The Mexican Scientist Who Vanished Said We Live in Holographic Matrix & Shamans Can Manipulate It

What if everything you think you know about reality is only the surface? His followers believe Dr. Jacobo Grinberg may have unlocked a hidden world beneath our everyday experience, one where consciousness reshapes reality itself.

On December 8, 1994, this brilliant neuroscientist vanished without a trace, disappearing into thin air while investigating mysteries most scientists dared not touch.

Dr. Jacobo Grinberg was no ordinary scientist. He was a bold explorer of the mind, a pioneer in consciousness, on a quest to unlock new chapters of reality. But was Dr. Grinberg’s disappearance the end of his story, or the beginning of something far stranger?

Jacobo Grinberg was born in 1946 in Mexico City into a Jewish family. But his roots stretched beyond Mexico: his heritage was intertwined with the rich tapestry of Jewish mysticism, a factor that would deeply shape his life’s work.

From his earliest days, Grinberg was not a typical child. Surrounded by stories of Kabbalah, the ancient Jewish tradition exploring hidden layers of reality, he developed an insatiable curiosity about consciousness and the nature of existence.

At a young age, this curiosity propelled him across the ocean.

In his early adulthood, Grinberg traveled to Israel, spending significant time in the city of Safed, considered the spiritual heart of Kabbalah since medieval times. Here, in the shadow of ancient synagogues and amid whispered secrets of the cosmos, he encountered a world where science and spirituality intertwined in a dance as old as history.

During his stay, strange and extraordinary phenomena began to take shape in his life. Stories tell of a watch stopping at a precise, predicted moment during a seance, an event he witnessed himself. These experiences planted a seed: reality might be far more fluid than the physical senses reveal.

It was also in Israel that he met his first wife, Lizette Arditti, who would become both his partner in life and an important witness to his extraordinary journey. Their shared experiences and support would be vital as Grinberg embarked on a path few dared to tread.

Jacobo Grinberg returned to Mexico with a mission: To understand the mind, not just within the limits of traditional neuroscience, but as an explorer of its farthest reaches.

He trained as a neuroscientist in New York and returned to his homeland as a prodigy with a mission: to crack the code of human consciousness and to bridge spirituality, physics, and the brain. By age 45, he’d published over 50 books, led government-funded labs, braved the jungles with shamans, and became a legend in Mexican science.

But here’s the twist. Grinberg didn’t just study the mind; he chased the paranormal. And some say… it chased him back.

What did Grinberg stumble upon that got the attention of world-famous scientists, and, maybe, global intelligence agencies Imagine a scientist who explored the very boundaries of reality itself. Grinberg didn’t just believe that brains create consciousness; he theorized that consciousness is a fundamental structure of reality, one you might be able to access like… tuning a radio.

He built not just one lab, but an entire institute, the National Institute for the Study of Consciousness (Instituto Nacional para el Estudio de la Conciencia) in Mexico, where he explored the greatest question: where does experience come from?

What if consciousness isn’t locked in your skull, but a field that surrounds us and connects us all? What if the brain is merely an antenna, tuning into this field—a field that, if consciously accessed, would allow impossible phenomena?

Dr. Grinberg called it “Syntergic Theory,” and it was his greatest achievement.

His theory wasn’t just philosophy; it was a blueprint for exploring telepathy, mystical experiences, and even materialization. But did it work? The answer may have cost him everything. He claimed to see the impossible, and some say it got him killed. But first, what did he do in those secret labs?

The mind, he said, taps into a “lattice”—a universal spatial structure underpinning all existence. When the brain distorts this lattice, sensory reality is created.

Sound familiar? If you’ve heard of the holographic universe, or “non-local” physics, you’re in Grinberg’s neighborhood. But Grinberg’s lattice wasn’t just philosophical. He tried to prove it in the lab.

If consciousness is non-local, could minds connect, brain-to-brain, across space and time? Grinberg set up radical experiments to find out…and the results might bridge science and the supernatural.

What did Grinberg do?

He pioneered experiments analyzing hemispheric brain coherence, the synchrony between the brain’s two halves, under meditation and other altered states. More radically, he studied “brain-to-brain” interactions, inspired by Einstein’s famous Gedanken Experiment—EPR, or also known as a thought experiment. His final experiments involved subjects in isolated rooms separated by distance, testing whether brain activity could non-locally influence another’s neural patterns.

Grinberg called this phenomenon the “transferred potential” —a neurobiological sign of non-local communication.

Though controversial, Grinberg’s work anticipated modern parapsychological research and remains influential in corridors studying consciousness studies beyond the brain.

Shaman & Mystic: Pachita & Mysteries of Mexican Healing

Science, for Jacobo, was not confined to classrooms or labs. His most extraordinary work happened deep in Mexico’s mountains and streets, among shamans and curanderos (a Spanish word for healer).

His most famous collaborator was Pachita (named Bárbara Guerrero), a seemingly ordinary woman with extraordinary powers. Pachita performed “impossible surgeries,” extracting and restoring organs with an old rusty knife and her bare hands. Eyes closed, blood covering her clothes, gripping knives that to any surgeon would be relics, her cures baffled and amazed thousands [Source]

Jacobo documented dozens of nights attending Pachita’s surgeries, filled with sweat, blood, and miracles defying explanation. He was both skeptic and chronicler, carefully recording these events in what would become seven volumes: Los Chamanes de México.

For the scientist who sought to uncover where experience originates, Pachita’s healing did not negate his science; it fed it.

• Where did Jacobo find the keys to the universe?
• Who were his true teachers?
• And what fateful events led to his sudden disappearance in 1994?

For Dr. Jacobo Grinberg, it wasn’t enough to observe the world; he wanted to decode reality itself. Central to his science was the revolutionary Syntergic Theory. What is it? Buckle in. [CIA source on syntergic theory]

According to Grinberg, space isn’t an empty void; it’s a living, interconnected lattice, a universal informational matrix that contains all potential experiences. The brain, he argued, doesn’t create consciousness, but acts more like a receiver, a radio dial tuning into the infinite songs of the cosmos. Perception and “reality” arise from the interaction between this syntergic field and our neural networks.

“The result of this process is what everyone understands as ‘reality.’ This theory tries to answer the question of the creation of the experience.”

Under the Syntergic model, psychic phenomena, telepathy, remote viewing, and even shamanic miracles aren’t supernatural. They’re natural, arising from a state when minds achieve coherence and plug into the universal field.

But can such a bold theory be proved—or is it just modern-day mysticism?

Lab Experiments and Brain-to-Brain Contact

It wasn’t until 1974 that Mexico got its first national society for parapsychology (Sociedad Mexicana de Parapsicología), founded by psychiatrist Carlos Treviño. This group focused on introducing more critical and scientific thinking to the subject, aiming to educate both church leaders and the public about the distinction between magic and genuine scientific investigation [Source]

They even offered official courses for future priests and researched haunted places using things like Kirlian photography, a way to capture “energy fields” on film!

Mexico also hosted big conferences, drawing global experts in parapsychology and skepticism. The Mexican Society for Skeptical Investigation made sure to include fierce critics at their events, so every claim could be looked at with a careful eye.

In Mexico City, Grinberg’s Lab became the hub for dangerous ideas: meditation marathons, tests of “eyeless sight,” and, most famously, the “transferred potential” experiment. In essence, he’d separate two subjects into different rooms. One would be shown a stimulus—a light or a sound—while both wore EEG monitors.

Sometimes, incredibly, brainwave disturbances would occur in both subjects, even when only one received the stimulus. This suggested the possibility of a direct, non-local mind-to-mind connection, a real-world echo of quantum entanglement but involving human beings.

Were these results real or an artifact of hope and belief?

Grinberg’s experiments were sometimes replicated, sometimes not. But they were enough to draw attention far beyond academia—including government agencies attracted by the specter of mind control or psychic espionage. [Source]

Pachita, Miracles, and Metaphysics

In 1919, a German-born doctor named Gustav Pagenstecher, who was well respected in Mexico’s medical community, accidentally discovered supposed psychic abilities in his patient, María Reyes de Zierold, during a hypnosis session. Intrigued, he began a series of scientific experiments to test her talents. The results were so surprising that he contacted the American Society for Psychical Research, and their investigator, Walter Franklin Prince, traveled to Mexico. Prince was so impressed, he published the findings in a leading research journal.

Pagenstecher’s real achievement? For the first time, he used hypnosis to try to “train” psychic abilities, and he showed that the way psychic impressions are linked to objects might work like normal memory does for ideas, opening up new ways to study the unknown.

In 1937, another big investigation happened. Dr. Enrique Aragón, a top academic and psychiatrist, led a team to examine a 13-year-old boy surrounded by “poltergeist” activity. They even used special scientific tools to try and measure psychic forces! Aragón eventually founded Mexico’s first real organization for psychic research, called the Círculo de Investigaciones Metapsíquicas de México. They spent over a decade studying famous mediums like Luis Martínez, who was said to cause mysterious lights, floating objects, and distant voices.

There was even a Jesuit priest, Carlos María Heredia, who used his expertise as a magician to expose trickery in some so-called spiritualist events, proof that not everyone was convinced!

Fast forward to the 1960s and 70s. Mexico again attracts global attention, this time thanks to famous “curanderas” or healers, like María Sabina, who used hallucinogenic mushrooms, and Pachita, known for her incredible psychic surgeries. These healers fascinated not just the public but world-famous researchers like Stanley Krippner, who came to Mexico to study them.

To most scientists, Grinberg’s next move would seem risky. He left the clean, safe environment of the lab and went into the world of Mexican curanderos, who are traditional healers.

The most famous: Pachita (Bárbara Guerrero), a legendary shamanic surgeon.

She was originally from Chihuahua and had been involved in the Mexican Revolution, moving around the country and working different jobs. But it was only after she settled in the State of Mexico that she became widely known for her unusual healing methods.

Before meeting her, Grinberg had already exposed several fake shamans who tricked people with lies. However, when he unexpectedly visited Pachita’s home for the first time, he was surprised to hear a deep voice from inside the house say, “Jacobo, hurry up. Why are you so late? I’ve been waiting for you.” After that moment, Grinberg witnessed many surgeries and medical procedures at her house that seemed impossible by normal standards.

Pachita would ask her patients to bring bandages, a sheet, and alcohol. She would then perform the surgeries at home using only a simple hunting knife. She would cut open the patient’s body, take out the damaged organ with her hands, and then somehow create a new organ and put it inside. She called this process “Aportes (Spanish),” meaning “contributions” or “gifts.”

After performing surgery, Pachita would run her hand over the wound, and it would instantly close without leaving any trace. In some cases, she even performed blood transfusions using blood that came from her mouth.

In his book Chamanes de México, Jacobo Grinberg describes his experiences with Pachita and how she would lose awareness of the present moment while doing surgeries or healings. When he read the book to her, she was completely surprised because she had no idea what had happened during those sessions.

Pachita explained this by saying that the spirit of Cuauhtémoc, the last Aztec emperor, would take over her body. She called him “Brother” and credited him for all the healing miracles. Grinberg believed there was a much deeper explanation. He thought that when a person connects their consciousness to the “informational matrix” (a kind of deeper reality), high-frequency energy allows for major changes in reality. That’s why Pachita even seemed to take on a different personality—because connecting to this holographic reality removed social conditioning, similar to what happens in deep meditation.

Other changes in reality that Pachita supposedly caused included controlling the weather. She once ended a drought in a village and made it rain so much that nearby rivers overflowed, all while Grinberg watched.

Despite the complexity and miraculous nature of her work, Pachita never charged anyone for her healings. She was also very selective about whom she allowed to observe or study her methods. Many writers, politicians, and scientists came to seek her help, including the famed author of Psychomagic, Alejandro Jodorowsky.

From his time with Pachita, Dr. Grinberg developed his Syntergic Theory, a scientific framework he used to explain the extraordinary things he saw with her and other shamans.

Can belief and intention rewrite reality? Is shamanism a gateway to a universal code?

Teachers, Mentors, and Kindred Spirits

Grinberg was nobody’s lone madman. He stood atop a mountain of influences—scientific, spiritual, and personal.

• His first wife, Lizette: Met in Israel, a pillar of emotional and intellectual support.
• Jewish Mysticism: Roots running through Kabbalah, especially during his formative years in Safed, Israel—home to centuries of secrets about the nature of existence.
• Carl Pribram: Esteemed neuroscientist who developed the holographic brain theory, visited Grinberg’s lab and was impressed by his audacity.
• Pachita and other shamans: Provided a live demonstration of magical consciousness.
• Contemporaries: Figures such as Carlos Castañeda, the popularizer of shamanic journeying, and Alejandro Jodorowsky, the psychomagician, were within his network of esoteric experimentalists.

These connections emboldened Grinberg to question everything. If the mind could shape reality, what was impossible?

The Syntergic Theory: Are We Living in a Hologram?

Imagine reality isn’t just out there, but is something we actively help create with our brains.

Jacobo Grinberg’s Syntergic Theory both supports and challenges quantum physics. He spent fifteen years developing this theory, which blends modern physics, neuroscience, mysticism, and the experiences of shamans. By reinterpreting a concept known in physics as the Lattice, which is seen as the structure of space-time, Grinberg proposed that human consciousness might have the power to control the universe we live in.

According to him, the universe is filled with an invisible structure called the “Lattice.” This Lattice is everywhere, and every single point in space holds the information of the entire universe, like a giant cosmic hologram.

The Human brain produces an energetic field, which he called the “neuronal field.” This field, according to Grinberg, expands beyond the physical boundaries of the skull, interacting with the very fabric of space and matter around us.

Grinberg suggested that the brain is not an isolated organ, but rather it interacts dynamically with what he refers to as the “space-matter continuum,” changing its informational content. This means that the thoughts, emotions, and states of consciousness produced by the brain are able to influence not only the individual but potentially others and even physical forces like gravity.

In physics, the Lattice refers to the framework that holds space and time together. But Grinberg gave this idea a new meaning.
According to him, every point in this Lattice contains all the information about the rest of the universe. In physics, this concept is somewhat similar to what’s called a “lattice” or even the fabric of space-time itself.

He introduced the term Syntergy, a word he created by combining synthesis and energy. His theory suggests that when the human brain processes and decodes what we call reality, it can interact with this Lattice. By doing so, it may be possible to change space-time itself.

Grinberg believed we live in an informational matrix, which he called “the hologram.” In this hologram, we are not just passive observers—we can actively shape the reality we experience.

A key idea in the Syntergic Theory is that the more unified and coherent the activity in a person’s brain, the stronger and more effective their neuronal field becomes, which in turn could reduce gravitational forces in the immediate environment.
Grinberg suggested that what we perceive as space isn’t empty at all. Instead, it’s a dense network that can be changed or distorted. All forces and fields, like gravity, electromagnetism, and even thoughts or emotions, are just different ways the Lattice can be bent or shaped.

He called these distortions “Syntergic Bands.” Each level of consciousness, like being awake, dreaming, or in meditation, is tied to a particular Syntergic Band. The more coherent and unified the Lattice is, the higher the level of consciousness you can access.
In simple terms, a person who is calm, abstract in thought, and highly focused can supposedly alter the information present in the space around them, possibly even influencing gravitational effects. In contrast, someone who’s distracted or fragmented in thought creates a weaker field.

He explained that if a person has a highly “syntergic” brain, meaning one with strong internal coherence and connection between its parts, they can influence the hologram at will. This could allow them to perform acts that seem impossible according to known laws of physics, just like Pachita did with her healings.

Perception, according to Grinberg, is not a passive process. We don’t simply receive reality; we create it in partnership with the Lattice and our Neural Fields. What we see, hear, and feel is the product of our brains decoding or transforming the Lattice. The reality we experience is thus filtered through our level of consciousness, conditioning, and personal history.

Grinberg also drew parallels with ancient traditions. For example, in Buddhism, there’s the idea of “Sunyata,” or emptiness—that nothing exists alone and everything is interdependent. In the Jewish mystical tradition of Kabbalah, there’s the belief that each part contains the whole, and all levels of reality are interconnected. Grinberg used these ideas to show that science and spirituality are not opposed but can actually enrich each other.

He drew on the wisdom of Zen masters and mystical traditions, which speak about the “Big Mind”—a universal mind that includes everything, as opposed to the small, separate ego-mind. He questioned whether science could find a physiological basis for this Big Mind, suggesting that if space is just an illusion produced by our perception, and if individual minds are just local expressions of one unified consciousness, this implies there are real, measurable effects, such as brain aactivityexisting outside of the skull.

This idea also opens the door to exploring other phenomena like telepathy. Grinberg conducted experiments where two people, exposed to different stimuli but connected through meditation, showed synchronized brain activity, suggesting their minds were somehow linked beyond physical interaction.

His theory also overlaps with ideas like the law of attraction, the power of thought to shape reality, and the idea that language influences how we experience the world.

The most mysterious part of his theory is the suggestion that if our consciousness can affect this informational matrix, and if everything is interconnected through energy, whether atomic or mental, then we might not be living in ultimate reality. Instead, we could be inside a kind of simulation, a matrix, where our brain is capable of understanding its physical laws but not its true origin.
This idea leads to the concept of awakening: expanding consciousness enough to fully master the hologram. According to this view, if someone completely understood the matrix, they would essentially disappear from it, reaching a pure state in the real, higher reality.

So, why don’t we all experience the full reality of the Lattice? According to Grinberg, most people are “stuck” tuning into only one level of reality because of personal filters, history, and conditioning. If we could let go of these, we might experience reality as it truly is, limitless and interconnected.

Grinberg also suggested that shamans, mystics, and yogis can tap into different Syntergic Bands, explaining their unusual experiences and abilities, like telepathy or materializing objects.

To support these radical ideas, Dr. Grinberg conducted experiments measuring brain electrical activity (EEG) during moments of deep communication and meditation. He observed that when two people were in deep, empathic communication, their brainwave patterns—specifically the coherence or similarity between the left and right halves of their brains—became strongly synchronized.

In some sessions, especially when deep mutual understanding was present, the EEG patterns between the two people even began to reflect each other, as if their brains were in direct, nonverbal communion. When communication was weak, this synchrony was absent.

He also designed a technique to train people to stimulate this sense of unity, using biofeedback based on EEG coherence. When individuals achieved high levels of coherence in their brain activity, meaning their brain hemispheres were working in harmony, they reported feelings of inner unification, peace, and a dissolution of the usual separation between self and world.

This effect wasn’t easy to achieve: it required months of hard training, indicating that our usual fragmented mind is deeply ingrained.

Another fascinating experiment involved placing a small weight in a room shielded from all outside physical forces. Grinberg recorded the brain activity of people sitting nearby, instructing them to remain still and calm. He found that certain changes in their EEG coherence coincided with measurable changes in the weight, suggesting that their mental or energetic activity was having a physical effect on the environment, possibly even modifying gravitational forces. However, this effect was not easy to control or reproduce willingly, perhaps owing to the complexity and subtlety of the internal mental state required.

Underlying all of these scientific endeavors is the concept that space is not empty but is actually a matrix full of information, a kind of quantum field that underlies all physical reality.

Grinberg postulated that our perception of separation, of individuals and objects, is just a result of our brain decoding a limited amount of the immense information present in this field. If the brain could raise its coherence to the highest level, it might be able to interface with this fundamental field fully, leading to a direct perception of oneness or unity with all that exists.

Grinberg’s Syntergic Theory attempts to bridge science and spiritual wisdom, suggesting that consciousness is not just a private, isolated phenomenon inside each person, but part of a universal field. Through deep communication, meditation, and increased internal coherence, human beings can experience greater unity with themselves, with others, and with the universe itself.

Grinberg was never able to prove this theory completely. Just like his work on children’s extraocular vision (seeing without using the eyes) and telepathy, these studies were left unfinished. That’s because, at the most critical moment in his career, Dr. Jacobo Grinberg mysteriously disappeared.

The Last Days of Dr. Grinberg

1994 was a year of huge changes for Mexico. Carlos Salinas de Gortari was president, and on January 1, the country started a new chapter with the North American Free Trade Agreement, NAFTA, linking Mexico, the US, and Canada. The government promised it would bring an economic miracle, jobs, and progress for everyone.

But on that very first day, things took a wild turn. In the southern state of Chiapas, an armed group called the Zapatistas stormed towns and government buildings. Their goal? Justice and rights for Mexico’s indigenous people, who they believed were once again forgotten by policies like NAFTA.
The Zapatistas, led by Subcomandante Marcos, became national heroes for many, and Dr. Jacobo Grinberg was among their most passionate supporters.

Dr. Grinberg wasn’t just an ordinary scientist. He marched in rallies, signed public letters, and even tried to connect the Zapatistas’ struggle to his studies in shamanism and the mysteries of the mind. Around this time, Grinberg dove deeper into the world of the supernatural. Some of his friends began to worry. Was he losing his grip on reality?

He started saying he felt watched and unsafe, even describing huge cosmic visions, like traveling through space in his mind, connecting with alien civilizations, and even believing he might have become a kind of god. Some wonder if constant use of hallucinogenic substances pushed him even further away from reality.

In the early 1990s, Grinberg befriended Carlos Castaneda, a famous but controversial writer who claimed to study shamanism and drug-induced visions. Castaneda was later criticized for making up his stories, but Grinberg admired his work for a time and even visited him with his second wife, María Teresa Mendoza López.

It’s rumored that Castaneda invited Grinberg to leave his university job and join his secretive group. Grinberg refused. Their relationship soured, and some of Grinberg’s friends would later speculate, without evidence, that Castaneda’s circle could have played a role in his vanishing.

As the end of 1994 approached, Grinberg seemed increasingly unstable and paranoid. He called his daughter. He said he was heading to Kathmandu, Nepal, for meditation, but airline records show he never left Mexico. Days before his birthday, he left messages saying his wife, Teresa, was persecuting him. By then, their marriage had become extremely troubled, full of jealousy and fights.

What happened? Was Teresa involved?

People close to Grinberg believed Teresa was pretending to be someone she wasn’t, that she might be dangerous, or that she was part of a group trying to control him. His brother remembers that Grinberg openly feared for his life in their last meeting. Friends insisted: Jacobo Grinberg would never have left his beloved daughter, his university job, or his responsibilities by choice.

Lizette admits she did not know Teresa well. Still, her limited interactions (including chance meetings and following her to Grinberg’s house for research purposes) were awkward, with Teresa reportedly displaying paranoia and anxiety. Jacobo himself described Teresa as someone with “powers,” referencing shamanic or magical abilities. Lizette expresses skepticism about paranormal powers, but acknowledges Grinberg’s fascination with such phenomena; he actively sought to study their scientific basis. Moreover, Teresa’s involvement in shamanic practices, particularly those involving trance-induced surgeries or “psychic surgeries, —placed her at the crossroads of science and mysticism, the terrain Grinberg himself navigated.

Lizette points out that while his quest was scientific, Grinberg always remained open to subjects dismissed by conventional research—extrasensory perception, telepathy, shamanic healing, and other phenomena viewed with skepticism by the mainstream scientific community. This approach earned him both admiration and criticism, making him something of an outsider and, perhaps, a target.

Wild Theories

According to Ilan Stavans, a Jewish Mexican-American essayist, after Grinberg was reported missing, strange things happened. Teresa cashed one of his checks and gave conflicting stories about his whereabouts. Sometimes he was in Guadalajara, sometimes in Campeche, and sometimes supposed to be flying out to Nepal. Teresa was seen with a night watchman with a military background and later with a blonde woman, collecting her things from one of their houses. Eventually, Teresa herself disappeared forever. [Source]

Since that time, Grinberg has become more legend than man. In Spanish, the word for “disappeared”—desaparecido—isn’t the same as “reappeared”—aparecido, which means “ghost.” Grinberg became a legend, an apparition. Some of his followers believe he’s not gone, just hidden, waiting for the right time to return, to enlighten the world with secret knowledge.

His family remembers him with great love, seeing lessons in his courage and relentless search for truth. In Jewish tradition, there’s a legend about the 36 righteous people, the Lamed Vavniks, upon whom the fate of the world depends. Grinberg’s friends sometimes wondered: Could Jacobo have been one of these special souls?

In the last years of his life, Jacobo Grinberg’s mind soared beyond what most of us can imagine. Maybe he saw realities others couldn’t. Maybe he fell victim to his explorations. Maybe he was lost, or maybe he didn’t disappear at all, but simply crossed a border no one else could see.

Someone once tried to contact him using spiritual rituals, hoping for a sign he was alive or dead. The answer? Grinberg is “in bardo”—the Buddhist state between death and rebirth. Between worlds, between stories, between mysteries.

The story of Jacobo Grinberg has no neat ending. Mexico in 1994 was a place of turmoil and transformation, and Grinberg was swept away in its currents. Was his disappearance political? Personal? A matter of science, madness, or magic?

No one knows. But those who remember him say he taught us one thing above all: Reality is full of mysteries. Sometimes, the truest thing we can do is keep searching for answers.

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The 3I/ATLAS object has become a real sensation in modern astronomy. Most scientists agree that it is a comet that has come to us from another star. Many popular publications write that it is even more interesting, because it may turn out to be an alien probe. Let’s figure out what’s what.

Interstellar guest

On July 1, 2025, the ATLAS robotic telescope system discovered an object beyond Jupiter’s orbit that was moving quite rapidly against the backdrop of stars. Such behavior typically indicates a comet that has originated from the Oort cloud, located at the outskirts of the Solar System. However, no cometary activity was detected at first.

However, the speed and trajectory of this object immediately made it one of the major astronomical sensations of 2025, and soon even people who were far removed from observing the sky began to talk about it. It turned out that the comet, which was soon named 3I/ATLAS (C/2025 N1), had flown in from interstellar space.

The “3I” in the name indicates that this is the third macroscopic interstellar object known to humans. The first two were the asteroid Oumuamua (1I/ʻOumuamua) and the comet Borisov (2I/Borisov), discovered in 2017 and 2019, respectively. The fact that interstellar visitors were not recorded before, but now appear so abundantly, may frighten some people. But in reality, there is nothing mystical about it.

Over the past few decades, astronomical technology has advanced rapidly, with the emergence of large survey telescopes, space observatories, robotic instruments, and a network of enthusiasts who constantly exchange information on the Internet. Humanity has reached a level of observation where it can see things in the sky that previously went unnoticed.

So, the appearance of the third interstellar object was eagerly awaited. Immediately after the announcement of the discovery of 3I/ATLAS, several powerful astronomical instruments were directed at it, thanks to which scientists were able to establish fairly quickly that it was indeed a comet and learn enough about it.

Comet characteristics

The first thing that interested scientists in 3I/ATLAS were its speed. In the Oumuamua and Borisov comets, it was significantly higher than in bodies with aphelion somewhere at the edge of the Solar System: 26 and 32 km/s, respectively.

However, in the case of 3I/ATLAS, this value was already 58 km/s at the moment when it entered the Solar System. That is, even then, it was flying a distance equal to the distance from Earth to the Sun in about a month. And this speed has only increased since then because now the gravity of our star acts on this body.

Such high speed determined the trajectory, which turned out to be too unusual for objects in the Solar System. Its eccentricity is 6.141. Some may say that eccentricity cannot exceed unity. But this only applies to closed elliptical orbits, which are possessed by all bodies that constantly revolve around the Sun.However, eccentricity is also present in parabolic and hyperbolic trajectories, and the latter includes the orbit followed by 3I/ATLAS. Moreover, its eccentricity is so great that the trajectory resembles a straight line rather than a curve.

The second feature of 3I/ATLAS that caught the attention of scientists is the section of the sky from which the comet came to us. It is located in the constellation Sagittarius, close enough to the center of the Milky Way. At the same time, it has a sufficiently high vertical velocity component relative to the plane of our Galaxy’s disk, meaning that the comet flies through it rather than moving within it all the time.

All this indicates that it originated near a star in the thick disk of the Milky Way. And they, as a rule, belong to the most ancient generations of stars. It was from this that perhaps the most sensational statement about 3I/ATLAS was derived, which is considered scientifically true and recognized by most scientists. This interstellar comet is older than the Sun. Its age is estimated to be between 7.6 and 13 billion years, although there is another estimate that it formed somewhere between 3 and 11 billion years ago.

In addition, throughout July, scientists observed 3I/ATLAS and confirmed that it exhibits normal cometary activity, i.e., it forms a coma and something resembling a tail. This, in turn, allowed them to conduct spectroscopic studies and confirm that it consists mainly of water and contains hydroxyl ions, OH. In addition, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide were found on it, and it seems that their evaporation is responsible for the formation of the comet’s shell.

However, cyanides, oxygen, or complex organic molecules, which are found in comets that constantly revolve around the Sun, have not yet been detected in 3I/ATLAS. Instead, there is a lot of dust, and its particles are quite large, with a diameter of about 1 micron.

There is one interesting fact about 3I/ATLAS related to dust. When archival images from various telescopes were examined, an interstellar comet was found in images taken by the TESS satellite in May of this year. It operates in the infrared range, and its images show that this celestial body, even then, far beyond Jupiter’s orbit, was ejecting matter containing dust.

Finally, scientists were able to calculate the diameter of the comet’s nucleus with some accuracy. In early studies, it was estimated to be between 10 and 20 km. Then, thanks to the Hubble Space Telescope, it was reduced to a range of 0.32 to 5.6 km. But scientists disagree on whether its size is closer to the upper or lower limit. Some studies show that the nucleus is less than a kilometer in diameter, while others show that it is larger.

Aliens

It would be surprising if the appearance of 3I/ATLAS did not spark rumors that it was an alien spacecraft. This idea was expressed on social media almost from the very first days after the discovery, and on July 16, a certain Avi Loeb, a real professor of astrophysics at Harvard University, joined the discussion. He published an article in which he presented several entirely scientific arguments in favor of the idea that it could be an interstellar probe from aliens.

Of course, this sparked a flurry of publications speculating that this was a real alien spacecraft and that we should expect aliens to land in late autumn. Loeb has a rather scandalous reputation in academic circles: he has many high-quality scientific works to his credit, but he often makes overly bold predictions that are mostly unconfirmed.

After such a sensational statement, other scientists rushed to refute the words of Loeb and his colleagues. Their assumptions were mainly based on the fact that the orbit of 3I/ATLAS lies almost in the plane of the ecliptic, so it will pass close enough to several inner planets, which may indicate plans to explore them or even land on them.

In addition, Loeb stated that the object did not exhibit classic cometary activity. He was reasonably told that at the time of his statements, the object was far enough away from us that we could not see any emissions from it. Indeed, 3I/ATLAS subsequently showed quite standard cometary activity.

In addition, scientists pointed out that if it were an extraterrestrial probe, it would be a small metal object that we would see, at best, as it approached Mars’ orbit, but certainly not at a distance greater than 4 AU.

As for the comet’s orbit, although it is close to the ecliptic, it is still inclined at an angle of 5° relative to it, which may well be a coincidence. In general, its passage within the system deserves separate consideration.

Comet flight

Speaking about the possibility that there are aliens on 3I/ATLAS, it is important to note that at the moment of its closest approach to the Sun, Earth will be on the other side of it. Therefore, to approach it, a hypothetical alien spacecraft would have to detach itself from the ice mountain and perform a braking maneuver.

Many of those who like Loeb’s hypothesis says that all the prerequisites are in place because the comet’s trajectory is such that it will approach several large planets at once, and it will be possible to perform a gravitational maneuver near them.

However, let us consider what these approaches will look like. The first object on the path of 3I/ATLAS will be Mars. The comet will approach it at a minimum distance of 29 million kilometers. This is 75 times the average distance from Earth to the Moon. This is somewhat excessive for a gravitational maneuver.

Then, on October 29, 3I/ATLAS will pass through perihelion – the point closest to the Sun. At that time, it will be 1.36 AU away from the Sun. This means that it will be inside the orbit of Mars, but still very far from the orbit of our planet, which at that moment will be on the other side of our star.

Shortly after that, on November 3, the comet will pass at its closest distance to Venus, but that will still be 97 million km away. Earth regularly comes much closer to our neighbor. What gravitational maneuvers can be expected in this case remains unknown.

After that, Earth will appear in front of 3I/ATLAS, which will already be moving away from the Sun. The maximum approach will occur on December 19, and the distance will be 1.8 AU, which means that the interstellar visitor will be much farther away from us than the Sun. Finally, on March 16, 2026, 3I/ATLAS will approach a planet that could give it a nice gravitational maneuver – Jupiter. However, this will happen after it has flown through the entire inner Solar System and will have to turn back and catch up with Earth, which at that time will again be on the opposite side of the Sun from it. And the distance from the gas giant will be 53 million km. Which is quite a lot.

Of course, we can assume that the aliens’ spaceship will detach from it precisely during its approach to Mars, or during its passage through perihelion when we cannot see it. In this case, it will have to slow down by more than 20 km/s.

And even so, this will not help the aliens much, because the trajectory will remain retrograde relative to the direction of the planets’ rotation around the Sun. So, if the aliens who flew to us billions of years ago have a plan that is a little more complicated than becoming kamikaze pilots, they will have to slow down again, spending a lot of energy on it. And the aliens still need to get that energy from somewhere.

So, most likely, we should not expect any extraterrestrial visitors at the end of the year. And we will not be able to admire the interstellar comet itself. By the time it emerges from behind the Sun, its brightness will already be approximately 11 stellar magnitudes, meaning it will be inaccessible even to small amateur instruments, let alone the naked eye.

And it will not be possible to launch a spacecraft to study it up close. Calculations show that to catch up with it, it would have to launch from Earth, and this would be a mission at the limit of our capabilities in terms of accelerating spacecraft. Better yet, it would have to launch from Mars’ orbit.

But scientists continue to study 3I/ATLAS. Now we can be sure that it is not the last one, and in a few years, we can expect the next interstellar visitor. And perhaps by then, we will be able to prepare a device that will take a closer look at it.

• Posted in Articles, Observations

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{ https://universemagazine.com/en/articles-en/ }

14-08-2025 om 20:53 geschreven door peter  

Astronomers recently discovered supernova SN 2023zkd, which was likely the result of a deadly confrontation between a star and a black hole. This discovery was published in the Astrophysical Journal and may change our understanding of how supernovae are born.

Supernova SN 2023zkd was discovered in July 2023 using the Zwicky Transient Facility telescope in California. Artificial intelligence, which analyzes data on stellar explosions on a daily basis, marked it due to its unusual behavior.

“The open supernova had two strange features. First, it seemed to explode twice: first it became brighter, then dimmed, and then flared up again. Secondly, supernovae usually reach their peak brightness in a matter of days or weeks, but in this case, the star gradually became brighter over several years before exploding,” said lead author Alexander Gagliano.

Death dance with a black hole

Researchers suggest that the strange behavior can be explained by the star falling into the gravitational trap of a black hole. Two objects began to approach each other, causing enormous gravitational stress, which led to the premature explosion of the star.

There is another scenario: perhaps the black hole completely tore the star apart before it had a chance to explode on its own. In this case, the stellar debris collided with the gas surrounding the black hole, triggering a flare.

How artificial intelligence helps find anomalies

The LAISS system, which detected SN 2023zkd, analyzes data on the luminosity of supernovae and their galaxies, comparing them with known samples. If something unusual is found, a specially configured bot notifies scientists.

“It’s an incredible instrument for finding rare phenomena,” says Gagliano. Thanks to such technologies, astronomers are discovering more and more exotic cosmic events.

The discovery of SN 2023zkd is just the beginning. Studying such supernovae will help us better understand how stars and black holes interact.

• Earlier, we reported on how one of the largest black holes was discovered.
• According to sciencealert.com

• Posted in News, Science

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{ https://universemagazine.com/en/articles-en/ }

14-08-2025 om 20:32 geschreven door peter  

The Perseverance rover photographed a rock with a very unusual shape. It resembles a weathered medieval helmet.

The image of this unusual formation was taken on August 5, 2025, using the Mastcam-Z instrument. It consists of a pair of cameras mounted on the Perseverance mast. They enable scientists to obtain high-resolution stereo images and study unusual objects, such as this rock covered with spherical formations, from a distance.

The rock has a pointed peak and a pitted, nodular texture, which makes it look like a helmet forged many centuries ago. On Earth, similar nodular textures can form as a result of chemical weathering, mineral precipitation, or even volcanic processes. Perseverance already found a similar rock in March 2025.

It was these spherical formations that intrigued scientists. The rock consists almost entirely of them. Researchers suggest that in some rocks found on Mars, these spherical particles formed when groundwater passed through pores in sedimentary rocks. But they are not sure that all of them were formed in this way.

The Perseverance science team will continue to analyze other rocks in search of answers to this mystery of Martian geology. Studying them will help reconstruct the environmental history of the Red Planet, showing how wind, water, and internal processes have shaped its landscapes over billions of years.

It is also worth noting that the “helmet” is a new addition to the growing collection of strange rocks and formations found on Mars: from a “doorway” to rocks shaped like avocados and ducks. All of these are examples of a phenomenon known as pareidolia. This describes the human brain’s tendency to superimpose familiar images onto random visual data — whether it be a face on the Moon or a Martian sphinx.

• According to Space.com

• Posted in News, Science

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{ https://universemagazine.com/en/articles-en/ }

14-08-2025 om 20:21 geschreven door peter  

De Mysteries van de Bermudadriehoek, UFO’s en Verbindingen met Atlantis

De Bermudadriehoek, ook wel bekend als de “Driehoek van de Verloren Zenders”, is een gebied in de Atlantische Oceaan dat zich uitstrekt tussen Miami, Bermuda en Puerto Rico. Sinds de 20e eeuw hebben talloze verhalen de ronde gedaan over mysterieuze verdwijningen van schepen en vliegtuigen binnen dit gebied. Deze fenomenen hebben de menselijke nieuwsgierigheid gewekt en geleid tot een breed scala aan theorieën, variërend van natuurlijke oorzaken tot bovennatuurlijke en paranormale verklaringen. Recentelijk is ook de connectie met UFO-waarnemingen en de legende van Atlantis in de discussie betrokken, waardoor de mysteries rondom de Bermudadriehoek een complex en intrigerend onderwerp vormen dat wetenschap, mythologie en pseudowetenschap met elkaar verbindt.

De geschiedenis en waarnemingen

De eerste berichten over onverklaarbare incidenten in de Bermudadriehoek dateren uit de 19e eeuw, maar de populariteit nam sterk toe na de publicatie van het artikel “The Deadly Bermuda Triangle” in 1964, en de publicatie van het boek “The Bermuda Triangle” door Charles Berlitz in 1974. Volgens deze bronnen zouden honderden schepen en vliegtuigen binnen dit gebied zijn verdwenen zonder duidelijke oorzaak. De bekendste incidenten omvatten de verdwijning van de USS Cyclops in 1918, de vlucht van Flight 19 in 1945, en de verloren Boeing 777 in 2015.

Wetenschappelijk onderzoek naar deze incidenten heeft echter aangetoond dat veel van de vermeende verdwijningen kunnen worden verklaard door natuurlijke oorzaken. Bijvoorbeeld, snel veranderende weersomstandigheden, onderwaterstromingen, menselijke fouten en technische storingen spelen een significante rol. De regio staat bekend om zijn hete wateren en snel bewegende stormen, wat de navigatie bemoeilijkt. Daarnaast is het gebied een drukke scheepvaartroute, waardoor het statistisch gezien onvermijdelijk is dat er ongevallen plaatsvinden.

Natuurlijke verklaringen en wetenschappelijke benadering

Wetenschappers benadrukken dat de vermeende mysterieuze verdwijningen grotendeels kunnen worden verklaard door natuurlijke factoren en menselijke fouten. Onderwatergeologie toont aan dat de regio gekenmerkt wordt door zogeheten “muren” en “snelstromingen”, die schepen kunnen verrassen en doen kapseizen. Bovendien kunnen onderwatergeulen en riffen scheepswrakken veroorzaken. Ook de aanwezigheid van methaanhydraatgaten, waarbij gas uit de zeebodem vrij komt en het water minder dicht maakt, kan leiden tot plotselinge verzakkingen van schepen.

Wat betreft vliegtuigen, worden storingen vaak toegeschreven aan onvoorspelbare weersomstandigheden, zoals onweersbuien en turbulentie. De menselijke factor speelt eveneens een rol, vooral gezien de hoge verkeersdrukte in het gebied. De combinatie van natuurlijke en menselijke factoren verklaart grotendeels de incidenten, waardoor het idee van een bovennatuurlijk mysterie wordt onderuit gehaald.

UFO’s en buitenaardse theorieën

Naast de natuurlijke verklaring bestaan er theorieën die de rol van UFO’s en buitenaardse wezens in de mysteries van de Bermudadriehoek suggereren. Aanvankelijk werden waarnemingen van onverklaarbare vliegende objecten vaak gerelateerd aan de legendes over buitenaardse bezoeken. Sommige onderzoekers beweren dat de anomalieën in het gebied mogelijk het gevolg zijn van buitenaardse activiteit, zoals het observeren of zelfs het kidnappen van mensen en schepen.

Deze theorieën worden vaak ondersteund door anekdotisch bewijs van getuigen die vreemde lichten en objecten in de lucht hebben gezien. UFO-onderzoekers wijzen op de frequentie van deze waarnemingen in de regio en suggereren dat de anomalieën niet volledig kunnen worden verklaard door natuurlijke oorzaken. Echter, wetenschappelijke consensus blijft sceptisch, omdat er geen concreet bewijs is dat UFO’s daadwerkelijk betrokken zijn bij de verdwij

ningen in de Bermudadriehoek. Desalniettemin blijven deze theorieën populair onder het grote publiek en dragen ze bij aan de mystiek rondom het gebied. Sommige onderzoekers speculeren dat de regio mogelijk een soort portaal of energetisch knooppunt zou kunnen zijn, waar bovennatuurlijke of buitenaardse krachten zich manifesteren. Hoewel deze ideeën fascinerend zijn, ontbreekt het wetenschappelijke bewijs om deze te ondersteunen en blijven ze binnen het domein van pseudowetenschap en speculatie.

De connectie met Atlantis en de mythevorming

Een andere intrigerende dimensie die vaak in verband wordt gebracht met de Bermudadriehoek is de legende van Atlantis. Volgens sommige theorieën zou de ondergang van de mythische beschaving verband kunnen houden met de mysterieuze gebeurtenissen in dit gebied. De veronderstelde verbindingen worden vooral gesuggereerd door de aanwezigheid van onderwaterstructuren en artefacten die mogelijk op het continent Atlantis wijzen.

De mythe van Atlantis, zoals beschreven door de Griekse filosoof Plato, beschrijft een geavanceerde beschaving die onder water zou zijn verdwenen na een catastrofale gebeurtenis. Sommige onderzoekers en pseudowetenschappers geloven dat deze gebeurtenis mogelijk plaatsvond in de buurt van de Bermudadriehoek, en dat de anomalieën en verdwijningen daar verband mee houden. Ze wijzen op onderwaterstructuren die lijken op restanten van oude beschavingen en beweren dat deze bewijzen zouden kunnen zijn voor een verloren stad of continent.

Echter, archeologisch bewijs voor het bestaan van Atlantis is uiterst beperkt en wordt door de meeste wetenschappers als niet overtuigend beschouwd. De connectie tussen Atlantis en de Bermudadriehoek blijft dus grotendeels speculatief en onderdeel van de mythische narratieven die de regio omringen. Niettemin blijft de fascineratie voor een mogelijke onderwater- of ondergrondse lost city een krachtig element in de popularisering van de mysteries van de regio.

Moderne wetenschappelijke inzichten en technologische ontwikkelingen

In de afgelopen decennia hebben technologische vooruitgang en wetenschappelijk onderzoek geleid tot een beter begrip van de fenomenen in de Bermudadriehoek. Satellietbeelden, sonar en diepzeeonderzoeken hebben aangetoond dat veel van de vermeende mysteries verklaarbaar zijn door natuurlijke processen en geologische kenmerken. Bijvoorbeeld, het zogenaamde “Bermuda Triangle Mystery” wordt nu vaak toegeschreven aan een combinatie van menselijke fouten, weersomstandigheden en natuurlijke geologische structuren.

Daarnaast heeft de ontwikkeling van navigatiesystemen zoals GPS en radar de veiligheid van scheepvaart en luchtvaart aanzienlijk verbeterd. Hierdoor is het aantal ongevallen in het gebied afgenomen en wordt de regio niet langer beschouwd als bijzonder gevaarlijk. Wetenschappers benadrukken dat de angst voor het onbekende vaak versterkt wordt door sensationalistische media en pseudo-wetenschappelijke publicaties, en dat een rationele, op bewijs gebaseerde benadering de beste manier is om de mysteries te begrijpen.

De rol van pseudowetenschap en de media

Ondanks de wetenschappelijke verklaringen blijven pseudowetenschappelijke theorieën en sensationele verhalen de publieke verbeelding voeden. Films, boeken en documentaires over de Bermuda Triangle brengen de mythe levend en versterken het idee dat er onverklaarbare krachten in het spel zijn. Sommige auteurs en onderzoekers maken gebruik van de angst en nieuwsgierigheid van mensen om commerciële belangen te dienen, door bijvoorbeeld onverklaarbare gebeurtenissen te dramatiseren of te overdrijven. Deze sensationalistische benaderingen leiden vaak tot een vervorming van de feiten en een verdeling tussen feit en fictie, wat het begrip van de werkelijke oorzaken bemoeilijkt.

De media spelen hierbij een grote rol door het creëren van een sensationeel narratief dat niet altijd overeenkomt met de feiten. Door het benadrukken van mysterieuze en onverklaarbare gebeurtenissen wordt de aandacht van het publiek getrokken, vaak zonder kritische reflectie op de betrouwbaarheid van de bronnen. Sensatiejournalistiek en populaire documentaires laten zelden ruimte voor wetenschappelijke nuance en verklaringen gebaseerd op empirisch bewijs. Hierdoor worden complottheorieën en pseudowetenschappelijke ideeën als plausibele alternatieven gepresenteerd, wat de verwarring en scepsis onder de bevolking versterkt.

Deze tendens heeft geleid tot een cultuur waarin het mysterieuze en het onverklaarbare aantrekkelijker lijken dan de wetenschappelijke verklaringen. Het bevordert een wereldbeeld waarin de Bermuda Triangle niet slechts een gebied is waar natuurlijke en technische oorzaken kunnen worden gevonden, maar een plek vol verborgen krachten en buitenaardse invloeden. Dit versterkt de mythe en maakt het moeilijk voor het publiek om onderscheid te maken tussen feit en fictie. Het gevaar hiervan is dat het geloof in pseudowetenschap en complottheorieën kan leiden tot desinformatie en het ondermijnen van wetenschappelijke kennis.

Het is daarom essentieel dat wetenschappers en journalisten samenwerken om correcte informatie te verspreiden en kritisch denken te stimuleren. Educatie over de wetenschappelijke methode en het belang van bewijs kan helpen om de invloed van sensationele verhalen te beperken. Door transparant te zijn over de beperkingen en onzekerheden binnen de wetenschap, kunnen we het vertrouwen in empirisch onderzoek behouden en voorkomen dat pseudowetenschap een dominante rol krijgt in de publieke perceptie. Alleen door kritisch te blijven en bewust te zijn van de rol die media en pseudowetenschap spelen, kunnen we een meer geïnformeerde en realistische kijk op de mysteries van de Bermuda Driehoek en gerelateerde onderwerpen ontwikkelen.

BESLUIT

De verkenning van de mysteries rondom de Bermudadriehoek, UFO-waarnemingen en de mogelijke connecties met de legendarische beschaving van Atlantis biedt een fascinerend inzicht in de complexiteit en het mysterie dat deze onderwerpen omringt. Hoewel veel van de verhalen en theorieën aanvankelijk op speculatie en anekdotisch bewijs leunen, ontstaat er door grondig onderzoek en kritische analyse een genuanceerder beeld. De Bermudadriehoek wordt vaak geassocieerd met mysterieuze verdwijningen van schepen en vliegtuigen, maar wetenschappelijke verklaringen zoals weersomstandigheden, menselijke fouten en elektromagnetische fenomenen bieden vaak voldoende uitleg. Toch blijven er vragen bestaan die niet volledig beantwoord kunnen worden, wat bijdraagt aan de aura van mysterie.

Wat UFO’s betreft, tonen de vele waarnemingen en rapportages dat deze verschijnselen de verbeelding blijven prikkelen en vaak aanleiding geven tot speculaties over buitenaardse betrokkenheid. Hoewel er geen definitief bewijs is voor buitenaardse visitaties, blijven deze fenomenen een interessant onderzoeksgebied dat onze perceptie van de werkelijkheid uitdaagt.

De mogelijke verbindingen met Atlantis voegen een extra dimensie toe aan de discussie. Atlantis fungeert als symbool voor een geavanceerde beschaving die mogelijk verbonden is met onderwater- en aardse mysteries. Sommige theorieën suggereren dat de kennis en technologie van Atlantis een rol kunnen spelen bij de verklaringen voor de onverklaarbare verschijnselen in de Bermudadriehoek en de UFO-waarnemingen.

Kortom, de dissertatie benadrukt dat hoewel veel mysteries onopgelost blijven, het belang ligt in het blijven onderzoeken en kritisch evalueren van de beschikbare bewijzen. Het zoeken naar antwoorden op deze intrigerende vragen stimuleert niet alleen onze nieuwsgierigheid, maar draagt ook bij aan een dieper begrip van de wereld en haar verborgen geheimen. De mysteries rondom de Bermudadriehoek, UFO’s en Atlantis blijven een bron van inspiratie en onderzoek, en wellicht ligt de sleutel tot hun oplossing in de combinatie van wetenschap, openheid en creatieve verbeelding.

{ PETER2011 }

14-08-2025 om 01:47 geschreven door peter  

Mysterious Object Spotted In MA Skies Tuesday Night: Here's What It Was

Sightings of a mysterious object in the sky were reported across much of the East Coast and Midwest around 9 p.m. Tuesday.

 Joseph Hosey,Patch Staff

Massachusetts residents who looked up at the night sky late Tuesday might've seen something that sent them into an X-Files-esque spiral of curiosity: a bizarrely lit-up shape, almost like a bright cloud, shimmering across the sky in unmistakable UFO fashion.

And while it wasn't an alien craft or even an unidentified flying object, it was indeed a partially classified government operation.

The strange light and shapes seen were the Vulcan rocket, launched by United Launch Alliance in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on behalf of the U.S. Space Force.

It was no routine rocket launch: It marked the first "national security"-related launch of materials by the powerful Vulcan rocket into orbit, officials said.

The specifics of the rocket's payload are classified and were not disclosed by Space Force, but officials said it included an experimental military navigation satellite along with other items, and that they were successfully put in orbit around the Earth.

The rocket was launched at 8:56 p.m., and reports of sightings came in from across much of the eastern United States and the Midwest shortly thereafter.

See also: Lawrence Fire Displaces 40 Residents, Damages 5 Buildings

He continued, "This launch begins a new era in national space security.”

The rocket traveled seven hours and covered some 22,000 miles to complete its mission, officials said.

The sighting was made even more brilliant for some by the timing of it, which coincided with some of the Perseid meteor showers.

Here's a glance at what some Massachusetts residents may have seen:

🍥The surreal spiral in the night sky from Quebec to Wisconsin? No, it's not a #UFO or #perseids - it’s likely the plume or upper stage from a Vulcan or or Ariane 6 rocket caught during the #perseidmeteorshower. pic.twitter.com/gX8ATJInlT
— OrbitalToday.com (@SpaceBiz1) August 13, 2025.

“Vulcan is a catalyst to supporting national defense in the strategic warfighting domain of space,” Tory Bruno, United Launch Alliance's president and CEO, said in a statement. “Vulcan is the world’s most capable, high-energy orbit rocket meeting the demand for expanding space competencies.

Vulcan provides flexibility to our nation’s decision makers as we combat our adversaries' attempts to disrupt the U.S. in space operations.

He continued, "This launch begins a new era in national space security.”

The rocket traveled seven hours and covered some 22,000 miles to complete its mission, officials said.

{ https://patch.com/ }

14-08-2025 om 00:53 geschreven door peter  

Why Are Pyramids Everywhere? A Global Pattern or Universal Logic?

Pyramids have captivated human imagination for centuries, appearing in a broad spectrum of cultures across every continent—Egypt, Mesoamerica, Mesopotamia, Africa, Asia, and regions where direct contact between civilizations seems unlikely. Their widespread occurrence prompts profound questions about their origins, functions, and possible underlying principles. Are these structures coincidental, products of convergent evolution driven by similar practical needs, or do they hint at a deeper, perhaps lost, global connection? This comprehensive analysis aims to explore the phenomenon of pyramids worldwide, examining their origins, cultural significance, and the potential universal architectural logic that underpins their recurrence.

Why are pyramids everywhere? In the Egyptian desert, the pyramids stand still under a shifting sky. Their limestone blocks, weathered and pale, still hold their lines after more than four thousand years. The shape is deliberate: wide at the base, narrowing as it climbs, ending in a point that once caught the sun.

Half a world away, the jungle presses against broken stone. In Guatemala, temple steps rise above the trees, stacked high by Maya masons who built for ceremony, not burial. Their pyramids were climbed, not sealed. The shape is familiar, but the meaning was different.

The most well-known of these is the tomb of Qin Shi Huang, which remains sealed beneath a massive earthen pyramid surrounded by a buried army of terracotta soldiers.

These structures have no shared blueprint. Their builders never met, never traded, never wrote of one another. They spoke different languages and worshipped different gods. Still, the shape repeats. From the Andes to the Nile, from the Sahara to the Yangtze, the pyramid keeps showing up, always rising, always reaching.

The Ubiquity of Pyramids: A Global Phenomenon

Architectural forms resembling pyramids have been discovered on every inhabited continent, underscoring their status as a truly global phenomenon. The Egyptian pyramids, especially the Great Pyramid of Giza, dating back to approximately 2580–2560 BCE, are among the most iconic symbols of ancient architecture. Meanwhile, civilizations in Mesoamerica, including the Maya and Aztecs, constructed step pyramids such as El Castillo at Chichen Itza and the Templo Mayor, serving religious and ceremonial purposes. In Africa, the Nubian pyramids of Sudan, built between circa 800 BCE and 1500 CE, feature steep-sided structures that differ from their Egyptian counterparts but share the pyramidal form. Southeast Asia boasts structures like Borobudur in Indonesia, a massive stepped pyramid that functions as a Buddhist pilgrimage site, while the ancient Mesopotamians built ziggurats—terraced platforms with pyramidal outlines serving as temples. Even in China, the mausoleum of Emperor Jing of Han exhibits pyramidal features.

This extensive distribution raises critical questions: Is this mere coincidence, or does it reflect some universal principle or shared human instinct? The widespread nature of pyramids across cultures and epochs suggests an underlying pattern that warrants scientific and cultural inquiry.

The shape that touches the sky

The pyramid is not just a symbol. It’s a shape grounded in physics and built from the simplest logic of weight and balance. A wide base. Sloping sides. As the structure rises, it narrows. That design doesn’t happen by accident. When you stack stone or mudbrick and let gravity do the rest, the most reliable shape you get is a pyramid. The weight holds itself together. It pushes down, not out. And because of that, pyramids can stand for thousands of years without columns or internal framing. They’re not easy to build, but we are told and reassured by mainstream experts that they don’t require complex tools, just labor, patience, and a plan.

In Egypt, the earliest pyramid-like structures are believed to have begun as mastabas: rectangular tombs with flat tops and sloped sides. Around 2600 BCE, that changed. Djoser, a king of Egypt’s Third Dynasty, commissioned his architect, Imhotep, to stack mastabas into tiers. That experiment became the Step Pyramid at Saqqara, the first pyramid in Egypt. Later builders and architects are believed to have refined the idea, smoothing the angles and expanding the scale. By the time of Khufu, the shape had reached its peak: the Great Pyramid at Giza, aligned almost perfectly to the cardinal points, built from more than two million blocks of stone.

Some of those blocks are still difficult to explain. The core limestone came from quarries nearby, but the smooth outer casing, now mostly gone, came from Tura, across the river. The granite beams above the King’s Chamber, some weighing more than 50 tons, were transported from Aswan, over 800 kilometers to the south. No records explain how they were moved. Ramps are the leading theory, but no ramp system found so far fully accounts for the scale, precision, and elevation involved. For all the study and excavation, the logistics behind the Great Pyramid remain one of archaeology’s most persistent puzzles. And one of my favorite mysteries about the pyramids.

In Central America, the pyramid took on a different role. The Maya, Aztec, and earlier cultures like the Olmec built stepped pyramids not as tombs but as stages. These were sites of ceremony, processions, and offerings to the gods. Temples sat at the top. Staircases ran down the middle. Unlike the sealed pyramids of Egypt, these were designed to be climbed. Many were built over earlier structures, layer by layer, as each new ruler added their mark to the past. One of the largest pyramids on Earth is located in North America, in the city of Puebla. It is called the Great Pyramid of Cholula.

Back to Africa and Egypt. To the south of Egypt, in what is now Sudan, the Nubian pyramids rose after Egypt’s golden age had faded. The Kingdom of Kush built hundreds of small, narrow pyramids in the desert near Meroë and Napata. They were sharper in angle, often just 6 to 30 meters tall, but their purpose was similar, to honor and bury kings, queens, and elites. They reflected Egypt’s influence, but with distinct local style.

In China, the shape appears again. The burial mound of Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor to unite China, was built in the 3rd century BCE and shaped like a low, flat pyramid. It’s still sealed. Remote sensing suggests a vast complex beneath the soil, rivers of mercury, miniature palaces, walls — but the tomb itself remains untouched. Other imperial mausoleums in the region follow the same form: wide at the base, rising to a flat point, then covered in earth and left to blend into the hills.

A rare view of the summit of the Great Pyramid of Giza.

Coincidence or Convergent Evolution?

The question of whether pyramids are the result of coincidence or convergent evolution is central to understanding their ubiquity. Coincidence implies that different cultures independently arrived at similar architectural solutions due to common needs or constraints. Convergent evolution in architecture suggests that similar forms develop independently in response to analogous environmental factors, societal functions, or symbolic needs.

Several factors strongly support the idea of convergent evolution:

• Practicality and Structural Stability: Pyramids are inherently stable structures. Their broad bases and tapering apex facilitate weight distribution and resistance to environmental stressors such as earthquakes and erosion. This stability makes them ideal for tombs, religious temples, or ceremonial platforms—functions that require durability.

• Resource Availability: The materials used for pyramid construction—stone, mud brick—were accessible in numerous regions. For example, limestone in Egypt, volcanic stone in Mesoamerica, and mud bricks in Mesopotamia were locally abundant, enabling the independent development of pyramid structures.

• Symbolic Significance: The pyramid shape often symbolizes a connection between earth and the divine, with the apex representing the heavens or spiritual ascent. Such symbolism appears to be universally appealing, possibly rooted in innate human cognition or shared spiritual concepts.

• Functional Utility: Pyramids serve similar societal functions across cultures—marking tombs, serving as temples, or acting as territorial symbols. Their monumental nature elevates their societal importance, which may naturally lead to the adoption of similar forms.

The convergence of these factors suggests that the recurrence of pyramids can largely be explained by convergent evolution driven by shared environmental constraints, resource availability, and symbolic universals rather than direct contact or shared origins across civilizations.

Independent invention or shared idea?

As much as some would like to believe otherwise, there’s no evidence that ancient Egypt and the civilizations of the Americas ever made contact. The oceans were too wide, the timelines too far apart. They didn’t share a language, trade goods, or leave behind anything that connects them. And yet, both built pyramids. Large, angular, enduring. The resemblance has confused and intrigued scholars for over a century. It still does. But most experts agree: it’s coincidence.

Archaeologists call it convergent design. The pyramid solves practical problems. If you’re stacking stone or mudbrick and want the structure to last, gravity does most of the planning for you. Build up, and the shape naturally tapers. It’s stable. It’s strong. And if the base is wide enough, it will stand for a very long time. Just look at the pyramids in Egypt.

The pyramid is what happens when you stack stone long enough, said one archaeologist when I was living in Mexico (Yup, I lived there for over 15 years). He argued that it is the most efficient way to build tall without needing much engineering.

That’s true in theory maybe. The shape is efficient. But in practice, building a pyramid wasn’t easy. It took organization, manpower, and long-term planning. Moving heavy stone, lifting it into place, and keeping the structure aligned over dozens of vertical meters demanded far more than instinct. So we have to remember that these weren’t casual constructions. Some pyramids, like for example Cholula, took several generations to build.

And also, practicality wasn’t the only reason pyramids were built, either. In many places, height carried symbolic weight. Mountains were often seen as sacred, places where gods lived or where the living could reach toward the sky. By building upward, people recreated that connection. A pyramid placed the dead, the divine, or the ceremonial high above the ground. That elevation wasn’t just by chance or just because a king back in the day wanted something pointy.

The shape also served power. A pyramid stands out. It can be seen from far away. It doesn’t need decoration to feel important. It can be built over time, layer by layer, each generation adding to the one before (just like cholula). It doesn’t crack or lean, well at least not if it was built right. For rulers who wanted to mark the land, or be remembered long after they were gone, it was a shape that worked.

Cultural and Religious Significance

Despite their similar forms, pyramids often have distinct cultural meanings. Egyptian pyramids are primarily designed as royal tombs, facilitating the pharaoh’s journey to the afterlife. Mesoamerican pyramids, such as those at Chichen Itza, served as temples for religious rituals and sacrifices. Ziggurats in Mesopotamia functioned as terraced platforms dedicated to gods, reflecting a different religious worldview. In Nubia, the pyramids served as tombs for kings and queens, emphasizing their role in funerary practices. In Asia, structures like Borobudur symbolize spiritual enlightenment and the journey toward nirvana. While the architectural form remains similar—a stepped or smooth-sided pyramid—their purposes are deeply embedded in specific cultural, religious, and societal contexts.

This diversity underscores an important point: although the shape of pyramids appears across cultures, their symbolic meanings are often context-dependent. Nonetheless, the recurring use of a pyramid shape in sacred and funerary architecture suggests a shared human tendency to use monumental forms to mark significance, transcendence, and the divine. This universality in symbolic gesture might be rooted in innate cognitive patterns, such as the human tendency to recognize and emulate hierarchical, ascending forms as expressions of spiritual or societal hierarchy.

The Universal Architectural Logic Given the widespread occurrence and similar structural features, it is worth exploring whether there exists a universal architectural logic underlying pyramid construction. Several scientific and geometrical principles support this idea:

Geometric Efficiency and Structural Stability: The pyramid’s shape distributes weight evenly downward, minimizing stress on the structure and enabling it to reach impressive heights without complex support systems. The broad base provides stability, while the tapering apex reduces material use and enhances strength.

Material Optimization: The pyramid form allows builders to use locally available materials efficiently, stacking stones or bricks in a way that maximizes the strength-to-weight ratio. This principle of material efficiency is consistent with engineering practices observed across various civilizations.

Environmental Adaptation: Pyramids are well-suited to diverse climates and geographies. Their shape offers resistance to weathering and erosion, and their thermal properties—such as the ability to maintain stable internal temperatures—are advantageous in hot, dry environments.

Symbolic Geometry: The pyramid’s shape can be associated with fundamental geometric principles, such as the concept of the monumental triangle, which is aesthetically and symbolically powerful. The pyramid’s form can be linked to the idea of a mountain—a universal symbol of stability, permanence, and spiritual ascent.

Cognitive and Cultural Universals Research in cognitive science and anthropology suggests that humans have innate tendencies toward certain geometric forms and symbolic representations. For instance, studies indicate that humans across cultures tend to attribute sacredness to pyramidal shapes, possibly because they resemble natural features like mountains or celestial bodies. The universality of such forms could be rooted in shared neurocognitive mechanisms, such as pattern recognition, hierarchical structuring, and the human tendency to associate upward movement with spiritual elevation.

Moreover, the pyramid’s form facilitates ritualistic functions. Its geometric simplicity and visual prominence make it an effective focal point for collective ceremonies and social cohesion. This aligns with theories of cognitive archetypes—universal symbols embedded in the human psyche, as proposed by Carl Jung and others—where certain shapes and motifs recur across different cultures because they resonate with deep-seated psychological patterns.

A pattern across continents

Each region built its own kind of pyramid, shaped by the materials they had, the way their societies worked, and what they believed. In Egypt, mainstream experts maintain that the pyramids were tombs (I kind of disagree). In Mesoamerica, they were said to have been used as temples. In China, they sealed emperors underground. In Sudan, they marked the graves of royalty. The designs varied, but the basic form stayed the same, wide at the base, rising to a point.

In Egypt, pyramid construction reached its height during the Old Kingdom. As political power and resources declined, it is believed that the building slowed and eventually stopped. In Mesoamerica, the tradition lasted much longer. The Maya were still building pyramids into the 15th century, often adding new layers on top of older ones. In Sudan, the Napatan and Meroitic kingdoms revived the form long after Egypt had moved on. Their pyramids were smaller and steeper, but just as symbolic.

The Chinese pyramids are harder to spot. Most are covered in earth and blend into the landscape. The largest belongs to Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of a unified China. His tomb has never been opened, but surveys suggest there’s a vast underground complex beneath it, palaces, walls, and rivers made of mercury.

Why the pyramid worked

If you asked me to reply logically, I would probably say that a pyramid holds its own weight. That’s the simplest reason it shows up in so many ancient cultures. The wider the base, the more weight it can carry above. When people were building with stone, without mortar or steel, this mattered. You could stack layer after layer, and the shape would stay intact. It didn’t need columns or supports. It stayed up because of the way it was built.
The question remains, however, how some of the supermassive stones were transported in ancient Egyp, and stacked to the height the stones were stacked. But then again…The structure wasn’t the only reason. Height made a difference. A pyramid could rise above everything around it. In open landscapes, it became a fixed point on the horizon. For rulers, that visibility meant power. It gave their cities a center. It reminded people who was buried there, or who held the land.

In many places, height also carried spiritual meaning. Mountains were seen as sacred. They stood between the world of people and the world of gods. By building upward, ancient cultures brought that idea into daily life. A pyramid wasn’t a mountain, but it borrowed the shape. It gave form to beliefs that were otherwise invisible.

There are other ideas, too. Some people believe that different pyramid-building cultures inherited the design from a lost civilization. Others say there was contact between continents long before recorded history. A few suggest more unusual explanations. Archaeologists don’t accept these theories, because they aren’t supported by evidence. But their persistence shows how much mystery the pyramid still holds. For something made of stone, it remains hard to pin down.

The Role of Contact and Cultural Diffusion in the Development of Pyramid Structures: A Comparative and Scientific Perspective

The emergence of pyramid-shaped structures across different ancient civilizations has long intrigued scholars, prompting debates about whether these architectural feats resulted from independent innovation (convergent evolution) or through intercultural contact facilitating the dissemination of ideas. While convergent evolution offers a compelling explanation—highlighting how similar environmental and societal pressures can lead to analogous architectures—consideration of trade routes, technological exchange, and archaeological evidence suggests that cultural diffusion may have played a significant role in some instances.

Historical trade networks such as the Silk Road, which connected East Asia with Central Asia and the Middle East, and maritime routes in the Indian Ocean, facilitated not only the exchange of goods but also the transmission of technological knowledge and architectural concepts. For example, the spread of Buddhist stupas across Asia and Southeast Asia demonstrates how religious and cultural ideas traveled along these networks, potentially influencing local architectural styles, including pyramid-like structures. Maritime exploration and trade might have similarly enabled the transfer of construction techniques, stone-working methods, and symbolic motifs associated with pyramids, thereby fostering their adoption or adaptation in distant regions.

Nevertheless, the considerable temporal and geographic disparities among pyramid-building civilizations suggest that many of these structures arose independently rather than through direct influence. The Egyptian pyramids, notably the Pyramid of Khufu at Giza, date to the 26th century BCE, significantly predating Mesoamerican pyramids such as the Pyramid of Kukulcán at Chichen Itza, which was constructed around the 12th century CE. Furthermore, Chinese and Southeast Asian civilizations developed their own pyramid-like edifices—such as the Chinese burial mounds (tombs) from the Han Dynasty and the stepped pyramids of Southeast Asia—without definitive archaeological evidence linking these structures to external influences. These patterns support the hypothesis that environmental factors, societal organization, religious beliefs, and technological capabilities independently led to the emergence of pyramids across different regions.

One of the most curious ancient Egyptian megastructures – the Bent Pyramid.

Credit: Yann Arthus-Bertrand

Modern archaeological and engineering studies have shed light on the complexity of pyramid construction and the advanced knowledge systems employed. For instance, the Great Pyramid of Giza exemplifies precise astronomical alignment, with its sides oriented almost perfectly along the cardinal points, indicating sophisticated understanding of geometry and celestial phenomena. Analysis of the core and casing stones reveals advanced quarrying and transportation techniques, reflecting complex logistical organization. Similarly, in Mesoamerica, the construction of pyramids involved specific astronomical alignments and ritual significance, emphasizing the role of cultural symbolism alongside engineering prowess.

Contemporary scientific methods, such as radiocarbon dating, remote sensing, and material analysis, continue to refine our understanding of these structures' origins and development. These techniques often reveal independent timelines and technological innovations, reinforcing the notion of independent evolution. Moreover, digital reconstructions and structural analyses demonstrate how different civilizations tackled common architectural challenges—such as stability, durability, and symbolic representation—using locally available materials and indigenous engineering techniques.

In conclusion, while intercultural contact and trade networks undoubtedly facilitated the exchange of ideas and techniques, the independent emergence of pyramid structures in diverse civilizations appears to be primarily driven by convergent evolution—where similar environmental and societal pressures fostered analogous architectural solutions. The integration of archaeological evidence, scientific analyses, and historical context underscores the multifaceted nature of pyramid development, highlighting humanity’s universal tendencies to seek monumental expression of cultural, religious, and societal values through similar architectural forms across different regions and epochs.

CONCLUSION

The widespread presence of pyramids across various cultures and regions suggests a fascinating phenomenon: are pyramids a manifestation of a global pattern or do they emerge from a universal logic rooted in human psychology and environmental factors? To understand this, it is essential to consider both the cultural significance and the structural advantages of pyramids.

Historically, pyramids appear independently in diverse civilizations, from ancient Egypt and Mesoamerica to Mesopotamia and China. This parallel development indicates that pyramids are not simply cultural exports but rather a recurring solution to comparable societal needs and environmental challenges. The pyramid's shape symbolizes stability and durability—an enduring monument that withstands the test of time. Its broad base provides a sturdy foundation, while the tapering apex signifies ascent and spiritual elevation, often reflecting religious or cosmological beliefs.

From a practical perspective, the pyramid's geometric structure offers remarkable stability, making it suitable for monumental construction. Its inclined sides effectively distribute weight, reducing the risk of collapse, which was crucial in ancient engineering. Additionally, pyramids served as tombs or sacred sites, emphasizing their role as physical embodiments of spiritual beliefs and social hierarchy. Their prominent visibility also reinforced political power and religious authority, serving as symbols of divine legitimacy.

Culturally, the universal human tendency to seek immortality and to honor the dead may underpin the pyramid form. Many pyramids functioned as elaborate tombs or spiritual gateways, connecting the earthly realm with the divine. This shared human inclination to create enduring monuments to the dead and to express cosmological ideas suggests a universal logic rooted in human psychology.

Furthermore, environmental factors influenced pyramid design. In regions with abundant stone resources, such as Egypt and Central America, the material dictated the construction style. The pyramid's form was adaptable to local conditions, reinforcing the idea that its prevalence is driven by both cultural symbolism and practical considerations.

In conclusion, the widespread occurrence of pyramids across civilizations reflects a blend of universal human aspirations, psychological needs, and environmental influences. While cultural nuances shape specific interpretations, the underlying logic—stability, spirituality, and social cohesion—appears to be a common thread. This pattern underscores the universality of human creativity and the shared quest to leave a lasting legacy, making pyramids a compelling symbol of our collective history and aspirations

{ peter2011 }

13-08-2025 om 17:42 geschreven door peter  

Scientists have created a specialized AI assistant that will help in the study of Earth and other planets. It is capable of receiving data from geophysical instruments and using it to construct graphs and make assumptions. At the same time, requests can be made to it in normal human language.

AI for scientists

The new generation of AI has long sparked debate about whether it can really help people acquire new knowledge, or whether it is simply capable of stringing letters together to form words. But it seems that researchers at the University of Hawaii at Manoa have the answer to this question.

They created the Intelligent Data Exploring Assistant (IDEA) software platform, which combines the functionality of large language models such as ChatGPT with the capabilities of specialized neural networks designed to analyze large scientific data sets. 

Based on IDEA, it is possible to create a variety of assistant instruments capable of understanding questions in plain language, analyzing queries based on data sets from various measuring devices, and generating graphs and assumptions that will provide scientifically agreed answers to scientists’ questions.

Earth and beyond

First and foremost, the platform is designed for studying Earth as a planet. Based on IDEA, scientists were able to create a prototype of the Station Explorer Assistant (SEA) and applied it to analyze data from tide gauges — instruments that measure sea level with high accuracy. Usually, special programs need to be written to process data from them, but the new AI has already demonstrated its ability to provide answers without this.

Researchers say that it is not perfect, still makes mistakes, and its work needs to be carefully monitored. But it still makes the work of scientists much easier. And this applies not only to oceanographic data.

Although SEA focuses on sea level data, the basic structure of IDEA is designed to work across a wide range of geological scientific disciplines. In one example from the study, researchers applied IDEA to atmospheric data from Mars — an area they had never worked with before — and were surprised at how easily the assistant adapted to the new dataset with only a change in instructions and data sources.

Although SEA is still a prototype, it is available online for scientists or university students to test and try out. Developers are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the IDEA framework on GitHub and experiment with adapting it to their own data or using other large language modeling services.

• According to phys.org

• Posted in News, Tech

{ https://universemagazine.com/en/articles-en/ }

13-08-2025 om 15:55 geschreven door peter  

Scientists are pondering the nature of 300 mysterious objects that the James Webb Space Telescope has spotted in the depths of space. Most likely, these are incredibly bright young galaxies, but this assumption still needs to be verified.

Mysterious objects in James Webb’s images

Scientists from the University of Missouri are discussing whether the bright objects recorded in large numbers by the James Webb Space Telescope could be distant but bright galaxies, or something else.

In the first few years of operation, the new space observatory saw many more objects than any telescope. This led to a problem with sorting all the objects it discovered. Initially, 300 of them simply could not be classified.

“These mysterious objects are candidate galaxies in the early universe, meaning they could be very early galaxies,” said Haojing Yan, a professor of astronomy at the College of Arts and Sciences at Mizzou and co-author of the study. “If even a few of these objects turn out to be what we think they are, our discovery could challenge current ideas about how galaxies formed in the early universe—the period when the first stars and galaxies began to take shape.”

But identifying objects in space does not happen instantly. This requires a careful, step-by-step process to confirm their nature, combining advanced technology, detailed analysis, and several space detective investigations.

Step 1: Identifying the first clues

Mizzou’s researchers used two powerful infrared cameras on the JWST: the Near Infrared Camera and the Mid-Infrared Instrument. Both devices are specially designed to detect light from the most distant corners of space, which is key to studying the early Universe.

Why infrared? Because the farther away an object is, the longer its light travels to reach us. As light from these early galaxies travels through space, it stretches into longer wavelengths — shifting from visible light to infrared. This stretching is called redshift, and it helps us determine how far away these galaxies are. The higher the redshift, the farther the galaxy is from Earth, and the closer it is to the beginning of the Universe.

Step 2: “ The dropout”

To identify each of the 300 candidates for early galaxies, researchers at Mizzou used a well-known method called the “dropout” technique.

This method detects galaxies with high redshifts by examining objects that appear in redder wavelengths but disappear in bluer ones — a sign that their light has traveled vast distances and time. This phenomenon is an indicator of the “Lyman Break” — a spectral feature caused by the absorption of ultraviolet light by neutral hydrogen. As the redshift increases, this signal shifts toward redder wavelengths.

Step 3: Estimating the details

Once the “dropout” technique identifies each of the galaxy candidates, the next step is to check whether they could be at very high redshifts, Yan said. 

“Ideally this would be done using spectroscopy, a technique that spreads light across different wavelengths to identify signatures that would allow an accurate redshift determination,” he said.

However, when complete spectroscopic data are not available, researchers can use a technique called spectral energy distribution fitting. This method provided Sun and Yan with a basis for evaluating the redshifts of their candidate galaxies, as well as other properties such as age and mass.

In the past, scientists commonly believed that these extremely bright objects were not early galaxies, but rather something that mimicked them. However, based on their achievements, Sun and Yan believe that these objects deserve closer attention and should not be dismissed so quickly.

Step 4: Final answer

The final test will use spectroscopy — the gold standard — to confirm the team’s findings. 

Spectroscopy separates light into different wavelengths, just as a prism separates light into a rainbow of colors. Scientists use this technique to detect the unique fingerprint of a galaxy, which can tell them how old the galaxy is, its formation and composition.

“One of our objects is already confirmed by spectroscopy to be an early galaxy,” Sun said. “But this object alone is not enough. We will need to make additional confirmations to say for certain whether current theories are being challenged.”

• According to phys.org

• Posted in News, Science

{ https://universemagazine.com/en/articles-en/ }

13-08-2025 om 15:43 geschreven door peter  

Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy have obtained a detailed image of an object resembling the Eye of Sauron from “The Lord of the Rings.” The shot helped reveal its long-held secret.

The object captured in the photo is known as PKS 1424+240. It is located billions of light years from Earth and is a blazar — a galaxy with a supermassive black hole at its center that actively absorbs matter. The jet it produces is directed toward us, which makes it appear much brighter than usual.

PKS 1424+240 has long puzzled astronomers. It stands out as the brightest of the known blazars emitting neutrinos, and is also a source of very high-energy gamma rays. However, strangely enough, its radio jet moves slowly, which contradicts models according to which only very fast jets can be the source of such powerful radiation.

Now, thanks to 15 years of super-precise radio astronomical observations using the VLBA radio telescope, researchers have been able to create a detailed image of this jet with unprecedented resolution. It showed an almost perfect toroidal magnetic field with a jet directed straight at us.

Since the jet is directed almost exactly toward Earth, its high-energy radiation is significantly amplified by the effects of special relativity. This alignment results in a brightness increase of 30 times or more. At the same time, the jet appears to move slowly due to projection effects — a classic optical illusion. 

This geometry allowed scientists to look directly into the heart of the blazar jet — an extremely rare opportunity. Polarized radio signals helped the team map the structure of the jet’s magnetic field, revealing its probable spiral or toroidal shape. This structure plays a key role in launching and collimating the plasma flow and may be necessary for accelerating particles to extreme energies. 

According to scientists, solving this mystery confirms that active galactic nuclei with supermassive black holes are not only powerful accelerators of electrons, but also protons — sources of the observed high-energy neutrinos.

This discovery is a triumph for the MOJAVE program, under which VLBA has been monitoring relativistic jets in active galaxies for decades. Scientists use very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) technology, which connects radio telescopes around the world to form a virtual telescope the size of the Earth. This provides the highest resolution available in astronomy, allowing us to study the smallest details of distant cosmic jets.

• Earlier, we reported on how astronomers found one of the largest known black holes, whose mass is 36 billion times greater than that of the sun.
• According to Phys.org

• Posted in News, Science

{ https://universemagazine.com/en/articles-en/ }

13-08-2025 om 15:34 geschreven door peter  

“Never Get Into a War With the Greys”: Whitley Strieber’s Cautionary Encounter

Whitley Strieber, well-known for his decades of writings and testimony on alleged alien contact, has shared many strange and often unsettling experiences. In a conversation featured in DEBRIEFED Episode 36, Strieber recounted a brief but remarkable meeting with a mysterious figure he identified as a “Nordic.”

This encounter was notable not only because the being appeared distinctly non-human, but also for a warning he gave — a statement that continues to echo in UFO discussions:

“Never get into a war with the Greys, because they’ll never let you win, and they will never let you stop fighting.”

Who Are the “Greys”?

In UFO lore, the Greys are among the most frequently reported alien types. Typically described as small, humanoid beings with large heads and dark eyes, they are often linked to abduction accounts and alleged medical or technological experiments. Some reports describe “tall Greys” or “tall whites” as mature versions of the smaller beings.

Strieber says his own experiences involve different forms of Greys, along with human-looking individuals and other entities — but the warning from the Nordic suggested a far more complex and possibly dangerous relationship between humans and these beings.

The Nordic Encounter

Strieber recalls meeting the Nordic under circumstances involving individuals connected to the U.S. Department of Defense. The man appeared around 6’7” tall, with blond hair and green eyes, looking more human than many Nordic descriptions in UFO literature. He introduced himself by saying, “I am not of you.”

Afterward, a defense contact explained to Strieber that this being was what they called a “Nordic.” When asked where such beings might originate, the reply was telling: “In that direction, we believe” — referring to the Pleiades star cluster.

Why the Warning Matters

The Nordic’s message about never engaging in war with the Greys suggests that such a conflict would be unwinnable and perpetual. This implies either an overwhelming technological superiority or a style of warfare so persistent and unconventional that humans could not hope to end it on their own terms.

Strieber noted that when he hears of modern military encounters with unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), he remembers this warning and wonders if today’s decision-makers are unaware of the potential consequences.

Broader Implications

The conversation also touched on the possibility of government or shadow-government programs working alongside extraterrestrials — whether Nordics, Greys, or other types. Strieber referenced discussions with the U.S. Senate Select Intelligence Committee in the past, and the idea of “black budget” projects funding secret facilities unknown even to official Pentagon records.

If such covert collaborations exist, they may already involve managing relationships — peaceful or otherwise — with non-human intelligences.

Whether one interprets Strieber’s account as literal truth, allegory, or speculative fiction, the cautionary phrase “Never get into a war with the Greys” is a stark reminder of how little humanity might understand about potential alien civilizations. If contact ever becomes public and undeniable, history could show that the greatest danger was not in making first contact — but in how we chose to respond afterward.

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

13-08-2025 om 15:15 geschreven door peter  

A mysterious black cube has joined the chilling list of objects spotted hovering over the US during last year's drone invasion. 

Newly released government reports have revealed five incidents near Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio that have never been disclosed since the swarms of UFOs were seen along the East Coast in late 2024.

Along with several sightings of unidentified drones around the secretive Air Force base in December 2024, federal officials now say a 'black cube'-shaped craft was spotted by a nearby airplane less than 80 miles from Wright-Patterson.

Witnesses of the strange object sent their claims to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on December 19, describing how the cube was flying within 500 feet of the plane, which was soaring 16,000 feet above the ground.

This would make it incredibly unlikely to be a commercial drone, since those types of devices fly only a few hundred feet above the ground.

The FAA recorded this event in their 'SKYWATCH dataset,' which tracks drone sightings near airports or in restricted airspace.

However, when the FAA originally published this sighting in their publicly visible reports, they didn't include any mention of the object being a black cube.

Thanks to a recent Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, it was revealed that this sighting and the other drone incidents near Wright-Patterson led to a major security response, including temporarily closing off military airspace.

Newly released documents from the FAA reveal that military personnel in Ohio spotted a 'black cube' flying near Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in December 2024 (Artist rendering)

Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio has been linked to UFO activity since the 1940s and 5 new incidents have just been revealed

The new documents were released roughly nine months after the first drone swarms were spotted over the East Coast in November 2024.

Hundreds of sightings were made near military bases, residential neighborhoods, and even President Donald Trump's golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey, sparking fears of foreign adversaries spying on American citizens.

After promising answers about the origin of these large, slow-moving objects once he took office, Trump said on January 28 the mysterious swarms were 'not the enemy' and had been authorized to conduct 'research.'

However, the new documents revealed that federal officials still don't believe what's being told to the public. 

The recently released reports showed that both air traffic controllers and the FAA were contacted by officials at Wright-Patterson, but both agencies told the Air Force there were 'no authorized aircraft operating in WPAFB airspace' in December 2024.

Just days before the black cube was spotted near Wright-Patterson, four other incidents involving unknown aircraft were reported.

On December 17, three reports were made, revealing how military personnel spotted multiple objects on the base's radar just after 12:40am ET.

Base personnel, who assumed the objects were more drones, never saw the intruders with their own eyes but alerted local police to search.

The statements come months after the first drones appeared in November, soaring above military bases and Trump's golf course in Bedminster, sparking fears of foreign threats watching American citizens

Multiple drones swarmed over Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (pictured) between December 13 and December 19, 2024

Less than 20 minutes later, the situation exploded, with radar screens at Wright-Patterson detecting between seven and 17 UFOs moving within 40 miles of the base's airfield.

This time, Wright-Patterson security guards were able to visually confirm that the objects were drones swarming around the base. The Air Force tracked the unmanned drones, but no other action was taken.

More than 12 hours later, an aircraft heading in for a landing at Wright-Patterson spotted a silver object just five miles from the base.

Records released from SKYWATCH noted that the crew believed this craft was a drone and recorded it flying at about 3,200 feet above the ground, much lower than the cube.

Just three days earlier, air traffic controllers had spotted what they believed was another drone over several sensitive locations at Wright-Patterson on December 14, forcing the base's commander to close the facility until the intruder flew off.

Newly released video by the military revealed unknown drones swarming over Wright-Patterson in December 2024

The cube spotted by a airplane less than 500 feet away was reportedly flying at around 16,000 feet, far higher than a normal commercial drone (Stock Image)

The FOIA request by The Black Vault, a website dedicated to sharing declassified government documents, has thrown Wright-Patterson back into the spotlight, as UFO conspiracy theorists have been focused on this facility for decades.

In July 2025, the US military was compelled to release never-before-seen video of two additional incidents over Wright-Patterson on December 13 and December 16, 2024.

Guards at the base recorded several craft flying slowly around the facility, including a group of 'four quad-copter drones with red and green lights in a tight diamond formation.'

After guards shone their car spotlight on them, they reported that the swarm 'gained altitude and flew away at a rapid speed.'

In another chilling incident, another officer spotted an unknown aircraft descending towards the base, getting within 500 feet of landing before it suddenly ascended and vanished into thin air.

UFO researchers and government whistleblowers have said on multiple occasions that the Ohio Air Force base has a direct tie to the 1947 UFO crash in Roswell, New Mexico.

During a congressional hearing in May, Dr Eric Davis, a physicist who has been a consultant for the Pentagon's UFO program since 2007, revealed that debris from the Roswell incident was allegedly flown to Wright-Patterson after the crash.

The base was also the headquarters for Project Blue Book, the Air Force's official UFO investigation program from 1947 to 1969.

It investigated 12,618 sightings, with 701 remaining 'unidentified,' according to declassified records in the National Archives.

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13-08-2025 om 00:43 geschreven door peter  

Bombshell new investigation into Pennsylvania's Roswell as mystery of UFO crash deepens

By JAMES CIRRONE, US NEWS REPORTER

An eyewitness to the supposed crash-landing of a UFO in a small Pennsylvania town nearly 60 years ago now claims investigators have made new, startling discoveries about the incident. 

On December 9, 1965, people in seven US states and Canada reported seeing a giant fiery object lighting up the night sky.

Ronnie Strubel, 82, lived in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, at the time and described it as a 'fireball with a red rooster tail behind it'.

Contrary to more recent reports where witnesses claim UFOs they saw were unnaturally quick, Strubel told Daily Mail the object he saw was moving about as fast as a commercial airplane.

Then, he said, it came down in a wooded area in the unincorporated town of Kecksburg, which lies in Westmoreland County.

'It only took like 15 or 20 minutes for us to get out to the site, and the military was already there,' he said. 

But in the decades since, this strange event likely seen by thousands of people has largely been erased from the collective memory.

That is, until the History Channel aired a documentary on the subject earlier this month, where a mix of experts used modern technology to uncover what may have happened all those years ago in Kecksburg.

Many locals who claim to have seen the UFO pass over Kecksburg, Pennsylvania, say it looked like an acorn (Pictured: A model of the UFO is seen displayed in town)

Pictured: The History Channel team, alongside first-hand UFO witnesses Bill Weaver (second from right) and Ronnie Strubel (right), stand in the woods near the supposed crash site

Kecksburg is a small, unincorporated town in Westmoreland County. The nearest big city is Pittsburgh

The 42-minute long episode, titled 'Pennsylvania's Roswell', was part of reality TV series Beyond Skinwalker Ranch, a show that focuses on sites around the country where there has been supposed paranormal activity.

Strubel and another local, Bill Weaver, were featured in the episode. During a shot near the crash site, Strubel told the same story, but Weaver added some more context about the government response.

'The police and the military, they were all over the place. And there were guys out there in dark suits. They were the ones that seemed to be in charge,' Weaver said.

'While we were standing there watching what was going on, the state police and the military came up to us and they told us, "If you don't move, we're going to confiscate your car." And I figured I better move,' he added.

Hosts Andy Bustamante, an ex-CIA officer, and Paul Beban, an award-winning journalist, unpacked much of the lore surrounding the UFO sighting and crash.

This included the persisting claim from longtime residents that the object they saw was shaped like an acorn.

An acorn-like model of the alleged UFO has been sitting outside the Kecksburg Volunteer Fire Station since the 1990, when it was created as a prop for the NBC show 'Unsolved Mysteries.'

They also discussed many of the explanations that were thrown out by the federal government in the days, months and years after the incident.

Pictured: The very first Greensburg Tribune-Review article on the Kecksburg UFO incident, dated December 10, 1965

Pictured: The History Channel team did a LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) scan of the ground near where the UFO was thought to have crashed. Technologist Pete Kelsey claimed that this blue area was abnormally flat compared to the rest of the surrounding topography

The team then returned to that exact spot with handheld spectrum analyzers to measure the radio waves. The reading on the left was taken from the flat area discovered by the LiDAR, while the reading on the right was taken just 20 feet away

Very early reports quoted astronomers claiming it was merely a meteor, but this didn't hold much credibility because of the unprecedented military presence documented by witnesses and local media.

NASA still maintains that it was likely a meteor, but also acknowledges speculation that it could have been Soviet satellite.

Beban said the strangest thing about the case was that it got plenty of media attention at the time before it 'faded from view' under 'a cloak of secrecy'.

Bustamante and Beban turned to the expertise of technologist Pete Kelsey in hopes that he would be able to uncover the exact site of the UFO crash.

Kelsey used LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) imaging from a drone and slam scanner to get a topographic map of the ground, which would reveal possible impact points.

Later, the team gathered to look at the results of the scan and found what Kelsey called a patch of 'man-made earth work'.

'It's level against this otherwise very steep slope. Straight lines, right angles. Those kinds of things do not occur in nature,' he said.

They then returned to that exact spot with handheld spectrum analyzers to measure the radio waves.

Strubel revealed the findings at this past weekend's 20th annual Kecksburg UFO Festival, an event he founded with permission from the fire department in 2005

Pictured: An alien themed parade at the 2013 Kecksburg UFO Festival

The alleged crash site had a vastly different radio signature than a spot just 20 feet away, which had a flat frequency.

'This doesn't make any sense. How is there a radio signal in one place that doesn't exist just a few feet away? That's not how radio energy works,' Bustamante said. 

'We're getting even more evidence that suggests that there really was something strange that happened on this spot, in this ravine, in Kecksburg,' he added. 'We might have actually found the real crash site.'

Strubel revealed these findings at this past weekend's 20th annual Kecksburg UFO Festival, an event he founded with permission from the fire department in 2005. 

Strubel himself is a 50-year veteran of the Kecksburg Volunteer Fire Department, once serving as chief.

The three-day festival routinely attracts thousands of visitors from all over the United States and the world as a whole, he told Daily Mail.

'We've had people from Japan, from Germany, from England with this little town event that we have,' he said.

The first two days of the festival were not solely dedicated to the extraterrestrial, with attendees enjoying a cornhole competition, a parade, fireworks and even a hotdog eating contest.

A visitor enjoying a previous Kecksburg UFO Festival in 2012

'Years ago, we used to have a street fair, and that went to the wayside. And this was our idea for some kind of event to draw a little bit of money into the community. So we started the UFO Fest,' Strubel said. 

It remains unclear what truly happened in Kecksburg six decades ago, but the mythos surrounding the UFO crash is clearly buoying the area to this day.

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13-08-2025 om 00:32 geschreven door peter  

Chilling new clue interstellar object is of intelligent design... as scientists warn 'it could save or destroy us'

• READ MORE: Mysterious interstellar object is caught on camera 

By STACY LIBERATORE, US SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDITOR

The scientific community is embroiled in a heated debate over the origin of a mysterious interstellar object that entered our solar system last month.

While NASA initially identified the object, named 3I/ATLAS, as a comet after spotting what appeared to be a tail, Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb publicly challenged that conclusion on Thursday. 

Speaking to CNN, Loeb revealed that the object's unusual brightness suggests it is 'not a common thing.' 

'The brightness of the object implies a diameter of 12 miles, and there is not enough rocky material in interstellar space to deliver such a giant object per decade,' he said.

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured images of the object on July 21, revealing a glowing area at its front, something never before observed in a comet. 

'Usually, for comets, you see a tail trailing behind the object,' said Loeb. 'Here, the glow is actually in front of it. We've never seen such a thing. A comet doesn't glow in front.'

Loeb has also raised the possibility that the object may not be natural at all. 

'It may come to save us or destroy us,' the professor said. 'We'd better be ready for both options and check whether all interstellar objects are rocks.' 

The Hubble Space Telescope image of 3I/ATLAS shows a faint glow spreading out in front of the object as it moves toward the sun

The interstellar object is believed to be a comet, but Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb contends it could be an alien craft

Chris Lintott, an astronomer at the University of Oxford, told Live Science that Loeb's theory is 'nonsense on stilts,' calling it 'an insult to the exciting work going on to understand this object.'

However, Loeb said his analysis remains rooted in observational data.

He told CNN that another clue that the object is not natural is its 'very finely tuned' trajectory.

'It lies in the plane of the orbits of the planets around the sun to within five degrees,' Loeb explained.

According to him, the odds of that alignment happening by chance are one in 500. Even more striking, he says, is how closely the object passes Jupiter, Mars, and Venus, a pattern with odds of 1 in 20,000 if the arrival time were randomized. 

'It will arrive closest to the sun when the Earth is on the opposite side. We won't be able to observe it. But that's the perfect time for it to maneuver.' 

By 'maneuver,' Loeb refers to his theory that the object might use its solar flyby in October as a stealthy approach window, if it is, in fact, an alien probe.  

Among his more provocative theories, Loeb wrote on his blog that 3I/ATLAS could be an alien mothership releasing small probes to intercept Earth.

Telescopes have been tracking the course of 3I/ATLAS as it travels through our solar system in 2025 and 2026

Images of 3I/ATLAS taken on July 4 and July 29, 2025, show no sign of a comet tail. The arrows in the images indicate the directions of the sun, north, east and the way the object is moving through space

'The more likely scenario from an engineering perspective involves a mothership that releases mini-probes which perform a reverse Oberth maneuver to slow down at perihelion and intercept Earth,' Loeb wrote.

This type of maneuver uses the sun's gravitational pull at the object's closest approach to adjust the trajectory efficiently, allowing it to reach Earth without large amounts of fuel.

'So, we just need to watch it. I'm not saying it's an alien technology, I'm just saying it doesn't look like a very common thing,' Loeb told CNN.

'Why should we assume that we are the only ones in our cosmic neighborhood? We should just check by looking at the data.'

While NASA reported observing a tail, Loeb and his team recently determined that no such thing exists. 

'There were claims of a tail,' he said, 'but since 3I/ATLAS is accelerating and its current size is not much larger than the angular resolution of Earth-based telescopes, it is not easy to avoid fictitious elongation of the image as a result of the object's motion.' 

He also questioned the object's unusual lack of gas emissions and its precise, retrograde trajectory, which aligns suspiciously well with the inner solar system.

Loeb has developed what he calls the 'Loeb Scale', a ranking system to evaluate the likelihood that an object is artificial, and gave 3I/ATLAS a six out of ten.

That suggests it is more likely than not to be engineered, though he emphasized that this score may change as more data becomes available.

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12-08-2025 om 23:50 geschreven door peter  

An ancient underwater city beneath Turkey's Lake Van could potentially reveal secrets that challenge the origins of Noah's Ark. 

The sprawling ruins lie 85 feet below the surface near the town of Gevaş, just 150 miles from Mount Ararat, the mountain traditionally believed to be the final resting place of the biblical boat.

Geological evidence suggests that the ruins were submerged 12,000 to 14,500 years ago, when a Mount Nemrut eruption blocked the Mirat River, and caused massive flooding during the Younger Dryas, a period of extreme climate upheaval. 

While mainstream scholars dismiss the theory, many independent researchers believe this disaster wiped out an advanced civilization, one so ancient that it may have inspired the earliest versions of the Great Flood story. 

'As far as I'm aware, any civilizations in the last 6,000 years did not have the technological means to create the type of stonework we're seeing here,' said independent researcher Matt LaCroix, who spoke about the discovery on the Matt Beall Limitless podcast. 

LaCroix and an international dive team are preparing to explore the site in September using advanced imaging tools to map the ruins, which he believes could help rewrite humanity's timeline.

The underwater complex spans more than half a mile, featuring a stone fortress flanked by circular temples with precisely carved masonry.

There is also a capstone engraved with a six-spoked 'Flower of Life' symbol, an ancient motif also found at sacred sites in Peru and Bolivia. 

The underwater city features a giant fortress and circular temples. The megastructures are located 85 85 feet below the surface of Lake Van

Divers found stunning circular temples on the lakebed 

Discovered in 1997 by Turkish underwater filmmaker Tossen Salin while studying Lake Van's unusual micro-invertebrates, the ruins have remained largely unknown to the public. 

While archaeologists confirm the structures exist, many attribute them to the Urartian period around 3,000 years ago, or even to the medieval era. But they have admitted that the site has yet to be fully studied or definitively dated. 

LaCroix, however, said in a July episode of the podcast that geological data told a different story.

He explained how soil sampling and analysis of Mount Nemrut show clear evidence of a massive eruption around 12,000 years ago.

As a result, Lake Van's water level rose dramatically, over 100 feet, according to some estimates. 

Because stone cannot be carbon-dated, researchers hope to find organic material, such as sediment layers or artifacts, which could confirm the age of the ruins. 

But collecting such evidence underwater poses major challenges. 

The site’s sophisticated stonework, with tightly interlocking blocks, angular joints, and no visible binding agents, appears to rival the engineering seen in megalithic sites like Sacsayhuamán in Peru. 

An independent researcher believes that this city could rewrite the biblical story of Moses, making it thousands of years older than was is believed. The lake sits just 150 miles from Mount Ararat (pictured), believed to be the site of Noah's Ark

Because stone cannot be carbon-dated, researchers hope to find organic material, such as sediment layers or artifacts, which could confirm the age of the ruins

Discovered in 1997 by Turkish underwater filmmaker Tossen Salin while studying Lake Van's unusual micro-invertebrates, the ruins have remained largely unknown to the public

'You can see that the temple has been significantly damaged, said LaCroix.

'All the stones on the top have broken off except those at the edges. The site resembles Peruvian masonry, with precisely angled stones forming triangular joints, and only the front appears flat. It's beautiful and would have been perfectly carved.' 

He believes the shared architectural features, symbolic motifs, and astronomical alignments across sites in Turkey, South America and Asia suggest the existence of a long-lost global civilization.

Scholars have long acknowledged that the biblical flood story likely evolved from earlier Mesopotamian texts. 

Ancient cuneiform tablets from Sumerian, Akkadian, and Babylonian cultures, such as the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Atrahasis, and the Eridu Genesis, describe a massive flood sent to destroy early civilization, and a chosen man who builds a vessel to save life on Earth.

In these tales, the survivor is called Ziusudra or Utnapishtim, names predating Noah by thousands of years.

Excavation logs from Shuruppak, Iraq, believed to be the home of this early flood survivor, show a distinct flood layer above ancient Sumerian ruins. 

These records, uncovered at the Penn Museum, provide physical evidence of a catastrophic event similar to those described in the ancient texts.

The ruins were discovered in 1997 by Turkish underwater filmmaker Tossen Salin while studying Lake Van's unusual micro-invertebrates

Even the Babylonian Map of the World, the oldest known map, marks the Ararat region near Lake Van as a place of ancient significance, possibly linked to tales of a lone survivor who emerged after a global deluge.

LaCroix argues that the biblical version is not being dismissed but rather reframed in its historical and cultural context.

He told Beall to picture a thriving civilization along Lake Van, building temples and structures on stable, elevated ground they believed would last forever.

The lake’s water level was stable for millennia, until the eruption of Mount Nemrut changed everything. 

'It’s not that Lake Van would have had to have been 85 feet lower,' said LaCroix.

'It would have had to have been more like 100 feet lower or more, because these ruins are at 85 feet deep. So, what could account for a lake rising over 100 feet?'

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12-08-2025 om 23:37 geschreven door peter  

UFO whistleblower reveals the FOUR types of aliens the US government knows about

• READ MORE: Harvard scientist warns mysterious interstellar object could be 'hostile' alien craft set to visit Earth in just months

By STACY LIBERATORE, U.S. SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDITOR

A recent Capitol Hill hearing has reignited debate over Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs) and the possibility of extraterrestrial life. 

In a May UAP briefing, physicist Dr Eric Davis, known for his work on top-secret Pentagon projects, stunned listeners by referencing alleged alien species, 'Grays, Nordics, Insectoids, and Reptilians,' as potential operators of unidentified craft. 

Davis described these entities as humanoid, approximately human-sized, and possibly linked to classified reverse-engineering programs.

Missouri Representative Eric Burlison, a member of the House Oversight Committee and UAP caucus, prompted the discussion, revealing on The Endless Void with Kristin Fisher that he had heard these same four classifications in private briefings.

'I've heard those four classifications discussed in meetings in this office by others,' Burlison said. 

'But what I wasn't expecting was for him to say it. I wasn't expecting Eric Davis, you know, respected scientists, to say that.'

Burlison, a self-described skeptic, admitted uncertainty about Davis's sources, noting the physicist's comments may stem from firsthand knowledge or secondhand reports. 

'If true, this would be a paradigm-shifting moment,' Burlison said. 'But if it is true, the government has no right to keep such a secret from the public it serves.' 

A respected scientists told Congress that there are four alien species piloting craft in our skies, including Nordics that have human-like features

Dr Eric Davis (left) described these entities as humanoid, approximately human-sized, and possibly linked to classified reverse-engineering programs. Missouri Representative Eric Burlison prompted the question about the different alien species 

The concept of Grays as a popular alien archetype took hold in the mid-1960s, largely due to the famous Betty and Barney Hill abduction case. 

The couple described being taken by small humanoids with smooth gray skin, large black almond-shaped eyes, and lacking typical human features like noses or ears.

Nordics are described as tall, slender beings resembling Scandinavian humans, with blonde hair, blue eyes, and fair skin. 

Often linked to the Pleiades star cluster, these entities are said to possess advanced technology and peaceful intentions, featuring prominently in 1950s contactee and UFO lore.

Insectoids, meanwhile, have been part of alien mythology since at least the early 1900s, with roots tracing back to Georges Méliès' 1902 film 'A Trip to the Moon.' 

These beings exhibit insect-like traits such as multiple limbs, exoskeletons, mandibles, and sometimes antennae.

The reptilian theory, claiming shape-shifting reptilian aliens secretly control Earth, surged in popularity through conspiracy theorist David Icke in the late 20th century. 

Interestingly, similar half-human, half-serpent figures appear in ancient South and Southeast Asian myths, such as the Nāga.

Another is Grays, described as small humanoids with smooth gray skin, large black almond-shaped eyes, and lacking typical human features like noses or ears

Betty (left) and Barney Hill (right) were the first Americans who claimed they were abducted by Grays in September 1961

While Davis named each of these in May, Burlison leaned toward a more earthly explanation, suggesting UAPs are likely advanced human-made technologies, perhaps experimental projects by private contractors.

'With all of the advancements that we've made, the fact that we discovered the Higgs Boson particle, all of the discoveries in quantum physics, and that nobody has figured out a way to create some form of advanced propulsion,' he remarked. 

However, Burlison expressed frustration at the thought of such technology existing, recalling how he sat delayed on a tarmac for three hours due to weather, joking, 'If we have advanced propulsion, I'm going to be really angry.' 

Critics have dismissed the hearings as veering into the absurd, with references to 'reptilians' and 'insectoids' sounding more like science fiction than serious inquiry.

Insectoids, meanwhile, have been part of alien mythology since at least the early 1900s, with roots tracing back to Georges Méliès' 1902 film 'A Trip to the Moon.' These beings exhibit insect-like traits such as multiple limbs, exoskeletons, mandibles, and sometimes antennae

Davis named each of these under oath in May as the beings invading Earth's skies. Pictured is a shot from the 'Go Fast' video that was released in 

'Some will think we're nuts,' Burlison acknowledged, aware of the skepticism his comments invite.

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•  Chilling theory emerges about suspicious activity in space... as Harvard expert warns we will tear ourselves apart: 'Time to worry' 

Yet he defended the investigation, emphasizing that taxpayer money funds Pentagon, intelligence, and energy department programs studying UAPs.

'I owe it to the American people to get to the bottom of this,' he said.

Burlison believes the public could handle the truth if aliens were confirmed.

'Most would just read the headline and move on,' he predicted, noting humanity's tendency to normalize even the most extraordinary revelations.

However, he insisted that any such discoveries should not be hidden.

'The government belongs to the people, not the other way around,' Burlison stressed. 'Keeping such monumental secrets would betray the trust of the public.'

While remaining cautious about extraterrestrial claims, Burlison plans to press Dr Davis for clarification on whether his startling remarks come from direct knowledge or secondary reports.

The reptilian theory, claiming shape-shifting reptilian aliens secretly control Earth, surged in popularity through conspiracy theorist David Icke in the late 20th century

Burlison believes the public could handle the truth if aliens were confirmed. 

'Some will read the headline and go about their day,' he predicted, citing human behavior's tendency to normalize even earth-shattering news. 

However, he stressed that any such revelation should not be kept secret.

'I believe that this government belongs to the people. It's not that the people don't belong to the government,' he said, arguing that withholding paradigm-shifting discoveries would betray public trust.

The lack of concrete evidence, coupled with Davis's ambiguous sources, keeps the debate speculative. Burlison plans to follow up with Davis to clarify whether his claims stem from direct observation or research assignments analyzing reported phenomena.

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12-08-2025 om 23:24 geschreven door peter  

Atlantis: Een Vergelijkende Studie tussen Wetenschap en Mystiek over het Bestaan en de Verwoesting

Inleiding

De legende van Atlantis heeft door de eeuwen heen velen gefascineerd. Het is een verhaal dat balanceert tussen historische werkelijkheid en mythische verbeelding. Terwijl sommigen geloven dat Atlantis ooit echt heeft bestaan, beschouwen anderen het als een mythe of een allegorie. In deze studie wordt een uitgebreide vergelijking gemaakt tussen de wetenschappelijke benadering en de mystieke interpretaties omtrent het bestaan en de ondergang van Atlantis. Hierbij wordt ingegaan op de oorsprong van de legende, de bewijsvoering, wetenschappelijke theorieën, mystieke overtuigingen en de onderliggende wereldbeelden die deze perspectieven bepalen.

Oorsprong van de Legende

De eerste vermelding van Atlantis komt uit de Griekse filosoof Plato, rond 360 v.Chr.. In zijn dialogen "Timaeus" en "Critias" beschrijft hij Atlantis als een machtige en geavanceerde beschaving die zich ongeveer 9.000 jaar vóór zijn tijd zou hebben gevestigd, op een continent dat zich voor de Straat van Gibraltar uitstrekte. Volgens Plato zou Atlantis door haar arrogantie en immoraliteit door de goden zijn gestraft en onder water zijn verdwenen in een enkele dag en nacht van catastrofale aardbevingen en overstromingen.

Na Plato werd Atlantis al snel een symbool voor een verloren paradijs, een superriet die zowel de menselijke ambitie als de val symboliseert. Door de eeuwen heen zijn vele andere bronnen, zoals de werken van latere schrijvers en ontdekkingsreizigers, toegevoegd aan de mythologie rond Atlantis.

Wetenschappelijke benadering: De zoektocht naar bewijs

De wetenschappelijke wereld benadert de legende van Atlantis vooral als een mythe of een allegorie. Er is geen concreet archeologisch bewijs dat Atlantis ooit heeft bestaan als een grote beschaving, laat staan dat het zich op de door Plato genoemde locatie bevond. Onderzoekers en archeologen hebben verschillende theorieën ontwikkeld over de mogelijke realiteit van Atlantis.

Een van de meest gangbare theorieën is dat Plato de legende heeft gebaseerd op herinneringen aan een oude, mogelijk ondergang van een geavanceerde beschaving, zoals die op Kreta tijdens de Minoïsche periode (ca. 1450 v.Chr.). De Minoïsche beschaving was zeer ontwikkeld, met indrukwekkende paleizen zoals dat van Knossos, uitgebreide handel en kunst. Na een verwoestende aardbeving en tsunami werd deze beschaving mogelijk in de vergetelheid geraakt, en de verhalen werden mythologische verhalen.

Daarnaast worden er speculaties gedaan over onderwaterlocaties zoals de Canarische Eilanden, de Azoren, of de gebieden rond de Middellandse Zee en de Zwarte Zee. Sommige onderzoekers wijzen op onderwaterstructuren en anomalieën die mogelijk resten van oude menselijke bewoning kunnen zijn. Toch ontbreekt het aan sluitend bewijs dat wijst op een grote, geavanceerde beschaving zoals door Plato beschreven.

Moderne technologieën zoals onderwaterarcheologie, sonar en satellietbeelden worden ingezet om mogelijke locaties te onderzoeken, maar tot nu toe zijn geen overtuigende bewijzen gevonden die Atlantis bevestigen als een historische plek.

Wetenschappelijke verklaringen voor de mythe

De meeste wetenschappers geloven dat Atlantis een fictieve constructie is, bedoeld als een moreel en politiek verhaal dat door Plato werd gebruikt om bepaalde ideeën over deugd en immoraliteit te illustreren. Plato was een filosoof die vaak allegorieën en metaforen gebruikte om abstracte ideeën te verduidelijken.

Bovendien wordt gesuggereerd dat de verhalen over Atlantis mogelijk geïnspireerd zijn door herinneringen aan aardbevingen en natuurlijke rampen die in de regio’s rond de Middellandse Zee en de Zwarte Zee plaatsvonden. Deze rampen zouden de herinnering aan een ondergang hebben geïnspireerd die vervolgens werd versterkt en uitgewerkt in mythologische verhalen.

Een andere verklaring is dat Atlantis dient als een archetype van een verloren gewaande utopische beschaving, vergelijkbaar met het Paradijs of andere mythische plaatsen die de menselijke verbeelding blijven prikkelen. In deze context vertegenwoordigt Atlantis een universeel verlangen naar een ideale samenleving die ooit bestond en verloren is gegaan.

Mystieke en esoterische interpretaties

In tegenstelling tot de wetenschappelijke benadering, nemen mystici, esoterici en spirituele denkers Atlantis vaak serieus als een werkelijk vermeende historische locatie met een diepere symbolische betekenis. Zij beschouwen Atlantis niet enkel als een mythe, maar als een realiteit die ooit heeft bestaan en mogelijk nog altijd in spirituele of energetische vormen voortleeft. Volgens deze denkers vertegenwoordigt Atlantis een hoogontwikkelde beschaving die haar kennis, technologie en spirituele inzichten verloren heeft door catastrofale gebeurtenissen. Deze interpretaties worden vaak ondersteund door oude teksten, alchemistische geschriften en occulte tradities, die suggereren dat Atlantis een plek was waar wetenschap en spiritualiteit hand in hand gingen.

Verschillende mystieke stromingen verbinden Atlantis met universele energievelden en kosmische kennis. Zo stellen sommige esoterische tradities dat de bewoners van Atlantis beschikten over geavanceerde technologische en spirituele vaardigheden, waaronder helende energieën en contact met hogere dimensies. Volgens deze zienswijze zijn de ondergang en het verdwijnen van Atlantis niet enkel een fysiek gebeuren, maar ook een spirituele gebeurtenis die de menselijke evolutie beïnvloedt. Sommige theorieën suggereren dat de kennis en energieën van Atlantis nog altijd in de wereld aanwezig zijn, verborgen onder lagen van tijd en ruimte, wachtend op heropleving.

Wetenschappelijke en archeologische benaderingen

In tegenstelling tot de mystieke interpretaties proberen archeologen en historici de legende van Atlantis te benaderen vanuit een empirisch perspectief. Tot op heden is er geen sluitend archeologisch bewijs gevonden dat het bestaan van een geavanceerde beschaving zoals Atlantis bevestigt. De bekendste verwijzing naar Atlantis komt uit de werken van de Griekse filosoof Plato, die in zijn dialogen "Timaeus" en "Critias" Atlantis beschrijft als een machtige en technologisch ontwikkeld rijk dat ongeveer 9.000 jaar voor zijn tijd onderging door een catastrofale gebeurtenis. Hoewel Plato zelf waarschijnlijk een allegorie bedoelde, hebben latere onderzoekers geprobeerd deze verhalen te interpreteren als historische realiteit.

Wetenschappelijke studies richten zich op mogelijke geografische locaties die met de legende overeenkomen, zoals de ondergang van de Minoïsche beschaving op Kreta of de ondergang van de Thera-uitbarsting. Sommige theorieën suggereren dat de mythe is gebaseerd op herinneringen aan deze gebeurtenissen, maar er is geen bewijs dat wijst op een grote, wereldwijde beschaving zoals beschreven door Plato. Bovendien ontbreken archeologische vondsten die de aanwezigheid van een dergelijk rijk bevestigen. De meeste wetenschappers beschouwen Atlantis dan ook als een mythisch of symbolisch construct dat dient als een metafoor voor een verloren gewaande utopie.

Vergelijking tussen wetenschap en mystiek

De tegenstelling tussen wetenschappelijke en mystieke interpretaties van Atlantis weerspiegelt bredere discussies over de aard van kennis en waarheid. Wetenschap baseert zich op empirisch bewijs, herhaalbare experimenten en kritische analyse. Hierdoor blijft de wetenschappelijke consensus dat Atlantis een mythisch of symbolisch verhaal is, zonder bewijs dat het ooit als een fysieke beschaving heeft bestaan.

Aan de andere kant bieden mystieke en esoterische perspectieven een meer symbolische en spirituele benadering. Zij zien Atlantis als een archetype van menselijke idealen, verloren kennis of een hogere beschaving die in een andere dimensie of tijdlijn voortleeft. Deze interpretaties spreken vooral mensen aan die geloven in de mogelijkheid van spirituele evolutie en het bestaan van verborgen kennis buiten de grenzen van de empirische wetenschap.

BESLUIT

De studie "Atlantis: Comparing Science and Mysticism Regarding Its Existence and Destruction" biedt een uitgebreide analyse van de verschillende perspectieven op het bestaan en de ondergang van de mythische beschaving Atlantis. Door een gedegen literatuuronderzoek en vergelijkende analyse tussen wetenschappelijke en mystieke bronnen, wordt duidelijk dat de opvattingen over Atlantis sterk uiteenlopen, afhankelijk van de benadering.

Aan de ene kant stelt de wetenschap dat Atlantis waarschijnlijk een mythisch of symbolisch concept is, voortkomend uit oude verhalen zoals die van Plato. Wetenschappers wijzen op het gebrek aan archeologische bewijzen en de inconsistente geografische beschrijvingen, waardoor de meeste onderzoekers concluderen dat Atlantis eerder een allegorie was dan een fysieke plaats. Daarnaast benadrukken zij dat de verhalen over de ondergang van Atlantis mogelijk geïnspireerd zijn door natuurlijke rampen zoals vulkanische uitbarstingen en aardbevingen, die in de regio plaatsvonden.

Aan de andere kant wordt in mystieke kringen Atlantis vaak beschouwd als een echte, geavanceerde beschaving die ooit op aarde heeft bestaan en verbonden was met hogere kennis en spirituele kracht. Deze opvattingen worden ondersteund door oude teksten, kristal- en energie-therapieën, en spirituele ervaringen die de aanwezigheid van een verloren wereld suggereren. Voor deze groep is Atlantis niet alleen een historische plek, maar ook een symbool van menselijke evolutie en bewustzijn.

De studie benadrukt dat beide perspectieven waardevol zijn, maar dat ze gebaseerd zijn op verschillende methodologieën en wereldbeelden. Wetenschap richt zich op bewijs en empirische gegevens, terwijl mystiek meer vertrouwt op intuïtie en spirituele ervaringen. Het is belangrijk om deze benaderingen te erkennen als complementair in de zoektocht naar de waarheid over Atlantis.

In conclusie toont de studie aan dat de mythe van Atlantis een krachtig symbool blijft voor zowel menselijke verbeelding als zoektocht naar kennis. Hoewel er geen sluitend bewijs is voor het bestaan of de ondergang van de beschaving, biedt het onderwerp een rijke voedingsbodem voor zowel wetenschappelijke als spirituele verkenningen. Het verbinden van deze perspectieven kan leiden tot een dieper begrip van onze geschiedenis, cultuur en spirituele evolutie.

Referenties:

• Plato, Timaeus en Critias
• Freke, R. & Gandy, P. (2000). The Jesus Mysteries.
• Edgar Cayce-archieven
• Van der Waerden, B. L. (1975). Ancient Science and Its Cultural Significance.

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12-08-2025 om 22:07 geschreven door peter  

LiDAR Study Shows Maya Population May Have Topped 16 Million

New research led by Tulane University archaeologists reveals that the ancient Maya civilization was far more populous than previously thought — supporting as many as 16 million people across parts of modern-day Guatemala, southern Mexico and western Belize.

The research, published this month in the  Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, reveals one of the most comprehensive regional-scale analysis to date of Maya settlement patterns using lidar (light detection and ranging) technology.

The findings significantly revise population estimates and models of ancient Maya settlement in the Central Maya Lowlands, revealing a far more complex, integrated and populous civilization than previously understood.

"We now have hard evidence that Maya society was highly structured across both cities and rural areas and far more advanced in resource and social organization than previously understood."

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Largest previously unknown ceremonial center discovered with NASA's GLIHT lidar data in Campeche, Mexico.

(Graphic by Francisco Estrada-Belli/Science Direct)

Surprising Findings

"The ancient Maya never fail to amaze me," said lead author Francisco Estrada-Belli, a research professor in Tulane’s Middle American Research Institute and manager of its GIS (Geographic Information System) lab.

"We expected a modest increase in population estimates from our 2018 lidar analysis, but seeing a 45% jump was truly surprising. This new data confirms just how densely populated and socially organized the Maya Lowlands were at their peak.”

Using advanced analytical methods and reprocessed lidar data, researchers estimate that between 9.5 million and 16 million people inhabited the region during the Late Classic period (600–900 AD), across a 95,000-square-kilometer area encompassing the rainforest lowlands.

These new estimates confirm that the Classic Maya Lowlands were not only densely inhabited but also highly structured, with consistent patterns of urban and rural organization across an immense region, Estrada-Belli said.

“We’re confident these lidar-based findings give us the clearest picture yet of ancient Maya settlement patterns," Estrada-Belli said. "We now have hard evidence that Maya society was highly structured across both cities and rural areas and far more advanced in resource and social organization than previously understood."

The team combined data from multiple publicly available and private lidar surveys, including reanalyzed environmental lidar collected by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, with newer archaeological mapping efforts in southern Campeche and Quintana Roo, Mexico.

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Ancient Maya city of Calakmul, Campeche, Mexico.

(Public Domain)

Researchers identified a single, consistent model of urban and rural organization, with residential and agricultural features clustered around elite-controlled plaza groups. Extensive agricultural infrastructure, especially in the densely populated north, points to elite management of food production and distribution across both cities and rural areas.

Nearly all structures were located within three miles (5 km) of a large or medium-sized plaza group, indicating widespread access to civic-ceremonial centers and challenging past assumptions about isolated rural settlements.

This study shifts understanding of the Classic Maya from fragmented city-states and scattered hamlets to a deeply interconnected civilization, supported by a carefully structured system of governance, agriculture and commerce.

The findings also highlight the power of airborne lidar as a tool for archaeological discovery in dense tropical environments, where traditional field surveys are often hindered by dense vegetation and inaccessibility.

"We are very grateful to the Hitz Foundation for funding the MARI-GIS lab and making this research possible,” said Marcello Canuto, a study co-author and director of the Middle American Research Institute.

• Estrada-Belli, F., Canuto, M. A., Šprajc, I., & Fernandez-Diaz, J. C. (2025). New regional-scale Classic Maya population density estimates and settlement distribution models through airborne lidar scanning.  Journal of Archaeological Science, Reports, 66(105288), 105288. doi:10.1016/j.jasrep.2025.105288

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12-08-2025 om 21:25 geschreven door peter