“Here today, gone tomorrow.”

It’s a common expression, one that dates back to John Calvin’s 1549 “Life and Conversion of a Christian Man.” Unless you’re watching Star Trek or a Star Wars movie, it’s not something generally heard when discussing a planet … until now. Astronomers watching a Jupiter-sized exoplanet discovered in 2008 and tracked for years with the Hubble space telescope announced this week that it has disappeared. Did they look around for a Death Star?

“The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has taken the first visible light snapshot of a planet circling another star. Estimated to be no more than three times Jupiter’s mass, the planet, called Fomalhaut b, orbits the bright southern star Fomalhaut, located 25 light-years away in the constellation Piscis Austrinus (the Southern Fish).”

ESA image of Fomalhaut b

In 2004, astronomers created the first-ever resolved visible light image of a large dust belt surrounding Fomalhaut. In 2005, Hubble astronomer Paul Kalas of the University of California, Berkeley proposed that the ring was being gravitationally modified by a planet lying between the star and the ring’s inner edge, and in 2008 a point source of light was photographed which was named Fomalhaut b. Its unusual brightness suggested it either had a Saturn-like ring or multiple moons, and its orbit followed a strange, non-elliptical path. Still, astronomers were confident Fomalhaut b was a large exoplanet.

“To my surprise, it was not present on the latest images. So, I went through all the data and started to analyze it and noticed a pattern: it was fading.”

Astronomer András Gáspár of the University of Arizona told Vice.com that he was looking for something else when he noticed that Fomalhaut b had disappeared from Hubble images in 2014. Going back through older images, Gáspár also saw that the planet was visibly fading and its strange orbit was no longer an orbit but an “escape trajectory” sending whatever it was out of Fomalhaut’s star system. The new data was fed into models, which showed only one thing could have caused all of these anomalies to happen.

“We do have evidence of such collisions in other systems, but none of this magnitude has ever been observed. This is a blueprint for how planets destroy each other.”

Did it look like this?

This was not a confrontation between a giant planet and a Death Star but a collision between two asteroid-sized bodies orbiting Fomalhaut – a collision that likely occurred just prior to the discovery of the dust cloud by Hubble astronomers in 2004. Neither of these space objects were planet-sized, but the resulting debris cloud was and it fooled them into thinking they had discovered exoplanet Fomalhaut b.

“Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.”

That saying dates back to 1651 when it appeared in “The Court and Character of King James” by Anthony Weldon, and it applies to Fomalhaut b and its star. Fomalhaut can be described by yet another more recent adage: “Live fast, die young.” That one dates back to the 1947 book Knock on Any Door by Willard Motley (actually “Live fast, die young, and have a good-looking corpse”). Fomalhaut is a very hot star, which means it will have a short life in star terms. Its heat will keep its dust and debris ring agitated, so there could be more of these asteroid collisions, which means astronomers will be watching it carefully with the Hubble telescope and eventually the James Webb Space Telescope scheduled to launch in 2021.

Meanwhile, Fomalhaut b is fading fast into a massive cloud of dust, soon to be just a memory … and without a good-looking corpse. Perhaps Billy Joel wrote the best epitaph for this unusual space event.

“Only the good die young.”

A very unique planetary system was discovered with all six of its planets orbiting in almost perfect rhythm. The star, which is called HD 158259, is slightly larger than our own sun and is around the same mass. It is located approximately 88 light-years away from us and is orbited by one super-Earth (which is about twice the mass of Earth) and five mini-Neptunes.

An international team of researchers studied this system for seven years and took measurements using the SOPHIE spectrograph as well as the TESS exoplanet-hunting space telescope. By using this information, they calculated the orbits of all six planets orbiting HD 158259.

(Not HD 158259 and its planets)

The fact that the planets are orbiting in an almost perfect rhythm makes it quite extraordinary. In fact, each planet orbits the star at a near 3:2 resonance with the next-closest one, meaning that every time a planet completes three orbits, the next one completes two orbits. Nathan Hara, who is from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) and is the first author of the study (which can be read in full here), explained this further, “This is comparable to several musicians beating distinct rhythms, yet who beat at the same time at the beginning of each bar.”

Their orbits are incredibly quick as it takes all six planets 2.17, 3.4, 5.2, 7.9, 12, and 17.4 days to complete an orbit around the star (starting from the closest to the furthest away). Even though all six planets orbiting HD 158259 are situated close together, they may not have been formed that way. For comparison, the distance from the star to the outermost planet is 2.6 times shorter than the distance from Mercury to our sun.

Stephane Udry, who is also from UNIGE and another author of the study, explained how this would have happened, “Several compact systems with several planets in, or close to resonances are known, such as TRAPPIST-1 or Kepler-80. Such systems are believed to form far from the star before migrating towards it. In this scenario, the resonances play a crucial part.”

Hara went into further detail by stating, “The current departure of the period ratios from 3:2 contains a wealth of information.” “With these values on the one hand, and tidal effect models on the other hand, we could constrain the internal structure of the planets in a future study. In summary, the current state of the system gives us a window on its formation.”

A longtime staple of science fiction is the depiction of extraterrestrials having extremely large heads holding almost-as-large brains … think “To Serve Man,” the classic Twilight Zone episode. H.G. Wells may have been the first writer to describe aliens with big heads, and that image eventually became the ‘grey aliens’ many believe are actual extraterrestrials. Many experts paid to ponder what extraterrestrials would look like stick with the ‘big head’ idea. It turns out all of these depictions are rooted in truth … although not because these species evolved into big-brained, smart beings first. A new study of NASA astronauts found that the human brain expands during long-term space fights – a phenomena that space traveler’s skulls may have to evolve quickly to accommodate to avoid damaging their brains. Or will cranial binding return for parents who want their infants to grow up to be Mars explorers?

“When you’re in microgravity, fluid such as your venous blood no longer pools toward your lower extremities but redistributes headward. That movement of fluid toward your head may be one of the mechanisms causing changes we are observing in the eye and intracranial compartment.”

You should have planned a-head.

Detailed medical examinations of astronauts post-flight – especially Scott Kelly and his earthbound twin Mark — found problems with eyesight and cognition long after they returned, raising concerns and prompting more extensive research. In a new study published in the journal Radiology and summarized in Sci-News, Professor Larry Kramer from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston led a team which gave MRI scans to 11 astronauts (10 men and one woman) before they departed for extended stays on the International Space Station. The astronauts were then given MRIs the day after they returned from space and periodically throughout their first year back. What they found will definitely affect the future of human space travel.

“What we identified that no one has really identified before is that there is a significant increase of volume in the brain’s white matter from preflight to postflight. White matter expansion in fact is responsible for the largest increase in combined brain and cerebrospinal fluid volumes postflight.”

White matter – the fibers of the central nervous system that act as relays between brain regions – expanded astronauts’ brain and cerebrospinal fluid volumes, causing elevated intracranial pressure to what appear to be dangerous levels. How dangerous?

“We found that the pituitary gland loses height and is smaller postflight than it was preflight. In addition, the dome of the pituitary gland is predominantly convex in astronauts without prior exposure to microgravity but showed evidence of flattening or concavity postflight.”

Future astronaut?

The pituitary gland is considered to be the body’s master gland because it controls the thyroid and adrenals, the ovaries and testicles, and others, affecting the body’s hormone levels. The MRI scans found that this elevated cranial pressure lasted the entire year and can cause normal pressure hydrocephalus, whose symptoms include difficulty walking, bladder control problems and dementia.

Will future human space travelers need to develop larger skulls – either evolutionarily or artificially? As usual, more research is needed. However, it wouldn’t be the first time that H.G. Wells saw the future and depicted it accurately. Let’s hope Rod Serling and “To Serve Man” isn’t the same.

Never underestimate the French. Just when you think your country is about to open its secret X-Files and reveal the truth about UFOs and extraterrestrials, France beats you to le punch. A former director of the country’s foreign intelligence agency (DGSE) opens up in a new UFO documentary and reveals his experiences and observations have convinced him that some of these unidentified crafts are from parallel worlds. Why in France? Is the cheese famous in ALL universes?

“In the particular field of UFOs, not to mention the people who see a flying saucer landing in a field, there are fighter pilots, astronauts, people who are anything but funny and report very precise observations. We must not say that they are nonsense but just recognize that there are things that escape us.”

Alain Juillet held high level positions in the French government (DGSE director, Senior Economic Intelligence Officer to the Prime Minister) in between a storied career as a business leader, educator and now a media consultant. He recently spoke to David Ramasseul of Paris Match about his participation in “UFOs: a matter of States” – a documentary by director Dominique Filhol, who talks to scientists, politicians and experts on the subject of UFOs.

Juillet begins the interview by revealing why he believes sophisticated UFOs like the ones spotted by US Navy pilots are not created by humans – humans would have leaked this kind of information that is too big for scientists, military personnel or officials to keep secret for long. That’s a common belief held by many about various conspiracy theories – it would have taken a large number of people to pull off a moon landing hoax, yet no one has leaked any explosive and conclusive data. Hard to believe, but not a surprise. Anything else, Mr. Juillet?

“We know that the Americans have launched a very serious study with a big budget to try to understand. And it seems that other great powers, in particular Russia and China, have done the same thing, undoubtedly for the same reasons: to discover if there is not behind the UFO phenomenon something which, technically speaking, can be interesting.”

By “interesting” Juillet means that something is worthy of governments spending money on … money that may exceed the secret budgets and thus be exposed to public scrutiny. He believes that the U.S. and China are “interested” because Russia has developed weapon systems which appear to be unstoppable by conventional defenses – the S-400 surface-to-air missile and the Avangard hypersonic missile are two examples. If traditional physics can’t develop a defense (or a better offense), it’s time to turn to the thing used to explain the performance of unexplainable flying objects like the Tic-Tac UFOs — quantum physics.

“To return to quantum physics, she postulates that two separate points can be the same. It seems inconceivable to us but from there, we can go very far, until the possible existence of parallel worlds. For comparison, a fly with its faceted eyes can see dimensions other than ours even though it lives in our world. Perhaps there are therefore things that are in our universe but that we cannot see in normal times because they are not in our field of vision. But perhaps, from time to time, something happens, that a phenomenon passes through our field of perception before disappearing. I’m not talking about “little green men” there. I rather have the impression that I am following the same approach as certain scientists and astronomers who simply say to themselves “something escapes us”.”

Something escapes “us” … but not GEIPAN, the investigative arm of the French Space Agency CNES whose purpose is to investigate unidentified aerospace phenomena (UAP) and make its findings available to the public. It’s no surprise this former intelligence official is interested in intelligence and proud of his own government’s UAP intelligence collection agency. Unfortunately, he believes GEIPAN is being underutilized by his country, which has a hard time “thinking outside of the box.” When will that happen … if ever?

“I believe it will be done in France the day when people are no longer afraid of being ridiculous. If we learn that the United States or China are not only devoting important studies to this subject, but that in addition to high-level scientists have drawn worthwhile reflections, then our researchers will no longer fear ‘be taken for wacky’.”

So, if you want some full disclosure from an agency that has convinced a former intelligence official that UFOs come from parallel universes, stop it with the French jokes already!

I have to admit that I was inspired to write this article by one that good mate Rich Reynolds wrote a few days ago. The title of Rich’s article is “Inside a UFO: Alien Abduction stories.” Rich began: “In a response to a comment from DrDee for a posting further down in the cycle here, I mentioned that I read some remarks about ‘seeing’ or ‘getting’ inside a UFO to find a clue as to what they are or something more: what we’re dealing with, reality perhaps? The commentary I read came from a UFO group at Facebook, I think, which deals with things UFO-related, and referenced abductees – persons who think they’ve been kidnapped by ETs.” Rich adds: “In the Barney/Betty Hill event, Betty alleged to have seen the ‘star map’ and a book, along with some observations of medical gear or lab-like appurtenances, plus entities.” With that all said, I thought today I would share with you one of the strangest cases of seeing something out of place on a UFO. You would not believe what was seen. In this case, it was nothing less than a dog! Yes, you did read that right!

ET?

The case is as fascinating as it is weird. Let’s take a look at it. The man in question was Alan Godfrey, a Yorkshire, England policeman. UFO Casebook say of the incident: “Police Constable Alan Godfrey was on patrol on the night of 28 November 1980. Just before dawn he drove along Burnley Road on the edge of Todmorden looking for some cows that had been reported missing. They were only found after sun-up, mysteriously relocated in a rain-soaked field without hoofmarks to indicate their passage. Giving up his nocturnal hunt, Godfrey was about to go back to base to sign off duty when he saw a large mass a few hundred yards ahead. At first, he thought it was a bus coming towards him that took workers to their jobs in town and that he knew passed about 5:00 a.m. But as he approached, he realized that it was something very strange. It was a fuzzy oval that rotated at such speed and hovered so low over the otherwise deserted highway that it was causing the bushes by the side to shake.”

The Dark Histories Podcast reveal what happened next: “He pulled his car over and tried to contact the station on his police radio, after getting only static as a reply, he tried his personal radio, but once again, nothing but static filled the cars interior. This in itself was not altogether unusual, as driving through the valley, it was common to meet radio black spots and so PC Godfrey did the only thing he could think of doing as an officer of the law. He stepped out of the vehicle, pulled out his notepad and pencil and drew the object he saw as it floated noiselessly above the road surface, whipping up leaves around it in a silent vortex.” The story continues: “As he continued to sketch out the object in the road, a blinding flash of white light filled his vision and the next thing PC Alan Godfrey could remember, he was continuing to drive the Burnley Road, twenty feet past where he had stopped to see the object.”

It was a classic case of alien abduction (whatever an alien abduction really is: a genuine case of kidnapping from the stars, hallucination, vision – the list goes on). The story got even stranger, however, when Godfrey went under hypnosis to try and figure out what had happened during that period of missing time. While undergoing hypnotic regression, Godfrey said that aside from seeing a human-looking entity on-board the craft, he also encountered a large black dog. He said: “Well, I think it’s a dog. Horrible. Just looks like a dog. Like the size of an Alsatian [Note: Alsatian is U.K. for a German Shepherd dog].”

This was not the first encounter Godfrey had with an anomalous hound. Years earlier, he had seen a ghostly Labrador. There was also an odd occasion – in the 1960s, and near Todmorden – when what seemed to be a woman with a large black dog stepped out in front of Godfrey’s vehicle, causing him to slam the brakes on. Both the woman and the dog vanished. It just so happens that Todmorden has in its midst centuries-old legends of what are known as the “Gabriel Hounds.” They are akin to the UK’s wider, ancient, phenomenon of so-called “Phantom Black Dogs” of the kind that inspired Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to pen the Sherlock Holmes novel, The Hound of the Baskervilles. I said it was a strange one!

We have a long history of strange things falling from the skies. On occasion some of the most bizarre things have been reported as falling from the heavens, ranging from space junk, to meteors, to UFOs, some of which is explained and others which remain anomalies. One of the latter is a case from a remote area of Canada, where one day an outlandish stone fell from the sky, seeming to hold some inscrutable message from an alien intelligence.

It was a beautiful afternoon in the Cowichan Valley, near the Cowichan River on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. It was a clear and sunny September afternoon in 1908, and 14-year-old Willie McKinnon was working in his father’s garden doing his daily chores. It was mundane work, but things were about to get very strange indeed. As Willie toiled away, he thought he could hear something in the distance that sounded almost like a rumbling train, even though there was no railroad nearby. As he looked around trying to figure out what the sound was, he was startled to realize that it seemed to be getting closer, inexorably approaching and after a few minutes becoming deafening as it reverberated through the air. That’s when something went whizzing by his head, just barely missing him, only to barrel on and lodge itself into the ground just 8 feet away from him to spray earth and rocks in all directions and create a shockwave that knocked him off his feet.

As soon as the boy checked himself to see that he was not injured he crept towards where the object had fallen, thinking it had to be a meteor that had luckily managed to miss taking his head off. Yet, as he got closer, he could see that this was no normal meteor. The smoking object in the crater was around 10 inches in diameter and seemed to be completely in one piece. Strangely, it seemed to be a perfect orb, with a smooth surface like marble, and even more bizarre still, the outer shell appeared to be etched with a series of cryptic glyphs that looked to Willie like Egyptian hieroglyphics. He circled the bizarre stone for a while and then decided to try and move it, only to find it was immensely hot. Indeed, he would report that it remained too hot to touch for over a half and hour, but as soon as it was cool enough he went about moving it back to the house.

Willie and his father then apparently went about trying to decipher the mysterious hieroglyphics, and, well, that it pretty much where the story here ends. The article in which this story appeared was in the Sept. 5, 1908 edition of the Cowichan Leader, in an article entitled, “A Message From Mars,” and it ends rather abruptly. There was no further information until a month later, when a follow up article claimed that the Dept. of Mines, Geological Survey, in Ottawa was looking for more information on the event, according to the article they were trying to get:

fuller particulars than those contained in the [Cowichan Leader] dispatch: the time of day, the nature of the sounds emitted by the falling body, their duration and the direction from which they seemed to come, the depth of the hole and the nature of the soil as well as the direction in which the earth was thrown by the impact.

It is unclear if they ever got this information or not, and making things more difficult was that Willie’s father was apparently not cooperative with those looking to investigate. He was apparently very keen to keep the stone hidden away, refused to lend it out or sell it, and was confrontational when people demanded to see it. The writer of the article laments:

The questionnaire included an offer of purchase if terms could be arranged. Whether, in fact, this meteor did make it to Ottawa and public preservation, I can’t say, alas, other than that it’s a matter of record that Willie’s father, Angus McKinnon, was known to be, at the very least, argumentative, and this suggests that negotiations would be challenging. As for the so-called hieroglyphics? Was it, in fact, a Rosetta Stone from Outer Space?

The case rather frustratingly sort of ends there, leaving us to wonder what happened to this amazing find. There is no other follow up article on the matter from the era, and it is unknown if the strange stone was ever sent off for more testing. Indeed, it is hard to verify for sure if any of this ever really happened at all, or whether it was just a piece of creative journalism on a slow news day. In the end, it is unknown where that mystery rock is, what happened to it, what its glyphs meant, or even if it ever existed at all, and it remains a strange historical oddity.

Interestingly, there was a similar case dredged up by the site Message to Eagle which is spookily similar. In this case the report appeared in the November 14, 1865 edition of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, and revolves around a Rocky Mountain trapped by the name of Mr. James Lumley. On one day in September of that year he was allegedly trapping out near the Great Falls of the Upper Missouri when he saw a bright light making its way across the sky, before spectacularly breaking apart on a rain of sparks, followed by a strong wind and an odor like Sulphur. He would investigate to find a swath of forest cut down by something, a trail of destruction, at the end of which lay a stone that seemed to be divided into compartments and held upon it various hieroglyphics. The story reads:

More than this, Mr. Lumley also discovered fragments of a substance resembling glass, and here and there dark stains, as though caused by a liquid. He is confident that the hieroglyphics were the work of human hands, and that the stone itself, although but a fragment of an immense body, must have been used for some purpose by animated beings. Strange as this story may appear, Mr. Lumley relates it with so much sincerity that we are forced to accept it as true.

So were these really “Rosetta Stones” from space? If so, who sent them and why? Were they ever translated, and if so what did they say? Unfortunately, considering the scant coverage of these cases it is difficult to say. If these stones ever did exist they have slipped through the cracks of history and been forgotten, maybe collecting dust somewhere or in the collection of a private collector. Maybe even lost forever. Whatever the case may be, they remain odd little curiosities, that will sadly probably never be solved.