Rudolph E. Schild

Smithsonian Institution · Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO)

For thousands of years there have been reports of extraterrestrial beings and "sky boats" that have visited Earth as recounted in ancient texts from India, Egypt, and Greece. During WWII, pilots from "allied" and "enemy" countries were harassed by extraterrestrial craft referred to as "Foo fighters" and early in the war five UFOs appeared above Los...

Unusual horizontal protrusions were photographed on rocks in Gale crater, Mars by the Curiosity rover 'Mastcam' and 'ChemCam' between sol 3786 and 3800. These protrusions follow horizons of bedding in the sedimentary rocks and have a variety of morphologies including 'spike-like', blunt 'wedge-like', 'plate-like', or 'serrated' protrusions. These f...

A substantial body of evidence supports the theory that life began on Mars billions of years ago as based on discoveries of microbialites, stromatolites, and fossilized cyanobacteria, green algae, acritarchs and biochemical studies of Martian meteorites. As based on evidence, there followed an evolutionary progression within the oceans, lakes and s...

As presented in this report numerous fossils like forms resembling a variety of marine arthropods including crustaceans, sea spiders, scorpions, arachnids, nematodes, annelids, tube worms, sea snakes, Kimberlla, Namacalathus, Lophotrochozoa, armored trilobites and millipedes have been found in Gale Crater (on Sols 302, 553, 753, 781, 809, 869, 880,...

Multiple specimens that closely resemble calcium encrusted cyanobacteria (blue green algae) were photographed by NASA's rover Curiosity in Gale Crater, Mars, several having a blue-green coloration. Comparisons of sequential photos, taken three to five days apart, indicate that putative cyanobacteria are growing, changing shape, multiplying, and sec...

White and dark gray oblong-ovoid cocoon-egg-like forms (“cocoon-eggs”), less than a mm in diameter, many with a single hole in one end, and some with unidentifiable specimens protruding from (exiting or entering) these holes, were photographed on mudstone in Gale Crater, Mars, on Sol 1302. If biological some of these cocoon-eggs may be frozen, foss...

An array of formations resembling the fossilized remains of Ediacaran and Cambrian fauna and other organisms have been observed embedded atop sediments in the dried lake beds of Gale Crater, Mars. Specimens similar in morphology have been found together, or upon adjacent and nearby rocks and mudstone.These include forms morphologically similar to p...

Vesicular rocks and thick clumps of green-colored matter photographed in Utopia Planitia and Chryse Planitia by NASA's Viking landers were subject to morphological and computerized quantitative pattern analysis. These vesicular rocks are not homogenous and include those similar to vesicular basalts, marine trace fossils, and "tafoni" which on Earth...

Mars has been subject to repeated waxing and waning episodes of extreme chaotic obliquity (axial tilting) for at least four billion years. Obliquity is currently at 25.19 degrees and has exceeded 80◦. Each time obliquity exceeds 40◦ Martian atmospheric pressures and global temperatures increase causing the melting of glaciers and permafrost and sub...

In the ancient and recent past, various niches on Mars were habitable and possibly inhabited by organisms that have evolved and adapted to extreme surface and subsurface environments. Habitability is promoted by the high levels of iron that promotes melanization of various organisms that protects against radiation. Glacial and water-ice below the s...

In this book we present over 800 photographs that as a collective totality conclusively proves there is life on Mars. These include photos of Martian tube worms, "crab-like" organisms, algae, microbial mats, stromatolites, lichens, fungi, fungus, fossils; and sequential images documenting that Martian organisms are growing out of the ground, increa...

Hundreds of tubular and spiral specimens resembling terrestrial tube worms and worm tubes were photographed in the soil and atop and protruding from “rocks” on Sols 177, 199 and 299 in the vicinity of Endurance Crater, Meridiani Planum. Dozens of these putative “worms” and tubes are up to 3 mm in size. These tubular specimens display twisting, bend...

We present over 200 photographs that as a collective totality proves there is life on Mars. These include photos of Martian algae, microbial mats, stromatolites, lichens, fungi, fungus, fossils, tubular organisms; and sequential images documenting that Martian organisms are growing out of the ground, increasing in size, moving to new locations; and...

Fungi thrive in radiation intense environments. Sequential photos document that fungus-like Martian specimens emerge from the soil and increase in size, including those resembling puffballs (Basidiomycota). After obliteration of spherical specimens by the rover wheels, new sphericals--some with stalks--appeared atop the crests of old tracks. Sequen...

Numerous massive black and complex araneiforms with features categorized as "trees" "rivers" and dendritic radial "spiders" and ranging from a few meters to over 300 meters in size, appear on the surface of the upper northern and lower southern hemispheres of Mars, during the Spring, paralleling the melting of the polar ice-caps which consist of co...

The dried lake beds of Gale Crater have been identified by NASA's rover crews as a likely source of fossils. Formations resembling fossilized stromatolites, algae, acritarchs and metazoans have been previously observed and reported in peer reviewed scientific periodicals. A detailed search of NASA's Gale Crater image-data-base was conducted with a...

The discovery and subsequent investigations of atmospheric oxygen on Mars are reviewed. Free oxygen is a biomarker produced by photosynthesizing organisms. Oxygen is reactive and on Mars may be destroyed in 10 years and is continually replenished. Diurnal and spring/summer increases in oxygen have been documented, and these variations parallel biol...

Billions of years ago, the Northern Hemisphere of Mars may have been covered by at least one ocean and thousands of lakes and rivers. These findings, based initially on telescopic observations and images by the Mariner and Viking missions, led investigators to hypothesize that stromatolite fashioning cyanobacteria may have proliferated in the surfa...

In the space of the entire universe, the only conclusive evidence of life, is found on Earth. Although the ultimate source of all life is unknown, many investigators believe Earth, Mars, and Venus may have been seeded with life when these planets, and the sun, were forming in a galactic cluster of thousands of stars and protoplanets. Yet others hyp...

The evidence for water on Mars is detailed and reviewed, and photographic evidence for moisture, ice, frost, and mud in the Gale Crater, is presented. In accordance with the predictions of Martinez et al. (2015), the authors document the presence of ice within as well as mud and wet soil on the outside of the aluminum wheels of the rover Curiosity...

As remarkable highlight of factuality that discretionary particles in cosmos are mutually convertible, Homogenous Cosmos Originated from Unique Genesis successively implemented two pioneering exploratory actions as below: The first, It sublimated the rationality of newly highlighted factuality discretionary particles in cosmos are mutually convert...

Throughout its mission at Eagle Crater, Meridiani Planum, the rover Opportunity photographed thousands of mushroom-lichen-like formations with thin stalks and spherical caps, clustered together in colonies attached to and jutting outward from the tops and sides of rocks. Those on top-sides were often collectively oriented, via their caps and stalks...

Gale Crater was an ancient Martian lake that has periodically filled with water and which may still provide a watery environment conducive to the proliferation and fossilization of a wide range of organisms, especially algae. To test this hypothesis and to survey the Martian landscape, over 3,000 photographs from NASA's rover Curiosity Gale Crater...

This study, conducted by the Dr. Edgar Mitchell Foundation for Research into Extraterrestrial and Extraordinary Experiences (FREE), represents the first comprehensive investigation on individuals (N = 3,256) who have reported various forms of contact experience (CE) with a non-human intelligent being (NHI) associated with or without an unidentified...

The spectroscopic identification of the Extended Medium Sensitivity Survey (EMSS) sources now provides ∼350 X-ray selected QSOs and Seyfert galaxies (AGN in our working definition) and 30 BL Lac objects. Almost all of the AGN are spectroscopically similar to AGN found by other means but a few resemble normal galaxies so closely that they would not...

This paper presents a progress report on a major extension of the Einstein Observatory Medium Sensitivity Survey (MSS). The results obtained from the survey are briefly summarized, particular emphasis is given to the Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) and BL Lac objects of the MSS. The basic properties of these classes of extragalactic objects are presen...

The very large majority of the galaxies selected in X-ray surveys are active galaxies (e.g. narrow emission line galaxies, Seyfert galaxies etc.). There are however a few examples of normal galaxies, which are sometimes characterized by an X-ray luminosity in excess of what is expected on the basis of their optical appearance. A closer look at thes...

Studies of the evolution of X-ray emission from clusters of galaxies have so far used optically discovered distant clusters then observed at X-ray wavelengths. A different approach to the study of cluster evolution is to use clusters selected directly by their X-ray emission since X-ray selection is extremely successful at discovering high redshift...

Central to Zeldovich's attempts to understand the origin of cosmological structure was his exploration of the fluid dynamical effects in the primordial gas, and how the baryonic dark matter formed. Unfortunately microlensing searches for condensed objects in the foreground of the Magellanic Clouds were flawed by the assumption that the objects woul...

As timely renovation of humanistic ideology about authenticity of nature in proportion to contemporaneous historical background of remarkable highlight of microcosmic configuration of matter, “Homogenous Cosmos Originated from Unique Genesis” is innovative cosmos redefinition in logic enantiomorph of newly highlighted factuality of discretionary pa...

We consider the Herschel–Planck infrared observations of presumed condensations of interstellar material at a measured temperature of approximately 14 K (Juvela et al 2012 Astron. Astrophys. 541 A12), the triple point temperature of hydrogen. The standard picture is challenged that the material is cirrus-like clouds of ceramic dust responsible for...

The recent Sumi et al (2010, 2011) detection of free roaming planet mass MACHOs in cosmologically significant numbers recalls their original detection in quasar microlening studies (Schild 1996, Colley and Schild 2003). We consider the microlensing signature of such a population, and find that the nano-lensing (microlensing) would be well character...

The space density of life-bearing primordial planets in the solar vicinity may amount to ∼8.1×104 pc−3 giving total of ∼1014 throughout the entire galactic disk. Initially dominated by H2 these planets are stripped of their hydrogen mantles when the ambient radiation temperature exceeds 3 K as they fall from the galactic halo to the mid-plane of th...

Small values of lithium observed in a small, primitive, Galaxy-Halo star SDSS J102915 + 172927 cannot be explained using the standard cold dark matter CDM theory of star formation, but are easily understood using the Gibson/Schild 1996 hydrogravitationaldynamics (HGD) theory. From HGD, primordial H-4He gas fragments into Earth-mass planets in trill...

Hydrogravitional-dynamics (HGD) cosmology of Gibson/Schild 1996 predicts proto-globular-star-cluster PGC clumps of Earth-mass planets fragmented from plasma at ~0.3 Myr. Protogalaxies retained the ~0.03 Myr baryonic density existing at the time of the first viscous-gravitational plasma fragmentation. Stars promptly formed from mergers of these gas...

Is the accelerating expansion of the Universe true, inferred through observations of distant supernovae, and is the implied existence of an enormous amount of anti-gravitational dark energy material driving the accelerating expansion of the universe also true? To be physically useful these propositions must be falsifiable; that is, subject to obser...

We consider the fundamental issues which dominate the question about the existence or non-existence of black hole horizons and singularities from both of the theoretical and observational points of view, and discuss some of the ways that black hole singularities can be prevented from forming at a classical level, i.e. without arguments of quantum g...

The standard model of gravitational structure formation is based on the Jeans 1902 acoustic theory, neglecting crucial effects of viscosity, turbulence and diffusion. A Jeans length scale L_J emerges that exceeds the scale of causal connection ct during the plasma epoch. Photon-viscous forces initially dominate all others including gravity. The fir...

With the introduction of microlensing (nano-lensing) and reverberation analysis, understanding of the luminous structure surrounding quasars has gone from theoretical speculation to an observer's sport. Micro-lensing with day timescale has demonstrated that quasars have structure on scales of 1 R_G which we attribute to the inner edge of the accret...

59 quasars in the background of the Magellanic Clouds had brightness records monitored by the MACHO project during the years 1992–99. Because the circumpolar fields of these quasars had no seasonal sampling defects, their observation produced data sets well suited to further careful analysis. Following a preliminary report wherein we showed the exi...

Recent spacecraft observations exploring solar system properties impact standard paradigms of the formation of stars, planets and comets. We stress the unexpected cloud of microscopic dust resulting from the DEEP IMPACT mission, and the existence of molten nodules in STARDUST samples. And the theory of star formation does not explain the common occ...

From hydro-gravitational cosmology, hydrogen-helium gas planets fragmented at the plasma to gas transition 300,000 years after the big bang in million-star-mass clumps. Stars may form in the clumps by mergers of the planets to make globular star clusters. Star-less clumps persist as the dark matter of galaxies as observed by Schild in 1996 using qu...

Context: The baryonic dark matter dominating the structures of galaxies is widely considered as mysterious, but hints for it have been in fact detected in several astronomical observations at optical, infrared, and radio wavelengths. We call attention to the nature of galaxy merging, the observed rapid microlensing of a quasar, the detection of "co...

A scenario is presented for the formation of first life in the universe based on hydro-gravitational-dynamics (HGD) cosmology. From HGD, the dark matter of galaxies is H-He gas dominated planets (primordial-fog-particle PFPs) in million solar mass clumps (protoglobularstarcluster PGCs), which formed at the plasma to gas transition temperature 3000...

We explore the conditions prevailing in primordial planets in the framework of the HGD cosmologies as discussed by Gibson and Schild. The initial stages of condensation of planet-mass H-4He gas clouds in trillion-planet clumps is set at 300,000 yr (0.3My) following the onset of plasma instabilities when ambient temperatures were >1000K. Eventual co...

A key result of hydrogravitational dynamics cosmology relevant to astrobiology is the early formation of vast numbers of hot primordial-gas planets in million-solar-mass clumps as the dark matter of galaxies and the hosts of first life. Photon viscous forces in the expanding universe of the turbulent big bang prevent fragmentations of the plasma fo...

We report the results of our multicolour observations of PG 1115+080 with the 1.5-m telescope of the Maidanak Observatory (Uzbekistan, Central Asia) in 2001–2006. Monitoring data in filter R spanning the 2004, 2005 and 2006 seasons (76 data points) demonstrate distinct brightness variations of the source quasar with the total amplitude of almost 0....

From hydro-gravitational-dynamics theory HGD, gravitational structure formation begins 30,000 years (10^12 s) after the turbulent big bang by viscous-gravitational fragmentation into super-cluster-voids and 10^46 kg proto-galaxy-super-clusters. Linear and spiral gas-proto-galaxies GPGs are the smallest fragments to emerge from the plasma epoch at d...

The origin of life and the origin of the universe are among the most important problems of science and they might be inextricably linked. Hydro-gravitational-dynamics (HGD) cosmology predicts hydrogen-helium gas planets in clumps as the dark matter of galaxies, with millions of planets per star. This unexpected prediction is supported by quasar mic...

Fifty-nine quasars in the background of the Magellanic Clouds had brightness records monitored by the MACHO project during the years 1992 - 99. Because the circumpolar fields of these quasars had no seasonal sampling defects, their observation produced data sets well suited to further careful analysis. Following a preliminary report wherein we show...

Gravitational hydrodynamics acknowledges that hydrodynamics is essentially nonlinear and viscous. In the plasma, at $z=5100$, the viscous length enters the horizon and causes fragmentation into plasma clumps surrounded by voids. The latter have expanded to 38 Mpc now, explaining the cosmic void scale $30/h=42$ Mpc. After the decoupling the Jeans me...

The gravitational hydrodynamics of the primordial plasma with neutrino hot dark matter is considered as a challenge to the bottom-up cold-dark-matter paradigm. Viscosity and turbulence induce a top-down fragmentation scenario before and at decoupling. The first step is the creation of voids in the plasma, which expand to 37 Mpc on the average now....

We report new estimates of the time delays in the quadruple gravitationally lensed quasar PG 1115+080, obtained from the monitoring data in filter R with the 1.5-m telescope at the Maidanak Mountain (Uzbekistan, Central Asia) in 2004–2006. The time delays are 16.4 d between images C and B and 12 d between C and A1+A2, with image C leading for both...

We report new estimates of the time delays in the quadruple gravitationally lensed quasar PG1115+080, obtained from the monitoring data in filter R with the 1.5-m telescope at the Maidanak Mountain (Uzbekistan, Central Asia) in 2004-2006. The time delays are 16.4 days between images C and B, and 12 days between C and A1+A2, with image C being leadi...

We present multiband photometry of 185 type-Ia supernovae (SNe Ia), with over 11,500 observations. These were acquired between 2001 and 2008 at the F. L. Whipple Observatory of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA). This sample contains the largest number of homogeneously observed and reduced nearby SNe Ia (z 0.08) published to date...

We examine the nature of brightness fluctuations in the UV-Optical spectral region of an ordinary quasar with 881 optical brightness measurements made during the epoch 1993 - 1999. We find evidence for systematic trends having the character of a pattern of reverberations following an initial disturbance. The initial pulses have brightness increases...

We have obtained relatively deep imaging in two colors, with limiting magnitudes of V ~ 22.5 and Ic ~ 21, of about one square degree of the Pleiades open cluster. Our primary goal was to identify new candidate brown dwarf members of this ~100 Myr-old open cluster. In the process, we have also obtained V and Ic photometry for a large number of brigh...

We present results of photometric monitoring campaigns of G, K, and M dwarfs in the Pleiades carried out in 1994-1996. We have determined rotation periods for 18 stars in this cluster. In this paper we examine the validity of using observables such as X-ray activity and the amplitude of photometric variations as indicators of angular momentum loss....

We analyze the Q0957+561 A, B brightness record with three types of wavelets in order to define properties that are independent of the nature of the analyzing wavelet. The wavelet analysis picks out features having arbitrary shape, localizes them in time, and fits amplitudes. We find that independently of the analyzing wavelet, the mean wavelet amp...

We present extensive optical and infrared photometry of the afterglow of gamma-ray burst (GRB) 030329 and its associated supernova (SN) 2003dh over the first two months after detection (2003 March 30-May 29 UT). Optical spectroscopy from a variety of telescopes is shown and, when combined with the photometry, allows an unambiguous separation betwee...

An observing campaign with 10 participating observatories has undertaken to monitor the optical brightness of the Q0957 gravitationally lensed quasar for 10 consecutive nights in 2000 January. The resulting A image brightness curve has significant brightness fluctuations and makes a photometric prediction for the B image light curve for a second ca...

We present early observations of the afterglow of GRB 030329 and the spectroscopic discovery of its associated supernova SN 2003dh. We obtained spectra of the afterglow of GRB 030329 each night from March 30.12 (0.6 days after the burst) to April 8.13 (UT) (9.6 days after the burst). The spectra cover a wavelength range of 350-850 nm. The early spe...