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/...
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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/... 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 Metal Man of Falkville4/16/2018 The Metal Man of Falkville Alabama, shown in the picture below, is a very curious case. The image is scanned from page 301 of 'Geheimsache UFO' by Hesemann located in the Bibliothek Andreas Zust. The witness of the Metal Man, Jeff Greenhaw, was the chief of police at the time when he had the sighting that would ultimately get him fired, lead to his wife divorcing him, and his house also burned down. Most of the sources below recount the exact same story: http://www.cryptopia.us/... http://www.ufocasebook.com/... https://books.google.ch/... http://realunexplainedmysteries.com/... http://outtherewithted.com/... The third source has an interesting first person account of perpetrating hoax which is quite similar to whatever Greenhaw witnessed and then the author writes about how he tried to contact Greenhaw, who does not want anything to do with the story which was detrimental to his life. The fourth source is not special in the article itself but the comments below the article have an array of commentators who claim to know the person who created the hoax and even one who claims to be the daughter of Greenhaw... What is the most probable actual reality of this story? The context of the situation, according to the reports, would be that this rural area after 10pm would be very dark except for Greenhaw's truck lights. Some individuals likely played a prank on the man by making/finding a costume reminiscent of 1950's sci-fi movies, calling in a fake UFO sighting, and then pretending to be the metal man and running off. Greenhaw's perception of the event, during the short time when everything happened and in the darkness, looked to fill in the gaps in order to make sense of the event. Greenhaw, probably believes, or believed, what he saw to be true. However, the numerous claims that it was a prank and the Metal Man's similar appearance to the automaton in the famous sci-fi movie "The Day The Earth Stood Still", and similar alien entities of other 1950's mass media, result in the most probable truth of the situation that it was probably a prank. If there was/are aliens visiting us, they probably would not resemble how we imagine them to be and the Metal Man of Falkville Alabama is very much reminiscent of extraterrestrial visitors which remained in the American collective unconscious left over from the explosion of 1950s sci-fi fervor.
Is the truth still out there? 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. Playlist for an Interstellar Road Trip4/12/2018 This is an Artist's concept image of the Voyager spacecraft from page 224 of the book Planeten monde ringsysteme by Engelhardt located in the Bibliothek Andreas Zust.
When we see an image like this, we imagine it as a movie frame taken from real life. A still shot taken out in space of the real object whizzing by planets and other celestial bodies. It's not a photo but still, there is an inherent believability and reality contained within its frame. Images like this, but also real images of the ships we have sent beyond the earth remind me that even if no extraterrestrial is visiting our planet, that we are in fact the aliens who are piloting the UFOs beyond our own. There is much nationalism and conservatism happening in countries around the world fueled by "locals" on one side who oppose aliens on the other, but the fact is that we can all be aliens somewhere and with enough time we can all be locals. The definitions that we assign to ourselves and each other are fluid depending on relationships and context, so what is the point of assigning them in the first place? Is the truth still out there? Between skeptics and supporters4/10/2018 The photo above is by "Billy" Meier, taken from page 155 of the book 'Light Years' by Kinder located in the Bibliothek Andreas Züst.
I've Been looking into other peoples investigations into this photo, and others, taken by Meier. It seems unbelievable that one person could make so much documentation of UFOs. It seems more believable that one person could make a career out of hoaxing photos and videos. Between the skeptics and supporters, there is no definitive answer to whether Meier is a fraud or not...both seem to have some good points. Those who want to believe, find reasons to do so and those who don't, also don't. Maybe they are all right to some degree; maybe some of what Meier captured was real and some was a hoax in order to keep up appearances. Perhaps only "Billy" knows what really happened in all of the moments he captured on film and in video. Is the truth still out there? Below are many pages which provide evidence for or against the "Billy" Meier claims:
And some interviews with "Billy" Meier:
The wikipedia page states that "Some of Meier's photos are claimed by him to show prehistoric Earth scenes, extraterrestrials, and celestial objects from an alleged non-Earthly vantage point. Meier's claims are widely characterized as fraudulent by scientists, skeptics, and most ufologists, who say that his photographs and films are hoaxes.In 1997, Meier's ex-wife, Kalliope, told interviewers that his photos were of spaceship models he crafted with items like trash can lids, carpet tacks and other household objects, and that the stories he told of his adventures with the aliens were similarly fictitious. She also said that photos of purported extraterrestrial women "Asket" and "Nera" were really photos of Michelle DellaFave and Susan Lund, members of the singing and dancing troupe The Golddiggers." Archive awakened4/7/2018 Been scouring the archives looking for evidence. Piles of books on the table, scanning images from each that seem useful or important. The sound of the scanner echoes in my ears. Found this diagram of different UFO profiles in the Das Geheimnis der unbekannten Flugobjekte by Adolf Schneider and Hubert Malthaner. I will keep it in mind as I look to the skies of Appenzelland. #IsTheTruthStillOutThere?
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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