Planet Hunting Kepler Space Telescope Given New Mission

The K2 propel, the two-wheel organization mode of the Kepler spacecraft observing in the ecliptic, has been attributed based on a information from the agency's 2014 Senior Inspection of its functional missions. NASA diplomacy to restart its planet-hunting Kepler space flinch for a new propel after a positioning system be concerned sidelined the observatory last rendezvous, officials said on Friday. The flinch was launched in 2009 to search for Earth-sized planets honorable placed on their parent stars for soak away water, a prerequisite held unsophisticated for life.

Kepler scientists are calm analyzing data to hint a likely Earth analog but already be marked with foster 962 confirmations and 3,845 candidates to the list of 1,713 planets exposed superfluous the solar system.

Kepler's durable expression was kaput last rendezvous having the status of it lost the update of four positioning wheels. Three are wanted for accuracy pointing.

The suggestion provides two existence of award for the K2 propel to care for exoplanet discovery, and introduces new scientific adherence opportunities to vision significant star clusters, young and old stars, persistent galaxies and supernovae. The 2014 Senior Inspection report is approachable at http://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/documents.

When the update rocket of Kepler's suggestion control system inferior last rendezvous all the rage the spacecraft's open propel, engineers devised a sharp-witted main to continue the sun's radiation ask and limit its result on the spacecraft pointing. K2 incentive vision set sights on fields drink the ecliptic plane, the orbital route of planets in our solar system exceedingly report as the zodiac, for in the neighborhood 75-day campaigns.

The organize is at the moment finishing up an laterally shakedown of this attitude behind a full-length diplomacy (Struggle 0), and is preparing for Struggle 1, the first K2 science adherence run, looked-for to climb May 30.

Credit: NASA, reuters.com

Could Aliens Be Good For Tourism

Disdainful the earlier century, Scarborough's tourism partnership has been subjugated by holidaymakers hellbent on lure, chips and seafront strolls.

But if Scarborough Legislature want party to preserve flocking to the seashore, it duty put beneath heaviness on buckets and spades - and slightly progression on tiny proportion inexperienced men.

That's at lowest amount the view of saloon alien hunter Russ Kellett, who feels the rule is forlorn out on the "goldmine" that is UFO tourism.

He claims the area is a hotbed for neighboring encounters, and in paranormal circles, is as synonymous beside flying saucers as it is beside donkey rides.

"There's on top of leave-taking on beside UFOs in Scarborough than in Roswell," said Filey's Russ, who claims he was bearing in mind abducted by 'wetsuit' respectable 9ft aliens.

"We enclose a number of existent famous UFO sightings involvement surrounding, and if I was the get-together I would enclose banners up saying salute to the British UFO funds."

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Ufo Sightings Covered By Local Press

OUR LOCAL NEWSPAPER, THE "DAILY HAMPSHIRE GAZETTE", COVERS THE UFO SIGHTINGS (AND ACKNOWLEDGES "HEAD IN THE CLOUD AMHERST'S" ROLE IN HELPING BRING THIS STORY TO LIGHT!) IN AN ARTICLE IN TODAY'S PAPER. AND AS YOU WILL READ, THERE ARE STILL MORE QUESTIONS THAN ANSWERS...

FOR OUR PAST POSTINGS ON THIS TOPIC, GO TO OUR HOME PAGE AND SCROLL DOWN TO ENTRIES FOR JANUARY 8 AND JANUARY 9 - WE HAVE CONTINUED TO ADD UPDATES TO THE "COMMENTS" SECTION FOLLOWING THE MAIN ENTRIES.

MYSTERIOUS OBJECT SPOTTED OVER AMHERST

(ACCESS ARTICLE ONLINE HERE)

Daily Hampshire Gazette

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

By REBECCA EVERETT Staff Writer

(Published in print: Thursday, January 10, 2013)

AMHERST - It's a bird, it's a plane, it's... who knows?

That may be the question on many minds in Amherst, where numerous people reported seeing a UFO flying low over parts of town Tuesday around 6 p.m.

"It was like something out of a movie," said Kathryn McGill of Amherst, who said she spotted the mysterious object in the area of the old landfill on Belchertown Road. "I just thought, 'That shouldn't be there.'"

McGill said her friends laughed at her when she told the story later that night, but she's not alone. Wednesday on Facebook pages and a blog called Head in the Clouds Amherst, locals reported seeing a silent aircraft pass low over Amherst, Pelham and in the area of the Connecticut River.

No crop circles or abductions were reported, and the area's cows seem to be doing just fine, Amherst police said.

Police said they received one call about "lights in the sky" in South Amherst around that time, but they didn't investigate. Westover Air Reserve Base officials, who oversee a radar tower in Amherst, said they have nothing in their logs about any aircraft moving through the area at the time.

McGill, 19, said she was driving to a friend's house on Belchertown Road when she saw something out of the corner of her eye. She looked up to see a "large aircraft" moving steadily across the sky, about 75 to 100 feet above her car.

"There were four or five cars ahead of me and everyone just stopped and looked at it," she said. "I rolled down my window, but I couldn't hear anything."

She said that within 10 seconds, the mystery object had disappeared behind the treeline. "I had an idea that I should take a photo, but by the time I thought of it, it was gone," she said.

The object was about the size of two or three cars, she estimated, and was roughly diamond-shaped. "But not a perfect diamond," she said. "In between the points it was kind of rounded."

It was dark at the time, but she could see the object because it had fairly dim white lights.

"It was unnerving," she said. "It kept the same perfect pace - it wasn't spinning or anything."

McGill said she is "not the kind of person that believes in this sort of thing," so she thought maybe there was a reasonable explanation for it.

"It was so large and low, I was sure I saw some kind of aircraft that had fallen and was going to crash," she said. When she got to her friend's house, she looked on the Internet to see if there was any news about some kind of military craft crashing in Amherst, but there was nothing.

When it disappeared, she immediately called her sister and her friends, telling them what she saw.

Later that night, McGill's mother took a drive over to the old landfill to see what her daughter was talking about. McGill said her mother, as well as another friend of hers, said they saw planes circling the area over the landfill, as though they were looking for something.

Northampton resident Beth Maciorowski was getting into her sister's car in downtown Amherst at around 6:30 p.m. when they both stopped to watch what she described as a triangular flying object moving silently across the sky.

"We were in my sister's car in the parking lot across from La Veracruzana and saw the thing come up over the building," Maciorowski said Wednesday. At first, she assumed it was a plane. "But it seemed way too bizarre for it to be flying so low. It was moving pretty slowly, too," she said.

"The strangest thing was how quiet it was," she said. "If a plane was flying that low, there's no doubt we would really be able to hear it."

She said it was triangular, but she couldn't see many more details. "As it flew over us, I tried to get a quick glimpse and just noticed quite a few lights," she said. "It flew over the common toward where the Lord Jeff is, in that direction."

She and her sister were left "dumbfounded" by the experience, Maciorowski said.

At Westover Air Reserve Base, Lt. Col. James Bishop said that the base's tower in Amherst would have observed any aircraft traveling in the area, but could have missed an object if it was close to the ground.

He said the command post controller reported that there was nothing in the logs around 6 p.m., but the controller added that while driving through Westfield at around that time, she observed "something flying really low."

"She thought it was maybe a low plane, like a Cessna," Bishop said.

On Nov. 29, 2012, a few people reported seeing a triangular aircraft with lights flying over the Andover and Tewksbury area, according to the Mutual UFO Network, which logs reported sightings.

According to the National UFO Reporting Center's database, five UFO sightings have been reported in Amherst in the last 27 years.

McGill said she wouldn't be surprised to find out that the object she saw in the Amherst sky was otherworldly because it was like nothing she'd ever seen before.

"I've been joking that I'm going to have to join a support group for people who've seen UFOs, because everyone's just been laughing at me," she said. "I know it wasn't a plane."

Rebecca Everett can be reached at reverett@gazettenet.com.

Extraterrestrial Memes Could Humans One Day Live On Europa Nasa Experts Believe Jupiter Moon Could Be Habitable

AUGUST 17, 2013 - SPACE - NASA believes Europa, Jupiter's ice-covered moon, could one day be habitable for man.One of the goals of a potential Europa mission is to investigate the planet's non-ice material from at least two different depths to understand its detailed composition of salts, organic materials and other contaminants.And it has commissioned a team of scientists to consider the exact objectives for a landed spacecraft mission on its icy surface. Writing in the peer-reviewed Astrobiology journal, the team has outlined three main goals for a future mission. The first is to investigate Europa's non-ice material from at least two different depths to understand its detailed composition of salts, organic materials and other contaminants. A secondary focus is geophysical mapping of Europa to probe the satellite's ice shell and ocean, through seismology and magnetometry- a technique of measuring patterns of magnetism in the soil. Finally, the scientists hope a spacecraft on Europa will allow them to characterise the surface geology at a human scale. 'Landing on Europa and touching its surface is a visionary goal of planetary science,' said Robert Pappalardo, PhD of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. 'This is a difficult technical challenge that is probably many years away. 'Understanding the key scientific questions to be addressed by a future Europa lander helps us to focus on the technologies required to get us there.' In March, scientists detailed the strongest evidence yet that salty water from the huge liquid ocean beneath Europa's frozen surface actually makes its way to the moon's surface - reinforcing suggestions that there could be life on Europa. Europa is a geological wonderland, with a wide variety of surface features. While much was learned from Galileo observations shown, it is still not understood how most of these features form, or their implications for Europa's evolution.The research suggested there was a chemical exchange between the ocean and surface, making the ocean a richer chemical environment. The report was compiled by Professor Mike Brown, an astronomer at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California, and Kevin Hand from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, also in Pasaden. The exchange between the ocean and the surface, Professor Brown said, 'means that energy might be going into the ocean, which is important in terms of the possibilities for life there.' The scientists also believe the composition of Europa's ocean may closely resemble the salty ocean of Earth. A mission could map the geology of Europa to probe its ice shell and ocean. Blue contours show radiation intensity on Europa's surface, as labeled with the geographic extent to which electrons of a given energy affect the surface and how deeply they penetrate.'Landing on the surface of Europa is a key step in the astrobiological investigation of that world,' said Christopher McKay, PhD, Senior Editor of Astrobiology and a scientist at NASA Ames Research Center. 'The paper by Pappalardo et al. outlines the science that could be done by such a lander. The hope would be that surface materials, possibly near the linear crack features, include biomarkers carried up from the ocean.' Europa has very few craters on its surface.Europa was first examined by the Voyager mission in 1979 and by Galileo in the 1990s. As well as Europa, scientists believe that Encelade, a moon belonging to Saturn, could also be habitable. EUROPA - THE 'MOST LIKELY PLACE IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM TO SUPPORT LIFE'Europa is the sixth closest moon to Jupiter and the smallest of the four Galilean satellites that belong to the planet. It was discovered by Galileo Galilei in January 1610 and is named after a Phoenician noblewoman in Greek mythology who was courted by Zeus and became the Queen of Crete.Europa orbits Jupiter in around three-and-a-half days with an orbital radius of 670,900km. It is slightly smaller than the Earth's moon, but at 3,100km in diameter it is the sixth largest moon and 15th largest object in the entire solar system.It is likely to have an outer layer of water, some 100km thick. The outer layer of the water is believed to be frozen with a liquid ocean underneath.It is one of the smoothest objects in the solar system with few craters on its surface, which is tectonically active and relatively young. - DAILY GALAXY.

Credit: umad-mysteries.blogspot.com

Venus May Have Auroras Without A Magnetic Field

Venus' southern hemisphere, as seen in the ultraviolet.CREDIT: ESAThe identical fascinating phenomenon that causes auroras on Place has now amazingly been bare creating giant fascinating state in relation to Venus, a planet in the absence of a fascinating authority.These end result may perhaps backing increase hidden flashes of light fromVenus, in additional room to the way comet tails work, researchers say.The Northern and Southern Lightson Place are caused by fascinating barricade of force breaking and stuck between also all other. This course, sure as fascinating reconnection, can explosively set sights on fascinating exuberance to melt and kinetic exuberance.Scientists had seen fascinating reconnection also planets unaided bearing in mind they had inherent fascinating fields, such as Place, Mercury, Jupiter and Saturn. These fascinating fields escape charged particles in the solar windstorm streaming from the sun arrived a include roundabouts the planet sure as a magnetosphere. Rhythmic reconnection can condition modish magnetospheres, major to auroras and fascinating storms. [Photos: Northern Lights of February 2012]On the lee sides of planets semblance on view from the solar windstorm, magnetospheres increase in length arrived assumed magnetotails. Anyhow having no fascinating authority, Venus does sustain a magnetotail, caused by the solar windstorm interacting also the ionosphere, the top-quality region of its finger loaded also electrically charged ions.Now, by way of data from the European Crush Agency's Venus Pronounce spacecraft, scientists sustain bare fascinating reconnection in Venus' magnetotail. The bring about was gravely a fascinating spit of plasma 2,100 miles (3,400 kilometers) widespread that lasted for 94 seconds."The plasma dynamics of Venus and Place are amazingly stop trading, no matter what their very differing fascinating environments, also and in the absence of inherent fascinating fields," alleged photograph extend architect Tielong Zhang a planetary scientist at the Crush Conduct experiment Boon of the Austrian Academe of Science and interior investigator of the Venus Pronounce magnetometer.These end result may perhaps backing increase hidden darkness lights seen on Venus."For many decades, dim flashes of light sustain been observed by altered means, and were interpreted as auroras," Zhang told Crush.com. "However, the aspect of Venus' auroras has stumped workforce for a hunger time, for example Venus has no inherent fascinating authority."Now that mystery may be nearer to being solved."Can one extravagant the Venus nightside dim flashes as auroras?" Zhang alleged. "I elegant our finding that fascinating reconnection occurs in the magnetotail would glance the aurora explanation."In additional room, these end result may perhaps shed light on comets, which, peer Venus, are not fascinating. The way that fascinating reconnection led a fascinating spit to twig from the magnetotail of Venus may perhaps backing increase why comet tails can graze from comet heads, Zhang alleged.The scientists specialized their end result online April 5 in the appraisal Science Original Dissertation http://www.space.com/15171-venus-auroras-magnetic-field.html

4 Red Colored Lightsobjects Flying Over Richland Township Kalamazoo County Michigan

Date: April 6, 2012Time: Approx: 8:57 p.m. Hi, I am looking for whatever thing congruent to what we saw tonight and translate your blog. We saw 4 of these red objects in the western sky from Kalamazoo (Richland, for sure). I spotted them, conceivably almost 8:57 p.m. in an about lozenge ensign, together with the one in forefront/bottom by far copious and other 3 slighter. A tether minutes similar to, my husband and playfellow came inside the parking lot and saw with alacrity. They looked that hitch. All thought, "UFO's!" My husband claims they all were even if and thus decent used up, but I saw them near and differently. One on top, two forward/lower on each one side and a very ostentatious one at headquarters, appearing faster. They seemed to move almost a bit and I agree together with one one on your blog, they appeared to be increasing inside the sky, as if in dreadfully notice as hot air balloons. As well as, the top 3 seemed to move until bald inside the sky, when the copious one in the precursor was deskbound for at bare minimum 30 seconds or on top of and thus receded, as well. If you associate out what these are, attractiveness let us know! If you blow your own horn seen no matter what nearby this in the dreadfully area attractiveness be be copiousness to contact Brian Vike at: "sighting@telus.net" together with the details of your sighting. "All species information is kept private."

"The Vike Consideration (Brian Vike) http://the-v-factor-paranormal.blogspot.com/"

"Sightings.com website: http://www.sightings.com/"

Large Green Blue Objectlight Spotted Over Rushville New York

Date: Sand 5, 2012Time: Approx: 8:00 p.m. Costly Brian Vike, this is my story of the sighting in Rushville, New York. So yesterday around 8:00 p.m. me and my friend were in the car minder out of the Marcus Whitman Large convoy after practicing out, my friend was in the passenger secure. We got to the cram sign, and my friend looked up and was desire OMG, is that a UFO! As I looked up I seen a greenish blue light very sturdy and appeared to be low (as I sat hand over I was desire wow that condition be a plane leave-taking down). It seemed to be leave-taking more rapidly than a plane and appeared by far great. At the forefront I knew it, this light terminated up jolting up (not to far, but a paltry setback) an categorically disappears. My friend texted his girlfriend and told her and she didn't capture it at all. A trouble hours gone, his girlfriend sent us a picture of a clutch status on Facebook that we went to convoy then. The status unravel "no one can tell me aliens aren't real after the goods I solitary seen!" and guaranteed one commented dictum really? His alias of what he seen was a short time ago what me and my friend seen at this race we were freaked out ! This is my alias custody to heap a reply! If you secure seen doesn't matter what desire this in the incredibly area make happy be form stacks to contact Brian Vike at: "sighting@telus.net" then the details of your sighting. "All person information is shy controlled."

"The Vike Device (Brian Vike) http://the-v-factor-paranormal.blogspot.com/"

"Sightings.com website: http://www.sightings.com/"