Up At The Ranch And Beyond

[Star Tsar]

Seeker

What Evidence Do We Have for Life On Mars?

Published 17th August 2020



One of the main jobs of Perseverance, the Mars 2020 rover, is to find signs of ancient microbial life on Mars. So, how will it meet this goal when it reaches the red planet next year?

We’ve been studying Mars from Earth since the 1600s and from space since the ‘60s.

From the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to the now present-day Mars 2020 rover Perseverance, astrobiologists have been searching for and collecting variables for decades regarding the existence of life on mars.

And NASA’s latest rover will serve as yet another puzzle piece in the ongoing journey that is finding signs of life on mars—specifically ancient microbial life.

Perseverance will dig around in Mars’ rocks looking for fossils, gathering samples to hang onto until future missions can hopefully ferry those samples back to Earth for further study.

And Mars 2020 rover will eventually be joined by the European-Russian ExoMars rover.

Find out more about the Perseverance mission, and the long history we have with searching for life on Mars in this Elements.

Read More:

Goal 1: Determine if Life Ever Arose On Mars
https://mars.nasa.gov/science/goals/#goal-1
"During the next two decades, NASA will conduct several missions to address whether life ever arose on Mars."

NASA Confirms Evidence That Liquid Water Flows on Today’s Mars
https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/n...n-today-s-mars
"New findings from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) provide the strongest evidence yet that liquid water flows intermittently on present-day Mars."

Mars Life? 20 Years Later, Debate Over Meteorite Continues
https://www.space.com/33690-allen-hi...-20-years.html
"Twenty years ago, NASA scientists and their colleagues announced they had spotted possible signs of Mars life in a meteorite. The claim ignited a scientific controversy that lingers to this day."

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=4E2bh4xZr-U

[Star Tsar]

Suspicious Observers | Space News | 18th August 2020 | Superlightning, Magnetic Anomaly, Mystery Gamma Rays

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=-VmHs-RuVRo

As mentioned by Mr Davidson

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=CctTDj6SN1U

[Star Tsar]

Space Weather Woman Tamitha Skov



Space Weather News | Flares Pick Up & A Solar Storm Heads Towards Earth

Published 18th August 2020

This week our Sun holds our attention with multiple bright regions flaring and launching solar storms. One of these solar storms is partly Earth-directed and should impact Earth late on August 19 or by midday August 20. This storm is the first "fast" solar storm of this new cycle (compared to the slower, weaker storms during solar minimum). As such it could give us our best chance of aurora views yet down to mid-latitudes! On top of that we are managing to stay in the low 70s for solar flux, despite having a spotless Sun so amateur radio operators should enjoy marginal radio propagation on Earth's dayside over this next week. Of course radio propagation and GPS reception will be affected once the solar storm hits, but overall the boost in activity lately is a sure sign of Solar Cycle 25 really getting underway! Learn the details of the coming storm, how it will affect you, and see what else our Sun has in store this week.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=GW4HOvejxFA

[Star Tsar]

Learn The Sky

Altair - The Brightest Star Of Aquila The Eagle Constellation

Published 18th August 2020

Altair is the brightest star of the constellation Aquila, which gives it the alpha designation. Altair in unique in the sense that is rotates quickly -- every 9 hours -- which gives the star an oblate spherical shape. It is fairly close to our own solar system at 16.7 light years away, which is why it is bright in our sky. Learn more about the spectral class and shape of this beautiful star.

0:42 - Introduction to Aquila
1:10 - Introduction to Altair
1:25 - Characteristics of Altair (Spectral Class and Shape)
2:24 - Direct Image of Altair
3:08 - Star map of Aquila
4:12 - Alpha, Beta and Gamma stars of Aquila
5:11 - Poem "Altair" by Karle Wilson Baker
7:10 - Practice finding Aquila using the Summer Triangle
8:17 - More practice finding Aquila and Altair
9:53 - Outro about Altair

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=ahf0LAzD2MI

[Star Tsar]

Harvard.edu

The Sun May Have Started Its Life With A Binary Companion

Published 18th August 2020



A new theory published today in The Astrophysical Journal Letters by scientists from Harvard University suggests that the Sun may once have had a binary companion of similar mass. If confirmed, the presence of an early stellar companion increases the likelihood that the Oort cloud was formed as observed and that Planet Nine was captured rather than formed within the solar system.

Dr. Avi Loeb, Frank B. Baird Jr. Professor of Science at Harvard, and Amir Siraj, a Harvard undergraduate student, have postulated that the existence of a long-lost stellar binary companion in the Sun's birth cluster—the collection of stars that formed together with the Sun from the same dense cloud of molecular gas—could explain the formation of the Oort cloud as we observe it today.

Read all about it here: https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/news/2020-19

[Star Tsar]

Phys.org

The Fastest Star Ever Observed

Published 17th August 2020



A team of researchers has observed the fastest moving star ever recorded. In their paper published in The Astrophysical Journal, the group describes their observation and study of stars circling close to the black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy, and what they observed.

Read all about it here: https://phys.org/news/2020-08-fastest-star-1.html

Source papers: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/1...38-4357/ab9c1c & https://arxiv.org/abs/2008.04764

&

Exploding Stars May Have Caused Mass Extinction On Earth, Study Shows

Published 18th August 2020



Imagine reading by the light of an exploded star, brighter than a full moon—it might be fun to think about, but this scene is the prelude to a disaster when the radiation devastates life as we know it. Killer cosmic rays from nearby supernovae could be the culprit behind at least one mass extinction event, researchers said, and finding certain radioactive isotopes in Earth's rock record could confirm this scenario.

A new study led by University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign astronomy and physics professor Brian Fields explores the possibility that astronomical events were responsible for an extinction event 359 million years ago, at the boundary between the Devonian and Carboniferous periods.

Read all about it here: https://phys.org/news/2020-08-stars-...ion-earth.html

Source paper: https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2.../17/2013774117

[Star Tsar]

Sean Carroll

The Biggest Ideas In The Universe | Cosmology

Published 18th August 2020

"Cosmology." Perhaps more a field of study than an "idea," but it is made possible by an extremely powerful idea: that our universe is uniform and simple enough to be understandable. We go through the expansion of space, the thermal history of what makes up the universe, and a bit about dark matter and the cosmic microwave background.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=tZQadPmTd84

[Star Tsar]

NASA & Nemesis Maturity

Citizen Scientists Discover Dozens Of New Cosmic Neighbours In NASA Data

Published 18th August 2020



We’ve never met some of the Sun’s closest neighbors until now. In a new study, astronomers report the discovery of 95 objects known as brown dwarfs, many within a few dozen light-years of the Sun. They’re well outside the solar system, so don’t experience heat from the Sun, but still inhabit a region astronomers consider our cosmic neighborhood. This collection represents some of the coldest known examples of these objects, which are between the sizes of planets and stars.

the white dwarf and a brown dwarf companion
In this artist’s rendering, the small white orb represents the white dwarf (a remnant of a long-dead Sun-like star), while the purple foreground object is the newly discovered brown dwarf companion, confirmed by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope. This faint brown dwarf was previously overlooked until being spotted by citizen scientists working with Backyard Worlds: Planet 9, a NASA-funded citizen science project.
Credits: NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/P. Marenfeld/Acknowledgement: William Pendrill
Members of the public helped make these discoveries through Backyard Worlds: Planet 9, a NASA-funded citizen science project that is a collaboration between volunteers and professional scientists. Backyard Worlds incorporates data from NASA’s Near-Earth Object Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) satellite along with all-sky observations collected between 2010 and 2011 under its previous moniker, WISE. Data from NASA’s retired Spitzer Space Telescope and the facilities of the National Science Foundation’s NOIRLab were also instrumental in the analysis.

“​Vast modern datasets can unlock landmark discoveries, and it’s exciting that these could be spotted first by citizen scientists​,” said Aaron Meisner, assistant scientist at NSF’s NOIRLab and the lead author of the study describing the brown dwarfs. “​These Backyard Worlds discoveries show that members of the public can play an important role in reshaping our scientific understanding of our solar neighborhood.​”

Read all about it here: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/citizen...s-in-nasa-data

Nemesis Maturity report

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=f5UzMiYVr2U

[Star Tsar]

Posted by Star Tsar (here)
Scott Manley

Snapped Cable Damages Arecibo Observatory Radio Telescope

Published 13th August 2020

The Arecibo Radio Telescope is one of the most famous astronomical observatories in the world, and for a long time was the world's largest. On Monday night a support cable snapped and fell into the reflector dish, damaging the reflector panels, it also crashed into the side of the gregorian dome which includes the secondard and tertiary reflectors.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=4V3VCt24tkE

Gizmodo.com

Damaged SETI Observatory Could Be Sidelined For Months

Published 18th August 2020



The iconic Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico was damaged last week when a large cable fell onto the radio telescope’s main reflector dish. We’re now learning more about this unfortunate incident, including how long it might take until the beleaguered observatory is back online.

During the early morning of Monday August 10, a thick auxiliary cable used to support a metal platform dropped onto the main reflector dish, producing a 100-foot-long gash. The golf ball-like Gregorian Dome was also damaged, as was a platform used to access the dome, which houses a multi-beam receiver. No one was hurt during the incident, but scientific work at Puerto Rico’s famous Arecibo Observatory is now on hold, pending repairs.

During a virtual press conference held on August 14, Francisco Córdova, the director of the Arecibo Observatory, described it as an “unprecedented event,” saying the cables, which were installed around 20 years ago, were supposed to last for another 15 to 20 years. Importantly, however, the cable did not snap. Rather, the 3-inch thick cable slipped out from a socket located on one of the observatory’s three support towers, he said.

Read all about it here: https://gizmodo.com/damaged-seti-obs...ths-1844763305

[Star Tsar]

BusinessInsider.com & Asteroid Station

A Car-Size Asteroid Flew Within 1,830 Miles Of Earth Over The Weekend, The Closest Pass Ever — And We Didn't See It Coming

Published 18th August 2020



A car-size asteroid flew within about 1,830 miles (2,950 kilometers) of Earth on Sunday.

That's a remarkably close shave — the closest ever recorded, in fact, according to asteroid trackers and a catalog compiled by Sormano Astronomical Observatory in Italy.

Because of its size, the space rock most likely wouldn't have posed any danger to people on the ground had it struck our planet. But the close call is worrisome nonetheless, since astronomers had no idea the asteroid existed until after it passed by.

"The asteroid approached undetected from the direction of the sun," Paul Chodas, the director of NASA's Center for Near Earth Object Studies, told Business Insider. "We didn't see it coming."

Read all about it here: https://www.businessinsider.com/car-...ithm&r=US&IR=T

Asteroid Station report:

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=6_SZb3G-jT0

[Star Tsar]

Phys.org

Scientists Determine Oumuamua Isn't Made From Molecular Hydrogen Ice After All

Published 18th August 2020



The debate over the origins and molecular structure of 'Oumuamua continued today with an announcement in The Astrophysical Journal Letters that despite earlier promising claims, the interstellar object is not made of molecular hydrogen ice after all.

The earlier study, published by Seligman & Laughlin in 2020—after observations by the Spitzer Space Telescope set tight limits on the outgassing of carbon-based molecules—suggested that if 'Oumuamua were a hydrogen iceberg, then the pure hydrogen gas that gives it its rocket-like push would have escaped detection. But scientists at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA) and the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI) were curious whether a hydrogen-based object could actually have made the journey from interstellar space to our solar system

Read all about it here: https://phys.org/news/2020-08-scient...-hydrogen.html

[Star Tsar]

Posted by Star Tsar (here)
Volcano Time-Lapse & VolcanoYT

Eruption | Mount Sinabung, Indonesia

Recorded & Published 10th August 2020

After a year of no activity, Sinabung explodes. Here are clips that show the extent of this blast.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=qRvcv-_oiUY

Volcano Sinabung in Karo Regency (North Sumatra - Indonesia) erupted again with a high ash column that was observed about 5,000 meters above the peak or about 7,460 meters above sea level at 10:16 WIB, Monday (10/8). This ash column is taller than the previous eruption two days ago.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=GqamH9_q2Gs

VolcanoYT

Plume | Mount Sinabung, Indonesia

Recorded & Published 18th August 2020

This time-lapse is a combination of 4 cameras, unfortunately camera is active during plume so we don't see initial eruption (categorized as blowing).

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=vEGtAya14yM

[Star Tsar]

NASA

What You Need To Know About Ocean Worlds

Published 17th August 2020

Our planet is a beautiful water-filled world, teeming with life. But did you know that Earth is not the only world in our solar system with an ocean? Here’s what you need to know about Ocean Worlds.”

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=_9AYw2EQm8s

[Star Tsar]

CosmosMagazine.com

Bayesian Statistics & The Hunt For ET

Published 17th August 2020



One of the goals of the next generation of giant telescopes, now rapidly nearing completion, is to scour the nearby heavens for stars whose planets show signs of life.

If they find even a single such a world, Amedeo Balbi of the University of Rome Tor Vergata and Claudio Grimaldi of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne say, it probably means that the galaxy is teeming with life-bearing worlds.

In fact, the two astrobiologists write in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, such a discovery would indicate that life-bearing worlds may well be more common than pulsars (which are believed to number in the order of 200,000 in the Milky Way galaxy alone).

Read all about it here: https://cosmosmagazine.com/space/ast...e-hunt-for-et/

[Star Tsar]

Podcast UFO



John Michael Greer | The UFO Phenomenon: Fact, Fantasy & Disinformation

Streamed & Published 18th August 2020

Guest John Michael Greer speaking on his new book, The UFO Phenomenon: Fact, Fantasy and Disinformation and more.

John Michael Greer is a widely respected author and blogger in the fields of nature spirituality and the future of industrial society. He is the author of more than fifty books and his blog, Ecosophia. https://www.ecosophia.net/

Show notes: https://podcastufo.com/417-john-michael-greer/

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=tgbgCeI_RgE

[Star Tsar]

The Richard Dolan Show

The End Of UFO Disclosure?

Streamed & Published 18th August 2020

The past three years have given the public much in the way of new authenticated information on the subject of UFOs. Recently, the Pentagon announced the formation of a UFO Task Force. All this is important confirmation of a phenomenon that many people knew was real, but which never received confirmation. But how far can all this go?

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=MmF4HIbgI2w

[Star Tsar]

Post Disclosure World

UFO Believers: What Happens If We're Right?

Published 16th August 2019

If UFO believers end up being right, that doesn't mean UFO skeptics were wrong about one thing. It actually means they were wrong about many things.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=5_sdGHxOXXw

[Star Tsar]

The Black Vault



The Road to a Congressional UFO Hearing, 1960’s Style

Published 18th August 2020



The world is abuzz that the United States Senate, namely the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence chaired by Senator Marco Rubio, is interested in a public UFO report created by the Intelligence Community (IC). In addition, the Department of Defense (DOD) recently announced a UAP Task Force, or UAPTF, which aims to investigate unidentified objects as they encroach on military installations. The effort is an exciting push towards transparency related to an issue that has intrigued the masses for decades, and one that is often encapsulated in secrecy and conspiracy allegations. However, this is not the first time Congressional interest into UFOs has happened. In fact, it’s happened before in a nearly identical fashion. Can this unfolding saga end the same way? Advocates for UFO disclosure sure hope not.

Read all about it here: https://www.theblackvault.com/docume...g-1960s-style/

[Star Tsar]

Suspicious Observers | Space News | 19th August 2020 | Climate, Nova Extinction, Quakes, Hurricane

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=olsfwixaLyY

Related musical interlude

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=0KPhwmDKq9A

[Star Tsar]

Geoengineering Watch



Global Alert News | Episode 263



Published 22nd August 2020

Hundreds of wildfires in the Western US have blanketed huge regions of the country in smoke. Other parts of the world, like Siberia and the Amazon rainforest, are experiencing unprecedented wildfires. Simultaniously, parts of the planet are being deluged with record rains. Systemic environmental collapse is unfolding. Governments around the globe are demonstrating their desperation by taking increasingly draconian actions to lockdown and control the masses.

Supporting link: https://www.geoengineeringwatch.org/...t-22-2020-263/

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=HeqbMY0WpWA

As mentioned

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=BRsaBA6NdYQ