Ripley Entertainment Inc.'s Blog, page 39
March 7, 2023
NASA Reveals Blueprint For Deflecting Killer Asteroids
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Humanity has long been obsessed with its own demise. From Y2K to the end of the Mayan calendar, people have spent countless hours predicting cataclysmic futures. Thankfully, none of the fearmongering has manifested. But that hasn’t stopped Hollywood from fixating on horrific options for planet-wide destruction. Among the most famous tropes is a collision with a killer asteroid.
Forays into this theme have included 1958’s The Day the Sky Exploded, 1979’s Meteor, and 1998’s Armageddon. Fortunately, scientists at NASA now feel confident about their ability to deflect a killer asteroid, saving the planet. But there’s a catch…
Researchers will need years of prep work to pull off such a feat. Here’s everything you should know about how humanity can dodge the next cosmic bullet.
A Brief History of Asteroids and EarthAlthough humans have long worried about a death-causing interplanetary collision, studying and recognizing the potential threat didn’t become legit until the 1980s. That’s when researchers officially linked dinosaurs’ extinction to a killer asteroid or comet. (For reference, a proper “planet-killing” rock measures at least 3,281 feet).
On the heels of this revelation, Australian-based engineer Michael Paine used a computer simulation to guesstimate how many dangerous asteroids have hit the Earth over the past 10,000 years. The results were alarming. Paine’s model pointed to more than 350 asteroids of significant size and destructive force pockmarking Earth. How big were these space rocks? Comparable to the asteroid that flattened 830 square miles of Siberian forest during 1908’s Tunguska explosion.
Tunguska took out 80 million trees, killed countless reindeer, and knocked people off their feet hundreds of miles away. It also resulted in broken windows and “a flash and bang” likened to artillery fire. Fortunately, the asteroid touched down in a sparsely populated part of Russia, translating to limited casualties. Nonetheless, the power of the event turned heads.
Deflecting Planet-Killing ProjectilesToday, scientists observe Asteroid Day on June 30th, Tunguska’s anniversary. This day remains a sober reminder that next time we might not get so lucky when it comes to the location of an asteroid impact. Does that mean it’s time to invest in an underground bunker designed to survive space rocks? According to NASA scientists, this approach might be overkill.
New science results confirm our #DARTMission‘s asteroid deflection technology can be an effective way to change the orbit of an asteroid, should there ever be a threat. The DART spacecraft intentionally slammed into asteroid Dimorphos in Sept. 2022: https://t.co/PdpCDG2zRn pic.twitter.com/79EPIXCaSW
— NASA (@NASA) March 1, 2023
Instead, researchers are working to deflect a potential planet assassin by crashing a spacecraft into it. And they recently used this tactic to successfully divert the orbit of a 525-foot-wide asteroid known as Dimorphos. A moonlet that orbits the larger asteroid Didymos, Dimorphos sits approximately seven million miles from the Blue Planet. In other words, Dimorphos doesn’t represent a threat to our existence. But due to its size and other characteristics, scientists declared it a fantastic target for testing space technology. The result? NASA’s project proved even more successful than initially hoped.
The rocket NASA used to reroute Dimorphos weighed 1,200 pounds and collided with the asteroid on September 26, 2022. Known as the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), the object crashed into Dimorphos at 13,000 miles per hour, blasting over 1,000 tons of rock and dust off the asteroid. This trail of debris now stretches for thousands of miles and has resulted in Dimorphos’s re-classification as an “active asteroid” with a tail like a comet.
Dodging a Cosmic BulletInterestingly, the Hubble Telescope caught images of the dramatic impact, resulting in unprecedented images. As Jian-Yang Li of Arizona’s Planetary Science Institute explains, “We’ve never witnessed an object collide with an asteroid in a binary asteroid system before in real time, and … I think it’s fantastic.” That said, there’s a major caveat to all of this.
Intercepting and deflecting an asteroid the size of Dimorphos couldn’t happen in a day, a week, or even a month. Scientists would need several years, ideally decades, to make it happen. In other words, identifying earthbound asteroids years before they’re a threat is of the deepest concern. For context, about 3,000 near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) get discovered each year, adding to the current total of 28,000 NEAs.
This time-lapse from Hubble shows rapid changes to the asteroid Dimorphos after it was deliberately hit by the 1,200-pound NASA DART spacecraft in September. This impact was a test to see if asteroids could be deflected away from Earth: https://t.co/AQMocA4LZH pic.twitter.com/dGImD0YA8f
— Hubble Space Telescope (@HubbleTelescope) March 1, 2023
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in SoCal hosts the Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS), which monitors these potentially hazardous objects. CNEOS plays a vital role in protecting the Earth from life-threatening asteroids through early detection. Coupled with DART, humans may stand a fighting chance against a space rock (unlike their dino predecessors). Jason Kalirai of Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory credits DART with offering “a bright future for planetary defense.”
The asteroid-nudging rocket has also paved the way for further research. Stay tuned for the 2024 launch of the Hera spacecraft, set to provide up-close views of Dimorphos’s post-DART scarred surface.
By Engrid Barnett, contributor for Ripleys.com
EXPLORE THE ODD IN PERSON! Discover hundreds of strange and unusual artifacts and get hands-on with unbelievable interactives when you visit a Ripley’s Odditorium!Source: NASA Reveals Blueprint For Deflecting Killer Asteroids
March 6, 2023
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March 3, 2023
The Alien Autopsy that Fooled the World
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Today, we are hopping in a time machine and going back to the year 1995! Try to picture yourself and the world at that time, for some of us, myself included, that might be hard due to the fact that we weren’t alive yet. Really try to imagine the world without the grip of social media or smart phones.
For the most part, television reigned supreme as the main form of technological entertainment. Although, one thing that hasn’t changed much about humans in 27 years, is our fascination with life outside of our planet and when Fox aired Alien Autopsy: Fact or Fiction? Tens of millions were glued to their TV sets.
U.F…OHYou have to understand, aliens and reality specials were Fox’s bread and butter at the time especially as X-Files continued to garner massive ratings. Combining the two with distorted footage of an alleged alien autopsy that was believed to be obtained by a London video producer named Ray Santilli, who himself claimed to have purchased it from a military photographer in 1992, was sure to be an absolute audience hit. Add in that the film was said to be shot by the United States Army shortly after recovering a body from the legendary 1947 crash in Roswell and you have every UFO lover glued to their TV!
Santilli sent portions of the film to Kodak in an effort to confirm whether the footage was legitimate or staged. According to Santilli, Kodak stated that the portion of the film they viewed could have been manufactured in 1927, 1947 or 1967.
In order to both obtain the footage and protect themselves against accusations of defrauding the public, Fox paid Santilli nearly $250,000. Fox even went a step further in protecting themselves by adding the “Fact or Fiction?” portion to the title of the run as to neither officially confirm or deny the legitimacy of the footage and rather, leave it in the eyes of the viewer. Fox’s framing of the footage was especially important as the autopsy, comparatively, was far more convincing than anything ever seen related to U.F.Os or paranormal sightings at the time.
Ratings Out of this WorldThe framing by Fox was done masterfully and the special ended up being a ratings smash! Believe it or not, the alien autopsy received an 8.1 share, meaning 8.1 percent of the 94.5 million homes with televisions were watching it!
It wasn’t long until skeptics inevitably began pointing out inconsistencies that called into question the legitimacy of the footage. C. Eugene Emery, Jr. a writer for The Skeptical Inquirer pointed out the ease at which the brain was removed from the skull without the removal of connective tissue as highly suspect.
Alien Autopsy Exhibit at UFO Museum – Roswell, New Mexico. Credit: TravelingOtter Via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0).
In 1997, skeptics called out Santilli when he posted photos of the film’s canisters with “Department of Defense” written on them. Skeptics noted that if the film was truly shot in 1947 the Department of Defense would not have been officially established and was rather known as the “National Military Establishment.”
A Fake TakeIt wasn’t until 2006 that Santilli confessed that the video wasn’t really from 1947 and that the ‘alien’ in the video was just a dummy. Santilli still refused to call the film a hoax, though. It’s his position that it was, instead, a recreation of a real alien autopsy that he had obtained. Santilli stated:
“In 1993 or 1994 we saw the footage of the autopsy in its original form and brought it back to the UK. Within that year or so the footage had completely deteriorated. The only thing that was left was a few frames that we could use as reference. What we did was restore the original footage frame-by-frame over a very long period of time. We set about simply restoring what was a very damaged film.”
Ultimately, we may never know the full story and the original origins of the film. What we do know is Spyros Melaris, who helped Santilli create the footage, stated that he never saw any ‘real’ tape and that there were no discussions about recreating any pre-existing footage.
In regard to the special effects, the blood was jam, the intestines were from chickens and the brain was from a sheep.
So, there you have it – from being branded as the never-before-seen lost footage of an ‘alien autopsy’, to a denial of a hoax plot all the way to jam, chicken intestines and a sheep brain. Did this video captivate your mind at a young age like mine when I stumbled on it on YouTube? Let me know in the comments below. Until next time, I’m Jordan Neese, and this is Ripley’s Rewind.
EXPLORE THE ODD IN PERSON! Discover hundreds of strange and unusual artifacts and get hands-on with unbelievable interactives when you visit a Ripley’s Odditorium!Mexican President Tweets Blurry Photo of a Mythical Mayan Elf
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Children aren’t the only ones who believe in magical creatures; some high-ranking political figures do too. Last weekend, Mexican President, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, shared an image of a mysterious-looking creature that he described as an “Aluxe.” In Mayan folklore, an Aluxe is a woodland spirit, according to AP.
A Picture Worth 1000 TweetsLópez Obrador, 69, posted a side-by-side picture of two images on Twitter with the caption: “Les comparto dos fotos de nuestra supervisión a las obras del Tren Maya: una, tomada por un ingeniero hace tres días, al parecer de un aluxe; otra, de Diego Prieto de una espléndida escultura prehispánica en Ek Balam. Todo es místico.”
The English translation is: “I share two photos of our supervision of the Mayan Train works: one, was taken by an engineer three days ago, apparently of an aluxe; another, by Diego Prieto, of a splendid pre-Hispanic sculpture in Ek Balam. Everything is mystical.”
Les comparto dos fotos de nuestra supervisión a las obras del Tren Maya: una, tomada por un ingeniero hace tres días, al parecer de un aluxe; otra, de Diego Prieto de una espléndida escultura prehispánica en Ek Balam. Todo es místico. pic.twitter.com/Tr5OP2EqmU
— Andrés Manuel (@lopezobrador_) February 25, 2023
The intriguing image on the left, taken at night, shows a tree with what appears to be some kind of creature with glowing hair and eyes. To the casual observer, it looks like an unidentifiable animal, such as a monkey or racoon. To those who subscribe to indigenous beliefs, such as López Obrador, it looks like an elf. The engineer from the Mayan Train Project took the photo in the Yucatan Peninsula.
Many internet users mocked Obrador’s post, and Mexican novelist Mauricio Schwarz tweeted two-year-old screenshots of the identical photos, which were shared in 2021. He wrote: “Das pena, mucha pena… y el país más… Si te lo crees, eres tonto… si sabes que mientes, eres malévolo… (You are sad, very sad… and the country even more… If you believe it, you are stupid… if you know you are lying, you are malicious…).”
Sí, Andrés, un ingeniero hace tres días tomó una foto que hace las rondas en Nuevo León desde febrero de 2021 y en Tailandia desde diciembre de ese año.
Das pena, mucha pena… y el país más… Si te lo crees, eres tonto… si sabes que mientes, eres malévolo… pic.twitter.com/dqyR9Ywe3z
— Mauricio Schwarz
izquierda transgénica nuclear (@elnocturno) February 25, 2023
According to Ancient Origins, Mayan tales of little people known as Aluxes have been passed down in Mexico for generations. These spiritual creatures are mischievous and known to cause mayhem and destruction. Humans don’t usually notice them unless a playful Aluxe chooses to become visible.
Cultural OriginsThe knee-high sprites are described as having owl-like eyes and may have body parts of other animals, such as iguanas, deer, or macaws. They’ve also been described as appearing sprite or fairy-like or as dark shadows with glowing red eyes. Aluxes live in a variety of places on the Yucatan Peninsula, including forests, fields, and caves. They’re not too picky about their habitat as long as they have food, water, and shelter.
According to Indian Express, while construction work was being undertaken in the area, shelters were allegedly built specifically for Aluxes. The intent was to welcome the creatures, so they could prevent any mishaps from occurring on the project.
In 2010, local Mayan leaders were disturbed that an Elton John concert was being held close to Mayan pyramid Chichen Itza. When a stage collapsed prior to the performance and three people were injured, they blamed Aluxes. Mayans lived on the Yucatan Peninsula and other parts of Central America from 300 A.D. to 900 A.D. Their descendants still populate the area, many of whom carry on the traditions of their ancestors, from the clothing they wear to the food they grow and the religion they follow.
By Noelle Talmon, contributor for Ripleys.com
EXPLORE THE ODD IN PERSON! Discover hundreds of strange and unusual artifacts and get hands-on with unbelievable interactives when you visit a Ripley’s Odditorium!Source: Mexican President Tweets Blurry Photo of a Mythical Mayan Elf
March 2, 2023
The Irony Of The Man Who Made Himself Immune To Poison
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
You don’t need to be the biggest ancient history buff to know that the Roman army was among the greatest military forces the world has even seen. When it came to conquering territory, they were remarkably efficient. The empire swelled to more than five million square kilometers in size, before ultimately collapsing because its sheer size made it utterly impractical to defend and administer.
Along the way, the Romans conquered Greece, Gaul, and so many other regions in between. Needless to say, they fought numerous bloody wars to claim and maintain control over such lands. As successful as they tended to be, they suffered some devastating losses too: the Battle of Teutoburg Forest, of approximately 9 CE, saw three Roman legions destroyed in an infamous, cunning ambush attack at Kalkriese in modern day Germany. This fearsome fighting force of the ancient world matched wits against some of the finest generals of the period, including Carthage’s Hannibal, and it certainly didn’t always come out on top.
The word “Mithridatism,” per Merriam-Webster, is defined as “tolerance to a poison acquired by taking gradually increased doses of it.” This curious word is derived from the name of one of Rome’s other foes, Mithridates, who did just that. As it turned out, the method worked well. According to the famous story, it worked far too well when it came to his downfall.
Who Was Mithridates?The Romans seemed to have a way of driving their foes to desperate measures, so desperate and legendary that they become embedded in our language forever. The phrase “Pyrrhic victory,” meaning a win achieved at such high costs that it may as well have been a loss, is a reference to the story of king Pyrrhus. The ruler of Epirus in Greece launched an assault on the Italian region and won two victories against the Romans, in 280 and 279 BC. Neither were decisive and both were very costly, and he was forced to flee with his remaining troops a few short years later.
Mithridates VI Eupator, or Mithradates the Great, was another king (this time of Pontus) who brought the fight to the Romans and enjoyed some success in the process. As with many rulers during this turbulent time, he attempted to balance maintaining and expanding his territory with the need to appease and cooperate with other rulers in the region (Nicomedes III of Bithynia being one of the major players), and, inevitably, squabbles and all-out warfare often ensued.
King of Pontus Mithridates VI. Via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.5).
Nicomedes staged an invasion of Mithridates’ territory, and the Romans took the former side. Mithradates seemed to have repulsed them in impressive fashion, but this was only the beginning of a long conflict that would have far-reaching consequences. By 85 BCE, Mithridates was forced to seek peace, losing the territory he had gained during his campaign. This wouldn’t be the last the Romans would see of this persistent foe, though, nor the last defeat he would suffer.
Britannica goes on to state that an invasion by Lucius Licinius Murena marked the beginning of a turbulent decade or so between the two powers. The war that began between them afterwards was marked by shifting fortunes on both sides, but this second loss would be Mithridates’ ultimate undoing. A capable general, he was no stranger to warfare, but it seems that a life spent in its shadow took its toll on him. Though he bested the Romans on several occasions, he took great measures to try and protect himself from them, and from any other foes he encountered. Mithridates has come to be known as the poison king, and his experimentations with such substances make it abundantly clear why.
A Passion For PoisonsThe Vintage News reports that Mithridates had good reason to fear poisoning: his father, Mithridates V, had been killed in 120 BC. The sneaky method used? Poison, of course, which the killer managed to sneak into his food. Becoming ruler came with tremendous responsibility, privilege and danger in equal measure, as the position brought about enemies who sought to kill their powerful foes. To survive as king during these turbulent times, it seemed, the poison king (not his father, who was sadly the poisoned king) had a brainwave: if he regularly consumed low doses of poison, his body would develop a tolerance for it. If he was then maliciously poisoned, he would not be killed.
Illustration of Mithridates VI. Via Wikimedia Commons.
According to War History Online, the king conducted extensive experiments with poisons. He reportedly found a ready source of subjects for his research: criminals who had been condemned to be executed. In this way, his knowledge of poisons and antidotes alike blossomed. Perhaps, then, he knew just how much to administer to himself to build up a tolerance and ultimately survive the threat of poisoning. An intriguing concept, and there’s certainly some science behind it.
The study “Human Adaptation to Arsenic-Rich Environments,” from Carina M. Schlebusch et al (via Oxford Academic), demonstrates how such a thing could be possible.
“We found that inhabitants of the northern Argentinean Andes, an arid region where elevated arsenic concentrations in available drinking water is common, have unique arsenic metabolism,” the Abstract of the study states. The results suggest that those who live in the region and so frequently partook in such water were more resistant to the effects of arsenic. “The people living in this area have a relatively high arsenic exposure and an efficient and less toxic metabolism,” Dr Karin Broberg stated to The Daily Mail. While this did not render the people of San Antonio de los Cobres immune to the deadly effects of arsenic, it did mean that they were tolerant to it to a certain degree. Through the gene AS3MT, they have, the outlet reports, developed a metabolism that can cope with it rather more effectively.
Elemental arsenic — mineral specimen. Credit: Tomihahndorf Via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0).
It’s quite possible, then, that Mithridates’ ministrations worked in the same way. Careful exposure to smaller degrees of poison could, over time, have afforded him more tolerance to it. The hope was that his enemies would be unable to poison him. According to legend, when he reportedly poisoned himself, it didn’t work either!
As Stanford University’s Adrienne Mayor explained to The Naked Scientists in 2020, “there were myriad poisons known in antiquity from toxic plants to snake venoms … there were also many minerals in his kingdom that were highly toxic, such as arsenic.” It seems that, just as with the San Antonio de los Cobres villagers, Mithridates did develop a resistance to arsenic (which was well-known and deviously ‘popular’ then). The major difference is, he exposed himself to smaller doses of it intentionally! According to Mayor, he developed a universal antidote of sorts known as Mithridatium, the details of which are long lost.
It Seems He Didn’t Really Try To Poison HimselfAfter his downfall, Pharnaces II, his own son, assumed his throne. Mithridates, reportedly, feared that he would be delivered to his long-time foes, the Romans. To prevent such a fate, he is said to have attempted to poison himself. Naturally, though, his attempt failed. Instead, the story goes, a trusted ally named Bituitus killed him on his own orders. Death by the sword, rather than poison!
Lapham’s Quarterly goes on to explain that it was the famous Galen who shared this story, and seemingly popularized it. It’s well known to this day. Galen did not present the tale as fact, the outlet goes on, and it certainly seems a little fanciful: “The most obvious concern is that the king, who was an expert on antidotes, would have been unlikely to take a poison that he had every reason to believe would not work.”
Perhaps it was merely an attempt to give this accomplished and powerful ruler’s story a conclusion worthy of his memory. It’s certainly memorable, and reflective of Mithridates’ renown as an expert in poisons. He may not have literally died in this ironic fashion, but he has been known for centuries as having done just that.
By Chris Littlechild, contributor for Ripleys.com
EXPLORE THE ODD IN PERSON! Discover hundreds of strange and unusual artifacts and get hands-on with unbelievable interactives when you visit a Ripley’s Odditorium!Source: The Irony Of The Man Who Made Himself Immune To Poison
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