Ancient Chinese and Maya similarities suggest deeper cultural roots

These two ancient civilizations were separated by thousands of kilometers.

Archaeologists report motifs in Honduras that resemble Neolithic Chinese symbolism, raising questions about deep shared roots rather than contact.

Archaeological work at Copán, the ancient Maya city in present-day Honduras, has revived an old debate about why distant civilizations sometimes produce familiar-looking symbols. A Chinese archaeological team working at the site has identified sculptures and architectural features that they say resemble elements associated with China’s Neolithic Liangzhu Culture.

The similarities have prompted renewed interest in whether shared ideas might have very deep origins, reaching back long before either civilization existed in its recognizable form. The claims, as described by researchers involved, are not framed as evidence that people crossed oceans to exchange beliefs or art. The argument is narrower and more speculative: that early human migrations and long-lived symbolic traditions could, in rare cases, leave faint echoes that surface in later civilizations separated by time and geography.

Motifs that look familiar across an ocean

Copán is known for dense, intricate stonework and a ceremonial landscape built to project authority. Within that setting, the team has pointed to decorative patterns and carved figures that it considers unusually close to motifs seen in Liangzhu material, especially in symbolic ornament and depictions of mythical creatures.

One of the main comparisons centers on the Maya feathered serpent deity Kukulkan and ancient Chinese dragon imagery. Supporters of the comparison note that both figures have long functioned as powerful symbols, often associated with sky, water, and divine authority. That overlap, they argue, makes the visual resemblance more than a coincidence of style.

Skeptics, however, caution that serpents, hybrid beings, and sky-linked divine animals are common across many cultures. Similar imagery can emerge independently when societies try to represent natural forces, political power, or religious authority in a memorable form. Without stronger connecting evidence, they argue, visual parallels risk becoming a collection of look-alikes rather than a meaningful  historical pattern.

The debate is not new. What is new, supporters argue, is the attention generated by an active excavation program at a major Maya center and the willingness to frame the discussion around deep ancestry rather than direct borrowing.

The “China-Maya continuum” returns

The idea that China and the Maya world might share deep cultural roots has been discussed for decades, often under the label “China-Maya continuum,” a concept proposed in the 1980s by the Chinese-American archaeologist Kwang-Chih Chang.

Chang’s argument did not hinge on voyages or direct contact. Instead, he suggested that both cultural worlds might retain traces of older shamanistic traditions shaped by Paleolithic ancestors, long before the rise of cities, writing, or formal states. In that view, echoes of ritual life could persist in art, cosmology, and symbolic decoration even as societies developed independently.

That approach remains controversial. Comparative frameworks can clarify patterns, but they can also flatten differences, turning complex traditions into a few reusable shapes. Critics argue that resemblance is too often treated as explanation, when it should be the start of a harder question: why would a specific motif survive across such long spans of time, and what would count as evidence that it did?

Supporters reply that the point is not to claim an unbroken chain of transmission, but to consider whether certain symbolic structures are unusually persistent when passed through human migrations and reshaped in new environments.

Calendars and competing explanations

Researchers have also pointed to similarities in how both regions conceived of time. The Maya calendar, as described by archaeologists discussing the comparison, is said to show conceptual resemblances to the Chinese calendrical system organized around the 10 Heavenly Stems and 12 Earthly Branches.

The shared element in that comparison is a cyclical view of time. Both systems use repeating sequences that embed social meaning in calendars, linking timekeeping to ritual and authority. Proponents argue that a strongly cyclical structure is not universal in early civilizations and may reflect deeper cosmological assumptions about how the world is ordered.

Here again, the counterargument is straightforward: cycles are one of the most practical ways to organize time in agrarian and ritual societies. Seasonal rhythms, celestial repetition, and the social need to coordinate ceremonies all push communities toward cyclical frameworks. A shared logic does not require a shared origin.

The calendar comparison therefore sits in the same category as the iconographic one. It is suggestive to some, unconvincing to others, and difficult to adjudicate without clearer criteria for what counts as a meaningful match rather than a broad analogy.

Migration, not communication

Li Xinwei, identified as a lead archaeologist from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, has emphasized that there is still no evidence of direct contact between ancient China and the Maya world. In this account, the similarities are treated as the possible product of shared Paleolithic ancestry rather than any kind of later cultural diffusion across oceans.

Li’s position, as described, is that the evidence does not support borrowing and that the more plausible explanation is parallel development from common ancestral roots.

That distinction matters. Claims of contact imply ships, routes, exchange goods, and traceable movement of people and technologies. Claims of deep shared roots imply something less dramatic and harder to test: continuity through time, shaped by migration and long-term cultural evolution.

Why Copán matters

Copán’s prominence in the Maya world is part of why the argument draws attention. The city is known for its carved monuments and sophisticated ceremonial architecture, and it has often been described as the “Athens of the Maya world,” a reference to its artistic and intellectual reputation within the region.

The Chinese team has focused on a 4,000-square-meter residential complex that once housed local aristocracy. In that setting, it reports finding a large royal tomb and symbolic motifs such as crossed torches, imagery linked to Maya kingship. Researchers involved have also emphasized jade relics, depictions of the lightning god Kawiil, and regional building layouts as evidence of the site’s complexity and the elite culture that shaped it.

Those discoveries, taken on their own, fit comfortably within what is already known about Maya political and ritual life: elite residences, royal burials, dynastic symbolism, and the use of valuable materials like jade. The more contentious step is using selected motifs from those contexts to suggest a remote connection, however indirect, to symbolism known from Neolithic China.

What the similarities can and cannot show

The strongest version of the argument is modest. It does not require contact, and it does not claim that one civilization borrowed from the other. It proposes that certain ideas and images can endure in human cultures across great spans of time, even as they are transformed by new environments and new social systems.

The weaker version is the one critics worry about: that visual resemblance becomes a shortcut that substitutes for evidence. Similarity, in archaeology, is a starting point, not a conclusion. A convincing case typically requires patterns that are repeated, specific, and difficult to explain through shared human tendencies or basic constraints of representation.

In the account presented here, the proposed explanation remains a hypothesis rather than a demonstration. The comparisons may stimulate useful questions about how symbolism travels through time and how cultures converge on similar solutions. They may also overreach if they imply more certainty than the evidence can bear.

Li has also pointed to genetic research suggesting distant shared ancestry between populations in East Asia and the ancient peoples of the Americas, and has argued that this deep connection could help explain why two geographically isolated civilizations developed certain comparable features. The suggestion is that understanding how groups with common roots followed different paths, yet sometimes arrived at similar spiritual, architectural, and calendrical frameworks, could open a new line of inquiry in global ancient.

For now, the debate turns on an unresolved question that sits at the heart of comparative archaeology: when distant cultures look alike in specific ways, are we seeing inherited echoes from deep prehistory, or the predictable outcomes of human societies grappling with similar needs and similar imaginations in different places?

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11-03-2026 om 22:51 geschreven door peter  

Disk On Newest Mar Rover Photo On NASA Site! Sol 4816, UFO Sightings Daily.

Date of discovery: March 2026

Location of discovery: Mars

Source photo: 

• https://mars.nasa.gov/raw_images/1553665/

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11-03-2026 om 22:33 geschreven door peter  

Phew! NASA confirms 'city destroying' asteroid will narrowly MISS the moon in 2032 – skimming 13,200 miles past the lunar surface

• READ MORE: NASA admits there are thousands of 'city killer' asteroids in space

By SHIVALI BEST, SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDITOR 

Good news from NASA – an asteroid previously predicted to be on a collision course with the moon will miss it after all. 

Since December 2024, the US space agency has been tracking the 'city–killer' asteroid, dubbed '2024 YR4', as it whizzes towards us. 

The 220ft space rock initially set alarm bells ringing as early measurements suggested it had a one in 32 chance of hitting Earth in 2032. 

Further analysis at the end of last year then suggested the moon had a four per cent chance of taking the hit. 

However, we can finally breathe a sign of relief. 

NASA has confirmed that it has now eliminated the chance of an impact whatsoever.

'Using data from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope observations collected on Feb. 18 and 26, experts from NASA's Center for Near–Earth Object Studies at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California have refined near–Earth asteroid 2024 YR4's orbit and are ruling out a chance of lunar impact on Dec. 22, 2032,' NASA explained. 

'With the new data, 2024 YR4 is expected to pass by the lunar surface at a distance of 13,200 miles (21,200 km).'

Good news from NASA – an asteroid previously predicted to be on a collision course with the moon will miss it after all

An analysis at the end of last year suggested the moon had a four per cent chance of taking the hit

Since spring last year, the asteroid has been unobservable from Earth, and it was widely assumed we wouldn't see it again until 2028. 

However, an international team, led by researchers at Johns Hopkins University, identified two narrow opportunities last month when James Webb would be able to see it from its unique position in space. 

'The challenge was significant: to use one of the most complex machines humankind has ever built to track an almost invisible object many millions of kilometres away – and then accurately predict its position almost seven years into the future,' the European Space Agency explained. 

By carefully comparing the asteroid's position relative to the background stars, the researchers were able to measure its orbit. 

This confirmed that the space rock will miss the moon, passing by on December 22 2032 at a safe distance of 13,200 miles.  

'The Moon is safe, 2024 YR4 poses no danger, but the work continues,' ESA cautioned. 

'The Planetary Defence team in ESA's Space Safety Programme continues to detect and track near–Earth objects to ensure that if a genuine danger ever emerges, we will not be caught unaware.'

Although it wouldn't be as destructive as an impact with the Earth, a lunar collision would have been dangerous enough for deflecting 2024 YR4 to be an option worth considering.

With the new data, collected on Feb. 18 and 26 (pictured), 2024 YR4 is expected to pass by the lunar surface at a distance of 13,200 miles (21,200 km

As it stands, there are no known asteroids this big heading our way, according to NASA.

However, the space agency hasn't ruled out the chance that there's one out there that's yet to be found.

'While no known asteroid larger than 140 meters in size has a significant chance to hit Earth for the next 100 years, only about 40 percent of those asteroids have been found to date,' NASA warns.

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11-03-2026 om 22:27 geschreven door peter  

One giant leap for planetary defence: NASA successfully changed an asteroid's orbit around the SUN, new study reveals

• READ MORE:  Simulation confirms we could nuke an asteroid heading for Earth

By XANTHA LEATHAM, EXECUTIVE SCIENCE EDITOR

Humanity has taken a 'notable step forward' in its ability to deflect asteroids heading towards Earth, a new study reveals.

Back in 2022, NASA deliberately smashed a spacecraft into a small asteroid 'moonlet' that orbited a larger space rock.

The probe, called Dart, successfully changed the path of the moonlet, called Dimorphos, around its parent asteroid, Didymos.

The mission was hailed as the first–ever successful demonstration of planetary defence, proving humanity can alter an asteroid's trajectory.

But now, scientists have revealed the test also knocked both asteroids off their regular orbit around the Sun.

Researchers have calculated that the speed of Didymos as it orbits the Sun has been reduced by 11.7 micrometres per second as a result of the collision.

This means that future missions could target small moonlets in orbit around large asteroids to change the orbit of the bigger space rock, the team said.

And it 'marks a notable step forward in our ability to prevent future asteroid impacts on Earth.'

In 2022, NASA deliberately sent a spacecraft called Dart 6.8 million miles into space to crash into a mini moon called Dimorphos (pictured) at 14,000mph in a bid to alter its orbit 

Researchers from the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign made the discovery after examining almost 6,000 instances in which Didymos flew in front of a star, blocking out its light.

The change to its orbit – although small – marks the 'the first time a human–made object has measurably altered the path of a celestial body around the Sun'.

This shift occurred because, although Didymos was not directly hit during the Dart mission, it is linked by gravity to its smaller moonlet.

As a result, changes to one asteroid affect the other.

'This is a tiny change to the orbit, but given enough time, even a tiny change can grow to a significant deflection,' said Thomas Statler, lead scientist for solar system small bodies at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

'The team's amazingly precise measurement again validates kinetic impact as a technique for defending Earth against asteroid hazards and shows how a binary asteroid might be deflected by impacting just one member of the pair.'

When Dart struck the smaller space rock, the impact blasted a huge cloud of rocky debris into space, altering the shape of the asteroid, which measures 560 feet (170 metres) wide.

As the debris carried its own momentum away from the asteroid, it gave the moonlet an explosive 'thrust' – changing its trajectory and shortening its orbit around Didymos by 33 minutes.

This image of asteroids Didymos (left) and Dimorphos (right) was captured by NASA’s Dart mission a few seconds before the spacecraft smashed into Dimorphos

As part of their new study, scientists explored which direction the material thrown off an asteroid goes, and how that direction affects the push on the asteroid

The impact ejected so much material that it also changed the pairs orbit around the sun by 0.15 seconds.

The change in the binary system's orbital speed was about 11.7 microns per second, or 1.7 inches per hour,' said Rahil Makadia, the study's lead author, whose research was published in the journal Science Advances. 

'Over time, such a small change in an asteroid's motion can make the difference between a hazardous object hitting or missing our planet.'

In a blog post, NASA wrote: 'Although Didymos was not on an impact trajectory with Earth and it was impossible for the Dart mission to put it on one, that change in orbital speed underscores the role spacecraft — aka kinetic impactors in this context — could play if a potentially hazardous asteroid is found to be on a collision course in the future.

'The key is detecting near–Earth objects far enough in advance to send a kinetic impactor.'

The space agency is currently building their Near–Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor mission – a telescope designed specifically for planetary defence.

It will seek out some of the hardest–to–find near–Earth objects, such as dark asteroid and comets that don't reflect much visible light.

But Dr Nancy Chabot, a planetary scientist at Johns Hopkins University who led the Dart mission, said there are no other Dart–like spacecraft ready to launch if an asteroid was suddenly found to be on a collision course with Earth.

'Dart was a great demonstration,' she recently said. 'But we don't have [another] sitting around ready to go if there was a threat that we needed to use it for.'

She referenced YR4, an asteroid measuring up to 90 metres wide, which last year was deemed to have a 3.2 per cent chance of hitting Earth in 2032.

Eventually this chance was downgraded to zero, meaning no defensive action needed to be taken.

'If something like YR4 had been headed towards the Earth, we would not have any way to go and deflect it actively right now,' she added.

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11-03-2026 om 22:03 geschreven door peter  

Ancient sea fossils atop the world's tallest mountains fuel new claims of Noah's Great Flood

• READ MORE: The Bible theory that links Noah's Ark to the eight modern blood types in humans 

By STACY LIBERATORE, US SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDITOR

The discovery of ancient sea fossils atop several mountains around the world has reignited debate over the biblical story of Noah's Great Flood.

A viral video showing hikers uncovering fossilized seashells in the Guadalupe Mountains, a range stretching across west Texas and southeastern New Mexico, has fueled fresh speculation online that the towering peaks were once submerged beneath an ancient ocean.

The clip, which has been viewed more than seven million times, shows the group inspecting and collecting rocks, revealing embedded marine fossils such as bivalve seashells and other shellfish remnants.

The discovery has sparked a wave of debate online, with some viewers claiming the fossils are evidence of a global flood described in the Bible.

The Great Flood is portrayed in the Book of Genesis as a global catastrophe sent by God to wipe out widespread human corruption and violence. 

According to the biblical account, Noah was instructed to build a massive ark to preserve his family and pairs of every animal species.

But geologists say the shells are remnants of ancient seabeds that were lifted thousands of feet into the air by tectonic forces over millions of years.

Marine fossils have been discovered on mountain ranges around the world, including the Himalayas, Andes and Rocky Mountains, which scientists say were once covered by ancient seas before being pushed upward as continents collided and mountains formed.

The viral video, shared in 2025, was taken by a group hiking in the Guadalupe Mountains, a range stretching across west Texas and southeastern New Mexico

The clip, which has been viewed more than seven million times, shows the group inspecting and collecting rocks, revealing embedded marine fossils such as bivalve seashells and other shellfish remnants

Despite the scientific explanation, the viral video triggered a flood of online reactions.

'[I] didn't need this discovery to believe in the great flood,' one user wrote on X.

'There have been discoveries all over the world that point to a great flood theory. It happened.' Another commenter declared: 'The Bible is accurate and true!'

However, many other users pushed back on the biblical interpretation, noting that marine fossils in mountains are a well-known geological phenomenon linked to the movement of tectonic plates.

Scientists explain that many rocks found in modern mountain ranges originally formed on the floors of ancient oceans, where marine creatures such as clams, corals and trilobites once lived.

When these animals died, their shells sank to the seabed and became buried in layers of sediment.

Over millions of years, the sediment hardened into rock, trapping the shells inside and turning them into fossils.

Later, the slow movement of Earth's tectonic plates pushed these ancient seabeds upward during massive continental collisions.

Several mountains, including a range in Italy, have been found to have fossilized sea life. The discovery has sparked a wave of debate online, with some viewers claiming the fossils are evidence of a global flood described in the Bible

As the plates crumpled and lifted the crust, the fossil-filled rocks were carried thousands of feet into the air, eventually forming mountain ranges.

The National Park Service explained that millions of years ago, much of what is now west Texas and southeastern New Mexico was covered by a shallow inland sea known as the Delaware Sea. 

Marine animals such as clams, sea urchins and other shell-forming creatures lived in these waters, and when they died, their shells settled to the seabed and were preserved in layers of sediment that later hardened into rock. 

Tens of millions of years later, powerful tectonic forces slowly pushed these ancient seabeds upward, lifting the fossil-filled rocks thousands of feet and forming what are now the Guadalupe Mountains.

Scientists say this process also explains why marine fossils can now be found high in places such as the Himalayas, the Andes and the Rocky Mountains, even though those regions were once located beneath ancient seas.

One of the most striking examples is found near the summit of Mount Everest.

Researchers have identified marine fossils embedded in a rock formation known as the Qomolangma Limestone near the world's highest peak.

The fossils, dating back roughly 450 million years, formed on the floor of the ancient Tethys Ocean before the collision of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates thrust the seabed upward to form the Himalayas.

Evidence of ancient oceans has also been uncovered high in the Andes Mountains of South America.

Geologists say the shells are remnants of ancient seabeds that were lifted thousands of feet into the air by tectonic forces over millions of years. Picutred is the Antequera in Spain

Fossils of prehistoric marine organisms have been found at several sites across the range, demonstrating that parts of the Andes were once submerged long before tectonic forces raised the mountains.

In North America, clues to a vanished sea can be found in the Rocky Mountains.

Much of the region was once covered by the Western Interior Seaway, a vast inland ocean that split the continent millions of years ago.

When the waters receded, they left behind layers of marine sediment and fossilized sea life that are still visible in the rock today.

The Appalachian Mountains, among the oldest ranges on Earth, also contain widespread marine fossils preserved in sedimentary rock layers.

These rocks hold the remains of ancient fish and other sea creatures from a time when large portions of the region were covered by prehistoric oceans.

Further west, marine fossils dating back roughly 300 million years have been discovered in New Mexico's Sangre de Cristo and Santa Fe mountain ranges.

Scientists have identified scallops and other ocean-dwelling organisms preserved in rock from the Pennsylvanian period, when shallow seas covered parts of the region.

Even Antarctica holds evidence of this dramatic transformation.

Marine fossils found in the Transantarctic Mountains suggest parts of the frozen continent once hosted ocean environments before massive shifts in Earth's crust reshaped the landscape.

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11-03-2026 om 21:43 geschreven door peter  

Scientists reveal controversial plan to launch 50,000 MIRRORS into space for 'sunlight on demand' – but sceptics warn it poses 'serious risks' to wildlife and humans

• READ MORE: Tonnes of chemicals pumped into ocean to stop global warming

By WILIAM HUNTER, SENIOR SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY REPORTER

Scientists have revealed a controversial plan to launch 50,000 mirrors into space to offer 'sunlight on demand'.

California–based startup, Reflect Orbital, is poised to secure permission to launch a 60–foot (18.3–metre) prototype mirror into orbit to beam sunlight back to the Earth's surface.

Once it has reached an altitude of 400 miles (640 km), the mirror will unfurl and illuminate a patch of Earth about three miles (4.8 km) wide. 

Someone looking up from the ground would see a small dot of light about as bright as the moon.

Reflect Orbital says its space mirrors could allow solar power plants to operate 24 hours a day, provide lighting for disaster–struck regions, and even replace street lights.

The company has already applied to the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which issues licences for satellites, and the enormous mirror could launch as soon as this summer. 

However, not everyone is on board with the plan. 

Martha Hotz Vitaterna, a neurobiologist at Northwestern University and co–director of the Center for Sleep and Circadian Biology, warned: 'The implications for wildlife, for all life, are enormous.'

Experts have warned this could disrupt circadian rhythms and ground–based astronomy, even as firms like SpaceX are trying to make their satellites (artist's impression) less reflective 

Reflect Orbital, which has already raised more than $28 million (£20.8 million) from investors, is not the first group to dream about harnessing the sun with mirrors.

In 1993, a Russian satellite dubbed Znamya, or Banner, unfurled a 65–foot mirror and reflected a beam of light as strong as two or three full moons.

The idea was to see whether a small fleet of satellites could be used to extend daylight hours in the remote region of Arctic Siberia.

However, Reflect Orbital's plan is even more ambitious than those early experiments.

The company says it plans to harness the vast quantities of sunlight that normally pass Earth by, and sell it on demand to people, companies and governments.

The biggest appeal will be for the growing solar power industry, which is currently facing the unavoidable problem that solar panels can't generate electricity at night.

Ben Nowack, Reflect Orbital's chief executive, told the New York Times: 'We're trying to build something that could replace fossil fuels and really power everything.'

By the end of 2027, Reflect Orbital plans to launch two more prototype mirrors with hopes to launch 1,000 larger satellites by the end of the following year.

By the end of 2027, Reflect Orbital plans to launch two more prototype mirrors with hopes to launch 1,000 larger satellites by 2028, 5,000 by 2030 and 50,000 orbiting mirrors by 2035

According to the company's current plan, that number will expand to 5,000 by 2030 and reach a full constellation of 50,000 orbiting mirrors by 2035.

Mr Nowack says the company will charge about $5,000 (£3,700) for an hour of sunlight from one mirror if a customer signs an annual contract for at least 1,000 hours.

He also says that solar power plants may be able to arrange for lighting by agreeing to split the revenues of the energy generated with Reflect Orbital's light.

While that might come as a boon for renewable energy, scientists have raised major concerns about the plan's safety and efficacy.

Critics warn that the mirrors could distract pilots, interfere with ground–based observatories, and wreak havoc on the natural sleep cycles of animals and humans.

Circadian rhythms, the natural biological cycles that help organisms know when to sleep, are hugely influenced by the presence or absence of sunlight.

If they're disrupted, animals might breed at the wrong times when food is scarce, hibernating animals and insects might wake up in the middle of winter, and plants might bloom when there are no pollinators.

The additional light could also confuse migratory birds, sending them flying off into the deadly cold when they think summer is approaching.

Reflect Orbital is not the first to attempt this. In 1993, the Russian satellite Znamya (pictured) unfurled a 65–foot mirror and reflected a beam of light as strong as two or three full moons

That could also be a problem for humans in the affected areas, with additional light in the evenings sending our natural sleep cycles into disarray.

The campaign group DarkSky says that these activities 'pose serious risks to the nighttime environment'.

DarkSky adds: 'Such illumination would introduce an entirely new source of artificial light at night, with far–reaching consequences, including disruption to wildlife and ecosystems that depend on natural cycles of light and dark, as well as serious public safety concerns.'

Unfortunately, the FCC does not take any of these factors into consideration when considering Reflect Orbital's application.

The agency's official policy is that anything that happens in space is, by definition, not on Earth and therefore not subject to environmental review.

Besides the environmental impacts, scientists are also extremely concerned that Reflect Orbital could jeopardise astronomy.

Astronomers have been warning for years that the light bouncing off the thousands of satellites in orbit is making it more and more difficult for telescopes to look out into space.

Even as SpaceX are voluntarily trying to make its satellites darker, Reflect Orbital is trying to make its spacecraft as bright as physically possible.

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11-03-2026 om 21:20 geschreven door peter  

Mystery drone triggers terror alert and shelter-in-place at major US Air Force base home to nuclear strike bomber

• MORE:  Chilling list reveals which US cities would be targeted first in WW3

By CHRIS MELORE, US ASSISTANT SCIENCE EDITOR

Soldiers at one of America's most important military bases were forced to shelter in place after a mysterious drone set off a terror alert on US soil. 

Officials at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana revealed that an 'unmanned aerial system' - better known as a remote-controlled drone - was spotted near the facility Monday morning.

Since drones are strictly prohibited from flying near or over the base, the Air Force temporarily raised their Force Protection Condition (FPCON) level to 'Charlie,' meaning a possible terrorist threat had been detected.

Barksdale Air Force Base is home to the military's fleet of B-52 bombers, capable of delivering nuclear strikes around the world.

Base officials noted that Monday's incident was still under investigation, and no details on where the mystery drone came from or if it was captured have emerged.

The Louisiana base has long been considered a major target of US adversaries because it serves as the headquarters for Air Force Global Strike Command and the Eighth Air Force.

A Barksdale AFB spokesperson told the Daily Mail: 'Under state and federal law, any unauthorized drone activity over a military installation is a criminal offense that can result in significant fines and imprisonment.'

'We retain the right to protect our installation and will continue monitoring our airspace to address any threats to our mission or personnel.'

Personnel at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana were ordered to shelter in place on Monday due to a potential hostile drone in the area

Barksdale AFB is home to three squadrons of B-52s (Pictured), a long-range bomber which can carry out global nuclear strikes

The B-52H Stratofortress is one of the country's most terrifying aircraft, especially as tensions in the Middle East spark rhetoric of nuclear escalation.

It is a long-range, heavy bomber capable of flying at high subsonic speeds at altitudes of up to 50,000 feet.

The B-52 also has a range of approximately 8,800 miles without refueling, meaning it can reach Europe, the Middle East and Asia without needing to land.

The bomber has become famous for its ability to carry up to 70,000 pounds of ordnance for both conventional and nuclear strikes and its round-the-clock patrols during times of extreme crisis, like during the Cold War.

Three squadrons of B-52s call Barksdale AFB home, and the military has warned that penalties for approaching this base have recently been increased.

In July 2025, airmen from Barksdale's legal office worked with Louisiana state lawmakers to update the state's drone law, expanding restrictions on unauthorized flights to include Barksdale, US Navy ships, ports and other facilities across the state.

Monday's incident was the first reported incident causing a military base in the continental US to shelter in place since the start of the war in Iran.

US military bases in the Middle East have come under repeated attack from missile and drone strikes since the start of the conflict in Iran broke out on February 28.

Barksdale AFB officials said the drone incident was still under investigation by the military and the FAA

In Louisiana, state laws have been ungraded to include increased fines and prison time for any unauthorized drone flights over Barksdale AFB

Read More

EXCLUSIVE

• Map reveals your nearest nuclear shelter and states that are MOST exposed... amid fears of US attack 

Two days later, all military bases worldwide were placed on a heightened state of alert for potential retaliation or terror attacks.  

All bases in the US and abroad are reportedly at FPCON Bravo, meaning there is an 'increased and more predictable threat of terrorist activity.'

The incident over Barksdale adds to the growing list of unexplained sightings and potentially hostile drone incidents around US military sites since 2024.

Hundreds of bizarre drone sightings were reported along the East Coast starting in November of that year and continuing into early 2025, including over local military bases in New York and Ohio and President Trump's property in New Jersey.

US Air Force Staff Sergeant Ramiro Valero said in a 2025 statement: 'People who try to fly near a military base might have malicious intent. With the harsher punishments, they might think twice before trying it.'

The updated penalties covering the airspace over Barksdale now call for a fine of up to $250,000 and at least one year in prison for the drone flyer, according to the Air Force.

However, Louisiana state law R.S. 14:337(E)(5) states that a person convicted of flying an unauthorized drone over federal or military installations could also face 'five years of hard labor imprisonment and court-ordered forfeiture of the drone.'

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

11-03-2026 om 20:58 geschreven door peter  

Manitoba AI Technology Enhances UFO Detection in 2025 Analysis

Manitoba AI enhances UFO detection in 2025, analyzing 1,052 sightings. Only 3% remain unexplained, promising new insights.

Chris Rutkowski, UFO researcher, stands with alien models in his Winnipeg office, highlighting his work on UFO sightings.

Based on coverage from Global News, CP24, National Observer, and Lethbridge News Now.

Canadians filed 1,052 reports of unidentified flying objects last year, ranging from simple “lights in the sky” to descriptions of discs, cylinders and glowing orbs. The latest Canadian UFO Survey says most cases have ordinary explanations, but a small slice, a little more than three per cent, still couldn’t be pinned down after review.

As advancements in AI technology promise to enhance UFO detection capabilities, ongoing infrastructure developments at the Winnipeg Airport, supported by a recent influx of funding, may also play a role in fostering innovative research in the region. For more on this, see our coverage of the airport's development funding efforts here.

The technology helps with more "sophisticated" detection, Rutkowski said.

Stefan Michalak made this sketch of a strange craft he encountered in the Falcon Lake woods in Manitoba on the May long weekend of 1967. The Falcon Lake incident is Canada's most famous UFO encounter. 

(Submitted by Stan Michalak)

The survey’s longtime lead researcher, Winnipeg-based Chris Rutkowski of Ufology Research, says better tools are on the way to sort the mundane from the genuinely puzzling. The next big shift, he argues, is artificial intelligence that can quickly tell the difference between a bird, a plane, a satellite and something that does not match common patterns.

Canadian UFO Survey reports 1,052 sightings

The 2025 edition of the annual survey was released Monday and pulls reports from public submissions, UFO research groups, government agencies, an aviation incident database and even social media. Ufology Research uses a straightforward definition: a UFO is “an object seen in the sky which its observer cannot identify.”

The tally is a slight increase from 2024, when 1,008 reports were collected. Rutkowski has been compiling the annual survey for decades, and CTV News reports it has catalogued more than 26,000 Canadian UFO sightings since 1989.

Witnesses come from all walks of life, according to the survey: “from farmhands to airline pilots and from teachers to police officers.”

What Canadians say they saw

A big chunk of reports are the classic “nocturnal lights.” The Canadian Press story says about half of sightings fell into that category, often turning out to be satellites, aircraft or stars. CTV pegs it at 52 per cent of reports being lights.

Beyond that, CTV’s breakdown includes spheres (11 per cent), triangles (five per cent) and discs (five per cent). Nearly half of sightings (48 per cent) were described as white objects or lights, followed by “multicoloured” at 16 per cent. About 13 per cent of sightings happened during the day.

Rutkowski’s bottom line on the wilder descriptions is pretty restrained: the vast majority are explainable, and there’s “no proof aliens are responsible.” Even the “unknown” label comes with a warning in the report itself: unexplained doesn’t mean extraterrestrial, and some cases may still get solved with more investigation.

Where UFO reports happened in Canada

Reports came from every province and territory. Ontario led the country, with CTV citing 307 reports, followed by Quebec at 210 and British Columbia at 131.

The survey also connects sightings to population: bigger places tend to generate more reports. Past hot spots have included Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, but the survey says Calgary topped the list for cities last year.

Rutkowski also notes a limitation that’s been around for years: the survey depends on co-operation from investigators and groups across the country, and it hasn’t always been comprehensive because some organizations withhold information.

AI and the Harvard Galileo Project

Rutkowski says UFO hobbyists and researchers are increasingly setting up observation stations that do more than eyeballing the night sky. These stations can collect more “scientific data,” and some are training AI to classify objects, spotting patterns and filtering out the usual suspects.

He points to the Galileo Project at Harvard University, which uses high-tech telescopes and cameras at monitoring sites, along with AI to classify and analyze what they capture. The pitch is simple: if you can reliably rule out birds, planes, satellites and other known objects faster, you’re left with a cleaner set of cases worth a closer look.

Federal call for a Canadian UAP office

The terminology is shifting, too. “UFO” is increasingly replaced in official circles by “UAP,” short for unidentified aerial (or anomalous) phenomena.

A report from Canada’s Office of the Chief Science Advisor recommended creating a public-facing federal agency to standardize, collect and study UAP reports. Rutkowski supports the idea, partly because of concerns about incursions into Canadian airspace and Canadian sovereignty, calling it something to take “very seriously” as part of Canada’s defence package.

Some reports already come from official channels. CTV says 18 cases were found in Transport Canada’s online aviation incident database, including a flight approaching Vancouver International Airport that reported “an unrecognizable flying object of mechanical nature, without lights,” and another over northern Alberta reporting a “cylinder-shaped object” at 39,000 feet. Transport Canada cautions those reports are preliminary and unconfirmed.

Rutkowski’s view is that stigma around reporting is fading, and that better data starts with more people documenting what they saw. He also offers a bit of reassurance for anyone who has looked up and wondered: he says one in ten Canadians believe they’ve seen a UFO.

{ https://www.thecanadareport.ca/ }

11-03-2026 om 20:47 geschreven door peter  

More than 1,000 UFOs reported over Canada in 2025

11-03-2026 om 20:30 geschreven door peter  

Reports of UFO sightings in Canada jumped last year. What’s going on?

 By Adriana Fallico - Global News

Next time you are going for a walk outside, maybe take a look at the sky and see if you spot anything unusual.

The 2025 edition of the Canadian UFO Survey was released Monday, which says that the number of sightings of unidentified flying objects was at its highest point since the COVID-19 pandemic, but has not topped the number reported during 2020.

The 2025 numbers show 1,052 UFO reports were shared in Canada, involving “participating private organizations, and through social media.”

Those 1,052 sightings are in contrast to the 1,008 in 2024, 570 in 2023, 768 in 2022, 722 in 2021, and 1,243 in 2020, which was up from 849 in 2019.

Out of all those 2025 reports, 3.42 per cent were classified as “unexplained.”

“Most [cases] were having simple or easy explained configurations, such as many sightings being aircrafts, planes, satellites, planets, that type of thing,” said Chris Rutkowski, the research coordinator for the Canadian UFO Survey.

Rutkowski also stated that one in 10 Canadians believe they have seen a UFO.

“It cuts across all demographics, and all areas of Canada,” he said. “If you’ve seen a UFO, you are definitely in very good company.”

Number of sightings have increased over the years

Rutkowski stated that the number of reported cases had been declining as of 2012, which was the highest reported number of cases with 1,982 since the survey began in 1989.

However, this year’s 1,052 sightings are the highest since 2020, when 1,243 sightings were documented.

“Over the past few years and certainly after the pandemic, after that point people started taking a renewed interest and I would imagine some of that renewed interest came from some objects flying in the sky,” he said.

In 2023, the number of reported cases sat at 570, indicating a difference of 482 cases compared to 2025 reported cases.

“There certainly is a concern about people being a little watchful and wondering what’s going on up there,” Rutkowski said.

Where are the reports coming from?

Rutkowski also noted that there has always been a stream of reports from “coast to coast to coast” across Canada since 1989, surrounding all Canadian provinces and territories.

“The number of reports in a given area is related to population, of course we get more reports from Ontario, Quebec and B.C., but there are some irregularities,” he said.

“For example, Manitoba and Newfoundland had significant increases in UFO numbers, whereas in Alberta and B.C. we saw decreases in numbers. Why? We are really not sure, but it really proves that there is more to the UFO phenomenon that bears more understanding.”

In 2025, Ontario led the pack with 30 per cent of the total number of UFO reports, Quebec claimed about 20 per cent, B.C. had 13.5 per cent and Alberta had about 11 per cent.

Both Manitoba and Nova Scotia saw significant increases in numbers of reported UFOs in 2025, with 55 and 117 cases, respectively.

The report says that the higher number of reports in Nova Scotia was “likely because Nova Scotians have very active UFO-related social media where witnesses can report their UFO sightings easily.”

In terms of metropolitan cities in Canada, Toronto finished first with 53 UFO reports, Vancouver with 45, Montreal with 30, Calgary with 28 and Edmonton with 23.

What was also different in this year’s findings was the time of year in which these sightings were reported.

According to the survey, “reports were in the late summer and winter instead of mostly summer months as usual.”

UFO hearing: US has conducted secret crash retrievals for alien aircrafts, former DoD official says

“We’ve actually noticed for several years now that the peak in August has been more prevalent, and that’s not intuitive in Canada because of our winters that there would be more people outside in the middle of summer seeing and reporting things in the sky, and yet it’s not June and July, which are the warmest months but August had more reports of UFOs,” Rutkowski said.

“In the middle of winter in January 2025, there was a number of UFO reports compared to most other months as well, so it’s not just a matter of the weather.”

Duration of sightings also spiked

The survey also states that the average duration of Canadian UFO sightings was 47 minutes, a “very significant” increase over 2024 (36 minutes), 2023 (16 minutes), and 2022 (13 minutes).

The survey indicates that the length of time a UFO is detected is actually “one of the biggest clues to its explanation.”

“Experience in studying UFO reports has shown that short duration events are usually fireballs or bolides, and long duration events of an hour or more are very probably astronomical objects moving slowly with Earth’s rotation,” the survey reads.

The survey also states that the peak times in which sightings were documented “has usually followed a similar pattern every year, with a “peak at 2200 hours local and a trough around 0900 hours local.”

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{ https://globalnews.ca/ }

11-03-2026 om 20:15 geschreven door peter  

At 8.38pm on January 23, 1974. Wales (UK)

The Leicester Daily Mercury detailed a ‘mystery’ on Thursday, January 24, 1974

(Picture: Mirrorpix)

Ornaments rattled, walls shook and lights flickered. People spilled onto the streets and looked up at the dark hills, where strange lights darted across the sky.

Police switchboards became clogged as panicked residents called in some sort of ‘explosion’.

In the village of Llandderfel, Pat Evans was jolted to her feet as she watched television. Fearing an aircraft had crashed, the nurse hastily drove up the B4391 as mist rolled over the winding road.

‘We drove a fair way along the mountain road,’ Pat had told the press. ‘To our left we could see a huge orange ball sitting on the mountain. It was glowing.’

Ken Houghton, who lived on Royal Oak Farm in the village of Betws-y-Coed – 25 miles away from Llandderfel – also witnessed a strange occurrence on the hillside. He told reporters he saw ‘sheet lightning behind a cloud’ before ‘a sphere came down’ on the hills.

‘The Welsh Roswell’ - the Berwyn mountain UFO crash, Llandrillo, Wales, January 23, 1974

The Berwyn Mountains

An RAF search and rescue team was scrambled to investigate the incident. But a ground search was called off due to the blanket of darkness that made the terrain difficult to traverse.

Ancient Aliens: UFO Crash Site in Wales (Season 12) | History

Ancient Aliens: UFO Crash Site in Wales (Season 12) | History

In the coming weeks, scientists, police officers and villagers flocked to the Berwyn mountains, a sparsely populated area of moorland popular with walkers.

It was thought a meteor – or perhaps something else entirely – had crashed into the hills.

The official explanation for the commotion in the Berwyn mountains was that an earthquake had struck North Wales just as a meteor shower passed over the region.

This was confirmed by academics at Edinburgh University and Keele University who measured the earth tremors and tracked where the meteor could have been spotted from.

Swansea UFO Network interviewed Scott Felton a North Wales based UFO investigator who with Margaret Fry another investigator took a fresh look at the case.

The witnesses generally reported seeing a bright light in the north-west which seemed to fall towards the horizon.

An expert who carried out independent research into the Berwyn Mountains incident for the British Astronomical Society reported that a “fireball” was visible over most of the UK that night.

It descended from a height of about 120km to about 35km before disintegrating over Manchester, the expert found.

Then-junior RAF minister Brynmor John summed up the official position in a letter to MP Dafydd Elis Thomas in May 1974.

He wrote: “As suggested by the descriptions reported, it seems the phenomena could well have been caused by a meteor descending through the atmosphere burning up and finally disintegrating before it reached the ground. Such a hypothesis would also explain the absence of any signs of impact.

It has also been suggested that at 8.32 pm that evening there was an earth tremor in the Berwyn Mountains which produced a landslide with noises like detonations.”

Coverage of the incident in the Liverpool Echo on Thursday 24 January 1974

(Picture: Mirrorpix)

But the MoD’s conclusions did not convince many of those who witnessed the incident firsthand.

One wrote in a letter preserved in the files: “That ‘something’ came down in the Berwyn Mountains on that night I am certain ...”

UFO researcher Russ Kellett said he has spoken to a fisherman who said he saw flying saucers emerge from the Irish Sea before the incident on the Berwyn Mountains.

Mr. Kellett, 47, from North Yorkshire, said: “There’s no doubt whatsoever that it was more than just an earthquake.

“I’ve got an affidavit from a group of men who were coming home from Bala when they found this flying saucer at the side of the road and the military came and took it away on a flat-back vehicle.”

Journalist and UFO investigator Dr. David Clarke, who is a skeptic on the subject, says the Berwyn Mountains incident is the most intriguing sighting in Wales, and elements of it remain unexplained.

Eyewitness sketches from the National Archives

Eyewitness sketches from the National Archives

Dr. Clarke, 42, who lectures at Sheffield Hallam University, said: “What we know is that on that particular night there was a nurse who heard the explosion and thought something had crashed into the hillside.

A stone circle near Llandrillo, Wales, close to where the 1974 sighting was reported

Geraint Edwards of Llandderfel, Denbighshire, told a Channel Five documentary, how he stood in amazement as a flying saucer hovered for 10 minutes above the mountains.

He said at the time: “It was definitely a flying saucer. It was a pity I didn’t have a camera because it was there for at least 10 minutes, just hovering. We were on the way to play darts when something caught our eye in the south-east.

“It looked like a rugger ball, but the ends were more pointy. When it took off, it just went like lightning.

“I wrote it down in my diary. It was 6.45 pm on the Friday night.

“If we were coming back from the pub, people would be saying, ‘they’ve had one or two [drinks]’ but we were going to the pub.”​

A document from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency revealed a military operation, codenamed Photoflash, was scheduled for that evening. It involved about 10 military aircraft and a series of powerful flashes across the North Wales coast and Liverpool Bay.

The MCA letter said: “During the late afternoon and early evening of 23rd January 1974 there was an exercise from Jerby Range on the Isle of Man. The exercise was called ‘Photoflash’ and coastguards were advised to expect at least 10 aircraft taking part and at least 80 flashes around the Liverpool Bay area and the North Wales coastline.”

There was no more information from official sources on that specific exercise and if it was connected to Berwyn. A spokesman at the RAF Museum Research Department suggested photoflash operations were used for training exercises to illuminate the ground below.

Nick Redfern's Cosmic Crashes has a another take on the alleged crash

The original account mentioned in Nicks book comes from investigator Tony Dodd. 'James Prescott' is a pseudonym; the person using it was not an official in the Welsh Armed Forces.

According to his account, he was stationed in South England before receiving orders to proceed to North Wales who claims he knew about live NHI bodies at the crash site... -

The bodies were about five to six feet tall, humanoid in shape, but so thin they looked almost skeletal with a covering skin.

- Sometime later we joined up with the other elements of our unit, who informed us that they had also transported bodies of alien beings to Porton Down, but said that their cargo was still alive.

Prescott would later state (via Redfern's book) that seeing the alien bodies made him change his whole concept of life. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cosmic-Crashes-Nicholas-Redfern/dp/0684870231

Thank you to @planethunter56 on Twitter 'X' for these details and for the corrections from https://twitter.com/StephenApWales

Details on the earthquake reported

• https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/1531/1/Bala_paper_Musson.pdf

Were you a witness, get in touch mufog@protonmail.com

11-03-2026 om 18:14 geschreven door peter  

What came before the Big Bang? These are the best theories we have about the origin of the cosmos

We explore the theories about one of the most mind-boggling questions about the Universe.

BY Govert Schilling

It’s the question that always comes up when thinking about the origin of the Universe: what came before the Big Bang?

And if there was no ‘before’, what was the cause of the Big Bang in the first place?

Until a few centuries ago, the answer was easy: some eternal deity set everything in motion.

For more amazing science, read our guides to...

• Nuclear pasta
• Spacetime
• Supersymmetry
• Antimatter

Even Isaac Newton believed that God created the Universe, some 6,000 years ago.

Later, many scientists, including young Albert Einstein, assumed the Universe itself to be eternal and everlasting.

The beginning of the Universe

But when cosmic expansion was discovered, Belgian cosmologist (and Jesuit priest) Georges Lemaître realised there must have been a beginning – a scientific version of Genesis, so to speak.

Not that everyone immediately agreed.

Well into the 1960s, Fred Hoyle’s steady-state theory was quite popular among iconoclastic scientists as well as lay people.

Hoyle accepted the expansion of the Universe, but he didn’t believe in the Big Bang.

Instead, he assumed that a slow, continuous creation of new matter could keep the average density and the general properties of the Universe constant over time.

The 1964 discovery of the cosmic microwave background was the major nail in the coffin of the steady-state theory.

Ever since, supporting evidence for the Big Bang origin of our Universe has accumulated to a point where there’s hardly any doubt left.

Still, no one has the final answer to the question "what happened before the Big Bang?".

Could there have been a Universe before the Big Bang?

Most scientists simply ignore the question, as it seems to be too hard a nut to crack.

Beginning of time

When astronomers talk about the Big Bang, they usually do not refer to the very beginning of the Universe (time zero), but to the incredibly hot and compact state of the Universe in the first couple of minutes of its existence.

To some extent, this is because no one has a real clue about the true nature of time, let alone about the beginning of time.

British physicist Julian Barbour, for one, has argued that time doesn’t even exist, except as an illusion in our minds.

According to others (including Stephen Hawking), time came into existence together with the Universe, rendering the whole concept of the word ‘before’ meaningless.

Asking what happened before the Big Bang would be like asking what lies north of the North Pole, or what distance is shorter than zero.

Alternative theories

Then again, we simply don’t know whether or not there was time before the Big Bang.

According to the once-popular idea of the cyclic (or oscillatory) Universe, the current expansion of space could one day revert into a contraction, and the resulting Big Crunch could bounce into a new Big Bang, starting the next cycle of an eternal sequence.

For more on this, read our interview with Katie Mack about the end of the Universe.

It’s just one of many hypotheses in which our Universe is not unique, but part of a possibly infinite multiverse, one way or another.

And if the multiverse is also infinite in time, we’re back to the idea that everything has existed forever, conveniently circumnavigating the nagging question of a beginning.

Finally, South African physicist Neil Turok thinks the Big Bang not only spawned our Universe, but also an anti-Universe, composed of anti­­​­matter and running backward in time.

Again, an intriguing idea, but there’s also no chance of confirmation (or rejection!) via observations.

In the end, we have to admit we’re ignorant about the true beginning of the Universe.

And even if we lean towards an eternal multiverse with no real beginning at all, we don’t know why there is something (or, more to the point, why there is everything) instead of nothing.

This article originally appeared in the June 2023 issue of BBC Sky at Night Magazine.

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

11-03-2026 om 17:41 geschreven door peter  

©Image PetsnPals/AI generated image

Clues hidden in plain sight are reshaping its story.
Across the quiet landscape of northeastern Louisiana, the sweeping ridges and towering mounds of Poverty Point rise with a presence that feels both deliberate and difficult to explain. For generations, archaeologists viewed the site as largely ceremonial, a place defined more by symbolism than daily life. Yet subtle clues buried in the soil have begun pointing toward a far more dynamic past. Patterns of movement, artifacts carried from distant regions, and the scale of construction hint at something larger unfolding here. As new research gathers momentum, the ancient earthworks appear less like silent monuments and more like the framework of an active human landscape.

©Image license via Wikimedia Commons/Jennifer R. Trotter

1. Researchers now see gathering events shaping the ridges.
Archeologists believe the concentric ridges supported large gatherings, according to the National Park Service. That possibility transforms the site from a quiet ceremonial zone into a dynamic place filled with people who traveled long distances. The scale begins to feel intentional because it fits the activity it may have once held. Travelers likely arrived with goods, stories and expectations that shaped the rhythm of the place.

Those repeated visits would have carved patterns into the land and created a shared identity linked to Poverty Point. The idea brings a lively pulse to a space once seen as still and symbolic.

©Image license via Wikimedia Commons/Heironymous Rowe

©Image license via Wikimedia Commons/Heironymous Rowe

2. Movement pathways appear built into the site’s design.
Some researchers think the ridges guided how visitors moved, as reported by Smithsonian Magazine. The curved earthworks may have shaped footpaths that channeled people toward central areas. Once seen through that lens, the entire design becomes organized rather than mysterious. Walkways appear to sit quietly inside the broader landscape, waiting for someone to trace them again.

Such structure suggests the site functioned more like a coordinated gathering space than an empty monument. People may have followed predictable routes, creating a sense of flow that held the community together each time they returned to Poverty Point.

©Image license via Canva

3. Massive community labor created the monumental mounds.
Soil studies reveal that large communities helped build the mounds, as discovered by the Louisiana Office of State Parks. The work required immense cooperation and hints at a shared purpose that involved many groups. No single leader could have commanded labor on this scale without a unifying reason. That unifying force may have been gatherings, trade or seasonal events that encouraged participation.

This cooperative building effort suggests the site held meaning across broad regions. The sense of collective investment points to a place that functioned actively in the lives of those who constructed it, not a silent symbol removed from daily life.

©Image license via Wikimedia Commons/Heironymous Rowe

4. Far reaching trade routes fed into Poverty Point’s economy.
Artifacts found at the site originate from regions stretching from the Great Lakes to the Ohio River Valley. Items such as stone tools and copper pieces suggest people arrived carrying goods meant for exchange. These long distance connections give the site a wider influence than many expected and paint it as a major hub. Travelers may have returned because the location offered both opportunity and familiarity.

Trade would also explain why different groups were willing to invest effort into maintaining the site. A place that benefitted many people would naturally gather recurring attention and participation.

©Image license via Wikimedia Commons/Chumwa , chris 論

5. The central plaza likely hosted timed seasonal events.
The massive open plaza appears flattened and maintained with great care. Researchers believe it may have supported events that followed seasonal patterns. Predictable gatherings could have guided travel and anchored cultural routines across many communities. People familiar with those cycles may have anticipated the journey each year and prepared for long trips to the site.

This kind of recurring schedule would create memories tied directly to the plaza. It becomes easier to imagine it filled with families, traders and visitors moving in sync with a rhythm that returned generation after generation.

©Image license via Wikimedia Commons/Jennifer R. Trotter

6. The tallest mounds may have served as visual markers.
Some scholars propose that the largest mounds operated as signals for travelers approaching from river routes. Their height and placement make them visible above the surrounding landscape, offering guidance to those arriving by water. That visibility gives the mounds a practical function beyond ceremony. They become landmarks meant to aid navigation across a region shaped by rivers.

Seeing them as markers makes the surrounding area feel more connected. Travelers could have relied on these reference points, making Poverty Point a familiar and welcoming destination even from far away.

©Image license via Flickr/Michael Homan

7. Specialized activity areas reveal organized working zones.
Excavations show clusters of tools and debris that suggest people worked in designated areas. These zones appear set apart from living or gathering spaces, hinting at intentional planning. Visitors may have crafted items, prepared supplies or exchanged goods in particular spots. Such organization points to a site designed to support different roles without chaos.

This separation of activity helps explain the impressive scale of the earthworks. A place that managed large groups needed order, and these areas show how that order may have been maintained by people who used the space regularly.

©Image license via Canva

8. Shared meals created a sense of community identity.
Food remains found throughout the site suggest many people ate together during gatherings. Bones, seeds and cooking residues show that meals were larger than simple subsistence activities. Shared eating often strengthens bonds, especially when groups reunite seasonally. These collective meals may have created traditions that tied people from distant regions to the same location.

That social unity helps explain why visitors returned. Meals shared across communities make a place feel familiar, weaving emotional ties into the land itself and anchoring Poverty Point deeper in cultural memory.

©Image license via Wikimedia Commons/©Image license via Wikimedia Commons/Herb Roe

9. Water access points reveal careful planning for arrivals.
The ridges near natural water sources suggest travelers accessed the site through predictable routes. People arriving by boat would have found convenient transitions from water to elevated ground. This layout indicates that the builders understood how movement worked across the region. Their planning made entry smooth, efficient and intuitive.

Such thoughtful design reinforces the idea that Poverty Point was built for repeated use. It may have been a dependable destination that generations trusted, knowing their arrival would be met with a landscape that welcomed them.

©Image license via Wikimedia Commons/Bart Everson

10. New interpretations reveal a site full of human motion.
The emerging view of Poverty Point highlights people gathering, trading and working rather than standing in silent ceremony. The land carries the imprint of movement as much as construction. Travelers may have shaped the site as much as the builders did, adding layers of meaning each time they returned. The ridges and mounds feel less like rigid structures and more like traces of lives in motion.

Seeing the site this way brings warmth to its history. Poverty Point becomes a place built by many hands for many reasons, held together by shared purpose.

{ PetsPals }

11-03-2026 om 17:04 geschreven door peter  

Turkey Kumburgaz UFO Videos Are 100% Real With Clear View Of Alien Entities Sitting Inside Craft

Back in 2008, Yalcin Yalman worked as a night watchman at the Yenikent facility from where he shot all these amazing videos of UFOs, hovering over the Marmara Sea near Kumburgaz. He even showed his second-hand camera to the media in a press conference held at the Dedeman Hotel in Istanbul.

Yalman said he started recording the strange crafts as a hobby to pass his time in the night. Due to the shaky videos, some skeptics claimed that the mysterious objects over the skies of Turkey could have been a US stealth drone or other aircraft. However, numerous experts confirmed that the videos were authentic. Besides, many people witnessed the same unknown crafts in the sky. The sightings gained attention from locals, national media, and even CNN. Several videos were recorded between June 8 and 12, 2009, showing mysterious objects and lights.

Originally, the video was analyzed and made public by the Sirius UFO Space Sciences Research Center led by researcher Haktan Akdoğan. Haktan said the UFOs were often seen by civilians and military pilots during an International UFO Congress in 2009. (Source)

n 2009, after the conference, there were witnesses of 8-10 people including UFOlogist Dr. Roger Leir, who also witnessed and verified the Kumburgaz UFO sighting. Dr. Leir was present during the filming of one video on May 17, 2009, and confirmed that as the UAP turned, it was similar to the “Roswell” shaped craft (more boomerang-shaped) rather than a traditional disc. Dr. Leir discussed this incident that happened with him after the conference on Coast to Coast with George Knapp.

Dr. Leir told Knapp that he, Yalman and others went to Kumburgaz to film UFOs. The group stayed up from midnight to 4 o’clock in the morning to capture any possible sightings. The conditions were ideal, with clear skies and no obstructions. During the filming, they observed a bright object below the full moon, which initially appeared as a potential star or planet. As they focused on this object, they discovered a semi-circular craft with a multitude of lights, possibly shaped like a boomerang or a cylindrical saucer

Dr. Leir said, “You’d think, ‘Well, gee, a bright sky, bright moon, you’re not going to see anything.’ But in this case, the moon was a big help. It essentially lit up the exterior portion of the craft, which initially, when we saw it, looked a bit like a boomerang because we weren’t seeing it straight on, so we couldn’t tell the exact shape of the craft. But then we went to full film on it, and we could see that it was either a boomerang, or we were looking at a certain portion of a cylindrical craft or a saucer.

Till this day, I don’t know, and I don’t know what the analysts said about the shape. But it was either one of the two: either a boomerang shape with a round front or a complete saucer. It did turn a couple of times, so we were able to see the side, and it looked like it could have been saucer-shaped. But then we got the biggest shock of our lives because we could see light that was emanating from the internal portion of the craft in three areas. One was directly in front, and one was on either side.

This was a full-on front view, and folks can look at the Coast website and they can not only see the video but please go to the Chilean analysis because there are some still photos there which show what we saw when we looked in the central portion. That was a big shock to look and see, not a Rorschach-type thing, but actual entities that were, whatever they were doing, looking out the front of the craft, just the same as we were looking at them.”

Video Observation

From 2007 to 2009, Yalman recorded approximately 30 videos. The footage was taken with a MiniDV Canon DM-GR1-A based on the NTSC system with a diaphragm set at a maximum of 1.8. It is a 3CCD 20x optic 100x with a teleconverter mounted on a 58 mm adapter. The tele-objective is a Sony VCL HGD 1758 model lens, x 1.7. [2007 to 2009 Original Raw Footage]

The videos were examined by two influential state-sponsored organizations in Turkey, “The Scientific and Technology Research Board of Turkey” and “The TUG National Observatory.” Their objective was to identify any evidence of forgery, but the results supported the authenticity of the videos. The original film cassettes were also studied by individuals from Japan, Chile, Brazil, and Russia, and despite several attempts, no one has been able to conclusively demonstrate evidence of a hoax, fraud, or manipulation, leaving the case unidentified.

Yalman’s camera was equipped with a zoom option which allowed him to even capture the pilots, sitting in one of the crafts. The image is shaky due to the hand movements while zooming. However, with the editing software, the video was stabilized, and the result shocked everyone. Two humanoid figures could be seen in the image with large black eyes and oversized heads.

Haktan Akdoğan noted that these are the most important images in Turkey and in the world, saying: “After doing all the necessary analysis which went on for several weeks, the board came to a definite conclusion with no doubt that these are 100% genuine videos. The objects sighted in the aforementioned footage that have a structure that is made of specific material are definitely not made up by any kind of computer animation nor are they any form of special effects used for simulation in a studio or for a video effect therefore in conclusion it was decided that the sightings were neither a mock up or hoax. It is concluded that these objects in the sightings that have physical and material structures do not belong in any category such as; planes, helicopters, meteors, Venus, Mars, satellites, fireballs, Chinese lanterns, fireballs, weather balloons, natural or atmospheric phenomenon etc. and but rather fall into the category of UFOs.”

“We see the heads of not only one UFO but also of two beings in the images. This is the first in the world.” He further added that those images would have a great impact on UFOlogy. He had been researching UFOs for 22 years and had never seen something like this. He stated: “These are the most remarkable images taken in Turkish history.”

[In translation] Akdoğan stated that “these beings are generally seen in areas rich with resources, volcanic areas, and historical places. They started to come more frequently after nuclear tests. Maybe the released radiation also harms the cosmic neighbors, we disrupt the balance in the universe. Maybe they observe this dangerous process.” (Source)

According to the report issued by the Scientific and Technology Research Board of Turkey, the examination of these frames has yielded the following results

• The images were recorded in digital NTSC format by the above-mentioned camera.
• The date on the video indicates that the recordings were made during 2007, 2008, and 2009.
• The footage images of the object that visibly have a certain configuration are not computer animations, special video effects or studio-re-created images or models. The footage is genuine.
• The first observation made from the footage is that some of the images were recorded in the nighttime sky at a certain altitude from the horizon. The footage also covers images of the moon in some parts which proves that the video was shot in the nighttime and open air. But, the fact that digital date displays show AM in certain frames and PM in others, raises suspicion about the validity of the time in which the recordings were made.
• Since in some parts, there is no other object that can be featured as a reference in the close-up frames and no observable differences were found on background examination, the actual location, distance, dimensions and nature of the objects could not have been determined.
• Through the examination of shootings of multiple dates, it is a strong possibility that 2-3 different objects were captured. However, it is difficult to determine whether the objects are moving or not. Their movement is slow even if they do so.
• The reflections of light on the objects are sometimes caused by the moon which was in a convenient location at that time, and sometimes produced by some other sources of light.
• The light reflection from the left side of the object which is seen on the August 10th shootings is not produced by the moon. At that time, the moon was in a phase that was pretty close to the “new moon” phase and located approximately at a 10-degree proximity/angle to the horizon. Moreover, the image processing analysis conducted on some parts of the footage revealed that the center of the object has the same density as its background, namely is of a transparent nature.

Not Debunked

Adam Goldstack of UAP Media UK mentions that many debunkers try to explain the craft as cruise ships but according to former F-16 fighter pilot and researcher Chris Letho, it does not add up. Letho analyzed the videos and case and calculated the object’s size, horizon distance, plus visual angles from the Marmara Sea. He concluded the logistics of a cruise ship did not match the reported UAP. (Source)

Goldstack writes, “From an analytical perspective, the Turkey Kumburgaz UFO case is unique with regards to the clear and multiple video footage obtained. Through this case, we also have sequential data that display behavioral patterns, times, and dates. We see all of the twenty-five video encounters/incidents at night-time/early morning (with one in the late evening), which is in keeping with the wider range of Ufology data that suggests UAP often appears at night-time.

We also see another significant pattern displaying the encounters around water – in this case, the Marmara Sea. The Sea of Marmara itself is a small sea with an area of 11,350 km2 (4,380 sq mi) and with dimensions of 280 km × 80 km (174 mi × 50 mi). The sea has a greatest depth of 1,370 m (4,490 ft). How significant the Sea of Marmara is to potential UAP has still not been explained. No connection to nuclear facilities or weapons has been linked in this case.”

{ https://howandwhys.com/ }

11-03-2026 om 15:27 geschreven door peter  

Earth to Pass Through the Same Taurid Meteor Stream in 2032 That May Have Triggered a Mass Extinction 12,800 Years Ago

Earth will travel right in front of the same Taurid meteor stream in 2032 that caused a mass extinction and worldwide flood ~12,800 years ago, plunging Earth into a mini-Ice Age for 1,300 years. Graham Hancock was right all this time but we did not listen to him.

Our solar system is a dangerous place, and every month Earth inches closer to one of its riskier places, the “Taurid swarm” of meteors. Our planet is predicted to pass directly through the “Taurid swarm” in November 2032.

(Image Credit: AstroStar/Shutterstock) 

An ancient monument found in Turkey might be more than just a monument—it could be the world’s oldest solar calendar. Researchers from the University of Edinburgh studied symbols carved on the pillars of Göbekli Tepe, a large, ancient site in southern Turkey. They think these carvings were used to track days, seasons, and years, like a calendar. (Source)

The team noticed that each “V” shape carved on the pillars might represent one day. One pillar even had 365 “V”s, the same number as days in a year. They also found that a special “V” around the neck of a bird-like figure could represent the summer solstice—the longest day of the year. This might explain why the “V” symbol shows up on many other statues in the area, often around the necks of figures connected to time and creation.

Mini Ice Age

The ancient calendar focused on tracking day, night, and seasonal changes, which might have become more important after a major comet hit Earth around 10,850 B.C. This event likely caused a mini-ice age that wiped out many species. According to Martin Sweatman, a researcher from the University of Edinburgh, the people at Gobekli Tepe were careful observers of the sky, possibly because the comet strike had changed their world.

This disaster may have sparked the beginning of civilization by starting new religious beliefs and pushing people to develop agriculture to survive the colder climate. Their carvings might be some of the earliest attempts at writing. These carvings also tracked the cycles of the Moon and Sun, long before similar calendars were made. They may have even shown for the first time that comet strikes are more likely to happen when Earth crosses the path of comet fragments, something that modern scientists have confirmed.

To help support this theory, the team points to another pillar at the site appearing to picture the Taurid meteor stream lasting 27 days, which was quite possibly the source of the ancient comet strike. The researchers believe that the temple carvings show the ancient civilization was recording dates precisely, noting how the movement of constellations across the sky differed based on the time of the year. This would be 10,000 years before Hipparchus of ancient Greece documented the wobble in the Earth’s axis in 150 BC, making this newfound calendar well ahead of its time.

The Younger Dryas boundary (YDB) cosmic-impact hypothesis suggests that around 12,800 years ago, Earth was hit by pieces of a large comet, which broke apart as it entered the inner solar system. This event likely caused a chain reaction, leading to an “impact winter” (a period of intense cold) and a climate change episode called the Younger Dryas (YD). (Source)

The collision is also believed to have caused massive wildfires, the extinction of large animals like mammoths, and changes in human cultures and population decline. Evidence of this impact includes unusually high levels of platinum found at 26 sites across the Northern Hemisphere, including in ice cores from Greenland, which show platinum deposits over a 21-year period.

The start of the Younger Dryas also shows an increase in dust and chemicals linked to wildfires, like ammonium and other burning aerosols, found in ice cores from Greenland, Antarctica, and Russia. These signs point to one of the biggest wildfire events in over 120,000 years, with about 9% of Earth’s forests burned, covering 10 million square kilometers.

This large-scale burning and the cooling effect of the impact may have triggered the Younger Dryas climate change, according to the theory.

A 2021 study (Taurid complex smoking gun) found that 88 near-Earth asteroids, hidden in the debris that creates the Taurid Meteor Shower, likely came from the breakup of a single comet about 20,000 years ago. Astronomers at the University of Antioquia in Colombia studied the ‘Taurid complex’ to learn more about where these objects came from.

In the 1980s, scientists William Napier and Victor Clube noticed large asteroids in the Taurid stream. They suggested these asteroids had the same origin as Comet Encke, which orbits the Sun every three years. However, some asteroids are over a mile wide, meaning they couldn’t have come from Comet Encke itself. Scientists Ignacio Ferrín and Vincenzo Orofino reviewed old research and measured light reflected from the larger asteroids.

Comet Encke, first seen in 1786, left a trail of debris as it got closer to the sun, like other comets. This trail, made up of rocks, dust, and debris, sometimes comes close to Earth, leading to lots of scientific study. Some studies focus on larger asteroids.

Experts think impacts from the Taurid stream may have contributed to the extinction of ancient cultures and global cooling during the Younger Dryas period. The 1908 Tunguska event, where a small asteroid exploded above Russia, destroying millions of trees, is believed to be connected to this debris stream.

In 2013, the Chelyabinsk meteor, which injured over 1,500 people in Russia, may have also come from the Taurid stream. In 2005, NASA astronomer Rob Suggs observed a flash from a meteor hitting the moon, which was part of the Taurid meteor shower.

A team of Colombian researchers, along with astronomers from Italy’s University of Salento, reviewed many studies on space impacts. They confirmed that a group of space objects contains up to 88 large pieces. Using a method called secular light curves, they noticed changes in the brightness of these objects and found that 67% showed signs of “comet-like” activity. This supported the idea that these objects came from a common origin.

Napier, another scientist, supported their findings. He said that these asteroids, which have orbits like Comet Encke, could either be affected by unknown forces or are pieces of a larger, older comet that lost its gases. This original comet may have been a “rubble pile” – a mix of rocks and other materials held together by ice. Over time, this pile could have broken apart, possibly due to forces from the Sun or another object, creating smaller fragments.

One asteroid, Oljato, is an example of a rubble pile. It’s still held together by ice, which gives it comet-like activity, but it’s much smaller than its parent. Bigger inactive objects like Morpheus are similar, but their ice is trapped inside. Smaller objects, like 2006 SO198, might be the original rocky pieces. The team explained that even if an object looks like a regular asteroid, it could still have a comet-like origin.

Taurid meteors, part of this group, are usually larger than normal meteors. They shine brightly and go deeper into the Earth’s atmosphere, sometimes creating fireballs. While this is mostly harmless, the discovery of larger asteroids in one “dangerous” part of the meteor stream could be a real threat.

Earth passes through this risky area every few years, leading to more shooting stars and possibly large objects hitting Earth instead of burning up in the atmosphere. Future encounters are expected in 2022, 2025, 2032, and 2039.

In 2021, David Asher, Armagh Observatory astronomer predicted that in 2032 and 2036 we are likely to pass through the centre of the Taurid complex, where there will be a ‘noticeable enhancement of fireballs.’ According to study [Taurid complex smoking gun] authors Ignacio Ferrín and Vincenzo Orofino, outgassing from comet-like objects within the complex could be hiding smaller, but still potentially dangerous, asteroids that might hit the Earth.

‘The Tunguska cosmic body was 60 to 90 meters in diameter,’ he told Discover Magazine, adding that we ‘now believe the complex may contain many more objects of that size. It is not the tame, simple and innocent complex we thought it was.’

{ https://howandwhys.com/ }

11-03-2026 om 15:00 geschreven door peter  

This Man, Who Worked on the Voyager Missions, Said He Discovered Enormous, Living, Electromagnetic Vehicles Inhabiting Saturn’s Rings

The Strangest thing about Saturn is that this Man, who worked on the Voyager missions, said he discovered Enormous, Living, Electromagnetic Vehicles inhabiting its Rings.

Dr. Norman Bergrun concluded, based on his analysis of Voyager 1 and 2 data, which he detailed in his 1985 book, Ringmakers of Saturn, that he discovered enormous, living, electromagnetic vehicles inhabiting the rings of Saturn.

Dr. Bergrun, who had worked for NASA, claimed that there were massive alien spacecraft proliferating in the rings of Saturn. He is the author of the books “Ringmakers of Saturn” and “Tomorrows Technology Today,” which document the existence of extraterrestrial vehicles of immense power. A scientist who pioneered the methodology of thermal ice prevention design, he is also credited with roll-stability laws for airplanes and missiles.

Dr. Bergrun was manager of test planning and analysis for the Polaris Underwater Launch Missile System and evaluated satellite system applications. Also a director of Information Systems, he founded his own company in 1971 and is cited in “Who’s Who in the World” and other reference works. He was an alumnus of Ames Research Laboratory, NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics), predecessor of Ames Research Center, NASA, where he worked for 12 years as a research scientist.

Dr. Norman Bergrun played a key role in the Voyager missions, the probes that were sent out to photograph Saturn, its rings, and its moons. There is a photo shown below from that mission, which he was able to obtain from the agency of a large unidentified flying object hovering just outside Saturn’s rings. It is huge, approximately the size of Earth, and is published in his book, “Ringmakers of Saturn.”

Dr. Bergrun claimed that these rings were not made of ice and rock as is commonly believed, but were actually the exhaust from these massive craft, which he calls “ringmakers.” He asserted that these vehicles are proliferating and are now also present at Jupiter and Uranus, creating new rings on planets that previously had none.

He suggested these vehicles had strong nuclear power sources and advanced electromagnetic technology. They appeared capable of creating massive electrical fields, lightning bolts larger than those on Earth, and disturbances across the entire ring system.

Dr. Bergrun recounted his professional history, mentioning his work at Lockheed on the first generation of the Polaris underwater launch vehicle. This had led him to work in a top-secret area behind closed doors, where he had been required to sign a 30-year non-disclosure agreement.

He explained that he eventually left this role due to “claustrophobia,” clarifying that it was not a fear of small spaces but rather the mental strain of being confined to the same secret room day after day.

It was during this period that he received his first clue about unusual things in space after being given a set of data that no one else could make sense of. When he plotted it, he realized that it showed something strange. (Source)

He claimed that he faced significant opposition and cover-ups from official bodies such as NASA. He recounted a story about a source allegedly connected to NASA who asked him how he had found a particular image from the moon, remarking, “I thought we darkened that enough that you wouldn’t find it.”

Dr. Bergrun also stated that his personal data and images, which he had stored in a supposedly impenetrable vault, were tampered with. He claimed that unknown parties had “garbled” his files on laptops and disks, sometimes erasing them completely. Despite this interference, he believed he did not need the old data because he was so familiar with the subject that he could reconstruct his work at any time.

He claimed that he faced significant opposition and cover-ups from official bodies such as NASA. He recounted a story about a source allegedly connected to NASA who asked him how he had found a particular image from the moon, remarking, “I thought we darkened that enough that you wouldn’t find it.”

Dr. Bergrun also stated that his personal data and images, which he had stored in a supposedly impenetrable vault, were tampered with. He claimed that unknown parties had “garbled” his files on laptops and disks, sometimes erasing them completely. Despite this interference, he believed he did not need the old data because he was so familiar with the subject that he could reconstruct his work at any time.

Regarding the purpose of these vehicles, Dr. Bergrun disagreed with the theory that they were mining the rings. Instead, he suggested that they were “nursing” from the rings, using them as a source of energy to power themselves and to create new, smaller vehicles that later grew, much like living organisms.

He was open to the idea that they might also fly close to the sun to “get pumped up” with energy, since their apparent ability to withstand extreme heat made that possible.

According to him, these could not be fully explained by natural processes. He suggested that the vehicles had electromagnetic capabilities and emitted streams of material, which then formed the rings and gaps seen around Saturn. He gave examples and measurements to support his claims, and pointed to historical observations by Galileo and others that showed unexplained phenomena.

Dr. Bergrun also claimed that similar effects were seen on some of Saturn’s moons. He described mysterious lighting and unusual markings, which he thought were possible “scars” left by the vehicles. He went even further, suggesting that Earth’s Moon, the Tunguska explosion in Siberia, and strange weather events might all be related to visits or actions by these powerful spacecraft.

Read also:

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• This Man Says NASA Asked for Help After Astronauts Encountered Orbs Containing 125-Foot Winged Angelic Beings That Smiled at Them

He argued that these vehicles are evidence of a super-advanced intelligence in the universe and that they have been visiting our solar system for a long time. Bergrun warned that their power could pose risks if not understood, but also noted that they might not necessarily threaten humanity directly.

Dr. Bergrun believed that the situation was becoming “critical” because the activity was increasing, as evidenced by the new rings appearing around Uranus and Jupiter.

His urgency was not necessarily from the idea that the craft were coming to Earth, but from his sense that there was a strong possibility they could, and that the public and the scientific community had to be made to understand that these objects were real.

He noted that his conclusions were too controversial for his professional organization to address. He distinguished between his work, which he said was based on data, and the “theories” of others, such as John Lear’s idea that Saturn was a portal into another dimension.

He also touched on other topics, including his belief that humans were not capable of communicating with these entities, which rendered efforts by organizations like SETI ineffective.

He confirmed that plasma had been scientifically measured in Saturn’s rings, which he saw as supporting his claims. When asked about the hexagonal shape seen at Saturn’s north pole, he acknowledged it but regarded it simply as another geometric form that these advanced entities were capable of creating, rather than holding a special symbolic meaning.

Finally, he revealed that he had spent ten years earning a law degree so that he could better understand the mindset of the people “running the country,” whom he felt often made decisions without comprehending the underlying science.

He died on July 1, 2018, at Tracy Nursing and Rehabilitation Center at the age of 96. Unfortunately, Dr. Bergun was just another name on the list of NASA whistleblowers who are forgotten and ignored due to a lack of followers and media attention.

{ https://howandwhys.com/ }

11-03-2026 om 14:30 geschreven door peter  

China's Space Programme Prepares for Its Busiest Year Yet

By Mark Thompson 

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{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

11-03-2026 om 14:06 geschreven door peter  

Sunday Morning's European Fireball Was Probably Only a Few Meters in Diameter

By Evan Gough

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

11-03-2026 om 12:19 geschreven door peter  

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

11-03-2026 om 12:04 geschreven door peter  

Mars endured an unprecedented solar superstorm, and European Space Agency (ESA) orbiters, the Mars Express and ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, captured the chaos, highlighting the Red Planet’s radiation dangers.

When the storm hit Earth in May 2024, it produced brilliant auroras remarkably close to the equator, and its impact on Mars was no less significant. ESA’s Mars orbiters recorded massive doses of radiation, delivering 200 days’ worth in a mere 64 hours, according to a new paper published in Nature Communications—far more than has ever been recorded before.

Mars Flooded with Solar Radiation

“The impact was remarkable: Mars’s upper atmosphere was flooded by electrons,” says lead author and ESA Research Fellow, Jacob Parrott. “It was the biggest response to a solar storm we’ve ever seen at Mars.”

The storm consisted of three separate events, all of which the team observed. These included a radiation flare, a high-energy particle burst, and a coronal mass ejection. As the high-energy, magnetized plasma and radiation from these events hit the Martian atmosphere, they stripped electrons from neutral atoms, filling the sky with charged particles.

The solar storm’s effects were most clearly felt in two layers of the Martian atmosphere, one at 110 kilometers above the surface and the other at 130 kilometers. The lower level saw a 45% increase in electrons, while the higher layer experienced an unprecedented 278% increase.

“The storm also caused computer errors for both orbiters – a typical peril of space weather, as the particles involved are so energetic and hard to predict,” adds Parrott. “Luckily, the spacecraft were designed with this in mind, and built with radiation-resistant components and specific systems for detecting and fixing these errors. They recovered fast.”

Radio Occultation

ESA is pioneering a technique called radio occultation, utilizing multiple platforms to investigate the Martian atmosphere. Presently, the technique is used with Earth-orbiting satellites, but the team is working to bring it to other planets in our solar system.

The radio occultation process begins with Mars Express sending a signal to the Trace Gas Orbiter just as it vanishes over the horizon. That disappearance is key to the process, bending the signal through layers of the atmosphere on its way to the Trace Gas Orbiter and providing information about those layers along the way. To complete the work, the team confirmed their electron density measurements using NASA’s MAVEN orbiter.

“This technique has actually been used for decades to explore the Solar System, but using signals beamed from a spacecraft to Earth,” said co-author Colin Wilson, ESA project scientist for Mars Express and TGO. “It’s only in the past five years or so that we’ve started using it at Mars between two spacecraft, such as Mars Express and TGO, which usually use those radios to beam data between orbiters and rovers. It’s great to see it in action.”

Earth and Mars

Analyzing the data brings differences between our world and its neighbor, Mars, into clearer focus. Earth’s magnetic field shields our planet, mitigating some of space weather’s strongest effects. That shielding minimized the effects of the 2024 storm in the upper atmosphere while diverting many particles either to the poles or away from the planet entirely.

“Being exposed to the solar flare covered in the article whilst being unprotected would be like getting the worst sunburn of your life in a couple of seconds,” Parrott explained to The Debrief. “However, people are not going to be walking around in short sleeves on the Martian surface for many centuries. So whilst we have our space suits, a thicker ionosphere doesn’t affect the safety of humans much.”

“However, the ionosphere is critical for communications. Sometimes our links to the surface are blocked by ionospheric phenomena,” Parrott continued. “So future missions must be equipped with relay equipment capable of totally different frequency bands, as the frequency of the transmission can affect how a signal travels through the ionosphere.”

“Possible other refinements might be implementing “solar flare blackout” periods in communication scheduling as there is no point using power to transmit to a rover or base on the surface when the ionosphere is going to block all the signals,” Parrott concluded.

“If Mars’s upper atmosphere is packed full of electrons, this could block the signals we use to explore the planet’s surface via radar,” Colin said, “making it a key consideration in our mission planning – and impacting our ability to investigate other worlds.”

With life support infrastructure necessary for mere survival on Mars, this highly radiation- and space-weather-susceptible environment will require further study ahead of any crewed missions.

The paper, “Martian Ionospheric Response During the May 2024 Solar Superstorm,” appeared in Nature Communications on March 5, 2026.

• Ryan Whalen covers science and technology for The Debrief. He holds an MA in History and a Master of Library and Information Science with a certificate in Data Science. He can be contacted at ryan@thedebrief.org, and follow him on Twitter @mdntwvlf.

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

11-03-2026 om 11:42 geschreven door peter