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Chinese Astronomers Expect to Locate Planets with Life

wstrieber — Fri, 24 May 2013 20:18:47 +0000

A group of Chinese astronomers have set up instruments at the highest point in Antarctica to search for Earth-like planets. The group has installed the first of three Antarctic Survey Telescopes at Dome Argus. One of the primary missions of the telescopes will be to search for planets that might sustain life. Wang Lifan, a researcher at the Purple Mountain Observatory and director of the Chinese Center for Antarctic Astronomy said that "we will send people there to retrieve the data next spring. I hope we can find some likely candidates. It's hard to say precisely how many, but I hope there will be no less than 10."

Because of the extreme isolation of the observatory, it is run automatically from Purple Mountain and data is collected periodically. The telescopes are expected to find at least a hundred sun-like stars. A larger observatory is planned for Antarctica in 2020, but must receive government approval.

So far, 350 Earth-sized planets have been discovered by the Kepler telescope, but only one appears to possibly be Earth-like. The Chinese effort will concentrate on Earth-like planets. Given that the universe appears to be literally full of planets, finding one that supports life is probably inevitable. The problem is that the universe is also so huge that the odds against making such a discovery are unknown, because we have no way of telling how common life bearing planets are.

The one planet closest to being Earth-like is also orbiting Kepler-69, which happens to be one of the stars most like our sun. It is orbiting the star within the habitable zone. So far, no attempt had been mounted to determine whether or not the planet is alive, but such an attempt is in planning.

Guess who else reported this exciting new Chinese effort? Outside of China, we're only aware of a very few sites. You can count on Unknowncountry.com to keep you abreast of tomorrow's news! Keep our great news coming, subscribe today. And, of course, our subscriber area contains some of the very best thinking by the very best minds on ET life, UFOs, and the impact that the discovery of extra-solar life would have on mankind.

Scientists Confirm Vast Catastrophe 10,800 BC

wstrieber — Thu, 23 May 2013 23:52:38 +0000

An ongoing controversy about what happened to end the last ice age in a huge catastrophe has been resolved. Something gigantic hit the Earth, leading to massive fires followed by flooding as ice sheets melted, and the extinction of huge numbers of animal species. Additionally, there is now provocative evidence that a human civilization very different from our own, but possibly quite widespread, was also destroyed. Until recently archaeologists disputed any timeline that suggested the presence of complex organized societies until about 5,000 BC. But the discovery of the Gobekli Tepi complex in Turkey, the earliest levels of which have been carbon-dated to approximately the same time as the catastrophe, indicates that a group of unknown size and complexity was able to not only engage in extensive building activities, but to do so over a period of 2,000 years, indicating that it existed far longer than any single historical civilization except ancient Egypt.

Geochemical and morphological analyses of nearly 700 spherules from 18 sites around the world support the claim that a major cosmic impact took place at the beginning of the Younger Dryas, 12,800 years ago. The impact was so significant that it left an estimated 10 million tonnes of melted spherules over 50 million square kilometers on four continents. An impact this large would certainly have been enough to end any civilization, and do it so completely that very little evidence of its existence remains.

For more information about the discovery of the extent of the impact, click here.

For more information about what you can do to keep reading uniquely informative stories like this one, click here.

Unknowncountry's vast archive offers one of the world's best archives of expert speculation about the lost past. Many of the great explorers of past catastrophes and their effects, such as Graham Hancock, Rand Flem-Ath, Robert Schoch and Laurence Gardner, have been interviewed on Dreamland. And don't miss our GREAT stories about Gobekli Tepi, starting with Linda Moulton Howe's amazing descriptions from her first hand tour of the site. To listen, click here.

The image is from the earliest level of the Gobekli Tepe site. It was created at roughly the same time that the catastrophe discussed here took place.

If Warp Drive is Possible, Visitors are Here

wstrieber — Wed, 22 May 2013 13:49:53 +0000

Scientists ignore the evidence of visitors to our planet on the assumption that the distances between stars are so great they they could never get here, but new research suggests that something like a 'warp drive' may be possible. If so, then the argument is over. The overwhelming evidence of credible UFO sightings and witness testimony must be taken as serious evidence of an alien presence. In 1994 physicist Miguel Alcubierre published a paper entitled "the Warp Drive: hyper-fast travel within general relativity." The paper proposed that a space ship would not accelerate beyond the speed of light, but would contract space in front of it and expand it behind, instantaneously altering the ship's position without exceeding light speed, and now a team at NASA have set out to perform a real-world test of the proposal.

According to Alcubierre's theory, it would be possible to create one of these 'warp bubbles' in a vacuum, which is a testable theory, and NASA scientist Harold White and his team are testing it now. Will they succeed? The instruments involved are so delicate that they are in the process of moving the experiment into a 'seismically controlled' environment at NASA's space center in Houston, so that they can reach the level of precision necessary, since the slightest movement of the earth throws the experiment off.

If they succeed, though, we might not know about it immediatly. This is because some parts of the project involve novel inventions, observers need to sign a non-disclosure agreement before being told exactly where the project is at this time, and how its systems work. There are discussions with outside contractors about it, though, and if there are signs that it may be viable, NASA will continue development.

Would it eventually be classified? Unfortunately, because it involves a novel means of propulsion, that's not impossible, but at this time the project is not secret.

Tornado Devastation Strikes Midwest

wstrieber — Tue, 21 May 2013 17:30:06 +0000

Unknowncountry.com's Climate Watch page was one of the very few places that predicted and explained the violent weather that is now taking place in the US midwest. The problems started last January, when the polar vortex migrated south unusually early, insuring that the northern hemisphere would have a very cold and stormy winter, which proved to be the case. Because so much cold air has remained over the Midwest at a time when a seasonal flow of warm, humid air is beginning to emerge out of the Gulf of Mexico, some very strong tornadoes have developed, including one that tragically devastated parts of Oklahoma city and killed 24 people, nine of them children trapped in an elementary school.

As long as current conditions prevail, it is likely that more such dangerous storm systems will develop across the midwest and southeast, and into the Atlantic seaboard states as well.

Unknowncountry.com is the only place in the world where you will find this cogent and correct explanation of what is happening in the midwest. To keep this kind of important and unique information coming, get your subscription started today. Click here to explore our options.

Rising Volcanic Activity Along Western Pacific Rim

wstrieber — Fri, 17 May 2013 16:47:57 +0000

Two volcanoes in Alaska and Popocatepetl in Mexico are either erupting or showing signs of activity. As sea levels continue to rise, putting pressure on continental shelves, predictions are that volcanic activity will also increase, as well as seismic activity. Whether or not earthquakes will follow the eruptions of these volcanoes is not known, but officials are concerned that plumes from the Alaskan volcanoes could endanger air travel from the US to Asia, and Mexican vulcanologists are watching Popo carefully, in expectation of a more significant and potentially dangerous level of activity.

The Pavlof and Cleveland volcanoes in Alaska are both in the Aleutian Islands, at the northern end of the Juan De Fuca plate, which is considered the least stable of the plates in the Cascadia Subduction Zone. Volcanoes can trigger earthquakes, but most take place when there is no volcanic activity in the quake region. However, it is thought that volcanic tremors can destabilize sensitive plates.