A mysterious object and event was seen in the metro sky Monday night. NewsNation affiliate KFOR has been trying to track down where it came from. It is still a mystery. “What is that?” a voice can be heard on the video. 

NewsNation special correspondent and investigative journalist Ross Coulthart joins "NewsNation Prime" with more about the Pentagon's highly anticipated UFO report that claims there is NO evidence of alien contact. 

The report specifically addresses U.S. government investigations into sightings since 1945 and documents from secret government archives. 

According to the Dailymail, the director of the Pentagon's UFO-hunting All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), told reporters that AARO has found no verifiable evidence that the US government or private industry has ever had access to extraterrestrial technology, read more... 

However, the report's limited distribution to a select audience prior to its public release has faced scrutiny from other journalists and UFO researchers for its perceived lack of transparency. 

In summary, despite the yet another Pentagon/AARO report, it's evident that the UFO/Alien cover-up persists.

  

{ https://ufosightingshotspot.blogspot.com/ }

10-03-2024 om 21:08 geschreven door peter  

The Enigmatic UFO Encounter: A Pilot’s Brush with the Unknown and the Men in Black

In the annals of UFO lore, few incidents are as compelling as the experience of a captain who claimed a close encounter with an unidentified flying object. This intriguing event took place on December 5th, 1948, marking a significant chapter in the study of aerial phenomena and the mysterious figures known as the Men in Black.

The Encounter Above the Clouds

The incident began on a routine flight from Fairchild Air Force Base in Spokane. What was expected to be an uneventful journey soon turned into an extraordinary tale of mystery and intrigue. The captain reported seeing a “large ball of fire” darting across the sky. Initially dismissed as a meteor, the object’s subsequent actions defied all logical explanations. It maneuvered with astonishing agility, moving upwards and causing the captain to question the nature of what he was witnessing. This sighting was not isolated; a commercial airline pilot reported a similar encounter, describing a bright object that abruptly changed direction and accelerated away.

The Investigation by Unidentified Intelligence Officers

Following these sightings, both pilots were approached by intelligence officers. These individuals, who did not disclose their affiliations, conducted interviews with the pilots, diving deep into the details of their encounters. The presence of these enigmatic figures, often referred to as the Men in Black due to their attire, adds a layer of mystery to the incident. Their interest in the case suggests a level of concern or knowledge about UFOs that goes beyond public understanding.

The Legacy of the Encounter

The Idaho sighting of 1948 is more than just a tale of a pilot and an unexplained phenomenon. It represents a critical moment in the ongoing dialogue between humanity and the possibility of extraterrestrial life. The involvement of the Men in Black in the aftermath of the sighting raises questions about the extent of government awareness and secrecy surrounding UFO phenomena.

Conclusion: Unanswered Questions and the Search for Truth

Decades have passed since the captain’s fateful encounter, yet the incident remains a topic of fascination and speculation. It serves as a reminder of the unexplained mysteries that persist in our skies and the lengths to which certain entities will go to investigate and perhaps conceal these phenomena. As we continue to explore the cosmos, both through technological advancements and through the study of reported encounters, the story of the captain and the Men in Black stands as a testament to the enduring human desire to understand the unknown.

VIDEO:

• Captain Who Had A UFO Encounter Is Questioned By ‘Men In Black’ | UFO Witness

• https://youtu.be/b9t4b8PV6UA

This incident encapsulates the intrigue and complexity of UFO sightings, blending eyewitness accounts with the shadowy involvement of intelligence officers. It underscores the ongoing quest for clarity in a realm that remains shrouded in secrecy and speculation.

{ https://www.latest-ufo-sightings.net/  }

10-03-2024 om 20:48 geschreven door peter  

References to an F-117A Nighthawk stealth fighter, shown here on display at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, were apparently misconstrued as a discussion about an encounter with alien technology, according to a newly released Pentagon report.

(NMUSAF Photo)

One of the investigators involved in that program — which was known as the Advanced Aerospace Weapons System Application Program or the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AAWSAP/AATIP) — made clear that he’d continue trying to keep the alien angle in the public eye.

“Today the Pentagon and its current UAP investigative program, AARO, issued a public report that is intentionally dishonest, inaccurate and dangerously misleading,” Lue Elizondo, who helped spark renewed interest in UFO reports in 2017, said in a posting to X / Twitter. “Myself and others who are aware of the truth are going to keep working to help Congress in their efforts to achieve disclosure.”

But Mick West, a retired software engineer who specializes in analyzing UFO/UAP reports, said the newly released report shows how a belief in alien phenomena can be self-reinforcing. “A belief in the supernatural … is what led to the current UFO flap that AARO is trying to pour cold water on,” West said on X / Twitter.

The ups and downs of UFOs

The 63-page report traces government-funded efforts to investigate sightings of unidentified flying objects going back to before the 1947 Roswell UFO incident, which was the subject of a “Case Closed” report on the 50th anniversary in 1997. Pages and pages are devoted to recounting projects that are well-known to the UFO community, including Project Blue Book and the Condon Report.

AARO acknowledged that there was “about a 40-year gap” in official efforts to investigate UAP sightings after Project Blue Book was terminated in 1969. The efforts resumed in earnest in 2009, primarily due to the interest of the late Sen. Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat who was Senate majority leader at the time.

For several years, the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency funded the AAWSAP/AATIP’s investigation into anomalous sightings. The review of aerial sightings by military personnel was conducted by Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies, which was created by Nevada billionaire Robert Bigelow.

When the funding for AAWSAP/AATIP ended in 2012, some of the people who were associated with the project — including Elizondo — continued their work in other roles. They also unsuccessfully tried to persuade the Department of Homeland Security to set up the Kona Blue program.

It took until 2020 for the Department of Defense to get back into the business of official UFO/UAP investigations. A series of initiatives focused on the possibility that some anomalous sightings might be due to novel technologies developed by Russia or China that might pose a threat to national security. Perhaps the best-known sightings of that type were last year’s reports about a Chinese spy balloon that crossed the U.S. and was eventually shot down by an Air Force fighter jet.

Highlights from the UFO files

In its previous reports, AARO has said it found no evidence of extraterrestrial explanations for UAP sightings. Instead, the office has traced all but a few of the sightings to more mundane causes such as balloons, drones, aerial clutter and natural phenomena. It said that some of the alien claims misconstrued sensitive national security programs — and that a small number of sightings remained unexplained, but did not merit being considered evidence of extraterrestrial activity.

“All investigative efforts, at all levels of classification, concluded that most sightings were ordinary objects and phenomena and the result of misidentification,” the Pentagon’s press secretary, Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, said today in a statement about today’s report. “AARO assesses that all of the named and described alleged hidden UAP reverse-engineering programs provided by interviewees either do not exist; are misidentified authentic national security programs that are not related to extraterrestrial technology exploitation; or resolve to a disestablished program.” 

Today’s report addressed some oft-debated UAP cases:

• One of the people interviewed by AARO claimed that a military officer explained in detail how he touched an extraterrestrial spacecraft. But the officer, now retired, recounted a story about touching an F-117 Nighthawk stealth fighter — and said that tale could have been misconstrued by the person who heard the story.
• Another interviewee claimed that he witnessed what he believed to be the testing of extraterrestrial technology at a government facility. AARO said that “almost certainly was an observation of an authentic, non-UAP-related technology test that strongly correlated in time, location and description provided in the interviewee’s account.”
• Yet another claim had to do with a metallic material that was reportedly tested by Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies. Some suggested that the material couldn’t be identified by scientists and might have had extraterrestrial origins. But the AARO said further tests found that the material was a “manufactured, terrestrial alloy and does not represent off-world technology or possess any exceptional qualities.” AARO said the sample is possibly of U.S. Air Force origin — and is primarily composed of magnesium, zinc and bismuth, plus trace elements including lead.

What’s next on the UAP frontier

AARO said that it’s continuing to investigate unresolved UAP cases. The historical review in today’s report takes the story only as far as last Oct. 31 — and information gathered since that time will be addressed in a second volume to come.

Today’s report notes that UAP investigations have been challenged by insufficient data and the limitations of sensor technologies. “In terms of military reporting the sensors on which UAP most frequently are captured are calibrated and optimized for combat,” AARO explained. “UAP are not routinely captured by exquisite, high-definition, multi-capability, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance collection platforms — a threshold which is often required to successfully resolve a case.”

To address that shortcoming, AARO is developing a new surveillance capability known as the Gremlin System, which should be able to track anomalous phenomena with hyperspectral imaging.

“We’re working with some of the government labs, such as the Department of Energy labs, and we have a great partner with Georgia Tech,” DefenseScoop quoted acting AARO Director Tim Phillips as saying. “And what we’re doing is developing a deployable, configurable sensor suite that we can put in Pelican cases.”

hillips said the portable kit is being tested in Texas and will enable long-term collection of hyperspectral data in the field.

There’s also a chance that Congress will schedule a sequel to last summer’s House subcommittee hearing on UAPs, during which witnesses claimed that the Pentagon knew more than it was telling lawmakers. Today’s AARO report said such claims were in large part “the result of circular reporting from a group of individuals who believe this to be the case, despite the lack of any evidence.” But Rep. Tim Burchett, a Tennessee Republican who was in on last year’s hearing, criticized the report in a posting to X / Twitter:

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

09-03-2024 om 23:16 geschreven door peter  

The Pentagon releases footage of unexplained UFOs spotted around the world - from a spherical object in the Middle East to a milk bottle-like item over the US

• New Department of Defense website uploads UFO clips that it cannot explain 
• Have you caught a UFO encounter? Email jonathan.chadwick@mailonline.co.uk

By JONATHAN CHADWICK FOR MAILONLINE 

The Pentagon has long been secretive regarding what it knows about UFOs.

But that's all changing as the government department has added an incredible selection of videos to its dedicated UFO website. 

The clips, some just a few seconds in length, show aerial phenomena that it cannot explain, in all sorts of shapes and sizes. 

They include a spherical object over buildings in the Middle East, a milk bottle-like item over the US and the famous Tic Tac captured by the US Navy in 2004. 

Have you seen a UFO that look like these objects? 

Email jonathan.chadwick@mailonline.co.uk

EXCLUSIVE READ MORE: 

• Disc-shaped UFO is filmed by Ukrainian military

The size, altitude, and shape of the object remain a mystery 

The videos have been published on the new website of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), a dedicated UFO department formed in July 2022 under the Department of Defense (the 'Pentagon').  

Already, the site has disclosed the world's UFO 'hotspots', where there have been the most sightings, and the most-reported physical UFO characteristics. 

FLYING SAUCER

Popular culture usually depicts UFOs as flying saucers – round discs emitting halos of light.

Not all of them look like this – in fact, the typically-reported UFO is spherical, according to the AARO. 

But an object captured in South Asia in January 2023 gives an idea of what the classic saucer is actually like. 

In the nine-second clip, the round object flies from left to right of the screen at what appears to be a high speed. 

A silhouette of a unmanned aerial vehicle to the left of the picture seems to be moving comparatively slower.  

The video starts with a clear shot of the sky, other than an unmanned aerial vehicle positioned to the left 

Suddenly, the smaller unidentified flying object (right) zooms from the left to the right of the field of view

READ MORE: 

• Pentagon reveals what the typical UFO looks like

A Department of Defense document reveals characteristics of the typical UFO

This was one of the clips presented by AARO director Dr Sean Kirkpatrick to the Senate Armed Services Committee in April 2023 – but the office thinks there is an innocent explanation. 

'AARO assesses that the object likely is a commercial aircraft and that the trailing cavitation is a sensor artifact resultant of video compression ,' it says. 

SPHERE #1 

The next clip was taken by an MQ-9 unmanned aerial vehicle in the Middle East in July 2022. 

The vehicle's camera is pointed down towards the ground, with buildings and people in view. 

All of a sudden, an 'apparent silver, orb-like object' crosses the sensor’s field of view. 

The MQ-9's camera detects the orb and tracks it as it flies in a north-easterly direction, seemingly quite close to the ground. 

The office gives its verdict: 'While AARO assesses the object in the clip is not exhibiting anomalous behavior, the object remains unidentified.'

'This video is a representative example of many of the cases AARO receives where there is limited data surrounding the observation.' 

UFO captured in the Middle East: Mote the 'orb-like object', spherical and a bit like a ball bearing, crossing the sensor’s field of view

SPHERE #2 

This UFO, captured in an undisclosed location in 2021, shows a similar-looking sphere from the cockpit of a Navy fighter jet. 

The jet is calmly flying through blue skies before the object suddenly bursts past the right of the cockpit. 

The fleeting pass is a blink-and-you'll-miss-it event and leaves little time for interpretation of what it might be. 

AARO says: 'This video, captured by the pilot in the cockpit of a Navy fighter jet, demonstrates the typical speed at which military aircraft may approach an unknown object.' 

Sphere #2: This still is from the video of a US Naval aviator encounter with an unknown object (UAP) in a 'fleeting pass'

EXCLUSIVE READ MORE:

• Man spots UFO in Chicago resembling a FACE 

A bizarre face-shaped object changed colour while in the sky

TIC TAC

The original 'Tic Tac' is probably one of the most famous UFOs of them all. 

Named due to its physical similarity to the oblong breath mint, it was captured in November 2004 by pilots aboard a US Navy fighter jet. 

The pilots were conducting a routine training mission with the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz off the Southern California coast when they noticed it. 

The smooth, white oblong object flew at high speed over the water, maneuvering and accelerating in ways which seemed to defy the laws of physics.

'It appeared to respond in a way that we didn't recognise', Navy Lieutenant Commander Alex Dietrich, one of those on board, told Reuters in 2021.

She added that it seemed to lack 'any visible flight control surfaces or means of propulsion'. 

'We don't know what it was, but it could have been a natural phenomenon in human activity,' she said. 

'But the point was that it was weird, and we couldn't recognise it.'

Other members of the public have since seen a Tic Tac-shaped UFOs in the sky, including people in the UK.  

One of the most famous and unusual UFOs to date, spotted by the US Navy in 2004, was compared with the Tic Tac breath mint due to its white, oblong appearance (pictured) 

MILK BOTTLE 

This UFO, also captured by the US Navy, can only be described as looking like a 'milk bottle' or a bowling pin. 

As the clip shows, Navy personnel have the object well under their sights as it moves serenely at an angle with the clouds underneath. 

However, as it moves along, its shape appears to shift into a more of a saucer and its silhouette changes from white to black. 

It's unclear when and where this clip was taken, although it's been on the internet since 2020 or potentially earlier before it was added to the AARO site. 

MailOnline has contacted the AARO for more information.  

This UFO, also captured by the US Navy, can only be described as looking like a 'milk bottle' or a bowling pin

However, as the mysterious object moves, its shape appears to shift into a more of a saucer

FAST SPECK

Little is known about the last clip, which shows a tiny speck of white travelling fast across choppy waters in an undisclosed location. 

It was taken by crew aboard a US Navy F/A-18 jet who laugh and shout in amazement when the system's trackers focus in on it. 

One crew member says: 'What the f*** is that?'  

UFO stands for 'unidentified flying object' and so the term doesn't necessarily describe an object with an extraterrestrial origin. 

This means there could be an innocent explanation for all the objects in these videos. 

AARO uses the term 'unidentified anomalous phenomenon', largely because 'UFO' is commonly associated with wind up conspiracy theories and paranoia (such as the 'time traveler' who claims an alien invasion is about to take place).  

The world's UFO hotspots are revealed - as Pentagon admits hundreds of objects have been spotted 'all over the world' 

The US government is notoriously secretive when it comes to sharing what it knows about extraterrestrial life. 

But in a possible bid for transparency, the Department of Defense has released a new document disclosing the 'world's UFO hotspots'. 

It includes a map disclosing where the most sightings of unidentified objects have been recorded, based on reports between 1996 and 2023. 

The map discloses where the most sightings have been recorded based on reports between 1996 and 2023 - naming Japan and the coasts of the US as particular hotspots 

Among them Nagasaki and Hiroshima in Japan, the east and west coasts of the US including California, as well as parts of the Middle East. 

Another remote mountain village in Japan has already been described as a hotspot for mysterious sightings. 

Read more 

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

09-03-2024 om 22:58 geschreven door peter  

{ https://openminds.tv/category/articles }

09-03-2024 om 22:04 geschreven door peter  

Massive push by US gov against all real UFO evidence in media. UFO Sighting News.

Source Truck news article: 

• https://www.newsweek.com/meteor-signal-extraterrestrial-life-actually-truck-1877236

I'm sure I'm not alone here. Others must be seeing this in the news media across the globe. 95% of all UFO media articles are now about how the US gov says "UFO evidence," is actually wrong. That they are pushing an anti campaign of mental manipulation of the public in order to control their desire for the truth. This is something the US think tank must have come up with and yes, it always works to a high degree. Now that they are using social media, their efforts are now 1000X stronger with 10,000X more reach. This will intimidate actual eyewitnesses into not reporting what they saw and recorded. 

Its basically the same as the 1950s repeating itself all over again, with claims that something seen is a weather balloon, Venus, Jupiter and oh...this is a new one...a truck in the middle of the ocean...never heard that one until today. 

Just saying, don't allow the gov to manipulate you. Think for yourself. 

Scott C. Waring 

{ https://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

09-03-2024 om 21:53 geschreven door peter  

UAP Disk Seen Over Weyauwega, Wisconsin Feb 2003, UFO Sighting News. 

{ https://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

09-03-2024 om 21:45 geschreven door peter  

Canadian military pilots see and photograph UFO, Aug 27, 1956, UAP Sighting News. 

{ https://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

09-03-2024 om 21:34 geschreven door peter  

Alien Secret Service Agent Revealed At AIPAC Conference 2013, UFO Sighting News.

{ https://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

09-03-2024 om 21:22 geschreven door peter  

Five Transformative Theories on Extraterrestrial Existence

In the vast expanse of the universe, humanity stands on the brink of the unknown, perpetually curious about what lies beyond the stars. The concept of alien life forms and their potential visitations to Earth has been a source of fascination and debate for centuries. As we gaze up at the night sky, numerous theories circulate, offering speculative insights into the nature of extraterrestrial beings and their interactions with our world. Here, we explore five transformative theories that challenge our understanding of the cosmos and our place within it.

1. Visitors from Antiquity

One of the most compelling theories posits that extraterrestrials have not only visited Earth but did so in the distant past. Advocates of this theory point to ancient artifacts, monumental structures, and millennia-old texts as potential evidence of alien influence. Could the architectural wonders of ancient civilizations, from the majestic pyramids of Egypt to the intricate Nazca Lines, be remnants of extraterrestrial contact? This theory suggests that early humans may have encountered these cosmic visitors, immortalizing them as deities in their cultures and religions.

2. Earth: A Cosmic Exhibit

Imagine a universe where advanced civilizations quietly observe us, akin to spectators at a zoo. The Zoo Hypothesis presents a scenario where alien life forms are aware of our existence but choose to remain unseen, allowing humanity to evolve without interference. This galactic non-intervention policy posits that Earth and its inhabitants are part of a vast, uncontacted nature reserve, watched over by extraterrestrial beings who ensure our natural development.

3. Navigating the Great Filter

The silence of the cosmos, as highlighted by the Fermi Paradox, raises an intriguing question: where are all the aliens? The Great Filter theory offers a possible explanation, suggesting a critical developmental stage that few, if any, civilizations surpass. This filter could represent a technological, environmental, or social challenge insurmountable for most. Are we approaching this filter, or have we unknowingly passed it, making us one of the rare exceptions in the galaxy?

4. Beyond the Bounds of Our Dimension

Rather than traversing vast interstellar distances, could extraterrestrials be visiting us from adjacent dimensions? This theory proposes that what we perceive as aliens might be beings capable of moving between dimensions, explaining their elusive presence and sudden appearances. Such a concept expands our understanding of the universe, suggesting that it comprises more than just the three-dimensional space we inhabit.

5. The Legacy of Artificial Intelligence

In a universe teeming with mysteries, another theory speculates on the nature of potential extraterrestrial visitors. Could the entities exploring our galaxy and possibly making contact with us be not organic life forms but advanced artificial intelligences? These AIs, survivors of civilizations that have long since vanished, might roam the cosmos, carrying the knowledge and ambitions of their creators. This theory prompts us to reconsider our definitions of life and consciousness, highlighting the potential for non-biological entities to exist and explore the universe.

As we continue to search the skies and delve deeper into the mysteries of the universe, these theories serve as a testament to human curiosity and our endless quest for understanding. Whether any of these theories hold the key to unlocking the secrets of extraterrestrial life remains to be seen. Yet, they undoubtedly enrich our imaginations and expand our perception of the possible, reminding us that in the grand tapestry of the cosmos, we may not be alone.

VIDEOS

• https://youtu.be/AtIPF1COOXs

• https://youtu.be/TrGpG0OrNws

• https://youtu.be/o6IQynhsQ1M

• https://youtu.be/8TdbqAj5qZ8

{ https://www.latest-ufo-sightings.net/ }

09-03-2024 om 21:02 geschreven door peter  

Pentagon's highly anticipated UFO report claims there is NO evidence of alien contact - but critics call it a cover-up

• The Pentagon's new, 63-page unclassified UFO report was released this Friday
• A classified version was reportedly delivered to cleared members of Congress
• The report repeats errors on the Roswell UFO case investigated by DailyMail.com

By MATTHEW PHELAN SENIOR SCIENCE REPORTER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

The Pentagon's embattled, but official UFO investigations office released its congressionally mandated report on 'historic' UFO cases dating back to 1945, Friday.

The report — which came in classified and unclassified formats, with the latter now available to the public online — claims that the office found 'no verifiable evidence that any UAP [i.e. UFO] sighting has represented extraterrestrial activity.'

The UFO office, which did not enjoy subpoena power for its inquiries, reported that c-suite executives at US defense contractors 'denied the existence' of any top secret UFO crash retrieval programs 'on the record.'

But it did reveal at least one proposed top secret project, dubbed 'Kona Blue,' reviewed by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in the 2010s, and pitched as an effort to reverse-engineer hypothetically recovered extraterrestrial spacecraft. 

Tim Phillips, acting director of the Pentagon's UFO-hunting All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), told reporters that his office's new report casts doubt on the public testimony of UFO whistleblower and ex-US intel officer David Grusch. 

'AARO has found no verifiable evidence that the US government or private industry has ever had access to extraterrestrial technology,' Phillips told select reporters in a closed setting.

But in the past week, the exclusive, invite-only nature of the report's pre-release has been criticized by other journalists and UFO researchers for its lack of transparency.

The Pentagon 's embattled, but official, UFO investigations office released it's Congressionally mandated report on 'historic' UFO cases dating back to 1945, Friday. Above, the office's first-ever director, former CIA laser physicist Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick, who retired this December 

But whistleblowers with knowledge of a classified UFO 'reverse engineering' program have opted to testify to the Senate intelligence committee, in part over their reported mistrust of Dr. Kirkpatrick and his Pentagon UFO office. Above, a page from Project 1794 declassified in 2012

'They've pledged openness and transparency to Congress on the subject of UAPs, but they're not following through on their actions,' said NewsNation correspondent Ross Coulthart, who secured the first televised interview with Grusch last summer.

UAP, short for 'unidentified anomalous phenomena,' has become the term of art for UFOs in recent years, deployed by Pentagon brass, NASA experts and academics.

Coulthart told NewsNation's 'Elizabeth Vargas Reports' this week that AARO had denied him access to the office's advanced briefings on the new report.

The Pentagon, he said, is 'trying to constrain what people are allowed to know.'

Tim Phillips (above), current acting director of the Pentagon 's UFO-hunting All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), told press his office's new report casts doubt on the public testimony of UFO whistleblowers

But privileged reporters for the New York Times, the Washington Post and other hand-picked outlets were treated to news about Kona Blue, an aborted secret government proposal to reverse engineer UFOs.

That effort, apparently spearheaded by members of a previous Defense Intelligence Agency effort that investigated UFO cases from 2007-2012, according to AARO's acting director Phillips, never got off the ground.   

'It is critical to note that no extraterrestrial craft or bodies were ever collected,' Phillips noted, according to ABC News, speaking on the 'Kona Blue' UFO plans. 

'This material was only assumed to exist by Kona Blue advocates and its anticipated contract performers,' he clarified.

The 'Kona Blue' proposal, according to Phillips, was rejected by DHS leaders 'for lacking merit.' No other-worldly craft, he said, were recovered by the planned effort.

The new Pentagon report also detailed over two dozen once top secret programs and less secret US space programs that 'most likely accounted for some portion of UAP sightings.' 

The list included everything from NASA's Apollo missions to Lockheed Martin's 'Have Blue,' its early proof-of-concept for the angular, futuristic stealth fighter, the F-117.

A months-long tease has preceded AARO's 'Historical Record Report' on UFOs since the retirement of the office's first-ever director, former CIA laser physicist Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick, last December.

Dr. Kirkpatrick appeared on CNN analyst Peter Bergen's podcast, 'In the Room,' late last January, revealing that his office intended to double-down on the Air Force's evidence-poor explanation for the infamous Roswell UFO case of 1947. 

In fact, multiple ex-NASA scientists, as well as former US Air Force personnel, including the Air Force Colonel who authored the Pentagon's official 1994 Roswell report have cast doubt the 'Project Mogul spy balloon' explanation that Dr. Kirkpatrick and his AARO successors still maintain is correct.

In its official report today, AARO wrote of the Roswell UFO case: 'The materials recovered near Roswell were consistent with a balloon of the type used in the then-classified Project Mogul.'

Last month, DailyMail.com published records from the US Air Force's own official report confirming that no scheduled Project Mogul flights fit the Roswell timeline. 

Dr. Kirkpatrick's successor, acting director Phillips described Friday's release of AARO's historical review as the most comprehensive government-wide investigation of US government UFO records, classified and unclassified, ever conducted.

But critics of AARO have long maintained that the office has lost the trust of past and present government officials, military personnel and US defense contractors with any knowledge of the alleged top secret UFO crash retrieval programs. 

On page 715 of the Air Force's 881-page report on the Roswell crash, a transcribed journal entry by Project Mogul's Field Operations Director, geophysicist Dr. Albert Crary, states that the key scheduled balloon launch never took place - and thus couldn't be confused for a UFO 

Above, documents from Project 1794: a Cold War-era US Air Force effort to build a supersonic flying saucer in collaboration with a Canadian defense contractor

Prior to Grusch's sworn Congressional testimony last summer, which covered his UFO program knowledge, other ex-Pentagon officials came forward to corroborate his claims.  

Chris Mellon, a former official with the Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and an advocate for increased government diligence and transparency on UFOs, told NewsNation's Chris Cuomo, that similar information had been revealed to him.

'I've been told that we have recovered technology that did not originate on this Earth,' Mellon told NewsNation, 'by officials in the Department of Defense and by former intelligence officials.' 

This summer, Dr. Kirkpatrick called Grusch's congressional testimony on a hidden and illegal UFO crash retrieval program, delivered under oath, 'insulting [...] to the officers of the Department of Defense and Intelligence Community.'

The public sparring between Grusch and Dr. Kirkpatrick has left other sources with firsthand testimony on purported top secret UFO programs skittish about delivering what they know to AARO, sources told DailyMail.com last year.

READ MORE: 

• US Customs and Border Protection quietly released a tranche of 10 videos of mysterious 'craft' whizzing around US skies - as one senior ex-intelligence officer says they are a THREAT

US Customs and Border Patrol, the agency responsible for keeping terrorists and weapons out of the country, uploaded 10 videos that appear to show craft moving in strange ways in our skies. The videos document a fighter jet pursued by an apparently baffling flying orb, as well as something that appears to be a propeller-powered hang-glider, and another apparent orb hovering near a parked 16-wheeler truck

As Daniel Sheehan, the Harvard-trained lawyer who represented past UFO whistleblower Luis Elizondo in his formal complaint to the DoD's Inspector General, explained: 'What they were doing is they were going straight through to the Senate Intelligence Committee.' 

'That's where the queue is forming of people who have real direct immediate knowledge — and Dave Grusch is in communication with these people, and our people are in communication with these people.'

'None of the whistleblowers want to go in there,' Sheehan told DailyMail.com last year, 'because they don't view it as stable or safe.' 

Sheehan, whose history litigating progressive civil rights law cases dates back to the Vietnam War-era 'Pentagon Papers,' is now chief counsel, president and co-founder of the New Paradigm Institute.

The institute, a branch of the 501(C)(3) nonprofit Romero Institute, describes itself as dedicated to public policy advocacy on 'societal, environmental, and cosmic objectives,' which presumably includes UAP transparency.

In the unclassified version of AARO's new UFO report — technically titled 'Historical Record Report on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena, Volume One' — the office concluded that many sincere UFO whistleblowers had simply become confused. 

In some cases, the report argued, defense personnel had misidentified genuine top secret programs involving advanced, but all too terrestrial, aerospace hardware.

'AARO concludes many of these programs represent authentic, current and former sensitive, national security programs,' the report reads. 

'But none of these programs have been involved with capturing, recovering, or reverse-engineering off-world technology or material.'

• This is a developing story and will be updated throughout the day.

 { https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

09-03-2024 om 01:35 geschreven door peter  

KONA BLUE: Top-Secret Government Program To Investigate “Human Consciousness Anomalies” Doesn’t Exist, New Report Says

The 63-page-long document is part of an investigation into U.S. government programs that have been a springboard for alleged paranormal-related activity.

BY DORIS ELÍN URRUTIA

 

Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images News

UAP is the modern moniker for UFO. Intelligence officials avoided reusing the popular term because it’s too closely associated, nowadays, with little green men.

UAP refers to sightings from pilots and members of the military, who haven’t been able to explain why they’ve seen objects that appear to reject the laws of motion and physics. Many have been proven to be weather balloons and tricks of perception. Several, however, remain unexplained. That has given credence to people who believe the U.S. government is hiding aliens.

The 63-page-long document is the first volume in a series of investigations into U.S. government programs through history that have been a springboard for alleged paranormal-related activity. “Analyzing and understanding the historical record on UAP is an ongoing collaborative effort involving many departments and agencies,” AARO officials wrote in an announcement published on Friday.

“To date, AARO has found no verifiable evidence for claims that the U.S. government and private companies have access to or have been reverse-engineering extraterrestrial technology,” the statement says.

KONA BLUE NEVER EXISTED

The report makes several assertions, including a debunking of KONA BLUE.

KONA BLUE, as the report explains, was allegedly a top-secret program to investigate “human consciousness anomalies,” retrieve and exploit “non-human biologics,” and reverse engineer any alien craft they found.

“It is critical to note that no extraterrestrial craft or bodies were ever collected — this material was only assumed to exist by KONA BLUE advocates and its anticipated contract Performers,” the report authors emphasized.

As the authors do throughout the report, they take an instance of a program and explain where the pseudoscience claims may be emerging. In the case of KONA BLUE, the contract for a $22 million program, greenlit in 2008 to assess aerospace threats on the horizon — and which was never explicitly tasked with researching UFOs — was awarded to a private sector organization. But the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency canceled it in 2012, “due to lack of merit and the

utility of the deliverables,” though this didn’t stop non-government program advocates, who renamed the proposal as KONA BLUE, from seeking to investigate paranormal activity.

“KONA BLUE’s advocates were convinced that the USG [U.S. government] was hiding UAP technologies. They believed that creating this program under DHS would allow all of the technology and knowledge of these alleged programs to be moved under the KONA BLUE program,” according to the report.

This program was never rubber stamped, and as the report says, “was never approved or stood up, and no data or material was transferred to DHS [Department of Homeland Security].”

In the Friday announcement, AARO officials stipulate that they’ve approached their review of KONA BLUE and other topics “with the widest possible aperture,” that it is committed to reaching conclusions based on verifiable evidence, willing to “follow the evidence where it leads, wherever it leads.”

 { https://www.inverse.com/ }

09-03-2024 om 00:53 geschreven door peter  

Pentagon UFO office finds 'no empirical evidence' for alien technology in new report

"AARO found no evidence that any USG [U.S. government] investigation, academic-sponsored research, or official review panel has confirmed that any sighting of a UAP represented extraterrestrial technology," the report's executive summary notes.

Related: 

• Pentagon has 'no credible evidence' of aliens or UFOs that defy physics

• https://youtu.be/xnG4Mfak-Oc

{ https://www.space.com/ }

09-03-2024 om 00:44 geschreven door peter  

Pentagon study finds no sign of alien life in reported UFO sightings going back decades

By ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON (AP) - A Pentagon study released Friday that examined reported sightings of UFOs over nearly the last century found no evidence of aliens or extraterrestrial intelligence, a conclusion consistent with past U.S. government efforts to assess the accuracy of claims that have captivated public attention for decades.

The study from the Defense Department´s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office analyzed U.S. government investigations since 1945 of reported sightings of unidentified anomalous phenomena, more popularly known as UFOs. It found no evidence that any of them involved signs of alien life, or that the U.S. government and private companies had reverse-engineered extraterrestrial technology and had conspired to hide it from the public.

It dispelled claims, for instance, that a former CIA official had been involved in managing the movement of and experimentation on extraterrestrial technology and said a purported 1961 intelligence community document about the supposed extraterrestrial nature of UFOs was actually inauthentic.

"All investigative efforts, at all levels of classification, concluded that most sightings were ordinary objects and phenomena and the result of misidentification," said the report, which was mandated by Congress. Another volume of the report will be out later.

U.S. officials have endeavored to find answers to legions of reported UFO sightings over the years, but so far have not identified any actual evidence of extraterrestrial life. A 2021 government report that reviewed 144 sightings of aircraft or other devices apparently flying at mysterious speeds or trajectories found no extraterrestrial links but drew few other conclusions and called for better data collection.

The issue received fresh attention last summer when a retired Air Force intelligence officer testified to Congress that the U.S. was concealing a longstanding program that retrieves and reverse engineers unidentified flying objects. The Pentagon has denied his claims, and said in late 2022 that a new Pentagon office set up to track reports of unidentified flying objects - the same one that released Friday's report - had received "several hundreds" of new reports but had found no evidence so far of alien life.

FILE - The Pentagon is seen from Air Force One as it flies over Washington, March 2, 2022. A new Pentagon study that examined reported sightings of UFOs over nearly the last century has found no evidence of aliens or extraterrestrial intelligence. That conclusion is consistent with past U.S. government efforts to assess the accuracy of claims that have captivated public attention for decades.

(AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

The authors of Friday's report said the purpose was to apply a rigorous scientific analysis to a subject that has long captured the American public's imagination.

"AARO recognizes that many people sincerely hold versions of these beliefs which are based on their perception of past experiences, the experiences of others whom they trust, or media and online outlets they believe to be sources of credible and verifiable information," the report said.

"The proliferation of television programs, books, movies, and the vast amount of internet and social media content centered on UAP-related topics most likely has influenced the public conversation on this topic, and reinforced these beliefs within some sections of the population," it added.

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

09-03-2024 om 00:25 geschreven door peter  

1.4-Million-Year-Old Stone Tools Found in Ukraine Document Earliest Hominin Occupation of Europe

by Sergio Prostak

 

Archaeologists have dated an assemblage of ancient stone tools excavated from the archaeological site of Korolevo on the Tysa River in western Ukraine at 1.42 million years old. As such, these artifacts — which are associated with Homo erectus — provide the earliest evidence of hominins in Europe and support the hypothesis that the continent was colonized from the east.

A stone tool from Korolevo I, Ukraine.

Image credit: Garba et al., doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-07151-3.

“To the east of Europe stands the key site of Dmanisi, Georgia, where layers containing hominin skull remains and stone tools are dated securely to around 1.85-1.78 million years,” said first author Dr. Roman Garba, an archaeologist with the Institute of Archaeology and the Nuclear Physics Institute at the Czech Academy of Sciences, and his colleagues.

“A trail from Africa to Dmanisi via the Levantine corridor accords with the Mode-1 stone artifacts documented in Jordan’s Zarqa Valley, as early as around 2.5 million years ago.

“The earliest precisely dated evidence of humans in Europe occurs at two southwestern sites: Atapuerca, Spain, where the oldest human fossils at Sima del Elefante are reported at around 1.2-1.1 million years; and Vallonnet Cave, southern France, where stone artifacts are constrained to around 1.2-1.1 million years.”

“However, the vast spatial and temporal gap that separates the Caucasus and southwestern Europe leaves key aspects of the first human dispersal into Europe largely unresolved.”

The Korolevo site was first discovered by the Ukrainian archaeologist Vladyslav Gladylin in 1974.

It lies close to where the Tysa River — a tributary of the Danube — leaves the eastern Carpathian Mountains and spreads southwestward across the Pannonian Plain.

“We know that the layer of accumulated loess and paleosol here is up to 14 m deep and contains thousands of stone artifacts. Korolevo was an important source of raw material for their production,” said co-author Dr. Vitalii Usyk, an archaeologist with the Institute of Archaeology at the Czech Academy of Sciences.

“We identified seven periods of human occupation in the stratigraphic layers, although at least nine different Paleolithic cultures were recorded at the locality: hominins lived here from 1.4 million years ago to about 30,000 years ago.”

Selected stone tools from Korolevo I, Ukraine: (a) chopper core; (b) flake with bifacial treatment; (c) multi-platform core; (d) Kombewa flake; (e) flake with parallel scar pattern. Scale bars – 3 cm.

Image credit: Garba et al., doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-07151-3.

The Korolevo stone tools were made in the Oldowan style, the most primitive form of tool-making.

“We applied two complementary dating approaches to calculate the age from the measured concentrations of cosmogenic beryllium-10 and aluminum-26,” said senior author Dr. John Jansen, a researcher with the Institute of Geophysics at the Czech Academy of Sciences.

“But the most precise age came from our own method based on mathematical modeling, known as P-PINI.”

“This study is the first time our new dating approach has been applied in archaeology.”

“I expect our new dating approach will have a major impact on archaeology because it can be applied to sedimentary deposits that are highly fragmented, meaning there are lots of erosional gaps.”

“In archaeology we nearly always find fragmented records, whereas the traditional long-range dating method, magnetostratigraphy, relies on more continuous records.”

First peopling of Europe: (a) archaeological sites and dispersal routes noted in the text; the maximum extent of the Eurasian ice sheets is indicated with gray dashes; blue arrows indicate possible early human dispersal routes; (b) Korolevo I, Gostry Verkh, viewed from the Beyvar hill with excavation XIII (red box), Ukraine.

Image credit: Garba et al., doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-07151-3.

According to the team, the Korolevo site is the northernmost known presence of Homo erectus.

“The radiometric dating of the first human presence at the Korolevo site not only fills in a large spatial gap between the Dmanisi site and the Atapuerca site, but also confirms the hypothesis that the first pulse of hominin dispersal into Europe came from the east or southeast,” Dr. Garba said.

“Based on a climate model and field pollen data, we have identified three possible interglacial warm periods when the first hominins could have reached Korolevo following most likely the Danube River migration corridor.”

• A paper on the findings was published in the journal Nature.
• R. Garba et al. East-to-west human dispersal into Europe 1.4 million years ago. Nature, published online March 6, 2024; doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-07151-3

{ https://www.sci.news/ }

08-03-2024 om 17:01 geschreven door peter  

Coulthart Exposes Pentagon’s Selective Silence on UFOs

In an evolving narrative that intertwines government secrecy with journalistic integrity, the Pentagon’s approach to disseminating information on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs) has raised eyebrows and sparked debate. At the heart of this discourse is Ross Coulthart, a seasoned investigative journalist and special correspondent for NewsNation, who has voiced concerns over what he perceives as the Pentagon’s efforts to steer the conversation on UFOs through a strategy of selective briefing.

Coulthart’s analysis points to a deliberate choice by the Pentagon to invite a restricted group of journalists to attend briefings on UAPs, a decision that, according to him, aims to curate the narrative that reaches the public. This method of information dissemination, Coulthart argues, effectively sidelines reporters who are known for their probing inquiries and refusal to shy away from tough questions. The implication is that by controlling the media presence at these briefings, the Pentagon can ensure that the narrative remains favorable or, at the very least, non-confrontational.

The backdrop to Coulthart’s critique is his own pioneering work in the realm of UAP reporting. It was Coulthart’s interviews with whistleblowers and his investigative efforts that catalyzed a broader public discussion on UFOs, ultimately leading to congressional hearings and the introduction of legislation aimed at enhancing transparency regarding UAPs. Despite this significant contribution, NewsNation found itself excluded from a recent Pentagon briefing on the subject, a move that Coulthart and others view as a snub that speaks volumes about the Pentagon’s desire to control the flow of information.

Coulthart’s concerns extend beyond the realm of personal grievance. He sees the Pentagon’s selective briefing strategy as symptomatic of a larger issue — an attempt to quell public curiosity and skepticism through media manipulation. This, he warns, could have the opposite effect, fueling suspicion and distrust among the public towards the Department of Defense and the intelligence community at large. The core of Coulthart’s critique lies in the belief that transparency and open dialogue are paramount, especially on matters of significant public interest like UAPs.

Through Coulthart’s lens, the Pentagon’s approach is not just about UFOs; it’s about the broader principles of accountability, transparency, and the public’s right to know. His experience underscores the challenges journalists face in piercing the veil of government secrecy, reminding us of the vital role investigative journalism plays in a healthy democracy. As the conversation on UAPs continues to evolve, Coulthart’s voice serves as a critical reminder of the need for vigilance in the pursuit of truth, encouraging both the public and the press to question, explore, and demand transparency in all matters of national interest.

 { https://www.latest-ufo-sightings.net/ }

08-03-2024 om 16:39 geschreven door peter  

It’s always a real benefit to have scientists on the ground, able to use the wealth of their experience and ingenuity to ‘think on their feet’.  It is therefore always quite challenging to use space probes that to a degree need to be autonomous. This is certainly true of the NASA Perseverance Rover that has been drilling core samples that will one day (hopefully) be returned to Earth as part of the Mars Sample Return mission. Until then, a team of Geologists have developed a technique to calculate the orientation of the core samples to help with future analysis. 

The journey of Mars Perseverance began on 30 July 2020 when it was launched off to the red planet. Arriving less than a year later on 18 February 2021, the rover carried with it an array of instrumentation. Its goal to explore the past habitability of Mars, looking for signs of ancient microbial life and helping to pave the way for future human exploration. 

One instrument in particular, the Sample Caching System, gathered and stored rock and soil samples for the potential return to Earth by future missions. Perseverance and the Ingenuity drone have been exploring the Jezero crater, an ancient lake bed since. To date, 20 of the 43 tubes have been filled with core bedrock samples and a team of geologists have been looking at the original orientation of the samples to help answer questions about the planet’s past. 

The research, which appeared in Earth and Space Science journal by lead authors Benjamin P. Weiss and Elias N. Mansbach explains that the team have identified the original orientation of the majority of the samples collected so far. This crucial bit of information will help geologists to understand the magnetic field that may have existed at the time the rocks formed, how water and lava has flowed, the direction of wind and the tectonic processes that were going on too. 

Using data from the rover itself including its location and the positioning of the drill it was possible to calculate the orientation of the bedrock sample before it was drilled out. This will be the first time scientists have managed to orient the rock samples from another world. By completing the process for a number of samples at different locations will give clues to the conditions on Mars when the rocks formed.

The challenge was made more difficult by the mechanism that extracted the sample. A tube shaped drill is screwed into the ground at a 90 degree angle and then the sample is pulled directly out along with the rock. To be able to reorient the sample with the original location the team take what is effectively pitch, roll and yaw of a boat or aircraft.  Using pictures and aligning with true north the team could calculate the original orientation. They also used distinguishing surface features in the area that would help with location identification. If perchance they were in an area devoid of any feature then the onboard laser would mark an ‘L’ into the rock before taking the sample.

Source : 

• Study determines the original orientations of rocks drilled on Mars

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

08-03-2024 om 01:21 geschreven door peter  

Of all the stars in the sky, betelgeuse must be among the most enigmatic. One of its many mysteries surrounds the speed of its rotation which is surprisingly fast for a supergiant star. If it were placed where the Sun was, then its photosphere (visible layer) would be out around the orbit of Jupiter and it would be moving at 5 km/s. A new study now hints that instead of high rotation, it may be that the surface is boiling so furiously that it has been mistakingly identified as fast rotation. 

Betelgeuse is one of the first stars an amateur astronomer will learn. Its distinctive red colour in the upper left corner of Orion makes it a prominent star, easy to find and identify and a great signpost to other constellations. We all know that stars are big but Betelgeuse takes this to a whole new level at 1.2 billion km across, almost 2,000 larger than the Sun. Stars of this size are usually expected to rotate slowly but observations revealed its high rotation speed, far higher than expected of a star at this evolutionary stage. 

Observations from the Atacama Large Millimetre Array pointed at the rotation speed of Betelgeuse. The system, which is made up of 66 antennae is a radio interferometer that combines the signal from all dishes to increase its sensitivity. Using this instrument, astronomers had concluded that one hemisphere seems to be approaching while the other seems to be receding and the rate of this led to the conclusion of a 5 km/s rotation speed. If Betelgeuse was a perfect sphere then this would have been a reasonable conclusion however, the surface of Betelgeuse is not like that! 

Like all stars, convection is a prominent process in the photosphere that brings heat from the stellar interior. In the case of Betelgeuse the convection cells are massive, sometimes even as large as the Earth’s orbit around the Sun and they rise and fall at speeds around 30 km/s (that’s over twice the escape velocity of the Earth so is faster than any launching spacecraft).

Jing-Ze Ma PhD from the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics now proposes that the dipolar velocity map which identified the approaching and receding hemispheres, may actually have been picking up convection cells instead. The theory postulates that the limited resolution of the ALMA system was observing (but not able to differentiate) convection cells rising on one side of the star and sinking on the other. 

To reach that conclusion, the team had developed a new processing technique to produce synthetic data from ALMA and in 90% of cases, the boiling motion was not clear and led to an interpretation of high rotational speeds. Further observations are now needed to explore this exciting possibility but instruments with greater resolution are required. to that end, higher resolution observations were made back in 2022 but the data is still being analysed but it will, it is hoped, start to reveal much more about the nature of Betelgeuse.

Source : 

• A new spin on Betelgeuse’s boiling surface

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

08-03-2024 om 01:10 geschreven door peter  

BY ANDY TOMASWICK

Drs. Balbi and Grimaldi instead use a statistical technique to more accurately reflect what they think the actual situation in the universe would be – civilizations actively support their technosignatures for some time but let them die off once they are no longer beneficial to the civilization itself – essentially eliminating our chance to find them. From a statistical point of view, this clusters the vast majority of observable technosignatures to the far left of the x-axis, where that axis is defined as the longevity of a civilization. 

We could see some obvious technosignature that have been around for billions of years and don’t require any active support, such as the thermoradiation of a Dyson sphere. But it’s much more likely that, if we do see one, it is actively being supported by an active civilization. 

In the paper, the researchers perform a more rigorous statistical analysis, including invoking an idea known as Lindy’s Law. That law is somewhat counterintuitive, as it states that the life expectancy of a technology is roughly proportional to its age. In other words, as a technology ages, its life expectancy increases. However, it has been proven in multiple scenarios and has various causes. 

The impact it has on this particular analysis is clear – the probability distribution of the length of a technically advanced civilization’s existence should be skewed per Lindy’s Law to show that short-lived technosignatures are much more common than long-lived ones.

At the moment, this is all theoretical, and it would be interesting to see what Dr. Kipping, the author of the original paper arguing for longer-lived societies, has to say about this alternative view of the statistical treatment. Maybe it will be featured on an episode of his Cool Worlds channel soon. Until then, the hard work of SETI data collection will continue apace, and the theoreticians will continue fine-tuning their statistical models, hoping to one day catch a glimpse of something out there.

Learn More:

• Balbi & Grimaldo – Technosignatures Longevity and Lindy’s Law
• Kipping, Frank and Scharf – Contact inequality: first contact will likely be with an older civilization
• UT – The First Civilization We Contact Will Have Been Around Much Longer Than Humanity
• UT – After all of This Time Searching for Aliens, is it The Zoo Hypothesis or Nothing?

Lead Image:

• DALL-E Image of an advanced civilization.

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

08-03-2024 om 01:00 geschreven door peter  

Belgium’s Flying Triangle Wave

Posted by: Antonio Huneeus 

Thirty four years ago, thousands of Belgian citizens reported mysterious platforms flying silently over rooftops. The Royal Belgian Air Force got involved and cooperated fully with civilian investigators. To this day, however, the origins of these craft remain unknown.

It’s hard to convey the excitement caused by the Belgian UFO wave if you were not following UFO news back in 1989 and the early 1990s. There was no shortage of UFO reports back then, and interest in the phenomenon was at a high. The sightings and photos from Gulf Breeze, Florida, dominated the American scene, wild UFO reports and stories coming out of the old Soviet Union received huge international media attention, and the Mexican video wave took off in 1991. Yet the Belgian wave seemed to top all of these stories for awhile. The reports out of this small country, headquarters of both the European Commission and NATO, received unprecedented coverage, making even the front page of the Wall Street Journal on October 10, 1990, with a story entitled, “Belgium Scientists Seriously Pursue A Triangular UFO.”

The classic triangular-shaped UFO described by hundreds of eyewitnesses during the Belgium wave: sketch by witness used to create reconstruction of the object seen at the top of story.

Credit: SOBEPS

There were many reasons for the interest generated by the Belgian wave. One was the quality of the reports themselves, the bulk of which were registered in the French-speaking region of Wallonia. There were no landings or humanoid sightings but lots of detailed multiple-witness sightings of flying platforms moving slowly and silently above rooftops. Shapes varied, but the predominant form was triangular or delta-shaped crafts. Some of the descriptions were so precise that traditional explanations of misidentified natural phenomena or conventional aircraft were ruled out. Instead, stealth fighters and other U.S. secret military aircraft became the favorite explanations suggested by skeptics, but these were quickly ruled out by the Royal Belgian Air Force (RBAF). Another reason for the wave’s importance was that it was carefully investigated and documented by a local UFO organization called SOBEPS (Belgian society for the study of space phenomena).

SOBEPS was formed in 1971 by Lucien Clerebaut, Michel Bougard, and others, and built a small but highly dedicated cadre of field investigators. By the end of the wave in 1993, SOBEPS had collected over two thousand eyewitness reports comprising twenty thousand pages, four hundred hours of audio tapes, and six hundred full inquiries. Five hundred and forty cases remained unexplained. SOBEPS also had the assistance of top-notch scientists, including Léon Brenig, a nonlinear dynamics theorist at the Free University in Brussels, and Professor Auguste Meessen, a physicist from Catholic University at Louvain. Regarding his work with SOBEPS, Dr. Brenig has said, “here is an opportunity where we can apply the scientific method.” Brenig himself became a witness of the so-called Belgian triangle while driving in the Ardennes on March 18, 1990. The whole dossier was eventually published by SOPEPS in two massive volumes, five hundred pages each, entitled Vague d’OVNI sur la Belgique (UFO Wave ver Belgium), published in 1991 and 1994 respectively. Due to financial difficulties, SOBEPS dissolved on December 31, 2007, but some of its members formed a new, smaller organization called COBEPS (Belgian committee for the study of space phenomena) to preserve the archives and work done for thirty-six years.

The two volumes published by SOBEPS entitled, “UFO Wave Over Belgium.”

Credit: SOBEPS

A final and key element in the credibility of the Belgian UFO wave was the participation and validation by the RBAF, which showed an unusual degree of openness. As the Belgian wave gained steam, the Belgian Ministry of Defence was deluged with queries from the public and the media. The task fell upon the chief of operations of the air force, Col. Wilfried De Brouwer, who was later promoted to major general and deputy chief of the RBAF. Now retired from the service, Gen. De Brouwer has continued to speak about the wave. He was one of the many international officials who spoke at the famous event at the National Press Club (NPC) in Washington, DC, in November 2007, organized by filmmaker James Fox and journalist Leslie Kean. “The Belgian UFO wave was exceptional and the air force could not identify the nature, origin and intentions of the reported phenomena,” said De Brouwer at the NPC. He also gave a detailed presentation on the wave at the MUFON International UFO Symposium in San Jose, California, in July 2008, and was one of five generals to write an essay in Leslie Kean’s new book, UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go On the Record.

Although the RBAF scrambled jets on three occasions during the wave, Gen. De Brouwer has explained on various occasions that they didn’t have the manpower or resources to mount a full-fledged investigation of their own, so instead they took the unusual route of cooperating fully with SOBEPS. The radar data was turned to Prof. Meessen for analysis, and Gen. De Brouwer agreed to write the postface for SOBEPS’s first volume when he was still in the service. “I must acknowledge that I somewhat hesitated when SOBEPS asked me to contribute my share to this book,” he wrote. “Indeed, I am not a UFO specialist and, moreover, it is quite delicate for somebody who occupies an official function to put on paper his personal ideas on such a disputed issue. However, I estimate that I would not have been honest towards the SOBEPS if I had refused. The air force always played a fair game on this subject and I regard this postface as a complementary element to the exceptional file written by the people of SOBEPS.”

THE EUPEN INCIDENT

Although some sightings were reported in October 1989, the first important incident of the Belgian wave took place a month later on November 29 around the small town of Eupen, which is in a region of Belgium near the German border. This initial case put the so-called “Belgian triangle” on the map and led to the start of the RBAF’s involvement. There were both daytime and nighttime sightings, although the latter were lengthier and more detailed. Gen. De Brouwer explained in his essay for Leslie Kean’s book, “a total of seventy reported sightings made on November 29 were fully investigated and none of these sightings could be explained by conventional technology. The team of investigators and I estimate that approximately fifteen hundred people must have seen the phenomenon at more than seventy different locations from different angles during this afternoon and evening.” There were a total of thirteen gendarmes (policemen) who saw the UFO from eight different locations around Eupen. Prof. Meessen summarized the case in SOBEPS’s book:

On November 29, 1989, a large craft with triangular shape flew over the town of Eupen. The gendarmes von Montigny and Nicol found it near the road linking Aix-la-Chapelle and Eupen. It was stationary in the air, above a field which it illuminated with three powerful beams. The beams emanated from large circular surfaces near the triangle’s corners. In the center of the dark and flat understructure there was some kind of “red gyrating beacon.” The object did not make any noise. When it began to move, the gendarmes headed towards a small road in the area over which they expected the object to fly. Instead, it made a half-turn and continued slowly in the direction of Eupen, following the road at low altitude. It was seen by different witnesses as it flew above houses and near City Hall.

In his 2008 MUFON lecture, Gen. De Brouwer provided additional details on this sighting: “The UAP [Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon] emitted repeatedly and simultaneously two red light beams with a red light ball at the spearhead of the beam. Subsequently, the red balls returned to the craft.” There was also apparently a second triangular craft, which made “a forward tilting maneuver, exposing the upper side of the fuselage,” continued De Brouwer. “They [gendarmes] saw a dome with rectangular windows, lighted up at the inside. It then disappeared to the North.” Two more gendarmes saw one of the craft from a monastery nearby; “one is currently the head of the police in that area, he was scared like hell,” added De Brouwer.

Statistical chart of Belgian sightings between October 1989 and September 1990, showing peaks in the November-December period and a second one in April.

Credit: SOBEPS

The Eupen incident was followed by many other UFO sightings, including several reported on December 11, 1989. One of the witnesses that evening was a personal acquaintance of Gen. De Brouwer, Col. André Amond, a civil engineer in the Belgian Army. Col. Armond worked next door to Gen. De Brouwer and wrote a detailed report for the Ministry of Defence. Col. Armond was driving with his wife around 6:45 p.m., when they noticed a strange object with flashing red lights. They stopped the car and got out to see it better. “Suddenly, they saw a giant spotlight, about twice the size of the full moon, which approached them to an estimated distance of 100 meters,” wrote De Brouwer, adding that “the colonel’s wife was frightened and asked to leave.” In his report to the Ministry, Armond “ascertained that this craft was not a hologram, helicopter, military aircraft, balloon, motorized Ultra Light, or any other known aerial vehicle.”

Various shapes were reported throughout the wave, including round, rectangular, and cigar-shaped, but the majority were triangular objects. Gen. De Brouwer notes that the differences may also be due to the eyewitnesses’ viewing angles. Researcher Marc Valckenaers listed some of the characteristics of the UFOs in SOBEPS’s second volume about the wave, including: irregular displacement (zig-zag, instantaneous change of trajectory, etc.), displacement following the contours of the terrain; varying speeds of displacement (including very slow motion), stationary flight (hovering), overflight of urban and industrial centers, and sound effects (faint humming to total silence).

Reconstruction of the incredible rectangular flying platform seen by two factory workers on April 22, 1990, described as “an aircraft carrier turned upside down.”

Credit: SOBEPS

One of the strangest reports came from two factory workers from the town of Basècles, southwest of Brussels, who saw a huge trapezoid flying platform (330 x 200 feet) just before midnight on April 22, 1990. The object moved slowly and silently, covering the entire factory courtyard. In the SOBEPS report, the factory workers described the UFO as “an aircraft carrier turned upside down.” Despite the science-fiction quality of this sighting, an almost identical report was filed nearly a year later, on March 15, 1991, by an electronic engineer in Auderghem, near Brussels, who woke up in the middle of the night when he “heard a barely audible, high-frequency whistling tone. He looked out the window and saw a large rectangular craft at very low altitude with irregular structures on the bottom,” wrote Gen. De Brouwer.

One characteristic of the Belgian wave was how close the objects were flying above the rooftops, as shown with this flying rectangular platform.

Credit: SOBEPS

Another view of the rectangular flying platform above the rooftop and sketch showing where the witness saw it.

Credit: SOBEPS

THE F-16 SCRAMBLE EPISODE

If the Eupen multiple-witness sightings of November 1989 triggered the Belgian wave, the jet fighter scramble incident during the night of March 30, 1990 marked the peak of public interest and global media coverage. The Belgian Air Force had scrambled jets on two prior occasions without positive results. The December 5, 1989 scramble was unsuccessful; when the jet reached the sky, the UFO was gone. Additionally, the December 16, 1989 case turned out to be a false alarm; the authorities quickly determined that it was a laser projection reflected by a cloud layer. Following these two fiascos, the RBAF implemented a new policy that jets would be scrambled only when a sighting was detected on radar and was visually confirmed on the ground by the police.

The SOBEPS team visiting the Royal Belgian Air Force radar facility at Glons: in the center group, left, the Society’s chairman Lucien Clerebaut and right, physicist Prof. Auguste Meessen, next to military officer.

Credit: SOBEPS

As put in a preliminary report prepared by Major P. Lambrechts of the RBAF, entitled “Report Concerning the Observation of UFOs During the Night of March 30 to 31, 1990,” the incident began at 10:50 p.m. on March 30 when the gendarmerie telephoned the radar “master controller at Glons” to report “three unusual lights forming an equilateral triangle.” More gendarmes confirmed the lights. When the NATO facility at Semmerzake detected an unknown target at 11:49 p.m., a decision to scramble two F-16 fighters was made. The jets took off at 12:05 a.m. from Beauvechain, the nearest air base, and flew for just over an hour. According to Major Lambrechts’s report:

The aircraft had brief radar contacts on several occasions, [but the pilots]…at no time established visual contact with the UFOs…each time the pilots were able to secure a lock on one of the targets for a few seconds, there resulted a drastic change in the behavior of the detected targets…[During the first lock-on at 12:13 a.m.] their speed changed in a minimum of time from 150 to 970 knots [170 to 1,100 mph] and from 9,000 to 5,000 feet, returning then to 11,000 feet in order to change again to close to ground level.

When Col. De Brouwer showed the computerized radar images of the UFO tracked by the F-16 onboard radar system in a heavily attended press conference at the Ministry of Defence on July 11, 1990, the international media went into a frenzy. Transcripts of the radio communications between ace fighter pilots, Capt. Yves Meelbergs, Lt. Rudy Verrijt, and the Glons Control Reporting Center near Liege, were also released and provide some dramatic moments. The transcripts paint a picture of the jets chasing ghost radar echoes that appear and disappear and then reappear again, but at no time are the pilots able to establish visual contact with the supposed objects. Belgium’s Electronic War Center (EWC) eventually undertook a detailed technical analysis of the F-16 computerized radar tapes, completed by Col. Salmon and physicist M. Gilmard in 1992, and later reviewed by Prof. Meessen.

An F-16 jet fighter of the Royal Belgian Air Force like the ones scrambled on the night of March 30-31, 1990.

Credit: Bernard Thouanel

Although some aspects of this case still remain unexplained, Meessen and SOBEPS accepted the Gilmard-Salmon hypothesis that most of the radar contacts were really echoes caused by a rare meteorological phenomenon. This became evident in four lock-ons, explained Meessen, “where the object descended to the ground with calculations showing negative altitude…. It was evidently impossible that an object could penetrate the ground, but it was possible that the ground could act as a mirror.” Meessen explained how the high velocities measured by the Doppler radar of the F-16 fighters might result from interference effects. He pointed out, however, that there was another radar trace for which there is no explanation to date. As for the visual sightings of this event by the gendarmes and others, Meessen suggested that they could possibly have been caused by stars seen under conditions of “exceptional atmospheric refraction.”

One frame from the F-16 onboard radar system showing the UFO lock-on during the March 1990 scramble episode, shown by the RBAF at a famous press conference in July 1990.

Credit: RBAF/ Bernard Thouanel

In a 1995 telephone interview, Gen. De Brouwer summarized his reflections on this complex case: “We always look for possibilities which can cause errors in the radar systems. We can not exclude that there was electromagnetic interference, but of course we can not exclude the possibility that there were objects in the air. On at least one occasion there was a correlation between the radar contacts of one ground radar and one F-16 fighter. This weakens the theory that all radar contacts were caused by electromagnetic interference. If we add all the possibilities, the question is still open, so there is no final answer.” De Brouwer took a more detached view of the F-16 scramble episode, however, in his 2008 MUFON lecture and his 2010 essay included in Kean’s book: “The conclusion of the Air Force, therefore, was that the evidence was insufficient to prove that there were real crafts in the air on that occasion.”

THE PETIT-RECHAIN PHOTO

The famous color slide of the Belgian triangle photographed in Petit-Rechain in early April 1990.

Credit: © Guy Mossay/SOFAM

Seldom has the old saying that a picture is worth a thousand words become more true than in the case of the extraordinary photograph of a flying triangle taken in the small town of Petit-Rechain in April 1990. This color slide became the emblematic symbol of the Belgian UFO wave. It has been published and broadcast in television programs all over the world, and it appears on the cover of the two SOBEPS volumes on the Belgian wave. It’s also one of the most analyzed UFO photos in the history of ufology. During my trip to Brussels in 1995, I had the opportunity to talk at length with Patrick Ferryn, the investigator who researched the case initially and wrote the chapter about it in the SOBEPS book. Ferryn gave me copies of the photo and samples of computer enhancements made by Marc Acheroy, professor of electricity at the Royal Military School, where the image was analyzed by the Signal Treatment Center. The details of how the photo was taken are fairly simple and straightforward.

The photographer, P.M. (who wants privacy, but has fully cooperated with SOBEPS), was a twenty-year-old factory worker, who lived in the small community of Petit-Rechain, near Verviers. He was at home with his girlfriend on the night of either April 4 or 7, 1990 (he can’t pin down the exact date), when his girlfriend first noticed the object between 11:00 and 11:30 p.m. as she took the dog to the courtyard. According to P.M.’s statement to Ferryn, he was alerted by his girlfriend, went outside, and “saw the object practically stationary towards the southwest, at about a forty-five-degree elevation. It consisted of three white round lights on a barely perceptible triangular surface. In the center there was a blinking spot of the same color, or maybe a bit more reddish than the other lights.” P.M. grabbed his camera, a Praktica model BX20 with a 55-200 mm zoom and a “Cokin” 1A 52 mm skylight filter. He shot the last two frames of a roll of 36-200 ASA Kodak color slide film. The UFO then moved slowly towards Petit-Rechain, until it was hidden by the roofs in the village. The entire episode took about five minutes.

The roll of film was sent by mail to a development house offering a special discount, and when P.M. received the slides, he noticed only frame #35 had captured the UFO; frame #36 was entirely black. Ferryn estimated that “the photo was probably taken with a focal distance between 55 and 200 mm, and with exposition time ranging from 1 to 2 seconds.” P.M. showed the photo to his factory coworkers (all of whom were later interviewed by Ferryn), but otherwise didn’t do anything to analyze or commercialize the picture. One of his coworkers knew a local photo-journalist from Verviers, Guy Mossay, who immediately saw the image’s potential value. P.M. sold the photo rights to Mossay for a small fee. Mossay then proceeded to copyright it with SOFAM (Belgium’s multimedia society for visual arts authors).

Skeptics have naturally pointed to the possibility of a hoax with profit motive. However, if that is the case, why did P.M. sell the rights to Mossay for a minor fee? Moreover, hoaxers never supply original slides or negatives for scientific analysis, as was done by P.M. Having checked his background, interviewed acquaintances, and so on, Ferryn noted that “the account of the main witnesses was coherent.” Gen. De Brouwer spent quite a bit of time explaining the details of this case during his MUFON lecture, saying of the witness that, “this guy is genuine, he is a guy who would not fake at all, I can assure you of that.” More importantly, the Petit-Rechain photo has been subjected to more scientific analysis than practically any other UFO photo in history.

When the Petit-Rechain photo is overexposed, the triangular outline of the object appears clearly.

Credit: © Guy Mossay/SOFAM

The list of experts and institutions that have analyzed this photo include Prof. Acheroy of Belgium’s Royal Military Academy; Prof. François Louange, an expert in photo interpretation of satellite images for the French space agency, CNES; Dr. Richard Haines, a retired senior NASA scientist and respected UFO researcher; Belgium’s Royal Institute of Artistic Patrimony; and André Marion, a nuclear physicist with France’s National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), who conducted an analysis in 2002 with improved technology. The technical details of these analyses are too numerous for this article, but suffice it to say that evidence of photographic trickery has never been found. Furthermore, of several efforts to duplicate the photo using a dark cardboard triangular model with holes and light bulbs, only one made by members of the Astrophysics Institute at Liege University somewhat resembled the Petit-Rechain photo. But the luminosity of the spots in the replica was uniform, while those in the original exhibited different shapes and spectral effects. The most recent CNRS study by Dr. Marion confirmed the previous analysis and found, as put by Gen. De Brouwer, a “halo around the craft with patterned structure,” which could have been caused by the object’s “propulsion system” of “magnetoplasma dynamic.” Marion also stated that “it would be extremely difficult to fake such a photograph.”

In the end, it’s almost impossible to guarantee the authenticity of a UFO image. There will always be a difference of opinions, but the verdict in the Petit-Rechain case appears highly favorable. Triangular UFOs were seen throughout Belgium during the early 1990s. Dozens of fuzzy videos and grainy photos were taken, but they were generally not impressive. Petit-Rechain was the great exception.

Note: Since the writing of this article, the photo turned out to be an admitted hoax.

NO EVIDENCE OF SECRET AIRCRAFT

Due to the high credibility of most witnesses in the Belgian wave and their descriptions of a silent, triangular craft being so precise, trying to explain the wave in terms of hoaxes, misidentified natural phenomena, or conventional aircraft seemed fruitless. Therefore, a number of skeptics and aviation journalists focused on trying to prove the hypothesis of secret U.S. aircraft flying over Belgium. A series of candidates were proposed, from the Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) to secret airships, from the F-117A stealth fighter to some other revolutionary U.S. secret military aircraft such as the alleged TR-3A Black Manta. First, you have to ponder why the U.S. would conduct tests of their most-secret aircraft in such a highly populated area like Wallonia, which is not only a U.S. ally, but also headquarters of the NATO alliance. Gen. De Brouwer put it bluntly in a 1991 interview with the French magazine, OVNI Présence: “Why would the Americans conduct tests here in Europe, without permission and with the risk of having an accident that could create a diplomatic incident on a global scale? This doesn’t involve only Belgium, but NATO, where its concept itself could be put in question. I don’t believe that the Americans could take such a risk, it’s evident.”

Major General (Ret.) Wilfried De Brouwer, who was the Royal Belgian Air Force point man for the UFO wave, during his trip to Washington, DC to participate at the National Press Club event in 2007.

Credit: Bernard Thouanel

Guy Coeme and Leo Delcroix, the two Belgian Ministers of Defence during the wave, denied emphatically the theory that the UFOs were actually U.S. aircraft and based their denial on official inquiries with the U.S. Embassy in Brussels. In a 1993 letter to French researcher Renaud Marhic, Minister Delcroix wrote: “Unfortunately, no explanation has been found to date. The nature and origin of the phenomenon remain unknown. One theory can, however, be definitely dismissed since the Belgian Armed Forces have been positively assured by American authorities that there has never been any sort of American aerial test flight.” A declassified 1990 document from the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) entitled, “Belgium and the UFO Issue,” supports Delcroix’s position. After describing the basic events of the wave that had transpired up to that point, the unnamed U.S. official wrote at the very end of this memo: “The [U.S. Air Force (USAF)] did confirm to the [Belgian Air Force] and Belgian [Ministry of Defence] that no USAF stealth aircraft were operating in the Ardennes area during the periods in question. This was released to the Belgian press and received wide dissemination.”

Thirty years have now passed since the Belgian UFO wave, and no new significant evidence has been produced to prove that the sightings were caused by secret military aircraft. The reported cases remain unexplained. It seems certain that something massive and technologically advanced flew over Belgian territory during the 1989-93 period. Why and who was behind it are questions that remain to be answered. A suitable conclusion, for now, is to repeat what Gen. De Brouwer wrote at the end of his famous postface to the SOBEPS’s first volume: “The day will come undoubtedly when the phenomenon will be observed with technological means of detection and collection that won’t leave a single doubt about its origin. This should lift a part of the veil that has covered the mystery for a long time. A mystery that continues thus present. But it exists, it is real, and that in itself is an important conclusion.”

The author (left) with SOBEPS’ chairman Lucien Clerebaut at the Society’s headquarters in Brussels in 1995. The map in the background shows the locations of sightings in Belgium.

Credit: Antonio Huneeus

• A version of this article originally appeared in Issue #5 (December/January 2011) of Open Minds UFO Magazine. Back issues can be found here.

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07-03-2024 om 23:16 geschreven door peter