Space News/UFO's Etc...(Discussion/Pics/Vids)

[ilan]

Wandering star shook up the prehistoric solar system
Jake Parks, Astronomy | Published: Tuesday, March 27, 2018

70,000 years ago, a nomadic star came within a light-year of the Sun, likely sending dozens of comets and asteroids tumbling out of the solar system.

Around 70,000 years ago, a supervolcano named Toba erupted, blowing roughly 670 cubic miles (2,800 cubic kilometers) of vaporized rock and debris into the air. This is thought to have caused a massive struggle for humanity, ultimately leading to a population bottleneck that whittled down our numbers to as few as 1,000 reproductive adults. According to a 2015 study, during this pivotal point in human history, a small reddish star also was likely passing within a light-year of the Sun, just skimming the outer rim of the Oort cloud (the extended shell of over a trillion icy objects that is thought to cocoon the outer solar system).

Previously, astronomers believed that this wandering star — dubbed Scholz’s star — passed relatively peacefully by the Oort cloud, influencing very few (if any) outer solar system objects. But, according to a new study, researchers now think that Scholz’s star may have caused more of a ruckus than we initially gave it credit for.

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Although the star may not have triggered the volcanic activity, it is now thought to have disrupted comets and asteroids. Some activity might have been visible to our ancestors, who were struggling to understand why their world was changing so radically, killing many of their kindred. - ilan

[ilan]

"A UFO!’: FAA recording reveals moment two pilots report unknown object flying overhead
Lindsey Bever, Washington Post | March 28 at 4:45 PM

An airline pilot was flying over the Arizona desert when he saw something strange.

The pilot, who was reportedly operating a Learjet late last month for Phoenix Air, had spotted an unfamiliar object pass overhead, so he radioed the regional air traffic control center in Albuquerque.

“Was anybody, uh, above us that passed us like 30 seconds ago?” the pilot said, according to a radio broadcast released this month by the Federal Aviation Administration.

“Negative,” an air traffic controller said.

“Okay,” the pilot said.

“Something did.” “A UFO!” someone quickly responded.“Yeah,” the pilot replied with a chuckle.

It’s still not clear what the pilot saw, although another pilot would soon report the same thing.

Although there has been no confirmation — or even serious suggestions — that the recent incident was related to an unidentified flying object (at least, not the kind portrayed in Hollywood), the U.S. government has investigated sightings over the years.

For the first time last year, the Pentagon confirmed that it had run an operation, known as the Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program, to investigate reported UFO sightings.

In December, The Post’s Joby Warrick reported: Current and former Pentagon officials confirm that the Pentagon program has been in existence since 2007 and was formed for the purpose of collecting and analyzing a wide range of “anomalous aerospace threats” ranging from advanced aircraft fielded by traditional U.S. adversaries to commercial drones to possible alien encounters. It is a rare instance of ongoing government investigations into a UFO phenomenon that was the subject of multiple official inquiries in the 1950s and 1960s.

Funding for the program ended in 2012, according to Warrick.

Lynn Lunsford, a spokesman for the FAA, said in a statement Wednesday to The Washington Post that the air traffic controller was “unable to verify that any other aircraft was in the area. ”But he alluded to several possibilities.

“We have a close working relationship with a number of other agencies and safely handle military aircraft and civilian aircraft of all types in that area every day, including high-altitude weather balloons,” Lunsford said in the statement.

The midair mystery in southern Arizona occurred on the afternoon of Feb. 24 at about 40,000 feet above the Sonoran Desert, according to TheDrive.Com’s War Zone.

Not long after the pilot reported his observations, the Albuquerque Air Route Traffic Control Center alerted an American Airlines flight that was flying over the area en route to San Diego.

American 1095, uh, let me know if, uh, you see anything pass over you here in the next, uh, 15 miles,” an air traffic controller said, according to the audio recording, which was obtained by The Post.

“Let you know if anything passes over us?” the pilot responded.

“American 1095, affirmative,” the controller said. “We had an aircraft in front of you … that reported something pass over him and, uh, we didn’t have any targets. So just, uh, let me know if you see anything pass over you.”

“Alright,” the pilot agreed.

Then someone, who sounded like the first pilot, chimed in again.

“I don’t know what it was,” he said. “It wasn’t an airplane, but it passed us going the opposite direction.”

Moments later, the American Airlines pilot returned to the radio to report what the other had seen.

“It’s American 1095. Yeah, something just passed over us. Uh, I don’t know what it was, but at least two-three thousand feet above us. Yeah, it passed right over the top of us.”

“Okay, American 1095. Thank you,” the controller responded.

He later asked the American Airlines pilot: “Can you tell if it was, uh, in motion or just, uh, hovering?”

The pilot said he could not “make it out — whether it was a balloon or whatnot,” but he noted that the object appeared to have a “big reflection” as it passed them overhead. He said it was traveling “several thousand feet above us, going the opposite direction.”

“Was it a Google balloon?” someone asked.

“Doubtful,” the pilot replied.

Then, someone on the radio reiterated an earlier theory: “UFO.”

American Airlines referred questions to the FAA, and Phoenix Air did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

This story has been updated.

[Kimbo]

Saw that in the morning news, contact is expected by all account during this lifetime!!

[ilan]

But look at Hawking's thoughts about that (above). I'll keep wearing this tinfoil hat just in case.

[Ryu]

beautiful stuff guys

[ilan]

Your words are appreciated!

[Ryu]

very welcome Ilan but I do like this thread because its very informative and impressive stuff

[ilan]

I've liked astronomy since I was a little kid. Fascinating topic!

[ilan]

Astronomers spy runaway star in Small Magellanic Cloud
By Deborah Byrd in SPACE | March 28, 2018

The star is a rare yellow supergiant. It’s speeding across its little galaxy fast enough to travel from Los Angeles to New York in about half a minute.


Astrophotographer Justin Ng caught the edgewise view into our Milky Way galaxy, the bright star Canopus and the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds at sunrise, in September 2013, over East Java’s Mount Bromo. Canopus is a yellow supergiant, much like the recently discovered runaway star.

Astronomers at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, said on March 27, 2018 that they’ve discovered a rare runaway star in the Small Magellanic Cloud, a small satellite galaxy of our Milky Way. The star is speeding across its little galaxy at 300,000 miles per hour (500,000 km/hour). At that speed, it would take about half a minute to travel from Los Angeles to New York. The runaway star is designated J01020100-7122208, and it’s believed to have once been one of two stars orbiting around each other. Astronomers think that, when the companion star exploded as a supernova, the tremendous release of energy flung J01020100-7122208 into space at its high speed.

The star is the first runaway yellow supergiant star ever discovered, and only the second evolved runaway star to be found in another galaxy. A paper about its discovery has been accepted for publication in the peer-reviewed Astronomical Journal and is currently published online via Arxiv. A statement from Lowell Observatory said:

After ten million years of traveling through space, the star evolved into a yellow supergiant, the object that we see today. Its journey took it 1.6 degrees across the sky, about three times the diameter of the full moon. The star will continue speeding through space until it too blows up as a supernova, likely in another three million years or so. When that happens, heavier elements will be created, and the resulting supernova remnant may form new stars or even planets on the outer edge of the Small Magellanic Cloud.

[ilan]

Iridium Satellites into Orbit
Tariq Malik, Space.com Managing Editor | March 30, 2018 11:15am ET

A used SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched 10 new communications satellites into orbit from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base today (March 30) in a morning liftoff that also marked an anniversary for reusable rockets.

The Falcon 9 rocket, which first flew in October 2017, launched the fifth set of Iridium Next satellites for Iridium Communications at 10:13 a.m. EDT (1413 GMT) — exactly one year to the day after SpaceX's first used Falcon 9 rocket launch and landing. Since then, SpaceX has commonly landed the first stage of its two-stage Falcon 9 rockets and reused them on later flights.

In fact, the booster that launched today's Iridium-5 mission also launched 10 other Iridium Next satellites on Oct. 9 during SpaceX's Iridium-3 mission. And last December, Iridium became the first SpaceX customer to launch a mission on a rocket it used before when the Iridium-4 mission launched with the same booster SpaceX used to launch 10 other satellites on its Iridium-2 flight in June 2017.

"Today, this is our fifth launch for the Iridium constellation, using only three rockets," SpaceX materials engineer Michael Hammersley said during live commentary.

If that sounds like a lot of launches for Iridium to you, you're not wrong. Iridium has tapped SpaceX to launch 75 Iridium Next satellites to build up its communications constellation in orbit. To do that, Iridium has bought eight Falcon 9 launches for a total of $536 million.

In one departure from typical SpaceX launches, the company cut the live video feed from the Falcon 9 second stage about 9 minutes into the flight.

"Due to some restrictions from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric [Administration], NOAA for short, SpaceX will be intentionally ending live video coverage from the second stage just prior to engine shutdown," Hammersley said. "We're working with NOAA to address these restrictions in order to hopefully be able to bring you live views from orbit in the future."

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Update:

SpaceX tries to recover and reuse the nose cone (also known as the fairing) to reduce the price of missions. Apparently, the parafoils got tangled in the descent of the nose cone on this mission. The "fairing impacted water at high speed," according to Musk. ( I think he means it crashed.) I doubt there will be much reusable after this recovery. - ilan