NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day

Mar 17, 2024

NGC 7714: Starburst after Galaxy Collision

Is this galaxy jumping through a giant ring of stars? Probably not. Although the precise dynamics behind the featured image is yet unclear, what is clear is that the pictured galaxy, NGC 7714, has been stretched and distorted by a recent collision with a neighboring galaxy. This smaller neighbor, NGC 7715, situated off to the left of the frame, is thought to have charged right through NGC 7714. Observations indicate that the golden ring pictured is composed of millions of older Sun-like stars that are likely co-moving with the interior bluer stars. In contrast, the bright center of NGC 7714 appears to be undergoing a burst of new star formation. The featured image was captured by the Hubble Space Telescope. NGC 7714 is located about 130 million light years away toward the constellation of the Two Fish (Pisces). The interactions between these galaxies likely started about 150 million years ago and should continue for several hundred million years more, after which a single central galaxy may result.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html?

US Space Forces Indo-Pacific executes Cobra Gold 2024

March 13, 2024

U.S. Space Forces Indo-Pacific is taking a giant leap forward in multi-domain integration, leading U.S. space participation in joint exercise Cobra Gold 24 in Thailand, Feb. 27 – March 8.

For the first time, over 33 nations worked and trained together in the space domain, as well as air and land, establishing a new standard for multinational space operations.

“Four years ago, Cobra Gold had no space participation,” said Capt. Jarrett Jordan, a SPACEFOR-INDOPAC exercise planner. “This year, it became one of the most robust multinational space exercises in the world.”

Space Force Guardians leveraged longstanding relationships with allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific to elevate one of Asia’s most premiere military exercises. Now in its 43rd iteration, Cobra Gold brings in experts and leaders from across the region to learn from each other and grow through overcoming challenging scenarios.

Of course, having a concentrated presence of the region’s best operators and strategists offers unique opportunities.

“Cobra Gold gives us the chance to learn from our partners and to develop new skills through combined integration,” Jordan said. “These commitments pay huge dividends when it comes to developing individual talent and the relationships we build foster a lasting spirit of cooperation.”

While Thailand and the U.S. have a long history of working together as allies, modern challenges to the Indo-Pacific security environment require new ways of addressing those issues. Extreme weather, the distances inherent to the region and challenges to the rules-based international order are becoming more prevalent. Exercises like Cobra Gold prepare operators for integrating with domains they never had to consider before.

“By practicing in exercises like Cobra Gold, participants can work through the challenges they may not have the opportunity to see on a daily basis,” Jordan said. “By establishing this new space play, Cobra Gold has become an even better venue for joint and combined partnership that recognizes space as contested domain.”

As more regional players recognize the importance of space, efforts like these in Cobra Gold will only grow in importance. SPACEFOR-INDOPAC continues to expand its outreach efforts to allies and partners across the Indo-Pacific, and plans are already underway for additional space integration in other combined events. Each one advances Guardian skills, forges stronger relationships with allies and partners and helps support a free and open Indo-Pacific.

Though this was the first time SPACEFOR-INDOPAC played in Cobra Gold, the experience had a profound effect on the Guardians involved.

“Participating in Cobra Gold for the first time was a powerful reminder of the importance of our allies and partners,” Jordan said. “Integrating space into the exercise as part of an incredible multinational team was a big task, but it was one worth doing and one we were able to succeed at together.”

https://www.spaceforce.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/3707550/us-space-forces-indo-pacific-executes-cobra-gold-2024/

Villagers claim they are living among aliens, UFOs and inter-dimensional portals

12:41, 16 Mar 2024

Villagers in a remote part of the world have made the sensational claim that they live among aliens, UFOs and inter-dimensional portals.

Many residents in a remote village in Mexico said they have seen almost everything from mysterious flying objects to extraterrestrial life forms. The small settlement of Linda Vista is located near the UNESCO Mapimí Biosphere Reserve in the north-central area of the country.

The community is home to one of three sites of the so-called Zone of Silence. The desert area, also called the Mapimí Silent Zone, is said to be the scene of multiple alleged UFO sightings and an urban legend exists that radio signals and other types of communication cannot be received there.

Community leader Eugenio Aguilar said: “We see spaceships arriving in the middle of the night and wee hours of the morning. We can hear their turbulence before they leave, but then it suddenly starts up again.”

Local resident Evangelina Alvarado claimed she filmed an alien spaceship from her patio. The clip shows a large silvery object hovering in the sky above a mountain range. Alvarado said: “It is a being. I took the video and in that moment I could feel its stare. A researcher told me that it wasn’t Santa Muerte or Calavera, that it was a being. A lot of tourists have had unnatural experiences here.” She added: “And they come back time and time again because they say they’ve never experienced anything like it, and they love it.”

Villagers also claim the area is home to interdimensional portals and caves with unusual engravings of spaceships and mysterious life forms. Aguilar said: “One of them has a symbol of a sun, but nomads have never lived here, it is said to be from another type of being. If you look, there are carvings of ahead like a Martian.”

A team of reporters from the Mexican TV channel Telediario went to Linda Vista to investigate the locals’ claims. After interviewing multiple villagers, they said many of them had videos or photos to accompany their tales. The TV crew waited for nightfall and said they soon witnessed a bright light travelling south in the sky that they “initially thought was a satellite”.

But they said their “opinion changed” when the light suddenly changed course and ventured west before mysteriously disappearing into the darkness.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/villagers-claim-living-among-aliens-32331319