TYB
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
Oct 31, 2023
Halloween and the Wizard Nebula
Halloween's origin is ancient and astronomical. Since the fifth century BC, Halloween has been celebrated as a cross-quarter day, a day halfway between an equinox (equal day / equal night) and a solstice (minimum day / maximum night in the northern hemisphere). With a modern calendar however, even though Halloween occurs today, the real cross-quarter day will occur next week. Another cross-quarter day is Groundhog Day. Halloween's modern celebration retains historic roots in dressing to scare away the spirits of the dead. Perhaps a fitting tribute to this ancient holiday is this closeup view of the Wizard Nebula (NGC 7380). Visually, the interplay of stars, gas, and dust has created a shape that appears to some like a fictional ancient sorcerer. Although the nebula may last only a few million years, some of the stars being conjured from the gas by the great gravitational powers may outlive our Sun.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html?
How to Watch the Upcoming UFO Panel Moderated by AARO Director Sean Kirkpatrick
Oct 30, 2023
A UAP panel is about to take place on November 15, 2023, in person and also live streaming for those who prefer the comfort of home or live too far from the event. What is especially exciting about this panel is that AARO (All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office) Director Sean Kirkpatrick is going to be at the center of the panel as a moderator. Let’s take a look at the panel’s details.
The Panel Is Called ‘The Search for Clarity’
The panel is going to take place at the Hayden Center, in Arlington, VA, on November 15th. Alongside Sean Kirkpatrick is going to be The Washington Post’s Shane Harris, and Director of Intelligence of Bedrock Learning David Priess.
More than a year after it was founded, the federal UFO task force, AARO, has finally rolled out its much-anticipated website. We wrote about it back in August, and reported that there was a section on the website for reporting government-backed UAP programs in the future, which seems linked to the claims made by UFO whistleblower David Grusch. While they don’t explicitly name him on the site, Grusch has suggested that the U.S. has a hush-hush operation for retrieving and reverse-engineering UAPs, and his think tank recently launched its own website just before AARO did. Now, it appears AARO is also seeking information about UAP programs.
https://www.postapocalypticmedia.com/uap-panel-aaro-director-sean-kirkpatrick/
The 400-Year-Old Remains of a Child Once Believed to Be a Vampire Was Discovered in a Locked Grave in Poland
October 28, 2023
The 400-year-old remains of a child have been found in a locked grave in Poland, in a burial that points to 16th and 17th-century fears that the deceased was a vampire-like monster.
Researchers were excavating an unmarked mass cemetery in the village of Pień earlier this year when they discovered the remains of a child believed to have been a young boy about six to seven years old, Dariusz Polinski, an archaeologist with Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń who led the dig, told Artnet News.
“He was originally buried in an upright position, face down, with a triangular iron padlock folded under his feet,” Polinski said.
The boy’s remains were excavated, except for his shins and feet. Polinski said the grave was disturbed after the boy was buried but researchers have not been able to pin down exactly when. It is also unclear what the people who had exhumed his body had intended to do with it, though it is possible they intended to burn or destroy the corpse. A short distance from his grave, archaeologists excavated the remains of three more children.
Polinski added that the boy’s grave is unique and that no other child burials have been observed in a similar state.
“In fact, from the moment of discovery, it was clear that the padlock that was discovered, in a sense closing this tomb, was a safeguard against the dead child,” he said, and not a measure to protect the boy’s remains in any way.
Other safeguards were also found at the cemetery, Polinski noted, including sickles and coins or stones placed in the mouths of others buried in the cemetery.
In the 1600s, people feared demons and creatures like vampires, which they believed the dead could transform into if they did not die a “good death.” The buried boy could also have had physical defects that caused people to fear him when he was alive, died of the plague, or committed suicide, Polinski said.
“One cannot say for sure that the child was seen as a demon resembling a creature later identified after the 17th century as a vampire, so for example a wraith or ghoul,” Polinski said.
Polinski noted that the 16th and 17th centuries in Poland were difficult times marked by the Swedish Deluge, fighting with the Cossacks, epidemics, economic crisis, and counter-reformation. Such living conditions led to a rise in belief in demonic beings and finding scapegoats to blame, such as “witches.”
Last year, the team found the body of a woman in a similarly padlocked tomb just six feet away. Almost twin triangular padlocks were found in both graves. She was described as a “vampire” and found with a green tarnish on her palate, and the cluster above the child’s grave contained, among other things, a jaw fragment partially stained green.
Polinski said that the two discoveries in Pień bear “more or less clear traces of anti-demonic (so-called anti-vampiric) practices.”
“No less, the two graves do not, at least according to publications to date, have strict counterparts,” he added, “but they fit into the general picture of fear of the unknown and attempts to find a culprit to blame for failures and tragedies.”
https://news.artnet.com/art-world/400-year-old-child-remains-found-in-locked-grave-poland-2367569
Aliens are on Earth walking among us but 'government's covering it up', expert claims
28 OCT 2023
Aliens are here to save the world – and will soon reveal their presence, an expert says.
That is the insight from a respected ET expert Andrea Perron whose supernatural experiences were turned into film The Conjuring. She adds that governments are scared to reveal the truth to the world that the visitors have been with us for millions of years.
Perron, who is best known as the teen attacked by an evil spirit in the true story which inspired the movie The Conjuring, claims that some humans are already secret “hybrid” beings able to communicate with our intergalactic visitors. Perron, 65, long considered a leading mind in the study of the occult and spirit world, supposedly to aliens regularly calling their interactions “conscious cosmic contact."
She insisted: “They love us. They don’t want to hurt us. They want us to stop killing each other and stop raping this planet. It’s happening. Alien life forms will make themselves real to us. It’s already happening.
“They are absolutely walking among us. No question about it. There are millions of contactees on this planet. The empirical evidence is there.
“In terms of who does or does not believe - that’s going to be a moot point so soon. What we have to do is gently, lovingly introduce people to the notion that we are not alone, that we’ve never been alone.
“We will eventually begin to merge and understand that this universe is teaming with life. This is a given. We should not ultimately count on any government, not just the United States, to disclose much more further.”
She explained that world leaders fear this new era in history.
“The governments are actually withholding the real volume of alien interaction on this planet. They have to lie. And we have to forgive them
“Because what I was told and messaged is that they’re doing the best that they can. They just don’t think that humanity is ready.”
Perron added: “The galactic family has messaged me and said ‘Forgive them. They’re doing what they think is right. They’re doing what they think will save their asses. They’re doing what they can to preserve their power structure.
“These beings have such formidable, advanced technology that if they wanted us dead, based they could easily eradicate us millennia ago."
Perron is a key contributor to Serena DC’s gripping documentary We Are Not Alone, which explores alien encounters, human interactions and their motives.
Serena is a documentary filmmaker, reality star and talk show host, who began the show process as a cynic
However Serena, star of Netflix ’s Instant Hotel and chat show Hollywood Disclosure, said: “The fact that we’re not alone in this universe is so cool. The fact that there’s light on other planets is insane. The fact that they’re visiting us and millions upon millions upon millions of people are seeing U F O in the sky every day is incredible.”
https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/aliens-earth-walking-among-governments-31302712
'Ghostly cosmic hand' is captured in space: NASA's new telescope captures eerie remnants of a supernova 16,000 light-years from Earth
UPDATED: 10:46 EDT, 31 October 2023
NASA's new X-ray telescope observed the haunting 'bones' of a ghostly cosmic hand 16,000 light-years from Earth for a record 17 days.
While the formation has been previously observed, this instance is the longest time the telescope has looked at since launching in December 2021.
The eerie formation, which appears to be an arm reaching into space, is a remnant of a supernova explosion 1,700 years ago, called MSH 15-52, one of the youngest in the Milky Way galaxy.
The supernova that resulted in the unusual pattern also created an ultra-dense, magnetized star called a pulsar.
'Around 1,500 years ago, a in our galaxy ran out of nuclear fuel to burn,' researchers led by Stanford University in California shared in a statement.
'When this happened, the star collapsed onto itself and formed an extremely dense object called a neutron star.'
NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory first spotted MSH 15-52 in 2001, also capturing a hand-like formation.
But the agency's Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) has snapped even more details of the haunting remains, along with a ghoulish purple glow.
Roger Romani of Stanford University in California, who led the study, said: 'The IXPE data gives us the first map of the in the 'hand.
'The charged particles producing the X-rays travel along the, determining the basic shape of the nebula like the bones do in a person's hand.'
IXPE provides information about the electric field orientation of X-rays, determined by the magnetic field of the X-ray source - this is called X-ray polarization.
'In large regions of MSH 15-52, the amount of polarization is remarkably high, reaching the maximum level expected from theoretical work,' the researchers shared.
'To achieve that strength, the magnetic field must be very straight and uniform, meaning there is little turbulence in the pulsar wind nebula regions.'
While the entire formation is stunning, the team pointed out a particularly interesting feature of MSH 15-52 - a bright X-ray jet directed from the pulsar to the 'wrist' at the bottom of the image.
'The new IXPE data reveal that the polarization at the start of the jet is low, likely because this is a turbulent region with complex, tangled magnetic fields associated with the generation of high-energy particles,' the teams noted.
'By the end of the jet, the magnetic field lines appear to straighten and become much more uniform, causing the polarization to become much larger.'
The study results have suggested that particles are given an energy boost in complex turbulent regions near the pulsar at the base of the palm and flow to areas where the magnetic field is uniform along the wrist, fingers and thumb.
Co-author Niccolò Di Lalla, also of Stanford, said: 'We’ve uncovered the life history of super energetic matter and antimatter particles around the pulsar.
'This teaches us about how pulsars can act as particle accelerators.'
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-12690317/Haunting-bones-ghostly-cosmic-hand-captured-space-NASAs-new-telescope-captures-remnants-supernova.html
Meet the crew of Virgin Galactic's 5th commercial spaceflight launching on Nov. 2
Oct 30, 2023
On pace with its once-a-month flight goal, Virgin Galactic is about to embark on its fifth commercial mission, and its final flight of 2023.
Galactic 05 is scheduled to lift off this Thursday (Nov. 2) and will carry three passengers on a brief trip to suborbital space. The trio will fly aboard Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo space plane, named VSS Unity, and experience several minutes of weightlessness while they perform a quick round of research experiments and gaze at the wonders of Earth from a vantage point few have reached.
The Virgin Galactic crew accompanying them include one of the group's astronaut instructors, responsible for preparing the three for their flight, as well as two pilots in the VSS Unity cockpit.
The mission will take off from Spaceport America in New Mexico, a state-owned launch facility that hosts Virgin Galactic as its main tenant. VSS Unity and its crew will be brought to altitude by SpaceShipTwo's carrier aircraft, the double-cockpit-designed VMS Eve.
VMS Eve carries VSS Unity into the air, with the vehicle hanging from the plane's mid-wing. Once the pair reaches about 50,000 feet (15,000 meters), Eve releases Unity , which drops and fires its single rocket motor to continue on a suborbital trajectory.
As Virgin Galactic begins to regularly check names off its list of early seat reservation-holders, the company also seems to be allowing those customers the option of anonymity. In the weeks leading up to flights over the past few months, Virgin Galactic has released passenger information at an inconsistent rate. For this flight, the company has released two of the three names for Galactic 05, listing the third passenger only as "Astronaut 022 — Private Astronaut — Franco-Italian nationality."
The names of astronauts 020 and 021, however, are far from a mystery, and have already earned recognition in the spaceflight industry.
ALAN STERN 020
Alan Stern is a planetary scientist most known for his role as principal investigator of NASA's New Horizons mission, which flew by Pluto in 2015 and is currently exploring the Kuiper Belt, the ring of icy bodies beyond Neptune.
Stern's work with NASA spans dozens of missions over more than two decades, and he currently serves as associate vice president of the Space Science Division at the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI). His Virgin Galactic seat is sponsored by SwRI and is part of NASA's Flight Opportunities program, which aims to advance spaceflight technologies through suborbital research aboard commercial missions.
This will be Stern's first time flying to space, but it won't be the first far-off place his research has taken him. In addition to being an accomplished aircraft pilot, Stern has traveled to the depths of the North Atlantic Ocean, where he explored the wreck of the Titanic; he has journeyed to the South Pole; and he has flown numerous high altitude and parabolic flights, all in the pursuit of science.
His ride aboard VSS Unity will serve a similar goal. For Stern, Galactic 05 is, in part, a training mission for NASA-funded research he will perform on a future suborbital mission. Stern will be wearing a biomedical harness to monitor his vital signs throughout his flight, and he will participate in a series of risk-reduction operations and astronomical observations to evaluate the suborbital spacecraft environment to optimize those activities.
KELLIE GERARDI 021
Kellie Gerardi is a missions operations lead at Palantir Technologies, a payload specialist at the International Institute for Astronautical Sciences (IIAS) and an accomplished author and space/STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) communicator with a following in the hundreds of thousands.
Gerardi's research aboard Galactic 05 will continue investigations she has performed during parabolic flights on Earth, which create the experience of weightlessness for passengers for about 30 seconds at a time. Gerardi's flight is sponsored by the IIAS, and, like Stern's, the experiments she will perform are largely focused on collecting biometric data.
Attached directly to her skin, Gerardi will be wearing the first continuous glucose monitor to fly into space, which will passively monitor her blood glucose throughout the mission. Gerardi will also be wearing a biomonitoring device, called Astroskin, which will continuously track her vitals from takeoff to landing. The device has been worn before by astronauts aboard the International Space Station; however, Galactic 05 will mark its first use during launch and reentry procedures.
A third experiment Gerardi will perform involves fluidic behaviors in microgravity environments, which has wide implications for spaceflight technologies, from spacecraft plumbing to pharmaceutical production and medical treatment procedures.
1/2
COLIN BENNET 003
Colin Bennett is Galactic 05's astronaut instructor and has been responsible for preparing the crew for the flight ahead. He is Virgin Galactic's Astronaut 003, and flew with Virgin founder Richard Branson on VSS Unity's final test flight in July 2021. In one of his many roles at Virgin Galactic over the last 15 years, Bennett also served as astronaut instructor for Galactic 01, another research flight.
VSS UNITY PILOTS
Inside VSS Unity's cockpit will be Commander Mike "Sooch" Masucci and Pilot Kelly Latimer. Both Masucci and Latimer possess long flight resumes.
Masucci served as a lieutenant colonel in the United States Air Force before joining Virgin Galactic. He sat at the helm of VSS Unity during the Galactic 01 mission and was one two VMS Eve pilots on Galactic 02.
Latimer worked at NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center for many years and logged thousands of hours as a research pilot. After joining Virgin, Latimer piloted the Cosmic Girl carrier plane during Virgin Orbit's first successful satellite launch in 2021. (Virgin Orbit, a sister company of Virgin Galactic, filed for bankruptcy in April of this year.)
VMS EVE PILOTS
Manning the dual cockpits of the VMS Eve carrier aircraft for Galactic 05 will be Commander Jameel Janjua and Pilot Andy Edgell.
Janjua got his start at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he earned a masters degree in aeronautics and astronautics. From there, he joined the Canadian Air Force and worked his way up to the rank of major while gaining extensive experience as a test pilot before his retirement from service. Now, Janjua is gaining extensive experience as a pilot for VMS Eve. Including Galactic 05, Janjua has piloted Eve for four of Virgin's five commercial missions.
Andy Edgell has been an experimental test pilot since 1999, and served in the British Royal Air Force flying F-35s and Harriers, according to Virgin Galactic's website. Edgell joined Virgin Galactic this year, and this will be his first time in the cockpit during one of the company's commercial flights.
Janjua and Edgell will pilot VMS Eve for a landing on the runway back at Spaceport America following the plane's release and return of VSS Unity. This mission itself will not be livestreamed, as has become the norm for Virgin Galactic's commercial flights, but updates are expected via the company's social media channels.
According to a recent Virgin Galactic mission update, Galactic 05 will be the company's last launch until 2024. This one-month pause will "allow time for routine, planned annual vehicle inspections before re-commencing with standard pre-flight readiness procedures," the update reads.
Galactic 06 is currently scheduled for January 2024, and is expected to carry four private passengers.
https://www.space.com/virgin-galactic-05-mission-meet-the-crew
https://www.virgingalactic.com/news/galactic-05-research-mission-set-to-become-virgin-galactics-sixth-flight-in
2/2