​A photo claiming to be a NASA leak of the interstellar object 3I/Atlas has gone viral on social media. Around the same time, a beautiful sky photo from Japan also caught everyone’s attention. Both pictures have become popular online, sparking curiosity and conversation among space fans and regular viewers alike.

The alleged NASA leak

A photo purported to be of 3I/Atlas hit the internet early this week, with many users claiming it originated from NASA’s internal systems and showed a close-up of the mysterious space object in question.

3I/Atlas appears, in the picture, to be a glowing structure with a bluish-green light around it. Some online users described the shape of it as unusual and suggested it could be something artificial.

However, NASA has not confirmed that this image is real, and the agency has not made any official statement about any leak. Scientists have also warned people against believing unverified posts shared on the internet.

Experts say the image could have easily been a digitally edited photo or even real telescope data with added filters to make it look more dramatic.

What we know about 3I/Atlas

3I/Atlas is an interstellar object, which means it came from outside our solar system. It is the third known object of its kind after ‘Oumuamua (2017) and 2I/Borisov (2019).

It is being watched closely by astronomers as this reaches our solar system. According to scientists, based on its movements, 3I/Atlas would pass by once and will not return.

There is no evidence that it is artificial or is connected with any extra-terrestrial life. The most common belief concerning the composition of comets among scientists is that they are composed of rock, ice, and dust.

Japan’s viral sky photo

While the NASA leak was trending, another photo went viral for a very different reason. A Japanese photographer captured a stunning view of the night sky.

The photo showed the Milky Way and what looked like faint Aurora lights glowing above a mountain. The image was taken on a clear night, and people online called it one of the most peaceful and beautiful space photos of the year.

Many users shared the picture, saying it reminded them of how amazing the sky can look without any filters or editing.

How social media responded

Both images — the NASA “leak” and the Japanese sky photo — quickly spread online. Hashtags like #3IAtlas, #NASAleak, and #JapanSkyPhoto started trending on X (formerly Twitter) and Reddit.

Some people believed the NASA photo was real and hinted at secret discoveries. Others said it was probably fake but still interesting.

Scientists later explained that no official NASA data was leaked, and that many space images shared online are often altered or misunderstood.

What it shows about space curiosity

The two pictures have nothing to do with each other, but they both went viral on social media. They illustrate that space fascinates people to this day, and anything unusual catches the public's eye.

NASA hasn't given any new update about 3I/Atlas yet, but scientists are still studying it from different observatories in the world.

• US officials monitor Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS amid government shutdown
• 3I/Atlas makes history with the highest orbital eccentricity ever recorded: Here’s what it means for science
• What is the Loeb Scale, and how is 3I/ATLAS rated on it by the Harvard physicist?
• Harvard professor Avi Loeb breaks silence on Elon Musk's remarks about interstellar object 3I/ATLAS

{ https://www.primetimer.com/ }

05-11-2025 om 15:58 geschreven door peter  

World's biggest spiderweb discovered inside 'Sulfur Cave' with 111,000 arachnids living in pitch black

{ https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth }

04-11-2025 om 22:20 geschreven door peter  

Megastructures on Mars

Images of vast ‘canals’ rippling across the red planet inspired fears of alien ‘engineers’ and changed science forever

The clearest ever picture of the planet Mars composed of over 100 Viking Orbiter mission photos from the 1970s missions.

Courtesy NASA

On 16 December 2017, The New York Times began publishing a series of investigative reports confirming what conspiracy theorists had long believed. There was a ‘secret programme’ hidden within the US Department of Defense that had investigated unidentified flying objects. From offices on the fifth floor of the Pentagon, the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) had uncovered remarkable evidence of what it called unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), including videos of craft resembling Tic Tac mints that moved with seemingly impossible speed and agility.

Military officers soon claimed that secret programmes like the AATIP had reverse-engineered extraterrestrial technology and even recovered the bodies of aliens aboard downed spacecraft. By the early 2020s, hundreds of videos and images had come to light, some of which have still not been explained. Journalists learned that, at the very least, high-ranking military officers had been covertly discussing UFOs for decades – if only as a cover for secret weapons programmes.

It sounds like the plot of a science-fiction film. But it happened. And it’s still happening. In 2025, further video evidence was presented to Congress, showing another Tic Tac-shaped craft flying over the ocean near Yemen being targeted by a Hellfire missile fired from a drone. Incredibly, the missile appears to have bounced off the craft, which continued on its path, hurtling above the water.

But what’s odd about all this isn’t just the evidence. It’s our collective response. More than half of Americans, not to mention millions or even billions of people around the world, believe that UFOs probably confirm the existence of intelligent alien life. Yet, most of us probably don’t think much about secret Pentagon programmes or impossible craft. Isn’t that strange? At this point in a Hollywood movie, riots would be tearing through cities. Governments would be teetering on the brink of collapse. It’s why the Men in Black erase the memories of anyone who even glimpses an alien. Popular culture (and common sense) make it seem obvious that the apparent discovery of aliens, let alone a conspiracy to hide their existence, should lead to mass panic.

So, why the collective shrug? And what will happen if and when humanity really does, indisputably, encounter an extraterrestrial civilisation?

For answers, we can look to one of the strangest stories in the history of science: the 19th-century ‘discovery’ of canal-building aliens on Mars. This story isn’t widely known today and, when it is told at all, it’s usually framed as a curious delusion, shared by a small group of maverick astronomers – at least one of whom had an undiagnosed eye condition. But the event had an enormous impact on scientists and the public. It involved hundreds, perhaps thousands of astronomers, and captured the attention of millions of people.

The apparent discovery of aliens on Mars a century ago reveals that the consequences of an encounter with alien life may be less traumatic but also more far-reaching than science-fiction authors have imagined.

Indeed, in a sense, ‘aliens’ have already altered our world.

It was the summer of 1877, and Earth had an intimate date with Mars. Though these planets regularly pass each other, this time they were set to come closer than they had in decades.

Because Earth is nearer to the Sun than Mars is, it takes less time to complete a full orbit. That means that our world passes the red planet every two years – an event that humans have been witnessing for millennia. First, a dim red point of light gradually brightens until it outshines everything in the night sky, save the Moon. Then the point of light seems to move backwards as Earth wheels past, before fading again. During the peak of the event, the Sun, Earth and Mars form a straight line, with Earth in the middle and the red planet opposite us. That is why this moment is known as an ‘opposition’.

However, not all oppositions are equal. The one set to occur in 1877 would happen when Mars was also in the part of its elliptical orbit that brings it nearer to the Sun. Such ‘perihelic’ oppositions (from peri, meaning near, and helios, meaning Sun) happen just once every 15-17 years and bring Mars nearer to Earth. And in some of these oppositions, the tug of distant Jupiter’s gravity means that Mars is drawn even closer to our planet. That’s what happened in 1877, when Mars passed just 56 million kilometres from Earth (it’s more than 350 million kilometres away as I write this sentence). By the measure of cosmic distances, in 1877 the two planets were almost touching.

New telescope designs allowed observers to see genuine features on the Martian surface

Changes in astronomy and in the instruments used by astronomers ensured that this opposition would truly be like no other in history. The invention of the telescope in the early 17th century had already revealed that Mars was a world, not just a point of light. Indeed, in an age of colonial expansion, Mars seemed like a new world that could be explored and charted by Europeans, remotely of course, as though it were just another imperial frontier.

By the end of the 18th century, new telescope designs allowed observers to see genuine features on the Martian surface. Astronomers had previously focused on making precise calculations of celestial movements, but now the environments of other worlds seemed worthy of serious study. What was on the surface of our neighbouring planet?

Observers soon determined that there were bright regions at the poles of Mars and dark patches at lower latitudes. What’s more, the shape and colour of these regions seemed to fluctuate dramatically over time.

Polar exploration on Earth suggested that the bright regions of Mars were ice caps undergoing seasonal melting and refreezing. The dark regions were more mysterious. These areas appeared to transform so much that early 19th-century scientists believed they had to be either cloud formations, oceans spilling their banks, or vegetation undergoing seasonal changes. Mars seemed to be a living world, much like our own.

Night after night, he huddled over his gleaming refractor, high up on a rooftop above Milan, sketching Mars

This widely held view made the opposition of 1877 a major event for scientists. Telescopes were now so powerful that it seemed like a second Earth could be unveiled for the first time during the passing of Mars.

Months before the opposition, as the red planet began to brighten in the night sky, the Italian astronomer and hydraulic engineer Giovanni Schiaparelli got to work. Night after night, he huddled over the eyepiece of his gleaming refractor, high up on a rooftop above Milan, sketching Mars. As the planet wheeled closer and closer, he recorded each new detail that shimmered into view. When the opposition passed, Schiaparelli gathered his sketches and drew a complete map of Mars in the Mercator projection – the same projection commonly used in maps of Earth’s continents.

It was like no other depiction. Astronomers had previously glimpsed linear features on the planet, but Schiaparelli’s Mars was covered with them. They were, he wrote, canali that linked Martian oceans. Schiaparelli seems to have preferred that canali would be translated as ‘channels’. However, it was more often rendered as ‘canals’ when his observations were reported in English.

Some astronomers doubted that the channels, or canals, actually existed. But Schiaparelli was a leader in his field, with renowned eyesight, and it couldn’t be denied that his map of Mars was more detailed than any drawn before. Indeed, it included so many previously uncharted features that Schiaparelli introduced a new naming scheme, drawing from classical mythology, to make sense of them all. With a decidedly alien surface named after gods and goddesses, Mars became a more mysterious and intriguing world than anyone had imagined.

In a different time, Schiaparelli’s ‘canals’ might have been a short-lived curiosity. Instead, they became a popular sensation – thanks to the shifting nature of mass media, during an age of imperial expansion and technological disruption.

Around the time of the 1877 opposition, major newspapers, such as The New York Herald, were beginning to secure exclusive access to telegraph lines that permitted instantaneous communication between far-flung cities. These newspapers did not just report what had happened along the exotic frontiers of the era’s empires. They also helped to create the news. In the process, they influenced how scientific discoveries reached ordinary people and shaped what counted as a ‘discovery’ among scientists.

These dynamics were primarily responsible for the ‘Mars Boom’ of 1892, during another perihelic opposition.

A key figure behind the boom was William Pickering, an ambitious young astronomer at Harvard College Observatory in Boston. Pickering accepted that Schiaparelli’s canals were real. He also believed that Mars was a world like Earth. The canals, he thought, were nothing more than strips of vegetation. But to know for certain, Pickering would need to take a closer look.

The canals seemed to copy themselves, or ‘germinate’, as Mars approached Earth

In 1891, he was sent to Peru by the observatory’s director (his brother, Edward) with orders to set up a modest mountaintop facility that would gather precise data about the colour and brightness of southern hemisphere stars.

Pickering did nothing of the sort.

It had been almost 15 years since the opposition of 1877, and Earth was once again bearing down on Mars. The tilt of Earth’s axis meant that when Mars reached opposition, it would be far easier to see in the southern hemisphere than in the north. With that in mind, Pickering spent lavishly to establish an observatory that would give him the best views of Mars that any astronomer had ever had. And he agreed to report what he saw to The New York Herald using a telegraph controlled by the newspaper. It was a chance for Pickering to make his name – and for the Herald to transform a planetary opposition into a sensational news event.

In 1892, as Earth approached Mars, Pickering started to send curt descriptions of his observations to the Herald. The historian of science Joshua Nall showed in News from Mars (2019) that the newspaper reworded these descriptions into a vivid narrative that played on the expectations of readers in a colonial era. The Herald presented Pickering as an explorer who had journeyed to Earth’s ends in search of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to discover a new world.

Pickering’s reworded descriptions included dramatic accounts of environments on Mars that embarrassed more experienced astronomers who had downplayed the scientific value of the coming opposition. One of those experts was Edward Holden, the director of the greatest observatory in the northern hemisphere: the Lick Observatory in California. Holden’s views now seemed not only foolish, but an indictment of his observatory.

In the face of popular ridicule, Holden announced to the Associated Press that he had also put the opposition to good use. Peering through the Lick telescope, he had confirmed a remarkable property of the planet’s canals, earlier suggested by Schiaparelli: they seemed to copy themselves, or ‘germinate’, as Mars approached Earth.

Holden privately doubted that the canals were real. But in the process of defending his reputation, he had introduced millions of people to the idea that the canals existed – and that they behaved like nothing else in nature. An explosion of popular interest in the canals followed, reflected by a wave of newspaper reports in the United States and Europe.

The Lick Observatory, built between 1876 and 1887, was named after the land baron James Lick, one of California’s richest men. As he neared the end of his life, Lick considered how to preserve his legacy. He toyed with building a colossal pyramid, but ultimately decided to finance the construction of a telescope big enough to detect aliens on the Moon. That discovery, he thought, would let his name ring through the ages.

In the 1890s, history began to repeat itself. Another wealthy man – Percival Lowell, heir to a fortune gained in the textile trade – saw his chance to achieve immortality. Lowell seems to have decided that if Schiaparelli had been the Columbus of Mars, discovering a new world, then he would follow in the footsteps of the Conquistadors by realising that world’s true potential. He would discover what the canals really were.

Lowell ordered a gigantic telescope from Alvan Clark & Sons, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of fine optics. But that wasn’t enough – he also needed an ideal location to install the device. In Peru, Pickering had worked out a method for measuring the suitability of the atmosphere for astronomy. Under Lowell’s direction, Pickering’s former assistant, Andrew Ellicott Douglass, used the method to identify a perfect site to build an observatory for the new telescope: Flagstaff, Arizona, where thin, dry air would permit unrivalled observations of Mars.

What was this strange, fluctuating latticework that seemed to cover the planet?

As Earth approached Mars in 1894, Lowell, Douglass and other members of their team began to observe the canals. With painstaking diligence, they would eventually map more than 400, of which more than 50 canals seemed to show signs of ‘germination’, or doubling. What’s more, the team charted some 200 oases – circular features at the intersection of canals – including one that seemed to connect no fewer than 17 canals. Nor were these features stable. They were faint when Earth approached Mars, but darkened as Earth left Mars behind.

What was this strange, fluctuating latticework that seemed to cover the planet? To Lowell, the age of Mars provided the first clue. Most scientists believed that the planets had formed one after another, from rings of gas and dust released by the Sun. That meant that Mars was older than Earth.

A second clue came from naturalists who had discovered fossilised sea creatures on dry land, far from the ocean. Earth, it seemed, was drying as it aged. When Douglass spotted a canal crisscrossing one of the dark regions of Mars, he believed he had uncovered proof that those regions weren’t oceans, as Schiaparelli and other astronomers had assumed. Because Mars was older than Earth, it was naturally drier.

A third clue came from the changes that swept across Mars. The canals seemed to darken, first around the pole and then towards the equator, as spring arrived in each Martian hemisphere. At the same time, what appeared to be an ‘ice cap’ in the northern hemisphere seemed to melt, creating a dark region around its perimeter.

A fourth clue consisted of environmental changes happening on Earth. Between 1877 and 1894 – from the time when Schiaparelli first mapped the canals to when Lowell arrived in Flagstaff – a series of extreme El Niño events brought catastrophic droughts and famine to much of the world. By then, irrigation systems and especially ship canals had emerged as quintessential infrastructure projects of an industrialising world. In the US alone, workers had built some 6,800 kilometres of navigable canals by 1860, a figure almost exactly equivalent to the diameter of Mars.

People believed they could actually see the canals using small telescopes

Lowell put the clues together. An alien civilisation, he speculated, had long ago emerged on Mars. When the planet dried out, that civilisation was imperilled. It responded by using its advanced technology to build a world-straddling network of canals. The canals funnelled water from its last reservoirs – the poles – to vast food-growing regions around the equator. When the ice caps melted in the spring, the water would flow south, and vegetation would sprout around the canals, appearing to darken them in a wave that swept from each pole to the equator. Around the north pole, a sea of meltwater formed first, creating the dark region that emerged every spring.

It was an elegant explanation, and it made Lowell an overnight celebrity. His books were bestsellers, his lectures sold out, and his ideas routinely made the front page of major newspapers. What’s more, people believed that they could actually see the canals using small telescopes, which had recently become a common possession for well-to-do families. Newspapers even printed instructions for canal-watching.

Not everyone believed Lowell’s explanation. Some astronomers always doubted that the canals were real – a view that gained credibility in the early 20th century, when powerful telescopes seemed to resolve apparently linear features on Mars into discontinuous spots and streaks. Then, in the 1960s, the robotic exploration of the planet finally proved beyond doubt that the canals were illusions, and that the environmental changes Lowell took for proof of flowing water had been caused by enormous dust storms that exposed or obscured dark rock and sand. In a sense, Mars is an even less Earth-like world than Lowell had imagined.

At the end of the 19th century, however, millions seem to have believed that a species much older and more advanced than humanity had found a way to survive on a dying planet that, every two years, passed precariously close to Earth.

In 1895, a front-page article in The Cook County Herald, an Illinois newspaper, announced that ‘very strange and mysterious things are going on on Mars.’ Douglass had just spotted what seemed like flashes along the Martian ‘terminator’, the dividing line between night and day on the planet. When he and other astronomers announced such sightings, their descriptions routinely made it into the newspapers – and prompted letters from anxious readers who believed that the Martians were messaging Earth.

Lowell uncharacteristically pointed out that the flashes were probably natural in origin, caused by sunlight glinting off ice, for example. Yet light seemed like a natural way to send a signal between worlds. Public figures of all stripes, from inventors to poets, now proposed ambitious schemes to message the Martians using light and colour.

Some called for the construction of enormous mirrors that could focus sunlight – or better yet, electric light – into beams bright enough for the Martians to see. Others suggested that immense geometric shapes could be carved into forests using fire, or that enormous strips of black fabric could be hooked to motors in the Saharan desert and rearranged to send a message. Everyone agreed that any message had to relay information universal to all intelligent life. If sent to clever Martian observers, flashes of light would communicate something about the structure of the solar system, or the basics of geometry. Once the Martians understood how humans used light flashes to communicate universal information, they would be able to respond in kind. Eventually, a shared, interplanetary language could be developed. This became the underlying principle that still informs how we think about communicating with aliens.

At the turn of the 20th century, breakthroughs in wireless communication, using radio waves, suggested light and colour weren’t the only ways to send and receive messages from Mars. Sitting in his laboratory in Colorado Springs one night in July 1899, the inventor Nikola Tesla suddenly heard a repeating radio signal that he believed might have come from another world. He was awestruck, thinking that he had witnessed ‘the revelation of a great truth’. For the rest of his life, he obsessed over how he could use his inventions to return the message. In all probability, he had actually heard a signal from Jupiter, caused by interactions between the planet’s magnetic field and the volcanoes of its moon, Io. Though the signal he received was not a real message from an alien transmitter, radio waves would become central to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence in the 20th century.

When another opposition with Mars was set to occur in 1924, most astronomers no longer accepted that idea of Martian canals. Still, many people continued to believe that the planet could harbour an alien civilisation. From 21-24 August, during the opposition, radio operators across Europe and the Americas observed a ‘National Radio Silence’ for five minutes at the top of every hour to listen for possible signals from Mars. At 7:12 am, operators at Point Grey Wireless Station in Vancouver even reported hearing a repeating pattern that briefly seemed like the message from Mars that everyone had been hoping for. The news made headlines, but the signal was soon traced to a terrestrial source.

Mars was silent. Nevertheless, it seemed as though the ‘Martians’ had communicated a grand truth. They had revealed, according to Lowell, that the ‘true history of man has consisted not in his squabbles with his kind’ but rather our species’ growing dominance over all other life. The canals suggested that the fate of all intelligent life was to remake its home world in order to delay extinction as the climate of that world dried out.

This was a forerunner to what we might now call the Anthropocene concept: the idea that humanity has remade Earth, and that this remaking is central to the history of our time. As Lowell put it, the discovery of megastructures on Mars helped to explain and justify why, even in the 19th century, ‘man has begun to leave his mark on this his globe in deforestation, in canalisation, in communication.’ Those Martian feats of planetary engineering hinted at humankind’s longer future: ‘[T]he time is coming when the earth will bear his imprint, and his alone. What he chooses, will survive; what he pleases, will lapse, and the landscape itself will become the carved object of his handiwork.’

An intelligent species did not need to go meekly into the night when facing a planetary threat

Yet the canals of Mars also hinted that the lifespan of intelligent species had a natural conclusion. Indeed, the apparent discovery of the Martians provided one of the first indications that humanity faced existential risks, meaning risks to its continued existence, and that these risks could come from changes to Earth’s climate. Mars was drying out, and the process would continue until the Martians could no longer siphon water from the poles. After that point, it seemed that every Martian would inevitably die.

Still, the beings on Mars had also shown that an intelligent species did not need to go meekly into the night when it faced a planetary threat. For some, that lesson sparked a very different kind of existential dread.

The Martians had created ‘a shadow and a fear’, the president of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada told an audience in 1897. It seemed logical, he said, that they would look enviously at the watery Earth. Indeed, if space travel was possible, then there was no reason for the Martians to accept their fate on a drying world. They might instead take over Earth – at humanity’s expense.

The English science-fiction author H G Wells played on these fears to reimagine the lights reported on Mars as flares created by the launch of projectiles headed for Earth, heralding the invasion of our planet by ‘intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic’. His novel The War of the Worlds (1898) popularised the alien-invasion genre in science fiction but it was, above all, a critique of British colonialism. The story resonated with particular force in the anxious years before the First World War. For more than two decades after it was published, newspapers speculated about a Martian invasion whenever the planet reached opposition. Radio broadcasts of The War of the Worlds would later spark widespread panic about the possibility of a real invasion – and concerns over the compatibility of mass media with democracy. To Wells and other authors, the Martian threat exposed the folly of imperial aggression.

The Martians also seemed to reveal which social structures allowed a civilisation to reach old age. For some scholars and writers, the canals vindicated social Darwinists who used the concept of natural selection or ‘survival of the fittest’ to justify both colonialism and capitalism. Lowell believed that the stronger Martians had survived to reengineer their planet, while the weak had perished. Schiaparelli, by contrast, thought the canals were a triumph of collective socialism, a whole-of-society response to a planetary catastrophe.

In the decades after the great perihelic opposition of 1877 – through years marked by the emergence of the labour movement, the rise of communist insurgencies, the global spread of unregulated capitalism, and the eruption of imperial wars – the canal-builders on Mars seemed to have urgent lessons to impart. But what those lessons were, exactly, remained in the eye of the beholder. Some hoped that establishing contact with our Martian neighbours might change humankind. When that happened, ‘we may tell the Martians all about our great war,’ reflected an article in Popular Science in 1919; ‘perhaps we will learn from an older and wiser planet how we ought to run the Earth.’

Around the same time that alien engineers on Mars were being imagined, naturalists and explorers from imperial cities, like London or Paris, were enthralling their readers with tales of exotic lands and peoples on Earth. The Martians therefore also had a romantic, almost orientalist appeal. Novelists would later pioneer world-building science fiction by imagining adventures on a canal-covered planet with alien cultures and ecosystems.

The quest to map the canals of Mars directly expanded the frontiers of science

Few were more successful than Edgar Rice Burroughs, whose Barsoom series, beginning with A Princess of Mars (first serialised in 1912), inspired a generation of young readers. Some of those readers would play pivotal roles in the coming age of space travel. A map of the canal-covered Mars imagined by Burroughs, for example, adorned the office door of the planetary scientist Carl Sagan, a leading figure in the Viking missions that undertook the first tests for microbial life on Mars.

Indeed, the quest to map the canals of Mars directly expanded the frontiers of science. It helped establish the importance of a thin and steady atmosphere for astronomy, leading in a roundabout way to the construction of today’s mountaintop observatories. Douglass, who had compared the climate of different sites in Arizona for Lowell’s observatory, eventually decided to study the changing climate of Earth using the growth rings in trees. He would play a central role in the development of palaeoclimatology, the science of past climate change.

By revealing that climatic changes have undermined the foundations of historical societies, and by showing the deep connection between greenhouse gases and global temperature, palaeoclimatology has confirmed the essential truth of the canal theory: climate change can accompany the maturation of a technologically advanced civilisation, and can also threaten the destruction of that civilisation.

In short, the ‘discovery’ of the Martians had profound consequences – many of which continue to shape culture and science. After all, what are Star Wars’ Tatooine and Frank Herbert’s Dune if not variants of Lowell’s Mars?

The history of the canals on Mars upends two enduring assumptions. For decades, these assumptions have appeared in everything from classified government reports to Hollywood blockbusters.

The first assumption is related to how the discovery of an extraterrestrial civilisation would be made and shared. It’s easy to assume that such a discovery would happen when scientists find definitive proof, either by observing a distant planet or receiving a signal from such a planet. Major news outlets would then report the news. But science doesn’t happen in a vacuum, and news is not a transparent reflection of reality. The Martian canal sensation – one of the first examples of scientists ‘discovering’ alien life beyond our planet – was a consequence of everything from environmental changes on Earth and Mars to the transformation of mass media in an age of global imperialism.

It’s no surprise that alien news today does not involve the careful evaluation of scientific evidence

The second assumption is that the discovery of an alien civilisation would destabilise society. The canal-builders of Mars did provoke widespread unease and even spasms of local panic, especially during radio broadcasts of The War of the Worlds. But, for the most part, public order received no serious challenge. The aliens on Mars were big news, but not as big as stories about political intrigue, economic trends or the descent to war – stories that had more tangible impacts on people’s lives.

So, maybe we shouldn’t be startled at our collective shrug when new reports of UAPs surface. Nor should it surprise us that alien news today does not involve the careful evaluation of scientific evidence. Instead, it is a reflection of cultural and technological changes, such as the spread of conspiracy theories on social media, for example, or the commercialisation of drones that resemble UAPs.

The Martian canals controversy has one more lesson to offer. When the canals were eventually exposed for the illusions that they were, the reputation of planetary astronomy briefly collapsed. Today, Lowell is often remembered as a misguided maverick, rather than a serious figure in the history of science. Yet few theories have stimulated as much thought, or been as enduring and productive for culture and science, as the canals of Mars.

Astrobiology, the science that explores how life begins, survives and evolves in the Universe, is today a burgeoning discipline. Two organisations – the SETI Institute and Breakthrough Listen – now lead unprecedented efforts to contact, or at least detect, an extraterrestrial civilisation. Even if their work uncovers nothing, the history of the canals on Mars reveals that there are few enterprises more worth pursuing.

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{ https://aeon.co/ }

04-11-2025 om 21:56 geschreven door peter  

US to test hypersonic missile TODAY to show 'readiness' amid nuclear arms race fears

• READ MORE:  Nuclear waste from first US atomic bomb holds cancer-curing breakthrough

By STACY LIBERATORE, US SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDITOR

The US Air Force plans to launch a hypersonic missile Wednesday night in a test of the weapon system's effectiveness, readiness and accuracy.

The Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) could lift off at any time between 11pm PT Wednesday and 5am PT Thursday from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

The exercise will send an unarmed ICBM on a 4,200-mile journey to a test range near Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean, a flight expected to take about 22 minutes.

America's ICBM is also capable of carrying three Mk 12A nuclear warheads, each packing up to 350,000 tons of TNT, and is designed to hit targets anywhere in the world within 30 minutes of launch.

While the exercise focuses on a single missile, the US maintains a far larger nuclear arsenal.

According to a 2025 report from the Nuclear Information Project, roughly 1,770 warheads are deployed, including 400 on land-based ICBMs, about 970 on submarine-launched ballistic missiles, 300 at bomber bases in the US and around 100 tactical bombs stationed at European bases.

Officials emphasized that the upcoming test is a routine exercise scheduled years in advance. However, it comes as President Donald Trump claimed that Russia and China are conducting secret underground nuclear weapon tests.

Speaking with 60 Minutes' Norah O'Donnell on Sunday, the president said, 'Russia's testing and China's testing, but they don't talk about it. They don't have reporters that are going to be writing about it, we do.'

The US Air Force is set to launch an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in a test of the weapon system's effectiveness, readiness and accuracy. Pictured is a previous launch of the ICBM

America's ICBM is also capable of carrying three Mk 12A nuclear warheads, each packing up to 350,000 tons of TNT, and is designed to hit targets anywhere in the world within 30 minutes of launch

While the Air Force has not disclosed specific details about the test, it has traditionally selected a missile at random from F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming for each exercise.

'The US Air Force operates 400 silo-based Minuteman III ICBMs and keeps another 50 silos 'warm' to load stored missiles if necessary, for a total of 450 silos,' the Nuclear Information Project reported.

'Land-based missile silos are divided among three wings: the 90th Missile Wing at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming, the 91st Missile Wing at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota, and the 341st Missile Wing at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana. 

'Each wing has three squadrons, each with 50 Minuteman III silos, collectively controlled by five launch control centers.'

ICBMs armed with the W78/Mk12A warheads could theoretically carry two or three independently targetable warheads each, giving the land-based missile force a potential total of around 800 warheads.

The ICBM is one of two missiles currently used by the US, the other being submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) deployed from underwater submarines.

The weapon remains a vital component of the US military's nuclear forces, capable of delivering a nuclear payload to targets worldwide.

However, it is scheduled to be phased out by 2029 and replaced with the LGM-35A Sentinel ICBM.

The exercise will send an unarmed ICBM on a 4,200-mile journey to a test range near Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean, a flight expected to take about 22 minutes

Officials emphasized that the upcoming test is a routine exercise scheduled years in advance. Pictured is a previous launch of the ICBM

The US Air Force said that 'the Sentinel weapon system is the most cost-effective option for maintaining a safe, secure, and effective land-based leg of the nuclear triad and would extend its capabilities through 2075.'

Read More

•  Word War III fears loom as Trump ramps up production of devastating missiles 

The LG-35A Sentinel will replace the Minuteman III ICBM with an initial capability of 2029.

Until full capability is achieved in the mid-2030s, the Air Force is committed to ensuring Minuteman III remains a viable deterrent.

The upcoming test also comes a week after Vladimir Putin claimed the Kremlin's military had tested a nuclear-powered torpedo and a new cruise missile, which followed Trump vowing to restart testing US nuclear weapons in response.

Confusion has surrounded Trump's order to resume testing, particularly if he meant conducting the country's first nuclear explosion since 1992.

The 79-year-old Republican first made his surprise announcement on social media on Thursday, minutes before entering a summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea.

No country other than North Korea is known to have conducted a nuclear detonation for decades.

Russia and China have not carried out such tests since 1990 and 1996, respectively.

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

04-11-2025 om 21:31 geschreven door peter  

Een wetenschappelijke analyse van UFO-activiteit nabij nucleaire sites en de implicaties voor ons begrip van onverklaarde fenomenen

Inleiding

De recente publicatie van een door pers beoordeelde studie die een statistisch verband aantoont tussen mysterieuze luchtverschijnselen en nucleaire testen uit de Koude Oorlog, markeert een belangrijke doorbraak in het onderzoek naar onverklaarde anomalieën (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, UAP). Voorheen werden dergelijke waarnemingen vaak gereduceerd tot pseudowetenschap of onderbuikgevoelens, maar de huidige studie, uitgevoerd door Dr. Beatriz Villarroel en Dr. Stephen Bruehl, brengt een nieuw wetenschappelijk bewijsmateriaal naar voren dat de betrokkenheid van deze fenomenen bij nucleaire activiteiten suggereert.

Dit proefschrift beoogt de inhoud van de studie systematisch te analyseren, de methodologie en bevindingen te bespreken, en de bredere implicaties voor de wetenschap en de samenleving te verkennen. Daartoe wordt eerst de historische context geschetst, gevolgd door een gedetailleerde bespreking van de gebruikte onderzoeksopzet, resultaten, interpretaties en de beperkingen van de studie. Vervolgens worden de mogelijke verklaringen en de toekomstige gebieden van onderzoek verkend.

1. Historische context: UFO-waarnemingen en nucleaire sites

Gedurende de jaren 1940 en 1950 werden talloze rapporten gedaan van onverklaarde luchtverschijnselen, vooral rondom militaire en nucleaire gebieden. Militairen, wetenschappers en burgers rapporteerden vaak het zien van glanzende, metalige objecten die volgens getuigen intrigeerden door hun gedrag en uiterlijk. Voorbeelden zijn onder meer de incidenten bij Malmstrom Air Force Base in 1967 en de uitgebreide waarnemingen tijdens de Koude Oorlog, waarin men vermoedde dat deze objecten mogelijk inlichtingen verzamelden of technologische observaties uitvoerden. Je kan deze vroegere waarnemingen het beste vergelijken met de actuele golf aan onbekende drones boven West-Europese militaite basissen, waaronder Kleine Brogel in België met Amerikaanse nuckeaire raketten..

In de vroegere periode voerden de supermachten de eerste nucleaire tests uit, met meer dan 124 bovengrondse explosies wereldwijd tussen 1949 en 1957. Het is opvallend dat veel waarnemingen gelijktijdig gebeurden met het testen van nucleaire wapens, wat vragen oproept over een mogelijk verband tussen deze fenomenen en de menselijke atoomactiviteiten. Tot op heden blijven dergelijke verbindingen in grote lijnen anekdotisch en onderbelicht, ondanks bewijs uit getuigenissen en historische documenten.

2. De studie en haar methodologie

2.1 Toelichting op de data

De studie van Villarroel en Bruehl maakt gebruik van twee hoofdbronnen: (1) fotografische gegevens uit de Palomar Observatory Sky Survey (POSS) uit de jaren 1949-1957 en (2) de database UFOCAT, een gesystematiseerde verzameling van UAP-waarnemingen die deels gebaseerd is op Amerikaanse militaire en civiele rapportages.

In totaal werden meer dan 100.000 'transients' geanalyseerd  — heldere, sterren- of puntvormige lichtverschijnselen die kortstondig op de foto's verschenen en snel weer verdwenen. Deze transients werden automatisch geïdentificeerd via algoritmes voor beeldherkenning, met een subset die handmatig werd geverifieerd om de betrouwbaarheid te vergroten.

De Palomar-observatorium in Californië, waar de luchtenonderzoekfoto's werden gemaakt tussen 1949 en 1957.

(Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net)./CC BY-SA 4.0)

2.2 Analyse technieken

De onderzoekers gebruikten geavanceerde statistische analyses, zoals correlatiemodellen en temporele patroonherkenning, om het verband te onderzoeken tussen het voorkomen van transients en nucleaire testen. Vooral werd gekeken naar de periodes rondom de tests: de dag vóór, de dag van en de dag na de explosies. De statistische significantie werd beoordeeld met behulp van p-waarden, waarmee de kans werd bepaald dat deze verbanden bij toeval zouden voorkomen.

Daarnaast werd gekeken naar het aantal UAP-rapporten op de dagen met nucleaire testen, wat resulteerde in een analyse van de correlatie tussen getuigenissen en de waargenomen transients.

De VS experimenteerde met kernenergie sinds de eerste atoombomaanvallen van het beroemde Manhattanproject tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog (afgebeeld)

3. Resultaten: statistische verbanden en observatiepatronen

3.1 Toename van transients rond nucleaire tests

De belangrijkste bevinding is dat op dagen dat nucleaire testen plaatsvonden, het aantal waargenomen transients met 8,5% toenam vergeleken met dagen zonder tests. Meer nog, het meest significante verband werd gevonden voor de dag na een test: op die dag werden 68% meer transients geregistreerd dan op andere dagen. Deze timing is cruciaal omdat het niet aansluit bij de verwachting dat eventuele effecten onmiddellijk ná de explosie optreden (zoals stof en rook), maar eerder met een vertraging.

3.2 De aard en kenmerken van de transients

De waargenomen verschijnselen vertoonden een opvallende consistentie: ze verschenen als discrete puntgerelateerde bronnen, vaak metallic glanzend, spiegelend en mogelijk roterend. Dit wijst op een mogelijk artificieel, technologische oorsprong, en het feit dat ze niet als bewegende stippen of strepen over de foto’s maakten, suggereert dat ze relatief stilhielden tijdens de opnames.

Foto's uit de jaren 1940 en 1950 onthulden duizenden heldere vlekken, transiënten genoemd, die verschenen in de baan om de aarde tijdens de vroege kernproeven van de wereld.

3.3 Correlatie met getuigenrapporten

Naast de directe astronomische data, werd een significante correlatie gevonden met getuigenrapportages van UAP’s. Voor elke extra UAP-rapportage op een dag steeg het aantal transients met 8,5%. gezamenlijke waarnemingen rondom nucleaire tests en getuigenlijke informatie versterken de hypothese dat deze fenomenen mogelijk een relatie hebben met menselijk uitgevoerde nucleaire activiteiten.

In een visuele demonstratie van surveillancebias worden punten volledig willekeurig geplaatst (witte stippen, boven). Punten worden het meest waarschijnlijk gedetecteerd (rode stippen, midden) als ze zich in de buurt van een gebied met verhoogde controle bevinden (geel). De gedetecteerde resultaten (rode stippen, onder) lijken geclusterd rond hotspots. Volgens een inlichtingenanalyse uit 2021 kan het onevenredig grote aantal UFO-meldingen rond militaire locaties te wijten zijn aan "verzamelingsbias als gevolg van gerichte aandacht".

4. Interpretatie van de bevindingen

4.1 Alternatieve verklaringen en afwegingen

Hoewel de statistische resultaten indrukwekkend zijn, moeten ze worden geëvalueerd binnen een breder wetenschappelijk kader. Mogelijke provocaties zijn onder meer:

• Atmosferische artefacten: stofdeeltjes, vlammen of chemische dampen die reflecteren op de fotografische plates en mogelijk lijken op transients.
• Contaminatie en defecten: fotografie-emulsie of defecten kunnen ten onrechte worden geïnterpreteerd als heldere puntverschijnselen.
• Nucleairgerelateerde fysische fenomenen: ionisaties, elektromagnetische interferentie of radiatie die de film beïnvloeden.

De onderzoekers hebben systematisch deze opties uitgesloten door de aard van de waarnemingen en aanvullende analyses, onder meer door controle van mogelijke contaminaties en het gebruik van geautomatiseerde identificatiemethoden.

4.2 Implicaties voor de aard van de fenomenen

De consistentie en timing van de waarnemingen wijzen op een niet-natuurlijke oorsprong. Het verschijnen van metallic, spiegelende objecten in periode met nucleaire testen past bij het bestaan van artificiële technologieën, mogelijk van niet-menselijke herkomst, die mogelijk de aard van het bewijs op een fundamenteel niveau verandert.

De afwezigheid van dergelijke transients na 1956 suggereert dat het fenomeen zich wellicht aanpaste of reageerde op menselijke activiteiten, zoals het intensiveren of de overgang naar ondergrondse testen. Dit kan duiden op een bewuste observatie- of meetstrategie van een buitenmenselijke intelligente aanwezigheid.

Een nucleair gerichte oppervlakteschot wordt afgevuurd op het Eniwetok-atol in de Marshalleilanden in 1956.

(VS-regering/CC BY NC 2.0)

5. Wetenschappelijke en maatschappelijke betekenis

5.1 Doorbraak in het UAP-onderzoek

De publicatie in het prestigieuze tijdschrift Scientific Reports betekent dat de studie niet langer wordt afgedaan als pseudowetenschap. Een belangrijke waarde ligt in de methodische toetsing en openbare reproduciteit van de bevindingen, wat de weg wijst voor verdere wetenschappelijke exploratie.

5.2 Verstoringen, theoriën en scepticisme

Niettemin blijft er scepsis bestaan over de interpretatie van de data. Kritieken kunnen zich richten op:

• Geautomatiseerde herkenning en fout-positieven.
• Onvolledige of niet-representatieve gegevens (enkele observatietekens, single locatie).
• Externe factoren die niet werden meegenomen, zoals weerpatronen of technische anomalieën in de fotografie.

5.3 Implicaties voor het begrip van buitenaardse activiteiten

De studie opent de deur naar nieuwe hypotheses over buitenaardse observatie en mogelijk technologische aanwezigheid in de buurt van nucleaire sites. Dit kan leiden tot nieuwe wetenschappelijke zoekrichtingen, waaronder:

• Digitalisatie en analyse van historische atmosferische en astronomische archieven.
• Multidisciplinair onderzoek naar technologische en fysische kenmerken van anomalieën.
• Beleid en veiligheidsmaatregelen omtrent onverklaarde waarnemingen bij nucleaire faciliteiten.

Transienten werden waarschijnlijker waargenomen de dag nadat een nucleaire test was uitgevoerd, waardoor de mogelijkheid dat de plekken het gevolg van de explosie waren, werd uitgesloten.

6. Beperkingen en toekomstig onderzoek

Hoewel de studie significante doorbraken markeert, blijven er beperkingen:

• De herkomst van de transients blijft onduidelijk, en bewijs voor bewust artificialiteit is inferentieel.
• Data zijn historisch en beperkt tot Britse en Amerikaanse observatoria; observaties wereldwijd kunnen andere patronen onthullen.
• Geautomatiseerde detectiemethoden, hoewel krachtig, kunnen nog steeds fouten bevatten; een combinatie van AI en menselijke beoordeling wordt aanbevolen.

Vooruitkijkend moet toekomstig onderzoek onder meer bestaan uit:

• Analyses van digitale en nucleaire archieven van vergelijkbare fenomenen.
• Opzetten van gerichte waarnemingsprogramma’s, inclusief moderne radarsystemen, telescopen en sensoren.
• Interdisciplinaire samenwerking tussen fysici, astronomen, ufologen en veiligheidsinstanties.

7. Conclusie

De bevindingen van Villarroel en Bruehl vormen een fundamentele stap in het empirisch onderbouwen van de hypothese dat bepaalde mysterieuze luchtverschijnselen gerelateerd kunnen zijn aan nucleaire activiteiten uit de Koude Oorlog. De statistische correlaties en de karakteristieken van de waarnemingen wijst op de aanwezigheid van artificiële objecten die mogelijk in of nabij nucleaire sites opereren.

Hoewel verdere verantwoorde en gedetailleerde studies vereist blijven, opent deze doorbraak de weg naar een serieuzere wetenschappelijke benadering van het fenomeen. Het benadrukt tevens het belang van transparantie en samenwerking tussen verschillende disciplines en instellingen, om zo de diepe vragen over buitenaardse intelligentie, technologische observaties, en de veiligheid van nucleaire installaties wetenschappelijk te onderzoeken.

In samenvatting toont deze studie aan dat het onverklaarde niet langer louter een kwestie van folklore of pseudowetenschap is, maar dat het fenomeen mogelijk een integrale rol speelt in onze toekomstig mogelijk begrip van universele intelligente aanwezigheid en de risico’s voor onze beschaving.

Onderzoekers richtten zich op de kernproeven uitgevoerd door de VS, het VK en de Sovjet-Unie tijdens de vroege dagen van de Koude Oorlog (Stockfoto)

Bronnen

• Villarroel, B., & Bruehl, S. (2023). "UFO activity near nuclear sites gains peer-reviewed validation." Scientific Reports.
• UFOCAT Database, Center for UFO Studies.
• Historische gegevens van de Palomar Sky Survey.
• Documenten van de Amerikaanse en Britse nucleaire testen (1949-1957).
• Getuigenissen en incidentrapporten uit de jaren 1950-1960.

Eindwoord

Het wetenschappelijk onderzoek zoals gepresenteerd in deze studie vormt de basis voor een nieuwe fase in het bestuderen van onbegrepen luchtverschijnselen. Door de combinatie van astronomisch bewijs, statistische analyse en getuigenverslagen, wordt de hypothese versterkt dat er bij onze nucleaire geschiedenis misschien meer betrokken is dan wij tot nu toe konden bevatten. De weg ligt open voor een diepere exploratie, die mogelijk het begrip van onze plek in het universum fundamenteel kan veranderen.

{PETER2011}

04-11-2025 om 21:14 geschreven door peter  

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

04-11-2025 om 18:15 geschreven door peter  

Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS is seen for the first time since it disappeared behind the sun – and it's even BRIGHTER than when it went in

• READ MORE: Interstellar visitor proves Einstein's theory

By WILIAM HUNTER, SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY REPORTER

Interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS has been spotted for the first time since it disappeared behind the sun.

Using the Lowell Observatory's powerful Discovery Telescope, astronomer Dr Qicheng Zhang managed to snap the mysterious object as it sped back into Earth's line of sight.

The optical observations show that 3I/ATLAS is now even brighter than when it went in.

Scientists have been carefully watching 3I/ATLAS since it was first detected by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) telescope on July 1.

In early October, the comet vanished from Earth's view as it approached its closest point to the sun, known as perihelion.

As it approached a distance of 130 million miles (210 million kilometres), the sun started to evaporate the outer layers of ice into a cloud of glowing gas.

According to Dr Zhang, the comet is now bright enough for even amateur telescopes to pick up.

'Interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS is now rising early enough in morning twilight to be seen even with small telescopes under imperfect conditions,' he explained in his blog.  

Scientists have spotted the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS for the first time since it disappeared behind the sun in early October 

3I/ATLAS is the third time that scientists have managed to detect an object travelling from another solar system. It is moving on an unusually flat and straight path at speeds over 130,000 miles per hour (210,000 km/h)

3I/ATLAS is travelling through our solar system on an unusually flat and straight path at speeds over 130,000 miles per hour (210,000 km/h).

Although it will not stay in the solar system for long, its trajectory has been bent around the sun's gravitational pull.

Professor Mark Burchell, an astronomer from the University of Kent, told Daily Mail: 'A swing round the sun is perfectly normal behaviour for a comet.

'The term swing is a slight exaggeration; it is attracted by the sun's great mass, and its orbit gets deflected a bit, but it is not a tight sling shot effect, more a slow change of course.'

Having passed perihelion on Halloween, October 31, 3I/ATLAS is now just starting to be visible to Earth-based telescopes.

Dr Zhang was able to spot the comet with both the Discovery Telescope and his personal commercial telescope.

He told Live Science: 'All you need is a clear sky and a very low eastern horizon.

'It won't look very impressive, it's just a smudge, but it will be an increasingly visible smudge over the next few days.'

Having passed its closest point to the sun, 3I/ATLAS is now so bright that it can be seen with standard amateur telescopes in the northern hemisphere 

Over the coming weeks, the comet will be visible higher in the sky, which will allow larger observatories to start capturing images.

Although 3I/ATLAS wasn't visible from Earth as it passed around the sun, it has not been totally hidden.

Scientists have been using space telescopes such as those orbiting Mars or NASA's Psyche mission to watch the comet as it passed behind the sun.

These observations have revealed that 3I/ATLAS has undergone a major transformation while it was hiding out of view.

Dr Zhang found that the interstellar object underwent a rapid brightening ahead of reaching perihelion and also took on a distinctively blue hue.

Their study found that the comet was brightening at twice the normal rate, which suggests some big changes were taking place on the surface.

Dr Matthew Genge, an expert on comets and meteors from Imperial College London, told Daily Mail: 'Comets usually produce more gas as they approach the sun and become brighter. Their surface heats up, and more and more ice is turned to gas. It's like turning the kettle on.'

The fact that this comet turned blue also hints that gases, rather than just dust, are responsible for a large part of the brightening.

As it approached the sun, the heat caused outer layers of ice and dust to evaporate. This has produced the glowing cloud which surrounds 3I/ATLAS 

As the comet moves away from the sun and into Earth's view, astronomers will be able to watch these ongoing transformations to learn more about our interstellar visitor.

Dr Genge says: 'As it moves away from the sun, its gas tail will point directly away from the Sun, ahead of the comet, since it is swept by the solar wind. In contrast, its tail of dust will trail behind the comet.'

By studying the gases it leaves behind, scientists hope to learn more about the solar system 3I/ATLAS came from and how it differs from comets from our own neighbourhood.

For instance, scientists have already found that the comet's surface has been transformed by billions of years of exposure to harsh gamma radiation while travelling through space.

This has given 3I/ATLAS a thick, irradiated crust that has been responsible for the unusual amounts of CO2 released by the comet.

Professor Marina Galand, a planetary scientist from Imperial College London, told Daily Mail: 'After perihelion, a deeper layer below the surface will have been revealed.

'It will be interesting to see how the composition of the gas changes as the comet gets further away from the Sun, compared with when it approached it.'

However, despite rampant speculation, one thing scientists are absolutely sure about is that 3I/ATLAS is definitely a comet.

As it leaves the sun, scientists will be able to study how the comet has changed over time. If it got hot enough, pristine layers of ice from another solar system might be revealed. This would offer valuable clues about how stars form

Dr Mark Norris, an astronomer at the University of Lancashire, told Daily Mail: 'In terms of why we think it is a comet, it is because it looks and acts exactly like a comet.

'It is just happening faster because this comet is moving so much faster than solar system comets, which remain gravitationally bound to the Sun.'

There are still a lot of questions to answer about this object, but that is mainly because it is only the third interstellar object humanity has ever discovered.

Dr Genge adds: 'Aliens would be literally barmy to hollow out a comet for a spacecraft.'

Read More

EXCLUSIVE

•  Scientists reveal all the strange behaviors of interstellar visitor 3I/ATLAS 

The enormous mass would make changing direction nearly impossible, and the layers of ice would add major complications.

Although the ice would offer protection from radiation, CO2 needs temperatures lower than -56°C (-68.8°F) to stay frozen.

'Flip on a heater, oven, or engine, and the heat would make lots of gas,' says Dr Genge.

'If you wanted to go unnoticed, then painting your ship black seems a sensible solution for anyone clever enough to be able to travel between stars.'

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

04-11-2025 om 16:42 geschreven door peter  

The biggest supermoon of the YEAR will light up the skies this week – as our lunar satellite appears 8% larger and 16% brighter than usual

• READ MORE:  The key pieces of evidence that prove the moon landing was real

By XANTHA LEATHAM, EXECUTIVE SCIENCE EDITOR

If you're a fan of skygazing, make sure you block off Wednesday evening in your diary.

The biggest supermoon of the year is set to light up the skies, appearing eight per cent larger and 16 per cent brighter than usual.

The phenomenon occurs because the moon's orbit is not perfectly circular around Earth, meaning at times it is slightly closer or slightly further away.

At its closest, it is called a lunar perigee – and when it occurs close to a full moon, it can be a spectacular sight.

'As long as there aren't too many clouds, the full moon will be an unmistakable white orb in the sky,' Royal Museums Greenwich (RMG) said.

'This is a good opportunity to use a small telescope or a pair of binoculars to see the moon's detailed surface, or even try taking a few interesting moon photos.

'However, you can see the moon perfectly well with just your eyes.'

Looking for the lunar satellite just after sunset or just before sunrise will be an impressive sight, as it will appear enormous compared to the surrounding landscape.

A supermoon rising above London in October last year. These occur when the moon's orbit is closer to Earth

Last year's beaver supermoon rising above the Chrysler Building and the Empire State Building in New York City

Pictured: A passenger plane flying in front of a supermoon rising above the San Francisco Bay in California in 2024

On Wednesday, the moon will be just under 221,818 miles (357,000km) from Earth, compared to an average distance of 238,855 miles (384,400km).

This will make it the nearest full moon of the year and therefore the largest supermoon – coinciding with Bonfire Night.

The first full moon of November is informally called a Beaver moon, as part of a tradition dating back centuries.

It is thought the term may have been used in a range of cultures from certain Native American tribes to early European settlers, and depicts the time of year that beavers become particularly active as they build dams and stock up on food.

Along with looking spectacular, supermoons also have an effect on the Earth's tides.

'The tides are caused by the gravitational forces of the sun and the moon on the Earth's oceans,' the RMG said.

'When the Moon is closer to the Earth during a supermoon, the gravitational pull is slightly stronger, and so the tides are bigger.

'However this effect is almost negligible, with only a couple of inches difference between a normal full moon and supermoon tide.'

On Wednesday, the moon will be just under 357,000km (221,818 miles) from Earth, compared to an average distance of 384,400km (238,855 miles). Pictured: A beaver supermoon setting over Jerusalem last year

This photo taken on November 16, 2024 shows the full moon over the sky in the Longsha Park of Qiqihar, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province

Beaver full moon gets its name from Native American and colonial traditions, as beavers are most active this time of year, fortifying their lodges and building dams in anticipation of the cold months ahead

Read More

• Earth has a second MOON: NASA confirms new cosmic companion will be with us until 2083 

While this isn't the final supermoon of the year – there will be one again on December 4 – it's thought the moon won't appear this large and bright again until November 24, 2026.

It should be easy enough to take a decent photo of the moon using your phone, but it's best to place it on a steady surface to prevent blurring.

Those with a single lens reflex (SLR) camera can take good images if they use a 250mm telephoto lens.

To get the best detail, you need a telephoto lens of at least 500 to 600mm and ideally a long focal length telescope.

Experts recommend using shutter speeds of 1/30th of a second, with a low ISO setting to reduce noise.

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

04-11-2025 om 16:25 geschreven door peter  

Archaeologists believe they have found the site where Jesus cast demons into a herd of pigs near the Sea of Galilee. 

Dr Scott Stripling, director of excavations for the Associates for Biblical Research (ABR), told Digging for the Truth that a mix of textual clues, geography and submerged ruins led him to the town of Kursi in Israel.

According to the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Jesus arrived by boat across the Sea of Galilee from west to east, where he encountered a man possessed by a 'Legion' of demons. 

The spirits begged to be sent into a herd of pigs, which then charged down a steep slope into the sea and drowned, matching the geographical clues near the newly uncovered site.

'All three gospels say there was a cliff nearby,' Stripling said. 'All three say there were tombs nearby. 

'And they tell us that Jesus was coming in on a boat from the west side to the east side.'

The breakthrough came from a Roman-era harbor, partially submerged beneath the lake. 

Guided by a massive ancient fish tank, used centuries ago to keep freshly caught fish alive, Stripling and his team located the harbor where Jesus may have landed before performing the exorcism. 

Dr Scott Stripling, director of excavations for the Associates for Biblical Research (ABR), told Digging for the Truth that a mix of textual clues, geography, and submerged ruins led him to the town of Kursi

Stripling used information from a 1985 excavation that documented dozens of ancient harbors along the Sea of Galilee, including Kursi, which featured massive stone jetties and a large adjacent fish tank.

The harbor vanished again as water levels rose, forgotten by most.

Stripling used information from a 1985 excavation that documented dozens of ancient harbors along the Sea of Galilee, including Kursi, which featured massive stone jetties and a large adjacent fish tank.

Armed with the old excavation reports and photographs, Stripling returned in 2023 with a film crew. 

Navigating by GPS and landmarks, including the mouth of Wadi Semak and the unmistakable fish tank, they donned scuba gear and dove into crystal-clear water. 

The underwater exploration revealed massive stone jetties and carefully arranged blocks forming a classic harbor.

'We felt the stones before we saw them,' Stripling said. 'Massive, dressed blocks forming twin piers, classic harbor construction.' 

Confirming the harbor’s location was key to understanding where the biblical event could have taken place.

According to the Bible, Jesus cast a demons from a man into a heard of 2,000 pigs that threw themselves into the Sea of Galilee and drowned 

The journey described in scripture, Jesus leaving Capernaum and crossing to the east side of the lake, corresponds geographically to Kursi. 

Nearby tombs dot a hillside where the pigs grazed, and a steep cliff less than 164 feet from the water would have allowed the herd to rush into the Sea of Galilee, recreating the dramatic scene recorded in the Gospels.

'From the harbor, every biblical detail aligns within a 656-foot radius,' Stripling said. 

Crowning the hill above Kursi, a Byzantine chapel known as the 'Chapel of the Miracle' preserves a mosaic floor that some scholars interpret as depicting pigs.

Pilgrims have venerated the site for over 1,500 years. 'This isn't just tradition,' Stripling noted. 

Read More

EXCLUSIVE

•  Mysterious 'Jesus boat' found in Sea of Galilee linked to walking on water miracle 

'The Byzantines built where memory and geography intersected. They likely followed Origen's research.'

Kursi sits in the Decapolis, a league of ten Greco-Roman cities. The pigs were likely raised under contract for Roman troops; the 10th Legion, stationed nearby, used the boar as its emblem. 

'When the demons say 'Legion,' it's no coincidence,' Stripling said. 'This was a Gentile man, possibly a failed recruit or laborer, tormented by forces mirroring Roman oppression. The pigs weren't just livestock, they were military supply.'

'After the miracle, the healed man begs to follow Jesus but is sent home to proclaim what God had done. 

'A year later, when Jesus returns (Mark 6), a multitude greets him, suggesting the man's testimony sparked a revival.'

'His obedience changed a region,' Stripling reflected, standing in the ancient harbor. 'We're not just finding stones. We're standing where despair met deliverance.'

 While no inscription proclaims 'Jesus was here,' the convergence of harbor, cliff, tombs, and early Christian commemoration forms what Stripling calls a 'criterial screen' that no other site passes. 

While no inscription proclaims 'Jesus was here,' the convergence of harbor, cliff, tombs, and early Christian commemoration forms what Stripling calls a 'criterial screen' that no other site passes. 

For now, the harbor remains underwater, visible only when lake levels drop or to divers with permits. But its rediscovery anchors a floating miracle to solid ground and submerged stone.

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04-11-2025 om 16:11 geschreven door peter  

Interstellar visitor proves Einstein's theory before making an unexplained shift in its path

• MORE: Interstellar visitor 3I/ATLAS pulls away from sun in shocking move that baffles scientists

By CHRIS MELORE, US ASSISTANT SCIENCE EDITOR

The interstellar object that continues to baffle scientists has just confirmed one of Albert Einstein's theories, more than a century after it was proposed.

Scans of 3I/ATLAS as it reached its closest point to the sun have found that our home star's gravity bent the light coming from the mysterious object, just as Einstein predicted in 1915 in his theory of general relativity.

This effect, known as gravitational lensing, was caused by a slight shift in the object's apparent position in the sky, which scientists had predicted last month would be approximately 0.27 arcseconds —a remarkably small displacement that can only be observed with powerful telescopes.

However, 3I/ATLAS showed even more of a shift than scientists could have imagined, straying four arcseconds from its expected path past the sun.

One arcsecond is equal to 1/3600 of a degree, or like viewing a dime from 2.5 miles away.

While the mystery object, which many scientists have dismissed as a comet, may have proven Einstein's theory about gravity bending light, its new unexplained location in the sky adds to the possibility that 3I/ATLAS is no ordinary space rock.

Harvard physicist Avi Loeb revealed that the supposed comet would have needed to release a huge amount of its mass in the form of a powerful gas jet to push 3I/ATLAS to its current location in our solar system.

If it's really a comet, this would have left behind a massive cloud of gas and dust, but if it didn't, then the claims of 3I/ATLAS being an artificial spacecraft will be one step closer to being proven true.

Scientists have proven Albert Einstein's theory of gravitational lensing after spotting movement by 3I/ATLAS (Pictured) near the sun

The interstellar object has given scientists no less than nine different clue that it may not be a natural comet

Loeb explained that for scientists to be right about 3I/ATLAS being a comet, the sun would have needed to melt away roughly 15 percent of the object's mass.

That's about five billion tons worth of gas pouring out of 3I/ATLAS as it reached perihelion, its closest point to the sun, on October 29.

The cloud of dust this outpouring would have created would be visible by telescopes as the object nears its closest point to Earth on December 19.

However, if there is no giant dust cloud for astronomers to see, Loeb called it the tenth clue that 3I/ATLAS was constructed by extraterrestrials and sent to this solar system for an unknown purpose.

The latest hint that there was something unusual about the interstellar visitor came as the object reached its perihelion with the sun and suddenly pulled away and changed color.

'Observations of 3I/ATLAS close to perihelion by the solar observatories STEREO, SOHO and GOES-19, revealed unprecedented brightening and a color bluer than the sun,' Loeb wrote in a paper released Sunday.

This discovery was incredibly strange because comets turn red as their cold surfaces absorb blue light and bounce back mostly red light, just like a cold piece of metal glows red when you start heating it.

Meanwhile, this 'non-gravitational acceleration' 3I/ATLAS experienced could not be explained by gravity, so something else appeared to be speeding it up and nudging it off its expected path, which could be a sign the object has its own engine.

3I/ATLAS (Pictured) made its closest approach to the sun on October 29, as seen by NASA spacecraft

The supposed comet has become the first interstellar object added to the list of threats tracked by the International Asteroid Warning Network (IAWN)

Read More

•  Mysterious interstellar object may be the source of unexplained signal beamed at Earth 48 years ago 

Loeb also broke down the odds of the other strange clues surrounding the interstellar visitor, including its almost perfectly flat course, which takes it within close range of three different planets in our solar system.

The professor explained that the chance of a natural object traveling along the same plane in space as the Earth and its neighboring planets was only 0.2 percent.

Meanwhile, there was only a 1-in-20,000 chance of a natural comet making close fly-bys over Mars, Venus, and Jupiter, pointing to the possibility that this path has been guided by an unknown intelligence.

Scans of 3I/ATLAS have also revealed far more nickel and much less iron than astronomers have found in all other comets before this one.

The object's nickel coating is similar to how humans use the metal as a protective layer against the extreme heat of rocket engines on Earth spacecraft.

3I/ATLAS was also seen projecting an unusual 'anti-tail' which pointed at the sun instead of trailing behind the object like a normal comet.

As scientists wait to see if the alleged comet really lost a giant portion of its mass last week, Loeb noted that 3I/ATLAS was unexplainably larger and moving faster than previous interstellar objects detected by humans.

At 33 billion tons, it's a million times larger than the mysterious Oumuamua, which passed through the solar system in 2017, and about a thousand times bigger than the comet Borisov, which passed Earth two years later.

The odds of a natural space rock from a distant solar system being that large and moving at its current speed of 151,800mph were estimated at 1-in-1,000.

Loeb also noted that 3I/ATLAS only appears to contain four percent water, unlike normal comets, which mostly consist of water ice.

It's also reflecting light in a strange way that made it get much brighter as it neared the sun, and did so approximately 7.5 times faster than normal comets.

Finally, the suspected comet has also come from the same direction as the famous 'Wow! Signal' of 1977, a still unexplained radio signal which scientists have theorized could be an alien transmission.

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04-11-2025 om 15:50 geschreven door peter  

Mysterious drones spotted over military base storing US nuclear weapons

• READ MORE:  New Jersey UFO mystery solved! Top secret military firm confesses to sparking drone hysteria that left America on edge

By STACY LIBERATORE, US SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDITOR

Mysterious drones were spotted near Belgium's Kleine Brogel air base, where US nuclear weapons are stored, prompting fears of a potential espionage operation.

Belgium's Defense Minister Theo Francken confirmed that drones entered the base's airspace in two waves on Saturday and Sunday night. 

The first involved smaller drones, reportedly testing the base's radio frequencies, followed by larger drones intended 'to destabilize the area and people,' Francken said.

'It resembles a spy operation. By whom, I don't know,' he told public broadcaster RTBF. 

The defense minister added that the drones appeared to target sensitive locations, including F-16s and munitions, and that the incidents were under investigation.

'It's not a drone that just happened to cross the military base. It was there for a long time, so it was definitely for spying,' Francken said.

The US stores an estimated 10 to 20 B61 nuclear bombs at the Kleine Brogel Air Base, which plays a key role in NATO's nuclear deterrence strategy in Europe and hosts F-16 fighter jets, according to the base's website. 

The site notes that these jets are scheduled to be replaced in the coming years by the F-35A, the US Air Force's newest fifth-generation fighter. 

The US stores an estimated 10 to 20 B61 nuclear bombs at the Kleine Brogel Air Base 

Belgium's Defense Minister Theo Francken confirmed that drones entered the base's airspace in two waves on Saturday and Sunday night. The first involved smaller drones

(STOCK)

'This was not a simple flyover, but a clear attack targeting Kleine Brogel,' Francken said. 'It is not clear who is responsible for the drone sightings.'

The US maintains an estimated 200 tactical nuclear weapons, with roughly half positioned in Europe. Around 100 of these are thought to be deployed across five NATO member countries, including Belgium, Germany and Turkey.

Unlike strategic nuclear arms, tactical weapons are intended for use in battlefield scenarios or within a limited geographic region.

Kleine-Brogel air base took part in NATO’s most recent annual nuclear exercise, Steadfast Noon, held last month.

The drone sightings come amid ongoing concerns over airspace security across Europe.

In recent months, the continent has seen tense encounters between fighter jets, unexplained sightings of large drones, and deliberate acts of disruption that have affected major airports.

In September, drones were reported over several military installations in Denmark, and flights at Spain’s Gran Canaria airport were rerouted following similar drone activity.

Just last month, drones appeared over Germany, sparking fury from the country's chancellor, who accused Russia of waging a 'hybrid war.'

The US maintains an estimated 200 tactical nuclear weapons, with roughly half positioned in Europe. Around 100 of these are thought to be deployed across five NATO member countries, including Belgium, Germany, and Turkey

NATO forces shot down a mystery drone near a base used by US troops in Estonia, less than 30 miles from the Russian border last month

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz blamed President Vladimir Putin for the incursion of reconnaissance drones that disrupted Munich Airport and left more than 10,000 passengers stranded.

Flights were canceled during German Unity Day, and as Munich prepared for the final weekend of Oktoberfest, which draws over six million visitors annually.

Read More

• FAA docs expose chilling new details withheld from East Coast drone invasion report 

'He is waging an information war against us. He is waging a military war against Ukraine, and this war is directed against all of us,' Merz told broadcaster NTV. 

NATO forces shot down a mystery drone near a base used by US troops in Estonia, less than 30 miles from the Russian border, last week.

Two drones were spotted near Camp Reedo, home to the US Army's 5th Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment, on October 17.

One was blasted out of the sky with an anti-drone rifle, while the second escaped.

Liis Vaksmann, a spokesperson for the Estonian Defence Forces, said: 'Allies detected drones flying in the immediate vicinity of the 2nd Infantry Brigade's military base at 16:30 on 17 October, one of which was brought down with an anti-drone rifle.'

Military and police teams searched for the wreckage but were unable to locate it.

Estonia, viewed as one of NATO's most vulnerable members, hosts both US and British troops as part of the alliance's deterrence force. 

Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said NATO must be ready to intercept and shoot down any aircraft violating allied airspace.

'The message must be unequivocal - future violations will meet a response, including, if necessary, the interception and downing of intruding aircraft,' he said.

'This is not only about defending Estonia's borders - it's about defending NATO's borders.'

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

04-11-2025 om 15:29 geschreven door peter  

©Image license via Canva

Astronomers detected strange radio signals from a distant comet—and they’re not sure what’s causing them.
Astronomers studying a recently observed comet have detected unexpected radio emissions that don’t match typical cosmic patterns. The signals, recorded using specialized radio telescopes, appear to pulse in ways scientists can’t yet explain. Early data suggest the comet’s icy surface or magnetic interactions with solar radiation may be responsible, but researchers say more study is needed. The discovery has sparked excitement across the astronomy community, offering a rare glimpse into the hidden physics of comet activity.

©Image license via Canva

1. Astronomers Detect Strange Radio Signals From a Comet
A team of scientists recently detected unusual radio emissions coming from a comet passing through the inner solar system. Using radio telescopes, researchers picked up signals that varied in strength and rhythm—an uncommon phenomenon for these icy celestial bodies.

While comets have been known to emit some radio waves through interactions with solar radiation, this particular pattern was unexpected. The finding has drawn interest from planetary scientists seeking to better understand what drives a comet’s electromagnetic behavior.

©Image license via Canva

2. The Comet Appears to Emit Rhythmic Radio Pulses
The newly detected signals show a repeating pattern, similar to faint pulses. These rhythmic variations suggest that the emissions are tied to the comet’s rotation or its interaction with charged particles from the solar wind.

Astronomers believe the signals may arise as ionized gases escape from the comet’s surface, creating temporary magnetic disturbances. The pattern could reveal new insights into how comets evolve as they approach the Sun and release gas and dust.

©Image license via Wikimedia Commons

3. Scientists Used Sensitive Radio Telescopes to Capture the Signals
Researchers recorded the signals using ground-based radio observatories capable of detecting extremely weak emissions. By isolating specific frequencies, they confirmed the source of the radio waves was the comet itself, not background interference from other cosmic sources.

These precise measurements allow scientists to map the energy output of comets and compare them to previous missions, such as ESA’s Rosetta probe, which recorded similar emissions from Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko in 2014.

©Image license via Canva

4. Comets Can Produce Natural Radio Emissions
Although unusual, radio signals from comets are not entirely unheard of. As solar radiation interacts with a comet’s gas and dust, it can generate electromagnetic waves that radiate across space. These signals often reveal the composition and temperature of the comet’s atmosphere.

The latest detection fits within this broader scientific context, but its intensity and structure stand out as unique. Researchers are now analyzing whether this comet’s activity differs from previously studied examples.

©Image license via Canva

5. The Signals Likely Come From Charged Particles
One leading theory is that the emissions result from charged dust and gas interacting with magnetic fields in the solar wind. As these particles collide and scatter, they produce fluctuations detectable as radio waves.

Understanding this process helps scientists study how comets behave when they enter the Sun’s energetic environment. It may also offer clues about how magnetic and plasma interactions shape other small bodies in the solar system.

©Image license via Canva

6. No Evidence Suggests the Signals Are Artificial
Despite the term “radio signals” sometimes sparking speculation about extraterrestrial sources, astronomers emphasize that the emissions are entirely natural. The frequency and strength of the waves match physical processes already observed in comets and other solar system objects.

The discovery underscores how many natural cosmic phenomena can mimic structured signals. For scientists, these observations are valuable tools for studying how simple physics—not intelligence—produces complex patterns in space.

©Image license via Wikimedia Commons/ESTCube/Mario F. Palos

7. Solar Wind May Play a Central Role
The comet’s journey through streams of charged solar particles may be amplifying the observed radio waves. As the solar wind interacts with the comet’s tail, it can generate magnetic turbulence that radiates across multiple wavelengths.

Researchers are now modeling how these interactions change as the comet gets closer to or farther from the Sun. This data could help predict when and where such radio emissions might occur again.

©Image license via Wikimedia Commons/International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/T. Slovinský

8. The Discovery Builds on Earlier Comet Research
The European Space Agency’s Rosetta mission previously detected “singing” radio emissions from a comet in 2014, caused by plasma oscillations around its nucleus. The new finding appears to be part of the same family of phenomena but with distinctive frequency variations.

By comparing data from both events, scientists hope to refine models of how comets release and ionize gases. The new signals could represent a different stage of activity or a previously unseen composition of material.

©Image license via Canva

9. The Signals Could Reveal Clues About the Early Solar System
Because comets are relics from the solar system’s formation 4.6 billion years ago, studying their electromagnetic activity helps scientists understand ancient materials and magnetic conditions. Each emission pattern reveals how solar radiation interacts with primordial ice and dust.

This information can help reconstruct the chemical and physical environment that existed when planets, asteroids, and comets were first forming—turning a curious signal into a valuable window into the past.

©Image license via Canva

10. Scientists Plan Follow-Up Observations to Confirm the Findings
The research team is now coordinating follow-up studies using additional observatories to verify the discovery and gather higher-resolution data. Continuous monitoring will help determine whether the emissions are consistent or change over time.

If confirmed, this would be one of the most detailed radio observations of a comet in decades. Scientists say the event highlights how even familiar solar system objects can surprise us—and how much remains to learn about their hidden activity.

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{ Planet Sage }

04-11-2025 om 15:07 geschreven door peter  

Story by Barrie Davenport

©Image license via Pixabay

An examination of what we do know about alleged alien spacecraft—and where the mysteries remain.
Allegations that alien spacecraft have been discovered and hidden by governments continue to generate headlines, but verified evidence remains elusive. Analysts note that while several incidents—such as declassified U.S. Department of Defense reports on unidentified aerial phenomena—have sparked interest, none have confirmed the recovery of extraterrestrial vehicles. Most claims lack verifiable data or peer-reviewed publication. Nonetheless, a handful of images, radar logs and whistle-blower testimonies are keeping the debate alive, urging scientists and officials to scrutinize fact from fiction.

©Image license via Canva

1. Claims of Hidden Alien Craft Have Circulated for Decades
Rumors that governments have secretly recovered alien spacecraft date back to the late 1940s, shortly after the Roswell incident in New Mexico. Although that event was later attributed to a classified balloon project, it cemented the idea that officials might be concealing evidence of extraterrestrial technology.

Since then, stories of secret “crash retrieval programs” and hidden laboratories have resurfaced regularly in popular culture and online communities. Despite the intrigue, no credible documentation or physical proof of alien spacecraft has ever been made public.

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2. The U.S. Has Studied Unexplained Aerial Phenomena
In recent years, the U.S. government has confirmed that it investigates unidentified aerial phenomena—commonly known as UAPs. These efforts began with the Navy’s Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) and continued through the Department of Defense’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, or AARO.

Officials say the goal is to study unknown objects in the sky that might pose flight or security risks, not to confirm alien visits. So far, all publicly released analyses attribute most sightings to balloons, drones, optical illusions, or ordinary aircraft.

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3. Declassified Videos Renewed Public Interest
In 2020, the Pentagon officially released three videos showing unidentified objects captured by Navy pilots in 2004 and 2015. The footage, which showed small shapes moving quickly against the sky, fueled speculation about advanced technology.

While the Navy confirmed the videos were authentic, officials emphasized that “unidentified” does not mean “extraterrestrial.” The clips illustrate how difficult it can be to identify distant objects captured by infrared sensors or cameras under high-speed conditions.

©Image license via Canva

4. Recent Whistleblower Claims Sparked New Debate
In 2023, former intelligence official David Grusch claimed that the U.S. government possesses “non-human” spacecraft materials and has kept them secret for decades. His statements drew widespread attention and congressional interest but were not accompanied by any physical or verifiable evidence.

Multiple agencies and independent experts have since stated that they have seen no proof to support Grusch’s claims. While his testimony fueled renewed calls for transparency, no documentation or recovered materials have been publicly confirmed or examined.

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5. Congress Has Pressed for Greater Transparency
Lawmakers from both political parties have expressed interest in understanding how UAP data is collected and analyzed. Recent hearings have asked defense officials whether any evidence of non-human craft has been found.

The Pentagon and NASA have both stated that, to date, they have discovered no confirmed signs of extraterrestrial vehicles or technology. Congress has nonetheless urged continued reporting and analysis to improve transparency and prevent speculation from filling the information gap.

©Image license via Flickr/NASA Johnson

6. NASA Has Its Own Independent UAP Study
In 2022, NASA announced an independent study to examine publicly available data related to unexplained aerial phenomena. The team included physicists, former astronauts, and data scientists tasked with creating a scientific framework for studying future reports.

NASA’s 2023 summary concluded there was no verified evidence of alien craft but emphasized the need for better data collection. The agency said existing reports often lack critical details such as sensor calibration, environmental conditions, or corroborating radar information.

©Image license via Wikimedia Commons

7. Experts Say Extraordinary Claims Require Extraordinary Proof
Astrophysicists and aerospace engineers consistently emphasize that claims of recovered alien craft must meet the same scientific standards as any other discovery—replication, peer review, and physical evidence. So far, none of the alleged materials or photographs meet that threshold.

Experts say the absence of verifiable samples makes it impossible to draw reliable conclusions. While skepticism doesn’t rule out the possibility of extraterrestrial life, scientists stress that proof must come through measurable, repeatable observation rather than testimony alone.

©Image license via Canva

8. Possible Origins of the “Crash Retrieval” Myth
Many historians trace modern UFO retrieval stories to Cold War secrecy. During that era, projects such as spy-plane development and nuclear testing were classified, leading the public to misinterpret mysterious lights or aircraft.

When government agencies refused to comment for security reasons, conspiracy theories often filled the void. Researchers studying UFO folklore note that secrecy around military operations made it easy for rumors of alien technology to gain traction and persist for generations.

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9. Some Materials Claimed to Be “Alien” Have Been Tested
Over the years, individuals have presented metallic fragments they claimed came from alien craft. Independent laboratories and academic institutions have analyzed some of these samples, finding that they contained common terrestrial alloys such as aluminum, magnesium, and silicon.

No tested material has ever shown properties inconsistent with known Earth-based manufacturing or chemistry. These findings reinforce the scientific position that, so far, no physical evidence of extraterrestrial construction has been verified.

©Image license via Canva

10. Astronomers Say Spacecraft Would Be Difficult to Hide
Astronomers point out that any interstellar object entering Earth’s atmosphere would be easily detected by global radar and satellite systems. Modern space surveillance networks can track objects only a few centimeters wide in orbit.

For an alien spacecraft to arrive and crash undetected would defy current understanding of physics and monitoring capabilities. Scientists add that extraordinary technology capable of crossing interstellar distances would likely not fail upon arrival—a key argument against hidden crash theories.

©Image license via Canva

11. Most “UFO Sightings” Have Conventional Explanations
Decades of research have shown that the majority of UFO sightings result from misidentified aircraft, atmospheric phenomena, or human-made satellites. The appearance of new technologies—such as Starlink satellite constellations—has increased the number of mistaken reports.

Studies by independent astronomy groups and the U.S. Air Force’s past Project Blue Book consistently found that 90 percent or more of sightings had ordinary explanations. While some cases remain unexplained due to limited data, “unexplained” does not mean “alien.”

©Image license via Picryl

12. Scientists Continue Searching for Extraterrestrial Life—But Elsewhere
The absence of verified alien spacecraft doesn’t mean scientists have given up the search for life beyond Earth. Programs like the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) monitor space for radio signals, while missions such as NASA’s Perseverance rover look for microbial fossils on Mars.

Astronomers have also identified thousands of exoplanets where life might exist. Experts say these research efforts—rather than rumors of secret recoveries—offer the most promising path toward answering humanity’s biggest question: whether we’re alone in the universe.

{ Planet Sage }

04-11-2025 om 14:42 geschreven door peter  

AI models refuse to shut themselves down when prompted — they might be developing a new 'survival drive,' study claims

Some analysts criticized the study, arguing that the apparent disobedience likely stemmed from poor training incentives and ambiguous instructions, rather than being seeds of an upcoming AI uprising. So the researchers issued an update on X, describing how they tweaked the shutdown instructions to make them "unambiguous."

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

03-11-2025 om 21:57 geschreven door peter  

Humanoid robots could lift 4,000 times their own weight thanks to breakthrough 'artificial muscle'

By Bobby Hellard 

Researchers have developed a chemical structure for an artificial muscle that can lift up to 4,000 times its weight, and they say it could be used in future humanoid robots.

(Image credit: Ociacia/Getty Images)

Researchers in South Korea have built an artificial muscle that can lift approximately 4,000 times its own weight. They say it can be used in future humanoid robots.

A key breakthrough with the muscle's design is its ability to be flexible or taut when needed, which is a first for this field of research. The scientists outlined their findings in a study published Sept. 7 in the journal Advanced Functional Materials.

"This research overcomes the fundamental limitation where traditional artificial muscles are either highly stretchable but weak or strong but stiff," lead study author Hoon Eui Jeong, a professor of mechanical engineering at the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), said in a statement. "Our composite material can do both, opening the door to more versatile soft robots, wearable devices, and intuitive human-machine interfaces."

Artificial muscles are often limited by an inability to be flexible or taut; they need to be stretchable while still offering enough energy output, or else their work densities are limited. But soft artificial muscles are believed to be transformative because they're lightweight, mechanically compliant, and capable of multidirectional actuation (movement).

When the researchers say "work density," they refer to how much energy per unit volume the muscle can deliver. Achieving high values alongside high stretchability is where the challenge lies for artificial muscles.

Do you even lift, robo?

The scientists described their artificial muscle as a "high-performance magnetic composite actuator," which means it's a complex chemical combination of polymers that link together to mimic the pull and release of muscles.

One of these polymers can have its level of stiffness altered and sits in a matrix that has magnetic microparticles on the surface that can also be controlled. This enables the muscle to be animated and controlled through the tunable stiffness, thus allowing it to be moved.

The researchers' new design integrates two distinct cross-linking mechanisms. The first is a covalently bonded chemical network (two or more atoms that share electrons to achieve a more stable configuration) and a reversible, physically interacting network. The two mechanisms, developed in this way, provide the durability for the muscle to work long-term, the researchers said in the study.

The trade-off between stiffness and stretchability is effectively solved by a dual cross-linking architecture, and the physical network is further reinforced by incorporating a type of microparticle (NdFeB) on the surface of the muscle that can be given a function via a colorless liquid (octadecyltrichlorosilane). The particles are dispersed throughout the polymer matrix.

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The composite muscle becomes stiff when bearing heavy loads and softens when it needs to contract. In its stiffened state, the artificial muscle, which weighs just 0.04 ounce (1.13 grams), can support up to 11 pounds (5 kilograms) — roughly 4,400 times its own weight.

A human muscle contracts at approximately 40% strain, but the synthetic muscle achieves a strain of 86.4% — over double that of the human muscle, the researchers said in the study. This enables a work density of 1,150 kilojoules per meter cubed — 30 times higher than human tissue is capable of.

The researchers used a uniaxial tensile test to measure the strength of their artificial muscle. A type of mechanical test that applies a pulling force to a subject until it fractures – the elongation is measured against the applied force to find its ultimate tensile strength.

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

03-11-2025 om 21:43 geschreven door peter  

The jaw-dropping video of a US drone firing a Hellfire missile at an orb, only for the object to remain completely unaffected, has left lawmakers and the public stunned.  

The footage, presented during Tuesday's congressional hearing on unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), shows an MQ-9 drone tracking an unknown object as another MQ-9 launches a Hellfire missile. 

The missile struck the orb, but instead of detonating, it appeared to bounce off. 

While questions swirl about the video, UFO researcher and filmmaker Mark Christopher Lee told the Daily Mail that the object seen during the hearing 'is non-human.'

'The way the object is described, as a glowing, bright, luminous sphere, like an orb, is unlike anything we currently have,' he said.  'It moves in a fast, straight line, making it trackable, yet shows no visible signs of propulsion such as exhaust plumes or rotors, almost like a plasma object.' 

Lee highlighted the orb's ability to deflect the missile as highly unusual, suggesting technology beyond current human capabilities. 

'None that I know of, which makes me believe it's a non-human UAP,' he added. He also noted similarities to other unexplained drone sightings, including recent incidents in New Jersey. 

However, not all experts agree. Alejandro Rojas, an advisor at Enigma Labs, which analyzes UAP reports, said the video appears authentic but may be a conventional explanation. 

'It seems like the object hit was moving slowly and did not continue. To me, it appears that the missile was unaffected and continued flying,' Rojas said. 'It's likely a military test or drone of some sort.' 

The  video showed a US military drone striking an orb-shaped UFO with a missile, which bounced off and did not stop the craft

The footage, presented during Tuesday's c ongressional hearing on unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), shows an MQ-9 drone tracking an unknown object as another MQ-9 launches a Hellfire missile (stock)

The black-and-white footage was presented by Missouri Congressman Eric Burlison, who said he received it anonymously in a 'dead drop.'

'This was taken on October 30, 2024. It shows an MQ-9 tracking an orb off the coast of Yemen,' Burlison explained. 'Another MQ-9 launched a Hellfire missile, which you cannot see, and I'm not going to explain it to you. You'll see exactly what it does.'

UAP journalist George Knapp, who also testified, reacted to the video by asking, 'What the h*** is that?' Burlison replied, 'I'm not going to speculate what it is, but the question is, why are we being blocked from this information consistently?'

Lee speculated that the orb may represent an inter-dimensional phenomenon rather than a craft from another planet. 

'This is the true reality of UFO disclosure. It's far weirder than beings from another planet,' he said, adding that the object was likely only making its presence known, not preparing to attack.

When asked whether the footage captured an extraterrestrial craft, Rojas responded bluntly, 'I do not believe it is ET.'

Three Navy and Air Force veterans testified Tuesday morning on Capitol Hill at the third congressional hearing on UAPs, the new term for UFOs, since 2023. 

The men disclosed how they saw multiple types of strange, unexplained craft while on duty, including giant triangles, glowing cubes larger than a football field, and the infamous Tic-Tac-shaped vehicles spotted over the Pacific Ocean.

The black-and-white footage was presented by Missouri Congressman Eric Burlison, who said he received it anonymously in a 'dead drop'

Along with their eye-witness accounts, two of the veterans claimed that the US government has attempted to keep their incidents a secret, allegedly threatening witnesses to stay quiet and blacklisting at least one of the veterans.

Dylan Borland, a former Air Force geospatial intelligence specialist, said in his opening statement that multiple government agencies blocked him from getting work, forged his documents, and manipulated his security clearance.

Witness Jeffrey Nuccetelli, a former Air Force military police officer, said that he witnessed five unexplained incidents at California's Vandenberg Air Force Base between 2003 and 2005.

Those included receiving reports of a 'glowing red square' hovering silently over missile defense sites and witnessing a giant rectangle-shaped ship over 100 yards long on the same night in October 2003.

A week later, Nuccetelli said he documented how patrols at the base saw a strange light over the ocean heading toward Vandenberg. When guards called for help, the object quickly descended, hovered briefly, and then vanished.

Three military whistleblowers and other experts spoke on Tuesday during the third congressional hearing on UFOs

'They destroyed all the police records, so you couldn't even call the Air Force and ask them if there was a vehicle accident,' Nuccetelli said.

Alexandro Wiggins, an active duty US Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer, was also brought in as a witness and described a strange encounter while aboard the USS Jackson off the Southern California coast on February 15, 2023.

Read More

EXCLUSIVE

•  Top air force vet who 'witnessed UFOs turn off nuclear warheads' issues sobering warning 

Wiggins witnessed a Tic-Tac craft emerge from the Pacific and join three other Tic-Tacs in a flying formation over the navy vessel.

All of the Tic-Tacs shot off at the same time with incredible speed, without creating a sonic boom or making the typical engine trails of a plane or drone.

Knapp, a chief investigative reporter for KLAS-TV in Las Vegas, highlighted a decades-long pursuit of the UAP story through government documents and witness accounts, documenting years of suspicious behavior surrounding the government's official narratives about UFOs.

He said Americans were told for decades that there was no documentation of any kind of strange craft, but that changed when the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) was enacted in 1966.

The journalist noted that thousands of pages of previously classified documents have suddenly been released in the ensuing decades, including many involving reports of UAPs worldwide.

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03-11-2025 om 21:19 geschreven door peter  

JD Vance declares himself 'UFO' lunatic as he vows to pull back the curtain on government secrets

• MORE: Fierce debate erupts over 'non-human' technology in space after video captures UFO surviving Hellfire strike

By CHRIS MELORE, US ASSISTANT SCIENCE EDITOR

Vice President JD Vance has joined the list of high-ranking government officials wanting answers about UFOs and extraterrestrials.

In an interview released Wednesday, the vice president doubled down on his promise to 'get to the bottom of' the existence of alien life.

Vance happily declared himself a 'UFO lunatic' and was committed to taking some time during his term in office to examine the evidence he has access to regarding life from other planets.

His comments came nearly three months after he told the hosts of the Ruthless Podcast that he was 'obsessed with the whole UFO thing.'

At the time, Vance said he planned to use the time off during the August recess in Congress to do a 'deep dive' into the government's files on what the military now calls unidentified anomalous phenomenon (UAPs).

However, the vice president has amended his timeline for getting to the bottom of the alien mystery, telling Miranda Devine that it's going to take some time, but he intends to learn if UFOs are real before the next election.

'This is the crazy person inside of me. All of us put the tinfoil hat on from time to time. I can't allow myself to become so busy that I spend the next three years and I don't get to the bottom of this,' Vance said.

The vice president added that he wasn't the only member of the Trump Administration seeking answers about UFOs, noting that Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard want to know as well.

Vice President JD Vance (Pictured) said this week that he intends to examine the secret files linked to UFO and extraterrestrial encounters

'Marco's actually very interested in this, too. We talked about this a little. We talked about this back in our Senate days. So, yeah, there's certainly an interest there,' Vance said during the Pod Force One podcast.

However, the vice president added that what he might view as an angel or demon might be interpreted as an extraterrestrial by others.

Vance said he firmly believed that there were phenomena that humans simply can't explain, but was more open to other possibilities, such as a divine presence.

The vice president, who was raised an evangelical Christian and converted to Catholicism in 2019, explained that he believed in spiritual forces working in the physical world, which could be mistaken for alien encounters.

'Is it aliens or is it our guardian angel, or is it aliens or is it a not-so-guardian force that doesn't care about us, or in fact actively wishes us harm? I don't know the answer to that question,' Vance admitted.

Florida Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna has echoed some of the vice president's beliefs, tying biblical events to more recent reports of extraterrestrial sightings.

Luna, who serves as the chairwoman for the House Oversight Committee on UFO disclosure, said that many witnesses have described what they saw as 'interdimensional' beings that had similarities to angels in the Bible.

'Then you look into texts that were removed from the Bible, like the book of Enoch, that actually specifically address technologies that were given to mankind or of entities not of human origin,' Luna said on the PBD podcast last week.

Vance noted that he was a 'UFO lunatic' but also believed some UFO encounters may have involved spiritual beings such as angels or demons (Stock Image) 

Vance (left) said Secretary of State Marco Rubio (right) was also interested in finding out the truth regarding alien life

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•  'Entities' may be living in underwater UFO bases... and experts know where they are 

In August, Gabbard declared on Pod Force One that she did believe in the existence of both UFOs and extraterrestrials, but noted that her role in the intelligence community prevented her from saying anything else.

'We're continuing to look for the truth, uh, and share that truth with the American people,' the intelligence chief said.

However, Gabbard did add that she still had questions regarding the mysterious UFO swarms that invaded the US East Coast in 2024 and was not convinced they were harmless drones.

Despite the growing belief in extraterrestrial life, no verifiable physical evidence, such as artifacts or clear footage of these craft, has been publicly presented to confirm the existence of aliens.

Skeptics have argued that the reliance on anecdotal reports from military personnel and civilians and the lack of peer-reviewed scientific data cast significant doubt on the claims made during recent congressional hearings on UAPs.

However, a new documentary featuring both Luna and Rubio is set to be released in late November, which alleges that the US government has withheld information regarding UFOs and extraterrestrials from both the public and the White House.

'Even presidents have been operating on a need-to-know basis, but that begins to ramp out of control,' Rubio claimed in the film The Age of Disclosure.

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03-11-2025 om 21:05 geschreven door peter  

Scientists are baffled after discovering 'impossible' life hidden beneath the Arctic sea ice

• READ MORE: Microbes trapped in permafrost AWAKEN after 40,000 years

By JONATHAN CHADWICK, ASSISTANT SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDITOR 

Scientists have been left baffled after finding 'impossible' life thriving at the north pole.

The tiny microorganisms, invisible to the naked eye, live just beneath the frozen surface of the central Arctic Ocean.

Discovered by experts at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, these bacteria survive on dissolved organic matter in the cold water. 

They also need to convert nitrogen to survive, but bewilderingly, the gas is generally in short supply in the Arctic Ocean. 

So how exactly the creatures are thriving in the water has left the scientists scratching their heads. 

'[We] have discovered an important phenomenon beneath the Arctic sea ice that was previously thought impossible,' they say in a statement. 

'This phenomenon could have implications for the food chain and the carbon budget in the cold north.' 

The researchers also warn that there is less sea ice in the Arctic than there should be due to global warming, which may actually help the organisms to survive. 

According to the researchers, the tiny organisms are officially known as 'non-cyanobacterial diazotrophs'. These microorganisms, primarily bacteria and archaea, can convert atmospheric nitrogen into a usable form, but do not photosynthesize like cyanobacteria

Researchers from the University of Copenhagen have discovered an important phenomenon beneath the Arctic sea ice that was previously thought impossible

According to the researchers, the tiny organisms are officially known as 'non-cyanobacterial diazotrophs'.

These are 'nitrogen-fixing' bacteria, meaning they need to convert atmospheric nitrogen into a usable form of nitrogen, such as ammonium, to stay alive.

Unlike other many other underwater bacteria, non-cyanobacterial diazotrophs (NCDs) do not photosynthesize. 

The team's field work involved measurements of nitrogen fixation from water samples at 13 different Arctic locations from aboard the research ship RV Polarstern.

The experts found a surprising high nitrogen fixation rates, especially at the ice edge, where the ice melts most actively.

What's odd is that nitrogen is in relatively short supply in the Arctic Ocean, meaning nitrogen fixers shouldn't be able to thrive there. 

'Until now, it was believed that nitrogen fixation could not take place under the sea ice,' said study author Dr Lisa W. von Friesen.  

'It was assumed that the living conditions for the organisms that perform nitrogen fixation were too poor. We were wrong.'

The team's field work involved measurements of nitrogen fixation at several Arctic locations over two trips in 2021 and 2022

Pictured, researcher taking measurements of nitrogen fixation in water samples from the Arctic Ocean aboard German research vessel RV Polarstern

What is nitrogen fixation?

Nitrogen fixation is a process in which special bacteria convert nitrogen gas (N2) dissolved in seawater into ammonium. 

Ammonium helps the bacteria to grow, but it also benefits algae and the rest of the food chain in the sea. 

Researchers say there's levels of nitrogen fixation in their sampled areas of the Arctic 'previously thought impossible'. 

This is due to 'non-cyanobacterial diazotrophs' - nitrogen-fixing' bacteria that don't photosynthesize. 

In the Arctic Ocean, NCDs and other bacteria feed on dissolved organic matter released by algae, among other things.

In return, the bacteria release the 'fixed' nitrogen (ammonium), which helps algae in the surrounding water to grow.

Unfortunately, too much algae growth in the Arctic can be bad news as it can lead to out of control 'algal blooms' which are toxic and harmful to fish, shellfish, marine mammals and more.  

According to Dr von Friesen, the results suggest the potential for algae production in the Arctic has been underestimated.

What's more, climate change is likely the ultimate cause of the observed changes.  

In the Arctic, sea ice goes through a seasonal cycle each year, spreading in the autumn and winter and then receding in the spring and summer. 

But due to climate change, temperatures are getting higher overall and the Arctic sea ice extent is getting lower on average.

Researchers warn that the Arctic is warming at rates up to four times faster than the global average, which has caused major declines in sea ice coverage, age, and thickness. 

The researchers are the first to discover that the phenomenon of 'nitrogen fixation' occurs beneath sea ice even in the central Arctic Ocean

Measurements were taken at 13 different locations in the Arctic Ocean aboard the German research ship RV Polarstern

Read More

• Microbes trapped in permafrost AWAKEN after 40,000 years - they could spark next pandemic 

According to the researchers, areas of actively-melting sea ice generally have more nitrogen fixation compared with ice-covered parts of the Arctic. 

It seems likely therefore that climate change is to blame for this elevated pattern of nitrogen fixation that they have observed. 

Strangely, stretches of open water have similar levels of nitrogen as ice-covered areas, but the team aren't sure why this is. 

The study, published in Communications Earth & Environment, is the first to show the phenomenon of nitrogen fixation occurs beneath sea ice even in the central Arctic.

Therefore, nitrogen fixation should be considered 'in the equation' when people try to predict what will happen to the Arctic Ocean in the coming decades as sea ice declines, the authors add. 

WHAT IS THE NITROGEN CYCLE?

Nitrogen (N) makes up almost 80 per cent of our atmosphere and is essential for plants and animals.

The carbon-nitrogen bond is one of the most abundant in organic chemistry. 

Animals need it to to make proteins, which forms everything we need to live. 

In plants it forms the basis of enzymes, proteins and chlorophyll.

Ecosystems need nitrogen and other nutrients to absorb carbon dioxide pollution and there is a limited amount available in plants and soil. 

However, it is inert and most useful to life when turned into nitrates or nitrogen compounds.

The nitrogen cycle is the process by which the element is used and then fed back into the system.

Nitrogen (N) makes up almost 80 per cent of our atmosphere and is essential for plants and animals. The nitrogen cycle is the process by which the element is used and then fed back into the system

Nitrogen-fixing organisms convert nitrogen into the soil from the air. 

Lightening is another way in which nitrogen reaches the soil from the air.

Nitrification is the process by which ammonia (a compound of nitrogen and hydrogen) that is in the soil is converted into nitrates by bacteria. 

Plants then take up these nitrates through their roots.  

When the plant dies this nitrogen is goes back into the soil. 

Alternatively if the plant is eaten by an animal the nitrogen returns to the soil in their waste.

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03-11-2025 om 20:47 geschreven door peter  

It might look a bit like a spaceship, but this small steel pod takes mankind one step closer to living at the bottom of the sea.

Designed to operate at a depth of 50m (164ft), it consists of a living chamber, a dive centre and a foundational base.

The habitat, named Vanguard, will allow up to four 'aquanauts' to live and work in the murky depths of the ocean.

Living there will give researchers the opportunity to dive for hours at a time, carrying out studies that would be otherwise impossible.

The main part of the pod, measuring 12 metres (40 feet) long by 3.7 metres (12 feet) wide, is where scientists would eat, sleep and work.

It comes equipped with individual bunks, a galley to cook food and a toilet. The dive centre, meanwhile, is where people can change into their dive gear and exit into the ocean through the 'moon pool'.

A surface support buoy provides air, water, waste removal, electricity and communications to the steel habitat, where visitors can stay for a week or more.

'Beneath the surface of the ocean lies a vast, largely unexplored frontier that has fascinated humans for centuries,' DEEP, the company behind the design, said.

Vanguard was unveiled this week in Miami, Florida, and will open up 'a whole new realm of science'

The underwater pod features a galley, seating area and table. 'Aquanauts' could live on board for a week or more

When the beds are 'down', they provide sofas for up to four people to sit, eat, socialise and work

'DEEP is setting out to change this by pioneering a new era of underwater living. Their ambitious mission – to make humans aquatic – begins with Vanguard and represents a major step forward in how people can live and work beneath the waves.'

Vanguard was unveiled this week in Miami, Florida, and will open up 'a whole new realm of science', experts said.

Currently, normal surface diving methods only allow humans to spend limited time deep in the ocean.

Spending time on Vanguard will mean divers will be able to explore at depth for hours on end before returning to the habitat, DEEP said.

By allowing teams to remain submerged for extended periods, the pod will enable more comprehensive research and real-time observation of marine life.

This could revolutionise areas such as coral reef restoration, climate monitoring and even astronaut training for future space missions.

DEEP said it has a larger vision – to have 'a global network of underwater habitats that could give humans a permanent presence in the ocean'.

For now, the pod is situated only 20 metres (65ft) underwater, but the prototype is designed to sit comfortably at 50m (164ft).

The dive centre (left) is where people can change into their equipment. The image on the right shows the toilet facilities on-board

The seating area can be easily transformed into a bedroom, with visitors having individual bunks

This artist's impression shows two people scuba diving next to the pod. The idea behind Vanguard is to allow for much longer diving expeditions and research

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It has been designed with safety in mind, and has the capability of withstanding the subsurface effects of a category 5 hurricane.

Once all systems have been tested and approved, Vanguard will be properly deployed for the first time so engineers can run drills, operational and emergency procedures.

There is not yet a fixed date for when that will be, but DEEP say it will be revealed – along with the location - by the end of the year.

The company is also working on another design, a 'hotel-like' base called Sentinel, which is set to one day be located 200m (660ft) below the surface off the coast of Wales.

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03-11-2025 om 20:30 geschreven door peter  

What will really happen when the world ends: Terrifying simulation reveals how the apocalypse will encourage people to go on KILLING sprees

• READ MORE: Experts reveal the bleak reality of how humanity will go extinct 

By WILIAM HUNTER, SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY REPORTER

A terrifying simulation has revealed how people might really behave as the end of the world approaches.

And it suggests that humanity's darkest instincts might reign supreme at the very end.

Just like in apocalyptic movies and TV shows such as Mad Max or Fallout, the study suggests that doomsday might encourage some people to go on killing sprees.

Researchers say this is because the impending end of days means that the penalties for violence 'lose all meaning'.

That lack of consequences may mean some individuals return to 'more savage tendencies'.

Even though the simulated world was only digital, the researchers say the results provide a terrifying glimpse at how people would react in a real-world apocalypse scenario.

'This finding raises interesting questions about human behaviour,' co-author Dr Haewoon Kwak, of Indiana University Bloomington, told Daily Mail.

'It forces us to consider which actions are controlled by external penalties and which are controlled by our own internal ethics or social norms.'

In a terrifying simulation, scientists predicted how people would behave as the end of the world approached and found that some people would be driven to go on killing sprees (stock image)

Surprisingly, this simulation took place in the online video game ArcheAge (pictured). Players knew that the game would be deleted after 11 weeks, so researchers watched how they behaved as the end approached to simulate a real-life doomsday scenario

This simulation took place inside an early 'closed beta' testing period of a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) called ArcheAge.

The players were free to play as normal, but knew their digital world would come to an abrupt end in just 11 weeks

'An MMORPG is not just a game; it is a "living laboratory" where large numbers of players interact and conduct a wide variety of activities, including economic, social, and combat behaviours,' says Dr Kwak.  

The researchers analysed 270 million records of behaviour in the game to see if it would change when players knew the end was near.

Their analysis revealed thatt, while most players simply got on with things, some 'outlier' players quickly turned violent.

Overall, the researchers were able to identify 334 individuals who committed murder within the final two weeks.

The data also showed that some players showed a quite rapid increase in murderous tendencies as the end of the world drew near.

Dr Kwak says that the most likely explanation for this is that the normal penalties for violence lost their sting when the world was already doomed.

Apocalyptic films, such as Mad Max (pictured), often imagine that the end of days would lead to violent outbursts. This study shows that these worries might be correct 

The researchers found that 334 individuals, separated into four clusters, started showing increasingly violent behaviour towards the end. These graphs show how many other players were killed by each cluster of murderers 

The five most likely causes of human extinction

1. Rogue AI
2. Nuclear war
3. Engineered bioweapons
4. Climate change
5. Natural disasters or asteroid strike  

In ArcheAge, player-versus-player combat between two players of the same in-game race is classed as 'murder' and normally carries an in-game penalty.

However, when the end of the beta period approached, these penalties lost their meaning, and people's basic instincts were given free rein.

In terms of what predisposed someone to turn violent, the researchers found that these players were commonly among the group known as 'churners' who voluntarily quit the game before the end of the beta.

This suggests that people may be more disposed towards anti-social behaviour once they lose their 'sense of responsibility and attachment'.

However, the researchers still aren't convinced that real people would be driven to bloody murder sprees in an actual apocalypse.

'An action inside a game, such as clicking a mouse, is fundamentally different from committing a physical act of violence in the real world,' says Dr Kwak.

At the same time, the researchers found that the biggest changes in people's behaviour might actually be a good deterrent against violence.

While there were a few violent outliers, most players actually showed a striking increase in social behaviour.

In ArcheAge, player-versus-player combat between two players of the same in-game race is classed as 'murder' and, unlike killing in battle, is met with in-game consequences. As the end approached, the number of deaths linked to murder increased as the consequences 'lost meaning' 

However, unlike in the TV series 'Fallout' (pictured), the end of the world won't lead to total chaos. In fact, the researchers found most people increased their social behaviour and became significantly more friendly as doomsday loomed 

As the end approached, players abandoned progressing in the game and gave up on activities like levelling up and completing quests.

Instead, players massively increased their social activity, and the researchers observed peaks in behaviours like sending mail or forming 'parties' for group play.

Read More

•  Scientists reveal exact date universe will end: 'Sooner than we feared' 

This suggests that a shared crisis may actually strengthen existing social relationships and encourage the formation of new ones.

In fact, this kind of behaviour is much more likely to be what we would see in a real-life doomsday scenario.

Dr Kwak says: 'This suggests that when faced with an "end times" scenario, players focused on what was truly important: their social relationships. It is very possible we would see this in real life.

'In times of crisis, people often come together to support one another, reinforcing the social bonds that connect them.'

What is the Doomsday clock and what does it mean?

What is the Doomsday Clock? 

The Doomsday Clock was created by the Bulletin, an independent non-profit organization run by some of the world's most eminent scientists.

It was founded by concerned US scientists involved in the Manhattan Project, which developed the world's first nuclear weapons during World War II.

In 1947, they established the clock to provide a simple way of demonstrating the danger to the Earth and humanity posed by nuclear war.

The Doomsday Clock not only takes into account the likelihood of nuclear Armageddon but also other emerging threats such as climate change and advances in biotechnology and artificial intelligence.

The Doomsday Clock was created by the Bulletin, an independent non-profit organization run by some of the world's most eminent scientists

 It is symbolic and represents a countdown to possible global catastrophe.

The decision to move, or leave the clock alone, is made by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, in consultation with the bulletin's Board of Sponsors, which includes 16 Nobel laureates.

The clock has become a universally recognised indicator of the world's vulnerability to catastrophe from nuclear weapons, climate change, and emerging technologies in life sciences.

In 2020, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, an expert group formed in 1945, adjusted the Doomsday Clock 100 seconds to midnight, the closest we've ever come to total destruction - and it remained there in 2021.

That sent a message that the Earth was closer to oblivion than any time since the early days of hydrogen bomb testing and 1984, when US-Soviet relations reached 'their iciest point in decades.' 

The Bulletin also considered world leaders response to the coronavirus pandemic, feeling it was so poor that the clock needed to remain in its perilously close to midnight position. 

The closer to midnight the clock moves the closer to annihilation humanity is. 

How has the clock changed since 1947?

• 1947 - 48: 7 minutes
• 1949 - 52: 3 minutes
• 1953 - 59: 2 minutes
• 1960 - 62: 7 minutes
• 1963 - 67: 12 minutes
• 1968: 7 minutes
• 1969 - 71: 10 minutes
• 1972 - 73: 12 minutes
• 1974 - 79: 9 minutes
• 1980: 7 minutes
• 1981 - 83: 4 minutes
• 1984 - 87: 3 minutes
• 1988 - 89: 6 minutes
• 1990: 10 minutes
• 1991 - 94: 17 minutes
• 1995 - 97: 14 minutes
• 1998 - 2001: 9 minutes
• 2002 - 06: 7 minutes
• 2007 - 09: 5 minutes
• 2010 - 11: 6 minutes
• 2012 - 14: 5 minutes
• 2015 - 16: 3 minutes
• 2017 - 2.5 minutes
• 2018 - 2 minutes
• 2019 - 2 minutes
• 2020 - 100 seconds
• 2021 - 100 seconds
• 2022 - 100 seconds
• 2023 - 90 seconds
• 2024 - 90 seconds 

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03-11-2025 om 18:06 geschreven door peter