UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN

Case File Details

The follow was submitted by researcher Stan Gordon, and is used here, with permission.

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by Stan Gordon

Did you see anything strange in the sky last year? Were you out in the woods and encountered a mysterious animal unlike anything that you had ever seen before? Did you experience an incident that you couldn’t find an explanation for? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you were not alone. Many Residents from across the state of Pennsylvania reported numerous observations of strange lights and objects in the sky throughout 2015. Some claimed to have seen formations of glowing lights, while others reported encountering spherical, cigar, triangular and rectangular objects from many locations of the Keystone state.

Even stranger were reports from many locations of encounters with mysterious creatures. Sightings of Bigfoot have historically been recorded for years, and these incidents continue to be reported annually, There were reports of huge birds with massive wingspans (thunderbirds) and even black panthers that are not common to this part of the world. Some creature reports were even stranger.

Citizens of Pennsylvania reported many types of strange incidents including seeing strange footprints, hearing frightening howls, whoops and screams from nearby woods, observing odd clouds, seeing fireballs crossing the sky, and experienced loud mystery booms that shook their homes. Some reported various paranormal experiences including capturing strange images on their cameras. As in past years, the majority of anomalies reported concern unusual lights and objects in the sky.

My interest in strange occurrences began in 1959, when I began to record and document mysterious incidents that were occurring in my home state of Pennsylvania. I was 16 years old in 1965 when the Kecksburg UFO incident occurred in Westmoreland County, and I began to document details about what had taken place. I began to conduct in the field investigations of UFO and cryptid reports after that incident, and set up a hotline in 1969, for the public to report UFO sightings and other unusual accounts. After so many years of interest in these strange occurrences, I still have never seen a UFO or Bigfoot.

I continue to record such incidents that come to my attention yearly via phone or email. Today there are many other researchers and organizations who also receive Pennsylvania reports. Some of these resources gathering this information include the National UFO Reporting Center, The Pennsylvania Bigfoot Society, the PA Chapter of MUFON, Jim Brown of Jim’s Destinations, and Lon Strickler of “Phantoms & Monsters.” I maintain contact with many UFO and Bigfoot investigators statewide and across the country.

When I began my field investigations many years ago into various phenomena, it became apparent that many incidents that initially sounded unusual, when properly investigated, were found to be explainable and determined to be of manmade or natural origin. Many UFO sightings are found to have logical explanations and over the years some observations were explained as bright planets and stars, brilliant meteors or re-entry of space debris, lights on aircraft, satellites, NASA high altitude tests, searchlight beams, lights reflecting off of insects, Chinese lanterns, and remote control aircraft. And now we have to deal with quadcopters (drones) with led displays.

Some Bigfoot sightings were only misidentifications of bear or large shaggy dogs. Others were camouflaged hunters in the woods. Many strange footprints were normal tracks that had been distorted by weather and ground conditions. The point is that many anomalies of various types can be explained. Not every UFO and cryptid encounter, however, can be so easily explained away.

While strange encounters are reported from many widespread locations from across the state, one of the most active areas for such unusual incidents continues to be along the Chestnut Ridge that covers sections of Westmoreland, Fayette, and Indiana Counties.

The following are some of the interesting incidents that came to my attention in 2015.

March 12, 2015- Two people had gone out to do some late night shopping near Monessen, located in the Mon Valley area. As they passed under a bridge, the car headlights struck a nine feet tall man-like creature that was covered with black hair that was standing along the side of a road. As soon as the lights hit it, the creature squinted its eyes and turned and tilted its head. The couple stared at the creature for about 15 seconds then quickly left the area. About 50 feet away from where they saw the creature, they noticed a terrible odor. The Mon valley has had a long history of Bigfoot sightings.

March 16, 2015- Numerous sources received information of a loud boom that shook houses that evening over a wide area of Fayette County from Connellsville to Uniontown. About the same time odd lights were reportedly seen in the area, which were followed by observations of an unusual amount of helicopter activity. A similar mystery boom was reported the night before in Allegheny County.

April 17, 2015- During the evening at a rural location in Westmoreland County not far from West Newton, two people were sitting off a country road and observed a bright white light in the sky moving in their direction which began to make a circular motion. The solid round white object, which made no sound, approached closer to them and hovered over some trees. Suddenly, the car and the area around it became illuminated by a dim white light that was emitted from the hovering object. The witnesses quickly left the area.

April 18, 2015- At a rural location in Greene County not far from Waynesburg, a driver observed what looked like a tall upright figure covered with hair moving quickly up a hillside near a construction site.

April 18, 2015- During the early morning hours, a witness located in a rural area near South Greensburg saw what looked like a tall dark figure in the yard. Later at that location, a large unusual footprint was found that measured approximately 16.5 inches long and 8 inches wide. In past years, other strange creature encounters have been reported from this general area.

April 21, 2015- Around 10:30 AM, a couple was driving between Parker and East Brady in Butler County when they saw a bright flash of light in the sky. The flash appeared to have been the sun reflecting for a moment off the surface of a very large solid object that appeared to be off in the distance over the Allegheny River. The witnesses pulled over to take a better look. The object looked solid black and rectangular shaped and looked to have 4 rows of windows or indentations on its surface. The object entered a large dark cloud that was nearby. The man readied his camera to photograph the object when it exited the cloud, but after 45 minutes, the object was never seen again.

May 8, 2015- Two people driving up a hill during the afternoon in North Huntingdon Township observed a silver metallic “pill” shaped elongated object that was rounded on the ends. The object was moving rapidly across the sky and was soon blocked by trees. When they reached an open view the object was not seen again. There have been many UFO sightings reported around the Irwin and North Huntingdon areas for years.

August 28, 2015- In the distant evening sky over the Laurel Ridge near Ligonier, witnesses observed an object that looked like a clear bubble with a fuzzy looking outside edge. As the witnesses watched, the strange object suddenly dropped straight down from the sky towards the ground. They expected there to be an impact and explosion but they neither heard nor saw anything after that. Many strange events have occurred over the years around both the Laurel Mountain area and Chestnut Ridge.

Late August-Early September, 2015- This incident took place around 5 PM on a sunny afternoon as the witness was taking a leisurely drive in eastern Butler County. Suddenly, 15-20 feet ahead of the vehicle and about ¾ of the way across the road, a being that was hard to describe was moving from right to left in front of the car. Whatever this thing was, it had a skinny body, stood about 4-4 ½ feet tall, and was similar to the color of a deer.

The head looked somewhat like that of a deer but was not real pointy. It narrowed at the top then rounded off. The creature was observed only from the side. The arms were very short and were held close to the chest. The hands were quite small and looked as though they were carrying something or being held together. No legs or feet were observed. The driver said the thing just “glided” above the roadway. When the witness reached the location on the road where the creature had been, it was no longer seen. The witness could not understand how the thing was just gone in a matter of seconds.

September, 2015- A witness reported seeing a huge black bird with a wingspan estimated to be over 15 feet wide that wasn’t flapping its wings, but just soaring through the sky. The sighting took place near the Cedar Street exit outside of Greensburg. This area has had a history of thunderbird reports. There were other reports of giant bird sightings from across the state during the year.

September-October 2015- Numerous reports of triangular objects were reported from various locations.

On September 1, 2015, a witness near Springdale located about 18 miles NE of Pittsburgh observed a very bright white light toward the west that evening. As the light got closer, an unusual loud sound was heard unlike that of jet or propeller aircraft. As the object passed low overhead, it appeared to be huge and was not any type of aircraft the witness was familiar with. The observer looked up at the bottom of a solid boomerang shaped object that had evenly spaced dim white spotlights that were all non-blinking along the edge of the underside of the object. The underbelly of the object had a greenish tinge. The object moved toward the east, then banked to the south and moved out of sight.

In early October at a rural location between Fayette and Westmoreland counties, a man walked outside of his home around 11 AM and looked up to see the bottom of a very large solid black triangular object that had appeared to have four exhaust vents. The object was moving very slowly about 500 feet above the ground and was completely silent. The man grabbed his cell phone which was completely charged to take a picture. When he aimed at it, the phone reportedly lost all power and would not function. This effect has been reported by other witnesses over the years.

November 23, 2015- At about 2 PM, a married couple was driving on a rural road about 2 miles from Ligonier. The driver noticed some movement in the bushes to the right of the road. Suddenly, an animal began to trot from right to left about 10-20 feet ahead of the car. The car was stopped as both witnesses watched something quite strange.

The animal was four legged and looked somewhat like a fox. However, they could only see the outline of the animal, as this creature was not solid, and no color or fur was observed. The husband told me that the animal had a “smoky veil shape” but his wife who had a longer look at it stated that she could “see through it.” She also said that there was a specific area within the body shape that was like an energy pattern. They watched as the animal entered the woods to their left and never saw it again.

December 24, 2015- At about 9 PM, a witness was outside when he noticed a solid triangular object southwest of Greensburg. There were a number of non-blinking lights on the silent object which was approaching closer to the witness location. The witness grabbed a floodlight and aimed it towards the object. As soon as the light hit the object, it disappeared and was not seen again.

December 9, 2015, was the 50^th anniversary of the Kecksburg, PA UFO crash-landing incident.

Late that afternoon in 1965, a brilliant fiery object was observed over a widespread area. That object reportedly fell from the sky into a wooded ravine near that Mount Pleasant Township community. Soon after the object fell, many eyewitnesses reported military personnel arriving in that area to search for the fallen object.

The object was reportedly taken away from that location on a military flatbed tractor trailer truck where it was transported first to Lockbourne Air Force Base in Ohio for a short stay over. The truck then continued on to Wright Patterson Air Force Base where it ended its journey. There have been many theories brought forth over the years as to what the object was that fell near Kecksburg in 1965. What that object was remains open for speculation.

To report a UFO, Bigfoot, cryptid, or any mysterious event from Pennsylvania, contact Stan at 724-838-7768 or email him at: paufo@comcast.net. Visit Stan’s website at: www.stangordon.info.

Huge cyclones rage near Jupiter's mysterious poles, and the giant planet's powerful auroras are fundamentally different from Earth's northern and southern lights.

Those are just two of the discoveries made by NASA's Juno spacecraft during its first few close passes over Jupiter's poles, mission scientists report in two studies published online today (May 25) in the journal Science.

"What we've learned so far is Earth-shattering. Or should I say, Jupiter-shattering," Juno principal investigator Scott Bolton, of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, said in a statement. [Photos: NASA's Juno Mission to Jupiter]

"Discoveries about its core, composition, magnetosphere, and poles are as stunning as the photographs the mission is generating," added Bolton, the lead author of one of the new Science studies and a co-author of the other.

The south pole of Jupiter is seen from an altitude of 32,000 miles (52,000 kilometers) in this enhanced color mosaic of images from NASA's JunoCam. Cyclones up to 600 miles wide (1,000 km) are visible.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Betsy Asher Hall/Gervasio Robles SCOTT BOLTON - 3

Lifting the veil on Jupiter

The $1.1 billion Juno mission launched in August 2011 and arrived in orbit around Jupiter on July 4, 2016. Since then, the solar-powered spacecraft has been using eight instruments to study the gas giant's composition, interior structure, and gravitational and magnetic fields. It will continue to do this work, barring some sort of malfunction, through at least February 2018, the end of Juno's primary mission.

The mission's name is a nod to the Roman goddess Juno, who was able to look through the clouds to see her frequently misbehaving husband Jupiter, the king of the gods, who was hiding within. Likewise, the Juno probe is peering beneath Jupiter's thick clouds to learn about the planet's formation and evolution — information that could shed light on the history of our solar system as a whole, NASA officials have said.

Juno makes most of the measurements relevant to this goal during its close flybys, which occur once every 53.5 days and bring the probe within about 3,100 miles (5,000 kilometers) of Jupiter's poles. (The original mission blueprint called for Juno to maneuver to a less elliptical orbit and make these flybys every 14 days, but an issue with two helium valves in the spacecraft's propulsion system nixed that plan.)

**GIF showing infrared emission from Jupiter, as observed by NASA's Juno spacecraft.**
**Credit: S.J. Bolton et al., Science (2017)**

Juno has now made five of these data-collecting "perijove passes." The first came on Aug. 27, 2016, and the most recent occurred just last week, on May 19. The two new Science papers report results just from the first few flybys, as well as some measurements Juno made as it neared Jupiter in June 2016.

Before Juno, no spacecraft had ever gotten close-up looks at Jupiter's poles. These mysterious regions are beautiful and bizarre, the Bolton-led study reports.

"When you look over the poles, all of those zones and belts are gone," Bolton said in a Science podcast that was also released today, referring to the striped cloud patterns prevalent at Jupiter's lower latitudes. "You see this bluish hue to it, and there's tons of these cyclone and anticyclonic storms spinning around the poles. It almost looks like meteor craters, but, of course, it's all atmosphere. It's all gas." [Photos: Jupiter, the Solar System's Largest Planet]

It's unclear what, exactly, drives these polar cyclones, some of which are up to 870 miles (1,400 km) wide, or if they're stable over long periods, Bolton said.

"Over the course of the mission, we'll be able to watch the poles and see how they evolve," he said in the podcast. "Maybe these cyclones are always there, but maybe they just come and go."

Juno also has been mapping out the concentration of water and ammonia deep within Jupiter's atmosphere. Data gathered during the first few passes has revealed that ammonia abundances vary quite a bit from place to place — a discovery that surprised the mission team.

"Most scientists have felt that, as soon as you go down a little bit into Jupiter, everything would be well-mixed, and we're finding that that's just not true at all," Bolton said. "There's structure down deep, but it doesn't seem to match the zones and belts. And so we're still trying to figure it out."

Juno's measurements during the first few close passes also show that Jupiter's magnetic field is nearly two times stronger than scientists had predicted. And the probe's gravity data suggest that "there's a lot of strange, deep motions that possibly are going on inside of Jupiter," Bolton said.

"What Juno's results are showing us is that our ideas of giant planets maybe are a little bit oversimplified," he added. "They're more complex than we thought; the motions that are going on inside are more complicated. It's possible that they formed differently than [suggested by] our simple ideas."

The southern lights of Jupiter, auroras at the planet's south pole, glow in this animation of false-colorimages from NASA's Juno spacecraft. The red hues suggest emissions from deeper in Jupiter's atmosphere, while green and white indicate higher regions.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SWRI

Otherworldly auroras

Earth's auroras result when the solar wind — charged particles streaming from the sun — slam into the planet's atmosphere, generating a glow. (Earth's magnetic field funnels these particles toward the poles, which explains the phenomenon's other name: the northern and southern lights.)

Scientists already knew that the solar wind is a major driver of Jovian auroras, and that the planet's rotation is involved as well. But Juno has given researchers a chance to study the phenomenon in unprecedented detail; no other spacecraft had ever flown close to the planet's auroral regions before, Bolton said.

The second newly published Science study, which was led by John Connerney of the Space Research Corporation and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, details what the Juno team learned about the auroras and Jupiter's magnetosphere from the initial perijove passes. Once again, there were some surprises.

For example, the particles associated with Jupiter's auroras seem to be different than the ones responsible for Earth's most stunning light shows, study team members said.

"We can see that it doesn't work exactly like we expected, or as the Earth does," Bolton said. "We haven’t been able to see particles necessarily going up and down in both directions like we would've expected to cause the aurora. So there's definitely some strange phenomena that we still need to comb through and understand better."

Further close flybys should allow the Juno team to investigate such questions, he added.

"We're at the beginning of the mission, so these first results are sort of telling us some of our models and ideas are wrong and need to be corrected," Bolton said. "And we have some ideas of which way to go, but it really takes some more data to really test whatever theories we put together and see if we're right."

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.