Overview

Investigative journalists Jeremy Corbell and George Knapp have released, for the first time, a classified video captured by a U.S. Air Force‑directed MQ‑1 Predator drone on 23 August 2012 over the Persian Gulf. The thermographic (FLIR) footage shows three luminous “orbs” moving in a tight triangular formation at 18:21 UTC, performing abrupt directional changes without any discernible propulsion plume or heat signature. The material, now catalogued by the United States intelligence community as “UAP orbs,” adds to a growing body of evidence that the Department of Defense is formally acknowledging the presence of Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena in operational airspace.

Key Details

The video, recorded at coordinates 28°27′17.0″ N, 50°33′37.0″ E, was obtained from a high‑confidence source within the Predator’s data archive. Analysts note that the objects were actively tracked by the drone’s sensors, indicating that the platform’s operators recognized them as distinct contacts rather than sensor artifacts. Throughout the 30‑second clip, the orbs execute rapid, angular turns and maintain formation despite the absence of conventional aerodynamic surfaces or exhaust plumes. The FLIR imagery registers no thermal contrast against the surrounding sea and sky, a factor that has puzzled both military and civilian experts tasked with evaluating the phenomenon.

Context within UAP Investigations

Since the 2020 release of the UAP Task Force report, the intelligence community has steadily de‑classified sightings that meet stringent criteria for “unidentified.” The Pentagon’s All‑Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) now maintains a database that includes over a thousand such events, many of which involve radar‑visible objects that evade visual identification. The 2012 Persian Gulf incident aligns with prior reports of triangular formations—notably the 2004 “Nimitz” encounter—yet distinguishes itself by the exclusive reliance on infrared imaging, eliminating visual‑light bias. Researchers such as Dr. Jacques Vallée have long argued that formation flight suggests a level of coordinated control, a point reinforced by the Predator’s on‑board tracking logs indicating intelligent maneuvering rather than random drift.

Expert Commentary

Corbell, whose documentary work has previously highlighted Navy pilot testimonies, emphasized the strategic implications:

“No matter where UFOs are from – it is now openly admitted by our Department of War that they are appearing with an increased frequency worldwide. It’s time to acknowledge the UFO problem – as this case reveals that incursions by UAP pose a significant challenge for our collective defense apparatus.”

George Knapp, a veteran investigative reporter on aerospace anomalies, added that the footage “provides a rare, high‑resolution glimpse of an event that was previously known only through anecdotal accounts.” Both journalists stress that the release aims to foster transparency and reduce the stigma that has historically hampered scientific inquiry into UAPs.

Implications for Defense and Policy

The emergence of a high‑confidence, sensor‑verified record of coordinated, propulsion‑less flight raises several questions for national security planners. If the objects possess capabilities beyond current aerospace technology, they could represent a potentially adversarial system or an unknown natural phenomenon with strategic relevance. Congressional oversight committees, which have recently pushed for more rigorous reporting requirements, may now have concrete data to justify increased funding for AARO’s analytical tools. Moreover, the incident underscores the need for inter‑agency data sharing, as the original flight logs were reportedly generated under Air Force command but are now being examined by intelligence analysts, civilian scientists, and the broader public.

The Persian Gulf triangle formation footage marks a significant milestone in the ongoing effort to document and understand UAP activity. By making the video publicly accessible, Corbell and Knapp hope to encourage a rational, evidence‑based dialogue that bridges the gap between classified military observations and open‑source scientific research. As the Department of Defense continues to refine its approach to unidentified aerial phenomena, incidents like this will likely shape both policy and public perception for years to come.

{  https://usubjects.com/  }

01-02-2026 om 22:24 geschreven door peter  

It must be a thrilling time, for what remains of the ‘60s counterculture: first tie-dye went mainstream, then psychedelics, and now the belief in UFOs. The videos lately leaked by the government purporting to show mysterious and possibly alien-linked aerial phenomena has incited maybe the most serious reckoning with the possibility of alien life in America’s history, with more or less respectful news articles and TV segments and, now, a Congressional hearing. But is what we’re seeing now really substantially different from what we’ve seen in the past? What exactly is going on in all those videos? For this week’sGiz Asks, we reached out to a number of experts—as much as anyone can be an expert in things that are unidentified—to find out.

Avi Loeb

Professor of Astronomy at Harvard University and the author of Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth

This new report is different from past discussions on Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) or Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) in that it involved documented evidence collected by military personnel based on detection by multiple instruments (radar, infrared cameras, optical cameras), indicating the possible existence of objects which behave in ways that cannot be explained by the technologies we possess. Past top-level government officials who had access to this data (including former President Obama, former Intelligence Director John Ratcliffe, former CIA Director James Woolsey and former Senator Harry Reid) made statements recently that they believe these are real objects but they do not understand their nature. It is possible, and likely, that most of the past reports on UFOs from the general public can be explained by human-made or natural phenomena, or as illusions, but we need to pay special attention to the small number of reports where the evidence is strong and undisputable. The key is to collect more evidence with our best recording devices.

It would be prudent to progress forward with our finest instruments, rather than examine past reports. Instead of declassifying documents that reflect decades-old technologies used by witnesses with no scientific expertise, it would be far better to deploy state-of-the-art recording devices, such as cameras installed on wide-field telescopes or audio sensors, at the sites where the reports came from, and search for unusual signals.

Mick West

Science writer, skeptical investigator, and the author of Escaping the Rabbit Hole: How to Debunk Conspiracy Theories Using Facts, Logic, and Respect

They show a variety of different things. Consistent only in their variety, the videos that have leaked out of the US Navy herald little more than disappointment for the UFO enthusiasts who hope that alien technology is just around the corner.

The most dramatic video, code name “Gimbal,” seems to show an actual flying saucer skimming over the clouds. It comes to a stop and rotates 90 degrees in an aerodynamically impossible manner. Surely this is the evidence we’ve been looking for? Sadly, no—close examination reveals the shape on the screen is rotating when other faint shapes rotate, showing it’s an optical artifact, not actually saucer-shaped, just the shape of a thermal glare, probably from the engines of a distant, human, jet. The rotation? An artifact of the gimbal-mounted camera—hence the code name.

The other videos likewise disappoint. “Go Fast,” when put under the magnifying glass of a little high-school math, turns out to not be going fast at all. More like balloon speed. The Tic-Tac, supposedly pulling impossible g-forces, is instead plodding along with the movement again reflecting only motion of the camera. Then there’s the “Green Pyramid”—lauded as the greatest UFO footage of all time for a few days, until it was pointed out that it looked exactly like an out-of-focus 737 which also happened to be flying overhead at that same time.

There are unknowns in the sky. Some of them represent real issues—foreign threats, or challenges of identification, or recalcitrant radar. But, exciting though the prospect might be, very little points to possible advanced technology, and none of them point to aliens.

Jack Singal

Associate Professor, Physics, University of Richmond

I think in terms of three levels of consideration for videos like those that recently came out related to the Pentagon report on unexplained aerial phenomena.

At the first level, one needs to assume that any video, on any topic, that is shared over social media, or on a show that monetizes clicks or ratings, has been deceptively edited in some way. In the case of purported UFO sightings, a video you are seeing may have been sped up, slowed down, or spliced together to make objects appear to move in strange ways, or cropped to remove objects that could provide a sense of [scale], for example.

At the second level, if we are still intrigued after considering that we may be misled by deceptive video edits, we should consider mundane explanations for what we are seeing. These videos are usually amateur and often low resolution, and lack good context such as readily identifiable objects for scale such as buildings or trees, and other moving objects to gauge speeds. Are we sure we aren’t just seeing objects like kites, frisbees, or spotlights? What about drones?

Finally, even if we think that a mundane explanation is not enough, we have to remind ourselves that the atmosphere is a strange and amazing place. For example, it makes tornadoes so powerful that they can pick up and throw a car, and hailstones as big as softballs. We’ve seen clouds and colors so crazy that nobody could have painted them. Given that, should we really rule out that atmospheric processes could make some apparently strangely shaped clouds or reflections that move strangely for a few minutes? Just because something in the sky is strange doesn’t mean it is from another planet.

These recent videos are coming at a time when our scientific understanding of the possibilities for life elsewhere in the Universe has exploded due to the discovery of many habitable exoplanets around other stars. However it is a big leap from considering that life may be out there trillions of miles away to concluding that they are visiting us secretly, based on grainy amateur videos.

Brian Dunning

Executive Director of Skeptoid Media

The past few years of credulous, uncritical reporting of UFO videos by the popular media have been frustrating for many science writers. While the media only wants to interview people who have been career believers in alien visitation and who will promote the “mystery” perspective, the science experts have been largely left out, leaving the claim that these videos show something extraordinary to go largely unchallenged.

In fact, there’s a very good reason why these UFO videos have only been reported in the mass media, and hardly mentioned at all in the science, aviation, or military press: there’s simply nothing very interesting in the videos. All of them show mundane targets consistent with conventional air traffic (in some cases proven to be specific commercial flights) or objects such as mylar party balloons or parachute flares, albeit distorted by well-known and well-understood camera and lens effects.

We’re frustrated because nobody wants to report the truthful, sober version of this, only the sensational view that there’s some alien mystery afoot. It’s bad journalism, and it’s harmful to the public intellect.

A big part of the problem communicating this to the public is the popular belief that Navy pilots can’t be mistaken, that they’re somehow immune to the types of perceptual errors that are endemic to our human neurology. What we’re seeing are simple optical illusions, aided in most of the videos by artifacts caused by the lenses. We’ve all seen optical illusions and we all know how easily our brains can be fooled by them. Yet, when the same thing happens to a pilot, many people believe—with no clear reason—that these human limitations have somehow been “trained” out of them. We know for a fact this is not the case. In at least one of the videos, called GOFAST, the numbers on the ATFLIR screen prove, with no room for doubt, that what’s being displayed is very different from what the pilot interpreted, and what the mass media has amplified.

Bottom line is that if the Earth is indeed being invaded by aliens, we don’t yet have the evidence of it. It’s certainly not in these decade-and-a-half old videos. Remember, even the Navy itself said “the authorized release of these unclassified videos does not reveal any sensitive capabilities.”

Adam Frank

Professor of Physics and Astronomy at University of Rochester

We don’t have the data we’d need to begin a real scientific analysis. The videos are certainly interesting and deserve more study. But there is nothing about them that would lead a scientist to jump to the extraordinary conclusion that the videos tell us something about life elsewhere in the Universe. My colleagues and I are deeply involved in the search for life (simple and otherwise) on planets orbiting distant stars (i.e. exoplanets). The whole field is undergoing a revolution now because we have discovered so many of these exoplanets and we’re working on developing the capacities to detect biospheres and “technospheres” on them. But if and when we claim that we’ve found evidence for such life using telescopic data, you can bet we’d get hammered by the rest of the scientific community. They would want to check for every possible source of error and try to exhaust every possible alternative, simpler explanation before they accepted that we’d answered humanity’s oldest question (i.e. are we alone). This is how science works and it’s the reason why we have working cell phones in our pockets rather than inert bricks. So, as of now, those videos show something that is unidentified. That’s it. If we want to know more we’ll have to do some science!

Christopher Conselice

Professor, Physics and Astronomy, University of Nottingham

These new videos and sightings show that there are observations that have no obvious explanation. However, that does not mean that these events are from aliens or visitors from other planets. They almost certainly have a natural explanation and are likely due to optical effects, atmospheric effects, or perhaps some physical effects we do not fully understand quite yet. The latter however is simply due to the fact that these observed phenomena are seen through complex systems and perhaps unique circumstances leading to interesting features that are rarely seen.

Diana Walsh Pasulka

Professor, Religious Studies, University of North Carolina, Wilmington, whose research is concerned with the links between technology environments and spiritual and religious belief. Author of American Cosmic: UFOs, Technology, and Religion

To scholars of religious studies, reports of unidentified luminous objects that fly around in the sky is nothing new. Historical records reveal copious testimonial accounts of flying objects, some of which appear to carry humanlike beings, and others which are described as flying ships or houses. However, there are significant differences between historical accounts, some over one thousand years old, and current testimonies from pilots and people whose job is to fly planes and drones and observe the sky. Pilots and naval crew have radar, video, and proximity to unidentified aerial phenomenon (UAPs). They have captured mysterious objects with recording devices that were not invented when people from previous eras wrote about their testimonies. Basically, the difference is that our senses, that of seeing and hearing, have been extended by our technology, and that gives us more and better data. Yet, what does this really show or reveal about these events?

Initial reports from a recent Pentagon sponsored study of UAPs is that military authorities do not know what they are; they are technically “mysterious.” This conclusion, which is an apparently honest one, is much different from most of the conclusions made by people from foregone eras about aerial phenomenon. In the past, these events were subsumed, for the most part, within a religious narrative. In the Catholic tradition, they were sometimes called souls from purgatory, or angels. The point is not what they were called, but that people felt the need to name them. Naming them made them less mysterious and provided people with a handy way to shut down further examination of these events.

What is new—or at least modern, as the government has concluded that UAPs are mysterious at least twice before (see Project Bluebook and the Robertson Panel)—is that the report refrains from making conclusions about these events—that is, to call them extraterrestrial. To conclude that we do not know what these objects are is a step in the direction of making some progress toward a fledgling, yet honest study of what they could be. That’s the good news. Other news is that the U.S. government has admitted to engaging in controlling the education of the public about this phenomenon since at least the 1950s. This should at least inspire some level of credulity with respect to any media, fiction or nonfiction, regarding these events.

Do you have a burning question for Giz Asks? Email us at tipbox@gizmodo.com.

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01-02-2026 om 22:02 geschreven door peter  

Government Whistleblower Says There Was a Secret Pentagon Program to “Trap” UFOs

UFO appearing from whirlpool,

illustration Image: VICTOR HABBICK VISIONS/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/Getty Images

Big Talk

A UFO whistleblower and ex-Pentagon official who claims that the government is hiding its knowledge of extraterrestrials is doubling down on his claims in a new memoir.

As the Daily Beast and other outlets report, whistleblower Luis Elizondo’s new book, “Imminent: Inside the Pentagon’s Hunt for UFOs,” contains in more detail the same kinds of contentions he has long put forth with the help of the New York Times and Blink-182’s Tom DeLonge.

In an interview with the Daily Mail, Elizondo said he’s finally been cleared by the Pentagon to tell the full truth about his claims, which include his assertion that he’d seen glowing green orbs in his house after he began leading a secretive Army office looking into what the government calls “unidentified anomalous phenomena” or UAPs.

As he said in his interview with the British tabloid, the ex-official was also privy to knowledge of “traps” the government set up to catch and capture UAPs.

“We had a plan to set up a real big nuclear footprint,” Elizondo said, “something we knew would be irresistible for these UAP.”

Once these unwitting ETs fell for the ruse, “the trap would be sprung,” he continued.

Created by Kory Kennedy

Trapped In

As with claims made by other government whistleblowers and true believers, Elizondo’s insistence on a widespread US government conspiracy to hide the truth about aliens from the American people seems to fall apart under scrutiny.

In a thread on r/UFOs where his Daily Mail interview was posted, for instance, an incredulous Redditor pointed out just how ridiculous the crux of that claim really is.

“Setting up honey pots for UFOs sounds like a terrible idea,” the user commented. “Who knows what type of thing you could end up attracting?”

Indeed, if any members of an extraterrestrial race were sophisticated enough not only to travel untold lightyears to Earth but also to hide themselves from us, it seems almost humorous that our human attempts at deception would work.

As ever, we very much do want to believe — but in the case of Elizondo’s new book, the only thing that seems provable is that he’s on a book tour, with all the pressure to drive sales that process typically entails.

More on UFOs: 

• New Campaign Urges Presidential Debate Moderators to Ask Candidates About UFOs

{ https://futurism.com/ }

01-02-2026 om 20:54 geschreven door peter  

Scientists narrow down the search to 100 mysterious signals – and one of them may be of extraterrestrial origin.

 Written by Fabio Lucas Carvalho

The SETI@home project narrows down billions of signals to 100 unexplained events after decades of data and studies published in 2025.

After more than two decades of distributed data collection and processing from the Arecibo Observatory, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have narrowed down approximately 12 billion radio detections to just 100 unexplained signals, consolidating in 2025 one of the most sensitive analyses ever conducted in the scientific search for extraterrestrial intelligence.

The SETI@home project, led by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, has reduced approximately 12 billion radio signals collected since 1999 to just 100 unexplained events after decades of distributed processing, with results consolidated in two scientific articles published in 2025. The Astronomical Journal.

Decades of data collection and the closing of a scientific cycle.

Created in 1999, SETI@home transformed millions of home computers into a distributed scientific network dedicated to analyzing radio signals captured by the Arecibo Observatory.

The goal was to identify potential signs of extraterrestrial intelligence amidst a volume of data that grew faster than the capacity for human interpretation.

For years, the accumulation of detections has exceeded the tools available for in-depth analysis.

According to David Anderson, a computer scientist at UC Berkeley and co-founder of the project, until approximately 2016 there was no clarity on how to conduct the final stage of interpreting the signals accumulated over time.

The publication of the studies in 2025 marks the culmination of this effort, detailing how researchers were able to move from simple detection to a systematic and comparative analysis of patterns across large portions of the sky.

Methodology for filtering billions of radio signals.

The articles describe the process that examined billions of candidate detections in search of features consistent with a non-natural origin. The analyzed signals appeared as momentary energy spikes at specific frequencies, originating from specific points in the sky, requiring methods capable of separating potential events of interest from known interference.

To achieve this, the team developed new filtering and classification algorithms designed to eliminate signals associated with satellites, radar, and other ground-based sources. This refinement allowed them to reduce the original dataset to approximately 100 signals considered promising for follow-up observations.

Even with these advances, the volume of data remained a significant obstacle. Astronomer Eric Korpela, also from UC Berkeley, highlighted that a complete investigation of all possible signals still depends on direct human analysis, which limits the speed and scope of the process.

Published results and the range of sensitivity achieved

The first article, published in 2025, focuses on data acquisition and processing, detailing the systems of computing The first study addresses the distributed distribution and filtering techniques that have characterized SETI@home throughout its existence. The second study addresses the final analysis and conclusions drawn from this material.

Both studies emphasize methodological transparency, with the availability of open datasets and refined code, allowing other researchers to reproduce or expand the analyses independently

The authors state that the project represents the most sensitive search for narrowband signals ever conducted over large areas of the sky.

Anderson stated that, even without a conclusive detection of extraterrestrial intelligence, the project established a new level of sensitivity.

According to him, any signal above a certain power would have been identified by the methods used, which more precisely defines what can be discarded.

Limitations, technical choices, and potential historical flaws.

Despite the progress, researchers acknowledge limitations stemming from decisions made early in the project. In the late 1990s, computational capacity constraints influenced choices in data processing, which may have led to the exclusion of potentially relevant signals.

Anderson pointed out that it is still difficult to accurately measure what was discarded during the initial filtration stages.

He questioned whether some criteria may have eliminated important information along with the noise, acknowledging that these decisions were deliberate, given the technological limitations available in 1999.

The scientist stated that, with additional resources, it would be possible to reanalyze the entire dataset more thoroughly. He acknowledged that errors occurred along the way, a direct result of the technical conditions at the time, which leaves room for uncertainty in the final results.

Persistent uncertainties and the legacy of SETI@home

Even after the drastic reduction of the dataset, the possibility remains that signals of unidentified origin may have gone unnoticed. Anderson admitted that there is still a chance that an indication of extraterrestrial intelligence is present in the analyzed data, but was not captured by the applied filters.

This uncertainty keeps the scientific debate open and reinforces the need for new analytical approaches. The final set of approximately 100 signals itself remains without a definitive explanation, making it a focus of interest for future investigations and complementary observations.

The work conducted by Anderson and Korpela establishes a technical and methodological foundation for the next generation of SETI projects. Future initiatives should incorporate machine learning-assisted signal recognition and expanded telescope networks, broadening analytical capabilities.

The legacy of SETI@home remains as a large-scale scientific experiment that connected public curiosity, distributed computing, and radio astronomy.

Even with mixed feelings among researchers, including a slight disappointment at not having a confirmed detection, the project marks a milestone in the history of the systematic search for extraterrestrial intelligence, leaving behind a body of data and methods that will continue to be explored.

{ https://en.clickpetroleoegas.com.br/ }

01-02-2026 om 20:30 geschreven door peter  

For decades, the international Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) program has focused on technological signatures familiar to us: radio signals or chemical traces of industrial emissions. However, this approach may suffer from “anthropocentric bias” — we only look for things that resemble our own civilization. A new hypothesis offers a radically different approach: what if advanced civilizations communicate with each other in the Universe not through radio waves, but through flashing bursts of light, similar to Earth’s fireflies?

The firefly beacon hypothesis

Researchers at Arizona State University proposed this thought experiment. On Earth, fireflies use a sequence of flashes to communicate, particularly to find a mate. Although the signal is simple, it is effective.

Scientists suggest that a technologically advanced alien civilization could use similar but more complex light codes as a kind of beacon to announce its existence. This could be a logical step for civilizations that have moved from broadband radio to more precise and possibly optical methods of communication.

Lessons from pulsars

To understand what such signals might look like, scientists analyzed more than 150 pulsars — neutron stars that emit strictly periodic radio waves. Although no signs of artificiality were found, pulsars demonstrate that the Universe is full of regular cosmic “flashes.” Distinguishing between technological and natural signals is a key task.

Interestingly, humanity itself demonstrates a tendency that makes this hypothesis plausible. We are becoming increasingly “radio-quiet” to outside observers due to the transition to satellite communications and fiber optics. Therefore, it is natural to assume that older civilizations may also have abandoned “loud” radio in favor of more sophisticated methods, such as optical ones.

Think differently

The authors emphasize that their work is not a discovery, but merely an invitation to think outside the box. “Communication manifests itself in an astonishing variety of forms. Taking non-human communication into account is extremely important if we want to broaden our understanding,” notes study co-author Estelle Janin.

This hypothesis is just one example of what alternative means of communication might look like. It calls on the scientific community to avoid human biases and creatively rethink what other forms intelligent life might take in the infinity of space. Perhaps this approach will one day help us finally receive the signal: “We are here!”

Earlier, we reported on how 100 potential signals from extraterrestrial civilizations were discovered.

• According to livescience.com

• Posted in News, Science

{ https://universemagazine.com/en/news-en/science-en/ }

01-02-2026 om 19:58 geschreven door peter  

Did the Red Baron shoot down an UFO during WWI?

Richthofen was a very skilled pilot, and on January 1917, he first painted his Albatros D.III in a bright red color; in this airplane, he earned his name and reputation.

By 1918, he was regarded as a national hero in Germany and respected and admired even by his enemies.

He is considered the ace-of-aces of the war, officially credited with 80 air combat victories. But many of his victims came thru joint efforts but were credited to the Red Baron to enhance his stature as a national hero and create a legend to scare the enemies.

Did the Red Baron shoot down a flying saucer?

Unidentified flying objects have been observed among almost the most critical military conflicts in history, from the earliest years by Alexandre the Greatest to Gulf War.

Their presence was also noticed and reported during the first World War. It also originated the book “UFOs of the First World War: Phantom Airships, Balloons, Aircraft, and Other Mysterious Aerial Phenomena” by Nigel Watson.

In this book, Mr. Watson published an interview with German Air Force ace Peter Waitzrick, who not only witnessed but confirmed that the Red Baron shot down a spacecraft himself.

“It’s been over 80 years, and you ordered me not to say anything. But I’m already at the end of life, and I want my children and grandchildren to know the truth”, said Peter Waitzrick.

On the morning of March 13, 1917, while patrolling over western France, coming from an airfield in Belgium, they spotted an object of about 40m (120 feet) in diameter, similar to two overlapping silver plates and orange lights.

Even not recognizing the aircraft, the Red Baron decided to open fire on the slowly hovering UFO; at that time, the United States had just entered the war, so it might have been an unknown American weapon.

“We were terrified. We’d never seen anything like it,” recalled Peter Waitzrick. “The Baron immediately opened fire, and the thing went down like a rock, shearing off tree limbs as it crashed into the woods.”

He witnesses two minor occupants survive the crash and leave the wreckage, running into the woods.

What the facts say about the Red Baron shooting down the flying saucer

Baron Manfred von Richthofen kept the description of 80 enemy planes he brought down on record.

But he never mentioned anything about the unknown American craft like he believed when he opened fire that spring morning.

Peter Waitzrick told me he was ordered not to say anything. Maybe the Red Baron received the same order.

Regarding the date, Peter Waitzrick describes that von Richthofen was flying with a” Fokker triplane,” the Fokker Dr.I, the earliest Fokker triplane to be seen in combat, only on August 22, 1917.

Peter Waitzrick was 105 years old at the time of his interview. Maybe he was confused by the dates.

If they had shot down a flying saucer, it is undoubtedly that the German troops would have searched the wreckage and its occupants in North France. But there were no records found.

“There’s no doubt that what the Baron shot down that day was no U.S. reconnaissance plane. It was some craft from another planet. Those who ran off into the woods weren’t Americans.”

Richthofen received a fatal wound just after 11:00 am on April 21, 1918, while flying over Morlancourt Ridge, near the Somme River, France.

Other weird happenings surround the Richthofen family.

01-02-2026 om 18:55 geschreven door peter  

What information does the Kardashev scale provide us?

Oleksandr Burlaka

When it comes to how much more advanced extraterrestrial civilizations may be than us, the Kardashev scale is often mentioned. It suggests the possibility of civilizations that can control the energy of entire galaxies. But does that mean they are truly advanced?

Aliens

The science of extraterrestrial civilizations is still in its infancy. This is not surprising, given that no representative of such civilizations has ever been seen or heard. However, several concepts have already been developed in this field, which are widely used both in research and in popular presentations of the state of affairs in this area.

One of them is the Kardashev scale, which describes how advanced civilizations we may encounter. They are divided into three types based on the total power of all their activities (machines, power plants, etc.). Type I – those that operate with all the energy of their own planet, 1.74·10¹⁷ W. Type II – those that operate with energy comparable to a star (3.828·10²⁶ W for the Sun). Type III – those that operate with energies comparable to an entire galaxy, 8·10³⁶ W.

As you can easily see, the difference between types I and II is nine orders of magnitude, or approximately one billion times, and between types II and III it is ten orders of magnitude, or 10 billion times. Earth’s civilization does not even reach the first type, and this always shocks people who see this picture for the first time.

The Kardashev scale is often presented as something that really helps us understand how far ahead of us aliens whose civilizations existed millions or even billions of years ago might be. But is this really the case? Let’s figure it out together.

Signal transmission over distance

The main thing to know about where the scale of civilization development came from and why it is the way we know it is that Nikolai Kardashev, its author, was an astrophysicist. He was not a historian, a robotics expert, or a biologist, but rather a person who was accustomed to looking at distant lights in the sky and constructing theories about what they were.

The scale itself was presented in the report “Transmission of information by extraterrestrial civilizations,” presented at the 1964 Byurakan Conference, which took place at the observatory of the same name in Armenia. On the one hand, this meant that the concept very quickly became known to all leading world experts in the study of extraterrestrial life. On the other hand, it was a report read by an astrophysicist for astrophysicists.

Kardashev began by asking himself at what distance an extraterrestrial civilization could send a signal to everyone else in such a way that a meaningful response could be heard, and what would be required to do so. To do this, he uses the Shannon-Hartley theorem, which links the speed of information transmission to the signal-to-noise ratio. In simpler terms, it describes how many bits can be transmitted per second so that most of them are not lost on the way to the recipient.

Kardashev showed that the noise level in a signal traveling through millions of light-years of space is related to the temperature of background radiation. And it depends on the frequency at which the transmission is carried out. That is why the lowest noise level and the highest channel capacity are possible in the centimeter and decimeter ranges. That is, approximately where radio, television, and Wi-Fi operate, and slightly into the operating range of microwave ovens. It is no coincidence that the latter have played a cruel joke on alien hunters at least once.

In fact, it was this part of Kardashev’s Burakan report that had the greatest impact on the search for extraterrestrial civilizations, as it determined the frequencies at which it is best to send signals in space, regardless of biological origin and way of thinking. The most popular wavelength turned out to be 21 cm, but scientists have not yet heard anything about it.

The original Kardashev scale

However, Kardashev did not stop there and moved on from the question of frequency to the required transmitter power. He did not delve into the technical details of its design, simply setting its upper limit as all the energy available to civilization – almost the only figure on Earth that can be estimated without speculation, not only in absolute terms, but also in terms of annual growth.

During Kardashev’s time, these figures were 4×10¹² W and 3-4%, respectively. Currently, the total amount of energy used by humans is approximately 24×10¹³, which is still very little compared to the 1.74·10¹⁷ W that our planet receives from the Sun. As for the growth rate of Earth’s civilization, it has changed several times since the Byurakan Conference, but now, with Asia and Africa in a phase of active industrial growth, it is roughly the same as in the 1960s.

Be that as it may, Kardashev resorted to linear extrapolation of the figures available to him in his work and found that with steady growth in energy consumption, in 3,200 years, we will reach a level of energy consumption comparable to that of the Sun, and in 5,800 years, to that of the entire Milky Way. He called these states civilizations of types II and III and continued to consider them, because we were talking about truly cosmic distances.

Kardashev calculated that if a Type II civilization used all its energy to transmit a signal, useful information from it could be received at any point in our galaxy, even with the antennas that were available to humans in the second half of the 20th century.

At the same time, the maximum speed of information transfer, calculated using the Shannon theorem, is so high that aliens could transmit 10,000 medium-sized volumes of their scientific knowledge every 100 seconds. A Type III civilization could do the same for the entire visible part of the universe.

Where to look for aliens

Based on his own calculations, Kardashev even gives recommendations on how other astrophysicists should search for extraterrestrials. In his opinion, attention should be paid to very powerful but point sources of radiation, i.e., those whose area in the sky is tiny, but which emit an extremely large amount of energy.

Of course, the peak of this energy should fall precisely in the centimeter and decimeter ranges, meaning that it should be best visible using radio telescopes. In addition, the radiation must be polarized, meaning that its oscillations will occur in a single plane.

Kardashev himself was convinced that if not Type II, then Type III civilizations must exist in places where we can currently receive their signals. In particular, he considered the recently discovered CTA 102 source, which was extremely powerful and demonstrated variability, as a candidate for their transmitter.

Unfortunately, Kardashev underestimated the diversity of cosmic objects. We now know of many point sources that exhibit the behavior he described and are completely natural. In particular, STA 102 turned out to be an active galactic nucleus – a quasar that absorbs matter and changes brightness due to the unevenness of this process.

Will energy consumption really grow at a constant rate?

The Kardashev scale became popular thanks to American astrophysicist Carl Sagan. We also owe him the fact that it has changed from a purely rank-based scale, i.e., one with three marks, to a discrete scale, i.e., one that can accept fractional values.

This helped, in particular, to reconcile the numbers named by Kardashev with the amount of energy that the Earth receives from the Sun. It is now believed that humanity has a rating of 0.73 on the energy consumption scale. On the one hand, this makes the situation clearer, but on the other hand, it creates the impression that we are almost three-quarters of the way to reaching “one,” but in reality this is not the case, because the scale is logarithmic, meaning that the further you move, the more watts of power you need to add to the total treasury to add another hundredth. Therefore, in reality, all of human civilization still consumes a fraction of a percent of what the Earth receives from the Sun.

All this raises a much more important question: can our civilization’s energy consumption really reach the levels predicted by Kardashev? Observations of its growth rates over the 60 years since the astrophysicist made his report do not provide a clear answer to this question.

Now scientists, including renowned futurologist Michio Kaku, say that we are still 100-200 years away from Type I civilization, a millennium away from Type II, and hundreds of thousands of years away from Type III. For comparison, it is worth noting that only 10,000 years have passed since the beginning of the Neolithic Revolution, when agriculture began to play a greater role than hunting for people in the Middle East for the first time on Earth. So it turns out that our civilization is at the very beginning of an incredibly long journey.

Does development really mean an increase in power?

In fact, nothing is surprising in the fact that the path to Type III civilization can take hundreds of thousands or even millions of years. Kardashev himself suggested that for some time (thousands of years) the exchange of information would be one-sided, i.e., signals from Type III to Type I would reach their destination, but not vice versa. But eventually, all intelligent beings will get to the point where they can signal across the entire galaxy like a flashlight.

But this view is very one-sided, as Sagan himself pointed out. It is clear that Kardashev was an astrophysicist and, of all the models of extraterrestrial civilization behavior, he chose the one that would be easiest for him and his colleagues to detect. Because if aliens do not use most of their civilization’s power to signal to the entire universe that they are here and they are intelligent, then they remain invisible.

On the other hand, this view of the essence of civilization was very characteristic of the 1950s and 1960s in general. The Cold War was in full swing, and the US and the USSR were spending a lot of resources on demonstrating their power. After all, the Tsar Bomb was tested just three years before the Byurakan Conference.

But as time went on, the situation where an overdeveloped civilization spent most of its enormous power on sharing knowledge with other forms of life that were millions of years behind it seemed increasingly strange. This was because questions arose about the expediency of such activity.

Currently, Liu Cixin’s “dark forest” theory is considered one of the main antitheses to Kardashev’s idea and a possible explanation for the Fermi paradox. Civilizations sit silently because telling everyone around you that you exist and are intelligent means inviting attacks from all sides, because there are no friends in space, only competitors.

In fact, the dark forest theory is no better than Kardashev’s idea of civilizations gushing knowledge throughout the universe, because instead of peaceful megalomaniacal projects, they envisage spending most of a civilization’s power on military projects of no less absurd scale.

In reality, it is much simpler: neither the first nor the second civilizations are really necessary, because most of their members live their own lives and are not interested in other civilizations. Even large-scale projects such as generation ships, space stations for millions of inhabitants, or even terraforming planets require a lot of power, but significantly less than that needed to support Type II and Type III civilization transmitters.

Ultimately, even the very thesis of increasing machine power as the essence of civilization’s development can be questioned. The fact is that 60 years have passed since the Burakan Conference, and the Tsar Bomb remains the most powerful explosion ever created by humans. Moreover, the increase in the power of nuclear reactors essentially stopped several decades ago.

Instead of power, technological development specialists are increasingly talking about efficiency. And in most cases, this means “emitting less energy where it is not needed.” This is particularly evident in the example of information transmission systems. In the 1960s, the main devices used for this purpose were television and radio towers.

The principle behind their effectiveness was simple: raise the most powerful transmitter as high as possible. However, the advent of communication satellites made transmitters capable of sending signals further than 500 km unnecessary. Then, the emergence of various cable networks and automatic data routing systems revolutionized the field of information transmission. Modern cellular networks are generally based on transmitters with a range of several hundred meters. Why would you need more than that if data packets can simply be passed along like a baton?

Kardashev made his calculations for undirected signal radiation, and his followers have long since calculated that it is extremely ineffective at cosmic distances. Our terrestrial television is difficult to receive even near Alpha Centauri, and beyond that, it is lost in noise. But a directional signal can travel much greater distances with less transmitter power.

That is why space communications now increasingly rely on messages sent by a narrow beam, ideally a laser beam, and the problem is that it is practically impossible to intercept them accidentally in space. The argument that “aliens must communicate with each other somehow, and we will definitely hear it” falls away by itself.

Every day, on any city bus, dozens of people communicate with someone outside the bus, and other passengers have no idea what they are talking about. They only know that their neighbor, like themselves, is looking at a smartphone screen.

And in other industries, everything is moving in the same direction. A quadcopter has ridiculous power compared to a ballistic missile from the 1960s. At the same time, to the designers of that missile, it would have looked like a true creation of an extraterrestrial civilization. This is because it uses automatic control and feedback systems that were considered impossible just a couple of decades ago, especially on such a small machine.

All our experience over the past decades shows that power is not unnecessary. It is not the main thing. It is much better to improve the efficiency, reliability, and sophistication of our machines. In many ways, the fact that energy consumption continues to grow is explained by the fact that the world’s population continues to grow, and now even in countries that we are accustomed to calling the “third world,” people want to live according to energy consumption standards that even residents of developed countries in the 1960s would have considered luxurious.

No one knows how energy consumption will change when people across the planet satisfy their needs for the wonders of consumer electronics and electrical engineering, and when these technologies themselves become even more efficient. It is entirely possible that in the coming centuries we will not even reach Type I on the Kardashev scale.

It is quite possible that the future is not a stairway to heaven powered by clean energy, but a house built, at first glance, in the same way as houses were built centuries ago, but in fact filled with clever technology that surpasses a smartphone in functionality as much as a smartphone surpasses a rotary dial telephone.

Ultimately, Kardashev’s theory does not take into account even a more traditional scenario for the development of civilization: settlement within its own star system and beyond. In that case, intelligent beings could indeed have a total machine power comparable, if not to all solar radiation, then to the fraction that reaches Earth. But it would be scattered across a dozen star systems and mainly concentrated on ships flying between them. And there would be no question of any megastructures.

However, Kardashev himself should not be blamed for anything. He was a man of his time and, from the very beginning, did not claim to be anything more than a describer of the characteristics of civilization, the signals of which he could pick up as an astrophysicist. All other interpretations of his scale are later interpretations, and who is to blame for the fact that people continue to repeat them even though the experience of the development of Earth’s civilization increasingly diverges from his assumptions?

• Posted in Articles, Questions 

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31-01-2026 om 22:44 geschreven door peter  

As NASA’s astronaut crew, engineers, and mission specialists prepare to make history with the forthcoming launch, here are five things you should know about Artemis II, its crew, and what its scientific missions will include while in orbit.

The Artemis II Mission

A focal point of the Artemis II mission involves the fact that this will be the first time NASA has launched a crew aboard its foundational deep space rocket, the SLS (Space Launch System), and the agency’s new Orion spacecraft.

While in orbit, the mission will provide NASA with the first real opportunity to test the operability of the spacecraft’s systems while having a space-bound crew on board. Not only that, but the mission’s trajectory will carry its astronaut crew farther than any human has traveled into space.

Fundamentally, Artemis II will offer a proving ground for NASA’s most state-of-the-art space exploration capabilities, while setting the pace for future missions that will travel to the lunar surface and, if all goes according to plan, establish a long-term presence on the Moon. This will not only support ongoing lunar science and exploration but will mark an important steppingstone on the path toward eventual crewed explorations of Mars. 

The Crew: First of “The Artemis Generation”  

NASA has selected a team of four astronauts for the Artemis II mission. The crew consists of Commander Reid Wiseman, a former Naval aviator and Chief of the Astronaut Office; Pilot Victor Glover, also a former Naval aviator who previously served as a pilot on the SpaceX Crew-1 mission; Mission Specialist Christina Koch, who currently holds the record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman; and Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen, a Canadian Space Agency astronaut.

(Left to Right): CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, NASA astronauts Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman, and Christina Koch, will comprise the Artemis II crew (Image Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett).

Notably, this foursome will be the first crew to carry NASA’s Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft in a journey around the Moon, offering the first full systems test of the spacecraft’s capabilities in a full-scale space mission.

Astronaut Health Experiments

The Artemis II crew will perform a range of science experiments during their mission, many of which will focus on astronaut health to provide NASA with an unprecedented look at the impact of deep space travel on humans. Here’s a quick look at several of the health-related experiments the Artemis II crew will be conducting.

• ARCHeR: NASA’s Artemis Research for Crew Health and Readiness (ARCHeR) will focus on monitoring the crew’s sleep patterns, activity while on board, and overall well-being, which will inform future planning efforts to ensure optimal human health and performance in space.

NASA image depicting the actigraphy device that certain Artemis II astronauts will wear during their mission around the Moon. The device will measure the crew members’ motion, sleep patterns, and exposure to light

(Image Credit: NASA/Helen Arase Vargas).

• AVATAR: The A Virtual Astronaut Tissue Analog Response (AVATAR) study will comprise investigations into the effects of increased exposure to radiation and microgravity that the Artemis II crew will experience, monitored using organ-on-a-chip devices.
• Immune Biomarkers: During Artemis II, blood and saliva samples will also be monitored to study the impact of deep space travel on the immune system.
• Artemis II Standard Measures: Ongoing health information will be provided by each Artemis II astronaut, which will be stored in a data bank for use in future studies related to astronaut health.
• Radiation Studies: Additional monitoring of radiation levels within and outside the Orion capsule will allow NASA’s science team to characterize the deep space environment.

Lunar Science Studies

Since Artemis II marks the first time humans have journeyed to the Moon in more than 50 years, marking what NASA has dubbed “The Artemis Generation” of space exploration, the mission will collect large volumes of data related to lunar science.

During the crew’s passage by the far side of the Moon, the NASA astronauts will perform a three-hour analysis and image collection operation to photograph the Moon’s ancient lava flows, impact craters, and geological features.

Preparation for this portion of their mission included studies on Earth in moonlike environments like deserts and rocky landscapes, which help to inform them about many of the features they will document.

Other Artemis II Mission Objectives

• CubeSats: A range of other scientific studies will during the Artemis II mission, which will enable further studies that will be undertaken remotely by several of NASA’s international partners around the world, which include the transport of CubeSats aboard Artemis II.

“Space agencies from Germany, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, and Argentina will fly CubeSats aboard Artemis II,” NASA’s Artemis II website states. “The CubeSats, which have their own distinct objectives from NASA’s primary mission of sending four astronauts around the Moon, will be deployed in high Earth orbit.”

“In addition to the CubeSats, the German Aerospace Center (DLR) will conduct radiation research,” NASA’s statement reads.

• Payload Management: While the Artemis II astronauts are hard at work in deep space, back on Earth at the Payload and Mission Operations Division at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, NASA’s flight control team will be continuously monitoring the crew’s progress, while also managing several additional science priorities aboard the spacecraft from the facility’s Lunar Utilization Control Area.
• 

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• Real-Time Science Operations: Additionally, NASA will have a team specializing in the study of impact craters, lunar ice, tectonic activity, and volcanism on hand to provide real-time analysis and additional resources to the Artemis crew, all of which will be transmitted from the Science Evaluation Room located in the mission control facility at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
• Space Weather Studies: Since Artemis II will be carrying humans far beyond Earth’s magnetosphere, the magnetic bubble that shields our planet from potentially harmful space weather emanating from the Sun, scientists at NASA, as well as its partners at NOAA, will be offering ongoing space weather forecasting to the Artemis II mission manager, flight director, and console operators throughout the duration of the mission.

Specifically, the NASA and NOAA teams will be watching for potential coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and solar flares, which have the potential to impact not only certain capabilities of the systems on board the spacecraft but also could potentially have a harmful impact on human health.

One Step Beyond

Once the official launch window for Artemis II has been determined, NASA will begin final preparations for launching the astronaut crew on its roughly 10-day mission from Launch Complex 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.

From there, the Artemis II crew will spend its first couple of days testing Orion’s systems, as well as undertaking a targeting demonstration while still close to Earth. From there, the team will begin their journey toward the Moon.

A burn from Orion’s European-built service module will propel the spacecraft into a four-day-long outbound trajectory, which will carry the Artemis II astronauts around the Moon’s far side on a figure-eight path that will extend more than 230,000 miles from Earth, and about 4,600 miles beyond the Moon at its farthest point.

Following the crew’s loop around the Moon, the mission will then enter a fuel-efficient free-return path that will rely on the gravitational properties of the Earth and the Moon to help bring Orion back home, which will eliminate any significant requirement for propulsion on the crew’s way home.

In the final phase of their return, the crew will endure a high-speed, high-temperature reentry not unlike past crewed missions have undergone before they splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego. There, recovery teams comprised of NASA and Department of Defense personnel will retrieve the Artemis II astronauts.

In the days ahead, NASA will provide ongoing details as its teams continue preparations for the forthcoming launch, marking a major leap for human space exploration in the twenty-first century, and the initiation of the Artemis Generation of crewed deep space missions to study the Moon and beyond.

• Micah Hanks is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of The Debrief. A longtime reporter on science, defense, and technology with a focus on space and astronomy, he can be reached at micah@thedebrief.org. Follow him on X @MicahHanks, and at micahhanks.com
  

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31-01-2026 om 22:09 geschreven door peter  

Out-of-control Chinese rocket smashes into the South Pacific Ocean - after Britain was put on red-alert over the potential of falling debris

• READ MORE: Step–by–step graphic reveals what will happen during Artemis II

By WILIAM HUNTER, SENIOR SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY REPORTER

An out-of-control Chinese rocket has crashed into the Southern Pacific Ocean, after Britain readied the emergency alert system over fears of falling debris. 

Earlier today, the UK government asked mobile network providers to ensure the alert system is operational, in preparation for a potential impact.

However, the rocket has now safely landed in the ocean some 1,200 miles (2,000 km) southeast of New Zealand. 

The rocket, a Chinese Zhuque–3 launched in early December, crashed to Earth at 12:39 GMT, according to the US Space Force. 

With an estimated mass of 11 tonnes, the EU's Space Surveillance and Tracking (SST) agency had cautioned that ZQ–3 R/B was 'quite a sizeable object deserving careful monitoring.' 

While the vast majority of space debris which falls on Earth either burns up in the atmosphere or is never found, experts say we can be certain this rocket fell safely. 

Dr Marco Lanbroek, a debris tracking expert from the Delft University of Technology, says he 'strongly suspects' that the US Space Force observed the re-entry fireball using a space-based satellite. 

This puts an end to intense uncertainty over the rocket's potential landing site, after predictions suggested it could hit Northern Europe and the UK. 

The government asked mobile network operators to ensure the national emergency alert system is ready, as an out–of–control Chinese rocket (pictured) hurtles to Earth 

The rocket was launched by private space firm LandSpace from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in China's Gansu Province on December 3, 2025.

The experimental rocket, dubbed ZQ–3 R/B, successfully reached orbit, but its reusable booster stage, modelled after the SpaceX Falcon 9, exploded during landing.

The upper stages and its 'dummy' cargo, in the form of a large metal tank, have been slowly slipping out of orbit.  

The rocket's shallow angle of re–entry had made it extremely difficult to predict exactly where any of the pieces might fall.

At the time, Professor Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer from the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and expert on tracking space debris, told the Daily Mail: 'It will pass over the Inverness–Aberdeen area at 1200 UTC, so there's a small – a few per cent – chance it could re–enter there, otherwise it won't happen over the UK.'

It is not uncommon for pieces of rocket and satellite debris to fall to Earth, with debris passing over the UK about 70 times a month.

The overwhelming majority of the material is burned up upon re–entry due to friction with the atmosphere.

Despite earlier predictions that the rocket could land over Europe and the UK, observations now show that it has landed safely in the ocean  

The UK government asked mobile network providers to ensure the alert system is operational, in preparation for the possibility of an alert being issued 

In some cases, very large pieces of debris or fragments of heat–resistant materials, such as stainless steel or titanium, can make it to Earth.

However, these pieces generally disperse over the oceans or unpopulated areas.

The government also stresses that the 'readiness check' conducted by the mobile network providers is a routine practice that does not indicate that an alert will be issued.

A UK government spokesperson told the Daily Mail: 'It is extremely unlikely that any debris enters UK airspace.

'As you'd expect, we have well rehearsed plans for a variety of different risks including those related to space, that are tested routinely with partners.'

While there is almost no chance that this falling rocket will cause damage to life or property, researchers have warned that the risk of space debris is increasing.

The only recorded case of someone being hit by space debris occurred in 1997, when a woman was struck but not hurt by a 16–gram piece of a US–made Delta II rocket.

The rocket was launched by private space firm LandSpace from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in China's Gansu Province on December 3, 2025. It has been slowly falling out of orbit since and has now crashed back to Earth

This is not the first time that a Chinese rocket has fallen to Earth. In 2024, fragments of a Long March 3B booster stage fell metres from homes in China's Guangxi province 

As the number of commercial launches increases, so too does the volume of 'uncontrolled' re–entries.

A recent study by scientists at the University of British Columbia suggested that there is now a 10 per cent chance that one or more people will be killed by space junk in the next decade.

Likewise, researchers have increasingly warned that falling debris could pose a threat to air travel, with a 26 per cent chance of something falling through some of the world's busiest airspace in any given year.

Read More

•  'The smell would be intolerable!' NASA reveals cramped quarters where astronauts will live for days 

The actual chances of a plane being hit are currently very small, but a large piece of space junk could lead to widespread closures and travel chaos.

However, a 2020 study estimated that the risk of any given commercial flight being hit could rise to around one in 1,000 by 2030.

Nor is this the first time that a large Chinese–made rocket has unexpectedly crashed out of orbit.

In 2024, an almost complete Long March 3B booster stage fell over a village in a forested area of China's Guangxi Province, exploding in a dramatic fireball.

WHAT IS SPACE JUNK? MORE THAN 170 MILLION PIECES OF DEAD SATELLITES, SPENT ROCKETS AND FLAKES OF PAINT POSE 'THREAT' TO SPACE INDUSTRY

There are an estimated 170 million pieces of so-called 'space junk' - left behind after missions that can be as big as spent rocket stages or as small as paint flakes - in orbit alongside some US$700 billion (£555bn) of space infrastructure.

But only 27,000 are tracked, and with the fragments able to travel at speeds above 16,777 mph (27,000kmh), even tiny pieces could seriously damage or destroy satellites.

However, traditional gripping methods don't work in space, as suction cups do not function in a vacuum and temperatures are too cold for substances like tape and glue.

Grippers based around magnets are useless because most of the debris in orbit around Earth is not magnetic.

Around 500,000 pieces of human-made debris (artist's impression) currently orbit our planet, made up of disused satellites, bits of spacecraft and spent rockets

Most proposed solutions, including debris harpoons, either require or cause forceful interaction with the debris, which could push those objects in unintended, unpredictable directions.

Scientists point to two events that have badly worsened the problem of space junk.

The first was in February 2009, when an Iridium telecoms satellite and Kosmos-2251, a Russian military satellite, accidentally collided.

The second was in January 2007, when China tested an anti-satellite weapon on an old Fengyun weather satellite.

Experts also pointed to two sites that have become worryingly cluttered.

One is low Earth orbit which is used by satnav satellites, the ISS, China's manned missions and the Hubble telescope, among others.

The other is in geostationary orbit, and is used by communications, weather and surveillance satellites that must maintain a fixed position relative to Earth. 

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

31-01-2026 om 20:52 geschreven door peter  

Story by Sylvia Cooper

©Image Credit: starush via 123RF

7 things Jesus actually taught about Hell

Few topics stir as much curiosity, fear, and misunderstanding as hell, with movies exaggerating it, social media joking about it, and some sermons weaponizing it.

Yet when you return to the Gospels themselves, Jesus speaks about hell in a far more serious, thoughtful, and compassionate way than most people expect. He never used the subject for shock value. He used it to call people toward reflection, responsibility, and hope.

Here is what Jesus truly emphasized.

©Image Credit: vihatran via 123RF

Hell is a real spiritual consequence, not a fictional threat
Jesus referred to hell using the word Gehenna, a well-known valley outside Jerusalem associated with destruction and rejection. His audience recognized it as a powerful symbol of loss and judgment.

By using this term repeatedly, Jesus made clear that He spoke about a genuine spiritual outcome, not a poetic metaphor meant to entertain. He wanted people to understand that life carries eternal significance and that human choices ripple beyond the present moment.

Jesus treated hell as a serious reality tied to moral responsibility.

©Image Credit: hbrhs/123rf

Every day choices quietly shape a person’s eternal direction
Jesus consistently connected behavior to destiny. He taught that love for others, forgiveness, honesty, humility, and obedience matter deeply. Spiritual life was never just about belief in the mind, but transformation in action.

He warned that selfishness, cruelty, and persistent rejection of God slowly harden the heart and redirect a person’s path.

©Photo Credit: Ivan S/Pexels

God’s desire is rescue, not punishment
Throughout His teachings, Jesus described God as a Father who runs toward lost children, searches for missing sheep, and welcomes those who turn back home.

Warnings about hell always appeared alongside invitations to repentance and renewal. Judgment existed, but it was never God’s first choice.

©Image Credit: aghavni/123rf

A religious image cannot replace a changed heart
Jesus confronted religious leaders who looked holy on the outside but lacked compassion, justice, and humility on the inside. He warned that rituals, titles, and public reputation offer no protection when the heart resists truth.

For Jesus, faith meant a life shaped by love, integrity, and obedience, not by religious performance.

©Image Credit: sergray via 123RF

The deepest pain of hell is separation from God
Jesus described judgment primarily as exclusion from God’s kingdom, resulting in the loss of joy, peace, and wholeness found in God’s presence.

The tragedy was relational before anything else. To be cut off from the source of life itself was the ultimate loss.

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Jesus warned people because He cared deeply about them
He spoke firmly, sometimes urgently, because He loved. Just as a doctor speaks plainly about a deadly illness, Jesus spoke honestly about spiritual danger to protect people, not to control them.

His tone combined truth with compassion.

©Image Credit: dolphfyn/123RF

Forgiveness always remained possible
Jesus never portrayed anyone as beyond hope. He welcomed sinners, doubters, failures, and outsiders. As long as someone was willing to turn back, grace remained available.

Hell was never described as God’s desire, only the result of persistent refusal to accept life with Him.

©Image Credit: lendig/123RF

Key Takeaways
Jesus did not preach fear; he preached responsibility wrapped in mercy. His teachings about hell pointed people toward a better path, one marked by love, humility, and reconciliation with God.

The message was never, “Be afraid”, it was, “Come home.”

Disclosure: This article was developed with the assistance of AI and was subsequently reviewed, revised, and approved by our editorial team.

Disclaimer: This list is solely the author’s opinion based on research and publicly available information. It is not intended to be professional advice.

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31-01-2026 om 20:31 geschreven door peter  

Opinion by Michael Levanduski

 

Humans’ learning about nuclear concepts that led to nuclear energy and nuclear bombs was one of the most important turning points in human history.

This represented the first time that humanity started ‘playing’ with technology that could literally destroy our whole species (not to mention the whole world). In addition, nuclear technology meant the potential for almost limitless clean energy, even if we haven’t yet taken full advantage.

So, if nuclear technology is such an important point in our evolution, it would make sense if aliens (if they exist) would take an interest.

Since the earliest days of nuclear testing and development, there have been reports of strange lights and unidentified objects up in the atmosphere around nuclear facilities. A group of researchers decided to gather up all the data on this subject (there is a lot) and put it together to try to see if it could be determined what was really causing the unidentified aerial phenomena.

The study was published in Scientific Reports, and while they definitely cannot confirm that it was aliens, they also can’t completely rule it out.

The team looked at transient ‘star-like’ objects that were reported or even seen in images, often taken from cameras at these facilities. The Vanishing & Appearing Sources During a Century of Observations project has been around since 2017, working on compiling all of these reports.

In the paper, the team writes:

“These short-lived transients (lasting less than one exposure time of 50 min) have point spread functions and are absent in images taken shortly before the transients appear and in all images from subsequent surveys. In some cases multiple transients appear in a single image, exhibiting characteristics not easily accounted for by prosaic explanations (e.g., gravitational lensing, gamma ray bursts, fragmenting asteroids, plate defects).”

Given the fact that this all happened over half a century ago makes it hard to identify exactly where the lights or sightings came from. The researchers wrote in the paper:

“From 1951 until the launch of Sputnik in 1957, at least 124 above-ground nuclear tests were conducted by the United States (US), Soviet Union, and Great Britain. In some circumstances, nuclear radiation is known to cause a visible glow (i.e., Cherenkov radiation). […] Consistent with this concept, glowing ‘fireballs’ in the sky were reported in multiple instances to occur shortly after nuclear tests in locations where significant nuclear fallout was expected.”

There is no confirmed explanation for these events. Not surprisingly, many will say that they could be either aliens or drones sent by aliens to investigate the fact that humans have entered a nuclear age.

Another option is that nuclear tests could cause an atmospheric phenomenon that is not yet fully understood. Since nuclear tests are pretty rare (thankfully), it is not something that is easy to study.

While they may not know what caused these types of signings, it does seem clear that something happened around the nuclear testing sites during that time period, given all the evidence.

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31-01-2026 om 18:32 geschreven door peter  

OVER A LARGE BOX of untouched donuts in Washington’s Longworth House Office Building, Congressional representatives sat rapt as a visiting Brazilian neurosurgeon described what it was like to stare back at the large lilac-colored eyes of a highly intelligent, nonhuman being.

So, not your usual Capitol Hill meeting.

The closed-door session on Jan. 15 brought together three members of Congress seeking greater government transparency on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena, long called UFOs, and a group of Brazilians who say they witnessed the crash of an otherworldly spacecraft and later encountered its nonhuman occupants.

Coming thirty years after the striking events, the private Washington meeting (to which we alone had media access), followed by a public press conference five days later, raised the prospect of unprecedented Brazilian-American cooperation in unraveling the mysteries of one of the best researched—and shocking—UFO cases on record.

The witnesses included the highly respected neurosurgeon, a forensic pathologist, and a geography teacher. They were brought to the United States by filmmaker James Fox, who interviewed more than two dozen witnesses for a new feature documentary that expands on a 2022 version of his film Moment of Contact. Fox has been investigating the case, with his Brazilian counterpart Marco Aurelio Leal, for over two decades.

“This could settle the debate once and for all that we’re not alone,” Fox told the packed news conference, which he organized at the National Press Club on Jan. 20.

The story is this: On January 13, 1996, in the countryside outside the municipality of Varginha, Brazil, the geography teacher—also an ultralight pilot—reported seeing a cylindrical craft trailing smoke and crashing to Earth. A week later, three girls walking home through a vacant lot reported encountering a cowering creature with reddish eyes and brown oily skin that reportedly communicated its suffering through its eyes. Before long, the streets of Varginha were filled with military trucks and emergency vehicles amid rumors of the capture of two nonhuman beings, one later hospitalized, and a clandestine American operation that spirited them out of Brazil.

Fox said that now, for the first time, he knows the names of those who were in possession of videos of the purported nonhuman entities. Despite the difficulties in obtaining them, he said, “I never give up.”

Susan Gough, a Pentagon spokesperson, did not reply to requests for comment.

The Department of Defense All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), with a mission to scientifically investigate UAP, stated in a 2024 report that “none of these investigations (including USG, foreign, and U.S. academic efforts) reached the conclusion that any of the UAP reports indicated extraterrestrial origin.”

But AARO may not have a free hand. As Fox recalled, in 2024, he met with AARO staff to discuss a video staff members had obtained. They discussed the Varginha case, among others. At one point, AARO director Dr. Jon T. Kosloski came into the room. Fox says he asked Kosloski if there was a plan to inform the public about “what we are ultimately dealing with.” Kosloski replied, “I can’t part my hair without the approval of the DOD. And you can quote me on that.”

There is no question that the Varginha case lacks hard data. No one has yet been able to come up with photographs or videos, physical evidence, official documentation, or medical records that could help verify the episode. Yet over two dozen witnesses to many aspects of the case have come forward independently, providing pieces of a puzzle that seem to fit together to tell a compelling story.

The Congressional meeting, held in Tennessee Representative Tim Burchett’s office, drew two fellow Republicans—Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, chairwoman of the House’s Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets, and Eric Burlison of Missouri—along with staff members. Two Democrats with a longstanding interest in UAP issues—Jared Moskowitz of Florida, and Andre Carson of Indiana, a member of the House Select Committee on Intelligence—were invited but unable to attend.

“Can you take it from the top?” Luna asked the visiting neurosurgeon, Dr. Italo Venturelli, 73, at the beginning of the meeting, “Who brought the being in? I want detail about what the interaction was, from point A to point B.”

Burchett also pressed a question: “Was the being able to communicate in any way? Was it telepathic or anything like that?”

Dr. Italo (as he prefers to be called), who was on duty that day in Regional Hospital in Varginha, said the captured being was initially treated by his colleague, Dr. Marcos Vinico Neves, who sutured a wound on its cranium. Neves died in 2018, and no medical records were kept of this procedure, according to Dr. Italo.

He says he was shown a brief black and white video of the patient and then spent three or four minutes at its bedside, having been asked to visually examine it after the procedure.

“I’ve been a doctor for forty-six years and have performed thousands of surgeries,” Dr. Italo said in an interview before the meeting. “To me, it was obvious that this was not a human being.”

“It looked like a seven-year-old child,” the neurosurgeon told the representatives with help from a translator in attendance. “Its eyes were lilac color. Both eyes and the cranium were teardrop-shaped. It transmitted calm and tranquility.”

The doctor said it seemed to him that his patient was at peace with everything that was happening, and that he sensed it possessed intelligence greater than his own. He also described feeling as if he were looking at an angel.

“I wouldn’t say it communicated telepathically; it communicated empathetically,” he said, “through its eyes.”

“What did the hands look like?” Luna asked.

Dr. Italo demonstrated, holding up three fingers and a thumb.

He said he had fixated on the eyes, which seemed to communicate power, concentration, and compassion. At one point, the being looked at him, looked out the window at the blue sky, and then looked back at the doctor, as if to communicate its wish to be released.

Burlison, taking notes, asked if it was wearing clothing. Bare above the sheet, said Dr. Italo. The skin was white, the torso was slim, and there were no nipples. A small mouth. A sliver of ears.

Burlison asked if any other medical staff or doctors could corroborate the story.

Yes, said Dr. Italo, but most doctors are afraid to speak out because they have been threatened, or for fear of damage to their careers.

“It’s very important to get the others,” Burlison said.

Dr. Italo said that a near-fatal heart attack and other recent medical issues persuaded him to break his silence last year and provide his full story to Fox for the first time, even though he still works full-time at Regional Hospital.

Carlos de Sousa, the geography teacher and ultralight pilot, told the representatives that he saw a “cigar-shaped” craft that he first thought was a blimp with a lateral tear trailing white smoke and struggling to stay aloft before crashing near a highway.

He said he drove over to help any survivors and was overtaken by a strong odor of ammonia and rotten eggs. Picking up a piece of what looked like aluminum, de Sousa said he was able to crumple it in his fist, but it then immediately sprang back to its original shape. Military trucks arrived within minutes. A soldier approached him and aimed a gun at his head, demanding, “Leave now, or I’ll split your skull,” de Sousa said. Dropping the fragment, de Sousa fled, but said he was confronted shortly afterwards by two men in an unmarked dark vehicle who threatened his family and demanded his silence. He did not speak about the incident for decades.

A third Brazilian visitor, Dr. Armando Fortunato, who has been a forensic pathologist and criminal medical examiner for the Civil Police for over three decades, told the representatives that he had performed an autopsy on a young military police officer, Marco Chereze, who had grabbed one of the beings during its capture and then died a few weeks later from a severe infection after it inadvertently scratched him.

Dr. Armando, as he likes to be called, said a legal request has been filed to exhume Chereze’s body with hopes of collecting bacteria—or even DNA samples—that could undergo further analysis.

Dr. Armando handed the representatives a signed statement from Dr. João Janini, 89, a specialist in pathological anatomy whose biography states he has performed over 50,000 autopsies. Janini attested that he had found a rare form of a bacterium “of extremely high aggressiveness and lethality” in the tissue samples from Chereze. The characteristics of the infection went so far beyond the limits of what is conventional that, in his opinion, “it raises the hypothesis of its alien origin.”

Accounts from former U.S. officials involving alleged UAP crash retrievals and related recoveries of nonhuman bodies have continued to surface, although the Defense Department dismisses them as unfounded.

In a 2023 Congressional hearing, David Grusch, a veteran of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, the National Reconnaissance Office, and the Defense Department’s UAP Task Force, testified under oath that the U.S. has retrieved vehicles and “biologics” of exotic origin.

“Biologics came with some of these recoveries,” he asserted, referring to nonhuman bodies and tissue samples, citing “people with direct knowledge on the program I talked to that are currently still on the program.” Since then, other former officials with high security clearances have echoed his statements, sometimes under oath.

Kirk McConnell, who served for 37 years on the staff of the Senate Armed Services Committee, the Senate Intelligence Committee, and the House Intelligence Committee until retiring in early 2024, opened the Jan. 20 press event. He was among the staff from the two Senate Committees who collaboratively investigated the UAP issue on behalf of senators from both parties.

McConnell told the audience that reports similar to those from the Varginha case reached senators and staff conducting these investigations. The interested senators, who included now-Secretary of State Marco Rubio, held meetings and interviews in sensitive compartmented intelligence facilities “with very credible sources reporting both direct and secondhand knowledge of the reality of highly intelligent nonhuman beings, government retrievals and reverse engineering of craft not made by human beings, and the recovery of bodies of non-human beings,” McConnell said.

He had attended some of these classified meetings.

The reports provided to Congress included alleged hidden government activities similar to those recounted in the Varginha case, stretching across many decades. “So what these folks are going to tell you today are astounding, but they’re not the only credible testimony about such events,” McConnell said.

In a video statement screened at the press conference, Jacques Vallée, a French-American computer scientist who has worked on projects at NASA and DARPA, and has been a leading thinker and writer on UFOs for over fifty years, cited a “data warehouse system” that he and a scientific team compiled for the Defense Intelligence Agency.

In addition to over 200,000 reports of anomalous objects in flight, Vallée said the database includes “hundreds of reports of creatures, live or dead, associated with crashed or landed vehicles of unknown provenance, including some similar to those in Varginha,” and that creatures in other documented cases breathed air normally.

Vallée said that the Varginha case is similar to many classified cases in scientific and medical records, but it also “presents exceptional new knowledge”, especially “in the professional description of the anatomical and behavioral features of the live creature recovered by authorities within a short time of the crash, and to the point of its death.”

During the private discussion in Burchett’s office, Dr. Italo said he had learned that the being he saw was taken to ESA military base, then to Campinas, and then to the States.

“All the people we talked to said the exact same thing,” Fox told the representatives.

Luna said Congress should seek Air Force flight logs and a landing permit to confirm any American retrieval operation of bodies and crash debris from Varginha, although it is uncertain whether any paper trail exists.

Later, at the press conference, Col. Fred Claussen, a retired and highly decorated U.S. Air Force colonel who held a top-secret clearance, outlined ways the alleged secret U.S. mission might yet be documented. He said that a Brazilian air traffic controller, Marco Feres, reported that on or about Jan. 20, 1996, a U.S. Air Force cargo plane, most likely a C17, took off from an American base and landed at Viracopos airport in Campinas to pick up an unusual cargo before departing for an unknown location in the U.S.

Any such cargo plane mission, the colonel said, would require paperwork from Air Mobility Command at Scott AFB in Illinois and the Air Mobility Wing at Charleston AFB in South Carolina. Air refueling would require more documentation, as would an international flight plan to Brazil, even if the mission were classified, Claussen said, adding that at Campinas, there would need to be more refueling records and another international flight plan.

Even without a paper trail, he said he believed that thirty to forty Americans involved with the operation should have direct knowledge of this flight and its purpose.

“Here is my plea,” Claussen concluded. “If you were a participant and have knowledge of this mission, come forward.”

McConnell followed by saying there was general misunderstanding that nondisclosure agreements signed by intelligence figures barred them from sharing their information about UAP recoveries with Congress. They were not liable, he said, if they presented their accounts in properly secure facilities like SCIFs. In fact, he said, “It’s illegal to withhold information from Congress.”

No one has ever been prosecuted for providing classified information to Congress, McConnell said. In fact, the President himself “could affirm disclosure to Congress with the stroke of a pen or [on] social media.”

While greater UAP disclosure has been widely regarded as a bipartisan issue in Congress, “we’re not yet at the tipping point for most members of Congress,” McConnell said.

A joint evidence-seeking operation between Brazilians and Americans could be in the works. Brazilian Senator Eduardo Girão, who represents the coastal state of Ceará and led a Brazilian Senate hearing on UAP in 2022, came to Washington to meet with members of Congress and attend the press event.

Acting as a private citizen and not representing the Brazilian Senate, Girão spoke from the podium and commended the three Brazilian witnesses for their courage in speaking out.

During a break, he spoke with Burlison, who said he had gotten up at 4 a.m. that morning to fly from Missouri so he could attend the news conference and present a public statement (the other members did not fly back in time to attend).

• 

See Also

Investigation and Tracking of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Explored in New Publications by Harvard Team

“Are there videos that you think you might be able to get access to, any other material evidence?” Burlison asked Girão.

“I’m going to try,” Girão said.

The two discussed the need for a joint effort to acquire tangible evidence that could help validate the incident. Burlison described having seen interesting UAP videos, but “nothing that is definitive 4K.” He told the Brazilian senator about key American officials who have come forward, including the current Secretary of State.

Obtaining the evidence he would like to see has been difficult, Burlison said, because “there are several government entities that are controlling this and some are willing to be more cooperative, so unfortunately we’re not getting everything.”

Six other Brazilians who wanted to provide testimony on the Varginha case were denied visas by the State Department on the grounds that they might overstay their visas and attempt to remain in the U.S. So, in December, Fox and his producing partner, Aline Kras, returned to Brazil to compile their testimonies on videotape for presentation at the press conference.

One of these witnesses, Liliane Silva, now a 46-year-old early childhood teacher, said that on Jan. 20, 1996, at about 3:20 p.m., she and her sister and a friend were taking a shortcut home when she noticed some graffiti on a wall. Underneath it, she stated, “I saw the creature.”

“It was short in stature, with red eyes, brown skin, as if covered in oil,” Liliane recounted.

“When I saw it, I had a terrible feeling as if the world had stopped.” She screamed to alert the others. “The creature looked at me,” she continued. “I looked into its eyes. It gave me a sensation that it was suffering, that it was asking for help, hiding from someone.”

Then, she and the other girls ran.

Her sister, Valquira Silva, and their friend Katia Xavier provided similar details in their own video statements. It had “three fingers on its hand, a big foot,” Katia said, adding: “It seemed he was suffering, asking me for help.”

{https://thedebrief.org/category/science/ }

30-01-2026 om 23:32 geschreven door peter  

OVER A LARGE BOX of untouched donuts in Washington’s Longworth House Office Building, Congressional representatives sat rapt as a visiting Brazilian neurosurgeon described what it was like to stare back at the large lilac-colored eyes of a highly intelligent, nonhuman being.

So, not your usual Capitol Hill meeting.

Archival image of witnesses Liliane Silva, 14 (left), Valquira Silva, 16 (center), and their friend Katia Xavier, 21, after encountering the creature on Jan. 30, 1996

(Image Credit: Copyright © Falcon Scout Media. Image used with permission).

In her statement, the mother of the Silva sisters, Luiza Helena da Silva, said she went back with Katia about twenty or thirty minutes later to find the creature gone. But she said it left behind a footprint with three large toes and an acrid odor that remained in her nose for several weeks.

Sometime later, the mother said she was visited by four strange men dressed in black, offering a briefcase filled with cash if her daughters would go on television and lie by describing the creature as a calf, a sick dog, or a sick human. She refused, saying she was very frightened by the visit.

Yet another videotaped witness, unnamed and his face obscured, said he was in the army in 1996 and helped transport the being from the hospital in Varginha to Três Corações and from there to Campinas, where other soldiers took over. Upon returning to Três Corações, he said, “There was talk the Americans had the creature, having transported it to an undisclosed location.”

At the news conference, Dr. Italo was questioned about his contact with the nonhuman being in the Varginha hospital room. Was it bleeding? Agitated?

“It was initially OK, it just looked out the window,” Dr. Italo replied. He said that instantly, “I was not there as a doctor anymore. The being was looking straight at me. The more he looked at me, the more I had a feeling of peace; it was transmitting peace. It looked at everything happening as if it was taking notes, like a great observer of everything happening around it.”

Asked if he had had any subsequent contacts with nonhuman intelligence, the doctor replied simply, “No.”

Fox said the videos of the entities are held by people too afraid to release them, but that for the first time, he may have the help of Brazilian Senator Girão and Representative Burlison, who is currently working on strengthening whistleblower protection for UAP witnesses.

In Varginha, individuals continue to come forward. On Jan. 26, Rosangela Ramos appeared on camera with James Fox, saying that her late husband, Pedro Luiz Aguiar, the chief of police in Três Corações in 1996, who had been on duty during the incident, claimed he had also witnessed the creature, although she had no further details. Aguiar died in December.

At the news conference, Burlison called for international transparency.

“If there’s any government that’s holding information about the knowledge of whether or not we are alone or not alone in the universe, that is not for any government, no matter how powerful it is, to withhold from the rest of humanity,” Burlison said, to general applause.

Dr. Italo says he has no regrets about coming forward.

“The truth is, I saw the being,” he said. “He was not a being from our planet. We are talking about something that changes the concept of humanity.”

“It’s important for people to know.”

•  Additional materials related to this story, including written statements and video recordings of testimony from Brazilian witnesses, can be found here.
• A Portuguese language translation of this article will soon be published by The Debrief.
• Ralph Blumenthal and Leslie Kean, with Helene Cooper, co-authored the 2017 New York Times exclusive that revealed the secret Pentagon unit investigating UFOs, the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program. Blumenthal and Kean broke the story of whistleblower David Grusch in The Debrief in 2023. Blumenthal was a staff reporter for The New York Times from 1964 to 2009 and is the author of The Believer: Alien Encounters, Hard Science, and the Passion of John Mack (2021, University of New Mexico Press). Kean has reported on UFOs for twenty-five years and is the author of UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go on the Record (2010, Harmony Books/Crown), a New York Times bestseller.
• Images featured in this article have been provided courtesy of their respective creators and may not be reproduced elsewhere without express written permission. 

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{ https://thedebrief.org/category/science/ }

30-01-2026 om 23:31 geschreven door peter  

Something Is Moving Under the Oceans – and Navies Know It

For decades, unexplained encounters with unidentified objects have not been limited to the skies. Beneath the ocean’s surface, military submarines from multiple nations have reported interactions with fast-moving, intelligent, and technologically superior objects commonly referred to as Unidentified Submerged Objects (USOs). These encounters, discussed in detail on Jim Harold’s Paranormal Podcast, raise serious questions about what may be operating in Earth’s oceans and why official acknowledgment remains minimal.

Why Submarine Encounters Are Uniquely Concerning

Submarines operate in extreme isolation, with little margin for error. A single hull separates the crew from crushing ocean pressure, and in the case of ballistic missile submarines, these vessels carry nuclear weapons capable of triggering global catastrophe. Any unidentified object interacting with such platforms represents not only a mystery but a significant strategic and security concern.

Reports from submariners are especially notable because these individuals rely on advanced sonar, navigation systems, and strict operational protocols. When unexplained objects are detected repeatedly under such conditions, dismissing the encounters becomes increasingly difficult.

Soviet Navy Encounters and the “Croakers”

During the 1970s and early 1980s, the Soviet Navy documented numerous underwater encounters involving strange acoustic signals. These sounds resembled croaking or frog-like noises, leading Soviet crews to nickname the objects “Kavaki,” meaning “croakers.”

• Richard Dolan Intelligent Disclosure with Jim Harold: The Submarine UFO Encounters the Military Refuses to Acknowledge:

According to the accounts, these submerged objects demonstrated extraordinary capabilities:

• They could rapidly approach and withdraw from submarines
• They circled vessels in a deliberate manner
• They displayed speeds far exceeding known underwater technology

Initially, Soviet analysts suspected advanced American devices. However, the performance of these objects quickly ruled out known U.S. technology. The conclusion was troubling: whatever these objects were, they did not belong to any recognized military power. Although studies were reportedly conducted, their findings remain classified, and public information largely disappeared following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Chinese Military Observations and Silent Documentation

Public information about Chinese encounters with UFOs and USOs is scarce, but evidence suggests that China has quietly taken the phenomenon seriously. Since the late 1970s, particularly after China began opening up to the world, the country has reportedly collected and analyzed a large number of UFO reports, comparable in volume to those in the United States.

China’s military is said to operate a structured, multi-level reporting system that gathers sightings from across the country and subjects selected cases to deeper analysis. While underwater sightings are rarer than aerial ones, China’s heavy naval presence in strategic waterways such as the South China Sea makes it highly likely that USO incidents are monitored, even if never publicly discussed.

A Pattern That Predates Modern Technology

One of the most compelling aspects of submarine and maritime UFO encounters is their historical consistency. Accounts stretching back centuries describe objects emerging from or interacting with the ocean in ways that closely resemble modern reports.

A well-documented case from August 12, 1825, recorded by Royal Navy ship physician Andrew Bloxom, describes a glowing orange orb rising from the ocean at night. The light was so intense that objects on the deck were clearly visible. The object submerged, re-emerged, and eventually disappeared. This account predates modern aviation and submarine technology by generations.

A similar incident occurred nearly 150 years later in 1971, involving the USS John F. Kennedy. A glowing orange object appeared near the aircraft carrier, coinciding with system disruptions and a rapid shift to battle stations. The similarities between these two events suggest a long-standing phenomenon rather than isolated anomalies.

Shapes, Behavior, and Possible Changes Over Time

Most reported USOs appear to maintain their shape and structure while transitioning between water and air. Spherical objects are among the most frequently described, often glowing orange or appearing metallic gray when unilluminated.

Triangular objects represent a notable development. While rare or uncertain in earlier reports, triangular USOs begin appearing more consistently from the late 1970s onward. This raises questions about whether the phenomenon has evolved or whether earlier observers lacked the means to accurately identify such shapes.

Even in the 19th century, sailors reported mechanical-looking objects over open oceans. An 1870 account from the middle of the Atlantic Ocean describes a structured craft flying beneath cloud cover at a time when no known human technology could explain such behavior.

Transmedium Capabilities: The Defining Feature

Perhaps the most significant finding discussed in the source material is that most USO encounters are transmedium in nature. Based on a dataset of over 670 carefully selected cases:

• More than half involved objects entering or exiting the water
• Roughly one-fifth were observed exclusively underwater
• A smaller percentage hovered just above the water’s surface

These objects appear capable of moving between air and water without visible propulsion, without slowing down, and without changing shape. Such performance defies conventional engineering and challenges current understanding of physics.

Why Militaries Remain Silent

The lack of official acknowledgment may not stem from disbelief but from uncertainty. Admitting the presence of unidentified objects capable of outperforming submarines and disabling systems would raise profound questions about national security, technological superiority, and defense readiness.

For military institutions, acknowledging such encounters without an explanation may be seen as more destabilizing than remaining silent.

Submarine UFO encounters represent one of the most overlooked yet potentially significant aspects of the unidentified phenomena. Reported by multiple nations, spanning centuries, and involving trained military personnel, these incidents display remarkable consistency in behavior and capability.

Whether the explanation lies in unknown natural processes, undisclosed technology, or something entirely beyond current understanding, one fact remains clear: the oceans may conceal advanced phenomena that humanity has yet to fully comprehend, and militaries around the world may know more than they are willing to admit.

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

30-01-2026 om 22:41 geschreven door peter  

Afgetapt Bloed, Medisch Nauwkeurige Sneden, En Onbeantwoorde Vragen: De Verminkingen van Runderen (Cattle Mutilations }

Zijn zij de slachtoffers van een onbekend buitenaards experiment...

Inleiding

Sinds de jaren zeventig van de twintigste eeuw hebben mysterieuze en macabere gebeurtenissen de aandacht getrokken van onderzoekers, wetenschappers en wetshandhavers wereldwijd: de zogenaamde koeienmutilaties. Wat begon als sporadische incidenten in de Verenigde Staten, groeide uit tot een archetype van het onverklaarbare en het bovennatuurlijke, met meldingen die zich verspreidden over meerdere continenten. Ondanks decennia van onderzoek en talloze theorieën blijft het fenomeen onduidelijk en omgeven door speculatie.

In dit artikel zullen we het fenomeen van de koeienmutilaties gedetailleerd analyseren vanuit een wetenschappelijk perspectief. We onderzoeken de aard van de mutilaties, de gebruikte methoden, de mogelijke oorzaken, de bestudeerde gevallen en de relevante vragen die nog altijd onbeantwoord zijn. Daarbij zullen we voorbeelden aanhalen, bewijsstukken bespreken en verschillende hypothesen evalueren, zowel natuurlijke als bovennatuurlijke.

De aard en kenmerken van de mutilaties

Medisch en forensisch profiel

Een kenmerkend aspect van koeienmutilaties is de uiterst precieze en doelgerichte wijze waarop de dieren gestript worden van bepaalde lichaamsdelen. Vaak zijn de volgende kenmerken waarneembaar:

• AFGETAPT bloed: Het lichaam is bijna geheel bloedeloos, vaak met duidelijke bloeduitstortingen rondom de wondranden.
• Precisie sneden: De wondpatronen vertonen chirurgische precisie. Sneden zijn recht, relatief glad en oppervlakkig, wat suggereert dat ze met een zeer scherp scherpmes of instrument zijn gedaan.
• Verwijdering van specifieke organen: Vooral de ogen, tong, hart, longen, genitale organen, en gespeende spieren worden vaak verwijderd. De essentiële organen zoals het hart en de longen ontbreken meestal.
• Geen tekenen van geweld of gescheurd: De wonden vertonen geen tekenen van vechtpartijen, beten of scherpe tanden. Er zijn geen sporen van ongevallen of roofdieren, oftewel dieren die dergelijke mutilaties zouden kunnen veroorzaken.
• Ontbreken van bloedstolsels en sporen: Het bloed lijkt uit het lichaam te zijn gehaald met een chirurgische precisie, zonder dat sporen van bloedstolsels of gebruik van traditionele snijwapens zichtbaar zijn.

Voorbeeld van een mutilatie

Een van de bekendste gevallen vond plaats in 1975 in Colorado, Verenigde Staten. Een rund werd gevonden in een weide, met een kleine, gladgesneden wond rond de nek en zonder enige tekenen van strijd. Het dier was bijna volledig ontladen van bloed, en zijn onderlichaam was leeggehaald: de ogen, tong en organen van de romp waren verdwenen. De wond was zo perfect dat sommige onderzoekers dachten aan de werkwijze van een chirurg.

Deze twee verminkte koeien werden woensdag gevonden door boeren uit de omgeving van Parker en Wilford, terwijl het aantal verminkingen in het gebied blijft toenemen. De dode jaarling, die achtergelaten is, werd woensdag in de omgeving van Wilford gevonden en was al enkele dagen dood. Het jaarling had zijn oren, tong en geslachtsorganen niet. Fremont County-deputy Terry Thompson controleert het lichaam van een dode koe, rechts, gevonden op de Margaret McMinn-boerderij in Parker. De koe werd woensdagochtend vroeg gedood en haar geslachtsorganen werden verwijderd en een deel van haar bloed was afgevoerd. Het kantoor van de sheriff heeft geen aanwijzingen over wie de verminkingen uitvoert. Onderschrift gedateerd 2 oktober 1975. | Met dank aan Idaho Falls Post Register

Verzameld bewijs en onopgeloste details

Naast de fysieke kenmerken biedt het bewijs dat vaak wordt verzameld, vragen op die nog altijd niet volledig beantwoord zijn:

• Bloedanalyse: Het bloed dat werd gevonden, vertoonde vaak tekenen van ernstiger bloedverlies dan mogelijk met conventionele methoden te veroorzaken is. Soms was het bloed verder afgeleid van het lichaam door een soort “drainage.”
• DNA-onderzoek: In sommige gevallen werden DNA-monsters uit de wonden gehaald. De resultaten toonden geen sporen van menselijke aanwezigheid of bekende parasieten of bacteriën.
• Elektrisch en chemisch bewijs: Er zijn aanwijzingen dat sommige mutilaties met behulp van geavanceerd technisch of chemisch materiaal worden uitgevoerd, hoewel dit nietconsistent in alle gevallen wordt gevonden.

Mogelijke oorzaken en hypothesen

Omdat de mutilaties zo minutieus en doelgericht lijken, hebben onderzoekers verschillende hypothesen aangevoerd, variërend van natuurlijke tot bovennatuurlijke verklaringen.

Natuurlijke en biologische oorzaken

Predator- of roofdier-aanvallen

Een eerste en voor de hand liggende verklaring is dat roofdieren of andere dieren verantwoordelijk zijn. Echter, afgezien van de duidelijke sporen van dergelijke dieren — tanden, krassen, of sporen op het lichaam — ontbreken in veel gevallen bewijs dat een ander dier de mutilatie heeft uitgevoerd. Bovendien, de chirurgische precisie en het ontbreken van bloedstolsels zijn inconsistent met natuurlijke roofdier-aanvallen.

Infectie of ziekte

Sommigen suggereren dat bepaalde ziekten of parasieten kunnen leiden tot gedragsveranderingen die tot lichamelijke schade leiden. Maar dit verklaart zelden de specifieke sneden en verwijderde organen.

Toegepaste landbouwbehandelingen en medische ingrepen

In de jaren 80 werd gesuggereerd dat boeren of onderzoekers met militaire of farmaceutische technologieën experimenteren, bijvoorbeeld het gebruik van lasers of geavanceerde medische apparatuur, om dieren te markeren of te bestuderen.

Mysterieuze verminkingen teisteren deze ranch in Colorado

Technologische en buitenaardse theorieën

Ufo's en buitenaardse wezens

De meest iconische hypothese is dat buitenaardse wezens betrokken zijn bij de mutilaties. Volgens deze theorie zouden UFO’s of buitenaardse onderzoekers de dieren gebruiken voor experimenten, waarbij zij organen wegnemen voor genetisch onderzoek zonder de rest van het lichaam te beschadigen.

Voorbeeld: In de jaren 70 en 80 werden meerdere meldingen gedaan van Ufo’s die in de buurt van mutilatieplaatsen werden waargenomen. Sommige getuigen meldde dat ze lichtverschijnselen zagen of zelfs buitenaardse wezens.

Militair en geheime experimenten

Een andere verklaring is dat overheids- of militaire instanties geavanceerde technologieën testen, bijvoorbeeld laser- of plasmatechnologieën, en dat de mutilaties onderdeel zijn van experimenten met biologische en genetische technieken. Deze hypothese wordt ondersteund door het feit dat sommige mutilaties lijken op technische experimenten die niet voor het publiek bekend zijn.

Paranormale en bovennatuurlijke verklaringen

Naast de bovengenoemde theorieën bestaan er ook meer onconventionele overtuigingen dat de mutilaties verband houden met bovennatuurlijke factoren, zoals geesten, energieweerstanden of kosmische krachten. Echter, wetenschappelijk bewijs voor dergelijke verklaringen ontbreekt grotendeels.

Analyse van belangrijke casussen

De aard en complexiteit van de mutilaties maken ze tot intrigerende problemen voor wetenschappers en onderzoeksgroepen. Hier volgen enkele belangrijke casussen die illustreren hoe het fenomeen zich voordoet en waarom het nog steeds mysterieus blijft.

Case 1: The Carmichael Ranch (New Mexico, 1979)

In dit geval werd een koe gevonden met een bijna chirurgische snede rond de nek, zonder verwondingen die doen denken aan een aanval door roofdieren. Het bloed was bijna volledig verdwenen. Lab-analyses toonden een afwezigheid van DNA dat overeenkwam met menselijke of dierenlijke bronnen, behalve dat van het dier zelf. De politie concludeerde dat geen natuurlijke oorzaak kon worden vastgesteld.

Case 2: The Norton Farm (Verenigde Staten, 1980)

Een kalf werd gevonden met organen verwijderd onder chirurgisch schone omstandigheden. Dit en soortgelijke gevallen veroorzaakten een golf van publieke angst en media-aandacht. Desondanks bleven de onderzoekers ongelukkig met de afwezigheid van bewijs dat een natuurlijke verklaring konden ondersteunen.

Wetenschappelijke en praktische vragen

Ondanks uitgebreide onderzoeken blijven veel vragen onbeantwoord:

• Hoe worden de wonden zo precies en doelgericht gemaakt?
• Waarom worden organen verwijderd zonder enige zichtbare verwonding of bloedvergissing?
• Welke technologie of middelen zouden hiervoor nodig zijn?
• Hoe kunnen we de afwezigheid van bewijs voor menselijke of dierlijke betrokkenheid verklaren?
• Zijn er overeenkomsten tussen verschillende mutilatiegevallen die op een gemeenschappelijke dader of oorzaak wijzen?

Conclusie

De koeienmutilaties blijven een raadsel dat vele theorieën oproept, van natuurlijke oorzaken tot bovennatuurlijke verklaringen. Hoewel de bewijsstukken vaak wijzen op een uiterst doelgerichte en chirurgisch precieze uitvoering, ontbreekt het aan overtuigend bewijs dat een natuurlijke of menselijke actor verantwoordelijk is.

Wat de ware oorzaak ook moge zijn, het fenomeen benadrukt onze beperkte kennis van biologische, technologische en misschien zelfs bovennatuurlijke processen. Het blijft een onderwerp van fascinerende speculatie en onderzoek, met de wetenschap zeker nog niet klaar met het ontrafelen van dit mysterie.

Aanbevelingen voor verder onderzoek

Om het onbegrijpelijke fenomeen van koeienmutilaties verder te kunnen doorgronden, worden de volgende aanpakken aanbevolen:

• Gedetailleerde forensische analyse van nieuwe gevallen
• Gebruik van geavanceerde DNA- en chemische testingstechnieken
• Monitoring en observatie van mogelijke locaties met behulp van camera’s en drones
• Interdisciplinair onderzoek dat nauwer samenwerkt tussen biologen, ingenieurs, forensisch experts, en astronomen
• Bewustwording en educatie onder betrokken agrariërs en het publiek

In zekere zin biedt het fenomeen niet alleen een uitdaging voor de wetenschap, maar ook een diepere reflectie op onze kennis van de wereld en onze plaats daarin. Het blijft een waarachtig mysterie dat ons echoot dat sommige vragen mogelijk nooit volledig beantwoord zullen worden, tenzij er nieuwe technologieën of baanbrekende inzichten opdoemen.

• OPMERKING PETER2011 : Deze uitgebreide analyse tracht zowel de bewezen feitelijke gegevens als de verschillende interpretaties te belichten, om zo een evenwichtig en informatief beeld te scheppen van de complexe en intrigerende kwestie van de koeienmutilaties.

{  PETER2011 }

30-01-2026 om 22:25 geschreven door peter  

Ominous warning for humanity as insects mysteriously 'fall silent'

• READ MORE: Americans warned about rise of evil ladybugs 

By STACY LIBERATORE, US SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDITOR

The world's insects are falling silent at an alarming rate, a development a critical care physician has warned may signal a looming crisis for humanity.

Dr Joseph Varon, a Houston-based doctor, issued the stark warning this week, saying insects, including beetles, butterflies, moths, flies, mosquitoes and bees, are disappearing at dramatic rates, a 'critical red flag for ecological instability.'

Varon likened the growing quiet to a dangerous moment in medicine, when a patient suddenly goes silent just before a system failure.

'In medicine, silence can be more alarming than noise,' he wrote in The Defender. 'A patient who abruptly stops voicing discomfort or a monitor that ceases activity may signal system failure rather than resolution.'

'Ecology presents a similar scenario,' Varon added. 'And right now, the silence is deeply concerning.'

This disappearance threatens the foods humans rely on most, including fruits, vegetables, nuts and legumes. 

Key nutrients, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants would also disappear, potentially weakening immune resilience, increasing chronic disease risk, and altering the balance of human health in ways scientists are only beginning to understand. 

'The current silence should not be interpreted as stability. It is a warning,' said Varon.

The doctor warned that without insects, humans will not only loose essential food, but be exposed to an increased risk of chronic diseases

A pivotal warning came from a German study that tracked flying insect biomass in protected areas over nearly 30 years. 

By 2016, researchers found populations had collapsed by more than 75 percent, even in regions shielded from industrial activity.

Global assessments indicate that over 40 percent of insect species are currently in decline. 

Looking ahead, predictions suggest that by 2030, up to a quarter of insect species could be lost or at high risk, highlighting a continued, rapid downward trend.

The losses were documented not in industrial landscapes, but in nature preserves intended to shield wildlife from harm.

'Without insects, food systems collapse not just quantitatively, but qualitatively. Nutrient diversity declines. Resilience vanishes. Dependency on industrial inputs increases,' Varon wrote in The Defender.

From a physician's perspective, the disappearance of insects is a warning signal, a population-level biomarker of environmental stress and toxicity.

'The rise in chronic disease, metabolic dysfunction, and immune dysregulation cannot be cleanly separated from the ecological context in which humans now live,' Varon said.

Dr Joseph Varon, a Houston-based doctor, issued the stark warning this week, saying insects, including beetles, butterflies, moths, flies, mosquitoes and bees, are disappearing at dramatic rates, a 'critical red flag for ecological instability'

'Clinicians may observe these impacts as patients present with increased allergic reactions, resistance to antibiotics, and nutritional deficiencies. 

'For instance, a patient experiencing recurrent respiratory infections could be linked to pollen shifts due to changing insect populations.'

In medicine, when a sensitive system falters first, it signals early danger. Insects occupy that sentinel role in biology. 

Their short lifespans, high metabolisms, and reliance on environmental cues make them exceptionally vulnerable to chemical, nutritional, and electromagnetic disruptions, often long before humans show obvious signs of illness, explained Varon.

Increasing evidence links many of these same exposures to human endocrine disruption, immune dysfunction, neurodevelopmental effects, and metabolic disease. 

Neonicotinoid pesticides, for instance, are designed to target insect nervous systems, yet analogous pathways exist in mammals, influencing neurodevelopment and autonomic function. 

Low-level chronic exposures may not trigger immediate toxicity, but medicine has repeatedly shown that the absence of acute symptoms does not equal safety.

'Imagine a diabetic patient struggling with persistent slow-healing ulcers,' said Varon. 

'These wounds, resistant to typical treatment, become a vivid illustration of micronutrient decline due to pollinator loss.'

Deficiencies in vital nutrients like vitamin C and zinc, essential for immune defense and tissue repair, show how pollinator loss translates into real-world health consequences, he added.

'It is essential for medical professionals to integrate environmental health assessments into their practice, amplifying the connectivity between ecological and human health,' said Varon.

By acting now, clinicians can help avert an ecological crisis and ensure a sustainable future for both the planet and human life.

'Civilizations do not fall only from war or economics. They fall when the living systems that sustain them are quietly dismantled.'

RELATED VIDEOS

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

30-01-2026 om 21:27 geschreven door peter  

{ https://medium.com/ }

30-01-2026 om 21:10 geschreven door peter  

Op zo’n 5 miljard lichtjaar afstand heerst de immense sterrenstelselcluster MACS J1149. De James Webb-ruimtetelescoop legt dit kosmische zwaargewicht nu met ongekende scherpte vast en onthult hoe zijn verpletterende zwaartekracht het licht van het vroege heelal buigt en vervormt.

Diep in het sterrenbeeld Leeuw (Leo), op een duizelingwekkende afstand van ongeveer 5 miljard lichtjaar, heerst een ware titan: sterrenstelselcluster MACS J1149.5+2223. Deze verzameling van honderden sterrenstelsels, bijeengehouden door de allesbepalende zwaartekracht, is nu vastgelegd in verbluffend detail door de James Webb-ruimtetelescoop. Het nieuwe beeld onthult niet alleen de indrukwekkende inwoners van de cluster zelf, maar ook hoe dit kosmische zwaargewicht fungeert als een natuurlijke telescoop voor het observeren van de verste uithoeken van het universum.

De James Webb-ruimtetelescoop legde deze opname van MACS J1149.5+2223 vast met zijn Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), een compositie van zes verschillende golflengten van 0,9 tot 4,44 micrometer, om de structuur en samenstelling van de sterrenstelsels in ongekend detail te onthullen. Foto: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, C. Willott (National Research Council Canada), R. Tripodi (INAF – Astronomical Observatory of Rome). Klik hier om de foto zoombaar te openen, hier om deze te bekijken in ESASky browser of hier om deze (printbaar .tif-bestand) op de hoogste resolutie te downloaden.

Een natuurlijk zwaartekrachtlens laboratorium

De werkelijke kracht van MACS J1149 schuilt in zijn kolossale massa. De zwaartekracht van deze cluster is zo immens dat ze de structuur van ruimtetijd rondom zich vervormt. Licht van sterrenstelsels die nog eens véél verder weg staan, moet op zijn miljarden jaren durende reis naar de aarde door dit vervormde gebied reizen. Het gevolg is een fenomeen dat astronomen gravitationele lensing noemen: het licht wordt afgebogen en versterkt, alsof het door een kosmisch vergrootglas gaat. Op Webbs opname (hierboven) is dit overal zichtbaar, van subtiel uitgerekte sterrenstelsels tot bizarre, gerekte vormen.

Een kosmische celebrity onder de loep

Deze eigenschap maakt MACS J1149 tot een ware ‘celebrity’ voor astronomen. De cluster was eerder al één van de zes nauwlettend onderzochte regio’s door het baanbrekende Frontier Fields-programma van de Hubble-ruimtetelescoop, specifiek geselecteerd vanwege zijn sterke lenswerking. Ook de Very Large Telescope van de Europese Zuidelijke Sterrenwacht (ESO) heeft zijn blik op de cluster gericht, maar ook radiogrondtelescopen en orbitale röntgentelescopen zoals Chandra hebben MACS J1149 vaker onderzocht. Recent onderzoek gebruikt deze voorgaande waarnemingen in combinatie met nieuwe gegevens om de massa-verdeling binnen dergelijke clusters en hun rol in de evolutie van sterrenstelsels verder te duiden.

Webbs uitzonderlijke gevoeligheid in het infrarood gaat nu een stap verder. Zijn instrumenten, zoals NIRSpec en NIRCam, worden ingezet in programma’s zoals CANUCS om via clusters als MACS J1149 de allervroegste sterrenstelsels te bestuderen. Ze ontrafelen hun stervorming, chemie en de rol die ze speelden tijdens het tijdperk van de reïonisatie, toen de eerste lichtbronnen de kosmische duisternis doorbraken na de oerknal.

We schreven vaker over dit onderwerp, lees bijvoorbeeld ook ‘Eén jaar na de lancering van James Webb kunnen astronomen hun geluk niet op: de telescoop maakt het onzichtbare en ondenkbare zichtbaar‘ of ‘De eerste sterrenstelsels in het universum waren veel helderder dan verwacht‘.

Een venster op het vroege heelal

De nieuwe James Webb-opname is dus meer dan een adembenemend plaatje. Het is het begin van een nieuw hoofdstuk in de studie van deze kosmische reus. Door het lensvermogen van MACS J1149 te combineren met Webbs ongeëvenaarde scherpte, kunnen astronomen verder terugkijken in de tijd dan ooit tevoren. Op deze manier blijft deze cluster, een reus op 5 miljard lichtjaar afstand, ons een uniek venster bieden op de geboorte en evolutie van de eerste structuren in ons universum.

• De afgelopen decennia zijn er prachtige foto’s gemaakt van interstellaire nevels, sterrenstelsels, planeten, andere hemellichamen en in de ruimtevaart. Ieder weekend halen we een indrukwekkende ruimtefoto uit het archief. Genieten van alle foto’s? Bekijk ze op deze pagina. Heb je zelf bijzondere (astro)foto’s die je wil delen met ons? Stuur ze in via ons mailadres o.v.v. ‘Ruimtefoto’!

Bronmateriaal

• "A celebrity cluster in the spotlight" - ESA/Webb
  
• "Hubble uses cosmic lens to discover most distant star ever observed" - ESA/Hubble
  
• "Galaxy cluster MACS j1149.5+223 and a supernova four times over" - ESA/Hubble
  
• "Galaxy cluster MACS J1149+2223" - ESA/Hubble
  
• "Icarus (MACS J1149+2223 Lensed Star 1)" - NASA/Hubble
• "MACS J1149.5+2233: A Fusion of Galaxy Clusters" - Harvard/Chandra
  
• Afbeelding bovenaan dit artikel: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, C. Willott (National Research Council Canada), R. Tripodi (INAF - Astronomical Observatory of Rome)

Laatst aangepast op: 29 januari 2026

{ https://scientias.nl/nieuws/astronomie-ruimtevaart/  }

30-01-2026 om 20:48 geschreven door peter  

29-01-2026 om 23:50 geschreven door peter  

NASA is gearing up for the first crewed journey to the Moon in over half a century, a mission that could launch as soon as two weeks from now.

And next year, the agency will finally attempt to return astronauts to the lunar surface itself as part of its Artemis 3 mission, which will dramatically increase the already considerable stakes.

Particularly when it comes to stepping out of the spacecraft — the agency has yet to pick between Blue Origin and SpaceX’s offerings in that regard — staying protected from the extreme temperature swings, space radiation, and lack of atmosphere is extremely challenging.

That’s not to mention the physical limitations of an extremely bulky spacesuit, which could physically tax astronauts even more than stepping outside of the International Space Station during a spacewalk.

As Ars Technica reports, former NASA astronaut and microbiologist Kate Rubins, who retired last year and has logged 300 days in space, recently voiced her concerns over the Moon suit that private space company Axiom Space has been developing for NASA as part of a $228 million contract.

“What I think we have on the Moon that we don’t really have on the space station that I want people to recognize is an extreme physical stress,” she said during a recent meeting of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

Besides not getting any sleep, Rubin warned that people will be “in these suits for eight or nine hours” and doing extravehicular activities (EVAs) “every day.”

Compared to the suits NASA astronauts wore during the Apollo missions, the Axiom Space suit is considerably heavier. While a sixth of gravity will greatly alleviate some of that heft, they still weigh in at 300 pounds. At the same time, Moon walkers will enjoy greatly enhanced flexibility, allowing them to kneel down to pick up objects, for instance.

“I think the suits are better than Apollo, but I don’t think they are great right now,” Rubin warned, noting “flexibility issues” and the reality that “people are going to be falling over.”

In remarks directly to Ars, Rubin elaborated, emphasizing that the suits are “definitely much better than Apollo,” but remain “still quite heavy.”

Even something as simple as getting back up after a fall — as demonstrated by the many Apollo astronauts who took a tumble while on the Moon — involves a type of “jumping pushup,” as Rubins told Ars, which is a “non-trivial” and “risky maneuver.”

Not everybody is as concerned about the Axiom Space suit. Current NASA astronaut and physician Mike Barratt argued in remarks during the committee meeting that the “suit is getting there,” pointing out that “we’ve got 700 hours of pressurized experience in it right now.”

“Bending down in the suit is really not too bad at all,” he added.

NASA still plans to conduct plenty of tests involving the suit, including parabolic flight, which can simulate the partial gravity of the Moon’s surface. The agency has already put the suit through its paces underwater at NASA’s Neutral Buoyancy Lab.

The agency has until sometime next year to finalize the design for its long-awaited Artemis 3 mission to the lunar surface. At the same time, NASA still has plenty of decisions to make, including how to get down to the lunar surface in the first place.

More on Artemis: 

• Experts Warn That There’s Something Wrong With the Moon Rocket NASA Is About to Launch With Astronauts Aboard

{https://futurism.com/ }

29-01-2026 om 23:34 geschreven door peter