Paranormal Magazine

Hunt may well be over for a mysterious and invisible substance that accounts for three-quarters of the matter in the universe…

For 80 years, it has eluded the finest minds in science. But tonight it appeared that the hunt may be over for dark matter, the mysterious and invisible substance that accounts for three-quarters of the matter in the universe.

In a series of coordinated announcements at several US laboratories, researchers said they believed they had captured dark matter in a defunct iron ore mine half a mile underground. The claim, if confirmed next year, will rank as one the most spectacular discoveries in physics in the past century.

Tantalising glimpses of dark matter particles were picked up by highly sensitive detectors at the bottom of the Soudan mine in Minnesota, the scientists said.

Dan Bauer, head of the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS), said the group had spotted two particles with all the expected characteristics of dark matter. There is a one in four chance that the result is due to some other effect in the underground detectors, Bauer told a seminar at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, near Chicago.

Rumours that Bauer’s group was on the verge of making an announcement surfaced on physicists’ blogs a few weeks ago. Though tentative, tonight’s results triggered an immediate wave of excitement in the science community.

“If they have a real signal, it’s a seriously big deal. The scale on which people are looking for dark matter is vast,” said Gerry Gilmore at Cambridge University’s institute of astronomy. “Dark matter is what created the structure of the universe and is essentially what holds it together. When ordinary matter falls into lumps of dark matter it turns into galaxies, stars, planets and people. Without it, we wouldn’t be here,” Gilmore said.

Scientists have debated the existence of dark matter since 1933, when the Swiss astronomer Fritz Zwicky argued that a distant cluster of galaxies would fall apart were it not for the gravitational pull of some vast but invisible cosmic substance. It was named dark matter because it does not reflect or absorb light, making it impossible to observe with telescopes.

Last year, the Hubble telescope photographed indirect evidence in the form of a ghostly halo around a distant galaxy, caused by clumps of dark matter bending light from stars as it passed by. A year before that, scientists led by the British astronomer Richard Massey, at the California Institute of Technology, published the first 3D map of dark matter, which revealed how it clung around galaxies and held clusters of them together.

Dark matter is likely to be made up of a variety of invisible particles that not only explain the missing mass of the universe, but shed light on some of the most profound mysteries in science.

Some dark matter particles could explain why ordinary matter is not radioactive, while others may help scientists understand why time – so far as we know – always runs forward.

“The real impact of this is psychological, in that it shows we’re getting close to being able to do a whole new kind of physics,” Gilmore said. “We know there are properties of the universe that should correspond to new families of particles. One of the great mysteries is why time only goes in one direction, and one candidate to explain that is a dark matter particle.”

Many scientists believe dark matter particles will turn out to be proof of a theory called supersymmetry, which predicts that every kind of particle in the universe is paired with a heavier twin. Finding evidence for supersymmetry is one of the major goals of the Large Hadron Collider at Cern, in Switzerland.

Dark matter particles are peculiar because they pass through objects as if they were not there. Their aloof nature has led scientists to name them weakly interacting massive particles, or Wimps. Vast amounts of these are thought to be constantly moving through the Earth and everything on it, us included, as the solar system spins around our galaxy.

The detectors at the Soudan mine are buried underground to shield them from other kinds of particles that bombard Earth from space. To detect dark matter, scientists have to wait for the extremely rare occasion when a dark matter particle knocks into an atomic nucleus in the detector and makes it vibrate.

Detectors in the mine will be upgraded in the new year before the search for more dark matter continues, Bauer said.

[via: guardian.co.uk - Ian Sample]

Scientists who mapped one of the most enigmatic mountain ranges on Earth have given a first glimpse of their data.

An international team spent two months in 2008/9 surveying the Gamburtsevs in Antarctica – a series of peaks totally buried under the ice cap.

The group has told a major conference in the US that the hidden mountains are more jagged than previously thought.

They are also more linear in shape than the sparse data collected in the past had suggested.

This latter finding hints at a possible origin for the mountains whose existence has perplexed scientists for 50 years.

“If you have a linear structure it makes them more like the Alps or the Appalachians,” explained Dr Michael Studinger from the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO) of Columbia University, New York.

“These are mountain ranges that formed by the collision of tectonic plates.” But he stressed that the analysis of the survey data was in its infancy and the team would publish their final assessments in forthcoming papers in the formal scientific literature.

Dr Studinger is one of the leading scientists on the AGAP (Antarctica’s Gamburtsev Province) project. He has been speaking here at the American Geophysical Union’s (AGU) Fall Meeting, the world’s largest annual gathering of Earth scientists.

The mountains were discovered by a Soviet team during the International Geophysical Year in 1957-8. Their detection was a complete surprise because the rock bed in the middle of the Antarctic continent was assumed to be relatively flat.

It led many to speculate that the Gamburtsevs might be old “hot spot” volcanoes that had punched their way through the Earth’s crust, much like the Hawaiian islands have done in the middle of the Pacific.

The range has since become the subject of intense scientific fascination because it was almost certainly a nucleation point some 30 million years ago for the huge ice sheets now covering Antarctica.

Studying them has been immensely difficult, however. Conditions are brutal; temperatures can go below -80C.

It was only with the concerted effort organised around International Polar Year in 2007-8 that a full-scale aerogeophysical survey became possible.

Two instrumented Twin-Otter aircraft were flown out of remote field camps and collected a range of data.

They crisscrossed the hidden peaks, flying a total of 120,000km. They gathered gravity, magnetic and ice thickness information, took radar images of the rock bed and the layers within the ice; and made a map of the ice-sheet’s surface with a laser.

“We have now reached a point in the data processing that allows us to start scientific work with the data,” Dr Studinger told BBC News.

The shallowest ice covering the mountains is hundreds of metres thick. The deepest ice detected is about 4,800m thick. The mountains themselves are standing about 2,500m above sea level.

It is now clear the range has a defined linear trend, in contrast to the previously mapped circular feature, and that this trend strikes predominantly to the north-east.

The data also reveals a very rugged landscape with high peaks and deeply incised valleys which have been worked in the past by both river and ice processes.

“Before we had this data we couldn’t see the valleys and therefore we had no way of being able to quantify the role of glacial and fluvial processes which is key to understanding cryosphere and climate evolution,” said Dr Fausto Ferraccioli from the British Antarctic Survey.

Studying what happened in these valleys could give clues as to how fast the Gamburtsevs became encased in ice.

[The rest of this article can be found at news.bbc.co.uk - Johnathan Amos]

Member-states of the European Space Agency (Esa) have given final approval to revised plans to explore Mars.

There have been protracted discussions on what Europe could do at the Red Planet and how much it might cost.

The Council of Esa has given the green light to a two-mission endeavour that would see the launch of an orbiter in 2016 and a rover in 2018.

The exploration projects will be undertaken in partnership with the US space agency (Nasa).

Esa’s Council of Ministers has approved an initial budget of 850 million euros to support the missions. It will need to increase the cash available by about 150 million euros in future years.

“This marks an important moment for Europe in its steps towards space exploration on the world scale,” said Professor David Southwood, the director of science and robotics at the agency.

“We have been to the planets before, sure. But now we have a plan for exploration ahead to build our technical capability and explore Mars in a long-term partnership.”

The two-mission scenario has been born out of a much smaller proposal passed in 2008 which had the idea of launching a technology-demonstration rover to Mars in 2011 known as ExoMars.

Technical considerations that saw this concept grow in scope and cost meant the whole endeavour was revised.

The 2016 orbiter would be designed to track down the sources of methane and other trace gases recently detected at Mars. The presence of methane is intriguing because its likely origin is either present-day life or geological activity.

Confirmation of either would be a major discovery.

The 2018 ExoMars rover – now a much bigger vehicle – could then be targeted at one of the most interesting sources.

The 2016 mission would also have sufficient mass margin to put some sort of lander on the surface, although this would stay in just one location and may not be very long-lived.

Even so, Europe is keen to have a go at putting down some sort of instrument package on the planet to gain expertise in entry, descent and landing technologies.

David Southwood told BBC News that the programme was “on the road in that full implementation of the hardware build will now start”.

[via: news.bbc.co.uk - Johnathan Amos]

As James Cameron’s animated sci-fi movie Avatar goes on general release, astronomers point out that the movie’s habitable moon called “Pandora” may exist in reality.

Although none have been found to date, “exomoons” orbiting exoplanets are sure to exist. Could an exomoon be detected? If so, could that exomoon’s atmosphere be probed? Yes and yes, according to today’s announcement by the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA), Mass.

Pandora is a fictional alien world 5 light-years away from Earth orbiting an exoplanet in the system of Alpha Centauri A. As detailed in an exclusive Discovery News interview with the visionary director of Avatar, Cameron has been very careful to base his creation on science fact (unlike some movies I won’t mention). The biology of Avatar’s alien creatures are no doubt impressive, but what about the planetary physics? Could an exomoon be habitable… even inhabited?

“If Pandora existed, we potentially could detect it and study its atmosphere in the next decade,” said CfA’s Lisa Kaltenegger.

Kaltenegger and her colleagues point out that all the gas giant planets in our solar system (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune) have moons, and if these moons are large enough, they possess an atmosphere.

One example is Saturn’s large moon Titan that has a very thick atmosphere and — as the 2005 ESA Huygens mission discovered — a lot of the surface features are very Earth-like. It’s not a huge leap of the imagination to think that a larger rocky moon, orbiting a gas giant (a large Jupiter-like exoplanet) in another star system might have an exomoon with an atmosphere too.

“All of the gas giant planets in our solar system have rocky and icy moons,” Kaltenegger added. “That raises the possibility that alien Jupiters will also have moons. Some of those may be Earth-sized and able to hold onto an atmosphere.”

However, seeking out exoplanets is hard, and although over 400 of these worlds have been detected, some hi-tech piece of kit would be needed to go on an exomoon hunt.

When searching for exoplanets, astronomers will often look for a slight dimming in star light as an exoplanet passes in front of it. The exoplanet-hunting Kepler space telescope is currently looking for these exoplanet “transits” and it is hoped that the presence of exomoons orbiting the exoplanets may be detected too.

As an exomoon orbits its host exoplanet (in the same way our moon orbits the Earth), the exomoon will “tug” on the exoplanet very slightly. From Kepler’s point of view, the telescope will see the transiting exoplanet wobble very slightly as it passes in front of the star. This could be the signature of the presence of an exomoon.

Say if Kepler could detect the presence of an exomoon (not necessarily in the Alpha Centauri A system as no exoplanets have been spotted there, yet), how could astronomers work out if it’s a real-life Pandora?

“Alpha Centauri A is a bright, nearby star very similar to our Sun, so it gives us a strong signal” Kaltenegger explained. “You would only need a handful of transits to find water, oxygen, carbon dioxide, and methane on an Earth-like moon such as Pandora.”

“If the Avatar movie is right in its vision, we could characterize that moon with JWST [the James Webb Space Telescope] in the near future,” she added.

Interestingly, exomoons provide an exciting opportunity for the survivability of life. In the case of an exoplanet orbiting a red dwarf star, the exoplanet would have to orbit very close to the star to exist within the “habitable zone” (the region surrounding a star that’s neither too far away or too close, but in just the right location for water to be maintained in a liquid state). This is because red dwarfs emit less light than a star like our sun; therefore an exoplanet needs to be closer to a red dwarf to receive a quantity of light for life as we know it to survive.

But there’s a problem. If an exoplanet orbiting a red dwarf is within the habitable zone of the star, there’s a high probability that the exoplanet will be “tidally locked” with the star. Tidal locking means that the same side of the exoplanet will always be facing the star, continuously getting heated. The far side will be forever cold. This kind of situation is very bad for life to survive as there will be no such thing as “days,” just one eternal, boring “day.”

However, put an exomoon in orbit around this tidally locked exoplanet and we’ll have a situation where the exomoon is always orbiting (it will therefore have days). The exomoon would become the more likely location for life to survive, even thrive.

Whether or not Pandora is really out there, perhaps there’s more chance of an Earth-sized exomoon (with an atmosphere) rather than an exoplanet nurturing life…

[via: news.discovery.com - Ian O'Neill]

A Brazilian toddler has been found with some 40 needles inside him, which police say his stepfather inserted during a possible “black magic” ritual.

Police said Roberto Carlos Magalhaes had confessed to sticking the sewing needles into the two-year-old boy, and had been arrested.

Mr Magalhaes said his mistress had told him ritually to kill the child to take revenge on his wife.

Doctors are set to begin operating on Thursday to remove some of the needles.

The toddler was taken to hospital in the north-eastern Bahia state by his mother, complaining of stomach pains and vomiting.

X-rays showed scores of sewing needles inside his neck, torso and legs. At least one had punctured a lung, another his liver.

Police said Mr Magalhaes had broken down and confessed after being arrested.

“He did that for revenge, to get back at his wife,” the police chief in the town of Ibotirama, Helder Fernandes Santana, was quoted as saying by AFP news agency.

“His mistress told him to kill the child through a macabre ritual,” Mr Santana said.

The boy’s mother told police she suspected the child had been the victim of a black magic ritual after she found suspicious objects in the home she shared with Mr Magalhaes – her husband of six months – and her six children.

Doctors said most of the needles would be removed, but not the ones inside organs as their removal could cause more damage.

They said there were no signs of wounds on the boy.

Reports say the boy is in a serious condition, but that he has shown some improvement since being admitted to hospital on Sunday.

[via: news.bbc.co.uk]

A giant pyramid which appears to be a UFO hovering over the Kremlin has caused frenzied speculation in Russia that it is an alien spacecraft.

The object has been compared to an Imperial Cruiser in the Star Wars films and witnesses estimated it could be up to a mile wide.

Two film clips exist which appear to show the same object and footage has been repeatedly playing on Russian television news channels.

The shots, one taken at night from a car and one during the day, were both filmed by amateurs.

The ‘craft’ was said to have hovered for hours over Red Square in the Russian capital.

The clips of the ‘invasion’ have gone to the top of the country’s version of YouTube.

The identity of the shape has not been confirmed. Russian reports ruled out a UFO but police refused to comment.

Nick Pope, a former Ministry of Defence UFO analyst, said it was “one of the most extraordinary UFO clips I’ve ever seen”.

“At first I thought this was a reflection but it appears to move behind a power line, ruling out this theory.”

A spokesman for aerospace journal Jane’s News said: “We have no idea what it is.”

[via: telegraph.co.uk]

Astronomers have discovered a new “waterworld” 40 light years away, raising the chances of the existence of Earth-like planets.

Evidence suggests it has an atmosphere, and astronomers believe it to be more like Earth than any planet found outside the Solar System so far.

Although the planet is thought to be too hot to sustain Earth-type life, it is believed to consist of 75% water.

Planet GJ1214b is six times bigger than Earth and was discovered orbiting a small faint star 1.3 million miles away.

Although its red dwarf parent star is 3,000 times less bright than the Sun, it hugs the star so closely that its surface temperature is an oven-hot 200C.

Graduate student astronomer Zachory Berta, from the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics in the US, who spotted the first hints of the planet, said: “Despite its hot temperature, this appears to be a waterworld.

“It is much smaller, cooler and more Earth-like than any other known exoplanet.”

He said some of the planet’s water should be in the form of exotic materials such as Ice Seven – a crystalline form of water that exists at pressures greater than 20,000 times the Earth’s sea-level atmosphere.

Scientists want to turn the Hubble Space Telescope towards the planet to allow astronomers to discover its composition.

Dr David Charbonneau, also from the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre, said: “Since this planet is so close to Earth, Hubble should be able to detect the atmosphere and determine what it’s made of.

“That will make it the first super-Earth with a confirmed atmosphere – even though that atmosphere probably won’t be hospitable to life as we know it.”

[via: news.sky.com - Alison Chung]

A cow has been caught jumping six feet on to a roof, after the owners thought they had been burgled.

Neighbour William de Cothi, 17, photographed the animal after he spotted it on the roof about six feet off the ground.

The Sixth Form student said: “I was looking out of my window when I saw the cow.

“At first I thought that it was an illusion and that it was in the background and not really on the roof.

“But after a closer look I could see it was actually on the roof.”

The teenager added: “I have heard cows can jump quite high, so I think that is how it got up there.

“I got my family to come and look later and they laughed. It was absolutely amazing.”

The house owner in Blagdon, Somerset, called police after getting home to find her roof seriously damaged and smashed tiles as she feared a burglar had tried to break in.

Local PC Ray Bradley said: “This was initially recorded on my figures as a burglary so I am glad I can take it off.

“If it wasn’t for the door-to-door enquires and this photo we wouldn’t have found out it was a cow responsible.”

[via: telegraph.co.uk]

Of all the incredulous tales that turn up in the Quad-Cities, none that I know of can match this … A dog falling from the night skies.

And it’s true, too!

Sadie, a petite-sized Pomeranian, landed next to a Davenport street last weekend after surviving a flight of about two miles, clutched in the talons of a great horned owl.

As the owl flies, Sadie’s flight covered between 24 to 30 city blocks. She was scruffed up, but suffered nothing worse than bruises and a broken tail.

Sadie’s owl-napping saga began when her owner, Michelle McCarten, and friends were watching fireworks a week ago Saturday in the Village of East Davenport. Sadie was spooked by the booming, jumping off McCarten’s porch at 2216 E. 12th St., and fleeing into a nearby woodsy area. McCarten and friends called and searched. No luck.

What they didn’t realize was that a giant owl known to perch in the area had grabbed Sadie.

Sadie became the flying dog. She was soaring over east Davenport, destined to become a late-night snack for the owl. But the owl lost its grip. Sadie plunged to earth.

“I had stopped for the sign at East 29th and College when this dog came flying out of the sky right in front of my Jeep — right out of the sky,” says Jamie Padden, Davenport.  “It dropped out of nowhere.”

The owl followed, ready to snatch back its lost snack.

Padden was horror-struck to see the little dog scrambling to get away.

“I opened my car door and ran screaming at that owl,” she says. “It was after the dog.

“That owl was so big I swear that its wings spread halfway across the street.  That sounds overdramatic, but it’s true.”

Padden shooed the owl away and scooped up the whimpering dog. She took it home, gave it a bath, and called Davenport police to report that she had just picked up a dog that had been dropped from the sky by a great horned owl.

Barb Elmore, a police service generalist who took the call from Padden, says her first thought was “That is one lucky dog.”

While the police department gets lost animal calls all the time, Padden’s report was the first of its kind, Elmore said.

“Í knew that no one would believe me,” Padden says, “so I left my phone number, in case anyone called about a missing dog. That little dog was so scared that I took her to bed with me that night. She was frantic, shaking.”

Next morning, Sadie’s owner and a friend, Kris Overstreet, resumed their search. They called Davenport police and were given Padden’s number.

“We called immediately,” McCarten says. “It sounded like my dog. Jamie brought her to us and I cried.  It was my Sadie.”

McCarten pieced together the tale of Sadie’s wild ride, something that is confirmed by a Quad-City ornithologist. Rick Crouch of Wild Birds Unlimited doesn’t question that Sadie was grabbed by a great horned owl.

“They are big, strong birds that stand 24 inches from feet to tip of head.  They have a great capacity to lift,” Crouch says. “They are nocturnal, hunting by night, easily picking up rabbits, cats or small dogs.  They have a strange appetite for skunks.”

Sadie, still shaky, is happily home with her owner. She has bruises and tenderness around her hind quarters where her tail was broken.

“She’s nervous. I’m giving her an aspirin a day. She’s comfortable,” McCarten says. “Getting her back is my best early Christmas present.”

Now and again, I get asked if government agencies take an interest in reports of strange creatures roaming the countryside – in much the same way that, for many years, official departments have investigated other forms of anomalous phenomena, such as UFOs. Well, the answer is “Yes,” there have indeed been such studies undertaken. As just one of many examples, consider the following.

Early in 1998, the British Government’s House of Commons held a debate on the existence – or otherwise – of a particular breed of mystery animal that is widely rumored, and even accepted by many, to inhabit the confines of the British Isles: the so-called Alien Big-Cats, or ABCs, as they have become known. It scarcely needs mentioning that Britain is not home to an indigenous species of large cat. Nevertheless, for decades amazing stories have circulated from all across the nation of sightings of large, predatory cats that feed on livestock and terrify, intrigue and amaze the local populace.

Indeed, there now exists a very large and credible body of data in support of the notion that Britain does have in its midst a thriving population of presently unidentified large cats – such as the infamous “Beast of Bodmin” and “Beast of Exmoor” that so dominated the nation’s newspapers back in the early-to-mid 1980s.

Documentation that followed the February 2, 1998 debate in the controversy in the House of Commons began with a statement from Mr. Keith Simpson, the Member of Parliament for mid-Norfolk: “Over the past twenty years, there has been a steady increase in the number of sightings of big cats in many parts of the United Kingdom. These are often described as pumas, leopards or panthers. A survey carried out in 1996 claimed sightings of big cats in 34 English counties.”

Many of the sightings, Simpson continued, had been reported in his constituency by people out walking dogs or driving down country roads, often at dawn or dusk. Frequently the description given fitted that of a puma or leopard. Simpson also added that in a number of incidents it had been claimed that ewes, lambs, and even horses had been attacked – and in some cases killed – by the marauding beasts.

Simpson elaborated further: “A number of distinguished wildlife experts have suggested that some pumas or leopards could have been released into the countryside when the Dangerous Wild Animals Act 1976 made it illegal to own such animals without a licence. They would have been able to roam over a wide area of countryside, live off wild or domestic animals and possibly breed. So what is to be done?”

Simpson had a few ideas: “I should like to suggest two positive measures for the Minister to consider. At national and local levels, it is logical that the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food should be the lead Government Department for coordinating the monitoring of evidence concerning big cats.”

In response, Elliot Morley, at the time the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, admitted that there was a valid issue that needed addressing. He said: “The Ministry’s main responsibility on big cats is confined to whether the presence of a big cat poses a threat to the safety of livestock. The Ministry is aware that a total of 16 big cats have escaped into the wild since 1977. They include lions, tigers, leopards, jaguars and pumas, but all but two animals were at large for only one day.”

Morley expanded: “Because there is a risk that big cats can escape into the wild and because of the threat that such animals could pose to livestock, the Ministry investigates each report in which it is alleged that livestock have been attacked. Reports to the Ministry are usually made by the farmers whose animals have been attacked. In addition, the Ministry takes note of articles in the press describing big cat incidents and will consider them if there is evidence that livestock are at risk.”

On receipt of a report of a big cat, explained Morley, the Ministry would ask the Farming and Rural Conservation Agency – the Ministry’s wildlife advisers – to contact the person who reported the sighting, as he explained:

“The FRCA will discuss the situation with the farmer and seek to establish whether the sighting is genuine and whether any evidence can be evaluated. It will follow up all cases where there is evidence of a big cat that can be corroborated and all cases where it is alleged that livestock are being taken.

“The FRCA will consider all forms of evidence, including photographs given to it by members of the public and farmers, plaster casts of paw prints and video footage. In addition, it will carry out field investigations of carcasses of alleged kills for field signs of the animals responsible.”

In conclusion, Morley stated: “It is impossible to say categorically that no big cats are living wild in Britain, so it is only right and proper that the Ministry should continue to investigate serious claims of their existence – but only when there is a threat to livestock and when there is clear evidence that can be validated. I am afraid that, until we obtain stronger evidence, the reports of big cats are still in the category of mythical creatures.”

Of course, many of those British citizens who have seen big-cats roaming the countryside would perhaps strongly argue with the notion that these beasts are merely mythical in nature…

[via: mania.com - Nick Redfern]

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