Stunning New UFO Video Taken by Drone Over Utah

 Filmmaker Captures Impressive Video

If you listen to the video you will get all the available detail.

Star Gazing Guide For 2019

Attention stargazers: 2019 brings a 'Super Blood Wolf Moon' and Mercury's transit across the sun
The Baltimore Sun ran a great piece for 2019 amateur astronomers

The highlights of 2019 for stargazers include a total lunar eclipse some are calling a “Super Blood Wolf Moon” and a transit of Mercury across the sun. And there are plenty of sights to spot in the heavens in between.

Though all five visible planets won’t appear in the sky at the same time again until 2020, there are chances to see each of them — and twice to see bright Venus and Jupiter side by side. With a telescope or maybe even binoculars, you could spot distant Uranus and Neptune.

Or, weather permitting, recline somewhere dark and look for some of the regular meteor showers that light up the sky at different points of the year. Sky and Telescope magazine predicts January’s Quadrantids and May’s Eta Aquariids could be the best shows of 2019.

Some celestial events are less predictable, such as flyovers of the International Space Station. Websites like NASA’s Spot the Station and Heavens-Above.com help you find the satellite in the sky.

Unfortunately, solar eclipses on the 2019 calendar aren’t visible from this corner of the globe. But organizations like the Slooh observatory broadcast them online for the whole world.

Here’s what to look for in the night and early morning skies in 2019:

January

The year begins with the Quadrantid meteor shower. It’s expected to peak the night of Jan. 3-4, but meteors could be visible throughout the first week of the new year. As many as a few dozen meteors per hour could be visible at the peak.

The year’s latest sunrise comes Jan. 5, at 7:26 a.m.

A total lunar eclipse falls on Jan. 21, darkening the moon behind Earth’s shadow. At total eclipse, it appears in a dim, rusty and sometimes blood-like hue (instead of being blackened out) because of sunlight being refracted through Earth’s atmosphere and around the planet. The eclipse coincides with a supermoon, when a full moon appears slightly larger and brighter because it occurs around the same time the moon reaches its closest point to Earth in its orbit. And January’s full moon is always known as the Wolf Moon. So some are calling this one the “Super Blood Wolf Moon.” The moon will be in full eclipse for about an hour starting just before midnight, and it will become full at 12:16 a.m.

Early the next morning, on Jan. 22, there is what is known as a conjunction of Venus and Jupiter, when the two brightest objects in the sky (after the sun and the moon, of course) appear side by side. Spot them in the southeast from about 5 a.m. until sunrise. Both planets will remain visible in the morning hours through the spring; Venus will appear closer and closer to the sun at sunrise each day.

February

A recently discovered comet designated C/2018 Y1 (Iwamoto) is expected to pass about 28 million miles from Earth around Feb. 11-12, and it could become visible through small telescopes or possibly binoculars.

February’s full moon is also considered a supermoon, a non-technical term applied to any full moon that occurs when the moon is within about 225,000 miles of Earth. At the time of the Full Snow Moon, at 10:53 a.m. Feb. 19, Earth will be within 222,000 miles of the moon.

Of the five visible planets, Mercury is hardest to spot because it’s so close to the sun. At the end of February, it will be at what is known as its greatest eastern elongation — when it is farthest from the sun in the evening sky. Look in the west during and after sunset, and don’t miss Mars overhead. Later in the year, around June 23 and Oct. 19, are similarly good times to try to spot Mercury in the evening.

March

Spring begins at 5:58 p.m. March 20, the moment of vernal equinox. At that time, Earth’s axis is tilted neither toward nor away from the sun, giving both the Northern and Southern hemispheres equal light. Both day and night are roughly 12 hours around the world on the equinox, but the exact timing varies — in Baltimore, daylight will surpass nighttime for the first time in 2019 on March 17.

Later on the equinox, the March full moon, known as the Worm Moon, is also technically a supermoon. It arrives at 9:42 p.m. March 20.

April

The Lyrid meteor shower peaks the night of April 22 and early morning of April 23, but the bright waning gibbous moon could make some fainter meteors hard to spot. Meteor showers are named for the constellations they appear to radiate from (in this case, the constellation Lyra), but you don’t necessarily need to find those star formations to see the “shooting stars” streak across the sky.

Mercury may be visible in the east before sunrise around April 11, near brilliant Venus. Other good times to spot elusive Mercury in the mornings this year are around Aug. 9 and Nov. 28.

May

Mars is an evening planet throughout the first half of the year. By May, it starts to appear lower toward the western horizon each evening. It’s bright enough that it should be one of the first objects to appear as dusk fades into night, as the only planet in the evening sky for much of the month.

The Eta Aquariid meteor shower peaks early on the morning of May 6, as Earth passes through the orbit of Halley’s Comet. The moon, a thin crescent at this point in the month, won’t outshine too many meteors.

A true Blue Moon comes May 18. It will be the third full moon in a spring season with four full moons, meeting the traditional definition of a blue moon. A blue moon has become more commonly known as the second full moon in a calendar month, though. There were two of that sort of blue moon in 2018, but will be none in 2019.

June

Summer begins with the solstice at 11:54 a.m. June 21. At that moment, the orientation of Earth’s axis relative to the sun means the Northern Hemisphere is getting maximum daylight — more than 14 hours, 56 minutes of it in Baltimore. The earliest sunrises of the year come at 5:39 a.m. around June 14, and the latest sunsets arrive at 8:37 p.m. around June 27-28.

Jupiter will be out for most of each night and early morning during June, moving across the southern sky with Saturn rising close behind it. The full moon will appear near them around the middle of the month, closest to Jupiter on June 16 and even closer to Saturn on June 18. The Full Strawberry Moon comes at 4:30 a.m. June 17.

July

A total solar eclipse occurs July 2, but will only be visible in parts of South America and the Pacific Ocean.

Though the sun feels most intense in July, when summer heat typically peaks, Earth actually reaches its farthest point from the sun in its elliptical orbit (a moment known as aphelion) at 6:10 p.m. July 4.

Saturn is the visible planet that will spend the most time in the night sky in July, and it will be at its brightest around July 9. If you missed it in June, the moon will again pass by both Saturn and Jupiter in the southern sky July 13-15. Jupiter is the brighter of the two planets, while Saturn has a golden hue. Saturn’s rings are visible even with a child’s telescope. But research recently published in the journal Icarus found that the particles that make up the rings are gradually raining onto the planet’s surface, and will disappear within a few hundred million years.

Delta Aquariid meteors could appear on the nights around July 29.

August

The Perseids, usually making for one of the most active meteor showers of the year, are expected to be most abundant the night of Aug. 12 and morning of Aug. 13. Each meteor is a chunk of debris from the trail of the Comet Swift-Tuttle burning up in Earth’s atmosphere. In a perfectly dark sky, as many as 100 meteors can be visible each hour at the shower’s peak. Unfortunately, a waxing gibbous moon will outshine many of them this year.

There is a supermoon in August, but it won’t be visible — it’s a new moon. The moon will be within 222,000 miles of Earth when a new lunar cycle starts at 6:37 a.m. Aug. 30, bringing about higher than usual tides.

September

Neptune is not visible with the naked eye, but around Sept. 10 becomes brightest for the year and most easily spotted with a telescope. Consult a star chart to find it in the constellation Aquarius.

September’s full moon is a “micromoon,” another non-technical astronomical term that can be used to make a normal full moon seem a little more special. The moon will be more than 252,000 miles away from Earth when it becomes full at 12:32 a.m. Sept. 14. That means the Harvest Moon will appear about 14 percent smaller than February’s supermoon.

The autumnal equinox arrives Sept. 23 at 3:50 a.m., the moment the Northern and Southern hemispheres again receive equal sunlight. It marks the beginning of fall on our side of the world, and of spring on the other side. The sun begins spending more time below the horizon than above it in Baltimore on Sept. 26.

October

These meteors are named “Orionid” because they appear to emanate out of the constellation Orion, which takes the shape of a hunter wearing a most-fetching three-star belt. (Specifically, they appear to radiate from his “club.”) It’s one of the most recognizable constellations in the night sky.

The Orionid meteors, which also come from debris in the trail of Halley’s Comet, peak the night of Oct. 21-22. You don’t need to find Orion, the constellation from which the meteors appear to radiate, to spot them, but the hunter and his belt are among the easier constellations to find.

Uranus isn’t easily visible with the naked eye, but around Oct. 28 becomes relatively easier to spot with binoculars or a telescope. A star chart can help you find it near the constellation Aries.

November

A transit of Mercury will be visible across the sun for about 5 ½ hours Nov. 11. A transit occurs when Mercury or Venus passes directly between the Earth and the sun, appearing as a tiny dark spot on the face of the sun. A transit of Mercury was last visible from Baltimore on May 9, 2016, but won’t be again until May 7, 2049.

The Leonid meteor shower peaks after midnight Nov. 18, as Earth passes through the orbit of the Comet Tempel-Tuttle. The constellation Leo will be relatively low in the east-northeast sky at that time, and closer to the middle of the sky before dawn. As many as a dozen meteors could appear each hour.

Jupiter and Venus will again come together for a close conjunction Nov. 24, but will appear not far from the sun. Look in the southwest in the evening twilight. Saturn will appear just above them.

November is the best month to spot the tight Pleiades star cluster, also known as the Seven Sisters. They appear in the east within about an hour of sunset, and straight overhead around midnight. Find them toward the northwest of Orion’s belt, beyond the bright star Aldebaran.

December

The earliest sunsets of the year arrive at 4:43 p.m. for the first two weeks of December, centered around Dec. 7.

The Geminid meteors, the best shower of the year, peak around the night of Dec. 13-14. Unfortunately, as with the Perseids, the moon could spoil the show. With a full moon early on Dec. 12, some of the fainter meteors may be hidden by the moon’s glare. But it’s still worth a look for meteors from the trail of Comet 3200 Phaethon — dozens can appear each hour, sometimes streaking across the sky in bright colors.

The winter solstice comes Dec. 21 at 11:19 p.m. There will be 9 hours, 24 minutes of daylight, about 5 ½ fewer hours than on the “longest” day of the year in June.

The night of Dec. 22, the Ursid meteors, a relatively minor shower, could provide a better show than usual.

An annular solar eclipse — when the moon darkens all but the outer edges of the sun — occurs Dec. 26, but will be visible only across southern Asia

Have We Been Looking For Extraterrestrials In All The Wrong Ways

Alien Hunters, Stop Using the Drake Equation

Looking for our neighbors - where is everybody

For the precocious hunter of off-Earth life, the Drake equation is the ever-ready, go-to toolkit for estimating just how (not) lonely humans are in the Milky Way galaxy. The equation was developed by astronomer Frank Drake in 1961 in a slight hurry so that attendees of an upcoming conference would have something to confer about, and it breaks down the daunting question "Are we alone?" into more manageable, bite-size chunks. 

The equation starts with some straightforward concepts, such as the rate of star formation and the fraction of stars hosting planets. But it quickly moves into tricky terrain, asking for numbers like what fraction of those planets that could host life actually end up evolving intelligent species and what fraction of those planets blast out friendly signals into the cosmos, inviting us Earthlings to a nice little chat.

The end result is supposed to be a single value (or, at worst, a range of values) that predicts the total number of intelligent and conversation-ready species in the galaxy. And if that seems a little unsettlingly bold, then at the very least, the Drake Equation serves as a philosophical device for instigating conversation. It also frames a proper scientific discussion about the ultimate question of finding and talking to alien species in the galaxy.

Except that it fails on both counts.

Know thine errors

Frank Drake

The Drake equation is simple, but deceptively so. Frank's original recipe had only seven ingredients, and further enhancements from other researchers haven't drastically changed that number. So, you might naively think you need only measure or guess a heavy handful of parameters and you're good to go.

But the reality isn't that simple. Estimates and measurements always have uncertainties. This concept is absolutely critical for scientific inquiry: What you know is far less important than how well you know it. The real meat of any scientific discussion is digging into the uncertainties and how they're estimated. To justify a bold claim, you need a very tight knowledge of the uncertainty. And to overthrow the claim, you don't have to attack it directly; you can simply call into question a statement's precision.

For the Drake equation, we simply have no idea about the uncertainties attached to any of the parameters. What fraction of planets where life could get started eventually develop life? Zero percent? 100 percent? Somewhere in between? Is it 50 percent plus or minus 5 percent? Or plus or minus 25 percent? Or plus 5 percent and minus 25 percent?

And it takes only one unknown uncertainty to sink the whole enterprise. You may chip away at the Drake equation over the course of decades, taking careful observation after careful observation, measuring star-formation rates, hunting for liquid water on planetary surfaces, the works. You may think you're making good progress on nailing down this prediction, but as long as a single parameter still has unknown uncertainty, you haven't made any progress. 

That single unknown can undo the hard work poured into the entirety of the rest of the equation. Until you know all of it, you know none of it.

To produce a proper estimate using the Drake equation, you can't just plug in guesses; you have to provide ranges for each guess, essentially doubling your work. And because most of the parameters aren't even based on measurable quantities, the best you can do is throw your hands up in the air. 

Missing the point

Every few months, a new paper involving some variant of the Drake equation claims to put some "reasonable" estimates on the parameters and produce an answer. Sometimes, the papers claim that the galaxy is teeming with thousands of intelligent civilizations. Sometimes, the research says we're completely alone. When Drake and colleagues first turned the crank, they tossed out estimates of anywhere between 1,000 and 100,000,000 such civilizations. That's … not very helpful.

The Drake equation is simply a way of chopping up our ignorance, stuffing it into a mathematical meat grinder and making a sausage-guess. It doesn't have any predictive power greater than randomly pulling a number out of a hat. What if you didn't accurately estimate one of your uncertainties? The answer isn't reliable. What if you missed a parameter, some crucial element in the steps from stars to sentience? The answer isn't reliable. What if you had too many parameters, introducing an element that turned out not to matter? The answer isn't reliable.

The Drake equation makes a significant number of assumptions, and until those assumptions are verified, we can't trust the calculation's results.

Let's talk

OK, we can't treat the Drake equation as a physics equation; that is, we can't use it the same way we can handily use something like Newton's second law or the equations from general relativity or Maxwell's equations for electromagnetism. That's fine. Perhaps the Drake equation's power is more as a philosophical treatment, to help guide our thinking and help us navigate the murky waters of a deep and fundamental existential question.

But what is the utility of introducing the Drake equation into such philosophical discussions? Do we really advance or sharpen our thinking? What is the advantage to replacing one big unknowable (the number of intelligent species Out There) with many smaller unknowables that aren’t easier to solve? Yes, breaking down a big problem into smaller ones is a common tactic in science. But that only works if the smaller problems are all individually easier to tackle.

There's a risk we will spend more time unhelpfully discussing the parameters of the model and less time gainfully trying to go out there and actually search for life. Debating over the particular value of, say, the number of life-bearing planets that will give rise to intelligence (a number which must be 100 percent made up) will not give us a clearer picture of the chances of chatting with another intelligent species — instead, we just end up clouding our perspective through an intrinsically warped formulation.

There are, today, ongoing searches to hunt for life outside the Earth. Planned missions to sample the icy moons of the outer worlds, moons which harbor vast liquid water oceans. Exoplanet hunters developing the technology to tease out the hints of biosignatures in alien worlds. Did the Drake equation, in any of its formulations, help frame or advance or assist those missions?

While the Drake equation may have spurred the early scientific discussion of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, it doesn't have much value beyond that. We can't use to it further our understanding, and we can't use it to properly guide our thinking. The huge uncertainties in the parameters, the unknown ways those uncertainties mix, and the absolute lack of any guidance in even choosing those parameters rob it of any predictive power. Prediction is at the heart of science. Prediction is what makes an idea useful. And if an idea isn’t useful, why keep it around?

Learn more by listening to the episode "Is the Drake Equation Useful?" on the "Ask a Spaceman" podcast, available on iTunes and on the web at http://www.askaspaceman.com. Thanks to Gary P., Zeth L. and Bob H. for the questions that led to this piece! Ask your own question on Twitter using #AskASpaceman or by following Paul @PaulMattSutter and facebook.com/PaulMattSutter. 

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NASA Scientist Says Extraterrestrials Have Probably Visited Earth

NASA scientist: Aliens may have already visited Earth

A NASA scientist says we may have already been visited by aliens - we just didn't notice.

Silvano Colombano, a researcher at NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, argued in a paper published Monday that scientists in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, or SETI, need to rethink some commonly held assumptions about extraterrestrial life - including that aliens would be carbon-based.

“I simply want to point out the fact that the intelligence we might find and that might choose to find us (if it hasn’t already) might not be at all produced by carbon-based organisms like us,” Colombano wrote. He goes on to argue that the extraterrestrials could be “an extremely tiny super-intelligent entity."

In an email to Newsweek, Colombano clarified that the aliens could "ultimately be robotic" in nature. 

Other assumptions Colombano calls on scientists to question are that "interstellar travel is impossible or highly unlikely," that we have not been visited by aliens already and that aliens would use radio waves to communicate.

“If we adopt a new set of assumptions about what forms of higher intelligence and technology we might find, some of those phenomena might fit specific hypotheses, and we could start some serious inquiry.”

As part of his conclusion, Colombano proposed scientists "stretch possibilities as to the nature of space-time and energy" in future SETI research.

The paper was submitted as part of SETI’s Decoding Alien Intelligence workshop.

Do Those Pesky Extraterrestrials Just Keep Leaving Evidence?

Mysterious ‘extraterrestrial artefacts’ could be lurking in our solar system, Harvard astronomers claim

Evidence which proves the existence of extraterrestrial life could be hidden near Earth waiting to be discovered. Top astronomers have called for an urgent study of ‘interstellar objects’ which arrive here from deep space, suggesting some of them could be mysterious alien ‘artefacts’. Last year, the world was stunned when a bizarre cigar-shaped space rock called ‘Oumuamua sped through our solar system, changing direction as it travelled. Although scientists said it was probably a comet and blamed its trajectory on a natural process, we have been unable to unequivocally prove that it wasn’t an alien spacecraft or some other piece of extraterrestrial technology.

Now Harvard University’s Abraham Loeb, one of the astronomers who suggested ‘Oumuamua was alien in origin, and his colleague Amir Siraj have published a paper which suggests evidence which proves the existence of other lifeforms could be lurking right under our species’ nose. The paper claims there could be ‘tens’ of interstellar visitors like ‘Oumuamua floating through the solar system. ‘Observing or visiting such objects could allow searching for signs of extraterrestrial life locally, without the need to send interstellar probes,’ the pair wrote. ‘Exploration of trapped interstellar objects could potentially help reveal the prospects of life in other star systems as well as extraterrestrial artefacts,’ they added. It’s important to remember that Loeb and his partner are not saying that interstellar visitors are definitely alien artefacts. The objects could also have formed naturally in other star systems, before being expelled to begin their lonely journey through the void of space.

‘Photographing or visiting these trapped objects would allow for learning about the conditions in other planetary systems, saving the need to send interstellar probes,’ the astronomers added. In a previous paper, Shmuel Bialy and Abraham Loeb suggested the elongated asteroid ‘Oumuamua might have an ‘artificial origin’. ‘‘Oumuamua may be a fully operational probe sent intentionally to Earth vicinity by an alien civilisation,’ they wrote. MORE: Nasa shares a picture of a ‘flying saucer from outer space that crash-landed on Earth’ Their research suggests several explanations for the formation of ‘Oumuamua, which is regarded as a ‘new class’ of space object. It sped past Earth and looped around our sun at 196,000 mph and was about half a mile long.

The object was so unusual that Nasa said it had ‘never seen a natural object with such extreme proportions in the solar system before’. Initially, the fact ‘Oumuamua appeared to speed up led astronomers to suggest it was a comet. These icy objects accelerate due to a process called outgassing, in which the sun heats up a comet and causes it to release gases. But in their paper, the Harvard stargazers ruled out the possibility it was an active comet. They proposed that it was powered along by ‘solar radiation pressure’ produced by the sun, but went on to make more ‘exotic’ suggestions to explain its acceleration.

The pair suggested it may have been a type of spaceship called a ‘light sail’ featuring a large and very thin sheet that is blown along through space by the light produced by stars. When it travelled through the solar system, it was tumbling end-over-end, which could also mean it was a piece of space wreckage left behind by aliens. ‘Considering an artificial origin, one possibility is that ‘Oumuamua is a lightsail, floating in interstellar space as a debris from an advanced technological equipment,’ the astronomers continued. ‘Lightsails with similar dimensions have been designed and constructed by our own civilization, including the IKAROS project and the Starshot Initiative ‘The lightsail technology might be abundantly used for transportation of cargos between planets or between stars.’ They said alien civilisations may jettison used cargo ships, resulting in space debris that looks a lot like Asteroid ‘Oumuamua.

Russia Prepares Nuclear Spaceship

Russia reveals nuclear spaceship that will fly to Mars ‘in very near future’

Russia has revealed a "spacecraft of the future" that could one day put humans on Mars.

Roscosmos showed off concept designs for the sci-fi spacecraft – but failed to say exactly when it would launch.

The spaceship is currently in development at Russia's Keldysh Research Centre, which is racing to create the nuclear propulsion engine.

"Today, the Keldysh Centre is working on the development of a spacecraft equipped with more powerful engines – a new class of nuclear power units, which do not need either the sunlight or solar batteries for operation," said a spokesperson for Roscosmos.

Nuclear space travel could revolutionize the quest to hop between planets in our solar system.

Space scientists currently struggle with current methods of propulsion, like chemical propellants or low-power electric engines that rely on solar batteries.

These methods of space travel are slow, which creates problems for astronauts on board the craft.

"A person should not spend more than a year or two in space," said Vladimir Koshlakov, who heads up the Keldysh Centre.

"Nuclear-powered spacecraft will allow a relatively fast journey, and, most importantly, a return flight.

"This technology has special significance for interplanetary flights and research of far planets."

According to Russia's TASS news agency, Koshlakov believes that a flight to Mars using a nuclear propulsion engine is "technically feasible in the near future".

The space expert reckons it could take just over half a year for humans to travel to Mars using the nuclear system.

"[The journey] to the Moon will last several days, yes, while a flight to Mars will last about seven or eight months," said Koshlakov, speaking to the Rossiiskaya Gazeta.

Roscosmos has already been testing ground trials for the engine's cooling system, which are believed to have been a success.

And the space agency also has plans to make a prototype of a "megawatt-class" nuclear engine, which would be used for "flights into deep space."

This isn't the first time Russia has experimented with nuclear technology for space travel.

Between 1970 and 1988, the Soviet Union launched 32 spacecraft with thermoelectric nuclear power reactors on board.

And Russia has been testing nuclear rocket engines since the sixties.

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