NASA rover Curiosity makes historic Mars landing, beams back photos

 NASA's Mars science rover Curiosity performed a daredevil descent through pink Martian skies late on Sunday to clinch an historic landing inside an ancient crater, ready to search for signs the Red Planet may once have harbored key ingredients for life.
Mission controllers burst into applause and cheers as they received signals confirming that the car-sized rover had survived a perilous seven-minute descent NASA called the most elaborate and difficult feat in the annals of robotic spaceflight.
Engineers said the tricky landing sequence, combining a giant parachute with a rocket-pack that lowered the rover to the Martian surface on a tether, allowed for zero margin for error.
"I can't believe this. This is unbelievable," enthused Allen Chen, the deputy head of the rover's descent and landing team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory near Los Angeles.
Moments later, Curiosity beamed back its first three images from the Martian surface, one of them showing a wheel of the vehicle and the rover's shadow cast on the rocky terrain.
NASA put the official landing time of Curiosity, touted as the first full-fledged mobile science laboratory sent to a distant world, at 10:32 p.m. Pacific time (1:32 a.m. EDT/0532 GMT).
The landing marked a much-welcome success and a major milestone for a U.S. space agency beset by budget cuts and the recent cancellation of its space shuttle program, NASA's centerpiece for 30 years.
The $2.5 billion Curiosity project, formally called the Mars Science Laboratory, is NASA's first astrobiology mission since the 1970s-era Viking probes.
"It's an enormous step forward in planetary exploration. Nobody has ever done anything like this," said John Holdren, the top science advisor to President Barack Obama, who was visiting JPL for the event. "It was an incredible performance."
Obama himself issued a statement hailing the Curiosity landing as "an unprecedented feat of technology that will stand as a point of national pride far into the future."
"It proves that even the longest of odds are no match for our unique blend of ingenuity and determination," he said.

Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity Rover Animation

Our galaxy to hit another in four billion years

WASHINGTON: Our galaxy is on a collision course with its nearest neighbor, Andromeda, and the head-on crash is expected in four billion years, the US space agency NASA said on Thursday.
Astronomers have long theorized that a clash of these galaxy titans was on the way, though it was unknown how severe it might be, or when, with guesses ranging from three to six billion years.
But years of “extraordinarily precise observations” from NASA’s Hubble Space telescope tracking the motion of the Andromeda galaxy “remove any doubt that it is destined to collide and merge with the Milky Way,” NASA said in a statement.
“It will take four billion years before the strike.”
After the initial impact it will take another two billion years for them “to completely merge under the tug of gravity and reshape into a single elliptical galaxy similar to the kind commonly seen in the local universe,” NASA added.The stars inside each galaxy are so far apart that they are not likely to collide with each other, but stars will likely be “thrown into different orbits around the new galactic center.”
Scientists have long known that Andromeda, also known as M31, is moving toward the Milky Way at a speed of 250,000 miles per hour, or fast enough to travel from the Earth to the Moon in one hour.
But the nature of the crash depended on the galaxy’s sideways motion in the sky, and that trajectory remained a mystery for more than 100 years until the latest analysis of Hubble’s findings were revealed.
“This was accomplished by repeatedly observing select regions of the galaxy over a five- to seven-year period,” said Jay Anderson of Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore.
Andromeda was first spotted as “a little cloud” by the Persian astronomer Abd-al-Rahman Al Sufi in 964.
“In the worst-case-scenario simulation, M31 slams into the Milky Way head-on and the stars are all scattered into different orbits,” said Gurtina Besla of Columbia University in New York.
“The stellar populations of both galaxies are jostled, and the Milky Way loses its flattened pancake shape with most of the stars on nearly circular orbits,” Besla added.
“The galaxies’ cores merge, and the stars settle into randomized orbits to create an elliptical-shaped galaxy.”

NASA Lunar Spacecraft Complete Prime Mission Ahead of Schedule

A NASA mission to study the moon from crust to core has completed its prime mission earlier than expected. The team of NASA's Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission, with twin probes named Ebb and Flow, is now preparing for extended science operations starting Aug. 30 and continuing through Dec. 3, 2012.
The GRAIL mission has gathered unprecedented detail about the internal structure and evolution of the moon. This information will increase our knowledge of how Earth and its rocky neighbors in the inner solar system developed into the diverse worlds we see today.
Since March 8, the spacecraft have operated around the clock for 89 days. From an orbit that passes over the lunar poles, they have collected data covering the entire surface three times. An instrument called the Lunar Gravity Ranging System onboard each spacecraft transmits radio signals that allow scientists to translate the data into a high-resolution map of the moon's gravitational field. The spacecraft returned their last data set of the prime mission today. The instruments were turned off at 10 a.m. PDT (1 p.m. EDT) when the spacecraft were 37 miles (60 kilometers) above the Sea of Nectar.
"Many of the measurement objectives were achieved from analysis of only half the primary mission data, which speaks volumes about the skill and dedication of our science and engineering teams," said Maria Zuber, principal investigator of GRAIL at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. "While there is a great deal of work yet to be done to achieve the mission's science, it's energizing to realize that what we traveled from Earth to the moon for is right here in our hands."
"GRAIL delivered to Earth over 99.99 percent of the data that could have been collected, which underscores the flawless performance of the spacecraft, instrument and the Deep Space Network," said Zuber.
Both spacecraft instruments will be powered off until Aug. 30. The spacecraft will have to endure a lunar eclipse on June 4. The eclipse and the associated sudden changes in temperature and the energy-sapping darkness that accompanies the phenomena were expected and do not concern engineers about the spacecraft's health.
"Before launch, we planned for all of GRAIL's primary mission science to occur between lunar eclipses," said David Lehman, project manager of GRAIL from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "But now that we have flown Ebb and Flow for a while, we understand them and are confident they can survive these eclipses in good shape."
The extended mission goal is to take an even closer look at the moon's gravity field. To achieve this, GRAIL mission planners will halve their current operating altitude to the lowest altitude that can be safely maintained.

UFO hovers over Jerusalem shrine

Just accept it. This wasnt a few people in a back yard. When hundreds of thousands of people see a phenomenon, thats usually what it is. These lights date back to biblical times, read your bible, My Point is. When you know its a Phenomenon. What else are you suppose to do, but stand in awe of the Majesty of Our Lord..!!!

UFO hovers over Red Square in Moscow

A mysterious pyramid shaped object is caught on camera hovering above Moscow's Red Square, where it stayed for several hours according to reports.

sketches and reports of sightings in Britain

This doughnut-shaped phenomenon was photographed by a retired RAF officer and sent to his old bosses tasked with investigating UFOs. The photographer wrote to his former colleagues at RAF Fylingdales in North Yorkshire saying: "You must admit they are unusual." The man, whose name was blanked out in the newly released documents, said: "I noticed a partial aura in the sky, a minute or so later there was a clap of thunder, then a short while later a ring like a doughnut appeared - the ring was orange in colour with a white/cream finger pushed through, the head of the column glowed an orange colour, behind the doughnut was a second cloud of colour , and a further ring of orange..."

 sketches and reports of sightings in Britain

...He added: "The only way I can describe the sighting is that of an atomic or another type of nuclear explosion, the cloud from which did not rise in the sky, but headed from the high atmosphere down toward the earth." The man took the pictures while he was on holiday in Habarana, Sri Lanka in March 2004.

 

Body of 'dead alien' is found in frozen wastes of Siberia after claims of UFO hurtling to Earth... but is it an elaborate hoax?

The corpse of the badly-damaged creature which resembles ET is 2ft-high.

Part of the right leg is missing and there are deep holes for eyes and a mouth in a skull-like head.

UFO fans believe the body could have been left behind by ET visitors after an accident, or missed by Russian military alien experts clearing up after a crash.

The area is a known UFO hotspot with dozens of sightings reported every year.

It follows reports of a UFO hurtling towards Earth in the nearby Irkutsk region of Siberia one month ago.

'We couldn't believe it when we saw it. And what was spooky is that there was no sign of the spaceship. Perhaps that was taken away and the body overlooked,' said Igor Molovic, one of the pair that uploaded the video.

The clip has now been seen by nearly 700,000 people within a few days.

Cynics claim the video is a fake using a carefully staged model for the alien's body.

But one fan wrote': 'It's so lame how people always get thrilled by having another excuse to shout "Fake! fake!" every time something weird shows up. Unless proven otherwise, this is in fact plausible.'

'If this is fake - then they are masters at models/puppets. I think it's real - one of the very few, great vid.,' said another.

Area 51 and the Aliens

We may have Tang thanks to the space program, but who gave us such innovations as the Stealth fighter and Kevlar? Aliens, of course. Conspiracy theorists believe that the remains of crashed UFO spacecrafts are stored at Area 51, an Air Force base about 150 miles from Las Vegas, where government scientists reverse-engineer the aliens' highly advanced technology. Fodder for this has come from a variety of supposed UFO sightings in the area and testimony from a retired Army colonel who says he was given access to extraterrestrial materials gathered from an alien spacecraft that crashed in Roswell, N.M. Some believe that the government studies time travel at Area 51, also known as Groom Lake or Dreamland.
The government has developed advanced aircraft and weapons systems at nearby Nellis Air Force Base, including Stealth bombers and reconnaissance planes. And the government's official line — that the details of Area 51 are classified for purposes of national security — is only seen as further proof that the military is hiding aliens or alien spacecraft.

The (very) secret history of Area 51 Just how covert is the infamous US air base? New files show that even Presidents don't always 'need to know' its activities

No one on the ground or in Pakistan's air defence spotted Area 51's latest toy as it kept watch on Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, on the night of the US raid that killed the Taliban leader.

Rather than one of the UFOs that the wilder fringes of the internet believe the military has stashed away at America's top-secret military site in Nevada, this "toy" was actually the latest Star Wars-type drone, or unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), developed at the base whose existence Uncle Sam only barely admits.

Named the "Beast of Kandahar" after it was snapped at Kandahar air base in Afghanistan back in 2009, this stealthy grey batwing-shaped long-distance reconnaissance drone, officially known as the RQ-170 Sentinel, was a throwback to Area 51's golden age before the advent of the spy satellite put the spy plane out of business.

While for the post-X-Files generation Area 51 will always be associated with conspiracy theories from aliens to time machines, for journalists such as Annie Jacobsen its purpose was – and, indeed, is – to develop and test the latest kit from the military industrial complex that helps to maintain America's superpower status.

"Area 51 was the single most important Cold War facility as it was set up to push science faster and further than the Soviet Union," says Jacobsen, author of Area 51: An Uncensored History. "On one side of the road the Nevada test site was preparing for the Third World War, and on the Area 51 side they were trying to prevent it by developing air-surveillance technology.

"Today, it is doing the same job competing with whoever America sees as its enemy, whether North Korea, Iran or China."

Yet for Jacobsen one of the strangest things about Area 51 is that even in the age of WikiLeaks and Google Earth, she has "not seen anything ever leak out of Area 51", almost as if "the base is in a permanent state of lockdown".

Sitting on the edge of a dried-up lake bed cradled by mountains, only 90 miles or so from the fantasy world of downtown Las Vegas, it is perhaps not surprising that it is hard to separate the myth from the fact of Area 51, or Groom Lake, as old-timers have traditionally called it. Even "Area 51" sounds like an exercise in branding, as do its other names of Dreamland, Paradise Ranch or Homey Airport. And there is something sinisterly not-quite-real about the "use of deadly force authorised" signs that stand guard on the base's perimeter. Which can be found just inside the 4,687 square miles of the Nevada Test and Training Range and right next to the 1,350 square miles of the Nevada Test Site, where hundreds of nuclear weapons were exploded above and below ground until the test ban treaties of 1963 and 1996.

However, recent declassified documents have helped to shed light on the facts behind the myths of Area 51, from the U-2 spy plane missions that helped to unlock the secrets of the Soviet Union in the 1950s to the groundbreaking stealthy A12 that was obsolete before it even first served its country, and the record-breakingly fast recon plane the SR-71 Blackbird, which helped to spot North Vietnamese missile bases in the late 1960s and 1970s; and from the beginnings of stealth technology to the development of the F-117 stealth fighter itself, which was one of the few allied aircraft able to penetrate the air defences around downtown Baghdad and then bomb accurately. Also brought to light was the test flying of "acquired" Soviet MIG fighters in mock combat situations, which led to the founding of the Top Gun pilot programme made famous by the 1980s film of the same name.

Crashed Test Flight out of Area 51

There was a huge fire in the Groom Mountains in summer of 1999, just north of Groom Lake. It started in the evening hours of 8/4/1999, and isolated spots were still burning at noon the next day. The first official story said that it was caused by lightning strike. Later, when it became obvious that this was impossible, the story changed. According to the new story, the fire was caused by an accident involving two B-52 bombers that took off from Area 51. One lost two attached external fuel tanks shortly after takeoff, which exploded on impact with the ground.

This version, although more plausible than the first, still does not make much sense. There is no reason for a B-52, which has an un-refueled range of over 8,000 miles, to be equipped with additional external fuel tanks. Unless it is going overseas, which is unlikely for a flight out of Area 51. It is much more likely that whatever crashed that night into the mountains just north of Area 51 was a test flight coming out of Groom.

I saw the flames in the mountains at about 7.30pm from Hwy. 375, and took the photos below, both from a low angle at several locations along Hwy. 375, and from a higher angle at the Powerlines Overlook in the mountain range behind the Black Mailbox. From up there I could see bright flames and a glow in a color spectrum that suggests extreme heat. Clearly not a brush fire after a lightning strike, especially considering how sparse the vegetation is in that area. I could make out two distinct spots that appeared to be the source of the blaze. The center of the larger spot was located in a valley below my line of sight and it almost looked like a small volcano eruption. I watched it until about 10pm, when the flames began to die down. Three or four isolated spots continued to burn all night, and were still burning around noon the next day.

I did not see any fire fighting trucks or planes, or any other attempts to put out the blaze. In fact, except for a couple of security helicopters there were absolutely no planes anywhere around to be seen that night, although it was right in the middle of the summer Red Flag exercises. And my scanner was dead silent that night.

The crash site on the south slope of the Groom Mountain Range is located about 3 miles west of the Area 51 Guard Shack, inside the Groom restricted airspace. This air space is off-limits even for military pilots, and only air traffic going in and out of Groom  is allowed here. There were two large fires, approximately 1/2 mile apart, with smaller fires in between. The approximate GPS coordinates are: N 37°21.29' / W 115°43.05' and N 37°21.66'/ W 115°42.63'.

I have no information on the purpose of the test flight. But since the Groom Lake base is usually not involved in Red Flag, I do not believe that the mission was connected to the ongoing air exercises. Please let me know if you have any comments on this incident, or if you have seen a similar accident.

                     

Are UFOs In Actuality the Military's Ultimate Sky Spies?

This article originally appeared in Popular Communications Magazine August 2004. (C) 2004 Steve Douglass. Reproduction here with friendly permission by the author.
If the winds were kind and the technical problems were ironed-out, by the time you read this you may have already heard about the strange "flying V-shaped" UFO that has been seen by citizens over far west Texas and southeastern New Mexico.
Although the event hasn't happened as of this writing, it is likely this huge flying object will be seen at sunset and is flying so high it probably glows bright for maybe more than an hour after dusk and will undoubtedly prompt uninformed citizens to call local authorities and report a unidentified flying object in the area.
In reality the UFO is a prototype of a new lighter-than-air sky spy and might give utility monitors in the area a rare opportunity to intercept some unique communications.
Scheduled for late June and lasting throughout the summer and fall a V-shaped airship bigger than a baseball diamond is due to rise from the West Texas desert to an altitude of 100,000 feet (30.5 kilometers), navigate by remote control, linger above the clouds and drift back to earth.
This joint JP Aerospace/U.S. Air Force project to build a new kind of reconnaissance and battlefield communications platform that some day might lead to even bigger lighter-than-air, gas filled floating platforms that gossamer spaceships could use as high-altitude way stations.
"The full-size station in our grand vision is 2 miles across," says John Powell, the company's founder. "But that's down the road a bit. We take baby steps." You can learn more about this project by pointing your browser to: http://www.jpaerospace.com/
Known as the "Ascender" the unique shaped aerostat is slated to be (as of press-time) launched from the Pecos County/West Texas Spaceport at Fort Stockton, TX, but the liftoff is dependent on the weather and has been delayed several times. According to Powell, "We actually had the first flight window in February, but we sat there and stared at 30-knot West Texas winds for two weeks, so we're going back in June,"
If tests are successful, the Ascender could lead to a much larger military airship being developed as a separate project.
In 2001, the Missile Defense Agency awarded Lockheed Martin a $40 million contract to work on the High Altitude Airship, a 500-foot-long (152-meter-long) blimp, 25 times larger than the Goodyear blimp and much more capable than the Ascender and could loiter at altitudes above 65,000 feet for as long as a year.
One reason airships are becoming more and more attractive to the Pentagon is the cost. The roughly $500,000 cost of building the 175-foot-long (53-meter-long) Ascender airship is far less than the price tag for any piloted airplane or robotic drone.
But the Pentagon's primary motivation is strategic rather than financial. The altitudes best suited for the helium-filled Ascender are virgin territory for the military. It could take a payload higher than any spy plane, above the weather and well beyond the reach of virtually any attack from the ground or the air.
Although the Ascender is considered to be a prototype of a future system there are some who speculate the NRO has been flying top-secret airships for years which have been responsible for may "slow moving" UFO sightings.
A few years ago an American Air West 727 was flying in an air corridor just north of the restricted military airspace known as Area 51, when lightning from a nearby thunderstorm illuminated a huge motionless cigar-shaped object hovering silently over the Nevada Desert. The pilot startled by the sudden appearance of the eerie craft radioed air traffic controllers to report the encounter as a UFO sighting.
Controllers on the ground responded that it was probably a classified aircraft operating out of the restricted Nellis Range. The pilot described the craft as looking something like an elongated big black blimp, invisible except when illuminated by lightning flashes.
What the commercial pilot saw was most likely one of the best kept black world secrets, the stealth airship, a flying Big Brother, prowling the upper reaches of the atmosphere capable of collecting enormous amounts of intelligence for its spy masters on the ground.

2012: Beginning of the End or Why the World Won't End?

Nasa said.
Q: What is the origin of the prediction that the world will end in 2012?
A: The story started with claims that Nibiru, a supposed planet discovered by the Sumerians, is headed toward Earth. This catastrophe was initially predicted for May 2003, but when nothing happened the doomsday date was moved forward to December 2012. Then these two fables were linked to the end of one of the cycles in the ancient Mayan calendar at the winter solstice in 2012 -- hence the predicted doomsday date of December 21, 2012.

Q: Does the Mayan calendar end in December 2012?
A: Just as the calendar you have on your kitchen wall does not cease to exist after December 31, the Mayan calendar does not cease to exist on December 21, 2012. This date is the end of the Mayan long-count period but then -- just as your calendar begins again on January 1 -- another long-count period begins for the Mayan calendar.

Q: Could phenomena occur where planets align in a way that impacts Earth?
A: There are no planetary alignments in the next few decades, Earth will not cross the galactic plane in 2012, and even if these alignments were to occur, their effects on the Earth would be negligible. Each December the Earth and sun align with the approximate center of the Milky Way Galaxy but that is an annual event of no consequence.

Area 51 - Groom Lake, NV

Weapon Storage Area

A small weapon storage area, occupying 32 acres, is located at the far south end of the facility. It consists of three small earth covered weapon storage igloos and two larger igloos and what appears to be a munitions maintenance building. Is is reported that the WSA was constructed some time in the late 1970's early 1980's in support of the F-117 stealth fighter program. However the larger igloo's could possibly be related to the advanced cruise missile program.

NASA UFO – HANGAR AREA 51

The Groom Lake Base is this top-secret military base located 90 miles north of Las Vegas (which is in Nevada). It’s in grid number 51 of the Nevada Test Site, so it’s called Area 51. The United States Air Force Flight Test Center controls the base. It’s best known for testing exotic aircraft and weapons. The base was created in 1954 as a place to test the secret U-2 spyplane that was used to fly missions over the Soviet Union. Then it started to house the SR-71, A-12 and D-21 drone. The F-117A was tested there, also. In the 1980′s the base increased in size, along with the runway (which increased to the present 6 miles). Then, mysterious lights began to appear, and armed guards known as the cammo dudes started patrolling the border. The government closed many viewpoints from which the Area 51 base could be seen. In 1989, a “physicist” named Bob Lazar claimed that he worked at a base south of Area 51 and also claimed that Area 51 was testing extremely advanced aircraft and UFO’s they got by trading with the aliens. Since then, Area 51 has been thought to be the test center of captured UFOs because of the lights in the night sky.

AREA 51 (OR GROOM LAKE) BACK IN THE LATE 1980’S ON A BACK-ENGINEERING PROGRAM AN ‘EXCHANGE’ PROGRAM WITH THE ETS OCCURRED IN THE 1970’S, WHICH, RESULTED IN THE ACQUISITION OF NINE UFOS SO THAT THEIR TECHNOLOGIES COULD BE RESEARCHED

area-51-front-gate

Area 51 Front Gate

The road to the front gate is long and dusty, but good enough to travel at the rated speed (45 MPH) most of its length. This view is from route 375 looking down Groom Road. The puffs of smoke are the dust trails from vehicles going down the road. I parked near the entrance of the road for about an hour just to see if anyone official looking used the road. All I saw were passenger cars that did the loop. Someone should come up with a hand signal for the tourists to use to wave at other vehicles making the pilgrimage. Unless anyone has a better idea, I suggest giving the old Vulcan "Live Long and Prosper" salute.

2012?

Please write you idea about 2012?

Sir Arthur C.Clarke said 2019?

2019 A major meteor impact occurs on the north polar ice cap. The resulting tsunamis cause considerable damage along the coasts of Greeland and Canada. The long-discussed "Project Spaceguard," to identify and deflect potentially dangerous comets or asteroids, is finally activated.