Zoektocht naar buitenaards leven: sterke radiosignalen ontvangen - HLN.be

Bron: BBC, The Independent, New Scientist

© Thinkstock.

Onderzoekers van het project van Stephen Hawking, 'Breakthrough Listen', hebben 15 sterke radiosignalen opgevangen uit een dwergsterrenstelsel dat 3 miljard lichtjaren, oftewel de afstand die het licht aflegt op 3 miljard jaar, van ons verwijderd is.

{ http://www.hln.be/ }

15-09-2017 om 13:13 geschreven door peter  

Is er water op TRAPPIST? Kans op leven opnieuw groter - HLN.be

Rond de dwergster TRAPPIST-1 cirkelen zeven exoplaneten die qua oppervlakte, temperatuur en massa op onze Aarde gelijken.

 © photo news.

Wetenschappers hebben aanwijzingen gevonden dat er mogelijk water is op de zeven aardachtige planeten bij ster TRAPPIST-1. Dat heeft de Hubble-telescoop ontdekt. Het vergroot de kans dat er leven mogelijk is op de planeten. Al hebben de onderzoekers geen directe bewijzen gevonden.

{ http://www.hln.be/ }

15-09-2017 om 13:09 geschreven door peter  

Befaamde ringen van Saturnus blijken minder oud dan gedacht - HLN.be

Bron: BBC

© getty.

WETENSCHAP De bijzondere ringen van de planeet Saturnus zouden zowat 100 miljoen jaar oud zijn. Dat is relatief jong, zo blijkt uit gegevens van ruimtesonde Cassini, die al dertien jaar rond de planeet vertoeft.

{ http://www.hln.be/ }

15-09-2017 om 13:02 geschreven door peter  

Wetenschapper heeft verklaring voor mysterie van Bermudadriehoek: "Er is helemaal geen mysterie" - HLN.be

Bron: news.com.au

© rv.

Al talloze schepen en vliegtuigen verdwenen in de beruchte Bermudadriehoek. "Het werk van aliens", zeggen sommigen, "energiestralen van Atlantis", beweren anderen. Maar de Australische wetenschapper Karl Kruszelnicki heeft een simpele, en logische verklaring voor het mysterie. "Er is helemaal geen mysterie."

© Wikimedia Commons.

De Bermudadriehoek, de driehoek in de Atlantische Oceaan tussen Miami, de Bermuda-eilanden en Puerto Rico, is al tientallen jaren voer voor discussie. Talloze schepen en vliegtuigen verdwenen er en nog meer theorieën deden de ronde, van aliens tot Atlantis. Maar de meest logische verklaring komt toch van Karl Kruszelnicki. 

Karl Kruszelnicki, een Australische wetenschapper en schrijver, meent dat er voor elke schipbreuk of crash een logische verklaring is: een menselijke fout, slecht weer of druk verkeer.

Lees ook

• Vliegtuigje mysterieus van radar verdwenen nabij duivelse Bermudadriehoek
• Italië onderzoekt oliesmokkel IS met 'spookschepen' maffia

Veel verkeer

Kruszelnicki legt aan news.com.au uit dat de Bermudadriehoek een enorme oppervlakte bestrijkt. De driehoek is zo'n 700.000 vierkante kilometer groot, dat is liefst 23 keer groter dan België. Omdat er in het gebied ook heel wat trafiek is, is het niet meer dan logisch dat er ook veel ongevallen gebeuren. "Het aantal schepen dat verdwijnt in de Bermudadriehoek is percentueel niet hoger dan ergens anders."

Vlucht 19

Vlucht 19, vijf Amerikaanse oorlogsvliegtuigen, verdwenen in 1945 spoorloos. 

© Wikimedia Commons.

De verdwijning die de gekte rond de Bermudadriehoek ontketende, was Vlucht 19, een vlucht van vijf Amerikaanse bommenwerpers die verdween tijdens een traingssessie in 1945. Maar ook daar blijkt een logische verklaring voor te zijn. 

Vlucht 19 vertrok op 5 december 1945 vanuit Fort Lauderdale in Miami voor een trainingssessie van twee uur boven de Atlantische Oceaan. Na een radiostilte keerde geen enkele van de vijf vliegtuigen terug. Van de veertien teamleden ontbrak elk spoor. Later die avond verdween ook een vliegtuig dat op zoek was naar de vermiste Vlucht 19. Van de dertien inzittenden werd nooit nog iets vernomen.

Piloot met een kater

Luitenant Charles Taylor © NAS Fort Lauderdale Museum.

Na Vlucht 19 begonnen talloze theorieën over de Bermudadriehoek op te borrelen. Elk ongeval in de driehoek werd uitvergroot, waardoor het mysterie alleen maar grotere proporties begon aan te nemen. Maar ook Vlucht 19 is te verklaren. "Ten eerste was het weer al slecht, de golven waren toen 15 meter hoog. Bovendien was luitenant Charles Taylor de enige ervaren piloot in het team." 

Mogelijk was piloot Charles Taylor, de leider van het team, de schuldige. "Hij had een kater, hij was vertrokken zonder horloge en hij was in zijn carrière al twee keer verloren gevlogen", zegt Kruszelnicki. Uit radiotranscripties blijkt dat Vlucht 19 de coördinatie kwijt was voor de verdwijning. Volgens de transcripties dacht luitenant Taylor dat zijn kompas stuk was en dat hij zich boven de Florida Keys bevond. Maar uit een latere analyse bleek dat ze boven de Bahama's vlogen. 

Luitenant Taylor zou ook een piloot hebben overruled die het wel bij het rechte eind had. De vliegtuigen trokken zo verder de Atlantische Oceaan in, waar het veel moeilijker is om lichamen of gezonken toestellen terug te vinden.

Vliegende benzinetank

Het vliegtuig dat verdween terwijl het de oceaan afspeurde op zoek naar Vlucht 19, verdween helemaal niet volgens Kruszelnicki. "Er zijn verschillende getuigen die het vliegtuig zagen ontploffen." Het type vliegtuig, een PBM-Mariner, had bovendien ook al de niet zo flatterende bijnaam 'vliegende benzinetank'. 

Het mysterie van de Bermudadriehoek lijkt dus opgelost. Het is een anticlimax, maar er is helemaal geen mysterie, als we Karl Kruszelnicki mogen geloven.

{ http://www.hln.be/hln/ }

15-09-2017 om 12:56 geschreven door peter  

$100,000 Reward for Evidence of Extraterrestrials on Earth

Paul Seaburn

Tired of buying Powerball Lottery tickets and never winning the top prize? Perhaps your odds (1 in 292 million) would be better if you tried taking a video of a UFO and submitting it to a movie executive who is offering a cool $100,000US for concrete evidence of extraterrestrial activity on Earth. Can a Reptilian just show up and collect the prize? Don’t be absurd. Why would a Reptilian need $100,000?

“It would have to be coupled with a piece of pretty substantial evidence. If there was a photograph of the object on the ground, a photograph of the object in the air, if there was a government document, irrefutable, confirming that, that would certainly be considered something that was bona fide.”

The offer was made this week by James Fox, the director of the UFO documentary Out of the Blue and the follow-up I Know What I Saw. On his first visit to Australia, during which he’s giving lectures and interviewing witnesses from the so-called Westall UFO incident in Melbourne in 1966 (when over 200 students and teachers saw a saucer-shaped UFO descend and take off), Fox announced his offer in an interview with news.com.au.

“And we are encouraging any military or government officials with some of these materials a rather large sum of money — $100,000 and possibly more — if they are willing to come forward.”

The prize will be paid to anyone, not just military or government officials, but Fox singles them out because he’s made this offer to them before … in 2013 at a UFO conference. The response was disappointing.

“We’ve got lots of compelling photographs but nothing where our jaw hit the floor.”

That’s why Fox is now opening the reward to the general public. He expects interest to be high because of the recent U.S. presidential election when John Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager and former White House chief of staff, spoke opening about disclosing UFO secret files to the public. While he wouldn’t reveal if Podesta will be involved in the evaluation of submitted evidence, Fox says he’s talked to him (an interview that will appear in his next film):

“He said that the phenomena cannot be explained away … (not) all of it. That it merits further investigation and that other people should take it more seriously.”

What are your odds of seeing a UFO? An accepted probability used in comparison with winning the lottery is 1 in 3 million. What are your odds of convincing James Fox to part with the money? (It’s not his – he says it’s from “two extremely high-profile American public figures and philanthropists.” Tom DeLonge?) That will be tough. Fox has been interviewing military and government officials and UFO witnesses and experts for almost two decades.

Here’s the kind of things he wants to see and it sounds like he knows they’re out there, including from the Westall UFO incident.

“… there are bits of evidence, whether it be radar or some photographs of landing gear, that sort of thing, that have never seen the light of day. We’re talking to a gentleman now, I can’t say any names, but apparently there was someone who did take a photograph of something very similar to that a day or two prior to the landing so we’re going to meet with him.”

Get out your cellphones and start scanning the skies. Check the attic for that piece of metal your weird uncle claimed he got when he was abducted. (Better wear gloves or disinfect it.) Who knows? It could be worth $100,000.

It beats playing the lottery.

{ http://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

15-09-2017 om 12:44 geschreven door peter  

Asteroid 2012 TC4 hurtling towards Earth and NASA is ‘Excited’!

Asteroid 2012 TC4 is heading towards Earth, with NASA claiming it gives their scientists a chance to test its space threat-scanning ability.

The asteroid has been out of range of telescopes since 2012. But on July 27, 31, and then again on Aug. 5, the approaching asteroid 2012 TC4 was observed again by Olivier Hainaut, Detlef Koschny and Marco Micheli of the European Space Agency using one of the European Southern Observatory's 8.2-meter telescopes at its Very Large Telescope Observatory.

The scientists said they are “excited” by the asteroid, which could be as large as 130 feet in size and is expected to fly past Earth on October 12 and even though scientists cannot yet predict exactly how close it will approach, they are certain it will come no closer than 4,200 miles (6,800 kilometers) from the surface of Earth while NASA said it is "absolutely certain" the rock will miss the planet.

This asteroid was first spotted in 2012 and it was this asteroid that worried people who thought the Mayan ancient civilization has predicted the end of the world.

At this moment the asteroid is approaching at about 30,000 mph (14 kilometers per second), and will continue to brighten - reaching 13th magnitude at time of closest approach.

NASA scientists are planning to use its upcoming October close approach to Earth as an opportunity not only for science, but to test NASA’s planetary defense system. The defense will not fire missiles from Earth into space yet, they want to monitor the asteroid only.

  

{ http://ufosightingshotspot.blogspot.com/ }

15-09-2017 om 12:34 geschreven door peter  

Niece of 'alien abductee' couple Barney and Betty Hill due to speak in Holmfirth

Speakers at UFO conference includes retired US Air Force officer

BY ANDREW ROBINSON

The UFO conference in Holmfirth

An American writer who is convinced that some alien abduction stories are real is a guest speaker at a UFO conference in Holmfirth this weekend.

Kathleen Marden, a leading UFO and abduction researcher, dates her interest in the subject to September 1961 when her aunt, Betty Hill, phoned her childhood home to report that she and her husband Barney had encountered a flying saucer in New Hampshire’s White Mountains.

The couple later claimed they had been abducted by extra terrestrials, an account which is recognised as the first widely publicised report of an alien abduction in the United States.

Kathleen Marden is among six speakers at the two-day UFO Truth Magazine International Conference which takes place this weekend, September 16 and 17, at Holmfirth Civic Hall.

Conference organiser Gary Heseltine, founder and editor of the UFO Truth Magazine, said: “The conference is fast becoming a regular calendar event for Holmfirth with local shops, cafes, restaurants and hotels and guest houses all benefitting from the hundreds of people who descend on the town from Friday to Sunday from all around Britain and some even from Europe.

He added: “The magazine was founded in 2013 and it was always my hope and intention that it should be based in the town.

“I wanted to bring a late year boost to local businesses and for it to become a regular fixture in the yearly calendar for Holmfirth.”

“This year we have two major speakers from the United States, Kathleen Marden and Robert Jacobs. Kathleen is the niece of the couple Barney and Betty Hill who became famous for being involved in the first well documented ‘alien abduction’ case in 1961.

“Kathleen has become a highly respected UFO author and researcher in her own right.”

He added: “Robert Jacobs is a retired US Air Force officer and missile specialist who became involved in a major UFO event in 1964 when an Atlas rocket that he was tracking and filming was targeted by a UFO whilst in mid-air causing it to crash to the ground.”

The third overseas speaker is Francisco Correa who is the head of the Exo-politics movement in Portugal. He will reveal a array of Portuguese military and pilot UFO cases.

The UK speakers are Gary, the host and founder of the magazine, author Andrew Johnson and blogger and radio show host, Ben Emlyn-Jones.

There are still a small number of tickets available for this event which has been a sell-out every year to date.

* Tickets are only available from the magazine website on this link: www.ufotruthmagazine.co.uk/2017-ufo-truth-conference/

{ http://www.examiner.co.uk/ }

14-09-2017 om 23:58 geschreven door peter  

Does this photograph and shock new evidence solve Rendlesham UFO mystery once and for all?

EXCLUSIVE: The famous Rendlesham UFO did descend from the air and land in woods next to two US military bases 37 years ago - and this image that has surfaced proves it, it has been claimed.

14-09-2017 om 23:48 geschreven door peter  

Tracey Ferrier

Meteor Shower Adorns Southern Lights Over Tasmania

VIDEO Photographer Daniel Lam captured this stunning timelapse footage of a meteor shower streaking across the skies of Nile, Tasmania.

Reports of a meteor falling on a far north Queensland beach have forced police to reassure locals they were never at risk from a tsunami.

Police were inundated with panicked calls from people in Cairns and nearby Yarrabah on Monday night, expressing concern that a meteor may have fallen to earth and sparked a tsunami.

Local officers had to call the police media unit and ask them to issue social media posts saying there was no threat.

"Residents around Yarrabah and #Cairns area there is no tsunami threat in place," police posted on Facebook and Twitter.

Reports of a meteor falling, similar to those seen in this file picture, in Queensland, have triggered fears of a tsunami.

Photo: AP

Some Facebook users seemed baffled by the message, with others explaining that a meteor shower in the far north was behind the post.

Russell Garrard joked that fears of a tsunami might have been linked to "some podgy short daddy's boy getting into the nuclear weaponry again" - a reference to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's recent nuclear tests.

Police said that there was no tsunami threat.

The Bureau of Meteorology also received calls overnight, but it's unaware of a meteor actually hitting the ground.

"It sounds like someone has seen a meteor and reported it and had some concerns about tsunamis, which seems a bit strange to me unless it was a large lump of rock," forecaster Gordon Banks said.

"The vast majority of meteors that are seen are little bits of dirt."

Tasmanian 'UFO' mystery solved

VIDEO This vision from Tasmania may look like a UFO or meteor, but it's been confirmed as something completely normal.

{ https://au.news.yahoo.com/ }

14-09-2017 om 23:25 geschreven door peter  

Spielberg offered to aid in United Nation UFO effort during Close Encounters era

Steven Spielberg is really into UFOs. This is not too hard to imagine given movies like Close Encounters of the Third Kind, ET: The Extraterrestrial and his mini-series Taken, among others. In a recent interview with journalist Lee Speigel, I discovered that he also lent a helping hand in a 1970s effort get the United Nations to investigate UFOs.

Devils Tower National Monument. The location of a UFO rendezvous in the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

(Credit: Alejandro Rojas)

Lee Speigel

I am currently in Hulett, Wyoming, where I can see Devils Tower National Monument, which was popularized by the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Tomorrow, I will be doing a talk about Spielberg and his history of interest in the UFO phenomena at the Devils Tower UFO Rendezvous which commemorate the 40th anniversary of the movie. In my talk I will be playing a clip of Speigel describing a meeting with Spielberg who was interested in his effort to display the best UFO evidence at a general session of the United Nations.

Speigel was a young New Yorker at the time who had just put together a record album documentary on UFOs. He realized there were a lot of credible people talking about UFOs and pitched the project to CBS Inc., who liked the idea and sent him around the country to interview these people. Among those he interviewed were scientists, politicians, law enforcement and an astronaut, Gordon Cooper, who relayed his personal UFO experience.

Dr. Wernher von Braun and Astronaut L. Gordon Cooper during the MR-3 (Freedom 7) mission on May 5, 1961, which put the first American, Alan Shepard, in space.

(image credit: NASA)

A couple years after producing his record, Speigel heard about an effort to get the United Nations to officially look into the UFO issue. The effort was initiate by Grenada’s Prime minister, Sir Eric Gairy. He decided that what the effort needed was a presentation with the likes of the credible people he had in his record. So, with the confidence of a young New Yorker, he contacted the ambassadors to Granada and offered his services. The government of Granada liked his idea and the event planning began.

Two of the people Speigel enlisted for his presentation were Dr. J.Allen Hynek and Dr. Jacques Vallee. Hynek was a well-known astronomer who acted as a consultant to the U.S. Air Force’s official public UFO investigations from their inception in 1947 to their end in 1969. He then went on to form his own civilian UFO investigation organization, and is arguably the father of modern civilian UFO research. The later, Vallee was a student of his at Northwestern University, and went on to become an author and UFO researcher as well.

Hyenk and Vallee also played important roles in the conception of the movie Close Encounter of the Third Kind. Hynek actually developed the Close Encounters UFO sighting categorization system, and was a consultant for Spielberg on the movie. Vallee, being French, was the inspiration for one of the lead characters in the movie, Claude Lacombe, played by French director Francois Truffaut.

J. Allen Hynek can be seen in a scene towards the end of the Close Encounters movie.

(Credit: Columbia Pictures)

“It was amazing,” says Speigel. “One day I got a call from Spielberg’s publicist to see if I wanted to go out to Hollywood to meet with Steven, Dr. Hynek and Dr. Vallee.”

Speigel’s first response was, “Why do you want me there?”

He didn’t think anyone knew who he was. He was told that Spielberg had heard of his upcoming U.N. presentation and he wanted to talk to the group and offer his assistance.

Speigel says the three men did meet with Spielberg to talk UFOs. Understandably, he says it was an amazing experience. At the end of the meeting, Spielberg said his office would help with anything they needed, and Speigel says they did provide some graphics and information that was incorporated in the U.N. presentation.

So what happened with the U.N. and UFOs? Well, on November 27, 1978, Speigel, Hynek, Vallee, Gairy, Cooper and other credible witnesses and researchers did put on a presentation that included photos and video.

As a result, the U.N. passed a decision on UFOs, which holds less weight than a resolution, but is official none the less.

Their decision included this verbiage: “The General Assembly invites interested member states to take appropriate steps to coordinate on a national level scientific research and investigation into extraterrestrial life, including unidentified flying objects, and to inform the secretary-general of the observations, research and evaluation of such activities.”

Meeting at the UN on UFOs. Clockwise from left: astronaut Gordon Cooper, astronomer Jacques Vallee, astronomer/astrophysicist Claude Poher, astronomer J. Allen Hynek, Grenada Prime Minister Sir Eric Gairy, UN Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim, Morton Gleisner of the Special Political Committee, Lee Speigel, researcher Len Stringfield, and University of Colorado psychologist David Saunders 

(Credit: Lee Speigel)

The U.N. was to follow up on Granada’s UFO request the following year, but by then Granada had undergone a coup that unseated Gairy and the subject was dropped.

You can read more about the U.N. event at Lee Speigel’s website, and on various interviews on the Open Minds UFO Radio Podcast. It is also part of my presentation on Official Government UFO Agencies seen below.

 { http://www.openminds.tv/ }

14-09-2017 om 23:09 geschreven door peter  

New mysterious signals detected by search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) project

New unidentified signals from deep space have been detected by the Breakthrough Listen project, an attempt to detect evidence of an extraterrestrial civilization. Similar signals have been detected before, but more signals than ever were recorded recently, and, according to the Breakthrough Listen project, an intelligent extraterrestrial civilization has not been ruled out as a potential source.

The type of signals recently observed are called fast radio bursts (FRBs). They are extremely short bursts, but also extremely bright. Most of the FRBs detected thus far have been singular events, which is not so mysterious. Scientists often discover mysterious radio transmissions, but they are typically due to cosmic events. What makes the newly discovered signals mysterious is that they repeat, unlike a cosmic event which sends out one large signal when the event takes place.

FRB 121102 was discovered on November 2, 2012, giving it its name. In 2015, it was found that FRB 121102 repeats, then in 2016 it was traced back to a galaxy billions of light years away. However, scientists know of nothing in that area which would be creating a repeating signal.

On August 26 of this year, scientists with Breakthrough Listen used the Green Bank Telescope to observe FRB 121102. They recorded ten 30-minutes scans and detected 15 bursts. This may not sound like much, but up until this point there had been less than two dozen FRBs recorded.

The Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Radio Telescope (GBT) focuses 2.3 acres of radio light. It is 485ft tall, nearly as tall as the nearby mountains and much taller than pine trees in the national forest. The telescope is in a valley of the Allegheny mountains to shield the observations from radio interference.

(Credit: National Radio Astronomy Observatory)

So what could these FRBs be?

“Several explanations for FRBs have been suggested,” explains a recent article in Newsweek. “One is a cataclysmic event, such as a neutron star collapsing into a black hole. But such an event would produce only one burst and therefore does not explain the repeating pattern of FRB 121102. Another possible explanation is that they are coming from a young, highly magnetized neutron star, but so far nothing like this has been detected in this region of space.”

After acknowledging the mystery of the discovery, Newsweek goes on to conclude, “Despite widespread speculation, the possibility of the signals coming from an advanced alien civilization has been largely ruled out.”

Of course, not everyone agrees. A recent article in New Scientist covers some ideas scientists have come up with which would include potential alien sources for the signals.

Breakthrough Listen is part of what is called the Breakthrough Initiative. It is financed by Russian billionaire Yuri Milner. While Musk, Bezos and Bigelow have decided to spend their fortunes on building spacecraft and/or habitats for humans to get to and inhabit space, Milner has decided to look for aliens.

Yuri Milner and Stephen Hawking announcing the $100 million Breakthrough Initiative in London in 2015.

(Photo via Breakthrough Initiative)

There are thee parts to the Breakthrough Initiative. The first two announced were Listen and Message. The first aimed at listening for signals from extraterrestrial civilizations, much like what the SETI Institute is known for. The second, Breakthrough Message, entailed a $1 million prize for the creation of messages to send to space. However, the messages will not be sent, probably because Stephen Hawking, an associate of the initiative, has expressed concern about what will happen if aliens find out we are here.

The third, Breakthrough Starshot, plans to send hundreds of tiny spaceships to the closest star system, Alpha Centauri, to look for signs of life. These spacecraft would largely consist of sails that are pushed along by lasers here on Earth. Once they reach their destination, the little spacecraft will have a few hours to record video and whatever other telemetry they will be able to obtain. The data will then be sent back to earth via lasers. However, because we are talking about such vast distances, the data will take four years to reach Earth, even at the speed of light.

Artist depiction of Breakthrough Startshot.

(Credit: Breakthrough Initiatives)

Coincidentally, or not, the New Scientist article explains that this type of spacecraft could be responsible for the FRBs.

The article posits:

…maybe they are using these powerful radio beams to power light sails, which push spacecraft along by bouncing light off a large, reflective sheet. A sail that requires a beam as powerful as an FRB would be much bigger than any we’ve ever considered making on Earth. Such an alien light sail could carry almost a million tonnes – in contrast, the International Space Station only weighs about 420 tonnes.

If there were many extraterrestrial civilizations with colossal alien cruise ships, there could be many powerful radio beams sweeping through the sky, each following the path of a sail. When the beam’s path intersects with the Earth’s, we’d see a bright but fleeting burst of radio waves.

The Breakthrough Initiative’s press release includes this bit of speculation In their recent announcement on this latest discovery. According to the Breakthrough Initiative press release, “Possible explanations for FRBs range from outbursts from rotating neutron stars with extremely strong magnetic fields, to more speculative ideas that they are directed energy sources used by extraterrestrial civilizations to power spacecraft.”

So, in the end, we can not be sure what is causing the FRBs, but an alien civilization is not being ruled out. At least not by everyone, especially the Breakthrough Initiative.

A technical summary of Breakthrough Listen’s discovery has been releases in an Astronomer’s Telegram, and will be released in further detail in an upcoming article in a scientific journal.

 { http://www.openminds.tv/ }

14-09-2017 om 23:00 geschreven door peter  

 { http://www.openminds.tv/ }

14-09-2017 om 22:55 geschreven door peter  

Canadian UFO researcher and author to teach UFO continuing education course

Chris Rutkowski is a science writer and UFO researcher. He has authored several books on UFOs and has also taught courses on the subject. Next month Rutkowski will begin teaching his latest UFO course for the continuing education program for the St. James-Assiniboia School Division in Winnipeg.

UFOs are still somewhat of a taboo topic and often met with ridicule in the world of academia, so UFO courses are few and far between. However, ridicule is something Rutkowski combats well with a well developed sense of humor. And, being a science writer, Rutkowski also understand how to bring credibility to a topic that is often misunderstood.

“I often get asked, ‘What is really going on? And where do I get good information?,’” says Rutkowski. “Such courses are a way to educate the public about a very confusing subject.”

Although the public’s curiosity is healthy when it comes to UFOs, it was Rutkowski’s relationship with the St. James-Assiniboia School Division that helped get the course created.

“I have been teaching courses on writing for several years. They asked me if I had ideas about other courses I could do and I suggested a course on UFOs,” explained Rutkowski. “Because my latest book came out a few months ago and is about a major UFO case in our area, and because it’s been getting a lot of attention, they knew about it and thought it would make a good special interest class.”

Rutkowski’s latest book, co-authored with Stan Michalak, is titled When They Appeared. It is about a famous alleged UFO encounter in 1967 near Falcon Lake, which is a bit less than 100 miles east of Winnipeg. According to the book’s description, the incident was the most investigated UFO event in Canada’s history.

The story is very odd. On May 20, 1967, Stefan Michalak, father of the co-author, says he came across a strange craft. It had some sort of vents on the side. It took off and in the process injured Stefan, who suffered from burns on his chest in the pattern of the vents on the craft.

Stefan Michalak’s sketch of the strange craft he encountered.

Stefan Michalak was treated at a hospital for burns to his chest and stomach that later turned into raised sores on a grid-like pattern.

The news soon got ahold of the story and it became a media sensation.

“It just flipped our lives over,” Stan recently told CBC News. “It took several years before it finally died down.”

Rutkowski’s UFO class will be held at John Taylor Collegiate.

(Credit: John Taylor Collegiate)

I asked Rutkowski if he felt teaching the public about UFOs was important. He replied, “Yes, in that there is a real thirst from the public for information about UFOs beyond tabloid news.”

As a science writer, and someone who takes the UFO phenomenon seriously, I also asked what approach Rutkowski takes in presenting the course material.

“I include some discussion on critical thinking and how to evaluate UFO reports and claims,” Rutkowski replied. “I do acknowledge that there is much we don’t know, but that there is much we do.”

If you live in the Winnipeg area, you can register for Rutkowki’s UFO course, which starts September 25, 2017,  at www.localcourses.com, and you can find the book at the publisher’s website, McNallyRobinson.com. To find out more about his work, you can follow Rutkowski’s UFO Blog at uforum.blogspot.com.

 { http://www.openminds.tv/ }

14-09-2017 om 22:48 geschreven door peter  

UFO witness spots large “spherical object” during hike in Portugal

A hiker in Portugal took some photos of an odd object recently. The witness submitted the photos and report to the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) yesterday. According to the report, the sighting took place on August 20, 2017.

Picture submitted by witness. Click to enlarge.

(Credit: MUFON)

Second picture submitted by witness. Click to enlarge.

(Credit: MUFON)

The witness says the object appeared to be the size of a helicopter. The witness described it as an “irregular sphere” in the title of the report, and as a spherical object in the description. However, the odd shape that can be seen in the photos is difficult to describe.

Close-up of object in first picture.

Close-up of object in second picture.

The witness wrote, verbatim:

I was hiking on the mountain and taking pictures when I observed a spherical object the size of a helicopter. It flew silently and too fast, so I immediately started shooting. While doing this I lost the visual reference of the object. When I returned to look at the sky in search of the first object appeared a second object at the same speed and following the same path. The objects traveled from SE to NW at a speed of over 300 km / h, at an altitude of 100m to 200m and at a distance of less than 3km from the observation point.

Map of area submitted by witness. Click to enlarge.

(Credit: MUFON)

Mylar balloons can look odd floating around and are often reported as UFOs. However, they are typically a regular shape and smooth. Could this one be a half deflated balloon? If so, it would not have been as large as a helicopter as the witness describes, and it does look to be rather large in the photo.

The marker shows the location of Vila Real, the area the witness says the sighting took place.

(Credit: Google Maps)

The vast majority of UFO sightings turn out to be mundane objects, but once in awhile there are sightings that are much more difficult to explain. MUFON conducts investigations on sightings submitted to their website, and if they share their conclusions, we will let you all know. Meanwhile, others will likely chime in and we will try to keep you up to date with any discoveries. Please feel free to share your thoughts on the object in the comments below.

 { http://www.openminds.tv/ }

14-09-2017 om 22:44 geschreven door peter  

Lights dance around the sky in Arizona UFO video

A witness in Arizona submitted a video to the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) of lights dancing around the night sky. The video is very impressive, but the lights are most likely drones.

Screen shot from UFO video submitted to MUFON.

(Credit: MUFON)

The witness submitted the video on September 10, 2017, indicating the sighting had taken place on the evening of September 3. The witness wrote that the UFOs were witnessed while driving in the Oro Valley, a suburb of Phoenix. The witness stopped the car to take a look and film the objects.

Marker indicates approximate location of witness. The objects were likely around the park at the bottom of this image.

(Credit: Google Maps)

The witness described the objects as “3 balls of light with glimmer of red and blue hovering, flying near tangerine rd and copper spring dr.”

The witness stated the objects were seen for about 10 minutes. The video lasts almost 2 minutes, and can be downloaded here.

The park where drones were most likely launched.

(Credit: Google Maps)

The lights dance around the sky, and the video is impressive, but so are modern day drones. Another giveaway is that the objects seem to launch from a park in the distance.

Drone technology has come a long way. In fact, drone racing has become a popular sport. Drone racers can don a virtual reality goggles and view the race first person. It is like a real-life video game. Check out this great video below of drone racing from GoPro. The drones are very maneuverable, and because Phoenix enjoys great weather, it is a hot spot for nighttime drone racing.

 { http://www.openminds.tv/ }

14-09-2017 om 22:36 geschreven door peter  

Lights dance around the sky in Arizona UFO video

A witness in Arizona submitted a video to the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) of lights dancing around the night sky. The video is very impressive, but the lights are most likely drones.

Screen shot from UFO video submitted to MUFON.

(Credit: MUFON)

The witness submitted the video on September 10, 2017, indicating the sighting had taken place on the evening of September 3. The witness wrote that the UFOs were witnessed while driving in the Oro Valley, a suburb of Phoenix. The witness stopped the car to take a look and film the objects.

Marker indicates approximate location of witness. The objects were likely around the park at the bottom of this image.

(Credit: Google Maps)

The witness described the objects as “3 balls of light with glimmer of red and blue hovering, flying near tangerine rd and copper spring dr.”

The witness stated the objects were seen for about 10 minutes. The video lasts almost 2 minutes, and can be downloaded here.

The park where drones were most likely launched.

(Credit: Google Maps)

The lights dance around the sky, and the video is impressive, but so are modern day drones. Another giveaway is that the objects seem to launch from a park in the distance.

Drone technology has come a long way. In fact, drone racing has become a popular sport. Drone racers can don a virtual reality goggles and view the race first person. It is like a real-life video game. Check out this great video below of drone racing from GoPro. The drones are very maneuverable, and because Phoenix enjoys great weather, it is a hot spot for nighttime drone racing.

 { http://www.openminds.tv/ }

14-09-2017 om 22:36 geschreven door peter  

But Seriously, Where Are All of the Aliens?

Brent Swancer 

The human race has been fascinated with the vast sea of space for as long as our first flickers of awareness that it even existed began to form. Specifically, one very profound question that has gestated within our collective consciousness is simply: are we alone? We have long pondered whether there might be someone else out there amongst that uncharted ocean of stars, and this has become the focus of science fiction stories, personal reflection, philosophical dilemma, and scientific debate from the time we were able to comprehend that there were even other planets out there. In recent years our ever advancing technology has allowed us to peer into the deep black of space and locate many other planets orbiting stars just as our own, with quite a few even displaying signs that they may even be similar to ours and be habitable, and for decades we have carefully listened in to hear if there is any message flying about in the void. But is there anyone there at all?

The question of whether there is other advanced life out there is a profound one, and perhaps one of the most important unanswered questions there is. Another is, if intelligent life is out there, then where are they? We have spent vast amounts of time looking for such life, used millions upon millions of dollars, and made great sacrifices exploring the great unknown beyond our world, scouring every corner of the known universe for any sign whatsoever of life, and yet as far as we know we are the only ones. How could this be? There are ideas.

In 1950, influential and notable physicist Enrico Fermi was working for Los Alamos National Laboratory, and one day while having lunch with colleagues Emil Konopinski, Edward Teller and Herbert York, the conversation came around to UFOs and alien life. The group began discussing the possibility of other alien civilizations out there scattered across the galaxy, and that was when Fermi simply and bluntly asked “Where are they?” This generated a bit of laughter around the table, but he was perfectly serious. When the others asked exactly what he had meant, Fermi explained that if there was another civilization or civilizations that had developed out there with the technological ability to traverse space, then eventually they should have already spread out all over the galaxy, and we should have had some brush with them by now in some form.

Fermi reasoned that there had been plenty of time for them to do so, and utilized complicated equations to illustrate that over millions and millions of years, just a drop in the bucket compared to the age of the universe, these hypothetical alien civilizations should have at least found us by now. Fermi explained that with so many stars and potential planets in the observable universe, then if even a fraction of those had produced intelligent, spacefaring life then they would have exponentially broken their barriers and moved out into the galaxy, colonizing new worlds, and we would have surely known about them by now. By Fermi’s various calculations, the probability for intelligent life somewhere in the universe was high considering the sheer scale of it all, and if such advanced societies had developed, then after so much time aliens should be everywhere by now, or at the very least given us some sort of sign of their existence, even if such societies are rare. Yet there is no one, no evidence of such a thing, not a single sign that there is anyone else out there at all. Essentially, like Fermi asked, where is everybody?

This is the main gist of what has gone on to become known as the “Fermi Paradox,” and although it has been criticized by many as being perhaps too simplistic and making too many assumptions based on our own ideas of life, it has nevertheless gone on to become a major cornerstone for debate on the topic of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, and has inevitably hung over most discussions on the matter. This offhand lunchtime remark has propelled the imagination and driven the efforts of organizations like SETI. No matter what one thinks of the veracity of Fermi’s question, it is a compelling one to say the least, and there have been many numerous and varied theories that have come forth to try and explain just why we have not found anyone else out there in this cold universe of ours.

Perhaps the most intuitive and ready answer is that the universe is simply too incredibly huge, and that these beings are just too incalculably far away. Perhaps we, or them, live in the boondocks of the universe, the outer fringes, and with scales like these we are talking about with distances and areas so vast that the average person would have trouble even comprehending it all, it seems quite possible. Imagine the galaxy as a sprawling beach of white sand, and the universe as every beach in the world and you are getting somewhat close. Now imagine someone in, say, South Africa trying to find one particular single grain of sand on some remote beach in North America. These are the kinds of vast scopes we are dealing with here, even more so.

In this theory, we are simply too far away and too lost in the cosmos to even register. We could just be out in the middle of nowhere amidst a beach of stars and no one has noticed us. We might just be in an isolated, uncharted corner of the universe and while all the other intelligent races out there are getting together we simply remain undiscovered. This seems like a rational idea, and could be true, but Fermi didn’t think this cut the mustard. He was under the impression that distance mattered little, nor did the speed of travel. The SETI Institute’s very own web page says of this:

You can quibble about the speed of alien spacecraft, and whether they can move at 1 percent of the speed of light or 10 percent of the speed of light. It doesn’t matter. You can argue about how long it would take for a new star colony to spawn colonies of its own. It still doesn’t matter. Any halfway reasonable assumption about how fast colonization could take place still ends up with time scales that are profoundly shorter than the age of the Galaxy. It’s like having a heated discussion about whether Spanish ships of the 16th century could heave along at two knots or twenty. Either way they could speedily colonize the Americas.

This could be explained away by saying that life may just be incredibly rare in the universe, which when coupled with the immense distances involved serves to keep us apart, but even if this were the case there is also the fact that these would be races far beyond us in terms of development, so would we really remain merely out of sight in some remote corner of the universe without being detected in the slightest? Is this possible? Indeed, we have been boldly announcing our presence to the universe for decades, so are they so far away that they haven’t received the message or what? Perhaps, or maybe they do know we are here but simply don’t care. Maybe they are listening to our desperate calls out into the cosmos but just don’t want to answer?

There are a lot of reasons why these hypothetical aliens might not want to acknowledge our existence. Perhaps we just seem to be too primitive, and they no more wish to try and talk to us than we might wish to try and talk to an ant. As renowned astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson has said, “We’d be drooling, blithering idiots in their presence.” More optimistically, maybe they are listening, but waiting until we reach a certain level of sophistication before finally approaching us. Or maybe they see us as an inevitable threat and have decided to stay away. More depressingly, maybe we just aren’t all that interesting to them. Who knows? It also could be that they see us as merely a curiosity, and are watching but willfully choose to leave us be as we are, just watching us and seeing what happens next. This theory even has a name, the “Zoo Hypothesis,” first suggested by a John A. Ball in 1973, which suggests that we are at best curiosities for other civilizations and at worst not worth talking to or insignificant, just entertainment and nothing more. Ball would say of this idea:

The idea that we shall be welcomed as new members into the galactic community is as unlikely as the idea that oysters will be welcomed as new members into the human community. We’re probably not even edible.

It seems to be a slap in the face, that we could spend so much time and money more or less blaring out our presence into the stars without an answer simply because they choose to ignore us or blow us off for whatever reasons. If that seems too depressing for you, then an offshoot of this is that we are just using the wrong method of communication to reach out to them. Although using radio waves seems natural and rational to us, there is the chance that they have moved well beyond such primitive methods of broadcast, or have never even developed this means of communication at all. Maybe they are using some other advanced system of communication and are so far beyond our own attempts at contact that they simply don’t recognize our signals for what they are. This could work the other way around as well, with them potentially sending out copious messages out into the stars but with us unable to detect or understand them to any extent. One cosmologist and astrophysicist named Lord Rees has observed:

They could be staring us in the face, and we just don’t recognize them. The problem is that we’re looking for something very much like us, assuming that they at least have something like the same mathematics and technology. I suspect there could be life and intelligence out there in forms we can’t conceive.

In short, we might mutually have no idea that the other is trying to communicate, and our messages just might turn out as white noise to each other. Other reasons for no response from the cosmos could also be that we just haven’t been looking long enough or have been focusing on the wrong places, but the fact that we have gotten no response to our various dedicated efforts to reach out seems at least somewhat discouraging.

Other theories prove to be a slight bit more dismal and sobering yet. One very persistent theory is that intelligent life has routinely developed throughout the cosmos, but that they have inevitably hit a dead end or stumbling block along the way. According to this idea, it is the intrinsic nature of an advanced species to eventually destroy or cripple itself, or reach point where it is otherwise unable to continue its journey out into the stars. There are two different takes on this idea. One is that advanced societies are inherently self-destructive; an idea called the Medea Hypothesis, named after a Greek goddess who killed her own children. According to this hypothesis, any sufficiently developed civilization will eventually totally wipe itself out through warfare, violence, genocide and strife.

It is not hard to see this in effect to some extent even within the news of our own current affairs, so perhaps no aliens have gotten far enough to reach us because they just have it wired into their genes to annihilate themselves before they ever even get the chance. They simply self destruct at some point, never progressing past a certain point of development. Or maybe other species out there have indeed reached past this point, but none that have overlapped in the same era before fading away. After all, we are talking about mind-bogglingly long stretches of time, so maybe they have just naturally run their course and reached an end before another intelligent civilization comes about to talk to, but in the end there has been something that has caused the extinction of an intelligent race to make it uncontactable.

Another take on this basic premise is called the “Great Filter Theory,” which holds that intelligent life is, for one reason or another,  simply not able to progress to the point of intergalactic travel and communication. It supposes that we eventually reach some form of a barrier to our inexorable technological advances that keeps us tethered to our own world and unable to reach out into the cosmos to any appreciable degree. This could be because of many reasons, such as war, ecological catastrophe, a cataclysmic event, or the limits of our minds, but it all boils down to us inevitably hitting an impenetrable wall through which we cannot pass. That species are doomed to fail at reaching out into the stars is unsettling to say the least, but on a brighter note maybe we are just the first ones to have managed to breach this limit?

There are some who think so, but if this is the case and we are truly the first, then all other life in the universe would be far too primitive to have reached our level of sophistication and so would remain incognito for quite some time to come, essentially making us effectively alone. If this is the case, then we are truly the first intelligent beings to make it to the point where we are flying out into space and making attempts at communication, but no one else has the ability to listen. This relative primitive state of affairs could explain why no other civilization has been sending signals into space or answering our own, because they still simply lack the means with which to do so, and we may be waiting for quite some time.

Linked to this is the idea that alien life may be simply far too different from ours to even recognize. We like to think that we have a handle on what constitutes life and its building blocks, or the criteria for a hospitable world, but what if we have it all wrong? What if life does not have to abide by our own tentative understanding of its rules, and we are more or less anthropomorphizing it to fit our own limited window for what life requires or should be like? If this were the case alien life could be all around us and blaring into our ears and we would not recognize it in the slightest bit because it would be too different from our limited definition of what life should be for us to recognize it as such. It could just be incomprehensible to us.

Moving out into more far-out territory we come to more, shall we say, unconventional explanations for our lack of any sort of contact with extraterrestrials. One common one is that we are all living in a simulated reality and therefore aliens don’t exist simply because they have not been programmed in. There is actually a lot of speculation on this matter, of which I have covered at Mysterious Universe before, and as questionable as it all may seem it would definitely explain why there are no aliens. Similar to this is the idea that aliens do exist, but that they live in another plane of reality, and therefore remain mostly hidden to us. They may even be all around us right now, but we would never know because they are invisible and lurking in another dimension or plane of existence just beyond our perceptions.

There is also of course the notion that alien life is already here, as evidenced by all of the UFO sightings and alien encounters we have recorded over the decades. Maybe we have to look no further than these reports to see the evidence that not only does alien life exist, but that it is already here amongst us, just remaining in the shadows hidden, elusive and unverified. Although there are certainly a lot of strange UFO sightings and reports of meetings with aliens, these nevertheless remain unconfirmed, and even if they are all real they could be something even stranger still, and not necessarily evidence of life from the stars.

Finally we have what might be the bleakest, most depressing answer to the Fermi Paradox of all, and that is that we truly are alone. Although that may seem unbelievable considering the countless planets that apparently lie out there in the universe, perhaps we just happened to win the intergalactic lottery. Despite all of the talk of the building blocks of life present on other worlds, perhaps things were able to come together just so and in such a precise manner on our planet that life was able to evolve, but hasn’t done so anywhere else. There is the possibility that this was a one of a kind occurrence, an anomaly, and that even if it were to happen again there would be no guarantee that it would ever advance past single-celled organisms. In this scenario we are truly the only ones, the only advanced race in the entire universe, indeed perhaps the only life at all, and the reason no one has answered our calls or shown up at our doorstep is that there is simply no one else out there, just the yawning chasm of endless, inhospitable, empty space. It is a chilling revelation to be sure, and with all of the potential for life lying out there in the chasms of space a seemingly unbelievable one, yet one that must be at least considered; that maybe, just maybe, we are alone after all.

There are other ideas as well, running the range from the rational to the absurd, but these are the main theories as to why we have yet to officially encounter any aliens or even detect them in the slightest bit. We continue to trudge on as we always have, the dedicated amongst us reaching out to the stars and trying to elicit a response, and that response never comes. Why is it that we have never found any evidence of life beyond our own? Why have we remained alone and uncertain as to our status in the universe? Is the answer right around the corner, or is it as some suspect that we are the only life there is in this unfathomably large universe; the exception to the rule and the sole consciousness within an infinite sea of dark, lifeless emptiness? Until we make the contact we yearn for, we will not know.

{ http://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

14-09-2017 om 21:57 geschreven door peter  

UFO Seekers Flock to Devils Tower Seeking Close Encounters

Brett Tingley

In Steven Spielberg’s iconic 1977 science-fiction film Close Encounters of the Third Kind, a mysterious force compels desperate seekers to converge on Wyoming’s Devils Tower in search of answers. When they arrive, they encounter a massive alien mothership which communicates through music and returns scores of missing persons who have been abducted over the years. A lucky few of the witnesses are allowed to go aboard the mothership and travel to the stars with the alien beings. Forty years after the film’s release, UFO seekers are returning to the 800-foot-tall tower, but this time the mysterious forces compelling them to come together is much easier to explain.

UFO hunters, E.T. enthusiasts, and sci-fi fans are converging in Wyoming for the first Devils Tower UFO Rendezvous, held September 14-16. Rather than a musical mothership, the UFO enthusiasts are this time going to be greeted with a barbecue, parade, and live entertainment. But who knows? Anything could happen.

According to the official website, the mission of the UFO rendezvous “shall be to bring together a wide variety of social groups with the common interest in learning and education about UFO’s and the celebration of the anniversary of the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind and their intent is “to gather to further the study and interest of UFO’s while celebrating on an annual basis.”

The rendezvous will feature a special screening of the film, MUFON field investigator training, and speeches by MUFON director Jan Harzan, paranormal investigator Chuck Zukowski, and infamous alleged abductee Travis Walton. A one-day pass costs a cool $100, while a full weekend-long registration is $189. Better hope there’s free popcorn at the movie screening.

{ http://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

14-09-2017 om 21:45 geschreven door peter  

Wright-Patterson AFB, Ray Szymanski and Hidden Aliens

Paul Seaburn

Here’s a well-known mystery: many people believe that aliens and their spacecraft from the Roswell incident are hidden in special tunnels at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. Here’s a little-known fact: Raymond Szymanski worked at Wright-Patterson for 39 years and wrote a book published in 2016 called 50 Shades of Greys about what he saw there. Here’s a new mystery: why is the book suddenly back in the news? Is someone getting us ready for full disclosure?

A number of media outlets revisited (or visited) 50 Shades of Greys recently after its author was interviewed by Sun Online. In the book, published in January 2016, Szymanski begins with details of his first days on the job at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in 1973 when a mentor named Al introduced him to the Avionics Laboratory’s Management Operations Office by asking, “Have you heard about our aliens?”

“He said that in 1947 there was a crash down in Roswell and they brought the machines and the aliens here for inspection and said they keep them in secret tunnels under the base. When I asked him how he came to know about the secret, he responded, ‘Everybody who works on base knows’. I was stunned. Me, a young co-op student barely into his first week, was now initiated into a small select group of 10,000 people and given their most incredible secret ever – that we have aliens and their craft in our tunnels on our base.’”

Szymanski says he then began a clandestine and at times overt investigation into what his mentor was talking about. While his onsite snooping ended with his retirement from Wright-Patterson in 2011, his search for evidence continued until the book was published in 2016.

In his recent interview, Szymanski does his best to avoid revealing details of what he’s discovered while hinting at what he found.

“For the next four decades I had dozens if not hundreds of brief conversations regarding the ‘secret’ I’d been given during my first week on base. The important fact established here is that not one single person at that time ever said, “We have no aliens here, you crazy son of a b*tch”… I saw lots of smiles but no denials. I’ve been basically investigating locations on the base that I think could contain clues to its history relative to extraterrestrials and UFOs ever since. By looking at evidence, which I document in the book in text and photographs, it would appear to me as if the stories are true.”

Why does Szymanski used the term “Greys” in the title? Is it just a clever play on that ‘other’ book about 50 shades? Szymanski admits that, while he’s been in the tunnels his mentor described, he didn’t see any dead or living aliens in them … at leas that he could recognize as aliens. However, he claims to have strong evidence of possible burial sites on the base and suggests he’s been spied up at least three times by men who “wore black suits and black hats.”

If you’re thinking that Szymanski doesn’t have a proverbial smoking gun, you’re probably right. In fact, while he seems to imply that there IS a smoking gun, he doesn’t think humans are ready for it and that could be why he hasn’t seen it either.

“We still aren’t ready for full disclosure, the governments like to keep secrets cause that’s what keeps us safe sometimes. The last time the Air-Force made the announcement ‘hey we’ve got a flying saucer’ that didn’t go so well, so what would happen if they announced it this time?”

So he doesn’t seem to think full disclosure is coming any time soon. Nonetheless, the insights of an insider inside the infamous Wright-Patterson Air Force Base sounds interesting for what Szymanski says it contains:

“I present new theories, I show you evidence and I let you make up your own mind.”

{ http://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

14-09-2017 om 20:56 geschreven door peter  

New Photos Shed New Light on Area 51

Paul Seaburn

What going on these days at Area 51, the ‘top secret’ Air Force base in Nevada protected by agents authorized to use “deadly force” to protect the property and the secrets it holds? If you’re tired of the same old satellite photos and don’t want to risk your own life peering through the fence with your phone on a really long selfie stick, you’re resigned to waiting for someone crazy enough to figure other ways to get a look inside. A couple of UFO seekers who call themselves the UFO Seekersdid just that recently by climbing a peak for a peek. Piqued?

The dangerous precipice surmounted by these brave Area 51 fanatics is Tikaboo Peak, which is in fact well known as the place for the best outside-the-fence ground-based view of Area 51. While it’s perfectly legal to climb up there, it’s also perfectly frustrating because it’s 26 miles from the base as the crow flies … if the crow managed to survive the flight without being shot down. The peak is at 8,000 feet and is accessible via the Interceptors Trail — a 25-mile dirt road off of US-93 that is sandy, deeply rutted and dangerous even for an SUV.

Despite that, Tim and Tracey Doyle, the intrepid team from UFO Seekers, made it to the top, recording all the way. At the peak, they set up a camera with a super-long-distance lens to recordwhat was going on at Area 51 on a typical day. As you might expect, they spotted what appear to be flying saucers, small beings with large grey heads working out in what looks like a heavily guarded prison recreation area and a triangular-shaped jet that moved almost too fast to be seen and may have cloaked.

OK, that last part was what you hoped they saw, right? The shots of Area 51 are clear and sharp, but they showed what the military personnel would feel comfortable showing in the direction of a peak that is known to occasionally have people with high-powered lenses peering back at them. They saw conventional military vehicles, roads, hangars, runways and buildings. One of the hangars was one that had been know to be under construction and new appears to be completed, but what’s inside couldn’t be seen through any tiny windows … if those dots were really windows. Unfortunately, nothing seemed to be in use for anything out of the ordinary – at least from a distance of 26 miles.

What about in the other direction? The UFO Seekers noticed a large antenna on Tikaboo Peak. It’s been there since at least 2015 and, while its purported purpose is to provide weather data to the base, it’s most likely sending surveillance videos as well, so dress nice and wave if you make the trek.

And yes, anyone can make the trek … not just ufo seekers or UFO Seekers. If their video piques your interest in a peek from the peak, check the trail and hiking guides in Las Vegas or the Tikaboo Peak Facebook page. Yes, the secret peeking peak has a Facebook page – so much for being the first (or the second) to get exclusive shots of the latest whatever from Area 51.

The best part about the video by UFO Seekers is the adventure itself. They do a great job of recording the trek and their pictures – while not of alien bodies or crashed spaceships – are excellent photos of the most famous base in the U.S. That’s what adventure is all about … the day you climb the peak just might be the day the saucer lands.

{ http://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

14-09-2017 om 20:41 geschreven door peter