Aliens could be hiding in 'terminator zones'
Aug 6, 2023 17:18:34 GMT -5
Post by J.J.Gibbs on Aug 6, 2023 17:18:34 GMT -5
Aliens could be hiding in 'terminator zones' as UK sees surge in new UFO sightings
Story by John Varga •
Debunking UFO videos: How can you tell real from fake? | Banfield
Aliens could be hiding and thriving in "terminator zones", according to astronomers.
A study published in April claimed extraterrestrial life could exist in so-called terminator zones, the border between light and dark halves of an exoplanet.
Ana Lobo, an astrophysicist at University of California, Irvine, explained such a planet was one which has a permanent day and dark side.
"This is a planet where the dayside can be scorching hot, well beyond habitability, and the night side is going to be freezing, potentially covered in ice," she continued.
"You could have large glaciers on the night side."
These types of planets turn out to be quite common around the small M dwarfs that make up nearly 70 percent of all stars in our galaxy, the Milky Way.
Exoplanets which rotate around them often become tidally locked - a gravitational phenomenon in which one side of the planet always faces the star.
In the past astro-biologists have focused their search for signs of extraterrestrial life on ocean worlds.
This is because water is vitally important for sustaining life.
However, Lobo and her collaborators wanted to find new niches where life may be able to survive.
"We are trying to draw attention to more water-limited planets, which despite not having widespread oceans, could have lakes or other smaller bodies of liquid water, and these climates could actually be very promising," she said.
Using computer simulations, Lobo showed that terminator zones on planets with a significant amount of land - versus those covered entirely in oceans - could, in fact, support liquid water and therefore life.
A new report has revealed nearly 1,000 UFO sightings in the UK over the last two-and-a-half years.
An interactive map documents the full list of areas with the most and least amounts of unidentified aerial phenomena (the official term used instead of UFO) since January 2021.
The spotter website, UFO Identified, noted a total of 957 sightings, including 410 in 2021, 494 in 2022 and 53 as of May 20 this year, with more activity seen above Glasgow than anywhere else.
A quarter of all sightings (25 percent) were of a 'star-like' object or objects, moving across the sky.
The next most common sighting was of an unidentified object shaped like an 'orb' (17 percent), 'sphere', (10 percent) and 'cylinder' (9 percent).
The UK's Ministry of Defence used to have a UFO desk, which members of the public could contact on a hotline to report alien sightings.
However this was closed in December 2009 on the recommendations of the RADF Command, who argued the resource used to sustain the deal could be better deployed.
Bob Ainsworth, the Defence Secretary at the time, was told that in more than 50 years "no UFO sighting reported to [MoD] has ever revealed anything to suggest an extra-terrestrial presence or military threat to the UK and "there is no defence benefit in [MoD] recording, collating, analysing or investigating UFO sightings.
Consequently the MoD decided that "investigations into UFO sightings, even from more reliable sources, serve no useful purpose and merely divert air defence specialists from their
tasks.
"Accordingly, no further investigations should be carried out into UFO reports received from any source.
Video at link
Story by John Varga •
Debunking UFO videos: How can you tell real from fake? | Banfield
Aliens could be hiding and thriving in "terminator zones", according to astronomers.
A study published in April claimed extraterrestrial life could exist in so-called terminator zones, the border between light and dark halves of an exoplanet.
Ana Lobo, an astrophysicist at University of California, Irvine, explained such a planet was one which has a permanent day and dark side.
"This is a planet where the dayside can be scorching hot, well beyond habitability, and the night side is going to be freezing, potentially covered in ice," she continued.
"You could have large glaciers on the night side."
These types of planets turn out to be quite common around the small M dwarfs that make up nearly 70 percent of all stars in our galaxy, the Milky Way.
Exoplanets which rotate around them often become tidally locked - a gravitational phenomenon in which one side of the planet always faces the star.
In the past astro-biologists have focused their search for signs of extraterrestrial life on ocean worlds.
This is because water is vitally important for sustaining life.
However, Lobo and her collaborators wanted to find new niches where life may be able to survive.
"We are trying to draw attention to more water-limited planets, which despite not having widespread oceans, could have lakes or other smaller bodies of liquid water, and these climates could actually be very promising," she said.
Using computer simulations, Lobo showed that terminator zones on planets with a significant amount of land - versus those covered entirely in oceans - could, in fact, support liquid water and therefore life.
A new report has revealed nearly 1,000 UFO sightings in the UK over the last two-and-a-half years.
An interactive map documents the full list of areas with the most and least amounts of unidentified aerial phenomena (the official term used instead of UFO) since January 2021.
The spotter website, UFO Identified, noted a total of 957 sightings, including 410 in 2021, 494 in 2022 and 53 as of May 20 this year, with more activity seen above Glasgow than anywhere else.
A quarter of all sightings (25 percent) were of a 'star-like' object or objects, moving across the sky.
The next most common sighting was of an unidentified object shaped like an 'orb' (17 percent), 'sphere', (10 percent) and 'cylinder' (9 percent).
The UK's Ministry of Defence used to have a UFO desk, which members of the public could contact on a hotline to report alien sightings.
However this was closed in December 2009 on the recommendations of the RADF Command, who argued the resource used to sustain the deal could be better deployed.
Bob Ainsworth, the Defence Secretary at the time, was told that in more than 50 years "no UFO sighting reported to [MoD] has ever revealed anything to suggest an extra-terrestrial presence or military threat to the UK and "there is no defence benefit in [MoD] recording, collating, analysing or investigating UFO sightings.
Consequently the MoD decided that "investigations into UFO sightings, even from more reliable sources, serve no useful purpose and merely divert air defence specialists from their
tasks."Accordingly, no further investigations should be carried out into UFO reports received from any source.
Video at link
