One of the great unsolved mysteries of the 20th century may have taken a step closer to resolution, thanks to a late 20th century invention that has changed more than just mapping. That invention is Google Earth and the mystery is the Dyatlov Pass Incident which refers to the unsolved deaths of nine skiers in the Ural Mountains of the then Soviet Union who perished in strange and unusual ways that appeared to be unspeakably horrifying.

“On the pass Dyatlova found traces of a nuclear explosion”

Planetanovosti.com reports (in a rough translation – another gift from Google) that Valentin Degteryov, a longtime Dyatlov Pass investigator, claims he has found a previously unknown crater approximately thirty meters (98 feet) in diameter about three km (1.86 miles) from the location of the pass on the eastern side of the Kholatchakhl mountain (the name ironically means “dead mountain” or “lack of game” in the local Mansi language) where on February 2, 1959, a group of experienced ski hikers led by Igor Dyatlov mysteriously perished. After examining an aerial photograph of the terrain at 61 ° 45’48.6 “N 59 ° 24’30.2” E, Degteryov concluded he was looking that the remnants of a weak nuclear explosion, which turned rocks in the area to a reddish glass.

Rescuers find the camp

Military testing of nuclear weapons or a crash of an errant nuclear missile has been one of the theories presented to explain in particular why traces of radiation were found on some the clothing of some of the victims and why some of the bodies mysteriously had orange skin and grey hair, neither of which were their natural colors. Also, the site was immediately sealed off and the records were suppressed by the Soviet government, hinting at a cover-up of a secret military operation or accident. However, both theories were eventually discounted. A nuclear explosion, even a weak one, would have dispersed radiation on all of the equipment and their clothing and affected all of their bodies, not just a random few. While the Soviet government was indeed highly secretive and controlling, its eventual demise resulted in all of the records being released and none indicated a nuclear explosion.

Memorial to the ski hikers

And yet … Degteryov found something he believes can only be explained by a nuclear explosion. (The image can be seen in this video at about 0:56.) Of course, it’s winter in the Urals, so he won’t be able to mount an expedition until spring to examine the area himself. It seems strange, with the amount of investigating that has already taken place in and around the pass that no one has found it before. Also, the nuclear option doesn’t explain some of the unusual injuries (broken bones without an external wound, missing tongues and eyes) or the report by another group of hikers about 50 km (31 mi) away who claimed they saw strange orange spheres in the sky that same night.

It’s no wonder ‘death by Yeti’ is also one of the theories. Unfortunately, we’ll have to wait until spring for any additional information. In the meantime, keep checking Google Earth.

Stan Gordon is one of the United States’ leading researchers of the stranger sides of the Bigfoot phenomenon. And they don’t come much stranger than a case that Gordon investigated, in late 1973, in his home state of Pennsylvania. It’s important to note that the case in question was one of dozens that Gordon received from 1972 to 1974, which, collectively, suggested the presence of unknown, hairy, man-beasts all across Pennsylvania. Many of the cases that Gordon investigated, however, were dominated by phenomena that, for many Bigfoot investigators, fell far outside what one could call the norm – including a certain event that occurred at Fayette County, in October 1973.

It was the dark night of October 25 when all hell broke loose in the heart of the county. The primary player in the story was one Steve Palmer who was both amazed and frightened to see a brightly illuminated UFO hovering over local farmland, around 9.00 p.m. But that wasn’t all that Palmer encountered: a pair of immense, ape-like animals with very long and muscular arms surfaced out of the shadows of the dark field and proceeded to walk right towards Palmer, himself. He wasted no time and blasted them with a salvo of bullets.

Very weirdly, the bullets appeared to have no effect – at all – on either creature, and they retreated into the darkness. The UFO did likewise, vanishing in an instant. That was not the end of the affair, however. Approximately four hours later, things took on even stranger, and far more terrifying, proportions.

It was roughly 1.00 a.m. when Stan Gordon arrived on the scene, having been alerted to the Palmer encounter by a local police officer, one who had been apprised of the facts. Along with Gordon were fellow investigators Dennis Smeltzer, Fred Pitt, David Smith, and George Lutz. They met with Palmer, who proceeded to tell them of his unearthly encounter with the two Bigfoot and the UFO. Then, quite out of the blue, something horrifying occurred: Palmer’s breathing changed, to the extent that he was literally panting heavily and deeply, and he broke into a deep, guttural growl and knocked both his own father and Lutz to the field floor. And that was only the start of things.

Pitt found himself unable to breathe properly, Smeltzer felt faint, and Palmer fell to the ground, having apparently passed out. A powerful, rotten odor of brimstone suddenly dominated the cold night air. The terrified group knew that it was vital they get out of the field – and quickly, too – before things got even worse. Later, when Palmer regained consciousness, he told Gordon and his team that he, Palmer, while in his passed out state, had seen before him a sickle-carrying, dark-robed figure that warned him the Human Race was on the verge of destroying itself – and would do exactly that unless it curbed its violent instincts.

Fayette County

Even stranger than that, a couple of weeks later, Palmer was visited at his home by two Air Force officers, one in uniform and the other in plainclothes. It became very clear, and very quickly, that the pair knew all about Palmer’s weird encounter and the later experience. They even confided in him they knew that both UFOs and Sasquatch were genuine. There was a specific reason for the visit: first, they showed Palmer a number of photos of Bigfoot creatures and wanted to know if the beast he encountered resembled them. Second, they asked if Palmer would be willing to be placed into a hypnotic state, to ensure that the military secured all the relevant data. Palmer agreed. And with all the information in hand, the two men got up, thanked Palmer, and left. Despite telling Palmer they would keep him informed of any future developments, they failed to do so. He never saw them again. It was a fitting end to a case steeped in mystery.

I’ve always been fascinated with identical twins. The fact that there could be an exact copy of yourself out there in the world just seems so eerie, especially coupled with all of the high strangeness and mysterious connections which sometimes occurs between twins. While there have been many cases of long-lost separated human twins discovering their genetic facsimiles, this week the astronomical world might have gotten its first case of a long overdue twin reunion. It turns out that our own Sun may have an identical twin out in the universe, and astronomers think they’ve just discovered where it’s been hiding.

Our Sun’s twin has been identified as HD 186302, a yellow dwarf star just 184 light-years away. We’re practically neighbors! Recent astronomical research has revealed that all stars likely begin their lives as binary pairs, with some estimates claiming up to 85% of all stars exist in binary pairs. Based on analysis of new data gathered by the European Space Agency’s Gaia mission, HD 186302 has a nearly identical surface temperature, luminosity, age, and chemical composition, making it a likely candidate for Sol’s long-lost identical twin. Its unknown how it might have gotten separate from its twin, but astronomers believe some binary pairs of stars are separated and flung into different reaches of space during stellar formation.

Yellow dwarf stars convert hydrogen to helium in their cores through nuclear fusion.

Astronomer Vardan Adibekyan of Portugal’s Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences published the study of HD 186302 in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics just this week. According to Adibekyan, the fact that HD 186302 is so similar to our own Sun means there is a “non-negligible” probability that it too could support life:

Some theoretical calculations show that there is non-negligible probability that life spread from Earth to other planets or exoplanetary systems, during the period of the late heavy bombardment. If we are lucky, and our sibling candidate has a planet, and the planet is a rocky type, in the habitable zone, and finally if this planet was ‘contaminated’ by the life seeds from Earth, then we have what one could dream – an Earth 2.0, orbiting a Sun 2.0.

Obviously, the next step is to send the Space Force over there to see if Earth 2.0 has any interesting or valuable stuff we might be able to use here on Earth 1.0, then cook up some reasons why they warrant a good ol’ fashioned dose of “civilization.” We all know the long-lost twin is always the evil twin. Although, maybe we’re looking at it backwards. Maybe we are their long-lost twin…

Are we the evil one?