A Response

Might I just respond to a couple of remarks left in comments which I have deleted as I prefer to give absolutely no free publicity to any disreputable con men involved in cryptozoology or ufology -neither of which are scientific subjects, though some reputable scientists have delved into both.

Information used without my permission, twisted, re-worded and even used to indicate that I have worked with any "cryptozoological" centre are incorrect.  I have corresponded with and written for many organisations and publications over the last four decades.  Luckily, some I have learnt were disreputable very early on and severed all ties with.

Others I have had to wait until they begin showing their true faces.  The big fat bully boys who think they cam "muscle" ladies in their 70s or get "the gang" to run hate and rumour campaigns against someone but can say "I have no control over what others write -it is a free country".  Well, "free" so long as you agree with this particular person.

I am not and have NEVER been a part of or associated in any way with any cryptozoological body as anything other than a writer.

I will leave the matter there.

A band of special, young stars has been discovered near the heart of the Milky Way

I really LOVE the fact that science discovers something,  then has to change its viewpoint.  I keep getting excited at what might be found next! Way back in 2008  we had this:

eso0846 — Science Release

Unprecedented 16-Year Long Study Tracks Stars Orbiting Milky Way Black Hole

10 December 2008

In a 16-year long study, using several of ESO's flagship telescopes, a team of German astronomers has produced the most detailed view ever of the surroundings of the monster lurking at our Galaxy's heart — a supermassive black hole. The research has unravelled the hidden secrets of this tumultuous region by mapping the orbits of almost 30 stars, a five-fold increase over previous studies. One of the stars has now completed a full orbit around the black hole.

By watching the motions of 28 stars orbiting the Milky Way's most central region with admirable patience and amazing precision, astronomers have been able to study the supermassive black hole lurking there. It is known as "Sagittarius A*" (pronounced "Sagittarius A star"). The new research marks the first time that the orbits of so many of these central stars have been calculated precisely and reveals information about the enigmatic formation of these stars — and about the black hole to which they are bound.

"The centre of the Galaxy is a unique laboratory where we can study the fundamental processes of strong gravity, stellar dynamics and star formation that are of great relevance to all other galactic nuclei, with a level of detail that will never be possible beyond our Galaxy," explains Reinhard Genzel, leader of the team from the Max-Planck-Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching near Munich.


The interstellar dust that fills the Galaxy blocks our direct view of the Milky Way's central region in visible light. So astronomers used infrared wavelengths that can penetrate the dust to probe the region. While this is a technological challenge, it is well worth the effort. "The Galactic Centre harbours the closest supermassive black hole known. Hence, it is the best place to study black holes in detail," argues the study's first author, Stefan Gillessen.

The team used the central stars as "test particles" by watching how they move around Sagittarius A*. Just as leaves caught in a wintry gust reveal a complex web of air currents, so does tracking the central stars show the nexus of forces at work at the Galactic Centre. These observations can then be used to infer important properties of the black hole itself, such as its mass and distance. The new study also showed that at least 95% of the mass sensed by the stars has to be in the black hole. There is thus little room left for other dark matter.

"Undoubtedly the most spectacular aspect of our long term study is that it has delivered what is now considered to be the best empirical evidence that supermassive black holes do really exist. The stellar orbits in the Galactic Centre show that the central mass concentration of four million solar masses must be a black hole, beyond any reasonable doubt," says Genzel. The observations also allow astronomers to pinpoint our distance to the centre of the Galaxy with great precision, which is now measured to be 27 000 light-years.

To build this unparalleled picture of the Milky Way's heart and calculate the orbits of the individual stars the team had to study the stars there for many years. These latest groundbreaking results therefore represent 16 years of dedicated work, which started with observations made in 1992 with the SHARP camera attached to ESO's 3.5-metre New Technology Telescope located at the La Silla observatory in Chile. More observations have subsequently been made since 2002 using two instruments mounted on ESO's 8.2 m Very Large Telescope (VLT). A total of roughly 50 nights of observing time with ESO telescopes, over the 16 years, has been used to complete this incredible set of observations.

The new work improved the accuracy by which the astronomers can measure the positions of the stars by a factor of six compared to previous studies. The final precision is 300 microarcseconds, equivalent at seeing a one euro coin from a distance of roughly 10 000 km.

For the first time the number of known stellar orbits is now large enough to look for common properties among them. "The stars in the innermost region are in random orbits, like a swarm of bees," says Gillessen. "However, further out, six of the 28 stars orbit the black hole in a disc. In this respect the new study has also confirmed explicitly earlier work in which the disc had been found, but only in a statistical sense. Ordered motion outside the central light-month, randomly oriented orbits inside – that's how the dynamics of the young stars in the Galactic Centre are best described."

One particular star, known as S2, orbits the Milky Way's centre so fast that it completed one full revolution within the 16-year period of the study. Observing one complete orbit of S2 has been a crucial contribution to the high accuracy reached and to understanding this region. Yet the mystery still remains as to how these young stars came to be in the orbits they are observed to be in today. They are much too young to have migrated far, but it seems even more improbable that they formed in their current orbits where the tidal forces of the black hole act. Excitingly, future observations are already being planned to test several theoretical models that try to solve this riddle.

"ESO still has much to look forward to," says Genzel. "For future studies in the immediate vicinity of the black hole, we need higher angular resolution than is presently possible." According to Frank Eisenhauer, principal investigator of the next generation instrument GRAVITY, ESO will soon be able to obtain that much needed resolution. "The next major advance will be to combine the light from the four 8.2-metre VLT unit telescopes – a technique known as interferometry. This will improve the accuracy of the observations by a factor 10 to 100 over what is currently possible. This combination has the potential to directly test Einstein's general relativity in the presently unexplored region close to a black hole."

Notes

These observations are the culmination of 16 years of a large monitoring campaign, begun in 1992 at ESO's New Technology Telescope with SHARP. It was then pursued at ESO's Very Large Telescope with the NACO and SINFONI instruments. These two instruments rely on the use of adaptive optics, which allows astronomers to remove the blurring effect of the atmosphere. As the centre of the Milky Way is very crowded, it is necessary to observe it with the finest resolution possible, hence, the need for adaptive optics.
Only radio signals, infrared light and X-rays can reach us from the Galactic Centre. While radio observations show mostly gas and X-ray observatories are sensitive to high energy processes, the infrared allows these stars to be observed.

More information

S. Gillessen et al., Monitoring stellar orbits around the Massive Black Hole in the Galactic Center, 2008, Astrophysical Journal, in press. Link to the article.
The team is composed of Stefan Gillessen, Frank Eisenhauer, Sascha Trippe, Reinhard Genzel, Thomas Ott (MPE, Garching, Germany), Tal Alexander (Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel), and Fabrice Martins (GRAAL-CNRS, University of Montpellier, France).
Reinhard Genzel was awarded the prestigious Shaw Prize in Astronomy for 2008 for this research (see ESO Press Release eso0818).
The research team maintains a web page on this project.

_______________________________________________________________

But this year came this:

 A band of special, young stars has been discovered near the heart of the Milky Way

JESSICA ORWIG, BUSINESS INSIDER

28 OCT 2015 

 http://www.sciencealert.com/astronomers-discover-a-band-of-special-young-stars-residing-near-the-heart-of-the-milky-way

 

The Universe is a mysterious place – comprised of mostly dark matter and dark energy, neither of which scientists fully understand. And now, a recent study shows that even our own cosmic neighbourhood can surprise us at times. 

Reporting in this month’s Astrophysical Journal Letters, a team of astronomers identified a band of special, young stars residing in one of the last spots they expected: near the heart of the Milky Way.
The remarkable discovery suggests that some unknown force is breathing new life into our galaxy’s centre.

Before the team’s report, astronomers thought the Milky Way’s centre, also called the galactic bulge, contained mostly old stars, which have been around for billions and tens of billions of years. The team’s discovery has uncovered a completely new component of our galaxy.

By analysing nearly four years of observations done between 2010 and 2014 with the VISTA Telescope at the Paranal Observatory in Chile, the team discovered a band of 35 extremely young stars.

In the image below, the red dots represent the Cepheids, while the yellow star identifies our Sun:


Credit: ESO/Microsoft WorldWide Telescope

These stars are of a particular class called Cepheids, which are famous for their pulsations that astronomers use to calculate extremely accurate distance between Earth and the star.

Each Cepheid has a unique pattern where it brightens, dims, and then repeats the cycle. Some Cepheids take days to complete a single cycle while others can take months.

“All of the 35 classical Cepheids discovered are less than 100 million years old,” Dante Minniti, who is a co-author of the paper and researcher at the University Andres Bello, Santiago, Chile, said in a European Space Agency press release. “The youngest Cepheid may even be only around 25 million years old.”
 Credit: ESO
For comparison, the Sun, which is in the prime stages of its life, is roughly 4.5 billion years old – 180 times older than the youngest Cepheid of this newly discovered group.

The team’s find “implies a continuous supply of newly formed stars in the central region of the Galaxy over the last 100 million years,” they stated in their paper.

The VISTA telescope is a powerful instrument for mapping the heart of our Milky Way galaxy, which is hidden from the human eye.
 Credit: Dave Young/Flickr
If you look toward the galactic bulge (shown above), you’ll notice that it is shrouded by dark, molecular clouds, which obstruct our view of what lies beyond.

But with VISTA, astronomers can see through the clouds as if they weren’t even there because it observes not in visible wavelengths (what humans see) but in the infrared.

Infrared radiation is not absorbed by the molecular clouds in the galactic bulge and instead passes straight through. Some of it eventually reaches Earth.

For this reason, the team has been using VISTA to map the Milky Way’s centre by seeking out Cepheid stars that lie beyond the molecular clouds. They call their project the VVV Survey.
 Credit: Ashley P

Right now, our distance to the galactic bulge is uncertain. By using the pulsating nature of Cepheids, astronomers can get a better handle on this distance and eventually produce a three-dimensional map of the Milky Way’s centre.

In their latest analysis of the data VISTA has collected so far, the team identified 655 Cepheids. And when they looked at how quickly each star was pulsating, which is related to the star’s age, they were surprised to discover that 35 of their Cepheids were unusually young.

“This part of the galaxy was completely unknown until our VVV survey found it!” Minniti said.
The next step is to determine if these young stars formed where astronomers see them today, or if they migrated toward the centre from a more distant region of space.

Finding the answer will undoubtedly improve our understanding about the past and future of our galaxy as well as other galaxies like it throughout the Universe.

This article was originally published by Business Insider.

Man Goes For Drive Finds 'Dinosaur Egg'

 

A glyptodont shell found in Carlos Spegazzini, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina on December 29, 2015

 A passer-by on Christmas Day found a meter-long shell on a riverbank in Argentina which may be from a glyptodont, a prehistoric kind of giant armadillo, experts said Tuesday.

A local man thought the black scaly shell was a dinosaur egg when he saw it lying in the mud, his wife Reina Coronel told AFP.

Her husband Jose Antonio Nievas found the shell beside a stream at their farm in Carlos Spegazzini, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of the capital Buenos Aires.

"My husband went out to the car and when he came back he said, 'Hey, I just found an egg that looks like it came from a dinosaur," she said.

"We all laughed because we thought it was a joke."

Nievas told television channel Todo Noticias he found the shell partly covered in mud and started to dig around it.

Various experts who saw television pictures of the object said it was likely to be a glyptodont shell.

"There is no doubt that it looks like a glyptodont," said paleontologist Alejandro Kramarz of the Bernadino Rivadavia Natural Sciences Museum.

"The animal became extinct thousands of years ago and it is very common to find their fossils in this region," he told AFP.

Glyptodonts are the ancestors of modern armadillos. They had big round armored shells and weighed up to a ton.

They lived in South America for tens of millions of years.

Kramarz estimated the specimen found by Nievas was relatively young at 10,000 years.

Ancient Egyptians Were Not So Dumb? Who Knew?

First we were told that civilizations such as Ancient Egypt were not that incredibly advanced. Yet they built the pyramids and more.

Ah, now they are gradually getting their "reps" up-dated bit-by-bit.  Neat.

Papyrus Reveals Ancient Egyptian Astronomical Knowledge

December 29, 2015 | by Jonathan O'Callaghan IFL: http://www.iflscience.com/space/ancient-egyptians-knew-about-distant-flashing-star-3000-years-earlier-thought

Photo credit: ITSARIYAPHON CHAIKULAP/Shutterstock

Researchers from the University of Helsinki have proposed that ancient Egyptians 3,000 years ago were the first to record the variability of a distant star – and their records could provide useful information for astronomers today.

A new paper published in PLOS ONE explains how the Egyptian Cairo Calendar from 1244 to 1163 B.C. describes the variability of a binary star system called Algol. In the calendar, there are two significant periods of time for two gods – 29.6 and 2.85 days. The former relates to the period of the Moon, while the latter almost perfectly matches the variability of Algol – which today is 2.867 days, or two days, 20 hours, and 49 minutes.

This theory had been proposed in 2013 but, understandably, had been met with some skepticism. However, the researchers now say they are more confident in their claims, and say that Algol relates to the deity Horus.

“I would have serious doubts, if someone claimed, for example, that the Bible contains information about water in Mars,” said lead author Lauri Jetsu in a statement. “We claimed that Ancient Egyptian religious texts contain astrophysical information about Algol. It was no surprise to us that there were, and there still are, sceptics.”

^{Shown is an extract of the Cairo Calendar papyrus, used courtesy of Lauri Jetsu}

An eclipsing binary is a pair of stars that, as viewed from Earth, rotate around each other and block each other's light. Thus, this particular star dims regularly in brightness as it orbits its companion. Algol is found in the constellation Perseus about 92.8 light-years from us; the larger star is about 3.5 times the radius of the Sun, and the smaller about 2.7. They are separated by about 0.062 astronomical units (AU, one AU is the Earth-Sun distance).

The variability of Algol, which can be seen with the naked eye, was thought to have been first recorded by Italian astronomer Geminiano Montanari in 1667, although it was not until 1783 that British astronomer John Goodricke suggested another object may be the cause of the dimming. Based on this latest assumption, however, the record for discovery of this star's variability may have to be re-awarded.

Perhaps most interestingly, the discovery reveals that the variability of the star has decreased very slightly over three millennia, by about 0.017 days. Rather than being an error, the researchers postulate that this could be due to the transfer of mass between the two stars affecting their orbits.

“In fact, this would be the first observation that confirms the period increase of Algol and it also gives an estimate of the mass transfer rate,” added Jetsu, possibly providing an important tool for astronomers today to learn more about eclipsing binaries.

"Ninja Lanternshark"

Well, I keep writing that there are still plenty of things to discover in seas, lakes, rivers and oceans...but I still think the name is silly.

Shark Files: New Species "Ninja Lanternshark" Making Waves

Dec 28, 2015 12:15 PM ET // by Discovery News http://news.discovery.com/animals/sharks/shark-files-new-species-ninja-lanternshark-making-waves-151228.htm

There’s a new shark species in the water with a cool name and social media fans. Dubbed “Ninja Lanternshark,” the creature was found by researchers from the Ocean Science Foundation and described in a paper just published in the organization’s journal.

The find, which has lately hit the "trending" charts on Facebook, was based on the collection of eight specimens from the Pacific Coast of Central America. Its sleek appearance and stealthy ways helped earn the creature the common name “Ninja Lanternshark,” while its scientific name (Etmopterus benchleyi) is a tip of the hat to ”Jaws” author Peter Benchley, according to Hakai Magazine.


The name is more than just cool to the scientists. Lead researcher Victoria Vásquez told the publication that she wanted the new shark to stand out with “an interesting story,” given that lanternsharks are little known to the general public. Her team's find was the first documentation of that type of shark off Central America.


According to the researchers, the new shark was observed at depths of about 2,700 feet to 4,700 feet. It runs about 1.5 feet long and uses special skin structures to give off a faint glow that helps it blend in with the inky, low-light surroundings where its prey can be found (a stealth characteristic that helped win the shark the “ninja” moniker).

via Hakai Magazine

The 2009 Gympie "Big Cat" Tracks (Australia)

It was a rather odd event.  I was used to doing radio programmes in the UK as a guest talking about UK "big cat" sightings. In one year I did 40 of these guest spots.  I was also once interviewed by a radio station in Eire and one in Germany -in English, as well as on British Forces Radio.

At about 0200 hrs I was trying to rest and the phone rang.  Who rings at 0200 hrs?  A strong Australian accent said "hello" then asked if I was the "UK Police Service wildlife advisor?" I pointed out I was a UK Police Forces Consultant but not an actual police officer.  Didn't matter apparently.  I was asked to hold on and then another man spoke and asked whether I was "aware of Gympie?"  To be honest I had no idea what he was talking about and I suspected a hoax but asked for a few details.

An alleged "big cat" sighting in Australia. Right.  I was told a photograph of some plaster casts would be sent and asked to not be "over zealous" by going to the Press which hurt somewhat.  The scan arrived within a few  minutes and I looked the casts over and it was quite obvious what they were casts of.

Why ask a naturalist in the UK?  But they were happy with what I told them.  Who the caller was I cannot say -that would be a real breach of confidentiality but let's say a Government official.

Then out of the blue a Dr Scott Burnett sends me the same photograph and account.  He was interested in what I made of them?  I cannot release the actual email exchange but I sent Dr. Burnett the same report I'd emailed the earlier Government official.  I also pointed out that, since Dr. Burnett said he was unaware of Big Cat sightings in Australia, that he look at specific cases for which there were very good and clear plaster casts of paw prints.

That was it.

I'd had similar before with Dublin but it was all private.  But now, a chance to see what I made of the infamous Gympiue Tracks and I have deleted the name of the organisation Dr. Burnett worked for.

Notes On Gympie [Australia] Plaster Casts Of Alleged Large Cat Spoor

Terry Hooper

Exotic Animals Register [EAR] UK

Based on scans of photographs of casts forwarded by:

Dr Scott Burnett

Lecturer - Wildlife Ecology

Notes

Having seen a recording of the ABC News item on the Gympie, Queensland, alleged big cat sighting I approached several Australian groups who had reported on the incident to see whether they could furnish me with photographs of the casts shown.  The only two who responded were quite negative.

I then read a number of online stories stating that Dr Scott Burnett of the University of the Sunshine Coast had been provided with casts from the area.  I contacted Dr Burnett by email and he speedily sent along a photograph of the casts alongside a 6 cm long plastic case.

Initially, the casts look messy and are obviously taken from a dirt/stone covered location.  As cats can, in certain circumstances, leave behind a trace of claw my first move was to enlarge the scanned image as much as possible without losing detail.  This was not of great benefit as in several places there were deep indentations where the animals pads had stepped on stones.

The very important rear paw lobe was unclear to a degree that no three back lobes were visible.

I then drew around the enlarged scan images so that any prominent features could be seen.  The drawings were then negatised to make them solid black.  The features then became easily recognised.

The following is based on these drawings and constantly cross-checking with the scanned images.

Cast A had one very prominent ID Marker [001] which is consistent with a claw on a dogs pad.  Nothing else of this nature could be seen on Cast A and this looks as though stones prevented them making an imprint at that spot of ground.

Cast B has four very clear ID Markers -002,003,004 and 005.

Cast C had two very clear ID Markers [006 and 008] while 007 is quite clearly giving the pad a smooth pointed look.

ID Markers 009 and 010 are noted as “possible” because the detail was not perfect.  That said, the shape that can be seen is consistent with a canid pad.

Looking then at the entire spoor the spread of pads [toes] and rear pad placement are very canid.  The measurement can be assessed as between 6-8 cms and, although Cast B looks a little larger this is consistent with the poor quality of casting and the terrain conditions at the time are unknown.

Conclusion

The press photographs and TV images of Mr. Colin Rossow all show the cast he has being held away from himself and close to the camera which gives a false impression of great size.  That said, the cast is very clearly showing ID Marker claws and the spoor is without doubt that of a dog.

The Gympie casts I have looked at are clearly canid and I would say a medium sized dog created the spoor.

I have been involved in cases in the UK where casts were taken at the point a clearly identified leopard was sighted walking.  The persons involved in the close proximity sightings were what we would classify as High Quality witnesses including safari park keepers and a zoologist.  The spoor casts, however, were from a single or several canids: the cats had left no real tracks as they had all been close to hard, dry ground near hedgerows and a later search revealed only one partial large felid spoor.  It could well be the case with these casts but to remain neutral I have asked for no case history, etc., just spoor images.

Although I have seen some very compelling spoor photographs/casts from Australia in the past that were without doubt from large non-native felids, there is no evidence of any such animal based on these spoor.

For comparison I have included Mr.Colin Rossow in a photograph with his cast, the image I used for my analysis herein and the ID Marker sheet, as well as Leopard, Puma and Dog track guides.

I would be very interested to hear/see any future evidence forwarded and claiming to belong to large non-native cats.

Above: Mr. Colin Rossow of Gympie and his spoor cast showing it to clearly be from a canid.

Casts of the Gympie spoor forwarded for analysis.

Above: Gympie spoor track ID Markers.

Above:Leopard tracks

Above: Puma tracks –note the three rear lobes on this and the leopard tracks.

Above: Dog tracks –note the similarities to the Gympie tracks.

    

A hard copy of this document can be forwarded if required.

Terry Hooper

EAR Co-ordinator

16^th March, 2009

The British "Bigfoot"

I have heard nothing after appealing for first hand witnesses.  Looking at the "data base" some things stand out like sore thumbs that have septicaemia.  I have also looked at the "photographic evidence" and my thoughts on that....

I made a straight forward honest appeal and offered to look at evidence and eye-witness testimony. I got a very rude and insulting response. That is it.

I have left the date open until 31st January, 2016 for any eye witnesses to get in contact with me, if nothing by then I have to go with what is touted as "evidence" and make conclusions based on that.

So the offer is still open.