King Kong finally got his own Broadway musical. Is it time for the Peruvian three-fingered, possibly alien, maybe pregnant mummies to get theirs? Better yet, is time for them to finally be accepted by the scientific community for what they really are … whatever that might be? On November 19, the people who have been studying them since their discovery, The Alien Project, gave a nearly five-hour televised presentation on their latest findings and analyses at the Congress Hall of the Republic of Peru in Lima with at least one Peruvian MP present. The results are in, the lights are dimming, the curtain is rising, the band is reaching a crescendo …

“The black-legged mummies of Nazca are authentic. The demonstration by the results of the DNA analyzes, the scanners, the x-rays, the tomography. According to DNA analysis, scans and X-rays, the experts are confronted with the facts, the incredible “Little Grays” and Maria belong to two new species totally unknown until today. It is clear that we are facing an unexpected discovery and of interest to all humanity! Back in detail about Josefina “the centerpiece”, Victoria, Alberto, and Maria’s anatomy.”

The five-hour video (you can see it here) was immediately published in the magazine Ikaris and all of the data and pictures are on display on The Alien Project website. Fortunately, the results were summarized by a number of websites and they are indeed interesting. (You can get up-to-speed on the past story of the mummies here and here and here.) Here are some of the highlights of the latest presentation:

DNA tests of the mummies show no relationship to any known human or animal

The bones of the mummies are hollow but rigid, similar to the structure of bird bones. There is visible wear at the joints between the bones which indicates that the beings were of advanced age and that they were actually alive – in other words, the mummies were not assembled from various parts.

3D scans of the insides of the mummies show that the bones, organs, muscles, fat, fat and possible eggs are in the proper locations for the creatures to have been living beings.

The data does not match any known species, making it highly likely that these are an unknown species with an evolutionary path separate from humans.

The features that look like eggs in the mummy Josefina are of various sizes, indicating differing stages of development.

Again, there is much more detailed coverage of the data and analyses on The Alien Project’s website.

The presence and apparent approval of the presentation by MP Armando Villanueva Mercado lent legitimacy to the announcement, although he admitted that the Peruvian Ministry of Culture turned down an invitation to attend. The audience was populated with plenty of university archeologists and experts in the field of mummy studies, which is a big field in Peru. As expected, there was plenty of disagreement at the end of the presentation, with many repeating the same complaint they’ve had throughout the history of these three-fingered mummies – that they were not allowed to participate in or even observe the study and analyses of the remains and that the whole process did not follow proper scientific procedures. On the other hand, the audience also contained plenty of believers and new converts and there is expected to be more and detailed coverage of the report.

Is this the announcement that changes everything? If not, who would go to such lengths to perpetrate a fraud? (Yes, we hear you, moon landing skeptics.) Yes, the name “Alien Project” Is presumptuous and many of the participants in the many announcements about these mummies have been wrong before. At this point, if The Alien Project (and the Peruvian government and the World Congress on Mummies which rightly protect the dignity of the remains of past Peruvians, whatever they might be) do not allow outside scientific analysis and review, the three fingers on the alien mummy meter are still stuck between “Skeptical” and “Unproven.”

On the other hand, the needle on the “Three-Fingered Alien Mummies!” Broadway musical meter is speeding towards “Hey kids! Let’s put on a show!”

Poor Mars rovers. Those plucky little robots get rocketed on a one-way mission to the Red Planet, only to live out their usefulness cold and alone on the desolate, lifeless rock. Good thing they don’t have feelings, though, right? Just wait until we start sending AI-equipped anthropomorphic robots to distant planets to toil themselves into obsolescence or be torn apart by giant insectoid aliens. It’ll be a lesson in empathy, that’s for sure.

“WHY WAS I PROGRAMMED TO FEEL SHAME?”

One of NASA’s active Mars rovers, Opportunity, has been operating for more than 55 times its intended lifespan, but has been inactive for months since a planet-wide dust storm engulfed the Martian surface in darkness back in June. With no way to gather solar energy to charge its batteries, the Opportunity rover went into hibernation mode until it could absorb enough energy to phone home once the sun came back out.

The haze from the Martian tempest began to clear up a few months ago, but NASA scientists and engineers have been unable to wake the sleepy Opportunity rover. However, Opportunity appeared to suddenly gather enough strength to beam a short transmission back to Earth this week. Deep Space Network, an automated Twitter account which tracks NASA activity, announced that a NASA sensor was receiving data from Opportunity. Space watchers began to rejoice that the long-lasting, seemingly unbeatable Opportunity was reawakening.

Opportunity has sent back some breathtaking images of useless rocks and dust.

However, a few hours later, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California retorted via Twitter that the signal was in fact not from Opportunity. Naturally, the internet exploded with claims of “UNKNOWN TRANSMISSIONS FROM MARS” and “MYSTERIOUS SIGNALS FROM OUTER SPACE” and while we would all love for that to be true, it turns out there’s likely a much more boring and banal explanation. There always is, isn’t there?

JPL scientists say the signal was a false alarm, most likely a blip due to a false positive or contamination from test data. Still, that won’t stop the tin foilers from claiming that NASA routinely lies to us or that this is likely a cover-up of something big. Would NASA hide proof of anomalous transmissions? Is something strange afoot with Opportunity? 

Probably not. Still, with every strange signal or anomalous transmission comes the hope that someday one, just one, will be the one. Will it happen before humankind inevitably nukes itself to radioactive ash?

Residents of Southern California flooded social media overnight with posts wondering about a mysterious flash of light seen in the skies in the early morning hours of November 20. Most of the witnesses described the phenomenon as an “explosion” in the early morning sky. Whatever it was, law enforcement agencies throughout the region aren’t saying anything. What happened in the skies over California?

If San Diegans saw it at night through all of the city’s light pollution, it must have been bright.

Local news outlet KTLA reports the phenomenon was seen throughout Southern California, with residents posting from Long Beach to San Diego and as far inland as Riverside. Whatever the event was, it must have been large. Twitter was full of residents’ concerned and curious posts describing what they saw and asking others if anyone had any answers. “Definitely saw 2 streaks of light in the sky this morning on Vern’s dog walk. Managed to snap a pic of the 2nd one, right next to a plane,” posted user @ROBBWEBB3. Webb managed to grab a picture of the phenomenon, a picture which definitely makes the event look more streak-like, possibly suggesting a meteor event in the atmosphere.

Was this merely a meteor exploding?

Just a few days prior, two separate drivers in Arizona were shaken up when unidentified falling objects struck their vehicles, shattering one’s sunroof and damaging the windshield of another. Both drivers suspected meteorites, but some astronomers aren’t convinced. A similar event happened in San Diego the same day, with two cars sustaining damage from mysterious falling rocks. One driver was injured when one of those rocks hit him in the chest. The California Highway Patrol found no pedestrians nearby and considers the incident a mystery.

Could these events be connected? With the Leonid meteor shower currently underway, there’s no telling what tiny bits of rock might actually survive their fiery collisions with our atmosphere. Of course, there’s always the chance that this alleged explosion in the sky could be something altogether different and stranger. With no official explanation, this one’s still up for debate.

Then again, we all know how official explanations go.

A video from NASA was released on Friday, November 16^th that teased many space enthusiasts on the space agency’s plan to send humans to the moon permanently and eventually to Mars. A Colorado-based company called Lunar Outpost will also play a vital role in the effort for a return trip to the moon by building small exploratory moon rovers.

Part of the video says “We’re building the next chapter of American exploration. Returning to the moon to stay so we can go beyond to Mars.” Near the end of the nearly two and a half minute video, you hear the words “We are NASA and after 60 years, we’re just getting started.”

To watch the full video, click here: https://earthsky.org/space/nasa-video-nov-2018-return-to-moon-mars

It was just 49 years ago on July 20, 1969 when man first walked on the moon and now there are plans for humans to reside there permanently. It’s hard to believe how much advancement has been made in less than fifty years.

In other important space news, the highly anticipated details have been revealed on where the Mars 2020 rover is going to land. After carefully analyzing over 60 potential locations on the “Red Planet” as the best place for the rover to land, NASA has decided on the Jezero Crater for the landing destination.

The mission is scheduled for July in the year 2020. The rover’s mission will include looking for signs of habitable conditions in ancient times, as well as searching for microbial life. In addition, it will collect soil and rock samples and place them in a hidden and safe location on the planet. NASA and the European Space Agency are currently looking at a future mission to Mars in order to gather the samples and bring them back to Earth for testing.

They chose the Jezero Crater because it has rich terrain and landforms that could be as old as 3.6 billion years so this could potentially answer important questions in the history and evolution of the planet. The 28-mile-wide crater is located on the western end of a huge impact basin called Isidis Planitia and it is slightly north of the equator. Since there was once a river that flowed in the crater billions of years ago, it’s quite possible that the rover will be able to find ancient molecules and other signs of life there.

There is some nervousness, however, when it comes to the actual landing process on Mars as the location has several boulders, rocks, cliffs, and ripples in the sand that could potentially cause problems for the rover. The Jezero Crater landing location is fifty percent smaller than the area chosen for the Curiosity rover in 2012 when it landed in Gale Crater.

The Mars 2020 will take off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida and that will certainly be a day to remember as this new mission could potentially find ground-breaking new evidence of life on Mars.

When filmmaker Dave Beaty heard about the strange encounter in November of 2004 between dozens of ‘Tic-Tac’ shaped UFOs, several Naval fighter jets, and the USS Nimitz battle group, he was captivated. Much like the rest of the tireless researchers, filmmakers, and writers who forge the Ufological narrative, Beaty stayed up late, spending countless hours of his personal time to tell a story.

The film uses a mix of stock Navy footage and digitally rendered animations to provide a detailed yet quick recap of the now famous 2004 Nimitz UFO Incident. While much of the documentation of that event is still classified or hidden away by various other interests, the film tells the story with as much accuracy as possible.

Beaty explained in an interview,

“I am using the primary witness accounts available to the public. I have interviewed several of the USS Princeton Air Controllers and radar techs. CDR. David Fravor was interviewed by dozens of journalists, as were CDR. Slaight, and Senior Chief Day. The “Female Pilot” gave a detailed briefing to the AATIP program. These primary witnesses to the event, the radar screens, the cockpits, and the close up visual observations of some of the world’s most highly trained observers leads me to believe what they say is very accurate. So in making this re-creation, I used all those details. Location, time, date, weather, seas, jets, altitudes, speeds, distances, directions. These things are known for the most part. The part that is fiction is what the pilots said to each other – the dialog is fiction.”

As was reported in August of 2018, an unredacted Nimitz report was leaked on Chris Mellon’s website. Mellon, a previous intelligence advisor to the Clinton administration, and To The Star’s Academy’s National Security Affairs Advisor, has made no official comment concerning the leak, but rumors circulating within the UFO community are pointing to a hack. The unredacted report contained the names and personal information of the various pilots involved, including the mystery female pilot who has yet to publicly come forward. Unfortunately, some unsavory profiteering and opportunistic UFO enthusiasts seem to have already released her name publicly on the internet. Beaty, who undoubtedly has seen the unredacted report, has taken the high road, as many other researchers have, and kept her name out of the video.

USS Nimitz

Beaty explained that creating CGI renderings and making films is his day job. He expressed that this project was different.

“It’s one of the most satisfying things to do, to create stories with total freedom, with no deadline and with no one reviewing proofs endlessly and changing my work.”

With over 18,000 views to date, interest has allegedly been expressed by some mainstream networks such as A&E. Whether this documentary becomes a funded full feature project or not, the true importance of it lies in its desire to seek out more witnesses to the incident.

Beaty explained that those witnesses are out there, he’s been contacted by some.

“In the film I provide an email of anon@thenimitzencounters.com for people to contact me if they have had sightings from military ships or planes. So far I have had several vets reach out to relate their sightings. We are working with a group to help organize military witnesses of UAP.  We also hope to convince some of the USS Roosevelt sailors from 2015 to come forward. We believe that the Gimbal video shown by the NYT article was filmed on January 26th, 2015, off the coast of Florida by the Red Rippers squadron.”

The Nimitz event is still shrouded in a lot of mystery. While there is little doubt that the incident occurred, the UFO myth-making machine has been at work spinning various tales which are often sold as knowledge but fundamentally hinges purely on speculation and belief. Moreover, if more information is available, it is being held by very few people with various agendas. Whether Beaty knows it or not, this project of his is an attempt to democratize the knowledge surrounding this incredible event.

The (in)famous “Tic-Tac.”

UFO research has never been perfect and it is haunted by a lot of ghosts in its historical and ideological past. However, the UFO community, much the phenomenon it chases, always works at a grassroots level. With every attempt to gain more ‘official’ insight, it slips the proverbial leash and becomes something else entirely.

At the end of the film, any people with information concerning the Nimitz event,  or other military UFO sightings, are asked to e-mail Beaty, and that their anonymity can be maintained. While checks and balances will obviously need to be put into place to ensure misinformation and disinformation isn’t disseminated as fact, the testimony of witnesses concerning this event becomes much more difficult to control. This is, curiously, one of the greatest aspects of the UFO community. No one owns the UFO narrative or discourse; some try to corner the market to ensure their ideological interpretation is popularized, but it isn’t long before rifts and tears eat away at them.

This indie UFO documentary is incredibly necessary, not just because it tells a good story and highlights the events which occurred in 2004, but because it attempts to bring much-needed information, data, and testimony out of the darkness and into the light.

Move over, Tabby … there’s a new flickering star in town and this one behaves a lot more like it has a megastructure built around it than you do. Astronomers in Chile report finding a mysterious star whose light dims by 80 percent on an irregular schedule and they can’t figure out why. An alien Dyson sphere? Dust? Aliens cleaning house and kicking up a dust cloud?

“We don’t know what the object is. And that’s interesting.”

Astronomer Roberto Saito of the Federal University of Santa Catarina in Brazil is the co-author of a study in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society describing VVV-WIT-07, “an unique and intriguing variable source presenting a sequence of recurrent dips with a likely deep eclipse in July 2012.” The title of the study implies that this star could be another Boyajian’s star (astronomer Tabby Boyajian discovered the blinking KIC 8462852, also known as Tabby’s star) or a Mamajek’s object (astronomer Eric Mamajek found 1SWASP J140747, a star that dims due to a massive orbiting gas planet with rings). However, the data is inclusive and they speculate whether it could also be a young stellar object, a star surrounded by clumpy dust structure, a main sequence star eclipsed by a nearby extended object or a self-eclipsing R CrB (R Coronae Boreali) variable star.

Tabby’s star (NASA)

Or … it could be a star surrounded by an alien-made Dyson sphere. While hypothetical, the idea of a megastructure surrounding a star and harvesting its energy for space travel, manufacturing or other energy-consuming activities, received a lot of speculative press when Tabby Boyajian discovered her blinker in 2015.

“I was fascinated by how crazy it looked. Aliens should always be the very last hypothesis you consider, but this looked like something you would expect an alien civilization to build.”

Jason Wright, an astronomer from Penn State University, was one of the leading proponents of at least considering a Dyson megastructure as a possibility for causing the dimming of Tabby’s star. Each time anything that looks like a blinking star appears, that possibility is brought up, scoffed at by skeptics and pushed by believers, as hypothetical as it might be. However, VVV-WIT-07 is a puzzler, which explains why the WIT in its name stands for “What is this?”

The puzzle starts with the amount of dimming. While Tabby’s star darkened by 20%, VVV-WIT-07 nearly disappears as it dims by 80%. It also dims more sporadically than KIC 8462852. When asked for her opinion on this blinking star, Boyajian, who openly considered the possibility of a Dyson megastructure, said in ScienceNews:

“If this phenomenon is the same as what’s happening with Tabby’s star, then we can’t invoke an elaborate explanation for what’s happening in both systems. If you’re starting to see stars similar to this all over the place, then it’s got to be a really common thing that happens in nature. That’s really cool.”

Not as cool as a Dyson megastructure, right?

“Pretty much everything’s on the table for it right now. We need more data.”

Freeman Dyson, the cause of all the controversy

Saito promised to provide her with more when he can look at his star again using the larger 8.1-meter Gemini telescope or the Atacama Large Millimeter Array in Chile.

Dyson? Dust? Damn planet blocking the light? An advanced but bored alien civilization messing with the rest of the universe by playing with a giant dimmer switch?

“Pretty much everything’s on the table for it right now.”