If you’re a fan of the panspermia theory that life may have been transported to Earth on an asteroid or meteorite, then this story is for you. Researchers studying a mysterious microbe found living in volcanoes put some on a diet of nothing but meteorite material and the tiny creatures not only survived but thrived. For skeptics who wondered how a life form could survive a long trip on a space rock, here’s your answer – they ate their stone ship … leaving just enough to survive the fiery entrance through Earth’s atmosphere. Plausible? Provable? Let’s find out.

Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images of meteorite fragments consumed by M. sedula. © Springer Nature / Scientific Reports / Tetyana Milojevic et al

“Nanoscale resolution ultrastructural studies of meteorite grown M. sedula coupled to electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) points to the redox processing of Fe-bearing meteorite material. Our investigations validate the ability of M. sedula to perform the biotransformation of meteorite minerals, unravel microbial fingerprints left on meteorite material, and provide the next step towards an understanding of meteorite biogeochemistry.”

That’s research-paper-speak for “We fed some Metallosphaera sedula microbes a meteorite from Northwest Africa and it loved it.” In a paper published this week in the journal Scientific Reports, an international team of researchers explains how their search for Earth life forms that could survive on Mars led them to Metallosphaera sedula, a microbe found in sulfur-rich environments like hot springs, volcanic fields and acid mine drainage pools that have high metal ion concentrations, low pH and high temperatures … in other words, they already live on the closest thing we have to Mars on Earth.

Meteor meal home delivery for a Metallosphaera sedula?

M. sedula’s taste for heavy metal of the Periodic Table kind has led it to be used to remove iron sulphide or pyrite from coal. However, volcanoes aren’t Mars. For something closer to real extraterrestrial soil, University of Vienna astrobiologist Tetyana Milojevic and her colleagues turned to the chondrite meteorite Northwest Africa 1172 (NWA 1172). Discovered in Tabelbala, Algeria, in 2000, Milojevic told Science Alert that “NWA 1172 is a multimetallic material, which may provide much more trace metals to facilitate metabolic activity and microbial growth.”

“Yummy,” said the M. sedulas. The team prepared a culture of the microbes and spread them on a sterilized slice of NWA 1172 and on a pile of pulverized powder. A control group of the microbes was fed ground-up samples of the copper-iron-sulphur Earth mineral chalcopyrite. Under microscopy, the researchers watched as the M. sedula ate more and grew faster on the meteorite meal. As they ate, the microbes emitted tiny bubbles which may have helped catalyze the metals and reduce their toxicity. When they were done feeding, the researchers could see clear evidence of where they dined, which will help determine if other meteorites carried similar metal-eating microbes to Earth.

Were here! What’s for dinner?

It looks like M. sedula and other similar metal-eating microbes could live on Mars and perhaps even survive a trip on a meteor. Is this proof of panspermia? Are we the descendants of Metallosphaera sedulas?

“Our work provides a deeper insight into the biologically-mediated processing of extraterrestrial material and implications for natural samples, representing a special interest for space exploration missions.”

Was that a maybe?

One of the more intriguing rumors surrounding Area 51 suggests that the vast majority of the top secret work undertaken there is handled not on the surface, but deep below it – in hollowed-out chambers, tunnels, and vast underground installations. Certainly, there is no shortage of stories suggesting that is the case. The few, overhead, satellite photographs of Area 51 that are in the public domain show very little evidence of massive facilities: just extensive runways, hangars and a few other buildings, and that’s about it. The undeniable sparse imagery has led to suspicions that the bulk of Area 51 is situated way below the surface of the Nevada desert. That is almost certainly the case.

In an article titled “How Area 51 Works,” Jonathan Strickland and Patrick J. Kiger say: “Some allege that what you can see on the surface is only a tiny part of the actual facility. They believe that the surface buildings rest on top of a labyrinthine underground base. Others claim the underground facility has up to 40 levels and that it is attached via underground railways to other sites in Los Alamos, White Sands and Los Angeles.”

In January 2017, the U.K.’s Daily Express newspaper said the following of Jan Harzan, the Executive Director of the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON): “Mr. Harzan claims there is a secret underground facility built into the base of the Papoose Mountains, in Lincoln County, Nevada, where recovered alien space crafts and extraterrestrial beings are kept hidden away.”

Atlas Obscura states: “While the base is said by conspiracy theorists to be the site of everything from time travel research, an underground transcontinental railroad, and of course a secret lab where aliens work with the government to reverse-engineer alien technology, there is little evidence for any of the fanciful claims that people have made. It is almost certainly true that much of the base is underground, but it’s more likely use is just as exciting – a secret experimental aircraft testing space of a terrestrial nature – many of which could easily be considered unidentified flying objects.”

And, then, there’s the matter of a certain secret base located in Utah. The name of this rival to Area 51 in the secrecy and conspiracy stakes is the Dugway Proving Ground. It is, however, referred to as Area 52. Situated less than ninety miles from Salt Lake City, the DPG covers a massive amount of Utah’s Great Salt Lake Desert. The origins of the facility date back to the 1940s. It was in early February 1942 – and in the wake of the events at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii – that then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt passed a degree that effectively handed over to the War Department more than 100,00 acres of Utah land – on which what is now the Dugway Proving Ground would be built. And the War Department set about not just constructing the base itself, but significantly-sized underground bunkers and facilities, too.

The goal was to create for the United States’ Government the ultimate base for the study and development of chemical warfare agents. As the years progressed, so did the size of the Dugway Proving Ground. Thirteen years after President Roosevelt gave the go-ahead, close to 300,000 additional acres of Utah land was handed over to the military. Today, the figure is in excess of 800,000 acres. And the work of the DPG has expanded too – yes, chemical warfare is still a big part of the base’s mandate. As is, now, research into biological warfare and deadly viruses.

In a thread at the Above Top Secret website, one commentator said that they had heard “…stories about installations being built to the South of Wendover, Nevada which is West of Dugway and also very, very remote. There are stories of a 17-story building underground out there.” Others speak of deep and massive tunnels that link the Dugway Proving Ground with a variety of Utah-based military facilities. Former employees talk about huge elevators that transport people to lower-levels of the base; the rumors are that there no less than eight levels below the surface area – all engaged in highly-classified work and all having the ability to withstand a nuclear strike, even a direct one.

As a follow-up to my article on the strange subject of “Alien Big Cats” seen in U.K.-based Crop Circles, I thought I would share something else with you. Namely, a report of a very different – but no less intriguing – “phenomenon” involving these strange and intricate field-based formations. As I noted in the first article: “Since 2011, I have received no less than nine more reports of people seeing  huge black cats in the Crop Circles of England; all of them in Wiltshire, except for an ABC seen roaming around Chartley Castle, Staffordshire, England in 2015. Rather notably, a Crop Circle was found in a field adjacent to Chartley Castle in the summer of 2006. I know that for sure because me, my dad, and my ex-wife Dana were there to see the creation a day after it was made.” All of which brings us to today’s article.

Back in March 2009, a certain feature appeared in the pages of the U.K.’s newspaper, the Daily Telegraph. It had a decidedly eye-catching headline. It went as follows: “Dog Walker Met UFO ‘Alien’ With Scandinavian Accent.” Well, that’s quite a title, to say the very least! The article was written by journalist Sarah Knapton. The story surfaced into the public domain thanks to the U.K. government’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Among the UFO-themed files that the Ministry of Defense released was one that focused on Crop Circles. And, in an amazing fashion, too. Sarah Knapton wrote in her article that the story told of how “a dog walker claimed she met a man from another planet who said aliens were responsible for Crop Circles.”

The woman – whose name is unknown, unfortunately – had made a phone-call to a  military base, a Royal Air Force facility at Wattisham, Suffolk, England. It was clear to the person on the other end of the phone that something very weird had happened. It all went down on the night of November 20, 1989. Yes, we’re talking about more than thirty years ago now. It was around 10:30 p.m. on that night when the woman was out walking her dog. While doing so a man came up to her – quite out of the blue, I should stress – and who spoke to her with what was clearly a Scandinavian accent. Not only that, he was attired in a “light-brown garment like a flying suit.”

The official documentation on the woman’s encounter state the following: “He asked her if she was aware of stories about large circular flattened areas appearing in fields of wheat, and then went on to explain that he was from another planet similar to Earth, and that the circles had been caused by others like him who had traveled to Earth.” The alleged E.T. told the woman that he meant her no harm at all, but stressed that “they were not to have contact with humans for fear that they would be considered a threat.” The woman was said to have been “completely terrified” (yes, that is how the document-writer described it) by the confrontation.

Indeed, the woman got more and more anxious for the safety of herself and her dog, and suddenly and quickly headed off to her home. As the woman exited the area, she couldn’t fail to hear a “loud buzzing noise” behind her. She turned around and was amazed to see what the Ministry of Defense described as “a large, glowing, orange-white, spherical object rising vertically” from a clump of very nearby trees. The Royal Air Force operator carefully wrote everything down – and listened carefully, too. In fact, the phone conversation went on for about an hour, chiefly because the military operator was convinced that this was a “genuine call” and not the work of a maniac or a prankster.

It’s hard to know what to make of all this. After all, the story – with its human-looking alien, the man’s “flying suit,” and his foreign accent – sounds like one of those wacky tales that dominated the “Contactee” movement of the 1950s. It must be remembered, though, that the story was taken seriously – hence why it ultimately became one of the Ministry of Defense’s “real X-Files.” True or not, the tale adds yet another layer of undeniable weirdness to the phenomenon of Crop Circles.

Reports of alien encounters range across the board, and go back to perhaps ancient times. From numerous disparate cultures come inexplicable reports of encounters with mysterious beings from beyond our understanding, and Japan certainly has some of these as well. One very curious case comes from a group of fishermen who came across a strange craft floating upon the sea, holding within it a curious stranger and which has gone on to become a great Japanese mystery.

Although there are various versions of the alleged encounter, perhaps the most well-known and detailed is that found within the pages of an 1825 manuscript called Toen shōsetsu, by Kyokutei Bakin. The story goes that in February of 1803, a group of fishermen toiling away on the coast of Hitachi province saw something very odd bobbing out on the waves, which appeared to be some sort of bizarre vessel the likes of which none of them had ever seen before. They approached it in their boat and could see that the top of the somewhat disc-shaped object, described as looking like a rice pot or an incense burner, seemed to be made of some sort of reddish wood with windows embedded within it, whereas the bottom was covered with metal plates, the whole of which measured approximately 11 feet high and 18 feet wide. The windows seemed to have metal bars over them, as well as resin coating their edges, perhaps to keep water out. For all appearances it seemed to be some sort of ship, although like nothing they had ever seen and seemingly drifting about aimlessly, and the curious fishermen towed it back to shore.

With the otherworldly craft safely on shore, they were surprised to peer in through one of the windows to see that it was adorned with what looked like a bed, sheets, soft carpets of unknown style and fabric, a bottle, and foods like cake and meat strewn about, and that the walls seemed to have been engraved with various strange symbols or letters from some unknown language. However, more startling than any of this was who they found cowering within, for it seemed the vessel had a passenger. There sitting within the craft in hiding was a young woman of around 18 to 20 years of age, standing around 5 feet tall and described as being strikingly, almost ethereally beautiful, with very pale, pinkish skin and thick red hair laced with white extensions that appeared to be made out of some kind of fur and all peppered with white powder. In her hands she held a simple wooden box that she clutched protectively as the fishermen stared down at her with mouths agape. Her elegant clothes were said to be of an unknown fabric, and were long, flowing, and very smooth like silk.

The fishermen tried to speak to the mysterious woman, but she replied in a strange language they were unable to comprehend, and it seemed as though she could not understand what they said either. Throughout all of this she held that box defensively, not allowing anyone to get anywhere near it. Unable to talk with this stranger and not sure how to proceed, the fishermen supposedly ended up pushing what they called the utsuro-bune, or “hollow ship” back out to sea, where it bobbed off towards the horizon out of sight, leaving the enigmatic woman and the secret contents of that box a complete mystery. When the fishermen went back to their village and told the others, one of the elders speculated that it was a princess from a foreign land who had been banned from her homeland, possibly after having had an affair with a commoner.

The tale of the Utusro-Bune would appear again in the works Hyōryū kishū (1835) and Ume-no-chiri (1844), each time with slightly different details but essentiall telling the same repor, and it was over the years printed in several Edo era news sources as well. Similar tales of mysterious strangers appearing by see in otherworldly vessels can also be found in the lore of other areas of Japan as well, making it seem as though it must surely just be a myth and legend. Yet, even considering the nebulous origins of the story it has sometimes been suggested that this might have been an actual event that really happened, and there have been ideas on what might have occurred here.

If there was any reality to the tale, one of the main theories on what those fishermen saw was a Russian woman who had either drifted away from a wrecked vessel, or had intentionally come to try and negotiate trade with the then notoriously isolated Japanese or even to spy on them. This would explain her foreign appearance, striking red hair, bizarre clothing, and incomprehensible speech and writing. It also might explain the bizarreness of her craft, as it might have just been a Russian design the Japanese were not familiar with. A more fringe idea is that this was an early example of a UFO and alien encounter in Japan, even though the strange craft is never described as flying or doing anything other than bobbing aimlessly in the water, nor does it exhibit any particularly advanced technology, the windows sealed with tree resin, and the woman is by all descriptions exotic, but human in appearance, yet UFO enthusiasts have often explained this away by saying that it might have been a submersible craft or a crashed UFO.

Of course there is also the idea that this was just a sensationalized, made up account, as were common back in that era. If this had been real, then in this age of Japan’s very strictly controlled borders it would have had to been reported to the Daimyo and proper authorities immediately, yet there is no official record of the incident among the tomes of other reports of shipwrecked sailors and whalers on Japan’s shores. It is also somewhat odd that the story includes just sending the strange woman on her way with no follow-up or opportunity to find her again, making it all rather convenient for anyone who was making it all up. In the end, we are left to wonder what was really going on here. Was this a foreigner finding herself on these shores for purposes we will never understand? Was it just a sensational report and myth building? Or was this perhaps a visitor from much farther away than Russia? The mystery of the Hollow Ship of Japan remains an enigma.

When it comes to the matter of the Roswell affair of July 1947, just about everything is controversial. There are multiple theories for what happened. There are witnesses who are highly credible and those who are best forgotten. The U.S. government has changed its opinion on several occasions regarding what happened – or what didn’t happen.  The tales of con-men, outright liars, and second- and third-hand abound. Numerous books have been written on the subject – and we’re still no closer to getting a definitive answer. There’s no doubt that one of the most controversial of all those who claimed knowledge of what happened (or of portions of what happened) was the late Glenn Dennis. At the time when everything went weird at Roswell in ’47, Dennis was an embalmer (not a mortician, as so many have incorrectly described him – including Dennis himself, no less) at the local Ballard Funeral Home. He signed a sworn affidavit confirming something sensational – namely, that a nursing friend at the base had quietly admitted to him that a preliminary autopsy of a number of strange bodies had been conducted at the base hospital at the Roswell Army Air Field.

Dennis said: “She had gone to get supplies in a room where two doctors were performing a preliminary autopsy. The doctors said they needed her to take notes during the procedure. She said she had never smelled anything so horrible in her life, and the sight was the most gruesome she had ever seen. She said, ‘This was something no one has ever seen.’ As she spoke, I was concerned that she might go into shock.'” Dennis continued: “She drew me a diagram of the bodies, including an arm with a hand that had only four fingers; the doctors noted that on the end of the fingers were little pads resembling suction cups. She said the head was disproportionately large for the body; the eyes were deeply set; the skulls were flexible; the nose was concave with only two orifices; the mouth was a fine slit, and the doctors said there was heavy cartilage instead of teeth. The ears were only small orifices with flaps. They had no hair, and the skin was black – perhaps due to exposure in the sun. She gave me the drawings.”

When Glenn Dennis’ story began to surface approximately three decades ago, there was a great deal of excitement within the UFO research field – and particularly so in the arena of Roswell research. Things didn’t stay like that, however. The biggest problem was that Dennis hemmed and hawed over the alleged real name of the nurse,. He came up with a variety of names, such as Naomi Marie Selff, Naomi Maria Selff, Naomi Self, and Naomi Sipes. Roswell researchers began to doubt the tale when they failed to find anyone (at the base) with a name anywhere near to those Dennis came up with. That was when the red flags flew. Big time, too. Maybe Dennis had never given anything that was remotely like the real name. Perhaps, it was suggested, the nurse was actually a composite – created by Dennis to protect several nurses who may have been on-site when the bodies were brought in and all hell broke loose. Today, most people in Roswell research totally discount Dennis’ story – and for very understandable reasons, too. Roswell expert Kevin Randle, for example, says of Dennis’ story that it is nothing but “…the fantasy of a man who had no real involvement other than he lived in Roswell in 1947.”

I do wonder, though, if there could be a smidgen of truth to the story; that perhaps Dennis knew something of what happened, but that he handled the whole thing in such an awkward and controversial fashion that it led his claims to be discarded. So, in light of all this, you may wonder why I still think there might be a small number of facts buried in a story dominated by fiction and fantasy? I’ll tell you. As you can learn online: “Maria is a feminine given name. It is given in many languages influenced by Latin Christianity [Catholic]. It has its origin as the feminine form of the Roman name Marius and, after Christianity religion has spread across the Roman empire, it became the Latinised form of the name of Miriam.”

Kevin Randle told me a couple of days ago that Dennis started using the middle name of “Maria” for his nurse after he – Dennis – met with the late ufologist, Karl Pflock. So, we have a “Maria” in the story. And, it so happens that Maria (as the quote above shows) “…became the Latinised form of Miriam.” Why is this important? Well, one of the primary candidates for who the nurse really might have been (if there even was a nurse, of course) was a woman named…Miriam Bush. Miriam was not actually a nurse: in 1947 she was an executive secretary at Roswell’s RAAF hospital. She worked for a medical officer, Lieutenant Colonel Harold Warne, and is said to have seen the bodies found on the Foster Ranch – specifically when they were brought into the confines of the hospital. They were, as nearly everyone claimed, small, damaged, and very unusual-looking.

This trauma-filled experience clearly affected Miriam to a huge degree. The whole thing was like an albatross around her neck. That huge, ominous bird never left her. Miriam Bush’s private life was a mess and she became alcoholic. And, in the late 1980s, Miriam became fearful that she was being watched and followed. She was found dead in a motel-room just outside of San Jose, California, in December 1989. A plastic bag was found around Miriam’s head, and her arms were bruised and scratched. The verdict was suicide.

Dennis said that his nurse was a “good catholic girl.” Could Dennis have known something after all? Did he choose to use the name of Maria in place of Miriam? And, using the fake name, did he hope that one day someone with a Catholic background might make a Maria-Miriam connection and finally realize who the real source was: Miriam Bush, perhaps? Dennis did, after all, make a Catholic comment, suggesting he may have known some Catholic lore. At the very least, this is all a strange and convoluted coincidence of names, which may very well be the case. But, I would suggest that more digging into all of this is still required.

It was the announcement that launched a thousand ships of hope that the US government was finally going to reveal the information it has on UFOs, aliens and close encounters of every kind.

“In the $600 billion annual Defense Department budgets, the $22 million spent on the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program was almost impossible to find. Which was how the Pentagon wanted it. For years, the program investigated reports of unidentified flying objects, according to Defense Department officials, interviews with program participants and records obtained by The New York Times. It was run by a military intelligence official, Luis Elizondo, on the fifth floor of the Pentagon’s C Ring, deep within the building’s maze.”

On December 16, 2017, the New York Times revealed that the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) existed in the Pentagon for the purpose of investigating unidentified flying objects. With that, videos of UFO encounters with pilots from the USS Nimitz were made public, To the Stars Academy of Arts & Sciences was formed and UFOs were suddenly covered by the mainstream media. The path to disclosure seemed wide open. On May 22, 2019, the NY Post announced that Pentagon spokesperson Christopher Sherwood confirmed that AATIP “…did pursue research and investigation into unidentified aerial phenomena.”

Pentagon

And then came this week.

“At the time, Mr. Sherwood was repeating the information that had been provided by a previous spokesperson some two years earlier. That previous spokesperson is no longer with my organization, and I cannot comment on why that person’s explanation of AATIP included that it had looked at anomalous events. According to all the official information I have now, when implemented, AATIP did not pursue research and investigation into unidentified aerial phenomena; that was not part of the technical studies nor the reports produced by the program.”

In an exclusive story, The Black Vault revealed the contents of an email it received from current Pentagon spokesperson Susan Gough which contradicted Sherwood’s statement about the Pentagon investigating UFOs. She further explained:

“Neither AATIP nor AAWSAP (Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program) were UAP related. The purpose of AATIP was to investigate foreign advanced aerospace weapons system applications with future technology projections over the next 40 years, and to create a center of expertise on advanced aerospace technologies.”

And then, Gough revealed the real shocker to those who want to believe:

“(Elizondo was) not the director of the AATIP (and had) “no assigned responsibilities” (at AATIP).”

Kudos to The Black Vault, the largest archive of government documents of its kind outside of the American government, according to founder John Greenewald Jr., who uses those legally-obtained documents for “exposing government secrets … one page at a time.” Greenewald did his due diligence – he reached out to both the Pentagon and Elizondo for comments and received none at the time of this writing.

Move along. Nothing unusual here.

Perhaps he should contact Tucker Carlson.

“I’ve heard this from someone who I think is knowledgable in the subject. There is physical evidence that the US government is holding which would tell us a lot more about what these objects are. The person who told me is someone who worked on this within the government for many years who would know.”

In a recent interview with Nick Pope, the Fox News commentator was referring to the Tic-Tac UFOs seen by the Nimitz pilots. When asked if there was actual UFO wreckage, Carlson answered:

“Yes there is.”

Yes, we want to believe … but whom do we believe?

Thanks again to The Black Vault for breaking this story.

Archaeologists in Turkey have unearthed an ancient site that could be up to 1,000 years older than Göbeklitepe – the world’s oldest temple. Excavations at Boncuklu Tarla, which is located in southeastern Turkey’s Mardin, began in 2012.

The ancient site was believed to have been from the Neolithic period and throughout the years several groups of people have lived there, including Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians, Hittites, Assyrians, Romans, Seljuks, and Ottomans.

İbrahim Özcoşar, who is the rector of Mardin Artuklu University, told Anadolu Agency, “This area is important in terms of being one of the first settled areas of humanity and shows that the first people settling here were believers.” (A picture of the site can be seen here.)

Göbeklitepe

The history of Boncuklu Tarla goes back to approximately 12,000 years ago, according to Ergül Kodaş who is an archaeologist at Artuklu University. “Several special structures, which we can call temples and special buildings were unearthed in the settlement, in addition to many houses and dwellings,” he said, adding, “This is a new key point to inform us on many topics such as how the [people] in northern Mesopotamia and the upper Tigris began to settle, how the transition from hunter-gatherer life to food production happened and how cultural and religious structures changed.”

And while Boncuklu Tarla is located nearly 300 kilometers from the world’s oldest temple, several of the buildings unearthed there are quite similar to those found at Göbeklitepe, but up to 1,000 older. “We have identified examples of buildings which we call public area, temples, religious places in Boncuklu Tarla that are older compared to discoveries in Göbeklitepe,” Kodaş stated.

Göbeklitepe

Several researchers from the universities of Istanbul and Chicago unearthed Göbeklitepe in 1963 and it was officially declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2018. Since 1995, the Sanliurfa Museum and the German Archaeological Institute have been excavating the site.

They have made some pretty interesting discoveries which included 10-20 foot tall T-shaped obelisks from the Neolithic period that weighed 40-60 tons. They unearthed several more historical artifacts, including a 26-inch tall human statue from 12,000 years ago.

While many fascinating discoveries have been unearthed in Göbeklitepe, the fact that the Boncuklu Tarla site could be as much as a thousand years older is certainly a significant archaeological find.