As anyone who has witnessed the aurora australis or aurora borealis, the lights created by solar winds meeting Earth’s magnetic field are a beautiful site to behold. As any who has lived through power outages, haywire computers and disrupted communications can attest, the meeting of solar winds and magnetic fields can also be catastrophic. If only there was a place where their effects were lessened of minimized. It turns out there is. New research using data from the European Space Agency’s (ESA)’s Swarm satellite constellation found a “surprising” imbalance, with solar winds heading to the North Pole far more frequently than the South Pole. Are reindeer antlers acting as solar lighting rods? The actual reason is just as strange and mysterious.

Northern lights

“Here we advance a paradigm which can explain the observed persistent asymmetry and northern preference for incoming Poynting flux at Swarm altitudes based on the known offset of the magnetic dipole moment from the centre of the Earth towards the northwest Pacific. This offset generates different relative effective solar illumination of the auroral ovals in the northern and southern hemispheres arising from the rotation of the Earth. The offset can also introduce asymmetries in the magnetic fields in the auroral zones as well.”

What? Fortunately, a University of Calgary press release gives a simpler summary of the paper, published in Nature Communications, written by a team from that school and the University of Alberta. The University of Calgary developed and operate the electric field instruments (EFIs) on the three Swarm satellites. The EFIs give precise measurements of ionospheric winds and temperatures – measurements which show a clear preference of north over south by solar winds. “North” and “south” in this case refer to the magnetic field poles. In an ESA press release, lead author Ivan Pakhotin attempts to explain the preference.

“Because the south magnetic pole is further away from Earth’s spin axis than the north magnetic pole, an asymmetry is imposed on how much energy makes its way down towards Earth in the north and south. There seems to be a differential reflection of electromagnetic plasma waves, known as Alfven waves. We are not yet sure what the effects of this asymmetry might be, but it could also indicate a possible asymmetry in space weather and perhaps also between the Aurora Australis in the south and the Aurora Borealis in the north. Our findings also suggest that the dynamics of upper-atmospheric chemistry may vary between the hemispheres, especially during times of strong geomagnetic activity.”

Southern lights

In simpler terms, somehow the Earth’s magnetic field itself is routing more energy, in the form of plasma waves, north rather than south. It could be caused by space weather anomalies, unexplained differences in upper atmospheric chemistry or even some kind of weird preference by the Sun for the northern hemisphere. Whatever the reason, us non-scientists can see the difference in the Northern and Southern lights, especially during different seasons.

Ultimately, it starts with the magnetic South Pole being father way from the axial South Pole than the magnetic North pole is from its axial counterpart. More research is needed, especially because it will tell us how to interpret solar winds and electromagnetic fields when searching on other planets for life or possible settlement sites. Finally, it leads us to potentially safer locations on Earth when that apocalyptic solar flare ultimately hits.

Sorry, Santa.

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Throughout human history the art and weapons of warfare have evolved continuously, and much as with natural evolution itself, warring sides have been locked in a never-ending cycle of increasing one-upmanship. Our relentless arms race goes way back to ancient times, going from clubs, to spears, to arrows, and beyond, in modern days bringing us firearms, missiles of increasing lethality, and of course nuclear weapons, but even this is not seen as the ultimate weapon of devastation. Research and development has continued to find and refine better ways to kill each other, to beat the other guy, and among these the realm space has been seen as a sort of last frontier of warfare. What if you could wield weapons of mass destruction orbiting in space where the enemy would be helpless to do anything about it, and what if you could whisk these weapons to anywhere on the globe in minutes to rain down death from above? To the military this is almost too good to pass up, and it might be disturbing to many readers that this science fiction scenario has been hotly pursued. Let’s take a look.

One of the main problems with using space as a battlefield is that it is technically banned, in a sense. The Outer Space Treaty, which was signed by 107 countries in 1967 prohibits nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons from being placed in or used from Earth’s orbit. This is a bummer for warmongers, but there is a loophole. What if the weapon wasn’t nuclear, biological, or chemical? How could we devise something that skirted the treaty, yet was still utterly devastating? Lasers have been proposed in the past, but far from what you see in the Death Star in the Star Wars films, lasers just haven’t proven to be that effective at blowing things up. They require too much power to focus, are ineffective at long distances, and simply cost too much to develop. Laser technology for warfare, especially that from space, has been considered largely a dead end, and our technology in this area is woefully inadequate for anything other than perhaps burning through a piece of plywood with a concentrated burst at short range for sustained periods on an unmoving object, or perhaps shining a little mini cat toy laser in an enemy’s eyes. But what if you could just drop something heavy on them from space? It might sound absurd, like something Wile. E. Coyote might try, but this is a very real, and very frightening area of research, and far more powerful than you might think.

It’s called “Kinetic Bombardment,” also known as a “Kinetic Orbital Strike,” which is a lot scarier-sounding than “big heavy thing dropped from space,” and indeed it is scary. The basic premise behind it involves using an inert projectile, no explosives, no moving parts, propellants, or chemicals, just a, well, big solid heavy thing, to drop down from orbit at a target. The idea is that a satellite would carry a magazine of these objects, most likely tungsten rods about the size of a telephone pole and weighing around 9 tons, with fins attached to keep them straight, and more or less just drop them towards a target. So, it’s just a big heavy object falling towards earth, right? You’d just have to get out the way and you’d be fine, right? Well, not exactly.

As it travelled towards the surface of the earth powered by gravity alone, the projectile would gain tremendous velocity and speed, going 8 kilometers per second in orbit and eventually getting up to an impact speed of about Mach 10. When just one of these “rods from God” hit the surface, it would penetrate hundreds of feet into the ground, while releasing its built up kinetic energy to create an explosion roughly on par with over 11.5 tons of TNT (or 7.2 tons of dynamite). If more than one was dropped over an area, they could create incredible devastation on par with a tactical nuclear strike. For instance, one hundred rods would have the total destructive power of 1,150 to 14,000 tons of TNT, approaching the yield of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, all without the fallout, no radiation, and no need for actual explosives of any kind. Often called Project Thor, there are envisioned to be between 6 to 8 satellites in orbit at any given time carrying these projectiles, giving them the capability to hit any target on the planet’s surface within 10 to 15 minutes from order to launch to impact. This would give the enemy very little time to prepare, and furthermore the launch would be difficult to detect, the rods would be hard to see on radar, and they would be moving so fast that they would be nearly impossible to defend against. It sounds horrifying, and there would not really be much an enemy could do to predict or stop such attacks, but surely this is all just science fiction speculation, right? Again, not exactly.

It does sound a lot like science fiction, and indeed the rods from God have appeared in many science fiction stories and were even originally conceived of by Boeing employee turned science fiction writer Jerry Pournelle back in the 1950s, but make no mistake this is not purely fantasy. Indeed, not only is the concept and theory behind it totally sound and achievable, but kinetic strikes in one form or another have already been used in real life. Using heavy solid objects dropped from great heights has been going on since World War I, when masses of metallic objects, called flechettes, were dropped in great numbers on enemy positions from aircraft, with the effect being on par to machine gun fire. During the Vietnam and Korean wars, the U.S. occasionally used what were called “Lazy Dog bombs,” which scattered hundreds of little solid hunks of metal with fins of sheet metal welded on to allow a straighter fall and higher velocity, with each one hitting with enough force to penetrate 9 inches of concrete after being dropped from as little as 3,000 feet. In as recently as 2020, a kinetic weapon, in this case basically a 100 pound modified missile fitted with detachable blades for added lethality, was dropped from an aircraft to obliterate a vehicle carrying a senior Al Qaeda official.

This technology is very real, the theory is sound, and it really works. The rods of God of Project Thor could definitely be a reality today, and the only reason it isn’t is down to money. It just simply costs too much to haul such heavy projectiles into space, making it too cost-prohibitive, with it costing at least $10,000 to carry just one pound into space at the moment. To carry hundreds of 9 ton rods into orbit would be astronomically expensive, and this is likely the only reason Project Thor has not been more seriously pursued. Yet, the plan has continued to come across the table of military officials, and has been reconsidered on more than one occasion, if even in a limited capacity as a bunker busting weapon. If the cost wasn’t so exorbitant, they would absolutely pursue this to fruition, and if they can work this out, then who knows? For now we are probably safe, but it does make one look up and hope there is not a satellite up there with a rod aimed at you.

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On the back of my new “four theories” article for what happened at Roswell, New Mexico in 1947, I thought I would share with you some lesser-known theories for what happened in Rendlesham Forest in December 1980. In my 2020 book, The Rendlesham Forest UFO Conspiracy, I wrote: “What if that explanation, if revealed, proved to be even more controversial than the theory that aliens arrived from a faraway world? The ramifications for the field of Ufology would be immense.” I added that the book  reveals that “one of the most famous UFO cases of all time was really a series of top secret experiments using holograms, mind-control programs, deception, disinformation, conspiracies and cover-ups. The shocking truth of a forty-year-old mystery is now revealed.” Certainly, (A) the UFO theory and (B) the secret experiment scenario are the two, most well-known angles. There are, however, others. And here they are:

Number One: Formerly of the U.S. Air Force, and one of the key military players in the famous UFO encounter at Rendlesham Forest, Suffolk, England in December 1980, Sergeant Jim Penniston – in 1994 – underwent hypnotic regression, as part of an attempt to try and recall deeply buried data relative to what occurred to him during one of Britain’s closest encounters. Very interestingly, and while under hypnosis, Penniston stated that our presumed aliens are, in reality, visitors from a far-flung future. That future, Penniston added, is very dark, in infinitely deep trouble, polluted and where the Human Race is overwhelmingly blighted by reproductive problems. The answer to those same, massive problems, Penniston was told by the entities he met in the woods, is that they travel into the distant past – to our present day – to secure sperm, eggs and chromosomes, all as part of an effort to try and ensure the continuation of the severely waning Human Race of tomorrow.

Carrying on, The BBC says, “Writer Brenda Butler, of Leiston, Suffolk, has been amused by some of the UFO tourism that has grown up around the forest. You realise we’ve got eight landing sites down here, she says. ‘Everybody has got their own take on it. If you go down there with any of the witnesses, they’ll take you to somewhere else.”‘ Ms Butler, who co-wrote the 1986 book on the case, Sky Crash, believes the US may have recovered a Russian satellite [italics mine]. It has got to be something to do with the Americans or the Russians or the Cold War,’ she says. ‘There are loads of files still to be released, but there has been such a big cover-up, nobody will ever know what happened. ‘I’d like to get to the bottom of it all but I guess we never will.'”

Other theories that have been put forward include a malfunctioning early Stealth plane that came down in the woods, and that had to be hastily retrieved. A similar scenario replaces a high-tech Stealth plane with an equally early drone that went off-course.I have also heard that a “silent helicopter” was flying around the woods on the first night of activity. Could that be the answer? Moving on,  I’ve heard that because the Rendlesham affair occurred in the U.K. at roughly the same time as the equally controversial Cash-Landrum incident in the United States, there must have been some kind of a connection. A scenario that involves events on both sides of the pond and that has yet to be resolved? Someone, I suggest, should take a deeper look at the two events. Something intriguing may surface, even after forty-one years. As all of this shows, there are multiple theories for what happened at Rendlesham. And there are multiple researchers with their own ideas. Including me!µ

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There are countless strange conspiracies theories swirling about the government and shadowy organizations lurking out in the gloom past what we usually see. Everything from mind control, to hidden spaceships, to weird government experiments, and much, much more, the field of conspiracy theories is a minefield. One of the more bizarre and pervasive of these in recent times has been the idea that the government, Illuminati, whatever you want to call “them,” is using advanced weaponry to cause forest fires around California.

On December 4, 2017, a blaze ignited near the city of Santa Paula, in Ventura, California, and while normally it might not have been the tragedy it was to become, aided by record Santa Ana winds the fire proved to be extremely fast. In an alarmingly short amount of time the fire exploded outward, expanding out of control to engulf large swaths of both Ventura and Santa Barbara counties while creating other offshoot blazes along the way. The hungry fire and its spawn were well fed with the dry brush of the rugged mountain terrain, and it was all was soon a hulking beast of a fire the likes of which no one had ever seen. By the time what would collectively be called The Charles Fire was finally contained on January 12, 2018, it had devastated approximately 281,893 acres, forced over 100, 000 people to evacuate, and had caused immeasurable destruction of property and agriculture, vast economic damage, and dozens of tragic deaths. It was the largest wildfire in modern California history, even generating its own weather, and at one point fought by an army of over 8,500 firefighters, the largest mobilization in history, who fought battles with multiple fires on many fronts.

In the wake of the Charles Fire, authorities began a full investigation into how the fire had started and spread, but as this was going on there were some strange conspiracies brewing. One was that it was terrorists or drug cartels from Mexico or South America trying to destroy the region’s extensive marijuana farms, and another was that it was due to the Illuminati, but although eyebrow raising these pale in comparison to another insidious conspiracy that began doing the rounds on the Internet and sites such as YouTube. People began talking about how the fires had not only been intentionally started, but that they had been started by the U.S. government using giant lasers from outer space. Wait, what?

The idea is that the fires had been deliberately started by weapons called “directed energy weapons” (DEW), basically giant laser beams, which had been mounted on either planes or satellites to be fired upon the area. Why would the government do this? Well, according to the conspiracy theorists there are several possible reasons. One is that it was a show of force, while another is that it could have been done as a media distraction to keep eyes off of something else going down. Yet another idea is that it was done to clear people out of the area for some nefarious purpose, or according to one theory as a way to make room for a high-speed rail system. Even the conspiracy theorists can’t even really agree as to the whys of it all, with many picking whatever version fits their own agenda, but the ones who began spreading these stories and theories also come armed with what they claim to be “evidence.”

The main form this evidence comes in is from many alleged witnesses and firefighters who supposedly claimed that the fire did not behave or burn things in a normal way. It was noticed that in some areas only human structures seemed to have suffered the wrath of the blaze, while the surrounding trees, vegetation, and even other buildings were untouched. The conspiracy crowd speculates that this could only have been through the use of actual targeted, directed laser attacks on the buildings themselves, and one conspiracy theorist by the name of Matt Procella has said of this:

You’ll notice here that stores and restaurants are wiped out, while other things are still in perfect shape. Other buildings are fine, trees are untouched, but specific structures are just devastated. You gotta ask yourself, what’s up with that … Is this the result of direct energy weapons? Ranged weapons that inflict damage on a target by emitting highly-focused energy? The answer is most likely yes.

The idea of attack lasers being at work soon expanded to be applied for other wildfires that occurred in 2017 and 2018 throughout California, and making it even weirder still were people who came forward with stories that they had actually seen blue beams shooting down from the sky before fires broke out, further fueled by eerie photos or videos of these beams that began making the rounds. Proper fire authorities speculated that the fire and others like it had actually likely been caused by downed power lines, but of course not everyone bought this.

Although these conspiracy theories have flourished online, there are some rather good skeptical points to be made here. For one, there is very little evidence put forward for the giant laser angle. Some usually unnamed and unverified witnesses, as well as some photographic and video evidence that is inconclusive at best and obviously photoshopped at worst. Even if there really are these mysterious unburned areas, it could be attributable to moisture in the vegetation or the rather unpredictable winds at the time. However, most damning of all is that, although they look really awesome and powerful in science fiction films, it turns out that in real life lasers are not nearly as destructive and almighty as we have been led to believe by fiction. In reality we are woefully behind in any breakthroughs for super-powerful lasers, and they are decidedly worse at blowing stuff up than was once thought. The fact is, we seem to be a long way from producing a laser of this magnitude, making it less plausible that there is someone going around strafing whole areas with them. But then again, it’s the government, so there are plenty of people who say that the technology does exist, but is top secret. What is going on here? Is there any truth to this at all or is it just looney conspiracy nonsense for some agenda or other? Who knows, but it is definitely eye-opening, and another weird conspiracy theory to add to the pile.

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Scientists analyzed data obtained by NASA’s New Horizons mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt and their results were rather surprising – there are a lot fewer galaxies in the universe than previously thought.

It was previously stated that there are about 2 trillion galaxies in the universe but new research has revealed that there are hundreds of billions. That is still a huge number but much less than the original estimate.

If you look very far off into space, it is incredibly dark but not completely black as there are faint lights from very distant galaxies and stars. And studies of those very faint glows are what revealed to scientists that there aren’t as many galaxies gathered in the universe.

Marc Postman from the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, and an author of the study, stated, “It’s an important number to know – how many galaxies are there?,” adding, “We simply don’t see the light from two trillion galaxies.”

New Horizons spacecraft

As for their original estimate of two trillion galaxies, scientists came up with that number by using data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and while the majority of galaxies were too far off and faint to be detected by the telescope, they used mathematical models to predict that 90% of galaxies were too far to be seen by the Hubble.

Postman went on to say, “While the cosmic microwave background tells us about the first 450,000 years after the big bang, the cosmic optical background tells us something about the sum total of all the stars that have ever formed since then.” “It puts a constraint on the total number of galaxies that have been created, and where they might be in time.”

Tod Lauer from NSF’s NOIRLab and another author of the study, weighed in by saying, “Take all the galaxies Hubble can see, double that number, and that’s what we see – but nothing more.”

The Hubble’s ability to observe distant galaxies was affected by light pollution from pieces of comets, asteroids, and small dust particles that are in our solar system. These small objects reflect the sunlight, making a glow (called zodiacal light) which made it hard for the telescope to completely observe the far areas into space.

Hubble Space Telescope

Thankfully, the New Horizons spacecraft is far enough away from the zodiacal light that it was able to make more precise observations of the universe. In fact, when the spacecraft was at a distance of more than 4 billion miles away from Earth, it observed the universe at about 10 times darker than when the Hubble made its observations.

Lauer explained how exciting these observations were, “These kinds of measurements are exceedingly difficult. A lot of people have tried to do this for a long time.” “New Horizons provided us with a vantage point to measure the cosmic optical background better than anyone has been able to do it.”

After the scientists removed all of the excess glows from expected galaxies as well as the light from the stars in the Milky Way, they still had some leftover glows which could be from dwarf galaxies, diffuse halos of stars from galaxies, or rogue, intergalactic stars. Or there might possibly be even more undetected galaxies.

Their study can be read in full here.