Declassified documents revealing a United States military aircraft was previously struck by an unknown flying object is raising eyebrows as experts point to other unexplainable sightings suggesting otherworldly technology flying within the country’s airspace. 

The incident occurred in January 2023, after an unidentified object collided with the left side of an F-16 Viper jet participating in training exercises near Gila Benda, Arizona, an Air Force spokesperson confirmed to Fox News Digital. 

The flying object struck the clear "canopy" at the top of the aircraft and was first spotted by an instructor pilot sitting in the rear of the plane, officials said. An initial investigation determined no damage was done to the near $70 million jet, with officials ruling against a possible bird strike. 

• OVER 60 UFO SIGHTINGS REPORTED WHIZZING ACROSS STATE IN FIRST HALF OF 2025, NATIONAL TRACKING GROUP SAYS

Authorities ultimately determined the aircraft was struck by a drone, but the location and operator of the device have yet to be determined, the spokesperson said. 

The incident was the first of four encounters with unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) that were reported a day later, according to Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) documents obtained by the War Zone. 

"According to military personnel I’ve personally met with, there were objects 200 miles off the East Coast that were extensively loitering and had no visible means of propulsion," James Fox, a director specializing in films about UFO activity, told Fox News Digital. "So a report from 2023 about an actual impact with a UAP doesn’t really surprise me." 

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The concerning collision comes as the Department of Defense reported 757 incidents involving UAPs from May 1, 2023, to June 1, 2024, according to an unclassified document released by the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office. 

Of those encounters, 708 occurred in the air, with only 49 instances marked as "case closed" by officials. Additionally, the department received 18 reports regarding UAP incidents near nuclear infrastructure, launch sites and weapons, according to the report.

"None of these resolved cases substantiated advanced foreign adversarial capabilities or breakthrough aerospace technologies," the report states. 

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The sightings of UAPs near military sites are nothing new, according to Fox. 

"There are reports dating back to the 1930s and 1940s," Fox said. "Where you had mysterious, glowing, and orb-like objects that emitted very bright light that could just fly rings around the military planes from World War II."

Fox pointed to the sheer advanced technology showcased within these sightings, such as aircraft that do not emit a heat signature or have the ability to fly stationary in high wind conditions.

"This has been well-documented for decades," Fox said. "So either we’ve managed to track the same thing it’s been, [possibly] non-human intelligence, since the 1940s. Or someone has managed to replicate the technology, reverse engineer it and they’re flying it around." 

• VIRAL CIA FILE ABOUT ALIENS ATTACKING SOLDIERS TAKES OFF WITH UFO INTRIGUE

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13-07-2025 om 21:45 geschreven door peter  

Life on Mars could survive — so long as you're one of these strange, hybrid lifeforms

One group of living things that may be able to survive these extreme conditions is lichens, symbiotic associations between fungi and photosynthetic bacteria and/or algae. These hybrid lifeforms, which are not considered true organisms but are listed as species on the three of life, work together to stay alive and many are extremophiles, capable of tolerating no hydration and extreme temperatures for long periods. Some species have even survived being directly exposed to the vacuum of space.

In the new study, published March 31 in the journal IMA Fungus, researchers tested how two lichen species — Diploschistes muscorum and Cetraria aculeata — reacted to ionizing radiation under Martian conditions. To do this, the team placed the lifeforms in a specialized vacuum chamber at the Space Research Centre of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, which replicated the atmospheric pressure, temperatures and composition on the Red Planet. They bombarded the lichens with a year's worth of Martian radiation in just 5 hours. Both species were able to remain metabolically active throughout the tests.

Related: 

• Which animals will be the first to live on the moon and Mars?

"These findings expand our understanding of biological processes under simulated Martian conditions and reveal how hydrated organisms respond to ionizing radiation," Kaja Skubała, a researcher at the Institute of Botany at the Jagellonian University in Krakow, Poland, said in a statement. "Ultimately, this research deepens our knowledge of lichen adaptation and their potential for colonizing extraterrestrial environments."

Of the two species, D. muscorum showed the greatest resistance to the radiation, sustaining less damage to its cells, which suggests that some lichens will be better suited to Martian conditions than others. However, it is unlikely that any species would be able to survive on Mars unattended for long periods, as there is no known liquid water at the surface, which all of Earth's lifeforms need to survive.

This is the reason why it is unlikely that there is any extraterrestrial life currently alive on Mars.

Martian candidates

According to the researchers, the new experiments show that lichens are prime candidates for being taken on future Mars missions, although there are several resilient species other than D. muscorum that could also make the trip.

But lichens are not the only lifeforms that could potentially survive on the Red Planet.

One extremophile group that has long been considered as future Martian tourists is tardigrades. These microscopic critters are nearly indestructible and can survive extreme temperatures, crushing pressures, total dehydration and the vacuum of space, largely thanks to an ability to switch off their metabolism and enter a state of suspended animation.

Other candidates include mosses — plants with similar abilities to lichens. Some desert moss species have even been shown to be resilient to gamma rays and liquid nitrogen, hinting that they too could fare well on Mars.

Single-celled microorganisms, such as bacteria, might also be able to survive on Mars if they were sheltered from radiation, living underground. Research has shown that these microbes could also survive for hundreds of millions of years beneath the surface in a hibernation-like state.

However, the first terrestrial lifeforms to touch down on Mars will likely be a species that is naturally very poorly suited to living on Mars — humans. NASA intends on launching the first crewed mission to the Red Planet sometime in the 2030s, when they will get a taste of how tough it is to survive there.

• Editor's note: This article was originally published April 8, 2025

{ https://www.livescience.com/space }

13-07-2025 om 21:17 geschreven door peter  

Could signs of Mars life be hidden in its thick layers of clay?

"If you have stable terrain, you're not messing up your potentially habitable environments," Moore added. "Favorable conditions might be able to be sustained for longer periods of time."

On our home planet, such deposits form under specific landscape and climatic conditions.

"On Earth, the places where we tend to see the thickest clay mineral sequences are in humid environments, and those with minimal physical erosion that can strip away newly created weathering products," said co-author Tim Goudge, an assistant professor at the Jackson School's Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences.

Related: 

• Why does Mars look purple, yellow and orange in ESA's stunning new satellite image?

However, it remains unclear how Mars' local and global topography, along with its past climate activity, influenced surface weathering and the formation of clay layers.

Using data and images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter — the second-longest-operating spacecraft around Mars, after the agency's 2001 Mars Odyssey — Moore, Goudge, and their colleagues studied 150 clay deposits, looking at their shapes and locations, and how close they are to other features like ancient lakes or rivers.

They found that the clays are mostly located in low areas near ancient lakes, but not close to valleys where water once flowed strongly. This mix of gentle chemical changes and less intense physical erosion helped the clays stay preserved over time.

"[Clay mineral-bearing stratigraphies] tend to occur in areas where chemical weathering was favoured over physical erosion, farther from valley network activity and nearer standing bodies of water," the team wrote in the new study, which was published in the journal Nature Astronomy on June 16.

The findings suggest that intense chemical weathering on Mars may have disrupted the usual balance between weathering and climate.

On Earth, where tectonic activity constantly exposes fresh rock to the atmosphere, carbonate minerals like limestone form when rock reacts with water and carbon dioxide (CO2). This process helps remove CO2 from the air, storing it in solid form and helping regulate the climate over long periods.

On Mars, tectonic activity is non-existent, leading to a lack of carbonate minerals and minimal removal of CO2 from the planet's thin atmosphere. As a result, CO2 released by Martian volcanoes long ago likely stayed in the atmosphere longer, making the planet warmer and wetter in the past — conditions the team believes may have encouraged the clay's formation.

The researchers also speculate that the clay could have absorbed water and trapped chemical byproducts like cations, preventing them from spreading and reacting with the surrounding rock to form carbonates that remain trapped and unable to leech into the surrounding environment.

"[The clay is] probably one of many factors that's contributing to this weird lack of predicted carbonates on Mars," said Moore.

• This article was originally published on Space.com.

{ https://www.livescience.com/space }

13-07-2025 om 20:58 geschreven door peter  

These are the Most Concerning Pieces of Space Debris

By Mark Thompson 

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13-07-2025 om 20:25 geschreven door peter  

Global climate pattern shows signs of shifting. What will happen in the US?

Doyle Rice   USA TODAY

Early signs of a possible La Niña fall and winter are emerging in some climate models, federal forecasters announced July 10.

La Niña is a part of a natural climate cycle officially known as El Niño – Southern Oscillation, called ENSO by scientists. The cycle swings between warmer and cooler seawater in a region along the equator in the tropical Pacific. La Niña is marked by cooler-than-average ocean water in the region.

It is one of the main drivers of weather in the United States, especially during the late fall, winter and early spring. It's the opposite of the more well-known El Niño, which occurs when Pacific Ocean water is at least 0.9 degree warmer than average for three months.

La Niña and El Niño typically have minimal impact on summer weather in the United States, other than some effects on hurricanes. Winter is the one season when they have the most impact.

A typical La Niña winter in the United States brings cold and snow to the Northwest and unusually dry conditions to most of the Southern states, according to the Climate Prediction Center. The Southeast and mid-Atlantic also tend to see higher-than-average temperatures during a La Niña winter. 

Meanwhile, New England and the Upper Midwest, including New York, tend to see lower-than-average temperatures, the Weather Channel said.

View |64 Photos

Lightning, tornadoes and wild storms: Incredible weather photos

More: 

• Will a hurricane impact your state in 2025? Odds get an update.

Map shows what a La Niña could mean for winter 2025-2026

The typical impacts of a La Niña winter in North America include a wetter, colder winter in parts of the northern United States and a drier, warmer winter in parts of the southern United States.

La Niña causes the jet stream to move northward and to weaken over the eastern Pacific. During La Niña winters, the South sees warmer and … Show more   

NOAA

What is La Niña?

La Niña is a natural climate pattern marked by cooler-than-average seawater in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean. When the water cools at least 0.9 degree Fahrenheit below average for three straight months, a La Niña is declared.

"While this may sound like a small change in temperature, it can cause significant changes in the weather patterns around the globe," AccuWeather meteorologist Brian Lada said.

Could the possible La Niña affect the hurricane season?

In general, La Niña conditions favor hurricane development in the Atlantic basin, which includes the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of America, formerly known as the Gulf of Mexico. This is because during La Niña, the strong storm-killing winds known as wind shear relax across the Atlantic basin, allowing hurricanes to more easily develop.

Hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach of Colorado State University, in a July 10 email to USA TODAY, explained that "while Caribbean shear has been quite strong in June and is likely to remain strong throughout most of July, the potential trend more towards cool neutral (or even weak La Niña) later in the season may result in lower shear in the Caribbean later in the season."

The lower the wind shear, the greater the chance for hurricane development in the Atlantic basin.

Typical influence of La Niña on Pacific and Atlantic seasonal hurricane activity.  

NOAA

But the status of ENSO is only part of the hurricane puzzle: Twenty years ago, in 2005, for instance, ENSO-neutral conditions also occurred in the Pacific ‒ and that year spawned the infamously destructive hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the National Weather Service said in an online report.

How likely is a La Niña winter?

Right now, it appears to be a toss-up.

While so-called "ENSO-neutral" conditions are most likely through the late summer, thereafter, chances of La Niña conditions increase into the fall and winter 2025-26, forecasters from the Climate Prediction Center (CPC) said July 10. In fact, one climate model used by the CPC – the North American Multi-Model Ensemble – "favors the onset of La Niña conditions during the Northern Hemisphere fall," the CPC said in its monthly update.

Japan's weather bureau also announced July 10 that there is a 40% chance of La Niña emerging in the fall.

Overall, the CPC said the chances for La Niña remain comparable to the likelihood of ENSO-neutral continuing.

What is ENSO-neutral?

ENSO-neutral means neither El Niño (warmer waters) nor La Niña (cooler waters) conditions are dominant in the Pacific. While El Niño and La Niña have expected impacts on global seasonal weather and climate, what about neutral?

"ENSO-neutral doesn’t mean we expect upcoming seasonal rain, snow, and temperature to be close to average," writes Emily Becker in the CPC's ENSO blog. "Rather, during neutral, we don’t have the same predictive information that El Niño and La Niña’s atmospheric changes provide, making upcoming patterns harder to predict very far in advance."

Contributing: Reuters

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12-07-2025 om 23:31 geschreven door peter  

Aliens: Facts about extraterrestrial life and how scientists are looking for it

By Stephanie Pappas 

Discover interesting facts about where alien life forms are likely to exist, and what they look like.

(Image credit: KTSDESIGN/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY via Getty Images)

Quick facts about aliens

• Has extraterrestrial life been discovered?: Not yet!
• Where are scientists looking for aliens?: Water-rich bodies in our solar system, like Jupiter's moon Europa, and Earth-like exoplanets — planets outside our solar system
• How many planets in the Milky Way have the right conditions for life? An estimated 300 million

E.T., Stitch, Chewbacca, Groot — humans have a lot of ideas about what aliens might look like. But what is the science behind extraterrestrial life? Is it possible that humans will ever experience "first contact" with an alien species?

Many scientists hope so. They're looking for extraterrestrial life on planets with conditions that look like Earth's. A life-friendly planet would probably have water, for example. And for water to be a liquid, the planet must be the perfect distance from its sun for that water not to freeze or turn into a gas.

There's no evidence yet for life on other planets, but as scientists discover more and more planets outside our solar system, they're hopeful that some of these worlds will be "just right" for life to exist or evolve there.

5 fast facts about aliens

• Scientists have been listening for alien signals with special radio receivers since 1992. They haven't picked up any yet!
• Mars might have once hosted life — most likely tiny things like bacteria — but scientists can't say for sure.
• Jupiter's moon Europa has an ocean, and it might have hydrothermal vents, or cracks in the seafloor where hot water seeps through. Scientists think life on Earth may have evolved in hydrothermal vents.
• The "Goldilocks zone" is the space around a star where temperatures allow liquid water to exist. Many scientists think planets in the Goldilocks zone are those most likely to host life.
• The oldest known life on Earth is 4.2 billion years old.

Everything you need to know about aliens

Are aliens real?

Sci-fi aliens like Baby Yoda are fun to imagine, but scientists are serious about extraterrestrial life. There are some 100 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy and at least 2 trillion galaxies in the universe we can study. If most of those stars have at least one planet around them, there could be up to 20 billion trillion extraterrestrial worlds out there.

Given those numbers, it would be shocking if only a single planet — Earth — had life. But our closest neighbors in the solar system, Mars and Venus, don't seem to have any life. Some moons of Saturn and Jupiter have water, so they could have life — most likely tiny creatures the size of germs. If Earthlings ever meet aliens face-to-face, they'll probably need a microscope to say hi.

Until scientists find some firm proof, such as a communication signal from an alien world or fossilized microbes from Mars, Earth remains the only planet where life is known to exist.

What might aliens look like?

What aliens would look like would depend on where they came from. For example, on the icy moons in our solar system (Jupiter's Ganymede and Europa, and Saturn's Enceladus), life could thrive around hydrothermal vents in the oceans under the ice. This life might look like the weird creatures of the deep ocean seen on Earth. There could be primitive microbes, like Earth's single-celled Archaea. There might be relatively simple creatures with many cells in their body, sort of like Earth's tube worms, which live off chemicals from the vent fluid.

Earth formed about 4.5 billion years ago, and we think the first life existed by about 4.2 billion years ago. But life on Earth started simple and stayed that way for a long time. The first microbes that produced carbon evolved at least 3.7 billion years ago. (Carbon is an element that is a part of all known life.) But the kind of cells that gave rise to animals, plants and other complex life-forms didn't evolve until between 2.7 billion and 1.8 billion years ago. Life-forms made of many cells didn't show up until 600 million years ago. And modern humans came on the scene only around 300,000 years ago.

That means that, if other planets with life are like Earth, the time period in which they might host intelligent life (or even something as cuddly as a koala) is pretty brief. But there's a good chance that human life might overlap with microbial life on another planet.

Scientists do think that life on other planets would be driven by the same processes as it is on Earth, namely evolution. Changes to the environment drive living things to change, leading to new and more complex species. So a planet out in space that is like Earth and has been through many changes in its surface, rocks and climate would probably have complex life, too. In that case, aliens might face similar challenges and needs as here on Earth, and thus might evolve similar features. Eyes, for example, have evolved independently dozens of times on Earth, and they might evolve in life on other planets, too.

Where might aliens live?

Some scientists still hold out hope that life exists elsewhere in our solar system. If it does, it's probably on one of the these moons:

• Ganymede: Jupiter's largest moon is bigger than Mercury and hides a giant ocean under its icy surface.
• Europa: Another moon of Jupiter with an ice-bound ocean, Europa has liquid water, heat generated by the pull of Jupiter's gravity, and chemicals that are the building blocks of life.
• Enceladus: This Saturn moon spews water vapor that contains carbon compounds from its surface. One of these compounds, hydrogen cyanide, is important for the origin of life.
• Titan: This moon of Saturn is very cold, but it does have carbon-rich liquid on its surface. Any life found on Titan would have to thrive in conditions not seen on Earth.
• Triton: Neptune's moon Triton is very, very cold, but it might have an ocean under its surface layer of ice. It also has geological activity in the form of geysers that erupt when the sun heats the nitrogen ice on the planet's surface.

And our next-door neighbor, Mars, may have hosted life in the past, because it used to have liquid water and an atmosphere. Today, any life would have to persist in deep pools of water below the Red Planet's surface.

Outside the solar system, scientists are continually discovering new exoplanets. They can learn things about these planets' atmospheres by studying the types of light waves they see using superpowerful telescopes. One promising exoplanet for life is called K2-18b. This world is too far for humans to visit, but the light from the planet has reached Earth. This light tells us the planet has an ocean. Scientists think they've detected some chemicals in K2-18b's atmosphere that could be made by marine life, but they don't know for sure.

How are scientists looking for aliens?

Scientists look for aliens in a few different ways.

First, they listen for alien signals. This is called "passive SETI," for "search for extraterrestrial intelligence." If aliens are smart like we are, their technology might send signals into the cosmos. On Earth, for example, all of the radio waves from our phones, satellites and TV station communications "leak" into space, and these leaking radio waves could be picked up if anyone were listening. So Earthlings use telescopes designed to pick up radio waves from space, hoping to find extraterrestrial signals.

That only works for tech-savvy aliens, though. Scientists also use light to look at the kinds of molecules that are present on far-off planets and moons. On Earth, some molecules are usually or always made by living things, so if those molecules are found elsewhere, they could be a sign of life. This kind of research lets scientists look for hints of life on exoplanets that are too far away to reach with a spacecraft.

Scientists also send spacecraft to the nearby places where life might exist. The Mars rovers, for example, collect rock samples that could contain evidence of fossilized ancient Martian microbes. (They haven't found any yet, but you never know!) NASA is planning to send a drone with propellers, called Dragonfly, to Saturn's moon Titan in 2028. Dragonfly would reach Titan by 2034 and search for chemicals tied to life. The European Space Agency would like to send a mission to Enceladus, also to search for signs of past or present life.

Are UFOs aliens?

Unidentified flying objects (UFOs) are things in the sky that aren't explained. The first modern UFO sighting goes back to 1947, when a U.S. fighter pilot reported seeing flying saucers in Washington. Not every UFO sighting can be explained, but many turn out to be events with an Earthly origin. For example, the famous "UFO crash" from Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947 was actually debris from an experimental military balloon that was supposed to pick up sound waves from atomic bomb tests in the Soviet Union.

More recently, strange videos have shown seemingly quick-moving, hovering objects. These "unidentified aerial phenomena" (UAPs) don't have an official explanation. However, they could be normal objects that seem to be moving quickly due to optical illusions, or things that aren't what they appear to be. The pilot who took the videos might have been seeing drones, weather balloons or even birds.

Any alien civilization with the kind of technology to build spacecraft has to be an enormous distance away, given that the closest exoplanet that has the right conditions for life is Proxima Centauri B, which is 24 trillion miles away. Proxima Centauri B isn't very close, and it might not have an atmosphere. So it might not have life at all, much less life that could travel to us. And we would need some seriously advanced way to get there: With current Earth technology, it would take 6,300 years for a spacecraft to travel from Earth to Proxima Centauri B.

In other words, no, UFOs probably aren't aliens. An alien civilization could send a spacecraft to our planet, but it would mean the aliens who sent it in the first place — and their kids, grandkids, great-grandkids, great-great-grandkids and so on — would probably be long dead before the craft reached us. So it's a lot more likely that UFO sightings are cases of mistaken identity.

Alien pictures

(Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Alien world?

This artist's conception shows the exoplanet Kepler-1649c. This planet is similar to Earth in size and temperature and is in its star's habitable zone, the distance where liquid water could exist on the planet's surface.

Discover more about aliens

• What could aliens look like?
• What's the best evidence we've found for alien life?
• Are aliens real?

{ https://www.livescience.com/space }

12-07-2025 om 22:59 geschreven door peter  

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12-07-2025 om 21:36 geschreven door peter  

From one perspective, the Sun is a benevolent orb of plasma and its warmth makes Earth habitable and has kept if habitable for billions of years, allowing complex things like human beings to evolve. From another perspective, it's a malevolent orb that sends deadly UV radiation our way, and sometimes erupts and hurls massive blobs of plasma toward Earth. The truth is somewhere in the middle, and NASA launched the Parker Solar Probe to flesh out that truth.

NASA launched the Parker Solar Probe (PSP) in 2018 and its mission is to examine the Sun's coronal plasma and its magnetic field. To do this, it has to get close. NASA describes it as a mission to "touch the Sun," and that's pretty accurate. Throughout its mission it has gotten progressively closer, setting a new record each time for closest approach to the Sun. On Dec. 24, 2024, the spacecraft flew just 6.1 million km (3.8 million miles) from the solar surface.

That is incredibly close, but luckily, the spacecraft has several layers of protection. The PSP is also the fastest-moving spacecraft ever built. It was travelling at 692,000 km/h (430,000 mph) during its 2024 flyby, and didn't spend much time that close to the star.

The result of this daring piece of coronal navigation is the closest images yet of our star. The PSP carries four main instruments, and one of them is WISPR, the Wide-field Imager for Solar Probe. WISPR has two radiation-hardened cameras that can withstand the Sun's power. It's job is to image the corona, the solar wind, and other phenomena near the Sun. On the last flyby, WISPR showed us the solar corona and the solar wind in a way we've never seen before.

“Parker Solar Probe has once again transported us into the dynamic atmosphere of our closest star,” said Nicky Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “We are witnessing where space weather threats to Earth begin, with our eyes, not just with models. This new data will help us vastly improve our space weather predictions to ensure the safety of our astronauts and the protection of our technology here on Earth and throughout the solar system.”

There are important implications for understanding or misunderstanding the solar wind and coronal mass ejections (CME). They're ever present forces in the Solar System. The wind is a stream of charged particles that constantly flows outward from the Sun. It's responsible for the gorgeous aurorae that we love to gaze it, but it's also responsible for damaging power grids and satellites. As we expand into cislunar space and crowd more satellites into Low-Earth Orbit, it's important that we understand not only the solar wind, but everything that flows from the Sun, including coronal mass ejections (CME).

While the solar wind is a continuous phenomenon, coronal mass ejections are episodic. They're ejections of plasma that can reach Earth. CMEs can contain billions of tons of plasma moving at high speeds. Only a small number of them reach Earth, but when they do, they can also cause geomagnetic storms that can damage power grids and other equipment.

The Parker Solar Probe is named after the American heliophysicist Eugene Parker, who coined the term 'solar wind in 1958. His theories, though they faced stiff resistance at the time, revolutionized our scientific understanding of the Sun. Multiple spacecraft have been launched to study the Sun and the solar wind, but the Parker Solar Probe has outdone them all.

Each mission has revealed more about the Sun and the solar wind, but none have come as close to the star as the PSP. It also has the advantage of the most modern technologies and instruments. One of the things its revealed is the nature of so-called switchbacks.

When measured near Earth, the solar wind is pretty much constant. But closer to the Sun, things are more chaotic. The Sun has extremely powerful magnetic fields, and when the PSP came within 14.7 million miles of the Sun, it showed us that some of those fields zig-zag. These zig-zagging fields are called switchbacks. The PSP also showed us that these switchbacks are more common than thought, and that they come in clumps.

As the PSP got progressively closer and travelled through the Sun's corona, it noticed that the corona's boundary was uneven and complex. Getting even closer in subsequent flybys, it was able to pinpoint the source of the switchbacks. The source is patches on the Sun where magnetic funnels form and images showed that the switchbacks are partly responsible for the fast solar wind, one of the wind's two components.

“The big unknown has been: how is the solar wind generated, and how does it manage to escape the Sun’s immense gravitational pull?” said Nour Rawafi, the project scientist for Parker Solar Probe at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. “Understanding this continuous flow of particles, particularly the slow solar wind, is a major challenge, especially given the diversity in the properties of these streams — but with Parker Solar Probe, we’re closer than ever to uncovering their origins and how they evolve.”

The slow solar wind is twice as dense as the fast solar wind, and interplay between the two seems to create moderately strong conditions on Earth that can rival conditions generated by CMEs. The slow solar wind appears to originate from the Sun's equatorial regions, but scientists are still debating what structures they originate in and how the material is released.

“We don’t have a final consensus yet, but we have a whole lot of new intriguing data,” said Adam Szabo, Parker Solar Probe mission scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

We've learned a lot about the Sun in recent decades, and the PSP is poised to show us more and hopefully provide answers to our most probing questions. It's next perihelion will be in September, 2025, when it will again fly through the solar corona. That approach will gather even more data on the slow solar wind and other facets of the Sun.

It will also give us more stunning images.

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

12-07-2025 om 21:27 geschreven door peter  

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

12-07-2025 om 21:18 geschreven door peter  

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

12-07-2025 om 21:09 geschreven door peter  

Alien face on island in Antarctica is a sign they left for us, UFO UAP sighting news ancient aliens 

 

Date of discovery: July 2025

Location of discovery: Antarctica

Coordinates: 3°00'41"S 60°46'11"W

I found a face again, but this time not on Mars or the moon, it's on a small little island without a name...next Deception Island. The face is like that of an ancient person, with a leather hat that has two long sides as well as a belt that wraps under the persons chin. The person is human-like and has two eyes, a nose, mouth and chin. As I have said before...when you find the face, you find a base. Aliens will create faces of their loved ones that past away while they were far across the galaxy or universe working. Aliens are lazy, meaning they like things done by ai and wont make faces in mountains just anywhere, they always choose locations within 2km of the alien base. Google Ruler says this face is 28 meters by 14, that includes the long parts of the hat that hangs down to where the chest area should be. 

Scott C. Waring - UFO Sightings Daily  

 

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

12-07-2025 om 20:56 geschreven door peter  

Ancient alien base discovered in remote Antarctica region, ET Structures UFO UAP sighting news 

Date of discovery: July 2025

Location of discovery: Antarctica region

Coordinates: -80.303889 -81.385611

I found this strange structure in a remote Antarctica region of Google Earth Map. The structure measures 50 meters across and 20 meters wide according to Google ruler. This might be just the entrance, not the full structure, it may lead to an underground alien base below the Arctic ice. The real question is...are the aliens still living there or is this an abandoned base that other countries military can take over? Exploration of this structure needs to take place to learn more first hand. 

 

Scott C. Waring - UFO Sightings Daily

 

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12-07-2025 om 20:51 geschreven door peter  

Scientists make surprising discovery about what lies beneath the Antarctica Ice Sheet

• READ MORE:  Fisherman baffled after stumbling across a huge BLACK iceberg

By XANTHA LEATHAM, EXECUTIVE SCIENCE EDITOR

It’s been covered in ice for 34 million years.

But scientists are finally uncovering what Antarctica’s landscape really looks like – and it’s not what they expected.

It's well known that much of the surface underneath the smooth ice sheet consists of mountains, valleys and deep troughs.

Now, a new study using radio-echo sounding reveals there are vast areas of ‘remarkably’ flat surfaces along the 3,500km stretch of East Antarctic coastline.

These previously unmapped surfaces were once connected and it is believed were formed by large rivers after East Antarctica and Australia broke apart around 80 million years ago.

The flat areas – now hidden beneath the ice sheet – are separated by deep trenches which fast-moving glaciers are steered through.

Lead author Dr Guy Paxman, from Durham University, said: ‘The landscape hidden beneath the East Antarctic Ice Sheet is one of the most mysterious not just on Earth, but on any terrestrial planet in the solar system.

‘When we were examining the radar images of the sub-ice topography in this region, these remarkably flat surfaces started to pop out almost everywhere we looked.’

The topography beneath the Antarctic Ice Sheet, with the green areas highlighting increased altitude. The scientists mapped 31 flat surfaces as part of their study

The extensive flat surfaces were found beneath approximately 40 per cent of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet’s 3,500km-long coastline between Princess Elizabeth Land and George V Land. Pictured: Crevassed ice in Princess Elizabeth Land

Bunger Hills, a small exposed fragment of a larger flat surface at the edge of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet

The study, published in the journal Nature Geoscience, also revealed the ice above these flat surfaces is moving much more slowly.

Ice loss from Antarctica is increasing – boosted by global warming – but the flat areas appear to act as a barrier to ice flow and may currently be regulating the rate of ice loss, the team said.

This finding is significant, as East Antarctica has the potential to raise global sea levels by 52 metres if it were to melt completely.

Adding the flat surface effects into models of future ice sheet behaviour could help refine projections of how the ice sheet might react to climate change, the researchers said.

‘The flat surfaces we have found have managed to survive relatively intact for over 30 million years, indicating that parts of the ice sheet have preserved rather than eroded the landscape,’ Dr Paxman said.

‘Information such as the shape and geology of the newly mapped surfaces will help improve our understanding of how ice flows at the edge of East Antarctica.

‘This in turn will help make it easier to predict how the East Antarctic Ice Sheet could affect sea levels under different levels of climate warming in the future.’

The extensive flat surfaces were found beneath approximately 40 per cent of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet’s 3,500km-long coastline between Princess Elizabeth Land and George V Land.

The researchers discovered there are 'remarkably' flat surfaces along the 3,500km stretch of East Antarctic coastline 

The Windmill Islands, small nunataks - ridges - protruding above the surface of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet

The preservation of these enigmatic surfaces over tens of millions of years indicates a lack of intense, selective erosion of these areas throughout Antarctica’s glacial history.

Research co-author Professor Neil Ross, from Newcastle University, said: ‘We’ve long been intrigued and puzzled about fragments of evidence for ‘flat’ landscapes beneath the Antarctic ice sheets.

‘This study brings the jigsaw pieces of data together, to reveal the big picture: how these ancient surfaces formed, their role in determining the present-day flow of the ice, and their possible influence on how the East Antarctic Ice Sheet will evolve in a warming world.’

The team emphasised the need to further explore the influence of these flat surfaces on ice sheet movement during past warmer climates.

This would include drilling through the ice to retrieve rock from the flat surfaces to understand when they were last free from ice cover.

This will help improve predictions for how the ice around this large section of the East Antarctic margin will respond as the climate and ocean warms.

A separate team of researchers recently revealed there are mysterious radio signals emerging from deep within Antarctica’s ice.

The strange radio pulses were detected by the Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA), an array of instruments designed to detect elusive particles called neutrinos.

Configuration of East Antarctica, Australia, and India prior to continental break-up. Red outlines show the flat surfaces mapped in this study.

Rather than detecting these cosmic particles, the researchers were baffled to find signals emerging from the ice at seemingly impossible angles.

Worryingly, they have no idea what could be causing them.

In a paper, published in Physical Review Letters, an international team of researchers explained that these findings cannot be explained by the current understanding of particle physics.

This might mean there are entirely new forms of particles and interactions at play or that these unusual signals are the product of mysterious dark matter.

Dr Stephanie Wissel, an astrophysicist from The Pennsylvania State University who worked on the ANITA team, says: 'The radio waves that we detected were at really steep angles, like 30 degrees below the surface of the ice.

'It's an interesting problem because we still don't actually have an explanation for what those anomalies are.'

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12-07-2025 om 20:40 geschreven door peter  

China creates remote-controlled cyborg BEES that could be used for secret spy missions

• READ MORE: The fairy-inspired robot that can fly through the air using light 

By XANTHA LEATHAM, EXECUTIVE SCIENCE EDITOR

Chinese scientists have successfully turned bees into cyborgs by inserting controllers into their brains.

The device, which weighs less than a pinch of salt, is strapped to the back of a worker bee and connected to the insect’s brain through small needles.

In tests the device worked nine times out of 10 and the bees obeyed the instructions to turn left or right, the researchers said.

The cyborg bees could be used in rescue missions – or in covert operations as military scouts.

The tiny device can be equipped with cameras, listening devices and sensors that allow the insects to collect and record information.

Given their small size they could also be used for discreet military or security operations, such as accessing small spaces without arousing suspicion.

Zhao Jieliang, a professor at the Beijing Institute of Technology, led the development of the technology.

It works by delivering electrical pulses to the insect’s optical lobe – the visual processing centre in the brain – which then allows researchers to direct its flight.

The device, which weighs less than a pinch of salt, is strapped to the back of a worker bee and connected to the insect’s brain through small needles

The study was recently published in the Chinese Journal of Mechanical Engineering, and was first reported by the South China Morning Post.

‘Insect-based robots inherit the superior mobility, camouflage capabilities and environmental adaptability of their biological hosts,’ Professor Zhao and his colleagues wrote.

‘Compared to synthetic alternatives, they demonstrate enhanced stealth and extended operational endurance, making them invaluable for covert reconnaissance in scenarios such as urban combat, counterterrorism and narcotics interdiction, as well as critical disaster relief operations.’

Several other countries, including the US and Japan, are also racing to create cyborg insects.

While Professor Zhao’s team has made great strides in advancing the technology, several hurdles still remain.

For one, the current batteries aren’t able to last very long, but any larger would mean the packs are too heavy for the bees to carry.

The same device cannot easily be used on different insects as each responds to signals on different parts of their bodies.

Before this, the lightest cyborg controller came from Singapore and was triple the weight.

The researchers, from the Beijing Institute of Technology, used worker bees - similar to this one pictured - as part of their study (stock image)

Researchers at RIKEN, Japan have created remote-controlled cyborg cockroaches, equipped with a control module that is powered by a rechargeable battery attached to a solar cell

READ MORE

• Declassified reports reveal the animals sacrificed to brain-computer interface science long before Elon Musk's Neuralink team killed over 1,500 animals developing its brain chips

It also follows the creation of cyborg dragonflies and cockroaches, with researchers across the world racing to develop the most advanced technology.

Scientists in Japan have previously reported a remote-controlled cockroach that wears a solar-powered ‘backpack’.

The cockroach is intended to enter hazardous areas, monitor the environment or undertake search and rescue missions without needing to be recharged.

The cockroaches are still alive, but wires attached to their two 'cerci' - sensory organs on the end of their abdomens - send electrical impulses that cause the insect to move right or left.

HOW COULD CYBORG COCKROACHES HELP IN DISASTER ZONES?

In November 2014, researchers at North Carolina State University fitted cockroaches with electrical backpacks complete with tiny microphones capable of detecting faint sounds.

The idea is that cyborg cockroaches, or ‘biobots’, could enter crumpled buildings hit by earthquakes, for example, and help emergency workers find survivors.

‘In a collapsed building, sound is the best way to find survivors,’ said Alper Bozkurt, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at North Carolina State University.

North Carolina State University researchers have developed technology that allows cockroaches (pictured) to pick up sounds with small microphones and seek out the source of the sound. They could be used in emergency situations to detect survivors

‘The goal is to use the biobots with high-resolution microphones to differentiate between sounds that matter - like people calling for help - from sounds that don't matter - like a leaking pipe. 

‘Once we've identified sounds that matter, we can use the biobots equipped with microphone arrays to zero-in on where those sounds are coming from.’

The ‘backpacks’ control the robo-roach's movements because they are wired to the insect’s cerci - sensory organs that cockroaches usually use to feel if their abdomens brush against something.

By electrically stimulating the cerci, cockroaches can be prompted to move in a certain direction.

In fact, they have been programmed to seek out sound.

One type of 'backpack' is equipped with an array of three directional microphones to detect the direction of the sound and steer the biobot in the right direction towards it.

Another type is fitted with a single microphone to capture sound from any direction, which can be wirelessly transmitted, perhaps in the future to emergency workers.

They ‘worked well’ in lab tests and the experts have developed technology that can be used as an ‘invisible fence’ to keep the biobots in a certain area such as a disaster area, the researchers announced at the IEEE Sensors 2014 conference in Valencia, Spain. 

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12-07-2025 om 20:23 geschreven door peter  

Groundbreaking discovery in Egypt's Sphinx uncovers 'hidden' mystery that fuels theory of underground city

• READ MORE: Hall of Records' under pyramid holds key to ancient Egypt's mysteries, say scientists as they reveal YET MORE stunning Giza findings

By STACY LIBERATORE FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

The mystery of a 'underground city' beneath Egypt's pyramids has intensified after scientists revealed new scans showing a shaft plunging below the Great Sphinx. 

Italian researchers, who made waves earlier this year with claims of vast structures hidden beneath the Pyramid of Khafre, now say they have identified a colossal vertical shaft leading and two chambers below the Sphinx.

The findings were presented at the recent Cosmic Summit in North Carolina, a gathering known for exploring alternative theories about ancient history. 

While mainstream archaeologists have slammed the work as unscientific and speculative, the team insists their latest scans point to something extraordinary.

Filippo Biondi, a radar expert from University of Strathclyde in Scotland and co-author of the research, told DailyMail.com: 'These findings strongly support the hypothesis that the Giza Plateau conceals a vast subterranean complex, potentially indicative of an extensive underground city.'

The scans detailed a massive shaft surrounded by a spiral-like staircase, decedending from the center of the Sphinx's base and down into two square structures, one at 2,000 feet and another 4,000 feet underground.

Armando Mei, an Egyptologist and co-author of the study, noted that similar underground features have now been detected beneath all three major pyramids, suggesting a unified architectural blueprint. 

'The discovery proves that the Giza Plateau was engineered long before the dynastic era, possibly around 36,400 BCE, as my research suggests,' he added.

If confirmed, the findings could dramatically rewrite the history of ancient Egypt, challenging the long-held belief that the pyramids were built solely as royal tombs, and hinting instead at a forgotten civilization with advanced engineering skills. 

The mystery of a 'underground city' beneath Egypt 's pyramids has intensified after scientists revealed new scans showing a shaft plunging below the Great Sphinx

The iconic Giza pyramids and the Great Sphinx have long been hailed as marvels of ancient engineering, built roughly 4,500 years ago with breathtaking precision and scale that still baffle experts today. 

But the researchers are shaking up that timeline, suggesting these legendary monuments may rest atop far older, hidden structures that could predate known history by tens of thousands of years.

It all began in March when the team announced four massive shafts and chambers were found under the Pyramid of Khafre using a type of sonar technology. 

They employed cutting-edge SAR Doppler Tomography, a technique that uses satellite radar to detect tiny seismic movements. 

By analyzing radar signals are and the timing or pattern of those signals when they bounce back, the team was able to create 3D maps revealing hidden subsurface structures. The technology has been published in a peer-reviewed journal.

However, latest work by Corrado Malanga from Italy's University of Pisa, Biondi and Mei has not yet been published in a scientific journal for the review of independent experts. They plan to publish a study in 2026. 

'Our geophysical surveys beneath the Great Sphinx uncovered pillar-like formations remarkably similar to those beneath the Khafre and Menkaure pyramids,' explained Biondi. 

'Even more compelling, our tomographic imaging revealed two large chambers nearly 2,000 feet below the surface.'

Italian researchers, who made waves earlier this year with claims of vast structures hidden beneath the Pyramid of Khafre, now say they have identified a colossal vertical shaft below the Sphinx

The scans also captured two large chambers, one at 2,000 feet and another 4,000 feet underground

The two massive chambers, each measuring 131 feet by 131 feet, appear to be connected by an underground shaft, according to recent findings.

The data collected also points to a network of hidden structures below the surface, possibly part of a vast underground city, potentially as expansive as the entire Giza Plateau itself.

Mei explained that their theory of a lost city draws from ancient Egyptian texts, particularly Chapter 149 of the Book of the Dead, which references the '14 residences of the city of the dead.'

'It describes certain chambers and some inhabitants of the city. That is why we believe it could be Amenti [realm of the dead], as described in ancient texts,' he said.

'Of course, we must be certain, but we believe this could be the case because the pyramids are located exactly where the texts say.

'The texts state that the pyramids were built on top of the city, sealing its entrance.'

Biondi added that the mysterious chambers found more than 4,000 feet below the pyramids may be linked to the legendary Hall of Records.

The Hall of Records is a mythical chamber said to lie beneath the Great Pyramid or the Sphinx, reputed to house lost wisdom about ancient civilizations.

The shaft appears to be wrapped in a spiral-like structure

Armando Mei (center) and his team, which includes Corrado Malanga (right) and Filippo Biondi (left), took the world by storm last month when they discovered shafts and chambers more than 2,000 feet below the surface.

Despite its enduring allure, there is no solid evidence proving the Hall of Records exists.

The team proposes that an advanced civilization originally built the complex, but was destroyed around 12,000 years ago by a 'divine flood' triggered by an asteroid impact. 

According to their theory, the pyramids are the lone surviving 'megastructure' from this ancient society.

Alternate historians, including Graham Hancock, a frequent guest on Joe Rogan's podcast, have long suggested that a sophisticated prehistoric civilization was wiped out by a global cataclysm, possibly a comet strike.

Researchers believe there are other structures reaching more than 4,000 feet below the surface. The scans captured structures extend along the northern side with a tuning fork shape

This theory holds that the catastrophic floods and upheaval erased most traces of this civilization, with survivors passing down critical knowledge of astronomy, engineering, and sacred architecture to later cultures such as the ancient Egyptians.

The researchers now hope to gain permission from Egyptian authorities to excavate beneath the Giza Plateau and put their findings to the test, potentially rewriting the story of human history.

'We have the right. Humanity has the right to know who we are because, right now, we don't,' Biondi said.

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12-07-2025 om 18:50 geschreven door peter  

The company attempting to bring back the woolly mammoth has now set its sights on a new extinct species.

Colossal Biosciences has announced it will attempt to 'de-extinct' a group of birds called the moa, which once lived in New Zealand.

These extraordinary animals included nine species, the largest being the South Island Giant Moa, which stood at 3.6 metres (11.8ft) tall and weighed 230 kg (507 lbs).

Colossal Biosciences will use genes extracted from moa bones to engineer modern birds until they very closely resemble the extinct moa.

This is the same technique that was used to transform grey wolves into animals closely resembling dire wolves last year.

This project will be done in collaboration with the Ngāi Tahu Research Centre at the University of Canterbury and backed by $15 million in funding from Lord of the Rings director Sir Peter Jackson.

Jackson, who has one of the largest private collections of moa bones, says: 'With the recent resurrection of the dire wolf, Colossal Biosciences has also made real the possibility of bringing back lost species.

'There’s a lot of science still to be done – but we can start looking forward to the day when birds like the moa or the huia are rescued from the darkness of extinction.'

The company trying to bring back the woolly mammoth has set its sights on a new extinct creature, the moa. These were a species of 3.6-metre-tall, 230 kg birds that once roamed New Zealand 

Of the nine species of moa, the largest is the South Island Giant Moa which lived in New Zealand for millions of years prior to the arrival of humans. Pictured: Māori students pose with a reconstruction of a South Island Giant Moa in 1903

The nine species of moa were found widely across New Zealand until the arrival of the first Polynesian settlers around 1300 AD.

Within just 200 years, the people who became the Māori had pushed all moa species into extinction through a combination of hunting and forest clearing.

The disappearance of the moa also led to a cascade of changes across New Zealand's isolated island ecosystem.

Less than 100 years after the moa became extinct their main predator, the enormous Haast's eagle, also died out.

But now, advances in genome editing techniques mean Colossal Biosciences may be able to reintroduce the lost moa back to its natural habitat.

The first step is to recreate the genomes of all nine moa species using ancient DNA stored in preserved moa bones.

Colossal Biosciences has already begun this process with visits to caves containing moa deposits within the tribal area of the Ngāi Tahu and hopes to complete all genomes by 2026.

These genomes will then be compared to those of the moa's closest living relatives, the emu and tinamou, to see which genes gave the moa their unique traits.

The moa went extinct in the 15th century due to hunting and forest clearing by the first Māori settlers. Colossal Biosciences says restoring this megafauna species will help restore New Zealand's ecosystem 

Colossal Biosciences has partnered with the Ngāi Tahu Research Centre at the University of Canterbury and is backed by $15 million in funding from Lord of the Rings director Sir Peter Jackson. Pictured: Sir Peter Jackson (left) and Colossal Biosciences CEO Ben Lamm (right) holding moa bones 

A selection of these genes are then inserted into stem cells called Primordial Germ Cell Culture, cells that turn into eggs and sperm, taken from an emu.

Those engineered cells are allowed to develop into male and female gametes and used to create an embryo, which will be raised inside a surrogate emu egg.

Colossal Biosciences has already used these techniques to create mice with the hair of woolly mammoths and wolves very closely resembling extinct dire wolves.

Scientists used the gene editing tool CRISPR to modify the DNA in blood cells from a living grey wolf in 20 places, creating a wolf with long white hair and muscular jaws.

However, recreating this process in bird species poses much greater technical challenges.

Colossal Biosciences admits that creating Primordial Germ Cell Culture for bird species has been a challenge that has eluded scientists for decades.

Likewise, since bird embryos develop inside eggs, the process of transferring an embryo into a surrogate will be completely different from that used for mammals.

Scientists have also raised questions about whether restoring the moa is something that should be pursued at all.

The process begins by extracting DNA from ancient moa bones such as those found in the caves of Ngāi Tahu takiwā

A selection of moa genes will then be inserted into stem cells derived from their closest living relative, the emu (pictured). Those cells will create embryos that can be raised by surrogacy into animals closely resembling moa 

Conservationists say that money would be better spent looking after the endangered species that are already alive.

Others point out that introducing a species which has been gone for over 600 years could have unintended consequences for the ecosystem.

Professor Stuart Pimm, an ecologist at Duke University who was not involved in the study, told AP: 'Can you put a species back into the wild once you’ve exterminated it there?

'I think it’s exceedingly unlikely that they could do this in any meaningful way.'

Professor Pimm adds: 'This will be an extremely dangerous animal.'

However, Colossal Biosciences maintains that their plan to 'rewild' the moa is beneficial for both the environment and the Māori people.

As grazing herbivores, the moa's browsing habits shaped the distribution and evolution of plants over millions of years.

These effects led to significant changes in New Zealand's ecosystems, which Colossal Biosciences argues would be more stable with the moa once again introduced.  

Colossal Biosciences recently used similar techniques to create grey wolf puppies that closely resemble the extinct dire wolf 

Ngāi Tahu archaeologist Kyle Davis, who is working with Colossal Biosciences on the project, says that the project has a deeper ancestral meaning.

During the 14th century, the moa were a vital source of meat for sustenance as well as bones and feathers, which became part of traditional jewellery.

The moa came to have a large role in Māori mythology, symbolising strength and resilience.

Mr Davis says: 'Our earliest ancestors in this place lived alongside moa and our records, both archaeological and oral, contain knowledge about these birds and their environs.

'We relish the prospect of bringing that into dialogue with Colossal’s cutting-edge science as part of a bold vision for ecological restoration.'

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12-07-2025 om 18:32 geschreven door peter  

James Webb telescope spots super rare 'Cosmic Owl' structure

• READ MORE: Our Milky Way galaxy may sit inside a giant hole, scientists say

By JONATHAN CHADWICK FOR MAILONLINE 

With its distinct owl-like appearance, it looks like a nature photo snapped in the woods in the dead of night. 

It could also be an artistic portrait from an art gallery, with its shimmering shades of blue, orange and pink. 

But this stunning image, newly published by astronomers, actually captures a remarkable moment in deep space, billions of light years away. 

Two blue rings with orange centres, which look like an owl's eyes, are actually two ring-shaped galaxies colliding with each other. 

The collision occurred 38 million years ago, but only now is it being picked up by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). 

The shot has been dubbed 'Comic Owl' by an international group of astronomers led by Dr Mingyu Li of the Tsinghua University in Beijing, China.

'The Cosmic Owl consists of a head-on merger involving two galaxies,' Dr Li and colleagues say. 

'These phenomena mutually affect one another, collectively driving the evolution of this galaxy system.' 

The international team of astronomers reports the detection of a peculiar merger of two similar ring galaxies that morphologically resemble an owl's face

The collected images show that the Cosmic Owl consists of two interacting galaxies that have formed nearly identical collisional ring structures 

Cosmic Owl is made up of two ring galaxies, which, as the name suggests, are simply galaxies that have a circle-like appearance. 

Ring galaxies have been described as one of the rarest galaxy types found in the universe, accounting for just 0.01 per cent of all galaxies discovered. 

The first ring galaxy to be discovered, known as Hoag's Object, was identified in 1950 by American astronomer Arthur Hoag. 

But capturing two ring galaxies colliding is even rarer, making this a 'unique' cosmic sight, according to the researchers. 

This remarkable symmetry of the two rings suggests they have a similar mass, structure and size, each with a diameter of approximately 26,000 light years. 

'[We] reveal a complex system of twin collisional ring galaxies, exhibiting a nearly identical morphology,' the team say in their paper. 

'The symmetry of the rings suggests a head-on collision origin between two galaxies of similar mass and structure.' 

The team estimate that the stellar mass of the entire merging system is about 320 billion solar masses – so 320 billion times the mass of our sun. 

Taking a closer look at the image, the orange blobs at the centre are the incredibly luminous 'active galactic nucleus' (AGN) 

The schematic artistic view of the Cosmic Owl, consisting of twin collisional ring galaxies with binary active galactic nucleus (AGN)

Taking a closer look at the image, the orange blobs at the centre are the incredibly luminous 'active galactic nucleus' (AGN).

AGNs – the most luminous persistent sources of electromagnetic radiation in the universe – are theorized to have supermassive black holes at their very centre which pull in surrounding matter. 

According to the researchers, the black holes in these two galaxies have masses of around 67 million and 26 million solar masses. 

Meanwhile, the space where the two galaxies merge – the 'beak' of the owl – is a region of 'intense' star formation, where new stars are created that could end up with planets in orbit around them. 

Galaxy mergers such as play a crucial role in the evolution of galaxies, transforming their size and redistributing their gas. 

They also eventually lead to stellar mass assembly – the processes by which galaxies acquire their stars and gradually grow in mass. 

Our own galaxy, the Milky Way, is on a collision course with another galaxy called Andromeda, currently around 2.5 million light years away. 

If and when the collision occurs, there's a small chance our sun would collide with another star, which could alter our position in relation to the sun and threaten life on Earth – if it still exists by then. 

The first ring galaxy to be discovered, known as Hoag's Object, was identified in 1950 by American astronomer Arthur Hoag

Webb's increased resolution and sensitivity unveiled the tiny 'sparkler' dots surrounding the galaxy for the first time in its first Deep Field image

Cosmic Owl is described further in the team's paper, which has been published on the preprint server arXiv, meaning it's yet to be peer reviewed. 

Further study could reveal more about the conditions that led to the collision, which started an estimated 38 million years ago. 

'The rare twin-ring structure calls for dedicated numerical simulations to constrain the precise initial conditions of the merger,' the team conclude.

'Such collision-triggered starbursts may represent a previously under-appreciated channel for boosting early cosmic star formation.' 

Data used to capture the image was also gathered by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile and the Very Large Array (VLA) in New Mexico. 

The James Webb Telescope: NASA's $10 billion telescope is designed to detect light from the earliest stars and galaxies

The James Webb telescope has been described as a 'time machine' that could help unravel the secrets of our universe.

The telescope will be used to look back to the first galaxies born in the early universe more than 13.5 billion years ago, and observe the sources of stars, exoplanets, and even the moons and planets of our solar system.

The vast telescope, which has already cost more than $7 billion (£5 billion), is considered a successor to the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope

The James Webb Telescope and most of its instruments have an operating temperature of roughly 40 Kelvin – about minus 387 Fahrenheit (minus 233 Celsius).

It is the world's biggest and most powerful orbital space telescope, capable of peering back 100-200 million years after the Big Bang.

The orbiting infrared observatory is designed to be about 100 times more powerful than its predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope.

NASA likes to think of James Webb as a successor to Hubble rather than a replacement, as the two will work in tandem for a while. 

The Hubble telescope was launched on April 24, 1990, via the space shuttle Discovery from Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.

It circles the Earth at a speed of about 17,000mph (27,300kph) in low Earth orbit at about 340 miles in altitude. 

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12-07-2025 om 18:10 geschreven door peter  

What would happen if the Earth continues to spin faster? Stronger hurricanes, disastrous earthquakes and catastrophic flooding, expert says

• READ MORE: Shortest day in history is coming as Earth's rotation speeds up

By WILIAM HUNTER

Scientists have warned that this summer could include some of the shortest days of your entire life.

On July 22 and August 5, experts predict the day will be 1.38 and 1.51 milliseconds shorter than average, respectively. 

This is because the planet's rotation has entered an unexpected period of acceleration, shaving a millisecond or so off the length of a solar day.

But what would happen if the world just kept getting faster?

Given that a blink takes 100 milliseconds, you are unlikely to notice any big changes for a long time.

However, scientists say that unchecked acceleration would eventually lead to disastrous consequences.

If Earth were spinning just 100 miles per hour faster than it does now, the world would be hit by stronger hurricanes, catastrophic flooding, and the collapse of satellite networks.

And, if the world were to double its speed, it would likely be the end of life as we know it.

As scientists reveal that the Earth's rotation has unexpectedly accelerated, experts explain what would happen if the world kept getting faster (stock image)  

One mile per hour faster

On average, it takes the planet 24 hours, or 86,400 seconds, to complete one full rotation, which is called a solar day.

Small fluctuations like the location of the moon or volcanic eruptions can shift this around a millisecond in either direction, but the rotation is generally fairly stable.

Because the Earth is a sphere, its circumference is smaller near the poles than at the equator, so the planet's surface moves faster the further you get from the poles.

Someone standing at the equator is rotating in space at around 1,037 mph (1,668 kmph) while somebody in London is only moving at about 646 mph (1,041 kmph).

Compared to these speeds, an increase of just one mile per hour might not seem like a big difference.

The days would be about a minute and a half shorter overall, which our body clocks probably wouldn't notice right away.

Witold Fraczek, an analyst at ESRI, a mapping software firm, told Popular Science: 'It might take a few years to notice it.'

Earth normally takes 24 hours, or exactly 86,400 seconds, to complete one full rotation, which is called a solar day. This means the equator is spinning at 1,037 mph (1,668 kmph)

However, an unexpected effect is that satellites in orbit would soon be knocked out of sync.

Some satellites are 'geosynchronous', meaning they move at the same speed as Earth's rotation to stay over the same location.

If the Earth speeds up, those satellites will lose their position and navigation, communication, and weather monitoring services would start to fail.

However, some satellites carry fuel to adjust their orbit, and others could be replaced, so the results should not be disastrous.

Mr Fraczek says: 'These could disturb the life and comfort of some people, but should not be catastrophic to anybody.

The bigger impact is that water would start to move from the poles to the equator due to the increased centrifugal forces.

Even at just one mile per hour, this would cause sea levels to rise by a few inches around the equator.

For cities already at or very near sea level, this could lead to devastating flooding.

If the Earth spun just one mile per hour faster, sea levels would rise by a few inches near the equator. This could lead to extensive flooding in low-lying cities such as New Orleans (AI impression) 

100 miles per hour faster

If the Earth kept accelerating until it was moving 100 miles per hour faster at the equator, this would start to trigger seriously dangerous consequences.

Rather than rising by a few inches, these speeds would start to drown the equator as water rushed down from the poles.

Mr Fraczek says: 'I think the Amazon Basin, Northern Australia, and not to mention the islands in the equatorial region, they would all go under water.

'How deep underwater, I’m not sure, but I’d estimate about 30 to 65 feet.'

For anyone who survived the flooding, the world would start to become a much more hostile place.

The solar day would now only last 22 hours, knocking our circadian rhythms out of their natural balance.

The effect would be like setting your body clock back two hours every day without being given a chance to adjust.

At 100 miles per hour faster, cities in Northern Australia, such as Gold Coast (AI impression), would be completely submerged 

This would be especially bad for southern cities in the US, which have already faced rapidly rising sea levels since 2010 (illustrated) 

Studies have shown that changes like daylight saving lead to increased rates of heart attacks, strokes, and driving accidents - this would be even more severe.

Additionally, Earth's weather would start to become more extreme.

NASA astronomer Dr Sten Odenwald says: 'Temperature difference is still going to be the main driver of winds.

However, at these speeds, Dr Odenwald says that 'hurricanes will spin faster, and there will be more energy in them.'

This is due to something called the Coriolis effect, which gives hurricanes their rotational energy.

If the Earth didn't spin, winds would blow down from the North Pole to the equator in a straight line. But as the Earth rotates, the wind becomes deflected eastward, and this is what gives a hurricane its spin.

If the world starts to spin faster, the winds would be deflected more, and the Coriolis effect would become stronger.

Dr Odenwald says: 'That effectively makes the rotation more severe.'

As the Earth spins faster, hurricanes would spin more rapidly and contain more power due to the Coriolis effect 

1,000 miles per hour faster or more

At 1,000 miles per hour faster, Earth would be rotating roughly twice as fast as it does today, with disastrous consequences.

Mr Fraczek says: 'It would clearly be a disaster.'

The centrifugal forces would pull hundreds of feet of water towards the equator.

'Except for the highest mountains, such as Kilimanjaro or the highest summits of the Andes, I think everything in the equatorial region would be covered with water,' says Mr Fraczek.

At 1,000 miles per hour faster, the centrifugal forces generated by spinning would also be much stronger.

This would make it easier for water to escape the force of gravity and evaporate up into the atmosphere.

The already flooded regions of the equator would experience near-constant rain and would be constantly shrouded in fog and mist.

At around 24,000 miles per hour (38,600 kmph), the tectonic plates would be forced towards the equator as the planet flattens out. This would lead to devastating earthquakes (stock image) 

At really extreme speeds of around 17,000 miles per hour (27,350 kmph), 17 times faster than normal, the centrifugal forces would be powerful enough to overwhelm gravity.

Anyone at the equator would become weightless as centrifugal force counteracted gravity, and you might even start to get 'reverse rain' as water falls up into the atmosphere.

However, it is unlikely that there would be anyone around to see this since the equator would have long since become uninhabitable.

Mr Franczek says: 'If those few miserable humans would still be alive after most of Earth’s water had been transferred to the atmosphere and beyond, they would clearly want to run out of the equator area as soon as possible.'

Finally, once the planet started to reach speeds of about 24,000 miles per hour (38,600 kmph) at the equator, life as we know it would pretty much be over.

The centrifugal forces would now be so strong that they would start to flatten out the Earth like a spinning ball of clay.

The tectonic plates would shift and the Earth's crust would crack, leading to catastrophic results.

Mr Franczek says: 'We would have enormous earthquakes. The tectonic plates would move quickly and that would be disastrous to life on the globe.'

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/index.html }

12-07-2025 om 17:56 geschreven door peter  

Artikel door Michaël Torfs

 Een interstellair object is een object dat niet uit ons zonnestelsel komt, maar uit een ander sterrenstelsel. De mysterieuze, opvallende bezoeker in ons zonnestelsel werd begin juli gespot door de Atlas-telescoop in Chili. Op dat moment zou het object ongeveer 670 miljoen kilometer van de zon verwijderd zijn geweest. 

Het is pas het derde interstellair object dat ooit is waargenomen. De komeet werd '3I/ATLAS' gedoopt en wordt met argusogen gevolgd door sterrenkundigen. Mogelijk is hij zowat 3 miljard ouder dan ons zonnestelsel, laten wetenschappers van Oxford nu weten. De komeet zou zo mogelijk 7,5 miljard jaar oud zijn.

"Het object komt uit een sterrenstelsel dat we nog nooit van dichtbij hebben gezien", vertelt professor Chris Lintott aan de BBC. "We denken dat de kans 2 op de 3 is dat het ouder is dan ons eigen zonnestelsel." Dat is ongeveer 4,5 miljard jaar oud. 

Astronoom Matthew Hopkins had net een doctoraatsstudie afgerond over interstellaire objecten. Hij verdiepte zich meteen in het analyseren van de nieuwste bezoeker.

"3I vliegt sneller dan zijn 2 voorgangers, met ongeveer 60 kilometer per seconde. Dat is binnen de grens van wat we verwachten", schrijft hij daarover op de website van de universiteit van Oxford. 

Ontstaan in de 'dikke schijf' 

Hopkins denkt dat de komeet ontstaan is in het melkwegstelsel. Dat zou gebeurd zijn in de zogenoemde 'dikke schijf', een groep met bijzonder oude sterren die een belangrijk onderdeel vormt van de Melkweg. Het gaat om een groep sterren die zich bevinden rond de 'dunne schijf', waar de zon deel van uitmaakt.

"Om die reden is het zeer waarschijnlijk dat 3I de eerste kans is om een object te bestuderen dat in een volledig ander deel van de ruimte is gevormd", is Hopkins enthousiast.

IJswater

3I/Atlas zou zich gevormd hebben rond een oude ster en veel ijswater bevatten. Wanneer de komeet later dit jaar dichter bij de zon komt, zal hij opgewarmd worden en veel stoom en damp verliezen.

Volgens astronomen zou hij dan een oplichtende staart kunnen vertonen. Later dit jaar zou de komeet overigens zichtbaar moeten zijn vanaf de aarde met amateurtelescopen. 

De vermoedelijke koers van de interstellaire bezoeker: hij blijft uit de buurt van de aarde.

© Foto: Catalina Sky Survey

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{ https://www.msn.com/nl-be/ }

12-07-2025 om 17:18 geschreven door peter  

De Donkere Zijde van de Maan: Het Meest onderdrukte Ruimteverhaal Ooit Verteld

De Donkere Zijde van de Maan

Al tientallen jaren staat de Maan symbool voor menselijke prestatie en verkenning. We hebben talloze missies uitgevoerd, astronauten geland en de maanoppervlakte bestudeerd via telescopen en satellieten. Maar wat als het verhaal dat ons is verteld over de Maan verre van compleet is? Wat als de werkelijkheid veel complexer en verborgen is gebleven voor het grote publiek? Volgens onderzoekers, whisteblowers en experten zoals Linda Moulton Howe en David Adair, zou de Maan niet zomaar een kale, onbewoonde rots zijn die in een baan om de aarde draait. In plaats daarvan zou deze hemellichaam een geavanceerde kunstmatige constructie kunnen zijn, ontworpen door buitenaardse intelligenties of door een oude, vergeten beschaving. Het zou een soort monitoringstation kunnen zijn, een uitvalsbasis voor het bewaken van de aarde, of zelfs een plek waar experimenten worden uitgevoerd die ons nog altijd onbekend zijn.

11-07-2025 om 23:54 geschreven door peter