Up At The Ranch And Beyond

[Bluegreen]

Time Travel

Meteorite Fragment That Slammed Through Homeowner's Roof Predates Earth





A meteorite fragment that burst through the roof of a Georgia home last June has been determined to be billions of years old and to predate the Earth, according to a geology professor. 

"A lot of people saw the fireball," University of Georgia geologist Scott Harris told Fox News Digital on Friday of the meteorite fragment that he said had come from an asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and fell to Earth on June 26 near Atlanta. 

He said he was immediately alerted to the incident and went to examine what had happened, looking in the attic for the fragment’s point of entry. 

"The homeowner didn't know that they actually had a clean hole through the roof, through an air duct," he continued. 

"They knew about the hole in the roof, but they didn't know it went through the air duct, through one side of the air duct, out the other side of the air duct through a couple of feet of insulation, then through the ceiling. They had about a 10-foot-high ceiling, kind of a slanted frame ceiling, and then it went the distance from there to the floor and left about a centimeter-and-a-half little crater in the floor."

He said the meteorite left a hole in the floor "about the size of a large cherry tomato." 

"And so this hit hard enough that part of it just absolutely was pulverized, like somebody hitting it with a sledgehammer," he explained.

Harris said the ancient fragment broke the sound barrier as it hurtled toward Earth, adding that it would have sounded like a "very high-powered rifle" to the homeowner. 

Published 9th August 2025 by Brie Stimson – Fox News
https://www.foxnews.com/travel/meteo...arth-professor

[Bluegreen]

Scientists Baffled After Discovering Earth Mountains 100 Times Taller Than Everest



Two 'secret' mountains have been discovered on the boundary between Africa and the Pacific Ocean.

Published 23rd January 2025 (2:57)

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

The Detective Work Behind the Discovery

Identifying these underground mountains wasn’t easy. Dr. Arwen Deuss, head researcher and seismologist at Utrecht University, explains how their team utilized seismic waves to map these structures. “We see that seismic waves slow down there,” notes Dr. Deuss. Similar to a doctor taking an X-ray, scientists listen to the planet’s “ringing” during large earthquakes, which sounds “out of tune” when waves encounter these structures.




A Half-Billion Year Mystery

These mountains might be among Earth’s oldest features, potentially dating back to our planet’s formation four billion years ago. “Nobody knows what they are, and whether they are only a temporary phenomenon, or if they have been sitting there for millions or perhaps even billions of years,” Dr. Deuss acknowledges. The structures’ are made up of a unique mineral grain, one much larger than their surroundings, which would suggest they are ancient in origin.




Unexpected Heat Signatures

When the research team came across these interesting findings, called Large Low Seismic Velocity Provinces (LLSVP), they were using seismic wave damping. “Against our expectations, we found little damping in the LLSVPs, which made the tones sound very loud there,” explains Sujania Talavera-Soza. The structures have a higher temperature reading than the tectonic plates around them, but show a very different type of energy absorption by comparison. The details aren’t in yet, but they have scientists very excited.




Earth's Dynamic Interior

Just as Earth’s surface has highs and lows like Everest and the Grand Cayon, so does its interior. At 3,959 miles around, our planet has multiple layers, including the crust, mantle, outer core, and inner core. These mountains exist in the region where the Earth’s mantle meets the core, which shows that Earth’s internal structure is more complex than previously thought.




Contexts Within Earth’s History

This discovery joins other new revelations about our planet. For instance, researchers recently found an ancient seafloor slab dating back 250 million years, trapped somewhere between 410 to 660 kilometers below Earth’s surface. Speaking of the sea floor, dark oxygen (oxygen made without sunlight) was recently discovered on the ocean floor too. These findings continue to reshape our understanding of Earth’s evolution and internal composition.



Published 28th February 2025 by Sean Cate – The Hearty Soul
https://theheartysoul.com/mountains-...-than-everest/

[Bluegreen]

Bird Nerd

The Secret Lives of Cardinals | Nature Documentary




In this video, we take a look at the exciting lives of northern cardinals, and what they get up to behind the scenes. Music performed by Kevin Macleod: Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 in G, Movement I (Allegro), BWV 1049 [orig. by JS Bach]

Published 5th December 2024 (10:29)

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Fz-cFV_QKFw

[Bluegreen]

Mars Rock Found in Niger Sells for Millions in New York

Now the Country Wants Answers

Sotheby's Sells Mars Space Rock for Over $5M – Buyer/Seller Undisclosed
https://projectavalon.net/forum4/sho...=1#post1677211

"Brazen! It is brazen!" Prof Paul Sereno says down the phone line from Chicago.

He makes no effort to disguise his anger that a rare meteorite from Mars discovered two years ago in the West African nation of Niger ended up being auctioned off in New York last month to an unnamed buyer.




NWA 16788 (NWA standing for north-west Africa) close-up

The palaeontologist, who has close connections with the country, believes it should be back in Niger.

This millions-of-years-old piece of the Red Planet, the largest ever found on Earth, fetched $4.3m (£3.2m) at Sotheby's. Like the buyer, the seller was kept anonymous. But it is unclear if any of this money went to Niger.

Fragments of extraterrestrial material that have made their way to Earth have long inspired reverence among humans – some ending up as religious objects, others as curiosities for display. More recently, many have become the subject of scientific study.

The trade in meteorites has been compared to the art market, with aesthetics and rarity affecting the price.

At first, there was a sense of awe surrounding the public display of this extraordinary Martian find – less than 400 of the 50,000 meteorites discovered have been shown to come from our planetary neighbour. The photographs taken at Sotheby's of the 24.7kg (54lb) rock – appearing in the lights to glow silver and red – compounded this feeling.

But then some people started asking questions about how it ended up under the auctioneer's hammer, not least the government of Niger itself, which, in a statement, "expressed doubts about the legality of its export, raising concerns about possible illicit international trafficking".

Sotheby's disputes this, saying the correct procedures were followed, but Niger has now launched an investigation into the circumstances of the discovery and sale of the meteorite, which has been given the scientific and unromantic name NWA 16788 (NWA standing for north-west Africa).

Little has been made public about how it ended up at a world-renowned auction house in the US.




Space rock hunting in Morocco

An Italian academic article published last year said that it was found on 16 November 2023 in the Sahara Desert in Niger's Agadez region, 90km (56 miles) to the west of the Chirfa Oasis, by "a meteorite hunter, whose identity remained undisclosed".

According to the Italian article, NWA 16788, was "sold by the local community to an international dealer" and was then transferred to a private gallery in the Italian city of Arezzo.

The University of Florence's magazine described the person as "an important Italian gallery owner".

A team of scientists led by Giovanni Pratesi, mineralogy professor at the university, was able to examine it to learn more about its structure and where it came from. The meteorite was then briefly on display last year in Italy, including at the Italian Space Agency in Rome.

It was next seen in public in New York last month, minus two slices that stayed in Italy for more research.

A spokesperson added that Sotheby's was aware of reports that Niger is investigating the export of the meteorite and "we are reviewing the information available to us in light of the question raised".

Prof Sereno, who founded the organisation NigerHeritage a decade ago, is convinced Nigerien law was broken. The academic with the University of Chicago, who has spent years uncovering the country's vast deposits of dinosaur bones in the Sahara, campaigns to get Niger's cultural and natural heritage – including anything that has fallen from outer space - returned. A stunning museum on an island on the River Niger that runs through the capital, Niamey, is being planned to house these artefacts.

"International law says you cannot simply take something that is important to the heritage of a country - be it a cultural item, a physical item, a natural item, an extraterrestrial item - out of the country. You know we've moved on from colonial times when all this was okay," Prof Sereno says.

Published 9th August 2025 by Damian Zane – BBC
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cly3q635n4no

[Bluegreen]

First Time On Camera: Fault Line Splits Earth




Pulse-like rupture and curved slip - Analysis of Myanmar earthquake rupture



Published 18th July 2025 (3:12)

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=dbEYe65eDdw

Rupture propagation is notoriously difficult to observe, as earthquakes large enough to rupture Earth's surface are relatively rare, and they travel at several kilometers per second. In this unique video, we can observe a pulse of slip of the Sagaing Fault as an earthquake rupture propagates past a CCTV camera during the 2025 Myanmar earthquake. The cartoon below the footage is a schematic representation showing the relationship between the traveling earthquake rupture, the ground shaking, and the movement seen in the video. In particular this movie illustrates how the sideways motion you see in the video is actually a pulse propagating laterally along the Sagaing Fault.

[Bluegreen]

The Night Sky

PLANETS VS. CITY LIGHTS

Events in the night sky are often invisible to city dwellers. Urban glare makes it impossible to see faint stars and delicate meteors. This week, however, the night sky wins. Venus and Jupiter are in conjunction, and they are nearly as bright as street lights. Jaehyun Sim sends this picture from Seoul, South Korea.



https://www.spaceweather.com/

"The planets were so bright, I was able to photograph them using nothing more than my iPhone," says Sim.

This means pretty much anyone, anywhere, can see the conjunction. Step outside just before dawn and look east. The two planets are side by side, shining like a brilliant double star in the constellation Gemini.


All Sky Fireball Network



Every night, a network of NASA all-sky cameras scans the skies above the United States for meteoritic fireballs. On Aug 12, 2025, the network reported 63 fireballs. (49 Perseids, 13 sporadics, 1 alpha Capricornid)





The Perseid meteor shower hits its peak on Aug. 12-14, bringing with it a torrent of shooting stars along with the potential for spectacular fireball sightings.

[Bluegreen]

10 Bizarre 'Dark Voids' Appear Over Uninhabited Antarctica Island — Earth From Space




10 unusually dark cloud holes were spotted swirling as they scattered across the skies over Heard Island in 2016. (Image credit: NASA/Landsat/Jeff Schmaltz/MODIS)

In a newly released series of photographs released by NASA, this striking satellite photo shows 10 swirling "dark voids" that appeared above an uninhabited volcanic island in the Indian Ocean. The black spots are the result of atmospheric cloud vortices, but are oddly pronounced and significantly contorted compared to most other examples of this phenomenon.

The spinning voids are trailing off Heard Island — an uninhabited Australian territory in the southern Indian Ocean, around 900 miles (1,500 kilometers) north of Antarctica. The cloud-obscured landmass has a surface area of around 142 square miles (368 square kilometers).

On average, the dark spots are around 8 miles (13 km) wide, decreasing slightly in size the further they have traveled, according to NASA's Earth Observatory. They are initially moving away from the island in a northeasterly direction (left to right).

The spinning holes are the result of a phenomenon known as von Kármán vortices, which occur when a prevailing wind encounters a landmass, disturbing the airflow and creating "a double row of vortices which alternate their direction of rotation," according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. They are named for Theodore von Kármán, a Hungarian-American physicist, who was the first to describe this natural phenomenon.

In most examples of von Kármán vortices, the resulting cloud trails can be quite wispy, tracing out the subtle variations in the invisible air currents. However, in this photo, the wispy trails are replaced by a string of very concentrated holes, or gaps, within the clouds.

Published 11th August 2025 by Harry Baker – Live Science
https://www.livescience.com/planet-e...rth-from-space




Most von Kármán vortices create wispy trails of cloud that travel in a single direction. These parallel vortices were photographed in 2015, flowing off five different land masses in the Canary Islands.

[Bluegreen]

Orbiters: Our Eyes in the Skies


(0:30)

https://x.com/NASASolarSystem/status...34552980566263

[Bluegreen]

Deepest Ecosystem Ever Found Discovered in the Ocean’s Mysterious Hadal Trenches





Chinese ocean explorers have discovered the deepest known life on Earth, thriving at extreme depths of approximately 3.5 to 6 miles below the surface. These lifeforms were found in the Kuril–Kamchatka Trench and the western Aleutian Trench.

Extremophile discoveries continue to expand the boundaries of where scientists expect to find life, and now, the hostile conditions of the deep ocean have revealed a far more vibrant ecosystem than previously believed possible. In 2024, the Chinese submersible Fendouzhe conducted 23 dives into these deep trenches, uncovering thousands of tubeworms and mollusks teeming across the sea floor.

When film director James Cameron commissioned a specially built submersible to explore the Mariana Trench, he described the deep sea as an “alien” environment. He also referred to it as “desolate,” a characterization now challenged by this new research, which reveals an abundance of life far beneath the waves.

In a video collected by Fendouzhe, the ocean floor is shown teeming with 12-inch-long tubeworms, alongside clusters of mollusks and clams. Other life forms recorded include sea lilies, sea cucumbers, crustaceans, and various types of worms, forming communities that stretch for approximately 1,500 miles. Notably, the diversity varied by location—communities found in the Kuril–Kamchatka Trench differed significantly from those in the shallower Kamchatka-Aleutian Transition Zone and the western Aleutian Trench.

Published 2nd August 2025 by Ryan Whalen · The Debrief
https://thedebrief.org/the-deepest-e...adal-trenches/

[Bluegreen]

Interstellar Overdrive

Everything We Know About 3I/ATLAS, The New ‘Oumuamua'





Published 28th July 2025 (20:10)

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=XEggZo3SXNM

A new visitor from beyond our solar system is hurtling towards us. Larger and older than ‘Oumuamua, it's unlike anything we've seen before. This massive, fast-moving comet, named 3I/ATLAS, is the third interstellar object ever detected and promises to reveal new secrets about the cosmos. In this video, we explore what makes this celestial traveler so unique and what mysteries it might unlock as it makes its close approach to the Sun.

[RatRodRob...RRR]

Posted by Bluegreen (here)
First Time On Camera: Fault Line Splits Earth




Pulse-like rupture and curved slip - Analysis of Myanmar earthquake rupture



Published 18th July 2025 (3:12)

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=dbEYe65eDdw

Rupture propagation is notoriously difficult to observe, as earthquakes large enough to rupture Earth's surface are relatively rare, and they travel at several kilometers per second. In this unique video, we can observe a pulse of slip of the Sagaing Fault as an earthquake rupture propagates past a CCTV camera during the 2025 Myanmar earthquake. The cartoon below the footage is a schematic representation showing the relationship between the traveling earthquake rupture, the ground shaking, and the movement seen in the video. In particular this movie illustrates how the sideways motion you see in the video is actually a pulse propagating laterally along the Sagaing Fault.

Top left corner, you can see a shed with part of its veranda collapsing during the quake.......................................................... RRR

[Johnnycomelately]

Posted by RatRodRob...RRR (here)

Posted by Bluegreen (here)
First Time On Camera: Fault Line Splits Earth
.
.
.

Top left corner, you can see a shed with part of its veranda collapsing during the quake.......................................................... RRR

Hi RRRob. Lots going on in the vid. High tension tower collapses above and right of the moving “poles”. And harder to see, but about centre frame through the gate, off in the distance, looks like power lines sag/fall from looks like a high tension tower.

Cheers mate. Hope your winter is going good.

[RatRodRob...RRR]

Posted by Johnnycomelately (here)

Posted by RatRodRob...RRR (here)

Posted by Bluegreen (here)
First Time On Camera: Fault Line Splits Earth
.
.
.

Top left corner, you can see a shed with part of its veranda collapsing during the quake.......................................................... RRR

Hi RRRob. Lots going on in the vid. High tension tower collapses above and right of the moving “poles”. And harder to see, but about centre frame through the gate, off in the distance, looks like power lines sag/fall from looks like a high tension tower.

Cheers mate. Hope your winter is going good.

Cool Johnny im gunna have another sticky at that vid then, seems i missed abit goin on, the way the land shifts is crazy.
I dont mind winter, its not cold here like north America cold, no shoveling snow from the driveway but im ready for Spring thats for sure
What is summer like over there in Alberta.
Are you in bear country, those things are like giant dogs and the bush/forest is so dense that you cant see jack chit, you can have your bears mate, they look terrifying....RRR

[Bluegreen]

Peak of the Perseid Meteor Shower 2025

Tonight I filmed the peak of the Perseid meteor shower. The bright moon and some clouds were annoying in the first half of the night, but overall I was able to see quite a few Perseids.

Published 13th August 2025 (2:51)

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=3_Pn3dQ3fkQ

[Bluegreen]

The 'Passtronaut'

Vikings QB Joshua Dobbs has the best nickname in the NFL thanks to NASA





When Minnesota Vikings quarterback Joshua Dobbs came off the bench in relief of rookie Jaren Hall in Sunday’s matchup with the Atlanta Falcons, he hadn’t even taken a practice rep with his new club.

Dobbs, who barely had enough time to get acclimated with his new playbook after joining the team Tuesday, led the Vikings from an 11-3 deficit to a 31-28 win, passing for 158 yards and two touchdowns while rushing for another 66 yards and a third score.

His performance was so impressive that it inspired NASA to give him a witty new nickname.

https://x.com/NASAglenn/status/1721576942590132472


Dobbs is quite familiar with NASA, having earned a degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Tennessee, making him a certified rocket scientist. 

He spent two offseasons early in his career working at the NASA Kennedy Space Flight Center as part of the NFLPA’s Virtual Externship Program, and was even on hand to witness the SpaceX launch to the International Space Station.

Dobbs first visited NASA when he was just 7 years old and his family took a slight detour on their way to Universal Studios for a family vacation. The athlete plans to pursue a career in aerospace engineering, perhaps with NASA, after his football career is over.

Published 7th November 2023 by Michael Gallaher – Yardbarker
https://www.yardbarker.com/nfl/artic...13132_39497897

[Bluegreen]

The Terrifying Truth About Death Revealed After the Roswell Incident



"Death is a concept that does not exist."

Published 22nd April 2025 (15:17)

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=YFETu_5jKwU

What if the biggest secrets of our existence are hidden in plain sight? Explore the strange case of Maximillien De Lafayette—a man who claims to remember alien knowledge, not read it. From the Roswell crash to secret conversations with beings not of this Earth, this video takes you deep into the world of unsolved mysteries that defy science, logic, and history itself.

[Bluegreen]

Zodiacal Road by Ruslan Merzlyakov





What's that strange light down the road? Dust orbiting the Sun. At certain times of the year, a band of sun-reflecting dust from the inner Solar System appears prominently just after sunset -- or just before sunrise -- and is called zodiacal light. Although the origin of this dust is still being researched, a leading hypothesis holds that zodiacal dust originates mostly from faint Jupiter-family comets and slowly spirals into the Sun. Recent analysis of dust emitted by Comet 67P, visited by ESA's robotic Rosetta spacecraft, bolsters this hypothesis.

Pictured when climbing a road up to Teide National Park in the Canary Islands of Spain, a bright triangle of zodiacal light appeared in the distance soon after sunset. The scene includes bright Regulus, the alpha star of the constellation Leo, standing above center toward the left. The Beehive Star Cluster (M44) can be spotted below center, closer to the horizon and also immersed in the zodiacal glow.

http://apod.nasa.gov

[Johnnycomelately]

Posted by RatRodRob...RRR (here)

Posted by Johnnycomelately (here)

Posted by RatRodRob...RRR (here)

Posted by Bluegreen (here)
First Time On Camera: Fault Line Splits Earth
.
.
.

Top left corner, you can see a shed with part of its veranda collapsing during the quake.......................................................... RRR

Hi RRRob. Lots going on in the vid. High tension tower collapses above and right of the moving “poles”. And harder to see, but about centre frame through the gate, off in the distance, looks like power lines sag/fall from looks like a high tension tower.

Cheers mate. Hope your winter is going good.

Cool Johnny im gunna have another sticky at that vid then, seems i missed abit goin on, the way the land shifts is crazy.
I dont mind winter, its not cold here like north America cold, no shoveling snow from the driveway but im ready for Spring thats for sure
What is summer like over there in Alberta.
Are you in bear country, those things are like giant dogs and the bush/forest is so dense that you cant see jack chit, you can have your bears mate, they look terrifying....RRR

Rob, summer here is probably like your summers, meaning always different. This summer, in Edmonton anyway, we’ve had less wildfire smoke and more frequent rain. I love the clear air, but one of my chores is mowing the lawn, and that rain makes me hobble around mowing weekly. Gotta trust God that it’s for my best interest, but lazy-me covets dry summers of yore. Oof.

[Kryztian]

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=d7dRqDAKubM

[edina]

Something about this feels very auspicious ...

Been seeing this all day, everywhere
The Moon Dances With The Seven Sisters

https://www.freeastroscience.com/202...ance-with.html