April 28th, 20184/28/2018 The "Men In Black" (MIB) are supposedly government agents who wear black suits and silence or harass individuals who have information about UFO/Alien visitation. But are they real or are they just an urban myth? The first person to supposedly have encountered a MIB was Harold Dahl in 1947. He claimed to see a doughnut shaped UFO which dropped debris into the water nearby to Dahl and his companions. The refuse was partially a very light white metal and also a kind of dark metal that caused steam when it hit the water. Some of the debris killed Dahl's dog and his son was burned in the incident. Regardless of whether it is true or not, the full story goes on to be incredibly interesting. After this incident, Dahl was visited by the mysterious men in black who tried keep his story from going public in a variety of ways. So is it a hoax, an urban myth or an actual conspiracy? Perhaps they are real or perhaps they are a product of imagined experiences induced by collective paranoia which has been directed towards the government...or maybe it is something else entirely. The documentary 'Mirage Men' suggests that the real UFO conspiracy is that the American government has been planting fake information in its citizens for the purpose of convincing them that UFOs and alien visitation are real. "Mirage Men's chief coup is to land an actual man in black: a former Air Force special investigations officer named Richard Doty, who admits to having infiltrated UFO circles. A fellow UFO researcher says: "Doty had this wonderful way to sell it – 'I'm with the government. You cooperate with us and I'm going to tell you what the government really knows about UFOs, deep down in those vaults.'" Doty and his colleagues fed credulous ufologists lies and half-truths, knowing their fertile imaginations would do the rest. In return, they were apprised of chatter from the community, thus alerting the military when anyone was getting to close to their top-secret technology. And if the Soviets thought the US really was communing with aliens, all the better." - The Guardian Believing in a secret government organization of boogeymen might be a soothing concept to true believers of UFOs who find it to be a way of rationalizing why their belief is not generally accepted. A possible side effect of this belief is also probably a position of superiority as they believe themselves to be the ones who can see through the "government's lies". In this, each strongly held belief enables the other. So far the situation has been, and it probably always will be, clouded by a number of factors. Perhaps there is no ultimate way to provide definitive answers to the Men in Black phenomena. Whatever it is, conspiracy theories like these are interesting to think about and also to imagine ways in which they could be debunked in order to find the reality of the urban myth. Is the truth still out there? Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/... https://www.youtube.com/(real Men In Black)... http://www.mufon.com/... https://www.youtube.com/ (Who are the MIB)... https://www.youtube.com/ (Dan Akroyd on UFOs)... http://theconversation.com/... http://www.ufoevidence.org/... https://www.theguardian.com/... http://mysteriousuniverse.org/... https://miragemen.wordpress.com/...
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An ocean of lava4/27/2018 The image above is a composite of Jupiter's closest moon, Io, made from 6 photos taken by Voyager 1 as it passed by the moon in March of 1979. The unique features of this landscape and its painted quality are a direct result of Io's volcanic activity which releases plumes and lava flows to color its surface. Io is actually the most geologically active object in the solar system which is due to the gravitational friction generated as Io is pulled back and forth between Jupiter and the outer moons of Europa as well as Ganymede. This special position in the solar system makes Io a very inhospitable place as, in addition to the constant volcanic activity, the radiation on the moon is 1000x stronger that what would be required to kill a human. With all of this information, I still thought to ask Google: "Is there life on Io?" I was expecting the answer to be a straightforward "NO, there has never been life on Io and there never will be" and also that I would read some theories about aliens having colonies on Io or other unfounded speculation about life on this particular moon. I was a bit surprised by both erronious expectations. In regards to the former, some scientists believe that Io could have held life a long time ago and that it could still persist today beneath the surface. Computer simulations of the formation of Jupiter's moons, suggest that Io formed with a large quantity of liquid water which was evaporated and sucked into Io's lava-tubes within 10 million years after its coalescence. So the chances for life on Io are poor, but there is still a possibility that microbes inhabit the turbulent moon. Recent findings also suggest that Io may be hiding a sub-surface ocean of molten rock, caused by the gravitational friction between it and Jupiter...this does not help the claim for life on the hellish moon but it does suggest that one of Jupiter's other moons, Europa, could have a warm and habitable ocean beneath its surface. While all of this is incredibly interesting, Io is probably one of the last places where we will send a autonomous surveying robot primarily because it is not a place where finding life is likely.Europa and Enceladus are the places in our solar system most likely to harbor life so, if we choose to explore for the purpose of learning as much as possible, then we will probably send a probe to one of these two moons to maximize our research-to-expense ratio. Perhaps we will never investigate Io and instead we will use our resources for our moon, Mars and Europa. Perhaps we will never become the multi-planet species that some of us hope for. It is certainly possible that we will make a critical error before we ever reach that point in our collective history. If we ever stopped fighting among each other, perhaps we could put all of that wasted energy into searching for the truths of our planet, our solar system and beyond. By the time we are able to reach out and touch something beyond our own moon, the truth might have evaporated into the solar winds and burned up in the cosmic radiation. Is the truth still out there? Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/... https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/... https://theplanets.org/... https://www.theguardian.com/... https://www.space.com/... https://www.smithsonianmag.com/... http://www.spacedaily.com/... http://mysteriousuniverse.org/... https://www.quora.com/... http://www.dailygalaxy.com/... https://www.forbes.com/... http://journalofcosmology.com/... https://www.seeker.com/... https://gizmodo.com/... https://www.centauri-dreams.org/... A love letter for Hubble4/25/2018
I think we both remember that you had some problems at the beginning, it was worth it though because those first pictures you took inspired a generation of scientists, and others, to search for answers to the mysteries of the universe. In all of the years of our collective relationship, you have shown us the history of our universe and thereby, our own history. You have told us when the cosmic birthday is. You have shown us what our universe looked like when it was, relatively, a newborn. You have proved us wrong in our assumption that the expansion of the universe was slowing down, when in fact it is speeding up. We have learned about supermassive black holes and exoplanets from you. You haven't restricted your lessons to distant space either, as you have also taught us about our own solar system. You've showed us liquid water on the moons of Jupiter in Ganymede's sub-surface ocean and the liquid plumes that shoot into space from Europa. We also know how many moons Pluto has because of you and that Eris, the dwarf-planet in the Kuiper belt, even exists. Galaxy cannibalism, protoplanetary disks, and clumpy dark matter are all discoveries that we can attribute to your presence in our lives. You were not our first space-telescope, and you won't be our last, but the influence you have had on how we perceive/imagine the vastness of space, cannot be overstated. During moments when the political-climate is anti-science, the images that you have produced can still induce wonder in even the staunchest anti-expert and give reason for the expansion of our scientific knowledge. You have given humanity so much and we can never repay that service. I only hope that more people can appreciate your efforts the way that I do. Please keep doing what you do because it makes the world a better place. Love, M.P. Bronstein Sources:
http://bigthink.com/... http://www.spacetelescope.org/ (spacecraft images)... https://www.spacetelescope.org/ (28th birthday)... http://hubblesite.org/... http://mentalfloss.com/... https://news.nationalgeographic.com/... https://globalnews.ca/... https://www.space.com/... https://en.wikipedia.org/... Beneath the ice in the salty ocean4/21/2018 Meet Europa. It is the smallest of Jupiter's four moons which were discovered by Galileo. Europa is smaller than Earth's moon(~65%), but larger than Pluto. It's surface is a thick layer of smooth but scarred ice, obscuring an ocean underneath which is able to remain liquid due to the tidal flexing between the moon and the planet. Scientists think that there is an ocean of salty water located just beneath the surface due to a special magnetic field that Europa has, which was measured by the Galileo Mission. NASA's preliminary plans for reaching the saline moon, The Europa Clipper, could allow us to touch the icy surface as soon as the 2030s, at the same time that we are hopefully in the beginning stages of getting people to Mars. The reason Europa is so interesting is because that liquid ocean is very similar to sub-glacial lakes that have been found on earth and it is thought to be old enough for life to have evolved there. In the timespan of roughly 400 years, we could go from discovering a celestial body to having found life on it. That is truly amazing and a credit to all of the people who have built made it a possibility, many of them working on thankless tasks but for an amazing cumulative effect. Of course there are many people today who suggest that such missions into space are a waste of money, resources, time. We have a collective legacy as explorers, often fraught with the terrible actions of colonialism, but this is a legacy that we should continue and improve as we extend our reach into outer space. With reasonable certainty we can say that life exists outside of our planet, but without finding evidence of it we can never be absolutely certain. As we venture forth, it will be a search for more than life but for scientific discovery in general which will ultimately give us insight into our own planet, about the origins of our solar system, the galaxy and our universe. Research and development created for these ventures will also give us new technologies that could make life on Earth better and more sustainable. Trying to see, to understand and to touch ever farther beyond our planet is a heroic task that will ultimately aid the survival of our species. Is the truth still out there? Photo Of Europa taken by the Voyager 2 spacecraft and found on page 115 of Der Weltraum by Klett and located in the Bibliothek Andreas Zust. Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/... https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/... https://www.space.com/ (Life?)... https://www.space.com/ (Facts)... https://www.youtube.com/... https://www.popsci.com/ (Europa Lander)... https://www.independent.co.uk/... https://www.popsci.com/ (Seafaring robots)... https://www.outerplaces.com/... https://phys.org/... To the moon, maybe4/19/2018 The moon is our closest extraterrestrial body. It has protected us from meteoric impacts and regulated life here on earth. If we manage to become a multi-planetary species, it will be the first step in extending our reach towards that goal. The ESA has plans to create a permanent settlement on the moon called "Moon Village", NASA is looking to use the moon as a launching point to get to Mars on the Orion spacecraft. NASA has even scheduled a test launch for Orion as early as 2019 but reaching Mars is not likely until at least the 2030s. The previous American presidential administration hadn't planned on returning to the Moon, and was going to shoot directly for Mars, but the current administration changed the plans... This photo is from the index page of the stunning book 'Lunar Panorama' by Lowman which is located at the Bibliothek Andreas Zust. Two other recent American presidential administrations have planned to get to the moon (the Space Exploration Initiative during the George H.W. Bush presidency in 1989 as well as the Constellation Program during the George W. Bush presidency in 2004) though neither resulted in boots on the lunar terrain as the last human crew departed the moon in 1972. Luckily though, if the American government doesn't come through, again, there are plenty of other national and private organizations who are looking to take advantage of the vacuum in endeavors for space colonization. For example, private startups from India, Israel, and Japan, along with a Silicon Valley-backed space-exploration company called 'Moon Express' are all shooting for the Google Lunar XPrize, big companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin are also working on concepts, and governmental organizations for Russia, China and the ESA are all working towards returning to the moon and beyond. The ESA's 'Moon Village' (mentioned above) is particularly interesting as they plan to use inflatable structures and 3D printing with regolith (lunar soil). With all of this being said: the future plans, the present efforts and the history, there are still many people who don't believe that the original moon landings happened...According to a 1999 Gallup Poll, approximately 6% of Americans believe that it was a hoax and 5% are undecided. Of course some of these conspiracy theorists sound ludicrous but others propose sound arguments for why they do to believe that it never happened. For an example of some pretty convincing arguments, check out this video by a mustachioed gentleman. This TIME article even looks to it as one of the world's most enduring conspiracy theories and there is even a Wikipedia page for it. Even though people have tried to document the sites of the Apollo landings, conspiracy theorists hold strong to their belief. One example is Marcus Allen who has said that 'photographs of the lander would not prove that America put men on the Moon'. When does our skepticism stop being healthy and start being detrimental to society? Is it that our egos get in the way, as we refuse to accept that there are people who know more than us and that such knowledge is potentially trustworthy. When we don't trust people who have spent their entire lives in search for the truth on the environment/climate, astrophysics, biology, quantum mechanics, whatever...doesn't it hurt all of humanity for us to ignore these people? And why do some of us refuse to believe them while those same people choose to believe individuals who obviously know nothing? Is the truth still out there? Some links to provide more information on future travel to the moon: https://www.popularmechanics.com/... https://www.space.com/... https://news.nationalgeographic.com/... http://www.iflscience.com/... https://www.nbcnews.com/... http://www.esa.int/... Links to provide information on conspiracy theories: https://news.nationalgeographic.com/... http://content.time.com/... https://en.wikipedia.org/... https://www.telegraph.co.uk/... Will there ever be a future?4/17/2018 Last night was the beginning of the Lyriad Metor shower, which will peak on the 22nd, with its last night on the 25th. Unfortunately it wasn't visible from nearby the 'The Z Files' Archive and Observatory because the skies were overcast but I have hope that they will clear in the coming days. Because of the beginning of this astronomical happening, I thought to look through the archives for something from the constellation Lyra and I found this image below of the Ring Nebula (M57), and its dying central star, taken by the Hubble Telescope and found on page 138 of the book .'Die Milchstrase' by Henbest in the Bibliothek Andreas Zust... The Ring Nebula used to be a star several times more massive than our sun but gives us a glimpse into the future of our solar system, about 5 billion years from now. Were there planets/beings/life which existed in the solar system before it became the Ring Nebula and, if so, what happened to them? The actual event when the star shed off its outer layers to become a red dwarf is supposed to have happened 4000 years ago and the Ring Nebula is 2000 light-years from us, meaning that we are seeing it as it was just 2000 years after the event. It will grow 50% larger in the next few thousand years before it begins to dissipate as the white dwarf at its core slowly dies. Currently we see the Ring Nebula in its past and our present...but we will not be able to see its present until far in our future (if we hold out that long). But if we were able to travel through space on a ship which could go as fast as light, in order to visit the Ring Nebula, it would already be gone by the time we arrived. Is anyone presently looking in wonder at the nebula left by our dead star, while we sit 5 billion years in the past? How can we determine the truth reality under the governance of general relativity? Some links about the Ring Nebula (M57): https://www.solarsystemquick.com/... http://stars.astro.illinois.edu/... http://www.messier-objects.com/... https://www.nasa.gov/... http://www.constellation-guide.com/... https://apod.nasa.gov/ The mystery of a flying jellyfish4/14/2018 I found the photo below, of what appears to be a giant flying jellyfish, while browsing through the archives today. It's from page ~253 of the book 'Geheimsache UFO' located in the Bibliothek Andreas Zust. The image was taken by Mr. H. Lauersen in the early morning on November 17th, 1974 while he was walking his dog in Viborg, Jutland, Denmark. According to the second source below: "the sighting was investigated by Major Hans Petersen from the Danish Air Force. Scientists concluded that the vaporizing effect as being the result of the surface of the UFO being cooler than -180 degrees Celsius, resulting that the surrounding air becomes liquid and flows toward the Earth" The third source has the same subject captured but from a different perspective. The fourth source link is the skeptical of the image, citing Ole Henningsen, of SUFOI (Scandinavian UFO Information), who investigated the case and determined the flying jellyfish to be a ring of water vapor rising from the Houlkærvænget heating center, located directly below the object in the photo. The fourth source also references one contemporary artist, Ned Kahn, who was making very similar clouds as part of his art practice. The fifth link references the flying jellyfish photo in the column on the right of the page. The text about it describes the event, the critical investigation into it and then attempts to explain the image as a possibly true event by referencing similar accounts of sightings. The simplest answer is usually the correct one so probably it is just water vapor. Is the truth still out there? Links to some sources which provide further information on the image: From the vaccum of space4/13/2018 The photo is from page 192 of 'The History of Rocketry and Space Travel' found in the Bibliothek Andreas Zust and added to the Z Files archives. The picture depicts a alien, floating above our planet and using a compressed air gun to propel himself through the vacuum.
We can assume this photo is real, because we trust the source that it comes from. Our understanding of the indifferent truth is reliant on the trustworthiness of experts and witnesses to it. Truth and trust are therefor deeply intertwined as the former is defined by the later. Trustworthy sources come as unbiased and without ulterior motive. For example, the majority of scientists have concluded that human induced climate change is the truth however there are some which deny this truth who do so because it benefits them to hold that position. Ulterior motives can come in many forms; keeping one's job or funding, pushing one's agenda, spectacle and attention, political benefit and so on. So when we look for the truth in order to try to understand reality, we not only have to understand what is being presented to us but to be aware of what is behind that presentation. The relationship between the two is how we can determine the trustworthiness of the source and therefor the truth of reality. M.P.BronsteinA scientist who exists outside of the time-space continuum, looking for the truth, but unsure if it still exists or if it has become extinct. ArchivesCategories
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