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NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
Nov 8, 2023
Perseus Galaxy Cluster from Euclid
There's a new space telescope in the sky: Euclid. Equipped with two large panoramic cameras, Euclid captures light from the visible to the near-infrared. It took five hours of observing for Euclid's 1.2-meter diameter primary mirror to capture, through its sharp optics, the 1000+ galaxies in the Perseus cluster, which lies 250 million light years away. More than 100,000 galaxies are visible in the background, some as far away as 10 billion light years. The revolutionary nature of Euclid lies in the combination of its wide field of view (twice the area of the full moon), its high angular resolution (thanks to its 620 Megapixel camera), and its infrared vision, which captures both images and spectra. Euclid's initial surveys, covering a third of the sky and recording over 2 billion galaxies, will enable a study of how dark matter and dark energy have shaped our universe.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html?
SpaceX Starlink Mission
On Wednesday, November 8 at 12:05 a.m. ET, Falcon 9 launched 23 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
This was the 11th flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched SES-22, ispace’s HAKUTO-R Mission 1, Hispasat Amazonas Nexus mission, CRS-27, and now seven Starlink missions.
https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/?missionId=sl-6-27
Ohio voters approve ballot measure to legalize recreational marijuana
Nov 7, 2023
A ballot measure to legalize marijuana in Ohio passed on Tuesday, making Ohio the 24th state to permit cannabis for recreational use.
The amendment garnered the support of over 55% of voters, while a little over 43% voted against the amendment.
The measure permits adults over the age of 21 to buy and possess up to 2.5 ounces of cannabis and to grow plants at home, with a 10% tax on purchases. Medical marijuana has been legal in the state since 2016.
The group Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol filed signatures to get the measure on the ballot in August, while Republican lawmakers campaigned against the amendment
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/marijuana-legalization-amendment-passes-in-ohio/ar-AA1jz4uE
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Declassified files show UK Government's secret group monitoring UFOs
UPDATED: 14:52, Sun, Nov 5, 2023
The first official study into UFOs in Britain saw the Government set up a special task force which monitored the weird goings on in the night sky.
For thousands of years, humans worldwide have claimed to have encountered or seen creatures or objects from out of this world.
Extraterrestrials and UFOs are hot topics and have seen almost all cultures experts them in art, literature, music, and media.
The US government this year piqued the interest of UFO enthusiasts worldwide when it declassified many files purporting to contain information about alleged sightings over the years.
It was among the most significant such file drops in history, and shed light on what has been a murky world filled with conspiracy and intrigue.
While the US has often been the focus of UFOs, Britain has had its fair share of sightings, which led a previous Government to set up a group to monitor such sightings in secret.
In the last two decades, the Government has released several documents known as the 'X-files' into the public domain.
Each has revealed just how worried the Government once was over the existence of UFOs and what their potential presence would mean for the public.
In one batch, released in 2011, it was disclosed that the House of Lords held the only entire debate on UFOs in the history of the British Parliament and how the country thought it was facing an alien invasion in 1967.
In 1950, some of the 8,500 pages revealed, the Government began making official inquiries into UFOs after receiving reports of sightings from the public.
The Ministry of Defence set up a secret work group called 'The Flying Saucer Working Party', tasked with monitoring the sightings and reporting back to the Government.
The group's existence would remain under wraps until 1988 when correspondence between Winston Churchill and the Air Ministry was published — but even then few people knew about it.
Back then, writing to his air defence chief, Churchill asked: "What does all this stuff about flying saucers amount to? What can it mean? What is the truth? Let me have a report at your convenience."
He was later handed a six-page report which presented no evidence to suggest anything mysterious was occurring in Britain's skies.
It concluded the reports of sightings were mere hoaxes, psychological delusions, and mistaken sightings of ordinary objects.
Yet, the X-files show that the Government would go on to work with the CIA and US Air Force, receiving information to help "debunk the subject and restrict the release of information to the public about UFO sightings made by the armed services."
And while the Government's report had turned its nose up to UFO sightings, it didn't stop it from sending out defences and police forces on September 4, 1967, when a number of calls reported six small "flying saucers" across Southern England.
Those small objects transpired to be a false alarm, but it was clear that the UK was also being swept up by the UFO mania.
In the following years the Government would log thousands of UFO sightings, but up until 1967 standard policy "was to destroy UFO files at five-yearly intervals, as they were deemed to be of 'transitory interest", according to the documents.
As such, a large number of documents from before then have been lost.
Between 1959 and 2007, Britain's Defence Intelligence branch logged "more than 11,000 UFO reports.
Nothing has ultimately come of the numerous reports, but more declassified files could await prying eyes in the future.
https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1831721/declassified-files-ufo-sightings-spt
Mummified 'alien' bodies are brought back to Mexico's congress for second time by journalists and doctors with new evidence to prove 'they are real'
UPDATED: 11:58 EST, 8 November 2023
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Mexico's Congress heard the second hearing about two 'bodies' found in Peru
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The corpses are claimed to be of 'non-humans' with hybrid DNA
Mexico's Congress turned to spectacle again today as alien hunters came in for a second session in which they claimed to be in possession of extraterrestrial corpses.
Controversial UFO enthusiast and journalist Jaime Maussan ushered in a string of doctors who all said the bodies were those of real, once-living organisms - some experts claimed to have studied 'five similar specimens over four years.
New photographs and X-rays were shown to Congress on Tuesday, with researchers claiming the images prove that 'they are real.'
The experts also indicated that their DNA is hybrid, suggesting the bodies were descendants of the being human.
While Mausaan and his team declared the mummified corpses, named Clara and Mauricio, 'are real,' the experts did not have an origin story and did not imply the bodies were 'extraterrestrial.'
At Tuesday's session, Maussan focused on proving the bodies were not fake by providing insights from medical experts.
'None of the scientists say [the study results] prove that they are extraterrestrials, but I go further,' he said, suggesting that they could be evidence of non-Earthly life forms.
Maussan brought a squad of medical experts who carried in a letter signed by 11 researchers from San Luis Gonzaga National University in Ica, Peru, declaring the same.
Anthropologist Roger Zuniga of San Luis Gonzaga National University in Ica Peru said Tuesday: 'There was absolutely no human intervention in the physical and biological formation of these beings.'
However, the letter made clear that the team was not implying the bodies were 'extraterrestrial' but did not answer where the remains originated.
Argentine surgeon Celestino Adolfo Piotto took the stand, claiming he reviewed the results of testing done on the bodies and made the bizarre case that 'they were an evolved version of today's human beings, calling them 'our descendants.'
In a more colorful moment, Mexican rapper Claudio Yarto said he had personally seen UFOs before ending his speech with a rhyme, sparking applause from the crowd.
While Maussan stood strong with his 'proof,' the presentation was criticized by many experts who dismissed it as a stunt, which appears to be the running theory worldwide.
These experts sighted similar studies on such remains that were found to have been fashioned from animal and human bones.
When asked about those studies, Zuniga said the specimens were probably fake - but reiterated that he and other researchers at the university had investigated similar specimens that he concluded were real - but the expert did not bring evidenced to back up these claims.
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During the second forum on extraterrestrial life, legislator Cynthia López (PRI) appeared outraged by the 'spectacle' in Congress.
'We see Jaime Maussan here in the Chamber of Deputies. Sir, we are discussing the budget; it is not for you to come and do your lies and your things,' López said.
'This is the people's house; we are discussing the budget.
They haven't given a single peso to Acapulco, and you are visiting here.
'We do not want Jaime Maussan in the Chamber of Deputies. Jaime Maussan out with his lies, there are priorities in the Chamber of Deputies, which is the budget for Acapulco.'
Maussan and some Mexican lawmakers became the subject of international ridicule in September when he presented two boxes with supposed mummies found in Peru.
The researchers made extraordinary claims that the corpses, presented in windowed boxes and supposedly recovered from Cusco in Peru, were not part of 'our terrestrial evolution,' with 30 percent of their genetic composition still 'unknown,' according to Mexican media.
Maussan - who has been associated with debunked alien theories in the past - insisted under oath in September: 'These specimens are not part of our terrestrial evolution […] These aren't beings that were found after a UFO wreckage.
'They were found in diatom [algae] mines and were later fossilized.'
He later added: 'Whether they are aliens or not, we don't know, but they were intelligent and they lived with us. They should rewrite history.'
'We are not alone in this vast universe, we should embrace this reality,' he said at the event.'
The bodies shown at the congress were roughly humanoid in shape, with a retractable neck and long skull showing 'characteristics' more 'typical of birds', El País reported.
Presenters also said in September that they were also found to have strong, light bones and no teeth - and it was visually apparent they featured three fingers.
Carbon dating by the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) following the first hearing found the bodies were more than 1,000 years old, Maussan claimed.
In 2017, Maussan made similar claims in Peru, and a report by that country´s prosecutor´s office found the bodies were actually 'recently manufactured dolls, which have been covered with a mixture of paper and synthetic glue to simulate the presence of skin.'
The report added the figures were almost undoubtedly human-made and that 'they are not the remains of ancestral aliens that they have tried to present.'
The bodies were not publicly unveiled then, so it is unclear if the ones brought to Congress are the same.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-12725817/Mummified-alien-bodies-brought-Mexicos-congress-second-time-journalists-doctors-new-evidence-prove-real.html
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