Published on 30 Aug 2014 By Newsy Science
The space shuttle Discovery launched for the very first time 30 years ago. Here's a look back at its legacy.
Sunday, 31 August 2014
Is NASA Going To Find Life On Europa?
Streamed live on 27 Aug 2014 By DNews
Each month DNews will sit down with NASA to discuss amazing space topics!
This month, we'll be talking about Jupiter's icy moon Europa. Could its subsurface oceans harbor life? What extreme engineering challenges would we have to overcome to explore it? What field work is going on on Earth right now to help find life on other worlds?
This month, we'll be talking about Jupiter's icy moon Europa. Could its subsurface oceans harbor life? What extreme engineering challenges would we have to overcome to explore it? What field work is going on on Earth right now to help find life on other worlds?
UFO With Changing Colours Sighted By Lower Paxton Township Police In Pennsylvania
By Afza Fathima
On Aug. 25, in Pennsylvania, Lower Paxton Township resident Stephanie Wilkerson noticed something in the sky that was moving and changing colors, reported ABC 27. While enjoying a glass of wine in the porch, Wilkerson sad that she saw something in the sky that she initially thought was an airplane, but then she noticed that it wasn't moving and it was changing colors. Wilkerson said she watched the object for about twenty minutes.
Wilkerson finally decided to notify the police. An officer responded to the call and, after seeing the stange object in the sky through a pair of binoculars, he was bewildered and rang his superiors. The officer's sergeant and corporal came by to take a look -- and both were reportedly astounded.
The Lower Paxton Township Police Department, then, contacted Fort Indiantown Gap and Harrisburg International Airport to see if they had any aircraft acitivy in the area but both responded in the negative.
An incident report was then written, with Lt. Gary Seefeldt of the Lower Paxton Township police saying, "Our officers saw something that was out of the ordinary for the night sky."
Wilkerson said that she wasn't a believer in UFO sightings until that night when she saw the strange object.
Pennsylvania has a UFO Alert Rating much higher than the average number of recent national reports, with an Alert 3 rating of about 30 cases in the month of July-- the fifth highest in the country. California had the highest number of reports at 104 cases in July, followed by other states with an Alert 2 or 3 rating such as Texas, Michigan, Ohio, Florida and Washington.
Red Orbs Reported Over Eastern North Carolina
By Ellen Bacca
People reported seeing at least 10 red circles in the sky above Eastern North Carolina this past weekend. After one women took a video of the event, she learned other people have been seeing these mysterious orbs as well.
Kelly Burke said she spends plenty of evenings on her back porch but had never seen anything like the red circles before."That's when they started coming off of the horizon one by one. They would all completely disappear in the same spot - the same spot! So it would go from there to there, poof its gone," said Burke.
Burke, her husband, and her daughter all saw the lights together. She said there were a total of 10 and each flitted across the sky at a level elevation. Burke says the glowing objects were too symmetrical to be flares and too level to be floating lanterns.
"I've photographed Chinese lanterns for weddings that I do. All of those have a center of brightness. " said Burke.
Burke says the circles in sky she spotted were not like the lanterns she photographed. The lanterns she saw did not have that point of brightness. They were the same color all thew ay through. She described the orbs as moving against the wind, not with it unlike a lantern.
Driven by curiosity, Burke posted her video on Facebook. She was surprised to find out a lot of people had seen similar red circles all across the country, several were along the coast from Nags Head to Oak Island.
Friend Stephanie Brunner says she was relieved when she saw Kelly Burke's post. She saw a group of red orbs almost a year ago in Jacksonville.
"Ours was in a formation, like a triangle. Not a full triangle, but there were five of them," said Stephanie Brunner.
Brunner said she and her husband tried to drive closer to the lights before they went out. She said she didn't tell many people about the event.
"People thought I was crazy, but we definitely saw them. I'm just glad my husband was there to see them too," said Brunner.
One local North Carolinian says his whole family saw one while on vacation in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
"And being in aviation, I know there has to be blinking lights on an aircraft. And there was none on this," described Ronald Winstead.
Reports of flying orbs way back. We found a 1944 article from the New York Times with the headline "Floating Mystery Ball is New Nazi Air Weapon."
Retired U.S. Marine General Tom Braaten says the circle reminded him of a jet burner, but there were some differences. "If you were looking right at the back end, then it would look like a very bright circle," said Braaten.
He did say burners are usually bright white, not the red seen in the video. He also said the shape of the light didn't match up with the motion of the burner. He said a burner would only appear to be a circle if the jet was pointed away from the viewer, but the circle in the video was seen traveling along the coast from left to right. When jets do that, Gen. Braaten said you see the side of the burner which appears as more of a cone shape.
General Braaten and a Harrier pilot we spoke to both said there are too many variables to pin-point what the circles in the sky are.
For now, the circles will technically remain a "U.F.O." After all, "U.F.O." stands for "Unidentified Flying Objects" and these circles in the sky are still unidentified.