Abraham Loeb and Shmuel Bialy, the new go-to guys for all things ‘Oumuamua – the cigar-shaped, interstellar comet/asteroid/spacecraft/noneoftheabove which zipped past us last year and that this pair thinks is some sort of extraterrestrial solar sail, have issued a new report warning that they will be issuing a lot of new reports because ‘Oumuamua is far from the only interstellar object traveling in, around or through our solar system. Not only that, the life forms – if there are any – on the objects may be frustrated and upset because their vehicle/sail/rock/paper/scissors is stuck in the solar system. Do we really need anything more to worry about?

“We find that there should be hundreds of `Oumuamua-size interstellar objects identifiable by Centaur-like orbits in polar or retrograde motion.”

These two Harvard (Loeb is a professor and Bialy a graduate student) astronomers don’t waste any time getting to the point in the opening of their new paper, “Identifying Interstellar Objects Trapped in the Solar System through Their Orbital Parameters,” which is being reviewed for publication by the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Centaurs are minor space objects orbiting the sun between Jupiter and Neptune who earn their Greek mythological half-human/half-horse name by sharing characteristics with asteroids, comets, small planets, planet fragments and now, according to Loeb and Bialy, unidentifiable stuff that may be from another star system.

Centaur

One odd characteristic of Centaurs is their retrograde orbit of the sun, putting them in opposite rotation with all planets and most other space objects. Astronomers have recently concluded that one such Centaur — 2015 BZ509 — has been in retrograde orbit since the formation of the Solar System some 4.5 billion years ago, which makes it highly likely to have been captured from another solar system. For their study, Loeb and Bialy simulated these objects, then compared the models with data from the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan STARRS) survey which watches moving or variable sky objects.

“This yields roughly one such object (of a hundred meter size) per the volume defined by the Earth’s motion around the Sun. In total, each planetary system needs to eject about 10^{15} such objects during its lifetime… Out of those a small fraction is trapped by the Solar System, as objects pass close to Jupiter and lose energy through their gravitational interaction with it. The Sun-Jupiter system acts as a fishing net that hosts a few thousand captured objects at any time. The objects eventually get kicked out of the system, but new ones get captured, and so there is a steady population.”

The model predicted thousands of ‘Oumuamua-like objects with hundreds easily identifiable by their orbits. In fact, Siraj and Loeb identified four possible ‘Oumuamuas that have already been found — 2011 SP25, 2017 RR2, 2017 SV13, and 2018 TL6. Loeb thinks these are perfect candidates for a space mission.

Centaurs?

“Since these objects are trapped, we can fly by them, take a photograph or land on their surface. This will allow us to learn about their structure, composition and origins. It will also allow us to infer better the conditions at their nurseries outside the Solar System. And finally, it may allow us to identify objects of artificial origin, like finding plastic bottles on an otherwise pristine beach.”

Artificial origin! There he goes again. Could one of these be the wreck of an alien probe, as Loeb stated in a previous paperabout ‘Oumuamua?

“This will be revolutionary, as it will demonstrate that we are not alone and will shed light on advanced technologies beyond our own. It holds the potential for being the most important result in science and technology for centuries to come.”

You know, he’s starting to make some sense.

The ancients never cease to baffle us with the mysterious structures and puzzles they have often left in their wake. Bizarre artifacts, strange relics, and confounding buildings or structures litter the landscape of history, often challenging us on what we think we know of ages gone by. One very mysterious such structure can be found in the country of Lebanon, where a temple and its vast monoliths have been baffling engineers and archeologists for years.

Nestled within the foothills of Lebanon’s fertile Beqaa Valley is an ancient city called Baalbek. Considering the valley itself has been continuously inhabited for approximately the past 9,000 years the city is absolutely ancient, with a long history spanning back to the dawn of civilization, and it has over the eons been passed from the Egyptians and Assyrians on to the Greeks, the Roman Empire, and beyond, and throughout it all this has long been considered a mystical and holy place by all who set foot here. The large number of ancient temples and religious ruins here are testament to this long history as a sacred place, and one of the first that was erected here was an altar built by the Canaanites in 2,000 BC for the purpose of trying to appease and harness the powers of their god Baal, who controlled rain, thunder, fertility and agriculture. When Alexander the Great swept in in 334 BC, the temple area was expanded and enlarged, and changes and additions continued on with the coming of subsequent conquerors such as the Ptolemies of Egypt and the Greeks, who called it the called Heliopolis, or “City of the Sun,” but perhaps the biggest changes were made by the Roman Empire.

Baalbek

The then ruler of the Empire, Julius Caesar himself, launched a massive campaign to erect an enormous temple complex that was envisioned as encompassing three main gigantic temples dedicated to Jupiter, god of sky and thunder, the god of agriculture and wine, Bacchus, and the goddess of love and beauty, Venus, and additionally another temple would be built in honor of the god Mercury on a nearby hill. It was an ambitious project to say the least, and indeed Julius Caesar would never see it completed as it would take around 3 centuries before the immense temples were completed. The Roman Empire was certainly the heyday of Baalbek, but although the Romans left behind many breathtaking ruins here from the era, they also left behind some perplexing unsolved mysteries.

While all of the temples of the complex are impressive, the mystery lies within the one dedicated to Jupiter, which measures 47.7 m × 87.75 m (156.5 ft × 287.9 ft), and sits elevated above the land around it, once decked out with 54 giant columns, of which only a few remain. What really makes it stand out are the three colossal megalithic blocks squatting on one side of its podium, each measuring 22 meters in length and weighing over a hundred tons, and all of them carefully and tightly linked together upon a foundation of 6 massive blocks of granite. These gargantuan stones are collectively known as the Trilithon, and they are so incredibly heavy that no one is quite sure how they were put into such a precise position there, as not only are they raised a considerable distance above the ground, but the nearest quarry for these rocks lies around 1 km away.

Massive stones at the Temple of Jupiter

The stones themselves are far too heavy for any known method the Romans had at their disposal to move them such distances or place them as they are. Even the sophisticated cranes the Romans were known to have used were not believed to be sufficient to lift such massive mighty weight, and it doesn’t look like any one even tried, as the Romans usually drilled holes into heavy rocks to help them be moved by crane, called “Lewis holes,” but the Trilithon have no such holes. So how did they do it? There have been theories that they could have been sort of rolled into place along earthen banks, or that they used some system of capstans, pulleys, or other tools to inch the rocks along with the help of hundreds of men, but no one has really been able to adequately explain it or show how it would have actually been possible with the tools available to the people of the era, and indeed moving and precisely placing such massive rocks would be quite difficult to do even with the technology we have now. At the moment no one can really figure out how they not only moved these rocks from the quarry, but also raised them and put them into such a perfectly aligned position.

Adding to the mystery is another rock of even larger dimensions lying partially buried and discarded nearby called the Stone of the South, which is 19.6 meters (64 feet) in length, 6 meters (19.6 feet) in width, and about 5.5 meters (18 feet) in height, and claimed to weigh over 1,000 tons, and within the quarry itself is yet another enigma called the “Stone of the Pregnant Woman.” This rock is 69 x 16 x 13 feet in dimension, also weighs around 1,000 tons, and in this case is still attached to the quarry, only partially unearthed as if it was abandoned in mid-construction. Both of these enigmatic giant stones are some of the oldest human hewn megalithic rocks known to man, and seem to suggest that there was still construction going on that was abandoned for reasons unknown. Indeed, no one is really even sure of why the Trilithon was built in the first place or even how old it is. Some ideas are that it was used as a retaining wall, that they were meant to be eventual foundation stones for something even larger, or that it was merely an impressive show of religious devotion, but no one really knows why it was made or why construction was seemingly halted.

Of course as with many other mysterious megalithic sites around the world there are more far out theories. Some have suggested that the Trilithon actually not only predates the Romans and the Greeks, but also was not even built by humans at all, and Baalbek is often mentioned in the same breath as ancient aliens. Why aliens would want to build it is anyone’s guess, but it remains a popular theory among ancient alien theorists, who claim that it is not just improbable that humans moved these stones, but that it is downright impossible without some incredible technology that we don’t even possess now. Other equally fringe theories are that this was the anomalous work of some lost civilization from beneath the earth that had access to antigravity technology, or that the giant blocks were actually moved by a lost race of ancient literal giants.

Making the pursuit of answers more frustrating is that there seem to be no Roman written records on the construction of this marvel of engineering, making its creators, methods, and purpose lost to the mists of time and open to debate and conspiracy theories. In the end we are left to wonder who built the Trilithon of the Temple of Jupiter and why? Indeed, how did they do it and why is there no record of it? Was this the work of some unknown Roman method of using applied physics, some previously known technology they had that was well ahead of its time? Was it the work of some lost civilization or even aliens? Why did they stop? There is no real way to know the answers to any of these questions, and Baalbek remains an enigmatic place full of great wonder, historical significance, and inscrutable mysteries.

One of the most disquieting news trends over the last few years has been the seemingly rapid proliferation of mysterious booms being heard and felt around the world. While these anomalous airborne explosions have been well-documented throughout North America and have even been under FBI scrutiny, most remained unexplained.

At least one high-profile case of mystery booms has been solved – although the explanation is somewhat more terrifying than alien spacecraft or Chinese spy planes breaking the sound barrier over residential neighborhoods. In one case, a New Jersey man was arrested for testing out homemade bombs in a would-be terrorist plot.

While those booms in New Jersey were eventually explained, dozens of more cases remained unsolved. The latest string of anomalous booms to make the news cycle happened this week in Arizona where residents report a “string of mysterious explosions” in a neighborhood in North Phoenix. Rattled residents say the booms have been happening for a few months now, but police have yet to identify a source.

This week, however, a security camera caught what appears to be an explosion occurring on a residential street. A loud blast can be heard on the footage, and a wisp of smoke and shower of small rocks can just barely be seen at the uppermost edge of the frame. Some neighbors believe “something bomb-related” is happening, while others of course think something stranger could be going on.

I still stand by my gut feeling that most of these booms are caused by secret aircraft activity.

Just last week, an extremely bright explosion was seen in the skies above California and the next day a few drivers in Arizona had their cars damaged by falling rocks. Could all of these be related? What exactly is going on out in the desert?

Maybe some things are better left unknown.

A huge breakthrough has been discovered in the search for alien life as astronomers have detected water in the atmosphere of a distant planet. The large gas planet, called HR 8799c, is located 179 light years away from us.

A team of researchers at Keck Observatory in Maunakea, Hawaii discovered the planet. After a picture was taken of the planet, astronomers picked apart the planet’s light by using equipment called spectrometers. The spectrometer on the Keck 2 telescope, which is called the Near-Infrared Cryogenic Echelle Spectrograph (NIRSPEC), showed the chemicals that were in the planet’s atmosphere. When experts used spectroscopy with adaptive optics to study the planet, that’s when they discovered that there is water in the atmosphere, and an absence of methane.

To see the pictures taken from the Keck Observatory, click here.

The planet, one of four which orbit the star HR 8799, was found 179 light years away in the constellation Pegasus

Dimitri Mawet, who is an associate professor of astronomy at Caltech, explained, “This type of technology is exactly what we want to use in the future to look for signs of life on an Earth-like planet.” He added, “We aren’t there yet but we are marching ahead.”

The planet is one of four that are orbiting the star named HR 8799 which is located in the Pegasus constellation. Astronomers have previously taken pictures of over a dozen exoplanets, but HR 8799 is currently the only multi-planet solar system that has been photographed. Scientists hope to perform the same process with other small planets that are situated close to their own stars.

Scientists at the Keck Observatory wrote that their goal is to search for chemicals such as water, methane, and oxygen which point to a habitable atmosphere on Earth-like planets. They hope to do this with a new impending instrument called the Thirty Meter Telescope which they plan to do in upcoming years – late in the 2020s.

Ji Wang is the lead author of an Astronomical Journal paper written on the new findings. He said “Right now, with Keck, we can already learn about the physics and dynamics of these giant exotic planets, which are nothing like our own solar system planets.” He also explained, “We are now more certain about the lack of methane in this planet. This may be due to mixing in the planet’s atmosphere.”

The huge gas planet HR 8799c is seven times bigger than Jupiter which is the biggest planet in our solar system. In fact, Jupiter is so massive that over 1,300 Earths could fit inside of the gas planet. And with this new HR 8799c planet being seven times larger than Jupiter, well, that’s what you call extremely massive.

“Now first of all we must recall the fact that 9000 is the sum of years since the war occurred, as is recorded, between the dwellers beyond the pillars of Heracles and all that dwelt within them; which war we have now to relate in detail. It was stated that this city of ours was in command of the one side and fought through the whole of the war, and in command of the other side were the kings of the island of Atlantis, which we said was an island larger than Libya and Asia once upon a time, but now lies sunk by earthquakes and has created a barrier of impassable mud which prevents those who are sailing out from here to the ocean beyond from proceeding further.” 

One must wonder whether Plato could have ever known the controversy he would evoke–having lasted close to 2400 years by now–when he penned these words in Critias, one of his most curious philosophical treatises.

Taken by most scholars to have merely been a dialogue (as were his other writings, aimed at producing deeper truths with the aid of allegory), there have nonetheless been countless thinkers who have questioned whether the Atlantis Plato mentioned in the aforementioned text, along with the similarly-themed Timaeus, had not been a literal retelling of events from long ago, dating to a time far earlier than written history has survived to tell of.

Due to its lasting intrigue, every few years or so (and at times, every few months, it seems), someone else manages to “discover” what they believe to be the “real” Atlantis. The latest of the bunch, as reported recently, was a group of UK-based researchers (around whom a new documentary has been made, and is thus being promoted) who have claimed that Atlantis actually existed off the coast of Spain.

There have been countless similar theories that have arisen over the years, placing Atlantis in a variety of hypothetical locations: since Ignatius Donnelly wrote his landmark Atlantis: The Antediluvian World in 1882, popular theories have included the Azores, a series of mid-Atlantic islands occupied by the Portugese since their “discovery” in the early 14o0s (these islands were apparently known even prior to the 15th century, and in recent years have come to the attention of archaeologists for interesting features which could lend credence to the idea of settlement dating back as much as 2000 years, although this remains unproven).

São Jorge, part of the Azores as they appear today.

Other theories involve Santorini (known as Thera in ancient times), which was partially destroyed by a massive volcanic eruption between 1642–1540 BCE. Recent proponents of this theory include Gavin Menzies, whose fanciful theories of early circumnavigations by various cultures have received a fair amount of criticism, despite the popularity of his writings.

It is not entirely illogical to consider the historicity of the Atlantis theme in Plato’s writing. Not only does the story of Atlantis bear similarity to historical events like that of the eruption of Thera, but Plato also mentions numerous historical characters in his telling of the legend; namely Solon, the Athenian statesman who Critias cites as having been the first to share the story with his grandfather (who was also named Critias, a minor point that has led to some confusion over the centuries). However, other individuals Plato speaks of are less easily proven to have been real, historical figures. Sonchis, the elderly Egyptian priest to whom Solon attributed the Atlantis story, has never been confirmed to have existed through separate mention in other known historical texts (as was the case with Solon, for instance).

Much like enigmatic Egyptian elder Sonchis of Sais, separate mention of Atlantis in other ancient texts has remained curiously absent from the historical record. It remains possible that Solon’s exposure to Egyptian mythology could very well have been the real inspiration for something Plato later chose to expand upon in one of his dialogues; however, the fact that an element to history so seemingly important as the existence of an entire inhabited continent–let alone one renowned for a level of advancement that was mythic in proportion–makes its absence in other ancient writing particularly suspect.

Perhaps what is more fascinating about the Atlantis myth than the theories that have sought to explain or incorporate it into literal history are the similar notions of “lost” continents or ancient homelands that emerge in various world mythologies. Some appear in legends, like those of the Aztecs and their Aztlán, an ancient mythical home from which their culture derived (although it was not always depicted in their mythology as an island, per se). Others do appear in historical writings, like the fabled Hyperborea, land “beyond the north wind,” as mentioned by Herodotus and others in ancient times. Other examples include Mu, a hypothetical lost land similar to the Atlantis idea, which was “discovered” by French scholar Abbé Charles-Éttienne Brassuer from his misreading of Mayan symbols written of by Diego de Landa in his 1566 Relación de las cosas de Yucatán.

An early artistic depiction of Aztland featured in the 16th century Codex Boturini.

Countless other versions of the “lost continent” motif have come and gone over time, procured for reasons ranging from the spiritual, to the pseudo-historical, and stemming from an array of ideologies both well-intended and ill-conceived. “Thus,” noted L. Sprague de Camp in his highly entertaining Lost Continents: The Atlantis Theme, “the Atlantis theme has been tied to communism, socialism, anti-socialism, Spiritualism, Theosophy, racialism, pacificism, romanticism, diffusionism, Roussellian primitivism, and Hörbigerism. When these tales are taken as a whole, I think the best entertainment is still provided by those which, like (Charles John Cutcliffe Wright) Hyne’s Lost Continent, have no ideological axes to grind but simply tell a lively story in competent, professional style.”

In truth, Plato’s own telling of the story had probably been something akin to this: while allegorical, it hadn’t been concocted for use as a pseudo-historic “origin story” for whatever occult doctrine was popular at the time. Equally true is that whether or not it had truly been borrowed from whispers of earlier Egyptian mythology, passed down to the likes of Solon and other “tourists” to the region, who may have been shown such things on the columns and temple walls by elders the likes of Sonchis and other Saisians, is beside the point. Allegorical though Plato may have intended it to be, the Atlantis theme has lasted for this long because it makes for damned good storytelling, and humankind is always in search of things that push our calendars back, bespeaking earlier origins for our myths and histories.

The Atlantis story in its various forms still fascinates us for all these reasons. With little doubt (and whether or not anything akin to Atlantis truly existed), others will continue to search for this long-lost, fabled continent of human myth, history, and the imagination.

“When you have a human that’s born on Mars, the environment will change the structure of the human body. In a few generations, what you are going to see is humans that are taller and skinnier, because the gravity on Mars is less than that of Earth.”

A Mars One (remember that?) astronaut is interviewed for a TV show and speculates on what may happen to her body and those of her fellow settlers and their descendants after just a few generations on Mars. An author appearing on the same show elaborated.

“If humans evolve long enough on the planet Mars, they could grow to be taller, they’d have the bigger heads, they’d have the spindly limbs. They might actually grow slightly larger eyes that were equipped to see better in the dark because you simply have less sunlight on Mars than you do on the Earth because it’s farther away from the Sun.”

Hmm. Tall, thin, big heads, big eyes. Sound like any humans you know? Sound like any ALIENS you know? Mars One astronaut and actress Sue Ann Pien and Mike Bara, author of Ancient Aliens on Mars and similar books, were being interviewed for the History Channel’s Ancient Aliens series when they made these statements and more. Pien’s seem to make sense despite the fact that she’s an actress, not a space scientist, and her Mars One selection is probably due to more to her environmental activism and speaking ability than her knowledge ofMars. Mike Bara spent over 25 years as an engineering designer/consultant for major aerospace companies before becoming an author on conspiracy theories, space science, NASA, physics, UFOs and other topics and a regular on Ancient Aliens and other similar programs.

Why are my pants suddenly too short?

Together, Pien and Bara seem to be describing Nordic or Tall White Aliens, the alleged humanoid extraterrestrials said to have come from the Pleiades. Contactees say they’re tall and thin with big blue eyes, although they’re not often described as having big heads, just long blond hair. Nonetheless, they seem to resemble odd elongated humans. Could humans have at one time traveled to Mars, spent enough time there to become tall, thin and big-eyed, and then come back to be misidentified as Pleiadeans? Rather than pursuing that line, Bara and the next interviewee on Ancient Aliens suddenly take a religious turn.

“The fallen angels were giants – they were at least 10 feet tall, very striking to look at, [with] enormous eyes and no wings. They could also end up looking like representations of angels and various other God-like beings that we’ve read about in the Bible and other ancient documents.”

That’s Jonathan Young, a colleague of the late mythologist Joseph Campbell and a regular on Ancient Aliens, who adds fuel to Bara’s comment that these humans altered by Martian life could look like “representation of angels and other godlike beings that we’ve read about in the Bible and other ancient documents.” Really? This is the kind of U-turn that drives many UFOlogists and scientists researching alien life possibilities crazy … bringing religion into what could have been an enlightening scientific discussion on evolution, gravity, the future of Martian settlements, etc.

We still have a long way to go.

It’s sad when the most scientific member of a discussion about possible explanations for alien contact is an actress, yet Sue Ann Pien comes across the best of these three. She should make a good observer on the Mars One team and we’ll look forward to her missives from the Red Planet. Let’s hope Bara and Young are listening.

Are “superbugs” aboard the International Space Station (ISS) posing a risk to astronauts? While that sounds like a question asked in a dystopian sci-fi novel, it is legitimately being pondered by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory who published a study in BMC Microbiology regarding bacteria samples swabbed from surfaces within the ISS in 2015. Within those swabs dwelt the sort of genes bacteria developed to make themselves impervious to the effects of modern antibiotics – more than 100 in fact.

Enterobacter bugandensis, a species of bacteria responsible for several sorts of infections in humans was found aboard the ISS with a resistance to all nine antibiotics tested on it. By comparing these samples to samples of the same bacteria from Earth, researchers determined the strains were up to 79 percent likely to be pathogenic – or able to cause diseases.

Luckily, none of these strains tested have infected any of the astronauts aboard the ISS. This is probably a good thing as doctors do not make house calls in space. Even simple issues such as colds and the flu are more difficult in space as the lack of gravity causes sinus drainage to stay where it is instead of exiting the body as it does on Earth.

But, if they did become infected by one of the superbugs dwelling around them, astronauts already have a compromised immune system through just living. Some evidence is accumulating that these bacteria colonies may actually grow faster in space. In fact, one of the Space-X launches, conducted by Elon Musk’s space travel company, actually sent the superbug MRSA into space to test a hypothesis the lack of gravity will cause more rapid growth.

So what are superbugs, and how did they earn such an ominous name? Superbugs are evolved forms of everyday bacteria species known to cause illnesses in humans. With the dawn of antibiotics, humanity believed they were safe from several varieties of these infections because of a panacea of sorts, starting with the first growth of penicillin from simple bread mold.

MRSA was sent to the ISS aboard a Space-X rocket in order to test how the antibiotic-resistant bacteria would behave in space.

Unfortunately as Charles Darwin discovered through his writings on natural selection, and as Jeff Goldblum so eloquently stated in the first Jurassic Park film, “Life finds a way.” People who do not finish their entire regimen of antibiotics as well as bacteria not killed by them, which live on and reproduce, create superbugs. Usually it is a combination of both.

When an infection is treated with antibiotics, most of the bacteria causing said infection perish. The same can be said when hands are cleaned by sanitizers. Many people are familiar with advertisements promising products kill nearly 100 percent of germs. Superbugs are part of what remains. What remains can reproduce, and what reproduces can then spread its genes, which, through mutation, have evolved to resist most ways people have developed for killing them.