Tag: University of Hawaii

Ancient ‘Super-Earth’ Offers Clue That Life in Our Galaxy Could be Older Than We Thought

Article by Morgan McFall-Johnsen                                              January 13, 2021                                               (businessinsider.com)

• On January 11th, astronomers at the University of Hawaii informed fellow scientist at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society that they have found a ‘rocky’ planet 280 light-years away, orbiting a star located within the Milky Way galaxy’s ‘thick disk’ that holds most of the Milky Way’s material. Stars in this thick disk region are about 10 billion years old, and researchers think that this planet is just as ancient.

• The planet, called TOI-561 b, is a “super-Earth” – about 50% larger than Earth and three times its mass. But it orbits so close to its star that has a surface temperature over 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit. This would turn the top layer of rock into molten magma, drastically reducing the chance that it could host life forms.

• “TOI-561 b is the first planet with a confirmed rocky composition around such an old star, demonstrating that rocky planets have been forming for most of the history of the universe,” said Lauren Weiss, lead researcher in the discovery.

• While this super-Earth is far older than expected for a rocky planet, its existence suggests that other stars could have ancient Earth-like worlds with temperatures more suitable for life. Having existed for twice as long as Earth, such planets would have had plenty of time to support complex life and even intelligent civilizations.

• The finding was published in The Astronomical Journal.

 

A rocky, molten planet orbiting one of the galaxy’s oldest stars could be scientists’ best evidence yet that alien life may have

                 Lauren Weiss

arisen in the distant past.

The planet, called TOI-561 b, is a “super-Earth” 280 light-years away. It’s about 50% larger than our planet and three times its mass, but it’s unlikely to host life. It orbits so close to its star that the researchers who discovered it calculated that its surface temperature is more than 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit, turning the top layer of rock into molten magma.

But this super-Earth is far older than scientists previously expected for rocky planets, suggesting that other stars could have ancient Earth-like worlds with temperatures more suitable for life. Such planets may have existed for twice as long as Earth, giving them plenty of time to support complex life and even intelligent civilizations.

The star that TOI-561 b orbits lies in the galaxy’s “thick disk,” the outer region above and below the flat plane that holds most of the Milky Way’s material. Stars in the thick disk are about 10 billion years old, and researchers think that this planet is just as ancient.

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

 

FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. ExoNews.org distributes this material for the purpose of news reporting, educational research, comment and criticism, constituting Fair Use under 17 U.S.C § 107. Please contact the Editor at ExoNews with any copyright issue.

The Moon is ‘Rusting’ Say Stunned Scientists

Article by Chris Ciaccia                                  September 6, 2020                                (foxnews.com)

• A study from the University of Hawaii, published in Science Advances, says that the Moon is rusting. “It’s very puzzling,” said the study’s lead author, Shuai Li. The rust may be a result of water discovered on the Moon, but it’s still shocking, given the lack of oxygen and dearth of water on the lunar satellite.

• Li was looking at data from the JPL Moon Mineralogy Mapper when he realized the instrument detected “spectra – or light reflected off surfaces – that revealed the Moon’s poles had a very different composition than the rest of it. The polar surfaces showed spectra that matched the mineral hematite (aka ‘iron oxide’ or ‘rust’), according to the study’s abstract. (see here)

• According to the study, “Our analyses of the Moon Mineralogy Mapper data show that hematite, a ferric mineral, is present at high latitudes on the Moon… and is more prevalent on the nearside than the farside.” But the hematite is not near any of the water ice that has been discovered on the Moon, adding another layer of complexity to the findings. “It could be that little bits of water and the impact of dust particles are allowing iron in these bodies to rust,” said study co-author, NASA JPL planetary geoscientist Abigail Fraeman.

• “At first, I totally didn’t believe it. It shouldn’t exist based on the conditions present on the Moon,” said Fraeman. “But since we discovered water on the Moon, people have been speculating that there could be a greater variety of minerals than we realize if that water had reacted with rocks.”

• With no atmospheric oxygen on the Moon and the Sun’s solar wind delivering hydrogen – which should act as a “reducer” to prevent oxidation – scientists are baffled where the rust is coming from. However, they believe it could stem from Earth, given the Moon does have “trace amounts of oxygen” thanks to Earth’s magnetic field.

• According to a study published in March 2019, the Moon actually loses water when meteoroids smack its surface. NASA’s ARTEMIS mission revealed that solar winds greatly impact the lunar surface and expose it to radiation from the Sun, leaving scars on the surface, akin to a “sunburn,” due to the Moon’s weak magnetic field. (see here)

• A study published in August 2019 suggested the Moon was 100 million years older than previously believed, basing their findings on analyzing the lunar rocks taken by the Apollo astronauts. (see here)

• And a study published in January 2019 suggested that a 4.1-billion-year-old chunk of Earth may have been found and dug up on the Moon by Apollo astronauts. (see here)

• [Editor’s Note]  The Moon is rusting, and scientists don’t know why? Could it be because the Moon is an ancient artificial construct that is hollow or honeycombed, and was parked next Earth for some reason? And now its superstructure is rusting?

 

                     Shuai Li

A newly published study notes that the moon is “rusting,” leaving experts perplexed by the discovery.

          Abigail Fraeman

The research, published in Science Advances, notes that the rust may be a result of water discovered on the moon, but it’s still shocking, given the lack of oxygen and dearth of water on Earth’s celestial satellite.

“It’s very puzzling,” the study’s lead author, Shuai Li of the University of Hawaii, said in a statement. “The moon is a terrible environment for hematite to form in.”

Li was looking at data from the JPL Moon Mineralogy Mapper when the researcher realized the instrument detected “spectra – or light reflected off surfaces – that revealed the Moon’s poles had a very different composition than the rest of it,” the statement added.

The polar surfaces showed spectra that matched the mineral hematite (Fe2O3), according to the study’s abstract.

“Although oxidizing processes have been speculated to operate on the lunar surface and form ferric iron–bearing minerals, unambiguous detections of ferric minerals forming under highly reducing conditions on the Moon have remained elusive,” the researchers wrote in the study’s abstract. “Our analyses of the Moon Mineralogy Mapper data show that hematite, a ferric mineral, is present at high latitudes on the Moon, mostly associated with east- and equator-facing sides of topographic highs, and is more prevalent on the nearside than the farside.”

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

 

FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. ExoNews.org distributes this material for the purpose of news reporting, educational research, comment and criticism, constituting Fair Use under 17 U.S.C § 107. Please contact the Editor at ExoNews with any copyright issue.

Aliens Could Wipe Us Out With ‘Coded Message’ That Shuts Down Electronics and Unleashes Killer Robots, Astrophysicists Warn

Listen to “E114 10-4-19 Aliens Could Wipe Us Out With ‘Coded Message’ That Shuts Down Electronics and Unleashes Killer Robots, Astrophysicists Warn” on Spreaker.

Article by Harry Pettit                     September 24, 2019                      (thesun.co.uk)

• Research scientists from the University of Hawaii and the Sonneberg Observatory in Germany have published a paper warning that evil extraterrestrials could attack the Earth more efficiently by introducing a computer virus than by blasting us with space weapons: “After all, it is cheaper to send a malicious message to eradicate humans compared to sending battleships,” according to the paper.

• The theory is that aliens would send us a message through our Earth telescopes warning of an existential threat to humanity, perhaps where our Sun is threatened, or there is a pandemic, or our computer systems worldwide are shut down. Then they’d send us an artificial intelligence solution to the problem. Once this AI ‘fix’ is implemented, it will turn on us, ‘chewing up Earth or its inhabitants until there’s nothing left’.

• The scientists’ solution is to be careful opening or decoding messages from extraterrestrials. A type of targeted message might come from what are known as “Fast Radio Bursts” – strings of radio waves detected multiple times on Earth that could be messages from a distant alien race. China’s new state-of-the-art FAST telescope, the largest telescope in the world, is currently looking for these FRBs.

• To avoid disaster, we should “decontaminate” any messages received by aliens, though the researchers say this is next-to-impossible. We may be better off discarding them without ever reading them. Fortunately for us, the chances of us ever meeting – let alone being attacked by – intelligent extraterrestrial life are almost zero.

• David Morrison, Director of Space at NASA-Ames Research Center, recently admitted that contact with aliens is “extremely unlikely”. Morrison predicts any message exchange would come in the form of radio waves sent across galaxies, rather than a physical meeting.

• [Editor’s Note]   Let’s see… scientists from universities in America and Germany, along with NASA, are warning people to be very afraid of clever alien attacks on the Earth intended to “eradicate humans”. We should be suspicious of anything that comes from an alien source. It sounds like the Deep State is preparing for extraterrestrial disclosure, and wants everyone to look to them to save the planet.

First of all, multiple advanced extraterrestrial species – both good and evil – have been present on our planet and throughout our solar system for millennia, and they haven’t destroyed us yet. The good ETs are waiting for us to work things out for ourselves to preserve our species’ sovereignty. The evil ETs have been manipulating our society in order to generate the resources that they need for off-planet purposes. They have been doing this at a whole new level since World War II. Until now, humanity has posed no threat to them and we are more useful to them by remaining in a state of mind-controlled incomprehension.

But the Deep State knows that the extraterrestrial presence, and the advanced technologies that we have been prevented from accessing, will soon be disclosed to the public at large. The Deep State elite have been the sole recipients of this alien technology thus far and have used it to create breakaway space programs that only enrich themselves. They want humanity to continue to believe that there are no extraterrestrials out there, but if there were they would destroy the planet. The Deep State uses co-opted institutions such as universities, the government (NASA) and the media to disseminate this negative propaganda.

In reality, the positive faction of humanity that has access to secret space program technology and knowledge, known as the ‘Alliance’, is quickly gaining an advantage over the Deep State faction in order to reveal all of this to the world. The Deep State is pushing hard now to fashion any extraterrestrial contact as dangerous for humanity so that when disclosure comes, the people will be so panicked that they can be easily controlled and persuaded to do what the Deep State tells them to do.

 

Aliens will choose to destroy humanity by “hacking” our planet over blasting us with space weapons.

That’s the bonkers claim made by one group of scientists, who warn a single message sent by ET could wipe out all life on Earth.

That message, loaded with computer viruses, is a more efficient way to attack our planet than a fleet of warships, a team of German and American scientists said.

It could shut down our computer systems or gift us the plans to an alien technology that will eventually turn on us.

“After all, it is cheaper to send a malicious message to eradicate humans compared to sending battleships,” researchers from the University of Hawaii and Sonneberg Observatory in Germany wrote in a paper on their theory.

The team said messages sent by aliens would likely first be picked up by telescopes on Earth.

There are a number of ways they could be used to destroy us.

One would be to suggest the aliens are about to destroy our sun.

Even if it wasn’t true, the resultant chaos on Earth would prove catastrophic for humanity.

Another way would be to introduce an artificial intelligence that takes over or shuts down our computers or electricity grids.

One suggestion from the team is that instructions on how to build nano-robots that are sold as a new miracle cure for cancer could be sent in the message.

These robots may eventually turn on us, chewing up Earth or its inhabitants until there’s nothing left.

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

 

FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. ExoNews.org distributes this material for the purpose of news reporting, educational research, comment and criticism, constituting Fair Use under 17 U.S.C § 107. Please contact the Editor at ExoNews with any copyright issue.

Harvard Astronomer Stands By His Alien Theory

by Dugan Arnett                     April 3, 2019                     (bostonglobe.com)

• ‘Oumuamua’, a mysterious celestial object that hurtled close to the Earth in 2017, is the first known object to come here from outside the solar system. Rob Weryk, the person who initially spotted Oumuamua at the University of Hawaii, says that there isn’t “any reason to believe that it’s anything but a natural object.”

• But Professor Abraham ‘Avi’ Loeb (pictured above) of Harvard’s Center for Astrophysics noted that the object did not behave like a typical comet or asteroid. If it were a comet, Loeb said, its excess acceleration would have likely been apparent in the form of a tail of dust or gas. Also, its elongated shape is unlike any asteroid or comet observed before. Loeb said he is simply using the available data to draw an evidence-based conclusion. “Let’s put all the possibilities on the table,” Loeb said. Perhaps, Loeb reasoned, the object had been an artificial object sent from an extraterrestrial civilization. “If someone would show me clear evidence that it’s natural in origin, then I would admit it and move on,” he said.

• Loeb’s speculation has drawn the ire of the scientific community. Astrophysicists from across the country have spoken out against Loeb’s theory, painting him as a sensationalist and worse. Some think that Loeb’s assertions will damage the field’s long-term credibility. “[P]eople think that astronomers are just hunting for aliens,” said Paul M. Sutter, astrophysicist at Ohio State University. “The next time we go out to Congress or the public asking for money, there’s going to be a lot of people shaking their heads saying, ‘Oh, you guys are just nutballs.’”

• But Loeb has refused to back down, digging in his heels against what he considers unjust appraisal. His work, he insists, is not the result of some half-baked sci-fi fantasy. The researchers whose opinions Loeb does value have offered support for the idea — even if they’ve been wary of putting their names to it publicly. Loeb argues that scientific study has become far too conservative — avoiding controversial or unpopular examinations in favor of safer subjects that might earn a scientist an award or induction into a prestigious society, but are not necessarily conducive to substantial scientific advances.

• Irwin Shapiro, the former longtime director of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, called Loeb “brilliant.” Stephen Hawking once dined at his home. In 2012, Loeb was named one of the 25 most influential people in space by Time Magazine.

• Loeb was raised in an Israeli farming village. He passed his days reading philosophy books and writing notes to himself. He didn’t move into the field of astrophysics until the age of 26. “The reason I’m different from my colleagues,” he said, “is because I was different from the beginning.”

• In spite of the backlash, Loeb has been happy to field calls from media outlets across the world, and is close to signing a deal for a book on ‘Oumauamua’. Seven different filmmakers have reached to him out about the possibility of doing a film.

 

Like a lot of people, Avi Loeb, the chairman of Harvard University’s renowned astronomy department, does his best thinking in the shower.

It’s where he has hatched ideas for papers on black holes and the future of the universe, and where, last year, he spent some time pondering a notion that would eventually make him — in some circles, at least — the subject of considerable ridicule.

artist’s rendering of ‘Oumuamua’

He’d been thinking about the phenomenon of ‘Oumuamua, a mysterious object that hurtled close to the Earth in 2017. It had become an instant sensation in the scientific community, the first known object from outside the solar system, and astronomers and astrophysicists had jumped to analyze and explain the anomalous object. Theories were developed. Papers were published.

Loeb had a theory, too, and late last year, he detailed it, along with co-author and postdoctoral researcher Shmuel Bialy, in an article for The Astrophysical Journal Letters. Perhaps, he reasoned, the structure had been an artificial object sent from an extraterrestrial civilization.

Almost immediately, the piece ignited the kind of firestorm rarely, if ever, seen in the buttoned-down world of modern-day astronomy.

In the months since the paper’s publication, astrophysicists from across the country have spoken out against Loeb’s theory, painting him as a sensationalist and worse. The researcher who first discovered ‘Oumuamua — Hawaiian for “messenger from afar arriving first” — via telescope has called Loeb’s suggestions “wild speculation.” Another compared Loeb’s logic to that of flat-earthers.

But even as criticism has continued to pour in, Loeb — who is short and slight and wears a near-constant half-smile — has refused to back down, digging in his heels against what he considers unjust appraisal.

He has brushed off much of the negative feedback as the jealous or prejudiced grumblings of scientists he doesn’t respect, adding that the researchers whose opinions he does value have offered support for the idea — even if they’ve been wary of putting their names to it publicly.

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

 

FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. ExoNews.org distributes this material for the purpose of news reporting, educational research, comment and criticism, constituting Fair Use under 17 U.S.C § 107. Please contact the Editor at ExoNews with any copyright issue.

Copyright © 2019 Exopolitics Institute News Service. All Rights Reserved.