Since the early formation of the Earth, our planet has been subjected to countless impacts with meteorites and other spacefaring debris over the course of the last several billions of years.

A majority of the debris that actually enters our atmosphere is so small that it disintegrates somewhere in the neighborhood of about 50 to 75 miles from Earth’s surface. Most of the space objects (otherwise known as meteoroids) that actually do reach the surface of Earth are relatively small. Generally, a space rock would have to be about the size of a marble or larger to possess enough physical material to withstand the friction it encounters as it enters the atmosphere, and thereafter collide with the Earth.

By this time, the collisions amount to tiny pebbles comparable to a grain of sand falling to the ground. Because of their innocuous size, as many as 17 impacts are believed to occur every day, with tiny bits of burnt space rock landing in remote areas or passing into oceans unnoticed by most of us.

Of course, this isn’t to say that there haven’t been rare instances where much larger space objects have collided with Earth throughout time. The gigantic Chicxulub crater located within the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico, associated today with an impact event that killed the dinosaurs many millions of years ago, was formed when a 10-kilometer asteroid slammed into the ancient Earth.

While the Chicxulub crater is recognized as the only massive asteroid impact that has been definitively linked to a mass extinction event, research that has been conducted in recent years may point to a smaller scale impact event that could be associated with megafaunal extinctions that occurred toward the end of the last ice age. Proponents of the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis (YDIH) contend that climate proxies and other data collected from this period suggest that an extraterrestrial impact coincided with a return to colder temperatures that occurred between the end of the Pleistocene and the beginning of the Holocene epochs. Around this time, several varieties of megafaunal species are also known to have vanished from the paleontological record.

One of the issues that proponents of the YDIH have faced has to do with the difficulty researchers have had in locating the actual site of the presumed impact. In 2018, a study by Danish researchers found a large impact feature located beneath Hiawatha Glacier in northwest Greenland, which some suspect might represent the impact believed to be associated with the Younger Dryas event.

Given the difficulty that researchers have had locating certain larger suspected impact sites, is it possible that there could be additional evidence that supports massive impact events in the past that have gone largely unnoticed?

Canada’s Lake Manicouagan is actually one of the Earth’s largest and oldest impact craters, estimated to be about 214 million years old and measuring 40 miles wide

(Credit: USGS).

In the 1970s, researcher J.M. Saul made just such an argument, following an extensive analysis he performed of topographic and geological maps. In a paper entitled “Circular Structures of Large Scale and Great Age on the Earth’s Surface” that appeared in the journal Nature, Saul said that a number of faint terrestrial patterns that represented large circular shapes could be discerned, which had not been previously described in scientific literature.

According to Saul, some of the circular formations measured as much as 700 kilometers in diameter and represented nearly perfect geometrical figures. The features appeared to be comprised of raised areas that Saul characterized as having been the result of geological processes that included fracturing and brecciation (that is, the breaking down of stone into fragments). According to Saul, such features could be observed in a number of different environments and affected rocks of all different ages.

In more than half of all the instances he observed, the features Saul had studied could be completely traced to reveal a clearly discernible circular feature.

“Many of the circles are intermittent in places along their rims,” Saul wrote, “but about 55% of the approximately 1,170 definite circles observed to date can be visually traced around an entire 360° of arc.”

Among the largest that he was able to discern had been a feature encircling the southern end of Africa, which he estimated to have been approximately 2200 kilometers in diameter. Other massive circular features probably existed elsewhere too, he guessed.

So what actually led to the formation of these massive circular features? One theory is that they could be the result of 4-billion-year-old meteorite impacts. More specifically, an “intense meteorite bombardment” on par with those which have led to the present markings on the moon and other planets in our solar system might have been the cause, at a time early in Earth’s history when it was subjected to similar meteorite “storms.”

Of course, with the passing of eons, and the uniformitarian processes of geology slowly eroding the Earth over time, such features have become somewhat less distinct. Regardless, something appears to have led to their formation long ago in Earth’s history, and these mysterious circles in stone—whatever the source of their formation might actually be—remain a curious testament to the volatility that our planet experienced in its early days.

Over the years I’ve written a handful of articles on a very controversial issue. It’s that of what we might call “aliens in disguise.” There are more than a few cases that describe aliens wearing long black wigs, wraparound sunglasses, even make-up to ensure their pasty and pale skin looks more like ours. Yes, I absolutely know how all of this sounds. That’s right: it sounds totally crazy; even for many ufologists. Even for me! But, I have enough stories to put together a book on what we might call “Camouflaged Aliens” (although I won’t be doing so, I should stress). In this strange category, there’s no doubt it’s the Men in Black and the Women in Black who pop up the most. In 2015, Dr. David M. Jacobs’ book, Walking Among Us: The Alien Plan to Control Humanity, was published. As the title alone suggests, this is an extremely controversial book. Although it is heavily focused on so-called “alien abductees,” it is not actually about abduction events, at all. Rather, its focus is on how our civilization is being nothing less than infiltrated by camouflaged, non-human creeps. And, yes, that word “infiltrate” is intended to suggest that nothing good can come from all of this. We’re talking about the ways in which potentially hostile creatures – with no real regard for us, the Human Race – are doing what they can to roam around and without being noticed as something strange. In Walking Among Us, some of these entities are described as looking “sickly,” and as having extremely smooth, and very pale, skin. Jacobs talks about one particular creature being “greatly overdressed for the summer and his slicked-down hairstyle was wrong.” Its attempt at infiltration wasn’t so great.

There’s another angle to this issue of “alien infiltration,” too. It relates to the theories of Mac Tonnies, who wrote The Cryptoterrestrials. It’s a book that provides a strange, but intriguing theory: that the UFO phenomenon might not have anything at all to do with aliens, but everything to do with an ancient, human race. In his book, Tonnies reeled off a number of cases that sounded very much like some of the accounts Jacobs presented in his book, in terms of the modus operandi of both groups. Not only that, Tonnies suggested the cryptoterrestrials – just like Jacobs’ hybrids  – camouflage themselves, as a means to look more human. And with those long wigs being the usual tool of camouflage. Now, we come to the problem: the appearances, and activities, of the cryptoterrestrials and of Jacobs’ alien hybrids are very much the same. Their agendas seem to be very much the same, too: namely, to move among us without being detected for what they really are. In light of the above, I have to say I find it highly unlikely that our planet would have two very different groups – one an ancient human species and the other a race of extraterrestrials – but who mirror each other to an uncanny and eerie degree.

Mac Tonnies

In light of the above, and after all the research I’ve done in this field of “creepy camouflage,” I can only conclude that it’s an either/or situation. The similarities and parallels are so close. So, which is it? Do we have extraterrestrials among us? Or, are there cryptoterrestrials on Earth and masquerading as aliens? I have no solid idea, but I strongly suspect there is a huge amount of deception going on somewhere. And, I should stress, I think it’s way too far to think there are ancient humans and aliens both working together – and all at the same time. That’s stretching things just way too far. The cryptoterrestrial theory is a fascinating one, but there’s a big problem. Where are they all when they’re not flying around in their craft? You may think that’s a simple question, but it’s not. Yes, we get reports now and again of UFOs coming out of the oceans, but certain not on a massive scale. Maybe, the cryptoterrestrials spend most of their time far below us, in the depths of the Pacific and the Atlantic. Not impossible, I guess. How about underground? Well, we don’t get many cases of UFOs zooming in and out of the world’s caves, something that suggests such areas are not the regular domains of the cryptoterrestrials. So, again: where do our cryptoterrestrials hide from us? That question could be applied to the hybrid alien theory, too. Where do all of these pale, wig-wearing “things” hide from us?

As you’ll have realized by now, this whole “cryptoterrestrial versus extraterrestrial” issue is incredibly complicated. And, unfortunately, I don’t see that same complication going away at any time soon. Something is using us, but I’m just not sure what it is: aliens infiltrating us, or, as Mac Tonnies suggested, an impoverished race of not-quite-human-beings who, against the odds, have managed to live alongside us, in deep stealth, for millennia.

In advance of a highly anticipated U.S. government report on UAP soon to be released, everyone is either talking about UFOs or being asked about them.

One of the many who has been approached for an opinion on the subject in recent days had been Texas A&M University astronomer Nick Suntzeff, who was asked about the possibility as to whether UFOs might represent visitors from other planets that have been monitoring the Earth for decades, or perhaps even centuries.

Suntzeff, an astronomer whose previous work in Chile has contributed to our understanding of other cosmic mysteries the likes of dark matter, said that he “can’t rule out we have visitors from other planets,” although he adds that we would require more evidence before such conclusions may be drawn.

Texas A&M University Professor Nick Suntzeff

(Wikimedia Commons CC 3.0).

“We need a clear photo,” he says, adding that even with what may be deemed “good” sighting reports, observers often aren’t aware of the distance the object was at the time of the sighting, along with any kinds of nearby objects that can help one gauge the size of the UFO in question.

“I have seen lots of weird things in the sky,” Suntzeff says. “Very weird things — but I can always explain them.”

Citing the work of physicist Enrico Fermi and his famous paradox, Suntzeff asked, “if there is intelligent life, why don’t we see it with our telescopes, or see evidence here on Earth of visitations? Astronomers are always looking for life elsewhere in the universe.”

As Suntzeff correctly points out, astronomers are always looking for life in the universe, and if UFOs do eventually end up being proven to be a visitation to Earth by extraterrestrials, the question will nonetheless remain as to why we would find evidence of them right here at home, under our proverbial noses, and yet we have such a hard time finding evidence alien life further out in the cosmos at their presumed point of origin.

Fermi recognized, as his famous paradox illustrates, that there appears to be a statistical likelihood that alien life exists. Our Milky Way alone is home to billions of stars very much like our Sun, many of which would very likely have planets like Earth in orbit around them. Many would have to be older than our Sun, too, which might leave open the possibility that any aliens residing on planets orbiting those stars could be older than us, and thereby more advanced. Fermi also recognized that with our interest in space travel, these other civilizations would probably have similar interests if they are anything like us. Therefore, if they possess such similar drives to explore the cosmos, and are more technologically advanced than we are, perhaps they have already developed the technology they would need to travel to places like Earth.

Physicist Enrico Fermi

(Public Domain).

In Fermi’s mind, even at the current slow pace of space travel that humans possess, the entire universe could be traversed in a few millions of years. This brings us to the notion that aliens from single points of origins very well could have populated other parts of the universe, even if doing so required several successive generations of space travelers who would establish outposts along the way, gradually expanding beyond their own planetary system, and traveling further and further from home in search of other habitable planets and, eventually, maybe even intelligent life like themselves.

Thus, Fermi concluded, based on such likelihoods, Earth should have been visited by extraterrestrials themselves, or humans should have at least found evidence of their probes. Hence, the great paradox: where are all the aliens?

Considering this paradox, it is interesting how seldom it is that astronomers and other scientists are willing to entertain the possibility that some UFO observations might represent such possible visitations, or at least the kinds of probes Fermi envisioned that might have been sent by extraterrestrials. Yet the general attitude expressed by scientists today when it comes to UFOs—even when the data on such purported incidents is being supplied by our government—amounts to a resounding “meh.”

One of the primary arguments that scientists have raised in recent days against the possibility of UFOs having an extraterrestrial origin has to do with a simple question: why would they even be interested in us in the first place?

“If the UFOs are interested in our military, that’s actually an argument against them being visitors from another star system,” argues astronomer Seth Shostak of the SETI Institute. “Instead, it suggests Russian aircraft, Chinese drones, or something else terrestrial — hardware we could understand.” Notably, a recent New York Times article which presented reporting based on information from government officials who had been briefed on the findings of the forthcoming UAP Task Force’s report said that technologies from China or Russia have not been ruled out, but that in truth, neither has the potential of some UFOs having a more exotic source. While each of these possibilities remains, the forthcoming report’s findings appear to convey that there is no evidence that conclusively supports either source of origin at the current time.

“Difficulties of interstellar travel aside, it seems to me to be inconceivable that an advanced species would find us interesting enough to visit, but not interesting enough to contact,” says Don Lincoln, a senior scientist at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. “And, if they wanted to avoid contact, they’re not being very stealthy about it.”

Both Lincoln and Shostak’s remarks are interesting, especially because they present so many presumptions about how extraterrestrial life might behave. Obviously, neither of them has had direct interactions with any extraterrestrials themselves; how could they know, therefore, what aliens might be like, or what their focus or objectives would be when visiting Earth? Yet each of them appears to fundamentally rely on the presumption that extraterrestrials simply wouldn’t find Earth very interesting, and hence would have no reason for visiting. Shostak doesn’t think that our military’s operations would be anything that would concern extraterrestrials; Lincoln more explicitly states that if they don’t intend to make contact, then he thinks aliens wouldn’t likely have other reasons to find us interesting enough to visit.

To Lincoln’s point about UFOs doing such a poor job “being very stealthy about it,” it seems that if they exist, they’ve done a good enough job that many (if not most) scientists still refuse to acknowledge them.

We simply don’t know what kinds of ideas or philosophies might guide the actions of any presumed extraterrestrial intelligence. Although scientists frequently assert reasons why UFOs are unlikely to represent such extraterrestrial visits, these arguments can often be very easily falsified, and shown to be based on expectations they have formed that draw from the only experiences they have had with any kind of intelligent life: humans. Even when scientists attempt to point out our human tendency to anthropomorphize our ideas about aliens, they are seldom able to resist the lure of doing so themselves, whether they even realize it or not.

In truth, maybe UFOs–whatever their origins might ultimately prove to be–are doing a better job keeping a low cover than scientists even realize. That would especially seem to be the case when it comes to those in the scientific community who continue to argue against their existence.

When we think of UFOs, for the most part we assume they’re being piloted by extraterrestrials, but that may not really be the case. In fact, a good, solid case can be made that more than a few UFOs don’t have crews. Remote controlled from somewhere else? Maybe. Programmed robots? Possibly. Let’s have a look at a handful of cases that fall into a category of “where’s the crew?” One of the most intriguing, but also baffling, UFO encounters occurred in Scotland on November 9, 1979, at around 1o:39 a.m. The Telegraph newspaper stated: “…Robert Taylor, a Scottish forestry worker employed by the Livingston Development Corporation, parked his truck at the bottom of Dechmont Law and took his red setter for a walk up the hill. By his account, as he emerged into a clearing he came across a strange metal sphere about 20 ft across ‘like a spaceship, a huge flying dome.’ It appeared to be made from a dark metallic material with a rough texture like sandpaper.” The BBC stated: “[Taylor] told how two-spiked spheres then rolled out towards him and, as he passed out, he was aware of being grabbed on either side of his legs. Mr Taylor woke up in a disheveled state 20 minutes later…After the spiked objects rushed out and tried to grab hold of him, all he could remember was a strong smell of burning. When he came to, the clearing was empty, apart from a pattern of deep regular marks on the ground. He went to his van but was so shaken he drove it into a ditch and had to stagger home in ‘a dazed condition.” And there were no aliens in sight.

On the night of April 21, 1991, the term “close encounter” took on an altogether more significant meaning for the crew and passengers of a London, England-bound airliner. At 9:00 p.m., Captain Achille Zaghetti – who was piloting a McDonnell MD-80 aircraft – was amazed to see a missile-like unidentified flying object pass his aircraft as it flew over the English county of Kent, at a height of more than 22,000 feet. As the UFO was no more than 1,000 feet above the airliner, and the incident was therefore classified as a “near miss,” an official inquiry was launched by the Civil Aviation Authority. Approximately two weeks later, the CAA issued a statement to the media that read as follows: “The pilot said the object was light brown, round, 3 meters long, and did not describe any means of propulsion.” The statement continued: “The aircraft was under the control of the London air traffic control center who had no other aircraft in the vicinity but consistent with the pilot report, a faint radar trace was observed 10 nautical miles behind the Alitalia aircraft.” In conclusion, it was stated: “The air traffic controller submitted an occurrence report and investigatory action began immediately. Extensive inquiries have failed to provide any indication of what the sighting may have been.” That the object was only three meters in length suggests there was no crew aboard.

The U.K.’s Civil Aviation Authority has collected a number of UFO reports, including cases that involved UFOs that were far too small to have crews. On such report states the following: ““21 Jun 82 Brindisi – Unidentified object sighted by pilots. Object passed down left hand side at same height as aircraft (FL230) & 2 miles away. Black shiny doughnut shape about the size of a car. Object was tumbling and judged to be stationary.” That the craft was barely the size of a car suggests it lacked a crew. Now, let’s take a trip from the U.K. to Bolivia. Documents declassified under the terms of the U.S. Freedom of Information Act and made available by the Defense Intelligence Agency state the following: “On late afternoon [8 August 1979] the Embassy here received information that a strange object had been found on a farm near Santa Cruz, Bolivia. Source stated that the object was about 70 centimeters in diameter and two meters in circumference with a hole in one side and a metal skin covering of approx one-half inch thickness. Later the object was described as “about three times the size of a basketball.” A second report, filed shortly afterwards, demonstrated that U.S. authorities were taking a considerable interest in the incident: ” Interestingly, the report state that the sphere “landed smoothly.” How about another case?

In the summer of 1946, Scandinavia was targeted by numerous UFOs. They were referred to as “Ghost Rockets.” Reports surfaced from Norway, Denmark, Finland, and Sweden and caused brief, but worrying, situations for those countries. On July 11, the U.S. Embassy in Stockholm, Sweden, prepared a secret memo that, in part, reads as follows: “For some weeks there have been numerous reports of strange rocket-like missiles being seen in Swedish and Finnish skies. During [the] past few days reports of such objects being seen have greatly increased…Military Attaché is investigating through Swedish channels and has been promised results of Swedish observations. Swedes profess ignorance as to origin character or purpose of missiles but state definitely they are not launched by Swedes.” On July 19, 1947, the Oslo-based Aftenposten newspaper ran an article titled “Did two rocket bombs go down in Mjosa?” The article included the following, notable words: “From a man in Feiring we received this morning a sensational report that two rocket bombs crashed into Mjosa last night. They were shaped like ordinary planes, but quite small with only a 2½-meter wing-span and came between 24 and 0:30 this morning from the west at low height over the southerly part of Feiring, where they were observed by many persons, among them at the Hasselbaken Inn and at the Arnes.” Yet again, such a small craft was unlikely to have had a crew. This makes me wonder if the majority of UFOs lack crews? Just a thought.

A video is making the rounds of an interview with a Russian admiral who was the last Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet Navy from 1985 to 1991. While the video appears to be a few years old, its content is relevant today – the commander discusses encounters between UFOs and a Soviet submarine in 1945 and a US Navy sub in 1947, and those UFOs appeared to be capable of traveling underwater as well as in the air. Even more interesting, he claims the subs were attempting to explore underwater caves off the coast of Antarctica. Will the Pentagon report have anything about this? Will the current Russian military? Anyone? Bueller?

“A squadron of Soviet submarines in 1945, and then a US Navy one in 1947, were severely attacked by flying saucers while trying to gain access to underground caves in Antarctica.”

Former Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet Navy Vladimir Chernavin

(credit: http://kremlin.ru/news/19816)

The video (watch it here) opens with that big announcement. According to the site Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, it is an interview conducted by journalist Khaled Al-Rushd for RT Arabic with Vladimir Nikolayevich Chernavin, a former officer of the Soviet Navy, its last Commander-in-Chief the only Commander-in-Chief of the Commonwealth of Independent States Navy from 1991 to 1992. He commanded the November class submarine K-21 in 1959, later commanded the submarine flotillas of the Northern Fleet and was awarded a title of the Hero of the Soviet Union before retiring 1992. Chernavin is currently chairman of the Soviet submariners association. Does he sound like someone who would know about UFOs and USOs?

“I remembered an interview I had with the commander of the Soviet naval forces, Vladimir Chernavin. He also told us about flying objects that were diving under water and at high speed coming out of its depths.”

The video is in Russian with English subtitles. It appears to be a recent production by Khaled Al-Rushd where he reminisces about that previous interview with Chernavin and was prompted by Al-Rushd first remembering a quote from US Naval Admiral Richard Byrd about “flying saucers” in which he said, “It is quite possible that these UFOs, whether man-made or of alien origin, come from several underwater bases, including the possible underwater bases in Antarctica, off the coast of California and off the coast of Puerto Rico.” When asked about this, Chernavin dropped this bombshell:

“There have been hundreds of such reports. I saw this phenomenon, including when I was captain of the submarine during our time in the Atlantic and the Caribbean, I clearly saw a flying object over one of our Soviet positions appearing in various forms, but mainly in the form of a round hat.”

“It was especially glowing, this light was changing, but the dish was moving at a tremendous speed, then it would stay hovering in one place and disappear immediately to appear in another place, and then dive into the water and disappear from view, and after a while it came out of the water but in another way, we were watching like this phenomena, as I saw it, the extraordinary phenomena cannot be ignored.”

Does this sound familiar? Chernadin’s next comment hits even closer to home … to the Pentagon report and the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP).

“A committee of this kind was formed. Especially since it was formed, I knew that the Americans had such a committee as well, and the decision was taken to collect and analyze this information in the military field for the first time from my side.”

Did you see that?

Whoa! Chernavin claims Soviet sailors were the first to report seeing UFOs, the first to see them in mass numbers, the first to follow them and to have an “operational directive” to monitor them – with the approval of the Minister of Defense. He claimed the system of monitoring and recording UFO dta “must be signed by the Commander in Chief personally. He recounts an encounter by a nuclear submarine and an escort fleet in the Pacific with “a disk-shaped object with a diameter of about 70 meters” – an encounter Chernavin assured Al-Rushd was documented. He concludes with this warning:

“This was a very serious problem. The decision had to be taken carefully and with balance, and this problem still exists today.”

Indeed, it does. Are we waiting for the wrong report?