TYB
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
Aug 9, 2023
Meteor Shower: Perseids from Perseus
This is a good week to see meteors. Comet dust will rain down on planet Earth, streaking through dark skies during peak nights of the annual Perseid Meteor Shower. The featured composite image was taken during the 2018 Perseids from the Poloniny Dark Sky Park in Slovakia. The dome of the observatory in the foreground is on the grounds of Kolonica Observatory. Although the comet dust particles travel parallel to each other, the resulting shower meteors clearly seem to radiate from a single point on the sky in the eponymous constellation Perseus. The radiant effect is due to perspective, as the parallel tracks appear to converge at a distance, like train tracks. The Perseid Meteor Shower is expected to reach its highest peak on Saturday after midnight. Since a crescent Moon will rise only very late that night, cloudless skies will be darker than usual, making a high number of faint meteors potentially visible this year.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html?
Terrified Peruvian villagers claim they are under attack from 7ft-tall 'aliens' dubbed 'Face Peelers' as they plead with authorities to send backup
06:33 EDT, 8 August 2023
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Members of the Ikitu tribe claim they have suffered repeated attacks by 'aliens'
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They have called for assistance from the Peruvian military and started conducting their own night patrols to protect the vulnerable villagers
Terrified villagers in a rural Peruvian district have claimed they have come under attack by 7ft-tall aliens they have dubbed Los Pelacaras, or The Face Peelers.
Members of the Ikitu tribe from the San Antonio native community have reported mysterious figures in dark-coloured hoods attacking the villagers, who live in the rural district of Alto Nanay, north east of Lima, Peru.
After one such 'attack', a 15-year-old girl had to be taken to hospital.
According to the community leader, Jairo Reátegui Dávila, the teenager narrowly escaped but 'as a result of the struggle they cut part of her neck.'
Now, according to local media, members of the community are conducting night patrols to protect women, children and the more vulnerable villagers, and have called on the authorities to send in the military.
Some community members said they can't sleep because they are in fear.
Locals described the 'extraterrestrials' as having large heads and yellowish eyes, and said the mysterious figures are immune to their hunting weapons.
They claim they have attacked them every night for nearly a month since July 11.
Latina Noticias, a Peruvian news outlet, quoted Dávila as saying he had come face-to-face with one of the so-called aliens.
'We have met almost face to face. His face is hardly visible. I have seen his whole body floating at a height of one meter,' he said, suggesting the being was hovering.
The group have now requested a military presence from the authorities, however it reportedly takes a 10-hour river trip to reach the community from Iquitos City.
'We need support for our community. The children do not sleep and the mothers stay up all night,' Dávila said. 'They appear to be armoured. I shot one of them twice and he wasn't injured, he rose and disappeared.
'We're very frightened about what's happening here in our community.'
He added: 'Their shoes are round-shaped, which they use to float… Their heads are long, they wear a mask and their eyes are yellowish. They are experts at escaping.'
Some villagers described the aliens as being like 'pelacaras', strange beings from folklore that feast on human faces, fat and organs.
According to reports, the police reached the remote area on board a speeder vessel and toured the village perimeter, including the area where the teenager was allegedly attacked.
It is unclear if the authorities found anything to corroborate the villagers' claims and if the government intends to deploy military personnel to the area for a sustained period of time to protect the villagers from the mysterious threat.
According to a 2017 national census, there are around 1,350 people who identify as being a member of the Ikitu community.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12384217/Peruvian-villagers-attack-aliens-face-peelers.html
South Korea marks anniversary of 1st lunar probe with new moon photos
Aug 9, 2023
South Korea's space agency has released new images of the moon to mark the anniversary of the launch of its first lunar probe.
The Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO) launched on Aug. 4, 2022, atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and, after a four-month-long voyage, entered lunar orbit in December.
The spacecraft, also known as Danuri, has been carrying out its science mission ever since. The Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) released new images from the moon mission via social media, linking back to the institute's pages.
Images include views of Reiner Gamma, a so-called swirl, which features a localized magnetic field and marks a bright spot within the Oceanus Procellarum region. Another shows shadows inside Amundsen Crater, close to the lunar south pole and a potential landing site for NASA's Artemis 3 mission, which is slated to put astronauts on the moon in late 2025.
Another southern feature captured by Danuri is Drygalski Crater, showing the central peak inside the impact crater.
Other images have been previously released from cameras aboard KPLO, including those showing the phases of Earth as seen from lunar orbit.
Also aboard Danuri is ShadowCam, a NASA-funded hypersensitive optical imager. The camera builds on optics from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and provides unprecedented views into shadowed craters by collecting sunlight reflected off nearby landforms and light reflected from our planet onto the moon, or "Earthshine." ShadowCam also snapped LRO in a test of the camera's abilities.
Danuri is planned to orbit the moon for around a year. Data collected from Danuri will help support the planning of NASA's Artemis program.
https://www.space.com/south-korea-danuri-moon-probe-anniversary-photos
https://www.kari.re.kr//kplo/multimedia
We Are Not Alone: UFOs & National Security
08/07/23 10:14 AM ET
There is a push from U.S. lawmakers for more transparency in how the government handles reports of unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) also known as unidentified flying objects.
The Pentagon’s All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office, which Congress established to investigate the incidents, has investigated roughly 800 reports of UAPs as of May. While military officials have said most cases have innocuous origins, many others remain unexplained.
The Hill will convene lawmakers and experts to provide analysis and answer questions about possible national security risks.
Thursday, August 17
2:00 PM ET / 11:00 AM PT
Speakers:
Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN), Member, House Oversight & Accountability Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Information Technology, & Government Innovation
Greg Eghigian, Former Director, Science, Technology, & Society Program, Pennsylvania State University; Professor of History & Bioethics, Pennsylvania State University
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), Member, House Oversight & Accountability Committee
Moderator:
Mychael Schnell, Congressional Reporter, The Hill
https://thehill.com/events/4141299-we-are-not-alone-ufos-national-security/