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Evidence for early use of boats to cross the sea, has emerged from an archaeological survey in Crete. Tools of Lower Palaeolithic type, at least 130,000 years old, have been found on the southern coasts of Crete. Crete has been isolated by the Mediterranean Sea for at least the past five million years, so that any human ancestors living there, must have arrived by boat. (And the Med. can be stormy.) More details.
- Neanderthal use of cosmetics (and same sort of ingredients we use today).
- Humans 750,000 years ago in Israel.
- "Hobbits" the tiny humans who lived on the Indonesian island of Flores have been found to be a different human species to any other modern humans around today.
- North-East Passage navigated. More on the history and importance of this sea route.
- Coloured twisted flax fibres found dating back 34,000 years ago in Dzudzuana Cave, Georgia.
- Supermassive black hole struggles to swallow Milky Way.
Picture of the centre of the Milky Way our galaxy, made up of images from Sitzer, Hubble, and Chandra. The very bright splodge near the centre of the picture is the central black hole Sag.A* and you can also see bright filaments blown out in arches.
This picture from the Hubble space telescope shows galaxies at red shift 8.5, which means their light has taken about 13 billion years to reach us, so far away, that according to the Big Bang theory, the universe was only 600 million years old - (but the galaxies would had taken very many millions of years to evolve to this stage).
Far off blast (centre red dot in picture) from last gasp of star (discovered by NASA Swift 23rd April 2009) about 8.2 redshift. See also: Far off gamma-burst detected - redshift of 8.2, which comes from an ancient star exploding at the end of its life, 13 billion years ago, - according to the Big Bang theory, the universe was only about 600 million years old!. Also in Nature. And more about gamma bursts on cosmicelk.net.
- Where are those galaxies apparently at the edge of our universe heading off to in the same direction at great speeds.
- Counting the number of universes that co-exist with the one we are in.
- And is anyone out there.
- Jet from supermassive black hole seen forming new galaxy.
- Dark matter observed?.
- More unseen worries about dark matter.
- Magnetic monopoles found?
More about the quest.
And some comments.
- Nearby red giant Betelgeuse may be about to turn supernova. According to observations over many years by Nobel Prize winner Charles Townes and colleagues. They have discovered that over the past 15 years, the star has shrunk by 15 per cent. This could indicate that the red giant is now collapsing inside, which is the prelude to a supernova explosion. Not a lot we can do about it.
- The history of astronomy goes back further in time than previously imagined. Early humans in South-East Asia, of at least two different species ancestral to to modern humans today, succeeded in travelling across open sea to islands in what is now Indonesia, and further to Australia. As much as a million years ago. Even in an ice-age, open seas wide enough to form a barrier to plants and animals divided islands like Flores from its neighbours, and the Australian continent from South-East Asia. These early voyagers would have had the technology to make sea-worthy boats, as even in the shorter crossings, the seas was infested with hungry sharks and crocodiles, toxic jellyfish, sudden violent storms and strong currents. And they must have had developed some way of finding their way to another shore.
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Revelations from Messenger - the first probe to Mercury for thirty years. More on Mercury and its history.
- 1970s probes Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, which gave us the first close up views of the gas giants of our outer solar system have left home, and passed through the boundary dividing our solar system from inter-stellar space. You can find out more on our website and also about the search for planets around other stars.
- About 13,000 years ago a piece of rock which had been knocked off Mars, some 15 million years ago, landed on Earth on the Antarctic continent. When this meteorite was examined in 1996 (it was labelled ALH84001) it appeared to show microscopic fossils of ancient Martians. More recently this meteorite has been re-examined and seems even more likely to have traces of ancient primitive Martian life.
New pictures keep coming from Mars. Mars was closest to us in 2003, than it had been for 60,000 years- the big red star in the sky must have impressed our Neandertal ancestors and led to stories which became part of our folklore.
- More early astronomy in
Link to Amazon
By Heather Hobden.
By the author of the official guides to the astronomical clock at Hampton Court Palace, this book contains the full information on the history of this famous clock much of which was not published in the official guide books. Including all those involved in the design, construction and maintenance, and the discovery of the hidden Tudor loo.
More information:
Link to Amazon
By Heather Hobden.
Henry Fitzroy was to die suddenly in mysterious circumstances, soon after Anne Boleyn's execution and just as an act was going through Parliament to enable the King to nominate him as the heir to the throne.
Link to Amazon
By Heather and Mervyn Hobden.
First published in 1988, and considerably expanded and updated since then to meet demand - with details of Harrison's scientific work, his home and work in Barrow-on-Humber, and the longitude problem. Based on orginal research and material by Mervyn Hobden, with Heather Hobden, their work has been much used as reference by writers, film and tv producers and others.
The only book with details of Harrison's life and pioneering scientific work, in Barrow-on-Humber.
Mervyn Hobden also gives talks on Harrison's scientific achievements and is to add more information on Harrison's scientific work in a new edition of this book.
Additional information from:
Siberia: land beyond time. ISBN 978-1-871443-16-5.
by Heather Hobden
The turbulent history of this ancient and forgotten land, its great mineral wealth and rich cultural heritage. One of the oldest and the longest inhabited countries in the world, and possibly the source of modern civilization.
To be published eventually as a book. Meanwhile the story is being built up on the website. Helpful feedback, links, information, etc. is always welcome.
- Siberia hub with references, links - and a little puzzle question.
- An introduction to the earliest history of Siberia and its origins as one of the first surviving continents on Earth.
- The Great Bear and the Seasons
- Time Before Clocks. Has more on time in Siberia.
- Siberian calendars and timekeeping included in this.
- Chukotka and the directions of time.
- More on the directions of time and space - includes significant directions in Yakutian cosmology and Evenk time-keeping.
- From ice-age mammoth-hunters and their legacy to iron age. Since it appears that the first modern Europeans came from Siberia some 40,000 years ago.
- bronze and iron age
civilizations from Siberia. Again spreading to the West...
- Shamans and Time. Has more about the religion and the shamans.
- Medieval Siberian Invaders Evenk and others.
- Continues with the invasion from the west.
- 16th century Yakutia and the origin of the Sakha.
- 17th century Yakutia and the Russian Invasion.
- Yakutia in the 18th century Part One..
- Yakutia in the 18th century Part Two.The Billings Expedition.
- Russian America
- Siberia 1820 to 1890 - extreme tourism
- Siberia 1890 to 1912 - and trouble with gold
- Japan attacks Russia and Wins
- Tunguska event
- from first world war on to present
enquiries, information and feedback always welcome, you can contact us at mail@cosmicelk.net
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