Which concept is more believable (or unbelievable) … that the Milky Way galaxy has wandering supermassive black holes or that supermassive black holes (wandering or otherwise) could be hiding advanced alien civilizations? Both concepts have been seen in models and both could someday have an impact on Earth. Is it too soon to either run or put out a welcome mat … or both?

Supermassive black holes are the largest type of black hole and as such usually occupy the premier location in a galaxy – namely, smack dab in the middle. That’s the case with the Milky Way galaxy, whose supermassive black hole is at its center at Sagittarius A* (A-star), which is near the border of the constellations Sagittarius and Scorpius. While not yet proven, astronomers assume that every galaxy has a supermassive black hole at its center. It’s also likely that some may have two in that same center location. Now, a new study published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters proposes that some galaxies, including the Milky Way, have wandering supermassive black holes whose cause and possible effects are a concern for other stars.

Study lead author Michael Tremmel (who summarizes it in this video) reports that researchers from Yale, the University of Washington, Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, and University College London used a new simulation model appropriately named Romulus (one of the twin founders of Rome) to predict the existence of these wandering supermassive black holes – appropriate because the secondary wandering holes are likely the result of the incomplete merging of two galaxies where the bigger SMBH didn’t assimilate the smaller one. The smaller SMBHs, being too far out to absorb gas and generate radiation, are invisible, but could still be deadly to a nearby star and its planets. Like us?

“It is extremely unlikely that any wandering supermassive black hole will come close enough to our Sun to have any impact on our solar system. We estimate that a close approach of one of these wanderers that is able to affect our solar system should occur every 100 billion years or so, or nearly 10 times the age of the universe.”

The amount of money wagered on lotteries shows how little humans respect long odds, but something far different that annihilation might also occur if our solar system is approached by a SMBH … alien contact. With the news of the wandering SMBHs, it’s worth revisiting an older report where Russian cosmologist Vyacheslav Vyacheslav Dokuchaev at Moscow’s Institute for Nuclear Research and the Russian Academy of Sciences proposed that supermassive black holes are so large, their centers may have enough space that their gravitational pull is less, allowing for planets to potentially exist. And not just planets, but also …

“We hypothesize that the advanced civilizations may live safely inside the supermassive black holes in the galactic nuclei being invisible from the outside.”

Really? Dokuchaev says supermassive black holes have two ‘point of no return’ event horizons with a space between them.

“The naked central singularity illuminates the orbiting internal planets and provides the energy supply for life supporting. This internal black hole domain, hidden by the two horizons from the whole external universe, is indeed a suitable place for safe inhabitation.”

REALLY? Dokuchaev admits that this advanced civilization would have to be advanced enough to deal with “huge tidal forces and massive energy densities … [and] causality violations, where the rules of space-time don’t apply.” If they’re so advanced, why don’t they move to a better galactic neighborhood?

So, a simulator shows that supermassive black holes are wandering the Milky Way, a Russian cosmologist says they may contain advanced life forms, and the odds of either getting close to us are worse than the lottery … but not impossible.

What do we know for sure? Supermassive Black Hole is already a great song and the Naked Singularities would be a great name for a band.

With all of the bad news and tensions going on in the world, you’d think there would be one group looking beyond our globe and finding places that are safe and pleasant and wholesome – a group like astronomers. You would be wrong … at least about astronomers. A new paper published in The Astrophysical Journal reveals the discovery of a new class of supermassive black holes (isn’t that redundant?) that wander around dwarf galaxies (an oxymoron?) looking for planets, stars and space rocks instead of staying in their centers like other supermassive black holes. Can they wander out of their own galaxies and into others? Could this be the future of the Milky Way … and the demise of us?

“I was very surprised.”

That’s not what you want to hear from the astronomer who discovered these unusual pradatory wandering black holes, but that’s the comment given to Cosmos magazine by Amy Reines, an astrophysicist at Montana State University and lead author of the paper. In a press release, she describes how, like many other discoveries, this one came while she and fellow astronomers were using the National Science Foundation’s Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) to look for normal stationary supermassive black holes in the centers of dwarf galaxies – ancient galaxies so small that these black holes have been nearly impossible to detect. Instead, they were surprised to find predators.

Num-num … stars and planets.

“The new VLA observations revealed that 13 of these galaxies have strong evidence for a massive black hole that is actively consuming surrounding material. We were very surprised to find that, in roughly half of those 13 galaxies, the black hole is not at the center of the galaxy, unlike the case in larger galaxies.”

This is not the first time that wandering supermassive black holes have been observed, but this new study is the first to show that a dwarf galaxy’s only central black hole can not only move but actually consume its own galaxy from the inside. As always, when there’s one – or in this case, 13 – there’s bound to be more, so Reines and her fellow astronomers are using their new-found techniques to scan other dwarf galaxies with the intent of finding more predatory wandering black holes that may help explain how the earliest black holes were formed after the Big Bang.

Should we residents of the Milky Way be worried about wandering predatory supermassive black holes? No … and possibly yes. While the Milky Way is not a dwarf galaxy and its central black hole seems to being staying put, it does have some wandering black holes eating their way around the galaxy. Even more worrisome – a least a little more – is the fact that there are dwarf galaxies orbiting the Milky Way, including the Large Magellanic Cloud.

If any astronomers on the next wandering predatory supermassive black hole project are reading this, could you check the Large Magellanic Cloud first?

If you are a regular to Mysterious Universe, you’ll know that one of my particular interests when it comes to UFOs and the paranormal is that of the Men in Black. I don’t think there’s a single MIB case out there that isn’t weird. But, some are really weird. Such as the one I’m going to share with you today. It comes from a source in British Columbia who provided the following story to me in 2013. It’s a case that is made notable by the fact that it predates the MIB phenomenon that has developed since 1947. In fact, it dates back to the 1930s. The source began: “Hello Nick; I have a MIB story that comes from a pretty good source. 1930s. MIB met at a prairie crossroads by a Ukrainian man. Very interesting outcome. It should be noted that the three brothers from Ukraine that were involved in this encounter also encountered incredible strange phenomena on their farm. If you would like to read about it I will relate it as told by one of the brothers. Of course, I asked for more information. And got it.

The source continued: “I was told this by a reliable source, a family friend that did not BS. He was one of the three brothers that immigrated to Saskatchewan from Ukraine in the 1930s. These people, I suspect brought with them some beliefs that resulted in very strange activity on their farm. They had no wives, just three brothers. Some mornings they would find the horses’ manes and tails ‘braided’ in a very impressive fashion, but so tight that the horses would not allow them to be undone due to pain from pulling, so they cut them off. One night the brothers awoke to their barn on fire. They fought the fire with water from buckets to no avail as the barn burned to the ground. As morning approached they went in very tired to wash the smoke and ash from their face and hands. With the smoking ruins of their barn on their minds they went for a well earned sleep. When they awoke later that same day, they gazed out at their barn…exactly as it was before it had burned. Or had it really burned? Who knows, but it was it had always been.

“One of the brothers was walking down the prairie dirt road when he came upon a very clean well dressed man at a ‘crossroads.’ The man wore a black high class suit with a tail and a fancy stove pipe hat, all black and no dust, but clean. The Farmer said to him, ‘What you doing out here all dressed up like that?’ As he spoke those words he was taking from his pocket his corn cob pipe to fill and talk a while. Upon seeing the corn cob pipe the MIB said ‘Oh, what a very nice pipe’ as he admired it. The MIB pulled from his pocket a very expensive looking silvery-looking pipe and offered to trade if the farmer would. The old Ukrainian said, ‘What, this old thing?’ and quickly traded. This seemed to end the conversation, as the farmer sped home to show everyone at home. When the MIB saw the farmer’s corn cob pipe, the MIB was transfixed by the pipe and appeared to be amazed by it; he wouldn’t take his eyes off it.

“Apparently there were other people over for a stay at the time, and they all marveled at the beautiful pipe that had been traded from the MIB. It was proudly put on the fireplace mantle and stayed there as they all went to bed for the night. When they awoke the next day, apparently the ‘spell’ had been broken because where the beautiful silver pipe had been proudly displayed on the mantle was instead a stick!! Yes, a stick. I am thinking that with the farmer came some hypnotic spell to allow them all to see the silver pipe. The brother’s name was Alex Delawski and he told me this happened. There were more strange things too but this is what he told me. A side occurrence: For the last week or so I have been falling asleep with YouTube videos playing about MIB. I was in the back bedroom of my mobile home and I heard a loud knocking on my door. It was quite a loud and unmistakable sound of a closed fist on the door. I was surprised to see no-one and continued to look through the widows. There were no tracks in the fresh snow!”

Another weird saga in the world of the MIB.

“Right now, traditional habitat designs for Mars are like a turtle — carrying our homes with us on our backs – a reliable plan, but with huge energy costs,” said Lynn Rothschild, the principal investigator on the early-stage project. “Instead, we can harness mycelia to grow these habitats ourselves when we get there.

NASA began research and development on the idea in 2018, but in 2020 scientists are continuing the work, aiming to find out just how feasible the plan is for Martian colonization. Researchers are now seeking ways to help mushroom mycelium grow in Martian soil. If they are successful, explorers could establish viable colonies by growing off-world settlements without the need to transport bulky building materials. These natural environments present the ultimate sustainability model, providing strong, lightweight living space that is also flexible, insulated, flame-retardant, radiation-protected, and self-healing. Want to add an addition? No need to hire a contractor. Just add water (or something like that). Of course the structures would be non-toxic and, at the end of their life cycle, could be plowed under to become fertilizer for future space gardens.

Not actually the moon, but quite a simulacrum, a moon-shaped, giant puffball mushroom bigger than my head. Who’d have thought I could find a use for this mushroom selfie?

Dormant spores could be activated with water and the right conditions. Photosynthetic bacteria would serve as fungus food, triggering growth. The mushroom architects could be bio-engineered to extrude bioplastics, latex, and other materials. Perhaps they could even provide light through harnessing a natural property in some mushroom species, bioluminescence.

The myco-architecture prototypes are being developed by NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley. Silicon Valley is no stranger to mushroom fueled innovation, but this takes tech to new heights.

Ultimately, the project envisions a future where human explorers can bring a compact habitat built out of a lightweight material with dormant fungi that will last on long journeys to places like Mars. Upon arrival, by unfolding that basic structure and simply adding water, the fungi will be able to grow around that framework into a fully functional human habitat – all while being safely contained within the habitat to avoid contaminating the Martian environment.

This research is supported through the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts program, known as NIAC, and is part of a field known as synthetic biology – the study of how we can use life itself as technology, in this case fungi. We’re a very long way from being able to grow useable habitats for Mars, but the early-stage research is well under way to prove the potential of these creative solutions. That work all starts with experimenting with fungi.

Science fiction often imagines a mechanized future, dominated by cold, dead metal environments and gigantic machines. But I’m rooting for a stranger, “greener” tomorrow, populated by adorable, glowing shroom rooms at home and throughout the galaxy. We could really use more sustainable building options on Earth right now. Hopefully, NASA won’t reserve these living technologies for other planets. Look for them popping up like fungal friends in a neighborhood near you. 

Why has the task force set up to investigate the cause and/or find the owners of the mysterious giant drones seen for weeks now flying in formation over parts of Colorado and Nebraska suddenly shut down … saying it’s not needed because it found ‘nothing criminal’? Could it be because the owner is our own military testing secret futuristic aircraft … aircraft that may be the same genre as those mysterious “Tic Tac” UFOs witnessed by US Navy pilots who have also never received an explanation of what they saw? That’s the theory proposed by a former military intelligence expert and investigative reporter after analyzing videos of the drones. Is he right? Is our own military testing secret technology on its own people (again)? Or is it trying to stir up UFO talk to hide real advanced technology (also again)?

“I’m guessing it’s Navy related. I’ve seen several videos that have gotten me into this. I’m a debunker and I’ve never jumped on the UFO bandwagon. But as I’m watching these videos, I’m seeing some objects that look a lot like a tic-tac would be. There’s one where an aircraft is zooming by at a ridiculous speed.”

Why can’t anyone identify the drones?

In an exclusive interview with the Daily Star Online, Mike Turber appears to be the first expert to link the mysterious Colorado drones to the mysterious USS Nimitz Tic Tac UFOs. Turber is a well-known investigative journalist and cybersecurity expert who served in the Air Force as an Electronic Operations Specialist. If his name sounds familiar, he was involved in the investigation of the 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas. More recently, he has been touting the idea (along with a few other people) that the 2004 USS Nimitz “Tic Tac” UFOs are actually secret US military aircraft. Thus it may come as no surprise that he believes the Colorado drones are also military aircraft tests and possibly Tic Tac aircraft as well.

“As far as I know, they very well could be these tic-tacs but I have no inside knowledge of what these are and can’t really confirm anything.”

That’s not exactly a rousing endorsement of his own claim. Few if any eyewitness accounts of the Colorado drones, including those of local law enforcement, have stated anything unusual about their speed and, since all occurred at night, none seem to have reported a Tic Tac shape, just blinking lights. Unfortunately, Turber attracts skepticism with some of his other past claims, including that he himself has flown in a gravity-defying Tic Tac and … get ready … so has President Trump during his trip to North Korea as a way of impressing Kim Jong-Un.

Stranger things have happened.

OK, that seems kind of far-fetched, but so does the blanket denial by the government task force set up to investigate the fleets of giant drones flying in formation that they’re doing anything criminal and shutting things down without even identifying the owners or locating their base or even the alleged vehicles controlling them. That leaves the sightings open to a wide variety of conclusions and theories and the officials don’t seem to mind … which draws even MORE skepticism and theories.

Are the Colorado drones of the same technology as the Tic Tac UFOs? Until they’re positively identified by SOMEONE, anything is possible.

As a follow-up to my “M.I.B.: You Want Weird? You’ve Got It!” article, I thought I would share another case with you. From a firsthand eyewitness we have a compelling story of Men in Black, thinly-veiled threats, and what may have been some form of secret, underground, military facility in Arizona. As the witness states: “The following event took place in the spring of 1998 around 2PM. The approximate location the event occurred is about 15 miles SE of the Bill Williams Wildlife Refuge, which is a remote desert area off the Colorado River with the closest town being Parker, Arizona. Growing up in Lake Havasu City, you are surrounded by hundreds of miles of open desert with mountain ranges and endless dirt roads that are great for off-roading. The area this event took place is dotted with abandoned mines which we often explored. I was driving my Jeep and my buddy was behind me in his Toyota Land Cruiser.

“The road we were on was a dirt road no different than any other dirt road in the area. The area was fairly flat with a lot of low brush and creosote bushes.  I pulled off the right side of the road to look around.  There were no signs, no marking, no dirt piles; nothing at all out of the ordinary. I got out of my truck and waked about 30 feet. I came across a hole about 15’ across, I don’t know how deep it was but there was no end in sight. This hole was not visible from the road at all because of the low bushes that are all over in this area. The hole went straight down. Since I have seen a lot of mines, I had come to know what the surrounding area of a mine looks like.  The area surrounding the mine is always disturbed with dirt piles from the excavation, roads to the mine and often times warning or no trespassing signs and fences.

“This particular hole had no disturbances at all. I only found it because I stumbled upon it by accident. I was surprised that there were no signs or safety fences at all. Aside from the natural camouflage of the surrounding bushes there was no attempts made to hide this hole. The only camouflage to hide the hole was the fact that there was nothing at all such as sign or roads to lead you to believe there was a hole there.   Within a minute or 2 of us seeing the hole, a black suburban with dark tinted windows rolled up on us.  We saw it coming up the road but by the time we saw it, it was almost to our location.  I have no idea how they knew we were there so quickly. Two men, wearing all black military fatigues, with black hats and black sunglasses, got out of the driver and passenger side.  Both were Caucasians about 6’ tall carrying side arms. They shut their doors and simply said, ‘You need to leave.’

“Being a bit of a smart ass at times and with no fences or signs showing private property or no trespassing, I figured the desert is for everyone. I simply said, ‘I don’t see any signs saying no trespassing.’ I said it more as a joke because I really don’t like to be messed around with so I wanted to see how serious they were. With no emotion whatsoever the driver simply said: ‘I will ask you one more time to leave now.’ He never took his sunglasses off or made any other movements at all. I got the point and we drove off. I really did not think too much about it back then because there are a lot of mines out there. I am now 39 and looking back and looking into similar stories, I can now say it was likely not just a mine. If it were a mine, there would have been much more security to prevent injury.”