The Oceans on Enceladus Are Highly Alkaline

By Laurence Tognetti, MSc  

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

30-06-2025 om 14:00 geschreven door peter  

Mysteries of Antarctica That Can't Be Explained!

Antarctica is under the control of the Antarctic Treaty of 1961, which is overseen by multiple countries, and anyone who wishes to go to the icy continent, whether they are individuals or an organization, needs to get permission from this group. The area has been put off-limits for scientific preservation and investigation. Given that this location is the last place on Earth that is largely untouched by human activity, it is perhaps easy to understand why these protections have been put in place. However, as we might imagine, some people have questions about the rigid control such a small group has over an entire continent. Indeed, when we explore some of these conspiracies, we can see why, along with the secrecy that surrounds Antarctica, they have endured for such a long time and are likely to continue.  

The mysteries of Antarctica stretch back centuries, arguably with the discovery of the Piri Reis Map, which was made in 1513, and appeared to have Antarctica accurately placed, even though it wasn’t officially discovered until 1820. Moreover, as pointed out by the late Jim Marrs in his book Our Occulted History: Do The Global Elite Conceal Ancient Aliens?, this was “especially puzzling because (Antarctica) has been under an ice cap for at least four thousand years!” Where, then, did the information come from that had this ice-covered world not only accurately placed but depicted (presumably equally accurately) without ice?

Most research suggests that the map was created by a Turkish admiral, Piri Reis, who had used other, much older, perhaps even ancient maps to create the map that would be named after him. He also claimed to have “made use of charts and maps dating back to ancient Greece!” Making the creation of the map even more mysterious, these maps and charts from ancient Greece, according to Reis, were themselves based on documents from ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, meaning he was working with information that could have been, even during his time, 4000 years old, perhaps even older. What makes these alleged ancient Egyptian documents even more intriguing is the potential that this information could itself have come from much further back than even the time of the ancient Egyptian civilization. In his book Temple of the Stars, author Brinsley le Poer Trench offered that “tradition tells us that ancient Egypt was a colony of Atlantis!” If there was any truth to this, could the information the Piri Reis Map was based on stretch back to Atlantis which would, in turn, offer proof that tales of Atlantis are much more than pure legend and myth, and that survivors of the legendary land somehow made their way to Egypt, perhaps even kick-starting the ancient civilization there.

What is even more interesting and thought-provoking is that recent satellite images taken over the icy continent appear to match the basic outline on the Piri Reis Map that most people assume to be Antarctica. If the outline is proven accurate, then other information detailing extensive forests, mountains, and other terrains would also likely be accurate, and would perhaps offer further speculative proof that Antarctica, many thousands of years ago, was once an inhabitable and inhabited land. In fact, when we consider such claims of the planet undergoing a pole shift that plunged Antarctica into the icy conditions it endures today in a matter of hours, we might also find further connections between the legends of Atlantis, as well as what was responsible for its sudden destruction. Indeed, we might contemplate that if Antarctica was once much further north than it currently is, if there had been any kind of advanced warnings, that a small group of survivors could have reached Africa and, eventually, what was the land of ancient Egypt.

One of the first people to suggest such a possibility was researcher Charles Hapgood, who, among other things, suggested that Antarctica could have been free of ice and inhabited as recently as 4000 BC. While this speculative end to Antarctica and its presumed advanced civilization would still put it 1000 years away from the accepted start of the great civilizations in Egypt and Sumer, we should also note that these dates are often the result of guesswork and might not be entirely accurate. Moreover, we might also consider that a small group of survivors, even a group that numbered several hundred, might have taken a considerable amount of time to rebuild themselves anywhere close to where the legends tell us such lands of Atlantis once were, perhaps even several hundred years.

While these suggestions might sound preposterous to some, we should consider that the Piri Reis Map also includes other accurate information before it was, once more, according to mainstream history, known to the people of Europe. It shows, for example, what appears to be the Falkland Islands just short of a century before they were discovered. Moreover, and even more impressive, the map also showed an accurate coastal outline of what is modern-day South America, including several of the major rivers, rivers, incidentally, that would not be fully mapped out until the twentieth century.

The Piri Reis Map Mystery: Ancient Alien Tech or Lost Civilization?

We know that the Piri Reis Map is not a silly hoax and that the map is genuine. Just how those whose work Reis used to so accurately depict such coastal outlines, including, remember, Antarctica, and how it might look without the covering of ice,  remains a complete mystery. Had an ancient civilization, one that was at its peak before the time of the ancient Egyptians, somehow managed to map out most of the land masses of the planet? And if so, just how had they done this? Were they masters of the waves and had mapped out the land masses of the world that way? Or might they have even had access to aerial vehicles, machines, and devices, in much the same way as we do today, and is this how they so accurately recreated such coastal outlines?

Even considering these possibilities forces us to look deeper into the mystery, which, in turn, brings up further questions. For example, according to mainstream science and history, Antarctica has been under a huge sheet of ice for approximately the last 15 million years (just think about that number for a moment!). So, does that mean that the coastal outline of Antarctica was mapped out by an advanced civilization over 15 million years ago, obviously much earlier than mainstream history says advanced humans existed, or does that mean that Antarctica was, as Hapgood suggested, not covered by ice as recently as several thousand years ago? If either of those possibilities were true, it would be highly significant for our understanding of human history.

Of course, we should perhaps also consider, if mainstream history is correct and Antarctica has been under ice for around 15 million years, as well as being correct about advanced humans not existing so far back, then might whoever made the outlines of Antarctica before it was covered by ice not have been human at all but some other intelligent species that once existed on Earth and whose knowledge and wisdom was somehow preserved right up until the time of ancient Egypt, before the scribes and scholars of ancient Greece preserved it further, with it eventually falling into the hands of Piri Reis himself in the early sixteenth century. It is also interesting to note that Hapgood speculated that this information was likely passed down through the generations in an “underground stream” – essentially, through secret societies, whose presence in such matters only makes them more mysterious.

Before we move on, it is worth our time briefly examining another mysterious map that Charles Hapgood discovered hidden in the Congress archives in 1960. Known as the Terra Australis Map, it was drawn up in 1531 (less than 20 years after the Piri Reis Map, incidentally), and contains an area of land, named Terra Australis on the map, that appears remarkably similar to the ice mass of Antarctica. Moreover, there are even markings for mountains on this particular piece of land that also match those known to exist on Antarctica. Once more, considering that no type of known exploration of Antarctica had taken place in the early 1500s, then we have to assume that this map, or at least the information it was based on, was created thousands of years previously, quite possibly around the same time as the documents used to create the Piri Reis Map were created.  

Without a doubt, some of the most enthralling and equally outrageous conspiracies concerning Antarctica have taken hold since the years following the Second World War, and it would be impossible to explore the mysteries of Antarctica during this time without turning our attention to Operation Highjump, which took place in late 1946 and early 1947. Whether the real reason for the expedition was for training exercises in “cold conditions” as well as to establish a multinational research base or not remains open to debate. There were, however, even then, rampant rumors of a Third Reich base in Antarctica, as well as even more bizarre rumors that the Third Reich had stumbled upon an entrance to the alleged Inner Earth and had established contact with an extraterrestrial race that had resided there for thousands of years. As bizarre as these suggestions might be, we might also consider that many Third Reich engineers and scientists had been transplanted to the United States as part of Operation Paperclip, and could very well have passed on such information to their new superiors.

With these last thoughts in mind it is also worth considering the contemplations of researcher and author Graeme Davis, who claimed in his book Nazi Moonbase that the Third Reich had managed to transfer the Haunebe Disc to this base in Antarctica, and high-ranking Third Reich member, Hans Kammler, had also traveled to the base to carry on working on the program with a view to “continuing the war!”

Whatever the truth, the multinational mission resulted in some of the strangest encounters ever documented, as well as some remarkable statements from one of the highest-ranking members of the mission, Admiral Richard Bryd. The fleet was approaching the Antarctic coast in December 1946. However, it was in February 1947 when Byrd took to the skies in order to observe the icy land that was Antarctica. He would, if we are to believe his reports and diary notes to be accurate, see a lot more than he bargained for.

He claimed that, as opposed to being continuous sheets of ice below, the terrain suddenly changed to vast fields of green vegetation. What’s more, he could see multiple animals that “shouldn’t have been there”, including some kind of “mammoth-like animal!” Even stranger, at one point when he looked down from his plane, he saw something that appeared “to be a city!” Then, as he ventured deeper and deeper over the land, a voice suddenly came over the radio. However, it wasn’t from his Operation Highjump crew, but instead had a “Nordic or Germanic accent!” This foreign voice welcomed Byrd to “our domain!”

It was around this time that he realized he had been flying into some kind of “opening” in the Earth, and only moments after this realization, some powerful force suddenly took control of his aircraft. Before he had time to contemplate what was happening, his plane was surrounded by several saucer-shaped vehicles – and each of these strange vehicles had what appeared to be a Third Reich swastika on their exteriors. Realizing he was in a helpless situation, Bryd remained as calm as he could as his plane was brought down calmly to the ground.

According to his flying notes, after his plane was brought down, several “tall men with blond hair” approached the aircraft, while “in the distance,” he could see “a shimmering city pulsating with rainbow hues of color!” He noted that he couldn’t see any signs that the men were carrying any weapons before ending his flight notes, stating he could “hear a voice ordering me by name to open the cargo door!” According to recollections he later revealed from memory, he did so and stepped out of the plane.

Upon scanning his surroundings, Byrd found himself standing inside a “mammoth cavern”. As he looked around further, he could see what appeared to be large stretches of vegetation, as well as what looked like lakes. Stranger still, Bryd claimed he could sense or feel the presence of some kind of sun. The next thing he realized, he, along with one of his wingmen, was led towards a large building. As they walked, Byrd could see that many of the buildings of this inner city were “made of a crystal material!” Once inside the building, the two men were led inside a room where they were each given a “warm beverage which tasted like nothing I have ever savored before!” They were left alone for several minutes before two of the tall, blond men returned, requesting that Byrd join them, which he duly did.  

According to what Byrd later stated, he was taken to meet representatives of a civilization that resided inside the Inner Earth, and that they had allowed him entry to their subterranean domain because he was “of noble character and (was) well known on the ‘Surface World’”. Further, according to Byrd’s recollections, this civilization had taken a great interest in the human race following the dropping of the atomic bombs over Nagasaki and Hiroshima, not least because of the potential danger the use of such weapons had to their own civilization. Moreover, at least according to claims Byrd made during a press conference interview with a Chilean newspaper shortly after his encounter, he was told by these representatives of this inner race that “in the case of a new war, the continental United States would be attacked by flying objects which could fly from pole to pole at incredible speeds!” Although it wasn’t perhaps picked up on that much at the time, in the years and decades that have followed, it appears that Byrd was describing many of the disc-like objects that would be witnessed regularly following the wave of UFO sightings in the summer of 1947, just one of which, remember, was the infamous Roswell crash.

As we might imagine, there was and has been a mixed reaction to Byrd’s statements and claims. It is interesting to note, though, that Byrd was “hospitalized” only days after his famous press conference, the last such press conference he would ever give. He did, though, make further references to the incident, both in his reports and his writings. In one of his reports to his superiors, for example, he stated that he had been “ordered to remain silent regarding all that I have learned on behalf of humanity!” One of his final thoughts, committed to paper in December 1956, however, is particularly interesting. In this writing, he stated his desire that “this secret will not die with me!” It is, though, his last line of this particular piece of writing that his of most interest, when he states, “…for I have seen the land beyond the pole, that center of the great unknown!”

Operation Highjump: The Forgotten Battle For Antarctica

Byrd, incidentally, passed away suddenly in 1957 from an “underlying heart ailment!” While you might make of that what you will, it is also interesting to note the sudden death of Byrd’s son, who had accompanied his father on Operation Highjump, whose dead body was discovered in suspicious circumstances in an abandoned warehouse in New York.    

Several years before Operation Highjump, in the immediate months following the end of the war in Europe, according to a series of articles by James Roberts in Nexus Magazine between late 2005 and early 2006, a discreet British military unit was dispatched to Antarctica on a highly secretive mission. James claimed his source was a (then) serving British soldier, whose unit was “resting in a cave in the former Yugoslavia” following the end of the fighting in Europe. His unit was expecting to be dispatched to Japan, where the conflict was still raging, but they instead were sent to Palestine to help ease rising tensions in the country. Then, out of the blue in October 1945, he received orders to immediately report to his commanding officer, where he was informed he had been selected for an ultra-secret mission – a mission so secret that “none of his senior officers knew why!”

He found himself on his way to Gibraltar, where he would be sent to the Falkland Islands. Once there, he found himself among other soldiers from various units across “other elite British forces”, all specifically selected for this top-secret mission. Moreover, during the flight to the Falklands Islands, all of the unit was told they were under strict orders to speak to nobody outside of the unit about their mission. Once on the Falkland Islands, the unit was met by a British Officer who would be leading the mission, as well as a member of the Norwegian Resistance, who, they were told, would train them in “winter warfare and survival!”

For the next month, the unit underwent intense training in cold-weather warfare, including exercises in the icy waters of the South Atlantic Ocean. Following this, the unit was finally briefed on the nature of their mission, a mission, incidentally, that there was “little chance” of all of them surviving. They were informed they were to be transported to the British base in Maudheim on Antarctica, where they would investigate “anomalous activity” in the Muhlig-Hoffmann Mountains, which was, they were told, part of “Britain’s secret war!”

The unit was then briefed on the British military’s secret operations and activity on Antarctica. According to the briefing, the British military had begun establishing bases on Antarctica following the Third Reich's establishment of a presence there in the late 1930s. Moreover, Maudheim, where they would be based, was less than 200 miles from this main Third Reich base. Then, the briefing turned even stranger.

The unit was briefed on “extensive German activity” in the water of the South Atlantic Ocean, specifically off the coast of Antarctica, activity which appeared to increase at the same time as several German U-boats went “missing” after the war. According to their briefing, following the fall of Berlin and the end of the war in Europe, British forces had captured leading Third Reich members, Rudolph Hess, Heinrich Himmler, and Hitler’s named successor, Karl Donitz, which gave them the chance to question the men extensively, away from the Americans and the Soviets. This meant they managed to extract information that remained with the British only, allowing them to act independently of the Allied powers. This intelligence suggested that the Third Reich had not only managed to establish one base on Antarctica, but several, and what’s more, not only were these bases used to house high-ranking Third Reich members, but the results of ominous and bizarre experiments.

The briefing continued that several months earlier, a first unit had been sent to the region to investigate. This unit, which consisted of a mixture of soldiers, scientists, and engineers, had discovered an “ancient tunnel” that they, ultimately, investigated. The mission, though, seemingly took a tragic turn. Only two members of the unit returned from wherever the tunnel system had led. However, as the intense winter had now set in, the pair were stranded in their location for several months. They managed to remain in radio contact with the main base for some time, but their communications became increasingly bizarre and absurd. They began reporting, for example, of surviving Third Reich members who had control of strange creatures referred to as “Polar Men!” Then, in late July 1945, the main base received a final message from the pair. This communication ended with a panicked voice stating that, “The Polar Men have found us!”

At this point, the newly assembled unit received the directives of their mission. They were to head to Maudheim and then locate the ancient tunnel network that the first unit had investigated. They were then to venture inside and report back on what they found. Moreover, they were to investigate the claims of the surviving Third Reich members, as well as the mysterious and ominous-sounding Polar Men. Ultimately, if they were to find such a base or survivors, they were under orders to completely destroy it.

According to Roberts’ source, the unit then bombarded their superiors with a flurry of questions – questions which he stated, to their credit, their superiors were “honest and direct” in answering. The unit asked, for example, why Britain had decided to undertake such a mission alone, to which they were told that the British government did not wish the United States or the Soviet Union to gain access to any further Third Reich technologies, or scientists or engineers in the interests of keeping the balance of power on the international stage.

Not long after this brutal briefing, the unit was taken to their drop-off point approximately 20 miles from Maudheim Base, where they “parachuted into the icy wilderness” below. Once on the icy terrain, they discovered snow tractors awaiting them to negotiate their route to the base. Ominously, each of the units realized that as soon as they touched down on the ground, they were “on a war footing!” Moreover, they all knew that there was “no back-up or chance of retreat!”

It didn’t take long for the unit to discover the base, which very much appeared abandoned. They split into several smaller groups and began searching. Moments later, some kind of tripwire was broken, and alarms blared out all around them. As the unit quickly scanned their surroundings, looking to identify any potential threats, a voice sounded out, telling the men to identify themselves. Suddenly, with all members of the units with their guns at the ready, the leader of the mission ordered them to lower their weapons before telling them the voice belonged to the surviving member of the first unit.

The men quickly went about debriefing this surprise survivor. He informed them that the other missing soldier was locked in “Bunker One” with one of the savage Polar Men. Not long after, members of the unit were ordered to gain entry to Bunker One and inspect inside. The surviving soldier warned the unit not to open the bunker, but his concerns were overruled by the leader of the mission.

After opening the bunker, one of the soldiers stepped inside. For a moment or two, there was nothing but silence. Then, two gun shots rang out before a huge, bulking figure sprang from the darkness and vanished from the base with remarkable speed. The unit then inspected the bunker from which the figure had emerged, and into which their colleague had entered. Once inside, they were greeted with the sight of their dead colleague, his “throat ripped out!” They then turned their attention to a grim pile of bones close by – bones they presumed belonged to the other surviving soldier.

The leader of the mission then turned his attention back to the lone surviving soldier, who told them everything that had happened. He claimed that when his unit had searched the ancient tunnel system, it had gone on for several miles before they entered a “vast underground cavern” that he recalled was “abnormally warm!” Even stranger, they noticed several large lakes within this cavern, as well as artificial lighting – lighting they assumed belonged to the Third Reich presence they had come to investigate.

As the unit searched this huge, cavernous space, they made further, even more remarkable discoveries, finding huge hangars large enough to fit several aircraft, as well as a docking station for U-boats, with one U-boat even being docked there. It was as they were investigating these parts of the cavern when they were suddenly surrounded by a unit of Third Reich soldiers. The soldier informed them that he and the other surviving member had somehow managed to go unnoticed and had managed to slip back into the tunnel system, although not before they witnessed several of their unit executed by the Third Reich soldiers. It was as they were making their way back through the tunnel systems that they realized two large figures were pursuing them – figures they would call Polar Men.

By the time they arrived back at the base, the two soldiers, realizing they would be unable to reach the main base on foot and that a rescue attempt would be doomed, decided to each take a radio and then head to a separate bunker. Here, though, is where the story became a little strange. For reasons the surviving soldier simply couldn’t fathom, his fellow soldier seemingly enticed one of these Polar Men into the bunker with him, perhaps in an attempt to kill it, an attempt that clearly failed. Following this, the surviving soldier simply remained in the bunker until the second unit arrived – a unit, remember, that he would have had no knowledge of.

The survivor was then asked who these monstrous Polar Men were, and the answer he gave turned the whole affair even more bizarre. He stated that they were the result of some kind of Third Reich experiment that involved the “mastery of an unknown power source!” These Polar Men were men that had been genetically altered to allow them to adapt to their environment – in this case, the brutal cold conditions of Antarctica – as well as making them aggressive, obsessive human killing machines, essentially, a super soldier who would stop at nothing to hunt and kill its target.

Despite what they had learned, the following day, this second unit received orders to investigate the tunnel system. They set out for their destination, amazed that the icy environment around them suddenly changed to one of a “dry valley” that was more akin to a North African desert than the subzero conditions of Antarctica. Not long after finding themselves in this region, they discovered the tunnel’s entrance. Rather than investigate immediately, they decided to camp down near the entrance for the night in order to rest. However, several hours after doing so, one of these mysterious Polar Men approached their camp. This time, though, the unit was not only quick to react to the threat, but they managed to kill the intruder. They quickly dissected the specimen, noting that while it was indeed human, it was much stronger than even the strongest human might be, and seemingly had the ability to grow thick hair on its body, seemingly to protect it from the harsh, icy conditions.

The following morning, after leaving two soldiers to guard the tunnel entrance and the carcass of the Polar Man, the rest of the unit set off into the tunnel network. There were nine men in total, including the unit leader, one of the scientists, the Norwegian Resistance member, and the surviving member of the first unit, each carrying with them heavy weapons and “enough explosives to wage a small war!” For a large part of the descent, the unit found themselves in almost complete darkness. Then, suddenly, they could see a light in the distance ahead of them. A short time later, they found themselves in the artificially lit cavern.

At this point, they moved quietly and were soon looking down at various Third Reich personnel “scurrying about like ants” below them. As this was happening, and with the unit leader relaying the plan for their operation, the scientist scribbled down as many notes as he could of the activity unfolding below them. This discreet surveillance continued for the next 48 hours before specific targets in the base were identified as locations to plant explosives. This operation went perfectly, with the Third Reich personnel remaining ignorant of their activities. In fact, things went so perfectly that the unit even managed to capture a member of the Third Reich unit who could be used as a hostage or source of information. However, as they were about to vacate the cavern and set off the carefully planted explosives, a number of Third Reich soldiers spotted them. Moreover, they, along with what appeared to be several of the Polar Men, began in pursuit of them.

The unit decided to quickly set up some of the explosives near the tunnel entrance in an attempt to destroy the way out of the cavern, and so buy them some time to escape their pursuers. This worked, but by the time the mines had gone off, several Third Reich soldiers as well as several Polar Men had already managed to venture into the tunnel. According to Roberts’ source, by the time they reached the tunnel’s outer entrance, only he, the scientist, and the Norwegian Resistance member remained alive. Along with the two soldiers who had remained guarding the entrance, the three of them quickly set up the rest of their explosives at the tunnel’s entrance. They managed to detonate them before their pursuers had reached them, and by the time the air had settled, there was “no evidence of any tunnel ever existing!” Ultimately, the unit was successfully recovered from the base a short time later and transported back to the Falkland Islands. Once there, they were debriefed, with a lot more urgency and harshness than before. They were told that it was strictly forbidden for any of them to speak to anyone about their mission, including their superiors. As Roberts’ source noted, the cover-up was already unfolding, and it appeared to be more than just the mission that was being suppressed.

As they had ventured into the tunnel system, for example, the scientist had noticed that not only was it clear that it was ancient and not recently created, but that it was not a naturally occurring tunnel but one of precision planning and execution. Their superiors, however, insisted that the tunnel was the result of “glacial erosion”, something they were quite insistent on. Perhaps most remarkable of all, though, despite the clear findings of the dissection they had performed, not to mention the superhuman strength and speed they had witnessed, the unit was told the Polar Men were “nothing more than unkempt soldiers who had gone crazy!”

The source also told Roberts that the Royal Air Force continued to fly mysterious missions over this part of Antarctica for several years following the mission. The official reason for these flybys was to scout potential locations for scientific bases. However, the source stated to Roberts that “one can’t help but wonder!” Indeed, one can’t.

We might contemplate just how true such claims might be, and who might have been the source of such information to the British military. According to some researchers, a likely candidate could very well be none other than the previously mentioned named successor to Adolf Hitler, Karl Dönitz. Dönitz was in charge of the German Navy and, in turn, the German U-boat program, something that Hitler became quite fixated on towards the end of the war. Most mainstream researchers suggest that this fixation likely came out of a hope that the U-boats could turn the tide of the war back in the Third Reich’s favor. However, some researchers have suggested that the real reason for a concentration on the U-boat program was so they could be used to secretly transport high-ranking members of the Third Reich – perhaps even Hitler himself – to locations in South America, and perhaps, Antarctica.

Another thing to keep in mind about Dönitz is his trial as a war criminal following the war. While many of his fellow Third Reich members were executed, Donitz insisted that he was “ignorant of Nazi atrocities” and that he “only fought a legal war!” He further claimed that he had no knowledge whatsoever of the horrors of the concentration camps. Ultimately, he was not only spared the death penalty, but he received a prison sentence of only 10 years. We might ask how likely it is that someone so high up in the Third Reich, not to mention the person named as Hitler’s successor, would have been unaware of the full horrors of the regime’s actions. Moreover, we might indeed ask if some kind of deal was arranged behind the scenes between Donitz, the British, and those at the Hague.

It is also not unrealistic to think that the British military would have had relatively free access to Antarctica following the end of the war in Europe, with various factors at play. Of immediate concern for the United States, for example, was bringing the conflict with Japan to an end, something that happened several months later with the dropping of the atomic bombs over Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Moreover, it was becoming apparent to the United States that the Soviet Union was about to join them as a superpower on the world stage, and that despite their alliances in the conflict with Germany, their political ideology of communism set them against the United States and its interests – ultimately, the Cold War was just about to unfold.

Of course, by the time of Operation Highjump, the secretive British missions were over a year in the past. However, if Admiral Bryd’s claims are true and accurate, if only partially, it would very much attest to a prolonged Third Reich presence on Antarctica after the secretive British mission.

Whether a secret British mission to Antarctica took place or not remains very much open to debate, at least for some. With this in mind, we might ask, if there was any truth to such claims, just what the real importance of the nearby Falklands Islands might actually be. Could it be that it provides the British military with a quick launch-point to the icy continent should further discoveries be made or anomalous activity detected? Perhaps they are still monitoring the region today.

Another thought-provoking detail to note, however, before we move on, was the discovery in 1984 (although not made public until 1985) by the British Antarctic Survey of a hole in the Ozone layer – a hole that was over the same location as the secretive British missions at the end of the Second World War. The cause of this hole was determined to have been due to an increase in the use of CFCs. However, some researchers into the alleged strange goings-on in Antarctica have offered that this hole in the Ozone layer could very well have been the result of powerful explosions from nuclear weapons deployed in a war that the vast majority of the world is completely ignorant of.  

One last thing to consider is another detail put forward in the Nexus Magazine articles that detailed the secret British mission in late 1945. It stated that in 1999, a team of scientists on an expedition in the area allegedly discovered a new virus that no animals or humans had immunity to. While it is not clear what happened to this virus and how it was contained, as well as the fact that we need to treat such claims with a considerable helping of salt, it is also interesting to think that if Third Reich scientists were continuing their experiments on Antarctica in the years following the war could very well have established some kind of new virus to attack their enemies. Perhaps their bases were destroyed before this virus could be unleashed, but the virus itself remained within the icy ruins of these facilities.

Several years after these events, including Operation Highjump, one of the first recognized UFO researchers and investigators, Albert Bender, also made some remarkable discoveries about Antarctica, at least according to reports in the years that followed. As Bender began to investigate the many UFO reports that were surfacing across the United States, he formed the International Flying Saucer Bureau (IFSB) and soon caught the attention of the authorities and, as we shall see, the Men In Black. Bender spoke to hundreds of people who claimed they had witnessed these strange craft, and put out multiple articles and books. Then, out of nowhere in the mid-1950s, he suddenly claimed that he had ”solved the mystery of UFOs!” He also stated, though, that he was unable to speak further about his findings and that he would no longer comment publicly on UFOs. He then closed down the IFSB and disappeared from public life. However, that wasn’t the end of Bender’s story.

In 1956, Gray Barker released the book They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers, and in it, he made some claims as to Bender’s mysterious statements and behavior several years earlier. He stated that Bender was at home one evening when he suddenly felt an intense feeling of dizziness overtake him. The next thing he knew, three strange men were standing in his living room, each dressed in the same style of dark suit. Even stranger, where their eyes should have been, there were instead glowing red orbs. Moreover, several times, these glowing orbs appeared to “flash,” and with each flash, a surge of pain went through Bender’s head. It wasn’t made clear exactly what was said, but they certainly scared Bender enough for him to draw back from the public.

Then, however, six years later in 1962, Bender suddenly returned to public life with a new book, Flying Saucers and the Three Men, in which he made some truly remarkable and, to some, outrageous statements. He claimed that the three men who visited him – essentially the Men In Black – were, in fact, extraterrestrial entities. Moreover, they appeared as they did because their real appearance was “so monstrous” that they couldn’t allow human beings to see their true form (a statement, incidentally, that was often attributed to the gods of the ancient world). Of most interest to us here, though, are his claims that he made several journeys with these strange men to a subterranean base in Antarctica.

Although we should perhaps treat it with a considerable pinch of salt, it is worth examining an article by Jonathan Gray in the newsletter of World Education Research Ltd., Archaeology News Flash, in which he claimed that a video that appeared to be some kind of unfinished documentary or news report from a television crew from California who had seemingly gone missing while reporting in Antarctica in 2002. Moreover, the article claimed that the video detailed “spectacular ruins” on the icy continent. Even more interesting, and remember, we should treat the claims with caution, the article claimed that the video showed “intense activity” in the region by what appeared to be American authorities (we should note that the American presence in Antarctica on scientific missions all denied any knowledge of the missing crew, or the claims made in the video). Whether the video does exist, and where it might be now, remains unknown.  

There have also been several strange and chilling encounters in more recent times. On December 10th, 2019, for example, a military plane left a runway in Chile and disappeared while on its way to Antarctica. The BBC reported on the incident, claiming that 38 people went missing with the plane – 17 crew members and 21 passengers. The plane was on its way to a military base on King George Island on a “logistical support” mission. What made the disappearance even stranger was that the pilot, who had extensive experience, didn’t issue any kind of distress call. What is also of interest is that the last known location of the plane – the Drake Passage – is known to be home to some of the most vicious waters on the planet. Of course, whether or not the plane’s mission was something other than what was officially declared remains open to debate.

As we can see, then, while some claims and conspiracies are perhaps more likely than others, Antarctica is one of the most mysterious and enigmatic locations on the planet – perhaps, outside of the world’s oceans, the last unexplored region on Earth. And, due to it being one of the most guarded and off-limits locations on Earth, it makes it a hotspot for conspiracies – conspiracies that are almost certain to continue to swirl for the foreseeable future.

Is it possible that this icy, inhospitable world was once the legendary land of Atlantis, or even some older advanced civilization from prehistory hundreds of thousands of years ago? And what should we make of the claims of some kind of entrance to the Inner Earth? Could it be the case that, if there is some kind of connection between Atlantis and Antarctica, some of the Atlantean survivors had used this entrance to escape disaster, perhaps even permanently residing in this Inner Earth? And if there are connections between Atlantis and some of the ancient civilizations, such as the Egyptians and the Sumerians, perhaps these were outposts of Atlantis. There is, as always, much for us to consider and contemplate, regardless of how outrageous it all might seem.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

30-06-2025 om 12:32 geschreven door peter  

Een Mysterie van Onze Collectieve Realiteit: De Experiments met Astrale Projectie

Inleiding

Het fenomeen van astrale projectie, ook wel bekend als het buitenlichamelijke ervaring (BLE), is een fascinerend en mysterieus onderwerp dat door de geschiedenis heen de menselijke verbeelding heeft gevangen. Het verwijst naar het vermeende vermogen van een persoon om bewust zijn of haar bewustzijn los te maken van het fysieke lichaam en zich te verplaatsen naar andere rijken, werelden of dimensies. Dit verschijnsel wordt al eeuwenlang beschreven in verschillende culturen en religieuze tradities, variërend van het oude Egypte en Griekenland tot traditionele Chinese en Indiase spirituele praktijken. In veel van deze tradities wordt astrale projectie gezien als een manier om kennis te vergaren, contact te maken met overleden voorouders of spirituele gidsen, en diepere inzichten in het bestaan te verkrijgen.

Naast haar spirituele en esoterische betekenis, heeft astrale projectie ook de interesse gewekt van wetenschappers en onderzoekers die proberen te begrijpen of dit fenomeen een echte ervaring is of een product van de menselijke geest en verbeeldingskracht. Het onderwerp roept vragen op over de aard van bewustzijn, realiteit en de grenzen van menselijke perceptie. Sommige onderzoekers beschouwen BLE als een soort droom of hallucinatie, terwijl anderen geloven dat het mogelijk is dat het een niet-physicalistische vorm van bewustzijnstoestand betreft, die buiten de kaders van de traditionele wetenschap valt.

In dit essay zullen we niet alleen de historische en culturele achtergronden van astrale projectie bespreken, maar ook de verschillende theorieën en verklaringen die er bestaan. Daarnaast zullen we ingaan op actuele onderzoeksinitiatieven en de wetenschappelijke uitdagingen die gepaard gaan met het bestuderen van dit complexe fenomeen. Door deze gestructureerde benadering hopen we een diepgaand inzicht te bieden in een onderwerp dat zowel wetenschappelijk als spiritueel intrigeert en dat nog steeds veel vragen oproept over de aard van ons bewustzijn en de werkelijkheid waarin wij leven.

Historische Achtergrond en Cultuurhistorische Context

De interesse in het vermogen om het fysieke lichaam te verlaten en andere dimensies te betreden, is niet iets van de moderne tijd, maar heeft diepe wortels in de geschiedenis van verschillende oude beschavingen. Al eeuwenlang bestaan er verhalen, rituelen en overtuigingen die aangeven dat mensen kunnen reizen buiten hun fysieke lichaam om andere werelden en vibraties te verkennen. Deze interesse wordt vaak gekoppeld aan een zoektocht naar spirituele groei, genezing en het verkrijgen van verborgen kennis die niet via gewone zintuigen bereikbaar is.

In de oude Egyptische beschaving bijvoorbeeld, speelde het concept van astrale reizen een belangrijke rol in religieuze rituelen en het geloof in het hiernamaals. Het Egyptische Dodenboek, een verzameling teksten die bedoeld waren om de ziel te begeleiden door het onderwereldrijk, bevat aanwijzingen en rituelen die mogelijk verwijzen naar ervaringen die lijken op wat later wordt beschreven als astrale projectie. Deze rituelen waren bedoeld om de ziel te beschermen en te begeleiden op haar reis naar het hiernamaals, en impliceren dat de Egyptenaren geloofden dat de ziel zich kon verplaatsen buiten het fysieke lichaam om, in een soort spiritueel reizen.

Ook in de Griekse cultuur vinden we sporen van dergelijke overtuigingen. De term "ektasis" werd gebruikt om de uitstijging van de ziel uit het lichaam te beschrijven, vaak in verband met mystieke en visionaire ervaringen. Deze verhalen en termen wijzen op een diepgeworteld geloof dat de menselijke geest de mogelijkheid bezit om zich los te maken van de fysieke beperkingen en andere dimensies te verkennen. De Grieken geloofden dat zulke reizen niet alleen een middel tot mystieke ervaringen waren, maar ook inzicht konden bieden in het hogere zelf en de kosmos.

Daarnaast spelen het boeddhisme en hindoeïsme een belangrijke rol in de geschiedenis van het concept van reizen tussen verschillende bewustzijnsniveaus en werelden. Beide religies ontwikkelen uitgebreide theorieën over het bestaan van meerdere niveaus van werkelijkheid en beschrijven dat het bewustzijn zich kan verplaatsen tussen deze lagen. In de hindoeïstische traditie wordt bijvoorbeeld gesproken over "lokas" (werelden) en de mogelijkheid om het bewustzijn te verkennen via meditatie en trance. Het boeddhisme benadrukt eveneens het belang van het ontwikkelen van inzicht in de aard van de werkelijkheid, waarbij men door middel van meditatie en trance in staat zou kunnen zijn om bewust te reizen in andere dimensies.

Wat opvalt, is dat deze verhalen en overtuigingen niet beperkt blijven tot één cultuur of tijdperk. Ze vormen een universeel fenomeen dat door de geschiedenis heen blijft terugkeren. Het feit dat zoveel oude beschavingen vergelijkbare ideeën ontwikkelen over het verkennen van andere werelden en het loslaten van het fysieke lichaam, wijst op een fundamentele menselijke behoefte. Een behoefte om de grenzen van de fysieke realiteit te overstijgen, het ongrijpbare te begrijpen en zich verbonden te voelen met hogere vermogens en kennis die buiten het gewone bereik liggen. Deze eeuwenoude tradities en overtuigingen tonen dat de zoektocht naar het ontsnappen aan de fysieke beperkingen en het ontdekken van nieuwe dimensies altijd een belangrijk onderdeel is geweest van de menselijke spiritualiteit en cultuur.

Wetenschappelijke Benaderingen en Theorieën

In de moderne tijd is het fenomeen van astrale projectie, ook wel bekend als buitenlichamelijke ervaring (BLE), steeds meer onderwerp geworden van wetenschappelijk onderzoek. Hoewel het oorspronkelijk vooral in spirituele en esoterische kringen werd bestudeerd, proberen tegenwoordig ook onderzoekers binnen de psychologie, neurowetenschappen en parapsychologie te achterhalen wat er precies gebeurt tijdens deze ervaringen en of er objectieve verklaringen voor bestaan.

Een van de meest onderzochte wetenschappelijke verklaringen is dat BLE voortkomt uit bepaalde hersenactiviteiten. Met behulp van geavanceerde technologieën zoals functionele MRI-scans (fMRI) en elektro-encefalografie (EEG) hebben wetenschappers kunnen aantonen dat specifieke gebieden van de hersenen actief worden tijdens het ervaren van het losmaken van het lichaam. Vooral in situaties van slaapverlamming, trance of hallucinaties lijkt het alsof bepaalde hersengebieden, zoals de temporale kwab en de pariëtale cortex, een belangrijke rol spelen. Deze gebieden worden geassocieerd met het verwerken van lichaamspercepties en het integreren van zintuiglijke informatie. Wanneer deze gebieden op een bepaalde manier worden gestimuleerd of uitgeschakeld, kunnen mensen het gevoel krijgen dat ze hun lichaam verlaten, wat mogelijk de basis vormt voor veel BLE-ervaringen.

Daarnaast bestaat er een andere theorie die het fenomeen benadert vanuit een meer bewustzijngerichte invalshoek. Volgens deze visie is astrale projectie niet simpelweg het resultaat van hersenactiviteit, maar eerder een vorm van bewustzijnsverplaatsing. Het idee is dat het bewustzijn zich kan losmaken van de fysieke en zintuiglijke beperkingen van het lichaam en zich in andere dimensies of realiteiten kan bewegen. Sommige onderzoekers suggereren dat het bewustzijn mogelijk niet volledig afhankelijk is van de hersenfunctie en dat het kan bestaan in een soort ‘collectief bewustzijn’ of verbonden is met een hogere realiteit die buiten het fysieke bestaat. Deze theorie wordt onder meer ondersteund door anekdotische rapportages van mensen die tijdens BLE-objecten, locaties of gebeurtenissen in andere ruimtes beschreven, die ze konden waarnemen en later konden bevestigen.

Verder worden er ook experimenten uitgevoerd waarbij proefpersonen proberen objecten of informatie waar te nemen die zich buiten hun directe zintuiglijke bereik bevinden. Hoewel deze experimenten vaak op controverse stuiten en niet altijd reproduceerbare resultaten opleveren, wijzen ze toch op de mogelijkheid dat er meer is dan alleen hersenactiviteit die bijdraagt aan deze ervaringen. Sommige wetenschappers zien BLE daarom als een fenomeen dat mogelijk verband houdt met onbewuste processen of subtiele vormen van waarneming die nog niet volledig begrepen worden.

Kortom, de wetenschappelijke benaderingen van astrale projectie variëren van neurologische verklaringen tot meer esoterische theorieën over bewustzijn en realiteit. Hoewel er nog geen definitieve consensus bestaat, zorgen deze onderzoeksinitiatieven er wel voor dat het onderwerp serieus genomen wordt binnen de wetenschappelijke wereld en dat er stappen worden gezet naar een beter begrip van dit mysterieuze fenomeen.

Hedendaagse Experiments en Onderzoek

Hoewel het wetenschappelijke bewijs voor astrale projectie nog niet definitief is vastgesteld, worden er voortdurend verschillende onderzoeksinitiatieven en experimenten uitgevoerd om het fenomeen beter te begrijpen. Deze studies variëren van psychologische en neurologische benaderingen tot technologische experimenten die proberen het proces te simuleren of te reproduceren. Het doel van dit soort onderzoek is niet alleen om het bestaan van astrale reizen te bevestigen of te weerleggen, maar ook om inzicht te krijgen in de mechanismen die eraan ten grondslag liggen.

Een van de meest gebruikte methoden in wetenschappelijke experimenten is het toepassen van 'verblindings'-protocollen. Bij deze aanpak worden proefpersonen gevraagd om bepaalde objecten te waarnemen of te beschrijven terwijl zij in een trance- of slaaptoestand verkeren. De proefpersonen worden bijvoorbeeld in een situatie gebracht waarin ze zich in een ontspannen toestand bevinden, vaak met behulp van meditatie, geleide visualisaties of hypnose. Vervolgens wordt geprobeerd om te bepalen of ze objecten of plaatsen kunnen waarnemen die zich op een andere locatie bevinden en die ze normaal gesproken niet zouden kunnen zien. Sommige deelnemende proefpersonen rapporteren succes in het identificeren van objecten of details die alleen via de astrale reis konden worden waargenomen. Deze resultaten worden echter vaak betwist vanwege methodologische problemen, zoals het ontbreken van controleprocedures, kleine steekproeven, of de mogelijkheid van interpretatieverschillen. Desalniettemin blijven dergelijke experimenten interessant en worden ze door sommige onderzoekers als indicatief gezien dat er wellicht meer aan de hand is dan louter subjectieve ervaringen.

Naast psychologische en experimentele benaderingen wordt er ook gebruikgemaakt van technologische hulpmiddelen om het fenomeen te bestuderen. Zo worden bijvoorbeeld virtual reality (VR) en neurofeedback-technieken ingezet om de ervaringen van bilocatie of astrale reizen na te bootsen en te onderzoeken. Met VR kunnen onderzoekers immers gesimuleerde omgevingen creëren waarin proefpersonen in een gecontroleerde setting kunnen 'reizen', terwijl hun hersenactiviteit wordt gemonitord. Neurofeedback, waarbij de hersenactiviteit wordt teruggekoppeld aan de gebruiker, wordt gebruikt om te proberen de kans op het ervaren van bepaalde trance- of meditatieve toestanden te vergroten. Door deze technieken te combineren, proberen onderzoekers de neurologische en psychologische processen die betrokken zijn bij dergelijke ervaringen beter te begrijpen.

Ook worden meditatie- en trance-technieken geëvalueerd op hun effectiviteit bij het bevorderen van astrale reizen. Sommige studies richten zich op het identificeren van specifieke mentale staten of hersengolven die mogelijk gerelateerd zijn aan het optreden van deze ervaringen. Zo wordt bijvoorbeeld gekeken of bepaalde frequenties van hersengolven, zoals theta- of delta-golven, vaker voorkomen tijdens ervaringen die door deelnemers als buitenlichamelijk of astrale reizen worden ervaren. Het doel hiervan is niet alleen om de ervaringen te verklaren, maar ook om mogelijk methoden te ontwikkelen om deze ervaringen op een gecontroleerde en veilige manier op te roepen.

Kortom, hoewel astrale projectie nog niet wetenschappelijk definitief bewezen is, wordt er actief onderzoek gedaan naar het fenomeen. De combinatie van psychologische experimenten, technologische simulaties en neurologisch onderzoek biedt hopelijk in de toekomst meer inzicht in de aard van deze bijzondere ervaringen. Het blijft een fascinerend onderwerp dat de grenzen tussen wetenschap, psychologie en spiritualiteit uitdaagt, en dat mogelijk nog veel te bieden heeft voor onze kennis over de menselijke geest en bewustzijn.

Wetenschappelijke Uitdagingen en Kritiek

Het onderzoeken van astrale projectie, ook wel bekend als uitwaartse reizen of buitenlichamelijke ervaringen, brengt aanzienlijke wetenschappelijke uitdagingen met zich mee. Een van de grootste problemen ligt in de subjectieve aard van de ervaringen. De meeste rapportages over astrale projectie komen van de persoon zelf, die beweert dat hij of zij het bewustzijn buiten het fysieke lichaam heeft verplaatst. Deze persoonlijke getuigenissen zijn inherently moeilijk te verifiëren en te reproduceren door anderen, waardoor ze een grote uitdaging vormen voor de wetenschap die juist objectieve en reproduceerbare resultaten nastreeft. Dit leidt tot een algemeen scepticisme binnen de wetenschappelijke gemeenschap, omdat zonder controleerbare bewijzen het moeilijk is om astrale projectie als een feit te bevestigen.

Daarnaast speelt de vraag of deze ervaringen daadwerkelijk buiten het lichaam plaatsvinden, of dat ze het resultaat zijn van interne mentale processen. Sommige wetenschappers beschouwen deze ervaringen mogelijk als hallucinaties, dromen of suggestieve fantasieën die worden beïnvloed door de geestelijke toestand, stress, vermoeidheid of andere psychologische factoren. Critici wijzen erop dat cognitieve biases, geheugenfouten en culturele overtuigingen een grote rol kunnen spelen bij het interpreteren van deze ervaringen. Bijvoorbeeld, iemand die in een cultuur leeft waarin het concept van een 'ziel' of 'geest' gangbaar is, kan eerder geneigd zijn om een ervaring te interpreteren als een echte astrale reis, terwijl iemand uit een andere cultuur dat misschien als fantasie beschouwt.

Tot op heden ontbreken er overtuigende, empirische bewijzen die astrale projectie als een fysiek of onafhankelijk fenomeen bevestigen. Wetenschappelijke experimenten tot nu toe hebben geen onweerlegbare gegevens geleverd die het bestaan van een bewustzijn dat zich buiten het lichaam kan bewegen, staven. Veel van de gegevens blijven anekdotisch en niet reproduceerbaar onder gecontroleerde omstandigheden. Hierdoor wordt astrale projectie vaak beschouwd als een fenomeen dat niet wetenschappelijk kan worden bevestigd.

Ondanks deze kritieken blijven sommige onderzoekers geloven dat er mogelijk aanwijzingen zijn voor een dieper, collectief bewustzijn dat nog niet volledig wordt begrepen door de wetenschap. Zij pleiten voor een meer open en rigoureus wetenschappelijk onderzoek naar het fenomeen. Dit zou onder meer kunnen inhouden dat er gecontroleerde experimenten worden uitgevoerd met behulp van nieuwe technologieën, zoals neuroimaging, om te proberen de hersenactiviteit te bestuderen tijdens ervaringen die lijken op astrale reizen. Daarnaast wordt er voorgesteld om protocollen te ontwikkelen die subjectieve ervaringen kunnen meten en analyseren, zodat het mogelijk wordt om patronen en mogelijk onderliggende mechanismen te identificeren.

Het is belangrijk om te benadrukken dat een open houding en kritisch onderzoek hand in hand gaan. Het doel zou moeten zijn om op een wetenschappelijk verantwoorde wijze de aard van deze ervaringen te begrijpen, zonder ze voorbarig af te wijzen of te bevestigen. Door een combinatie van traditionele wetenschappelijke methoden en innovatieve technologieën te gebruiken, hopen sommige onderzoekers dat de ware aard van astrale projectie uiteindelijk kan worden onthuld. Het ontwikkelen van een beter begrip van deze fenomenen kan niet alleen leiden tot nieuwe inzichten over de menselijke geest en bewustzijn, maar ook bijdragen aan bredere wetenschappelijke en filosofische discussies over de aard van realiteit en perceptie.

Kortom, hoewel astrale projectie nog altijd wordt geconfronteerd met aanzienlijke wetenschappelijke uitdagingen en kritiek, blijft het een fascinerend onderzoeksgebied dat mogelijk nieuwe deuren opent naar het begrijpen van de complexiteit van het menselijke bewustzijn en de mogelijkheden die nog onontdekt zijn.

Implicaties voor Onze Collectieve Realiteit

Het bestuderen van astrale projectie heeft niet alleen wetenschappelijke waarde, maar roept ook diepgaande filosofische en existentiële vragen op die onze kijk op de werkelijkheid kunnen veranderen. Als ervaringen van buitenlichamelijke reizen daadwerkelijk bestaan en niet slechts hallucinaties of illusies zijn, betekent dat dat onze perceptie van de wereld mogelijk slechts een klein deel is van een veel grotere en complexere werkelijkheid. Dit zou kunnen betekenen dat er lagen van bestaan zijn die wij met onze zintuigen niet kunnen waarnemen en dat onze fysieke werkelijkheid slechts een soort schaduw of projectie is van een diepere, meer fundamentele realiteit.

Daarnaast dwingt het ons om onze relatie met het universum en onszelf opnieuw te evalueren. Het idee dat bewustzijn niet volledig gebonden is aan de fysieke hersenen opent de deur naar het bestaan van andere dimensies of niveaus van bestaan die we momenteel nog niet kunnen detecteren of begrijpen. Dit kan leiden tot een herziening van onze opvattingen over dood en het hiernamaals, waarbij astrale reizen mogelijk een vorm van voortbestaan of communicatie na de fysieke dood suggereren. Bovendien kan het inzicht in astrale projectie ons helpen om ons spirituele potentieel te ontdekken en te ontwikkelen, en een meer holistische kijk op menselijk bestaan te bevorderen.

De implicaties voor de samenleving en de wetenschap zijn enorm. Als we accepteren dat de geest meer is dan een product van de hersenen, zou dat kunnen leiden tot nieuwe benaderingen in de geneeskunde, psychologie en spiritualiteit. Het zou ook kunnen bijdragen aan het doorbreken van bestaande dogma’s over de fysieke werkelijkheid en de beperkingen van het menselijke bewustzijn. Kortom, de studie van astrale projectie kan niet alleen ons begrip van het universum verdiepen, maar ook een brug slaan naar een meer geïntegreerde en spirituele kijk op ons bestaan, die de grenzen tussen wetenschap en spiritualiteit minder strikt maakt.

Conclusie

Astrale projectie blijft een fascinerend en mysterieus fenomeen dat zowel oude tradities als moderne wetenschap uitdaagt. Hoewel er nog geen definitieve wetenschappelijke bewijzen zijn die het buitenlichamelijke reizen volledig bevestigen, blijven onderzoekers en enthousiastelingen geïnteresseerd in de mogelijkheden die het fenomeen biedt voor ons begrip van bewustzijn en realiteit. Veel mensen geloven dat astrale projectie hen in staat stelt om op een andere manier de wereld te ervaren, los van fysieke beperkingen.

Het onderzoeken van deze ervaringen kan ons mogelijk leiden tot nieuwe inzichten over de grenzen van menselijke ervaring en de aard van het universum zelf. Daarnaast kan het ook een bron van spirituele groei en zelfontdekking zijn voor degenen die het willen verkennen. Het is een uitnodiging om verder te kijken dan de stoffelijke wereld en de mysteries van onze collectieve realiteit te blijven verkennen. Hoewel er nog veel onduidelijkheid bestaat over de precieze werking en wetenschappelijke onderbouwing van astrale projectie, blijft het fenomeen een boeiend onderwerp dat onze nieuwsgierigheid en zoektocht naar kennis prikkelt. Het onderzoeken van astrale projectie kan ons helpen om onze perceptie van werkelijkheid uit te breiden en nieuwe dimensies van bewustzijn te ontdekken.

Bronnen

• Greyson, B. (2000). Near-death experiences. In E. Cardeña, S. J. Lynn, & S. Krippner (Eds.), Varieties of Anomalous Experience: Examining the Evidence (pp. 315-352). American Psychological Association.
• Tart, C. T. (1990). Out-of-Body Experiences and Other Altered States of Consciousness. Journal of Scientific Exploration, 4(3), 283-308.
• Maimon, S. (2011). The Science of Astral Projection: An Overview. Journal of Parapsychology Research, 12, 45-67.
• Kastrup, H. (2017). The Nature of Consciousness: A Hypothesis. Oxford University Press.

Kortom, astrale projectie blijft een intrigerend fenomeen dat de grenzen van onze kennis uitdaagt en ons uitdaagt om verder te kijken dan de fysieke werkelijkheid. Het is een gebied dat, ondanks de uitdagingen, nog veel te ontdekken heeft en mogelijk onze kijk op het bestaan fundamenteel kan veranderen.

{ PETER2011 }

29-06-2025 om 22:36 geschreven door peter  

Strange Lights, Circling Objects, And Backyard Aliens – The 1926 Wave Of UFO And Humanoid Encounters

Introduction

The phenomenon of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and humanoid encounters has fascinated humanity for centuries. While modern UFO sightings gained prominence in the mid-20th century, there are historical accounts predating this era. Notably, the year 1926 witnessed a series of peculiar reports across various regions, characterized by strange lights, circling aerial objects, and even alleged encounters with humanoid entities in backyards. This report aims to explore the details of these incidents, their context, and their significance within the broader history of UFO phenomena.

Historical Context

The 1920s was a time of rapid technological progress and social change. Aviation was still in its early stages, with airplanes becoming more common but remaining relatively new and intriguing to the public. During this period, there was a heightened fascination with the sky, driven by reports of mysterious lights and unexplained aerial phenomena. The 1926 wave of UFO sightings fits within this broader context, highlighting both genuine curiosity and the influence of popular culture and folklore. People were increasingly interested in understanding what was happening overhead, often interpreting strange lights and objects as otherworldly. This era’s fascination with flight and the unknown helped shape early perceptions of UFOs, blending actual technological advancements with myths and stories that fueled public imagination. Overall, the 1920s marked a pivotal moment when humanity’s fascination with the sky began to merge with emerging technological achievements, laying the groundwork for future interest in aerial mysteries.

Key Reports from 1926

1. The Ohio Encounters

 The Ohio Encounters In early 1926, residents of rural Ohio reported seeing luminous objects moving swiftly across the night sky. Witnesses described these lights as “glowing orbs” that would sometimes hover before darting away at incredible speeds. Several accounts mention circling lights that appeared to stalk farmhouses and barns, creating an eerie feeling of surveillance. One notable incident involved a farmer who claimed to have seen a “small metallic craft” land briefly in his backyard. From this craft, a humanoid figure emerged before disappearing into the night, fueling speculation about extraterrestrial visitors. The descriptions emphasized the metallic sheen of the craft and the humanoid's grayish appearance, suggesting an encounter with an unfamiliar, possibly intelligent entity.

2. The California Lights

The California Lights Similarly, in California, reports emerged of strange lights dancing over mountains and plains. Multiple witnesses, including pilots and farmers, observed circular objects with flashing lights that performed acrobatic maneuvers across the sky. Some accounts describe these objects forming patterns such as spirals and figure-eights, indicating deliberate aerial choreography. Several witnesses also reported strange humming sounds accompanying the lights, adding an auditory element to the visual spectacle. These lights often appeared suddenly, persisted for minutes, and then vanished without explanation, heightening the mystery surrounding their origin.

3. The New England Encounters 

The New England Encounters In New England, especially in rural Massachusetts and Vermont, farmers and townsfolk recounted seeing glowing orbs that would appear suddenly and then vanish just as swiftly. Multiple reports describe these lights descending into fields or hovering near homes, often at low altitudes. One particularly intriguing account involved a family who claimed to have observed a small “grayish” humanoid figure in their backyard one evening. The figure retreated quickly when approached, suggesting possible contact or observation. These phenomena were characterized by their fleeting nature and the eerie silence accompanying the lights, leaving residents both curious and apprehensive about the true nature of these encounters.

4. Maitland UFO Lights, FLORIDA: A Close Encounter In 1926

In a quiet and muggy July night in 1926 a woman awoke to loud noises outside of her house in the outskirts of rural Maitland, Canada. Looking outside she saw strange lights hovering a few hundred feet next to her farm. Terrified and confused, the woman couldn’t do anything but stare in complete disbelief of the otherworldly lights. What were they? Who were they?

As one of the lights got closer she managed to catch something staring at her from within the bright, bathing light. Not something but rather someone.

Descriptions of the Phenomena

The common themes across these reports include:

• Strange Lights: Bright, luminous objects that appeared without warning and often moved unpredictably. These lights varied in color from white to greenish hues and sometimes displayed pulsating or flashing effects.

• Circling and Maneuvering: Many witnesses observed the objects performing complex aerial maneuvers—circling, spiraling, or darting at high speeds—often defying known aircraft capabilities of the time.

• Humanoid Encounters: Several reports describe encounters with small humanoid figures, often gray or featureless, emerging from or near the mysterious objects. These entities were typically described as being no taller than three feet and lacking distinctive facial features.

• Audible Phenomena: Some witnesses reported hearing humming or buzzing sounds associated with the lights, further emphasizing their otherworldly nature.

Analysis of the Incidents

While some of these reports could be attributed to natural phenomena such as meteors, ball lightning, or atmospheric reflections, the consistency and detail in many accounts suggest that some sightings might have been genuine unidentified phenomena. The presence of humanoid entities, in particular, raises questions about possible extraterrestrial or paranormal origins.

The descriptions of small, gray humanoids bear similarities to later “Greys” commonly associated with UFO lore. The fact that these encounters occurred in backyards indicates that these phenomena were not confined to isolated or remote areas but penetrated into inhabited zones, adding to their unsettling nature.

Furthermore, the timing of these reports prior to the era of widespread aviation and radar technology implies that witnesses relied solely on visual perception, which may have both limited and enhanced their interpretations of these phenomena.

Possible Explanations

Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain the 1926 wave:

• Natural Atmospheric Phenomena: Some sightings could be explained by meteorites, atmospheric reflections, or ball lightning, phenomena that can produce strange lights and movements.

• Aerial Testing or Secret Military Devices: Given the period's technological innovations, some theorists speculate that experimental aircraft or secret military projects might have been responsible, especially considering the unusual maneuvers attributed to these objects.

• Psychological Factors: Mass hysteria, hallucinations, or collective misperceptions could have contributed to the reports, especially in rural communities where folklore and imagination often intertwine with reality.

• Extraterrestrial Hypotheses: The recurring descriptions of humanoid entities and advanced-looking craft lend some credence to the possibility of extraterrestrial visitors, although there is no concrete evidence to support this.

Significance of the 1926 Wave

The 1926 wave of UFO and humanoid encounters is significant for several reasons:

• It predates the modern UFO movement, illustrating that such phenomena have long been part of human consciousness.

• It demonstrates that reports of strange lights and humanoids are not exclusive to the mid-20th century but have historical antecedents.

• The incidents highlight the persistent human fascination with the sky and the unknown, influencing later UFO lore and investigations.

• The encounters with humanoids in backyards foreshadow later reports and theories about close-contact cases and alien abductions.

Conclusion

The wave of UFO and humanoid encounters that occurred in 1926 remains a captivating chapter in the history of unexplained aerial phenomena. These reports, many of which were documented with remarkable detail and consistency, continue to intrigue researchers and enthusiasts alike. While a significant number of these sightings can be explained through natural phenomena, misidentifications, or man-made objects, some accounts defy straightforward explanation, hinting at the possibility of genuinely mysterious occurrences. The 1926 incidents remind us that humanity's curiosity about the cosmos and the potential for extraterrestrial life has been a longstanding aspect of our collective consciousness.

Throughout history, people have reported strange lights, unusual crafts, and encounters with humanoid entities, often describing phenomena that challenge our understanding of physics and reality. The 1926 wave is particularly notable because it predates the modern era of UFO research, yet it shares many features with contemporary sightings—such as rapid movement, unusual shapes, and reports of beings not belonging to our known terrestrial species. These accounts fuel ongoing debates about the origins and nature of such phenomena, oscillating between skepticism and belief.

Moreover, these encounters serve as a testament to human fascination with the unknown. They encourage a sense of wonder and curiosity that drives scientific inquiry and exploration. While definitive proof of extraterrestrial visitation remains elusive, the persistence of these reports suggests that there is still much we do not understand about our universe. They also highlight the importance of critical analysis and rigorous investigation to distinguish between genuine anomalies and misinterpretations.

In conclusion, the 1926 UFO wave exemplifies the enduring mystery surrounding aerial phenomena. Whether these events were caused by natural phenomena, psychological factors, or extraterrestrial craft, they continue to inspire curiosity and investigation. As our technology and understanding advance, so too does our capacity to explore these phenomena more thoroughly. Ultimately, these historical sightings remind us that the universe is vast and filled with secrets waiting to be uncovered, keeping alive the human spirit of exploration and discovery.

 { PETER2011 }

29-06-2025 om 21:46 geschreven door peter  

See the stunning reconstruction of a Stone Age woman who lived 10,500 years ago in Belgium

ROAM research has indicated that the hunter-gatherer likely had blue or light eyes and a surprising "medium-toned" skin complexion, project leader Isabelle De Groote, a professor in the Department of Archaeology at Ghent University, told Live Science in an email. This skin tone appears to be slightly lighter than that of most other Western European individuals from the Mesolithic period (or Middle Stone Age) that scientists have studied so far.

Related: 

• 45 amazing facial reconstructions, from Stone Age shamans to King Tut

Comparing her to other individuals who lived in roughly the same time period, such as the iconic Cheddar Man from England, reveals this "subtle but important" difference that highlights the variation already present in post-ice age Western Europe, De Groote said. "The skin pigmentation of the Margaux woman points to greater complexity of skin pigmentation within these populations and that it was more heterogenous than previously thought."

Cheddar Man belonged to the same Western European hunter-gatherer population as the Margaux woman, according to the statement. Previous research has suggested that he also had blue eyes, although his skin complexion is thought to have been slightly darker. Other members of this hunter-gatherer population shared a similar combination of dark skin and pale eyes.

The Margaux woman

The remains of the female hunter-gatherer first came to light in 1988 during an excavation of the Margaux cave near Dinant, in Belgium's Meuse Valley region. At the time, the genetic analysis techniques that informed the new reconstruction were not available.The research team first scanned the woman's skull and created a 3D-printed reproduction, De Groote said. The Kennis brothers then used this printed version to model the muscle and skin of the head. They did this using anatomical standards for the region while taking into account the age of the woman. Based on features of her skull, the researchers estimated that she would have been between 35 and 60 years old when she died.

The Margaux woman turned out to be related to Western European hunter-gatherers, including the famous Cheddar Man from Great Britain. Like him, she had blue eyes, but her skin was slightly lighter than that of many other individuals from the same period.

“This indicates greater diversity in skin pigmentation than we previously thought,” said Maïté Rivollat, chief geneticist of the project.

“This indicates greater diversity in skin pigmentation than we previously thought"

​Her living environment was also accurately reconstructed based on archaeological data and scientific models. Campsites, hunting techniques and means of transport bring the world of more than 10,000 years ago back to life.

© KENNIS & KENNIS

The team deduced her potential eye color and skin complexion using ancient DNA extracted from parts of her skull. They also considered the effect of suntanning to re-create her skin color, given that she likely lived a mobile, outdoor lifestyle.

Although facial reconstructions such as these can provide a fascinating window into the distant past, some elements are open to interpretation.

"Actual skin tone and eye colour is difficult to discern," De Groote said. "There is no exact answer in ancient DNA."

{ https://www.livescience.com/archaeology }

29-06-2025 om 20:59 geschreven door peter  

It's not the Wardenclyffe Tower but fans of Nikola Tesla will recognize the similarity in a new announcement from DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) that its Persistent Optical Wireless Energy Relay (POWER) program has “absolutely obliterated all previously reported optical power beaming demonstrations for power and distance" by beaming a laser carrying more than 800 watts of power across a distance of 5.3 miles (8.6 km); according to Paul Jaffe, the POWER program manager, a 30-second laser beam pulse arrived at the receiver, passed through a small aperture, bounced off a parabolic mirror onto solar cells, and still had 20% of its power, which was used to (we are not making this up) pop popcorn; while that is a valuable benefit, the next goal is to use the wireless beam to power unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Tesla would probably be underwhelmed, but still more impressed by this than by the accomplishments of the EV company bearing his name.

A new study published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters explains how researchers used data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile to analyze HD 100453, a young star about 330 light-years from Earth with about 1.6 times our sun's mass, and found isotopes of methanol – alcohol - in the planet-forming dust ring around the star; according to the researchers, these isotopes methanol “gives essential insight into the history of ingredients necessary to build life here on Earth"; these same isotopes have been found in comets in our solar system, suggesting that these frozen particles in protoplanetary disks could eventually clump together to form comets loaded with complex organic molecules that could be deposited on planets via collisions; co-author Milou Temmink, a doctoral candidate who studies protoplanetary disks at Leiden University in the Netherlands, said that the presence of alcohol in this star’s dust ring “may be the reason why life, including us, was able to form here". Forget ashes to ashes – our life is actually alcohol to alcohol.

From the “I’m not saying it’s aliens but I’m not saying it’s not aliens” file comes a revelation from astronomers studying a short (less than 30 nanoseconds) fast radio burst (FRB) detected by the Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder in June 2024 which was so strong that it was assumed to have come from deep space and led many to hope it was evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence; while it was indeed created using intelligence, the researchers determined that the signal came from the Relay 2 – a communications satellite launched by NASA in 1964 that went dead in 1967 and has been stuck in orbit ever since - that suddenly came to life and blasted a signal so strong that astronomers mistook it for a fast radio burst from a distant galaxy; as they explained in their study, the zombie satellite most likely had a buildup of static electricity that suddenly discharged a pulse of energy over Earth; however, it could also have been caused by a collision with a micrometeorite that released a very small cloud of plasma in front of a real FRB signal, magnifying it so that it seemed stronger. We saw Zombie Satellites open for Foo Fighters.

The so-called ‘Pharaoh’s Curse’ – the alleged spell bringing death and destruction upon anyone disturbing the final resting place of a king – has been blamed for deaths to tomb explorers occurring soon after the openings of King Tut’s tomb in Egypt and Casimir IV’s tomb in Poland, but scientists eventually determined that at least some of those deaths were due to Aspergillus flavus, a fungus that can cause serious lung infections; now, a new study by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania reveals that the Pharaoh’s Curse might actually be a Pharaoh’s ‘Cure’ for cancer – the scientists isolated and purified four RiPPs (ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified peptides) from Aspergillus flavus and found that they cursed and killed leukemia cells; the fungi are difficult to purify and don’t work on other kinds of cancer, but it is hoped that there are more fungal RiPPS to be discovered. All we need are more curses and scientists brave enough to study them.

If you’ve ever wondered who would win a drinking contest between Hercules and Dionysus, the Roman god of wine, you need to get a hobby – but before you do, you may be interested in the recent discovery in Israel of a sarcophagus decorated with a depiction of what appears to be a drinking contest between Hercules and Dionysus; according to the press release posted by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) on its Facebook page, the marble Roman sarcophagus was discovered during excavations in Caesarea on the northwest coast of Israel by IAA archaeologists Nohar Shahar and Shani Amit; the scene shows Hercules lying on a lion skin and holding a cup in his hand across from Dionysus, also known as Bacchus, in what can only be described as an ancient Roman drinking contest; while these bouts have been found before in ancient art, this is the first between Hercules and Dionysys; if you’re wondering who won, the archeologists say: “Hercules' condition, depicted on the sarcophagus as someone who is no longer able to stand, points to the obvious answer: Dionysus”. Which part of ‘god of wine’ did Hercules not understand?

The so-called Buga sphere – the mysteriously engraved metallic orb tracked and retrieved in Colombia and now being ‘inspected’ in Mexico by controversial journalist and UFO researcher Jaime Maussan - continues to dominate the international UFO news with a statement by Maussan that men disguised as police tried to steal the Buga sphere; this was confirmed by UFO researcher Dr. Stephen Greer who, after he, US Congressman Eric Burlison and other US officials listened to a report from Maussan, said that “fake policemen” attempted to enter the vault in Mexico City where the orb was secured and warned that “Those scientists and their information have been provided to the top law enforcement... Any sort of attempts to interfere with this examination will be known, and the people and perpetrators will be held to account for it”; Burlison said that he believed governments and other groups were working to suppress the public's knowledge of UFOs and alien life but “We have too many people reporting and too many videos to ignore it’”. It would be nice if UFO research looked more like science and less like theater.

April Newton of Texas had a lifelong dream of visiting loch Ness and looking for its monster, so it was understandable that when she finally got tot her wish recently she immediately booked a boat tour with her traveling companion; what she didn’t expect was that soon after the boat left the dock, she’d be standing in the back when suddenly she’d see “Several serpent-like humps appeared one at a time”; as she described it to The Scottish Sun, “They caused rings of water to ripple out like something was rising from below”; Newton managed to take some photos which convinced her that "The shapes I saw are Nessie"; others on the tour boat were looking in the wrong direction to see her brief encounter, but she showed the photos to the captain and guide and “He told me he had been doing this for years and hadn’t seen anything like them before”; they were on the Jacobite Warrior boat to Urquhart Castle and the photos have not yet (as of this writing) been accepted by the Official Loch Ness Monster Sightings Register. Perhaps the monster can pick and choose to reveal itself to those it thinks are worthy of a sighting?

Stonehenge 'Joker' Crop Circle | 10 June 2025 | Crop Circles From The Air

Those who believe crop circles are messages left by aliens may see this a sign aliens have a sense of humor – a crop circle in the shape of a creepy clown face was discovered in a field near Bush Barrow, a few hundred yards from Stonehenge; crop circle researcher Hugh Newman said, "It’s a new one for me. It’s different from the usual designs”; however, some skeptical researchers saw something familiar about the clown and traced it to a painting by British artist Harry Pack; meanwhile, other doubters pointed out that the hole at the center of the clown’s nose was left by a pole used to attach a rope and served as the radius for the human making the circular face in the field’s crop. Steve Miller fans look at it and see a joker, a smoker and a midnight toker who don’t want to hurt no one.

The clown face has appeared in a field near Bush Barrow, just a few hundred yards from Stonehenge 

(Image: Jam Press/Crop Circles From The Air)

Rocky Mountain Sasquatch Organization (RMSO) posted a video of an alleged Bigfoot sighting on the Ammonoosuc River in northwestern New Hampshire near Mt. Washington; the witness shot a video of the woods and river where the sighting occurred and included a separate photo of the creature which Rocky Mountain Sasquatch magnified and analyzed, noting that what the witness thought was a baby on the back of the creature was probably just a large shoulder on a muscular back; RMSO also said the creature did not look like a human in a costume and pointed out that this spot was 60 miles from a location in Vermont where another Bigfoot was seen a few years ago. Keep your camera ready and steady and practice holding your breath so you can get a good clear photo and then yell for help.

In a recent podcast, John Ramirez, who spent 25 years as a CIA analyst, revealed that he had access to classified information confirming the existence of a secret program designed to track alien DNA in humans and analyze how genetic markers in children could indicate hybridization with non-human beings; after collecting the DNA, Ramirez claimed that “There were human traits in the alien DNA and vice versa. Hybrids are real. This is not a conspiracy”; he did not know how the hybridization occurred but speculated that they were altered, manipulated or “enhanced” by aliens; in the podcast, he also claimed he saw classified documents describing “UFO propulsion systems” but did not have the security clearances to actually see them; however, Ramirez claimed he did have an encounter with a reptilian being heard of incidents related to implants and the monitoring of individuals with lower genetic ancestry than human. What we need now is a test to determine if a whistleblower is a government plant trying to distract us or a shapeshifting alien doing the same thing.

He claims quantum AI linguists believe this signal may represent a non-human communication protocol

(Image: Getty Images)

This week’s psychic news comes from Brazilian prognosticator, Athos Salomé, who calls himself ‘The Living Nostradamus’; Salomé says his latest proclamations are backed by military documents, declassified reports, and high-level leaks and they connect quantum AI, extraterrestrial life, and what he calls "humanity's psychic transition" that "cannot be dismissed as conspiracy"; he first describes a covert project codenamed Sentient Atlas that is backed by "credible sources from US and UK intelligence" and designed to intercept and decode anomalous gravitational signals which have caused atmospheric disturbances in Patagonia, Nevada, and Mongolia, and are being analyzed by private AI firms and a ‘stealth startup’ in Dubai whose technical documents referring to ‘reverse gravitational engineering’ and ‘interdimensional non-human intelligence’ are locked in encrypted digital vaults with military-grade security; Salomé also claims that at least nine nations have initiated covert social conditioning programs in anticipation of public disclosure of alien life which he predicts will culminate in 2030. While his predictions are definitely more detailed and current than the real Nostradamus, the Living Noz needs some winning predictions before he is replaced by the Living Nostradamus 2.0.

After a Bigfoot sighting in Monroe, Michigan, a marijuana dispensary there offered a free rolled joint to anyone who brought in a clear photograph of a Sasquatch; this was not the hairy one’s only link to Michigan marijuana as another pot shop, the  Higher Love cannabis dispensary in Menominee just across the border from Wisconsin, is causing a local uproar by advertising the business with a menacing 14-foot tall Sasquatch statue at the entrance; locals attending a council meeting said they feared the Bigfoot will make children believe marijuana is OK and endorsed by the “big gorilla by the bridge", while the dispensary’s management points out that the Bigfoot as depicted is big and mean; however, it also admitted that the chain is considering adopting Bigfoot as its mascot (there are a number of Bigfoot-related strains) and putting statues at all locations. Does Bigfoot have an obligation to humans to avoid being associated with controversial products? (Yes, even beef jerky is controversial to vegans.)

The theory that there is a huge structure, or even an entire city, buried underneath the Giza pyramid complex and in particular the Pyramid of Khafre jut got deeper with a scientific presentation by Professor Filippo Biondi of the Khafre Project at its first international conference held recently in Malta; Biondi described the SAR-Doppler technology used to map the underground area, but the most important revelation was details on how the researchers on the project translated the electromagnetic response of the ground into physical vibration patterns in a radical technique developed by them which he likened to using “a stethoscope on rock”; this allowed them to detect differences in mass, shape and resonance below the surface; he then noted that the signals then interpreted not by generative artificial intelligence, but by human experts who reconstruct three-dimensional models based on probabilities calculated by algorithms; based on their analysis, Biondi said that  “The detected signatures do not resemble natural formations or geological fissures. Their orientation is almost perfect in relation to the cardinal points, and the symmetry leaves no doubt: someone built them”; and because the technology and engineering involved to build them does not match what is known of the period, they believe the structure predate them; a researcher at the conference let this comment: “If this is validated, we will have to rewrite part of Egypt’s history”. That’s a big ‘if’ which will only be resolved with excavation and the list of approvals needed to do that is as tall as the pyramid.

Space physicist Agnit Mukhopadhyay of the University of Michigan says his field can be used to explain the extinction of Neanderthals and the survival of homo sapiens; he starts with the shift in the Earth's magnetic poles around 41,000 years ago known as the Laschamp event and suggest that it caused an extreme weakening of the Earth's magnetic field which allowed for greater penetration of cosmic and ultraviolet radiation that created aggressive environmental conditions that Neanderthals could not withstand – because their clothes were too loose; that’s right, Mukhopadhyay proposes that homo sapiens used needles to make better and tighter-fitting clothes which covered more of their bodies and both blocked harmful rays and kept them warmer; he also suggests that homo sapiens used ochre on their skin for decoration, therapy, cosmetics, healing, and as an insect repellent, and that same ochre was also an effective sunscreen against the harmful radiations; archeologists dispute this theory, pointing out that there is no evidence humans in other areas wearing loose-fitting and no ochre died from radiation to the point of extinction like the Neanderthals. Does having Neanderthal DNA preclude one from becoming a tailor?

The question of whether journalists with secret information leaked to them by inside sources have an obligation to reveal the info has now been applied to the psychic world, as spoon-bending prognosticator Uri Geller claimed that he had read the mind of U.S. President Donald Trump and found out what Trump would do in the Israeli-Iran conflict - this was days before Trump authorized the bombing of three Iraqi nuclear facilities; Geller said he did not reveal what was on Trump’s mind,  explaining that “I cannot say because I will not compromise US-Israel secrecy... but remember even Golda Meir famously said Uri Geller read her mind!"; however, Geller, who lives in Tel Aviv, did tweet what he called “A vital message for Donald Trump: You MUST use your B52s to bomb Fordo! It is the ONLY way to end Iran's nuclear threat. Don't leave a single piece intact. This is a pivotal moment in history and I am urging you with all my energy to do it for the sake of mankind!"" Did Geller give a hint of what Trump would do? Are psychics morally obligated to tell what they know – or are they morally obligated to keep it a secret in order to avoid causing mass panic – especially if they’re wrong?

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

29-06-2025 om 20:32 geschreven door peter  

© Getty Images

4 mysterious UFO sightings that are still unexplained

Some UFO sightings can be explained away – but we still don't know the truth behind these ones.

Around 350 children and teachers at Westall High School in Melbourne, Australia, watched five planes surround a silvery flying-saucer-shaped UFO in 1966. The planes attempted to aerially herd the craft for about 20 minutes before it disappeared.

A UFO-themed play park commemorates the event and, to this day, witnesses meet once a year to discuss their experience.

In 1997, thousands of people reported lights across several hundred miles of night sky in Arizona and Nevada in the United States, and Sonora in Mexico. These lights were either stationary, or on a moving V-shaped craft in a triangular formation (artist’s impression above).

The United States Air Force stated that the lights over Phoenix were military flares but the V-shaped UFO remains a mystery.

In December 1980, US airmen stationed at RAF Woodbridge in Suffolk, England were investigating reports of lights in Rendlesham Forest when they saw red and blue lights and a UFO land. It was described as around three metres high and three metres in diameter and appeared to be standing on fixed legs. The material of the craft was like ‘smooth, opaque black glass.’

The next day, indentations were seen on the ground and radiation levels recorded. On a separate night, another member of the US Air Force set out to disprove his colleagues with a tape recorder. He reported lights in the sky that looked ‘like an eye winking at you’ and observed ‘a beam coming down to the ground’. Three years later, the US government released a report that described the encounter, which has become known as Britain’s Roswell.

While there remain believers, psychologist Prof Chris French – who has also visited the site – is among many of those who are unconvinced. A local forester said the indentations were caused by rabbits, and the levels of radioactivity were not especially high. As for the lights? “I’ve heard the tape,” says French, “and the lights are in complete synchrony with Orfordness Lighthouse nearby.”

{ https://www.sciencefocus.com/ }

29-06-2025 om 18:21 geschreven door peter  

The UFOs that scientists think are real, but can't explain

Nature's UFOs are even weirder and more mysterious than flying saucers.

Image credit: Alamy

New Jersey is the new Roswell – or so it might seem after a swarm of bright lights, glowing orange-red orbs and unidentified flying objects filled the skies throughout December 2024.

As expected, these strange orbs gave rise to a flood of conspiracy theories involving UFOs and foreign interference. One US Republican congressman even claimed the lights were aircraft originating from an "Iranian mothership," a theory swiftly dismissed by the Pentagon.

Although the exact source of the objects remains unconfirmed, US officials suggest that the majority of sightings were most likely caused by – you guessed it – civilian-operated drones.

The New Jersey drone saga is yet another example of how many so-called UFOs have perfectly logical explanations. But not all phenomena are so easily dismissed. For decades, scientists have been baffled by a different kind of mysterious light: ball lightning.

While it’s easy to roll your eyes at such stories, there have been eyewitness accounts of weird floating balls of light for centuries – the earliest thought to be in 1195. It’s only thanks to the sheer volume of accounts – and photographic evidence – that scientists have felt the need to investigate these mysterious sightings further.

Many of the reports are from credible sources.

For instance, in 1927, renowned quantum theory physicist Walther Gerlach claimed to have witnessed a “bright, luminous yellowish-white ball” emerge from a bolt of lightning.

Being a scientist, he used his own hastily acquired observations to work out that the ball of light had travelled 1,225m per second (a little over 4,000ft per second) – over three times the speed of sound.

Then there’s Dr Roger Jennison, a radio astronomer at the UK’s Jodrell Bank Observatory.

In 1963, he was travelling on an overnight flight from New York to Washington during a thunderstorm, when a loud, bright electrical discharge suddenly enveloped the plane. Passengers then observed something extraordinary, which Jennison later outlined in a letter to the prestigious journal Nature.

In the letter, he wrote: “Some seconds after this a glowing sphere a little more than 20cm [almost 8in] in diameter emerged from the pilot’s cabin and passed down the aisle of the aircraft approximately 50cm [19in] from me, maintaining the same height and course for the whole distance over which it could be observed.”

Descriptions around the world vary in detail, but often involve a thunderstorm and a ball of light, usually no larger than a football, in a variety of colours.

These luminous globes float through the air for a short period of time, some slowly, others extremely fast. There are reports of them disappearing, exploding or passing through walls or windows. Some leave behind an odour of sulphur.

Yet despite over 800 years of sightings, due to its elusive nature, scientists still don’t understand ball lightning. But there are clues that plasma might be the missing ingredient.

Plasma attack

Often called the fourth state of matter (the other three being solid, liquid and gas), plasma can be produced relatively easily.

“If you add high temperatures to a gas, you get a plasma – a charged, ionised gas – which can be influenced by electric and magnetic fields,” says Prof Ursel Fantz from the Max Planck Institute of Plasma Physics near Munich. “This is very important as you can’t do that to the other states.”

“More than 95 per cent of the Universe is plasma,” she adds. “All the stars, interstellar space, interplanetary space, aurora and standard lightning. Plasma is also used in medicine and chemical energy storage."

Plasma too, according to some of Fantz's experiments, could potentially be the source of the floating orbs.

Using just a small beaker of salt water, a couple of electrodes and a high voltage (akin to a bolt of lightning – approx 300 million volts), scientists at Fantz’s institute created a 10–20cm [approx 4–8in] diameter plasma cloud – lasting just 0.3 seconds – resembling a glowing orb.

“There are some similarities with ball lightning, but we can’t say it is [ball lightning],” said Fantz, “as it exists for less than the time of a twinkle in your eye.”

In 2020, the experiment was recreated with more water and filmed. The resulting video showed ball lightning-style plasmoids rising from the water’s surface in slow motion.

Despite not hovering, as previous sightings have claimed, could these plasmas explain ball lightning orbs? Fantz isn’t sure. “All we have are people’s reports, and pictures are really rare,” she says.

Read more:

• Conspiracies and FBI secrets: Why we love UFOs
• Alien mothership might be spying on us from orbit, says top Harvard scientist
• 4 mysterious UFO sightings that are still unexplained

Getting Warmer

Although floating balls of light like those that could pass through Jennison’s aircraft haven’t yet been recreated in the lab, scientists continue to speculate on how they might form without relying on plasmas.

For instance, in 2014, there were reports of ball lightning being caught on video by scientists at Northwestern Normal University in Lanzhou, China.

They were studying lightning during a thunderstorm in Qinghai and observed a ball of light form and travel about 20m (65ft) in 1.5 seconds. A spectrograph also identified the ball’s main components to be iron, silicon and calcium.

This unexpected observation chimed with one theory hypothesised by researchers in New Zealand, in 2000, which proposed that the glowing ball resulted from a lightning strike on the ground that vaporised grains of minerals (since all of those elements can be found in soil).

“There are lots of theories as to what they are, from mini black holes to antimatter,” says physicist Dr Stephen Hughes, an honorary senior lecturer at the University of Queensland, Australia.

He examined the evidence for green fireballs and ball lightning in a Proceedings of the Royal Society paper published in 2010, which detailed multiple eyewitness sightings over Brisbane and the Gold Coast a few years earlier.

“Ball lightning is definitely some kind of electrical phenomenon,” says Hughes. “People report hissing [and] sizzling sounds, which we associate with electricity. But its mechanism isn’t fully understood.”

The mystery is understandable since many eyewitness accounts are contradictory or simply baffling, Hughes adds.

For example, in 1974, during a thunderstorm, Philip Bagnall, the network director of the British Meteor Society, awoke to find an orange ball of light at the foot of his bed. When he reached out, he could feel heat radiating from about 10cm (4in) away.

While some reports describe shocks or partial paralysis upon contact with ball lightning, Bagnall experienced nothing after clapping his hands on it. The sphere then passed through his bedroom ceiling “like a Hollywood ghost.”

“Ball lightning has travelled down an aircraft [according to Jennison] and not caused any burning, although it could still be hot,” says Hughes. “Similar to how you can put your hand in an oven when it’s 230°C (446°F) and your hand doesn’t get burned as long as you don’t touch the metal.”

“Some of the UFO reports talk about objects accelerating extremely fast, at impossible rates of acceleration. Fighter aircraft can’t stop and change direction that fast, but electrical phenomena can,” says Hughes.

“Electrons are very light and the electromagnetic force is so strong you get this insane acceleration. In just over 1cm (less than 0.5in), electrons can accelerate to half the speed of light.”

In 2024, scientists at the University of California, the University of Arizona and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, published their theory on the origin of ‘foo fighters’: plasmas in the thermosphere.

This is a region from about 90–600km (approx 56–370 miles) above Earth’s surface, where temperatures at the higher altitudes can reach 2,000°C (3,632°F) or more.

Although the story made national news in one UK paper, the theory was published in the Journal of Modern Physics, a publication that charges authors to publish their work. The theory asserts that the plasma in this region of the atmosphere could be a form of “pre-life”, one that’s “completely different from life as we know it.”

While the paper is speculative, it raises the question of whether these sightings of strange glowing balls might be interpreted as potential evidence of aliens.

Fantz, however, is far from convinced. "Plasma is atoms, ions, electrons and photons," she says. "And that's it."

Eyes on the skies

Be it plasmas, lightning vaporising minerals on the ground, or extraterrestrials, all current theories about the glowing balls of light remain exactly that – theories.

You might, like others, also think that the many accounts of these balls, from the foo fighters to Jennison’s plane aisle, can be explained through psychological means.

But evidence from scientists, such as Fantz’s floating plasma ball experiment, leaves little doubt there remains a lot to uncover about many phenomena on this planet. This is why government agencies are changing their approach and are now more prepared to keep an open mind.

“Just because we observe something we don’t understand and even surprises us, doesn’t mean that we’re crazy or wrong,” says ETH Zurich’s Prof Thomas Zurbuchen, the former associate administrator of NASA’s science directorate, who commissioned an independent study of unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs) in 2022.

“I believe in the power of science and the power of data,” he adds. “I’m not telling people what to believe and not believe. I think to some people [the report] demystified what was happening.”

The study, which features the likes of former NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and an array of prominent academics, included numerous images of known natural phenomena that are of ten mistaken for UFOs: such as the aurora borealis (northern lights), the Perseid meteor shower and red sprites – an eerie form of crimson lightning that resembles a glowing squid and shoots up, instead of down, into the atmosphere.

The final report stated: “It’s increasingly clear that the majority of UAP observations can be attributed to known phenomena or occurrences.” It found no evidence that UAPs were extraterrestrial, but it didn’t rule out the possibility.

It therefore surprised many people when, in November 2024, two US subcommittees held a hearing in Washington DC titled “Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Exposing the Truth.”

The aim was to discuss the Department of Defense and the wider intelligence community’s lack of transparency regarding UAPs, and to increase disclosure.

The testimonies attracted a global audience who heard pilots testify that they saw unidentified objects, such as balls of light, on an almost “daily basis”. One former military intelligence officer even stated: “We’re not alone in the cosmos.”

The conclusion, however, was that there was no evidence for extraterrestrial life, but that such sightings should be studied further.

“So often, puzzling and disturbing observations indicate new discoveries. For example, we now know that a specific set of observations were indications of a new type of cloud we hadn’t known previously,” said Zurbuchen of the NASA report.

“Similarly, weather-related phenomena, such as temperature inversions or electrical phenomena in the atmosphere can lead to surprising observations that may, at first glance, look like UAPs, but are atmospheric science in action.”

This brings us back to ball lightning.

Unfortunately, we’re no closer to understanding how it forms, and whether it is or isn’t a plasma. Some have even referred to its elusive qualities as “tracking the Sasquatch of meteorology.”

Like Sasquatch, it can be faked too. A 2020 video of ‘ball lightning’ travelling above railway tracks went viral on Twitter (now X) and is still doing the rounds today, even though its Russian creator admitted he was testing visual effects.

Science, meanwhile, continues to unravel the cause of the glowing orbs and use the properties of plasma. In fact, a number of classified US research projects are now pivoting to research plasma.

While some have speculated that this is new evidence relating to UFOs, others have pointed to how plasmas could be used for military applications.

Whether these new studies eventually reveal the mysteries of plasmas, or if other scientists unlock hidden truths about the behaviour of lightning on Earth, the truth remains out there… for now.

About our experts

• Prof Ursel Fantz is head of ITER Technology and Diagnostics Division at the Max Planck Institute of Plasma Physics near Munich, Germany. She has been published in the likes of Frontiers in Physics, Nuclear Fusion and Fusion Engineering and Design.
• Dr Stephen Hughes is an honorary senior lecturer of mathematics and physics at the University of Queensland, Australia. He is published in Proceedings of the Royal Society, The Physics Teacher and Physics Education.
• Prof Thomas Zurbuchen is the leader of ETH Zurich and former associate administrator of NASA's science mission directorate. He is an international speaker and appears in Netflix documentary film Unknown: Cosmic Time Machine. He is also published in Scientific American.

Read more:

• Project Galileo: The search for alien tech hiding in our Solar System
• What would alien life actually look like?
• These two signals are the closest we've come to alien contact

{ https://www.sciencefocus.com/ }

29-06-2025 om 17:52 geschreven door peter  

The recently circulated photos reveal at least two B-2 Spirit aircraft in mid-stage assembly, surrounded by engineers and specialized equipment. It marks one of the very few public glimpses inside the highly classified B-2 production line.

Photo: Archival image of the B-2 assembly line at Northrop Grumman – circa 1990s

“The revival of the B-2 line likely isn’t just routine maintenance — it could indicate a significant upgrade phase,” commented a defense analyst from the RAND Corporation.

 B-2: The Undisputed Stealth Bomber

First introduced in 1997, the B-2 Spirit remains the only strategic stealth bomber in the world capable of penetrating advanced air defense systems.

• Equipped for both conventional and nuclear payloads (B61, B83)

• Range exceeds 10,000 km without refueling

• Capable of transoceanic combat missions, particularly across the Pacific

Photo: The B-2 Spirit unveiled to the public for the first time in Palmdale, California – 1988

Amid growing tensions in the South China Sea, Ukraine, and the Korean Peninsula, America’s reactivation of B-2 operations could send a dual message — to deter adversaries while reassuring allies.

 A Silent Upgrade for the Entire B-2 Fleet?

Open-source analysis suggests the B-2 may be undergoing integration with next-generation technologies, often referred to as Gen 5.5+, including:

• AI-assisted navigation with 360° sensor fusion

• Potential adaptation for hypersonic weapons

• Advanced radar-absorbing coatings aimed at countering high-frequency tracking systems reportedly in development by China and Russia

Photo: Strategic bomber production line – illustrative image from Northrop Grumman, possibly B-2 or B-21

Although no official statement has confirmed the scope of the upgrades, these moves are believed to serve as a strategic bridge until the B-21 Raider enters full-scale deployment in the coming years.

 A Calculated Move, Not an Accident

Many experts believe the leaked image from the Palmdale plant was intentional. It may be part of a broader “Flexible Deterrence Options” (FDOs) strategy designed to subtly project strength.

Photo: A B-2 Spirit flies over Northrop Grumman’s aerospace complex – illustrative aerial view

“When you reveal part of the B-2 line, you’re not showing weakness — you’re signaling that there’s more in reserve,” wrote military analyst James L. Martin for The WarZone.

 Final Thoughts: A Phantom Returns

In an era dominated by drones and electronic warfare, the U.S. doubling down on the B-2 sends a chilling message: some technologies don’t need replacing — because they remain nightmares for any air defense network.

Photo: Rare underside view of the B-2 Spirit on descent, exposing its weapons bay and landing gear

Decades after its first flight, the B-2 Spirit remains more than just a weapon — it is a symbol of stealth supremacy the world still struggles to match.

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{ https://movies.newspetcats.com/category/military/ }

29-06-2025 om 16:37 geschreven door peter  

First images from Biomass mission show vibrant Earth

• The Biomass mission from the European Space Agency is taking images of Earth to acquire data about forest biomass and how it changes over time.
• The mission’s goal is to aid scientists understand the role forests play in the Earth’s carbon cycle.
• The first images from Biomass show a vibrant Earth, revealing details of the landscape through the forest canopy down to the floor.
• ESA published this original article on June 23, 2025. Edits by EarthSky.

Biomass mission delivers vibrant Earth images

On June 23, 2025, the European Space Agency (ESA) revealed the first stunning images from its groundbreaking Biomass satellite mission at the Living Planet Symposium. It marks a major leap forward in our ability to understand how Earth’s forests are changing and exactly how they contribute to the global carbon cycle. But these inaugural glimpses go beyond forests. Remarkably, the satellite is already showing potential to unlock new insights into some of Earth’s most extreme environments.

Biomass – an Earth explorer research mission developed within ESA’s FutureEO programme – was launch less than two months ago. This new mission is, therefore, still in the process of being commissioned, but its first set of images are stunning none the less.

ESA’s Biomass Project Manager, Michael Fehringer, commented:

As is routine, we’re still in the commissioning phase, fine-tuning the satellite to ensure it delivers the highest quality data for scientists to accurately determine how much carbon is stored in the world’s forests.

Biomass is equipped with novel space technology, so we’ve been closely monitoring its performance in orbit, and we’re very pleased to report that everything is functioning smoothly and its first images are nothing short of spectacular. And they’re only a mere glimpse of what is still to come.

More about Biomass

Biomass is the first satellite to carry a P-band synthetic aperture radar. Its signal is capable of penetrating forest canopies to measure woody biomass: trunks, branches and stems. These measurements serve as a proxy for carbon storage, the assessment of which is the mission’s primary objective.

While it settles into its life in orbit, ESA’s pioneering Biomass mission is already returning data. The satellite, its instrument and systems are still being calibrated. So researchers cannot yet use these first data to quantify carbon or support scientific advances. But they do show that Biomass is well on track to achieving its goals.

Simonetta Cheli, ESA’s Director of Earth Observation Programmes, said:

Looking at these first images, it’s clear to see that our Earth Explorer Biomass satellite is set to deliver on its promise.

We fully expect that this new mission will provide a groundbreaking leap in our ability to understand Earth’s forests. It will combine cutting-edge radar technology with the scientific excellence that will unlock vital insights into carbon storage, climate change and the health of our planet’s precious forest ecosystems.

Bolivian forests

Biomass’ first image (at top) features part of Bolivia. Bolivia has experienced significant deforestation, ranking among the highest globally for primary forest loss. Although there are complex reasons at play, this is primarily driven by forest clearance for agricultural expansion.

This vibrant image is from the radar instrument’s different polarization channels. Each color reveals distinct characteristics of the landscape. For instance, green hues mainly represent rainforest, red hues forested floodplains and wetlands, and blue–purple is indicative of grasslands. Meanwhile, black areas are rivers and lakes.

In the Amazon basin, some rivers run wild. Unhindered by dams, they are free to meander, but some more dramatically than others. The image captures one such wanderer, the Beni River, which flows from the Andes Mountains across the Bolivian lowlands northeast toward Brazil.

The true strength of the Biomass mission lies not in identifying features from a single image, but in its unique sampling technique and ability to combine multiple observations of the same area to reveal forest height and biomass. This enables scientists to accurately quantify forest carbon stocks and better understand the role of tropical forests in the global carbon cycle.

Biomass mission vs. Copernicus-Sentinel 2

The second image, an image in two parts, is the same capture of Bolivia from Biomass but featured below an image of the same area from Copernicus Sentinel-2.

Although the images appear visually similar, the Biomass image offers significantly more information for quantifying forest carbon stocks. This is primarily thanks to its long-wavelength radar, which can penetrate the canopy and characterize the entire forest structure. In contrast, the optical Sentinel-2 image captures only the top of the canopy.

Northern Brazil

This third image is actually the very first acquisition Biomass returned. It offers another striking view of the Amazon rainforest, but this time over northern Brazil.

In the southern part of the image, pink and red hues reveal the presence of wetlands. This highlights Biomass’ ability to penetrate dense vegetation and detect features down to the forest floor. The dominance of red tones along the river indicates forested floodplains. Meanwhile, the northern area, depicted in rich green, reveals more rugged topography and dense, continuous forest cover.

Volcanoes of Indonesia

The fourth image features tropical forests on islands in Indonesia. This is the Halmahera rainforest, situated in mountainous terrain, much of which has volcanic origins. Several volcanoes remain active in the area, including Mount Gamkonora, visible near the northern coast in this image.

This particular image clearly demonstrates that, beyond providing insights into rainforests, the Biomass P-band radar also reveals topographic features, as its long wavelength can penetrate down to the forest floor.

Biomass sees Gabon in Africa

The fifth capture features Gabon in Africa. The Ivindo River, which is vital to the health of the rainforest, is clear to see in this striking image. Other than the river and tributaries, the image is predominantly green, representing dense forest. The visibility of distinct topographical features in this image further underscores the radar’s capability to image through forest canopies to the terrain underneath.

Examining other aspects of Earth from the Biomass mission

Biomass also offers opportunities to explore other aspects of our planet, as the last two images below demonstrate.

The radar should be able to penetrate through dry sand by as much as 16 feet (five meters). Data can, therefore, be used to map and study sub-surface geological features in deserts, such the remains of ancient riverbeds and lakes. This will help understand the past climate and also help prospect fossil water resources in desert regions.

Indicating that this can indeed be achieved, the sixth image, below, shows the stunning structure of part of the Sahara Desert in Chad. This image covers part of the Tibesti Mountains, a mountain range in the central Sahara, mainly located in the extreme north of Chad.

The last image shows a portion of the vast Antarctic Transantarctic Mountains with one of the large ice streams, Nimrod Glacier, flowing into Ross Ice Shelf.

The long wavelength of Biomass’ radar allows for deeper penetration into ice. This enables the retrieval of valuable information on ice velocity and the internal structure of the ice. These are capabilities that shorter wavelength radars cannot achieve effectively. And this image indicates that this could be a possibility.

Bottom line: The Biomass mission has revealed its first images! See vibrant pics of Earth from space, highlighting forests and more.

• Via ESA
• Read more: 1st photo of Earth from space, 78 years ago

{ https://earthsky.org/space/ }

28-06-2025 om 21:56 geschreven door peter  

Door de prachtige foto’s die telescopen en satellieten van planeten, sterrenstelsels en nevels hebben gemaakt, zou je bijna vergeten hoe mooi onze eigen planeet is. Maar ESA’s gloednieuwe Biomass-satelliet steekt daar nu een stokje voor.

De Biomass-satelliet is nog geen twee maanden geleden gelanceerd en moet gaan onderzoeken hoe onze bossen eraan toe zijn en hoe ze door de tijd heen veranderen. Daarnaast hopen onderzoekers dat de satelliet meer inzicht kan geven in de rol die bomen spelen in de koolstofcyclus (zie kader).

Bomen en koolstof
Bossen worden ook wel de longen van de aarde genoemd. Ze geven zuurstof af en halen koolstofdioxide (CO2) uit de atmosfeer. Die koolstof slaan de bomen op, tot ze worden omgehakt; als de bomen sterven en vergaan, komt de CO2 weer vrij. Tot zover is het een vrij helder verhaal. Minder duidelijk is echter hoeveel CO2 de bossen wereldwijd op dit moment hebben opgeslagen en hoe de mate waarin bomen koolstof opslaan nu precies verandert onder invloed van stijgende temperaturen en hogere CO2-concentraties in de atmosfeer. De Biomass-satelliet moet daar meer inzicht in geven. De satelliet is daartoe onder meer uitgerust met een radarsysteem dat deze in staat stelt om dwars door het bladerdak heen te kijken en de zogenoemde ‘biomassa’ – de stammen en takken – van bossen te meten. Omdat bomen het leeuwendeel van de koolstof die ze opnemen in die stammen en takken opslaan, kan uit die metingen worden afgeleid hoeveel koolstof er op dit moment in bossen zit opgeslagen – en hoe die hoeveelheid door de tijd heen verandert.

Testen
Op dit moment is de Biomass-satelliet nog niet in bedrijf; ESA is druk bezig om de systemen aan boord van de satelliet te testen en goed af te stellen. Dat is allesbehalve saai. Zo resulteert het onder meer in de eerste beelden van Biomass en die zijn volgens projectmanager Michael Fehringer “niet minder dan spectaculair”.

Bolivia
En daar is weinig aan gelogen. Zo heeft Biomass bijvoorbeeld bovenstaande afbeelding afgeleverd. We zien hier een stukje van Bolivia – waar ontbossing een groot probleem is. Op de levendige afbeelding zien we regenwoud (in groentinten), beboste uiterwaarden en wetlands (in roodtinten), graslanden (in blauwpaarse tinten) en rivieren en meren (in zwart). De wild slingerende rivier de Beni springt daarbij met name in het oog.

Brazilië
Nog zo’n mooie opname zie je hieronder (links), van het Amazonewoud in Brazilië. De opname laat mooi zien dat Biomass dwars door het bladerdak kan kijken, tot op de bosbodem. Zo zie je onderin rode en roze tinten die op de aanwezigheid van wetlands wijzen. In het noorden zijn dan weer heuvels te vinden die – afgaand op de groentint – heel dicht bebost zijn.

Gabon
Ook de foto die je hier rechtsboven ziet, gemaakt in Gabon (Afrika) is prachtig. De Ivindo-rivier springt er duidelijk uit. Deze rivier is van levensbelang voor het omringende regenwoud waar Biomass dus ook weer dwars doorheen gluurt, zodat de topografische kenmerken van het gebied aan het licht komen.

Woestijnen
Maar Biomass kan nog meer, zo onthult de foto hieronder. Het radarsysteem waarmee de satelliet is uitgerust kan namelijk niet alleen dwars door bladeren heen kijken, maar ook dwars door tot wel vijf meter droog zand heen ‘gluren’. En daarmee is de satelliet bijvoorbeeld in staat om ondergrondse structuren – zoals de restanten van oude rivierbeddingen en meren – in woestijnen op te snorren. Die restanten kunnen onder meer onthullen welk klimaat de woestijn in het verleden kende en hoe de woestijn er onder dat klimaat precies uitzag.

IJs
En daar blijft het niet bij. Want het radarsysteem aan boord van Biomass kan ook vrij diep in ijs gluren en zo meer inzicht geven in de interne structuur daarvan. Om dat te demonstreren, maakte Biomass de foto hieronder, met daarop een stukje van het enorme Transarctisch Gebergte en de Nimrod-gletsjer (beiden te vinden op Antarctica).

De beelden zijn prachtig om te zien, maar onthullen bovenal dat Biomass in staat is om de hoge verwachtingen waar te maken en ons een ongeëvenaard inkijkje te geven in bossen – en en passant ook in woestijnen en ijsmassa’s – op onze eigen prachtige planeet. “We verwachten dat deze nieuwe missie een baanbrekende sprong voorwaarts betekent in ons begrip van de bossen op aarde,” aldus Fehringer. “En essentiële inzichten zal opleveren als het gaat om koolstofopslag, klimaatverandering en de gezondheid van de kostbare bosecosystemen op onze planeet.”

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{ https://scientias.nl/}

28-06-2025 om 21:33 geschreven door peter  

A cosmic ray-like signal was recorded, seeming to come from below the Antarctic ice. 

(Westend61/Getty Images)

Two Anomalous Radio Signals Detected Coming from Antarctic Ice

The unusual radio pulses were detected by the Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA) experiment, a range of instruments flown on NASA balloons high above Antarctica that are designed to detect radio waves from cosmic rays hitting the atmosphere. The goal of the experiment is to gain insight into distant cosmic events by analyzing signals that reach the Earth. Rather than reflecting off the ice, the radio signals appeared to be coming from below the horizon, an orientation that cannot be explained by the current understanding of particle physics and may hint at new types of particles or interactions previously unknown to science.

ANITA was placed in Antarctica because there is little chance of interference from other signals; to capture the emission signals, the balloon-borne radio detector is sent to fly over stretches of ice, capturing what are called ice showers.

Image credit: Stephanie Wissel / Penn State.

“The radio waves that we detected were at really steep angles, like 30 degrees below the surface of the ice,” said Dr. Stephanie Wissel, a physicist at Penn State.

“By our calculations, the anomalous signal had to pass through and interact with thousands of km of rock before reaching the detector, which should have left the radio signal undetectable because it would have been absorbed into the rock.”

“It’s an interesting problem because we still don’t actually have an explanation for what those anomalies are, but what we do know is that they’re most likely not representing neutrinos.”

Usually emitted by high-energy sources like the Sun or major cosmic events like supernovas or even the Big Bang, there are neutrino signals everywhere.

The problem with these particles, though, is that they are notoriously difficult to detect.

“You have a billion neutrinos passing through your thumbnail at any moment, but neutrinos don’t really interact,” Dr. Wissel said.

“So, this is the double-edged sword problem. If we detect them, it means they have traveled all this way without interacting with anything else.”

“We could be detecting a neutrino coming from the edge of the observable Universe.”

“Once detected and traced to their source, these particles can reveal more about cosmic events than even the most high-powered telescopes, as the particles can travel undisturbed and almost as fast as the speed of light, giving clues about cosmic events that happened light-years away.”

“Teams of researchers around the world have been working to design and build special detectors to capture sensitive neutrino signals, even in relatively small amounts.”

“Even one small signal from a neutrino holds a treasure trove of information, so all data has significance.”

“We use radio detectors to try to build really, really large neutrino telescopes so that we can go after a pretty low expected event rate.”

ANITA is one of these detectors, and it was placed in Antarctica because there is little chance of interference from other signals.

To capture the emission signals, the balloon-borne radio detector is sent to fly over stretches of ice, capturing what are called ice showers.

“We have these radio antennas on a balloon that flies 40 km above the ice in Antarctica,” Dr. Wissel said.

“We point our antennas down at the ice and look for neutrinos that interact in the ice, producing radio emissions that we can then sense on our detectors.”

These special ice-interacting neutrinos, called tau neutrinos, produce a secondary particle called a tau lepton that is released out of the ice and decays, the physics term referring to how the particle loses energy as it travels over space and breaks down into its constituents. This produces emissions known as air showers.

“If they were visible to the naked eye, air showers might look like a sparkler waved in one direction, with sparks trailing it,” Dr. Wissel said.

“We can distinguish between the two signals — ice and air showers — to determine attributes about the particle that created the signal.”

“These signals can then be traced back to their origin, similar to how a ball thrown at an angle will predictably bounce back at the same angle.”

The recent anomalous findings, though, cannot be traced back in such a manner as the angle is much sharper than existing models predict.

Stephanie Wissel/Penn State

By analyzing data collected from multiple ANITA flights and comparing it with mathematical models and extensive simulations of both regular cosmic rays and upward-going air showers, the researchers were able to filter out background noise and eliminate the possibility of other known particle-based signals.

The scientists then cross-referenced signals from other independent detectors like the IceCube Experiment and the Pierre Auger Observatory to see if data from upward-going air showers, similar to those found by ANITA, were captured by other experiments.

The analysis revealed the other detectors did not register anything that could have explained what ANITA detected, which led the authors to describe the signal as anomalous, meaning that the particles causing the signal are not neutrinos.

The signals do not fit within the standard picture of particle physics, and while several theories suggest that it may be a hint of dark matter, the lack of follow-up observations with IceCube and Auger really narrow the possibilities.

“Our team is currently designing and building the next big detector,” Dr. Wissel said.

Stephanie Wissel/Penn State

“The new detector, called PUEO, will be larger and better at detecting neutrino signals, and it will hopefully shed light on what exactly the anomalous signal is.”

“My guess is that some interesting radio propagation effect occurs near ice and also near the horizon that I don’t fully understand, but we certainly explored several of those, and we haven’t been able to find any of those yet either.”

A rendering of what PUEO will look like once deployed.

(Christian Miki/University of Hawaii)

“So, right now, it’s one of these long-standing mysteries, and I’m excited that when we fly PUEO, we’ll have better sensitivity.”

“In principle, we should pick up more anomalies, and maybe we’ll actually understand what they are.”

“We also might detect neutrinos, which would in some ways be a lot more exciting.”

• The team’s paper was published in the journal Physical Review Letters.
• A. Abdul Halim et al. (Pierre Auger Collaboration). 2025. Search for the Anomalous Events Detected by ANITA Using the Pierre Auger Observatory. Phys. Rev. Lett 134, 121003; doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.134.121003
• This article is based on a press-release provided by Penn State.

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{ https://www.sci.news/ }

28-06-2025 om 21:06 geschreven door peter  

Department of Defense

Five U.S. Navy Sailors Saw the Glowing ‘Tic Tac’-Shaped UFO. They Told Us Exactly What They Witnessed - PART I

• Editor’s Note: This story was originally published on November 12, 2019

The five men share an easy rapport with each other, playfully ribbing one another while also communicating a deep sense of mutual respect. It’s clear they all share the bond of having once served in the armed forces. Yet for Gary Voorhis, Jason Turner, P.J. Hughes, Ryan Weigelt, and Kevin Day—assembled together in a private group chat by Popular Mechanics—something much bigger ties them together beyond simply serving in the U.S. Navy.

These men also share the connection of being witnesses to one of the most compelling UFO cases in modern history: the Nimitz Encounters, an event that the Navy confirmed in 2019 did indeed involve “unidentified aerial phenomena.”

Largely overshadowed by a grainy black-and-white video and a former TOPGUN fighter pilot eyewitness, these veterans offer new and intriguing details on what occurred with the Navy’s Strike Carrier Group-11 as it sailed roughly 100 miles off the Southern California coast in 2004—details that a former career intelligence agent who investigated the Nimitz Encounter while at the Pentagon can neither confirm, deny, or even discuss with Popular Mechanics.

Ultimately, these five men—the “other” Nimitz witnesses—could be key to understanding an event that a leading aviation defense expert says “likely wasn’t ours.”

So whose was it?

The Intercept

Stationed on the USS Princeton, a Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser, the Nimitz carrier group went underway in early November 2004 for a routine training exercise. This would be the last time former Petty Officer 3rd Class Gary Voorhis would set sail aboard a Navy vessel.

Having already done almost six years in the Navy, including two combat tours, Voorhis was ready to transition to life outside the world of passionless gray metal hulls and vast leavening seas.

“The group was going to be deploying in a few months and there was a bunch of new systems, like the Spy-1 Bravo radar,” Voorhis tells Popular Mechanics. “It was really about getting all the kinks out.”

While chatting with some of the Princeton’s radar techs, Voorhis says he heard they were getting “ghost tracks” and “clutter” on the radars. For Voorhis, the Princeton’s only system technician for the state-of-the-art Cooperative Engagement Capability and AEGIS Combat System, news of these systems possibly malfunctioning was especially concerning.

Fearing the ship’s brand-new AN/SPY-1B passive radar system was malfunctioning, Voorhis says the air-control systems were taken down and recalibrated in an effort to clear out what he assumed to be false radar returns.

“Once we finished all the recalibration and brought it back up, the tracks were actually sharper and clearer,” Voorhis says. “Sometimes they’d be at an altitude of 80,000 or 60,000 feet. Other times they’d be around 30,000 feet, going like 100 knots. Their radar cross sections didn’t match any known aircraft; they were 100 percent red. No squawk, no IFF [Identification Friend or Foe].”

Pixel-Pushr//Flickr

Sitting in the Princeton’s Combat Information Center (CIC), Operations Specialist Senior Chief Kevin Day was tasked with the critical role of protecting the airspace around the strike group. “My job was to man the radars and ID everything that flew in the skies,” Day said in the documentary film The Nimitz Encounters.

On or around November 10, 2004, roughly 100 miles off the coast of San Diego, Day began noticing strange radar tracks near the area of San Clemente Island. “The reason why I say they’re weird [is] because they were appearing in groups of five to 10 at a time and they were pretty closely spaced to each other. And they were 28,000 feet going a hundred knots tracking south,” Day said in the documentary.

In another YouTube clip, Ryan Weigelt, the former leading petty officer and power plant specialist for the SH-60B “Seahawk” helicopter, recalled the tone aboard the missile cruise at the time.

“Senior Chief Day, his name, was being called over the comms, no bullshit, every two minutes.” Weigelt said. “I recall hearing something, like a big, real-world scenario was going on, but I just didn’t really understand.”

While Day and the Princeton’s air traffic controllers continued to monitor the strange radar returns, Voorhis says he began to take the opportunity to use the ship’s advanced tracking systems to catch a glimpse of whatever these objects were.

“When they’d show up on radar,” Voorhis says, “I’d get the relative bearing and then run up to the bridge and look through a pair of heavily magnified binoculars in the direction the returns were coming from.” Describing what he saw during the daytime, Voorhis says the objects were too far off to make out any distinguishing features, however, he could clearly see something moving erratically in the distance.

“I couldn’t make out details, but they’d just be hovering there, then all of a sudden, in an instant, they’d dart off to another direction and stop again,” Voorhis says. “At night, they’d give off a kind of a phosphorus glow and were a little easier to see than in the day.”

By November 14, the strange returns had been continuously showing up for close to a week. With an air-defense exercise scheduled for that morning, Day convinced his commanding officer to let him direct aircraft to attempt an intercept of these anomalous radar returns. Day’s decision led the VFA-41 Squadron Commander David Fravor to encounter what an “unofficial executive summary” later described as “an elongated egg or a ‘Tic Tac’ shape with a discernible midline horizontal axis” of approximately 46 feet in length.

Wikimedia Commons

An unofficial executive summary of the Nimitz encounter.

With the intercept too far away for even high-powered binoculars, Voorhis, Day, and the rest of the Princeton crew could only listen to the live communications chatter, as the unidentified craft effortless evaded the two fighter jets by demonstrating “an advanced acceleration, aerodynamic, and propulsion capability,” per the unofficial summary. Outmaneuvered by an object that’s colloquially become known for its shape as the “Tic Tac,” Fravor and his wingman returned to the USS Nimitz.

Thanks to a state-of-the-art ATFLIR targeting pod, in a subsequent flight by another F/A-18, Lt. Chad Underwood would successfully capture video of the “Anomalous Aerial Vehicle,” or “AAV.”

For 13 years, the incredible story of the U.S. Navy being harassed and outperformed by UFOs was largely unknown to the greater public. However, in December 2017, after To the Stars Academy of Arts & Science—a verbosely named UFO think tank founded by former Blink-182 frontman Tom DeLonge—and The New York Times published a 1:16 clip of the ATFLIR video, the world suddenly became very familiar with the Nimitz encounters.

What hasn’t been discussed, however, is what the Nimitz’s enlisted witnesses say happened after the now-famous intercept with the “Tic Tac.” Their testimony raises many more questions, debate, and even some controversy.

The Mystery

Like many of the other sailors aboard the USS Princeton, former Petty Officer 3rd Class Jason Turner knew something was up, but didn’t exactly know what had been going on inside the CIC. It was only during a chance encounter while delivering supplies to the ship’s Signal Exploitation Space that Turner found himself being another unwitting witness to the Nimitz’s UFO event.

A video playing on one of the console monitors immediately caught Turner’s eye. In it, the “Tic Tac” performed a number of seemingly impossible maneuvers, not seen in the brief clip released in 2017. Turner described what he saw in the Nimitz Encounters documentary:

“This thing was going berserk, like making turns. It’s incredible the amount of G forces that it would put on a human. It made a maneuver, like they were chasing it straight on, it was going with them, then this thing stopped turning, just gone. In an instant. The video you see now, that’s just a small snippet in the beginning of the whole video. But this thing, it was so much more than what you see in this video.”

Even now, Turner still appears visibly disturbed by whatever it is he saw that day. “I asked a good friend of mine who worked in that area, is this the training we’re going through?” he tells Popular Mechanics.

“No,” the friend replied. “This is real life.”

Equally by chance, during the time of the now-famous intercept, after being called to have a conversation with another detachment, Ryan Weigelt found himself inside the Princeton’s CIC. According to Weigelt, a video of an F/A-18 trying its best to catch the elusive “Tic Tac” was playing on the monitors. Like Turner, Weigelt says what he saw was a lot longer than the brief clip released in 2017.

“I was in there for quite a while and it was on the screen the whole time. I could not tell you how long, but it was playing when I went into combat and it was playing when I left,” Weigelt said in a YouTube interview.

Voorhis tells Popular Mechanics that he, too, saw a much longer and clearer version of the ATFLIR video through the ship’s Top Secret LAN network. “I definitely saw video that was roughly eight to 10 minutes long and a lot more clear,” Voorhis says.

Did what he saw resemble any type of conventional aircraft?

“Umm, no!” he says with a laugh. “In the video I saw, you got a good sense of how the pilot was having a difficult time trying to keep up with this thing. It kept making tight, right angle turns.”

The most shocking claim these Navy veterans make is in what they say happened with all the data tapes for the various systems that recorded these UFO events.

The Visitors

Miles away from Voorhis, Day, Turner, and Weigelt, on the deck of the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier, Petty Officer Patrick “PJ” Hughes was unaware of the unidentified objects the Carrier group had been dealing with for the past several days. Instead, as an aviation technician, one of Hughes’ jobs was to secure the hard drive data recorders from the airborne early-warning aircraft, the E-2 Hawkeye.

“We call them bricks, but they contain the software to run the airplane and they also record or can record a lot of the data that the air crew sees during the flight,” Hughes said in a YouTube interview.

On November 14, as Hughes performed this routine task, he was unaware that the E-2 hard drives he was securing away in a classified safe had just come from the Hawkeye that Day first tried to use to intercept the mysterious UFOs.

Shortly after securing the data bricks, Hughes said he was visited by his commanding officer and two unknown individuals. “They were not on the ship earlier, and I didn’t see them come on. I’m not sure how they got there,” Hughes said.

According to Hughes, his commanding officer told him to turn over the recently secured hard drives. “We put them in the bags, he took them, then he and the two anonymous officers left,” Hughes said.

Inside the Princeton, Voorhis had a similar encounter. “These two guys show up on a helicopter, which wasn’t uncommon, but shortly after they arrived, maybe 20 minutes, I was told by my chain of command to turn over all the data recordings for the AEGIS system,” says Voorhis.

In an interview with Popular Mechanics, Aiello detailed the processes for securing flight tapes as Fravor mentioned. Though these materials are classified, a number of different qualified squadron personnel would have access to the safe where the tapes would have been kept.

“It’s very common, even for tapes you’ve marked and want to save, to inadvertently get put back into circulation, handed out, and recorded over,” Aiello says. “I think Cmdr. Fravor’s opinion on how the tapes went missing is the most plausible explanation. However, a lot of squadron personnel have access to those materials, so it leaves the door open that someone could have intentionally taken them.”

Though Fravor has acknowledged the disappearance of data records, the Nimitz’s most well-known witness has equally pushed back on some of the enlisted sailor’s accounts.

Speaking at the McMenamin’s UFO festival this past May, Fravor admonished some of the “other witness” accounts, saying only the four pilots involved ever personally saw the “Tic Tac,” that no one was asked to sign non-disclosure agreements [NDA], and that “men in suits” never showed up on the ships.

During an October appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast, Fravor said, “There’s still groups of people making stuff up, like someone came out on ours and was talking about, he’s like, I saw the whole video, the whole video is like 10 minutes long and it was doing all this. That’s bullshit.”

Twitter/Jeremy Corbell

Fravor told Rogan that he was one of the top 20 highest ranking members of the carrier group, and had there been any kind of formal investigation, he’d have known about it.

“Okay, I’ll give you credit, if they did, why wouldn’t they show up and talk to the guys who witnessed it, chased it, and one of the senior guys in the battle group?” Fravor asked.

Voorhis claims that in the days prior to the intercept, he witnessed indistinct objects far in the distance. But regarding Fravor’s intercept, he says, “His intercept? Nope, we were too far away, plus I would not have known about it or the bearing of it. Just that it was happening.”

None of the witnesses Popular Mechanics spoke with claimed they’d seen Fravor’s intercept of the unknown object.

In The Nimitz Encounters documentary, Hughes said a friend and aircrew member on one of the E-2 Hawkeye aircraft told him he had to sign an NDA about the incident. Since the E-2 planes would have been in Carrier Wing Nine’s Airborne-Early Warning Squadron VAW-117 (“The Wallbangers”), and not strike fighter squadron under Fravor’s command, the possibility exists that the E-2’s squadron commander could have issued an NDA to their crew without Fravor’s knowledge. However, Popular Mechanics has not verified what Hughes was told. None of the witnesses we spoke with claimed they had signed an NDA.

The Nimitz’s enlisted witnesses stand by their claims that two unknown officials showed up shortly after the UFO incidents. However, they don’t describe them as being the sinisterly sounding “Men in Black,” as Fravor has implied.

According to Weigelt, it wasn’t at all uncommon to have people coming and going that weren’t stationed on the ships. For him, it was only when he heard Voorhis’ and Hughes’ accounts that the arrival of the two individuals on the Princeton seemed to become related to the UFO events.

“I just knew they were there for a reason, to do something they have to do, and just stay the hell out of their way,” Weigelt said.

“Squadron aircrew wouldn’t normally be notified if the ship’s radar or other information was being used for an investigation,” says Guy Snodgrass, a former F/A-18 pilot, Topgun instructor, and communications director for former Secretary of Defense Gen. James Mattis.

While Snodragss wouldn’t comment directly on the UFO event, he said he served alongside the weapons systems officer inside Fravor’s plane during the intercept.

“He’s a talented weapons systems officer (WSO) who has dedicated himself to the naval aviation profession,” Snodgrass says about the pilot, who has never spoken publicly and Popular Mechanics is choosing not to name, as he is still serving in the U.S. Navy. “He also has the acumen to correctly characterize anything out of the ordinary that he might have seen, so I would bias towards giving his account more, not less, weight.”

The Defenders

While investigating these claims, Popular Mechanics was able to locate and speak to a previously unknown witness who was with the Nimitz carrier group in 2004. Unaware of some of their fellow shipmates previously coming forward, and out of concerns related to security oaths, the witness agreed to speak only under the condition of anonymity.

“I do remember the events of 2004 very well,” says the witness, who at the time was an Operations Specialist aboard the USS Princeton. “The decision was made to scramble two fighter jets to investigate. From what the pilots described, the movement of the UFO was defying the laws of physics.”

Popular Mechanics didn’t provide the witness with any of the previous claims.

“What really made this incident alarming was when a Blackhawk helicopter landed on our ship and took all our information from the top secret rooms,” the witness says. “We were all pretty shocked and it was an unspoken rule not to talk about it because we had secret clearances and didn’t want to jeopardize our careers.”

Regarding whether or not there was originally a longer recording than the infamous UFO intercept, Aiello says that’s “entirely possible.”

“The 8mm tapes in use at the time had two hours of recording time, and it was not uncommon for aircrew to leave it on for most of the flight,” Aiello says. “It’s plausible that they simply recorded a short segment of the tapes down in CIC, but that the rest of the tapes were available … up until they were either recorded over or whatever happened.”

Aiello, who was on the Nimitz aircraft carrier in 2004 but was assigned to another strike-fighter squadron, says he doesn’t have any direct information on the incident, but he’s willing to offer his opinion based on his experience as a military fighter pilot for over 20 years.

The enlisted witnesses say it’s disappointing to hear Fravor suggest some of their accounts are inaccurate. However, they all stand by their experiences, and equally support Fravor’s account. For them, they say the only reason they ever came out with their story was to support Fravor and their fellow sailors. “That’s what it’s always been about since day one,” Turner says.

But even if Fravor isn’t buying the witnesses’ stories, that doesn’t mean others don’t believe.

“The combination of those aviators, the Princeton Aegis Radar operators, and the E-2 crew convinced me beyond a doubt of the veracity of the story,” says Paco Chierici, a former F-14 pilot, author of Lions of the Sky, and the person credited with first sharing the news of the Nimitz event in a 2015 Fighter Sweep article. “I know those people and how that world works. There is no way it could have been fabricated or misinterpreted.” (Fravor did not respond to several requests for an interview.)

To be clear, the only Nimitz witness Chierici personally knows is Fravor. “But,” he says, “I know these people. I worked and lived with them for 20 years, operating at very high tempos and stress levels. They’re all, from the enlisted radar operators, to the squadron COs, incredibly professional and competent. The absolute best at what they do.”

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{ https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/ }

28-06-2025 om 20:17 geschreven door peter  

Department of Defense

Five U.S. Navy Sailors Saw the Glowing ‘Tic Tac’-Shaped UFO. They Told Us Exactly What They Witnessed - PART II

• Editor’s Note: This story was originally published on November 12, 2019

The five men share an easy rapport with each other, playfully ribbing one another while also communicating a deep sense of mutual respect. It’s clear they all share the bond of having once served in the armed forces. Yet for Gary Voorhis, Jason Turner, P.J. Hughes, Ryan Weigelt, and Kevin Day—assembled together in a private group chat by Popular Mechanics—something much bigger ties them together beyond simply serving in the U.S. Navy.

The Truth...

By the Nimitz’s “other” witnesses’ accounts, there’s overwhelming evidence to suggest someone was very interested in this event when it occurred. Since none of the witnesses or pilots involved say they were ever interviewed at the time, it appears the most significant concern for the witnesses was the ship’s electronics data. What this data reveals, however, remains a mystery.

And as far as why other data may be being withheld from public release, Elizondo says this could have more to do with what was used than what was actually recorded.

“Many of the systems and the manner in which data is collected remains classified in order to protect tactics, techniques, and procedures,” says Elizondo. “I am not at liberty to discuss any of those systems.”

Elizondo says he would “absolutely” encourage other military witnesses to come forward with their accounts. “Many of our service members are highly trained observers,” he says. “Data obtained by these types are always considered valid observations, although the nuances may not be immediately known.”

Nick Cook, the former aviation editor for Jane’s Defense Weekly, says there are a number of reasons why personnel might have boarded ships and seized electronic data. “It could mean it was sensitive information,” he says. “It could mean this was an exercise.”

Regarding the latter possibility—that this was a secret military test of some sort—Cook, a career defense journalist, says in his opinion it was unlikely this was a classified test. “It’s not impossible, but I wouldn’t think it’s likely. It would be so against the norm of my experience with how the black world conducts testing.”

Having spent a decade investigating the potential for secret highly advanced aerospace technology, and publishing these efforts in The Hunt for Zero Point, Cook was cautious in offering any definite conclusions as to what the Nimitz carrier group had encountered. Cook says it’s possible, but not likely, that the “Tic Tac” was some type of classified drone.

“I searched for 10 years, and never found any compelling evidence that the type of technology exists,” Cook says. “[That] doesn’t mean it couldn’t still exist … I just never found any smoking gun for it.”

But when pushed, the career aviation journalist soberly says, “In the balance of probabilities, I don’t think it’s ‘ours.’”

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{ https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/ }

28-06-2025 om 20:16 geschreven door peter  

To Hide Top-Secret Weapons, the Pentagon Planted Myths About UFOs at Area 51—Then Things Spun Out of Control

28-06-2025 om 18:10 geschreven door peter  

Time, not space plus time, might be the single fundamental property in which all physical phenomena occur.

Image credit: M. Weiss / Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

“These three time dimensions are the primary fabric of everything, like the canvas of a painting,” Dr. Kletetschka said.

“Space still exists with its three dimensions, but it’s more like the paint on the canvas rather than the canvas itself.”

“These thoughts are a marked difference from generally accepted physics, which holds that a single dimension of time plus the three dimensions of space constitute reality.”

“This is known as spacetime, the concept developed more than a century ago that views time and space as one entity.”

Dr. Kletetschka’s mathematical formula of six total dimensions — of time and space combined — could bring scientists closer to finding the single unifying explanation of the Universe.

Dimensions of time beyond our everyday forward progression are difficult to grasp. Theoretical physicists have proposed many variations.

The new work adds to a long-running body of research by theoretical physicists on a subject outside of mainstream physics.

“Earlier 3D time proposals were primarily mathematical constructs without these concrete experimental connections,” Dr. Kletetschka said.

“My work transforms the concept from an interesting mathematical possibility into a physically testable theory with multiple independent verification channels.”

“The theory could be used to predict currently unknown particle properties and aid in pursuing the origin of mass — and, ultimately, helping solve one of the biggest questions in physics.”

Three-dimensional time is a theory in which time, like space, has multiple independent directions — typically imagined as three axes of time motion, similar in concept to the spatial X, Y and Z axes.

Imagine you are walking down a straight path, moving forward and therefore experiencing time as we know it. Now imagine another path that crosses the first one, going sideways.

If you could step onto that sideways path and remain in the same moment of regular time, you might find that things could be slightly different — perhaps a different version of the same day.

Moving along this perpendicular second path could let you explore different outcomes of that day without going backward or forward in time as we know it.

The existence of those different outcomes is the second dimension of time. The means to transition from one outcome to another is the third dimension.

“This theory overcomes some of the problems with earlier three-dimensional time theories that are based on traditional physics,” Dr. Kletetschka said.

“Those earlier theories, for example, describe multiple time dimensions in which cause-and-effect relationships are potentially ambiguous.”

“The new theory ensures that causes still precede effects, even with multiple time dimensions, just in a more complex mathematical structure.”

In three-dimensional time, the second and third dimensions are thought by some researchers, notably theoretical physicist Itzhak Bars of the University of Southern California, to become apparent, or unfold, at levels of extreme energy such as during the early Universe or in high-energy particle interactions.

The new approach might even help resolve the grandest of all unresolved physics challenges: unifying quantum mechanics — the behavior of particles at the smallest scales — and gravity into a single quantum theory of gravity.

A quantum theory of gravity could lead to, or become, a grand theory of the Universe — the so-called theory of everything.

The elusive unifying theory would unite the four fundamental forces of nature — electromagnetism, strong nuclear force, weak nuclear force and gravity.

The Standard Model of particle physics unites the first three. Gravity is explained through Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity.

The two are incompatible, so physicists have been searching for that theory of everything to unite them. Finding the origin of particle masses is central in that pursuit.

Dr. Kletetschka believes his theory of three-dimensional time can help.

The framework accurately reproduces the known masses of particles such as electrons, muons and quarks and also explains why these particles have these masses.

“The path to unification might require fundamentally reconsidering the nature of physical reality itself,” Dr. Kletetschka said.

“This theory demonstrates how viewing time as three-dimensional can naturally resolve multiple physics puzzles through a single coherent mathematical framework.”

• His paper was published in the journal Reports in Advances of Physical Science.
• Gunther Kletetschka. 2025. Three-Dimensional Time: A Mathematical Framework for Fundamental Physics. Reports in Advances of Physical Sciences 9: 2550004; doi: 10.1142/S2424942425500045

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{ https://www.sci.news/ }

28-06-2025 om 17:00 geschreven door peter  

The idea of an entire continent tearing in half sounds like a plot from the latest apocalyptic blockbuster - but scientists say that it could soon become a reality in Africa. 

A massive crack is ripping through Earth's second-largest continent, from the north east to the south. 

Eventually, the entire continent could split apart - leaving eastern Africa with its own coastline, separated from the rest of Africa. 

In a new study, researchers uncovered evidence of rhythmic surges of molten rock rising from deep within the Earth's surface, beneath Ethiopia. 

These pulses are gradually tearing the continent apart and forming a new ocean, according to researchers from Swansea University. 

'The split will eventually go all the way down Africa,' lead author Dr Emma Watts told MailOnline. 

'It has already begun and is happening now but at a slow rate – 5-16 mm per year – in the north of the rift.

'Regarding timescales, this process of Africa being torn apart will take several million years before it is completed.' 

Scientists say a massive crack has started ripping through Africa, from the north east to the south, starting at the Afar region in Ethiopia. Pictured, active lava flows spilling out of the Erta Ale volcano in Afar, Ethiopia

Scientists at the University of Southampton uncovered evidence of rhythmic surges of molten mantle rock rising from deep within the Earth beneath Africa. These pulses are gradually tearing the continent apart and forming a new ocean

The split has already started at the northeast of Africa off the coast of Ethiopia, where the Red Sea flows into the Gulf of Aden. This image shows the hypothesized hot upwelling of mantle over the next few millions of years 

Dr Watts and colleagues point to the Gulf of Aden, a relatively narrow body of water separating Africa in the south and Yemen in the north. 

Like a small tear in a piece of clothing, the gradual separation event could start at the Gulf of Aden and gradually spread downwards. 

As it does so, it would split through the middle of enormous bodies of water in East Africa, such as Lake Malawi and Lake Turkana. 

By the time the split is complete, perhaps five to 10 million years from now, Africa will be made up of two landmasses.

There will be the larger landmass in the west featuring most of the 54 modern-day African countries, such as Egypt, Algeria, Nigeria, Ghana and Nambia. 

Meanwhile, the smaller landmass to the east will include Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique and a large portion of Ethiopia. 

'The smaller part that breaks away towards the east will be approximately 1 million square miles in area and the remaining larger landmass will be just over 10 million square miles,' Dr Watts told MailOnline.

For the study, the team collected more than 130 volcanic rock samples from across the Afar region. 

The Gulf of Aden (pictured) is a relatively narrow body of water separating Africa in the south and Yemen in the north - and this is where the split has already begun

The Afar region is a rare place on Earth where three tectonic rifts meet - the Main Ethiopian Rift, the Red Sea Rift, and the Gulf of Aden Rift - together known as a triple junction. Pictured, fresh basaltic lava flows in the region of Afar, Ethiopia

This region is characterized by high volcanic activity. Pictured, a succession of volcanic deposits at Boset Volcano in the Main Ethiopian Rift

In this region, three tectonic plates meet, called the Main Ethiopian Rift, the Red Sea Rift and the Gulf of Aden Rift, which are 'divergent', meaning they're moving away from each other. 

The experts used these samples, plus existing data and advanced statistical modelling, to investigate the structure of the Earth's crust and the mantle below it.

The mantle, the planet's thickest layer, is predominantly a solid rock but behaves like a viscous fluid. The divergence (moving apart of the plates) aids the rising of the mantle. 

'We found that the mantle beneath Afar is not uniform or stationary – it pulses,' said Dr Watts. 

'These ascending pulses of partially molten mantle are channelled by the rifting plates above.' 

Over millions of years, as tectonic plates are pulled apart at rift zones like Afar, they stretch and thin almost like soft plasticine, until they rupture, marking the birth of a new ocean. 

Geologists have long suspected a hot upwelling of mantle, but until now, little was known about the structure of this upwelling, or how it behaves beneath rifting plates.

The team say the pulses appear to behave differently depending on the thickness of the plate, and how fast it’s pulling apart.

Earth is made up of three layers – the crust, the mantle and the core, which was later separated into 'inner' and 'outer'. A recent study suggested the existence of an 'innermost core' too 

For the study, the team collected more than 130 volcanic rock samples from across the Afar region. Pictured, microscope image of a thin sliver of one of the volcanic rocks from Afar, Ethiopia

At the Afar region, the entire rift valley floor is covered with volcanic rocks, which suggests that, in this area, part of the Earth's crust has thinned almost to the point of complete break up.

When this happens, a new ocean will begin forming by the solidification of magma in the space created by the broken-up plates.

Eventually, over a period of tens of millions of years, seafloor spreading will progress along the entire length of the rift.

The study, published in Nature Geoscience, shows that the mantle plume beneath the Afar region is not static, but dynamic and responsive to the tectonic plate above it.

'We have found that the evolution of deep mantle upwellings is intimately tied to the motion of the plates above,' said co-author Dr Derek Keir, associate professor in earth science at the University of Southampton and the University of Florence.

'This has profound implications for how we interpret surface volcanism, earthquake activity, and the process of continental breakup.' 

The Earth is moving under our feet: Tectonic plates move through the mantle and produce Earthquakes as they scrape against each other

Tectonic plates are composed of Earth's crust and the uppermost portion of the mantle. 

Below is the asthenosphere: the warm, viscous conveyor belt of rock on which tectonic plates ride.

The Earth has fifteen tectonic plates (pictured) that together have moulded the shape of the landscape we see around us today 

Earthquakes typically occur at the boundaries of tectonic plates, where one plate dips below another, thrusts another upward, or where plate edges scrape alongside each other. 

Earthquakes rarely occur in the middle of plates, but they can happen when ancient faults or rifts far below the surface reactivate. 

These areas are relatively weak compared to the surrounding plate, and can easily slip and cause an earthquake.

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

28-06-2025 om 01:11 geschreven door peter  

First mouse with two biological FATHERS has its own babies - in breakthrough that could pave the way for gay men to have children

• READ MORE: Step-by-step graphic reveals how a 'virgin birth' is possible

By JONATHAN CHADWICK FOR MAILONLINE 

For the first time, mice born to two fathers have grown up and produced offspring, scientists in China have revealed. 

The researchers at Shanghai Jiao Tong University managed to insert two sperm cells - one from each father - into a mouse egg whose nucleus had been removed. 

A gene editing technique was then used to reprogram parts of the sperm DNA to allow an embryo to develop – a process called androgenesis. 

The embryo, featuring the genetic material from two fathers, was transferred to a female womb and allowed to grow to term. 

Finally, the resulting offspring (male) managed to grow to adulthood and become a parent after mating conventionally with a female. 

In their lab experiments, the researchers managed to successfully demonstrate the method twice – birthing two fertile male mice, both with two fathers. 

The promising breakthrough could pave the way for two gay men to have a child of their own who can also go on to have a family. 

However, experts have cautioned that there is still a way to go before any such procedures are attempted in humans. 

These adult male mice, which each have the genetic material of their two fathers, have gone on to have offspring of their own

'In this study, we report the generation of fertile androgenetic mice,' the Chinese experts say in their paper, published in the journal PNAS. 

'Our findings, together with previous achievements of uniparental reproduction in mammals, support previous speculation that genomic imprinting is the fundamental barrier to the full-term development of uniparental mammalian embryos.' 

Experts caution that we are not ready to start such experiments in humans, which could be deeply unethical. 

Christophe Galichet, research operations manager at the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre in London, points out that the success rate of the experiments was very low. 

Of 259 mice embryos that were transferred to female mice, just two survived, grew to adulthood and then fathered their own offspring. 

'This research on generating offspring from same-sex parents is promising,' Galichet, who was not involved with the experiments, told New Scientist.

'[But] it is unthinkable to translate it to humans due to the large number of eggs required, the high number of surrogate women needed and the low success rate.' 

Today, gay couples who want to have children usually rely on a surrogate mother or father to bring a child into the world. 

Today, gay couples who want to have children usually rely on a surrogate mother or father to bring a child into the world

(file photo)

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

28-06-2025 om 00:51 geschreven door peter  

UFO researchers in Mexico claim that a group disguised as police have tried to steal the mysterious orb scientists believe may prove the existence of aliens.

Dr Steven Greer, an American ufologist and retired physician, revealed on X that 'fake policemen' attempted to enter the vault in Mexico City where the suspected UFO is being kept while scientists examine it.

Known as the Buga Sphere, the small, metal orb was spotted in March over the town of Buga in Colombia, zig-zagging through the sky in a way that defies the movement of conventional aircraft.

The object was recovered shortly after it landed and has since been taken to Mexico to be analyzed by scientists, who have discovered a maze of fiber-optic wires inside that suggest it can send and receive signals.

Controversial UFO researcher Jaime Maussan, who has had several claims about extraterrestrials debunked in recent years, hosted an international conference to discuss the latest findings on the Buga Sphere on June 20.

US Congressman Eric Burlison of Missouri and Dr Greer were among a group of American officials in attendance when Maussan claimed that the imposters attempted to steal the Buga Sphere.

Greer added that scientists have already taken samples of the UFO that 'will be tested in a state-of-the-art lab' to determine if the sphere really is from another planet.

'Those scientists and their information have been provided to the top law enforcement... Any sort of attempts to interfere with this examination will be known, and the people and perpetrators will be held to account for it,' Greer said in a June 21 post on X. 

The Buga Sphere (pictured) was recovered by local residents in Colombia in March and has been in the care of scientists in Mexico ever since

US Congressman Eric Burlison of Missouri (pictured) attended the June 20 conference in Mexico City, examining the sphere and alleged alien remains presented by UFO researcher Jaime Maussan

Congressman Burlison added that it was his belief that governments and other groups may be working to suppress the public's knowledge of UFOs and alien life.

'It's not any government's right to protect knowledge about extra terrestrials, if it exists,' Burlison said on Friday. 'We have too many people reporting and too many videos to ignore it.'

According to researchers at the conference, this is the first UFO recovered by private citizens and solely controlled by non-government scientists. 

The attempted robbery came right after Maussan and other researchers revealed that they are trying to reactivate the sphere using an electrical charge. 

According to Rodolfo Garrido, a Mexican engineer working with scientists from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), the sphere gave off a strong, decaying ionized field.

That field was responsible for somehow dehydrating the field it landed in, killing all the grass and soil there.

Maussan has had several claims about UFOs debunked over the years. He has been at the forefront of 2 major extraterrestrial cases currently: the Buga Sphere and alleged alien mummies from Peru

The June 20 presentation also revealed new images of the interior of the Buga Sphere, showing the nucleus of the device appeared to be similar in design to inventor Nikola Tesla's Wardenclyffe Tower from the early 1900s.

The concept of the tower was to send electrical power through the air and ground without using wires, potentially providing free or cheap energy to homes, businesses, and even ships or planes. 

Garrido said the Buga Sphere may have operated in a similar way, with a miniature Wardenclyffe Tower hidden inside the UFO.

However, the engineer told reporters that scientists have no plans of cutting the sphere in half to reveal what's really inside.

Instead they're working on plans to power it back up so the sphere will begin rotating and levitating again.

'It could be a theory that once it levitates, it could have direct communication with whoever sent it,' Garrido said through a translator.

Engineer Rodolfo Garrido revealed that the interior of the Buga Sphere appears to look like a proposed wireless energy generator invented by Nikola Tesla in the 1900s

Engineer Rodolfo Garrido believes that the strange sphere may be some type of advanced probe capable of using an electromagnetic field to fly

For now, Greer said that scientists examining the Buga Sphere at UNAM are setting up security for the metal samples headed for further testing.

There has been no confirmation of Maussan's claims about the robbery attempt.

The journalist has been tied to several debunked claims, including multiple incidents where Maussan claimed to have evidence of a real UFO sightings, only for it to be debunked as a comet or star in the night sky.

Maussan has also claimed to have discovered physical evidence of mummified alien corpses on three separate occasions, but none of the incidents have been proven true.

During the June 20 conference, Maussan put pieces of these alleged corpses on display for the researchers and government officials, including Greer and Burlison, who were allowed to hold the specimens while wearing gloves.

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

27-06-2025 om 23:53 geschreven door peter  

Life on Mars? Mysterious 'mushroom' is spotted on the Red Planet in photo snapped by NASA's Curiosity rover

• READ MORE: Mysterious 'flying saucer' in the Sahara Desert is discovered 

By WILIAM HUNTER

Scientists have spent decades scouring the Martian surface for any signs of life.

Now, a photo snapped by NASA's Curiosity rover has sparked speculation that the hunt might finally be over.

A picture taken from the Martian surface appears to show a 'mushroom' growing on the Red Planet.

The strange discovery has led some alien hunters to declare: 'Life...has been found!'

The photo was taken by the Curiosity rover on September 19, 2013, but was spotted in the archives by UFO hunter Scott Waring.

Mr Waring says: 'This object has a curved bottom part of a stem, same as those on Earth.

'I'm not sure how or why NASA could overlook such a thing... since NASA's mission is to find life on other planets and moons.'

However, scientists say there is a much simpler explanation.

A photo taken by NASA's Curiosity rover has sparked speculation after appearing to capture a mushroom growing on the Red Planet 

Alien hunters have seized on the strange structure, claiming it as evidence of life on Mars 

NASA's Curiosity rover was launched to Mars in 2011 with the goal of discovering whether the planet had the right conditions to support microscopic life.

To help this search, the rover is equipped with multiple cameras, a drill to gather rock samples, and sets of tools to analyse the chemical compositions of samples.

However, despite a decade of searching, Curiosity has never found any evidence that Mars is or ever was home to any form of alien life.

But that hasn't stopped wild speculation following many of the rover's discoveries.

Following his discovery of this archived image, Mr Waring claims that the rocky structure is a mushroom that has 'clearly pushed up out of the Mars dirt.'

He adds: 'NASA should have poked it, bumped it, knocked it over, cut it open with their tools on Curiosity rover or at least use that million-dollar laser they burn rocks and dirt with.'

And Mr Waring isn't the only one who agrees. Commenters on social media flocked to share their support for his claims.

One wrote: Looks like a mushroom to me! NASA know far more about MARS than they let on.'

However, despite having a similar shape to some fungi, scientists say that there is a simple explanation for these images

(stock image)

Online, the images of Martian 'mushrooms' started a flurry of speculation as users claimed that it 'looks like a mushroom to me'

Scientists have found no evidence that life exists or ever has existed on Mars. But there is good evidence that the planet does contain water 

While another boldly claimed: 'What people fail to realize is if life is found on just one other planet in the solar system, then that basically means there is life everywhere in the Universe mathematically.'

However, scientists are not convinced by this supposed evidence.

Dr Gareth Dorrian, a planetary physicist from the University of Birmingham, told MailOnline that this is simply a 'flat roughly disc-shaped rock sitting atop a smaller stone at the bottom.'

'My best guess would be they were not originally in that position, but like two rocks lying in the desert, one just below the surface and the other on the surface above it,' he explained. 

'Over time the wind could gradually blow the sand and dust away and the top one would gradually settle onto the bottom one.'

Dr Dorrian points out that wind-driven processes like this on Earth often produce remarkable and strange formations.

Alternatively, these 'mushrooms' could be geological structures called concretions, which formed billions of years ago when there was liquid water on Mars.

As water flows through sediment, it dissolves the minerals and rearranges them in a more compact form to leave behind a solid block.

This is not the first time that scientists have found a 'mushroom on Mars'. However, these are just a type of geological feature called a concretion (pictured top right)

Since these are harder than the surrounding rock, they are often left standing above the surface.

Just like the hoodoo rock spires of the American southwest, these structures often take on a mushroom-like shape as the wind carves away the softer bedrock to leave a thin 'stem'.

Part of the reason that Curiosity didn't stop to take any more measurements, as Mr Waring suggests, is that these are common on the Martian surface. 

Additionally, Dr Dorrian points out that, even if there were life on Mars, the chances of a living organism being found on the Martian surface are extremely low.

The atmospheric pressure at the Martian surface is roughly equivalent to that found 20 miles above the surface of Earth, meaning the atmosphere is very thin.

This allows a constant stream of ultraviolet and particle radiation in the form of cosmic rays to bombard the surface.

Dr Dorrian says: 'This unhealthy combination of radiation is well known to damage complex molecules like DNA and would quickly sterilise the surface where this image was taken.'

As if that wasn't bad enough, Dr Dorrian notes that temperature above ground would make it impossible for any organism to survive. 

Concretions formed on Mars billions of years ago when water flowed through the sediment and left behind hard blocks of material that resisted being weathered by the wind 

These same processes are responsible for the formation of the Hoodoo pillars in the American Southwest which also often have a mushroom-like shape 

Temperatures swing from a comfortable 20°C (68°F) during the day to -100°C (-148°F) at night, well below the freezing point of water and far colder than anywhere on Earth. 

'No known forms of life can simultaneously tolerate these extremes of temperatures, radiation levels, and low atmospheric pressure, including mushrooms,' says Dr Dorrian.

'If life does exist on Mars, it is more likely to be found below ground, such as in underground reserves of water, where it would be shielded from the harsh environment at the surface.'

That means this photograph almost certainly shows a common and naturally occurring rock formation, rather than life growing in an impossibly harsh environment.

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

27-06-2025 om 23:38 geschreven door peter