of personal computers and information technology — innovations that fundamentally transformed how wealth was created and distributed.
The era was accelerated by deregulation, deindustrialisation and privatisation — policies associated with former prime minister Margaret Thatcher, that favoured capital over labour. Trade unions were weakened, income taxes on the highest earners were slashed, and financial markets were unleashed. Today, the richest 1% of UK adults own more 20% of the country’s total wealth.
The UK now appears to be in the worst of both worlds – wrestling with low growth and rising inequality. Yet renewal is still within reach. The current UK government’s pledge to streamline regulation and harness AI could spark fresh growth – provided it is coupled with serious investment in skills, modern infrastructure, and inclusive institutions geared to benefit all workers.
At the same time, history reminds us that technology is a lever, not a panacea. Sustained prosperity comes only when institutional reform and social attitudes evolve in step with innovation.
The American Century
While China’s growth-and-inequality cycles unfolded over millennia and Britain’s over centuries, America’s story is a fast-forward drama of cycles lasting mere decades. In the early 20th century, several waves of new technology widened the gap between rich and poor dramatically.
By 1929, as the world teetered on the edge of the Great Depression, John D. Rockefeller had amassed such a vast fortune – valued at roughly 1.5% of America’s entire GDP – that newspapers hailed him the world’s first billionaire. His wealth stemmed largely from pioneering petroleum and petrochemical ventures including Standard Oil, which dominated oil refining in an age when cars and mechanised transport were exploding in popularity.
Yet this period of unprecedented riches for a handful of magnates coincided with severe imbalances in the broader US economy. The “roaring Twenties” had boosted consumerism and stock speculation, but wage growth for many workers lagged behind skyrocketing corporate profits. By 1929, the top 1% of Americans owned more than a third of the nation’s income, creating a precariously narrow base of prosperity.
When the US stock market crashed in October 1929, it laid bare how vulnerable the system was to the fortunes of a tiny elite. Millions of everyday Americans – living without adequate savings or safeguards – faced immediate hardship, ushering in the Great Depression. Breadlines snaked through city streets, and banks collapsed under waves of withdrawals they could not meet.
Unemployed men queued outside a Great Depression soup kitchen in Chicago, 1931.
In response, President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal reshaped American institutions. It introduced unemployment insurance, minimum wages, and public works programmes to support struggling workers, while progressive taxation – with top rates exceeding 90% during the second world war. Roosevelt declared: “The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much – it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.”
In a different way to the UK, the second world war proved a great leveller for the US – generating millions of jobs and drawing women and minorities into industries they’d long been excluded from. After 1945, the GI Bill expanded education and home ownership for veterans, helping to build a robust middle class. Although access remained unequal, especially along racial lines, the era marked a shift toward the norm that prosperity should be shared.
Meanwhile, grassroots movements led by figures like Martin Luther King Jr. reshaped social norms about justice. In his lesser-quoted speeches, King warned that “a dream deferred is a dream denied” and launched the Poor People’s Campaign, which demanded jobs, healthcare and housing for all Americans. This narrowing of income distribution during the post-war era was dubbed the “Great Compression” – but it did not last.
As oil crises of the 1970s marked the end of the preceding cycle of inequality, another cycle began with the full-scale emergence of the third industrial revolution, powered by computers, digital networks and information technology.
As digitalisation transformed business models and labour markets, wealth flowed to those who owned the algorithms, patents and platforms – not those operating the machines. Hi-tech entrepreneurs and Wall Street financiers became the new oligarchs. Stock options replaced salaries as the true measure of success, and companies increasingly rewarded capital over labour.
By the 2000s, the wealth share of the richest 1% climbed to 30% in the US. The gap between the elite minority and working majority widened with every company stock market launch, hedge fund bonus and quarterly report tailored to shareholder returns.
But this wasn’t just a market phenomenon – it was institutionally engineered. The 1980s ushered in the age of (Ronald) Reaganomics, driven by the conviction that “government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem”. Following this neoliberalist philosophy, taxes on high incomes were slashed, capital gains were shielded, and labour unions were weakened.
Deregulation gave Wall Street free rein to innovate and speculate, while public investment in housing, healthcare and education was curtailed. The consequences came to a head in 2008 when the US housing market collapsed and the financial system imploded.
The Global Financial Crisis that followed exposed the fragility of a deregulated economy built on credit bubbles and concentrated risk. Millions of people lost their homes and jobs, while banks were rescued with public money. It marked an economic rupture and a moral reckoning – proof that decades of pro-market policies had produced a system that privatised gain and socialised loss.
Inequality, long growing in the background, now became a glaring, undeniable fault line in American life – and it has remained that way ever since.
Wealth share and income share of top 1% in the US: World Inequality Database; income share: Picketty & Saez (2003). Dotted curves are conjectured based on Kuznets curve.
So is the US proof that the Kuznets model of inequality is indeed wrong? While the chart above shows inequality has flattened in the US since the 2008 financial crisis, there is little evidence of it actually declining. And in the short term, while Donald Trump’s tariffs are unlikely to do much for growth in the US, his low-tax policies won’t do anything to raise working-class incomes either.
The story of “the American century” is a dizzying sequence of technological revolutions – from transport and manufacturing to the internet and now AI – crashing one atop the other before institutions, politics or social norms could catch up. In my view, the result is not a broken cycle but an interrupted one. Like a wheel that never completes its turn, inequality rises, reform stutters – and a new wave of disruption begins.
Our Unequal AI Future?
Like any technological explosion, AI’s potential is dual-edged. Like the Tang dynasty’s bureaucrats hoarding grain, today’s tech giants monopolise data, algorithms and computing power. Management consultant firm McKinsey has predicted that algorithms could automate 30% of jobs by 2030, from lorry drivers to radiologists.
Yet AI also democratises: ChatGPT tutors students in Africa while open-source models such as DeepSeek empower worldwide startups to challenge Silicon Valley’s oligarchy.
The rise of AI isn’t just a technological revolution – it’s a political battleground. History’s empires collapsed when elites hoarded power; today’s fight over AI mirrors the same stakes. Will it become a tool for collective uplift like Britain’s post-war welfare state? Or a weapon of control akin to Han China’s grain-hoarding bureaucrats?
The answer hinges on who wins these political battles. In 19th-century Britain, factory owners bribed MPs to block child labour laws. Today, Big Tech spends billions lobbying to neuter AI regulation.
Meanwhile, grassroots movements like the Algorithmic Justice League demand bans on facial recognition in policing, echoing the Luddites who smashed looms not out of technophobia but to protest exploitation. The question is not if AI will be regulated but who will write the rules: corporate lobbyists or citizen coalitions.
The real threat has never been the technology itself, but the concentration of its spoils. When elites hoard tech-driven wealth, social fault-lines crack wide open – as happened more than 2,000 years ago when the Red Eyebrows marched against Han China’s agricultural monopolies.
To be human is to grow – and to innovate. Technological progress raises inequality faster than incomes, but the response depends on how people band together. Initiatives like “Responsible AI” and “Data for All” reframe digital ethics as a civil right, much like Occupy Wall Street exposed wealth gaps. Even memes – like TikTok skits mocking ChatGPT’s biases – shape public sentiment.
There is no simple path between growth and inequality. But history shows our AI future isn’t preordained in code: it’s written, as always, by us.
Top image: Photo of an early IBM 7030 computer, in the 1960s, on display at National Cryptologic Museum.
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- Gemiddelde waardering: 0/5 - (0 Stemmen) Categorie:SF-snufjes }, Robotics and A.I. Artificiel Intelligence ( E, F en NL )
Quality Of 3D Printing With Lunar Regolith Varies Based On Feedstock
Quality Of 3D Printing With Lunar Regolith Varies Based On Feedstock
By Andy Tomaswick
Some of the 3D printed BPY objects that were tested. Credit - J. Garnier et al.
Lately, there's been plenty of progress in 3D printing objects from the lunar regolith. We've reported on several projects that have attempted to do so, with varying degrees of success. However, most of them require some additive, such as a polymer or salt water, as a binding agent. Recently, a paper from Julien Garnier and their co-authors at the University of Toulouse attempted to make compression-hardened 3D-printed objects using nothing but the regolith itself.
Getting things into space is expensive, so it should be no surprise that any 3D printing technology that requires shipping large amounts of things from Earth is at a disadvantage. Various projects, like one being run by a company called AI Spacefactory, utilize additives like polymers that must be made on Earth and then shipped to the Moon before being combined with regolith in situ.
Dr. Garnier hoped to get around that requirement by using selective laser melting (SLM) on a specific type of regolith analog. Known as Basalt of Pic d'Ysson (BPY), this volcanic rock is collected from the Pic d'Ysson, an ancient, extinct volcano in France. It started growing in popularity as a lunar regolith simulant in the early 2000s due to its chemical and mineral composition similarity to basaltic rocks found on the Moon itself.
Lunar regolith will also be a massive pain for explorers in the beginning, as Fraser discussed with Dr. Kevin Cannon
BPY has already been the target of several studies in lunar 3D printing. ESA researchers have published a paper detailing a "solar sintering" technique that uses the Sun's power to fuse PBY powder. Project MOONRISE, which we've reported previously, also used BPY as a feedstock in its zero-gravity 3D printing applications.
However, most of those studies have found that the BPY wasn't up to snuff when 3D printed, at least in terms of the compression strength of the resultant material. Despite the Moon's lower gravity, there are still stresses on the structures of buildings and equipment on the Moon. If a material's compressive strength can't handle that weight, even in the lower gravity, then it's not much use as a building material.
Measurements for the compressive strength of 3D printed BPY vary dramatically based on the type of 3D printing technique used. Powder Bed Fusion processes, which are regularly used to print metals on Earth, had a compressive strength of 4.2 MPa, slightly more than a standard masonry brick. However, that was with a porosity of almost 50% - meaning nearly half the structure was full of holes. Combining 3D printed BPY with a geopolymer binder can increase its strength, but at the cost of requiring the geopolymer to be shipped from Earth.
What might we manufacture on the Moon? Fraser discusses that question with Dr. Alex Ignatiev
The researcher DR. Garnier and his co-authors focused on trying to uncover what properties of the BPY could lead to better mechanical properties. They varied characteristics like whether the powder was primarily "crystalline" or "amorphous". Crystalline powder has a very ordered structure, with some properties, such as compressive strength, varying widely depending on the direction the ordered crystal structure points. On the other hand, amorphous powder is much more disordered, with its physical properties being the same in all directions.
Experiments showed a doubling in the compressive strength of powder that was 100% crystalline compared to powder that was 100% amorphous, highlighting the importance of the regolith structure selected to build the building materials of any future lunar base.
Optimizing that mix between amorphous and crystalline structure remains on the list of things to do for future work, as well as optimizing the size of particles in the feedstock and the parameters used in the SLM process to create the final material. There's still a long way to go before astronauts can print something usable on the surface of the Moon. But as the date for humanity's return draws closer, it's probably only a matter of time before a mission does make use of the resources available on our lunar neighbor - and they might do so by melting it with a laser.
200 Solar Orbiter Photos Turned into a High-Resolution Image of the Sun
200 Solar Orbiter Photos Turned into a High-Resolution Image of the Sun
By Evan Gough
There's no better word for this image of the Sun than Spectacular, which means something impressive, dramatic, or remarkable that creates a spectacle or visual impact. It comes from the Latin word spectaculum, which means a show, spectacle, or public exhibition. Ancient Romans would agree with the word choice if you could somehow show the image to them.
This composite image of the Sun was constructed from 200 individual images captured by the ESA's Solar Orbiter. It shows the Sun's corona, its million-degree atmosphere, in UV. The spacecraft captured the photos on March 9th, 2025, when it was about 77 million km from the Sun.
The Solar Orbiter pointed at different regions of the Sun in a 5x5 grid. During each pointing, the spacecraft captured six high-resolution and two wide-angle images with its Extreme Ultraviolet Imager, an instrument designed to study the Sun's chromosphere and Corona.
The grey region shows the 5x5 grid in one position on the Sun's surface.
Image Credit: ESA & NASA/Solar Orbiter/EUI Team, D. Berghmans (ROB) LICENCE CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
The image shows coronal loops, solar prominences, and filaments. Interested readers can download a high-resolution image, allowing them to zoom in on incredible detail.
It's easy to lose yourself in the incredible details of the image. The looping structures on the Sun's limb are prominences. They're plasma and magnetic field structures that have their roots in the photosphere and extend into the corona. They can last weeks and even months, extending for hundreds of thousands of kilometres. Sometimes, they detach from the Sun and become coronal mass ejections (CMEs).
When CMEs strike Earth, they can trigger geomagnetic storms that, if strong enough, can damage power grids and cause other mayhem. That's one of the primary reasons scientists study the Sun. CMEs and the constant solar wind are collectively called space weather.
Studying the Sun also helps scientists understand stellar physics and stellar evolution. Many of the Sun's processes, like nuclear fusion and plasma dynamics, are present elsewhere in the Universe, making the Sun a natural laboratory for observing those processes.
If you'd like to download the large, high-res image, visit this.
Two UFOs Over Arlington, Illinois On April 22, 2025, NUFORC, UAP Drone Sighting News.
Two UFOs Over Arlington, Illinois On April 22, 2025, NUFORC, UAP Drone Sighting News.
Date of sighting: April 22, 2025
Location of sighting: Arlington, Illinois, USA
Source: from NUFORC website
A new report just came into NUFORC, a glowing object was seen with another smaller one seeming coming out of it. This larger craft has only a huge flashing light, so powerful we cannot see the shape of the craft, but I put it through a few filters until I found a yellow one that shows its true shape. This is 100% an alien craft. Very rare close up catch.
Scott C. Waring - Utah, USA
Eyewitness states:
Two lights observed in the sky from Arlington Heights station—one large and bright, the other smaller and dimmer. This morning, while at the Arlington Heights station, I observed two lights in the sky—one larger and brighter, the other smaller and dimmer. The larger light had greater intensity, and both lights moved very slowly at first, then began rotating rapidly. I opened the FlightRadar app to check for aircraft in the area, but none were visible on the radar at that time.
While searching over some NASA photos, I found on on Mercury that really caught my eye. There is a structure with three huge spheres on its top and a center tower that goes down to the ground. The object is big, I mean a mile high and a mile wide, but it's blocked by a black wall structure that goes 360 degrees around it to prevent it from being seen from far away. However the NASA satellite caught it. Proof of life? Mercury has more life on it than any planet in our solar system, including Earth.
Fantastic Historical Accounts of Sea Monsters, Mermaids, and Dead Specimens
It seems like sea serpents and various monsters of the deep have been spotted for centuries. Reports of such things go way back, and in addition to sightings, there were even news stories at the time that described sea monsters and mermaids being subdued and killed as well. Here we will go back through the ages to look at early accounts of sea monster sightings, and some that go even further.
Reports of sea monsters go pretty far back into history. One such report is recorded in the thirty-eight volume Natural History, which was published around 77 AD by the Roman author Pliny the Elder. In addition to chronicling Roman culture and the cultures of faraway lands, there are also some odd accounts buried away within its pages. In one such account, Pliny recorded that in the ancient town of Carteia, which was once located near the Strait of Gibraltar in Spain, there was a problem with someone stealing fish from the pickling tubs fishermen were processing their catches in. The fishermen took measures to prevent this, but the thefts continued unabated. They then decided to use guard dogs, and this is where things would get weird.
Apparently one day the dogs started going nuts, and when the fishermen ran to see what was happening rather than a human thief they spotted quite the unusual sight. There coiled around a fish tub was a giant octopus-like monster covered in dried brine and exhaling a hideous and rank stench. The dogs would not go near the thing, so the fishermen approached only for the creature to whip around its tentacles and lash out at them. They were only able subdue the beast after employing the use of long, three-pronged spears, with which they killed it. A report of the aftermath reads:
“The 'head' of this creature alone was said to be equivalent in size to a cask of fifteen aphorae (equivalent to 135 gallons of fluid), and could hardly be encircled by a man with both arms. The tentacles were upwards of thirty feet long, covered with knots -- "like those upon a club" -- and the suckers were said to be as large as an urn with equally large teeth (which implies a squid, as they have a tooth in each sucker). The body was carefully preserved as a curiosity, and weighed seven hundred pounds. Pliny noted that the author of this account stated that other squids and octopai of an equal size were known to occasionally wash ashore, and that these animals did not live beyond two years.”
What in the world was this thing? The Bahamian island known as Isabela is also home to a rather curious historical oddity. It seems that during his journey to the New World, Christopher Columbus himself killed a mysterious serpent here. Columbus's diary entry for October 21, 1492 described how the explorer killed and later skinned a 5 foot long creature described as a "serpent," that he had seen in a lake on the island. The next day, a similar serpent was reportedly killed in another lake on the island by Martin Alonso Pinzon, who was captain of one of the ships under Columbus's command.
Sadly, both specimens were never properly preserved so it is impossible to know just what kind of animals were killed. Further complicating matters is the rather loose definition of the word "serpent" in the vernacular of the era. In Columbus's day, the term "serpent" could be applied not only to large snakes, but to practically anything large and reptilian. Crocodilians, lizards, and even mythical dragons were all equally known to be referred to as serpents. This muddies the waters a bit when searching for an answer to the mysterious diary entry because Columbus could have killed an actual serpent by our understanding of the word, which is to say a giant snake, or it could have been a large type of lizard, a crocodile or alligator, or who knows what else. Considering that the entry offers frustratingly few details, it is impossible to say.
An expedition led by Florida State Museum's assistant curator, Bill Keegan, in 1987 uncovered the remains of an alligator in the ruins of a village on Isleta believed to have been visited by Columbus. It was suggested that the serpent described by Columbus may have been an alligator, which were previously unknown to have ever inhabited the Bahamas and so making it a rather interesting find in its own right. If alligators existed at one time n the Bahamas, it could mean that they were merely imported from elsewhere, but could also represent an unknown population of the animal's historical range or even a new species. However, the presence of alligator bones in a village that Columbus just happened to have visited is far from concrete evidence to link the alligator remains to the diary entry, and so what exactly was killed on that day long ago remains a mystery.
Columbus would later go on to log yet another mysterious sighting in the Caribbean when in September 1494, while sailing along the east coast of the Dominican Republic, he and his crew apparently sighted what was described as a gigantic turtle the size of a whale, with a long tail and fins on its sides. The enormous creature was keeping its head out of the water. Is there any truth to these historical accounts?
Another case takes us to 1639, when a large serpentine beast was said to have been seen gliding through the waters off the coast of Cape Ann, Massachusetts, with witness accounts of the Beast of Cape Ann recording that the animal was not only seen swimming out at sea, but soon also approaching land, where it was said to have slithered onto the shore and coiled itself like a snake. The creature would allegedly be seen by hundreds of people and was all over the news at the time, with headlines like “A Monstrous Sea Serpent, The largest ever seen in America,” and other similarly spectacular titles. The creature was typically described as being an enormous serpent around 100 feet in length, which carried its head about 8 feet above the surface. Was any off this real or was it just ab hoax or a slow news day?
Moving up in years to 1830 we have a report of an actual mermaid that was supposedly killed on the island of Benbecula in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. An account of the incident reads:
“Some seventy years ago, people were cutting seaweed at Sgeir na Duchadh, Grimnis, Benbecula. Before putting on her stockings, one of the women went to the lower end of the reef to wash her feet. While doing so she heard a splash in the calm sea, and looking up she saw a creature in the form of a woman in miniature, some few feet away. Alarmed, the woman called to her friends, and all the people present rushed to the place. The creature made somersaults and turned about in various directions. Some men waded into the water to seize her, but she moved beyond their reach. Some boys threw stones at her, one of which struck her in the back. A few days afterwards, this strange creature was found dead at Cuile, Nunton, nearly two miles away.
“The upper portion of the creature was about the size of a well-fed child of three or four years of age, with an abnormally developed breast. The hair was long, dark, and glossy, while the skin was white, soft, and tender. The lower part of the body was like a salmon, but without scales. Crowds of people, some from long distances, came to see this strange animal, and all were unanimous in the opinion that they had gazed on the mermaid at last. Mr Duncan Shaw, factor for Clanranald, baron-bailie and sheriff of the district, ordered a coffin and shroud to be made for the mermaid. This was done, and the body was buried in the presence of many people, a short distance above the shore where it was found. There are persons still living who saw and touched this curious creature, and who give graphic descriptions of its appearance.”
It is unclear what happened to the body, or if any of this even happened at all. In 1852, a letter stated to be from a Captain Jason Seabury of the ship “Monongahela” outlined a very peculiar encounter at sea. In the letter Captain Seabury stated that on the morning of January 13, 1852, the man on look out reported 'white water', a sign of sea-life activity. Thinking that it might be a sperm whale, the Captain took a closer look through his telescope but could not determine if it was a whale or a pod of porpoises. He then saw a patch of black skin, and at that moment the man on the lookout tower proclaimed that whatever it was was no whale, as it was too large. Seabury ordered his men to be prepared to launch, then waited to see if the creature would surface again. They would not be disappointed.
After around an hour of carefully watching the waves, the Captain could see a body that moved slowly with a motion 'like the waving of a rope when shaken and held in the hand.'Silently the crew watched in amazement as more of the body surfaced, exposing its enormous length, and then the tail began to “vibrate,” agitating the water, and the head of the strange beast rose and lifted above the surface. Captain Seabury, realizing they were looking at a legendary sea-serpent, ordered his men to the boats, which they grudgingly did, afraid of pursuing the mystery beast. The chase was on, and continued until the creature slowed down and eventually came to a stop. At this point they managed to harpoon it, but it put up such a fierce fight that two additional harpoons were sunk into it. All of this was being done as bad weather threatened them, but they continued with their task. The monster continued its fight, diving deep down into the water, but the lines held onto it until the lines suddenly went slack.
Just when they thought they had lost it, one of the crewmen shouted that the beast had surfaced and appeared to be in its thrashing death throes before lying still. The crew warily pulled the creature in, and they were finally able to get a closer look at it. It was apparently 103 feet 7 inches long, 19 feet 1 inch around the neck, 24 feet 6 inches around the 'shoulders', and 49 feet and 4 inches around at the fullest part of the body. The head was long and flat with ridges, and the tongue "had its end like the head of a heart.” The tail ran almost down to a point, terminating instead in a flat, firm cartilage. The serpent's back was black, fading to brown on the sides, then yellow; along two-thirds of its belly was a white streak. In addition, there were random dark spots scattered all across its skin. Upon examining the head closer it was found the jaws contained 94 teeth, very sharp and with an exposed section as large as a man's thumb above the gum line. The teeth pointed backward into the mouth. In addition, the serpent had two spiracles -- breathing holes on top of its head much as whales' possess -- so the beast had to surface to breath. The serpent also had four 'swimming paws' which were like lumps of hard loose flesh. The joints in the serpent's back were very loose, and it seemed as if it could move each vertebrae separately from the others, allowing for smooth motion when it swam. The creature was dismantled, with its head preserved and its heart and one of its eyes preserved in large jars of liquor. Nobody knows what happened to these pieces of evidence after that, and it is certainly a wild ride.
On January 18, 1875, the Pauline was sailing roughly twenty miles off Cape São Roque, on the northeastern side of Brazil, when, at around 11:00 a.m., something bizarre happened that the crew would never forget. Captain George Drevar would write a report on what happened as follows:
“The weather fine and clear, the wind and sea moderate. Observed some black spots on the water, and a whitish pillar, about thirty-five feet high, above them At the first glance I took all to be breakers, as the sea was splashing up fountain-like about them, and the pillar, a pinnacle rock bleached with the sun; but the pillar fell with a splash, and a similar one rose. They rose and fell alternately in quick succession, and good glasses showed me it was a monster sea-serpent coiled twice round a large sperm whale.
The head and tail parts, each about thirty feet long, were acting as levers, twisting itself and victim around with great velocity. They sank out of sight about every two minutes, coming to the surface still revolving, and the struggles of the whale and two other whales that were near, frantic with excitement, made the sea in this vicinity like a boiling cauldron; and a loud and confused noise was distinctly heard.
This strange occurrence lasted some fifteen minutes, and finished with the tail portion of the whale being elevated straight in the air, then waving backwards and forwards, and lashing the water furiously in the last death-struggle, when the whole body disappeared from our view, going down head-foremost towards the bottom, where, no doubt, it was gorged at the serpent’s leisure; and that monster of monsters may have been many months in a state of coma, digesting the huge mouthful.
Then two of the largest sperm whales that I have ever seen moved slowly thence towards the vessel, their bodies more than usually elevated out of the water, and not spouting or making the least noise, but seeming quite paralyzed with fear; indeed, a cold shiver went through my own frame on beholding the last agonizing struggle of the poor whale that had seemed as helpless in the coils of the vicious monster as a small bird in the talons of a hawk. Allowing for two coils round the whale, I think the serpent was about one hundred and sixty or one hundred and seventy feet long, and seven or eight in girth. It was in color much like a conger eel, and the head, from the mouth being always open, appeared the largest part of the body. I think Cape San Roque is a landmark for whales leaving the south for the North Atlantic.”
Amazingly, Driver would see something similarly strange not long after, of which he would write:
“I wrote thus far, little thinking I would ever see the serpent again; but at 7 A.M., July 13th, in the same latitude, and some eighty miles east of San Roque, I was astonished to see the same or a similar monster. It was throwing its head and about forty feet of its body in a horizontal position out of the water as it passed onwards by the stern of our vessel. I began musing why we were so much favored with such a strange visitor, and concluded that the band of white paint, two feet wide above the copper, might have looked like a fellow-serpent to it, and, no doubt, attracted its attention.
While thus thinking, I was startled by the cry of 'There it is again,' and a short distance to leeward, elevated some sixty feet in the air, was the great leviathan, grimly looking towards the vessel. As I was not sure it was only our free board it was viewing, we had all our axes ready, and were fully determined, should the brute embrace the Pauline, to chop away for its backbone with all our might, and the wretch might have found for once in its life that it had caught a Tartar. This statement is strictly true, and the occurrence was witnessed by my officers, half the crew, and myself; and we are ready, at any time, to testify on oath that it is so, and that we are not in the least mistaken. A vessel, about three years ago, was dragged over by some sea-monster in the Indian Ocean.”
In 1883, a man known only as “Mr. Hoad” was taking a stroll along a rural place called Brungle Creek, in New South Wales, Australia, when right after a flood he stumbled cross something very bizarre, indeed. According to the witness, he found there on the shore a weird creature measuring around 30 feet in length, with a lobster-like curved tail and in the place of where a head should be merely what looked like an elephant’s trunk. At the time, newspaper reports were making it out to be the body of a creature from Australian lore called a “Bunyip,” and the author Charles Fort would say of the discovery in his book Lo!:
Remains of a strange animal, teleported to this earth from Mars or the moon -- very likely, or not so likely -- found on a bank of a stream in Australia. See the Adelaide Observer, Sept. 15, 1883 -- that Mr. Hoad, of Adelaide, had found on a bank of Brungle Creek, a headless trunk of a pig-like animal, with an appendage that curved inward, like the tail of a lobster.
Another descriptions reads:
“The body was a headless trunk of a strange animal covered with short, strong hair and an overall pig-like appearance. The terminal appendage curls inward, and resembles the tail of a huge lobster. There was damage on the corpse where it was felt the head and feet should be, and it was assumed these had been eaten away by animals. The flesh in these damaged spots was described as looking like dried ling fish, and the body overall was in a similar state of preservation and shows no sign of decay.”
Making matters even more confusing is that there are also reports that another man by the name of Henry Wilkinson, who also reportedly came across the “headless trunk of a strange animal,” with a pig-like appearance and a “terminal appendage that curls inward, and resembles the tail of a huge lobster,” also along the shore of Brungle Creek. What is sometimes called “Hoad’s Monster” was claimed by the newspapers to be sent to the Sydney Museum for further scientific analysis, but there is no further word on it after that, and no known physical evidence remaining. This was likely just a sensationalized newspaper account with nothing behind it, and making it even murkier is that subsequent retellings of the story over the years have added details such as hair covering the body or flippers, but we will probably never know for sure.
Another report from the 19th century comes from the crew of the British steamer the Emu, which made a stop at the south Pacific atoll known as Suwarrow Island on their way to Sydney, Australia. While they were there, natives excitedly told them of a type of large and mysterious creature they had seen off the coast, which they called the “Devil Fish,” and they even claimed that one had washed ashore. They were led to the carcass and saw that it was 60-feet long, covered with brownish hair, and had the head of a horse, with two formidable tusks jutting from its lower jaw. It was massive, weighing about 70 tons, so they were unable to move it, but the Emu crew secured as many of the remains as they could, including the beast’s skull. It is unknown what became of these remains, but the most common explanation was that they had misidentified a beaked whale. What did they really find out there at that island? Who knows?
As we can see, reports of strange things in the sea go way back, and some of these are even more spectacular in that there was actual physical evidence gained, making it frustrating that these alleged specimens have disappeared into the mists of time to fall into the cracks of history. Indeed, all of these reports have sort of been forgotten to time, and it is good to every once in a while dig them back up and look at them with fresh eyes.
What Makes These Mysterious Moons the Most Puzzling in Our Solar System?
What Makes These Mysterious Moons the Most Puzzling in Our Solar System?
Here’s what makes some of the most mysterious moons in our solar system so captivating — and why they’ve become prime targets in the search for life beyond Earth.
Image Credit: SCIENCE: NASA, ESA, CSA, Webb Titan GTO Team IMAGE PROCESSING: Alyssa Pagan (STScI).
They’re not planets, yet they may be more intriguing. Moons like Europa and Enceladus have oceans beneath their icy crusts, Phobos is slowly falling toward Mars, and Triton orbits backward. These aren’t just barren satellites — they are worlds with geologic activity, strange orbits, and potential for life. And scientists are only beginning to understand what secrets these mysterious moons may be hiding.
Here’s what makes some of the most mysterious moons in our solar system so captivating — and why they’ve become prime targets in the search for life beyond Earth.
Europa and Enceladus: Oceans Beneath Ice
Among all the moons in the solar system, Europa (orbiting Jupiter) and Enceladus (orbiting Saturn) stand out as the most promising places to search for alien life.
1. Europa
Europa’s smooth, icy surface is crisscrossed with brownish lines — likely fractures in its outer shell. Below that ice lies a global ocean that may contain twice as much water as Earth. Scientists believe the ocean is kept warm by tidal forces created by Jupiter’s gravity, which flex the moon’s interior and generate heat.
Active geological resurfacing, possibly from erupting water
Oxygen and other materials on the surface that may mix with the ocean below
NASA’s Europa Clipper mission will fly by the moon dozens of times to investigate whether it could support life.
2. Enceladus
Enceladus is smaller than Europa but just as mysterious. In 2005, NASA’s Cassini spacecr
aft captured stunning images of plumes of water vapor erupting from its south pole — shooting ice particles and organic molecules into space.
Key discoveries:
Cryovolcanic geysers that erupt through surface cracks
Organic compounds, silica particles, and salt — all signs of an underground ocean
Detection of phosphates, essential for life as we know it
The presence of heat, water, and organic material make Enceladus one of the most exciting candidates for extraterrestrial life in the solar system.
Phobos and Deimos: Mars’s Mysterious Moons
Talking about mysterious moons, Mars has two tiny ones, Phobos and Deimos, and both present puzzles that still don’t have clear answers.
Phobos, the larger of the two, is slowly spiraling toward Mars and may eventually crash into the planet or break apart and form a ring. It’s oddly shaped, heavily cratered, and appears to be made of carbon-rich rock, not unlike certain asteroids.
Theories about its origin include:
A captured asteroid from the outer solar system
A re-accreted fragment from a massive impact on Mars
Deimos is even smaller and more distant, with a smoother appearance. Both moons challenge traditional models of how natural satellites form, and Japan’s upcoming Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission hopes to return samples from Phobos to help solve the mystery.
A photograph of Titan. Image Credit: Space Science Institute.
Triton and Titan: Outliers with Odd Behavior
Two other moons, mysterious moons — Triton (Neptune’s largest moon) and Titan (Saturn’s largest) — are full of strange surprises.
1. Triton
Triton is the only large moon in the solar system that orbits in the opposite direction of its planet’s rotation. This retrograde motion suggests it was once a captured object, possibly a dwarf planet from the Kuiper Belt.
It’s geologically active, with ice volcanoes, nitrogen geysers, and a frozen crust. Triton may also harbor a subsurface ocean.
NASA is currently studying potential flyby missions to Triton under its Trident concept, which would aim to investigate its active surface and interior.
2. Titan
Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, is the only moon with a dense atmosphere and features rivers, lakes, and seas — of liquid methane and ethane.
Despite the frigid temperatures, Titan’s chemistry is considered a potential analog for early Earth. NASA’s upcoming Dragonfly mission will send a rotorcraft to fly across Titan’s surface and explore its complex organic chemistry in the 2030s.
These moons aren’t just rocks in orbit — they are worlds in their own right, with active geology, unique atmospheres, and potential habitats for life. What makes them mysterious moons isn’t just their strange behaviors, but how little we still know about them.
In the coming decades, space agencies will focus on missions to these moons to answer questions that could reshape our understanding of planetary formation — and perhaps even the origin of life.
Each of these mysterious moons represents a new frontier in the search for answers about the solar system’s past — and our place in it.
For decades, scientists have searched the sky, scannedradio signals, and sent probes across the solar system in hopes of answering a haunting question: Why haven’t we found alien life? Given the sheer number of planets orbiting distant stars, it seems unlikely that Earth is the only place where life emerged. So what’s going on?
This mystery, known as the Fermi Paradox, is named after physicist Enrico Fermi who famously asked, “Where is everybody?” While the universe should be teeming with life, the silence remains unbroken. Today, researchers have proposed several compelling ideas that could explain why we still haven’t made contact.
The Great Filter: Are We Already Past It, or Is It Still Ahead?
One of the most unsettling explanations is the Great Filter. This theory suggests that somewhere along the path from simple chemistry to advanced space-faring civilizations, there is a step that’s incredibly unlikely. If the filter is behind us — perhaps the leap from single-celled to complex organisms — that’s good news. It would mean life is rare, but we’ve already overcome the hardest part.
But if the filter lies ahead — say, in the form of self-destruction through war, climate collapse, or runaway artificial intelligence — then humanity might be racing toward a wall that most civilizations never survive.
Simulation Hypothesis: Are We Living in a Construct?
So why haven’t we found alien life? Another popular idea is the simulation hypothesis, which argues that we might not be living in the base reality at all. If an advanced civilization could simulate consciousness, they might create entire digital worlds — including ours. In that case, we wouldn’t find alien life simply because the simulation wasn’t designed to include it.
This theory has gained traction in philosophical circles and among some physicists, but it opens up more questions than answers. Who created the simulation? Could we break out of it? And what would finding extraterrestrial life mean in such a scenario?
The Dark Forest Hypothesis: Everyone Is Hiding
In a universe where unknown threats could lurk in any corner, broadcasting your location might be a fatal mistake. That’s the premise behind the dark forest hypothesis, a chilling idea popularized by author Liu Cixin. According to this view, every civilization is both hunter and prey, hiding in silence to avoid being noticed — or eliminated.
If true, then maybe other civilizations are out there but choose to stay quiet. They might have observed us already and decided it’s safer not to interact.
Shutterstock.
Could We Be Looking the Wrong Way?
It’s also possible that alien life simply doesn’t resemble what we expect. Life could be based on elements or chemistry unfamiliar to us. We might be scanning the wrong frequencies, or even missing signs that are right under our noses. Some researchers have suggested that alien probes could be lurking in our own solar system — hidden in places we haven’t fully explored, like the Moon’s far side or inside near-Earth asteroids.
Are We Too Early — Or Too Late?
Timing could be everything. The universe is nearly 14 billion years old. Human beings have only been around for a tiny fraction of that. Civilizations could have risen and fallen before Earth even formed. Or we might be early bloomers, among the first to reach this level of development.
Either way, our timing might explain the silence. We may be shouting into a void that hasn’t had time to echo back — or where the echoes have long faded.
As our tools improve — with missions to distant moons like Europa and Titan, and powerful telescopes like the James Webb Space Telescope — we may finally catch a glimpse of something that answers this age-old question. But for now, the mystery remains unsolved. And maybe that’s the point. Perhaps the search itself is what defines us. What do you think is the most likely explanation? Are we truly alone, or just not looking in the right way?
Almost a Quarter of all Lunar Ejecta Eventually Hits Earth
Almost a Quarter of all Lunar Ejecta Eventually Hits Earth
By Mark Thompson
Lunar crater
The Moon's surface is covered by impact craters, ranging from microscopic pits to massive basins over 1,000 kilometres across. These craters formed primarily during the Late Heavy Bombardment period about 4 billion years ago, when the inner Solar System experienced an intense period of asteroid and comet impacts. Unlike Earth, where weathering, erosion, and tectonic activity continually reshapes the surface, the Moon lacks an atmosphere and significant geological activity, allowing these impact features to remain preserved for billions of years. This remarkably preserved cratering record serves to capture crucial history of the formation and evolution of our Solar System.
Lunar craters over the South Pole
(Credit : NASA)
During the formation of craters a significant quantity of the ejected lunar material achieves the Moon’s escape velocity and reaches Earth. Studying these rocks helps us to understand how material moves between the two bodies. A team of researchers have turned their attention to this study and their paper has recently been published. The research, led by Jose Daniel Castro-Cisneros utilises better computer models than previous studies to track how Moon debris reaches Earth.
The study uses simulations to examine more starting conditions over longer time periods to better estimate how much lunar material reaches Earth and whether it contributes to near Earth objects. The team also hoped that by studying Moon debris trajectories, they would be able to piece together Earth's impact timeline and how it affected life and geology. They are also especially interested in objects like Kamo'oalewa, believed to be between 36-100 metres in diameter orbiting near Earth that might actually be a piece of the Moon.
Previous studies of lunar ejecta were improved upon by using the REBOUND simulation package to track particles from the Moon for 100,000 years. Unlike earlier work that used separate phases, the team simultaneously model Earth and the Moon using a more realistic ejection velocity distribution. They recorded data every five years and collision events defined as ejecta reaching 100 km above Earth's surface, providing a more comprehensive picture of how material transfers from the Moon to Earth.
Crater Tycho displaying its wonderful system of rays thought to be lunar ejecta.
The model employed, used simplified vertical impacts, though natural oblique impacts would direct more material toward Earth at lower angles, the approach simplified the process. Current environmental conditions were assumed but historically, when the Moon was closer and experiencing heavier bombardment (over 1.1 billion years ago), even more lunar material would have reached Earth. Future research should incorporate oblique impact models and ancient orbital configurations to better understand early Earth-Moon material exchange.
The team were able to conclude that, following lunar impacts, Earth collects about 22.6% of the ejected material over 100,000 years, with half of these collisions occurring within the first 10,000 years. The collision rate follows a power-law distribution over time (a relationship where a change in one quantity results in a proportional relative change in another) independent of the initial size of those quantities. Material launched from the Moon's trailing side has the highest Earth collision probability, while the leading side produces the lowest. When hitting Earth, lunar ejecta travel at 11.0-13.1 km/s and predominantly strike near the equator (with 24% fewer impacts at the poles). These impacts are nearly symmetrically distributed between morning and evening hours, peaking around 6 AM/PM.
This research significantly advances our understanding of lunar-Earth material exchange, showing that nearly a quarter of lunar impact ejecta reaches Earth—half within just 10,000 years. The findings about equatorial impact concentration and the importance of lunar launch location reveal previously unknown patterns in this process. These results enhance our understanding of the Earth-Moon system's shared impact history while supporting the lunar origin hypothesis for objects like Kamo’oalewa.
Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) are rocky bodies orbiting our Solar System that pass relatively close to Earth's orbit. Scientists have identified over 30,000 NEOs ranging from small boulders to massive rocks spanning several kilometres in diameter. These celestial bodies are of particular interest to astronomers not only for their scientific value in understanding the formation of our Solar System but also because they pose potential impact hazards to our planet. Space agencies like NASA continuously monitor these objects through programs such as the Near-Earth Object Surveillance Mission, calculating their trajectories to provide early warnings of possible collisions.
Near Earth Object Comet Hartley-2 captured by NASA's EPOXI mission
(Credit : NASA/JPL-Caltech/UMD)
Despite significant advances in asteroid detection technology in recent decades, important gaps remain. Ground-based survey programs like the Catalina Sky Survey and Pan-STARRS have collectively discovered over 90% of near-Earth asteroids larger than 1 kilometre, significantly reducing the risk from globally devastating impacts. However, detection rates drop dramatically for smaller objects, with less than 40% of potentially hazardous asteroids in the 140-meter range currently cataloged. Detection challenges include limitations of ground-based telescopes (affected by weather, daylight, and atmospheric interference), blind spots near the sun, and the inherently dark, low-albedo nature of many asteroids.
A Catalina Sky Survey Observatory at dusk at Mount Lemmon Observatory in the Santa Catalina Mountains near Tucson, Arizona
(Credit : Daniel Oberhaus)
International and U.S. defence protocols have identified the urgent need for rapid-response spacecraft reconnaissance capabilities, particularly for asteroids around 50 meters in diameter—objects large enough to cause significant regional damage yet small enough to evade detection until they're dangerously close. Even after the completion of advanced survey initiatives like NEO Surveyor and the Rubin Observatory, approximately half of these 50-meter objects will remain undiscovered until they're nearly upon us. This sobering reality means that for many potential impact scenarios, a quickly deployed flyby mission may represent our only chance to gather critical data before impact.
The Rubin Observatory against the Milky Way
(Credit : Rubin Observatory/NSF/AURA/B)
In a recent paper authored by Nancy L. Chabot and team from Johns Hopkins University, they assert that a planetary defence flyby reconnaissance mission must demonstrate capabilities to quickly reach a small ~50-meter NEO, determine its Earth impact probability, and gather essential physical data to inform decision makers. This presents significant technical challenges, including managing flyby speeds up to 25 km/s and high solar phase angles while collecting crucial data from such a small target.
The core principle of planetary defence is that we don't choose which asteroids threaten us—we must be prepared to respond to whatever object presents a danger. Therefore, the team argues that the mission's true purpose isn't simply demonstrating asteroid flyby technology, but developing robust capabilities specifically tailored for the small, short-warning-time objects most likely to require rapid space-based studies, an essential advancement in our planetary defence readiness.
Glowing Craft Over Roswell, New Mexico April 12, 2025, UFO UAP Sighting News.
Glowing Craft Over Roswell, New Mexico April 12, 2025, UFO UAP Sighting News.
Date of sighting: April 12, 2025
Location of sighting: Roswell, New Mexico, USA
Source: Email report at scwaring @ yahoo.com
Wow something over Roswell caught the attention of some people last week. The object was glowing and moving fast, but then suddenly ejected itself from the glowing sphere and a long craft exits outward but continues to travel the same direction. Now this almost looks like a rocket launch, but there are no launches near Roswell, also aliens themselves may have thought about hiding from humans by disguising their ships to mimic rocket launches. It's not redicuoulous, it's actually ingenious of them. You see, UFOs have been known to change shape, sometimes from a disk into a plane and have even been seen creating a cloud around itself to disappear. Aliens pride themselves on being smarter than humans, but the truth is...they are not. They only have greater tech advantages. This is a UFO disguising itself as a rocket where no rocket launches exist. Aliens logic is flawed.
This just in. Some UFO lights were seen over Phoenix a few days ago and wow, one of them is so big! I was just in the CIA files yesterday and they noted UFO often having up to four different flashing colors, so bright that the hull of the craft could not be seen by the jet pilots intercepting them. This video shows similar UFOs and one of them is massive is size and looks to me to be 100 meters across. This is 100% proof that the aliens that caused the Phoenix lights...never left, they live there in an underground base about 5 miles below the surface.
Now I made a short clip of a close up and another similar but in a different color which I did in order to help the viewers truly see the shape of the alien craft.
Scott C. Waring - Utah...email me your reports.
Eyewitness states:
We saw blinking lights circling each other, and they started forming a triangle; and then stopped mid-air! I ran in to get my phone to record it, and one had moved away. You can still see two blinking dots… when one, out of nowhere, gets SUPER bright! No idea why?
For decades, scientists have searched the sky, scanned radio signals, and sent probes across the solar system in hopes of answering a haunting question: Why haven’t we found alien life? Given the sheer number of planets orbiting distant stars, it seems unlikely that Earth is the only place where life emerged. So what’s going on?
This mystery, known as the Fermi Paradox, is named after physicist Enrico Fermi who famously asked, “Where is everybody?” While the universe should be teeming with life, the silence remains unbroken. Today, researchers have proposed several compelling ideas that could explain why we still haven’t made contact.
The Great Filter: Are We Already Past It, or Is It Still Ahead?
One of the most unsettling explanations is the Great Filter. This theory suggests that somewhere along the path from simple chemistry to advanced space-faring civilizations, there is a step that’s incredibly unlikely. If the filter is behind us — perhaps the leap from single-celled to complex organisms — that’s good news. It would mean life is rare, but we’ve already overcome the hardest part.
But if the filter lies ahead — say, in the form of self-destruction through war, climate collapse, or runaway artificial intelligence — then humanity might be racing toward a wall that most civilizations never survive.
Simulation Hypothesis: Are We Living in a Construct?
So why haven’t we found alien life? Another popular idea is the simulation hypothesis, which argues that we might not be living in the base reality at all. If an advanced civilization could simulate consciousness, they might create entire digital worlds — including ours. In that case, we wouldn’t find alien life simply because the simulation wasn’t designed to include it.
This theory has gained traction in philosophical circles and among some physicists, but it opens up more questions than answers. Who created the simulation? Could we break out of it? And what would finding extraterrestrial life mean in such a scenario?
Dazzling Pictures Celebrate Hubble Space Telescope's 35 Years in Orbit
Dazzling Pictures Celebrate Hubble Space Telescope's 35 Years in Orbit
By Alan Boyle
The Hubble Space Telescope's 35th-birthday presents include pictures of Mars, the Rosette Nebula, planetary nebula NGC 2899 and the barred spiral galaxy NGC 5335. Credits: NASA, ESA, STScI; Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Alyssa Pagan (STScI)
This week brings the Hubble Space Telescope's 35th birthday — but instead of getting presents, the Hubble team is giving out presents in the form of four views of the cosmos, ranging from a glimpse of Mars to a glittering picture of a far-out galaxy.
It’s the latest observance of a tradition that goes back decades, in which NASA and the Space Telescope Science Institute release pictures to celebrate the anniversary of Hubble’s launch into Earth orbit aboard the space shuttle Discovery on April 24, 1990.
“Hubble opened a new window to the universe when it launched 35 years ago,” Shawn Domagal-Goldman, acting director of the Astrophysics Division at NASA Headquarters, said today in an image advisory marking the occasion.
“The fact that it is still operating today is a testament to the value of our flagship observatories, and provides critical lessons for the Habitable Worlds Observatory, which we plan to be serviceable in the spirit of Hubble.”
Hubble didn’t get off to a smooth start. After the 24,000-pound observatory was deployed, scientists discovered that its nearly 8-foot-wide mirror had a manufacturing flaw. In 1993, during the first of five servicing missions, astronauts installed hardware that greatly improved the sharpness of Hubble’s images.
All those discoveries, and all those images, endeared Hubble to the general public. The loss of the shuttle Columbia and its crew in 2003 led NASA to suspend plans for much-needed repairs, but because of the resulting outcry over the telescope’s potential demise, the space agency agreed to a final servicing mission that took place in 2009.
At the time, NASA expected the telescope to provide dazzling views for an additional five or 10 years. Once again, Hubble exceeded expectations, racking up 16 years of operation without on-orbit repairs.
The images released today illustrate the breadth of Hubble’s range:
Pictures of Mars were captured between last Dec. 28 and 30, near the time when Mars came closest to Earth in its orbit. The images show the planet’s bright orange Tharsis plateau and its dormant volcanoes, the north polar ice cap and wispy water-ice clouds.
Another Hubble image from last December focuses on a small portion of the Rosette Nebula, a huge star-forming region 5,200 light-years from Earth. Dark clouds of gas, laced with dust, are silhouetted across the image. The Hubble team also released a wider-scale image of the nebula to add cosmic context.
In January, Hubble snapped a picture of the planetary nebula NGC 2899, seemingly fluttering like a cosmic moth 4,500 light-years from Earth. The colorful clouds of dust and gas have been shaped by the radiation and stellar winds blasting out from the star at the image’s center.
Hubble produced a new view of the spiral galaxy NGC 5335 in March. The picture reveals a bar-shaped structure that slices across the galaxy and channels gas inward toward the center, fueling the production of new stars. Patchy streamers of star formation swirl around the edges of the galaxy.
Mars near opposition. Image: NASA, ESA, STScI; Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)
Planetary nebula NGC 2899.
Image: NASA, ESA, STScI; Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)
Spiral galaxy NGC 5335.
Image: NASA, ESA, STScI; Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)
Clouds in the Rosette Nebula.
Image: NASA, ESA, STScI; Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)
In recent years, Hubble has been experiencing periodic hiccups, and it's only a matter of time before a glitch puts it out of commission permanently. Meanwhile, the spotlight has been shifting to NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, which was launched in 2021 and has seven times as much light-gathering capability as Hubble does.
Unlike Hubble, JWST sees the universe primarily in infrared light. It doesn't have Hubble's capability to make observations in a wide spectrum ranging from infrared to ultraviolet. And because JWST is positioned at a gravitational balance point a million miles from Earth, it can't be serviced in space, as Hubble was.
In contrast, the Habitable Worlds Observatory would study the universe in visible and ultraviolet light, producing images that would be significantly sharper than Hubble's views. A major goal of that future mission would be to identify potentially habitable Earthlike planets orbiting distant stars. The HWO would also be designed with robotic servicing in mind.
Ever wanted to have better descriptions of the UFOs? Well this CIA file has them and they seem to be similar to some to the things we have seen over the last few months around the world, and they include UFOs partly making clouds to hide in, editing different color lights that will blow your mind...too many naive people think such colors of lights flashing are always planes...but no...this CIA document counters that with so much truth its a little hard to swallow, but wow, I just love it! So here are those ten UFO sightings summarized with the details of the shape, color, etc of the craft.
Scott C. Waring - UFO Sightings Daily
🛸 UFO Report Summary – China (1965–1980)
📍 Scope
Covers ~100 eyewitness reports from 15 provinces and cities in China.
Data collected between 1976–1980, with some historic cases back to 1965.
📅 Key Sightings and Dates
13 Nov 1978 – Wuhan, Hubei Province
Orange-red glowing object, size of full moon.
Slowly drifting west-northwest with cloud around its top.
Silent, visually intense, observed for ~10 minutes.
9 Sept 1976 – Yichun, Jiangxi Province
Disk-shaped, like two cymbals joined.
Rotating, emitted silver vapor, ~2000m altitude.
Seen flying E to NW over 5 minutes.
9 Sept 1979 – Jianli County, Hubei Province
Round object, red/yellow light, blue outer ring.
Emitted an awl-shaped tail, rapidly flying NE to SW.
1976 Tehran Diamond UFO Dropped Probe, Landing Site And Probe Found! Based On CIA Documents and Google Maps, UAP Drone Sighting News.
1976 Tehran Diamond UFO Dropped Probe, Landing Site And Probe Found! Based On CIA Documents and Google Maps, UAP Drone Sighting News.
After analyzing CIA declassified documents and following a 150° magnetic bearing from Tehran’s Mehrabad Air Base — I found it. The exact landing site of the UFO involved in the 1976 Tehran incident.
Location: 34°27'4.62"N, 51°20'33.65"E Size of Object:29 meters across Surface: Dry lake bed in the middle of nowhere, perfectly flat — except for one massive, dark, oval-shaped anomaly.
The object is partially embedded, casting shadows, and appears metallic or possibly scorched. There's no road to it, no buildings, no signs of construction. It’s the only thing in the entire basin.
This perfectly matches what the Iranian F-4 pilots reported: an object that glowed, knocked out their weapons and comms, then landed gently without an explosion. Days later, a U.S. debrief confirmed this—back when we were still pretending UFOs were just "weather balloons."
Now we’ve got the coordinates. We've got visual proof. And we’ve got a crater in the middle of Iran that doesn’t belong to anything man-made or natural.
This was not a crash. This was a controlled landing. And whatever came down in 1976... it wanted to be found, but it's been sitting there for 49 years in the desert partly buried in the dry lake bed floor! The object which looks visible and is the size of a wingspan of a Boeing 737 could contain all answers to all the questions in the universe.
Scott C. Waring, UFO Sightings Daily
📌 Location:
Meteorite?
But there’s no recorded impact of that size in the area.
Lack of explosion or ejecta rules that out.
Man-made?
Unlikely. Nothing in Iran's known infrastructure justifies placing a 29-meter object in the center of a dried lake.
UFO Landing Site?
Fits the Tehran incident description exactly:
Landed softly
Emitted light over 2–3 km
Caused UHF, radar, weapons, and inertial navigation failure
Interacted with nearby home electronics/beeper
Pilot visually confirmed the landing
Coordinates: 34°27'4.62"N, 51°20'33.65"E
A remote dry lake bed east of Qom, perfectly aligned with the 150° magnetic bearing from Mehrabad Air Base
Inside the Tehran FIR (Flight Information Region), the same airspace the F-4 pilots patrolled
🪨 The Object:
Roughly 29.3 meters across (that’s nearly the wingspan of a Boeing 737)
Isolated, no other objects nearby
Appears metallic or composite, with light reflection on part of the surface
Possibly half-buried or partially melted into the surface
Surrounded by a slight depression or impact ring, resembling what you'd expect from a controlled landing or soft crash
🔬 Possible Explanations:
Meteorite?
But there’s no recorded impact of that size in the area.
Lack of explosion or ejecta rules that out.
Man-made?
Unlikely. Nothing in Iran's known infrastructure justifies placing a 29-meter object in the center of a dried lake.
UFO Landing Site?
Fits the Tehran incident description exactly:
Landed softly
Emitted light over 2–3 km
Caused UHF, radar, weapons, and inertial navigation failure
CIA File Says NASA Apollo Missions Spied On Countries! UFO UAP Sighting News.
CIA File Says NASA Apollo Missions Spied On Countries! UFO UAP Sighting News.
CIA documents say NASA Apollo Missions Spied On China and Russia, UFO UAP Sighting News. 🚀🚀🚀 I would bet money SpaceX is spying too. 🤣 I found these documents and made this video, please hit like and share...link here, 4 page doc.
De veranderende vorm van de binnenkern van de aarde
In februari 2025 publiceerde een groep geofysici een onderzoek dat suggereert dat er veranderingen gaande zijn in de binnenkern van de aarde. In 2023 kwamen we er al achter dat de draairichting van de binnenkern van onze planeet rond 2009 veranderd of zelfs omgekeerd kan zijn. Het nieuwe onderzoek suggereert echter dat niet alleen de rotatie van de aardkern aan verandering onderhevig is. De vorm van de binnenste laag van de aarde staat misschien ook niet vast.
Recent onderzoek Begin februari 2025 publiceerden onderzoekers een studie in het tijdschrift Nature die suggereert dat de vorm van de mysterieuze binnenkern van de aarde mogelijk aan het veranderen is.
Eerder onderzoek Wetenschappers ontdekten al in 2023 dat ongeveer 15 jaar daarvoor de rotatie van de binnenkern van de aarde zo sterk vertraagde dat deze mogelijk is gepauzeerd of zelfs omgekeerd.
Kennis uitbreiden De meest recente studie bouwt voort op dat onderzoek en suggereert dat als het gaat om de binnenkern van de aarde, niet alleen de draairichting kan veranderen, maar ook de vorm.
Geen directe waarnemingen Gezien de extreme omstandigheden in het centrum van de aarde is het natuurlijk niet mogelijk om deze veranderingen direct te observeren en te volgen.
Hoe de waarnemingen worden gedaan Wetenschappers gebruiken daarom aardbevingsgolven om aannames te doen over wat er in het binnenste van de aarde gebeurt.
De verschillende lagen van onze planeet Van alle aardlagen weten wetenschappers het minst over de binnenste kern. Het is zelfs de meest afgelegen laag en daarom het moeilijkst te observeren.
Massieve bol van metaal Wat we wel weten is dat de binnenkern van de aarde een massieve bol van metaal is en dat deze een straal heeft van ongeveer 1.221 kilometer.
Veranderende staat Lange tijd geloofden wetenschappers dat de binnenste kern in een permanente staat verkeerde. Maar deze overtuiging komt nu door dit onderzoek op losse schroeven te staan.
De Zuidelijke Sandwicheilanden Meestal gebruiken ze golven van aardbevingen die plaatsvinden op de Zuidelijke Sandwicheilanden bij Antarctica en door de planeet naar Alaska reizen.
Van Antarctica tot Alaska De golven reizen door de aarde zoals sonargolven door water en sommige golven passeren de kern van de aarde op hun reis naar Alaska.
Veranderingen detecteren Om veranderingen in het binnenste van de aarde betrouwbaar te kunnen detecteren, vergelijken wetenschappers aardbevingen van vergelijkbare grootte die op dezelfde plaats maar op verschillende tijdstippen plaatsvinden.
Belangrijke opmerking Bij het bekijken van tientallen jaren aan gegevens hebben wetenschappers echter opgemerkt dat sommige doubletten in de Zuidelijke Sandwicheilanden andere golfvormen genereren in Alaska.
De resultaten interpreteren Dit suggereert dat er iets aan de binnenkern van de aarde is veranderd in de periode vóór de eerste en tweede beving van het doublet.
Openbaringen van 2023 In 2023 rapporteerden wetenschappers echter dat het draaien van de binnenkern zo sterk was vertraagd dat het leek alsof het volledig stopte of zelfs omkeerde.
Ongeveer 200 paar bevingen Voor het onderzoek dat in februari 2025 werd gepubliceerd, keken onderzoekers naar gegevens van ongeveer 200 paar aardbevingen die plaatsvonden tussen 1991 en 2024.
Subtiele verschillen waargenomen Ze namen subtiele verschillen waar in 10 doubletten en concludeerden dat de eenvoudigste verklaring een vervorming van de ondiepe binnenkern zou zijn.
Hoe de veranderingen kunnen plaatsvinden Wat betreft de manier waarop de binnenkern verandert, zijn er twee mogelijkheden. De eerste is dat de hele binnenkern wordt vervormd.
Kleine vlekken De andere mogelijkheid is dat kleine stukjes van de binnenkern van de aarde opzwellen en samentrekken. Als dit het geval is, zou de metaforische rugbybal dezelfde algemene vorm hebben, maar hij zou ook verschillende kleine deuken en bulten hebben.
Aansturen van de veranderingen Als het gaat om de oorzaak van deze veranderingen, denken wetenschappers dat het de zwaartekracht van de mantel kan zijn of materiaal dat in de buitenste kern stroomt.
«Presque de la science-fiction»… les scientifiques estiment que la forme du noyau interne de la Terre change
«Presque de la science-fiction»… les scientifiques estiment que la forme du noyau interne de la Terre change
Les chercheurs qui avaient récemment découvert l’inversion de la rotation du noyau interne de la Terre ont mis en lumière un autre phénomène surprenant : des changements dans la forme de ce noyau.
Depuis longtemps, il était supposé que cette partie de la Terre se déforme lentement pendant sa rotation. Cette nouvelle étude, basée sur des données sismiques collectées entre 1991 et 2023, offre la première preuve de ces modifications. Les scientifiques ont constaté des variations dans les ondes sismiques, indiquant des déformations à la surface du noyau interne.
Le noyau interne est une sphère métallique solide et chaude, entourée d’un noyau externe liquide. Ces déformations pourraient fournir des informations sur les « forces profondes » à l’intérieur de la Terre, responsables de notre champ magnétique. Si ce mouvement cessait, la Terre deviendrait une planète morte, comme Mars, qui a perdu son champ magnétique.
Les chercheurs précisent que ces modifications de la forme du noyau interne sont difficiles à observer directement. Cependant, l’étude apporte une nouvelle perspective aux recherches sur la dynamique terrestre, en complément des découvertes récentes concernant la rotation du noyau. Les experts estiment que ces déformations pourraient être plus fréquentes qu’on ne l’imagine, mais il reste difficile de savoir si elles représentent une anomalie ou une caractéristique normale.
Cette découverte des changements de forme du noyau interne ouvre de nouvelles pistes de réflexion sur des propriétés physiques encore inconnues, comme la viscosité de ce noyau. De telles recherches approfondissent notre compréhension des processus internes de la Terre et des forces qui la façonnent, avec des implications importantes pour notre compréhension de la géodynamique.
The oldest structures on Earth were built before history began — And they don’t match the history books
The oldest structures on Earth were built before history began — And they don’t match the history books
Before cities or writing, ancient builders carved massive stone sites with cosmic precision. Some are over 10,000 years old—and they don’t match the history books.
Long before the birth of cities, kings, or written language, someone was carving monuments out of stone with uncanny precision. These weren’t simple shelters or scattered rocks. They were massive, organized, astronomically aligned structures—built by hands we still don’t understand. And in many cases, long before we were supposed to be capable of building anything at all. In this article, I will take you across some of the oldest structures on Earth.
What we’ve found at sites like Göbekli Tepe, Karahantepe, Nabta Playa, Gunung Padang, and the deepest layers of Baalbek doesn’t align with the timeline printed in textbooks. If the dates are correct—and mounting evidence suggests they are—then our timeline of civilization is off by thousands of years. Despite this overwhelming evidence, history is not being corrected or updated. We continue to tach the same outdated information in school. Despite physical evidence that suggests that history as we know it is far more complex than what we believed only a couple o decades ago. In this article, I will take you across some of my favorite ancient sites and explain why they don’t match history as we are being told.
Göbekli Tepe Was Buried on Purpose—But Why?
A view of the megalithic stones at Göbekli Tepe. Most of the site still remains buried beneath the surface. 7Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons.
Tthis is, I think, one of my favorite ancient sites and literally one of the oldest strcutres on Earth, and I have written about it on various oacacions where I have outlined why this site is such a history breaker. Tucked beneath a dusty hill in southeastern Turkey, Göbekli Tepe stunned the archaeological world when it was first excavated in the 1990s. Carbon dating placed the site at least 11,500 years old, making it not only older than the pyramids, but older than agriculture, pottery, or any form of writing.
Carved T-shaped megaliths, each weighing up to 20 tons, stand in circular formations. They’re decorated with reliefs of wild animals, abstract symbols, and possibly mythological beings. The stonework is not rough or experimental—it’s precise. Intentional. Studies have demonstrated that he builders of this ancient site used advanced geometrical reasoning. And then there’s the strangest part: the entire complex was deliberately buried in antiquity. Someone not only built it—they entombed it. No one knows why.
What purpose did it serve? A temple? A place of ritual gathering? A sky-watching observatory? Nothing about Göbekli Tepe fits the narrative of primitive nomads just learning how to sow seeds. Tis site breaks history because sites like it should not have been possible according to mainstream experts. Yet there it is. Göbekli Tepe is truly a history changer and not many people know about it.
Karahantepe Adds Depth—Literally and Figuratively one of the Oldest Strcutures on Earth
Human depictions and 3D sculptures in the 11,000-year-old Karahantepe complex. Credit: Anadolu Agency
And a short distance away from Göbekli Tepe we have another shocker.
Just 35 kilometers from Göbekli Tepe lies Karahantepe, a site of the same age that may be even more complex. Unlike Göbekli’s open-air circles, Karahantepe includes deep, carved chambers—entire rooms built into the bedrock. More than 250 stone pillars have been uncovered so far, along with stylized human heads and abstract sculptures embedded in the walls. Who could have built these gigantic strcutres over 11,000 years ago? Where they really hunter-gatherers as mainstream experts suggest, or is there something more complex about these ancient people?
The complexity and site of this site was not a one-off anomaly. I believe that whoever built Göbekli Tepe was part of a broader cultural world—possibly a network of sacred or ceremonial sites. Karahantepe expands the story, suggesting the region was teeming with early symbolic architecture. And yet, just like Göbekli, it appears and disappears with no clear lineage, no gradual development, and no evolutionary trail. It’s as if it came from nowhere.
Nabta Playa May Have Tracked the Stars Before Egypt Had a Name
This is what some of the stone cricles of Nabta Playa look like. Reddit.
We cannot go through an article mentioning the oldest structures on Earth without mentioning this incredible acient site. In the Nubian Desert of southern Egypt, Nabta Playa looks at first like a scatter of rocks in the sand. But its alignment tells another story. Dating back 7,000 to 9,000 years, the stones were arranged to mark the rising of Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky—an event that would later become central to Egyptian calendar systems.
Long before pharaohs, this site may have served as both a ceremonial ground and a celestial clock. Buried cattle remains suggest ritual sacrifice, possibly tied to early pastoralist religion. This hints at a connection between astronomy, myth, and seasonal survival long before formal religion or kingdoms took shape. Though smaller in scale than Göbekli or Karahantepe, Nabta Playa reveals something similar: a deep concern with time, sky, and cosmic order. All from people we call “prehistoric.”
Gunung Padang Could Be the Oldest of Them All
The top of Gunung Padang. This ancient site is one of the most controversial. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.
Indonesia’s Gunung Padang might be the most controversial site on this list—but it could also be the most astonishing. On the surface, it looks like a stepped hill made of volcanic stone. But excavations in the last decade have revealed terraces, chambers, and layers of construction that extend 20 meters deep. Some geologists argue the deepest layers could date to as early as 20,000 BCE—a time when the Earth was still in the grip of the last Ice Age.
If proven true, it would be the oldest known human-built structure on Earth by a wide margin. But mainstream archaeologists remain skeptical. The core question is whether the deeper layers are artificial or natural. The debate is ongoing. Regardless of the final verdict, the site challenges our assumptions. At the very least, it shows human activity at the site far earlier than previously believed. At most, it suggests a lost chapter of human development buried—literally—beneath layers of time and earth.
Baalbek’s Megastones Hint at a Forgotten Foundation
Another one of my favorite sites.
High in the Bekaa Valley of Lebanon, the ruins of Baalbek are often credited to the Romans, who built temples to Jupiter and Bacchus atop its massive stone platform. But beneath those classical columns lies a deeper mystery—one that predates Roman engineering by millennia. At the heart of the platform are the Trilithon stones: three limestone blocks each weighing over 800 tons. Nearby, an unfinished stone known as the Stone of the Pregnant Woman weighs more than 1,000 tons. Even with today’s technology, moving and placing these megaliths would be a challenge.
No one knows how they were transported, lifted, or aligned with such precision—and the builders left no inscriptions, no clear cultural fingerprints. Some researchers argue the deepest layers of Baalbek’s foundation could stretch back to the pre-pottery Neolithic, possibly linked to the same horizon as Göbekli Tepe and Karahantepe. If that’s true, then Roman temples were built atop something far older—a platform whose origins remain undocumented. Baalbek’s base may not yet be as precisely dated as the others on this list, but it raises the same unsettling question: Who built the foundation—and when?
Why Were They Building at All?
This is the question that lingers. Why were people with no cities, no writing, no metallurgy, and supposedly no organizational complexity carving massive stones and aligning them to the stars? Some researchers believe these were spiritual centers. Others think they were calendars—designed to track the solstices, lunar cycles, or stellar movements crucial to seasonal survival. Still others suggest they were gathering places where ideas, stories, and collective memory were shared in symbolic form.
But here’s the problem: none of this fits with how we define “prehistory.” We were taught that humans built monuments after developing agriculture and complex societies. These sites flip that script. Maybe, just maybe, the desire to build came first—and everything else followed.
If even one of these sites is as old as the evidence suggests, then the timeline of human history needs serious revision. The builders were capable of organizing labor, understanding celestial cycles, and shaping stone on a massive scale. These weren’t scattered efforts. They show patterns — of intent, of knowledge, and of memory we no longer share. There’s still too much we don’t know. But it’s clear we’ve been starting the story too late.
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...
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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.